Those Damn Guns Again

thoughtone

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
source: Raw Story

Sen. John Thune blames shooting victims for failing to ‘take precautions’ and ‘get small’ to avoid gunfire


thune-copy-800x430.jpg

Sen. John Thune (R)


Seen. John Thune (R-SD) on Tuesday responded to calls for increased gun control after the massacre in Las Vegas by telling reporters that shooting victims had a responsibility to protect themselves from gunfire.

“It sounds like [the shooter] used conversion kits and other things, you know, to make the weapons more lethal,” Thune reportedly told MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson. “We’ll look at the facts when we get them all in here. I think a lot of us want to do everything we can to prevent tragedies like that from happening again.”

But Thune shied away from the topic of gun control, arguing, “t’s an open society and it’s hard to prevent anything.”

Instead, the Republican senator offered advice to potential victims.

“I think people are going to have to take steps in their own lives to take precautions,” he opined. “To protect themselves. And in situations like that, you know, try to stay safe. As somebody said — get small.”


 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
I can't defend his lifestyle, but I respect his freedom of speech.

:hmm: This 2012 quote from a conservative poster who hasn't been heard from in a while is extremely interesting in todays NFL- National Anthem-Take A Knee protest.

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thoughtone

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
:hmm: This 2012 quote from a conservative poster who hasn't been heard from in a while is extremely interesting in todays NFL- National Anthem-Take A Knee protest.

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They are trolls. Don't you get it? If they sway just one potential voter and win by just one vote, that's a step toward achieving their goal toward fascism. The conservative right wing believe in government control by hook or by crook.

Lamarr, Gunther and whomever paid trolls are just foot soldiers.

Do you expect to hear from them again?

 

MCP

International
International Member
What We Know and Don’t Know About Mass Shootings and Gun Deaths

John Thomason


April 12 2016, 6:00 p.m.
STRIP MALLS, MOVIE theaters, schools, grocery stores — the images in Speaking Is Difficult, the new film by Field of Vision co-creator AJ Schnack, are ordinary but serene. Wherever we live, these are the places where we routinely expose ourselves to the wider world. The film punctures this calm familiarity with grainy audio documenting past traumas. The details we can ascertain from these 911 recordings are sparse — a white male shooter, an unknown number wounded — but we all know how to fill in the blanks. In one sense, we’ve seen this movie before.

As the title suggests, these public massacres are hard to talk about. This is not just because they are frightening, horrific, and unpredictable, but also because in empirical terms we just don’t know that much about them. “There is a dearth of comprehensive, authoritative data on multiple-victim homicide incidents, either committed wholly or partially with firearms,” the Congressional Research Service lamented in its July 2015 report on what have recently become known as “mass shootings.” Given all that we don’t know, how can we hope to answer Gabrielle Giffords’s call to action at the end of Speaking Is Difficult, to prevent the kind of killing that very nearly took her life?



As the CRS was preparing its report, amateur researchers, frustrated by the lack of information about these seemingly regular massacres, began to take matters into their own hands. In the first major real-time effort to compile a record of every mass shooting in the United States, a group of anti-gun Reddit users found that these events occurred once per day, on average, in 2015. The Washington Post picked up their findings in August, and for the rest of last year major news outlets ran headlines declaring that mass shootings were happening every day in the United States.

But was it true? That depends on how you define “mass shooting.” Because these researchers counted any event in which four or more people were shot, the vast majority of their database entries appear conceptually distinct from the largely random public killings documented in Speaking Is Difficult. They include armed robberies, gang shootouts, and familicides. As of the end of last year, shootings in private residences accounted for more than two-thirds of the entries, and the majority of cases involved the murder of a family member or intimate partner. Very few of the shootings made the national news.

For the past three years, researchers at Mother Jones have been maintaining a more precise database of mass shootings in the United States, one that uses a number of criteria to exclude the huge majority of cases involving domestic violence, gang activity, and other interpersonal conflicts. As of March 2016, they have identified 75 mass shootings since 1982. That 34-year total is less than a quarter of the number news outlets regularly claimed were occurring in 2015 alone.

While this lower figure might seem to deflate claims that mass shootings in the United States are on the rise, a statistical study of the Mother Jones database by a team of researchers from Harvard’s School of Public Health found otherwise. Their analysis determined that although the frequency of public mass shootings remained relatively steady for almost 30 years beginning in 1983, the frequency tripled in 2011, from an average of once every 200 days to once every 64 days. Given this finding, recent media pronouncements that we live in an “age of mass shootings” do not seem so far fetched.

