Sorry that I missed a day, folks! Today's Hillary News & Views is packed to the brim to make up for it.
Clinton's continued push for gun control provided a powerful moment on the campaign trail with the mother of a Sandy Hook shooting victim.
CNNreports:
Hillary Clinton grew emotional on the campaign trail Monday while introducing a mother whose child was killed during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.Clinton shared video from the event on Twitter:Clinton got choked up while bringing on to the stage Nicole Hockley, the mother of Dylan Hockley, a 6-year-old killed in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.
The families of those killed in Newtown "have taken the unimaginable grief that they have been bearing and have tried to be the voices" for gun violence victims, Clinton said, her voice breaking.
"I want you to introduce yourself and maybe talk about what you and other parents are trying to do to get the changes that are necessary," Clinton said, turning to Hockley.Clinton had met Hockley in a photo line before the event, according to aides, who said the interaction was not planned before the event. During the meeting in the photo line, Clinton asked Hockley if she would tell her story at the town hall, aides said.
Hockley went on to tell the story of losing her son in the shooting and her efforts to push gun control legislation.
Clinton unveiled new proposals to rein in gun violence in details released overnight, which included closing the background check loophole for gun shows.
Nicole Hockley—mother of Sandy Hook victim Dylan and founder of @sandyhook—joined Hillary's gun violence town hall.
https://t.co/...
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 5, 2015Slatedescribed Clinton's gun show loophole proposal as "clever":
Hillary Clinton on Monday renewed her call for aggressive new gun safety measures aimed at curbing domestic violence and mass shootings, an effort that the Democratic front-runner has been pushing with increasing force since this summer’s Charleston, South Carolina, massacre. This time, however, Hillary is promising something different: a way forward even if gun rights advocates continue to block such efforts in Congress."I will try every way I can to get those guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them," she told voters at a breakfast town hall in New Hampshire on Monday. "We need to prevent these kinds of terrible crimes that are happening."
According to her campaign, even if Congress were unwilling to act, Clinton would be able to use her executive authority to tweak the existing rules to reclassify anyone who sells a “significant number of guns” as someone “in the business of selling firearms”—a distinction that would make those high-volume private vendors who sell guns at gun shows and over the Internet subject to the same rules as larger, licensed brick-and-mortar retailers. Clinton doesn’t appear to have settled on an answer to the question of just how many guns constitute a “significant” number, but even if her chosen definition didn’t close the loophole completely, it would at least shrink it.
Such an effort could face legal challenges in the courts and, at the very least, a guaranteed NRA-led political freakout in Washington. And, even if the effort survived both, it wouldn’t come close to ending gun violence in the United States. But for gun safety advocates and like-minded voters who are desperate for action on a problem that can feel politically impossible, Clinton’s outside-the-box plan will be a welcome start.
Huffington Postreports on her calls for a national movement and her biting response to Jeb! Bush saying, "stuff happens":
Clinton's plan includes a repeal of the legal immunity gun manufacturers and dealers received under a law passed by Congress in 2005, something the NRA and other groups would be sure to fight against. But one way to defeat the NRA, Clinton argued, would be to counteract the group's political power with a new organization for gun owners who would be open to more restrictions on firearms.Clinton has been reinforcing her message about gun control on Twitter, also including support from Gabrielle Giffords:
"Ideally, what I would love to see is gun owners, responsible gun owners, hunters, form a different organization and take back the Second Amendment from these extremists," she said.Clinton said last week after a mass shooting at a community college in Oregon that "a national movement" was needed to demonstrate to legislators intimidated by the NRA that a majority of Americans support stronger background checks for gun sales.
Clinton also criticized former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, for saying that when "stuff happens," like mass shootings, it isn't always appropriate for there to be "more government" or government intervention.
"Governor Bush said, 'Yeah, stuff happens.' No. That’s an admission of defeat and surrender to a problem that is killing 33,000 Americans," Clinton said.
Hillary’s commonsense steps will help reduce gun violence and save lives, say @GabbyGiffords and @ShuttleCDRKelly. pic.twitter.com/Q6kczch6Cy
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 6, 2015We must act to stop gun violence, and we cannot wait any longer. pic.twitter.com/3Qiew1BXiU
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 6, 2015The law has special protections to shield the gun industry from responsibility.
It's time for that to change.
— The Briefing (@TheBriefing2016) October 5, 2015“It's time for us to say, we're better than this." Hillary's plan to prevent gun violence: http://t.co/...pic.twitter.com/xhJW1eY9sB
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 6, 2015Protecting communities should be our number one priority—not the interests of the NRA. pic.twitter.com/FkAaMqJSNN
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 6, 2015We must act to stop gun violence, and we cannot wait any longer. pic.twitter.com/6l4LntGWh1
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 5, 2015We cannot sit by while more people die. pic.twitter.com/oeWiP3rg4Z
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 5, 2015When it comes to preventing gun violence, we cannot give up. pic.twitter.com/6zFlkLenGI
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 5, 2015If Congress refuses to act to end this epidemic of gun violence, I'll take administrative action to do so. -H
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 5, 2015As president, I'll push to close background check loopholes like the "Charleston loophole" that let the shooter get a gun. -H
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 5, 2015Military-style assault weapons do not belong on our streets.
— Hillary for NH (@HillaryforNH) October 5, 2015"It’s time for us to say, wait a minute. We’re better than this. Our country is better than this."—Hillary on gun violence
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 5, 2015