Salon.com > Sandy Hook Shootings http://www.salon.com Fri, 04 Jan 2013 10:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Gun deaths rampant after Sandy Hook massacre http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/gun_deaths_rampant_after_sandy_hook_massacre/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/gun_deaths_rampant_after_sandy_hook_massacre/#comments Thu, 03 Jan 2013 19:12:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13161031 AlterNet There have been more than 400 guns deaths since the Newtown massacre on December 14, according to a new interactive project between Slate.com and the anonymous twitter user @gundeaths.

The two launched the project because, as Slate writes, there are few real-time chronicles of daily gun deaths in the United States, despite the daily mention of firearms and gun politics in the media since the shooting. In fact, the onslaught of reporting on guns has been so intense, The Huffington Post published an article this morning with the headline “So You’re Bored of the Newtown Massacre?”

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/gun_deaths_rampant_after_sandy_hook_massacre/feed/ 72 The National Guard in public schools? http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/the_national_guard_in_public_schools/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/the_national_guard_in_public_schools/#comments Thu, 27 Dec 2012 22:29:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13156124 AlterNet Days after California’s liberal Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer gave an impassioned floor speech saying that big steps must be taken to stop gun violence that is killing 87 people a day across America, she proposed a bill to give governors power to deploy National Guard troops in public schools—or assign them to local police departments, freeing them to put police in schools.

“Is it not part of the national defense to make sure that your children are safe?” Boxer said at a press conference, where she unveiled the Save Our Schools Act. “The slaughter of the innocents must stop....”

“Of all the bad ideas I've heard in the aftermath of the Newtown murders, the worst comes from Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, who wants to provide federal funds for states to send the National Guard into schools,” wrote the Chicago Tribune’s Steve Chapman:

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/the_national_guard_in_public_schools/feed/ 26 Christian right blames atheists for Sandy Hook shootings http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/christian_right_blames_atheists_for_sandy_hook_shootings/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/christian_right_blames_atheists_for_sandy_hook_shootings/#comments Thu, 27 Dec 2012 16:22:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13155599 AlterNet All that was needed to make the national tragedy of the killing of 20 children and 6 adults into an anti-God kick in Jesus' teeth fest was for the usual suspects who hate Jesus to step up to defame His Name again. Of course I'm talking about the "Christian" leaders who can be counted on to drag the name of Christ through the mud at every profitable fundraising importunity. Christian leaders say that the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut was the result of our national falling away from fundamentalist Protestant gullibility.

The idiots -- religious village idiots that is -- are at it again. I thought Dobson was dead but I guess not. He's just retired. He's still alive enough to act like the zombie-for-Jesus'-younger-dumber-brother he is.(I went on his show 3 times back in the day when I too was part of the religious idiots club.) Bryan Fischer, the American Family Association hate host talk-show host, and Franklin-sell-my-soul-to-the-Mormos-because -I-hate-Obama-so-much-Graham (of course), the president and CEO of the tax-exempt Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was not to be outdone.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/christian_right_blames_atheists_for_sandy_hook_shootings/feed/ 56 Does the Bible make Americans more violent? http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/does_the_bible_make_americans_more_violent/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/does_the_bible_make_americans_more_violent/#comments Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:38:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13155654 AlterNet My friend Li is an Evangelical Christian and, in keeping with her family values she keeps an eye on what her children view and read. In the summer, she took her 12-year-old daughter to the Hunger Games. “It’s the perfect movie for her,” Li commented. “No swearing and no sex.” No swearing; no sex. Just people stalking and killing each other.

The Motion Picture Association of America agrees with Li’s priorities. So did the writers of the Bible.  Our love-hate-love affair with violence goes way back.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/does_the_bible_make_americans_more_violent/feed/ 27 75 percent of states ignore mental illness checks for gun buyers http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/most_states_ignore_mental_illness_background_checks_for_gun_buys/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/most_states_ignore_mental_illness_background_checks_for_gun_buys/#comments Wed, 26 Dec 2012 17:08:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13154904 AlterNet As the White House eyes new gun-controls following the Sandy Hook school massacre and firearms dealers are seeing guns sales spike, a handful of recent investigative reports suggest that the nation’s state-run system of screening gun buyers for mental illness is mostly a mirage—except in a dozen states where governors want the system to work.

