Dear Friends,
Bob Herbert wrote a great column this morning in The New York Times about gun control. You should read it. All you need to do is click here.
Whether you read Bob Herbert's column or not, please contact your Senators, Representative and President. Here are the links for my Senators and Representative as well as the President.
Senator Klobuchar
Senator Franken
Representative Ellison
President Obama
Thanks for reading and please comment as well as contacting your Senators, Representative and President,
The Unabashed Liberal
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Baby Steps on Gun Control
Dear Friends,
Even as Rachel Maddow has been arguing that it is possible to pass gun control legislation and pointing out that gun control legislation has been passed under both Republican and Democratic presidents, The New York Times today had a front page article entitled "A Clamor for Gun Limits, but Few Expect Real Changes" (here).
The failure to adequately regulate guns in this country is truly a bipartisan problem with both major parties afraid of the NRA and unwilling to even take baby steps that historically both parties have been able to support. We did have a ban on the oversized magazines like the one used in Arizona last weekend that enabled the shooter to fire 31 rounds before having to reload. It was, of course, when he reloaded that he was stopped by the brave people in the crowd.
Why can't we at least have a bill that gets rid of these oversized magazines? Well we can. Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D. NY) who was elected in 1996 on a primarily gun control platform has introduced just that kind of legislation. Representative McCarthy lost her husband to a mass shooting on the Long Island Railroad as well as having her son injured. She speaks with honesty and passion about not taking people's guns away but making it harder to have these mass murders occur. It appears as though Senator Frank Lautenberg (D. NY) will offer a companion bill in the Senate.
Ask your Representatives and Senators if they have or are going to signed on as co-sponsors of this legislation. If they are not planning on doing so, ask them why. Ask your President as well. I have yet to hear any rational basis for objecting to this legislation. It is a baby step, but one we need to take.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
Even as Rachel Maddow has been arguing that it is possible to pass gun control legislation and pointing out that gun control legislation has been passed under both Republican and Democratic presidents, The New York Times today had a front page article entitled "A Clamor for Gun Limits, but Few Expect Real Changes" (here).
The failure to adequately regulate guns in this country is truly a bipartisan problem with both major parties afraid of the NRA and unwilling to even take baby steps that historically both parties have been able to support. We did have a ban on the oversized magazines like the one used in Arizona last weekend that enabled the shooter to fire 31 rounds before having to reload. It was, of course, when he reloaded that he was stopped by the brave people in the crowd.
Why can't we at least have a bill that gets rid of these oversized magazines? Well we can. Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D. NY) who was elected in 1996 on a primarily gun control platform has introduced just that kind of legislation. Representative McCarthy lost her husband to a mass shooting on the Long Island Railroad as well as having her son injured. She speaks with honesty and passion about not taking people's guns away but making it harder to have these mass murders occur. It appears as though Senator Frank Lautenberg (D. NY) will offer a companion bill in the Senate.
Ask your Representatives and Senators if they have or are going to signed on as co-sponsors of this legislation. If they are not planning on doing so, ask them why. Ask your President as well. I have yet to hear any rational basis for objecting to this legislation. It is a baby step, but one we need to take.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
A Day to Come Together
Dear Friends,
Tonight President Obama did a great job of trying to bring the country together and calling us to be the best we can be, to do what the sacrifice of the victims and their families demands of us and to be sure that we do what we can to honor the memories of the victims. We were called to be our better selves, and we should heed that call. We can be better than we are, and while we cannot control others, we can control what we do. We can work to make this country and this world as wonderful as a child envisions it. Let's do that.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
Tonight President Obama did a great job of trying to bring the country together and calling us to be the best we can be, to do what the sacrifice of the victims and their families demands of us and to be sure that we do what we can to honor the memories of the victims. We were called to be our better selves, and we should heed that call. We can be better than we are, and while we cannot control others, we can control what we do. We can work to make this country and this world as wonderful as a child envisions it. Let's do that.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
True Leaders Needed for Gun Control
Dear Friends,
Rachel Maddow has spent the last two nights demonstrating the need for gun control legislation and arguing against the common wisdom that gun control legislation has no chance of passing because neither major political party is willing to take on the NRA.
In the first segment of last night's Rachel Maddow Show, Rachel made the clear case that while these mass murders using guns are terrible, they are certainly not unimaginable. In fact they happen very frequently in the United States. Here is the segment.
Watch the entire show and watch tonight's episode as well. Then contact your elected representatives at all levels, we need to create the leaders that will get real gun control legislation enacted.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
Rachel Maddow has spent the last two nights demonstrating the need for gun control legislation and arguing against the common wisdom that gun control legislation has no chance of passing because neither major political party is willing to take on the NRA.
In the first segment of last night's Rachel Maddow Show, Rachel made the clear case that while these mass murders using guns are terrible, they are certainly not unimaginable. In fact they happen very frequently in the United States. Here is the segment.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
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