Mass Shootings...contd....of course (7)

Vet Voice Foundation @VetVoiceFound | 9:00 AM · Jun 5, 2022
Founded in 2009, VV Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with more than 1.5 million members that elevates veteran voices in our democracy.

Vet Voice Foundation Places Full-Page Sunday New York Times Ad Urging Media To Be Better On Guns
“It’s not gun control. It’s gun safety.”
Text of ad ( https://twitter.com/VetVoiceFound/status/1533433465517096961/photo/1 )

“It’s a gross misnomer that gun safety policies are about control, and responsible members of the media need to stop using language that implies it is,” said Major General (Ret.) Paul D. Eaton, Senior Advisor to Vet Voice. 2/

“When I was commanding general at Ft. Benning, I was keenly aware of the danger posed by unfettered, unregulated access to weapons. That’s why we in the military institute many of the same safety measures that are being proposed. It isn’t about control, it is about safety.” 3/

“We don’t call it auto control when we require licenses and insurance. We call it auto safety. We don’t call it food control when we require production plants to pass regular health and safety checks. We call it food safety." 4/

"There is no reason to falsely call it ‘gun control,’ unless you’re looking to promote the view of gun manufacturers and their lobby,” Eaton concluded.

Read full press release from Vet Voice Foundation here:
https://vvfnd.org/press-releases/vet-voice-foundation-places-full-page-sunday-ti... 5/

View the full-page Sunday New York Times ad here:
https://vvfnd.org/vvf_nyt_20220602_2/ 6/6

Opinion: 6 (evidence-based) solutions to gun violence that could work
Robert Gebelhoff, Assistant editor and Opinions contributor | June 2, 2022
This article was originally published in 2018 and has been updated.

1 Ban weapons of war
2 Keep guns away from kids
3 Stop the flow of guns
4 Strengthen background checks
5 Strengthen red-flag laws
6 Treat guns like we treat cars

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/gun-control-solutions-that-wo...

>2 margd: I agree with #6 and would include annual inspections to ensure they are properly cleaned and maintained and have proper safety locks installed.

Nearly half of Republicans think US has to live with mass shootings, poll finds (Guardian)

Nearly half of Republican voters think the US just has to live with mass shootings, according to a poll... The CBS and YouGov poll returned familiar results, including 62% support for a nationwide ban on semi-automatic rifles, the kind of gun used in Uvalde, Texas... But clear national support for a ban on such rifles or changes to purchasing a ges and background checks is not mirrored in Congress. Most Republicans, supported financially by the powerful gun lobby, remain opposed to gun reform... Among Democrats, 85% said mass shootings could be stopped if US politicians would only try. Among independents, the figure was 73%. Overall, it was 72%. But 44% of Republicans said mass shootings should be accepted as part of a free society...

>4 John5918: might just as well say that nearly half of Republican voters don’t mind a white kid shooting up a grocery store in a black neighborhood or a Hispanic kid shooting up a school with mostly Hispanic children. None of that really hits home to them. If they said a prayer their involvement ended there. The claim that most gun owners are more than less law abiding citizens who purchased their weapons legally is obviously true. That said the Buffalo and Uvalde shooters also were law abiding citizens who purchased their weapons legally up until the point they started murdering people. That line from law abiding to criminal is very thin and easily crossed over.

Seen from the other side of the pond it looks as just not caring about people. We've limited the size of headache packages to avoid at least some teenage suicides and it worked. Having guns in your house works the other way. (And yes, having to buy headache pills ten at a time is a pain :-) But it makes you think.)

>6 bnielsen: We've limited the size of headache packages

That's an interesting thought. I know that in most of Europe, including UK, you can usually only buy over-the-counter medications in very small quantities, whereas in the USA you can buy big plastic tubs containing literally thousands of pills.

>7 John5918: The idea was to take out the possibility of teenager (girls) easily committing suicide with say 20 panodils. Of course you can just plan for it and buy 10 a day for a couple of days, but that's not how teenage suicides go. Also the panodils will kill your liver and either give you a painful death or a liver transplant.

My point is that this remedy is very easily overcome but it still works. And no, people don't just commit suicide in some other way. (We have the numbers to prove it.) Of course some people still commit suicide but fewer than before the package size of headache pills was reduced.

I just googled "Gabriele Galimberti The Ameriguns" because the book / photographer was mentioned in Danish media. The point here is that he portrayed 45 Americans who all had a lot of guns. In the same way that I have a lot of tea caddies. So none of the people were crazy or anything (at least no more crazy than me and my tea caddies). But to my mind that amount of guns come with a very high price in lives. But removing 10 guns from one house won't help anything if every other home has ten guns. So I don't have any ready made solutions. I'm not even sure anyone understands the size of the problem. When I grew up in the 1970's over 1200 were killed in the Danish traffic each year. Today it is more like 200 each year and the traffic is much denser. Safer cars is a lot of the explanation and people don't want to be killed on the road, so the laws have been tightened a bit too.

Matthew McConaughey Complete Remarks at White House Press Briefing (21:15)
Jun 7, 2022
Actor and Uvalde, TX native Matthew McConaughey spoke at the White House Press Briefing.

"This moment is different. We are in a window of opportunity right now that we have not been in before. A window where it seems like real change, real change can happen. Uvalde, Texas is where I was born."

While discussing the victims of the recent school shooting, McConaughey's wife Camilla holds green high-top Converse shoes of the one of the Uvalde, TX victims. "These are the same green Converse on her feet that turned out to be the only clear evidence that could identify her after the shooting."

He also says, "Can both sides rise above? Can both sides see beyond the political problem at hand and admit that we have a life preservation problem on our hands?" And, "America, you and me, we are not as divided as we are being told we are. No."

Full video here: https://www.c-span.org/video/?520803-1/white-house-daily-briefing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJOw0XUyTQs

>8 bnielsen:, >9 bnielsen:

Thanks for all that background, which highlights some of the different attitudes in Europe (and indeed the rest of the western world) compared to USA. As you say, many US gun owners are not crazy fanatics but are simply ordinary members of a militaristic, individualistic, violent and fearful society which deems it to be "normal". For some it is an innocently-intended hobby just like collecting tea caddies, as you say, or postage stamps, or whatever. When I lived in the USA I used to go backpacking with a harmless enough chap who was proud of his hobby collection of guns. Unfortunately, unlike tea caddies and postage stamps, this hobby potentially kills. As others have pointed out, most of these massacres take place with legally obtained firearms.

Until US citizens realise that these attitudes of their society are dysfunctional and are out of touch with all their modern western democratic peers, including other nations similarly built on colonial settlers and wild frontiers (eg Australia, Canada, New Zealand), I suppose nothing will change. Or perhaps better to say until they care that they are different, as there is a degree of "American exceptionalism" which is proud that they lag so far behind other modern nations in this and other regards*.

However it all started, it has now become part of the ideological culture war in the USA, and rational argument is no longer part of it. As we have seen in posts in this thread and its predecessors, the intent of the Second Amendment is by no means clear and is open to different interpretations. Recently there was a post here about a retired US army general pointing out that even in the military guns are "regulated", and there are a whole load of safeguards concerning their storage and their use, whereas civilian firearms are almost completely unregulated. There have also been numerous posts pointing out that the ownership of automobiles is regulated, with age limits, licensing, driving tests, insurance, safety, fitness to drive, etc and, as you have pointed out, the death rate on the roads in most countries including the USA has dropped dramatically over the years since these regulations were introduced and regularly updated. Who knows how many more children will die in the USA before the country updates its attitudes and laws regarding deadly firearms into the 21st century?

* An obsession with outdated elements of the past is not uncommon amongst reactionary right wing populist ideologies. Boris Johnson is threatening to bring back imperial measurements (pounds and ounces), which the whole world apart from the USA abandoned decades ago, although Britain still uses miles (probably because it would cost too much to change all the road signs!) But at least outdated attitudes to weights and measures don't kill as many people as outdated attitudes to firearms.

C'mon Dems! Incorporate the Kavanaugh Protection Act into the Great American Gun Safety Law!
(Remember I said it would take a heavily armed teen in every lawmakers' driveway to make the Rs act? Turns out it took only one Supreme Court Justice.)

philip lewis (Huff Post) @Phil_Lewis_ | 11:32 AM · Jun 8, 2022:
Mitch McConnell calls on Democrats to pass Supreme Court security bill after man arrested outside Brett Kavanaugh's home

“House Democrats must pass this bill and they need to do it today. No more fiddling around with this, they need to pass it today …before the sun sets.”
Image (https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1534558961428463616/photo/1 )
______________________________________________

Never fear, DOJ has the Justices' homes well-guarded...

Armed California man (20s) arrested by Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh's Maryland home
Suspect was carrying a gun and a knife when he was arrested in Montgomery County, Maryland
Danielle Wallace , David Spunt , Bill Mears | 8 June2022
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-justice-kavanaugh-home-armed-man-...

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/house-gop-leaders-tell-members-to-vote-against...
House GOP Leaders Tell Members to Vote Against All 8 Gun Safety Measures Before Congress

.....Scalise gave a press conference on Wednesday and raised eyebrows by comparing gun control efforts to the response after the 9-11 terror attacks and said, “there wasn’t a conversation about banning airplanes.”.....

***
In their sick minds this all makes perfect sense. Power hungry GOPers care zip about the pulverizing of children's bodies by assault weapons in America.

>13 Molly3028: But the security around airplanes was revolutionized.

>14 2wonderY:

Well said. Aircraft were not banned, but the regulations around the use of aircraft are constantly updated and tightened to reduce the risk of death and injury. Likewise, killer automobiles have not been banned, but they are subject to sensible regulations to significantly reduce the deaths which result from them.

An interesting little snippet from a BBC article on the accession of a new king in Cameroon (link).

But one ritual was missing - the celebratory gunfire of Mankon men, with their hunting rifles. The government banned guns - normally fired at cultural ceremonies - some time ago...

New Danish statistics for 2021: 135 killed in traffic accidents, 35 homicides. (Both numbers are very low, so Corona restrictions are probably to "blame" for some of it :-)

The murders are so few that this newspaper article has them all listed (in Danish, but you'll get the point). kniv = knife, stukket = stabbed, skud = gun shot, kvalt = strangled.
https://www.berlingske.dk/samfund/35-blev-draebt-eller-doede-efter-vold-i-danmar...

All homicides are singletons. I.e. no mass shootings. And none seems to be in connection with burglaries.

>17 bnielsen: I like that they are all listed: the names drive home the fact that there are people behind statistics.

>18 Dilara86: The numbers are small, but December seems to be quite dangerous with 8 homicides. Before reading the summary I'd have thought that it was "husband kills former wife because both want the kids to spend the holiday with them", but no.

