the truth of the matter is these are human beings. and the toughest thing i have to do is go to a hospital, try to get there before the parents or the spouse or the children get there, and i take it on as my responsibility as mayor to look them in the eye and tell them that their loved one s never coming home. and you do that, you really start to understand this is not just numbers, it s not just slogans, it s not just business, this is human life. these are people who are on this earth along with you and me and they have a right to live safely. and we talk about democracy. democracy is being able to walk the streets not looking over your shoulder. and if everybody s armed, i don t think you re going to be able to have that. but particularly if you let guns go to the hands of these people who just don t have the wherewithal or the credentials under existing federal law to own a gun. an eloquent last word on this subject tonight. mr. mayor, thank you very much for joining me once agai
you know 2012 is just around the corner, and pundits are falling over themselves to handicap the race. will the gop choose mitt romney, sarah palin, or just a gun with a flag pin? a gun with a flag pin might poll quite well in mitt romney s home state, utah, where late yesterday the utah state house voted 51-19 in favor of making this gun, the browning m-1911, the official state gun. don t remember learning your official state gun when you were in elementary school? that s because your state has no state gun. no state has an official state gun. utah would be the first state to equate a gun with flowers, birds, trees, vegetables, farm animals, and all the other things that states officially adopt as theirs.
according to the sponsor of this legislation, republican representative carl wimmer, this bill honoring the gun and its utah native inventor, john moses browning, is an appropriate and fitting tribute to a utah icon. this firearm has defended liberty and freedom. the same firearm, of course, has also wantonly murdered an untold number of innocent people since it was introduced 100 years ago. but there are voices of reason in the utah state house. one of them democratic representative carol moss, who was among the first to oppose this legislation, saying, someone once gave me this advice don t speak against guns. now i m going to break that advice. it seems insensitive at this time when people are mourning the death of six people in tucson and the serious wounding of congresswoman gabby giffords, a friend of mine. salt lake tribune reporter david montero told us during the
or 90% say they re in favor of enforcing the laws that say you cannot buy a gun without a background check and ending the loopholes. so if their own members think that this is reasonable, why is congress so afraid of them and why are elected leaders across the country? well, when you came out and said that and said this is what we should do, and knowing that nra membership thinks it s a perfectly reasonable position, the n rachlt leadership had something else to say. the nra political cunningham, called you mayor blame. he said he likes to blame everyone else for violent crime in new york city. he s also blamed mother nature for his recent problems with snow removal. he s not after illegal guns. he s after your guns. and that s a real snow job. by the way, congratulations on the snow removal today in new york city. we did a good job today. 20 inches. very impressive. the truth of the matter is they don t pay any attention. the constitution says you have a right to bear arms.
and we have to do something about that. there are 400,000 americans that have been killed since robert kennedy and martin luther king jr. were killed back in 68, i guess it was. 400,000 americans killed with guns. that is roughly the number of americans killed in world war ii. the political surrender on this that seems to have occurred in this past decade is basically the success of the nra as the greatest lobbying operation in the history of lobbying, especially when you consider how tough their case is. their case is we want to keep all this stuff available so you can all be victims of this at some point in time. it s really quite mind-boggling. it s not that big a group. and when you survey the people who are gun owners and the people who are nra members, 80% or 90% of them say they re in favor of a registry of people who have psychiatric problems, drug dealers, criminals, and 80% or 90% say they re in favor of enforcing the laws that say you cannot buy a gun without a