Ramsey: Lawmakers 'lack courage' for gun control after 'Dark Knight' massacre
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, on "This Week" on ABC Sunday morning to talk about the Dark Knight massacre in Aurora, Colo., said that the death of 12 people in the movie theater is unlikely to have an impact on gun control.
Ramsey: Lawmakers 'lack courage' for gun control after 'Dark Knight' massacre
Cars remain in the parking lot of the Century 16 movie theater, late Friday, July 20, 2012, in Aurora, Colo., nearly 24 hours after a gunman killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens of others watching the latest Batman film in one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
( Ted S. Warren
)
This post has been corrected.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, on "This Week" on ABC Sunday morning to talk about the Dark Knight massacre in Aurora, Colo., said that the death of 12 people in the movie theater is unlikely to have an impact on gun control.
"Aurora, Columbine, Virginia Tech, Ft. Hood, the list goes on and on," Ramsey said when asked by host George Stephanopoulos whether Saturday's incident will make a difference to the debate over gun control. "Unfortunately, in my opinion, the answer is absolutely nothing. There will be a lot of talk, alot of debate, but this will fade into the background like the other incidents that have occured. People will continue to get their hands on guns."
Ramsey said that Philadelphia police have been paying "special attention" to movie theaters and other locations where large amounts of people gather.
"But the issue for me is I can't put a cop in every movie theater for now on or on a shopping mall or college campus or high school," Ramsey said. "And these are all locations where we've had mass shootings in the past, so we have to find a solution to that."
Ramsey, who pointed out that the plague of gun violence is a daily worry in big cities across the country, said that gun control legislation would not "totally stop this sort of thing from happening," but that there need to be limits on the weapons that people can get their hands on. He called for a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, a registry of guns and mandatory reporting of all sales of guns.
But Ramsey isn't hopeful that anything will actually happen.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, on "This Week" on ABC Sunday morning to talk about the Dark Knight massacre in Aurora, Colo., said that the death of 12 people in the movie theater is unlikely to have an impact on gun control.
"Aurora, Columbine, Virginia Tech, Ft. Hood, the list goes on and on," Ramsey said when asked by host George Stephanopoulos whether Friday's incident will make a difference to the debate over gun control. "Unfortunately, in my opinion, the answer is absolutely nothing. There will be a lot of talk, alot of debate, but this will fade into the background like the other incidents that have occured. People will continue to get their hands on guns."
Ramsey said that Philadelphia police have been paying "special attention" to movie theaters and other locations where large amounts of people gather.
"But the issue for me is I can't put a cop in every movie theater for now on or on a shopping mall or college campus or high school," Ramsey said. "And these are all locations where we've had mass shootings in the past, so we have to find a solution to that."
Ramsey, who pointed out that the plague of gun violence is a daily worry in big cities across the country, said that gun control legislation would not "totally stop this sort of thing from happening," but that there need to be limits on the weapons that people can get their hands on.
He called for a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, a registry of guns and mandatory reporting of all sales of guns.
But Ramsey isn't hopeful that anything will actually happen.
Said Ramsey: "Many of our legislators unfortunately on the federal level lack the courage to do anything."
Later, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said that "reasonable gun control laws" won't stop this type of incident, but will reduce their frequency.
"No citizen should be able to have an automatic assault file, no citizen should be able to have" a clip with more than 10 bullets, Rendell said, adding that it was an "incredible act of cowardice" for Congress to let the assault weapon ban expire.
Comments (65)
So if other people in the theatre were carrying guns and they started shooting the monster that cause this horrific event, then how many more bullets would have been flying around and ending up in other people. It is not the wild west. Guns should be banned, period!— fozziebear- When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns. This is true.
— Ralph 1 - "Ramsey said when asked by host George Stephanopoulos whether Friday's incident will make a difference to the debate over gun control. "Unfortunately, in my opinion, the answer is absolutely nothing. There will be a lot of talk, alot of debate, but this will fade into the background like the other incidents that have occured. People will continue to get their hands on guns."