Although the Mother Jones dataset provides some evidence for the previously inchoate sense that these public shootings constitute a kind of epidemic, it does not bring us much closer to understanding how we might prevent such massacres. The statistical method used by the Harvard researchers assumes that some underlying process is responsible for the frequency of shootings, and the point is to correlate the moments when the frequency changes — in this case, late 2011 — with real-world events that may have caused the change. For example, a point in time at which a certain surgical error becomes less frequent can be correlated with the introduction of a new sterilization method.

But is it possible to identify an underlying process responsible for America’s mass shootings? The Harvard researchers themselves acknowledge that the number of potential variables in play makes answering this question nearly impossible, at least for now. However their findings do allow them to cast aspersions on some popular explanations for the rise of mass shootings, given that there were no widespread changes to mental health or access to guns in late 2011, when the frequency of shootings tripled. For these and other reasons, the researchers are skeptical that universal background checks would be a decisive deterrent. And research shows that a renewed assault weapons ban would have almost no discernible impact. Psychological profiling does not get us much further. While mass shooters tend to be white, male, and alienated, those traits in combination produce so many false positives that they have no predictive value.



Emergency personnel move former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot outside a shopping center in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 8, 2011.

Photo: James Palka/AP

But before we despair that we cannot answer Gabrielle Giffords’s plea, we would do well to situate mass shootings within the larger context of gun violence in the United States. Even among gun homicides that leave four or more dead, public shootings were outnumbered by both familicide and felony-related shootings by a 2-to-1 margin in the years 1999 through 2013. Altogether, more than 30,000 Americans die annually from gun violence. While about 30 of those victims (0.1 percent) typically die in the high-profile public massacres covered by major news outlets, over 20,000 take their own lives. Of the remaining roughly 10,000 annual gun homicide victims, the majority probably knew their killer. In short, there is plenty of other gun violence for us to worry about.

Gun control opponents will point out that aggregate gun violence has declined precipitously (along with all violent crime) since a peak in the early 1990s, but that doesn’t change the fact that levels of gun violence are higher in the U.S. than in any other developed democracy. To make sense of this fact, it helps to consider the possibility that the U.S. doesn’t have a single “gun violence problem” but instead has a constellation of interrelated but distinct gun violence problems. When we disaggregate the sobering figures above, the patterns that emerge suggest policy solutions that could save thousands of lives.

It’s often noted that black men, who account for 6 percent of the U.S. population, account for half of U.S. gun homicide victims. But this figure itself obscures much more specific phenomena. Sociological research indicates that the murders in black communities are largely concentrated not simply in particular urban neighborhoods, but even on particular blocks and within a small number of generally identifiable social networks. (In other words, this is hardly the conservative moralist’s fantasy of a monolithic “black-on-black crime.”) As a consequence, our ability to predict the perpetrators, victims, and locations of everyday urban gun violence is miles ahead of our ability to predict the public massacres that make national headlines. Cities like Boston, Indianapolis, and Lowell, Massachusetts, saw precipitous drops in gun homicide when they embraced a strategy known as “focused deterrence,” which harnesses this predictive power to stage community interventions targeted at those most likely to be involved in gun violence.

Another type of gun violence that we understand well enough to stage specific interventions against is violence against women. In the U.S., women are 11 times more likely to be shot and killed than their counterparts in other high-income countries. These murders typically occur at the hands of a family member or intimate partner. A robust body of research demonstrates that guns are a significant risk factor for homicide in domestic violence incidents, where the presence of a gun is 500 percent more likely to result in a homicide than one without. Legislative measures that take guns out of the hands of known abusers and stalkers could end America’s shameful rate of femicide.

State officials from both political parties are beginning to recognize that limiting firearm access in high-risk situations can save lives. Over the past few years, more than a dozen states have passed measures tightening gun prohibitions on known stalkers and abusers — and the normally intransigent National Rifle Association has often cooperated. The recent success in this arena shows that policies targeted at very specific types of gun violence, rather than gun violence generally, can sidestep the insurmountable opposition that reliably defeats more universal gun control efforts in Congress. The success of the earliest “focused deterrence” efforts targeted at urban gun homicide in specific cities likewise demonstrates the political and practical benefits of local, targeted interventions. Speaking about the trauma of gun violence is difficult. Ending gun violence, in its many forms, doesn’t have to be.

