Senator Crazypants Inhofe To Newtown Families: The Gun Debate Has Nothing To Do With You

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/04/09/1843661/senator-to-newtown-families-the-gun-debate-has-nothing-to-do-with-you/

Senator To Newtown Families: The Gun Debate Has Nothing To Do With You

By Igor Volsky on Apr 9, 2013 at 4:28 pm


As the Senate prepares to take up a comprehensive gun safety bill on Thursday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) told reporters that the coming debate will have nothing to do with the families of the victims from Newtown, Connecticut.

“See, I think it’s so unfair of the administration to hurt these families, to make them think this has something to do with them when, in fact, it doesn’t,” Inhofe said and suggested that Obama is manipulating and misinforming the families for political purposes.

Obama called on Congress to support gun safety legislation during a speech in Hartford, Connecticut on Monday. He then traveled with 12 families whose loved ones were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School back to D.C. on Air Force One to help him lobby lawmakers in favor of a Senate proposal that expands background checks to all purchases, cracks down on gun trafficking and invests in school safety.

Inhofe is part of a group of 14 senators who have pledged to block consideration of the bill, though their effort to filibuster reform appear to have fallen short. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced on Tuesday that he would file cloture on the measure.

The Oklahoma senator has an A+ rating from the NRA and Gun Owners of America. He has taken at least $19,800 from the former since 1998.

[Tx4obama]

1. Additional article below

James Inhofe: Gun Debate Has Nothing To Do With Families Of Newtown Victims

WASHINGTON -- Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said Tuesday that the gun control debate doesn't have anything to do with the families of the Newtown, Conn., shooting victims, and that the only reason those families think it does is because President Barack Obama told them it did.

Eleven family members of Newtown victims were in Washington on Tuesday, meeting privately with senators to urge them to support a forthcoming gun package that would impose tighter background checks, crack down on gun trafficking and enhance school safety measures. Speaking to a handful of reporters, Inhofe said he feels bad for those families because they're being used as pawns in a political fight.

"See, I think it's so unfair of the administration to hurt these families, to make them think this has something to do with them when, in fact, it doesn't," Inhofe said.

When it was suggested that the families of Newtown victims actually believe the gun debate pertains to them, Inhofe said, "Well, that's because they've been told that by the president."

-snip-

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/09/james-inhofe-guns-newtown_n_3046969.html

[atreides1]

7. WTF?

Is this man really that stupid? Or has his ability to feel anything just disappeared?

I'm sorry this man is a prime candidate for a frontal lobotomy, and the same goes for every single person in Oklahoma who voted for him!!!

[kentuck]

2. He actually said that!

Unreal!

[global1]

3. In His Mind It Has To Do With Saving His Job And Not Offending The NRA....

continuing the money flowing to keep him in office and not allowing President Obama to have any successes as President.

This is just politics.

[lpbk2713]

6. And ...

getting a mention on Faux Snooze and the Limbaugh Hatefest Hour.

That's what they live for.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

4. Words fail me. Of course, they failed him, too, yet he said it anyway.

[Shrike47]

5. Then what does have something to do with it?

I really hope he's challenged on that.

It's not dead kids, it's votes???

[babylonsister]

8. Thank you, Rachel. He's out of his mind. nt

[krispos42]

9. Considering that nothing proposed would have saved a single life at Newtown...

What has really happened is that the anti-gun forces have presented the exact same things they've been presenting for years now.

There is nothing new in the post-Newtown proposals. Universal background checks? Old news. Magazine-capacity limits? Old news. Registration? Old news. Defining, then banning, "assault weapons"? Old news. Expanding the definition of "assault weapon" to cover more guns? Old news.

There is more momentum, perhaps, as people that are newly motivated, and yet still sadly lacking in knowledge, push for the old standbys.


What is truly insulting is that the pro-control forces and looking the Sandy Hook parents in the eyes and telling them that, in the name of their dead children, they're going to ban protruding pistol grips. They're going to ban them because that will somehow help in the next mass shooting.


Dammit, I hate being in this position. The NRA crowd is screaming about jackbooted ATF thugs and "Second Amendment remedies" and other insane stuff, and the MAIG crowd is proclaiming that taking out protruding pistol grips and 11+ magazines will be the magic answer to the problems of gun violence.