(Updates with Blumenthal legislation, new PAC and ad campaign beginning in third paragraph.)
Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Vice President Joe Biden has invited the National Rifle Association, which has led opposition to restrictions on firearms, to meet this week with a panel weighing recommendations for ways to stem gun violence.
The NRA, a lobbying group for gun owners and manufacturers, is among the stakeholders including gun-control advocates, victims of shootings and representatives of the movie and video game industry that will meet with Biden’s task force, White House press secretary Jay Carney said.
Carney’s announcement came as supporters of gun regulations renewed their push for legislation in the wake of a mass shooting of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school last month. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, said today he would introduce legislation to require background checks for anyone buying large quantities of ammunition.
“There is no rational reason why a person can walk into a store, fill their shopping cart with hundreds of rounds of ammo, pay up, and walk out without so much as giving their name,” Blumenthal said on a conference call with reporters.
And former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat who was wounded in a 2011 shooting in Tucson that killed six others, said today that she and her husband, Mark Kelly, plan to form a political action committee to push for new gun laws.
Matching Lobbyists
“Achieving reforms to reduce gun violence and prevent mass shootings will mean matching gun lobbyists in their reach and resources,” they wrote in USA Today.
The mother of one of those killed in the Tucson shootings, Roxanna Green, appeared in a TV ad today in the Washington area and in cities where there have been recent mass shootings.
“I have one question for our political leaders: When will you find the courage to stand up to the gun lobby?” Green, who lost her 9-year-old daughter, Christiana, said in the ad by Mayors Against Illegal Guns. The co-chairman of the group is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
The NRA, the biggest of the gun-rights organizations, was “one of the many groups invited” to meet with Biden’s panel, Carney said. The panel is convening sessions tomorrow and Jan. 10.
A spokesman for the NRA, which claims 4 million members, didn’t immediately respond to a telephone call and e-mail requesting comment.
Nationwide Protest
While gun control advocates are stepping up pressure for new laws, a coalition of gun-rights groups plan to push back with a nationwide protest scheduled for Jan. 19, a day before President Barack Obama is sworn in for a second term. The groups are urging gun-rights supporters to show up at firearms stores, gun shows and shooting ranges that day.
“This outpouring of public support is so important for our constitutional safeguards to keep and bear arms,” said Larry Ward, chairman of Gun Appreciation Day and president of Political Media Inc., a Washington-based Republican political consulting firm specializing in online communications.
Obama put Biden in charge of an administration task force formed in response to the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The gunman, who fatally shot his mother before going to the school, committed suicide.
The group will review options such as reinstating a ban on military-style assault weapons that expired in 2004, closing loopholes that allow gun buyers to escape background checks and limiting use of high-capacity ammunition clips.
Firearms Restrictions
Beyond firearms restrictions, Biden has said the panel will examine ways to boost mental-health programs in schools and steps to alter a culture in the U.S. that glamorizes guns and violence.
The NRA continues to oppose new gun regulations.
The group’s chief executive officer, Wayne LaPierre, last month rejected restrictions on gun ownership and called for posting armed security guards at schools as well as examining the role of violent video games and movies.
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” he said Dec. 21 in Washington.
Obama, who supports renewing an expired assault weapon ban, gave Biden’s panel until the end of this month to submit recommendations.
--Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Robin Meszoly
To contact the reporters on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at [email protected]; Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at [email protected].
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Komarow at [email protected]
Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Vice President Joe Biden has invited the National Rifle Association, which has led opposition to restrictions on firearms, to meet this week with a panel weighing recommendations for ways to stem gun violence.
The NRA, a lobbying group for gun owners and manufacturers, is among the stakeholders including gun-control advocates, victims of shootings and representatives of the movie and video game industry that will meet with Biden’s task force, White House press secretary Jay Carney said.
Carney’s announcement came as supporters of gun regulations renewed their push for legislation in the wake of a mass shooting of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school last month. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, said today he would introduce legislation to require background checks for anyone buying large quantities of ammunition.
“There is no rational reason why a person can walk into a store, fill their shopping cart with hundreds of rounds of ammo, pay up, and walk out without so much as giving their name,” Blumenthal said on a conference call with reporters.
And former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat who was wounded in a 2011 shooting in Tucson that killed six others, said today that she and her husband, Mark Kelly, plan to form a political action committee to push for new gun laws.
Matching Lobbyists
“Achieving reforms to reduce gun violence and prevent mass shootings will mean matching gun lobbyists in their reach and resources,” they wrote in USA Today.
The mother of one of those killed in the Tucson shootings, Roxanna Green, appeared in a TV ad today in the Washington area and in cities where there have been recent mass shootings.
“I have one question for our political leaders: When will you find the courage to stand up to the gun lobby?” Green, who lost her 9-year-old daughter, Christiana, said in the ad by Mayors Against Illegal Guns. The co-chairman of the group is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
The NRA, the biggest of the gun-rights organizations, was “one of the many groups invited” to meet with Biden’s panel, Carney said. The panel is convening sessions tomorrow and Jan. 10.
A spokesman for the NRA, which claims 4 million members, didn’t immediately respond to a telephone call and e-mail requesting comment.
Nationwide Protest
While gun control advocates are stepping up pressure for new laws, a coalition of gun-rights groups plan to push back with a nationwide protest scheduled for Jan. 19, a day before President Barack Obama is sworn in for a second term. The groups are urging gun-rights supporters to show up at firearms stores, gun shows and shooting ranges that day.
“This outpouring of public support is so important for our constitutional safeguards to keep and bear arms,” said Larry Ward, chairman of Gun Appreciation Day and president of Political Media Inc., a Washington-based Republican political consulting firm specializing in online communications.
Obama put Biden in charge of an administration task force formed in response to the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The gunman, who fatally shot his mother before going to the school, committed suicide.
The group will review options such as reinstating a ban on military-style assault weapons that expired in 2004, closing loopholes that allow gun buyers to escape background checks and limiting use of high-capacity ammunition clips.
Firearms Restrictions
Beyond firearms restrictions, Biden has said the panel will examine ways to boost mental-health programs in schools and steps to alter a culture in the U.S. that glamorizes guns and violence.
The NRA continues to oppose new gun regulations.
The group’s chief executive officer, Wayne LaPierre, last month rejected restrictions on gun ownership and called for posting armed security guards at schools as well as examining the role of violent video games and movies.
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” he said Dec. 21 in Washington.
Obama, who supports renewing an expired assault weapon ban, gave Biden’s panel until the end of this month to submit recommendations.
--Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Robin Meszoly
To contact the reporters on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at [email protected]; Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at [email protected].
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Komarow at [email protected]