"Blindness" written and performed by Peter Almeida
From Peter, who lives here with me in Eugene, Oregon:
"Twenty years ago, a friend was murdered in a mass shooting in San Francisco. Recent events of gun violence have pulled at my heartstrings again and spurred me to compose a new song, dedicated to the 26 dead [in Newtown], my friend, John Scully, and all other victims." From his site.
(click on the song title below and wait a moment for it to load:)
High-capacity ammo magazines of more than 10 rounds are good for one thing only: killing large numbers of humans quickly. It's what they were designed to do. And they do it very efficiently.
It's overkill for self-defense. I have yet to hear of a single case where that many bullets needed to be fired for home defense.
It's overkill for hunting. If you can't hit your target in three rounds or less, hunting isn't for you. Go back to plinking. As one Vietnam veteran told me the other day, "You don't need that many rounds unless you're tryin' to kill the whole damned herd."
"A Killing Machine": Half of All Mass Shooters Used High-Capacity Magazines
As lawmakers across the country and in the nation's capital debate possible restrictions on high-capacity magazines, one question emerges: Are these ammunition-feeding devices, which allow a shooter to fire many times without reloading, in fact commonly used by mass killers? We examined the data from Mother Jones' continuing investigation into mass shootings and found that high-capacity magazines have been used in at least 31 of the 62 cases we analyzed. A half-dozen of these crimes occurred in the last two years alone.
In the shooting that injured Rep. Gabby Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, Jared Loughner emptied a 33-round magazine in 30 seconds, killing 6 and injuring 13. Inside a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, James Holmes used 40- and 100-round magazines to injure and kill an unprecedented 70 victims. At Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Adam Lanza used high-capacity magazines to fire upwards of 150 bullets as he slaughtered 20 kids and 6 adults.
"It turns a killer into a killing machine," says David Chipman, who served for 25 years as a special agent in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Outlawing high-capacity magazines won't prevent gun crimes from happening, Chipman notes, but might well reduce the carnage: "Maybe 3 kids get killed instead of 20."
That's right. Half of all mass shooters since 1984, in the 62 cases analyzed, have used high-capacity ammo magazines.
They have a listing of those shootings at that link, and stats like the numbers killed and injured, the weapons used, and the size of the magazines used.
Without the high-cap ammo mags, there would have been no "mass" in mass shootings.
Here in Oregon, Senate Bill 346 will ban the sale or transfer of ammo magazines greater than 10 rounds, except by law enforcement or military. It creates a crime of unlawfully transferring large capacity magazines, and punishes by maximum of one year's imprisonment, $6,250 fine, or both.
There have been strong opinions on both sides of the gun
violence issue since the horrifying massacre of school children in
Newtown.
But what do the
parents and families in Newtown think?
Recently, I was reading a post at the Mikeb302000 blog about
the NRA's shameful attack ad that targeted the President's kids, and left
a comment there. That's when a
pro-gun extremist there challenged my opinion by writing (with the usual
tactfulness):
Why don't you go to Newtown and tell the
parents of those killed there what you think. Dumb ass.
Apparently he doesn't read the news. You see, the
parents of those children, and others in the Newtown community, have spoken out in favor of stronger gun
regulation.
Examples:
--> Monday, there
was a legislative hearing on gun violence at the Connecticut capitol building
in Hartford. Doing everything possible
to stall any meaningful conversation, as usual, the gun guys actually heckled
the parents of the dead children as they delivered their testimony.
Neil Heslin, father of slain Sandy Hook
student Jesse Lewis, testifying as he's heckled.
In fact, there were parents of three different kids who were
killed at Sandy Hook Elementary, all of whom delivered testimony in favor of
stricter gun regulation in Connecticut.
"The Second Amendment!" was shouted by several gun
enthusiasts in themeeting roomasNeil Heslin, holding
a photo of his 6-year-old son,Jesse Lewis, asked
why Bushmaster assault-style weapons are allowed to be sold in the state.
"There are a lot of things that should be changed to
prevent what happened," said Heslin, who grew up using guns and seemed
undisturbed by the interruption of his testimony.
