Tagged: Congressman John Yarmuth

In reaction to President Obama launching a task force to address gun violence, Kentucky Third District Congressman John Yarmuth is praising the effort to tackle the issue in the wake of the Newtown school shooting.

The president pledged at a press conference Wednesday that the group—led by Vice President Joe Biden—will work swiftly to present recommendations for Congress to act on. It is the most forceful push by the administration to tackle gun control, and supporters say they are eager to see specific proposals.

Earlier this week, Yarmuth called for comprehensive regulations for firearms in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, and plans to co-sponsor legislation to ban on assault weapons.

"I share the president’s commitment to strengthening our nation’s gun laws, and I thank him for approaching the complex problem of gun violence in a comprehensive way," Yarmuth said in a statement. "Whether it is reinstating the ban on assault weapons and getting high-capacity ammunition magazines off our streets, expanding background checks to help ensure guns don’t fall into the wrong hands, addressing gaps in our mental health care system, or other failures, we must address all the factors that contribute to gun violence in our society. This task force will help in those efforts."

You may have heard Third District Congressman John Yarmuth on WFPL Monday discussing gun control in the wake of the Newtown shooting. He'll be discussing the issue again on public radio Tuesday with an appearance on the nationally-syndicated Diane Rehm Show.

Yarmuth's office says he'll likely be on for about ten minutes around 10:15 am. 

Kentucky Third District Congressman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., says lawmakers need to get behind comprehensive gun control in the aftermath of a elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Last Friday, a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School with an assault rifle and two semi-automatic pistols, killing 20 children and six adults. The shooting has sparked a national debate about the Second Amendment, and gun control groups have been pushing for stricter laws.

However, gun right's advocates such as Congressman Louie Gohmert, R-Tx., have suggested the school’s principal should have been armed as a way to protect the students and staff.

Yarmuth says arming more citizens is not the answer, and that groups like the National Rifle Association ought to be open to reasonable regulations.

"The National Rifle Association has spent untold millions of dollars instilling fear in our citizens and our politicians. That organization, which regularly fails to represent the responsible attitudes of its members, wants us to believe that the best protection against the irresponsible and lethal use of guns is for everyone to be armed," he says. "And while no specific gun regulation may have prevented the deaths of the 20 Sandy Hook Elementary children, 6 and 7-year-old children, the answer simply cannot be a gun in every elementary school lunchbox."

Newly elected state Senator Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville, lashes out a Senate Republican Mitch McConnell in a Courier-Journal editorial, saying the GOP leader is only interested in attaining more power.

McGarvey was defending Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth from McConnell biographer John David Dyche, who penned a stinging article comparing to a "yapping toy poodle" among other things. The Dyche article was in response to Yarmuth's cheerleading for a challenge to McConnell in 2014.

What's interesting about McGarvey's piece is that it acknowledges the origins of the Yarmuth-McConnell divide. Both men were once moderate Republican staffers who worked for former U.S. Senator Marlow Cook at the same time.

McGarvey says since then Yarmuth has become more liberal but taken principled stands while McConnell is only interested in accumulating more power.

From The C-J:

Unlike Yarmuth, and their former boss, McConnell’s career has not been forged in ideological fidelity, civil discourse or bipartisan cooperation.

Speaking on the House floor Wednesday, Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth says lawmakers can provide certainty during the fiscal cliff negotiations by extending the Bush era tax cuts to middle-class Americans.

Yarmuth mentioned Republican Congressman Tom Cole of Oklahoma as an example of finding bipartisan cooperationg. Cole has been in the news this week for breaking with his party leaders and advocating the GOP should make a deal with Democrats to raise taxes on the wealthiest two percent.

Check Yarmuth's floor speech: