Ruben Bolling gives us some tips.
Category: firearms
America dumbs down
Robert Sawyer linked to this article by Jonathon Gatehouse:
… That inarticulate legacy didn’t end with George W. Bush and Sarah Palin.
Barack Obama, the most cerebral and eloquent American leader in a generation, regularly plays the same card, droppin’ his Gs and dialling down his vocabulary to Hee Haw standards. His ability to convincingly play a hayseed was instrumental in his 2012 campaign against the patrician Mitt Romney; in one of their televised debates the President referenced “folks” 17 times. …
The U.S. is being overrun by a wave of anti-science, anti-intellectual thinking. Has the most powerful nation on Earth lost its mind?
It’s over-stated, but the headline is correct. The USA is getting dumber, not smarter.
Hard to say where it’s all going to end.
NRA does not fight a gun law!
Historically the National Rifle Association prioritized education, training and regulation of firearms. They were the safety advocates.
By sometime in the 1990s their main story changed to fighting any kind of gun legislation, no matter how minor, no matter how sensible.
Rather than discuss pros and cons, NRA talking headz shouted “Second Amendment” — as if it was Holy Scripture.
They became shills for the corporations who sell weapons.
But here’s a bit of good news.
… a new law in Washington State that will require spouses under domestic abuse orders to surrender their guns to authorities. This is no small matter. Intimate partner homicides account for nearly half the women killed each year, and more than half of these women are murdered with guns, according to federal statistics.
The surprising twist in the enactment of the Washington law was that the N.R.A. traditionally has fought hard against such legislation as a violation of Second Amendment freedom — but not this time. The law was signed by Gov. Jay Inslee last month after unanimous approval by the legislature once the gun lobby backed off from its standard tactic of political retaliation. “This is an election year, and no candidate wants to be portrayed as letting domestic abusers keep their guns,” said the Democratic sponsor, Representative Roger Goodman. …
True gundamentalists should cancel their NRA membership. The NRA has sold out to … reason and common sense. 🙂
Here’s a pro-gun site called Enemy of the State™ railing against this legislation.
related – Michael Enright – Annie Get Your Gun: Michael’s Essay:
It is awfully hard to say something positive about the National Rifle Association, every mass murderer’s friend. …
Reducing Firearm-Related Violence
The Institute of Medicine published findings:
In 2010, more than 105,000 people were injured or killed in the United States as the result of a firearm-related incident.
Recent, highly publicized, tragic mass shootings in Newtown, CT; Aurora, CO; Oak Creek, WI; and Tucson, AZ, have sharpened the American public’s interest in protecting our children and communities from the harmful effects of firearm violence. While many Americans legally use firearms for a variety of activities, fatal and nonfatal firearm violence poses a serious threat to public safety and welfare. …
Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence
William Saletan summarizes:
Earlier this year, President Obama ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess the existing research on gun violence and recommend future studies. That report, prepared by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, is now complete.
Its findings won’t entirely please the Obama administration or the NRA, but all of us should consider them. Here’s a list of the 10 most salient or surprising takeaways. …
1. The United States has an indisputable gun violence problem.
According to the report, “the U.S. rate of firearm-related homicide is higher than that of any other industrialized country: 19.5 times higher than the rates in other high-income countries.”
2. Most indices of crime and gun violence are getting better, not worse.3. We have 300 million firearms, but only 100 million are handguns.
4. Handguns are the problem.
5. Mass shootings aren’t the problem.
6. Gun suicide is a bigger killer than gun homicide.
7. Guns are used for self-defense often and effectively.
8. Carrying guns for self-defense is an arms race.
9. Denying guns to people under restraining orders saves lives.
10. It isn’t true that most gun acquisitions by criminals can be blamed on a few bad dealers.
Surprising findings from a comprehensive report on gun violence.
Republicans Say No to CDC Gun Violence Research. Most in the GOP don’t want to know the facts. And definitely don’t want their voters to know the facts.
Dr. Garen Wintemute, a professor of emergency medicine who runs the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, spent $1 million of his own money to continue the research.
As I’ve said before, I don’t think people are very far apart on this issue. Fire arms lobbyists are going to have an increasingly difficult fight buying politicians over the coming years. And they’ll have to outspend their opponents at an even greater rate.
Republicans must change. Or lose. Long term.
2014 Fort Hood shooting
On April 2, 2014, a shooting spree occurred at several locations on the Fort Hood military base near Killeen, Texas. Four people, including the gunman, were killed, while sixteen additional people were injured.
The shooter was 34-year-old Ivan Lopez, an Iraq War veteran who was born in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico. He was married and had four children.
Lopez was allegedly distraught over the deaths of his mother and grandfather during a two-month period five months prior to the shooting, and was also undergoing psychiatric treatment for depression and anxiety. He tried to take a 24-hour leave of absence in order to attend his mother’s funeral, but it took five days for the leave to be approved, which allegedly upset him.
The Base was previously the scene of a mass shooting in 2009, in which 13 people were killed and more than 30 wounded.
President H.W. Bush enacted the current Military Base Gun Regulations in 1992. Not Clinton. Those regulations were not changed by Clinton, G.W. Bush nor Obama. And they are not likely to be changed after this incident.
The talking point of right wing media is that American military bases are “gun-free zones”. That’s wrong, obviously. There are restrictions on who can carry weapons.
It’s clear that Ivan Lopez did not target the Base because it was an easy target.
Dear Gun Nuts …
A great opinion piece by Matt Bors:
… After every mass shooting—which is essentially all the time these days—gun rights advocates drag out the “more guns = more safer” argument. And yet: we’re still not safe!
Despite having almost one gun for every man, woman, and child in the nation, peak safety has yet to be reached. …
If you take the positions of the NRA and add them up, you can see how the world would look if the gun lobby got everything it wants: Every American would have easy access to assault weapons, gun dealers would not be required to check the criminal record and mental health history of someone before selling them a gun, the capacity of gun magazines could be near-infinite, and it would be illegal for a city to stop people from carrying guns in public. This would be a country where you could literally buy an AR-15 at Walmart, immediately put on full tactical gear worn by SWAT teams, and stroll into a school for your parent-teacher conference with another fully armed adult….
read more – Dear Gun Nuts
related – My Gun Stance
12 worst mass shootings in U.S. history
Maddow – Half the deadliest shootings in U.S. history happened in past six years
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I expect about 4 / year over the next couple of years.
Gundamentalists will — somehow — deny each and every one. They are not thinking rationally.
Rick McCharles 