19 Children Shot to Death in Texas

At least 19 children and 2 teachers were shot to death at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday. The victims were in a single 4th grade classroom. The teenaged perpetrator wore body armor but was shot dead by police. The shooter was legally able to buy his assault-style rifle this month, the day after his 18th birthday.

There have been 213 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, 27 school shootings. And it’s only May.

In other Texas news, the National Rifle Association will hold its annual meeting in Houston on Friday. Scheduled speakers include Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R), Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R), South Dakota Governor Kristi L. Noem (R), Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R, TX-2), and former president Donald J. Trump. At this time, no grieving parents from Uvalde are on the agenda.

More:

“21 killed at Uvalde elementary in Texas’ deadliest school shooting ever,” Sneha Dey, Texas Tribune

“Firearms are now the leading cause of death for U.S. children,” Peter Weber, The Week

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

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NY AG Has NRA in the Crosshairs

New York Attorney General Letitia James, alleging years of fraud and corruption by National Rifle Association executives, filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to dissolve the NRA. Attorney General James has jurisdiction since the purportedly nonprofit NRA was chartered in New York State in 1871. The suit outlines decades of self-dealing, questionable contracts to family and friends of NRA leaders, payoffs, luxury executive perks, lavish compensation, and tens of millions in financial misconduct. Since the allegations involve tax fraud, the state is sharing its information with the IRS. Bewhiskered General Ambrose Burnside, first NRA President, is no doubt rolling around in his grave.

The DC Attorney General, claiming that the NRA raided its own NRA Foundation to stem the losses of the NRA proper, filed a second lawsuit against the gun group.

More:

“New York Attorney General Sues N.R.A. and Seeks Its Closure,” Danny Hakim, New York Times

“New York AG sues to dissolve the NRA, alleging widespread fraud,” Betsy Woodruff Swan, Max Cohen, and Michelle Bocanegra, Politico

“Wayne LaPierre allegedly used NRA as a ‘personal piggy bank,’ N.Y. AG says,” Erik Ortiz, NBC News

San Francisco Declares the NRA a Domestic Terrorist Organization

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has passed a resolution declaring the National Rifle Association a “domestic terrorist organization” and urges the city to examine its financial relationships with companies doing business with the group. The Board, the city’s legislative branch of government, passed the resolution unanimously. It reads, in part:

“The National Rifle Association musters its considerable wealth and organizational strength to promote gun ownership and incite gun owners to acts of violence.”

“The National Rifle Association spreads propaganda that misinforms and aims to deceive the public about the dangers of gun violence, and … the leadership of National Rifle Association promotes extremist positions, in defiance of the views of a majority of its membership and the public, and undermine the general welfare.”

More:

“San Francisco just passed a resolution calling the NRA a ‘domestic terrorist organization,’” Eli Rosenberg, Washington Post

“San Francisco Board of Supervisors designates NRA domestic terrorist organization,” Christien Kafton, KTVU News

“San Francisco Declares the N.R.A. a ‘Domestic Terrorist Organization,’” Mariel Padilla, New York Times 

Update:

There’s return fire from the NRA:

“NRA sues San Francisco over city declaring it a domestic terrorist organization,” Zack Budryk, The Hill

“NRA sues San Francisco after city labels it a terrorist organization,” Rebecca Falconer, Axios

“NRA is suing after San Francisco labels it a terror group,” Amanda Watts and Christina Maxouris, CNN

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Mexico’s Murderers: ¡Gracias, NRA!

There’s only one gun store in all of Mexico, and it’s on an army base. But the southern border region of the US bristles with gun shops.

“… like so many aspects of life in Mexico, the influence of its powerful neighbor to the north is keenly felt: Each day the army gun store sells on average just 38 firearms to civilians, while an estimated 580 weapons are smuggled into Mexico from the United States.

That paradox is increasingly relevant given Mexico’s unprecedented levels of gun violence, which have claimed more than 100,000 lives over the last decade. Last year was Mexico’s deadliest since the government began releasing homicide statistics in 1997. This year, it is on track to surpass that record.”

— “There is only one gun store in all of Mexico. So why is gun violence soaring?” Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times

What can be done? For a start, the U.S. can finally ratify the The Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials (CIFTA). The National Rifle Association has thrown money around and stalled this for a dozen years, at the cost of thousands of lives.

You think life is cheap in Mexico? So are congressmen here in the USA — you can buy them for the cost of a few assault rifles.

NRA Counter-Proposal?

After the horror of the Parkland school shooting, many were outraged that the perpetrator was able to buy a military-style rifle at the age of 18, when he was still too young to buy beer.  President Trump has suggested raising the minimum age for purchasing an assault rifle to 21, and so has Florida Governor Rick Scott, but the NRA isn’t having it. To address the gun/beer inequity, we expect the NRA to propose lowering the legal drinking age to 18 any day now.

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NRA speaks 7 Days After Florida School Shooting

The National Rifle Association has been silent on Twitter since the Parkland school shooting, but NRA VP Wayne LaPierre is listed as a speaker at this week’s Comic-Con for Conservatives, the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference. CPAC is being held at the Gaylord Convention Center at National Harbor, near DC but closer to a casino. While Mr. LaPierre is a staunch foe of gun-free zones, the Gaylord is one.

Wayne LaPierre isn’t on the CPAC agenda, but since the NRA is CPAC’s biggest sponsor and the biggest donor to GOP campaigns, he’s certain to deliver his usual demagoguery. There’s a half-hour slot on Thursday’s agenda at 10 AM marked “Special Programming,” so that’s our bet. Mike Pence will bless the gathered wingnuts afterwards, at 10:30.

The rest of the 2018 CPAC is a cavalcade of conservative celebs, not just The Apprentice‘s Donald Trump, but disgraced former Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr., talk radio ranters Dana Loesch and Mark Levin, Fox flakes Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, and Sebastian Gorka, and that guy from Pawn Stars.

But CPAC 2018 is not all “America First.” France’s holocaust denier and National Front pin-up person Mademoiselle Marion Maréchal-Le Pen and the UK Independence Party spokesmodel, and Brexiteer Nigel Farage will add European élan to the conservative conclave.

More:

“Less Intellectual and More Salacious”: Commercialized, Trumpified, CPAC Is Adrift.” Tina Nguyen, Vanity Fair

Related:

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

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

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Self-Defense

Illustrator Mark Fiore has summarized the recent National Rifle Association annual meeting:

The NRA Schoolhouse

The National Rifle Association has come up with a dubious remedy for school shootings: more guns. NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre wants the government to put an armed guard in every school in the country.  The organization that gutted gun regulation and helped flood America with firearms now wants to sell more guns to solve the problem it created, putting schoolkids in the crossfire.

The NRA Explains It All To You

In memory of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shootings, many Americans observed a moment of silence this morning at 9:30 AM. At 11:00 AM there was talk; the National Rifle Association tried to deflect blame for the massacre from the military-style weapon and high-capacity magazines that enabled it, claiming that violent video games have somehow caused this catastrophe and the mass shootings that occur every two weeks somewhere in the USA. According to NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre:

“And here’s another dirty little truth that the media try their best to conceal: There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.

Through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. And here’s one: it’s called Kindergarten Killers. It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?”