Nothing to see here…move along . . . Don’t blame the left for violence in America
Right-wing violence, whether it’s officially condoned or not, helps to advance the reactionary agenda of intimidating and silencing the oppressed. This is obvious from the growing mobilizations of the far right in the Trump era, which have often come in liberal strongholds like Berkeley, California. Violence is a tried-and-true tactic of the right wing to keep opponents quiet.
By contrast, if Hodgkinson’s attack was motivated by opposition to the right–something that hasn’t been proven conclusively, though the media leapt to that conclusion–the effect won’t be to silence or marginalize the Republican Party.
The exact opposite is true: Trump and the Republicans will gain support for strengthening the forces of government repression–and the far right will be able to advance its false claim of needing to arm itself in “self-defense.”
Thank goodness for small favors . . . Caitlyn Jenner on congressional baseball tragedy: ‘Liberals can’t even shoot straight’
“There are crazy people. We have to minimize that type of stuff,” the Olympic champion added, reacting to the shooting that targeted a Republican practice for the annual congressional baseball game on Wednesday, hospitalizing five people, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise who remains in critical condition.
“As far as the people that were injured, it’s an absolute shame. You just want them to recover,” Jenner continued. “Fortunately the guy was a really bad shot… liberals can’t even shoot straight.”
They’re probably worrying about advancing gun rights, not the actions of one cop in Minnesota . . . After the Castile Verdict, Some Ask: Where is The NRA?
Castile was in a car that was pulled over by Yanez for a broken tail light, and he told the officer he had a gun on him and a license to carry. The officer shot Castile to death as he allegedly was reaching for his wallet, which was near the gun he carried. His girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, the driver in the car along with her 4-year-old daughter, live-streamed the aftermath to Facebook.
The National Rifle Association, this country’s most vocal gun rights group, has been relatively silent in the wake of Castile’s, shooting which has drawn attention to the unique set of circumstances faced by licensed and legally armed black Americans.
You don’t say . . . A national amnesty will not rid Australia of violent gun crime
We also know from international studies that criminals are resourceful and highly adaptable. When one source of firearm supply closes off, they typically have networks enabling them to switch to alternative sources.
This is part of the reason why tackling criminal possession of firearms is so challenging. And when we think about the drivers of demand for illegal guns as well as supply, responding becomes even more difficult.
This is why it is disappointing that Australian thinking follows such predictable, well-trodden paths. It seems politicians and bureaucrats tasked with developing firearm policies have little interest in new, innovative, and evidence-based responses to complex problems, and would rather just do more of what they have been doing for decades.
The term “trigger trash” is used by the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to describe any item left on public land as the result of target shooting. I began collecting these objects while working on a gun-centric photographic project titled Nobody Wanted, as I was both intrigued by their visual and descriptive qualities and repelled by their presence within the landscape.
In Eastern Idaho, recreational shooting is permissible on public land, but it is illegal to leave behind any targets, shrapnel, or debris. Twenty minutes west of where I currently reside, 4.5 million acres of sagebrush-covered desert are overseen by a small BLM field office. Since there are only a few individuals responsible for such a large expanse of land, litter-covered shooting sites are frightfully common. I question if this disregard for the environment is rooted in ignorance, a misperception of one’s rights to public land use, or a rebellious attitude toward the federal government and its responsibility for managing these places.
Regardless of motive, this behavior casts a poor light on those who use these areas for target shooting. Local community members regularly organize cleanup activities to keep excessive amounts of trash at bay, but it inevitably returns over time.
Four rules…and you have to break at least two of them for something really bad to happen . . . Man who shot 10-year-old boy during Staten Island family gathering didn’t know gun was loaded: lawyer
A man who accidentally shot a 10-year-old boy in the shoulder during a family gathering in Staten Island had no idea the gun was loaded, his lawyer said Sunday.
Semion Mosheshvili, 42, was handling the gun in the upstairs bedroom of the house on Deisius St. near Prall Ave. in Huguenot on Saturday night when the Hewlett, L.I., man accidentally squeezed off a round, his lawyer, Arthur Gershfeld, told the Daily News.
Newsweek blames the United States for Norwegian spree killing, like Chicago blames Indiana for its “gun violence” . . . HOW DOES U.S. GUN CONTROL COMPARE TO THE REST OF THE WORLD?
Norway has strong gun control and committed humane values, but that didn’t prevent Anders Breivik from opening fire on a youth camp on the island of Utoya in 2011. His clean criminal record and hunting license had allowed him to secure semiautomatic rifles, but Norway restricted his ability to get high-capacity clips for them. In his manifesto, Breivik wrote about his attempts to legally buy weapons, stating, “I envy our European American brothers as the gun laws in Europe sucks ass in comparison.”
In fact, in the same manifesto, Breivik wrote that it was from a U.S. supplier that he purchased—and had mailed to him—ten 30-round ammunition magazines for the rifle he used in his attack.
In other words, even if a particular nation or state chooses to make it harder for some would-be killers to get their weapons, their efforts can be undercut by the jurisdictions that hold out for them. In the U.S., of course, state gun-control measures are often thwarted by the lax attitude to gun acquisition in other states.
What could possibly go wrong?