Top photo: Law enforcement officials display crime scene photographs during a press briefing at the Inland Regional Center on Dec. 2, 2015, near the scene of a mass shooting that left 14 people dead.

https://theintercept.com/2016/04/12/what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-mass-shootings-and-gun-deaths/
 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator

At least 20 feared dead in mass
shooting at Texas church



At least 20 people are feared dead in Texas after a gunman opened fire at a church outside San Antonio on Sunday, Fox News has learned.

The mass shooting was reported at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, which is about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio. The gunman has been fatally shot by police.

Wilson County Commissioner Larry Wiley told Fox News that an emergency responder said between 20 and 24 people are dead, and around 20 were wounded when a man walked into the church about 11:30 a.m. on Sunday and opened fire at the crowd of people.


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Emergency personnel respond to a fatal shooting at a Baptist church in Sutherland
Springs, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017. (KSAT via AP)


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/05/mass-shooting-reported-at-texas-sutherland-springs-church.html

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thoughtone

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Republican/Conservative blood!


source: NPR


House Votes To Overturn Obama Rule Restricting Gun Sales To The Severely Mentally Ill

February 2, 20179:03 PM ET

gettyimages-627166834_wide-4368cf1ce7671b062f82f2c4685c0d189b19f3ef-s1100-c15.jpg



Updated Feb. 3 at 4:45 p.m. ET

On Thursday the GOP-controlled House voted to overturn an Obama administration rule designed to keep firearms out of the hands of some people deemed mentally ill.

The action was the latest move by congressional Republicans to undo several of President Obama's regulations on issues such as gun control and the environment through an arcane law called the Congressional Review Act.

According to NPR's Susan Davis, the measure being blocked from implementation would have required the Social Security Administration to send records of some beneficiaries with severe mental disabilities to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System. About 75,000 people found mentally incapable of managing their financial affairs would have been affected.

The National Rifle Association had pushed for the repeal, and Republicans argued it infringed upon Second Amendment rights by denying due process.

Supporters of the rule argued it was designed to stop mentally ill persons from getting firearms.

"The House charged ahead with an extreme, hastily written, one-sided measure that would make the American people less safe," Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Conn., said, according to The Hill. Esty represents Newtown, Conn., where a mentally ill man shot and killed 20 6- and 7-year-olds and six adults.

However, Republicans argued that the rule was unfair to some would-be gun owners.

"This is a slap in the face for those in the disabled community because it paints all those who suffer from mental disorders with the same broad brush," said Republican House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, as reported by USA Today. "It assumes that simply because an individual suffers from a mental condition, that individual is unfit to exercise his or her Second Amendment rights."

The American Civil Liberties Union actually sided with Republicans in urging the repeal of the rule, writing in a letter to members of Congress that, "We oppose this rule because it advances and reinforces the harmful stereotype that people with mental disabilities, a vast and diverse group of citizens, are violent."

The measure now goes to the Senate, where it needs only a simple majority to pass.

NPR's Nathan Rott reports that the Senate also passed a resolution to undo the Obama administration's Stream Protection Rule, also largely along party lines, by using the review act. The goal of the rule was to minimize coal mine pollutants in waterways and would have required coal companies to monitor water quality in nearby streams during mining operations. Republicans argued the law was too burdensome and would kill jobs in the coal industry.
 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Was this in Chicago?

Naw. TEXAS. But, “This is a mental health issue . . . not guns,” said Mr.Orange (after he overlooked your post above, (House Votes To Overturn Obama Rule Restricting Gun Sales To The Severely Mentally Ill on February 3, 2017).


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thoughtone

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Naw. TEXAS. But, “This is a mental health issue . . . not guns,” said Mr.Orange (after he overlooked your post above, (House Votes To Overturn Obama Rule Restricting Gun Sales To The Severely Mentally Ill on February 3, 2017).


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But more guns mean less crime in Texas right?
 

MCP

International
International Member
texas-church-shooting-devin-kelley-shaun-king-1510083877-article-header.jpg


https://theintercept.com/2017/11/08/texas-shooting-devin-kelley-white-privilege/

In Life and in Death, White Privilege Protected Texas Shooter Devin Kelley

This past Sunday morning, Devin Patrick Kelley walked into a small country church in the rural south Texas town of Sutherland Springs and shot nearly every single person in the building — brutally slaughtering 26 innocent men, women, and children, and critically injuring at least 20 others.

Armed with an AR-15-style semi-automatic assault rifle, Kelley sprayed the congregation with at least 450 bullets, reloaded, then continued, reloaded, then continued some more, then reloaded again, and continued shooting. He went through 15 magazines of ammunition.

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It immediately became the deadliest church shooting in the history of the United States and one of the deadliest mass shootings in our nation’s history.

