Howard County Executive Ken Ulman said Monday he'd support a ban on assault weapons and regulations on gun magazine size as public officials across the country weigh in on gun policy after the deadly school shooting in Connecticut.
"We need to have some common sense gun regulation," said Ulman at a press conference inside the George Howard Building in Ellicott City.
"I've talked to a lot of friends and a lot of people I know who are very strong supporters of the Second Amendment who have said now is the time," said Ulman. "You've got to take a test to get a driver's license. Hopefully we can agree there ought to be basic steps that ensure people are responsible."
Ulman said that banning assault weapons and reducing magazine size is not a cure-all, but a step.
"It's one common sense approach that has to be part of the dialogue," said Ulman.
Earlier Monday, Batimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz called on state and federal lawmakers to tighten gun laws by eliminating exceptions to national background checks as well as ending the sale of "military-grade assault weapons" and magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
The shooter in the Sandy Hook, CT school shooting reportedly used an assault rifle capable of firing high velocity rounds and magazines that held 30 bullets each, according to the Washington Post.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday gun control laws would be up for debate at the federal level, according to the Huffington Post.
"In the coming days and weeks, we will engage in a meaningful conversation and thoughtful debate about how to change laws and culture that allow violence to grow," Reid said, according to the Huffington Post.
Current law bans fully automatic assault weapons, but semiautomatic assault weapons are legal, as well as high-capacity magazines, according to a Washington Post article about the now-expired 1994 assault weapons ban.
See related coverage:
- County Schools Cautious After Sandy Hook Shooting
- Nearly 500 Guns Surrendered in Baltimore After Newtown Shooting
- Howard County Police to Increase Patrols Near Schools After Connecticut Shooting
Also, according to FBI crime statistics, both property and violent crime is highest in the region where gun control laws are generally the most relaxed - in the South. That doesn't mean permissive gun ownership causes more crime, but it obviously doesn't reduce crime. What is for certain, however, is that strict gun-control laws do reduce gun violence, but not necessarily the overall crime-rate. Yes, it's true that murder, robbery, and assault do still occur even when there are few or no guns available. It would be, however, definitely much more difficult to commit mass murders on the scale of Newtown, Aurora, and Virginia Tech without an arsenal of guns and a pile of ammo. Granted, a mass murderer could figure out some other way of killing lots of people very quickly, like using chemical, biological, or explosive weapons but that would be much more difficult and rare. It couldn't be done at the spur of the moment. A ban on high-capacity magazines and much, much stricter background check requirements should be enacted for any semi-automatic or concealable weapon. That's not too much to ask for.
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/173405.pdf The "assault weapons" ban had little effect on gun crime and mass shootings.
http://www.examiner.com/article/texas-democratic-party-leader-blogger-calls-for-shooting-nra-members THIS is why we need to protect ourselves, from the intolerant civil rights deniers.
and "was only a partial so it was ineffective" is what?
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/51838 "The cult of the left believes that it is engaged in a great apocalyptic battle with corporations and industrialists for the ownership of the unthinking masses. Its acolytes see themselves as the individuals who have been “liberated” to think for themselves. They make choices. You, however, are just a member of the unthinking masses. You are not really a person, but only respond to the agendas of your corporate overlords. If you eat too much, it’s because corporations make you eat. If you kill, it’s because corporations encourage you to buy guns. You are not an individual. You are a social problem." "The Nazis believed that they were the master race because they were genetically superior. Liberals believe that they are the master race on account of their superior empathy and intelligence. There’s an obvious paradox in believing that you have the right to enslave and kill people because you care more, but that didn’t stop millions of people from joining in with revolutions that led to a century of bloodshed in the name of movements that cared more. "
Choice is what makes us moral creatures and collective compassion leaves us less than human. The collective society of mass movements and mass decisions leaves us little better than lab monkeys trying to compose Shakespeare without understanding language, meaning or ideas, or anything more than the rote feel of our fingers hitting the keyboard. This is the society that the left is creating, a place filled with as many social problems as there are people, where everyone is a lab monkey except the experts running the experiments, and where no one has any rights because freedom is the enemy of a system whose moral code derives from creating a perfect society by replacing the individual with the mass. It is a society where there is no accountability, only constant compulsion. It is a society where you are a social problem and there are highly paid experts working day and night to figure out how to solve you."
"Should an apology from a Democratic Party Executive Committee member cover calls for mass shootings?" "Liberalism remains an ideology of genocidal hate and rage"
What hypocritical buttholes!
