Showing posts with label Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV). Show all posts

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

WRITING CONGRESS A WASTE OF TIME

On the recommendation of Josh Horwitz, Exec. Dir. of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence I wrote to my congressman, Paul Gosar, a Republican, to let him know I favor reasonable gun control. He let me know that the 2nd Amendment was something he revered and compared it with the right to trial by jury. It's the same old sanctimonious bullshit that's been coming out of most Republicans for years. Gosar is firmly supported by the Tea Party, which should tell you something about the man right there. But my reasoning for not wasting your time writing these eight balls is that they never answer you. I stated simply to Gosar that I couldn't see how anyone could oppose background checks to purchase a gun. I also asked him to fight for a federal database of the mentally ill to support those background checks. He didn't mention either in his five paragraph reply, only canned crap that had probably been dictated by wacky Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA).

So, Arizonans, don't vote for Paul Gosar in November. Vote for Democrat Mickel Weisser.


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Arizona gun nuts or…bring on the clowns


When you live in the state of Arizona and regularly experience the insanity of a Republican state legislature led by a correspondingly moonstruck governor, it is hard to reconcile that these apparently unbalanced individuals are running your state.  I grew up in the South and went through the States’ Rights movement and actually participated in a Dixiecrat rally in 1948.  I thought these people were crazy then, and I think the states’ rights fanatics in Arizona are equally insane.  And there are many who will agree with me.


Arizona State Legislature at work
The Blog For Arizona chides Arizona’s citizenry of gun nuts in attempting to pass legislation to close the loophole in allowing law enforcement to destroy guns not wanted by their owners by saying, “They seek to make the secular sacred by force of state law. In doing so they seek to use the power of "Big Brother" government to trample the rights of individuals to do with their private property as they see fit, which these groups comically pretend to defend.”  BFA asks if Arizona is on the verge of making “idolatrous gun worship the state religion?”

I thought it already was.

“These people are truly insane,” says the BFA, quoting Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik as follows:

"This bill clearly illustrates that some people don't view guns like toasters. When it comes to guns, it's as though they hold some magical or sacred designation in their lives," Kozachik said. "They go around proclaiming to be for private property, but civil liberties are out the window when it comes to guns. I guess the message is, we can't do what we want with our property in this state if that property is a firearm."

Then another state legislative lunatic, Rep. Steve Smith, a Republican naturally, wants to make it illegal for any public servant to enforce "any act, law, statute, rule or regulation'' of the federal government relating to personal firearms or accessories as long as they remain inside Arizona.  The problem with this, as even confirmed by a National Rifle Assn. (NRA) board member, is that it is putting federally licensed firearms dealers smack in the middle of a fight between the loonies in Arizona and the federal government.  If passed, will probably end up in a court battle.

But it took Bloomberg to change Arizona’s designation from Valley of the Sun to “Valley of the Gun.”  Arizona leads the nation in licensees to manufacture firearms.  Add that to the loosest gun laws in the U.S. and you have a potential powder keg.  They are calling it the “Insurrectionist Ideology,” which is what the current gun culture is all about.  Bloomberg quotes one of the top gun control advocates today:

“It plays into this insurrectionist ideology that is at the core of the gun-rights movement: If the government is going to shackle me, I’ll become my own gunmaker, my own gun dealer,” said Ladd Everitt, communications director for the Washington-based Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “There has been a really strong resurgence in this type of mentality that started when Obama was elected president.”

 Bloomberg calls this country an “American Arsenal,” and rightfully so considering the approximately 300 million firearms owned by U.S. citizens which breaks down to an average of about 2.5 guns per household.  However, since the concentration of gun ownership is confined to one-third of all households, the family arsenal is even bigger.  Additional alarming figures are 10.8 million guns were sold in 2011, and in just January of 2013, there were 2,495,440 FBI NCIS background checks, the prelude to gun ownership.

