Different reactions to the gun violence in Boulder, CO

Share
guns gun violence die-in
Die-in against gun violence, Tampa. By Seán Kinane / WMNF News (12 June 2018).

The suspect in Monday’s Boulder supermarket shootings bought the assault rifle six days before he allegedly shot and killed ten people. Investigators have not established a motive.

On Tuesday President Biden reiterated his priorities for gun safety: banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and closing gun background check loopholes.

“It received votes from both Republicans and Democrats in the House. This is not, it should not be, a partisan issue. This is an American issue. It will save lives, American lives. We have to act. We should also ban assault weapons in the process.”

Senate Democrats say they are pushing toward a vote on expanded gun safety measures as the nation reels from the second mass shooting in a week.

But prospects for any major reform are slim for now. On Tuesday morning Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to bring House-passed legislation that would require background checks for most gun sales and transfers to the Senate floor, whether it will pass or not. The Senate Judiciary Committee was holding a hearing on proposals for gun safety Tuesday.

Here’s part of what Republican Senator John Kennedy said.

“I have listened to my colleagues’ comments with interest. And I join with Senator Feinstein in hoping that we can do something about this. But I do think we ought to keep this in perspective. What has happened in the last few days, what’s happened in the last year’s, is of course tragic. And I’m not, I’m not trying to perfectly equate these two, but we have a lot of drunk drivers in America that kill a lot of people.”

Here’s fellow Republican, Ted Cruz.

“And every time there’s a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders.

“The senator from Connecticut just said the folks on the other side of the aisle have no solutions. Well, the senator from Connecticut knows that is false. And he knows that’s false, ’cause Senator Grassley and I together introduced legislation. Grassley-Cruz targeted at violent criminals, targeted at felons, targeted at fugitives, targeted at those with serious mental disease, to stop them from getting firearms, to put them in prison when they try to illegally buy guns.

“What happens in this committee after every mass shooting is Democrats proposed taking away guns from law-abiding citizens because that’s their political objective. But what they propose, not only does it not reduce crime, it makes it worse.”

Journalist Ari Berman tweeted: “2 cases of voter fraud in 2020: let’s make it harder to vote … 38,000 gun deaths a year in US: let’s make it easier to buy guns”

Marjorie Stoneman Douglas H.S. survivor David Hogg said:

“If we are going to solve gun violence, it is on us, as a people, to become the United States of America. Not only united against gun violence but united against the injustice and violence that drives it. United against the poverty and systemic racism that was purpose-built into this Country. Let us united for our children and for our future.

“For when we’re signing laws, we’re not thinking about whether or not we’re going to lose an election. We’re thinking about whether or not this is actually going to help protect the future of our children and the future of our country. Because, in reality, that is what really matters. That, that focus on the future of our country and the protection of our children should be at the core of all of our political decisions.”

information from the Associated Press was used in this report

 

Listen to the 5:30 p.m. WMNF News headlines for 23 March 2021:

Listen to the 4:30 p.m. WMNF News headlines for 23 March 2021:

Listen to the 3:30 p.m. WMNF News headlines for 23 March 2021:

 

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

student meal
Next school year Hillsborough public schools are offering free meals

Hillsborough Public Schools are offering students free meals for the...

Correspondence Through Poetry. A Mind-Numbing Week.

Father Verses Sons: A Correspondence in Poems by Herbert Gold...

The sound of change: Music’s influence on anti-war and human rights movements

Throughout history, music has served as a powerful catalyst for...

a man in a tye dye shirt talking on a radio microphone
Recreational pot for Florida is on the ballot this fall—let’s talk about it

In four months, Florida voters have the opportunity to vote...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Follow us on Instagram

Traffic Jam - All Souls Edition
Player position: