Rep. Blumenauer: 'One is haunted by these events'
On Wednesday morning, Congressman Earl Blumenauer addressed the House of Representatives to talk about the shooting in his home district and gun violence. Below is a transcript of what he said:
It’s difficult to focus on the task at hand in the aftermath of a shooting rampage in my district yesterday.
With at least 10,000 people in a shopping mall, a young man—allegedly, according to some eyewitness,--with body armor and a semiautomatic weapon, discharged sixty or more shots. There were two people killed, and a young, 15-year-old girl seriously wounded.
Mr. Speaker, one is haunted by these events—we had one in Aurora, Colorado in the theater where there were twelve people killed, sixty wounded;, six people killed at the Sikh temple this summer; the day spa in Milwaukie where three women were killed before the shooter turned the gun on himself. We had a horrific episode earlier in my congressional career in Springfield, Oregon in May of 1998.
It’s hard to have meaningful conservations in a variety of subjects—I was going to deal with that problem with the Fiscal Cliff today—but gun violence is another area in America where it seems we can’t have a discussion without delusional claims of overreach and taking away hunting rifles. Congress won’t even allow statistics on gun violence to be gathered. And we certainly have made no progress towards closing the “gun-show loophole.”
Yet I come today, in the aftermath of this tragedy, with a small ray of hope. When nearly half of all military suicides are committed with [a] privately-owned weapon, the Pentagon and Congress are moving towards establishing policies to separate at-risk service members from personal, private weapons. Congress is poised to enact legislation to end a prohibition about the military collecting information about firearms kept at home.
These are simple, commonsense steps, for an armed services where more military personnel take their own life than who die in battle. Perhaps we can take these reasonable steps not just to protect our service men and their families. Perhaps we can develop the courage to treat the epidemic of gun violence with the same thoughtful small steps when it comes to protecting the rest of our families.
Until then, we will mourn the victims, and thank god that our families were not at that mall.
Thank you, and I yield back.
Consider the source.
I am "haunted" by this idiots entire career.
Blumenauer is dumber than a bag of rocks and anyone that voted for him has only themselves to blame for being an idiot.
Looks like good old Earl is just as dumb as that dbag Ginny Burdick. The two of them ought to go out for a beer and talk about the stupid legislation they can introduce that once again will prove to do absolutely nothing to change the situation. Just a couple of clowns looking for a venue such as this sad one to promote themselves. Get a life you losers.
Riddle me this mister Congressman Earl Blumenauer, why are you so focused on creating new laws on restrictions when the ones on books failed to stop the crime? The law system is reactive at best, it does nothing to prevent crimes from taking place. Murder has been on the books since our laws were first created and these criminals did not mind violating that law, what makes you think that making bans on ammunition capacity or specific rifles will make a single difference? One of the most notorious bank robberies/ police shoot outs happened during the "assault weapons" ban with illegally modified "assault rifles". That was called the North Hollywood shoot out and the most notorious school shooting (Columbine) also rocked the nation during the ban. Laws do nothing to stop crime or prevent it. Only after the crime has been committed is someone charged. Its really too bad that people feel that creating more laws affects those who dont follow the law in the first place. Also if people havent been noticing, all of these shootings happen at places WHERE GUNS ARE NOT PRESENT. Malls, place of worship and schools are always where it happens. If someone would at least fix this, suddenly our problems become mitigated. Time to figure out what common sense is mister congressman.
 @commonsense33Â
 It's just the mindset of liberal, progressive, socialist that when somebody does something wrong oh let's create a law never noticing it's already illegal. Â
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When will people finally figure out that these liberal progressive socialist Democrats intend on changing you from citizens to subjects.
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every catchphrase, the libgressive's use is incorrect, but is designed to make you think they're doing something good when in fact there taking your rights away or deteriorating society, to the detriment of all.
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Gathering stats about the violence? Oh, we can do that. It's easy. Every time there is a gun shot to kill another, someone gets hurt or killed.Â
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Now, if a psychological statistics gathering were to take place, that would be different. You see, not all the shooters are alive after the shooting, so we don't know what they were thinking at the time.Â
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Maybe a different approach should be a psychological evaluation of each would-be gun owner to see if they even qualify to have a gun in their possession. And a mandatory gun safe to be sold at the same time as the gun, to ensure that there is at least one possible safe place for the gun.
This is just shocking that an elected official would use an event like this to push their agenda.Â
Mr. BowTie is the poster child of self serving politicians that are not about to get a tragedy like this go by without getting his name/photo in the press.
And even though the gun was STOLEN that the suspect used, Earl baby will still use this as an example to push more gun restrictions.
 @kramr That is because Earl is an idiot and proves it once again. All he did now is remind us what a freakin buffoon he is. This guy is a joke and an embarrassment to the State of Oregon.Â
Ban politicians who try to infringe on our CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT, 'WHICH SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED'.
Blumanure is one of the most worthless politicians this state has ever sent to Washington, and yet he keeps his job.
Recall all politicians who wish to degrade our constitutional rights.
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 @Jack_Bauer I was thinking tar and feather... or something...
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 @wahoo Because it did so much good the first time, right?
The suspect STOLE the firearm used. No law would have kept him from obtaining the weapon.
My thought this knuckle head politician needs to shut up. Nothing wrong with offering condolences.... Political posturing..... barf. :(
They are going to start tracking people who purchase guns? Time to purchase one before this happens!
Outlaw guns and only outlaws will have guns ( Also you take away the last defense from an oppressive government, that is why our forefathers had the foresight to guarantee our right to carry firearms).
