NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 7A
A divided Senate answers Orlando
with gridlock on gun restrictions
By ALAN FRAM AND MARY
CLARE JALONICK
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A
divided Senate blocked rival
election-year plans to curb
guns Monday, eight days
after the horror of Orlando’s
mass shooting intensifi ed
pressure on lawmakers to
act but knotted them in
gridlock anyway — even
over restricting fi rearms for
terrorists.
In largely party-line
votes, senators rejected one
proposal from each side
to keep extremists from
acquiring guns and a second
shoring up the government’s
system of required back-
ground checks for many
fi rearms purchases.
With the chamber’s
visitors’ galleries unusually
crowded for a Monday
evening — including rela-
tives of victims of past mass
shootings and people wearing
orange
T-shirts
saying
#ENOUGH gun violence —
each measure fell short of the
60 votes needed to progress.
Democrats called the GOP
proposals
unacceptably
weak while Republicans said
the Democratic plans were
too restrictive.
The stalemate under-
scored the pressure on each
party to stand fi rm on the
emotional gun issue going
into November’s presi-
dential and congressional
elections. It also highlighted
the potency of the National
Rifl e Association, which
urged its huge and fi ercely
loyal membership to lobby
senators to oppose the
Democratic bills.
“Republicans say, ‘Hey
look, we tried,”’ said Senate
Minority Leader Harry Reid,
D-Nev. “And all the time,
their cheerleaders, the bosses
at the NRA, are cheering
them.”
Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
said the Orlando shootings
— in which the FBI says
the American-born gunman
swore allegiance to a Islamic
Orlando gunman said
he was Islamic soldier
Guns of mass shootings
The gunman in the Orlando nightclub shooting used an assault
rifle and a handgun. A look at guns used in other attacks:
ASSAULT RIFLE
Feb. 25, 2016
Hesston,
Kansas
HANDGUN/OTHER
AK-47 semi-automatic
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Orlando gunman Omar
Mateen identifi ed himself as an Islamic soldier in calls
with authorities during his rampage and warned a crisis
negotiator that in coming days
“you’re going to see more of this
type of action going on,” according
to transcripts released by the FBI on
Monday.
The partial transcripts were of
a 911 call made by Mateen and
three conversations he had with the
police crisis negotiators during the
worst mass shooting in modern U.S.
history, in which 49 people died and
Mateen
dozens were wounded.
Those communications, along
with Facebook posts and searches Mateen made around
the time of the shootings, add to the public understanding
of the fi nal hours of Mateen’s life and to the possible
motivations behind the rampage.
The fi rst call came more than a half-hour after shots
rang out, when Mateen told a 911 operator, “Praise be to
God, and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of
God,” he told the dispatcher, referring to God in Arabic.
“I let you know, I’m in Orlando and I did the shoot-
ings.”
During the 50-second call with a dispatcher, Mateen
“made murderous statements in a “chilling, calm and
deliberate manner,” Ronald Hopper, FBI assistant special
agent in charge in Orlando, said during a news confer-
ence.
However, there is no evidence Mateen was directed by
a foreign terrorist group, and he was radicalized domesti-
cally and on his own, Hopper said.
Glock
Semi-
automatic
handguns
Feb. 20, 2016
Kalamazo,
Michigan
DPMS
Dec. 2, 2015
San Bernardino,
California
Llama
Possibly a
Springfield Armory
Glock
Smith &
Wesson
Smith & Wesson
Oct. 1, 2015
Rosenburg,
Oregon
Del-Ton
Taurus
June 17, 2015
Charleston,
South Carolina
Glock pistol
May 23, 2014
Santa Barbara,
California
Sig Sauer
Sept. 16, 2013
Washington
Navy Yard
Remington shotgun
Dec. 14, 2012
Newtown,
Connecticut
Bushmaster rifle
Glock pistols
Sig Sauer Glock
SOURCE: News reports
State group leader — show
the best way to prevent
extremists’ attacks here is to
defeat them overseas.
“No one wants terrorists
to be able to buy guns,”
McConnell
said.
He
suggested that Democrats
used the day’s votes “to push
a partisan agenda or craft the
next 30-second campaign
ad.”
That Monday’s four roll-
call votes occurred at all was
testament to the political
currents buffeting lawmakers
after gunman Omar Mateen’s
June 12 attack on a gay
nightclub. The 49 victims
who died made it the largest
names and ages of Orlando’s
victims.
On Fox News Channel’s
“The O’Reilly Factor,”
expected GOP presidential
nominee Donald Trump said
he “absolutely” agrees that
people on the government’s
terror watch list should
be barred from owning
guns. He did not say if he
supported the Republican or
Democratic versions of bills
rejected Monday.
Only a handful of
lawmakers
changed
positions from votes cast
last December on similar
proposals, highlighting each
party’s enduring stances on
guns. And there’s little sign
that the House’s GOP leaders
will allow votes.
AP
mass shooting in recent U.S.
history, topping a string of
such incidents that have
punctuated recent years.
The FBI said Mateen — a
focus of two terror investi-
gations that were dropped
— described himself as an
Islamic soldier in a 911 call
during the shootings. That
let gun control advocates
add national security and
the specter of terrorism to
their arguments for fi rearms
curbs.
After the votes, presump-
tive Democratic presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton
issued a one-word statement,
“Enough,” followed by the
Even so, GOP senators
facing re-election this fall
in swing states were under
extraordinary pressure.
One vulnerable Repub-
lican, New Hampshire’s
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, backed
both bills blocking gun
sales to terrorists, a switch
from when she joined most
Republicans in killing a
similar Democratic plan last
December. She expressed
support for a narrower
bipartisan plan, like one
being crafted by Sen. Susan
Collins, R-Maine.
Collins was trying to
fashion a bipartisan bill
preventing people on the
government’s no-fl y list from
getting guns. She expressed
optimism the Senate would
vote on her plan, and Sen.
John Cornyn, R-Texas, said
that according to McConnell,
if Collins wants a vote on her
proposal, “She’ll get one.”
Monday’s votes came
after Sen. Chris Murphy,
D-Conn., led a near
15-hourww fi libuster last
week demanding a Senate
response to the Orlando
killings. Murphy entered
the Senate shortly after the
December 2012 massacre
of 20 fi rst-graders and six
educators in Newtown,
Connecticut,
but
that
slaughter and others have
failed to spur Congress
to tighten gun curbs. The
last were enacted in 2007,
when the background check
system was strengthened
after that year’s mass
shooting at Virginia Tech.
With Mateen’s professed
loyalty to extremist groups
and his 10-month inclusion
on a federal terrorism watch
list, Sen. Dianne Feinstein,
D-Calif., proposed letting the
government block many gun
sales to known or suspected
terrorists. People buying fi re-
arms from federally licensed
gun dealers can currently be
denied for several reasons,
chiefl y for serious crimes or
mental problems, but there
is no specifi c prohibition for
those on the terrorist watch
list.
That
list
currently
contains around 1 million
people — including fewer
than 5,000 Americans or
legal permanent residents,
according to the latest
government fi gures. The
narrower no-fl y list has just
81,000 names.
No background checks
are required for anyone
buying guns privately online
or at gun shows.
The GOP response to Fein-
stein was an NRA-backed
plan by Cornyn. It would
let the government deny a
sale to a known or suspected
terrorist — but only if
prosecutors could convince
a judge within three days
that the would-be buyer was
involved in terrorism.
UN urges solutions as refugee population hits record
Trump fi res his
campaign manager
in dramatic shake-up
NEW YORK (AP) —
Donald Trump abruptly fi red
campaign manager Corey
Lewandowski on Monday in
a dramatic shake-up designed
to calm panicked Republican
leaders and end an internal
power struggle plaguing the
billionaire
businessman’s
White House bid.
In dismissing his longtime
campaign chief — just a
month before the party’s
national convention — Trump
signaled, at least for a day, a
departure from the seat-of-the-
pants style that has fueled his
unlikely rise in Republican
politics. Perhaps more than
anyone else in Trump’s inner
circle, the ousted aide has
preached a simple mantra:
“Let Trump be Trump.”
“I have no regrets,”
Lewandowski told CNN just
hours after he was escorted
out of Trump’s Manhattan
campaign headquarters. Still,
the former conservative activist
seemed to acknowledge the
limitations of his approach,
which has sparked widespread
concern among the GOP’s top
donors, operatives, elected
offi cials, and even some of
Trump’s family members.