And if you remember Tea Party-backed State Sen. Ron Gould, the head Arizona gun worshipper who ran for Congress and lost, well another crackpot gun nut has taken his place in the name of Sen. Kelli Ward, who mirrors Smith’s legislation, above, in the Senate.  In many other states in this country these people would be labeled certifiable and committed.  Ward’s legislation goes so far that Blog For Arizona says she would change the 2nd Amendment as follows:

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Wayne LaPierre, the head gun worshipper at the NRA, would be proud of her.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

We have a new standard bearer for gun control…Gabrielle Giffords

Gabby Giffords is the former Arizona U.S. Representative who was shot by Jared Loughner along with 18 others, 6 of which died, at a public meeting in a Tucson supermarket parking lot in January of 2011.  Giffords has been going through a very slow recuperation process with the help of her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly.  She and Kelly decided to announce a new gun control movement on the second anniversary of the shooting.


Gabby Giffords/Mark Kelly

Their new organization, Americans for Responsible Solutions, hopes to launch “a new era in the battle over gun rights in America.”  In a USA op-ed, the two were very clear about their goal: “to counter the influence of the gun lobby.”  I interpret this as saying that Giffords and Kelly will spell out just how bad Wayne LaPierre and the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) have been misrepresenting the gun rights issue for years.  It’s time to shove it down their throats.

Giffords and Kelly’s efforts will add further support to organizations like the Brady Campaign and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.  It was reported that the NRA spent over $24 million in the 2012 election to elect gun rights candidates and defeat gun control candidates.  In comparison, the Brady campaign spent $5,800.  ARS hopes to balance this with financial support that will take the fear out of politicians who have been intimidated by the NRA.

Here’s a quote from Giffords and Kelly:

"Rather than working to find the balance between our rights and the regulation of a dangerous product, these groups have cast simple protections for our communities as existential threats to individual liberties. Rather than conducting a dialogue, they threaten those who divert from their orthodoxy with political extinction."

This is a clear signal aimed at the gun rights groups, particularly LaPierre’s NRA, that they can no longer hide behind the 2nd Amendment and the absolutist position they claim for guns by the Constitution.  It ain’t valid so quit insulting the gun control advocacy with this ridiculous argument and start negotiating like most rational human beings do.  LaPierre can start by ceasing the threats regularly hurled at Congress if they don’t vote the NRA way.

Wacky Wayne has made it clear that to solve the gun violence problem he wants more guns, not less.  He said, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."  Kelly sees this different.  When Giffords was shot, a “good guy” came out of a store next door to the Safeway and almost shot the man who took down Jared Loughner.  In Arizona, gun owners are not required to have any training to own and use firearms.

To illustrate the extremism of the gun rights movement, Councilman Steve Kozachik held a “Cash for Guns” buy-back outside a Tucson police station.  Nearby, Arizona Republican State Sen. Frank Antenori held an unregulated and legal marketplace to buy guns.  Kozachik said, "We have a fundamental hole in the private sales of guns. You can walk up right in front of a cop and buy a gun, no background check, nothing."  Only in Arizona.

Kozachik said that he had been receiving threats by phone and emails trying to shut the gun buy-back down.  Antenori’s concern was that the $50 offered per gun was too small, “it amounted to theft.”  And then Todd Rathner, an Arizona lobbyist and national NRA board member threatened to sue because he thought it was illegal for police to destroy the guns.  Both Antenori and Todd are but two of a gang of Arizona gun nuts that have made the state a national laughing stock.

And now Vice President Joe Biden, placed in charge by the President of getting gun control legislation passed, is saying that Obama is exploring executive privilege to stop the gun violence.  More on this later.  But the Giffords/Kelly movement couldn’t come at a better time and will certainly be welcomed by all gun control advocates.  It’s about time.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Catching up on gun nonsense and pandemonium

Ted Nugent
Back in April, out-of-date rocker Ted Nugent threatened President Obama and promptly received a visit from the Secret Service.  Nugent is a celebrity—although some question that status—gun nut that reminds me of the lunatic Charlton Heston in his famous tirade waving a musket over his head.  It seems that the NRA is constantly recruiting has-beens that are really not that good anymore at their day job.  Nugent is a NRA board member.


