Finally Time to Acknowledge Newtown!

By Jeff Simpson

Right after the tragic shooting @Sandy Hook Elementary our friends on the right were appalled that anyone who would consider bringing up the topic of sane gun legislation then.  Too soon!

Apparently, our friends on the right have decided enough time has passed and now is the time to discuss Sandy Hook and honor the victims.  Of course, our friends on the right are doing it in a unique way that only they can!

It is now a topic of right wing hate radio:

On his show Davis & Emmer, which is broadcast by Twin Cities News Talk AM 1130, he attacked the families of those killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School for speaking in support of stricter gun laws.
“I have something I want to say to the victims of Newtown, or any other shooting,” Davis said. “I don’t care if it’s here in Minneapolis or anyplace else. Just because a bad thing happened to you doesn’t mean that you get to put a king in charge of my life. I’m sorry that you suffered a tragedy, but you know what? Deal with it, and don’t force me to lose my liberty, which is a greater tragedy than your loss. I’m sick and tired of seeing these victims trotted out, given rides on Air Force One, hauled into the Senate well, and everyone is just afraid — they’re terrified of these victims.”
“I would stand in front of them and tell them, ‘go to hell,’” he added.

Then in WI, a gun nut club, that defines everything that is wrong with the "pro gun" movement is raffling off a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, red-dot scope, and Leatherwood CMR 1-4x AR optic valued at $1242.00.

Klassy!



 To show that there is still humanity left in the human race, a group of national cartoonists banded together to call for sensible gun legislation!

Newtown Massacre Gun Shop License Pulled

Well, well. Maybe things weren't on the up and up with the gun shop involved in the Newtown massacre:

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has permanently revoked the federal firearms license of East Windsor, Conn., gun store owner David LaGuercia, whose shop reportedly sold guns used in the Newtown school massacre and a second Connecticut mass shooting.

ATF spokeswoman Deb Seifert told The Journal News on Thursday that she could not be more specific on the reasons LaGuercia’s license was revoked. It was revoked Dec. 20 and the 60-day time frame to appeal has expired.

“It’s been revoked,” Seifert said. “It’s final at this point.”

Seifert declined to comment on any criminal investigation into Riverview Gun Sales, which ATF agents raided in December, days after the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary left 26 dead. She referred questions on any criminal probe to U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Tom Carson, who could not be reached Thursday for comment.

Citing anonymous sources, The Hartford Courant has reported that the guns used in the Newtown massacre, including a Bushmaster rifle, and the mass shooting at Hartford Distributors Inc. in 2010 that left eight dead were both bought legally at LaGuercia’s gun shop.

I don't know, but something tells me that there is more to this story than the NRA wants us to know about.

There Is Still Good In The World

Leave it to some union thugs to remind us of that fact:

On Christmas Day, thanks to a grassroots effort by their fellow law enforcement brethren in nearby communities, Newtown's police officers will be the recipients of a rare gift in their profession -- a holiday off, for the entire force.

"Patrol officers and sworn personnel will be given the day off to be home on Christmas. Officers from surrounding towns will be patrolling Newtown," police Sgt. Steve Santucci of Newtown told CNN.

Newtown police have been working nonstop since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14. The school shooting claimed the lives of 20 children and six faculty members, leaving a close-knit community -- and its police force -- still reeling 10 days later.

"When something like this happens ... it's a police thing. We'll always try to help out neighboring towns. Any time there's a tragedy, we'll try our best to lend a helping hand," said Lt. Bob Kozlowsky of the Shelton, Connecticut, police department.

When Our Leaders Fail Us

As the nation weeps with the citizens of Newtown, Connecticut as they bury 20 of their children, there has been a wide range of reactions and statements regarding this senseless nightmare that should never have happened.

By far, most of the statements have been simple expressions of grief and condolences.

But there also has been no shortage of statements that extend beyond that.

