Easy Gun Access = Rising Number Of Unnecessary Deaths

Another mass shooting has put gun deaths back in the headlines -- this time in Atlanta, Georgia. But mass shootings, even though they occur far too often, are just a drop in the bucket when it comes to gun deaths in the United States. No developed nation can match the 40,000 gun deaths a year in the U.S.!

Why is the U.S. the leader in the number of gun deaths? Because it allows easier access to guns than any other developed nation. And the politicians seem to like it that way. Even though 80-90% of Americans want tougher background checks before anyone is allowed to buy a gun, those politicians (especially Republicans) continue to block any bill that would restrict an easy access to guns -- even for criminals, terrorists, and other dangerous individuals. NRA money is more important to them than the lives of American citizens.

The following is part of an excellent op-ed by Helaine Olen in The Washington Post:

On Tuesday afternoon, a gunman walked into multiple spas in Georgia and opened fire with ahandgun. He killed eight people — seven of them women, six of whom were of Asian descent. His motive is unclear, but the event bears all the hallmarks of a hate crime against both Asians and women. 

But how it happened is not mysterious. It is so commonplace that it barely merits a mention in most articles about the massacre. The gunman apparently purchased his weapon a few hours before going on his rampage.

The United States is a violent society, and has been since the first Europeans stepped foot on its shores. Millions of Native Americans — we will never know the true number — were killed as Europeans colonized the continent. Slavery lasted for more than 240 years, and it was practiced with a grotesque brutality.

Viewed in this way, our ongoing gun-violence death toll is just another facet of our violent history. But it’s one we could bring to an end, if only we chose to. Our homicide rate dwarfs that of any other comparably advanced nation. In the United States, there are so many firearms in circulation that there is more than one per every American. No surprise, 4 out of every 10 of us say we are personally acquainted with someone who has been shot. Nations with looser attitudes toward gun ownership experience more gun violence than those without.

While mass shootings garner the most attention, our day-to-day death toll is staggering. Even as mass-fatality events plunged in 2020, likely because of the covid-19 lockdowns, gun violence is up significantly in many cities. Murder rates in big cities throughout the United States increased by more than one-third last year, with many cities seeing particularly startling increases: Homicides in Chicago increased by more than 50 percent, New York by 40 percent. The vast majority of this surge was murders committed with firearms. . . .

A majority of Americans would like to see it made significantly more difficult to purchase a gun, but it has yet to happen in any meaningful way. Legislation mandating a background check passed the House of Representatives last week, but no one expects it to go anywhere in the Senate. Despite the horrifying massacre in Georgia, the bill is still barely getting a moment of attention. . . .

This is, in part, because our government seems to be controlled by special interests. The National Rifle Association, despite being accused by New York state of serving as a slush fund for spokesman Wayne LaPierre and despite ending up in bankruptcy court, still manages to maintain its grip on power.

But it’s also true that we don’t really agree on how to solve the gun problem. While almost everyone favors background checks and agrees that people with mental illnesses should be banned from owning a gun, other issues are more contentious. Half of Americans say they don’t believe restricting gun ownership will reduce mass shootings, a finding that defies common sense. Political divisions play a role, too: A lot more Democrats than Republicans want to fully ban assault-style weapons.

I suspect that a combination of our bloody past and ongoing inaction on guns feeds on itself, leaving Americans passive in the face of ongoing violence. As a result, the number of people who are killed by guns in our country continues to grow. The eight victims in Georgia — Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Delaina Ashley Yuan, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng and Paul Andre Michels — are now added to that toll. And unless we get serious about addressing our gun crisis, they won’t be the last.

The Other Epidemic Killing Americans - Gun Violence

The Coronavirus pandemic is seizing all of the headlines these days from the media. And it should, since it is killing thousands of Americans unnecessarily (due to the failure of Republicans to adequately address it).

But it is not the only epidemic claiming thousands of lives in this country. Gun violence has claimed 25,257 American lives as of 8/8/20 (14,586 suicides and 10,671 homicides and accidents). Last year, the number of gun deaths topped 40,000, and it looks like that will happen again this year.

Some might have thought that the number of mass shootings in this country might have fallen in 2020, due to the shutdown of many businesses and schools. That has not happened. So far, there have been 352 mass shootings in the United States this year. That's about 1.59 mass shootings for each day of the year -- and that rate is significantly higher than in the past. Last year the rate was about 1.2 mass shootings for each day.

