Quotes of the day

Reid, who told me he has “lots of guns” that he keeps for “sentimental reasons,” said he wants to “get something done on guns” and expressed support for universal background checks. He said he’d consider other proposals such as limiting gun magazine capacity and said he’d “take a look” at the ban on assault weapons, which Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., strongly supports. Reid added that the influential NRA would not single-handedly prevent action to prevent gun violence.

“I’ve been supported by the NRA on occasion. I know Wayne LaPierre, he’s always been extremely pleasant to me. We have a good relationship. So, I am not here to demean the organization,” he said. “Just because they resist it doesn’t mean we can’t do things. I mean– we have a lotta special interest groups that come and complain about things…we’ll listen to them and make the right decision.

As the nation continues to confront the concept of “good guys with guns” in schools, armed guards are coming in force to Newtown, Connecticut. Late Thursday the Newtown Board of Education voted to request the presence of two kinds of guards inside the town’s elementary schools. The vote, for now, only represents a request — it still needs to clear budget and logistical boundaries since the guards would come from the town’s police resources as opposed to the school board itself. But the plan “would put two eyes and ears — one armed, one unarmed — at each Newtown school,” reports Bronxville Patch’s Davis Dunavin. The guards, officially called school resource officers (SROs), were already a fixture at all Newtown schools in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, but until this vote they were budgeted only to be a presence at middle and high Schools, according to NBC Connecticut.

From reports of the school-board meeting, concerned parents cited the Sandy Hook shootings as their reason for backing an armed-guard policy. “The only thing that stopped that guy that day was when the two Newtown police burst in the building,” one parent is quoted as saying in the Patch story. “You all know that.” Which sounds eerily familiar to the NRA’s “good guy with a gun” talking point, even though the Obama administration has backed armed guards if schools want them.

An immigration debate is raging and a budget crisis looms in Congress, but the conservative activists gathered outside the New Hampshire Statehouse had just one thing on their minds: guns…

Many activists aren’t happy with the GOP’s sudden embrace of more lenient immigration proposals and they’re monitoring the approaching congressional deadline to avoid massive cuts to military programs. But for now at least, the debate over guns and the perceived threat of losing them tops their list.

It’s an “organic” movement with little coordination from national conservative organizations, according to Amy Kremer, chairman of the Tea Party Express. “It’s happening by itself,” she said.

The Rev Jesse Jackson has appealed to Barack Obama to “please come home” to Chicago and address the crisis in American urban life following the fatal shooting of a teenager less than a mile from Obama’s house in the city.

“The president’s voice is so urgently needed here,” said Jackson, arguing that Obama’s presence would help draw attention to the complexity of the economic and social problems affecting areas like Chicago that compound problems related to gun violence. “[That alone] would illuminate the condition.”…

“My greatest fear in Chicago is that we might be adjusting to it,” said Jackson. “We might be taking death for granted.”

And you never heard about this: the Pearl, MS high school shooting was stopped by Assistant Principal Joel Myrick. In violation of federal law, he went to his truck and got his .45 semi-automatic pistol. Nor do we hear about the up to two million times a year that citizens use guns to thwart murder, rape, assault, robbery, etc. The media ignore these stories because they don’t fit their narrative…

We need a balanced study on guns – and not from the hysterical hyenas on either side of the issue. With the results, and after the emotion of a school shooting has faded and reason can prevail, perhaps we can reduce some of the bureaucracy surrounding gun ownership and dispel some of the myths. Only 323 deaths last year were caused by assault weapons; 496 Americans were killed with hammers and 650 with knives; 12,000 people died because of drunk drivers. Millions of Americans are dying from obesity-related causes; perhaps a one-week waiting period to buy a Twinkie is next? Or shall we confiscate all forks?

We really need to move slowly and within the bounds of sensibility on this issue. There are some 300 million guns in America now. And, like the 12 million illegal aliens already here, they ain’t going away.

On Sunday, LaPierre continued his efforts to stem momentum for new gun-control legislation in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. He contended that a universal background check would not be workable, in part because of the lack of digitized mental health records and the fact that criminals would not seek out guns in that fashion.

“It’s a fraud to call it universal. It’s never going to be universal,” he said. “The criminals aren’t going to cooperate with it, they could care less…we ought to call it the check on law-abiding citizens of this country.”

“Even the most rabid haters of guns, people who would argue for a gun ban, have many good points on their side,” Harris began by saying. “And the gun nuts have many good points on their side.”

• Pew: Plurality of Democrats support DOJ’s phone-records dragnet against the Associated Press while GOP, indies oppose
• Here we go: IRS official Lois Lerner to plead the Fifth at congressional hearing tomorrow
• AP: U.S. officials have identified five Benghazi suspects — but won’t seize them because there’s not enough evidence to prosecute yet

Blowback