Monday, July 03, 2006

 

Sue Kelly Opposes Gun Safety

Special thanks to Take19 reader 'Bill' for pointing out this information.

The subject of guns and gun control is always good for creating controversy. However, reasonable folks will agree that gun safety is important and should be a high priority. Well, based on her vote last week, it looks like Sue Kelly is coming down on the side of the UNreasonable.

There was a vote last week in Congress on an amendment to overturn a previously passed legislation that requires safety trigger locks on all handguns sold in America. Thanks in part to Sue, the amendment passed. This ridiculous proposal was introduced by Republican Representative Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado. Her reasoning for overturning the existing gun safety law is below:
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave a Colorado Republican, argued that the added cost of the trigger locks is passed on to gun owners and that they "do not stop accidental shootings."

Now let me take apart the sheer stupidity of Rep. Musgrave's reasoning. First, a trigger lock costs anywhere between five and ten dollars. I found this trigger lock on sale for $4.95. Considering that handguns generally cost at least a few hundred dollars, a five dollar trigger lock is a miniscule expense, especially considering the fact that it prevents children from discharging the weapon should the owner carelessly leave it laying around the home. Second, trigger safety locks DO prevent accidental shootings. That is what they are made for. They prevent anyone without a key for the lock, CHILDREN especially, from finding the gun, showing it to their friends and accidentally shooting someone. Does this make sense Rep. Musgrave?

So, why would Sue Kelly vote for this insane legislation? (Hint: follow the money) Well, anyone with internet access can easily find the reason by doing just a little searching. However, I saved you the time and did the legwork myself. The National Rifle Association is always a big behind the scenes player when it comes to this type of legislation. Now looking at campaign contributions made to Kelly, we can find that the NRA contributed $2,000 to Kelly in just this election cycle and over the past five election cycles kicked in over $17,000 to Sue's campaign coffers. So again, why would Sue vote for this insane legislation? I'd suggest that the answer has to do with money and lots of it. Namely, over $17,000 in campaign contributions. Sell-Out Sue strikes again.

Comments:
It's far more complicated than that. $2,000 isn't much money compared to Kelly's $1,000,000 mostly from real estate, building and banking intrests. First, when individual donations are analyzed closely (i.e. executives and gun club owners, sellers, manufacturers), it's probably significantly more that $2,000. Second, in order to get support for her own special intrest legislation she's got support others. It's a rotten system, stacked on the side of overspending and mis-regulation. Third is the Orange County Shooters et al. Like it or not, there's a significant population of gun owners in the 19th district. Guns in rural areas aren't nearly as bad as in cities. And the NRA spends a fortune (far more than the $2000) on pro "rights" propaganda. The NRA has Kelly on their "approved" list and she gets a lot of support from these people. It helps defray the outrage most people in the 19th would probably really feel - if the knew, cared or thought about it. Fourth is the amount of money gun intrests have to spend on dirty trick PR, against any candidate who might hurt their sales. Which leads to fith, Take 19 is only a small oasis in our district's very fragmented and corrupt news media desert. Please keep it up.
 
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