Monday, October 17, 2011

Nine Months After Giffords Shooting, GOP Congressman Jokes ‘You Have To Have Shot Someone’ To Win Office In Arizona

By Marie Diamond/Think Progress


After the mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona, in January that claimed six lives and wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D), politicians from both parties pledged to clean up their violent rhetoric. But apparently this lesson was lost on Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) who made light of gun violence during a congressional hearing on Friday.
REP. STEVE COHEN (D-TN): If you have a law in Arizona and they don’t have that prohibition in Ohio the person in Ohio who comes to Arizona can have a gun when they couldn’t have one in Arizona. I know in Arizona you have to have a gun.
FRANKS: In Arizona sometimes to gain office you have to have shot someone. I’m joking, of course. I hope that the media understands that.
Watch it, courtesy of Political Correction:
Despite his immediate qualification that he was merely joking, Franks’ record speaks volumesabout how much he values gun safety. In the wake of the Tucson shooting, he infamously said, “I wish there had been one more gun” that day. Franks latest insensitive comments about gun violence in Arizona make it seem like Jared Loughner, the man accused of the Tuscon shooting, is the logical successor to Giffords.
Franks made his comments while the House Judiciary Committee was considering Rep. Louie Gohmert’s (R-TX) radical bill that would allow, among other things, people from states with concealed carry laws to bring guns to DC, despite it being forbidden by local gun regulations. Franks voted down Democratic amendments that would have prevented sex offenders, people on the Terrorist Watch List, those with misdemeanor convictions for stalking, and domestic abusers who have restraining orders against them from carrying guns legally outside their home states.

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