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By Karoun Demirjian (contact) 
Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 | 7:15 p.m.
Newly elected congressman Steven Horsford gives his acceptance speech during the Nevada State Democrats' election night party early Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012 at Mandalay Bay.
Incoming Rep. Steven Horsford said Thursday that he’d vote in favor of an assault weapons ban if it is presented to Congress as part of the package of violence mitigation measures President Barack Obama appointed a task force to come up with by January.
“I support the law that was in place to ban assault weapons that are designed for military use,” Horsford said, adding that he hoped that federal funding for mental health care was also part of the government’s response to the tragic shooting that took the lives of 20 first-graders and six of their teachers, plus the gunman and his mother, in Newtown, Conn., last Friday.
Horsford’s father was killed in an act of gun violence when he was 19. He also has a daughter, he said, who is the same age as the 20 children who were killed in Newtown.
“I come at this not as an elected official but as a parent,” he said. “My view is that we need to move from a culture of violence to a culture of safety.”
A fine ANTI-American.
No surprise here!
Yeah this isn't a surprise to anyone.
Why not really look at the true cause of most of these massacres: mental illness and irresponsible gun ownership.
Sadly you can't outlaw being nuts and insanity.
Way to go NV04. Fine choice there. This is who you chose to represent you. How bout you folks in NV04 start working TODAY to get him removed in 2014.
It will only get worse.
Select fire weapons are firearms designed for military use. They can be set to fully automatic fire. I doubt if very many folks own these weapons and are not allowed to own them without special licensing as the law exists. Semi-automatic firearms are legal under the law. "Lawmakers" don't even know the terms for the firearms they seek to outlaw. Another example that instantly tells me the lawmaker don't know their subject matter is the use of the word "clip" vice the correct term "magazine". To make laws they should at least know a smidgen of the vocabulary.
"The poll found that nearly four in five Americans support some gun control in some form and 62 percent back a ban on semi-automatic assault rifles and high-capacity magazine clips."
According to the right-wing gun fanatics, 62% of Americans are ANTI-American!
In light of Newtwon, reflexive opposition to changes in gun laws is a losing proposition for the GOP. And Horsford knows it -- just as he knows he can count on the more liberterian elements within the GOP in NV to vociferously & vocally oppose any further controls, alienating them from probably 80% of NV4 and assuring him of re-election in 2014. Give the guy credit -- he knows how to politic, especially when he runs the Democratic spoils-based divide & conquer playbook. (If the GOP ever expects to win in NV4, they're going to have to come with up with a candidate who's more Whig then Liberterian, more post-racial than anti-illegal, more rational visionary than reactive plutocrat.)
Kevin, all that statistic indicates is that you can use loaded language to sway public opinion. No big surprise there. Please tell me, what is an "assault rifle"? Semi-automatic just means one-pull, one fire. I have a 45 year-old .22 caliber rifle that is a semi-automatic. Is that an assault rifle? Is it the magazine capacity that makes it an assault rifle? Because the magazine is typically a separate component, and it is interchangeable with smaller-capacity magazines. Is it the pistol grip, there for convenience? Because you can get those grips for shotguns too. The stock? Just what IS an assault rifle? If you're going to define a weapon, you can't do it based on cosmetic features, because cosmetic features can easily be changed.
"Please tell me, what is an "assault rifle"? "
An assault rifle is designed as an offensive weapon which is used to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. Features that aid these design objectives are as follows:
a) light weight, so the shooter can run up to his victims as fast as possible and surprise them with the first burst of lead
b) fast loading with large clip capacity to maximize shooting time and number of victims
(c) made as short as possible so that it can be used at close range and inside small rooms to maximize turning velocity and minimize freeze time for fast aiming and firing
(d) relatively inexpensive to maximize profit and sales
(e) ability to accommodate specialized ammunition that tumbles after leaving the barrel and bursts apart when it impacts flesh to maximize the hole size as it travels through and exits the body
Assault weapon are not sporting guns. Anyone who uses an assault rifle to kill an animal must enjoy watching the flesh and blood splatter in all directions, thereby creating a lifeless carcass that is torn apart. It is not designed for self defense on the way to work, the market or to a movie theater. It's use in movie theaters is to terrorize and injure the audience, not protect them.
We all know that there will be psychos at large that haven't yet committed a crime, but if every citizen is armed, the psychos will also be armed.
How does that do for starters?
Horsford needs to pop some popcorn, and watch "No Guns for Negro's" on you tube!~
"My view is that we need to move from a culture of violence to a culture of safety"
My view is we need to realize their is no such thing as safety, only the trade of tempestuous liberty for calming despotism.
what area did this guy win? how much did he spend?
I love how leftards come here and run then the homes of their failed ideologies, so they come here and run for office, and elected by low information voters...
Quite frankly we will not tolerate another assault weapons ban. Not now, not ever. The left better think long and hard before pushing on. When we say never again, we mean it.