A New York Moment: Ruby, Jules & Me
3 years ago
Fighting Liberal Terrorism
RELATED: Ninth Circuit: The Second Amendment guarantees the right to carry a gun in publicGun purchasers who go through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) are being denied at a much lower rate under President Obama than they were under Presidents Bush or Clinton.
According to The Washington Times, under Bill Clinton during the years 1999 and 2000 ".83 percent of [gun purchase] applicants were denied." Under George W. Bush "the denial rate was about .67 percent."
Under Obama the denial rate fell to .46 percent, "and was even lower" during the first six months of 2013--the very time when Obama and Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) were stressing the important role expanding background checks would play in reducing crime.
In fact, the low point for background check denials came under Obama in January 2013. The number of would-be buyers denied that month was .33 percent.
After donating $2.5 million to the Democratic Senate Majority PAC, America’s favorite Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent, former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, is signaling that his great crusade against guns is running out of steam. The need for new gun laws that was so pressing in 2013, and that Bloomberg and his organization, Mayors Against Illegal Handguns, lobbied so hard for, is apparently no longer so acute.RELATED: Democrats backing away from gun control after a banner year for gun sales
When he was not belittling or cajoling gun control’s foes, Bloomberg spent the better part of 2013 agitating for stricter gun laws. As recently as December 14, the first anniversary of the massacre in Newtown, both Bloomberg’s group and President Barack Obama’s political arm, Organizing for Action, sent out messages to their supporters insisting that the need for stricter gun laws is no less critical today than it was one year ago.
But their actions speak differently. The president and Democrats were happy to support Bloomberg’s opposition toward the proliferation of firearms so long as it was not principled. However, when Bloomberg’s group released an ad targeting Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) over his opposition to new gun ownership restrictions, it became clear that Bloomberg was actually serious about this public policy initiative. So serious, in fact, that he would go as far as to challenge an embattled Democratic incumbent whose loss in November could help hand control of the U.S. Senate over to Republicans. This could not stand.
“There had been information that I had as recently as two weeks ago that he was resisting pressure from both [Sens. Charles] Schumer (D-NY) and [Harry] Reid (D-NV) to defend Mark Pryor, or not to attack Mark Pryor, on the gun issue,” MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell said of Bloomberg’s latest move on Tuesday.
Mitchell observed that Bloomberg had previously appeared to be “single issue focused on guns at the risk of jeopardizing Senate for Democrats.” TIME Magazine reporter Mark Halperin confirmed that Bloomberg not only resisted pressure from the two highest ranking Democrats in the Senate, but also former President Bill Clinton, who asked Bloomberg to temper his enthusiasm for attacking politicians who oppose stricter gun laws if those politicians happen to be Democrats.
Halperin added that, while there are many Democrats in the Senate up for reelection this year, they all enjoy some advantages; including strong fundraising, weak Republican challengers, and incumbency itself. These incumbents, he insisted, may hang on in November in spite of six-year midterm headwinds, but attacking these Senate Democrats from the left could imperil them by reducing the base’s enthusiasm.
CNN reports that the Democratic Super PAC to which Bloomberg donated millions has already gone up with ads in support of some of this election cycle’s most embattled Senate Democrats, including Pryor, Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Mark Begich (D-AK). Each voted “no” on a resolution that would have banned high-capacity magazines in April of last year. Thus, Bloomberg has financially rooted himself on both sides of the guns issue.
A White Plains residence pinpointed on a controversial handgun permit database was burglarized Saturday, and the burglars' target was the homeowner's gun safe.RELATED: Guns, Maps and Data That Disturb
At least two burglars broke into a home on Davis Avenue at 9:30 p.m. Saturday but were unsuccessful in an attempt to open the safe, which contained legally owned weapons, according to a law enforcement source. One suspect was taken into custody, the source said.
The gun owner was not home when the burglary occurred, the source said. The victim, who is in his 70s, told Newsday on Sunday that he did not want to comment while the police investigation continues.