From one side, there are calls for reasonable gun laws to be enacted and to be enforced. There are calls for a vamping up of our mental health system. Even has they weep, people are looking for ways to keep anything like this from ever happening again.

From the other side, there are quick calls to stop making sense and to leave our guns alone (even though almost no one is calling for a complete gun ban). Instead of worrying about their constituents, these people are more worried about losing the support of the NRA and their big buckets of money.

Then there have been the extreme nut jobs that both sides look upon with scorn. People like Westboro Baptist Church, who for some deranged reason thought it a good idea to protest at the funeral of six year old child. Or the goof that thought this happened because they teach evolution and homosexuality in schools. (No, really. That was an argument from more than one person, which is even scarier.)

In Wisconsin, our leaders again prove themselves to be embarrassments.

Scott Walker, true to his nature, would only say what he thought people wanted him to say, even if it meant lying through Charlie Sykes' teeth.

Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen demeaned any new life-saving laws as something to make lawmakers "feel good about themselves."

Here in Milwaukee, it was even worse.

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele took a lot of words to say a whole lot of nothing* (spelling and grammatical errors are all his):

What is perhaps the saddest thing to see in the current discussion about gun control is the immediate entrenchment of so many of the loudest in the commentariat to familiar, intractable positions. The most corrosive thing in american politics today is the divisiveness of political identity - too much of defining ourselves by what we are against and not nearly enough defining ourselves by what we are for. Too many declarations of grievances and accusations, not enough statements of understanding and offering of solutions. To borrow from Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, undoubtedly one of the greatest pieces of political address ever: with malice towards none, with charity towards all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in, to bind the nations wounds.

To my friends who support the Second Amendment, so do I. To my friends who are horrified at what happened in Newtown (and Oak Creek, Brookfield, Aurora, etc.), I share your horror. To everyone who believes it is no compromise of the rights we all treasure to bind their scope and couple them with accountability, let's embrace the First Amendment to discuss how we can protect the Second while never forgetting the reason our founding fathers instituted them in the Constitution of this government - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Please note that he says nothing about the need for greater mental health services since he's busy in the process of dismantling the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex.

As mealy-mouthed as Abele was, it's Sheriff David Clarke who takes the cake for the worst response. Clarke wrote a rambling, disjointed piece for his teahadist supporters in which he uses just about every red meat term and buzzword he could think of. But unlike Abele, Clarke offers a solution of sorts, even if it is one of the more idiotic ones:

I have a better idea to all this run and hide advice. An armed tactical trained officer or security officer in every school and public place (theaters, malls, etc) in America. How are we going to pay for it? With all the money we spend on “going green projects and other waste of money social service spending we do. And spare me the idea of more gun control. Gun control has never worked and never will. That’s a sheep mentality. It’s like saying lets capture all the wolves and then the sheep will be safe. Yeah right. I’ve had it with these sociopaths slaughtering innocent people who are in no position to defend themselves.

What Clarke is suggesting is a totalitarian police state. Given his rabid mindset, how long do you think it would take the unstable Clarke to start suggesting that anyone who doesn't agree with him be considered a threat to society?

Also keep in mind that Clarke was against concealed carry before he was for it, so that shows you how much weight you should give any of his opinions.

It truly is embarrassing that at the time when we need real leadership, we get milquetoast and buffoonery.  Heck, even the deplorable, maleficent governor of Michigan had enough sense to veto a bill that would have allowed guns in schools.

Is it really asking too much for our leaders to show a modicum of common sense and responsibility?

*Since Abele apparently had this posted it before and then deleted it because of the negative reaction to his non-reaction, I have taken the liberty of making a screen shot of it.

Tragedy Restores, Destroys Faith In Humankind

I, like most Americans, have spent the weekend trying to cope with the nightmarish events of Friday morning, when a young man took his mother's guns, shot her in the face and then killed 26 children and their teachers.

