This pair should have been denied entry into Alaska

http://www.adn.com/2013/07/02/2961220/kelly-and-giffords-lobby-in-alaska.html

By DAN JOLING — Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Background checks on people who want to buy firearms at gun shows wouldn't prevent all of the nearly three dozen murders a day in America or the 10 mass shootings a year, the husband of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords said Tuesday.

Some of those tragedies, however, would be stopped, Mark Kelly told reporters.

"We'll prevent some of them if we take some reasonable steps that most Americans agree on," Kelly said.

Giffords, a former Arizona congresswoman who survived an assassination attempt on Jan. 8, 2011, and Kelly, a former combat pilot and astronaut who flew four space shuttle missions, traveled to the heart of gun-rights country to make a case for expanding background checks.

Proposed legislation also would require criminal background checks for Internet sales.

Giffords and Kelly founded the group Americans for Responsible Solutions after Giffords was wounded. This week, they began a seven-state, "Rights and Responsibilities Tour."

Alaska, where visitors to wilderness areas routinely carry weapons for protection against bears, and where hunting is a way of providing food for others, is seemingly hard ground for the gun control message.

Both of Alaska's U.S. senators, Democrat Mark Begich and Republican Lisa Murkowski, voted in April against extending background checks to gun shows and online sales. Begich said the legislation would have undermined Alaskans' Second Amendment rights.

Kelly disagreed. Walk into any Anchorage gun store, he said, and you'll have to undergo a background check to complete a sale.

"I doubt Sen. Begich would think that's an erosion of his Second Amendment rights. So I'm not sure what that comment means," Kelly said. "Why would it be an erosion of your Second Amendment rights to do that same, exact thing at a gun show? Or if you buy a gun over the Internet?"

He said polling by his group indicates a majority of Americans, including Alaskans, would like to see background checks extended to the 40 percent of gun sales for which background checks are not required.

The FBI website says the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, launched on Nov. 30, 1998, has made more than 100 million checks, leading to 700,000 denials.

Kelly wondered how many people who were denied weapons at stores then went to a show or the internet to buy a gun.

"I imagine, probably some of them," Kelly said. "We could have stopped that. How many crimes were committed? How many lives were lost?"

The main purpose for the trip, he said, was to listen to concerns of Alaska gun owners.

Kelly began his day in the state with target shooting of handguns and hunting rifles at an Anchorage range. He and Giffords in a closed meeting listened to concerns of 11 Alaska gun owners.

Former hunting guide Dave Lyon of Homer said none of the people in the room had a problem with expanded background checks to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill people. There was disagreement, he said, over what defines the criteria for preventing a gun sale.

Jared Loughner, the mentally ill man who shot Giffords, passed a background check to buy his gun, Kelly said.

"There was enough information there about his mental illness," Kelly said. "That should have been in the system. The problem is, even if it was, he probably would have figured out that he could go to a gun show or over the internet."

Giffords and Kelly kicked off the tour in the Las Vegas area on Monday with a visit to the Clark County Shooting Complex. It was the first time Giffords had fired a gun publicly since she was wounded.

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Seems that we DO need background checks- you should have to pass a background check to prove a certain level of intelligence before you can be a legislator. And maybe before you can be a journalist too.

This "over the internet" stuff is a good example. I don't know how you can buy a gun over the internet and not have to go through the background check. From my understanding the only legal way would be to find a seller on the internet that happens to be your neighbor and not a licensed dealer, then meet that person face to face and make the purchase.

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[SPG Edit]

The 'over-the-internet' thing is an example of Die Große Lüge (A.K.A., 'The Big Lie' propaganda technique).

The Nazis didn't invent it, but they definitely nailed it.

Of course, today's hacks are mere posers in comparison, but you have to give them 'credit' for trying. ;-)

Short Version (appears 'all over'; text varies slightly, but the point remains the same)

'Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually the people will believe it.' - Adolf Hitler

'Full' Version (from Wikipedia)

The source of Big Lie [propaganda] technique is this passage, taken from Chapter 10 of James Murphy's translation of Mein Kampf:

But it remained for the Jews, with their unqualified capacity for falsehood, and their fighting comrades, the Marxists, to impute responsibility for the downfall precisely to the man who alone had shown a superhuman will and energy in his effort to prevent the catastrophe which he had foreseen and to save the nation from that hour of complete overthrow and shame. By placing responsibility for the loss of the world war on the shoulders of Ludendorff they took away the weapon of moral right from the only adversary dangerous enough to be likely to succeed in bringing the betrayers of the Fatherland to Justice.

All this was inspired by the principle--which is quite true within itself--that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying. — Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X

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As do pundits, celebrities, and a veritable 'host' of other sleazeballs (LOL).

However, I have to admit I find it difficult to criticize Gabrielle Giffords for taking the position she has, and not just because she was shot: She is a U.S. citizen.

I don't agree with her, but she has a right to her opinion, and she is free to state it.

She is even free to do something about it − which apparently she has.

If I can't change their mind, I can at least 'agree to disagree' with people like that.

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