Thom Hartmann: How many more killed until sensible gun control?

[thomhartmann]

Mike Glaze, Mayors Against Illegal Guns joins Thom Hartmann. Another senseless act of gun violence left 12 people dead and nearly 60 injured at a midnight screening of the new Batman movie last night in Colorado. How many more tragedies is it going to take before we pass sensible gun control laws to protect American lives?

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings

[AtheistCrusader]

1. How is it possible, at this point, that Hartmann doesn't know it wasn't an automatic rifle?

Like thirteen seconds in, blatant, huge-assed error. It makes a fucking difference. If the shooter HAD used an automatic rifle, with that 100-round mag, the death toll would have been several times higher. Could have had 12 dead before anyone even had a chance to stand up.

Does this really qualify as 'news' reporting?


1:20 in, error again. The 1994 AWB banned the MANUFACTURE of new large-capacity magazines. There were warehouses full of the things prior to that date, sales of new ones never halted the entire decade that ban was in place.

1:43, same mistake. Hartmann doesn't have a clue what the 1994 AWB contained. Those magazines were in common circulation at the time. (Standard sized mag for a Glock-18)

Asks to renew the ban to 'get these things off the street' ignoring that the original ban didn't do that either. All it did was make them more expensive, as the pool of magazines in circulation became finite.

Error again at 5:07, the AR-15 was NOT banned under the AWB, it was still manufactured, new, for sale, without certain features like a threaded barrel (for attaching accessories like a flash suppressor, or a suppressor), a bayonet lug, etc. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE to have a news commentator that doesn't know ANYTHING about the subject matter at hand? No research team? Nothing?

5:26 Error, the world did come to an end, politically for us. This ban was a signficant contributor to the Right Wing seizing control of the house and senate back away from us. The damage they did... who could even account for it all? No crime wave? There was also no crime reduction attributable to the ban. None. It was a non-issue besides PISSING OFF GUN OWNERS. That translated into voters in booths, and republicans in office. Bad equation.



I agree with Mark Glaze, we do need more background checks. Problem: Private transfers. There is no mechansim for us to do so, and the NICS system is closed to anyone who isn't a gun dealer, so we have no mechanism to use, short of taking the gun in to an FFL and paying them to do it. Most people have no interest in doing that. At the very least, the background check needs to be free to the transaction, or you're going to have massive opposition to it. Open up NICS, or provide funding to FFL's to handle all transactions, and then you can mandate checks on all private transactions. Till then, this is a non-starter in Congress.

Trafficking statutes would be great too. Glaze has got his shit together.

[HopeHoops]

3. Nice rant, but the fact remains. The expiration of the AWB has caused multiple slaughters.

Holmes acquired everything legally. In 1993, he wouldn't have been able to.

[AtheistCrusader]

4. You mean 1995, or 2003 right? (Something inside the span of the ban?)

That's also incorrect. He COULD have acquired every single weapon and magazine he possessed the night of the shooting. It would have been a different model AR-15, because Smith and Wesson wasn't making those back then, but there were flat-top AR-15's for sale in 1995, new in box from other manufacturers. The features it would have been missing to comply with the law wouldn't have factored into this slaughter at all.

The beta-c mag would have been very expensive, as much as the rifle itself, but that would have been the only 'rare' component in the pile of shit he had on him that night. (And like most beta-c mags, the stupid thing jammed on him)

The 1994 AWB had no impact on this issue, unless, and I haven't heard this reported, but unless he fixed a bayonet to the end of his rifle, and stabbed someone with it.

[kitt6]

2. Sorry folks. Not Yet!

Don't take it out on me. I'm just the messenger.