AZ Congressional Delegation

by David Safier

Congressman Barber talked with Soledad O'Brien on CNN this morning. He spoke strongly against the availability of assault-like weapons and extended clips. He also spoke about providing better services for mental health.

Here's what Barber said about 2 minutes in:

"I want to see legislation enacted that takes away the availability of these kinds of weapons that can do so much harm in a short period of time. . . . For me, as a member of Congress, as a person who has been through a shooting tragedy where the extended clip issue was present, and as a grandfather, I have to stand up and be counted on this, and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure we limit the firepower and that we get services to people with mental illness. We have to do both."

It was a good statement, one I hope Barber will repeat, and personalize as much as he can, on other national news programs.

You can watch the interview below the fold.

by David Safier Please sign the petition to encourage Ron Barber to take a lead on common sense gun laws. In his strongest statements yet, Congressman Ron Barber has made it clear, he, along with Raúl Grijalva, stands for common sense gun laws as well as better ways to address problems of mental illness. The … Read more

by David Safier

Ask Ron Barber to lead on sensible gun policies.

This is a personal rumination, certainly not fact, not even analysis. These are just some thoughts that have been rumbling around in my head since last night.

I went to the memorial service Sunday night held at Roberts-Naylor School. It was a somber, nonpolitical event, as it should have been. Ron Barber was one of the speakers, and what he said was low-key and appropriate.

But something struck me after he finished. There was nothing of the Congressman about him. Barber didn't approach the podium with a sense of personal importance. As he spoke, he wasn't trying to make an impression. He seemed like a guy who had a microphone placed in front of him almost by chance, like he was willingly, but reluctantly, doing something he had been asked to do.

As I followed this thought further, I realized Barber doesn't have politics in his DNA. He was Gabby Giffords' employee and was thrust into the national spotlight on January 8, 2011, then thrust into a far more glaring spotlight when he was urged to run for Gabby's unfinished term. There was a feeling of reluctance on his part when he accepted the assignment. True, he chose to run for a full term, but really, his status as Congressman is more the result of an unusual circumstance than personal choice.

For me, that explains part of Barber's reticence to jump into the middle of the discussion about gun regulation. It's said of some politicians that you risk injury if you get between them and a TV camera. Not so Ron Barber. He doesn't seek the spotlight. If he did, he would know this is his moment to become part of history.

By Michael Bryan

Ask Ron Barber to lead on sensible gun policies.

Let me preface this post by stating a few facts: I am a gun owner, I am a sportsman (though much more so when I was younger, than now), I had a concealed carry permit (when such a thing was still required in AZ), and I am a prosecutor who has seen first-hand the tragic results of guns in the wrong hands.

The growing epidemic of mass shootings in this country now stands at 62 incidents since 1982, according to a Mother Jones magazine investigation. The nexus between gun laws becoming ever-more lax and poor mental health care and invervention has been and remains a major public safety issue in this country.

Yet Congress has done almost nothing to address the very real and present danger to public safety posed by the combination of madness and easily available weapons designed to kill many people very quickly.

Our political system has become so dysfunctional that even a problem that is murdering innocents on a regular basis cannot seem to be addressed. Our policy-making systems are so captured by special interests, so riven by ideological extremism, and so paralyzed by an unconstitutional and anti-democratic super-majority requirement in the Senate, that it seems naive to even hope that our leaders can propose and pass reasonable policies to slow the carnage.

by David Safier

NOTE: Please sign the petition urging Ron Barber to "Take the lead in Congress to address the epidemic of mass shootings."

I'm taking Congressman Ron Barber's op ed in today's AZ Republic as a hopeful signal that he plans to stand up.

I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms — but we must take action to deal with the easy availability of assault weapons and extended magazines.

We must take action to prevent people who are a danger to themselves and others from getting access to these weapons.

We must not wait any longer to address this crisis. But we must also recognize that these issues are not the only pieces in a complex problem to which there is no single answer.

Barber goes on to discuss the links between mental illness, gun availability and mass shootings: