Daniel Barden was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting along with 19 other first-graders. Photo credit: Barden family photo.
Micheal Muskal of the Los Angeles Times reports Chris Christie vetoes bill to decrease capacity of gun magazines, which has angered parents of the Sandy Hook massacre.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has vetoed a bill that would have reduced the capacity of gun magazines from 15 to 10 bullets, a small change that in the heated atmosphere surrounding gun issues is enough to raise the political temperature.
Parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook shooting visited Christie’s office Wednesday to deliver online petitions with more than 55,000 signatures urging him to sign the bill. When the governor rejected the efforts of gun control advocates, the reaction was swift and expected.
“Governor Christie has chosen to put gun industry profits ahead of saving lives,” Violence Policy Center legislative director Kristen Rand said in a statement. “A ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines would protect law enforcement and the general public, and it would limit the firepower available to criminals and mass shooters. By vetoing this bill, Governor Christie has turned his back on an opportunity to improve public safety in communities across the state.”
Mark Barden and wife Jackie Barden, who lost their son Daniel (above) in the Sandy Hook School Shooting in Newtown. Barden reach out to Richard Martinez, dad of a Santa Barbara victim. Photocredit: AP
Corky Siemaszko of the New York Daily News reports New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill that would have banned ammunition magazines from carrying more than 10 rounds.
The parents of the littlest Sandy Hook elementary school massacre victims accused New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday of dissing their dead kids.
“We have been trying to get a private meeting with him since May 22nd to talk about this bill and he’s refused,” said Mark Barden, whose 7-year-old son Daniel was among the 20 first-graders murdered in December 2012 at the Newton, Conn., school. “I don’t know what he’s so afraid of.”
Barden, who co-founded Sandy Hook Promise to fight for sensible gun control, said the language Christie used to kill the bill was “despicable.”
“He made this statement accusing us of 'grandstanding' and using 'empty rhetoric,'” Barden told the Daily News. “That is a blow to the memories of our children. People from all over are completely outraged by his language.”
“We know that smaller magazines would have saved more lives at Sandy Hook Elementary, possibly even the lives of our own children,” the group said.
Adam Lanza used a .223-caliber Bushmaster Model XM15 rifle with 30-round magazines to kill the 20 children at Sandy Hook elementary school.
Governor Christie has proposed that instead of gun control that New Jersey reforms "mental illness treatment programs and called for a new standard that would make it easier to commit disturbed people involuntarily."
He also has proposed better training for first responders.
How sad. Our hearts and prayers go out to all of those who have lost loved ones to violence. I do not know what the solution is but the fact Christie would not even meet with these grieving parents says all we need to know about his lack of compassion, character and leadership.
Christie has plenty of time to fly to Las Vegas to kiss Sheldon Adelmen's but, and dance around like a puppet on strings apologizing for calling the West Bank "occupied territories" instead of "disputed territories" but he has not even five minutes to meet with parents of the Sandy Hook victims to hear their pleas that he support their bill that would place a cap on gun magazines.
Well, Governor Christie, you've made it perfectly clear to all of us, where your "heart" is.
And, so much for your lofty claim that you "listen to the people."
Governor Christie still has not explained to us why he looked into the cameras and lied to us for nearly two hours, that neither he nor his staff new anything about the George Washington Bridge lane closures.
This guy is really starting to cheese me off. It's one thing to look us all in the eyes and tell us bald face lies, and not apologize, but how much lower can a human being go than to blow-off and diss the parents of dead first-graders?
At this point I do not think it even matters any more to the question of his fitness for office, whether the federal prosecutors bring criminal indictments in the many investigations against him.
We may never know what crimes he perpetrated behind closed doors. The vile behavior, pattern of lies, and abuse of power, we see him committing in broad daylight is more than enough to convince me Christie is not the kind of person who should be in public office.
Due to New Jersey law a governor cannot be impeached before a year into his current term. I look forward to the New Jersey legislative committee recommending this at the conclusion of their investigation. The numbers of lies, and abuses of power, fraudulent diversions of fund, etc. seems more than sufficient to take a vote to start impeachment hearings in the first week of January as far as I am concerned.
In the meantime I hope you will join me in demanding he resign unless he can explain his apparent lies of January 9, 2014. Is his defense really going to be everyone else but him is lying?
And, where is the media, in demanding that he conduct another two hour news conference to explain the lies and glaring discrepancies in his statements?
8:40 PM PT: I had meant to post this under the Christie Watch banner. Sorry, my concentration has been off lately from a lot of pain from some unknown mysterious affliction which descends upon me know and then. One doctor thinks it might be fibromyalgia but other admits they really can't tell.
Today is the first time I've attempted any serious writing in almost a week , but I'm still off sorry, I didn't mean to bail out on the Christie Watch posts, and this was supposed to be a "make up post."