From Tucson to Virginia Tech: Shooting Survivor Calls for Gun Control in New Film

[democracy1st]

Run time: 14:15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocprE64ZLN4   Posted on YouTube: January 27, 2011 By YouTube Member: mediagrrl9 Views on YouTube: 166   Posted on DU: January 28, 2011 By DU Member: democracy1st Views on DU: 343

 
Thirty-two people died in the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, six died in the Tucson attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and 34 people are killed by a bullet every day in the United States. However, President Obama made no mention of gun control during his State of the Union address Tuesday. White House advisers say he will soon unveil new gun control efforts to strengthen current laws that allow mentally unstable people, such as alleged Arizona shooter Jared Loughner, to purchase assault weapons without a background check. Democracy Now! interviews Colin Goddard, a survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting massacre who, after recovering and finishing his degree, decided to work with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the nation's largest gun control organization. His story is told in "Living for 32," a new documentary that just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. We also hear from former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson about a bill passed Wednesday by the Utah House of Representatives to make the Browning M1911 pistol the official state gun.

For the video/audio podcast, transcript, to sign up for the daily news digest, for additional coverage of the Tucson shooting, visit http://www.DemocracyNow.org

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[LAGC]

1. It's not so much a gun show "loophole" as much as its a private-party "loophole".

If you ban private paperless sales at gun shows, there's still the classified ads from private sellers that anyone can get a gun through without a background check. What are you going to do? Ban those too?

At what point do you put significant hardship on individuals who merely want to sell their own private property without hassle and expense?

If you stop crazy people from getting guns the legal way, assuming they won't just steal them, those intent on doing harm will just resort to other weapons such a knives and bombs.

Any solution to mass violence needs to address the root causes of WHY certain individuals feel the need to resort to such acts of aggression, why there isn't mental health intervention before it becomes an issue. These incidents don't just happen out of the blue, each time the red flags are everywhere, but no one reached out to help. The particular tool they choose to use to commit their acts of mass violence is really irrelevant.