From Mark Pazniokas, CT Mirror:
The shooting deaths of 17 high school students and staff in Parkland, Fla., briefly focused eight Republican candidates for governor Wednesday night on the question of whether they would stand by or revise the sweeping gun-control measure passed in Connecticut five years ago after the massacre of 20 first-graders and six educators in Sandy Hook.
No one called for changes in the ban on the sale of large-capacity magazines, AR-15s and other military-style semi-automatic weapons or the background checks required on purchasers of firearms and ammunition. In fact, seven of the eight declined an invitation to say anything about the gun control law that was a major issue in the GOP’s 2014 primary for governor.
… On stage with Srinivasan were Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, businessman Steve Obsitnik, former U.S. Comptroller General Dave Walker, immigration lawyer Peter Lumaj, Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, former Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst, and Mike Handler, a top city finance official in Stamford. Two others, Bob Stefanowski and David Stemerman, declined to attend.
Getting a seat on stage required being a declared candidate and having raised at least $125,000, the midpoint to the $250,000 in small-dollar contributions necessary to qualify for public financing grants of $1.25 million for a primary and $6 million for the general election.
Full story here.
Lumaj said he would issue an executive order requiring security in every school. Of course Lumaj didn’t say how he would pay for that security in every school.
Looks like the local Republicans are afraid to take a side till Washington does.Would have loved to hear one of these hopefuls come out and have the guts.
And I must say,when I heard Trump suggest that we arm our teachers,I couldn’t believe my ears.He says alot of crazy things,but that may be the dumbest..
Trump is doing what many Americn politicians have done, watching which way the voters are heading and then running to the front of the issue. He supports strngthening background checks, arming school teachers, etc. Political expediency, doncha know.
Just so you know teachers in Israel are carrying guns and train weekly. Do you think that if that teacher who sacrificed himself protecting the kids had a gun maybe most of these kids would be alive.
Andy,you can’t compare a nation like Israel,who requires every able bodied 18 year old to join their Army & be trained on how to handle guns and protect their country,to our country.I for one wouldn’t be comfortable with my kids teachers carrying guns.There is too much that can go wrong with the scenario.Instead,perhaps have a police officer or some other kind of trained personal at every school.Anything really,rather than arming the teachers.Let’s take it one step further,how about when we send our kids to summer camp?,should the people who run them be armed also?
Republicans are pansies on the gun issue.check public records. It would not be surprising if mny of the GOP candidates for governor took money from the NRA. Senator Marco Rubio and NRA mouthpiece Dana Loesch took a lot of heat from a town hall audience of Parkland, Florida, residents, an audience that included survivors and the parents of victims. Even the county sheriff was critical.
Well at least Mr Rubio showed up and took the heat,shame on the governor for his no show…and Dana Loesch was in a no win situation there,but again,she showed up..
Dana Loesch was there because that is her job.
Trump held a taking session at the White House. Survivors and victim’s relatives, including a few Sandy Hook parents, we’re in attendance. It was all for show. His list of canned responses was caught by photographers. One was “I hear you.” Really? That just sin’t the same as listening. Then he made a statement about arming teachers. That went over like a turd in a punch bowl. Within nnoseconds the White House press office went into spin mode, “clarifying” The Donald’s statements by putting words in his mouth. Well done with ketchup.
*nanoseconds
No one could possibly be surprised that these Republicans took a noncommittal approach to this question. This is the ostrich school of dealing with issues, stick your head in the sand, you cant see or hear and hopefully they’ll quit asking the questions.
This Bridgeport Democrat returned to Notre Dame High School in West Haven last evening to hear candidates for the office of Governor of the State of CT talk about the issues…..all of them. (Mr. Panziokas is so hung on guns at the moment that he did not provide comment on the material differences the way these candidates would frame the State story to create the overall quality of life enjoyed during my earlier years and the fiscal descent at State levels that has folks departing including the educated young on net at this time.
When will the subject come around to the practical issues of effectiveness in governance (doing the right things) and efficiency as well (doing the right things correctly)? Does anyone care?
I re-visited the campus I attended where I graduated in the Class of 1960. There were 500 people in attendance, and obviously Democrats were in a minority. BUt there were students interested in political activity manning the volunteer table tracking speaker times, and a respectful spirit for the rules of the engagement by all parties. I am hopeful as we come closer to party gatherings that candidates can and will enunciate specific ways to deal with the fiscal sickness of our state. Time will tell.
The Republican candidates for governor demonstrated the lack of leadership and how gutless they are in not talking about gun control especially after what happen in Newtown with the shooting death of 20 babies 5 years ago and Peter Lumaj, Prasad Srinivasan, Dave Walker, Mark Boughton, Mike Handler, Mark Lauretti, Steve Obsitnik, and Tim Herbst all were scare to speak up.
Well today Wayne LaPierre, the head of the National Rifle Association (NRA) spoke to the conservative conference CPAC this morning and he gave 45 and the Republican Party their marching order and their talking points. Ethan Book will be using those talking points on OIB.
I watched that. Donald Trump blmed mental illness, video games and Warner Brothers cartoons. Dana Loesch and Wayne La Pierre whipped out the old warhorse “They want to abolish the Second Amendment!”
Ethan Book ordered a “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” hat and a lifetime supply of Trump Flavored Drink Mix. Put the hat on drink the magic beverage and you too will see Donld Trump riding a golden chariot drawn by shiny white horses.
What did the mayors and the governor in Connecticut do for their schools after what happened in Newtown?
I dunno, Gary. Enlighten us.
TBK I find it hard to believe you don’t know what your city/town elected mayor and or state elected governor did in response to Newtown. You have more voice and knowledge on the 2nd Amendment, guns & rifles, gun control, psychological profiles, the psychological fall out from video games and gun violent in Hollywood movies and you don’t know what your elected representatives did to “better the safety of our kids in schools”? It’s been 5 plus years, December 2012, since the incident and you don’t see the improvements?
Maybe you know what the President of the U.S. and/or the house reps and/or the senate reps did in response to the Newtown Shooting 5 years ago?
It was all for show.
Fat lot of good it did in Bridgeport. There were two shootings yesterday.
No Gary, I do not see the improvements. I live in Bridgeport. There were twenty-three homicides last year, the majority committed with a firearm. Last week two shooting victims showed up at Saint Vincent’s Medical Center ER. A Bridgeport man was arrested in Stratford after brandishing a rifle and threatening to blow off another man’s head.
The system failed Nikolas Cruz. He was in desperate need of mental health treatment. More importantly, system failed the seventeen victims in Parkland, Florida. Cruz was on the radar. The Broward County Sheriff’s Office knew he was unstable, as did the FBI. Both agencies fouled the ball.
On the night of October 1, 2017, a gunman opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, leaving 58 people dead and 851 injured. 64-year-old Stephen Paddock fired more than 1,100 rounds from his suite on the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel.
Congress responded to both insidents (and Columbine and the shootings in Texas and California) with “thoughts and prayers” as if that’s going to raise the dead and make it all better. Pardon my cynicism. I’m reminded of Jim Morrison:
“When I was back there in seminary school there was a man that put forth the proposition you can petition the Lord with prayer. Petition the Lord with prayer. Petition the Lord with Prayer… YOU CANNOT PETITION THE LORD WITH PRAYER!”
Money was cut from the school budget by both the city and state, that’s what they did.
NRA latest ad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrnIVVWtAag
Dana Loesch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YdKWd4Qk-U
Dave Walker go back to your large house and forget about running for governor. You are a gutless clone of all politicians afraid to take on the NRA and all the nuts that own guns. How many more kids need to die before you and the rest of the political asshole do something.