Personally, one of things that helped me the most was spending time with Rusty the Wonder Beagle.  Even though he is very old, blind, deaf and diabetic, he is still full of love and life.  He seemed to just know that my wife and I were upset and was abnormally affectionate and just being around him and his unconditional love helped.

My wife and I actually discussed how, if Rusty was younger and able to make that long of a trip, we would have taken him to Connecticut to be a comfort to some of the people who have suffered so much.

It was with happiness that I saw that even if Rusty couldn't make the trip, other comfort dogs were on their way:

A team of golden retrievers made an 800-mile journey from the Chicago area to Newtown, Conn., over the weekend to comfort people affected by the shootings Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Lutheran Church Charities sent about 10 of the dogs for residents who want to pet them while they talk or pray with the dog’s handler, said Tim Hetzner, president of the Addison, Ill., organization.

“Dogs are nonjudgmental. They are loving. They are accepting of anyone,” Hetzner said. “It creates the atmosphere for people to share.”

The dogs often visit people in hospitals, nursing homes and parks. Each dog carries a business card with its name, Facebook page, Twitter account and email address.

“The dogs have become the bridge,” said Lynn Buhrke, 66, who is a dog handler for a female golden retriever named Chewie. “People just sit down and talk to you.”

I was also very pleased to see that those poor souls were not taken in vain and that even though it shouldn't have taken a tragedy like this, people finally coming to their senses and getting rid of their guns:

In the aftermath of the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, some Americans are turning in their guns as part of local government buy-backed programs.

Residents in New York City, New York, Camden, New Jersey, Baltimore, Maryland, and San Francisco, California, sold hundreds of weapons back to the government no-questions asked, with some attributing their decisions to the Connecticut tragedy.

“After the incident yesterday, it was time to get it out of the house,” Sonia White, a 65-year-old Baltimore County grandmother said. A man in San Francisco explained, “I’ve got kids, man.” “Kids are curious. Kids don’t know any better. I had it locked in a toolbox, so I don’t know. … I just know it had to go.”

Now only if we could get people to realize that such actions are also needed for the kids that are lost every day in the cities from guns.

President Barack Obama also struck the right chords in his speech in the Newtown vigil:

You can see the complete speech here, with thanks to MAL.

Sadly, even as the president was reaching out to the good people of Newtown, there was the base side of American who thought that the first quarter of a football game was more important and wanted NBC to "take that nigger off the air."

And then, just when you thought it couldn't get worse, it does.

As they tried to do in Colorado, the idiots at Westboro Baptist Church are planning on protesting the funerals of the innocents killed.

But then, out of the Intertubes comes a pair of unlikely cavalries.

Redditors are pledging to also converge on Newtown to form a human blockade and the group Anonymous has done a docs drop on them, as well as an enlightening video.

No matter what, there will always be jerks in the world. But it is reassuring to see so many people from so many walks of life finally pulling together again.

It's just so very sad that it took the life of so many innocents to make it happen. It's also so very sad that it doesn't go far enough. It never will until we address the same horrors happening every day in our own cities across the country with our black youth.

Too soon, or too late?

In the aftermath of yet another heartbreaking mass shooting, this time resulting in the death of 20 children and seven adults,  we’re forced to discuss not what can be done to prevent future atrocities, but whether or not it’s too soon to even discuss the events at all.  The reality however, isn’t that it’s too soon, it’s that it may be too late.  

There are now more than 310 million non-military firearms in the U.S. (as of 2009).   While some polls suggest that overall, gun ownership in the number of homes in the U.S. is declining, overall gun sales continue to skyrocket.  This would suggest that in households where a gun is present, there is usually more than one.  Additionally, support for gun control legislation seems to be on the decline.  Even though there has been a continuing reduction in the crime rate in the U.S., Americans are increasingly driven by fear.  Local news reports focus heavily on the day’s violence.  The NRA and its proponents spin tales of how Obama and those evil liberals want to take away everyone’s guns, leaving you defenseless prey to the criminals who will inexplicably still be able to easily obtain them.  Fox News and the right wing echo chamber drone on and on about how big government wants to turn the country into some communist dystopia.  The fringe right goes even further, claiming the UN will be coming any minute to usurp our sovereignty, turning the world into some one world authoritarian nightmare.  Fear and sensationalism sell, and Americans seem to be buying with increased fervor.  This has lead to a massive increase in the availability of firearms to criminals and would be criminals.  