The attack came just a few weeks after another man, Stephen Paddock, armed with a nearly unstoppable arsenal of semi-automatic weapons, shot an unthinkable 546 people in Las Vegas — and killed 58 of them.

Soon after that shooting, I wrote a column stating that white privilege in America is so strong that even Paddock, the deadliest single mass shooter in American history, was getting preferential treatment in death. Virtually any nonwhite shooter would have seen their story and their communities treated in a less preferential way.

It’s happening again in Texas, but this time it might be worse. Kelley shot and killed multiple children. He shot and killed a pregnant woman. He killed senior citizens. The man had absolutely no regard for human life when he strapped on black tactical gear, loaded up rounds and rounds of ammunition, and walked straight into that church and rained down horror on that close-knit congregation.

We had warning signs galore.
We had warning signs galore. Kelley beat his first wife. While in the military, he assaulted his infant stepson so badly that he fractured the boy’s skull, having hit the child with what the Air Force said was “a force likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm.” The chief prosecutor in the case said that Kelley openly admitted to the abuses.

 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
4 dead after California shootings; gunman tried to enter school

By Stella Chan, Cheri Mossburg,
Ray Sanchez and Steve Almasy,
CNN
Wed November 15, 2017


(CNN) A gunman killed four people in a remote Northern California community on Tuesday morning, but a much bigger death toll was averted when the killer was unable to break into an elementary school.

The staff at tiny Rancho Tehama Elementary School west of Corning moved quickly when they heard gunfire nearby just before classes were set to begin, Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said.

Doors were locked and students dashed inside and hit the floors underneath desks and tables.

The shooter, who was killed by police at another site, rammed a stolen pickup through the school's locked gate, walked into the schoolyard, and fired his rifle through windows and walls.

He tried doors, but the buildings at the Rancho Tehama Reserve school were secure. Only an outside bathroom was open, but the gunman found no one there.

After about six minutes, he left, apparently frustrated.

The school district said a student was wounded by gunfire and was in stable condition. Others were hurt by flying glass.

'Could have been so much worse'
"This individual shooter was bent on engaging and killing people at random. I have to say this incident, as tragic and as bad as it is, could have been so much worse," Johnston said, applauding the quick thinking of the school staff.

The gunfire that triggered the alert at the school came when the shooter fired from his vehicle into others while on his way to the school, about 2 miles from his home.

The gunman's precise motives were unclear, but a dispute with a neighbor who was found dead Tuesday may have sparked the rampage in which there were seven shooting scenes.

"This is an individual who armed himself, I think with the motive of getting even with his neighbors and when it went that far (that someone was killed) he just went on a rampage," Johnston said.

The killer apparently chose most of his victims at random, sometimes firing at passing motorists, homes and also gunning down someone after he purposely crashed into another car.

At least 10 people were wounded or hurt in the string of shootings in Rancho Tehama, about 125 northwest of Sacramento.

The gunman had a tactical vest with extra magazines for his guns, Johnston said, who viewed surveillance video of the shooting.

The wounded victims from the spree included a mother who was driving her children to school when the attacker opened fire on them "without provocation or warning," the assistant sheriff said.

The woman was being treated for life-threatening injuries. A child who was in the vehicle was not seriously wounded, according to Johnston.

A visibly shaken Johnston told reporters earlier: "This is a sad day for us here in Tehama County."

Mom raced back to school to warn people
A fearless mom may have also helped warn staff at the school about the danger.

Sara Gonzalez told CNN she had dropped her daughter off at the school when the gunman attempted to shoot her when their vehicles passed. She thinks the gunman's windshield stopped the bullet.

She turned her vehicle around.

"I went to my daughter's school and started honking, making people know what was going on," she said.

Gonzalez said the gunman fired at her as she tried to get out to get her girl. She saw the man's face but he said nothing.

Jessie Sanders told CNN affiliate KCRA he tried to draw the gunman's attention away from the school.

He said he ran over to the school when he heard the crack of the semi-automatic rifle.

"When I get there, the dude was shooting through the windows," he told the Sacramento-based station. "And I said, 'Hey why don't you shoot this way instead.' "

Sanders said a bullet grazed his right forearm.

In the school the children were trying to stay low.

Gonzalez's daughter, Arianna Ibarra, was inside on the floor with her fourth-grade class.

"Our teacher told us to go under our desk and keep flat in case he comes inside," Arianna said.

The teacher blocked the door with a computer, the 10-year-old said.
The gunman shot at other classrooms, but not hers. When he left, Gonzalez went inside.

