Sandy Hook – we are all horrified by the terrible events that occurred that day. A parent’s greatest fear is to
have to bury their child. It goes
against nature.
The details are painful to hear. The children were struck with as many as 11
bullets. All were shot multiple times.
The type of bullet used was optimized to cause the most damage. The rifle used to kill the defenseless victims is capable of
firing up to six bullets per second.
Under the 1994 federal ban on such weapons, buying some
variants of new AR-15s was against the law. The ban expired in 2004.
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| credit Don Wasserman Boston Globe |
The Children’s Defense League has been a leading advocate
for our children. They are a non-profit
child advocacy organization that has worked for nearly 40 years to ensure a
level playing field for all children. They recently released a report gun violence against children.
“The most recent
analysis of data from 23 high-income countries reported that 87 percent of
children under age 15 killed by guns in these nations lived in the United States.
And the U.S. gun homicide rate for teens and young adults 15 to 24 was 42.7
times higher than the combined gun homicide rate for that same age group in the
other countries.” (From the Children’s
Defense League report “Protect Children Not Guns 2012” http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/protect-children-not-guns-2012.pdf)
The Children's Defense League are great advocates for our kids. You can send a donation online http://www.childrensdefense.org/
Another organization Mayors Against Illegal Guns partnered with
survivors of recent mass shootings -- including Aurora, Tuscon and Virginia
Tech -- and the families of the victims to launch www.DemandAPlan.org.
According to the website “Demand a Plan is a campaign of
Mayors Against Illegal Guns -- a national, bipartisan coalition of mayors
working to make America’s communities safer by keeping illegal guns out of
dangerous hands. Co-founded in 2006 by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, the coalition has grown from a committed group
of 15 members to more than 800 mayors, including Republicans, Democrats, and
Independents, from major cities and small towns around the country. We have
more than half a million grassroots supporters, making us the largest gun
violence prevention advocacy organization in the country.” Online you can sign a petition, share it on social media, tweet the
President, support the campaign and stay connected.
Here are some other organizations you can support.
Woman against Gun Violence - www.wagv.org/
The Brady Center - www.bradycenter.org
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence - www.csgv.org/
One year to the day before he would be killed by a gun, Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “We still have a choice today: nonviolent
coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action . If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and
shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion,
might without morality, and strength without sight.”
Let’s remember all the victims from the Tucson shootings, the Aurora Movie
Theater, the Oregon Mall. There are many other murders that don't get the same media coverage. Remember that 260 school children were killed in
Chicago in the last 3 years.
The NRA has 4.3 million members. The U.S. population is 315 million of which 74 million are children. The NRA represents less than 2% of us. Clearly the very small vocal minority has been driving this issue.
It's time for us to speak up and take action.
It's time for us to speak up and take action.
Good post. But I think it is a non-starter. There was a very depressing article in this month's Atlantic that basically said there are over 300 million guns floating around in the US and explained why it is very unlikely that we will be able to take any of them away from their owners. Sales have spiked since the shooting as have people joining the NRA. In short, I don't think it is going to be even remotely possible to do anything to meaningfully curb gun ownership. Many states will not pass restrictive regulations and that will just provide a way for guns to continue to circulate. In 2011 about 10,200 people died in drunk driving accidents, about 8500 where murdered with guns and about 16,000 where committed suicide or were accidentally killed by guns. Yet, there is a billion dollar a year industry set up to deal with drunk driving and very little done to curb gun deaths. Gun issues are a way for politicians to both make money and divide the people to win elections. You can beat that.
ReplyDeleteOK, it's late and I didn't proof it very well. You CAN"T beat that. And change a couple of wheres to weres.
ReplyDeleteI found the article and will read it (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/12/the-case-for-more-guns-and-more-gun-control/309161/)
ReplyDeleteI fear you are right. I have talked to a number of people, all of agree that we need gun control but not one believes we can change things. Between the sheer number of guns and fear mongering, gun lobby driven unfounded fear of the government (Just ask Canadians how many guns they are stocking)we will never get undo the damage. I just hope small victories save some lives. I think my next post will be on the second amendment and its origins and how its intent has been manipulated.
According to some sources an AR-15 was not used in these shootings, it was only found at the scene. One possible consideration for the origin of the 2nd Amendment is the Articles of Confederation.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - I intended to write a blog about the 2nd amendment. My initial understanding was that as they shifted from the Articles of Confederation (State-centric) to the Constitution (Federal-centric) they added the 2nd amendment to allow for State regulated Militia (i.e. State Police etc) to "protect" the states and allay the "fear" of the Federalists. The research is going to take me a lot longer than I had thought as it is much more complicated and the origins tangled than I had thought.
ReplyDeleteFirst, http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/wew/quotes/arms.html' quotes leading up to the 2nd Amendment.
DeleteSecond, I believe the right to bear arms includes not only for the purposes of creating a militia, but also for self defense. Assume it's for milita in whole or even in part (and I'm fairly certain it is at least in part) then allowing the Govt, which is what the people are Constitutionally allowed to create a milita for, to protect themselves against, seems to me that alone makes Govt law controlling guns unconstitutional (like allowing the govt. to decide how much taxes to take from the people to pay themselves ... wait, we already do that).
Last, if successful, you'll be the first to find conclusive evidence that gun control reduces gun related violence. It's a much more complicated issue than that. For starters, mental illness seems to be a consistency throughout gun violence. But the US record on dealing with mental illness deserves an F. Even after these latest incidences most of the discussion was on the hotter political topic of "gun control", not on the real cause(s) of the problem, and I'm afraid it will always be that way.
The thing that most concerns me about our governmant today is the lack of respect for the law. Its the reverse the citizens are law abiding its goverment officals that have become the law unto themselves. Courts are suppose to restrain the power of government the wall that exsists between us and the governemt is the court of law. Its always suppose to be government that has to prove one is guilty beyond a reasonable amount of doubt. But we now have increasing a situation where its the citizens that are being asked to prove their innocence instead. If governmant can decide who is guilty or innocence based on anything they so choose than the whole basis of a democracy has been shattered. Governmant officals cannot make laws only congress can.
ReplyDelete