Tagged: Newtown

Speaking to reporters at an event organized by the Christian Science Monitor, U.S. Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., blasted President Obama for using the families of gun violence victims in his push for legislative reforms.

From Huffington Post:

"I think gun control is a legitimate issue for us to debate," Paul said. "I hate to see using people, I think, as props and politicizing people's tragedy. When I see the father and the mothers and them testifying - and I know they're coming voluntarily, and they want to come and be part of this debate - but it still saddens me just to see them, and I think that in some cases the president has used them as props. And that disappoints me.

The president has reached out to family members of victims from the Newtown massacre in the aftermath.

One mother stood in for Obama during one of his weekly presidential addresses. In that speech Francine Wheeler, whose 6-year-old son was murdered during the shooting spree, pleaded for stricter gun control laws.

TAFT, Calif. — One student has been shot at a high school in Taft, Calif., a community in the southern San Joaquin Valley.

Kern County sheriff's spokesman Ray Pruitt also says a suspect is in custody and is believed to be a student.

The shooting was reported at Taft Union High School around 9 a.m. Thursday.

The sheriff's spokesman says the wounded student was flown to a hospital in Bakersfield.

Pruitt says it's believed a shotgun was used in the attack.

Taft is a community of about 7,000 some 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Kentucky Fourth District Congressman Thomas Massie introduced his first bill in Congress on Friday that would repeal the federal ban on guns in school zones. 

The measure is dubbed the Citizens Protection Act of 2013, which was initially proposed by former Congressman Ron Paul six years ago. It would repeal the Gun Free School Zones Act of 1990 and comes in the midst of the gun control debate sparked by the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in Connecticut.

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."