“The campaign needs
to continue to grow to be
successful,” he said.
Trump, the presumptive
GOP presidential nominee,
described Lewandowski as a
“good man” who helped “a
small, beautiful, well-unifi ed
campaign” during the primary
season.
“I think it’s time now for a
different kind of a campaign,”
Trump said on Fox News Chan-
nel’s “The O’Reilly Factor.”
People close to Trump,
including adult children
Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr.,
had long-simmering concerns
about Lewandowski, who
had limited experience on
the national scale before
becoming Trump’s campaign
leader. Like many Republican
offi cials, Trump’s family urged
the billionaire businessman to
professionalize a bare-bones
campaign that had previously
resisted adding staff and paid
advertising heading into the
general election.
A person close to Trump
said Lewandowski was forced
out largely because of the
campaign’s worsening rela-
tionship with the Republican
National Committee, donors
and GOP offi cials, who have
increasingly criticized the
candidate’s message and
campaign infrastructure in
recent weeks. That person
spoke on the condition of
anonymity because the person
was not authorized to discuss
internal deliberations.
While Trump dismissed
his critics publicly, he has
been privately concerned
that so many party leaders
— House Speaker Paul Ryan
and Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell among
them — have been reluctant
to support him, the person
said. Trump at least partially
blamed Lewandowski.
Yet in his response Monday
evening, Trump left little indi-
cation that he was prepared to
abandon his divisive rhetoric.
He repeatedly called
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth
Warren “Pocahontas” in the
Fox interview. He also said
“facts” suggest President
Barack Obama sympathizes
with Muslim terrorists.
“Firing your campaign
manager in June is never a
good thing,” said veteran
Republican operative Kevin
Madden. “The campaign
will have to show dramatic
changes immediately on
everything from fundraising
and organizing to candidate
performance and discipline in
order to demonstrate there’s
been a course correction.
Otherwise it’s just cosmetics.”
GENEVA (AP)
—
Imagine the entire popu-
lation of France uprooted
from their homes, forced to
fl ee danger, persecution or
starvation. The U.N. refugee
agency says more people
than that — 65 million —
were displaced worldwide
at the end of last year, easily
setting a new postwar record.
And it warned that
European and other rich
nations can expect the fl ow
to continue if root causes
aren’t addressed.
After a year when more
than a million people
arrived on European shores,
UNHCR said Monday —
World Refugee Day — that
continued confl icts and
persecution in places like
Syria and Afghanistan
fueled a nearly 10-percent
increase in the total number
of refugees and internally
displaced people in 2015.
“I hope that the message
carried by those forcibly
displaced reaches the leader-
ships: We need action, polit-
ical action, to stop confl icts,”
said Filippo Grandi, the
2005. The total number
of displaced people has
roughly doubled since
1997, and risen by 50
percent since 2011 alone,
when the Syria war began.
About 11.5 million
people from Syria have fl ed
their homes: 6.6 million
remaining
within
the
war-ravaged country and
4.9 million moving abroad.
At the end of last year, more
than half of all refugees
were from three countries:
Afghanistan and
AP Photo/Francisco Seco Syria,
People hold banners that read in Spanish: “Mediterra- Somalia. More than half of
nean Mass Grave” and “EU Kills” during a protest in all displaced people were
solidarity with refugees entering in Europe and mark- children, UNCHR said.
ing the World Refugee Day at the Retiro park in Madrid
Turkey was the top host
on Monday.
country for the second year
running, with 2.5 million
U.N. High Commissioner in the world,” the report said.
for Refugees. “The message
In stark detail, UNHCR refugees — nearly all from
that they have carried is: ‘If said that, on average, 24 neighboring Syria. Afghani-
you don’t solve problems, people had been displaced stan’s neighbor Pakistan had
problems will come to you.”’ every minute last year — or 1.6 million, while Lebanon,
The Geneva-based agen- 34,000 people a day — up next to Syria, hosted 1.1
cy’s latest Global Trends from 6 every minute in million.
Report shows that for the fi rst
time since World War II, the
60-million mark was crossed.
“If these 65.3 million
persons were a nation, they
would make up the 21st largest
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