Police ask Obama to push for background checks on gun purchases

By NEDRA PICKLER

World Jan. 29, 2013 - 12:32PM JST ( 2 )

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Elbuda MexicanoJan. 29, 2013 - 02:47PM JST

The American police are asking the president of the USA to do this, let me guess what the silly bastards at the NRA have to say about this, it is a communist/socialist propaganda?? IT IS UN-AMERICAN, etc....right??
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Surf O'HolicJan. 29, 2013 - 03:17PM JST

" The American police are asking the president of the USA to do this,"

@elbuda, did you read the article? The proposals are not FROM the law enforcement people, nor was there unanimity nor even consensus. Note the following :

" Opinions over an assault weapons ban and limits on high capacity magazines — two measures the president supports — were divided in the room. While Manger said police chiefs from large cities support that kind of gun control, some of the elected sheriffs who were in the meeting may not.

“I think what was made clear was that gun control in itself is not the salvation to this issue,” said Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald of Story County, Iowa, one of 13 law enforcement leaders who met with the president, vice president and Cabinet members …"

" “He did not ask us if we do or do not support an assault weapons ban,” said Hennepin County, Minnesota, Sheriff Richard Stanek, president of the Major County Sheriffs’ Association. “He did not ask us if we do or do not support high capacity magazines.”

“I told him very candidly that this isn’t just about gun control alone,” Stanek said. He said the bigger issue is that the Justice Department’s system for background checks is incomplete since many states don’t report mental health data or felony convictions."

" Fitzgerald said the mental health system needs to be better funded because jails across the country are becoming “dumping grounds for the mentally ill.”

“I was not the only sheriff that spoke up on that issue,” Fitzgerald said. “To me, that is the No. 1 thing if we are going to impact that kind of violence that’s happening in America.”

" While the assault weapons ban was not a major focus of the White House meeting, participants say it was discussed at length at a later meeting with Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who sponsored a ban in 1994 that lasted for a decade and last week introduced a renewal of the ban in Congress.

“I would say her message was not well received overall by the group,” Stanek said. “Everyone has an opinion on it one way or another.”