After Navy Shooting, Gun-Control Debate Rises Again

DC doctor: 'Put my trauma center out of business'
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 17, 2013 1:26 PM CDT

Yesterday's mass shooting at the Navy Yard has brought the issue of tougher gun laws back into DC's conversation, but Josh Gerstein at Politico sums up the problem for advocates with a basic question: "If the murder of 20 first-graders in their Connecticut grade school wasn’t enough to pass a bill, how likely is it the deaths of 12 adults at a Navy base change the result?" The political reality hasn't changed since Newtown, he notes: Just ask the two legislators in Colorado who got the boot in a recall election organized by gun rights' groups.

Still, some prominent Democrats are speaking out, reports the Hill. “When will enough be enough?” asked Dianne Feinstein. “Congress must stop shirking its responsibility and resume a thoughtful debate on gun violence in this country." But perhaps the most poignant plea is from Dr. Janis Orlowski of the Washington Medical Center, which treated some of yesterday's victims. From MSNBC:

  • "There's something wrong here when we have these multiple shootings, these multiple injuries," she said. "We have to work together to get rid of it. I'd like you to put my trauma center out of business. I really would. I would like to not be an expert on gunshots and not to be an expert on this. We are. We do it well. But quite frankly, I'd rather (my surgeons) be doing their surgery on other things."
As it did in the immediate aftermath of Newtown, the NRA is keeping a low profile, offering its condolences to the victims in a website message. Meanwhile, activists from Newtown were headed to Capitol Hill today as part of a previously scheduled trip to mark the nine-month anniversary of the shootings with a call for tougher background checks, notes AP. (More gun control stories.)

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