Katrina vanden Heuvel: Assault Weapons Ban Should Not Be a Partisan Issue

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Assault Weapons Ban Should Not Be a Partisan Issue

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Assault Weapons Ban Should Not Be a Partisan Issue

Cracking down on high-powered guns is not a progressive issue but rather a “sanity issue” that Obama should take on now.

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When Barack Obama publicly addresses Joe Biden’s gun control proposals this week, he should support a ban on assault weapons, Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel said on Current TV’s War Room. Many mayors and law enforcement officials are pulling for a gun safety package, including such a ban.

“This is not a progressive issue, this is a sanity issue,” vanden Heuvel told host Jennifer Granholm.

Responsible gun owners could also be drawn on for support, vanden Heuvel said. Although the NRA leadership opposes background checks for gun buyers, many of its members agree with the idea. 

Alec Luhn

The NRA’s greatest PR coup in recent years was the Fast and Furious scandal, which resulted in US guns fueling drug violence in Mexico, Katrina vanden Heuvel reminds us in her latest blog post.

We cannot back down

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The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

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Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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