Federal law prohibits gun sales to anyone who was declared mentally unfit by a court. In Bill Clinton’s first term, Congress passed a law requiring states to report these mental health records to the FBI. But in 1997, the Supreme Court threw out that requirement, saying states could share whatever information they wanted to—or more likely not share it.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/most_states_ignore_mental_illness_background_checks_for_gun_buys/feed/ 8 Gun violence, by the numbers http://www.salon.com/2012/12/23/gun_violence_by_the_numbers/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/23/gun_violence_by_the_numbers/#comments Sun, 23 Dec 2012 14:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13151694 The Weeklings

 

10 Minutes – Length of time Adam Lanza was shooting

90 (more than) – Number of bullets shot

38 – Number of mass shootings in 2012

$50,000 – Average cost of medical treatment per homicide shooting victim

$2.3 Billion – Total lifetime medical costs for gunshot injuries (as of 1999)

$6 Million – Those medical costs per day

49 Percent – Amount of those lifetime medical costs paid by taxpayers

20 Percent – Number of gun owners with 65 percent of the firearms in the U.S.

36,000 – Number of guns thrown away each year

16,808,538 – Number of applications to purchase guns in the U.S. from January – November 2012 from legal dealers (does not include gun shows or private sales)

5X – Amount this could arm every NATO member state’s armed forces

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/23/gun_violence_by_the_numbers/feed/ 11 Adam Lanza: America’s crisis of masculinity personified http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/adam_lanza_americas_crisis_of_masculinity_personified/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/adam_lanza_americas_crisis_of_masculinity_personified/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2012 22:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13150029 Jacobin Start here.  Adam Lanza can’t be accused or convicted of “unconscionable evil,” not in the court of public opinion and not by the criteria of moral philosophy.  He wasn’t making a moral choice when he shot his mother in the face with her own gun, and then killed 20 defenseless children.  So individual responsibility and culpability aren’t at issue, as they have not been and cannot be since Columbine.

It follows that the NRA’s slogan, to the effect that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” is moot at best—the killers in every case were sentient beings, but not one was a person at the law or anywhere else in the landscape of possibility most of us can take for granted.  Not one was an individual who came to the scene of the crime equipped with a conscience, thus able to make moral choices.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/adam_lanza_americas_crisis_of_masculinity_personified/feed/ 134 7 states where gun sales are surging after Sandy Hook http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/7_states_where_gun_sales_are_surging_after_sandy_hook/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/7_states_where_gun_sales_are_surging_after_sandy_hook/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2012 19:16:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13149936 AlterNet When word came of the dreadful school massacre in Sandy Hook, Conn., on December 15, many people stopped to pray and mourn. Others ran to the gun shop, and more are still coming, according to news reports from across the nation.

Apparently fearful from the moment the story broke that serious gun control -- particularly a ban on sales of the sort of assault rifle used by killer Adam Lanza, and the large-capacity magazines that allowed him to kill so many so quickly -- was in the offing, paranoids and gun enthusiasts rushed sporting goods shops in order to score those very items.

The right has long sold the line that President Barack Obama is coming for the guns of people who fancy themselves to be the "real" Americans, and it now appears that he might at least, after four years of inaction, seek to enact meaningful gun safety laws.

One major gun seller, the Dick's Sporting Goods chain, has suspended sales of types of several rifles, including the model used by Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/7_states_where_gun_sales_are_surging_after_sandy_hook/feed/ 38 Women are perpetrators of gun violence, too http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/women_are_perpetrators_of_gun_violence_too/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/women_are_perpetrators_of_gun_violence_too/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2012 20:51:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13148920 Feministing Much has been written in the wake of the Newtown tragedy about the connection between the culture of masculinity and the culture of gun violence. In the past 30 years, all but one of the past 62 mass murderers in the country who have used guns have been men. Gun makers equate gun ownership with manliness. The speculation as to why is rampant. Men are dangerously threatened due to the rise of minorities and women. Men are more sensitive to slights than women. Growing up to be a man is hard.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/women_are_perpetrators_of_gun_violence_too/feed/ 2 7 craziest gun laws in America http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/7_craziest_gun_laws_in_america/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/7_craziest_gun_laws_in_america/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:17:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13148856 ProPublica Friday’s deadly rampage at a Connecticut elementary school marked the 13th mass shooting in the United States this year. Among the 11 deadliest shootings in U.S. history, more than half took place in the last five years. During the same period, states have often relaxed their gun laws, making it easier for individuals to obtain guns, extending the places where concealed guns are permitted, or giving gun owners more robust protections.

We take a closer look at some of the more striking measures:

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/7_craziest_gun_laws_in_america/feed/ 15 Does America hate its children? http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/does_america_hate_its_children/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/does_america_hate_its_children/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:36:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13148043 America’s children seem to be shortchanged on almost every issue we face as a society.

