In 2008 candidate Barack Obama talked about re-instituting the Federal Ban on Assault Weapons; 4 years later we have a witnessed tragic shootings that have left a member of the United States House of Representatives (Gabrielle Giffords) recovering from being shot in the head and senseless murder/injury of innocent people trying to watch the latest Dark Knight movie (Dark Knight Rises).   While it is true that you cannot say for sure that these shooting could have been prevented with stricter gun control laws, what can be said is that the weapons used in the attacks would have been banned (AR-15 and extended magazine clip).  Of course having a ban of such weapons doesn’t guarantee no violence but it’s a start.  The last thing we should want to do is make it any easier for NUTBAGS like James Holmes to be able to purchase firearms and ammunition.

And as much as I will defend President Obama on some of his policies, I CANNOT DEFEND HIM ON THIS!

The NRA and nutbags within the GOP would have you believe that President Obama wants to take away your guns.  Well that is simply not true as President Obama has not done anything when it comes to gun control.  What’s sad is that Obama had the perfect opportunity to take up the fight of gun control when Representative Giffords was shot in the head; she survived along while 6 others died that day including a 9-year-old girl.  He had the sympathy of the nation but nothing was done….

There is no indication even if the president won re-election that he will pursue the federal assault weapons ban. Jake Tapper of ABC News reported that the White House has suggested that the president does not have the appetite to pursue stricter gun control laws.

“The president’s views on this are, as he has stated and as he spelled out in the op-ed that was published in an Arizona newspaper, which is that he believes we need to take steps that protect Second Amendment rights of the American people but that ensure that we are not allowing weapons into the hands of individuals who should not, by existing law, obtain those weapons…” – WH Press Secretary Jay Carney (reported by Jake Tapper)

Basically the president is saying, he has to SHOW that he is not planning to take people’s guns away as he can’t afford to lose any possible votes to Mitt Romney.

Sorry Barack, but if you have no appetite now when will you have one?

Hopefully we will not see another tragedy like Aurora, but then again didn’t we say that after the shooting in Arizona????

In case you forgot below here are some of the regulations included in the Federal Assault Weapons Ban:

Assault weapon (semi-automatic) refers primarily (but not exclusively) to firearms that possess the cosmetics of an assault rifle (which are fully-automatic). Semi-automatic firearms, when fired, automatically extract the spent cartridge casing and load the next cartridge into the chamber, ready to fire again; they do not fire automatically like a machine gun, rather, only 1 round is fired with each trigger pull.

In the former U.S. law, the legal term assault weapon included certain specific semi-automatic firearm models by name (e.g., Colt AR-15, TEC-9, non select-fire AK-47s produced by three manufacturers, and Uzis) and other semi-automatic firearms because they possess a minimum set of cosmetic features from the following list of features:

Semi-automatic rifles able to accept detachable magazines and two or more of the following:

• Folding or telescoping stock
• Pistol grip
• Bayonet mount
• Flash suppressor, or threaded barrel designed to accommodate one
• Grenade launcher (more precisely, a muzzle device which enables the launching or firing of rifle grenades, though this applies only to muzzle mounted grenade launchers and not those which are mounted externally)

Semi-automatic pistols with detachable magazines and two or more of the following:

• Magazine that attaches outside the pistol grip
• Threaded barrel to attach barrel extender, flash suppressor, handgrip, or suppressor
• Barrel shroud that can be used as a hand-hold
• Unloaded weight of 50 oz (1.4 kg) or more
• A semi-automatic version of a fully automatic firearm

Semi-automatic shotguns with two or more of the following:

• Folding or telescoping stock
• Pistol grip
• Fixed capacity of more than 5 rounds
• Detachable magazine

The earlier term assault rifle refers to rifles that are capable of fully automatic fire. By that definition the ban did not cover “assault rifles” at all. Instead, it created a new definition of “assault weapon,” a term that was broad enough to encompass all three categories of firearm (rifle, pistol and shotgun) capable of semi-automatic fire and having a combination of features as listed above, but did not include fully automatic firearms of any type.

If there is something to be said, “It’s On Broadway” to step up and say it!!