Senate Majority LeaderMartin M. Looney,
co-chairman of theGun Violence Prevention Working
Group, threatened to empty the meeting room in the Legislative Office Building-- jammed with hundreds of people --
if the outbursts and chatter from the audience continued.
"That wasn't just a killing,
it was a massacre," said Heslin, who recalled dropping off his son atSandy Hook Elementary SchoolshortlybeforeAdam Lanza killed 20
children and six adults. "I just hope some good can come out of
this."
Another father of a 6-year-old boy murdered in the shootings
fought back tears as he told lawmakers to make any changes in gun laws simple.
"I don't believe it's so
complex," saidMark Mattioli, whose
son, James, was among the first-graders slaughtered on Dec.14.
"We need civility across our nation," said Mattioli,
who appeared with his wife, Cindy, before the legislative panel. "The
problem is not gun laws. It's a lack of civility."
Veronique Pozner,
whose son, Noah, was killed in the massacre, said his grave is only a
five-minute drive fromChalk Hill Schoolin Monroe.
Pozner said her two other children, both Sandy Hook School
students, are haunted by their brother's death, especially his twin sister.
"It is our feeling that assault weapons should be
comprehensively banned in the state of Connecticut," she said.
"Faster weapons equal more fatalities."
Also in that hearing, the state chiefs of police said they
supported mandatory background checks, and a state, and during the news
conferences the state teacher's union said 85% of their members opposed arming
teachers. Here is video of Neil Heslin testifying, though it does not include the heckling in it:
Marchers in Washington, D.C., along with Newtown residents
-->The
parents of one of the slain children in Newtown, ChaseKowalskicreated a fund in their son's name,
whichwill be used to
foster gun control, after his mother had a vision of her son
visiting her (bolding added):
Becky takes a deep breath on Wednesday in the
funeral home and says, “Okay, the best day of my life started on Sunday morning
when my son came to me in a vision. He came to tell me to explain to my husband
that the scope of this event was so large and that there were so many people
around the country and the world we were touching. I felt that my son was here
in this vision to tell me that the not-for-profit scholarship organization that
we are starting in Chase’s honor will save lives, change building codes,demand gun and ammunition control, and that in Chase’s name I would like to
bring God back to America. These are the first starting goals of the
organization.”
Pozner's family has
submitted a detailed proposal to a White House task force, recommending a range
of legal reforms including federal grants to review security at public schools
and requiring gun owners to lock weapons if mentally ill or dangerous people
could access them otherwise.
Pozner also says it's not right that the law protects the
release of any mental health information on the gunman. She says she plans to
challenge that because it could shed light.
"Those are all answers that I feel that we're entitled
to," she says.
The family also is suggesting a new law requiring people to
notify police within 24 hours if they know about an imminent threat of harm or
death made by a person who has access to guns or explosive devices.
The
police chief of Newtown, Conn., the site of the Sandy Hook school massacre,
urged the White House to ban assault rifles, saying he was "sickened"
by the unimaginable horror that has rocked his quiet family community.
“Ban
assault weapons, restrict those magazines that have so many bullets in them,
shore up any loopholes in our criminal background
checks,” Newtown Police Chief Michael Kehoetold NBC News,when
asked what his message to President Obama would be. ... “We do a good job of securing dynamite in our
society," Kehoe said. "(Assault rifles) are another form of
dynamite...I think they should ban them.”
Remember, Newtown is also the home of the National Shooting
Sports Federation, which aggressively markets assault rifles, rebranding them
as "modern sport rifles" and marketing them as no different than
hunting rifles.
Newtown school superintendent Dr. Janet Robinson
testifying for help in reducing gun violence
What do I say to the parents who want to be assured that when they put their children on the bus to school that they will come home. How do I protect our students without creating fortresses.
--> A congressman who
represents Newtown, reacted
badly to the NRA's "guns-in-school" suggestion:
Democratic congressman and senator-elect Chris
Murphy, whose congressional district includes Newtown, tweeted a sharp reaction
from Connecticut after the group's comments: "Walking out of another
funeral and was handed the NRA transcript. The most revolting, tone deaf
statement I've ever seen."
“How dare they?” fumed Elizabeth Murphy, 42,
who lives in [Newtown]. “We are all still grieving. This is the wrong time to
discuss their goal of putting more guns on the street . . . The bodies haven’t
even all been buried yet.”
Newtown resident David Stout,
49,an energy consultant and hunter, said he had hoped to hear an honest
announcement from the NRA regardingbackground
checks on all gun sales or closing other loopholes – not putting more armed
guards in schools.
"Folks in Newtown are appalled by that suggestion,"
said Stout, who owns several hunting rifles. "I understand we want to
protect our kids, but there are other ways to do that. We don't want to turn
our schools into prisons." ....
"It's ridiculous we can't
all come together and say, 'Ok, what makes sense?'" Stout said.
"Something has to change."
He added: "More guns is not the solution."
Martin Blanco, 49, a stay-at-home Newtown dad, said the NRA
missed a real opportunity to endear residents of Newtown and across the USA
with sensible recommendations on gun legislation. Instead, he called their
suggestion of putting armed guards in schools "madness."
"Just an awful slap in the face, particularly to the people
in Sandy Hook," he said.
"The overwhelming majority of people in this town will find
it a foolish, self-serving statement that has no place in Newtown or the United
States of America," he said.
Craig Mittleman, 50, a Newtown emergency physician, said he
wasn't surprised by the NRA's position but was nonetheless appalled by the
brazenness of the comments, especially coming just a week after the incident.
"Completely ludicrous," Mittleman said of LaPierre's suggestion of
placing armed guards in schools. "It is an insensitive response at a time
like this when there are families I know and have a connection with who have
just sustained the greatest loss any human being can ever encounter."
Like others in Newtown, Mittleman said he had hoped to hear a
more conciliatory tone from LaPierre and a sign that the gun lobby would cooperate
with Congress to improve gun laws, not arm more Americans.
"I think even the most ardent gun owners in town are going
to see the shame in that comment," he said.
--> A number of the
grieving parents and other residents have formed a group called Sandy Hook
Promise: SandyHookPromise.org. Their promise:
I Promise to honor the 26 lives lost at Sandy Hook Elementary
School.
I Promiseto do everything I can
to encourage and support common sense solutions that make my community and our
country safer from similar acts of violence
As usual, the victims and families of victims of gun
violence overwhelmingly come out in favor of stronger gun reform. Once you've held a dead or dying child in
your arms, guns lose their false symbolism of freedom and justice
and become exactly what they were intended to be -- a killing machine -- which has once again fallen into the wrong
hands. It's time to listen to the
families of Newtown and support stronger gun reforms to make a new trajectory for our communities away
from gun violence.
Speaking in front of a 52-member task force, Wheeler decried the inability of agencies to share relevant information about at-risk individuals’ personal histories, mental states, and proximity to firearms. He also advocated a ban on military-style assault weapons, saying they “belong in an armory under lock and key,” and for annual registration of personal firearms.
Finally, Wheeler invoked Thomas Jefferson’s inalienable rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” from the Declaration of Independence. “I do not think the composition of that foundational phrase was an accident,” he said. “I do not think the order of those important words was haphazard or casual. The liberty of any person to own a military-style assault weapon and a high-capacity magazine and keep them in their home is second to the right of my son to his life.”
UPDATE (2/10/13): See a compilation of very moving testimony by a number of Sandy Hook parents and other community members who dealt with the shooting, here, all of whom are supportive of changes to our gun regulation system to keep this from happening again: .. ADDENDUM (2/14/13): From an article: "Mother of Sandy Hook Victim Noah Pozner Targets Gun Violence":
Veronique Pozner: "This is not about the right to bear arms. It is about the right to bear weapons with the capacity for mass destruction. We’re talking about a 223 caliber that is designed to penetrate a steel helmet on a battlefield, that was modified for that purpose, or to take down a 250, 200 pound deer, going into 40 pound children. You know, do these weapons have a place in our society? I say they don’t. Who am I? Well not anyone other than a mother who lost a child."
ADDENDUM (3/13/13): An organization and website has been started by parents of slain Sandy Hook victims and others in Newtown, to support stronger gun legislation. They are called "Newtown Action Alliance." From their "About" page:
NewtownAction is an action-based grassroots organization founded by Newtown residents in the weeks after December 14, 2012.