"The police are doing a full investigation," the man said through a partially opened front door.
There was broken glass in the backyard Sunday and a ladder leading up to a second-story window. Neighbors on the street of modest, Colonial homes said they had heard about the burglary.
The homeowner's name and address were included recently on the controversial interactive map of gun permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties published on The Journal News' website.
Neighbor John Mascia said he thought the gun permit database should not have been published.
"I could [not] care less what they have in their home," Mascia said.
Police are investigating what role, if any, the database played in the burglars' decision to target the home, the law enforcement source said.
White Plains police Lt. Eric Fischer confirmed that a burglary occurred but would not release further information Sunday.
The Journal News has been the target of sharp criticism from gun rights advocates and some media ethicists since running the story and interactive map Dec. 23. The story was published 10 days after the Newtown, Conn., mass shooting that claimed the lives of 20 young children and seven adults.
A call for comment to The Journal News was not immediately returned.
Rev. Jesse Jackson appeared on CNN on Friday where he was pressed to defend Chicago’s strict gun control laws following the city’s 500th homicide, 87.5 percent of which are gun-related, this year. Jackson said that Chicago, unlike Newtown, has no gun culture – Newtown, Connecticut, having several gun ranges whereas Chicago has none.
He also said that the pressing issues of poverty, unemployment and the lack of a sense of mobility in America’s urban centers are the root causes of gun violence.RELATED: Mayor: Chicago's 500th Murder An "Unfortunate, Tragic Milestone"
Jackson was asked to defend Chicago’s gun ban, given the staggering rates of gun violence in America’s cities compared to other areas that do not have such strict gun laws and experience less gun violence.
“I think about Newtown, for example, they have three or four gun ranges. There are no gun ranges in Chicago,” Jackson replied. “Newtown is so different than the complexity of the urban crisis.”
“40 percent unemployment does matter,” Jackson continued. “Lack of education does matter.” He said that gun crime and joblessness are inextricably linked.
Jackson was asked again, given Chicago’s gun violence in spite of its strict gun laws, how even stricter gun laws can be justified.
“The guns are not coming from Chicago,” Jackson replied. “Chicago is in a bubble as the manufacturer — we’re a target market for gun flow. And they exploit the poverty and the pain.”
“It’s not gun violence. It’s also poverty and lack of education and lack of dreams, where people think killing is the only way out,” Jackson concluded. “This is the need for an urban policy of reconstruction.”
On his syndicated radio show this afternoon, Rush Limbaugh went after the “anti-gun media” for, in his belief, not caring about gun violence when it affects urban neighborhoods like Chicago and Oakland.RELATED: Gun Control Shadows Obama From Chicago to White House
“You guys ever been to Chicago? Do you know what happens in Chicago every night?” Limbaugh rhetorically asked the pro-gun politicians like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) who’ve now become pro-gun control in the wake of last week’s massacre. “What happens in Chicago in a week dwarfs what happened in Connecticut. Just nobody’s reporting it. There’s no cameras up there. You don’t see it. All you see is the mayor warning the gangbangers to kill each other instead of other people. That’s all you ever see.”
Limbaugh continued: “Have you ever heard any politician go on an anti-gun rant when you’ve heard about urban violence? Does it ever happen? I’m asking. Those stories out of Chicago were happening daily.
Drudge was highlighting them. But take your pick. The Rodney King incident, whatever, the Watts riots, pick one. Post-Katrina looting in New Orleans, was the anti-gun control out in force there? They never are, are they? I wonder why that is? Why is it the anti-gun people never use violence in urban neighborhoods as an example of why we have to get rid of guns?” he asked.
The conservative host then cited other cities for example: “Look at the gun violence that took place in Oakland against the cops and so forth. The anti-Second Amendment crowd never gins up, do they?”
He concluded: “There are more than 41 murders a month in Chicago. The lion’s share of them are taking place in poor black neighborhoods. I don’t hear the Reverend [Jesse] Jackson or any of the anti-gun media that we’re hearing from now raise a stink about guns in those places. That’s absolutely right. I wonder why that is. There has to be a reason.”