 Whenever there’s a dialogue about the merits of gun control, someone always has to chime in with some variation of the meme, “if you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have them.”  While that sounds great, it ignores the realities of where it is that criminals obtain their guns.  All firearms start out as lawfully owned property.  The vast majority of guns that criminals use are obtained via one of four ways, theft, straw purchases, illegal sales from FFL’s(Federal firearm licensees), and private or gun show sales.  If legislation was passed making it illegal for firearms manufacturers to sell or provide firearms to anyone other than the military or law enforcement, the methods that criminals use to obtain weapons would largely be useless.  Yes, this would require all currently legally owned firearms to be confiscated, which is why this will never happen.  A ban on all firearms in the U.S. isn’t realistic, and no one is suggesting this as a legitimate option. 

Absent a ban and confiscation of all firearms in the U.S., what can be done?  Well, if we were to listen to the fanatical gun rights advocates, more guns is the answer.  Once again, this ignores the realities of the situation.  

"In the wake of the slaughters this summer at a Colorado movie theater and a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, we set out to track mass shootings in the United States over the last 30 years. We identified and analyzed 62 of them, and one striking pattern in the data is this: In not a single case was the killing stopped by a civilian using a gun. Moreover, we found that the rate of mass shootings has increased in recent years—at a time when America has been flooded with millions of additional firearms and a barrage of new laws has made it easier than ever to carry them in public. And in recent rampages in which armed civilians attempted to intervene, they not only failed to stop the shooter but also were gravely wounded or killed."

Many gun owners seem to feel that in the chaos of a mass shooting, they would be able to calmly draw, aim, and effortlessly double tap that would-be killer before he had a chance to begin his spree.  This is pure fantasy.  More guns only lead to increased societal risk. Guns kept in homes are 22 times more likely to be used in a fatal or nonfatal accidental shooting, criminal assault, or suicide attempt than to be used to injure or kill in self-defense.  If you have a gun in your home, statistically speaking you’re at a much greater risk of injury or death because of it. 

While we’re starting to finally hear talk of addressing the problems of gun violence, it seems as if people are afraid to speak in anything more than vague generalities.  No one wants to invoke the ire of the gun folks.  Well then, allow me.  We have to take steps to limit the availability of “assault” style weapons, handguns, and high capacity magazines.  Their use is what facilitates the high body count in these sprees.  We have to close gun show loopholes and prohibit sales between private, unlicensed individuals.  While this will have minimal affect on mass shootings, it would close down one avenue for criminals to obtain firearms.  We need to limit purchases from FFL’s to one per month.  This would make it much more difficult to traffic weapons via FFL’s.  Repealing the immunity from lawsuits that firearms manufacturers currently enjoy would encourage those entities to be more discerning in their gun sales.  Repeal of the Tiahrt Amendment would also encourage seller and manufacturer accountability.

I harbor no illusions that this, or any gun control legislation would be easy to pass.  The pro gun lobby is immensely powerful, and our populace has an irrational attachment to guns.  But how many more people need to die?  How many more children have to be brutally murdered in their classrooms before we say enough?  If this horrific tragedy isn’t sufficient evidence that our culture and permissive gun laws are deeply flawed, what will it take?  I never thought that my first contribution to this blog would be in response to a tragedy of this nature, and I’m saddened that it has to be.  We can look at the events in Connecticut as a lesson, and make them a turning point in rational discourse about guns.  Or we can close our eyes and become increasingly desensitized, clinging irrationally to the mistaken belief that somehow the prevalence of guns in our society makes us safer.  Which will you do?