Not only are we failing to protect our children from deranged people wielding semi-automatic guns.

We’re not protecting them from poverty. The rate of child poverty keeps rising – even faster than the rate of adult poverty.

And we’re not protecting their health. Rates of child diabetes and asthma continue to climb.

If we go over the “fiscal cliff” without a budget deal, several programs focused on the well-being of children will be axed — education, child nutrition, school lunches, children’s health, Head Start.  Even if we avoid the cliff, any “grand bargain” to tame the deficit is likely to jeopardize them.

At the same time, states and localities have been slashing preschool and after-school programs, child care, family services, recreation, and mental-health services.

Why?

Conservatives want to blame parents for not doing their job. But this ignores politics.

The NRA, for example, is one of the most powerful lobbies in America – so powerful, in fact, that our leaders rarely have the courage even to utter the words "gun control."

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/does_america_hate_its_children/feed/ 25 9 appalling gun laws backed by the right wing http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/9_appalling_gun_laws_backed_by_the_right_wing/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/9_appalling_gun_laws_backed_by_the_right_wing/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:15:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13147387 AlterNet It makes sense that everyone’s eyes angrily turned to the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the wake of the mass killing in Newtown, Connecticut. For too long, the NRA’s deep war chest and lobbying apparatus has shaped the debate over guns in this country.

But there’s another group working hand-in-glove with the NRA that deserves scrutiny: the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC, the Koch Brothers-backed group that is funded by big corporate interests, first attracted attention in the wake of the Trayvon Martin killing. The group, which brings together corporate interests, right-wing lobbyist groups and conservative politicians, passes model legislation that politicians take back ready-made to their state. The NRA has funded ALEC and co-chaired ALEC’s “Public Safety and Election Task Force,” which passes model bills on guns.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/9_appalling_gun_laws_backed_by_the_right_wing/feed/ 3 Record sales of guns in America http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/record_sales_of_guns_in_america/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/record_sales_of_guns_in_america/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:41:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13147279 Global Post As the spotlight turns to gun control following the Connecticut mass shooting, the focus is also on gun sales, which are at record levels.

ABC News reported that during the Black Friday sales last month, Americans bought a record number of guns, with the FBI conducting background checks on 154,000 purchases of firearms.

For the month of November, the number surged to 2 million inquiries.

Lawrence Keane, vice president of gun industry group National Shooting Sports Foundation, told CNN Money in November that modern sporting rifles, a term that he prefers to assault weapons, are "the most popular type of rifles being bought today by Americans."

He said they are used by hunters, target shooters, veterans returning from warzones such as Afghanistan, and citizens who want to protect their property from looters in the wake of recent storms.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/record_sales_of_guns_in_america/feed/ 0 Time to profile white men? http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/would_the_u_s_government_profile_white_men/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/would_the_u_s_government_profile_white_men/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13146907 Yesterday, during a cable news discussion of gun violence and the Newtown school shooting, I dared mention a taboo truism. During a conversation on MSNBC's "Up With Chris Hayes," I said that because most of the mass shootings in America come at the hands of white men, there would likely be political opposition to initiatives that propose to use those facts to profile the demographic group to which these killers belong. I suggested that's the case because as opposed to people of color or, say, Muslims, white men as a subgroup are in such a privileged position in our society that they are the one group that our political system avoids demographically profiling or analytically aggregating in any real way. Indeed, unlike other demographic, white guys as a group are never thought to be an acceptable topic for any kind of critical discussion whatsoever, even when there is ample reason to open up such a discussion.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/would_the_u_s_government_profile_white_men/feed/ 183 “Newtown, you are not alone” http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/newtown_you_are_not_alone/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/newtown_you_are_not_alone/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 02:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13146889 NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — A mournful President Barack Obama said Sunday that the nation is failing to keep its children safe, pledging that change must come after an elementary-school massacre left 20 children dead.

"What choice do we have?" Obama said. "Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard?"

In a vigil for the fallen, in a moment of grief that spread around the world, Obama conceded that none of his words would match the sorrow. But he declared to the community of Newtown: "You are not alone."

For Obama, ending his fourth year in office, it was another sorrowful visit to another community in disbelief. It is the job of the president to be there, to listen and console, to offer help even when the only thing within his grasp is a hug.

The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary on Friday elicited horror around the world, soul-searching in the United States, fresh political debate about gun control and questions about the incomprehensible — what drove the suspect to act.

Privately, Obama told Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy that Friday was the most difficult day of his presidency.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/newtown_you_are_not_alone/feed/ 17