Like with the Coronavirus, Republicans must also shoulder the blame for failing to deal with the gun violence epidemic. They have been bought by the NRA, who funds their re-election campaigns -- and they follow the NRA's wishes to not have any kind of restrictions on guns. They won't even plug the loopholes in the background check law, which is supported by 90% of the public.

There was a bit of good news this week -- news that may have an impact on the gun violence epidemic. The New York Attorney General completed an investigation into the NRA, and filed charges in a New York Court to dissolve the NRA (which is registered as a charity in New York) and demand its four top executives pay back millions of dollars in NRA money they siphoned off for their own benefit (about $64 million in just the last three years). The NRA leadership was using the organization's funds as their personal piggy bank.

The NRA leadership has said they will fight the charges in court, but it looks like the Attorney General has plenty of evidence to back up her case. The NRA has also filed suit against the Attorney General's office, saying they were denying the NRA's First Amendment rights. That's ludicrous -- the First amendment doesn't protect stealing funds from a registered charity!

If the NRA is dissolved, and there is a good chance of that happening, then that will cut off the funding for those GOP congressmen and senators. It might free them to vote to save American lives, or give opponents a better chance to defeat them at the polls. Either way, it could mean the country could finally have some reasonable and constitutional gun restrictions. Let's hope so!

Trump / Republicans Blame Shooting On Mental Illness

The photo here (from the Texas Department of Public Safety) is of Seth Ator -- the 36 year-old white man who killed seven people and wounded dozens of others in Midland/Odessa last Saturday.

We don't know why he did that, but he was recently fired from his job. He was also the owner of an AR-15 assault-style weapon (which he used in the mass shooting).

Donald Trump, and other Republicans, were quick to blame the shooting on mental illness. But there is no history of Ator being mentally ill.

Mental illness is just an excuse that Republicans now use to avoid doing anything about the epidemic of gun deaths in this country. It's a rather pathetic excuse.

The United States doesn't have more mentally ill people than other developed nations, and most of the mentally ill are not a danger to other people. If the cause was mental illness, and gun laws cannot prevent many of these shootings, then why is the United States the only developed nation that has this problem with mass shootings and gun deaths.

We know why -- and so does Trump, Republicans, and the NRA leadership. It's because there are too many guns in this country, and they are accessed too easily by those who should not have them. The GOP just doesn't want to admit it -- afraid they'll lose NRA money for their next election.

Don't let the Republicans get away with blaming mental illness for our gun problem.

A man angry at losing a job is not mentally ill.

A young white man angry at losing his white privilege is not mentally ill.

Racism is not a mental illness.

White supremacy is not a mental illness.

Trump said none of the recent shootings would have been prevented by background checks. That's not the point. We do not want dangerous people being able to buy any kind of gun and as much ammunition as they want. And banning assault-style weapons could have prevented many of those shootings, since those are the weapons used in nearly all mass shootings.

Demand Congress take action -- on the real problem (the easy access to guns).

The NRA Is Losing Its Influence Over Congress

Back in 2008, the NRA had an iron grip on Congress. They had that by doing two things -- grading each senator and representative on their opposition to gun restrictions (giving them a grade from A to F) and then donating campaign money to those given a A.

The charts above are from The New York Times (and they are accompanied in that paper by a very good article). They illustrate how the NRA is losing its influence over Congress.

The top chart shows the number of A's and F's (and other grades) in both 2008 and 2018. Note that in 2008 a majority of Congress received an A rating. In 2018, a majority receives an F rating.

The second chart shows the change over time in the number of A and F ratings. In 2008, about 52.1% of Congress had an A rating and only 33.8% had an F rating. By 2018, only 43.5% had an A rating, while 52.5 now have an F rating.

An A rating denotes those who can be depended on to tote the NRA line. An F rating denotes those who want sensible gun restrictions.

Most Republicans still get an A from the NRA. The shift has come from Democrats. The third chart shows the number of Democrats with ratings of A through F after elections from 2008 to 2018. In 2008, about 67 Democrats had an A rating and 157 had an F rating. By 2018, only 3 Democrats had an A rating, while 243 had an F rating.

