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6/19/16, "ABC's Jon Karl Gets Senator Murphy to Admit His Gun Control Proposal Would Not Work," NewsBusters, Nicholas Fondacaro
"In a shocking development in the push for gun-control, Senator Chris Murphy, who filibustered for 15 hours
regarding the issue, admitted Sunday on ABC’s This Week that his proposal would not have stopped any recent mass shooting. “Your proposal would have done nothing in the case of Orlando, it would have done nothing to stop the killing in San Bernardino,” stated ABC’s Jon Karl calling out Murphy, “And in fact, it was unrelated to the killing in Newtown.”
The proposal Murphy has been pushing is one that is meant to close the mythical “gun show loophole.” “Would that have done anything to stop the massacre in Orlando,” Karl asked Murphy.
The Senator tried to explain that his proposal had to work in conjunction with other proposals to be effective.
Karl again called out Murphy by pointing to the fact that terrorist Omar Mateen didn’t purchase his firearms at a gun show and passed a background check anyway. “So why -- why are we focusing on things that have nothing to do with the massacres we're responding to,” Karl grilled Murphy.
Murphy’s only response was to argue that it was a “trap” to judge a proposal based on how effective it would have been in stopping the last tragedy:
"So first of all, we can't get into that trap. I disagree, I think if this proposal had been into effect it may have stopped the shooting. But we can’t get into the trap in which we are forced to defend our proposal simply because it didn’t stop the last tragedy."
But Karl’s inquiry still stands, why propose a solution to a “problem” that had nothing to do with the tragedy you are trying to stop? Could it be all about the agenda and not the people affected? Transcript below:
ABC This Week
June 19, 2016, 9:25:31 AM Eastern
JON KARL: That's Connecticut senator Chris Murphy. He spent 15 straight hours on the Senate floor this week demanding that Republicans hold votes on gun control measures and Senator Murphy joins us here right now. So, Senator Murphy, you are getting those votes on Monday. Tomorrow. But are you going to have to look those families in the eye once again and tell them that you have failed? Because those bills are not going to pass. None of them.
CHRIS MURPHY: Well, we're going to work hard, over the weekend, on the bill that stops people on the terrorist watch list to from getting guns. I admit the background checks bill will be tough to get 60 votes on. But, we have hope we can get Republicans to support the bill stopping terrorists from getting weapons."...
[Ed. note: FBI's so-called terror watch list has 400,000+ names on it. Each day 1600 more names are added, 600 names are removed, and 4,800 records are modified. The "list" is in constant flux, per 2009 report so is incapable of serving its ostensible purpose. Even if the list were functional, those who need the data can't get it: For example, TSA "is not authorized" to receive "certain terrorism-related category codes" needed to vet employees, per 2015 IG report. p. 10]
(continuing): "But listen, I think something important happened last week. It wasn’t just 40 Senators came to the floor and supported my effort to get these votes. There were millions of people all across the country who rose up and who joined our effort. And what we know is, ultimately, the only way to win the issue is by building a political infrastructure around the country that rivals that of the gun lobby. And so, I'm still hopeful we’re going to be able to get vote I know there are also some compromise negotiations happening that may bear fruit. But, in the final analysis what many be most important is that our filibuster helped galvanize an entire country around this issue."...
[Ed. note: France "galvanized" on gun control and experienced the only possible result: even worse terrorism. The "Senator" knows this.]
(continuing): "KARL: But you're specifically pushing a bill and have been pushing the bill, and it will be voted on on Monday, to close the so-called "gun show loophole." Would that have done anything to stop the massacre in Orlando?
MURPHY: So, it may have in the sense that if you partner with a bill that stops terrorists from getting guns.—
KARL: But wait a minute. He didn't buy those guns at a gun show. And he would have passed the background check. He did pass a background check.
MURPHY: He did pass a background check. But, if the Feinstein bill was in effect, the FBI could have put him on the list of those prohibited from getting guns. What if he went into the gun store and got denied, he could have gone online, or to a gun show, and bought another weapon.
KARL: Okay, but what I’m trying to get at is, we hear every time there’s one of these terrible tragedies there are proposals. Your proposal would have done nothing in the case of Orlando, it would have done nothing to stop the killing in San Bernardino. And in fact, it was unrelated to the killing in Newtown. So why -- why are we focusing on things that have nothing to do with the massacres we're responding to?
MURPHY: So first of all, we can't get into that trap. I disagree, I think if this proposal had been into effect it may have stopped the shooting. But we can’t get into the trap in which we are forced to defend our proposal simply because it didn’t stop the last tragedy. We should be making our gun laws less full of Swiss cheese holes, so that future killings don’t happen. That trap in an impossible one. The Sandy Hook families lobby for background checks. You know why? Because they are just as concerned with the young men and women who are dying in our cities because of the flow of illegal guns, as they are about a ban of assault weapons, or high magazines clips that might have prevented the Newtown killings. So, this has to be broader that just responding to the tragedy that happened three days ago.
