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IN-08: Grieving Father Slams GOP On Wrenching Newscast

By Greg Sargent - September 8, 2006, 3:53PM

Earlier today we reported that a grieving father is furious with the National Republican Congressional Committee for putting his murdered daughter in a political ad attacking Dem candidate Brad Ellsworth -- who's challenging GOP Rep. John Hostettler -- as soft on crime. Now a video of local news WFIE-TV interviewing the angry father -- and showing a bit of the ad -- has landed in our in-box. The callousness of the NRCC -- which is totally unrepentant about the fact that they're exacerbating the grief of a bereft parent -- just defies belief. Don't miss it.

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Hell, if folks like Hostettler would stop fighting reasonable gun control laws, this girl may not have been shot to death. Seems Hostetler is just as responsible for this girl's death.

Posted by bubba
September 8, 2006 6:10 PM | Reply | Permalink

GOP/RNC spokesman Ed Patru, who refused to apologize to this poor girl's bereft father, is a utterly heartless scumbag.

How would he feel if his daughter was shot and someone tried to gain politically from it, despite his request that they not do so? Apologizing is the absolute least they could do, and he refused to do even that.

All Republicans should be embarrassed and disgusted by his conduct on their behalf and be called upon to condemn it immediately.

Posted by ohiomeister
September 8, 2006 7:04 PM | Reply | Permalink

Hostetler didn't pull the trigger. I've yet to see a gun jump up off a table, load itself, aim, and fire.

Just exactly what "reasonable gun control" law would have prevented this, exactly? Even in places like DC where guns are completely illegal, murders still happen every day.

The reality is the guy was already a convicted criminal. It was ALREADY ILLEGAL for him to be armed. We already have "reasonable" gun control laws on the books. Not sure what other law you could ask for.

Unfortunately, criminals don't obey the law. Maybe if we quit flooding jails with people arrested for petty drug possession and distribution charges and quit trying to legislate morality, we could keep violent criminals away from the innocent people like this guy's daughter.

The problem with "reasonable gun control" is that it's usually a code word for "take all the guns away", which is A) politically untenable for Democrats, B) not ever going to work or prevent murder and robbery and violent crime, and C) the opposite of liberty, something we true liberals object to.

The person responsible for her death is the person who pulled the trigger. Nothing more, nothing less.

Posted by Helmetcase
September 9, 2006 7:00 AM | Reply | Permalink

Jailing the shooter is a reactionary response that does precious little to calm the violence that rules the streets. When an angry young man finds it easier to get his hands on a loaded handgun than a bag of weed, the solution is to make it more stringent to get a gun.

Posted by Jon Karak
September 10, 2006 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink

That's patently untrue. Segregating people with criminally violent tendencies away from the general population is actually a very pragmatic solution.

Knee jerk statements like yours are the reactionary responses, actually. Your statement lacks any qualifications--how do you know getting a loaded gun is easier than getting weed (I'd argue it's not, at best they're equally difficult to keep people from getting)? You don't.

What the hell does that mean, "make it more stringent"? IT'S ALREADY ILLEGAL TO HAVE A FIREARM WHEN YOU'RE A CONVICTED CRIMINAL. What do you want to do...make it...more illegal???

Unless you can propose some sort of concrete action that would actually help, you're just pissing in the wind.

Concrete ideas--things like...stop flooding jails with petty drug offenders so there's room to lock up violent criminals instead of the revolving door approach we have today.

The knee-jerk "sigh...if only it were more illegal for crooks to have guns" bullshit is so tiresome to read. We already have all the gun control laws we need. The problem is we prosecute too much of the wrong type of crime, and demonize law abiding gun owners while we're at it.

Posted by Helmetcase
September 11, 2006 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink

goold

Posted by huang_lar
February 19, 2008 6:24 AM | Reply | Permalink