What a answer from the Chief of Police in Philly, where gun violence is a daily occurance, as opposed to the one day massacer!!! What good would new laws do, when law enforcement don't act on one's already there!! Most of the gun violence in Philly, are fueled by male testrone, protecting their drug trade!! The criminal element don't abide by the law of the land, and have no problem in purchasing their weapons, with the amounts of money obtained in their trade!!!— Dadair1 - Our dear police chief should concentrate on "his people" inflicting a daily bloodbath, with ILLEGAL guns, in the town that pays his salary. Until he has the proceedings under control (will never happen), he needs to stfu about any legal gun ownership elsewhere. Btw, if Mr. Ramsey's "brothers" can get illegal guns, surely a brilliant budding neurophysicist could find a way to get them too.— homeboy
- This is from the chief of the Philadelphia department who own officers cannot take the time to take a report or investigate a report of robbery with a gun (as reported in the by this paper). The control part of control gun is enforcing existing laws not making new ones. Kiladephia police and judges just keep people on the streets with guns.— Dwayne516
- I'd rather have a gun in my hand then to believe that the government or 'rule of law' can save me when the going gets tough. Self defense is a first person event. It happens in real time and can't wait for the armchair quarterbacks & commentators to rehash the play.— bad joe s
- Ramsey has no room to talk about gun control and violence. Philly leads the nation in gun violence and those guns are ILLEGAL. Ramsey is supposed to be doing something about illegal guns. Why isn't he stopping and frisking people, especially in high crime areas?— Falls Ed
- No new gun laws needed! Just enforce what's already on the books. How many current gun laws are ignored, or pleaded down to a lesser offense? Alot. Thank you DA office. If current gun laws can't be enforced, why add more to be ignored?— Afogtrkr
- Unfortunately for Philadelphians, Ramsey's gross incompetence and negligence of his sworn duties cost the lives of dozens of Philadelphian every month. I'd rather have the least 'courageous' politician in PA in charge of our police department that this idiot. And extra kudos to ABC for thinking he's a expert on something, please hire him away from us, please!— RachelMadcow
- it's been repeatedly reported that george zimmerman shot and killed an "unarmed" teen, yet thus far it hasn't been reported that james holmes shot and killed "UNARMED" movie goers.— jrriccio
- Uhhh, are you people clutching your bibles too?— baworks
- Execute the killers and stop the DA from dropping gun charges that carry a mandatory 5 year sentence.— Smokey
Comment removed.- Ramsey sounded like a fool on TV talking about gun control. Philly is overrun with crime, drug violence and bad cops. The chief should acknowledge that drugs are the root of most of the crimes committed in the city and gun control will not stop drug control.— Ralph 1
- aren't police and politicians supposed to uphold the Constitution?? Maybe these guys should be complaining about the judges who don't uphold the laws already on the books.— keapitreal
test- If Nutter and Ramsey has the same passion for doing their jobs as they have for jumping on national issues for attention, this city would be a better place to live. At the end of the day, people will kill with anything at their disposal. People kill with guns, knives, baseball bats, shovels or anything that accomplishes the task. Man has killed long before there were guns. And if guns were outlawed tomorrow, man would still find ways to kill.
And before anyone says that you can't kill 12 people without a gun, let a madman loose in a store with a baseball bat and see what happens.— Trident252 - Trident252,
I think more people have been killed by the irresponsible use of the pen and the Press. Yet, I do not see a rush to ban these items.— Wildman Bill - Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- So do you also think nuclear weapons don't kill people, people do? Would you donate our nukes to Iran, North Korea, etc? — mactruck16
- Comment removed.
- Dinsdale?....Dinsdale! — Wildman Bill
- Mr. Ramsey ought to keep his stupid mouth shut. We cannot screen for crazy or mentally ill when a person has done nothing in his or her life prior to this point in time. The Colorado shoot did not have any criminal record or a record of mental illness. By our laws, he was considered a law abiding citizen and able was able to purchase firearms and ammuntion legally. No amount of new legislation will stop this kind of thing from happening. So lets stop pretending it will.
It is not uncommon for a regular shooter that shoots as a hobby to purchase large amounts of ammuntion. Any legal gun owner should not be restricted on the amount of ammuntion he can purchase. The hobby of shooting is a legal and lawfull activity.— Wildman Bill - The anti-gun control voices on this comments thread can droll on all they like about their fantasies in which the gunslingers heroically take down violent criminals in a world where everything is black and white, and we all know who's Batman and who's the Joker. All this thanks to the brave Washington pols who ensured the demise of the assault weapons ban, so that Batman and the Joker can now duke it out with more firepower and ammunition. What the CAN'T do is deny the pesky facts that stand in their way: states with more restrictive gun control laws have less gun crime, countries with more reasonable gun control laws do not have to experience this same cyclic phenomenon of death and destruction which we see everyday in Philadelphia. Allowing unrestricted access to guns is the SOURCE of the guns which, supposedly, "only the criminals will have" if we remove that source.— mactruck16
- Those familiar with firearms often refer to "assault weapons" as "evil black rifles" -- they are not really military full-automatic or select-fire "assault rifles" and are really only cosmetically different from other semi-automatic rifles. They are rarely used in crimes (they are difficult to conceal), though they make big headlines when they are.
