#giffords

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Thursday reintroduced universal gun background checks legislation that is overwhelmingly popular with the American public — but not with a majority of U.S. Senators.

Federal law requires criminal background checks for firearm sales only at licensed dealers. Private sales between individuals, including at gun shows or online, aren’t subject to background checks.

Polls over the years have consistently shown that around 90% of Americans support requiring a criminal background check for all firearm sales. But it’s extremely likely that no Republican Senators will support Murphy’s bill.

“This is one of those wild issues in which 90% of the American public have made up their mind and we still can’t move the proposal through the Senate,” Murphy told HuffPost. “This is the holy grail of gun policy: It’s wildly popular, and it makes a big difference.”

Federal law prohibits certain people from buying guns, including those who have been convicted of violent crimes or who are subject to restraining orders. But without a background check, there’s nothing to stop them from buying a gun. According to one estimate from 2017, nearly a quarter of new gun owners bought their weapons without a background check.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), a member of the Senate Republican leadership team, told HuffPost that he would “obviously” oppose a universal background checks bill and so would any Senators who favor protecting Second Amendment rights. Not all Democrats will support Murphy’s bill, either; Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) and Jon Tester (Mont.) refused to co-sponsor last year’s version, and Manchin told HuffPost this week that his position hasn’t changed.

With Republicans in control of the House for at least the next two years, universal background checks will remain a non-starter.

But Congress has not been totally paralyzed on gun violence, which in recent years eclipsed car wrecks as the leading cause of death of children in the U.S. Last year, Murphy partnered with Republicans on a law that, among other things, expanded background checks for gun buyers between 18 and 21 years old. The FBI told HuffPost this week that the expanded checks had denied dozens of gun sales so far.

The 2022 law also modified the legal definition of who counts as “engaged in the business” of selling guns and therefore must register with the federal government as a firearms dealer. The new text stresses that someone’s a dealer if “the intent underlying the sale or disposition of firearms is predominantly one of obtaining pecuniary gain,” meaning profit.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of Murphy’s main Republican partners on last year’s bill, said that language change “basically did” what Murphy’s now trying to do with his universal background checks bill.

“If they’re in the business of selling firearms, they’re gonna be charged with a crime,” if they don’t do background checks, Cornyn said.

Federal law already required anyone in the business of selling guns for profit to apply for a license. It’s not clear what practical effect the new wording will have. The Congressional Research Service said the change “could make some, but not all, intrastate, private firearm transfers” subject to background checks.

The gun control group Giffords, which celebrated the new law, called the revision to the gun dealer language just a minor change: “The loophole that allows unlicensed sellers to sell guns without conducting background checks would remain open,” Giffords said on its website.

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[yawpkahrma-blog]

Make Them Look At The Carnage Up Close

I survived an act of gun violence in 1984 when I was held up and shot in the head at point blank range. The bullet remains lodged in the brain. Members of our American family – including our children – are being shot down every day. It is time to make those preventing a safer county to get a close up look at reality. James Brady and author, circa 1990 Make the NRA and their GOP sycophants look…

[dame-de-pique]

Algernon Charles Gifford (1862-1948) - Morning mists in the Lyvia Valley from Deep Cove Hut, n.d.

[huariqueje]

Dark Street, Kolkata - Andrew Gifford , 2017.

British b.1970 -

Oil on panel , 11¾ x 12¼ in. 30 x 30.99 cm.

[coltonwbrown]

Golden Light on Hawthorns and Elder, Hutton Rudby, January 2020

Andrew Gifford

[laclefdescoeurs]

Kaaterskill Falls, 1871, Sanford Robinson Gifford

[random-brushstrokes]

Sanford Robinson Gifford - Autumn, a Wood Path (1876)

[gameraboy2]

A Pictoral History of Horror Movies by Denis Gifford, 1973

[oncanvas]

Fisherman, Gifford Beal, 1928

Oil on linen 36 ¼ x 48 ¼ in. (92.1 x 122.6 cm) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY, USA

[venustapolis]

A Gorge in the Mountains (Kauterskill Clove) (Sanford Robinson Gifford, 1823 - 1880)

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Despite the lack of sufficient support in Congress to pass a new assault weapons ban, President Joe Biden on Friday said the US has “reached a tipping point” in the fight to strengthen America’s gun laws, due to the activism of the gun violence prevention movement that has gathered increasing strength in recent years.

Mr. Biden, who was delivering remarks at the National Safer Communities Summit in Hartford, Connecticut, at the invitation of Senator Chris Murphy and a coalition of gun safety groups including Everytown, Moms Demand Action and Giffords, recounted some of the more than 20 executive actions his administration has taken to stem the tide of mass shootings since he took office. He said those politicians who claim to be concerned about crime should realise that crime can’t be tackled without dealing with gun violence.

“It’s a simple proposition,” he said.

The President also lamented how since 2020, firearms have been the leading cause of death for children in the United States — more than automobile accidents or cancer.

He recalled how the assault weapons ban he wrote into the 1994 crime bill enacted under then-President Bill Clinton cut mass shootings “significantly” only to see their number triple when Mr. Clinton’s successor, George W. Bush, allowed the ban to expire with the aid of a Republican Congress, allowing military-style rifles and high-capacity magazines to “come back into vogue.”

Mr. Biden also called for a repeal of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which immunises gun manufacturers from lawsuits filed by gun violence victims, and for the enactment of universal background checks before anyone can purchase high-powered rifles, many of which are modelled off of those issued to American soldiers, as well as safe storage requirements for such weapons.

“The United States of America has the finest fighting force in the history of the world [and] provides … service members with the most lethal weapons on Earth. We also require them to receive significant training before they’re allowed to use them. We require extensive background checks and mental health assessment that before they can … use them [and] require them to lock them up or store the weapon responsibly,” he said.

“Every gun owner should be required to have the same requirements held to him or her,” he added.

The President also hailed Governors who have taken action to strengthen state gun laws, including Connecticut’s Ned Lamont, who recently signed more than 12 separate bills to strengthen his state’s firearm regulations, and praised state governments in Illinois and Washington for passing assault weapon and ghost gun bans, as well as the 21 states that have enacted so-called “red flag” laws to allow courts to temporarily disarm people who are determined to pose a risk to the community by a judge.

Though chances of a federal assault weapons ban making it to his desk are slim to none given the composition of Congress, Mr. Biden promised the gun safety advocates that he will “never stop fighting.”

“We will ban assault weapons in this country … we will hold gun makers liable, we will beat the gun industry,” he said.

[lionofchaeronea]

The Artist Sketching at Mount Desert, Maine, Sanford Robinson Gifford, 1864-65

[partiallypearl]

everything changes, but one thing is true, please understand, we'll always be more than a band

[dame-de-pique]

Algernon Charles Gifford

Mt Earnslaw from Glenorchy, Mt Alfred on left

Bold Peak and Mt (Mount) Bonteland from Glenorchy

[cynifer]

Misha out there still doing the work and looking fine to boot!