>19 bnielsen: December homicides. Wonder if Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a factor?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16004620/

OTOH, in US cities there's apparently more gun violence in summer...
https://giffords.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Shootings-Cities-and-the-Summer-...

I plotted the data. Seasonal Affective Disorder might be a factor, but why only December (November in Denmark is surely depressing, but maybe it takes a while before it makes people kill others?)

>21 bnielsen: I think SAD is still in play Jan-March, until sun is back? (Slope steepens in first 25 days of your graph?) At least I think that's the case in Alaska and northern Canada. If just in December, maybe a combination of SAD and too much holiday "joy"?

>13 Molly3028: Scalise was shot in the hip by a man with a rifle back in 2017 at the annual congressional baseball game between Republicans and Democrats. A little better aim by that shooter and Steve wouldn’t be with us today. I would also posit that whether Republican lawmakers in DC admit it or not the Capitol rioters ( many of whom were armed) scared the shit out of them. Which is to say that Scalise hasn’t learned a thing (and maybe that’s deliberate on his part) from either event. The Republican endgame to power pretty much trumps everything in their lives—including integrity and even family. These are people who have literally sold themselves to a devil.

A colleague, kind and smart, was shot in the hip in Viet Nam. Lucky not to have bled to death. Limped when I knew him--bones fused? Retired now, and apparently, he has difficulty getting in and out of bed, and with other activities around the house... Pain. Scalise may have more lessons ahead.

Can't hurt. Might help?

GOP Sen. Mitt Romney tells CNN he backs raising age to buy assault weapons from 18 to 21
- Ana Cabrera (CNN)@AnaCabrera | 12:54 PM · Jun 9, 2022

>24 margd: Very often you can heal from a gunshot wound but also very often that gunshot wound will shorten your life one way or another.....and there is the stuff that lingers and you'll have to deal with whether you like it or not as with your colleague.

The thing with AR-15's in particular is they are very accurate, a shooter can get shots off quickly and they are very high velocity and often the bullet will break apart on impact like a dum dum and just go all throughout the victim. They create massive holes and those holes are a major problem for body organs for one....and blood loss of course. A small child has almost no chance of surviving a shot to his/her core body....they have about half the blood that an adult has...and if it's followed up by a second shot forget it. Also if you can't get the victim to a trauma hospital very quickly you can just about forget it too. Bleeding out in a classroom for an hour and more time lost to transportation to that trauma center....it's surprising that any of those kids would live. The police should be ashamed of themselves. These weapons were designed for war. For soldiers going into battle against an armed enemy. Not for dumbass yahoos living out in the sticks even if it's just to fend off the raccoons. This country is so fucked up.

>25 margd: I'm kind of torn here. On the one hand I'm the one arguing that you should do whatever small changes you can to get from A (open war in your classrooms) to B (something more sane). On the other hand 'saying' that you 'back' 'raising age to buy assault weapons from 18 to 21' seems like a very very small step.

BTW I just counted the number of weapons used in the 34 Danish homicides in 2021. 9 were guns, so it is not like guns are not still used for killing around here. But carrying any kind of gun and most kinds of knives around is a quick way to spend some time in jail and pay a heavy fine. Some knives are illegal to possess or even order. A hunter ordered a $4 counter strike knife from Amazon and intended it as a gift to a grandson. It was confiscated in customs and he got a $450 fine. And some time after paying that fine, he got a letter from the local police that voided his hunting license. Without a hunting license he no longer had permission to own guns, giving him 4 weeks to sell or destroy his guns.

>26 lriley: An Albertan joshed, "This Canadian spent two hours in the backwoods today surrounded by squirrels without the protection of an AR15 and survived unscathed." ( Edmund Acuto
@edmundacuto94 | 7:37 PM · Jun 9, 2022 )

>27 bnielsen: Yeah, I like better the suggestion that one must be 54 (and FEMALE!) to buy an assault weapon, but I wouldn't walk away from a teensy, incremental improvement that might save someone's life, if that's all I can get...

Chris Murphy @ChrisMurphyCT | 11:52 AM · Jun 12, 2022
US Senator from Connecticut

🚨NEWS: We have a deal. Today a bipartisan group of 20 Senators (10 D and 10 R) is announcing a breakthrough agreement on gun violence - the first in 30 years - that will save lives.

I think you’ll be surprised at the scope of our framework.

1/ Here’s what it includes:

2/ Major funding to help states pass and implement crisis intervention orders (red flag laws) that will allow law enforcement to temporarily take dangerous weapons away from people who pose a danger to others or themselves.

3/ Billions in new funding for mental health and school safety, including money for the national build out of community mental health clinics.

4/ Close the “boyfriend loophole”, so that no domestic abuser - a spouse OR a serious dating partner - can buy a gun if they are convicted of abuse against their partner.

5/ First ever federal law against gun trafficking and straw purchasing. This will be a difference making tool to stop the flow of illegal guns into cities.

6/ Enhanced background check for under 21 gun buyers and a short pause to conduct the check. Young buyers can get the gun only after the enhanced check is completed.

7/ Clarification of the laws regarding who needs to register as a licensed gun dealer, to make sure all truly commercial sellers are doing background checks.

8/ Will this bill do everything we need to end our nation’s gun violence epidemic? No. But it’s real, meaningful progress. And it breaks a 30 year log jam, demonstrating that Democrats and Republicans can work together in a way that truly saves lives.

9/ So grateful to @JohnCornyn
@kyrstensinema
@SenThomTillis
@SenToomey
@Sen_JoeManchin
@SenBlumenthal
@SenatorCollins
@LindseyGrahamSC
@ChrisCoons
@TeamHeinrich
@BillCassidy
and others for their amazing work to get us this far.

10/ Drafting this law and passing it through both chambers will not be easy. We have a long way before this gets to the President’s desk. But with your help and activism, we can get this done. This time, failure cannot be an option.

This might be an urban myth, but the numerous Canadians who travel to Detroit for hockey and baseball games are warned that they may become unwitting "mules" for gun smugglers. Smugglers are said to secret guns and transponders into Canadian cars, recovering same once the vehicles are safely in Canada. ("Frozen River" is great movie on Akwesasne (people) smuggling, but cigarettes, drugs, guns are also big...)

Canada’s tough gun laws aren’t enough to stop the flood of illegal firearms from the U.S.
Yvonne Lau | June 11, 2022

...illegal firearms and their No. 1 source: the U.S. Illegal guns cross the 5,525-mile U.S.-Canada border in myriad ways. Traffickers hide guns in secret compartments in cars and trucks to drive firearms across the border. They smuggle the weapons across less-patrolled areas, like the largely unguarded Montana-Alberta border or the Mohawk reservation of Akwesasne. Gunrunners move illicit items across the St. Lawrence River via speedboat during the summer and snowmobile in the winter. One smuggler tried to pass illegal guns through a public library that straddles both countries...

https://fortune.com/2022/06/11/canada-gun-laws-control-us-school-mass-shooting-u...

I wonder what it is with Kevin McCarthy all upset about the House not going along with providing Supreme Court Justices extra security? so that the right wingers of the court can feel safe and secure with ruling on protecting gun manufacturers rights to sell military assault weapons to 18 year olds who can then murder innocent people with aplomb. It's all constitutional isn't it? If some nut murders Clarence Thomas it's just the cost of business as usual as far as I can tell. What's wrong with that?

Alabama church shooting:
2 dead, 1 injured

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/16/us/alabama-vestavia-hills-church-shooting/index.h...

I just read a proposal to tear down Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. So you'll do anything to prevent this from happening again? (I see the point, but it seems a total waste of money to me). How about renaming all Elementary Schools to Elementary Institutions? That would surely prevent any new shootings at Elementary Schools.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61890558

Supreme Court allows the carrying of firearms in public in major victory for gun-rights groups
Pete Williams | June 23, 2022

...The case involved a New York law that required showing a special need to get a permit to carry a concealed handgun in public. The state bans carrying handguns openly, but it allows residents to apply for licenses to carry them concealed.

The law at issue said, however, that permits could be granted only to applicants who demonstrated some special need — a requirement that went beyond a general desire for self-protection.

Gun owners in the state sued, contending that the requirement made it virtually impossible for ordinary citizens to get the necessary license. They argued that the law turned the Second Amendment into a limited privilege, not a constitutional right.

The court agreed with the challengers and struck down the heightened requirement, but it left the door open to allowing states to impose limits on the carrying of guns.

... Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the majority opinion. "We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need."

In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said the ruling does not bar states from imposing licensing requirements for carrying handguns for self-defense, such as fingerprinting, background checks and mental health records checks.

New York's law was "problematic because it grants open-ended discretion to licensing officials and authorizes licenses only for those applicants who can show some special need apart from self-defense" — in effect, denying citizens the right to carry a gun to protect themselves, he wrote.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-says-second-amendme...
_____________________________________

135 p
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf

Should be interesting in large population centers like NYC that depend a lot on mass transit. The Supreme Court has just sanctioned the right of pretty much anyone to jump on a bus or a subway train with a loaded firearm…..or go anywhere else for that matter.

The Catholic bishops support gun control. Why don’t we hear more about it? (Religion News Service)

Hardly anyone in the country knows about the strong and comprehensive position on gun control taken by the U.S. Catholic bishops...

New Small Arms Survey Report explores the roles of women in arms trafficking (Small Arms Survey)

The report uses Niger, Ukraine (before the outbreak of the current war) and the USA as case studies.

I suppose most of the people reading this thread are on the Left, where, with some exceptions, support for 'gun control' is a reflex action.

I'm on the Right, but I believe in some form of 'gun control'. We're not really talking only about guns. I also believe in 'bomb control', 'poison gas control', 'biowarfare control', anything-that-could-kill-large-numbers-of-people-if-it-fell-into-the-hands-of-a-maniac control.

There are actually, I believe, a lot of people on the Right who would agree with some common sense 'gun control', but they are driven away from thinking sensibly about the issue by the current debate.

So here's some advice: as some of the people quoted above say, DO NOR USE THE PHRASE 'GUN CONTROL'. Talk about 'gun safety' instead. And from your own point of view -- not mine in this instance -- I wouldn't call for a ban on 'assault rifles'. Background checks, red flag laws, yes -- but more on those later.

And here's a sensible liberal, a woman living in New York City, who makes a lot of sense:

And, given the reality that guns are ubiquitous in America now, and whatever laws are passed, will still be easily obtainable, even manufacturable given 3-D printing, surely we can all agree on this:

https://www.newsweek.com/what-if-american-schools-were-protected-like-israeli-sc...

Since the glorious heroic anti-imperialist fighters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine murdered 22 Jewish school children in the early 70s, the Israelis have been protecting their schools. We should emulate them in this (and in other things).