"All the kids were pretty calm, laying on the floor. Some were a little distraught, but they were OK," she said.


Known to law enforcement
Johnston said the gunman had "prior contacts with law enforcement." In January the man was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon in a case that involved the neighbor who died Tuesday, Johnston said.

Johnston added that the woman had a restraining order against the shooter.

It was unclear whether the gunman went to the school looking for someone he knew.

"We have not connected him with any one person in the school," Johnston said.

Some students were transported to hospitals by helicopter, and others were moved to a safe location in a school bus,the assistant sheriff said. The children were later reunited with their parents.

Three children and an adult were being treated at Enloe Medical Center in Chico, officials said. Their conditions were not available.

"School staff is commended for their courageous and professional response to this terrible incident. The school was able to go on lockdown very quickly and effectively, which prevented any further injury or violence," the school district said in a statement.

The school is closed and will need repairs, the district said.


'A mass murderer really'
A semi-automatic rifle and two handguns believed to be used by the gunman have been recovered, according to Johnston. There is another gun that police have yet to recover in one of the stolen vehicles.

Johnston complimented the officers who stopped the gunman.
"I have to tell you I am personally grateful to the men who engaged this suspect," Johnston said.

"It's a tragic event, but I am personally grateful for engaging such a terrible ... a mass murderer really. That's what he is."

The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and California Highway Patrol have joined the investigation.


Vice president and governor send condolences
Gov. Jerry Brown and wife Anne were "saddened to hear about today's violence in Tehama County, which shockingly involved schoolchildren," the governor said in a statement. "We offer our condolences to the families who lost loved ones and unite with all Californians in grief."

On Twitter, Vice President Mike Pence wrote: "Saddened to hear of the shooting in N. California, the loss of life & injuries, including innocent children. We commend the effort of courageous law enforcement. We'll continue to monitor the situation & provide federal support, as we pray for comfort & healing for all impacted."

And Sen. Kamala Harris tweeted: ""Heartbroken by the news of a shooting at an elementary school in Rancho Tehama. Grateful to the officers and first responders on the scene.

CNN's Mayra Cuevas and Dan Simon contributed to this report.


http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/14/us/california-tehama-county-shootings/index.html


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QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Florida School Shooting: 17 Reported Dead With Suspect in Custody



By ROBIN LINDSAY and SARAH STEIN KERR0:52
Florida School Shooting: ‘Kids Were Freaking Out’
A gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Multiple fatalities have been reported.


By AUDRA D. S. BURCH,
PATRICIA MAZZEI and
ADAM GOLDMAN
February 14, 2018


PARKLAND, Fla. — Seventeen people were killed in a shooting on Wednesday afternoon at a high school about an hour northwest of Miami, law enforcement officials said. The dead included adults and students.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said the suspect is in custody.

“This is catastrophic,” he said. “There really are no words.”

15shooting7-1518652080488-articleLarge.jpg

A father embraced his daughter after being reunited outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday.SAUL MARTINEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES


A federal official said the gunman had been identified as Nicolas Cruz, 19. The sheriff said the gunman was a former student. He was arrested in Coral Springs, a neighboring city, about an hour after leaving the school.

The gunman was armed with a semiautomatic AR-15 assault rifle, Sheriff Israel said, and “countless magazines.”


Students ran out of the school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, holding on to each other, as law enforcement officers swarmed the building armed with military-grade weapons. Parents rushed to the area to be reunited with their children.

Map | Location of ShootingTHE NEW YORK TIMES | IMAGE VIA GOOGLE EARTH
Videos said to have been circulated from inside the school captured images of students huddled on classroom floors and the sound of gunfire like that from a semiautomatic firearm.

Senator Bill Nelson told MSNBC there were multiple fatalities. Two hospitals, Broward Health North in Pompano Beach and Broward Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, received multiple patients, according to Jennifer Smith, a spokeswoman.

“There are numerous fatalities. It is a horrific situation,” Robert W. Runcie, the Broward schools superintendent, told CNN. “It is a horrible day for us.”

15shooting7-articleLarge.jpg

Lavinia Zapata embraced Jorge, her son, after the shooting.SAUL MARTINEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The authorities asked residents of the city of Parkland to avoid the area around the school.

Students and staff “heard what sounded like gunfire” near dismissal time around 2:40 p.m., according to the Broward school district.


“The school immediately went on lockdown but is now dismissing students,” the district wrote on Twitter. “We are receiving reports of possible multiple injuries.”

