The Luigi Mangione shooting will set gun control back 20 years

Guns on the street

Gun control activists have said for years that guns are too accessible; they are easily available on the street. There are over 500 million guns in circulation today, which is roughly 1.5 firearms per person. This makes the US the country with the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world. This is why we have already had 16,002 gun deaths and 30,441 injuries according to Gun Violence Archive. There have been 487 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2004. And now new technology has given us the ghost gun.

Everytown reports the ATF estimates that more than 70,700 suspected privately made firearms (i.e., ghost guns) were recovered by law enforcement between 2016 and 2022. They are easy to make with the parts readily available from over 100 companies, but the feds have enacted regulations requiring identification on these weapons and their parts. My point here is that Luigi Mangione used a ghost gun to kill UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, through new technical knowledge, something occurring regularly today.

Mangione also used a silencer, which provided him a cover so that he could easily escape.

Luigi Mangione

The combination of all these factors is clear evidence that current gun laws are inadequate. It is my opinion that we should start over at the federal level and impose the kind of measures that fit today's needs. It is time that hard core gun rights states understand that it is, in fact, the gun that kills...because there are so many of them available. I find it impossible to understand how these people cannot read facts and understand the situation.

Just yesterday there was another school shooting where a student and teacher were killed, six other students wounded. It was the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, WI, and the shooter, a teenage student, is also dead. CNN reports on school shootings...

"There have been at least 83 school shootings in the United States so far this year, as of December 16. Twenty-seven were on college campuses, and 56 were on K-12 school grounds. The incidents left 38 people dead and at least 115 other victims injured..."

The Brady report says Americans are 25 times more likely to be shot and killed than others in high income countries. Every day 327 people are shot in the U.S.; 117 will die. Every day 23 minors are shot in the U.S. There is much more in this Brady report that I suggest you look at and understand gun violence won't go away until something permanent and emphatic is done about it. From Luigi Mangione to Madison, WI, there is a message to the American public. In reality it is both guns and people who kill. Let's stop it today!

UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty's arrogance is unconscionable

Andrew Witty

Brian Thompson, former CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was shot and killed just over a week ago, supposedly due to the company's miserable response to the needs of their policyholders. And then a pretentious UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty in a New York Times op-ed last Friday...

"attempted to deflect his insurance network’s responsibility in the growing inequity in America’s health care system, vaguely pointing to a 'patchwork' of failures decades in the making while swearing that his corporate network—which reported $22 billion in profits in 2023 alone, nearly three times the figure reported by CVS, the second-most-profitable health insurance company that year—was consistently fighting to 'deliver high-quality care and lower costs.'"

In reference to Witty's point, "was consistently fighting to 'deliver high-quality care and lower costs," I pointed out in yesterday's blog that UnitedHealthcare has a 32% denial rate compared to an industry average of 16%. And, as an example, UnitedHealthcare's rates in Massachusetts are $251 monthly compared to Blue Cross $212. These facts are hardly in the best interest of Witty's company's policyholders. There were 2500 comments in hours temporarily shutting down the comments section. Here's the scenario...

"Users shared their own horrible experiences [in the comments] with the health insurance industry, deriding Witty’s vapid analysis as a “self-serving essay” that did nothing to address UnitedHealthcare’s role in a system that prioritizes shareholder profits over successful medical outcomes for its clients."

ProPublica, one of the leaders in investigative journalism reports that, " UnitedHealth Is Strategically Limiting Access to Critical Treatment for Kids With Autism." There's more...

"Leaked internal documents show that the insurance giant is culling providers of applied behavior analysis from its network and scrutinizing the medical necessity of therapy. Advocates say the company’s strategy may be illegal."

AOC claims denied healthcare
is an act of violence

This "is the story about Sharelle Menard and her son, Benji, from Louisiana, who was diagnosed with severe autism at age three. Benji, who is now 10, requires 33 hours of weekly therapy to prevent the "screaming, and screaming, and screaming," prevalent before the medication, according to his mother. UnitedHealthcare, has begun denying him the hours he requires to maintain his progress. ProPublica says,,,

Inside the insurance conglomerate, the nation’s largest and most profitable, the slashing of care to children like Benji does have a reason, though it has little to do with their needs. It is part of a secret internal cost-cutting campaign that targets a growing financial burden for the company: the treatment of thousands of children with autism across the country."

The company has acknowledged "that the therapy, called applied behavior analysis, is the 'evidence-based gold standard treatment for those with medically necessary needs.'" The problem, however, is cost and now UnitedHealthcare is “'pursuing market-specific action plans' to limit children’s access to the treatment. "ProPublica reports...

Although the company expects to spend about $290 million for ABA therapy within its Medicaid plans this year, even after earnings of $22 billion in net profits last year, they are investing heavily in a plan to save millions by limiting access to such care.

NPR thinks Americans have had it with their country's healthcare. In a recent article, they say, "The fury over the state of U.S. health care isn't going away." Commenting how the U.S, has the most expensive healthcare in the world, the piece goes on to say, UnitedHealthcare has been widely criticized for making health care more expensive and more difficult to access. All of which is the reason for the negative response against Brian Thompson and his company.

Luigi Mangione has been arrested for Thompson's murder, but so far his supporters have raised over $65,000 for his defense. Me thinks we have a problem here and it needs fixing...NOW!

Leaked internal documents show that the insurance giant is culling providers of applied behavior analysis from its network and scrutinizing the medical necessity of therapy. Advocates say the company’s strategy may be illegal.

Leaked internal documents show that the insurance giant is culling providers of applied behavior analysis from its network and scrutinizing the medical necessity of therapy. Advocates say the company’s strategy may be illegal.

UnitedHealth Is Strategically Limiting Access to Critical Treatment for Kids With Autism

UnitedHealth Is Strategically Limiting Access to Critical Treatment for Kids With Autism