It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Hello --
Today President Obama announced a plan to help protect our kids and communities from gun violence. You're going to hear a lot about it, but I wanted to make sure you got a chance to get the facts, straight from me.
After hearing from Americans from across the political spectrum, we decided to focus on some key priorities: closing background check loopholes, banning military-style assault weapons, making our schools safer, and increasing access to mental health services.
The ideas we sent to President Obama are straightforward. Each of them honors the rights of law-abiding, responsible Americans to bear arms. Some of them will require action from Congress; the President is acting on others immediately. But they're all commonsense and will help make us a little safer.
Now is the time for all of us to act.
Read about the events that brought us to this point, learn about the plan we've proposed to help protect our kids, and then add your name in support to help build momentum for this plan.
Here's what we've put together:
We're calling for requiring background checks for all gun sales and closing the loopholes that allow dangerous individuals to make their purchase without going through one of these checks.
We're asking for a new, stronger ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines that allow a shooter to fire dozens of bullets as quickly as he can pull a trigger. And we're asking Congress to help protect law enforcement by make it illegal for members of the public to possess armor-piercing bullets.
We're going to give law enforcement more tools and resources to prevent and prosecute gun crimes, and we're going to end the freeze on gun violence research that prevents the Center from Disease Control from looking at the causes of gun violence.
We're calling on Congress to help make schools safer by putting up to 1,000 school resource officers and mental health professionals in schools and ensuring they have comprehensive emergency management plans in place.
And we're going to increase coverage so that students and young adults can get access to the mental health treatment they may need.
We know that no policy we enact or law we enforce can prevent every senseless act of violence in our country. But if we can save the life of even one child, we have a deep responsibility to act.
Now is the time to come together to protect our kids. Learn about the plan, then add your name alongside mine:
Now is the time
Thanks,
Vice President Joe Biden
1. "Issue a presidential memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system."
2. "Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system."
3. "Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system."
4. "Direct the attorney general to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks."
5. "Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun."
6. "Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers."
7. "Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign."
8. "Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission)."
9. "Issue a presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations."
10. "Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement."
11. "Nominate an ATF director."
12. "Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations."
13. "Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime."
14. "Issue a presidential memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence."
15. "Direct the attorney general to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies."
16. "Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes."
17. "Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities."
18. "Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers."
19. "Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education."
20. "Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover."
21. "Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges."
22. "Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations."
23. "Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health."
Originally posted by AwakeinNM
I believe that it should be mandatory for every household to have within it a military-style weapon with magazines that hold 30 rounds, as long as there are no people who live there deemed mentally unstable or ineligible because of a history of violent crime
Originally posted by RalagaNarHallas
reply to post by Djayed
well first off they are magazines not clips so atleast get the terminology right.
Originally posted by RalagaNarHallas
reply to post by Djayed
being mentaly ill does not on its self disqualify you from owning a fire arm
I feel it is important to focus on the mental illness aspect of "why" people go on shooting sprees
you have to be ruled a danger to your self or others or have been forcibly commited to a mental institution (72 hour hold) to loose your gun rights over a mental illness
Originally posted by RalagaNarHallas
reply to post by Djayed
ah stripper clips are the exception to the rule if that's what you meant i apologize,and yes at times the vernacular can be confusing but you get the hang of it eventually
just figured out your avatar i loved that episode btwedit on 16-1-2013 by RalagaNarHallas because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by Sovaka
Correct me if I am wrong...
In this bill, does it state Semi-automatic Rifles or Semi-automatic guns in general?
Because a majority of the pistols on the market are semi-automatic...
I'd dare call a revolver semi-automatic because as you pull the trigger, it spins the cylinder ready for when the hammer falls.
As compared to the standard pistols now that load the next round on ejecting the casing of the previous round.
So... Would this bill prevent sales of semi-auto pistols?
Originally posted by Djayed
Originally posted by Sovaka
Correct me if I am wrong...
In this bill, does it state Semi-automatic Rifles or Semi-automatic guns in general?
So... Would this bill prevent sales of semi-auto pistols?