Tagged: Newtown

In a scolding statement, U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., says it is shameful Congress has not enacted stricter gun laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Six months have passed since the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, where a lone gunman killed 20 children and six adults with a semi-automatic weapon.

The shooting sparked a fierce national debate about firearms and the Second Amendment, and a handful of states have either passed or are considering stricter gun laws since.

But gun rights advocates were able to block stricter laws from getting through the Democratic-controlled Senate.

"It is shameful that six months after Newtown, Congress has failed to enact a single gun-safety measure," says Yarmuth. "Nine in 10 Americans demand action to strengthen our gun laws, and I stand with them. It is long past time to enact meaningful reforms that help keep our families safe, our communities secure, and our country free from the daily toll of gun violence."

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.