What about background check and red-flag laws?

Well ... suppose someone writes on social media,

1 "We're being overrun with illegal immigrants. Black crime is soaring. I'm going down to the border/ to the nearest Black neighborhood with my AR-15 and do something about it!"

Should they be reported? I'd say, yes.

What about,

2 "We're being overrun with illegal immigrants. Black crime is soaring. I'm worried about my safety. I'm going to get an AR-15 to protect myself!"

Report, or not? I'd say, just on the basis of that statement, no.

What about,

3 "We're being overrun with illegal immigrants. Black crime is soaring. Something's got to be done!" Again, I'd say no.

But ... how about you progressives? Wouldn't you want to report the person making statement 2, and maybe even 3?

It's because a lot of people on my side think you would, that they are uneasy/opposed to things that on the surface seem reasonable, like background checks and red flag laws.

Or ... what about outright Nazi's and fascists who want to buy assault rifles? People like the Patriot Front https://patriotfront.us/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Front

Should they be denied the right own weapons based on membership of such groups alone?

I'd say we're on tricky ground here, and denying the right to buy a weapon simply because of obnoxious views or membership of a fascist group per se is not the way to go. I'd want further evidence, like statements that imply they're buying them in order to use them to kill their enemies, and not for self-defense.

But reasonable people could disagree.

However ... a lot of progressives consider people like me, and certainly Trump supporters, as 'white supremacists' and 'fascists'. So presumably, we would fail those background checks, or be tagged as dangerous under a red-flag law, and be denied the right to own weapons -- where we wouldn't if we held politically-correct views.

Do you see the problem?

People on my side who don't simply automatically embrace the idea of red-flag laws and background checks have a rational basis for it. Thanks to the Left.

This makes it difficult for reasonable people on the Left and Right to co operate to get some commonsense changes made.

Too bad, but that's the way our country is going, and it will get worse.

Why do some people in the UK care so much about laws in the USA that they write about them every day...?

ETA: It's a rhetorical question. The answer should be obvious with the international grouping of "the Left" as if that phrase doesn't have vastly different meanings in different political populations. This is part of the problem with gun cultures, that there's extreme amounts of aggressive international influence on it (such as Russia's backing of the NRA).

Actually, the Left is far more 'international' than the Right. It's part of their ideology, in fact, whereas Rightists are more nationally limited. I consider that a limitiation of the Right, and an admirable quality of the Left.

In my case, I'm an American who lives in the UK, born and raised in Texas.

The Fourth of July parade had just begun in Highland Park, Illinois when the shots rang out:
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/7/4/23194354/highland-park-fourth-july-parade-...
Six dead, dozens hospitalized.

Sorry to hear about Denmark's almost mass killing: not quite 4. Still, sad. Hope no copy cats, and that it was a rare asterisk in Danish history.

>41 Taphophile13: "Now, he said, it’s clear that 'it can happen anywhere.'"

In 2020 in Chicago, 79 people were shot over the Independence Day weekend. Last year, at least 100 people in the Windy City were.

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/independence-day-shootings-chicago/

This is just a note that when the number for this weekend is released in a day or so, it likely won't include Highland Park, which is served by Lake County Sheriff's Office and not Chicago Police Department.

Highland Park "Person of interest" has been taken into custody.

thank you Supreme Court for making it so much easier for the weediest looking Trump supporting incels to commit mass murders. There's really no stopping them from acting out all their resentments and getting the attention they so badly crave now. Good work Clarence and Samuel for fucking up this country even more. Looking forward to the day the open carry people actually stop one of these characters from their rampaging. As the Republican nominee for Governor of Illinois in November Mr. Bailey after hearing about these murders would have it though 'Let's just move on and celebrate'.

>45 lriley: Let’s be clearer. That’s Trump backed Darren Bailey.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/darren-bailey-high...

>42 margd: Happens once in a while. Our psychiatric system has been underfinanced for a lot of years. Maybe this will actually help get it some more money. (We have an excellent plan and a lot of statistics on how it would help lower the crime rate significantly).

For the technically minded the weapon used seems to be a Sauer 200STR (STR = Scandinavian Target Rifle). The suspect didn't have a licence tor it or a gun permit, but had access to guns via a membership of a rifle association.
It's more complicated (i.e. someone else had permit for this gun and lived at the same address), but you'll get the point.
The Sauer 200STR is meant for target shooting at fairly long distances, so the shooter could probably have done even more damage with another weapon.
(The information about the weapon is taken from a newspaper article and not confirmed officially, but it sure looks like a Sauer 200STR on the pictures.)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/highland-park-fourth-of-july-parade-shooting-w...
Highland Park Fourth of July parade shooting was nation’s 309th this year

To date this year, there have been on average 11 mass shootings per week, the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive’s data show. The group classifies an incident as a mass shooting when four or more people, excluding the shooter, are shot or killed.

***
Thanks to the GOP's reluctance to do any reining in on the sale of weapons of war, doctors and nurses in America are being forced to endure experiences similar to the ones doctors and nurses had in Korean War MASH units. And the trend is headed in a steep upward curve. GOPers showed little interest in the working lives of doctors and nurses during COVID, and they show little interest during these daily assaults. One of my aunts was a nurse in Korea.

Cassie Goldstein shared her harrowing experience at the Fourth of July massacre in Highland Park, Ill.

https://www.eonline.com/news/1336939/daughter-recalls-chilling-final-moments-wit...

2022 update of the Small Arms Survey’s Global Violent Deaths (GVD) database (Small Arms Survey)

n its 2022 update, estimating lethal violence as of the year 2020, the database reveals that the global rate of violent deaths decreased from 9.1 per 100,000 people to 6.8 per 100,000 since 2016. Similarly, firearm-related violent deaths on the global scale decreased from 3.9 per 100,000 people in 2016 to 2.7 per 100,000 in 2020. In total, 531,000 people died violently in 2020, out of which 40 per cent (211,000) were killed by firearm. However, while the decrease in the global violent death rate and count suggests a positive trend, the impact of ongoing conflicts (such as in Ukraine), as well as recent increases in homicides in some countries, risk reversing it. This also implies that possible progress towards meeting Target 16.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—reducing all forms of violence and related death rates—would similarly be stymied. ..

The figure for the USA in 2020 (see interactive map here) was 29,445 violent deaths, or 8.9 per 100,000 people, which is many times higher than any other modern western democracy, most of which are less than two per 100,000 and many below 1.

Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe dies after being shot at a campaign event...

Laurence Tribe (Harvard Law) tribelaw | 5:26 AM · Jul 8, 2022:
Count on the money-hungry gun lobby in the US to argue that even restrictive gun laws like Japan’s can’t stop bad guys with guns from killing people. A bogus argument. We have around 40,000 gun deaths a year. Japan has an average of 10. Case closed.
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ian bremmer @ianbremmer | 8:57 AM · Jul 8, 2022
japan had one death from gun violence in 2021 (not including accident or suicide). one.
the united states had 220 last weekend.
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Michael Skolnik @MichaelSkolnik | 12:31 AM · Jul 8, 2022:
Founding Partner of @WeAreSoze... Board: Trayvon Martin Fdn, @NYJusticeLeague + @RockTheVote
Jr. Board: @PublicTheaterNY

Guns are so hard to obtain in Japan, Shinzo Abe’s shooter used a homemade gun to shoot him.

Quote Tweet
Simon Lee da Quipperoni🤌🍕 @B4Btv · 6h
Photo ( https://twitter.com/B4Btv/status/1545261697203859456/photo/1 )
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>51 margd: I had to read your first line multiple times for the meaning to form. Wow.

Regarding what appears to be the first tweet...
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/08/1110493901/abe-assassination-gun-laws-violence-ja...

"Just one person was killed by gun violence in Japan in 2021, according to the country's National Police Agency. The Gun Violence Archive recorded 45,034 U.S. firearm deaths that same year."

Whoa! Reading about parents of Highland Park, IL and Oxford, MI shooters, I'm thinking that rather than being compelled to bear babies, prospective biological parents should be required to pass screening as in adoption and foster care!

Robert Crimo’s mom once assaulted his dad with shoe, screwdriver: cops
https://nypost.com/2022/07/08/highland-park-gunman-robert-crimos-mom-once-assaul...

Highland Park suspect’s father to be investigated for signing gun application (mere months after son threatened to kill family and police took his knives)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/07/highland-park-suspect-father-inv...

Accused Michigan school shooter's parents will face involuntary manslaughter charges, judge rules
...their "gross negligence allowed their son access to the murder weapon and allowed him to remain in school with that murder weapon" (Also they RAN when their son was arrested.)
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/us/ethan-crumbley-parents-involuntary-manslaughte...

>50 John5918: The figure for the USA in 2020 (see interactive map here) was 29,445 violent deaths, or 8.9 per 100,000 people, which is many times higher than any other modern western democracy

Clearly, we need more guns, because that's how those countries prevent violent deaths, right? Or did I misread this, and is that not how this actually works?

>54 kiparsky: Seen from abroad more guns to US citizens might be part of the answer, yes. Maybe if you approach 8.9 pr 10 people ? Go for it.

>55 bnielsen: Okay, now we're getting dark. I can dig it.

I don't appreciate being talked about as if my life, my family member's lives, and the lives of others who have to live in this country is expendable. We already have to hear that regularly from our politicians. Thanks.

That said... I've lived in areas in which almost every household has firearms. Even when we get shot, we don't always bother to report the incident or, you know, die. There's just constant fear of everyone that's considered a part of a life. I doubt that's made US Americans easier to deal with; it's not really to the benefit of anyone else.

>57 aspirit: I've lived in areas in which almost every household has firearms. Even when we get shot, we don't always bother to report the incident or, you know, die. There's just constant fear of everyone that's considered a part of a life

For a moment I thought you were talking about places like South Sudan, where I have lived, and Somalia, my current neighbour. It saddens me that so many Americans have to share the same fear as people in these conflict zones.

>58 John5918: FWIW, I've myself only been shot by accident. While I've been in many scary situations involving firearms, I have not had one pointed directly and deliberately at me while loaded, to my knowledge.

My biggest fears through most of my life were of gangs (as a driveby is often a sloppy attack with unintended casualties), hunters/poachers (where deliberately targeting humans along with their licensed prey or too drunk to tell the difference), school shootings (though bombs and poisonings from classmates were more frequent threats where I went to school), and conservative extremists (mainly those were are my relatives and neighbors) who take the term "bleeding heart" too seriously. Oh, and the written threats of shootings at LGBTQ+ Pride events in the years I lived close enough to attend those. Plus the ever present possibility of crossing paths with an aggressive police officer or a mass shooter... or those snipers who regularly target touristy places yet rarely get caught... so might also be an aggressive police officer, off-duty, or a militia buddy.