Dianna Milleret, 16, a 10th grader, heard the gunshots. “It was several loud sounds. I tried to stay calm. Students were running everywhere,” she said, on a street two blocks from the school.

Noelle Kaiser, 17, was in history class when the alarm went off on Wednesday afternoon. The class was gathered just outside the building when she heard three distinct gunshots

“I am in shock,” she said softly after clutching her mother, Cheryl Kaiser, on the sidewalk. Ms. Kaiser had rushed from work in Delray Beach.

Noelle called her mother from outside, near the edge of the campus, to let her know she was safe around 2:50 p.m. “I was still so scared because the person had not been caught yet,” she said.

Parkland, an affluent suburb of Fort Lauderdale with a population of about 30,000, is known for its good public schools. Douglas High is among the largest in the Broward school district, with about 3,000 students.

“My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting,” President Trump wrote on Twitter. “No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.”

Mr. Trump has spoken to Gov. Rick Scott, said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary. The governor’s office said Mr. Scott is heading to the school.

Audra D.S. Burch reported from Parkland, Fla., and Patricia Mazzei from New York. Maggie Astor, C.J. Chivers, Niraj Chokshi, Matthew Haag, Serge Kovaleski and Daniel Victor contributed reporting from New York. Adam Goldman contributed reporting from Washington. Doris Burke contributed research.

RELATED COVERAGE
Nikolas Cruz, Shooting Suspect, Had Been Expelled From School, Authorities SayFEB 14, 2018

© 2018 The New York Times Company
 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Florida School Shooting: 17 Reported Dead With Suspect in Custody

Did they miss the obvious, while the Twitter-In-Chief was begging for a military parade???

Nikolas Cruz said he wanted to be 'professional school shooter' to YouTube blogger months ago

FEB 15, 2018

FBI agents were warned about Nikolas Cruz’s plans to become a “professional school shooter” months ago, according to a YouTube vlogger who noticed a sick comment on one of his videos.

Ben Bennight, a bail bondsman in Mississippi who goes by the name Ben the Bondsman, said that he received a terrifying comment from a user called Nikolas Cruz under a video in September.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.nyda...school-shooter-plans-months-article-1.3822163

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QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_Weapons_Ban_of_2013


The Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 (AWB 2013) was a bill introduced in the 113th United States Congress as S. 150 by Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, on January 24, 2013, one month after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. It was defeated in the Senate on April 17, 2013 by a vote of 40 to 60.
Assault Weapons Ban summary - United States Senator for California
https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/assault-weapons-ban-summary

Assault Weapons Ban of 2013. Mass shootings in Newtown, Aurora, and Tucson have demonstrated all too clearly the need to regulate military-style assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines. These weapons allow a gunman to fire a large number of rounds quickly and without having to reload.
Everything you need to know about the assault weapons ban, in one ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../everything-you-need-to-know-about-banning-ass...


Dec 17, 2012 - After the Newtown shooting, some politicians have started talking about renewing the federal ban on assault weapons, which expired back in 2004. A look back at what that old law did, why it failed, and whether it could be improved.
Democrats propose ban on assault weapons | New York Post
https://nypost.com/2017/11/08/democrats-propose-ban-on-assault-weapons/


Nov 8, 2017 - Nearly two dozen Democratic senators, including Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, introduced a bill Wednesday to ban the sale of military-style assault weapons and bump stock devices like the one used in the Las Vegas massacre, saying it “will begin removing the weapons of war on ...
S.2095 - 115th Congress (2017-2018): Assault Weapons Ban of 2017 ...
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/2095


Summary of S.2095 - 115th Congress (2017-2018): Assault Weapons Ban of 2017.
Here's What You Need To Know About The Weapons Of War Used In ...
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/.../ar-15-style-weapons_us_5a84cf09e4b0ab6daf45a...

16 hours ago - A number of states, including California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey and New York, have laws limiting or banning the sale of assault weapons. California, for example, has banned AR-15s and other rifles with detachable magazines, which allow shooters to quickly reload. However a ...
Enough is Enough is Enough--- Time to Reinstitute the Assault ...
www.patheos.com/.../enough-enough-enough-time-reinstitute-assault-weapons-ban/
  1. Cached
5 hours ago - At a minimum, the lapsed assault weapons ban needs to be reinstituted immediately. These are not hunting rifles, these are not like pistols used for personal protection, they are weapons made specifically for military purposes and should only be in the hands of law enforcement, and the military. Period.
MoveOn Petitions - Ban Assault Weapons Now
petitions.moveon.org/sign/ban-assault-weapons-now-4
  1. Cached
  2. Similar
Assault weapons should not be used by civilians and have no place in our cities and towns.
 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Analysis: These 4 countries have nearly eliminated gun deaths —
here's what the U.S. can learn



BBJaYGV.img

© David Gray/Reuters Australia had a massive gun buyback program.


