Robin Dude
Merry Christmas Little Children ... and pray the NRA goes away
According to statistics archived at GunPolicy.org, "The estimated total number of guns held by civilians in the United States is 270,000,000, & the rate of private gun ownership in the United States is 88.82 firearms per 100 people; wherefore, in a comparison of the rate of private gun ownership in 179 countries, the United States ranked at No. 1."
NOTE: The children in the photograph - complete strangers to me, as was the adult woman with them - were together last summer near a shop in La Conner, Washington. They were not part of what occurred in Connecticut.
Questions I ask myself about Connecticut School Shooting
December 14, 2012
By Juan Cole
EXCERPTS: Why don’t the news anchors or discussants ever bring up the simple fact that between 1994 and 2004, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994: The Federal Assault Weapons Ban prohibited assault weapons? The prohibition was not unconstitutional. Congress foolishly put in a 10-year sunset provision, and of course Bush and his Republican Congress allowed it to expire.
Why doesn’t anyone blame George W. Bush for these mass shootings? He’s the one who led the charge to let the assault weapons ban expire. Why aren’t the politicians in Congress who take campaign money from assault weapons manufacturers ever held accountable by the public?
.... What in the world does the 2nd amendment have to do with these incidents? Do they look like a “well-regulated militia” to you? Semi-automatic weapons are the 18th-century equivalent of artillery in terms of their ability to kill. Do you think people should be allowed to have artillery pieces in their back yards, too? Is this some sort of sick joke, that you are telling us our children have to die because the Founding Fathers wanted madmen to have high-powered weaponry?
.... Why aren’t there more class-action lawsuits against the people responsible for the proliferation of high-powered weaponry in our society? Lax gun laws and inadequate security checks in Mississippi, West Virginia and Kentucky and 7 other states meant that they supplied nearly half the 43,000 guns traced to crime scenes in other states in one recent year. The guns aren’t randomly acquired, and they aren’t used or Saturday night specials. They come disproportionately from specific states.
Likewise, a relatively small number of corporations produce and market semi-automatic weapons for the civilian market. Why aren’t they named and shamed?
Why doesn’t anyone on these news channels ever mention that firearms are used in 300,000 crimes a year in the US?
Why doesn’t anyone on television news ever simply give this statistic: In one recent year, there were 39 murders by gun in the UK, but 9,000 [ and over 17,000 suicides] in the United States? Why is it wrong to let Americans know how peculiar is the situation Americans have to live in?
Please continue to full text:
www.juancole.com/2012/12/questions-i-ask-myself-about-con...
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Merry Christmas Little Children ... and pray the NRA goes away
According to statistics archived at GunPolicy.org, "The estimated total number of guns held by civilians in the United States is 270,000,000, & the rate of private gun ownership in the United States is 88.82 firearms per 100 people; wherefore, in a comparison of the rate of private gun ownership in 179 countries, the United States ranked at No. 1."
NOTE: The children in the photograph - complete strangers to me, as was the adult woman with them - were together last summer near a shop in La Conner, Washington. They were not part of what occurred in Connecticut.
Questions I ask myself about Connecticut School Shooting
December 14, 2012
By Juan Cole
EXCERPTS: Why don’t the news anchors or discussants ever bring up the simple fact that between 1994 and 2004, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994: The Federal Assault Weapons Ban prohibited assault weapons? The prohibition was not unconstitutional. Congress foolishly put in a 10-year sunset provision, and of course Bush and his Republican Congress allowed it to expire.
Why doesn’t anyone blame George W. Bush for these mass shootings? He’s the one who led the charge to let the assault weapons ban expire. Why aren’t the politicians in Congress who take campaign money from assault weapons manufacturers ever held accountable by the public?
.... What in the world does the 2nd amendment have to do with these incidents? Do they look like a “well-regulated militia” to you? Semi-automatic weapons are the 18th-century equivalent of artillery in terms of their ability to kill. Do you think people should be allowed to have artillery pieces in their back yards, too? Is this some sort of sick joke, that you are telling us our children have to die because the Founding Fathers wanted madmen to have high-powered weaponry?
.... Why aren’t there more class-action lawsuits against the people responsible for the proliferation of high-powered weaponry in our society? Lax gun laws and inadequate security checks in Mississippi, West Virginia and Kentucky and 7 other states meant that they supplied nearly half the 43,000 guns traced to crime scenes in other states in one recent year. The guns aren’t randomly acquired, and they aren’t used or Saturday night specials. They come disproportionately from specific states.
Likewise, a relatively small number of corporations produce and market semi-automatic weapons for the civilian market. Why aren’t they named and shamed?
Why doesn’t anyone on these news channels ever mention that firearms are used in 300,000 crimes a year in the US?
Why doesn’t anyone on television news ever simply give this statistic: In one recent year, there were 39 murders by gun in the UK, but 9,000 [ and over 17,000 suicides] in the United States? Why is it wrong to let Americans know how peculiar is the situation Americans have to live in?
Please continue to full text:
www.juancole.com/2012/12/questions-i-ask-myself-about-con...
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