We are dedicated to reversing the escalating gun violence epidemic in this nation through the introduction of smarter, safer gun laws and broader cultural change. Our membership is open to anyone who wants to help make this nation a safer place for our families and children.
Our immediate goals:
Support state legislators as they work to pass smarter, safer gun laws.
Support federal lawmakers as they work to pass smarter, safer gun laws.
Work together with other gun safety organizations towards safer schools, streets, towns, and cities.
This previously unknown poem by Carl Sandburg was just discovered by a volunteer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, scratched on a piece of paper.
"A Revolver"
by Carl Sandburg
Here is a revolver.
It has an amazing language all its own.
It delivers unmistakable ultimatums.
It is the last word.
A simple, little human forefinger can tell a terrible story with it.
Hunger, fear, revenge, robbery hide behind it.
It is the claw of the jungle made quick and powerful.
It is the club of the savage turned to magnificent precision.
It is more rapid than any judge or court of law.
It is less subtle and treacherous than any one lawyer or ten.
When it has spoken, the case can not be appealed to the supreme court, nor any mandamus nor any injunction nor any stay of execution in and interfere with the original purpose.
And nothing in human philosophy persists more strangely than the old belief that God is always on the side of those who have the most revolvers.
I love that last line. It sums up very well the "God, Guns, and Guts" philosophy of the pro-gun extremists. Remember Wayne LaPierre's exclamation that "The guys with the guns make the rules"?
Sunday, our President, Barack Obama, gave the oath of office
of President of the United States in the Oval Office, officially beginning his
second term in that role, by the will of the American people.
Today, Monday the 21st of January, he gives his inaugural
speech, on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
But back on Saturday, when the rest of America was gearing up
for this momentous occasion, the gun lobbies had a different agenda. They, instead, chose to make up a new day,
which they called "Gun Appreciation Day." A day made up by
a White Supremacist Group. From the article:
The event
is being billed as Gun Appreciation Day and has backing from white supremacist
group American Third Position (A3P),Media Matters reported on Friday.
A3P, which is listed on the Gun Appreciation Daywebsite as a sponsor, does little through its owncontentto veil the fact that the political
movement is dedicated to white supremacy.
In its mission statement, A3Pwritesthat
it "believes that government policy in the United States discriminates
against white Americans, the majority population, and that white Americans need
their own political party to fight this discrimination."
It goes on, saying that the group
aims to "stop the immigrant invasion" in order to put "America
first!"
Yikes. But the
clearly racist origins of the event did nothing to slow the fervor of the gun
guys.
Here in Oregon, several
hundred gun owners showed up on the steps of the capital building, as they
did at many other state capitols, brandishing their assault rifles and
handguns, like some scene out of a third-world nation. Why is it when we see such scenes from
Pakistan or Iraq that we think "extremist," but some people see the
same thing here and think "freedom?"
I see no significant difference. They
can try to dress it up in patriotic language, but it's intimidation of our
lawmakers, plain and simple, and shouldn't be tolerated. Along with nonsensical signs about prying
guns from their cold dead hands were radical anti-Obama and insurrectionist
signs, too.
Meanwhile, the shootings and gun crimes continue,
unabated. Here in my home town of Eugene
on that day, a
woman got hold of her roommate's guns and fired a shot, then holed up in
the home, threatening to shoot herself, until a SWAT team used tear gas and
stormed the home, pulling her out alive.
On the same day here in Eugene, a man with warrants out against him hid
in the back of a car and then kidnapped
two men who got in, at gunpoint, of course.
Luckily, they eventually overpowered him. The night before, a
16-year old girl was shot to death.
Her killer fled to California, where he shot himself to death as well. I don't think any of these people or their
families appreciated guns very much that day.
The annual
statistics are staggering. 31,000
deaths annually from gunfire. 70,000
injuries. Guns are
implicated "an estimated 337,960 nonfatal violent crimes."
Parents Against Gun Violence had a better idea. They chose instead to celebrate Child Appreciation Day. That's a far better area to appreciate, I think, given that 3000 kids are killed each year in gun crimes, and another 14,000 are injured.
It's time to stop appreciating guns, and start
appreciating the welfare of our people.
I call upon our lawmakers to ignore the extremists with guns at their
doorsteps and do what is right to protect our people from guns getting into the
wrong hands. UPDATE (1/22/13): The Daily Kos published a list (non-comprehensive) of at least 103 shootings that happened on "Gun Appreciation Day." I don't think those victims appreciated guns very much, do you? ADDENDUM (1/22/13):A related article, from The Jersey Journal online.
First, let me point out the negative attack ad that this is. How very typical of the NRA, with their
anti-Obama propaganda and agenda. But
now they’ve sunk so low as to try to use his children for political purposes.
Furthermore, where the President and gun violence prevention
groups are working in a positive manner to reduce the violence (What can we do to keep guns out of the wrong
hands?), the NRA prefers instead to work in a negative manner (What can we do to kill the “bad guy with a
gun”?). It has
only hurt the NRA’s approval rating.
But even beyond these points, the video is a pro-gun fantasy
run amok. Let’s step back for a moment
from the poisonous air of the video and take some reality checks:
Reality check #1: The children of the President of the United
States require stronger protection because of obvious reasons (risk of
kidnapping or assassination due to their father being a world leader), which clearly
is different from the children of the average citizen. If the average citizen really thinks that
their kids run the same risk as Sasha and Malia Obama, then they are deluding
themselves.
Reality check #2: The Secret Service detail for the President’s
children are not the same as some local yokel "volunteer" who has a
conceal carry license and maybe a little bit of training, as suggested being
used by LaPierre and Hutchinson in their little media spectacle, or "deployed"
around schools by the extremist Sheriff Arpaio in Maricopa County, Arizona
(some of whom have police records). IF
there are armed guards at that school outside of the Secret Service (and I
haven’t seen verification of whether they are armed), I imagine that they, too,
are better trained. (UPDATE: It turns out there AREN'T armed guards outside of the Secret Service. See the update below.)
Reality Check #3: Yes, as many as
one-third of schools already have armed guards, but for the most part those
schools hired guards because of a demonstrated need due to incidents that
occurred, not out of paranoid fear.
Reality Check #4:There’s no
clear evidence that having armed guards has reduced the violence rate. The vast majority of schools have never
demonstrated a need, nor likely ever will demonstrate a need, for armed interference. One
report for armed schools in Mississippi reported that the guards engaged in
“overly harsh school disciplinary policies,” unnecessary arrests, and racial
prejudice. Further, two different studies (HEREandHERE) have shown that armed guards in schools make
students feelless secure, possibly affecting their
performance.
Reality Check #5: Having an armed guard at a school has never
stopped a school shooting in the few instances where they've had a chance (such
as Columbine). It is almost
impossible for an armed guard to be in the right place at the right time, in
those few minutes when a shooting is actually taking place.
Reality Check #6: Having an armed guard at a school only treats
the symptom (stopping the "bad guy with a gun" - usually a kid who
got it from his parents' closet -- only after
they've gotten the gun), instead of treating the causes of the problem (easy
access to guns and lack of safe storage, poor parenting, mental health
problems).
TheAmerican Federation of Teacherscalled the suggestion
"irresponsible and dangerous," while the NationalEducationAssociation described it as shocking
and based on the "delusional assumption that everything other than guns
contributes to these tragedies."
The general public has opened its eyes and can now see
through the NRA exaggerations and lies, so the NRA and other gun lobbies are
just digging themselves deeper into a rut with hate ads like this one. ADDENDUM (1/18/13): There is currently a petition, initiated by Carolyn McCarthy, demanding that the NRA stop running this ad and exploiting the children of the President. ADDENDUM (1/18/13): Here is a great article, written by the granddaughter of President Eisenhower, Susan Eisenhower, who had a Secret Service detail of her own while her grandfather was President. Read how she slams the NRA for this shameless attack ad. From her article:
For the eight years that my grandfather, Dwight Eisenhower, was president of the United States, I had Secret Service protection. Known as the “Diaper Detail,” these armed agents protected my sisters, brother and me from potential kidnappings or other targeted attacks. Such threats might be aimed at hurting us, but they would also strike a devastating blow to the president and possibly our national security.