Wacky Wayne LaPierre
Josh Horwitz of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence says that although National Rifle Assn. (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre wants us to believe gun guys make the rules, the Founding Fathers “ratified the Constitution to obviate the need for political violence.”  What wacky Wayne and his lackeys have turned this into is a drive to put guns in the hands of anyone who wants them and allow them to carry their weapons anywhere they want.  This keeps gun nuts like Nugent happy.


James Holmes

Along the lines of unrestricted gun power, there is the fact that the purchase of ammunition online is essentially unregulated.  Firearms cannot be bought online except, of course, in Arizona.  But ammunition can be ordered online and shipped to the buyer’s address.  James Holmes, who killed 12 and injured 58 in the Aurora, Colo. movie shooting, purchased 6,000 rounds of ammunition online.  If regulated, this purchase would have certainly alerted police.

Arizona is one of the few states allowing the purchase of guns over the Internet, although they do restrict the sale of tobacco products.  KPHO CBS5 in Phoenix says, “Policy makers in Arizona can now rest easier, knowing that while no one is purchasing tobacco over the internet, every convicted felon and his brother can purchase guns online to kill or maim their local Congressman.”  The latter refers to the severe wounding of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in Tucson.

Back in August after the recent rash of gun massacres had died down, A CNN poll was taken finding that 50% of respondents favor no or minimum restrictions on gun ownership compared to 48% for major restrictions.  But 96% favor background checks and 91% support laws that will prevent felons or the mentally ill from buying guns.  That’s a start and if we added closing the gun show loophole and banning assault weapons we are on the way to gun sanity.

I base my opinion, above, on another CNN report on gun statistics in America:









CSGV asked National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) General Counsel Larry Keane if he felt that individual Americans had a right to shoot and kill government officials in response to what they personally perceived as ‘”tyranny,” Keane tweeted back at us plaintively, “Just like the Jews in the ghettos of Warsaw? The South Sudanese? Kurds? The American colonists?”  That pretty much says it all for the gun nuts.

Monday, July 16, 2012

June U.S. Shooting Report numbers soar

Although I have changed the formula in counting shootings—it is now one shooting for each death or wounded to conform with Brady campaign protocol—the total number has climbed to more than 4-times the May figure.  June was a startling 361 to 90 in May.  Prior to this, if three people were shot in the same incident, it was counted as one shooting.  Once again, these numbers are taken direct from qualified news reports throughout the country.

But the number of dead and wounded from shootings is even worse, considering the sizable increases.  In May there were 69 people killed as a result of a shooting compared to 128 in June.  That is an 85.5% increase.  These are folks their family or friends will never see again…all because of a gun.  Also in May, there were 131 woundings from shootings, compared to 233 in June.  That is a 77.9% increase.  And some of these may have died by now.

I keep saying this but it is still beyond me why lawmakers, and the White House, haven’t taken action to do something about this crisis.  They do have something of an excuse—which is really inexcusable—with the coming November elections.  But the major gun control advocates have absolutely no excuse for not jumping on these numbers to point out the need for immediate action to stop gun violence.  This report can’t be the only source of data; if it is, the situation is worse than any of us thought.

Once again, let me encourage any of you who know of shootings I have missed in this or future reports to let me know through comments and I will post an update.

Here are the June numbers by date and location, broken down by shootings, dead and wounded.  This is in a Word compatible Excel format which I hope to have converted to HTML soon so that all months will be available, and the file will be interactive.


