Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas
Even though Im the new chairman of the Science Spcae & Technology Committee Im still a member of the Judiciary Committee that has jurisdiction over all gun control or reform legislation whatsoever and the disappointment to me is that so many people are using these incredible tragic events like the one in Connecticut the killing of 20 innocent children for their own political purposes.
Not only do they not have the votes to pass anything in the House Im not sure they even have the votes in the Senate. Even though the Democrats control the Senate and Democrats seem more inclined to Gun Control there are 8 Democratic Senators from conservative states up for re-election next time and Im not sure theyre going to want to vote for Gun Control right now.
Harry Reid the Senate Majority Leader is going to be very reluctant to bring up any legislation because hes going to be trying to protect the re-election prospects of his Democratic Senators.
Cong. Lamar Smith former Chairman of House Judiciary Committee on the prospects of Gun Control even being voted on.
There is no connection between the gun contol measures that have been either proposed or introduced as legislation and using those measures in any way to be able to stop any of the violence thats occured.
Not a single one of those provisions would have prevented for instance the tragedy in Connecticut or the tragedy in the movie theater in Colorado or any of the others. People are using those tragedies for political reason which Im disappointed in.
It is my feeling that the House is not going to pass any gun control legslation I cant imagine it getting through the Judiciary Committee that I sit on ... years ago they tried to get some gun control legislation through that comiittee and I was able to show that most of the deer rifles in America would be outlawed so they pulled the legislation & I won an award from the NRA for the effort.
What we ought to be talking about right now is what would make a difference ... whether its more treatment for those with mental illnesses or somehow trying to persuade young people not to watch violent videos for so many hours every day.
Most of those last mass killings had only one common denominator and that was that each of those violent killers watched 2 to 3 hours of violent videos each & every day said Smith.
