California high schoolers write gun control legislation, will introduce it to local government
It can’t possibly any worse than what’s been coming out of Sacramento . . .
The resolution raises the minimum age to purchase a gun from 18 to 25, requires shooting and safety training for gun owners, stops online sales of firearms and closes the gun show loophole for gun purchases.
The students told the newspaper they had to modify the original version of the legislation, which did away with the Second Amendment entirely, in order to gain more support from the community.
“We can’t just satisfy one side, like politicians who oppose gun control and take big campaign donations from the National Rifle Association,” student Alejandro Salazar said.
How Corporate America Waded Into the Gun Control Debate
Mostly blindly and impulsively . . .
In the wake of a mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school in February, a social media movement sought boycotts of companies that offered discounts to members of the National Rifle Association. A slew of companies cut ties with the group. Institutional investors were also pressured to engage with the publicly traded firearms manufacturers they invest in, and retailers were encouraged to change their firearms sales policies.
“In addition to the concrete actions corporations are taking to reform their own policies or require more accountability from the gun industry, some businesses are taking extra steps and putting pressure on Congress to pass meaningful gun reforms,” the report found, citing action by Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc., Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., Kroger Co. and L.L. Bean Inc. “Companies that provide services to gun makers and sellers—like bankers, accountants, and lawyers—as well as institutional shareholders, can help save lives in America by requiring that their gun clients adhere to commonsense policies.”
Will Dick’s Sporting Goods Be Hurt by a Gun Owners’ Boycott?
Probably not as much as we’d like . . .
The issue Dick’s Sporting Goods investors need to decide is how much sway gun owners have over the rest of its business — firearms sales, and MSR sales in particular, account for only a small part of the chain’s total revenue.
Dick’s operates 716 stores under its name, in addition to the few dozen Field & Stream locations and almost 100 Golf Galaxy specialty stores. MSRs had been relegated to the Field & Stream chain, and analysts estimate that since the broad-based hunting category itself represented only 10% of total sales, the controversial MSRs account for just a tiny percentage of that figure. Shedding them won’t meaningfully impact the company’s business.
Dick’s comparable-store sales fell 2% in the fourth quarter and were down 0.3% for the full year. While it was partly due to weak demand for firearms and other hunting merchandise, it was more because of problems with its relationship with Under Armour. It is Dick’s second best-selling brand behind Nike, accounting for around 12% of total sales.
Housekeeper describes chilling interaction with Las Vegas gunman before massacre
Sounds like the media’s preconceived ideas of every mass shooter ever . . .
A jailed man who gave a statement in November to police and the FBI recalled a man he believed to be Paddock telling him that Federal Emergency Management Agency “camps” set up after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 were “a dry run for law enforcement and military to start kickin’ down doors and … confiscating guns.”
“Somebody has to wake up the American public and get them to arm themselves,” the man said Paddock told him less than a month before the Oct. 1 shooting that killed 58 people and injured hundreds. “Sometimes sacrifices have to be made.”
In a handwritten account, a woman said she overheard a man she later said was Paddock talking with another man at a Las Vegas restaurant just three days before the massacre. She told police that Paddock seemed angry about the 1990s standoffs at Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge in Idaho.
Our Love of Guns Is Often Passed Down from Father to Son
Toxic masculinity at work . . .
Still, I never really thought about my fascination with guns, given America’s sweeping obsession with the object. It leads all nations with 112.6 guns per 100 citizens, per data from the Swiss-led Small Arms Survey and a 2012 congressional report. By the Small Arms Survey’s count in 2007, Americans own roughly half of the 650 million civilian-owned guns in global circulation, and the number has likely increased as imports of handguns and rifles has more than doubled since 2001. Sales are continuing to surge, too, with industry experts noting that 2016 was a record-breaking year for gun sales (2017 ranks second-highest, according to estimates from the FBI).
Unsurprisingly, the swell of sales has been largely powered by men. About three in 10 Americans own a gun, but 62 percent of gun owners are men, according to a 2017 report from the Pew Research Center. The pattern of ownership is a reflection of the deep ties between guns and masculinity, and the metaphors men use to consider their weapon. Critics may joke that a big gun is compensating for dick insecurities, but enthusiasts lean into the idea of a gun as a phallic extension of strength. And beyond that, many men who grew up with a gun view it as a critical link in their transition from boyhood to adulthood, for better and worse.