Democratic lawmakers called for swift congressional action in response to the Las Vegas shooting that left at least 50 dead — the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history — with Sen. Chris Murphy saying it is “time for Congress to get off its ass and do something” on gun control.
Murphy, who led a filibuster on the Senate floor last June in protest of legislative inaction following the Pulse club shooting, called it “cruelly hollow” for politicians to not back up their words of sympathy with a governmental response.
“This must stop,” Murphy said in a statement Monday morning. “It is positively infuriating that my colleagues in Congress are so afraid of the gun industry that they pretend there aren’t public policy responses to this epidemic.”
He added: “It’s time for Congress to get off its ass and do something.”
The renewed call for gun control legislation was echoed by the other senator from Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, who said in a statement he is “furious” at congressional inaction in the face of continued mass shootings.
“Although many details of this mass shooting remain unclear, one thing is certain: Yet again, we are watching in horror as another American community is torn apart by the terrible devastation wrought by a gunman,” Blumenthal said.
A shooter unleashed a deadly barrage on a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip Sunday night, killing at least 50 and injuring at least 400 people. Law enforcement agencies later announced the suspected shooter had killed himself prior to a raid on his hotel room, which overlooked the event.
Both Blumenthal and Murphy have been outspoken in their calls for increased gun regulation, a topic that hit close to home for the lawmakers in 2012 when a shooter killed 20 children and several school officials at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren echoed the sentiments of Murphy and Blumenthal, saying that “thoughts & prayers are NOT enough."
“Tragedies like Las Vegas have happened too many times. We need to have the conversation about how to stop gun violence. We need it NOW,” Warren tweeted on Monday.
The calls were echoed by former Vice President Joe Biden and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Biden called the loss of life in Las Vegas "senseless" and urged the Trump administration and Congress to address the violence.
"How long do we let gun violence tear families apart? Enough. Congress & the WH should act now to save lives," Biden tweeted. "There's no excuse for inaction."
Clinton, meanwhile, singled out the National Rifle Association, which opposed her 2016 presidential bid, in a series of posts on Twitter Monday morning.
“Our grief isn't enough,” Clinton wrote. “We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again.”
Poster Comment:
#1: Hank Rearden To: Willie Green (#0)
Hank Rearden posted on 2017-10-02 13:51:29 Reply Private Reply
#2: Vicomte13 To: Hank Rearden (#1)
History also proves that not reacting to a problem does not make the problem go away.
So let's chart a course between the Scylla of "knee jerk" and the Charybdis of "do nothing", and come up with something workable that will reduce the mass shootings.
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-10-02 13:58:38 Reply Private Reply
#3: BorisY To: wankerWillie gangGreen, fredbot, hondope, zulu, mau mau, hutus, lice, druids, morloks, 666ers (#0)
need to geT arrested
go To prison
geT execuTed too
love
boris
BorisY posted on 2017-10-02 13:59:38 Reply Private Reply
#4: BorisY To: Vicomte13 (#2)
we're gonna be like Israel
armed
people like you
progressive
will live in walled gheTTos
zoos
love
boris
ps
like a liberal
hire
a 100K marshals
sTarT in kindergarTen
TargeT pracTice
police proTecTion
securiTy guard pracTice
politically bullying laws
profiling regressives
geneTically engineering gangsTer detecTing abiliTies
Tracking deTonating liberal auTowoman roboT devices
BorisY posted on 2017-10-02 14:05:01 Reply Private Reply
#5: Hank Rearden To: Vicomte13 (#2)
Like what? I'm open to suggestions.
TSA at hotel check-in desks?
Move concert venues far away from tall buildings?
Better reporting of gun owners stopping criminals in the act?
Hank Rearden posted on 2017-10-02 14:24:58 Reply Private Reply
#6: Tooconservative To: Willie Green (#0)
Tooconservative posted on 2017-10-02 14:35:47 Reply Private Reply
#7: Vicomte13 To: Hank Rearden (#5)
I'll be able to better answer that once I know whether or not this guy's guns were registered, whether he had known mental illness, whether he was a drug user.
There is no rush. We need to know the facts of this, and look back over the facts of past massacres such as Sandy Hook, etc.
Look at the common elements and think a bit.
I don't know those answers, but I know that the data exists. So the first thing to do, before throwing around policy suggestions, is to get the facts down.
Can we agree on that?
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-10-02 15:15:38 Reply Private Reply
#8: misterwhite To: Hank Rearden (#5)
A) No guns allowed higher than the 5th floor
B) You may only have a maximum of 7 guns in your hotel room.
C) All hotel balconies are to be immediately removed.
D) Jason Aldean can no longer perform outdoors.
misterwhite posted on 2017-10-02 15:20:36 Reply Private Reply
#9: Hank Rearden To: Vicomte13 (#7)
Absolutely. My point, I suppose, is whether or not his weapons were legally acquired by him, no law would have prevented this attack. The law doesn't matter, because it's already so rigorous and suffocating, but still depends on a person having an inclination to be law-abiding to be effective.
I think every aspect of gun ownership has been suppressed to the point that short of total confiscation (impossible), nothing new can possibly be invented in the law that's consistent and compatible with an allegedly-free society.
Yeah, we just have to live with it.
Hank Rearden posted on 2017-10-02 15:28:13 Reply Private Reply
#10: misterwhite To: Vicomte13 (#2)
No miniguns or grenade launchers above the first floor.
misterwhite posted on 2017-10-02 15:28:55 Reply Private Reply
#11: tpaine To: Vicomte13 (#7)
The facts have long been established about using gun controls to reduce mass shootings.
They don't work. Full auto weapons have been quite 'controled' for over 80 years.
tpaine posted on 2017-10-02 15:37:49 Reply Private Reply
#12: Justified To: Willie Green (#0)
Yes please!
Please go jump in front of those mentally ill people and catch those bullets!
Justified posted on 2017-10-02 16:00:49 Reply Private Reply
#13: Tooconservative To: tpaine (#11)
I'm seeing reporting that the perp had two guns equipped with bump stocks to simulate full-auto fire.
Expect bump stocks and similar devices to sell out in the next few days at high prices.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-10-02 20:25:34 Reply Private Reply
#14: tpaine To: Tooconservative, y'all (#13)
In response to Vic I posted that, -- The facts have long been established about using gun controls to reduce mass shootings.
They don't work.
True to form, poor ol Vic can't post a reply to the actual facts we present. He dreams on....
tpaine posted on 2017-10-03 11:48:57 Reply Private Reply