Senate Democrat on Boulder shooting: 'This is the moment to make our stand'
By: Dominick Mastrangelo (TheHill)
As expected Democrats wasted no time in politicizing another tragedy. Regardless of motivation, body bags are politically useful.
Too bad Democrats ignore gun violence in minority communities. The statistics should provide ample justification for gun reform. Small tragedies are playing out in minority communities every day and every night. Waiting for white shooters only allows more innocent people in minority communities to suffer. But Democrats are more concerned about being called racist (and losing minority votes) than doing the right thing.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in the wake of a mass shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colo., that it is time to "make our stand" on gun reform.
"This is the moment to make our stand. NOW," Murphy tweeted late Monday. "Today, our movement is stronger than the gun lobby. They are weak. We are potent. Finally, a President and a Congress that supports gun reform. No more Newtowns. No more Parklands. No more Boulders. Now — we make our stand."
Police in Boulder say a gunman opened fire at shopping center near the University of Colorado on Monday afternoon, killing 10 people, including a police officer.
Authorities have also not given any information regarding the type of weapon used or any background information on the alleged attacker, who is in police custody. Authorities have not given any details as to a possible motive for the shooting.
"Action is needed now to prevent this scourge from continuing to ravage our communities," Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement early Tuesday.
"While we await further information on the details of this heinous crime, we continue to stand with victims, families and young people across the country saying, 'Enough is enough,' " she added. "Democrats will keep fighting to end the daily tragedy of gun violence and keep our communities safe."
A separate mass shooting at a series of massage parlors in the Atlanta area last week prompted other Democrats on Capitol Hill to speak out against gun violence.
"We need reasonable gun reform in our country," Sen. Raphael Warnock said on Sunday. "This, this shooter was able to kill all of these folks the same day he purchased a firearm."
Murphy, whose home state of Connecticut was the site of one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history at an elementary school in Newtown, has been among the most outspoken critics of the gun lobby in Washington and Republican efforts to resist major reforms to firearms laws like universal background checks or an assault weapons ban.
"I feel like if I don't get a bill done to address gun violence in this country by the time that I hang up my spikes, then I've failed," Murphy said last year. "I've just fundamentally failed as a legislator."
President Biden has signaled he is open to pursuing reforms, including universal background checks and an assault weapons ban.
"Joe Biden also knows how to make progress on reducing gun violence using executive action," Biden's campaign website promised. "It's within our grasp to end our gun violence epidemic and respect the Second Amendment, which is limited. As president, Biden will pursue constitutional, common-sense gun safety policies."
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The scourge of gun crime is ravaging minority communities, too. Democrats don't seem too concerned about that.
Democrats are only pursuing bare, naked politics to seek donors in big, beautiful white cities. Regardless of motivation, Democrats are being politically selfish.
A good place for democrats to take a stand would be to support brave, courageous police officers like officer Eric Talley.
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Blah, blah, blah. Derek Chauvin ain't a hero.
We're training police to engage in military combat. The United States is turning into a military state. That thin blue line is being converted into something insidiously dangerous.
This runs the risk of going off-tangent to the seed, but isn't this a factor of the fear generated by 9/11 ? Providing military gear and weaponry to law enforcement, the Patriot Act, the long-standing military engagement in Afghanistan and later Iraq.. all produced by the fear generated by 9/11. With all the tax-payer money that has gone into these things, we sure have not gotten a good return on this investment.
I definitely agree with you and have made mention of that problem in the past. There are several parts to the problem but the two biggest that I see are the influx of veterans into law enforcement post 9/11, and the militarization of law enforcement equipment. When you bring a military mentality into law enforcement, and then bring the military toys in, it really is only a matter of time before those in law enforcement start seeing law enforcement as being some sort of war.
We have a military whose purpose is to engage in combat. The code of military conduct is strict and unforgiving. We don't need to transform law enforcement into a civilian paramilitary force.
If we need combat capable troops to augment law enforcement then those troops should be under military jurisdiction. The military wouldn't have diddled around with Derek Chauvin; justice would have been swift and strict.
Democrats are using gun control to establish law enforcement as a civilian paramilitary force. If Democrats ban civilian use of assault rifles then that ban must be applied to civilian law enforcement, too. A civilian wearing a police uniform is still a civilian.
Then law enforcement should be governed by the code of military conduct. The police are no longer officers of the court and shouldn't be under the jurisdiction of civilian courts.
Derek Chauvin should be tried for war crimes under military jurisdiction.
I don't know where you live, but take the cops away for a few days and you'll be to the right of me!
What gets me is their "sensible approach to gun control" always seems to aim (pun intended) at just getting those scary black rifles off the market. The mantra is we have to keep guns out of the hands that misuse them, but they never seem to look at fixing the issues in the NICS system insuring that all reporting agencies get all the information in to the system in a timely manner. Instead they talk about banning some guns from new sales, or getting the federal government involved in intrastate commerce. IMO if they were truly serious about gun control they would be marching to amend the 2nd Amendment to remove all guns from the public hands. Not that banning all guns would even solve the problem of gun violence, but at least they would start to being honest.
Then are you saying that we should better regulate all large capacity semiautomatic firearms regardless of how scary they may look?
Why can't regulation of criminals be first and foremost? More often than not, to diminish prison time, any weapons violation charge is dropped, especially for those with previous felony convictions. Those people could be held on federal charges if convicted of weapons offenses, and we can't have any of that now can we.
The law biding people will invariably comply with the law and the criminals will be laughing all the way to more criminal activity unimpeded by an unarmed populace.
As expatingb repllied, better to work on regulation of people. Hell, even though France has some very tough gun laws the terrorists still got fully automatic weapons in. You are not gonna get rid of guns, that genie is out of the bottle now. I think it's time to work more on controlling access. The NICS system has no teeth, states and other reporting organizations are very lax in reporting necessary information. And while we're at it lets start having gun safety classes in every grade from kindergarden thru 12th, to teach safety.
Those assault rifle firearms seem to scare white people. Ask minorities which firearms they fear most.
can i take a wild guess? it wouldnt be the hand gun now would it?
I was thinking a Glock 9mm.
i say handguns because they are highly portable and concealable , doesnt matter the cal. really. unlike long guns aka rifles or shotguns .
I only said Glock 9mm, because it's a common carry among law officials across the board. Ammo is cheap [in comparison to others] and the pistols themselves are relatively inexpensive in comparison.
Off-the-shelf handguns without high capacity magazines. Plain Jane ham sandwiches. Easy to steal, easy to conceal.
Democrats acknowledging the evidence would destroy their phony political outrage. The problem really is the person holding the gun.
lol i got it right then, did i win a cookie?
You can claim to be smarter than the average Democrat.
The gun reforms being promoted by Democrat's fear laden outrage won't solve problems like this one: