After mass shooting in Connecticut, Nutter calls for 'sensible' gun laws
"As a country, we don't need more debate, no more excuses," Mayor Michael Nutter said on behalf of The U.S. Conference of Mayors. "The time for action is now."
After mass shooting in Connecticut, Nutter calls for 'sensible' gun laws
Jan Ransom
For coverage on the Newtown, Ct., shooting, go here and check out Mayor Nutter's statement below:
“Again and again and again, Americans are stunned by senseless acts of violence involving guns. Today’s tragedy targeting young children in Newtown is incomprehensible.
On behalf of The U.S. Conference of Mayors, I send our condolences to the victims, their families, and their community. We know that Newtown First Selectman Patricia Llodra and Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy are doing everything possible today to help the community cope with so much loss and pain.
Too many times this year, mayors have expressed shock at a mass shooting. The Conference has been calling for sensible gun laws to protect the public for more than 40 years. We hope that today’s monstrous act of gun violence finally forces this nation’s leaders to make reasonable changes in our gun laws and regulations – changes that will help prevent senseless tragedies such as the one that has rocked Newtown and the nation.
As a country, we don’t need more debate, no more excuses. The time for action is now.”
Comments (44)
I see from news reports that the guns used in the shooting belonged to Lanza's mother, who apparently was the first victim. The NRA and its brain-dead supporters tell us, of course, that people need handguns for self-defense. But if that was Mrs. Lanza's thinking, it didn't work out too well for her. And it usually doesn't. Those "self-defense" guns are used far more frequently on the owners, or by the owners on their friends, family, neighbors or innocent passers-by, than against burglars or home invaders. In fact, bringing a handgun into your house is one of the most dangerous things you can do. Maybe it's time to save gun advocates from themselves.
Nutter needs to worry about his own murderous hellhole before speaking out on issues he's clueless about. Jump on a polarizing issue to take the heat off of your ineptness is the usual political move. And exactly how many boxcutters and planes did it take to kill thousands of people on 9/11? Get a clue and realize it's deranged people and not what they have access to, they'll find a way regardless of the weapon.— TomM- You have succeeded in expressing your hatred for the people and leaders of your community, but you have not offered any ideas to help reduce the likelihood of this tragedy happening again. So, to officially destroy your pathetic argument, this troubled youth did not have acccess to a boeing jet, he had easy access to multiple high powered firearms and tons of stockpiled ammo. — SkateRamp
- Crossing the street is one of the most dangerous things you can do. Keeping a gun in the house is perfectly safe in the absence of a homicidal mentally ill son. Concentrate on the actor not the implement.— Jorge Vaca
- From my cold dead fingers. Non of these murderers are NRA members. The criminals will always have guns. I don't hear any news outlets or politicians talking about the 22 Chinese students stabbed by a nut. What's next getting rid of knives. Get a life.— Cactusclarke
- Another scared and brainwashed individual trying to shift the focus on crimes on the other side of the world. I dont need a gun to eat dinner. I need a knife. I can't mow down dozens of people in seconds with a knife. As a fellow philadelphian, please know that your obsession with guns is impeding on my freedom to safely send my kids to school. — SkateRamp
- Sensible Gun Law .... No person, who is (was) seriously mentally Ill can possess, buy, own, carry, touch any type of firearm. A list will be prepared and available to police and gun dealers with the names and national ID number of all persons who have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness or disorder. Serious Mental Disorders or illness cannot be cured and cannot be totally controlled. All physicians, psychologists, hospitals, etc would be required to submit the names of persons exhibiting symptoms of severe mental illness, or is a danger to themselves or others.— jtw
- A law almost identical to what you just described is already a part of the U.S.Code. It was passed shortly after the Kennedy murders, and has been amended to add menal illness to the automated background check. If you ask about implementation, it is virtually nil. Among other problems, privacy laws have made it almost impossible to disseminate information about mentally ill persons, and doctors are strongly opposed to releasing their diagnosis to the law enforcement agencies.
Requiring all physicians, hospitals, etc to report mentally ill patients to the law enforcement agencies sounds logical, but it will never happen. They are protective of their patients, and rightfully so.— DonQ - And the fork made Oprah fat. Ban all forks. How many people die a year from obesity?— CD75
- Comparing forks to gun. How many mass killing were performed with forks ? — tjsun
- The assault of the the Constitution begins. First, Obamacare. Then, compelling churches to do things to violate their belief. Now the second amendment. Here come the commies.— CD75
- Mayor Nutter, Instead of controlling weapons from law abiding citizens, work on the criminals in Philadelphia first that are terrorizing the residents of the city. And if you can't get the city under control, consider calling in the National Guard.— TetVet
- This is the same Mayor who helped push through legislation via the city council to make illegal guns illegal - all in hopes of 'starting a national conversation'. Glad he is on the other side of the river.
Oh yeah, isn't Mayor Nutjob the same guy who reclassified gangs as 'loose groups'?— Mtown_Quaker - "Well Regulated militia"...Why is that part of the sanctified 2nd amendment always seem to be omitted?
Blame the actor and strawman analysis don't do a thing to solve the problem. This country is awash with guns. There is a reason why you can't buy a nuke as a part of the 2nd amendment's right to bear arms.
It's because they're too dangerous. A line was drawn in the past and that line has to be moved to make gun ownership sensible and not a national fetish.— doctorhim - "Well regulated militia" is an independent and exclusive clause from the other part of the second amendment. Go back to school and learn grammar.— CD75
- Really?
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
An independent clause isn't the same as an independent thought. If that were the case then they'd been separated by a period or a semicolon. But they are linked by a comma for a reason. Moreover, when the dependent clause proceeds the body of the sentence it's grammatically correct to assume that it's put there for emphasis rather than to ignore it.
The problem your argument is that you can't be half a strict interpreter of the Constitution. You can't stick to the parts you like as thought they are gospel and ignore the parts you don't.— doctorhim - Moreover, if the dependent clause were meant to be de-emphasized then it would begin with a qualifier like "Although" or "Even though".
But since the "framers" are treated as something close to omniscient and the Constitution as something close to infallible gospel, then there must've been a reason why a qualifying lead in wasn't put into that dependent clause to de-emphasize it. The only logical answer according to the rules of grammar is that that dependent clause was added for emphasis.
Of course, I could always use a refresher on topics of grammar.— doctorhim - The 2nd was already changed. We forgot the "militia" part of it.
I don't argue that a citizen has the right to protection, even if that protection is from a potentially oppressive authority. But the "framers" never ever imagined the quantity and the effectiveness of weapons as we have today. 240 years ago a single person couldn't possibly murder dozens and dozens of people with a gun or thousands and thousands of people with a bomb.
But NO freedom is absolute. None. Which is why you can't own weaponized anthrax or a nuke or even equip your front lawn with land mines. These are all "arms" and under the 2nd Amendment are protected.
But again...nothing is absolute.— doctorhim - Why doesn't NUM NUT Nutter stick to something he knows, Calories on the Restaurant Menues!!! He can't even tie his shoes, why is he butting into something as serious as Gun Control. His city is killing its citizens at a rate of one a day and he is busy flying to china to have a "Vacation" Wake up Philly citizens.— rduexpress
- CD75's words read like a paranoid gun nut. No one's assaulting the Constitution. No rights are being revoked or striped. The only repression of rights that exists is in your head - with plenty of room to spare.— Educated369
- (As a country, we don’t need more debate, no more excuses. The time for action is now.”) Well thank you very much Mr Nutter that was a comment that could have come out of Hitler or Mussolini's mouth, so since you decided that there will be no more debate, what exactly would you consider sensible , to take all the gun's away from every honest citizen, while the criminal of course will be able to always keep their guns, of course you are also hiding the issue that you did a horrible job in your promise to reduce gun violence in Philadelphia since you took Street's job who was a horrible Mayor. The answer is simple stop blaming the honest gun owners and take the guns away from the Felons the first time they commit a crime, and also please stop making comments like a Dictator.— MRWOLF
- Here's the thing. No one has a problem with legal gun ownership. No one has a problem with hunters or people who feel that they need a handgun to feel secure in their persons. No one is trying to ban gun ownership.
But virtually unfettered access to guns is ridiculous. Who needs all these kinds of weapons with extra capacity magazines and armor piercing bullets and all the rest? Surely not someone who is protecting themselves or hunting animals.
And to characterize sensible restrictions as a defacto ban is taking things way beyond what anyone wants to do.— doctorhim - Who needs those weapons? The "well regulated militia" does. Lacking weapons effective against those the government owns, the "well regulated militia" would be a toothess lion. That would be an open invitation to dictatorship, as so many other societies have experienced.
Or, do you think Hitler's gun laws were just a coincidence?— DonQ - It's not the guns, it's the mind-set of the people using them. Too many years of 'feel good' legislation has made everyone feel as though a problem is anyone's fault but their own. It's called irresponsibility dependency. Now the anti-gun movement is only trying to create another 'feel good' law which will not solve the problem.— keapitreal
- So...what would solve the problem? Because what we're doing now hasn't worked in the past and if the indications are accurate it's becoming less effective by the day.
So outside of waiting for it all to blow over so we can forget about it and do nothing...What will solve the problem?— doctorhim - I don't believe this horrible tragedy could have been prevented even if you didn't have guns, because when someone is mentally ill or evil you can't predict what they are capable of doing , look at the guy in in china who stabbed over 20 children the other day, and in china all the recent school killings have been with knifes and I just looked back in history and
there was the Bath School disaster which was the name given to three bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, on May 18, 1927, which killed 38 elementary school children, two teachers, four other adults and the bomber himself; at least 58 people were injured. I guess my point is the world was never a safe place to live in and no matter what you do and what kind of laws you have in place you will not prevent evil people from doing evil deeds.— MRWOLF - That's why the anti-gun people always refer to "gun violence".
They apparently have no problem with "knife violence" or "bomb violence". - So we're going to categorize this under the "Sucks to be you" type of heading??? I don't think I can accept that.
I get the world is a dangerous scary place and that bad things are going to happen. I even get that culturally America is different than other places so we can't expect the same type of violent crime rates as the rest of the industrialized countries. I'm not asking for that.
But a country like Canada has guns and not this kind of ridiculous violence.
And let's take yesterday out of this. Every single day and innocent child is shot and killed here. Every single day.
That's too much and we're too desensitized to it all.— doctorhim - The biggest problem by far is the illegal guns used in street crimes that are used to kill 16,000 people per year, more or less; far more Americans than killed in Iraq or Afghanistan since either war began. The real war is here, my friends!
No legislation or politicians will ever stop these illegal guns that criminals get on all the black markets. Just think how successful you all have been with the war on illegal drugs!! Major failure. So, too, the more restrictive you make owning a gun, more colossal failures.
"Stop and Frisk" has shown it to be the best public policy, in NYC for example, to stop crimes by guns by criminals. Stop and Frisk!
However, it is far easier for spineless politicians to punish all the law abiding citizens by new restrictive legislation written specifically against them, us, we the people, the 99.9% of us, American citizens than to deal with the moaning, whimpering backlash from all the "but he was such a nice boy" crowd who are those who will benefit directly and happily in their own homes and neighborhoods from Stop and Frisk, but are the ones who always loudly oppose it in every city. Why listen to them argue against their own benefit?
So, politicians: spine or no spine?
Solve a problem or not solve a problem?
— GAC - We are not asking law abiding citizens to give up their freedoms. We are simply asking them to make a small sacrifice in the name of saving innocent lives. This sacrifice will be in the form of stricter background checks and not being able to purchase as many guns per year. What could you possibly find wrong with legislation of that nature? — SkateRamp
- I have read both sides of the Gun argument, I have read the rediculous to the not so rediculous. Please someone, take the time to put some laws or rules that you think will work on this comment page. I'm not sure what will work but i'm willing to listen. I love the stop and frisk policy, but, I thought some peoples feelings were offended, so they stopped it. It may not have stopped this school shooting but it may save someonelses child. Profile, stop and frisk, ah, you ask who do you profile, stop everybody , because it seems we are all culprits.— Thelonius Monk
- By now, we should know that we cannot solve every problem by passing a law. Just try to end an epidemic disease outbreak by passing a law, or end drug abuse by passing a law. Gun-control laws are ineffective because they are directed at the people who don't commit crimes. Punishing the innocent will never do any good. — DonQ
- As a lifelong resident of Philadelphia, I can see the merit of "Stop and Frisk" like policies, but they always fall apart on 2 basic grounds.
1. Who?
2. Where?
If you target certain segments of the population then that's unfair and if you target certain segments of the region then that's equally unfair.
If you run that kind of policy and you frisk everyone then I don't have a problem with it.
But I've had plenty of personal experience with being stopped and questioned by police for not "looking" like someone who should belong in the affluent area in which I went to school and now live. So you can't just pick and choose who to target because the line between inquiry and harassment is a thin grey one.— doctorhim - Doctorhim, you need to do yourself a favor and go to one of the gunshows in Penna. They are held quite often at the Amory on the Boulvd.and at the convention center in Oaks, Pa., not to far. It is a real eye opener. I am a gun owner, go to most of the shows. It is a real study of society to see who is buying guns. You owe it to yourself. if you are concerned, and I can see you are, you will really be concerned after you visit the show— Thelonius Monk
- I don't want to pre-judge anyone by their appearance. I had the experience of having quite a few responsible gun owners as friends from getting to know them during my time at school at a large state university with a campus in central Pennsylvania.
Some guys who on the outside may look like one thing are something else entirely on the inside.
My feeling on many of societal ills (as with this one) is that it's an entirely fear based response. The overflow of guns is related to some notion that "they" are coming to get "us". Who "they" are is and how you identify "them" is quite murky indeed.— doctorhim - nutty nutter doesn't care who's kid is killed as long as it's not his. he talks big and does nothing else but destroy. like the school system. he hates the the homeless get fed when he can't get any taxes from it.— etbarksdale
- all homes in switzerland and finland require an assault rifle.this country has turned into a moral cesspool.this makes the unstabled in our society more dangerous.— seanmike
- mr.nutter let me use some of your security .when I walk this safe city of yours and I will turn in my gun— psdarkside
- Let's call them undocumented guns, don't insult the guns. Inforce the laws. Do a crime with a gun, get caught with an undocumented gun "LIFE" easy.— BushisGood
- Enforce the laws that are on the books and give maximum sentences for gun violators.— phillycaster
- Every time I hear Mayor Nutter speaking about gun violence, I still shake my head in shame wondering why he choose to host THE WIRE at City Hall. Therefore, if Nutter celebrated violence, how can anyone take him seriously on the issue of gun violence /gun control or finding solutions?
Philadelphia now has 321 murders with 13 days left in the year. On 1/1/13, Philly may record a murder rate higher than Nutter's fist year in office -- 2008 and 331 murders. If this happens, the numbers will show Mayor Nutter NEVER had clue on what to do...NEVER!
And the more I think about all the news footage where Mayor Nutter's talking tough about crime, these questions come to mind:
1. HOW MANY ANTI-VIOLENCE / ANTI-GUN / YOUTH VIOLENCE / SCHOOL VIOLENCE/ BULLYING, ETC conferences have been held in Philadelphia?
2. How many MARCHES and CANDLE LIGHT VIGILS have been held thus far?
3. Which elected officials sponsor these events and how many times in 2012?
4. Who are the top 5 non-profits hosting these events and how many times in 2012?
5. Which political officials and non-profits have formed alliances/partnerships?
6. Which medical and academic institutions are involved?
7. Where are the guest lists for these events and the 'sign-in' books/sheets after the conferences?
8. Where are the PROGRESS REPORTS electronically stored for easy public access?
9. How much money has been spent on these conferences y-t-d 2012?
10. WHERE ARE THE VIABLE SOLUTIONS?
MAYOR NUTTER HAS FAILED PHILADELPHIA REGARDING CRIME!— Cleodine Velvet Jackson - Mayor Nutter is underqualified and overwhelmed. Wow this city needs a smart businessman / leader to turn it around. I sure hope its possible.— Retired guy22
- Yes, great comment and very true. It seems so basic but it just does not happen.— Retired guy22
- When Michael Nutter can create a safer environmen in his own city, instead of pandering to distinct special interest,let me know via a font page DN story so I can frame it. John Street was a loudmouth, do-nothing bigot, but Nutter is even worse for this city-he knows what the problems are, but has stepped away from any "outside the box" resolutions (see-Stop and Frisk) so he doesnt hurt any of his chances for a future Washington position. Nutter and Corey Booker-yet two more politicians who talk a game that they know will not improve anything but their own status.— shirleyf
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Chris Brennan, a native Philadelphian and graduate of Temple University, joined the Daily News in 1999. He has written about SEPTA, the Philadelphia School District, the legalization of casino gambling, state government, the mayor, the governor, City Council and political campaigns. E-mail tips to brennac@phillynews.com
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
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Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
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Follow Chris on Twitter
David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
Follow Dave on Twitter.
Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
Follow Jan on Twitter
Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
Follow Sean on Twitter
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