According to Commissioner Ramsey's testimony before congress, 90% of those who commit gun crimes and 80% of their victims are not allowed to even touch a firearm under existing state and Federal law. The big difference between the gun crime rate between New York and Philly is that NY convicts and incarcerates about 90% of those arrested for gun crimes; in Philly, it's around 20%. The Inquirer has documented the abysmal performance of gun crime prosecution in our criminal "justice" system on a multiple occasions over the past few years.— Don_M - But what about the high capacity clips that are used with these weapons? This makes it much easier for a single shooter to shoot many more people than would be possible with smaller clips.
And do you really not think that having 90 guns for every 100 people in the US (15x the rate of the UK, for the record) has something to do with the number of shootings here?— mactruck16 - Mactruck16,
Many of us that shoot in competitions use high capacity magazines for competitive rifle matches. None of them are used to go on mass shootings. What you and others fail to understand is this man was a looney. Since he appears to be a recluse, nobody was around him to see that he had lost his mind. He could have killed as many people by driving a pick up truck on to a crowd outside of the movie. Does this mean old pick up trucks should be banned too? I do not think so. Those people that want to kill with do so with whatever deadly means they can muster. You cannot bann everything that is potentially deadly. If you were going to do this, you would have to start with the pen.— Wildman Bill - New Jersey, New York and Illinois have extremely retrictive gun laws and they have some of the highest gun crime rates in the country. Explain that one. — Wildman Bill
- Ramsey said...
Rendell said ...
Sarah Brady said....
Cease Fire said...
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ— oakster - It has nothing to do with "courage"....they have great jobs and don't wan't to be sent packing like we did for them in 1994.
If Ramsey was in that position he wouldn't be popping off his big mouth,either.— oakster - As usual after an atrocity committed with a firearm, the Liberal Democrat ghouls were out in full force this mornng. Diane Feinswine, Fast Eddy Spendell, the cartoonish Ramsey. All we were missing was Frank "the walking dead" Lautenberg and Mix Master Mike Nutter. Tell ya what liberals, I'll disarm when you give up your armed body guards...let me know...fools.— MilesLong1
- I think the NRA stirs up fears in average joes and janes, and the corporate industry known an the gun manufacturing industry keeps on making profits.— a4049412
- I'll take my chances with the weapons I have for protection. All Ramsey and his ilk will do is show up at my house with the yellow tape, place an overweight cop at my door for a few hours until the press leave, and then go back to their desks and figure put how much more DROP $$$$ then can chisel when only the criminals have guns.— Wilhelm Von Humboldt
- When a lefty says 'gun control' what they really mean is 'gun ban'.— bannedrepublican
- Just build more prisons and have the Judges in Piladelhia and the rest of the state put the bad guys in jail that when found with a gun so they don't do it again MORE PRISONS AND MORE TIME IN THEM— RichH
- Ramsey should worry about the criminals in Philly and not try to deflect the crime problem blaming gun control. It's obvious he's lost the respect of his force and doesn't have a clue how to run a police department in a major city. His most recent observation of the attempted child abduction... "the perp left the door open because he was going to abduct the child" tells you all you need to know about his astute police insight. Time to call it quits.— dogman5
- Ramsey should worry about the crime he commits daily by carrying his firearm that he is legally not allowed since he is not a state certified police officer nor does he have a vaild LTCF. But then again it's do as I say not as I do in Philly. Ramsey should be in jail for a minimum of 5 years for his crime, but the DA refuses to do anything about it, yet he wants to take away guns from law abiding citizens and their ability to defend themselves from criminals running wild in Philly.— Taxpaying Voter
- This cartoon from Tom Tomorrow says it all: http://thismodernworld.com/— meteo30
- Comment removed.
- LoL...Liberal urban warlords (aka Cheifs of Police), want to remove American's ability to defend themselves from criminals and corrupt public officials. If law abiding citizens didnt fear for their own rights and freedom from being sued by lawyers, perhaps one armed citizen would be enought to stop a madman from killing dozens. Clearly the police cannot do this. Wake up America...liberals = loss of Life, Liberty and the persuit of Happiness.
