29 confirmed dead
From the AP story:
“A White House spokesman said President Bush was horrified by the rampage and offered his prayers to the victims and the people of Virginia.
“The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed,” spokeswoman Dana Perino said ”
That makes me feel sickened. I don’t care which side of the gun debate you’re on, this is a shitty time to be talking about how the gunman had a right to own the gun he used to kill 29 people.
I am sick to my stomach right now. I have friends who attend and they’re all saying it’s utter madness.
I thought the same thing ..29?!..wow
If the gunman was a student, he most likely didn’t have a right to carry a firearm. Not on campus, anyway. I know I wasn’t allowed to have a gun in my dorm room or anywhere else on my campus when I was in college.
I’m curious as to the context of the quote. If it was a general statement then yes, now is not the time and shame on her. If the quote was in response to a question (which wouldn’t surprise me) then I can let it pass.
I can let it pass for the spokeswoman. Shame on whomever asked about it.
Does that mean that you’ve confirmed that someone asked the spokesperson to state the white house’s thoughts on gun control?
No, I haven’t. It occured to me to clarify that I was just going easy on the spokeswoman when I said I could let it pass, not on the subject in general. There’s time enough later to continue the debate on gun control, especially once it’s determined who the shooter was.
My brain was already a muddle this morning and this hasn’t helped.
Ah, of course. *smiles* It never occurred to me that you might have said the other.
I don’t see any direct information about it, whether it was a press conference or a one-on-one conversation. I’d be pretty ticked off at the AP reporter, if they were asking questions to confirm the government policy on gun control while there’s still chaos going on.
The spokeswoman might have decided to bring up the issue of gun control preemptively, figuring it would come up anyway. Also a shitty idea, in my opinion.
Research is what I do
(for the lazy – the link confirms that it was in response to a question)
ah, MSM
Miami Sound Machine?
Mama’s Sexy Mammaries?
…or Mainstream Media :P
Genius!
Here’s the applicable part:
Q Dana, going back to Virginia Tech, what more does this White House think needs to be done as it relates to gun issues? The President says current laws need to be strengthened, anything beyond that — you had a conference on school violence with guns — what more needs to be done?
MS. PERINO: I would point you back to the fact that President, along with Secretary Spellings, hosted last October — October 10, 2006 — a conference on school gun violence after the Amish school shooting and the other shootings that had happened, because the tragedies are the ones that just collectively break America’s heart and are ones that we deeply feel, because all of us can imagine what it would be like to have been at your own school, your own college, and to have something happen. And those of us who are parents, or brothers or sisters of people at the schools have to take that into consideration.
As far as policy, the President believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed. And certainly bringing a gun into a school dormitory and shooting — I don’t want to say numbers because I know that they’re still trying to figure out many people were wounded and possibly killed, but obviously that would be against the law and something that someone should be held accountable for.
Q Columbine, Amish school shooting, now this, and a whole host of other gun issues brought into schools — that’s not including guns on the streets and in many urban areas and rural areas. Does there need to be some more restrictions? Does there need to be gun control in this country?
MS. PERINO: The President — as I said, April, if there are changes to the President’s policy we will let you know. But we’ve had a consistent policy of ensuring that the Justice Department is enforcing all of the gun laws that we have on the books and making sure that they’re prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Q Lastly, in Texas, if I’m correct, he passed legislation, no age restriction on possession of weapons, if I’m correct. Should there be some kind of federal age limit, as far as the President is concerned, raising the age for gun possession in this country?
MS. PERINO: Unfortunately, I’m going to have to go back and look at what the record was in Texas. Maybe Ken Herman could tell us. We’ll go to Ken next.
The part that really made me sick is that later articles pulled the “hey but people should have guns” bit and left in the “horrified” bit.
Sickening.
Gee, bet he wouldn’t be saying that if it was someone he loved who got shot while they were attending CLASS.
It’s too late, we’ve been talking about the gun control debate all day.
Holy shit. When I read about it on CNN.com earlier, there were only 3 people dead. This is crazy.
ick. some people…grrr. and there are 32 now :(