Leaders of the National Rifle Association said that they would fight any new gun restrictions introduced in Congress, and they made clear that they were not interested in working with President Obama to help develop a broad response to the Connecticut school massacre.
During an appearance on the NBC News program Meet the Press, Wayne LaPierre (photo), the vice president of the powerful gun lobby, was openly dismissive of a task force established by Obama and led by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. that is examining ways to reduce gun violence. “If it’s a panel that’s just going to be made up of a bunch of people that, for the last twenty years, have been trying to destroy the Second Amendment, I’m not interested in sitting on that panel,” LaPierre said, adding that the “NRA is not going to let people lose the Second Amendment in this country, which is supported by the overwhelming majority of the American people.”
At a widely watched news briefing, LaPierre said the NRA’s solution to prevent mass shootings like those that have occurred in the last few years— several of them on school campuses– was to put armed guards in schools nationwide. During the briefing, he and the gun group’s president, David Keene, did not directly address plans proposed in the last week that would ban assault rifles or otherwise restrict the availability of firearms.
But during a round of appearances on the Sunday talk shows by LaPierre, Keene, and Asa Hutchinson, a former Republican congressman from Arkansas who will lead the gun group’s response to the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, they made it clear that the NRA opposed any of the gun restrictions now under discussion and did not believe they should be part of the discussion.
On the question of whether a limit on high-capacity ammunition would reduce the likelihood of mass shootings like the one in Connecticut, LaPierre said in a testy exchange with David Gregory, the host of Meet the Press, that “I don’t think it will. I keep saying it, and you just won’t accept it: it’s not going to work. It hasn’t worked,” LaPierre said.
As for the idea of reinstating a ban on so-called assault rifles, which was in place from 1994 to 2004, he said, “I think that is a phony piece of legislation, and I do not believe it will pass for this reason: it’s all built on lies that have been found out.”
While the NRA has been criticized sharply by gun-control advocates since it broke its silence about the Connecticut shooting, it did receive some support from Senator Lindsay Graham, the influential South Carolina Republican who also appeared on Meet the Press:
“People where I live, I’ve been Christmas shopping all weekend, have come up to me: ‘Please don’t let the government take my guns away,’” Graham said. “And I’m going to stand against another assault ban because it didn’t work before, and it won’t work in the future.’’
On the other big issue in Washington at the moment– negotiations over a deficit-reduction deal to avert tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect after the new year– Republicans and Democrats expressed pessimism about reaching a deal in time, and they spent much of the morning blaming each other for the gridlock.
“I believe the president is eager to go over the cliff for political purposes,” Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, said on Fox News Sunday. “He senses a victory at the bottom of the cliff. I think it hurts our country and hurts our economy.”
But Senator Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said Republicans were the ones playing politics with the fiscal talks and taking the risk of putting the country over the so-called 'fiscal cliff'. “If we go over it, God forbid, and I still don’t think we have to, the American people are going to blame the Republican Party,” Schumer said on Meet the Press.
Lawmakers were not much more optimistic when asked about the prospects of the Senate confirming Chuck Hagel, the former Republican senator from Nebraska, who is considered a top candidate to to succeed Leon E. Panetta as defense secretary. Hagel has drawn criticism in recent days for his record on Israel and gays. “The Republicans are going to ask him hard questions, and I don’t think he’s going to get many Republican votes,” Graham predicted.
Rico says the country is going over the cliff, and limiting gubs isn't going to help that... (And if they think limiting magazine capacity will solve the problem, what's to prevent the next crazed shooter from carrying twice as many five-round magazines?)
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