- I think Ramsey doesn't have the courage to do his job without kow towing to the PC gods. In regards to gun control, as I read somewhere else, you "can't regulate crazy"— Tom813
- 12 killed in Colorado, and Ramsey raises his voice in indignation. Meanwhile, 120 killed in Philadelphia, and all Ramsey has to say is excuses.
— DonQ - Ramsey is the Chief who said he has no solution to the high homicide rate in his City.He is getting paid alot of money,and doesn't have a clue.Why any TV Program would ask his opinion is absurb.— suits
- How about the cops stealing guns from the crime lab in philadelphia.
nothing more was said or done to the bums involved.— oldbiker - How about getting rid of liberal judges and replace them with ones that have the courage to sentence gun-toting criminals to jail?— Louie DePalma
- Which would have prevented the carnage in Aurora how? — wb2nd
- Oh this is what Ramsey is worried about. I was wondering what his job was since there is a killing everyday here but he's worried about the shootings once a year. Keep earning that money.— Deaweeave
- Where do you draw the line on government control? A criminal will always follow through on crime, no matter what the gun control laws are.— FletcherT
- Everyone knows we need assault rifles and 6K rounds of ammo for protection. After all, if 10-11 people in the theater were armed, this whole thing could have been prevented......Yeah, there are idiots who actually believe that garbage.— CiceroSpuriousDeodatus
- Here we go again...with left wing loonies totally missing the point...and blaming the fork for making Oprah fat. Ridiculous. — kelprod2
- Cicero with another whiny crying negative rant? Never saw that before. I would think his cynical debbie downer attitude would be such a hit with the girls at the bar. — towelie
- @mactruck
Actually, of Heller vs DC(08), the court ruled that no person could be denied the right to posses a handgun in their home arbitrarily, inside a federal enclave.
The issue was settle for the states in 2010's McDonald vs Chicago.
Saclia tied the right to posses a handgun(in the home) to the inalienable right of self defense in 08.
But hey that's besides the point. I'm an NRA member but I understand the need for certain sanctions. I don't know how they do things in Colorado, here in PA and Philadelphia they do things just fine. I have no problem banning 100 round drum magazines. I have a problem banning assault rifles. It makes no sense to ban a long gun because it has a pistol grip or a flip up sight. That's just lip service.— JoeinSouthPhilly - The supreme court ruled in DC vs. Heller that state and local restrictions on gun possession are constitutional. — mactruck16
- Need is irrelevant. Use is irrelevant. Politics is irrelevant. Relevance only comes from the rule of laws. The Constitution of our country and our state confirms upon a person the inalienable right to posses firearms.
As far as assault rifle bans go, who cares? The definition of an assault rifle is telescopic sights and pistol grips.— JoeinSouthPhilly - Please. Take your liberal garbage elsewhere. All it would have taken was one armed law abiding citizen to stop this madman. Instead, liberals like you want to use this type of isolated event as an excuse to further erode the Republic. Go live in the police states like Norway where they have massive gun laws and have no gun crimes...Oh wait that's right I forgot Breivik didnt get your memo.
- may i remind you, citizen92 that the shooter in norway was a right wing extremist(such as yourself) who bravely attacked a summer camp full of kids.
would you posit that children at camp should also be armed?— the lopez! - Small minds desire small solutions. People like you resort to penalizing the massess rather than focusing on protecting and empowering the masses. Like I said, one well armed empowered citizen with the protections of Castle Doctrine would have ensured this mad man made it no further than row 1.
- the lopez: there were adults at the camp as well who could have protected the kids, but logic like that doesn't fit well into the libs arguement. — Taxpaying Voter
- taxpaying voter,
what camp counselors would bring a gun to summer camp? should counselors pack hand guns or assault rifles or both just to give them the opportunity to be flexible?
also
do you posit that a gun owner should go into harms way to act as a cop even if you don't have training? isn that why the police say to leave the policing up to the professionals?
maybe thinking at all doesn't fit into your argument.— the lopez! - The summer camp I went to had counselors with M-16s, M-9 pistols and explosives. I had the same things too. The camp was called the U.S Army....... — Wildman Bill
- Comment removed.
- macdad
it was an easy leap to make
perhaps you should go and polish your gun to a john wayne movie.
you'll feel better after that.
— the lopez! - This comment has been deleted. — bedpan
- Call Dell. YOUR CAPS LOCK KEY IS STUCK. — Ralph 1
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