Brady Background Check

By Rick Schmitt, iWatch News Like many states, Maine depends on the FBI to conduct background checks of people who want to acquire firearms from th...

On Tuesday, I attended a meeting at the U.S. Justice Department with representatives from the White House. The Administration indicated that this was the first of what they hoped would be a series of discussions on ending gun violence.

We cannot wait any longer to act. We cannot turn our backs on this national calamity any longer. We cannot accept that 34 Americans will be murdered with guns in all of our tomorrows.

If Democrats want to know what women want this election season, I encourage their campaign gurus to start talking about an issue that has strong consistent support from women of all ages, races, and locations: gun control.

Elected officials must consider the awesome responsibility of the jobs they've been entrusted to do. Talk to victims, survivors, and law enforcement about the all too pervasive and underreported tragedy of gun violence. And then do something to halt it.

There's a sad irony in all of these people at the podium, with their supporters, celebrating their worship of guns while invoking the legacies of two great Americans whose magnificent lives were cruelly cut short by bullets.

We need partners in every community; and we need elected officials, in Congress and in state legislatures, to stop catering to special interests and instead act in the public interest to reduce the terrible, and escalating, risk of gun violence in America.

Yesterday, the Crime Sub-Committee of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee hosted a forum on legislation to close the loophole that allows "private sellers" of firearms to bypass Brady background checks at gun shows.

Utah is issuing concealed weapon licenses -- by the thousands -- to people willing to pay the mere $65.25 fee. You don't have to live, or ever set foot, in Utah to get the license.

Americans have for far too long settled minor disputes with lethal firepower, and it's one of the reasons that we continue to reject the vision of America, held by gun rights extremists, as a place where anybody can carry and display any gun.