State-by-state gun control developments
Officials talk guns, hold buybacks after shootings
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The national gun debate swelled Tuesday as Arizona and the country commemorated the shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., two years ago that killed six people and left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords injured -- an anniversary that came on the heels of the mass killing at a Connecticut elementary school. Here's how some state and local leaders are taking action:
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ARIZONA -- Giffords and her husband on Tuesday launched a political action committee aimed at curbing gun violence, while two politicians on opposite ends of the gun debate held dueling weapons buybacks outside a Tucson police station.
In Maricopa County, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has said he plans to post armed volunteers on school perimeters to protect Phoenix-area students.
His plan, announced last month, came after two other Arizona officials released ideas for boosting school security: Attorney General Tom Horne proposed firearms training for one person in each school, and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu proposed training multiple educators per school to carry guns.
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ILLINOIS -- The state's attorney general on Tuesday asked a federal appeals court to review a lawsuit challenging the state's ban on concealed carry in an effort to salvage the only law in the nation that makes the practice entirely illegal.
Last month, a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Illinois ban as unconstitutional and gave lawmakers 180 days to write a law legalizing it. Attorney General Lisa Madigan is asking that all 10 judges on the court rehear the case.
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CONNECTICUT - U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal announced Tuesday he plans to introduce federal legislation that would require instant background checks for purchasers of ammunition.
It is now illegal to sell firearms and ammunition to certain groups, including felons and the mentally ill. But background checks, Blumenthal said, are required only for the sale of firearms, not the bullets.
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WASHINGTON -- Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and other city leaders on Tuesday announced a new gun buyback program being sponsored by Amazon.com and other businesses to reduce firearms in the community.
Under the program, people who turn in a handgun can pick up a $100 gift card for the online retailer.
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UTAH -- A Spring City councilman wants all residents in the small town to be armed against possible aggressors.
Councilman Neil Sorensen says he's drafting a measure that would recommend that a gun be in every household in the town of 1,000, about 90 miles south of Salt Lake City. The measure will go before the full council in February.
Sorensen also wants the town to pay for concealed-weapons training for every elementary school teacher.
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COLORADO -- Following last summer's Aurora theater shooting, a vigorous debate on gun control is expected during the 2013 lawmaking session that starts Wednesday.
Democrats now control both chambers of the Legislature so Colorado could see a flurry of measures to curb access to firearms -- including a possible assault-weapons ban.
"I want to find a way to eliminate assault weapons, but I'm still trying to figure out how to do that," said Senate President John Morse, a former police chief.
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VERMONT -- The Burlington City Council is supporting a proposed ban on assault rifles and multiple ammunition clips in the city.
The resolution passed the council on a 10-3 vote Monday night. It would need to go before a committee, eventually be voted on by the public and then be sent to the Legislature before it could be approved.
Elsewhere, organizers of an annual gun show in Barre say they'll allow the showing and sale of assault weapons despite a request by the city's mayor that the weapons not be displayed in the aftermath of the Connecticut shooting. The two-day gun show is set to begin Feb. 9.
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RHODE ISLAND -- Providence Mayor Angel Taveras wants to hold a statewide gun buyback event.
Taveras, a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, also is talking with other mayors in the Ocean State about legislative proposals to strengthen state gun laws.
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NEBRASKA -- A Lincoln city councilman wants police officers assigned to more schools.
School resource officers already are assigned to each public high school. Councilman Gene Carroll wants the city and school district to consider adding them to middle schools.
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CALIFORNIA -- A one-day gun buyback program in Los Angeles brought in 2,037 firearms.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office said the weapons collected Dec. 26 included 901 handguns, 698 rifles, 363 shotguns and 75 assault weapons. The buyback is usually held in May but was moved up in response to the Connecticut shooting.
In San Diego, gun owners traded more than 350 weapons for grocery vouchers Dec. 21 as authorities vowed to step up firearms exchanges.
Officials talk guns, hold buybacks after shootings
Iowa lawmaker calls for retroactive gun ban, confiscation of semi-automatic weapons
Iowa lawmaker calls for retroactive gun ban, confiscation of semi-automatic weapons
4:43 AM 01/09/2013
David Martosko
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In an interview with the Daily Times Herald in Caroll, Iowa, state Rep. Dan Muhlbauer said governments should start confiscating semi-automatic rifles and other firearms.