I repeat: We had Secret Service protection because we were seen as potential targets.
That’s why any thinking person has to be disgusted by the National Rifle Association ad released Wednesday, suggesting that the president is an “elitist hypocrite” because his children have the benefit of armed protection at school and the nation’s children as a whole do not. This is absurd. The nation’s children are not individually at risk the way the Obama children are.
UPDATE (1/20/13): It turns out that there are no armed guards hired by the school where the President's kids attend. Oopsie! The NRA might have wanted to do a tiny bit of fact-checking first. From a Washington Post article:
In fact, it has no armed guards. My Post colleague Glenn Kessler, who writes The Fact Checker column, wrote about the issue here and quoted Ellis Turner, associate head of Sidwell Friends, as saying: “Sidwell Friends security officers do not carry guns.”
Parents and students say they have never seen one either.
The president’s children are protected by Secret Service agents, which is required by federal law, but that is not the same thing as armed school resource officers.
The Fact Checker, who hands out “Pinocchios” depending on how accurate — or inaccurate — a particular story is, gave the NRA and its ad the worst possible rating, four Pinocchios. Whereas three Pinocchios are given for “significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions,” four Pinocchios are given for “whoppers.”
. UPDATE (1/25/13): An NRA senior lobbiest, Jim Baker, says the attack ad was "ill advised." Ya think? From an article:
Jim Baker, head of the federal affairs division at the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, said he had made his views known to others at the powerful gun-rights organization.
The ad, which cast Obama as hypocritical for having expressed skepticism about putting armed guards in schools, when "his kids are protected by armed guards at their schools," drew widespread criticism when it first became public on January 15.
Nationwide outrage over the shooting of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14 moved gun violence and gun control to the center of the U.S. political debate.
"I don't think it was particularly helpful, that ad," Baker told Reuters in a telephone interview. "I thought it ill-advised."
Today we heard from two important political leaders in the fight for better gun laws. President Obama spoke with courage and set the standard for leadership that should serve to inspire all of us in this struggle. The President laid out a solid, reasonable and effective strategy for reforming America's weak gun laws and introduced 23 executive orders to improve gun safety. He cited the Clackamas Town Center shooting as evidence that assault weapons need to be banned and concluded his remarks by saying, "Let's do the right thing."
In Oregon, however, incoming House Speaker Tina Kotek announced that she would not take a leadership role in improving Oregon's gun laws but will "look to the Senate for their leadership."
Speaker Kotek surely knows that this reform movement will be much more difficult without her leadership in the Oregon House.
Please email Speaker Kotek or call her right now at503-286-0558 and show her that Oregon has a strong coalition of individuals seeking reasonable and responsible gun laws. Ask her to do the right thing.
Gun sales surge. Are you listenin'?
Ammunition keeps glistenin'.
They're arming tonight and causing a fright. U.S. Constitution arms the land.
People die for no reason. Children shot! 'Tis the season. A terrible blight, each night after night. Gun rights absolutists harm our land.
NRA and cronies claim our homeland
Must allow their arms in every town,
Claiming guns will help us.
We say "No man!
"The murder stats have got to go way down."
Weapon fans have conspired
Now our nation is mired.
With lives we have paid.
New laws must be made.
Or soon we'll have a gun in every hand.
The gun crowd is always saying, “If only the victim had had
a gun, they could have defended themselves.” After all, according to the NRA's Wayne LaPierre in his unhinged call to arm all schools, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."
Well, last week the gun crowd lost one of their own. Pro-gun extremist Keith Ratliff was the star
and producer of a wildly-popular YouTube channel, FPSRussia, devoted to
high-powered guns and explosives, and owner of a customized firearms company,
FPS Industries. This guy is a poster-boy for the pro-gun extremists. He once tweeted that he took his concealed gun to a movie theater, "praying that somebody would try to pull a Batman!" Only a gun loon would desire such a thing.
Here's an example of his videos, where he shoots an assault
rifle with a silencer made from a MagLight (Notice how quiet it is! So much for the gun guy argument that silencers really aren't so "silent".)