I'm guessing the concerns are different in South Sudan and Somalia. Maybe that makes the fear different. Although, I'm not sure.

Most of the people I've known or who were family of people I've known who have been shot within the USA were either suicides or military veterans who committed "suicide by police".

I know it's not the same for everyone here, but it seems to me that many Americans are taught to accept living in conflict zones as if there's nothing we can do about it. We're told not to even be sad or angry about it, only grateful it's not worse (yet).

Either the algorithm for recommendations on my browser home page on one device is reading what I type on another device or else the rarely covered topic of drive-by shootings in the USA coincidentally became popular hours after I mentioned them.

Whichever, there was this interesting article in recommendations.

"The Mass Casualty Crime No One Is Talking About" by Christina Carrega on Capital B (July 5)
https://capitalbnews.org/drive-by-mass-shootings/

A few hours of celebration turned into mourning at a high school graduation party in South Carolina in June when two vehicles pulled up and as many as 70 bullets were fired into the crowd, police said.

Audrionna Kind, 32, was killed, and eight others — mostly teenagers — were injured.{...}

But there was no mention {in news media} of Kind or the 150 people who attended the fateful graduation party in South Carolina. There was no testimony from witnesses of recent shootings in Kissimmee, Florida; Colorado Springs, Colorado, or Yakima, Washington, where multiple casualties were caused by bullets fired from vehicles.

There was no acknowledgement of any of the drive-by mass shootings that have killed or injured nearly 200 people this year — four times as many casualties as have been left by mass shootings in schools, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Drive-bys typically involve two or more people, with a passenger firing from inside a moving vehicle or a gunman exiting the vehicle to fire before quickly driving off. They are a nationwide phenomenon that has destroyed funerals and celebrations, family barbecues and children’s birthdays. Grandmothers have been killed while sitting on their porches. Infants have been killed in the backseat of a car.{...}

Since 2013, when the GVA launched, there have been more than 700 {reported} drive-by mass shootings that resulted in four or more injuries and deaths {in the USA}. Those incidents have killed 460 people and injured 3,017 more. By comparison, there have been 27 school mass shootings {within the country} during that time, in which 125 people were killed and 175 were injured.{...}

Under the Biden administration, the DOJ has taken steps to crack down on the illegal transport of firearms up and down the East Coast by increasing federal prosecutorial resources that include federal agents working closely with local law enforcement to solve crimes.

{However, a retired Washington, DC police officer and adviser for the National Black Police Association} says there are too many legal and illegal guns circulating across the country — to the point where every man, woman, and child can have up to four firearms per person.

Modern-day GOPers prefer that Americans accept deplorable situations ~ mass murders, pregnancies foisted on children, etc. ~ because it is political and financially necessary for their cult's survival in the swing states ~ they know they can't win the country's popular vote. The Nixon era looks like a garden party in comparison.

California governor signs gun control law modeled after Texas anti-abortion measure (Guardian)

California punched back Friday against two recent landmark US supreme court decisions as the state’s governor signed a controversial, first-in-the-nation gun control law patterned after a Texas anti-abortion law... Newsom stitched the two hot-button topics together in approving a law allowing people to sue anyone who distributes illegal assault weapons, parts that can be used to build weapons, guns without serial numbers, or .50 caliber rifles...

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ordered to pay $4.1m over false Sandy Hook claims (Guardian)

The jury in Alex Jones’s defamation trial on Thursday ordered the far-right conspiracy theorist to pay $4.1m in damages over his repeated claims that the deadly Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax... Heslin and Lewis, whose son Jesse Lewis was killed during the mass shooting, took the stand during the trial and detailed the mental suffering, death threats and harassment they weathered from fringe conservatives after Jones went on the rightwing conspiratorial outlet Infowars as well as his other media platforms to trumpet lies that the 20 children and six adults murdered in the 2012 Connecticut school massacre never actually died. Instead, Jones claimed for years that the victims and their loved ones were “crisis actors” carrying out an elaborate ruse to force gun control. In his own testimony, Jones apologized and conceded that the 2012 massacre at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, was “100% real”...

>63 John5918: the one thing I'd quibble with here a little is saying 'fringe' conservatives. I'm not sure they're fringe. There are a lot of these actors it seems to me out there these days and who are easily goaded on by demagogues like Jones to threaten those that he almost gleefully targets.....and he's hardly the only one. Trump himself targeted for instance numerous political figures who wouldn't get on board with his election steal coup all the way down to specific election workers who he named in Atlanta Ga. setting off an avalanche of threats and turning their lives into a hell.

>64 lriley: Yes, it would seem that the centre of gravity of the right is moving inexorably towards more extreme positions.

Meanwhile, Canada to ban import of handguns pending total freeze (BBC)

Canada is to ban imports of handguns - part of a move that could see a total freeze on their purchase and sale. The measure, starting on 19 August, is designed to hold up until parliament passes strict new rules, including a permanent importation ban. Handguns have "one purpose only and that is to kill people", Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said. The government's proposed total ban, unveiled three months ago, follows outrage over several deadly shootings...

Why are these Americans turning in (some of) their guns? (BBC)

In the United States there are more guns than people. On a recent Saturday morning, hundreds queued up in Houston, Texas, to turn their guns over to police. More than 800 guns were collected in this effort by local law enforcement to make the city safer - but many who gave up their firearms have many more at home...

Not unrelated to mass shootings: the well-respected international Small Arms Survey has just issued its 2021 report:

2021 was a productive year for the Small Arms Survey: indeed, the gradual resumption of travel opportunities and organization of in-person events throughout the year allowed us to implement 28 projects and consultancies.

Our work in 2021 focused on supporting effective arms control at the national level, strengthening sanctions implementation, monitoring illicit ammunition flows, analyzing transparency in the global authorized small arms trade, and producing region-specific research—to name a few.

We also broadened our scope of work both thematically and geographically. For example, we expanded our research on improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in West Africa, increased our focus on gender-responsive small arms control and its links to the Women, Peace and Security agenda, tracked the global proliferation of advanced MANPADS, partnered with the International Code of Conduct Association (ICoCA) to strengthen the weapons and ammunition management (WAM) provisions of the Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers, and started a project with the Caribbean Community Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (CARICOM IMPACS) to bolster regional capacities to combat the illicit possession, misuse, and trafficking of firearms and ammunition...

Link to the Small Arms Survey Annual Report 2021

Top 10 airports with guns caught by TSA at checkpoints in 2021
Guns
1 507 Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) --
2 317 Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport (DFW)
3 245 Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH)
4 196 Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)
5 163 Nashville International Airport (BNA)
6 141 Denver International Airport (DEN)
7 128 Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL)
8 124 Orlando International Airport (MCO)
9 119 Louis Armstrong New Orleans International (MSY)
10 115 Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC)

https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-firearms-are-caught-by-tsa/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
At quick glance, #5 Nashville, #9 New Orleans, and #10 Salt Lake City are significantly smaller airports than the others. Interesting that busy airports in LA, Chicago, and NYC are not in the top 10 for guns caught by TSA at checkpoints in 2021. https://usafacts.org/visualizations/tsa-air-travel/

My oldest son's orphanage is just south of where this horror happened--sleeping children were among those killed.

Thailand: (34) people killed in nursery shooting in Thailand (CNN)
6 Oct 2022

...Gun ownership in Thailand is relatively high compared with other countries in Southeast Asia.

Mass shootings in Thailand are rare but a 2020 incident saw a soldier kill 29 people in a shooting spree that began at a military site and then sent shoppers hunting for cover after the gunman entered a mall...

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/06/asia/thailand-mass-shooting-intl-hnk/index.html

David Frum @davidfrum | 9:18 AM · Oct 15, 2022:

This is such a grim story. Lax gun laws enable mass shootings. Schools stock kitty litter so terrorized children can pee if locked down while a shooter roams. Gun advocates then cite the kitty litter as evidence that the schools are run by sex weirdoes

How an urban myth about litter boxes in schools became a GOP talking point
At least 20 Republican politicians have claimed that schools are making accommodations for students who identify as cats. The school districts say these claims are untrue.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/misinformation/urban-myth-litter-boxes-schools-beca...

!!

David Frum @davidfrum | 11:45 AM · Oct 19, 2022:
AR-15 rifles can so mangle children's bodies that they are unrecognizable after a school shooting. Since it's politically unfeasible to act against AR-15s, school authorities need better tools to identify children's bodies.
---------------------------------------------------

Texas schools send parents DNA kits to identify their kids’ bodies in emergencies
After the mass shooting in Uvalde, the kits are making many parents feel even more anxious about sending their children to school.
Danielle Campomoar | Oct. 18, 2022

...In 2021, the Texas state legislature passed Senate Bill No. 2158, a law requiring the Texas Education Agency to “provide identification kits to school districts and open-enrollment charter schools for distribution to the parent or legal custodian of certain students.”

The law passed after eight students and two teachers were shot and killed inside Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, and almost a year before 19 fourth-graders and two teachers were gunned down inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas...

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-schools-send-parents-dna-kits-identif...

Virginia Walmart...six + shooter..workplace incident?
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/22/us/chesapeake-virginia-walmart-shooting/index.htm...

Colorado gay club...five...gunman beaten into submission...hate crime? (Gunman "non-binary", had unfortunate domestic situation?)
https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-crime-shootings-colorado-hate-crimes-f4...

Is it too discouraging to even list them anymore?

A week after the Colorado Springs Club Q, there is another shooting plastered all over the news in a Walmart in Virginia.

The BBC picked up another in Oklahoma that isn’t being covered nearly as heavily.

Suspect held after Chinese nationals killed at US cannabis farm https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63725438

>73 margd: six + shooter

I hate that distinction. Seven human beings died tragically.

>75 John5918: Must be dreadful for grieving family of killers. I am sure, though, that local community is relieved that killer in each circumstance is no longer a threat.

( Killer used a knife, not gun, on four (mostly sleeping) Idaho students, but campus is terrified that (he?) is still on the loose. Early Christmas break must sound attractive. I read that a dog was mutilated three miles from crime scene. Brr. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/23/us/university-of-idaho-students-killed-wednesday/... )

>74 2wonderY: ~400 this year...how many will it take to break NRA/Republican opposition to commonsense gun laws???

The more that gun violence occurs the more that those who own guns believe that they are needed to keep them safe.

For what it's worth, let's note that man who stopped the shooter in Colorado was not armed - and when he got hold of the shooter's weapon, he used it to bludgeon the guy into submission. Meaning of course that there are still almost no examples of the "good guy with a gun" theory propounded the the pro-mass-shooting lobby.

There was a shooting in a Walmart break room in Virginia, where a manager shot a bunch of the overnight crew at a meeting, killing six and wounding six more. I've been part of one of those crews, so it's more personally scary.

>73 margd: contd. Hate-filled Republicans and Christians...

Jenna Ellis, one-time member of Trump's legal team, opines on Colorado Springs victims:

Andrew Kimmel (TV Producer) @andrewkimmel | 2:00 PM · Nov 23, 2022:

.@JennaEllisEsq* on the Club Q shooting. The “people killed in the nightclub that night, there is no evidence/that they were Christians. Assuming they have not accepted the truth/affirmed Christ as the lord of their life they are now reaping the consequences of eternal damnation.”

0:38 ( https://twitter.com/andrewkimmel/status/1595492438033936385 )

* America’s Lawyer. Contributor @newsmax. THE JENNA ELLIS SHOW podcast. @AFRnet 8-9am ET radio host. Fmr Senior Adviser & Counsel @POTUS45. Relentlessly Truthful.
________________________________________

No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen @NoLieWithBTC | 3:47 PM · Nov 23, 2022:

The Colorado shooter’s dad on finding out his son murdered people: “They started telling me about the incident, a shooting... And then I go on to find out it’s a gay bar. I got scared, ‘Shit, is he gay?’ And he’s not gay, so I said, phew… I am a conservative Republican.” (@CBS8)

0:54 ( https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1595519454900805649 )

John Fetterman @JohnFetterman | 9:00 PM · Nov 23, 2022:
Senator-Elect for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Absolutely horrified that four Philly students were shot on the way home from school today.

Gisele + I are holding these students, their families, and the Overbrook High community in our hearts tonight.

These are kids. They deserve to be safe in their own city. ENOUGH.

Joe Biden renews call for assault weapons ban after latest mass shootings (Guardian)

President says he will seek to pass gun control before new Congress is seated in January, but odds of success are low...

US Walmart shooting: Weapon purchased morning of attack (BBC)

A man who opened fire on co-workers at a Walmart in Virginia had just hours before legally purchased the handgun he used in the attack, officials say. An update on Friday from city of Chesapeake officials also said the gunman did not have a criminal history...

Legally. No criminal history.

Vaughan, a suburb n of Toronto, Sunday, 18 Dec ~7 pm :

5 people killed in a ‘horrendous’ condo shooting in Canada, police say
Elizabeth Wolfe and Tavleen Tarrant | December 19, 2022

...The male gunman was shot by an officer during a confrontation and died... it appears the victims were from more than one condo unit...

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/18/world/condo-shooting-vaughan-canada/index.html

>84 margd: contd.

73-year-old man in bitter dispute over Ontario condo kills board members in fight against 'demons'
Police say three of the five people killed were members of the condo board, though authorities are not yet able to release the identities of the victims
Adrian Humphreys | Dec 19, 2022

...(the shooter) used a semi-automatic handgun and went to three different units on different floors in his building, where police later found his victims...

https://www.thewhig.com/news/five-victims-mass-killing-luxury-condo-toronto

Not a "mass shooting" but horrific nonetheless.

Boy aged six detained after shooting teacher in US (BBC)

A six-year-old boy has been detained by police after shooting a teacher in the US state of Virginia, officers say. The shooting happened shortly after 14:00 local time (19:00 GMT) at Richneck Elementary School in the city of Newport News, Chief Steve Drew said. It is unclear how the child obtained the gun, but Mr Drew said the incident was not "an accidental shooting"...

David Hogg ☮️ @davidhogg111 | 11:24 PM · Jan 10, 2023
Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS shooting-survivor
A March For Our Lives founder and board member contactdavidhogg@gmail.com

BIG NEWS: Illinois just banned assault weapons!

Illinois bans military-style weapons in win for gun control advocates (Guardian)

Gun control advocates were boosted on Wednesday following Illinois lawmakers’ decision to ban military-style weapons in the state, as well as the US supreme court’s decision to allow New York to continue enforcing a new gun law that bans guns from “sensitive places”...

>4 John5918: Does Half of Africa have to live with the mass shootings of Catholics attending church services in Nigeria over 4,000 murdered in two years, Sunday in Kaduna State one killed and 53 women and children kidnapped, In the Congo as you well know thousands of minor children are working in mines to produce rare earth materials (colbalt) for batteries made in China Do we look the other way in the name of climate change. It seems to me a lot of mass shootings going on in unfree society with none of your 73% this, or 85% that.Just a hundred percent rape and pillage in your own back yard. Where is the outrage?....JMJ....

>89 brone:

Not sure what your point is. Mass shootings and killings are to be condemned, and indeed are condemned, wherever they happen. Many, many people and organisations are channelling their outrage towards reducing violence in the world, whether in Africa, China, Ukraine, the Global North, or wherever. One of many, many strategies that are being applied is to reduce the availability of the small arms and light weapons which are used in most of these mass killings.

89> https://xkcd.com/2368

>made in China Do we look the other way in the name of climate change.

No, we look the other way in the name of capitalism. Everything is made in China, and pointing at batteries and not everything else so you can complain about climate change is bogus.

Mass shootings: America’s challenge for gun control explained in charts (BBC)

Some interesting statistics and charts.

I saw reports of last night's attack on Michigan State students in real time across Mastodon, and I think it says something that my emotional response has been numbness. My thought on the first report, from someone I've interacted with for years online, was "Oh, good, it's not at someplace close to me this time."

I'm certain I'm an example and not an exception.

That's the cultural situation. The response when we see news of yet another mass shooting is to check to see how much energy we have to put into caring. Because we expect we'll be involved in one soon enough to need energy for a response (physical or emotional) even if we were spared this time.

Our politicians need to care more, to act to prevent these crimes.

News media should be doing better, too.

The Congressional members wearing lapel pins in the shape of AR-15 rifles are acting like domestic terrorists. Why isn't that portrayed as a scandal? Why aren't all of them and their personal financial ties to domestic weapons distributors being scrutinized?

Because the people maintaining control of political messaging condone the frequent murders by firearm.

>95 aspirit: As a reminder: an AR-15 was used to shoot and kill young students and teachers in Uvalde, Texas.

This style of rifle was also used in the fatal mass shootings at the Las Vegas concert and the Texan church in 2017, Pulse nightclub in 2016, the southern California community services workplace in 2015, and Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

"Where AR-15-style rifles fit in America's tragic history of mass shootings" (May 2022 | NPR)
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/26/1101274322/uvalde-ar-15-style-rifle-history-shoot...

See also message 42 on the previous page of this thread.

(Yes, three posts in a row. I guess my emotional response was delayed, or it came about when I was reminded of how my Representatives are contributing to the violence instead of to corrections. I'm now putting my energy into anger, which is a feeling of unmet expectations for decency.)

Michigan State U is my youngest son's alma mater. Husband's g'niece was just accepted there--and HER high school was one of several on lockdown after being threatened a couple weeks ago. Worse, I read that a Sandy Hook survivor is student at MSU... With control of state legislature, hoping that Dems will act... ETA: Also a student at MSU, a survivor of shooting at Michigan's Oxford HS a couple years ago.

>97 margd: Jackie Matthews of Newtown, Connecticut has survived her second school shooting at 21 years old.

https://www.audacy.com/wcbs880/news/national/michigan-state-student-survives-2nd...

And some other students survived a mass shooting at a Michigan High School

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/14/us/michigan-state-oxford-high-school-shootings

>98 rastaphrog: Can you imagine their parents' terror? Dodging bullet not one, but twice...

After MSU shooting, Michigan Legislature cancels session, Democrats vow gun safety bills
Clara Hendrickson | 14 Feb 2023

...a trio of proposals...to enact universal background checks, allow extreme risk protection orders to keep guns away from those deemed a danger to themselves or others and institute safe storage requirements...

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2023/02/14/msu-shooting-michigan-state...
----------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile Rs in NC:

Hours after Michigan shooting, North Carolina Republicans advance bills to loosen state gun laws
Kelan Lyons | 2/15/2023

...The Senate Judiciary Committee {advanced three bills out of committee} Tuesday: Senate Bills 40, 41 and 67. Those proposals would repeal the pistol purchase permit required to obtain a firearm in North Carolina, allow people with a concealed carry license to bring their weapon into a house of worship that has a school on its property, and launch a voluntary two-year statewide firearm safe storage awareness initiative.

The House and Senate have passed versions of the Pistol Purchase Permit Repeal and the “Protect Religious Meeting Places” bills in prior legislative sessions. Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed those measures when they reached his desk. But thanks to gains in the midterm elections, Republicans could have the votes to override a new veto...

https://ncpolicywatch.com/2023/02/15/hours-after-michigan-shooting-north-carolin...

>99 margd: “Protect Religious Meeting Places”

What a sick misnomer. The idea that carrying pistols into a church can “Protect Religious Meeting Places”. You'd think a church or other place of worship would be a place where you could be secure in the knowledge that you were not surrounded by people carrying firearms. "Blasphemy" might be a better term.

The latest issue of the University of Notre Dame's Peace Policy looks at Gun Violence in America.

Here’s the congressperson who represents the district containing Covenant School:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqTSLM1ucCs/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee just signed laws targeting LGBQ and transgender people. The shooter in this was transgender and a former student at the religion based school. At least in some states including Tennessee access to military grade weapons is pretty much available to any adult and very often even children have access through their parents. To republican/conservative minds it's never the guns. It's almost a wonder that bazookas and flamethrowers, surface to air missiles aren't available yet. Maybe because someone might plunk a police helicopter out of the sky thereby causing a mixup between two fundamentally pro-conservative groups of 2nd amendment gun owners and police. So much easier for them to just target poor people and gay people. Anyway thoughts and prayers to all those republican Tennessee politicians who helped make this all happen.

By the way on the question of unlocked side doors---the shooter shot their way through. So much for that.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/megyn-kelly-says-shes-fcking-sick-of-calls-to-ban-...
Megyn Kelly Says She’s ‘F*cking Sick’ of Calls to Ban Guns After Shootings: ‘They’re Not Going Away’

***
I'm sick of seeing these whacko cult news personalities pretending to care about the lives of America's children. They and their children live in protective, lap-of-luxury cocoons 24/7.

Modern-day GOPers cannot seriously believe that America is still 'the shining city on the hill' while they allow America's children to be killed off by modern-day guns in schools across the nation. We are in a green money vs. red blood era ~ greed is winning. The Founders must be shedding waterfalls of tears as they see this travesty playing out.

