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The NRA’s Dana Loesch and Marco Rubio: Genuine ‘Insane Monsters’

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By Mark Sumner / Daily Kos

On Wednesday night CNN had a Townhall-style debate in which NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch appeared to scowl at grieving parents and prove once and for all that the organization she represented was exactly as awful as it seems. No matter what approach was made, no matter how much either logic or grief was brought to bear, Loesch refused to consider anything that would put any limits on the sale of any weapons system whatsoever.

Loesch’s guns-at-any-cost whoppers hit a nadir when she responded to a comment that the Second Amendment was written at a time when firearms consisted of muskets by claiming that the Revolutionary War period was far more advanced than people believe:

“At the time there were fully-automatic firearms that were available, the Belton gun and the Puckle gun.”

  [Read more…]

Parkland Survivor Sam Zeif: We Are Going To Win This Fight | Video Worth Watching

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Parkland Survivor Sam Zeif speaks with MSNBC’s Brian Williams on the 11th Hour. “You don’t walk around at night with an AR to feel safe. You walk around at night with an AR to kill people. In this case, the day—2:25 pm, February 14th, 2018.” Sam just turned eighteen. Do you think he’ll be voting in the next election?   [Read more…]

White House Listening Session on School Shootings: ‘Just make it stop! We should have fixed it!’

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What does “it” mean?

It was hard listening to the remarks today from Parkland students who survived a school shooting a mere week ago; it was devastating listening to the father of one of those students who was murdered tell us that he visits his daughter in the cemetery now. It was also a heart crushing rebuke to hear from parents who had lost a child at Columbine (19 years ago) and Sandy Hook Elementary (5 years ago).

When everyone who wanted to speak was heard, Trump asked if there were any recommendations about what should be done. An adult (who was that guy?) was ready to jump in with a solution—more guns! Arm the cafeteria worker, volunteers or guidance counselors if teachers didn’t warm to the idea.   [Read more…]

In America, Must Job Descriptions for Teachers Now Include How to Handle Mass Murder? | Video Worth Watching

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Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC’s The Last Word, notes that “The families of American soldiers killed in battle get $100,000. American teachers killed in massacres in schools just get their names taken off the payroll.”   [Read more…]

How Republicans Stole the Second Amendment

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By Rebecca Pilar Buckwalter Poza  / Daily Kos

Republicans stole the Second Amendment. Over the course of 30 years, the right waged a war on political, legal, and academic fronts to redefine that amendment, contrary to history, text, and precedent, as creating an individual right to bear arms. Of course, none of those efforts, nor their aggregate effect, would have been enough to accomplish the right’s aims without a far-right ideologue on the Supreme Court, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, to codify them.

The right’s misappropriation of the Second Amendment ranks among the most stunning legal feats in U.S. history.   [Read more…]

‘Our Community Just Took 17 Bullets to the Heart’ | Video Worth Watching

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Here’s another student voice from the Parkland, Florida, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, site of the February 14th mass shooting. Cameron Kasky speaks with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “Our community just took 17 bullets to the heart.”   [Read more…]

A Spring of Student Protest Aimed at Gun Violence

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At least three national protests are being organized in the wake of the Valentine’s Day killings in Parkland, Florida. Each is different in scope and substance, and all deserve support. And, no, three protests is not too many.

  • The Enough Walkout is a 17-minute protest scheduled for March 14.
  • March for Our Lives involves March 24 protests in Washington DC and cities around the United States.
  • The National School Walkout is a national student strike planned for April 20th.

  [Read more…]

Parkland, Florida High School Student Emma Gonzalez at Rally After Mass Shooting Calls BS | Video Worth Watching

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Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Emma Gonzalez:

“Just like Tinker v. Des Moines, we are going to change the law. That’s going to be Marjory Stoneman Douglas in that textbook and it’s going to be due to the tireless effort of the school board, the faculty members, the family members and most of all the students. The students who are dead, the students still in the hospital, the student now suffering PTSD, the students who had panic attacks during the vigil because the helicopters would not leave us alone, hovering over the school for 24 hours a day.”

  [Read more…]

Melt the Guns – XTC | Video Worth Watching

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Sometimes when words fail, music must speak. Here’s a number from 1982 by the English band XTC: Melt the Guns.   [Read more…]

Coming to a School Near You | Readers Write

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Who among us is not complicit?

Once again, a deadly weapon found its way into hands of some “unqualified” person, and it has been an instrument of chaos and carnage.

It’s the result of:

– an out-of-control industry;

– many sources of distribution;

– a fraternity;

– the NRA — which long ago abdicated its original purpose —

– owners who will not own up to being invested in the problem at some level;

– greedy, cowardly, unprincipled politicians of every office being on the take;

– and many of the rest of us who have sat on our hands and could not or would not organize to stop the mayhem we witness daily.

What do we wait for?   [Read more…]

The Day School Shootings Became the Norm

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SDFP Flashback: On this 5th anniversary of Sandy Hook, we are reposting this article by editor Annie Lane. It’s still relevant three years later.

By Annie Lane

The 1999 Columbine High School shooting jolted me. I was 15 at the time. That is, I was still immortal and arrogant in the way that only a teen can be. Despite this, I remember being jolted by the violence of it, and the permanence. The kids killed were my age; they were essentially moments away from entering into the adult world, however unprepared, just like me.

The black-and-white cafeteria footage that ran on a seemingly endless loop across news stations nationwide was spell-binding. It was simultaneously real while perfectly mimicking Hollywood violence – or was it the other way around?   [Read more…]

When Is It a Good Time to Talk About Gun Safety? The Sandy Hook Elementary School Mass Shooting – Five Years and Counting … | Video Worth Watching

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Today is the 5th anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting. So, is today a good time to talk about gun policy? Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) interviewed on CBSN: “We have to be talking about policy change every single day in this country or we’ll never end up doing anything about the 90 people a day who die.”

Vox.com has a site which tracks gun violence and mass shootings since Sandy Hook. The site includes an interactive map displaying the dates and locations of mass shootings since Sandy Hook.   [Read more…]

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