Mitchell: Maybe Obama Will Push Gun Control After N. Illinois Shootings

Mitchell: Maybe Obama Will Push Gun Control After N. Illinois Shootings

By Mark Finkelstein (Bio | Archive)
Fri, 02/15/2008 - 06:52 ET

Andrea Mitchell stopped just short of donning an impromptu Obama campaign-advisor hat. But the NBC correspondent has left little doubt she personally feels the time is ripe for Barack Obama to promote gun control as a campaign issue.

Guest co-anchoring today's Morning Joe, Mitchell was discussing yesterday's shootings at Northern Illinois University with Willie Geist.

ANDREA MITCHELL: You know, it does bring to mind all the debates we've had over the years about gun control. I remember covering it on the Hill in the '80s. Of course I know the Bradys and all the efforts they made, and it eventually persuaded Ronald Reagan to switch his position on gun control and depart from what was traditional consersative Republican ideology. And gun control is not yet a big issue in this campaign, but you wonder: Barack Obama is a senator from Illinois. Maybe this will become propelled to the front of the --

WILLIE GEIST: Yes.

My reading of the subtext: bien pensant people in the DC set like me of course favor gun control. Even conservative ideologues like Ronald Reagan are redeemable. Surely the time has come for Barack Obama to step up to the plate.

I wonder what specific law, in addition to the hundreds already on the books, Mitchell believes would have averted these murders?

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To our readers: I have no

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 06:54 ET by Mark Finkelstein

To our readers: I have no trouble viewing the video in IE, but do experience problems in Firefox. Please let me have your experiences.

Works fine in latest

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 07:00 ET by LighthouseJ

Works fine in latest Firefox (2.0.0.12) under Windows XP here.

"Boats are safe in the harbor, but that's not what they're made for." -- Maritime quote

Works for me in Firefox!

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 07:02 ET by motherbelt

Works for me in Firefox! and I still have 1.5

Viewing problem

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 10:07 ET by arbin82

Mark,

I had a problem with firefox and viewing inline videos earlier this week. It was caused (i think) by and update in the Flash Player from adobe.

Brian

I wonder what specific law,

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 06:56 ET by motherbelt

I wonder what specific law, in addition to the hundreds already on the
books, Mitchell believes would have averted these murders?

Well, that's simple, Mark. Don't let bad people get guns. People who might go crazy and shoot other people shouldn't have guns.

What's wrong with you? Every second-grader knows that!!!

I had this conversation last night

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 10:11 ET by arbin82

I had this conversation last night with my mother-in-law. She started to say that we need gun control so that this stuff wouldn't happen. I told her that guns don't kill people, people kill people. I told her that if any of the students had been allowed to carry a concealed weapon (legally) then the tragedy would have been greatly reduced...but alas. I told her that in locations that allow concealed weapons (legal) and have a history of everyday citizens having guns, that crime is surprisingly low. Needless to say the conversation ended this way..."Well it is all very sad...<click>"

Feelings....nothing more than feelings....

Andrea Mitchell, natural born liberal

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 07:03 ET by planetrepublican

Watch it, Andrea, even for your "savior" Obama gun control is the 3rd rail in American politics. Hmmm, maybe this young boy, Obama WOULD be good for us on the right. His inexperience might just be the ticket we need to galvanize our forces and finally defeat these decadent lefties. Maybe as good as Hillary???

By the way, the vid works for me too with Firefox.

Andrea probably got "a

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 07:19 ET by motherbelt

Andrea probably got "a thrill going up [her] leg" when heard about that. At last!! Now, maybe someone would focus on her favorite cause!!

Mrs. Greenspan

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 09:17 ET by Caringwhiteguy

Being married to an old coot like Alan Greenspan, it's probably not often she gets that kind of thrill.

Andrea?

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 10:45 ET by okiehawk44

I've seen ugly men who are prettier than Andrea Mitchell. If you are thinking sex at the same moment your are thinking of Andrea Mitchell, you have really, really bad taste in women.

WHAT THEY REALLY WANT

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 07:39 ET by Der Alte

Its the same old story. Some nut commits a shooting and its time to ban ownership of guns! This is what they really want. Go ahead, Obama, listen to Andrea. As if NRA members, myself included, did not need to be reminded what a threat any democrat and the msm is to guns rights and a reason to vote in november!

It's the instant

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 08:01 ET by MidAmerica

It's the instant notariety provided by the media that is the real problem. We need media control not gun control. These murders will continue until the reports are kept to a bare minimum.

Bingo!

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 12:01 ET by GForce

"" We need media control not gun control."" Well said.

I would love nothing more than to have Obama bring up gun control.

It's exactly what brought down Pope Algore in his bid to be president.

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it"-Aristotle

How about less-control

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 12:08 ET by sarcasmo

And less government, instead? (And Obama's too smart to fall into the gun control trap.)
JMR

If this is winning, I think I'd rather lose...

Maybe, just maybe

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 08:05 ET by c5then

If people were allowed to cary concealed handguns on University campuses like they are in so much of the real world, the nuts wouldn't choose those places to commit their acts of mass murder. Knowing that they will likely be the only person who is armed for a square mile or more probably factors into their deranged decisions.

A proud alumni of Va. Tech.

The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Alan Keyes '08.

The way to stop this from

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 08:06 ET by Hunter12

The way to stop this from happening is to not turn the coverage of the shooter into something that could air on the Biography channel. This guy needs to be referred to as "the Looser" in all future new stories. We had a whole breakdown on the guy from WVA. Copycats appear. Instead of quietly slipping away, the looser acts and gets his 15 minutes of fame postmortem.

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." - Sir Winston Churchill

→ Shooting

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 08:21 ET by Cool Arrow

Don't suppose the Left will go after Sociology graduates, will they?

I'm just sayin' every mass murder at NIU has been committed by a Sociology major.

♣ a seal

A COUPLE OF THINGS...

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 08:24 ET by danybhoy

Did Andrea Mitchell, or any of her fellow dopes in the MSM ever notice that most of these shootings happen in "GUN FREE ZONES"??? Just putting up a sign saying "This Is A Gun Free Zone" does NOT make it safer, it makes the building where these sign are posted a FREE FIRE ZONE if someone does'nt respect the law in the 1st place.

Also, there are a couple of these shooting have been cut short by, wait for it...SOMEONE WITH A GUN. Someone who had a permit to carry ended the terror these murdering @-holes were in the middle of at the time. The shooter in a Utah mall who killed several shoppers was gunned down by an off duty cop. The were a couple of incidents at schools that were ended by people who found out was happening, & went & got their guns, which they HAD LEGAL PERMITS TO CARRY. The carnage was cut short because someone had the sense to fight fire with fire, not with meaningless words.

BTW, Mrs.Greenspan, the 2nd Amendment is a good thing, I just hope you never need it save your life someday. Since you live in & travel in between large cities with very high crime rates, you should think about gettin a conseal & carry permit. You would learn something about guns & learn to respect those who own LEGAL guns, respect & protect the 2nd Amendment.

"Some of us are wise, some of us are otherwise" Mark Levin

You know, if that guy at VT

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 09:00 ET by motherbelt

You know, if that guy at VT had just obeyed the sign that said "Gun Free Zone" and thrown away his gun, nothing bad would have happened.

Let's incorporate remedial

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 09:03 ET by Mark Finkelstein

Let's incorporate remedial reading programs into the new gun laws.

That must be it, Mark; he

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 10:11 ET by motherbelt

That must be it, Mark; he was dyslexic, he had a learning disability!! More money for Head Start!!

When that elderly lady in a

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 09:05 ET by motherbelt

When that elderly lady in a WalMart shot a guy who was threatening people with a large hunting knife, the people involved were more upset with her than they were with the knife-weilding attacker. Says a lot about the mindset, doesn't it? They would have preferred to wait however long it took for the police to get there. Well, maybe the guy would have only hacked up one or two people.....So let's see, Andrea, would you rather have him shot, or yourself hacked to death?

I'm sure Andrea would gladly give her life in defense of "gun control".....

GUNS...

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 09:16 ET by danybhoy

The defination of gun control is...hitting what you are aiming at when you open fire with your gun.

"Some of us are wise, some of us are otherwise" Mark Levin

But... it couldn't have

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 09:39 ET by wiwf

But... it couldn't have happened!!! It was... in a gun-free zone!

The Rocky Mountain Collegian: Illustrating Idiocy

Never a mention by MSM of "gun free" zones

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 10:27 ET by jrich

Why is it that the main stream media (MSM) NEVER, ever mention the fact that shootings such as the one at Northern Illinois University, and earlier at the Illinois shopping mall happened at so-called "gun free" zones?

Also, MSMs don't bother to mention that the state of Illinois is one of only two states that absolutely will not allow its citizens to defend themselves by carrying concealed handguns. In fact, in Chicago you can't ever legally own a handgun.

Illinois citizens should demand that the craven Illinois politicians explain why they continue the failed policies of preventing citizen self-defense, and why they continue, against all logic, to maintain defenseless-victim zones (aka "gun free" zones).

I know...isn't that

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 12:23 ET by motherbelt

I know...isn't that amazing! When are they going to go on rant about people ignoring "Gun free zone" signs?? A "Nightline" report: What causes people to bring guns into "Gun free zones"?

Guns and lefty drive-by media types

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 13:29 ET by planetrepublican

Why is it that when someone like Jane Fonda uses the "C" word on the public airwaves that there is not a call to repeal the 1st amendment? The 2nd amendment is a constitutional right guaranteed by the founding fathers through the bill of rights. Now the lefty's are parsing the words, ala Bill Clinton style, to determine what "the right of the people to bear arms" means. Why are these words in question? Now I am not a lawyer but check out the other amendments that use the words "the people":

From the 2nd Amendment: "...the right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.".

From the 1st Amendment: "...or the right of the people...".

From the 4th Amendment: "The right of the people to be secure in their
persons,".

From the 9th Amendment: "shall not be construed to deny or disparage
others retained by the people".

How did it come to this, where left-wing journalist are asking questions of, and demanding that politicians take away only ONE (1) of our rights, not the 1st, or the 4th, or the 9th, just the 2nd??!! How utterly absurd and dishonest this truly is. I attribute this kind of thinking the the leftward tilt the hippies and their followers made in the 1960's. But it doesn't matter. The fact is that the drive-by media pushes this bogus agenda whenever some crackpot commits an autrocity, usually in a so called "gun free zone", another absurity in it's own right (if I am going to kill you with a gun do you think I am going to give 2 cents for your stupid gun law???). The fact that some of us carry guns deters crime, stops killers like this from carrying out their despicable acts. Mitchell can shove her report where the sun don't shine. AND if Obama and/or Hillary want to take up the gun control banner again, I am going to give the NRA $500 then go out and buy another hand-gun, 1 because I collect guns and, 2 because I know it bugs these liberals.

Bravo!

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 13:40 ET by rbosque

Bravo!

Guns

Fri, 02/15/2008 - 16:34 ET by TBAR

Actually Teddy Kennedy's car has killed more people than all my guns. Ergo we should ban automobiles. Or maybe another try at prohibition because drunk drivers kill more people annually than guns do. When do the libs in this country quit wringing their hands over these horrible events committed by humans (not an inantimate object) and realize that gun control laws do more harm than not. Probably never, but we can hope.

Life is too short to be serious