Here's another video where he boasts about how easy it is to
make a semi-automatic assault rifle into a full-auto ("It doesn't take but a second!" he says), and demonstrates it
firing:
Well, Ratliff’s weapons didn’t help him at all last week
when he was shot once in the head and killed on a rural road in Georgia. From an
article:
Keith Ratliff, who was a
business partner at FPSRussia, YouTube's ninth most popular channel with more
than three million active subscribers and a combined half billion views, was discovered on a rural road in Carnesville,
Georgia.
Ratliff had a single
gunshot wound the head and police are treating his death as a homicide.
That's horrible. If only he'd had a gun to defend himself! Oh, wait...
When authorities made
the grisly discovery on Thursday, they noticed there were several guns near
Ratliff, according to a local
radio stationreport.
'For him not to pull out
that gun and try to defend himself, he had to feel comfortable around somebody.
Either that or he was ambushed,' said Ratliff's heartbroken widow, Amanda.
As with other cases of pro-gun extremists, like this one,
it would seem that he should have been more fearful of his fellow gun owners than the
boogey-men they always blame for gun violence (gangstas, Mexicans, druggies,
whatever). As studies have shown, you
are MORE likely to die if you have a gun around you, than if you don’t (whether
you are at home or carrying concealed).
I’ll be watching the news closely. It’ll be interesting to find out who the
killer was, if they catch him, and whether the shooter was truly another gun
nut.
On his LinkedIn profile, Ratliff stated, “After
a life of loving firearms and computers, I have combined both into one great
new business that offers both viral marketing and quality firearms from one
place. We are FPS Industries Global LLC, a type 10 Destructive Device Manufacturer
and Viral Marketing superpower on YouTube and Facebook.”
Every life is precious, even those who glorify violence. Ratliff leaves behind a wife and young daughter, who greatly
misses her daddy. It’s a shame he made a
“life of loving firearms” and glorifying his “type 10 destructive devices” … to
the grave. [this post is part of an ongoing series of people being shot to death or attacked despite being armed (and sometimes because they are armed)]
Ever since the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, there have
been a number of news articles reporting a drastic increase in sales of armor –
yes, armor! – for children attending
school. Namely, we are talking here
about bulletproof jackets and bulletproof linings in backpacks to use as
shields. My initial reaction to the first news report about armored backpacks was, "Has it really come to this??"
One company that makes armored backpacks, BulletBlocker,
reports “a 300% to 400% increase in sales since the
tragedy.” More from that
article:
The idea for BulletBlocker was sparked after the 1999 Columbine
shootings. Creator Joe Curran wanted something to protect his school-age
children.
“Then he started sharing them with friends who had kids,” Uy said.
“Our company is basically built around a single child’s backpack.” Combat apparel company Amendment
II, based in Utah, says their sales have also skyrocketed — at least 500%
since Friday.
"(Bulletproof backpacks)
were kind of a niche product before that shooting," co-owner and sales
director Derek Williams told the Daily News.
"When we're selling a few a
week, it doesn't take many to increase your sales," he said. "But
yesterday we had over 200 requests for products."
Most were for bulletproof
backpacks or backpack shields.
Child protective vests manufactured in Columbia
A
company in Columbia that sells bulletproof vests, with bright colors in
pink and blue and looking much like normal kids jackets and vests, will now
market to the U.S. They typically sell
their products in violent Central American countries, but now, sadly, see the
United States as a good market, and are producing these products with the U.S.
in mind now. From that article:
Products
include child-sized armored vests, protective undershirts andbackpackswith ballistic protection that can be
used as shields.
The products are designed for
children ages 8-16 years old and cost $150-$600 depending on the complexity of
their construction. Each piece weighs 2-4 pounds.
"The products were
created with the American market in mind, not for the Latino market," said
Caballero. "All the designs and colors, everything is thought out with
them in mind."
Caballero performed a test on
a pink-and-yellow striped bulletproof backpack attached to a pale blue
protective vest, firing a 9mm pistol and a machine gun to show it could
withstand a barrage of bullets.
He said the backpack-vest
combo and other protective gear have already been ordered by a U.S.
distributor, although he would not identify it.
Of course, many countries in Latin America are extremely
violent, thanks to the drug trade.