Nashville shooting: what it reveals about Americans’ love of military-style guns (Guardian)

In 2017 there were 393m legal and illicit firearms in the hands of US civilians. That quantity overshadows the next country in the league table: India, with 71m. Expressed by civilian firearms for every 100 residents, the US still stands head and shoulders above the rest of the globe. It has 121 for each 100, compared with war-torn Yemen in second place with 53. Drill down to the guns used in the Nashville shooting and the extent of the American gun nightmare is illustrated on a more granular level. The first of the shooter’s three guns was an AR-15 style assault rifle – a Lead Star Arms Grunt built by the Palmetto State Armory in South Carolina. A Washington Post investigation published on Monday (coincidentally about four hours before the Nashville shooter entered the Covenant school) explores how the AR-15 – a weapon designed for the battlefield and admired by the Pentagon for its “phenomenal lethality” – has become the best-selling rifle in the US. Polling data from the Washington Post and Ipsos suggests that about one in every 20 US adults – about 16m people – own at least one AR-15. The Post’s investigation also includes the devastating figure that AR-15s have been involved in 10 of the 17 deadliest mass shootings in the US in the past decade...

>105 John5918: one in 20--wow...
Below, WaPo is offering free access, outside paywall. Animations are illuminating, disturbing...

The Blast Effect
This is how bullets from an AR-15 blow the body apart
Editor’s note: We are publishing these 3D animations to show the destructive power of the AR-15. The images may disturb some people.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-damage-to-human-bod...

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/health/us-children-gun-deaths-dg/index.html
Children and teens are more likely to die by guns than anything else

Guns are the leading cause of death for US children and teens, since surpassing car accidents in 2020.

***
The one undeniable factor is the use of a gun in every single killing. It appears that America stopped being the 'shining city on the hill' a few years ago.

Victor Shi @Victorshi2020 | 6:26 PM · Apr 3, 2023:
Youngest Biden Delegate. Current—Host #OntheMove, @iGenPolitics_ ; @VotersTomorrow; @ResoluteSquare; UCLA. Fmr—WhiteHouse; @JoeBiden; Comms DNC @Precisionstrat

This an image you haven't seen today because mainstream media has been covering Donald Trump's motorcade & plane all day long. These are Nashville students walking out today, sick and tired of the NRA and Republican inaction. The youth WILL save us, once again.

Photo ( https://twitter.com/Victorshi2020/status/1643017099386966017 )
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tennessee Republicans trying to expel Democratic lawmakers who supported gun control protest
Resolutions have been filed against Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson after they led chants from the House floor with supporters in the gallery last Thursday.
AP | April 4, 2023

...Resolutions have been filed against Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson after they led chants from the House floor with supporters in the gallery last Thursday. The resolution declared that the three had participated in “disorderly behavior” and “did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives.”

...Hundreds of protesters packed the Capitol last week calling for the Republican-led Statehouse to pass gun control measures in response to the Nashville school shooting that resulted in the deaths of six people. As the chants echoed throughout the Capitol, Jones, Johnson and Pearson {Ds} approached the front of the House chamber with a bullhorn.

As the three shared the bullhorn and cheered on the crowd, {House Speaker Cameron} Sexton, a Republican, quickly called for a recess. He later vowed the three would face consequences. Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Karen Camper {D} described their actions as “good trouble,” a reference to the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis’ guiding principal.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tennessee-republicans-trying-expel-democrat...

Shannon Watts @shannonrwatts | 3:01 PM · Apr 5, 2023:
Founder of @MomsDemand, grassroots army of @Everytown / "Fight Like a Mother" author / Boards @WeAdvancePeace, @EmergeAmerica

RIGHT NOW: Days after six people were killed in a Nashville school, Republicans on Tennesse’s House Education Committee are considering HB 1202 to allow teachers to carry guns in schools. @momsdemand
volunteers are out in force to oppose this dangerous and deadly policy.

0:44 ( https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1643690230560739329 )

One in five Americans has had family member killed by gun violence – study (Guardian)

One in five Americans has lost a family member to gun violence, an alarming survey published on Tuesday claims... The new study reflects the increasing commonality of gun-related incidents across the US. The survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 19% of Americans said they had a family member killed by a gun, including by suicide, and one in six said they had witnessed a shooting. Among respondents who are Black, the already shocking figure in both categories jumped to one in three... Asked if they were worried “daily or almost daily” about a family member falling victim to gun violence, 24% of parents with children under 18 said they were, compared with 15% for the adult population at large. “Unfortunately when we allow guns everywhere, for anyone with no questions asked, nowhere is safe from this gun violence epidemic,” said the founder of the gun safety advocacy group Moms Demand Action, Shannon Watts, in response to the Nashville school shooting. “We cannot and will not accept this reality. Our lawmakers must take action to keep us safe”...

Not just to Mexico, US guns exported to Canada

Ontario, U.S. law enforcement seize 173 guns, arrest 42, in cross-border trafficking probe
The Canadian Press | 1 April 2023

Toronto police carried out a joint investigation with several Ontario police forces, Canadian border agents and U.S. law enforcement.

A year-long, cross-border firearms trafficking investigation...A total of 422 criminal charges...Among the accused are Canadians who allegedly sold guns acquired in the United States to undercover officers in Toronto...

Many of the guns were legally purchased in the U.S. states of Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio and Texas...mostly semi-automatic pistols, and another 87 handguns seized by U.S. law enforcement in Chicago from a vehicle destined for Canada...

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-us-law-enforcement-seize-...

The lethality of a gunshot wound is increasing, period. Excluding #suicide, a higher percent of firearm injuries are now a) dying on scene, b) dying in the emergency dept.
Graph location 2001-2021 ( https://twitter.com/meganranney/status/1645828674506063884 )

- Megan Ranney MD MPH 🌻 @meganranney
I fix problems and promote health 🔸incoming Dean @yalesph 🔸ER doc @Brown_Emergency 🔸Director @BrownDigiHealth
-----------------------------------------------

Lauren L. Agoubi et al. 2023. Patterns in Location of Death From Firearm Injury in the US (Research Letter). JAMA Surg. Published online April 5, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2022.8380 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/article-abstract/2802839

The increase in firearm death rates in the US has been attributed to many factors, including higher gun sales, social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, and lack of new federal firearm legislation. Studies suggest that both the risk and lethality of firearm injuries have increased, partly due to larger magazine capacity and growing use of high-caliber weapons. Location of death after traumatic injury informs resource organization for both treatment and prevention. Deaths at the scene of injury serve as a proxy for increasing lethality because those patients do not survive transport to a medical facility; however, locations of firearm deaths remain poorly characterized. In this study, we sought to analyze patterns in location of death from firearm injury in the US between 1999 and 2021.

Why ghost guns are America's fastest-growing gun problem (BBC)

a ghost gun, which is a privately made firearm that is unregistered and untraceable. Nowadays, anyone with access to the internet can buy the parts needed to make a gun without a background check. Tutorials online explain how to assemble the pieces into a fully functioning firearm with just basic tools in less than an hour... without serial numbers on the gun frames, it is virtually impossible to trace ghost guns and track down dealers who are selling guns illegally to minors or to people without proper firearm licenses...

John Harris, leading the Tennessee Firearms Association, says the student protestors are “props.” As if they don’t really understand what being shot at means.

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/revealed/revealed-h...

Two Texas cheerleaders shot in parking lot after almost getting into wrong car (Guardian)

A man in Texas shot and wounded two cheerleaders when one almost got into his car by mistake, according to officials and local media reports. The shootings of Payton Washington and her Woodlands Elite Cheer Company teammate Heather Roth came three days after 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis was shot dead in New York when the car she was riding in pulled into the driveway of a wrong address. Two days before that, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot and injured in Kansas City, Missouri, by a man whose doorbell he rang after going to the wrong address to pick up siblings. The three cases have cast a worldwide spotlight on US gun culture...

Note that he didn't shoot instinctively in supposed self-defence as a girl opened the door of his car by mistake. He waited until she had returned to her own car, then walked over and in a premeditated act shot the two girls as she was apologising for her mistake.

Woman Shot Dead in Upstate} New York After Pulling Into Wrong Driveway: Police
The suspect has been charged with second-degree murder
Eric Mullin • Published April 17, 2023 • Updated on April 19, 2023

...Kaylin Gillis {20} was in a car with three friends looking for another friend's house in the rural area of Hebron, New York, on Saturday night when they mistakenly turned down the wrong driveway.

After the vehicle had been in the driveway for a "very short time," Kevin Monahan came out of the residence and fired two shots as the group of friends was exiting the property, police said. One of the shots struck Gillis.

The group then drove to the neighboring town of Salem to get cell service and call for help. Emergency responders performed CPR on Gillis, but she was pronounced dead...

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/woman-fatally-shot-in-new...
----------------------------------------------------

‘Fear and paranoia.’ Grandson says Andrew Lester bought into conspiracies, disinformation
Judy L. Thomas and Luke Nozicka Updated April 19, 2023

...Andrew D. Lester, 84, shot (Ralph Yarl, 16) twice — including once in the head — when Yarl accidentally went to the wrong house on Thursday night while trying to pick up his younger brothers. Lester, a white man who police say shot Yarl after the teen rang Lester’s doorbell, was charged Monday with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. He surrendered to authorities on Tuesday, was released on $200,000 bond and pleaded not guilty Wednesday during his first court appearance.

...(Grandson Klint) Ludwig said he and his grandfather, who goes by the first name Dan, used to be very close. “But in the last five or six years or so, I feel like we’ve lost touch,” he said. “I’ve gotten older and gained my own political views, and he’s become staunchly right-wing, further down the right-wing rabbit hole as far as doing the election-denying conspiracy stuff and COVID conspiracies and disinformation, fully buying into the Fox News, OAN kind of line. I feel like it’s really further radicalized him in a lot of ways.”

Ludwig said his grandfather had been immersed in “a 24-hour news cycle of fear and paranoia.” ...

“And then the NRA pushing the ‘stand your ground’ stuff and that you have to defend your home,” he said. ...

Does he consider his grandfather a racist? “I believe that there have been some positions that he’s held that have been bigoted or sort of disparaging,” Ludwig said. “But it’s stock Fox News, conservative American stuff. It’s ‘anybody who gets an abortion is a murderer.’ And ‘fatherless Black families are the reason why crime exists in this country.’ It’s stuff everybody’s heard at the Thanksgiving table every year.”

Ludwig said his grandfather’s paranoia had accelerated in the past couple of years. “I hesitate to say he got more extreme, because all this stuff has been extreme,” he said, “and it’s been the same story for decades and decades, and generation to generation of people believing the same things. It’s just nowadays people are acting on it a little bit more.”

Lester, a military veteran and former airline mechanic, was an avid hunter and longtime gun owner, Ludwig said. “Back in his younger days, he would be involved in shooting sports,” he said. “And I don’t necessarily have a problem with using guns and having guns. It’s the paranoia that I think is a real issue.”...