Dressed in black fatigues and a military vest, a heavily armed man walked into a Connecticut elementary school Friday and opened fire, shattering the quiet of this southern New England town and leaving the nation reeling at the number of young lives lost.
Within minutes, 26 people were dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School -- 20 of them children. Among the six adults killed were Dawn Hochsprung, the school's beloved principal, and school psychologist Mary Sherlach.The shooter, identified by three law enforcement officials as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, also was killed, apparently by his own hand."Stuff like this does not happen in Newtown," a tight-knit community of about 27,000 just outside Danbury, said Renee Burn, a local teacher at another school in town. In the past 10 years, only one homicide had previously been reported.With the death toll at 26, the Newtown shooting is the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, behind only the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech that left 32 people dead."Evil visited this community today," Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy said of Friday's massacre.
Bill O'Reilly opened his show tonight by attacking liberal hate speech on the divisive issues of race and gay marriage. O’Reilly, in particular, highlighted rhetoric used by sports writer Jason Whitlock, whose words on gun control following the murder-suicide committed by NFL linebacker Jovan Belcher were now-famously quoted last Sunday by Bob Costas. O’Reilly described his language as “pure racism” and responded to personal attacks leveled at him by Whitlock.RELATED: Gregory Kane: Is Jason Whitlock a 'blame whitey firster'?
O’Reilly explained that he reached out to Whitlock to get him on the program, but instead of accepting the invitation, Whitlock publicly wrote a piece attacking O’Reilly for acting like a “master” in the “big house” thinking that he could simply “summon” him. O’Reilly said Whitlock is engaging in “pure racism” for implying that O’Reilly is akin for some kind of slave overlord.
O’Reilly said Whitlock deserves some pity, but mostly he deserves to be called out for trying to deliberately stir up emotional reactions. Juan Williams said Whitlock should have considered the O’Reilly invitation as an “honor,” saying that Whitlock are trying to “muzzle” people like him and O’Reilly.
Mary Katharine Ham agreed that Whitlock’s attacks on O’Reilly were just “an attempt to marginalize people who disagree.” O’Reilly broadened the discussion to say it bothers him when people try to label people who oppose gay marriage as bigots and homophobes.
Williams said these people don’t want an honest debate, while Ham pointed out there are different standards for different sides.” O’Reilly declared that he has “had enough” and will continue to call out the “Christmas haters” and the “race hustlers.”
Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore will appear Tuesday night on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight to discuss gun control and last week’s Aurora, Colo. shooting that left 12 dead and dozens of other people injured. In a preview clip of the interview, Moore attacked President Barack Obama for his refusal to push for stricter gun control immediately after the massacre.RELATED: Brother Of Aurora Victim Rebuts MSNBC Host: Media Shouldn’t Be Trying To ‘Politicize’ Shooting
Moore noted that during the post-shooting address in Ft. Myers, Florida, President Obama mentioned his daughters Sasha and Malia as a way to show empathy with the victims’ loved ones, asking: “What if it were them?” And then implied that if the Obama daughters actually were killed in the shooting spree, the president would be more aggressive for gun control.
“Well… what if it were them?” Moore asked. “What if were them last Thursday night? Would you stand at the microphone the next day and say, ‘I feel your pain, and’ — this is what he said — ‘the existing gun laws are enough.’ Is that really what you’d say, Mr. President? I don’t think so.”
“We have to see these young people who were killed as our children,” Moore continued before going into a rant about how the United Kingdom and Canada have universal healthcare because their mentality is that “we have to take care of each other.” If legislators actually viewed the victims as their own children, Moore said, then “we would have some change in this country and politicians would respond quickly.”
“I am not going to come on another damn TV show after the next one of these shootings,” Moore told Morgan, as his voice began to rise. “I haven’t done it for ten years… but I’m sick of this.
“I refuse to live in a country like this,” he concluded, “[but] I’m not leaving.”