Biden brings gun violence talks back to Connecticut
Vice President Joe Biden today is bringing the ongoing national discussion about reducing gun violence back to the place that spurred it, addressing a conference on gun violence at a Connecticut university just 10 miles from the site of December's Newtown shooting.
Biden will deliver remarks this morning at a conference at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Conn. Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy of Connecticut are co-hosting the event with Rep. Elizabeth Etsy, D-Conn., who represents both Danbury and Newtown.
Biden has played a key role in the administration's response to the tragic Newtown shooting, leading a White House task force on reducing gun violence and reaching out to state lawmakers on the issue as well as working with federal politicians. The administration is seeking a whole host of policy measures to bring down gun violence, but it's unclear which, if any, could make it past the high hurdles they face in Congress, especially as opponents like the National Rifle Association continue to push back against them. Furthermore, the political will to pursue gun control legislation could be dampened as Congress focuses on the looming "sequestration" spending cuts.
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In the face of these obstacles, Biden is leading the administration's effort to keep up public support for measures to reduce gun violence.
Prior to the vice president's remarks today, the conference at Western Connecticut State University will feature panel discussions on ways to reduce gun violence, protect children and make communities safer. The panels will include national, state, and local leaders, law enforcement, mental health experts, sportsmen, faith leaders, families and survivors of gun violence.
Biden has gone to great lengths to convey the idea that the administration fully supports Second Amendment rights, including pointing out that he himself is a gun owner. "No one's taking my shotgun," Biden said Tuesday during a Facebook town hall event with Parents Magazine, reassuring his audience that stricter gun laws won't mean people will have their guns taken away. He went so far to suggest that Americans who want a gun for self-protection should "get a double-barreled shotgun."
The point Biden was trying to make, White House spokesman Jay Carney explained the next day, "is that in his view, you do not need a military-style assault weapon to protect your home. In fact, you would be better off with a shotgun."
Carney noted that Biden owns a 12-gauge and a 20-gauge shotgun, which he keeps in a safe at his Delaware home.
"When we talk about the president's comprehensive package of proposals to address the problem of gun violence in America would not -- if all of them were implemented, the executive actions and the legislation, if it all happened tomorrow, not a single law-abiding American citizen would lose his or her weapon, or his or her firearm," Carney added. "And that's because we believe in Second Amendment rights. But we need to take action, sensible action, common sense action to try to reduce the scourge of gun violence in this country."
Of the measures the White House is backing, an expansion of background checks seems the most likely to pass through Congress. A group of bipartisan senators, including Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., are working on a passage to expand background checks "that I think that most of us will be able to support," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., similarly said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, "We've been focusing on universal background checks, where I think there's a greater chance to come to a bipartisan agreement."
In an interview with Charleston, S.C., CBS affiliate WCSC yesterday, Mr. Obama said, "Background checks can work if they're done properly."
The president reacted to an incident in South Carolina in which a woman with mental health issues tried to fire a legally-purchased gun in a public place. "What happened in South Carolina, I think, is indicative of the problem we still have with our background check system. There are too many gaps, too many loopholes. States don't share information with the federal government and sometimes federal agencies don't share information into a single database that is accurate."
While some of those issues can be resolved through federal action, he said, "Ultimately we're going to need Congress to act."
As Biden hits the road to promote the president's agenda, Mr. Obama's new nonprofit organization Organizing for Action (which evolved from Mr. Obama's campaign organization Obama for America) is rallying public support as well. The organization this week emailed its supporters, urging them to "share your personal story or views on why Congress should act right now to help protect our kids and reduce gun violence." Supporters were directed to share their stories on the group's website.
"This won't be easy, but if we can save even one life, it'll be worth it," Organizing for Action's executive director Jon Carson wrote.
Given the resistance Congress is facing, it certainly won't be easy. The National Rifle Association today is launching a print ad campaign targeting mostly Democratic senators up for re-election in 2014 on the issue. The group is planning to spend more than $375,000, Roll Call newspaper reported, in states such as Arkansas, Louisiana, Maine, North Carolina and West Virginia.
At the Wayne Convention and Sport Show of the National Wild Turkey Federation in Nashville last week, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre said Mr. Obama's efforts to tie gun control to keeping children safe are a "charade."
"It's not about keeping kids safe in schools," LaPierre said. "They only care about their decades-long, decades-old gun control agenda."
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas -- one of the biggest recipients of campaign cash from the NRA -- held a press conference Tuesday to speak out in opposition to new gun control measures. "While we should use every available means to deter and to punish mass murderers, the federal government should not be trying to ban gun ownership for law-abiding Americans," he said at LaRue Tactical, a gun manufacturer located outside of Austin.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in at least five states have introduced legislation to preemptively outlaw federal bans on high-capacity magazines or certain semi-automatic rifles, Yahoo News reports. Such state laws would most likely be meaningless, since federal law trumps state law, but the legislative efforts nevertheless illustrate the passionate opposition that exists to gun control.