It's harder to buy a car and get a drivers license than it is to buy a gun. Guns and ammo are not like cars. Both are deadly but cars are not the weapon of choice for mass murderers. They shouldn't be treated the same. The point is to have a rational debate about gun violence. Being liberal or conservative, gay or straight, black or white, Democrat or Republican has nothing to with it. Being a parent, a school-child, a law enforcement office, a teacher, or a loved one is really who it matters for.
From my personal experience, buying guns and ammo is far easier anywhere I've lived than getting a drivers license and obtaining a motor vehicle, insurance, tags, and registration.
"The South", assuming you mean the Southern United States (consisting of sixteen states stretching from Delaware, to Texas), has only four states in the top 20 for "open" gun laws: Florida (#1), West Virginia (#8), Kentucky (#9), and Georgia (#13). Of those, the first three are in the top 20 for ~least~ firearm-related murders; only Georgia ranks in the to 10 for ~most~ gun-murders. I should also note that the Southern United States has five states + one in the top 20 for "strictest" gun laws: Washington D.C., Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, and Delaware. Of those, all but Alabama rank in the top 20 for ~most~ gun-murders, and D.C. and Maryland rank the top of that list out of all States/localities. There is no evidence that shows a correlation between less gun control and more firearm-related murders. Any increases in property and violent crime (which is not specific on whether firearms were used) may have other factors that should be explored, such as culture, education, etc.
December 17, 2012 | 4:03 pm | Modified: December 17, 2012 at 4:05 pm Despite his calls for greater gun control, including a new assault weapons ban that extends to handguns, President Obama's administration has turned away from enforcing gun laws, cutting weapons prosecutions some 40 percent since a high of about 11,000 under former President Bush. Pew Research Center for the People & the Press on Monday found that public is evenly divided over whether the Newtown shootings reflect broader problems in American society, 47 percent, or are just the acts of troubled individuals, 44 percent. Figures collected by Syracuse University's TRAC project, the authority on prosecutions from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, shows that the administration has reduced the focus on gun crimes and instead steered prosecutors and investigators to drug crimes. Gun prosecutions peaked at 10,937 under Bush in 2004. A current TRAC report shows that the Obama administration is prosecuting about 6,000 weapons cases.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/gun-prosecutions-under-obama-down-over-40-percent/article/2516175?custom_click=rss#.UNDKJazhd8G
12-2012 "President Obama on Monday began the first serious push of his administration to attempt to reduce gun violence, directing Cabinet members to formulate a set of proposals that could include reinstating a ban on assault rifles. The effort will be led by Vice President Biden." 2-2009 ""I'm announcing today that this Wednesday, our administration will begin distributing more than $15 billion in federal assistance under the recovery act to help you cover the costs of your Medicaid programs," Obama told a gathering of the nation's governors. He also said that he was naming Vice President Joe Biden to oversee the implementation of the stimulus plan." Lets hope Crazy Uncle "“Unfortunately, the bullets are aimed at you” Biden does another bang up job in his new position.
by: Sharyl Attkisson "A gun found at the scene of a shootout between a Mexican drug cartel and soldiers where a beauty queen died was part of the botched “Fast and Furious” operation, CBS News reports. Authorities had said that Maria Susana Flores Gamez was likely used as a human shield and that an automatic rifle had been found near her body after the Nov. 23 shootout. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tells CBS News that the Justice Department did not notify Congress that a Fast and Furious firearm was found at the scene in Sinaloa. CBS News learned the Romanian AK-47-type WASR-10 rifle found near her body was purchased by Uriel Patino at an Arizona gun shop in 2010. Patino is a suspect who allegedly purchased 700 guns while under the ATF’s watch. The “Fast and Furious” operation was launched in 2009 to catch trafficking kingpins, but agents lost track of about 1,400 of the more than 2,000 weapons involved." http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/12/18/cbs-news-fast-and-furious-gun-found-at-site-where-mexican-beauty-queen-killed/
California State Teachers’ Retirement System spokesman Michael Sicilia said Tuesday that the $155 billion pension system is making sure its investments comply with the fund’s own social and ethical standards. The fund invested $600 million in the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, which owns gun maker Freedom Group International. Cerberus said it will sell its holdings in the manufacturer of the rifle used to kill 20 schoolchildren and six adults at a school in Newtown, Conn." http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/12/18/california-teachers-retirement-plan-invested-in-gun-manufacturer/ Profiting at the same time as calling for a ban. More hypocritical buttholes.