President defends stand on gun control
FAIRFAX, Va. – President Barack Obama tore into the National Rifle Association on Thursday as he sought support for his actions on gun control, accusing the powerful lobby group of peddling an “imaginary fiction” that he said has distorted the national debate about gun violence.
In a prime-time, televised town hall meeting, Obama defended his support for the constitutional right to gun ownership while arguing it was consistent with his efforts to curb violence and mass shootings. He said the NRA was refusing to acknowledge the government’s responsibility to make legal products safer.
“The NRA has convinced many of its members that somebody’s going to come grab your guns,” Obama said, describing it as a ploy to drive up sales of guns. “If you listen to the rhetoric, it is so over the top, and so overheated.”
Sheriffs ask group to leave U.S. refuge
BURNS, Ore. – Three Oregon sheriffs met Thursday with the leader of an armed group occupying a federal wildlife refuge and asked them to leave, after residents made it clear they wanted them to go home.
Harney County Sheriff David Ward said via Twitter that he asked Ammon Bundy to respect the wishes of residents. He said sheriffs from two other counties were with him.
The Oregonian reported that Ward offered to provide Bundy and his group a safe escort out of the refuge.
German Muslims condemn assaults
COLOGNE, Germany – Members of Cologne’s large Muslim community have joined the chorus condemning a string of assaults on women on New Year’s Eve that have shocked Germany. But some are also voicing concern that pointing the finger of blame at Muslims in general and North African immigrants in particular is unfair when most migrants are law-abiding and the full facts of what happened on the night remain unclear.
In Ehrenfeld, a multi-ethnic neighborhood where streets are lined with colorful Turkish grocery stores and halal butchers, few can believe that those who allegedly carried out the assaults amid the crowds ringing in the New Year may share their religion.
Police said the attackers were among a group of some 1,000 men described as being of “Arab or North African origin” who gathered in front of Cologne’s main train station and gothic cathedral that night.
Associated Press
