Liberal Democrat

Liberal Democrat
Individual Freedom For Everyone

Monday, July 23, 2012

Thom Hartmann: Noel Flasterstein- 'Do Americans Really Need Assault Weapons?'

Source:Thom Hartmann- from the show. 
“Thom Hartmann debates Noel Flasterstein, Attorney & National Gun Rights Expert / Second Amendment advocate Website:Gun Rights For You on the issue of assault weapons and the Second Amendment.
If you liked this clip of The Thom Hartmann Program, please do us a big favor and share it with your friends… and hit that “like” button!” 


I was probably foolishly hoping that after the Aurora shootings last Thursday night, that instead of the American media jumping right into gun control, after they got the main details of the case, that maybe they would wait at least twenty-four hours before we automatically jumped into this thirty- year old or longer gun control debate that never goes anywhere.

Except for the 1994 Crime Bill that did have an assault weapons ban and a three-day waiting period that people had to pass, meaning that law enforcement had three days to determine if you were a criminal or a convicted felon. If you passed this check, which most people who bought guns in this ten-year period from 1994-2004 period did, you were able to buy a gun. If you failed the check, not only would you not get that gun, but you probably end up back in jail.

But the gun control debate has never been something that’s unified the country. The crime bill passes in 1994, Republicans take control of Congress for the first time since 1952 in November that year. And a reason for that had to do with the crime bill, the Far-Right woke up in America and decided that they not only needed to vote, but vote Republican and get Congressional Republicans in their pockets. So they don’t have to worry about gun control again.

What I was hoping to see instead of jumping into gun control, a debate where we generally get nowhere and as long as we have a divided Congress, we won’t get anywhere, that we could talk about ways of preventing these tragedies in the future. That we could come together on instead of using another tragedy to play gotcha, that we as a country would look into the details of this tragic case.

All of the innocent victims that died that night, who thought they were doing nothing, but having a good time that night, see a movie that they were waiting to see and perhaps doing other things that night. Expecting to have a good time that night and at the very least, expecting to survive the evening. Look into the details of the suspected murderer and what possible motivation he could’ve had committing such tragic acts with so many innocent people dying as a result and how we can prevent this as a country from happening in the future.

But instead by 3-4PM Friday afternoon on CNN, 15-16 hours after the shootings, Brooke Baldwin and her guests were already jumping into the gun control debate. All of those innocent people who were killed and what does the media do, talk about an issue that just puts another wedge between the country.

With people who don’t believe the 2nd Amendment should even exist and people who believe the 2nd Amendment shouldn’t be subjected to any regulations, as well as people who are more reasonable who are talking about common sense regulations, where I tend to be, not evening mentioning the fact that the shooter snuck into the theater through the emergency exit. And had the theater had done its job as it relates to security, they could’ve prevented this tragedy from happening in the first place. 

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