The-Asterisk

Today on Fox News Sunday, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) was on to talk about the tragic shooting in Newtown, CT. What Sen. Durbin, who always sounds sincere and grandfatherly when he speaks, said was this: But gun control is part of it. We need to sit down and have a quiet, calm reflection on the Second Amendment. Are there guns that really shouldn’t be sold across America? Military assault weapons such as the one involved in this horrific incident in Connecticut? Are there high ammunition clips, high capacity ammunition clips that have no value, whatsoever when it comes to sporting and hunting and even self-defense? The person could buy body armor, take that body armor and use it to protect themselves as they kill innocent people. Can we have a thoughtful, calm, reflection on these things? And do it in the context of our Second Amendment? I think we need to. David Muir, on ABC News Sunday Night, said on several occasions that they will be fostering a "national conversation...

I was reading E.J. Dionne Jr's latest piece in the Washington Post called Violent talk blocks sane gun laws . He even coins (or popularizes) a new term, militarized rhetoric , which is always followed by the words "from the right". I will not debate the one-sidedness of that statement. He mentions that we cannot have a sane debate about reducing the number of rounds you can legally carry in a gun clip (or more correctly, a magazine.) It is reported that Jared Loughner had a Glock-19 9mm handgun with a high-capacity 33 round magazine. Supposedly it jammed which is how bystanders were able to subdue the gunman and keep him from emptying the gun on more people. Let's be honest, even if magazines of more than 5 rounds were made retroactivelly illegal, the millions in circulation would always exist. What came to mind when I was thinking about this subject was that Congress doesn't know how to pass a clean bill. The first thing out of the mouth of the Democrat minority ...