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article274517706.html
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Shootings of young people who went to wrong houses draw attention to ‘stand your ground’ laws
Incidents in Kansas City, Mo., and upstate New York could renew debate over the rights of homeowners seeking to protect their property.
Dylan Stableford | April 18, 2023

...the “castle doctrine,” a set of self-defense laws ... include the "stand your ground" law, the Kansas City Star’s Kynala Phillips explained:

“The laws give people the right to defend themselves from people who they feel are threatening them. It protects people who feel threatened at their home, in their vehicle, on private property or “any other location such person has the right to be,” Phillips wrote. “If a person believes there is a risk of death or serious physical injury, and they are legally allowed to be in the place they are, that person can use deadly force to defend themselves or others without breaking the law. They do not have a legal duty to retreat from an altercation, according to Missouri law.”

But they do have to prove that they were acting in self-defense.

“You can’t just shoot people who come to your door,” Missouri criminal defense attorney Kevin Jamison told the newspaper...

https://news.yahoo.com/ralph-yarl-kaylin-gillis-wrong-house-shootings-stand-your...

Geez. In this case, a black man was the shooter and white neighbours were victims.

Little Girl, Parents Shot After Basketball Rolls Into Neighbor’s Yard: Report
AJ McDougall | April 19, 2023

A 6-year-old girl and her parents were injured by gunfire on Tuesday night after a basketball rolled down a residential street in North Carolina and into a man’s yard, enraging him...

Witnesses told the station that the gunman ran up and down the street, firing until he ran out of bullets.

...The young girl, Kinsley White, was hospitalized after being seriously wounded. She was released overnight, family members told Queen City News. Her father, William White, remains in the hospital...

...Her mother, Ashley Hilderbrand, was grazed by a bullet and treated at the scene...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/little-girl-parents-shot-basketball-025535069.html

Florida couple {18 & 19, African-American} delivering Instacart groceries shot at after driving to wrong address
Katlyn Brieskorn | Apr 21, 2023

...Waldes Thomas told NBC affiliate WTVJ that he was delivering for Instacart Saturday, and his girlfriend Diamond D’arville was with him. The couple said they were on the phone with the customer trying to find her house but ended up at a home on Southwest 178th Avenue.

The couple said they saw a flashlight as they were about to drive off the property.

“He’s like, ‘Who are you?’ and we’re saying we’re with Instacart,” D’arville told the news station.

Things quickly took a terrible turn after the man got into his truck and pulled up behind the couple.

“I had seen him pull out a gun and that’s when I said, ‘We got to go, we got to go,'” D’arville told WTVJ. “I was scared, I’m not going to lie.”

D’arville said her car was hit several times. The couple said they decided to pull over about a block away from the home and called Davie police.

...“(A detective) asked if we wanted to prosecute and we agreed to do that, but he said since they didn’t break any laws or do anything unlawful, they couldn’t do anything because we were on their property,” D’arville told WTVJ.

The couple said they want the man who shot at them to be held accountable.

...Instacart released the following statement to WTVJ:

“The safety of the entire Instacart community is incredibly important to us, and we take immediate action when we receive reports of violence or threats of violence made against any member of the Instacart community. We have reached out to the shopper and will cooperate with law enforcement on any ongoing investigation.”

Instacart said they have added several safety resources for shoppers and any incidents should be reported.

https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/florida-couple-delivering-instacart-groceries-...
-----------------------------------------------------------

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/actions-of-gunman-instacart-delivery-driver-...

>119 margd: “ D’arville said her car was hit several times”

Since when is that not criminal and the police can’t do anything about it?

Am I misunderstanding the story?

>120 2wonderY: They're going to fall back on Florida's 'stand your ground' law.

Basically if you're on your own property you can shoot at anybody that sets foot on that property.......for reasons.

>121 lriley: Sounds like shooter might have followed Instacart delivery teens onto public road, though?
Sad how wimpy Instacart's statement was?

Tennessee Legislature passes bill to shield gun companies from lawsuits (5:59)
MSNBC | 22 April 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCWwKskjDho
________________________________________

Republican governor to call special session in Tennessee to discuss gun reform (2:27)
Gov. Bill Lee proposed keeping guns away from those deemed a risk to others.
Alexandra Hutzler | April 22, 2023

Gov Lee statement: https://www.tn.gov/governor/news/2023/4/21/gov--lee-to-call-special-session-on-p...

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/republican-governor-call-special-session-tenness...
________________________________________

Andrew Wortman @AmoneyResists | 9:41 PM · Apr 21, 2023:
HE/HIM. Democratic Activist. Gay AF...

The party that expelled two black House members earlier this month for “violating decorum rules” brought a bullhorn onto their senate chamber floor this evening to tell another member to shut up. Tennessee, your legislature is a hot mess.
Photo ( https://twitter.com/AmoneyResists/status/1649589259555282944/photo/1 )

Serbia to be ‘disarmed’ after second mass shooting in days, president says (Guardian)

Serbia will be “disarmed”, its president, Aleksandar Vučić, has pledged in an address to the nation, after eight people were killed and 14 wounded in a second mass shooting in the Balkans country in as many days. Thursday night’s drive-by assault by a 21-year-old with an automatic weapon had followed the death of nine people at the hands of a 13-year-old who opened fire in a school in downtown Belgrade on Wednesday. Vučić described the 48 hours of bloodshed as an “attack on our entire country” as he announced that registered and illegal arms would be seized in what he said would amount to “an almost complete disarming of Serbia”. Mass shootings are rare in Serbia but there is a high level of gun ownership...

At least 8 people dead in an Allen Texas outlet mall yesterday. Hardly remarkable anymore. The majority of Texans it seems to me are getting exactly what they've asked for. They keep on electing conservatives into power at least in part to preserve their rights to continue to buy whatever weapons including military grade armalites. Better these things don't happen at all but when they inevitably do better in states that do nothing (other than thoughts and prayers) to stop this shit from happening. They seem to want their little piece of the Wild West upgraded to today's technological advances in weaponry.

Follow the money and the votes. The GOP will never try to “shoot down” the use of assault weapons because the users of those horrific weapons are part of its base. Today’s GOP will never again be the GOP of your parents’ eras. A Musk/Tucker-type hookup will assure that it becomes even more steadfast in its resolve.

Find it interesting when Gov. Abbott and other republicans start yakking about mental health issues being the problem or Taylor Greene and Tucker C. droning on about anti-depressants and yet the availability of military grade automatic weapons to people who would walk around in combat gear with a RWDS (for Right Wing Death Squad) sewn on to his jacket kind of puts the lie to all their bullshit. The shooter had easy access to his weapon and knew how to use it and what exactly he hoped to accomplish with it on Saturday. Whatever his issues were he wasn't confused. Maybe Abbott and Taylor Greene could parse out all their donors with white supremacist or Nazi ideologies and give them their money back. Wouldn't shock me if the shooter donated to both of them.

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/msnbcs-dowd-says-they-banned-lawn-darts-after-...
MSNBC’s Dowd Says ‘They Banned Lawn Darts After Three Children Died’ But 4,000 Gun Deaths In Texas Haven’t Prompted Government Action

***
Follow the M-O-N-E-Y.
also ~
Unfortunately, Texas ranks 50th when it comes to mental health help, challenging Abbott's so-called concerns about the mental health of shooters.

Texas Bill Would Train Third Graders to Use 'Battlefield' Tourniquets

https://www.newsweek.com/texas-bill-would-train-third-graders-use-battlefield-to...

FL Gov DeSantis signed legislation prohibiting credit card companies from tracking sales of firearms and ammunition. (The New Republic, https://newrepublic.com/post/172712/ron-desantis-bans-credit-card-companies-trac... )

(Earlier FL passed legislation that prevented public access to his use of state plane his travels, etc. Since then the would-be candidate for US president has spent a lot of time promoting his book, visiting primary states and even overseas. Coincidentally, a short while ago, s FL was badly flooded and he didn't return from one of his trips...)

>124 John5918: Serbians hand in guns and question culture of violence after two shootings (BBC)

Shock and horror might have been Serbians' first reaction to two mass shootings in as many days earlier this month. But outrage swiftly followed. Tens of thousands of people attended two protests in the capital, Belgrade, with smaller rallies in other cities around the country. They marched under the banner "Serbia Against Violence" and called for an end to what they viewed as a culture of violence which led to the shootings at a school in Belgrade and, the next day, around Mladenovac, south of Serbia's capital... But there is one issue which both protesters and authorities seem to agree on: gun control. "There is no pro-gun lobby in Serbia"...

Another cost of gun violence. I find myself marking exits and stepping away from roadways in crowds, and, increasingly, look like organizers think twice now about hosting such events. This one in se Michigan:

Polish Country Fair at St. Mary’s is likely gone for good
Popular festival attracted large crowds
Anne Runkle | May 23, 2023

...School officials cited safety concerns when they nixed the fair last year, just a few months after an Oxford High School student killed four classmates in a mass shooting...

https://www.theoaklandpress.com/2023/05/23/polish-country-fair-at-st-marys-is-li...

>132 margd: I find myself marking exits

I've been doing that for forty years! It has saved my life on at least one occasion.

>133 John5918: After a fire alarm in Winnipeg hotel (in winter!), I always check exit routes in hotels. Only recently at mega-events, though... I remember stepping quickly away from curb after finding myself standing next to a plain-clothes cop(?) at one gathering...he was watching road, not participants!

Winnie-the-Pooh book teaches Texas kids to ‘run, hide, fight’ in a shooting (Guardian)

“Winnie-the-Pooh is now teaching Texas kids about active shooters because the elected officials do not have the courage to keep our kids safe and pass common sense gun safety laws”...

Wave of lawsuits against US gun makers raises hope of end to mass shootings (Guardian)

Campaigners take legal route after success against big tobacco and other industries led to change...

Impose “stricter measures” on Gun Circulation: Catholic Bishops in Uganda to Government (ACI Africa)

Catholic Bishops in Uganda have expressed concern about gun deaths in the country, and have called on the government to impose “stricter measures” on the circulation of firearms... “It is our request to the government and to the commander in chief to have stricter measures imposed on the use of guns in this country for both the security agents and private owners of guns”...

The abundance of small arms and light weapons is not only a problem in the USA, and is particularly acute in countries and regions which have suffered from civil wars. However in most places other than the USA there are attempts to control the problem.

Gavin Newsom wants 28th Amendment for guns in U.S. Constitution

California’s governor outlines a plan fueled by money left over from his recent reelection.

...The Democratic governor’s proposal would raise the federal minimum age to buy a firearm to 21 from 18; mandate universal background checks; institute a “reasonable” waiting period for all gun purchases and ban assault rifles nationally.

