Showing posts with label Gun violence in USA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gun violence in USA. Show all posts

Thursday, May 7, 2020

LATEST The NRA and gun violence


It is easy to lose sight of the damage guns cause in our society when COVID-19 is wreaking such havoc across the country. But there was a 3% increase in gun deaths in 2019 over 2018, and 2020 has started with 13,674 gun deaths, including 8,382 suicides.

Image result for wayne la pierre nra problems
They're down and probably won't get up
Talking to gun nuts is just as futile as trying to convince an anti-stay at home nut to protect himself or herself and others by observing the lockdown rules. I did a blog post recently on double-digits who fail to acknowledge the severity of a disease that is killing an average of 2,000 daily, just in the U.S. Their response is, "It's only a virus." This corresponds with the gun owner who will protect his weapons, and that is plural, over your right to survive from gun violence.

Here are the stark figures from Gabby Giffords site, Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence: 100 Americans are Killed with Guns Every Day; 36,383 Americans Die from Gun Violence each Year; States with the Highest Gun Death Rates have the Weakest Gun Laws; Americans are 25 Times More Likely to Die from Gun Violence than Residents from Peer Nations; and 51% of suicides in the U.S. Involve a Firearm. There's more and it is pathetic.

Economist on what gun violence looks like in America...


And there is one organization that is always in the forefront to prop up gun violence, at least until recently, the National Rifle Assn. and its head gun nut Wayne LaPierre. pushing constantly for more guns on the streets to please its gun manufacturing supporters. Well, someone has pulled the shade down and the NRA is going down the drain...where it should be. A recent report shows their legal troubles alone have cost the group $100 million. And it's getting worse.

LaPierre was just reelected executive vice president and CEO of the National Rifle Association, just in time to see his gang...
"go from an electoral kingmaker to the edge of financial ruin. He and other NRA executives have urged laid-off employees to seek public assistance benefits. The nation's most prominent pro-gun lobby has lost tens of millions of dollars amid numerous legal woes and investigations that have exposed its questionable financial dealings."
Yet, it gets even better...
"Now, the longtime NRA leader hopes his lawyers can "keep him out of jail," according to previously unreported allegations in court documents in the group's legal battle against its longtime public relations firm, Ackerman McQueen."
Gun owner groups fight to replace NRA...



Life in this country couldn't be better with the complete eradication of the NRA and Wayne LaPierre in jail one year for each death he has caused from gun violence. And I don't think I am alone with this feeling. According to Gallup, 49% have an unfavorable opinion of the National Rifle Assn. But there is another side to the gun violence problem; that's countries who have the common sense to act when they see why it is happening.

The weapon of choice for shooting someone is now the assault rifle. There are around 17 million of these guns in the hands of private American gun owners, and have been used regularly in the execution of mass shootings. In this country so far this year there have been over one-hundred mass shooting, and, yes, the U.S. leads the world in this carnage. Canada, a gun-wise country, has decided to ban assault weapons.

Canada's Trudeau announces assault weapons ban...


The Canadians have regularly come forward to control the gun violence in their country which is the reason it has only a 0.61 death rate per 100,000 population when the U.S. has 4.46. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is quoted in the Washington Post...
"The Canadian government on Friday announced an immediate ban on some 1,500 makes and models of 'military-grade' assault weapons, including two models used by the gunman who killed 22 people last month in rural Nova Scotia during the country’s deadliest mass shooting."
Trudeau said...
“These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to kill the largest amount of people in the shortest amount of time.”
He added...
“There is no use — and no place — for such weapons in Canada,” he said. While most firearms owners are responsible, he said, “you don’t need an AR-15 to bring down a deer.”
Canada sits just north of the United States but is millions of miles away when it comes to logical thinking about gun violence. Perhaps with the NRA's huge budget for propaganda gone, leading to its inability to bribe members of Congress with generous donations that have resulted in weak to no guns laws in this country to protect its citizens, well, one might hope for improvement. But many of the gun nuts in Washington will never abandon the 2nd Amendment.

Donald Trump waffles on gun violence...


A USA opinion piece calls attention to "Donald Trump’s vacillating response to repeated acts of carnage that occurred prior to the coronavirus pandemic"...
"In 2018, after meeting with survivors of the Parkland shooting, Trump vowed, 'We're going to be very strong on background checks.' However, days later, after conferring with his friends and financial supporters at the National Rifle Association, he walked back on that assurance."
There's more...
"The same Trump turnaround occurred in the wake of horrific mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton on successive days last August. The Tweeter-in-Chief typed, 'Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks.' A week later, Trump’s resolve wilted under pressure from the gun lobby, insisting, 'we have very strong background checks right now.'"
It will take a revolt of the people and a clearing of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans to fix this dilemma. But, there is no doubt the more serious problem today is COVID-19, although neither Congress nor the White House maniac seem to be doing anything about this either.



MR. PRESIDENT: If you look frail, if you talk frail, and if you walk frail, you must be frail...

      ...too frail to lead this country for another four years. I know, we all know, what you are afraid of; the lunatic who could win the ...