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| This February 4, 2013 photo illustration in Manassas, Virginia, shows a Colt AR-15 semi-automatic rifle a Colt .45 semi-auto handgun and a Walther PK380 semi-auto handgun and a copy of the US Constitution on top of the American flag.(Photo credit: KAREN B) |
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1629 - WHAT JUST HAPPENED? Too Many Shootings...
Mass shootings have taken place in Gilroy, California; El Paso, Texas; and Dayton, Ohio killed 34 people in just over a week.
I am just so overwhelmed by it all, like so many people, like everyone should be. People are being killed and others so traumatized, both injured and uninjured, that they may deal with it for the rest of our lives.
And our government does nothing.
And not just the current administration. The previous one did very little to address the problem either.
I feel I need to post about this issue and these recent tragedies because they make me sick.
So, for now, just facts and stories and the opinions of others.
I get most of my news from the sports, so here's some reactions from outspoken NBA coaches whom I admire.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27335782/kerr-popovich-criticize-politicians-gun-control
"When you have 97 percent of the people in the country who want universal background checks and the Senate, not only, not won't pass it, won't even vote on it because [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell won't allow them to vote on it because the NRA has bought him off, then you got problems," Kerr, an assistant coach for Team USA, said after its practice Tuesday ahead of the FIBA World Cup. "I think that's the issue. We have to have elected leaders who are willing to value human life over their own jobs and their contributions from the NRA."
I have written about this kind of thing before. Here's some of the posts (though not all of them).
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #975 - More on Guns, Trump, and toxic America
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #957 - Gun violence - Gun Homicide Rates by State
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1345 - Anti-Semitism is still killing - 11 Dead in Pittsburgh
BITCH MAGAZINE (Bitch Media) always has good information and a smart take on events like this. Following that, I am sharing a story from WIRED.
Good stuff.
Words are great, but we have to do something about it. NOW.
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Back to Back Mass Shootings Are Our New Reality
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Our Take
It’s a Monday in America, which means we’re once again facing down the carnage of another mass shooting. This time, though, the seemingly unending cycle of gun violence has reached a new low. There were two mass shootings in less than 24 hours: On Saturday, August 3, a gunman opened fire in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and claimed the lives of 22 people. Twelve hours later, before the victims of the El Paso shooting had even been identified, another shooter opened fire in Dayton, Ohio, killing nine people and injuring 37. As per usual, conservative politicians and pundits offered their thoughts, prayers, and condolences to the families who’d lost a parent, a child, a sibling, a cousin, and then immediately began blaming everything but America’s lax gun laws for these back-to-back tragedies: lack of religion in schools, mental-health struggles, video games,open borders, and even drag queens.
Mass shootings happen so often in the United States that they are nearly impossible to keep up with: In 2019 alone, 62 people have been killed in public places where there were at least three other victims, which qualifies the incidents as mass shootings. These shootings are so routine, in fact, that many of us barely bat an eyelash or shed a tear before we’re forced to move on to the next tragedy, the next trauma, the next mass loss of life. We don’t have to live this way. Ask New Zealanders whose prime minister banned most semi-automatic weapons after a gunman killed 50 parishioners at two mosques in Christchurch. Ask people in countries around the world that don’t live in fear of their first graders being killed at school, the one place where they should be safest.
This has to stop. Mass shootings are a problem unique to America, and there are very clear pathways to ending them. We don’t have to be afraid to go to the movies or to a concert or to school or to a house of worship or to pick up groceries for our children. Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal have introduced legislation that would allow police to seize a person’s weapons if a judge declares that they are at risk of harming themselves or others. Other politicians, like Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, are encouraging the media to call out Donald Trump for using racist rhetoric that was echoed by at least one of this weekend’s shooters. “We know what Trump is doing,” O’Rourke said. “He stokes racism. He incites violence. We shouldn’t be asking if there’s anything he can do or if he’s responsible for this when we know the answer.”
These are good first steps, but as gun violence continues to haunt us every single day, there is much more to be done to once again feel safe leaving our homes in the morning.
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1. A shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday morning took the lives of more than 20 people. Authorities say the shooter posted a racist, anti-immigrant manifesto shortly before the shooting took place. [CNN, Slate]
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2. The El Paso shooter’s manifesto used language that’s familiar for those who’ve followed Donald Trump’s speeches. They’re both riddled with racist and white supremacist rhetoric about people of color. [New York Times]
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4. While police have said they found “nothing in the background” of the 24-year-old Ohio shooter that would have prevented him from purchasing the gun he used that night, high-school classmates of the gunman say he wassuspended years ago for compiling a “hit list” and a “rape list.” [AP News]
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5. The Ohio shooter’s own sister was among the victims. [Los Angeles Times]
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6. Mexico’s Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, has called for legal action against the United States after finding that seven of the victims in the El Paso shooting were Mexican citizens. [NBC News]
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7. This weekend marked the third mass shooting this year that began with a hateful screed on anonymous message board, 8chan. [Washington Post]
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8. Cloudflare, the web security firm that shields 8chan from cyberattacks, announced this morning that it is dropping the site. Hours later, BitMitigate, whose cybersecurity services also helped keep the neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer online after Cloudflare dropped it in 2017, picked it up—only to then be shut down themselves. [NPR, Washington Post]
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What you can do right now
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Spread the message of No Notoriety, a nonprofit organization that’s dedicated to spotlighting victims instead of the ideology and motivations of mass shooters. Using the hashtag #NoNotoriety is one direct way to support their mission. [No Notoriety]
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Join Moms Demand Action, a grassroots network founded by Shannon Watts to pass common-sense gun-reform measures. [Moms Demand Action]
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Bitch Media is an award-winning, nonprofit, feminist media outlet. We're community funded because we believe that there's no for-profit way to make truly independent, intersectional feminist media. If our work has to compete with a self-interested advertiser or a major investor, it's never going to be the kind of world-changing, movement-making, uncompromising work that needs to be done. It'll just be another contract negotiated in a patriarchal world. You like our attitude? Us too.
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Dayton, Ohio. El Paso, Texas. Gilroy, California. In the past two weeks, three mass shootings across the country have resulted in deaths and devastating community losses.
That's why we need Mitch McConnell and the Senate to take urgent action right now.
These tragedies were enabled by a country:
Where white supremacy is espoused and emboldened, paving the way for fatal acts of terrorism that follow words, chants, tweets, and policies demonizing Black and Brown communities.
Where toxic masculinity is a consistent marker of shooters, yet we continue to ignore the obvious: patriarchy kills. (Currently, guns have more rights in the Constitution than women and trans and nonbinary people do).
Where dark money and the power of the NRA fuels politicians not only to make cowardly choices, but to make actively cruel and callous ones.
Where political inaction, spinelessness, and cowardly "thoughts and prayers" transcends the moral courage to take real action.
251 shootings in 2019. And all of them preventable. To say it is beyond time to take action is a massive understatement.
The House Democrats already passed H.R.8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, months ago -- but it's been stalled in the Senate. We've joined the call to demand that Mitch McConnell immediately brings the Senate back to session to vote on this gun control legislation today. After that, we must call upon all of our representatives to pass even more sweeping legislation that bans all assault rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines.
DEMAND Mitch McConnell bring the Senate back to session to vote today.
Then, tell five friends to do the same. It's time--long overdue--for the Senate to take action. Let your Senators and Mitch know: it's time to get out of the way of sane gun laws.
Take Action,
Ellie Smeal
President of the Feminist Majority Foundation
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1908.06 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1494 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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