Judge Endorses Teenage Murder

Last week Federal Judge Robert E. Payne in Richmond, Va., ruled that age requirements on sales of semiautomatic handguns like Glock pistols are unconstitutional, allowing kids as young as 18 years old to buy these weapons and pack heat. Such weapons can fire as many as 15 or 22 rounds without reloading.

This comes at a time when gun violence is the number one cause of death for children and teens.

More:

“Judge in Virginia Strikes Down Federal Limit on Age of Handgun Buyers,” Glenn Thrush, New York Times

“18-to-20-year-olds can’t be barred from buying handguns, judge rules,” Salvador Rizzo, Washington Post

“Children and teens are more likely to die by guns than anything else,” Annette Choi, CNN

“Child and Teen Firearm Mortality in the U.S. and Peer Countries,” Matt McGough, Krutika Amin, Nirmita Panchal, and Cynthia Cox, KFF Global Health Policy

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Supreme Court Requires Blood Sacrifice

The Supreme Court of the United States thinks you should be able to carry a concealed handgun in public just because you think it’s cool and want to feel like a big shot. For over a century, New York had required gun owners to have a reason to carry a concealed weapon. Police issued concealed carry permits to business owners who carry bags of cash to a bank’s night deposit facility, those who had a demonstrable proper cause to be concerned for their personal safety, and so on. Now any dumb schmuck who hasn’t been caught committing a crime — yet — will be enabled to do so, with deadly consequences, thanks to six SCOTUS conservative ideologues. That doesn’t sound like a “well-regulated militia” to us.

What can you expect?

• More gunshot deaths, murders and suicides.
• More civilians killed by police, who will be more likely to assume that anyone they come into contact with is armed with a concealed deadly weapon.

More:

“Supreme Court strikes down New York’s concealed carry gun law,” Oriana Gonzalez, Axios

“U.S. Supreme Court expands gun rights, strikes down New York law,” Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley, Reuters

“Supreme Court strikes N.Y. law, finds right to carry guns outside home,” Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow, Washington Post

“SCOTUS Strikes Down New York Gun Control Law, Expanding Gun Rights In Wake Of Mass Shootings,” Kate Riga, Talking Points Memo 

 

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San Jose Requires Liability Insurance for Gun Owners

On Tuesday, the City Council of San José, California voted to require gun owners to carry liability insurance and pay an annual $25 fee for each weapon they own. The ordinance was drafted last year after a mass shooting at a transit station in the city.

“While the Second Amendment protects every citizen’s right to own a gun, it does not require taxpayers to subsidize that right,” said San José mayor Sam Liccardo in a statement.

U.S. states and DC require automobile drivers to obtain liability insurance or post cash bonds against liability, and motor vehicles, unlike firearms, aren’t even designed to be killing machines. Nowhere does the Second Amendment forbid a well-regulated program to ensure firearms responsiblity.

More:

“San Jose passes first U.S. law requiring gun owners to get liability insurance and pay annual fee,” CBS News

“A city will require gun owners to have liability insurance in an effort to incentivize safety,” Timothy Bella, Washington Post

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Suicide Gunman Kills Nine Americans

A gunman fatally shot nine co-workers in San Jose California on Wednesday before killing himself. According to police, the American firearms enthusiast had two semi-automatic handguns and 11 full magazines of ammunition. The American citizens he shot to death are: Paul Delacruz Megia, 42; Taptejdeep Singh, 36; Adrian Balleza, 29; Jose Dejesus Hernandez III, 35; Timothy Michael Romo, 49; Michael Joseph Rudometkin, 40; Alex Ward Fritch, 49; Abdolvahab Alaghmandan, 63; and Lars Kepler Lane, 63.

So far this year, the United States has experienced 15 mass murders (four or more people killed in each instance) and 232 mass shootings (four or more people injured or killed), and it’s not even Memorial Day.

More:

“Ten dead, including gunman, in San Jose rail yard mass shooting; victims identified,” Hayley Smith, Richard Winton, Maura Dolan, and Leila Miller, Los Angeles Times

“‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens,” The Onion

Updates:

“Heroic San Jose Victim ‘Ran Around Building’ Warning Colleagues to Hide From Shooter,” Jamie Ross, Daily Beast

“Molotov cocktails, guns and 25,000 rounds of ammo found in VTA shooter’s home: sheriff,” KTVU-TV News

“San Jose gunman had cans of gasoline, 22K rounds of ammo at home, officials say: What we know,” Christine Fernando, Christal Hayes, and Grace Hauck, USA Today

“San Jose mourns after deadliest shooting in region’s history: ‘We can’t sweep this under the rug,’” Abené Clayton, The Guardian

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Mass Shooting in Indianapolis Kills 8 People

A gunman murdered eight innocent human beings and injured at least seven others in Indianapolis, Indiana on Thursday before shooting himself dead. This is the third mass shooting in Indianapolis so far this year. Five people, including a pregnant woman, were killed in a January shooting, and three adults and a child were shot to death in March.

Indiana has some of the weakest gun laws in the United States, a country of lax gun safety laws and more guns than people, where there have been 45 gunshot mass murders in the last month, 147 in 2021 to date, more than one every day (details here).

So far in 2021, 12,421 people have been shot to death in the US, including 87 children under 12, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

More:

“‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens,” The Onion

“These are the victims of the Indianapolis FedEx mass shooting,” Fox 59 News

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Second Mass Shooting In a Week

Ten innocent people, including a police officer, were shot to death on Tuesday at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Nine were random shoppers; the officer was responding to reports of the shooting. The murderer, wearing tactical clothing, was armed with an assault-style weapon he bought last week. Also last week: Boulder’s 2018 assault weapons ban was voided by a judge.

This follows a mass shooting in Atlanta last Tuesday, when eight people were murdered by a gunman who bought his high-capacity handgun the same day. Georgia is not among the 14 U.S. jurisdictions with a waiting period for guns purchases, to prevent such impulsive acts of violence.

More:

“‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens,” The Onion

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Gilroy. El Paso. Dayton. How many more?

On Sunday morning, Dayton, Ohio suffered the 251st U.S. mass shooting this year. 9 people were killed and 27 injured. The day before, in a shooting at an El Paso shopping mall, 20 people were killed and 26 injured. The preceding Monday, in Gilroy California, a gunman killed 3 people and injured 15. 3 gunmen perpetrated 32 gunshot homicides and 68 gunshot casualties in one week.

Three people were able to commit that human carnage because they used variants of assault rifles designed for the battlefield and equipped with high-capacity magazines. The gun industry has cynically re-branded these military-style firearms as “modern sporting rifles,” though they are designed to tumble when they hit a target and would shred game animals and blast 6-inch exit holes. That’s what happened to this week’s victims. It’s true that most of America’s yearly 40,000 gunshot fatalities are committed with handguns, but you don’t have mass shootings without weapons capable of mass shootings. Reinstituting the assault weapons ban is a good place to start.

18th US School Shooting of 2018

17 are dead and at least 15 others wounded at a Florida high school after a former student returned to campus with an assault rifle on Wednesday. This is the 18th school shooting in the first 45 days of 2018. Wednesday’s school shooting in Broward County’s Parkland is the 10th deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. So far. The Republican congress continues working to further weaken America’s gun laws.

Wednesday’s alleged high school shooter, a former JROTC member who was on the school rifle team, showed obvious signs of instability while he was still a student, according to former classmates: “All he would talk about is guns, knives and hunting.” “I’ve seen him wear a Trump hat.”

More:

“Florida School Shooting: ‘No Words’ as 17 Die in a Barrage of Bullets,” Audra D.S. Burch and Patricia Mazzei, New York Times

“17 People Died In The Parkland Shooting. Here Are Their Names,” Laurel Wamsley, NPR

“Trump, Who Made It Easier for Mentally Ill People to Buy Guns, Blames Mental Health Issues for Florida Shooting,” Inae Oh, Mother Jones

“Trump Calls For Mental Health Action After Shooting; His Budget Would Cut Programs,” Vanessa Romo, NPR

“President Trump’s Victim-Blaming Response to the Mass Shooting in Florida,” Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker

“White House refuses to release photo of Trump gun law repeal,” BBC News

“American Carnage,” Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic

“Student who survived Florida shooting pleads with Trump and Congress: ‘Please, take action,’” Kristine Phillips, Washington Post

“Teacher who survived school shooting breaks down in tears calling for gun control,” Rebecca Savransky, The Hill

“School safety money would be slashed in Trump budget,” Kimberly Hefling, Politico

“Report: Florida Shooting Suspect Nikolas Cruz Passed Background Check for AR-15,” Daily Beast

“Most Americans can buy an AR-15 rifle before they can buy beer,” Lois Beckett, The Guardian

“The AR-15: ‘America’s rifle’ or illegitimate killing machine?” Marc Fisher, Washington Post

“All the things Fox News blamed the Parkland shooting on other than the gun,” Adam Epstein, Quartz

“Laws we used to have on the books could have prevented the Florida school shooting,” Robert J. Spitzer, Washington Post

“It’s time to bring back the assault weapons ban, gun violence experts say,” Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post

“Shooting suspect was on school rifle team that got NRA grant,” Michael Biesecker and Collin Binkley, Associated Press

“After Sandy Hook we said never again. And then we let 1,607 mass shootings happen.” German Lopez, Ryan Mark and Soo Oh, Vox

“After Sandy Hook, More Than 400 People Have Been Shot in Over 200 School Shootings,” Jugal K. Patel, New York Times

“The normalization of America’s school shootings, in one chart,” Ana Campoy, Quartz

“After Sandy Hook, More Than 400 People Have Been Shot in Over 200 School Shootings,” Jugal K. Patel, New York Times

“This is America: 9 out of 10 public schools now hold mass shooting drills for students,” Alexia Fernández Campbell, Vox

“‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens,” The Onion

“Before FL Shooting, NRA Posted Valentine Featuring Guns And Bullets,” Cristina Cabrera, TPM Livewire

“The NRA Is a Terrorist Organization,” Michael Harriot, The Root

“The gun lobby: See how much your representative gets,” Tyler Fisher,  Sarah Frostenson, and Lily Mihalik, Politico

“The NRA’s step-by-step playbook for responding to a mass shooting,” Heather Timmons, Quartz

Related:

“Five types of gun laws the Founding Fathers loved,” Saul Cornell, The Conversation

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2017: Have a Lethal Christmas!

Francis X. Clines in the New York Times:

“For the single-day binge of gun sales measured annually after Thanksgiving, the F.B.I. received 203,086 requests for background checks. This is the most ever in a single day, topping last year’s Black Friday high of 185,713 requests. (No immediate tweets from President Trump, the candidate of the National Rifle Association, that this is huge in making America great again.)

There were undoubtedly even more guns actually sold, since an F.B.I. request can cover a buyer’s multiple purchases. All seasonal evidence indicates that AR-15 assault rifles, the battlefield knockoffs familiar to so many Americans in the relentless tales of mass shootings, will be under many Christmas trees. ‘Bang for the buck!’ enthused the blog post of one seasonal shopper. ‘I picked up a Bushmaster carbine with rebate for around $400 … I couldn’t be happier.’”

More:

“Guns were Black Friday must-haves, going by the FBI’s record 203,086 background-check requests,” Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Washington Post

Related:

“Sandy Hook mom slams Trump for hosting NRA head on anniversary of shooting,” Jacqueline Thomsen, The Hill

“Americans Don’t Really Understand Gun Violence,” David Bernstein, The Atlantic

“America’s gun problem, explained,” German Lopez, Vox

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More and More Frequent

“… there are now fewer days between mass shootings and more fatalities. In the 1990s, an estimated 159 people were killed in mass shootings. That figure rose to 171 people in the 2000s. So far this decade, at least 381 people have been killed in mass shootings.”

“… less deadly mass shootings rarely receive the same degree of media attention because they simply happen so frequently. The last mass shooting prior to Sunday happened just four days earlier, when Scott Allen Ostrem, 47, walked into a Walmart in Denver and fatally shot two men and a woman, before leaving the store and driving away.”

— “Not your imagination: mass shootings now happen more frequently in the US,” Mona Chalabi, The Guardian