Muhlbauer, a Democrat from the western Iowa town of Manilla, is a cattleman and farmer. The newspaper reported that he owns a .410 shotgun, a .22 rifle and a .22 pistol.
“We cannot have big guns out here as far as the big guns that are out here, the semi-automatics and all of them,” Muhlbauer told the newspaper during a December 19 audiotaped interview. “We can’t have those running around out here. Those are not hunting weapons.”
“We should ban those in Iowa,” he said, adding that such a ban should be applied retroactively.
“We need to get them off the streets — illegally — and even if you have them, I think we need to start taking them,” Muhlbauer told the Daily Times Herald. “We can’t have those out there. Because if they’re out there they’re just going to get circulated around to the wrong people. Those guns should not be in the public’s hands. There are just too many guns.”
The newspaper published excerpts from the interview Wednesday morning along with an audio recording of the full 15-minute interview.
“We have to change, and we have to get stricter and tougher with what we do,” Muhlbauer said.
The interview took place in the week immediately following the Dec. 14 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that left 20 children dead.
“With all these shootings going on we have to start making radical changes and radical choices from what we’ve done in the past,” Muhlbauer said.
Republican Rep. Steve King, who represents western Iowa in Congress, is a gun-rights supporter who warned during an October 2102 debate against Democrat Christie Vilsack that the purpose of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution “is to guard against tyranny because our Founding Fathers understood that if you did not have an armed populace, a tyrant could take over America.”
“So we have a responsibility not just to defend the Second Amendment in words, but do so in deed by hunting and target practicing and also self-defense,” King said.
One of King’s constituents published a letter from King on Jan. 2 in an online gun-rights forum. In the letter, the congressman said he was “heartbroken” by the Newtown, Conn. shooting but called the tragedy ”the act of an evil, and likely deranged, individual intent on committing horrifying acts of violence.”
In the audio recording, Muhlbauer blamed violent videogames, in part, for a coarsening of American gun culture.
“We’ve got these videogames out here for these little kids,” he said. “Maybe it’s time we start pulling them away, as far as — you know, they’re playing some really nasty games on there that are shoot-em-up and whatever — and evidently our culture is pulling you toward this. We’ve got to come up with ways to find out, you know, what’s triggering this, what has happened, We’ve had too many of these cases go on.”
Read more: Iowa lawmaker calls for retroactive gun bans, confiscations of semi-automatic weapons | The Daily Caller
Blue state governors not waiting on Washington to pass gun laws
Blue state governors not waiting on Washington to pass gun laws
Democratic governors are making a big push for tighter gun laws as the debate over gun control heats up in Washington.
President Barack Obama admitted in a press conference Monday that it's possible some of his desired gun control reforms—limiting the size of ammunition magazines, expanding the comprehensive background check system for gun buyers, and banning some types of semi-automatic rifles—may not pass the divided Congress.
"Will all of them get through this Congress? I don't know," the president said, while calling on lawmakers to rise above politics. "If there is a step we can take that would save even one child from what happened in Newtown, we should take that step."
Blue state governors including those in Maryland, New York and Delaware, however, aren't waiting for Washington to make the first move.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York has hammered out a tentative agreement with lawmakers to ban ammunition magazines that carry more than seven bullets and to further expand the state's assault weapons ban, the AP reported Monday. (The governor's office said the deal had not yet been reached.) The governor was seeking a comprehensive bill that would also extend background checks so that all gun buyers must undergo one even if they are buying a weapon from a private seller.
Meanwhile, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is seeking to pass a package of bills that would give the state some of the toughest restrictions on guns in the country, the Washington Post reports. O'Malley is seeking an assault weapons ban, tougher background checks for gun buyers that include providing fingerprints to state police, and a mandatory gun safety course.
Both O'Malley and Cuomo are considered potential Democratic presidential contenders in 2016.
The Democratic governors of Connecticut, Delaware and Colorado have also said they will seek tougher laws. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber said Monday he would support gun control legislation, including an assault weapons ban, if state lawmakers pass it.
Meanwhile, in red states, politicians are pushing to expand gun rights by allowing school employees to take weapons onto campuses.
Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst has recommended creating a state-funded program to train teachers and administrators on how to use guns to stop an active shooter. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has also said he thinks teachers should be able to be armed in class. (One district in the state already allows it.)
Lawmakers in Tennessee, Virginia and Florida are weighing passing legislation that allows teachers and other school staff to take concealed weapons into school buildings.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/blue-state-governors-not-waiting-washington-pass-gun-180028343.html