Posted: 7/26/2006 7:20:33 AM EDT
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U.S. Senate Bids to Ban Emergency Gun Confiscation But one prominent Democrat, among others, is opposed http://www.officer.com/article/artic...ion=1&id=31738 Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) charges a Republican-backed amendment that prohibits the confiscation of guns during an emergency puts police officers and first responders in danger. The amendment, sponsored by Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), was added to the Homeland Security appropriations bill during a July 13 Senate vote. During the rescue and response after Hurricane Katrina police officers and first responders had to pull back from rescuing victims because they were being shot at by snipers. The amendment "prohibits the confiscation of a firearm during an emergency or major disaster if the possession of such firearm is not prohibited under Federal or State law." Kennedy accuses the Republican leadership of backing "another special-interest, anti-law enforcement measure that strips away the rights of law enforcement to respond to public safety emergencies." Kennedy also accuses the National Rifle Association of setting the Senate's Republican agenda. "This proposal is part of the NRA's nationwide campaign to target the nation's Mayors and Police Chiefs. With fear tactics and inflammatory rhetoric, the NRA is looking for pledges that the people protecting our communities will never confiscate a weapon during a natural disaster. The NRA's perverse response to the devastating tragedy caused by Hurricane Katrina has been to launch an aggressive fund-raising campaign to undermine the very law enforcement and public safety officials who protect us during times of crisis," Kennedy says in a prepared statement. But Republicans were not the only backers of the amendment. Several key Democrats also voted in favor of the provision. Democratic Sens. Robert Byrd (WV), Barack Obama (IL), Ben Nelson (NE), Bill Nelson (FL), John Rockefeller IV (WV), Evan Bay (IN), Jeff Bingaman (NM), Russ Feingold (WI), Patty Murray (WA), Joseph Biden (DE), Patrick Leahy (VT), Joseph Lieberman (CT) and Mary Landrieu (LA) all voted in favor of the amendment |
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Oh come on guys, Ted isn't that bad. Would a bad person have called the police to tell them where to find the girl at the bottom of the harbor in the car that he was driving while drunk? Also, I don't like how people make a big deal about how it took hours to sober up before calling the cops; you know that must have been real stress full for the poor guy. I hope you know that was sarcasm. |
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On July 18, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island near the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, which was intended to be a reunion of those who had worked on his brother Robert's 1968 presidential campaign. All but one of the male guests were married and attending without their wives, and all of the female guests were single. Kennedy drove away with party guest Mary Jo Kopechne as a passenger in his 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88. According to Kennedy, he made a wrong turn onto an unlit road that led to Dike Bridge (also spelled Dyke Bridge), a wooden bridge angled obliquely to the road with no guardrail, and drove over its side. The car plunged into tide-swept Poucha Pond (at that location a channel) and came to rest upside down underwater. Kennedy was able to swim free of the vehicle, but Kopechne was not. Kennedy claims he tried several times to swim down to reach her, then rested on the bank for several minutes before returning on foot to the Lawrence Cottage, where the party attended by Kopechne and other "Boiler Room Girls" had occurred. Joseph Gargan (Kennedy's cousin) and party co-host Paul Markham then returned to the pond with Kennedy to try to rescue Kopechne. Although there was a telephone at the Lawrence Cottage, nobody called for help. When their efforts to rescue Kopechne failed, Kennedy decided to return to his hotel on the mainland. As the Edgartown-Chappaquiddick ferry had shut down for the night, Kennedy swam across the 500-foot channel, back to Edgartown. Kennedy discussed the accident with several people, including his lawyer and Kopechne's parents, before he contacted the police more than 10 hours after the accident. The next morning, the police recovered Kennedy's car. Kopechne's body was discovered by diver John Farrar, who observed that a large amount of air was released from the car when it was righted in the water, and that the trunk, when opened, was remarkably dry. These observations coupled with the position that the diver found her body (with her head toward the floor of the car where any trapped air would be because the car was lying on its roof) have led some to believe that Kopechne had not drowned, but suffocated in an air pocket within the car. No autopsy was performed and the precise cause of death is unknown. The incident quickly became a scandal. Kennedy was criticized for allegedly driving drunk, for failing to save Kopechne, for failing to summon help immediately, and for contacting not the police but rather his lawyer first. Kennedy entered a plea of guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. He received a sentence of two months in jail, which was suspended. An Edgartown grand jury later reopened the investigation but did not return an indictment. The case resulted in much satire directed against Kennedy, including a National Lampoon page showing a floating Volkswagen Beetle with the remark that Kennedy would have been elected President had he been driving a Beetle that night; this satire allegedly resulted in legal action by Volkswagen complaining of unauthorized use of its trademark. |
All that I would add is that TWO pocketbooks were found in the car, ID missing from both, and that Mary Jo Kopechne's roommate was later found murdered during the Watergate scandal. (Her roommate was also the secretary at the DNC Watergate office.) Six degrees of seperation indeed! BTW-CT is a fine state, but the politicos are morons.  |
DAMN! Some of these names are down right astonishing! |
You have no idea. Finding a MA liberal who can make any kind of intelligent response is like waking up with a gold brick in your ass. It ain't gonna happen.
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Uh, yeah, that would be ILLEGAL - so you can take the "snipers" guns. |