* On Wednesday, a 19-year-old allegedly shot dozens of his former classmates at a Florida high school, leaving 17 of them dead.

* In November, a gunman went on a shooting spree at the Rancho Tehama reserve in Northern California, killing five people and injuring three children.

* A week before that, a man in Sutherland Springs, Texas, stormed a church with a semi-automatic rifle, killing 26 people and injuring 20.

* A month before that, a gunman on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas shot and killed 59 nearby concertgoers and injured more than 500.

As mass shootings like these seem to escalate in the U.S., so do questions about gun control. Americans who fear their town or city could host the next attack wonder what strategies, if any, the U.S. could take to reduce rates of gun violence.


Several countries around the world have taken steps that worked for them — here are their insights:

Australia paid citizens to sell their guns to the government
Following a deadly 1980s and '90s, culminating in a 1996 gun-driven massacre that left 35 dead, Australian Prime Minister John Howard convened an assembly to devise gun-control strategies.

The group landed on a massive buyback program, costing roughly $500 million, that bought and destroyed more than 600,000 automatic and semiautomatic weapons and pump-action shotguns.

Almost overnight, gun death totals got cut in half. Firearm suicides dropped from 2.2 per 100,000 people in 1995 to 0.8 in 2006. Firearm homicides dropped from 0.37 per 100,000 people in 1995 to 0.15 in 2006.

A U.S. buyback would mean destroying 40 million guns, but on a statewide level the undertaking might not be so massive.


Japan puts citizens through a rigorous set of tests
Japan seldom has more than 10 shooting deaths a year in a population of 127 million people, due to its strict laws for obtaining firearms.

If Japanese people want to own a gun, they must attend an all-day class, pass a written test, and achieve at least 95 percent accuracy during a shooting-range test. Then they have to pass a mental-health evaluation, which takes place at a hospital, and pass a background check, in which the government digs into their criminal record and interviews friends and family.

Finally, they can only buy shotguns and air rifles — no handguns — and every three years they must retake the class and initial exam.

Unlike the Second Amendment in the U.S., Japanese law began from the point of outlawing guns, with amendments gradually loosening that ban. Still, the wisdom from Japan seems to be that tighter regulations keep guns confined only to those fit to use them.


Norway exemplifies the power of social cohesion and trust



BBJaYH8.img

© Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters

Despite having roughly a third of the guns as the U.S., Norway has about a tenth of the gun deaths. Sociologists who study the Nordic model have found social cohesion, between citizens and between citizens and their government, goes a long way toward ensuring a (mostly) peaceful society.

In Norway, for example, police officers fatally shoot people fewer times in nine years than U.S. police do in a day. Gummi Oddsson, a cross-cultural sociologist from Northern Michigan University, has found that Nordic governments go to great lengths to build trust in local communities.

He told Business Insider that U.S. states could look to strengthen their own sense of trust through measures like community policing. People may begin to feel more safe around the police, and the police will have a better grasp of the neighborhood's makeup.


The UK took a multi-pronged approach

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© Reuters/Andrew Yates

The UK has taken an approach that combines elements of the other three countries.

Around the time Australia passed its gun regulation, Parliament passed legislation banning private handgun ownership in Britain and banned semi-automatic and pump-action fire

arms throughout the entire UK. It also required shotgun owners to register their weapons.

A $200 million buyback program led to the purchase and destruction of 162,000 guns and 700 tons of ammunition. Today, there are roughly 6.5 guns per 100 people. The U.S., meanwhile, has 88 guns per 100 people.

The result has been a country of 56 million that has roughly 50 to 60 gun deaths each year. Compare that to the U.S., a country six times as large, but with 160 times as many gun-related homicides.


What has the U.S. Done ??