KARL: But, why can't Congress pass things there is obvious agreement on. For instance, the question of the terrorist watch list. There is opposition to banning gun sales for people on that list. People have constitutional concerns. But why can't you simply pass a provision that says that, “anybody who’s on a terrorist watch list or has been on a terrorist watch list for the last five years, tries to buy a gun, the FBI is automatically notified?”...Why can't Congress at least do that?
MURPHY: Well first of all, does the FBI have the resources....It would be much more effective to make sure the individual get the gun, rather than to make the FBI go find him after he gets it."
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6/12/16, "Orlando Club Shooter Was Licensed As Security Officer," miami.cbslocal.com, Orlando, CBS Miami/AP
"As the day progresses, details about the suspected shooter who killed 50 people and injured 53 more continue to trickle out.
Omar Mateen, the Orlando nightclub gunman, had been licensed as a private security officer in Florida.
State records show suspected shooter Mateen held the firearms license since at least 2011.
It was set to expire in September 2017.
It wasn’t immediately clear where, if anywhere, Mateen had worked as a security officer.
An armed guard license in Florida requires 28 hours of classroom training by a licensed instructor."
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"The country (France) tightened weapon controls after the 1995 bombings of the Paris metro and RER commuter trains, and again in 2012 after Mohammed Merah went on a shooting spree around Toulouse, killing seven people including three students at a Jewish school." Result: France experienced even worse terror. Illegal weapons pour across Europe's porous borders. France has no ability to protect its citizens:
Nov. 2015 article
11/15/2015, "Paris attacks highlight France's gun control problems," UK Guardian, Emma Graham-Harrison, Paris
"The arms used prove how difficult it is for France-which has strict weapons laws-to tackle flow of illegal weaponry across Europe’s porous borders."
"The arsenal of weapons deployed by the eight attackers who terrorised Paris on Friday night underlined France’s gun control problems and raised the spectre of further attacks.
The country has extremely strict weapons laws, but Europe’s open borders and growing trade in illegal weapons means assault rifles are relatively easy to come by on the black market.
They feature regularly in gang warfare and were used by both the Charlie Hebdo killers and an extremist who targeted a Jewish school and paratroopers in 2012 shootings around Toulouse in the south of the country.
The suicide vests are less easy for would-be attackers to source because an amateur would struggle to create one.
“Suicide vests require a munitions specialist. To make a reliable and effective explosive is not something anyone can do,” a former French intelligence chief told Agence France-Presse, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“A munitions specialist is someone who is used to handling explosives, who knows how to make them, to arrange them in a way that the belt or vest is not so unwieldy that the person can’t move,” he added. “And it must also not blow up by accident.”
But the highly unstable explosive used – triacetone triperoxide (TATP) – suggests the devices worn on Friday were created in France, and the bombmaker would probably have sat out the carnage so he could create more for future attacks, intelligence experts said.
“The explosive specialist is too precious. He never participates in attacks,” said Alain Chouet, a former director at Direction Générale de la Sécurité (DGSE), France’s external intelligence agency. “So he’s around, somewhere.”
Even if French security forces can track down the expert behind the vests, they will still have to grapple with the challenge of cutting off illegal gun supplies to potential attackers.
The country tightened weapon controls after the 1995 bombings of the Paris metro and RER commuter trains, and again in 2012 after Mohammed Merah went on a shooting spree around Toulouse, killing seven people including three students at a Jewish school.
Military-grade guns are banned in France, and even people who want to own a handgun or hunting rifle have to go through strict checks on their background and mental health.
But in recent years a black market has proliferated. The number of illegal weapons has risen at a rapid rate – double-digit percentages – for several years, according to the National Observatory for Delinquency, a body created in 2003.
“In Marseille and the surrounding area almost all the score settling is carried out using weapons used in wars,” a police spokesman told Reuters after the Toulouse attacks, adding that Kalashnikovs were the weapon of choice: “If you don’t have a ‘Kalash’ you’re a bit of a loser.”
The eight attackers who terrorised Paris on Friday night, and the Charlie Hebdo killers in January all gunned down their victims with similar rifles, probably smuggled from eastern Europe.
The Charlie Hebdo killers bought their weapons from an arms dealer in Brussels, who handed himself in to police, and then apparently brought them into France themselves.
The arrest of a Montenegrin man in southern Germany earlier this month, who is being held on suspicion of trying to supply Friday’s attackers, points to a possible Balkan origin for their weapons. German officials found a pistol under the bonnet when they stopped his car near the Austrian border, prompting them to take apart the car, which had a Paris address in the GPS system.
In doing so, they uncovered a sophisticated smuggling operation, with automatic weapons, 200g of dynamite, hand grenades and ammunition concealed in the car’s bodywork, according to Bavarian public radio.
The western Balkans are awash with guns left over from the wars of the 1990s. There are 4m-6m unregistered weapons in the area, according to a recent study by the Small Arms Survey. Weapons have also trickled out of Russia, another weapons expert said.
“One of the reasons we see a lot of Kalashnikovs and AK-47s on the black market is because Russia has just upgraded the Kalashnikov, and that has created massive stockpiles of the older models,” Kathi Lynn Austin, an expert on arms trafficking and the director of the Conflict Awareness Project, told al-Jazeera after the Charlie Hebdo attacks."
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