The New York Times yesterday had an editorial decrying "the silence of politicians" concerning the lack of discussion in the wake of Virginia Tech about the current state of gun laws and how a mentally deraged person legally acquired two weapons and killed 32 people.
An excerpt:
Politicians should at least have the guts to tell the nation that retrogression is the state of gun control in America. But Congress’s new Democratic majority is a study in caginess, its leaders obviously mindful of the warning — issued by Terry McAuliffe, the former party chairman who is now a principal in Senator Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign — to avoid the subject as a third-rail loser. The question in the ’08 campaign is whether major candidates will dare to speak of Virginia Tech as anything more than an occasion to express grief.
Well, one politician isn't silent.
From yesterday:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
Illinois Democrat and presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama wants stronger laws to prevent the mentally ill from buying guns.
The student who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech, Cho Seung-Hui, had a history of mental health problems but still was able to buy the two guns used in the rampage.
In an interview with the syndicated radio program "The Steve Harvey Morning Show" Obama said gun laws have to change to prevent the type of killings seen this week at Virginia Tech and on a daily basis in urban areas. The senator says "some common sense" changes are needed.
Obama also says he wants mental health services improved in order to identify people with serious problems who aren't getting treatment.
From today:
http://www.boston.com/...
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said this week's shooting at Virginia Tech highlights serious shortcomings with gun control.
"We're still selling handguns to crazy people," Obama said during a campaign stop at a Nashua senior center on Friday. "We're supposed to have a system that these people are screened out. What's clear is the background check system in this case failed entirely."
On Monday, 32 people were killed by a single gunman on the Blacksburg, Va., campus. Police say 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui then turned the gun on himself.
"Obviously, this week was heartbreaking," Obama said. "I don't think there was anything that could've guaranteed we wouldn't have seen violence at Virginia Tech."
But Cho's actions were not random or the result of an unexpected mental "snap," Obama said.
"This is someone who had been hospitalized just last year, if I'm not mistaken, for mental illness," Obama said.
The Illinois senator, who is not a hunter, has said he does not want to take away hunters' or sportsmen's rights. However, there has to be a reasonable balance between those rights and public safety, he said.
"(Cho) had a semiautomatic weapon with a clip that allowed him to take 19 shots in a row," Obama said. "I don't know any self-respecting hunter that needs 19 rounds of anything. The only reason you have 19 rounds is potentially to do physical harm to people. You don't shoot 19 rounds at a deer. And if you do, you shouldn't be hunting."