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/analysis-these-4-countries-have-nearly-eliminated-gun-deaths-—-heres-what-the-us-can-learn/ar-BBF0H3L?ocid=spartanntp

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kes1111

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BGOL Investor


The Colt AR-15 is a lightweight, 5.56×45mm, magazine-fed, gas-operated semi-automatic rifle. It was designed to be manufactured with the extensive use of aluminum alloys and synthetic materials. It is a semi-automatic version of the United States military M16 rifle. Colt's Manufacturing Company currently uses the AR-15 trademark for its line of semi-automatic AR-15 rifles that are marketed to civilian and law-enforcement customers.
Colt started selling the semi-automatic version of the M16 rifle as the Colt AR-15 in 1964.[1][2][3] The first mass production version was the Colt AR-15 Sporter, in .223 Remington, with a 20-inch barrel and issued with 5-round magazines.[4] Over the decades, Colt has made many different types of AR-15 rifle and carbine models, including the AR-15, AR-15A2, AR-15A3, AR-15A4, and many other models.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_AR-15
 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator


Florida gun show displays AR-15s to children


WireAP_4ecbad34737d4a6bbeb1be5735a9a9c1_12x5_992.jpg

The Associated Press. Alessandra Mondolfi holds a sign against AR-15 weapons as she yells, "No More"
during a protest against guns on the steps of the Broward County Federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale,
Fla., on Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, is charged with killing 17 people at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)


The Associated Press
PARKLAND, Fla.
Feb 18, 2018


A gun show went on as scheduled this weekend, a short drive from the school where a teenager used his own legally purchased AR-15 assault weapon to kill 17 people and wound more than a dozen others. Many assault weapons were on display as customers, some bringing their children, checked out the killing firepower.

Jorge Fernandez spoke for Florida Gun Shows in sharing what he called their "deepest condolences to the persons who have been involved in this terrible tragedy." But he told The Associated Press that his company's shows are scheduled years in advance, and "it would just be cost prohibitive to cancel."

Fernandez says he personally blames the shooting not on guns, but on the mental health of the 19-year-old shooter, Nikolas Cruz. He says he feels there should be a mechanism permitting doctors or law enforcement to identify people with mental health problems and do something about it.

Customer Jerry Sepulveda said he can see how the gun show could be seen as insensitive to the victims, but he came anyway to see the guns. He says he thinks there should be an age limit preventing teens from buying high-powered rifles, and that background checks should be strengthened.



http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/latest-shooting-survivors-plan-march-washington-53179628


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QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Prominent Republican Donor Issues Ultimatum on Assault Weapons
Image
merlin_134065454_c2710cbf-6f1d-4a02-b905-769cec529eb8-articleLarge.jpg

Al Hoffman Jr. at home in North Palm Beach, Fla., in 2017. He said he would no longer donate to organizations and candidates that did not support a ban on selling military-style firearms to civilians.CreditScott Wiseman


By Alexander Burns

Feb. 17, 2018
A prominent Republican political donor demanded on Saturday that the party pass legislation to restrict access to guns, and vowed not to contribute to any candidates or electioneering groups that did not support a ban on the sale of military-style firearms to civilians.

Al Hoffman Jr., a Florida-based real estate developer who was a leading fund-raiser for George W. Bush’s campaigns, said he would seek to marshal support among other Republican political donors for a renewed assault weapons ban.

“For how many years now have we been doing this — having these experiences of terrorism, mass killings — and how many years has it been that nothing’s been done?” Mr. Hoffman said in an interview. “It’s the end of the road for me.”


https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/...-ultimatum-on-assault-weapons.html?from=promo

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QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Trump tweet angers survivors of Parkland shooting


By Eli Watkins, CNN
Sun February 18, 2018


Washington (CNN) — Students who survived the Parkland, Florida, shooting laid into President Donald Trump after he linked the FBI's failure to follow up on a report about the school shooter and the resources expended on the Russia investigation.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted, "Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"

The President's tweet caused considerable outrage online, including among apparent survivors of the shooting:

"17 of my classmates are gone. That's 17 futures, 17 children, and 17 friends stolen. But you're right, it always has to be about you. How silly of me to forget. #neveragain"

"...my friends were brutally murdered and you have the nerve to make this about Russia. I can not believe this"

"Oh my god. 17 OF MY CLASSMATES AND FRIENDS ARE GONE AND YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO MAKE THIS ABOUT RUSSIA???!! HAVE A DAMN HEART. You can keep all of your fake and meaningless 'thoughts and prayers'."


David Hogg, one of the students, spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press" and issued an angry and passionate call for Trump to take action on the issue.

"You're the President," Hogg said. "You're supposed to bring this nation together, not divide us. How dare you? Children are dying, and their blood is on your hands because of that. Please take action. Stop going on vacation in Mar-a-Lago. Take action. Work with Congress. Your party controls both the House and Senate. Take action, get some bills passed, and for God's sake, let's save some lives."


https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/18/politics/donald-trump-florida-shooting-twitter/index.html


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