A Sense of Doubt blog post #1998 - Guns make everything worse: a more armed society is a more dead society

https://sensedoubt.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-sense-of-doubt-blog-post-1629-what.html

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1998 - Guns make everything worse: a more armed society is a more dead society

For years, because of the social police environment of social media, I would edit myself as I have various friends that might speak out against what I have shared and not in a way that engages reasonable discourse even among people who disagree with one another but in the snide or unpleasant manner that characterizes much of our online rhetoric. I try not to engage in the name calling and the vitriol, but it's so difficult as I am so often ANGRY about what people say and do both on a personal level and on the national stage, so I am not perfect. I wrote about this issue a little, here:


A Sense of Doubt blog post #1992 - Scheduling Time for Outrage - Weekly Hodge Podge for 2008.01

But an outcry must be raised. I always felt the "I want to carry my gun to take out the active shooter" was total bullshit. Or maybe not total bullshit but not bullshit free either.

Seeing white chucklefucks (See? I can't avoid the name calling) touting their guns at "protests" against stay at home orders during the greatest public health crisis of their lifetime makes me five parts sick and twenty parts angry. And so I am happy to know that the logic of more guns creating more death is being born out in studies. Gun owners don't want to hear this, but it's time to admit we no longer live in the wild west and their system of strapping on the six shooters was not healthy for their safety either.

I am also happy to learn that this cartoon (that I have loved and have shown to hundreds of students) is true after all.



So here's today's share, followed by the tale of another pivotal year in my life: 1998.

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)

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




https://www.wonkette.com/florida-state-study-finds-that-arming-civilians-to-the-death-doesnt-make-them-safer

Florida State Study Finds An Armed Society Is A More Dead Society

Stephen Robinson

July 29, 2020 10:03 AM

There's compelling new data out to support my longstanding argument that guns make everything worse.

A recent study found that when you allow people to carry around guns in public like it's the Wild West, you encourage more Wild West showdowns. It's potentially High Noon at every hour of the day.

The research shows that more guns don't decrease crime rates, and most experts agree that when there are more guns, there are more homicides. This isn't a shock when you consider that an asshole with a gun fatally shot a man after picking a fight over a parking spot. There's also the other asshole with a gun who fatally shot a teen after picking a fight over the volume of his music.

The victim in the second example was Jordan Davis, whose mother, Lucy McBath, is currently serving in Congress (go give her money so she can stay there). Davis's murderer, Michael Dunn, fired 10 rounds into the side of an SUV because he claims he saw someone holding a gun. There was no gun, but gun humpers see guns everywhere. They imagine threats where there are none. They lethally escalate situations that could've been avoided entirely if they weren't high on .45 caliber courage.

The gun deaths I've linked to so far all took place in Florida, home of the despicable stand-your-ground law. It's fitting then that an assistant professor at Florida State University, Emma Fridel, would author the study debunking most of the NRA myths around gun ownership.

From Business Insider:

[Fridel] measured the effects of gun ownership rates and concealed-carry laws in all 50 states from 1991 to 2016. She controlled for other factors that might influence mass shooting and homicide rates, like unemployment rates, poverty levels and states' mental health expenditures.

What she found wasn't shocking but still terrifying: Lax concealed-carry laws increased a state's gun homicide rate by 11 percent, and higher rates of gun ownership in general was associated with a 53.5 percent increase in the likelihood of a mass shooting.
Guns make everything worse.

But, what about the good guys with guns? Gun rights groups mention them all the time, although most are fictional like Dirty Harry, who we know is a good guy because his nickname is “Dirty."

"In popular culture, you hear people saying, 'Oh, if I had a gun and I was at that Wal-Mart, I could've stopped that shooting,'" Fridel told Business Insider. "But that's probably not true."

It is definitely not true.

Alabama police shot Emantic "EJ" Bradford Jr., 21, in the back three times while Bradford was helping to evacuate shoppers during a shooting at a Birmingham mall. Bradford was a licensed gun owner, but he was also Black and thus easily confused for a “bad guy with a gun."

Philando Castile informed a police officer who stopped his car that he was legally carrying a gun and still wound up dead. He must not have been a “good" (i.e. white) enough guy.
And during the Tucson massacre in 2011, an armed “good guy with a gun" almost shot another “good guy with a gun." The problem is that “bad guys with guns" refuse to wear uniforms and cry “Cobra!"

According to Fridel's research, conceal-carry laws "are a stronger predictor of firearm homicides than gun ownership" itself. This makes sense because when people assume that everyone else is packing, they are more inclined to shoot first and ask questions later. This includes the police, who have a constant fear a gun is present when they interact with civilians. It's not unreasonable, considering there are more firearms in America than there are people.

The study revealed an interesting fact: Mass shootings are a small percentage of our ridiculously high total gun deaths. The Gun Violence Archive estimates 465 mass shooting deaths out of the 39,485 gun deaths in 2019. However, the immediate horror of mass shootings result in more gun-related legislation that Republicans help bury. A recent and happy exception is Virginia, where they failed to block some sensible gun safety laws.
Fridel's study suggests two very simple ways to combat gun violence in America: Reduce gun ownership and make concealed-carry permits more difficult to obtain than just shouting for your right to kill NOW. This doesn't have to remain an ongoing tragedy. We can realize that the true good guys don't have guns at all.
[Business Insider]
Stephen Robinson on Twitter.

THE YEAR IN NUMBER: 1998

Finished with my major Gale Research, I was more focused on teaching though still writing for many other publications as a freelancer, though a lot of this work was fading or coming to an end, especially my run of working for the Kalamazoo Gazette. I also was in full swing with CREATIVE WRITERS IN THE SCHOOLS and spent my second year staying for two weeks in May in South Haven as one of the two or three schools where I was in residence each year. That money and my tax return would get me through my summer and help pay for my vacation at the Neahtawanta that I had expanded to almost two weeks.

For instance, these are the films I saw in 1998:

1998 Traverse City Films

Disturbing Behaviour
H20
There’s Something About Mary
The Mask of Zorro
The Parent Trap
Lethal Weapon 4
Armageddon
Ever After
The Avengers
Saving Private Ryan

I remember sobbing like a little baby at the Parent Trap.

Two big things happened in 1998.

In my career, in the fall, I started teaching the Media and the Sexes course for the WMU Women's Studies department, which all in all is possibly my favorite job of all time. I would teach this course for ten years, and in some years, teaching all the sections  of it.

I was no longer in contact with my previous girlfriend (or nearly out of contact as the last emails may have been in early 1998) and I had completely given up on winning her back. I saw a few other women, but in May, everything changed.

In May of 1998, I started one of the most significant relationships of my life and up until then what would be the longest one. My then girlfriend is pictured below, but I will refrain from names or sharing any written material from that time.

It was a very good year.

People's History - 1998

1998 After many years of troubles in Northern Ireland both sides agree to the Good Friday peace agreement. The US President Bill Clinton denies he had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, but later admits it. The Soviet Union Banking system suffers a meltdown when the Rouble lost 70% of its value against US dollar in 6 months with several of the largest Russians banks collapsing. U.N.I.C.E.F. reports there are approximately 250 million child laborers worldwide .









I had the pleasure of interviewing and reviewing the concert of BETH NIELSEN CHAPMAN in 1998.

No one will ever say that Beth Nielsen Chapman does not listen to her audiences. Often audience members have expressed concern that Chapman's band drowns out her vocals. Make no mistake, they came to hear the vocals, the lyrics.
So, in part because of the wishes of her fans, Beth Nielsen Chapman returns to Battle Creek for the second time in two years, this time, without her band.
Chapman and her frequent collaborator and friend Annie Roboff will provide a show of keyboards, acoustical instruments, and occasionally Chapman's voice alone, acapella, this Saturday at the UAC Discovery Theatre with shows at 7 and 9 p.m.
"People who have already heard the record," (notably Chapman's latest "Sand and Water"), "enjoy hearing a stripped-down version of it. When an artist records music with a band that may have started with one instrument during the process of writing, it can be interesting to hear a song brought down to one instrument or to just vocals. This experience can be very riveting for an audience," said Chapman in an interview from her home in Nashville.
Writing music with one instrument or for many instruments is one of Chapman's greatest talents. Since recording her debut album in 1980, Chapman has worked with and written for some of the greats of the music world, such as Willie Nelson, Tanya Tucker, Lorrie Morgan, Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, and mostly recently Faith Hill, whose revival of Chapman's "This Kiss" sits solidly at number seven on the pop charts this week.
Also, Elton John found "Sand and Water" to be so poignant that he has chosen it to replace "Candle in the Wind" in his concerts.
Chapman's latest album chronicles her own passage into and through the process of grief after the death of her husband Ernest. Chapman took strength from her husband and expressed her feelings in the 10 tracks on "Sand and Water." "In the midst of this great sorrow," she said, "there came times of joy for life's simplest things."
Because she reveals so much of herself and her own personal journey of grief in her music, audiences have come to identify with her music, connecting to its messages in their own personal ways. Chapman found these connections to be very strong and rich in Battle Creek.
"Coming back to Battle Creek is a lovely experience for me because I really did feel well received," she said. "The audience, the people I met, were deep, emotionally-grounded people, also known as regular folks. For songwriters and artists, that kind of connection with people is top of the line. After years of playing in bars and hearing silverware clink, an audience that's very attuned to what you're saying is
very special and creates a wonderful, nurturing environment."
Chapman's journey of grief is not sad only. Many of her songs, like "Happy Girl," also recorded by Martina McBride, are upbeat, happy, and hopeful.
For Chapman fans unsatisfied with just two Battle Creek shows, Chapman has a new album in the works that she will begin recording next year. She has an upcoming song on the album "Songs inspired by the Movie "The Prince Of Egypt"" as well as a trip to Cuba planned with three dozen American performers and musicians, including Crosby, Stills and Nash and Sidney Poitier.
Like last year, Chapman's concert will benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank of South Central Michigan and the United Way of Greater Battle Creek.

IN CONCERT
WHO: Beth Nielsen Chapman
WHEN: 7 and 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24
WHERE UAC Discovery Theatre, 51 W. Michigan Ave.
TICKETS: $20, call 441-2710.

ALSO lots of great TV, mainly on the then WB, which would later be the CW.

1998 in comics

I worked with Archie Goodwin when I worked at Marvel.

March[edit]

• March 1: Archie Goodwin, American comics writer (Luke Cage, Manhunter, worked for Blazing Combat, Creepy and Eerie), dies at age 60.^[12]

FAMILY AND PERSONAL PHOTOS

One of my favorite pictures of Mom and the first for the HEY MOM series.

My Uncle Wilber's funeral - May 1998.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2008.07 - 10:10

- Days ago = 1862 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.