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Since I am positive that the goofball management at the Town Center has posted no firearms on the doors  , I am assuming that All us CHL holders were following the trespass laws associated with the posting and  stayed far away from that location even though a concealed firearm never is an issue.
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We choose to stay away from businesses that discriminate against us and dont like to give them our money.
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But I can see that the posting did not work on keeping this maggot from walking in with a Semi automatic sport rifle( Assault rifles are fully automatic and are legal in oregon to own ,by the way ) openly and unconcealed.
They talk about gun violence then go want to go after the tool not the cause of the violence.
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Guns are just a tool that can be great fun. In our house it is a family event to go to the local gun club with my girls and spend 3 hours putting holes in paper or shooting clays. When you walk in your surrounded by hundreds packing everything imaginable yet I feel less at risk then walking down town Portland at night.
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Even at the last machine gun shoot surrounded by 50 plus people with fully automatic weapons I felt safer then being on the Max train late at night.
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Guns are not the problem just a tool people are the problem and that can't be easily fixed...
I don't see this as "grand standing".  I see this, as a representative of his district bringing attention to this tragedy while representing his district in Washington. He's even acknowledging that he is focusing his attention today to the tragedy of yesterday rather than focus on fiscal issues. He admits that he is not trying to take away hunting rifles.Â
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All I see in the text above, is an elected representative, trying to represent his district after a tragic event, and bring awareness to it.Â
 @pdxd From the piece above:
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Itâs hard to have meaningful conservations in a variety of subjectsâI was going to deal with that problem with the Fiscal Cliff todayâbut gun violence is another area in America where it seems we canât have a discussion without delusional claims of overreach and taking away hunting rifles. Congress wonât even allow statistics on gun violence to be gathered. And we certainly have made no progress towards closing the âgun-show loophole.â Â
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Yet I come today, in the aftermath of this tragedy, with a small ray of hope. When nearly half of all military suicides are committed with [a] privately-owned weapon, the Pentagon and Congress are moving towards establishing policies to separate at-risk service members from personal, private weapons. Congress is poised to enact legislation to end a prohibition about the military collecting information about firearms kept at home.Â
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Sounds to me like he is at least indirectly alluding to the problem without directly saying so.
 @ThePosterFormerlyKnownAsPhredE  @pdxd THERE IS NO 'GUN SHOW LOOP HOLE' you friggen moron.
And how do you have any kind of serious 'discussion' about removing constitutional rights?
Cant happen.
The left using this to promote their agenda.
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I would rather live in a free society with the dangers associated with it than in a totalitarian society that severely limits freedom and privacy but is very safe.
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Governments have killed more people in one hour than all the mass murders in the history of the world.
 @RalphCramden And I liked your reminder (on another thread) that both Hitler and Stalin were also big proponents of 'gun control'.  Hey, there was quite a lot of 'gun control' in societies run by both of those leaders and how safe were they??? Hmmmmm.
 @ThePosterFormerlyKnownAsPhredE I'm a democrat, I don't believe in taking away guns. In fact, I support those who wish to have guns, and obtain them legally after passing background checks. I think anyone would need to be in denial if they think criminals don't obtain guns though illegal means. If someone who passes criminal background checks and wishes to obtain a gun, I don't see a darned thing wrong with that. But that doesn't mean that I would go out and seek vigilante justice or try to pretend to play hero.
 @ThePosterFormerlyKnownAsPhredE The problem stems in the access provided to the "bad guys" and guns. Please educate the rest of us as to how you would intend to keep guns from "bad people". By the way, I think you're still full of scat.
 @pdxd Google the name Jeanne Assam.
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Most of the time, when a chance encounter occurs between random shooter and someone with a CHL, the CHL carrying person neither desires to be thrust into the situation, seeks such a situation, etc. Â but once is fully aware of the circumstances and the possibility that they might stand between the shooter and many more innocents being killed, will at least TRY to step in and do something. Â In the Assam example, she was both highly qualified, used appropriate level of force commensurate with the situation, and, most importantly, had good aim. Â Many bystanders credit her with saving many people that day.
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I used to be a Dem, but decided they just are too full of bovine scat to represent my views. Â I'm Independent in detail and spirit. Â The Dems that are in favor of gun control just can't understand nor admit that bad guys are the root of the problem, not the guns.
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Interestingly, and in a related way, I had a conversion some time back with a person that has very eager to do thorough background checks on everyone with the idea that would prevent child molesting and similar crimes.  While I am most certainly against child molesters and all the horrible things they do to kids, I pointed out that checking innocent people that does NOTHING to help protect the kids.  Of course, finding and keeping the bad guys away always helps. But, it does no good to punish or put in place onerous procedures that investigate or probe into innocent people's situation -- there is nothing there to be found. Then, the typical retort are comments akin to: 'but, you can never be too careful', 'we should do everything possible to protect children', 'you never know who the perverts are', etc. etc.  But, I finished up that by expending effort to check out the innocent people, not only are you unnecessarily burdening people that don't deserve such  burden, we collectively, are directing resources away from better monitoring/checking the known bad guys.  Gun crimes are no different.  Focus on the known bad guys, the the problem will eventually get better.
Grand standing a tragic event. How sad.Â
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This isn't news.
 @WebFootSTi ... so typical - and watch for reactions and more Blumenauer's coming
out of the woodwork....then watch for the control idiots creeping behind them....guess it gives them something to talk about because they sure as heck are doing nothing else....
 @WebFootSTi He's an idiot. You can easily dismiss what comes out of his flapping jaws.
@WebFootSTi That would be Earl "The Pearl" Blumenauer. Never pass up an opportunity to grandstand.