The NRA is clearly losing influence in Congress, and most of it comes from Democrats. The NRA no longer controls the House, but now depends on the Senate to block gun legislation (especially Majority Leader "Moscow" Mitch McConnell). You can bet the NRA will be spending heavily to keep the GOP in control of the Senate in 2020. It's their only hope to retain any control over Congress.

This makes it very important for voters to flip the Senate in 2020 to Democratic control. Until that happens, the NRA will retain its control (and block all reasonable and constitutional gun laws).

Trump Flip-Flops On Background Checks - Again

Once again, Donald Trump shows us that the only thing he cares about is what he perceives as good for him.

After the recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Trump told Americans that he supported a strong background check law on all gun sales. But that was before he got a phone call from the gun manufacturers most effective lobbyists (the NRA). Now he has backed down, and is saying we already have effective background checks (a LIE).

Instead, he wants now to blame mass shootings on mental illness. That's the NRA line, even though it is ridiculous. All developed nations have a problem with mental illness, but none have the mass shooting problem the U.S. has (averaging more than one mass shooting every day). That's because they don't make it easy for the mentally ill (or criminals and terrorists) to buy any kind of gun they want.

Trump's latest flip-flop shouldn't surprise anyone. He did the same thing after the shooting at the high school in Parkland. He promised action, and then backed down after getting a call from the NRA. It has become obvious that NRA campaign money is more important to him than saving the lives of American citizens.

Here is what the editorial board of The New York Times has to say about Trump's latest craven flip-flop:

President Trump and his followers delight in his image as a disrupter — a dauntless fighter raring to take on entrenched political interests and sacred cows. But when it comes to addressing America’s gun problem, Mr. Trump has proved both conventional and weak. As the shock fades of this month's back-to-back massacres in Texas and Ohio, he is poised to disappoint yet again. 

On Tuesday, The Atlantic reported that Mr. Trump had assured Wayne LaPierre, the chief executive of the National Rifle Association, that he is no longer considering universal background checks. Mr. LaPierre subsequently tweeted praise for Mr. Trump, who he said “supports our right to keep and bear arms.” 

By now, the president’s response to gun violence is familiar: In the first raw days after a mass shooting, he answers the public outcry with a pledge to muscle timid lawmakers into action. Following the Parkland shooting last year, Mr. Trump started a brief, high-profile push for “comprehensive” reform, hosting a televised meeting with a bipartisan coterie of lawmakers in which he publicly mockedmembers of his party for being “afraid of the N.R.A.” and touted his independence from the gun lobby. “They have great power over you people,” he said. “They have less power over me.”

Well, unless you count the $30 million the N.R.A. donated to Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, making the group his largest single contributor. But why quibble? For whatever reason, Mr. Trump soon abandoned his safety effort.

In response to this month’s shootings, Mr. Trump promptly vowed to pursue “background checks like we’ve never had before,” noting, correctly, that “there is a great appetite” for closing existing loopholes. (More than 90 percent of all voters support universal background checks.) Asserting that he enjoys “greater influence now over the Senate and over the House,” he expressed confidence that, this time, he could persuade lawmakers “to do things they don’t want to do.” He boasted, “There’s never been a president like President Trump.”

Even as Mr. Trump was touting his specialness, the N.R.A. was whispering in his ear, warning of the political Armageddon that would befall him if he crossed Second Amendment enthusiasts, even on something with such broad support as background checks. In recent weeks, the president has had multiple phone conversations with Mr. LaPierre, including while the president was on vacation at his New Jersey golf resort last week.

Right on schedule, Mr. Trump’s knees have buckled and his resolute talk has devolved into a series of (slightly garbled) bumper-sticker clichés on the theme of, “It’s people who pull the trigger, not the gun that pulls the trigger.” On his way back to Washington on Sunday, he stressed that he was “very, very concerned with the Second Amendment, more so than most presidents,” and he helpfully offered, “People don’t realize we have very strong background checks right now.” Leaning on one of the gun lobby’s favorite talking points, he said that this is “a very, very big mental health problem.”

Yes, it is — if you consider chronic political cowardice to be a mental health problem.

Now would be a particularly pathetic moment for Mr. Trump to capitulate. For all its vaunted political clout, the N.R.A. is in crisis— embroiled in legal troubles, rent by leadership squabbles and flirting with financial ruin. The president has privately voiced doubts that the group will be in a position to be a serious player in the 2020 election. What better time for him to exert his independence — to set himself apart from the political wimps?

Some White House aides have insisted that Mr. Trump is not waffling, that this is all part of a grand negotiating strategy and that he will, in fact, renew his legislative push when Congress returns from recess next month. Others have acknowledged that the president, not known for his long attention span, has lost patience and interest in the entire topic. As one told The Daily Beast, “He’s started to moved on.”

If the president retreats, again, gun safety advocates cannot be surprised. As the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, observed of Mr. Trump’s cooling, “We’ve seen this movie before.”

Americans have indeed seen this tragedy far too many times — and are on track to see it many more. Mr. Trump was spot on with his observation that Republican lawmakers are terrified of the gun lobby, to the point of consistently prioritizing its desires over those of their voters, not to mention the good of the nation. The big question now is whether the president has what it takes to show leadership. For anything meaningful to get done, he will need to stop equivocating and flip-flopping and make clear that he expects lawmakers to meet the moment — or else.

It would be a welcome surprise if this version of the movie had a twist ending with Mr. Trump emerging as the brave hero facing down the extremist forces aligned against modest, popular reform.

But the viewing public probably shouldn’t hold its breath.

Trump And NRA Illegally Coordinated Campaign Spending

Just one more example of how the Trump campaign flouted election laws in the 2016 campaign. The following is just a small part of an excellent expose by Mike Spies in Mother Jones:

The National Rifle Association spent $30 million to help elect Donald Trump—more than any other independent conservative group. Most of that sum went toward television advertising, but a political message loses its power if it fails to reach the right audience at the right time. For the complex and consequential task of placing ads in key markets across the nation in 2016, the NRA turned to a media strategy firm called Red Eagle Media.

One element of Red Eagle’s work for the NRA involved purchasing a slate of 52 ad slots on WVEC, the ABC affiliate in Norfolk, Virginia, in late October 2016. The ads targeted adults aged 35 to 64, and aired on local news programs and syndicated shows like Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. In paperwork filed with the Federal Communications Commission, Red Eagle described them as “anti-Hillary” and “pro-Trump.”

The Trump campaign pursued a strikingly similar advertising strategy. Shortly after the Red Eagle purchase, as Election Day loomed, it bought 33 adson the same station, set to air during the same week. The ads, which the campaign purchased through a firm called American Media & Advocacy Group (AMAG), were aimed at precisely the same demographic as the NRA spots, and often ran during the same shows, bombarding Norfolk viewers with complementary messages.

The two purchases may have looked coincidental; Red Eagle and AMAG appear at first glance to be separate firms. But each is closely connected to a major conservative media-consulting firm called National Media Research, Planning and Placement. In fact, the three outfits are so intertwined that both the NRA’s and the Trump campaign’s ad buys were authorized by the same person: National Media’s chief financial officer, Jon Ferrell.

“This is very strong evidence, if not proof, of illegal coordination,” said Larry Noble, a former general counsel for the Federal Election Commission. “This is the heat of the general election, and the same person is acting as an agent for the NRA and the Trump campaign.”

Reporting by The Trace, which has teamed up with Mother Jonesto investigate the NRA’s political activity, shows that the NRA and the Trump campaign employed the same operation—at times, the exact same people—to craft and execute their advertising strategies for the 2016 presidential election. The investigation, which involved a review of more than 1,000 pages of Federal Communications Commission and Federal Election Commission documents, found multiple instances in which National Media, through its affiliates Red Eagle and AMAG, executed ad buys for Trump and the NRA that seemed coordinated to enhance each other.

Individuals working for National Media or its affiliated companies either signed or were named in FCC documents, demonstrating that they had knowledge of both the NRA and the Trump campaign’s advertising plans.

Experts say the arrangement appears to violate campaign finance laws.

Another Mass Shooting - The 307th In The U.S. This Year

We had another mass shooting in the news yesterday. This one (again by a homegrown white male) was in Thousand Oaks, California -- where the gunman killed 12 people (including a police officer) and wounded 10 others.

But make no mistake -- the mass shootings (where four or more people are shot) related on the national news are just a small part of the problem. The California mass shooting marked the 307th mass shooting in the United States this year. That is an average of about one mass shooting for every day of the year.

The politicians in Washington won't admit it, but the United States has a gun problem that no other civilized country has. We have a mass shooting on a daily basis, and each year over 30,000 deaths from guns (murders, suicides, accidents). This does not have to be. The problem persists because our politicians refuse to do anything about it (except to offer their ineffectual "thoughts and prayers").

In the election a couple of days ago, about 27 NRA-backed politicians lost their jobs. That's a start, but not nearly enough. While we could see a decent bill come out of the House next year (because the Democrats seized control there), that bill is sure to die in the Senate (where Republicans remain in control and have sold their votes to the NRA).

In short, nothing will be done in Washington until at least January of 2021 (assuming the Democrats win control of both the House, Senate, and the White House in the 2020 election). That means we are destined to have another 700-800 mass shootings (with thousands of deaths).

There is the blood of innocent people on Congress' hands, and they don't seem to care. It's shameful!

NRA Is Spending Far Less In 2018 Than It Did In 2014

A few weeks ago, I read some articles that said the National Rifle Association (NRA) is having some funding problems. That its contributions are way down. The chart above (from McClatchey newspapers) shows that may be true. At this point in the 2014 elections, the NRA had spent about $16 million to support their favorite Republican candidates. In 2018, they have spent only about one-tenth of that -- about $1.6 million.

Russian Spy Used The NRA To Make Connections With GOP

The woman pictured here has been arrested. She will make her first court appearance on Wednesday in a Washington courtroom. Here name is Maria Butina. She is a former member of the Russian legislature, and current graduate student in Washington.

What was her crime? She is a Russian spy, who was reporting to Moscow and operating on their orders. She has spent years (since 2015) trying to establish relationships with Republican politicians -- with the aim of using those relationships to accomplish the objectives of the Russian government.

She got her "in" with those Republican politicians by becoming an active participant in the National Rifle Association (NRA). After becoming close th NRA leaders, she used that to introduce herself to conservative Republican politicians. She and her mentor, Alexander Torshin, funneled money through the NRA to help Republicans (especially Donald Trump).

Her indictment didn't name the Republican politicians she was dealing with, but that will be disclosed when she comes to trial. It turns out that those politicians were played by the redheaded spy -- and whether they knew it or not, were colluding with Russia.

I think we're just seeing the tip of this iceberg, and the future will reveal a lot more to the embarrassment of the Republican Party. The photo below shows NRA leader Wayne LaPierre with Butina.

There Have Been 22 School Shootings (I Blame Congress)

On Friday, there was another school shooting -- this time in a Santa Fe, Texas, high school. Ten people were killed and several wounded. It marks the 22nd school shooting in the United States this year, and the year is only 20 weeks old. That's an average of more than one school shooting every week. And if you look at all mass shootings, the U.S. is averaging about one every single day.

Elected officials (local, state, and national) were quick to send their "thoughts and prayers". Frankly, I'm a little tired of hearing about their "thoughts and prayers". They haven't prevented any school (or mass shootings) in the past, didn't prevent this one, and won't prevent any of the ones in the future. It's time for our politicians to stop the pious posing and actually do something to prevent the more than 30,000 gun deaths in this country every year. We are in the midst of an epidemic, and our elected officials (especially in the U.S. Congress) refuse to do anything about it.

Some will say not is not the time since passions are inflamed over the shooting. That is bullshit! With a school shooting every week and a mass shooting every day, when is the time. The time is NOW!

Some will also claim this epidemic is a mental health problem, and not a gun problem. That's a ridiculous assertion. All developed nations have a problem with mental health, but only one allows the dangerously mentally ill (and criminals and terrorists) to legally buy any kind of gun they desire -- the United States. It is a gun problem.

Some will say we can't do anything because of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That's also ludicrous! Many solutions have been offered that do not violate the Second Amendment, and out Congress won't even discuss them, let alone vote on them.

Some also say there is no "cure-all" that will prevent all mass shooting or gun deaths. That is true. But there are measures that will significantly reduce the number of mass shootings and gun deaths, and actions that would save hundreds or thousands of American lives are well worth doing.

There ar two actions that would significantly reduce gun deaths. We could close the holes in our background check law, and make ALL gun buyers go through a background check (even for purchases from an individual). And we could ban the sale of military-style assault weapons (which are the weapon of choice for most mass shooters). Both actions have been declared constitutional by our Supreme Court.

Some will claim that people will just buy a gun on the black market if they fail a background check. But that's no excuse for letting them legally buy a gun -- and buying from a criminal gun dealer is not as easy as gun nuts would have you believe.

Unfortunately, noting will probably be done (except more thoughts and prayers). That's because too many in Congress are owned by the NRA, and the NRA is owned by the gun manufacturers. Those congressmen have made the decision that the lives of Americans are not as important as getting themselves re-elected. For that reason, I blame Congress for this latest school shooting -- and for the future ones.

The NRA Has Blundered Into An Untenable Position

(Cartoon image is by Tom Curry in the Big Bend Gazette.)

Francis Wilkinson has written an excellent article for Bloomberg News on how the NRA has made a strategic blunder. I highly recommend you read the whole article, but here is a part of it:

Like the Republican Party and Trump, the NRA responded to a diversifying nation by cultivating racial reaction. Before Trump’s “American carnage,” NRA leader Wayne LaPierre routinely portrayed the U.S. as a dystopia overrun by madmen, criminals, perverts and fanatical terrorists. The government won’t save you, LaPierre told his followers. Only guns -- lots and lots of guns -- will.

The NRA seized its advantage under GOP legislatures and a GOP Congress to promote a no-compromise agenda of guns everywhere for anyone. It went for all the marbles -- guns in bars, churches, schools, colleges, parking lots, playgrounds -- hoping to make them so pervasive that the cultural pendulum could never swing back. And it fought, even after massacres of children, to make sure that the most damaged and dangerous among us maintained convenient access to military-grade firepower.

Instead of seeking to accommodate a changing world, it vastly overreached. Payback is unlikely to be pleasant. “Hey, hey, ho, ho, the NRA has got to go” was a frequent chant throughout the country Saturday. . . .

If you’re looking for long-term power and relevance in the U.S., getting on the wrong side of kids, women and racial minorities is probably not the best idea. . . .

The NRA remains a powerful organization. But it’s less powerful today than it was yesterday. It’s less powerful in 2018 -- which has already seen a spate of gun regulations passed, even in gun-crazed Florida -- than it was in 2017. Blue states across the nation have been enacting aggressive gun regulations without the slightest fear of the gun lobby. California and Hawaii, two states that look more like the American future than the American past, are among the leaders.

And now the gun lobby is facing a countervailing movement. Anxiety, it turns out, is not the exclusive purview of old white men uneasy about the empowerment of women and the racial composition of the nation. People afraid of being shot, or losing their children, willy-nilly because any fool can get a gun are also anxious. The marches helped ease their symptoms but with a side effect: It caused trembling in the gun lobby.

Our Generations Failed - A New Generation Marches To Fix It

The graphic above shows the results of a 1998 survey by Arther Kellermann. The NRA and its adherents tell us that keeping a gun in the home makes us safer. That study explodes that myth. For every one self-defense shooting, there are 22 shootings caused by accident, criminal assault or homicides, or suicides. In other words, a family member is 22 times more likely to be shot than a burglar entering your home -- if you have a gun in that home.

This is just one aspect of the NRA idea that more guns means a safer country. That is not true of a home, a state, or the country as a whole. The truth is more guns = more deaths. Consider this from the Scientific American:

"Most of this research—and there have been several dozen peer-reviewed studies—punctures the idea that guns stop violence. In a 2015 study using data from the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard University reported that firearm assaults were 6.8 times more common in the states with the most guns versus those with the least. Also in 2015 a combined analysis of 15 different studies found that people who had access to firearms at home were nearly twice as likely to be murdered as people who did not."

The NRA would also like for us to believe that the huge number of gun deaths in this country (especially mass shootings) are not the result of the easy access to guns, but due to mental illness or violent video games. That's just ludicrous. Other developed nations have mental illness and violent video games, but their ratio of gun deaths in much lower. That's because they have reasonable gun laws -- laws that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

The sad truth is that our generations (Silent - Baby Boomer - Generation X) have failed. We bought into the NRA lies and let our elected representatives get by with doing NOTHING! We decided that it was OK to have 30,000 gun deaths each year (including 12,000 gun homicides). We let the right to own a gun (by any nut) become more important that the right of our fellow citizens to live.

Fortunately, a new generation is now rising up (millennials and post-millennials) and they are taking a stand. On Saturday, millions of them will march in more than 800 cities across the nation. They aren't trying to abolish the Second Amendment. They just want reasonable (and constitutional) laws that will save thousands of American lives each year. They want the holes plugged in the background check law, so every gun buyer must have a background check before being able to buy that gun (even in gun shows, on the internet, and in private sales). They want assault weapons banned (along with magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition). They want gun laws that make sense and make Americans safer.

Older generations are guilty of inaction in the face of an epidemic of gun deaths. It is time to excise that guilt -- and that can only be done by supporting the young people speaking out for common sense.

Is The NRA Losing It's Grip On Public Opinion ?

The NRA can only be effective if politicians believe they represent the will of the American people. But do they? This new poll shows the NRA is now viewed unfavorably by more people than view it favorably. Among all adults, that unfavorable opinion is 9 points larger than the favorable, and among registered voters it is 7 points. Is the public starting to turn its back on the NRA? maybe. I certainly hope so.

This chart reflects information in the latest Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between February 25th and 27th of a random national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,296 registered voters). The margin of error for adults is 3.2 point, and for registered voters is 2.9 points.

GOP Officials Are On Wrong Side Of Gun Violence Issue

These charts were made using information contained in a new Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between February 16th and 19th of a random national sample of 1,249 voters, with a margin of error of 3.4 points.

The U.S. has had 19 school shooting in 2018, and it is averaging a mass shooting (shooting in which 4 or more are injured or killed) every day. America is waking up to the fact that something needs to be done to reduce the amount of gun violence in this country.

Unfortunately, our Congress is controlled by Republicans. Those Republicans have been bought by the NRA (through huge campaign donations), and they support the NRA policy (that no new gun laws or restrictions are needed. This is not going to help them in November, because the public disagrees. The public thinks action is needed, and 75% say Congress is not doing enough to control gun violence (and 52% say the Democrats would do a better job).

It has become obvious that NOTHING will be done about gun violence as long as the Republicans control Congress. We can fix that in November!

NRA Gave These Nine Senators Over $22 Million

From ReverbPress:

Here’s the chart which shows the lobbying group’s spending on their nine favorite Senators broken down by direct campaign contributions, independent spending (PACs and other groups), and independent spending against their opponents. For details, move your mouse over the parts of the chart that interest you. As the small and barely-visible slivers of blue show, the NRA pays very little in direct campaign contributions.

The lion’s share of the direct and indirect contributions from the NRA — a total of $22,596,399 — went to just nine senators:

Mitch McConnell (R-KY): $1,262,189

Roy Blunt (R-MO): $1,433,952

Pat Roberts (R-KS): $1,584,153

Tom Cotton (R-AR): $1,968,714

David Perdue (R-GA): $1,997,512

Bill Cassidy (R-LA): $2,867,074

Joni Ernst (R-IA): $3,124,773

Cory Gardner (R-CO): $3,939,199

Thom Tillis (R-NC): $4,418,833

Surprise! More Guns Does NOT Mean More Safety

(Cartoon image is by Steve Sack in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.)

For years now, the NRA has preached that the solution to gun violence is to let more Americans carry guns. It's a silly and dangerous idea, and it's a lie. Now there is proof that more guns means a more dangerous society. Consider this great article by Amanda Marcotte at Salon.com (much of which is posted below):

One of the most contentious arguments within the larger gun control debate is over whether right-to-carry laws that make it legal for gun owners to carry loaded weapons in public, usually concealed on their person, make people safer. Gun rights advocates argue that packing heat is a prevention against crime and violence, invoking slogans like, "An armed society is a polite society." Gun control proponents, however, argue that a proliferation of loaded weapons is bound to lead to more violence, if only because people have easier access to the means to harm others.

John Donohue, a legal researcher who works for Stanford Law School, has been working on this question for the better part of two decades. "Turns out it’s a tricky question to answer through statistical means," he told Salon. But now "this data [has] become complete enough, and some of the new statistical techniques have been implemented," he continued.

The correlation between the passage of right-to-carry or RTC laws and violent crime has long been documented, Donohue explained, but as anyone with even the most basic knowledge of statistics understands, correlation is not causation. Now, with a combination of sophisticated statistical analysis techniques, Donohue and his team believe they have been able to document a causal relationship.

"Ten years after the adoption of RTC laws, violent crime is estimated to be 13-15 percent higher than it would have been without the RTC law," explains the paper, published at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

There are a number of different reasons why violence has apparently increased under right-to-carry laws, which is why the negative effects of these laws tend to be compounded over time.

“The most obvious problem is people get into disputes that, without guns, would at the most lead to a bloody nose," Donohue explained. If one or both parties are carrying guns, such conflicts "can now lead to death." . . .

While impulsive violence is an issue, Donohue said, perhaps the bigger problem is that  "when you start carrying guns, you make them much more likely to be stolen," which means that right-to-carry laws offer a steady supply of guns to people who are already inclined to commit crimes. 

"American gun owners, preoccupied with self-defense, are inadvertently arming the very criminals they fear," explained Brian Freskos at The Trace, kicking off his November investigative report on the way stolen guns have become a major component of the gun crime problem.

More than 237,000 guns were stolen from legal gun owners in 2016 alone, though Freskos believes that is a drastic underestimate, as many gun owners never report thefts to the police. One reason gun theft is so common is because right-to-carry laws and NRA propaganda encourage gun owners to have their firearms accessible at all times: in their cars, in their homes or on their person. If people kept guns locked up (as responsible firearms owners did for generations), this problem largely wouldn't exist. But when guns are on coffee tables, in glove compartments or carried in holsters, they become easy targets for thieves. Reliable estimates suggest as many as 3.5 million stolen guns have entered the black market over the past decade.

The gun industry profits from all those stolen guns, since many people who have a gun stolen are back in the store the next day, buying a replacement. So the NRA has every incentive to encourage people to carry guns or otherwise store them in places there they can easily be stolen. That ends up boosting profits for manufacturers, whom the NRA represents first and foremost. . . .

The reality is that carrying guns may make people feel safer, but all the available evidence suggests that it makes society less safe. Having guns everywhere makes lethal violence more likely, and also has a psychological effect, making it seem more socially acceptable — desirable, even — to resolve conflicts with violence instead of diplomacy. 

Will Congress Act After Las Vegas Massacre? NO!

The shooter in Las Vegas shot nearly 600 people (killing nearly 5 dozen of them) in less than 10 minutes. He could do this because he had several assault rifles that he had modified with "bump-stocks" (which allow the weapon to shoot similar to an automatic weapon -- a machine gun).

It is not a violation of the Second Amendment to outlaw automatic weapons, and they have been outlawed. But the gun manufacturers have found a way around the law. The bump-stock doesn't actually turn the assault rifle into an automatic weapon -- it just makes it act like one. That may sound like a technicality, but it allowed those devices to be sold legally.

After Las Vegas, several members of Congress started talking about outlawing devices like the bump-stock that allow assault rifles to mimic the action of an automatic machine gun. Unfortunately, that was just talk -- and it now looks like nothing at all will be done.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (pictured) has come out against congressional action. He says it would be more appropriate for the ATF to consider outlawing the bump-stock. He's taking his marching orders from the NRA, which has also said Congress should not act, but the ATF should "review" the rules allowing the bump-stock.

Of course, the ATF reviewed the device back in 2010 and declared it legal. They said they could not outlaw it because it wasn't a firearm, and didn't actually turn the weapon into a real automatic weapon. Only a fool would think they will not change their ruling -- especially since their current boss is Donald Trump (who planted himself firmly in the NRA's pocket during the campaign).

In other words, absolutely nothing is going to be done about gun violence in this country. The ATF won't act, and Congress won't act. It doesn't seem to matter how many people are killed each year by guns (over 30,000 -- 12,000 of them murdaers), or how many people can be killed in a single incident (58 in Las Vegas). There is no limit to the blood price Congress is willing to tolerate to protect the NRA and the gun manufacturers.

That means it is now legal for any person, without a background check, to purchase one or more weapons and modify them to shoot hundreds of people in just a few minutes. That's sheer insanity. Is this the kind of country you want to live in?

We have Paul Ryan and congressional Republicans to blame for this. They have all shown they don't care for American lives, but only for the profits of the gun manufacturers and the campaign donations of the NRA. How long are we going to tolerate this?