Adding armed guards in every school, office, and even ATM hasn’t
stopped the violence there, proving beyond a reasonable doubt the foolishness of the NRA’s suggestion of militarizing school campuses to keep kids safe.
I’m not going to argue against the purchase of these armored
vests and backpacks, really. Unlike the
preposterous idea of arming teachers or having armed civilians to guard the
schools, no one is likely to get hurt by having bulletproof clothing or
backpacks, unless you consider that these kids now have to lug around more
weight all day. I remember how very
heavy my backpack was in school. The
thought of adding a thin steel plate to that would have made me more than a
little incensed.
Of course, it’s really more of a feel-good option. The ammo and AR-15 used by Adam Lanza in
Newtown likely would have punched right through these vests and backpacks. Plus, the kids in Newtown were sitting at
their desks, not wearing coats or backpacks, and were shot at extremely close
range, often in the head and extremities (as
reported by the mother of one young victim at Sandy Hook).
All in all, American schools remain extremely safe places for children, especially elementary-school students. Children in school are statistically safer, on average, than in the homes in which they live or the vehicles in which they ride. That space heater [PDF] you've been meaning to replace, that annoying car noise or fluid leak you haven't gotten around to fixing, or the cup of coffee in your SUV console as you fumble for the radio station while backing out of your driveway are more likely to be the cause of injury or death to a child than the rampage of some marauding psycho, especially at a school. Sadly, child victims of homicide are most often killed at or near home, by a family member or peer, or collateral to gang violence.Inside school is far, far safer for children than outside -- as Bill Clinton would say, it's just arithmetic -- and all the compiling and reciting of lists of violent school incidents or public mass murders in the U.S. doesn't change that.
The saddest part here is that people feel unsafe in their
community, to the point that they would over-react and armor their children as
a result, as well as arm themselves with concealed handguns, or suggest, as the
NRA and other extremist have, arming
teachers with assault rifles or having “armed volunteers” to patrol the schools (as the
extremist and racist Arizona sheriff, Joe Arpaio, has now
done in Arizona using armed volunteers, some with criminal backgrounds. Imagine J.T. Ready or Shawna Forde guarding your school!). Those are just over-reactions.
And, let’s not forget, the kids themselves will know they
are armored. Alarming my children about
the insignificantly tiny chance of a school shooting will only alarm them
unnecessarily, potentially affecting their performance and willingness to be
there (simply having security guards in school have shown this to happen).
There are ways to make our community safer, and one way is
to put sensible restrictions in place to keep guns out of the hands of madmen (or
mad children) to begin with (such as mandatory background checks for all gun
sales, banning assault rifles and high-cap ammo mags, and better mental health
reporting), not proposing shoot-outs to deal with the aftermath of lax gun
regulation. Treat the causes, not the
symptoms.
I, for one, won’t be armoring my kids when I pack their
lunches and drop them off at their school.
UPDATE (8/22/13): These armored backpacks and whiteboards get low marks from actual school security analysis experts. From an article:
Safety consultants say these items might give educators and pupils greater peace of mind but are unlikely to be the difference between life and death.
"There's feeling safer and then there's actually being safer," Trump said.
"In the past five years we’ve seen draconian cuts to school security and emergency planning programs," he added.
"Schools have limited resources and they ought to use that money very wisely, put it into an additional school psychologist or a school police officer, train your staff and work with first responders. The most valuable school security tools are invisible."
Dorn said instead of buying shields, schools can improve security by revamping their drills so that staff members beyond the principal are involved in decision making and doing something as simple as making students line up in double rows when they move through the building.
"We know if you put kids in in double rows and practice a brisk walk with them, you can reduce the time of evacuate and shelter by 30 percent," he said. "You can do that in the largest schools in the nation for less than the cost of one security camera."
Gregory Thomas, who used to run security for New York City schools and now heads Alan Thomas Security, said "feel-good" solutions like armored book bags don't hurt anything but the wallet.
But for his money, an ounce of prevention — particularly training school staff about the warning signs of violent students — is worth a lot more than any piece of polyethylene designed to absorb a gunshot.
"You need to start with seeking out and identifying the kids that are likely to do these shootings before it happens," he said.