DATECITY/STATE               SHOOTINGS                 DEAD                  WOUNDED
6/1/2012Phoenix, AZ550
6/1/2012Tucson, AZ101
6/1/2012Miami, FL211
6/2/2012Phoenix, AZ110
6/2/2012Brooklyn, NY211
6/2/2012Clarksdale, MS101
6/2/2012Vallejo, CA413
6/2-6/5/2012Baltimore, MD1046
6/3/2012El Mirage, AZ211
6/3/2012Miami, FL220
6/3/2012Phoenix, AZ202
6/4/2012Surprise, AZ211
6/4/2012Los Angeles, CA211
6/4/2012Springfield, MA220
6/4/2012Little Mexico, TX110
6/4/2012Phoenix, AZ220
6/5/2012Fresno, CA413
6/6/2012Chicago, IL312
6/7/2012Stone Mountain, GA220
6/7/2012New York, NY330
6/8/2012Belle Glade, FL202
6/8/2012Cobb County, GA110
6/8-6/9/2012Hartford, CT1129
6/9/2012Auburn, AL431
6/9/2012Sacramento, CA440
6/9/2012Glasgow, MT101
6/9/2012Selma, CA550
6/9/2012Rochester, NY312
6/9-6/11/2012Mount Vernon, NY202
6/10/2012Hartford, CT312
6/10/2012Corpus Christi, TX202
6/10/2012Goldsboro, NC404
6/11/2012Louisville, KY211
6/11/2012West Palm Beach, FL110
6/11/2012Baltimore, MD505
6/11-6/12/2012Chicago, IL725
6/12/2012Tucson, AZ110
6/12/2012Providence, RI110
6/13/2012Kansas City, MO211
6/13/2012Buffalo, NY110
6/13/2012Buffalo, NY110
6/13/2012San Francisco, CA422
6/13/2012Bakersfiels, CA202
6/13/2012Chicago, IL220
6/14/2012Orlando, FL220
6/14/2012Phoenix, AZ110
6/15/2012Phoenix, AZ110
6/15-6/17/2012Chicago, IL31526
6/15/2012St. Louis, MO725
6/15-6/16/2012Hamden, CT101
6/15-6/17/2012Chicago, IL42735
6/16/2012Baltimore, MD202
6/16/2012Phoenix, AZ404
6/16-6/17/2012Camden, NJ220
6/17/2012Paterson, NJ303
6/17/2012Indianapolis, IN220
6/17/2012Anchorage, AK312
6/17/2012Phoenix, AZ101
6/17/2012Anniston, AL101
6/18/2012New Orleans, LA202
6/18/2012Pensacola, FL202
6/18/2012Manatee, FL202
6/19/2012Chicago, IL220
6/19/2012Chicago, IL101
6/19/2012McAllen, TX330
6/19/2012New Orleans, LA312
6/20/2012Edinburg, TX422
6/20/2012Houston, TX532
6/21-6/26/2012Flint, MI1064
6/22/2012Buffalo, NY202
6/24/2012Trenton, NJ211
6/22/2012Phoenix, AZ303
6/22/2012Ionia, MI312
6/22/2012Richmond, CA211
6/22-6/23/2012Chicago, IL14113
6/23/2012Beverly Hills, CA220
6/23/2012Rockford, IL404
6/23/2012Phoenix, AZ101
6/23/2012Albany, GA303
6/23/2012No. Las Vegas, NV202
6/23/2012Anchorage, AK202
6/23/2012Atlanta, GA220
6/23/2012Portland, TX211
6/23-6/24/2012Salinas, CA312
6/24/2012Louisville, KY615
6/24/2012Denver, CO110
6/24/2012Chicago, IL211
6/24/2012St. Louis, MO202
6/25/2012West Houston, TX220
6/26/2012Tucson, TX101
6/26/2012East Orange, NJ220
6/26/2012Miami, FL220
6/26/2012Memphis, TN101
6/26/2012Evansville, IN303
6/27/2012Las Vegas, NV211
6/27/2012Chicago, IL211
6/28/2012Fayetteville, NC321
6/28/2012SE Washington, DC303
6/28/2012Newport News, VA312
6/28/2012Houston, TX514
6/29/2012Chicago, IL404
6/29/2012Essex County, NJ220
6/30/2012San Jose Hills, CA202
6/30 12Winterhaven, CA202
6/30/2012Chicago, IL312
TOTALS361128233

See March, April, May reports.

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