...Newsom acknowledged the seemingly unimaginable hurdles to creating a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But his plan is distinctly Newsom: designed to draw maximum public attention on an issue where he sees Americans’ views as being far ahead of their governments’. In the interview, Newsom said his motivation to act on guns was inspired by a rollback of gun control measures in courts amid the unending series of mass killings. Specifically, he said, it’s meant to address “the echo chamber of despair out there today.”...

Newsom and the state Legislature in Sacramento are set to kickoff a nationwide process that would require support from 34 states to trigger a convention. California state Sen. Aisha Wahab, (D-Hayward), and Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles) are expected to carry the bill, backed by a host of outside gun-safety groups...

Getting 33 other states on board would be almost impossibly difficult. Democrats now control 20 state legislatures across the country. But Newsom, who seeded his political committee with $10 million and has spent time on the national stage trolling Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas, has for years crusaded against the gun industry and reaped the political benefits in a state where voters broadly support strong curbs on firearms...

Newsom said even if Congress voted to enact some of the restrictions he’s pushing, which itself is inconceivable based on recent history, the courts are acting as another seemingly impenetrable barrier for new reforms. “They’re literally throwing out all of the progress many of us have made in these blue states,” he said...

He was circumspect about its prospects but predicted that a continued wave of mass carnage could someday tip the scales for those seeking meaningful action. “If we reach the threshold of these mass shootings, and we have another few dozen of these in the next year or two, I think people are at a breaking point in this country, and you may see this accelerate in a pretty profound and pronounced way.”...

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/08/newsom-gun-control-amendment-00100954

In Tennessee’s special session addressing gun violence, spurred by the Covenant School shooting, Republicans decided to change the definition of a mass shooting. They exclude shootings in private homes, gang related shootings, and change the accepted standard from 3 to 4 victims. Presto! Change-o! Fewer mass shootings in Tennessee.
HB 7071

Not picked up by any regular news sources yet, found on Instagram reported by The Tennessee Holler:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CwY67MZOFV7/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

There have been several mass shootings lately including one at the Cook's Corner bar which I used to frequent but there has been no national coverage as far as I can see. Is that just because of all the Trump coverage lately?

Juliette Kayyem @juliettekayyem | 12:08 PM · Aug 27, 2023:
Prof @Kennedy_School, CNN National Security Analyst, @TheAtlantic, Consultant, Author. Obama @DHSgov. Read THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS. Pulitzer finalist.

"His actions yesterday were not just a hate crime. They were a performance . . . . This is the age of mass shooting as production. And we misunderstand what is happening if we see this as a play with only one act at a time."

My @TheAtlantic essay:

The Jacksonville Killer Wanted Everyone to Know His Message of Hate
He didn’t want to merely murder people, but to do so with the attention of the world.
Juliette Kayyem | 27 Aug 2023
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/08/jacksonville-killer-wanted-eve...

The Washington Post (0:57)
https://twitter.com/deAdder/status/1697008648050938025

- Michael de Adder @deAdder | 6:09 PM · Aug 30, 2023

(parody of film "Groundhog Day", starring Bill Murray)

Open carry in Tennessee. Now it’s okay to shoot a dog in a park, with people all around.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxLNTTlugw0/?igshid=MWZjMTM2ODFkZg==

https://www.wsmv.com/2023/09/13/man-allegedly-shoots-kills-german-shepherd-percy...

No charges were filed.

The Supreme Court had to repeat a decision they made in August about "ghost guns."

The Supreme Court’s very brief, very revealing new decision about guns, explained

https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/10/17/23919988/supreme-court-ghost-guns-garland-...

Hope all is well in Tim's world. Maine...

ABC News ABC | 5:12 AM · Oct 26, 2023:
At least 20 people believed to be dead in mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, according to multiple sources briefed on the situation.

One witness described the harrowing scene at a bowling alley with shots ringing out while he was putting on his shoes. https://trib.al/MmktjR1

Yes, I was also thinking of Tim when I saw this on BBC.

The French History Podcast 🇲🇫 @FrenchHist | 11:39 AM · Oct 26, 2023:
Mass shootings (4+ killed or injured) by country in 2023:

France: 0
Japan: 0
South Korea: 0
UK: 1
Italy: 1
Germany: 2

USA: 565

In before gun fanatics say "The US is the only free country in the world" (it isn't), "Other countries don't have gun availability" (Europe's gun ownership is very high), "The murder rates are the same when you include stabbings," (Not even close).

It's amazing how every time I post a statistic about gun massacres someone will say, "You're anti-American!" If opposing gun massacres is 'anti-American' you're admitting that gun massacres are an intrinsic part of American culture.

According to new GOP Speaker Mike Johnson, mass shootings are a result of the cultural revolution of the 1960s. In this clip, he blames the rise of mass shootings on "no-fault" divorces becoming legal, legalized abortion, and schools embracing the teaching of evolution.
1:18 ( https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1717633089466429749 )

- https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1717633089466429749

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/senate-approved-amendment-that-would-scale-bac...
Senate approved amendment that would limit gun background checks for veterans

Hours before a suspect -- a U.S. Army reservist who sources said had mental health symptoms -- allegedly shot and killed 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday, the U.S. Senate approved an amendment that would scale back background check requirements for some veterans and service members with mental health issues.

The amendment was authored by Republican Sens. John Kennedy and Jerry Moran, who had concerns that veterans could lose gun rights. It prohibits the Department of Veterans Affairs from reporting certain veterans to the National Criminal Background Check system when their finances are being managed by a conservator at the VA.

***
Dems must win control of the Senate, the House, and the WH in November 2024.

New Speaker Mike Johnson Blamed School Shootings on the Teaching of Evolution
Johnson’s comments ultimately imply science teachers are to blame for school shootings
J.D. Wolf 14 hours ago
https://www.meidastouch.com/news/new-speaker-mike-johnson-blamed-school-shooting...

Speaker Mike Johnson: “And people say, ‘How can a young person go into their schoolhouse and open fire on their classmates?’ Because we’ve taught a whole generation, a couple generations now of Americans that there’s no right or wrong, that it’s about survival of the fittest, and you evolve from the primordial slime.”

>152 davidgn:

Kyle Griffin {MSNBC} @kylegriffin1 | 11:15 AM · Oct 28, 2023:
White House spokesman Andrew Bates responds to the Republican Speaker {Mike Johnson}:

"We absolutely reject the offensive accusation that gun crime is uniquely high in the United States because of Americans' 'hearts.' Gun crime is uniquely high in the United States because congressional Republicans have spent decades choosing the gun industry's lobbyists over the lives of innocent Americans."

>153 margd: Well, that's a surprisingly straightforward statement of a fact that should be so self-evident as to not even require the stating.

I'm going to choose to take it as a good sign that a White House spoke is willing to state the obvious in this way.

The Maine shooter was unable to obtain a silencer a couple months ago because when he filled out the form to obtain the silencer he was asked if he had ever been committed to a mental institution to which he checked yes. The gun shop then refused to sell him the silencer. Who knows how many more would have died if the law were not in place.

Alleged Maine gunman tried to buy a silencer months before Lewiston shootings
SASHA PEZENIK and JOSH MARGOLIN | October 29, 2023
https://yahoo.com/gma/alleged-maine-gunman-tried-buy-110039296.html

- David Hogg 🟧 @davidhogg111 | 8:27 AM · Oct 29, 2023

New gun safety laws take effect around US after over 650 mass shootings in 2023 (Guardian)

New gun safety laws are taking effect in several states around the US on 1 January after the country ended 2023 with more mass shootings than days. States including California, Illinois and Colorado are starting the year by implementing extreme risk protection orders, more commonly referred to as “red flag” laws, as a means to prevent further gun violence. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were 655 mass shootings in the US in 2023. In California, a law signed by the Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, prohibits people from carrying concealed guns in 26 places including public parks and playgrounds, churches, banks and zoos. In Illinois, a law will go into effect on Monday that bans the sale of many types of semiautomatic assault weapons, including AK-47s and AR-15 rifles, and magazines with more than 10 rounds for rifles and more than 15 rounds for handguns... Notably, these laws have overcome a slate of lawsuits from pro-gun groups across several states... Also taking effect on Monday is a Washington state law imposing a 10-day waiting period on firearms purchases. The law intends to create a buffer between people in crisis and a firearm. It will also require all gun buyers to show they have taken safety training... part of a package signed in April 2023 by Governor Jay Inslee, which included a ban on the sale of certain semi-automatic rifles – clearing the way for lawsuits against gun makers or sellers in certain cases. In Colorado, a new law that bans so-called “ghost guns”, or those that can be made at home using parts kits and which typically lack a serial number, will go into effect this week... In 2023, the US marked more than 18,800 gun deaths, 36,200 gun injuries, and over 24,100 suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Meaningful Partners: Opportunities for Collaboration between Women, Peace and Security, and Small Arms Control at the National Level (Small Arms Survey)

National actors working in small arms control and on women, peace, and security (WPS) share commitments to reduce suffering, maintain peace and security, and contribute to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet, while these cross references are increasingly commonplace in the international policy framework, this does not often translate into harmonized references in national action plans (NAPs) on WPS and small arms control. Meaningful Partners: Opportunities for Collaboration between Women, Peace and Security, and Small Arms Control at the National Level—a Briefing Paper from the Small Arms Survey’s Gender-Responsive Arms Control project—identifies potential avenues for future work to better harmonize efforts related to WPS and small arms control, and improve the effectiveness of both policy areas in achieving their objectives.

The full report is available here

Michigan school shooter’s mother found guilty of involuntary manslaughter (Guardian)

Jennifer Crumbley, the Michigan mother accused of involuntary manslaughter when she failed to inform her 15-year-old son’s high school that the family possessed guns shortly before he went to campus and fatally shot four students and injured six, including a teacher, was found guilty of all charges on Tuesday afternoon. The verdict marked the first time a school shooter’s parent has been convicted of homicide in connection with the underlying violence. It came after jurors on Monday began deliberations in a case that could shape the future criminal liability of parents of underage mass shooters. The maximum penalty for involuntary manslaughter under Michigan law is 15 years in prison. Crumbley was accused by prosecutors of gross negligence for failing to tell Oxford high school officials that the family had guns, including a 9mm handgun that was used by her son, Ethan Crumbley, at a shooting range just a few days earlier. The school’s inquiry came after it became concerned about a macabre drawing of a gun, bullet and wounded man, accompanied by disturbing phrases, on a math assignment. “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me. The world is dead. My life is useless,” the 15-year-old had written. But during a 12-minute meeting with school officials, Crumbley, 45, and her husband James, 47, who is scheduled for trial in March, had not informed the school of the weapon at home and Ethan was allowed to stay in school. Later that day, 30 November 2021, the teenager pulled the gun and 50 rounds of ammunition from his backpack and opened fire...