The Reality of Gun Violence

2013 was a memorable year for numerous reasons. Perhaps one of the saddest reasons was the increasing frequency of mass shootings. And already, 2014 is off to an incredibly dangerous start.

From movie theaters to restaurants to neighborhood strip malls and even the famous Las Vegas Strip, the fear of gun violence penetrated deep into our daily lives. Even our schools have sometimes transformed into armed battlefields.

So what can we do about this? How can we reverse this alarming trend? This is what several Nevadans discussed during a special summit on gun violence prevention that was hosted by the Center for American Progress and ProgressNow Nevada.





When we talk about gun violence, we often encounter a number of misconceptions and wrong assumptions. One is that the debate is between "big guv'mint loony lib'rul gun grabbbers" and "gun totin' freedom lovin' conservatives". Unlike the caricatures we see in the media and from certain politicians, reality doesn't resemble the simple caricatures. And local gun owner Dwayne Morton came to the summit to explain this to the audience.



Actually, most gun owners support common sense efforts to reduce gun violence. Don't believe us? Believe this new PPP poll. Overall, 78% of Nevadans support expanding background checks for gun purchases. And 54% of that sample were gun owners.

So why do many in the media still resort to inaccurate caricatures when talking about gun violence? That's a good question. And it's one that Peter Ambler inadvertently brought to the forefront during his presentation. Before he went to work at Americans for Responsible Solutions, he started working for (then) Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) just days before she was shot at the Tucson massacre.



Both Gabby Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, are gun owners. Giffords even enjoyed favorable grades from the NRA during her service in Congress. So what changed? They became victims of gun violence, and they later concluded that America is ready to move beyond the inaccurate caricatures and have a real discussion on the reality of gun violence.

Of course, the reality of gun violence isn't limited to other states. It's also come home to Nevada, and we can no longer ignore the dangerous consequences of inaction.

That's why ProgressNow Nevada's Annette Magnus & Teresa Crawford took to the stage at the summit. They reminded the audience of what occurred in Downtown Las Vegas on January 4, 2010. Security officer Stanley Cooper and US Marshal Richard Gardner were shot on duty at the Lloyd George Federal Building. Johnny Lee Wicks shot both of them with a gun he purchased without a background check at a gun show. Gardner ultimately survived the attack, but Cooper passed away.



Sadly, tragedies like this have become all too common in Nevada and throughout the nation. Believe it or not, 20 kids are hospitalized every day on average in this nation due to firearms injuries. And domestic violence victims now face more danger due to easy & lax gun laws (which allow abusers to access firearms).







The reality of gun violence isn't sexy. It isn't always simple. It's never really limited to just "over there" and/or "not here". And it should never be forced into false caricatures.

Last year, very basic gun safety reform proposals were on the table in Congress and the Nevada Legislature. Both were ultimately smothered to death by the gun lobby. And we're all still living the consequences of that.

The reality of gun violence is quite lethal, yet it can be changed. Are we willing to change it? Are we ready to save lives? This is reality, but it doesn't have to remain this way.

Time for Change

3 years ago, the entire nation was shocked. The world's attention turned to a neighborhood strip mall near Tucson. And 19 people were shot that day. One of them was then Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona). 6 others died, including a federal judge, a Giffords staffer, and a 9 year old girl.

In some ways, things have changed in the past 3 years. Gabby Giffords herself has made an amazing recovery since that day. This week, she even managed to take a pleasant little sky dive.



Yet in other ways, things haven't changed all that much in the past 3 years. The 6 people who passed away are still gone. Many more lives have been lost to senseless gun violence since then. And far too many politicians are still too afraid to consider enacting sensible gun safety policies.



Of course, the actual people who have firsthand knowledge of the tragedy of gun violence are speaking out. This actually has been a breakthrough we've experienced in the past 3 years. It's even led Senator Harry Reid (D) and the Nevada Legislature to take gun violence more seriously.

Unfortunately, none of this was enough for Governor Brian Sandoval (R-NRA), Senator Dean Heller (R-NRA), Rep. Joe Heck (R-??!!), and other G-O-TEA politicians in Carson City & DC who were too worried about their standing with the NRA to even consider any type of gun safety legislation. After all, the NRA and the rest of the gun lobby consider gun safety reform to be far more offensive than making death threats on talk radio!



Nearly a year ago, Gabrielle Giffords herself urged her former colleagues in Congress to be courageous. Her message is just as relevant and timely now as it was then. How many more of these painful anniversaries must we endure? It's time for change.

Something Evil in Our Society

Let's travel back in time for a moment. Less than eight months ago, Gabrielle Giffords testified to Congress (an institution she once served in). It had been just over two years since she and others were shot at a "Congress at Your Corner" event near Tucson, Arizona. And it had been less than two months after the horrific Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school massacre.



She asked her former colleagues in Congress to be courageous. And some did show courage. Others, however, did not. And thanks to those others fearing the NRA and placing its wants ahead of their own constituents' needs, Congress passed nothing on gun safety this past spring.

Let's fast forward to today. The nation is reeling from another frightening massacre. And this time, it occurred at the Navy Yard in our nation's capital, less than two miles from Capitol Hill. Thirteen people have died today, including one of the gunmen (Aaron Alexis).

Law enforcement discovered three weapons on Aaron Alexis: a shotgun, a semiautomatic pistol, and an AR-15 assault weapon. Perhaps this was on Dr. Janis Orlowski's mind when she spoke today. Dr. Orlowski is the Chief Medical Officer of MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where Navy Yard Shooting victims were sent for treatment. As she was updating the media on the three victims still in critical condition, she was asked what stood out today.

"There's something evil in our society that we as Americans have to work to try and eradicate," she responded. Dr. Orlowski later added, "I would like you to put my trauma center out of business. I really would. I would like to not be an expert on gunshots." She also pleaded, "Let's get rid of this. This is not America." 



Today, we've been reminded of something evil in our society. We've been reminded of those who will go to great lengths to cause tragedy and suffering. And we've been reminded of those who've been craven and/or greedy enough to stand by and allow those evil individuals to gather what they need to inflict harm on others.

However, we've also been reminded of the good in our society today. We've been reminded of those who sacrificed their own lives to save the lives of others. Now what can we do to honor them? And what can we do to stop this evil in our society from claiming any more innocent lives?

Time Left for Sanity?

As the 77th session of the Nevada Legislature comes to a close, the future of SB 221 still looks to be in limbo. Amidst all the last minute budget drama, it's still waiting to be taken to the Assembly floor. And of course, Governor Brian Sandoval (R-NRA) is still threatening to veto this bill to expand background checks on gun purchases.

This is why the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Demand Action campaign brought a special guest to Carson City yesterday.



And that's not all. Mark Kelly also took to "Ralston Reports" last night to make the case for gun safety reform.



Let's remember that he and his wife (Gabrielle Giffords) have experience on matters of gun violence. They know guns. They've owned guns. And Former Congresswoman Giffords was shot and critically injured with a gun.

So why won't Governor Sandoval listen to Mark Kelly? And why won't he listen to the 86% of Nevadans who support expanding background checks? Is petty politics really more important than saving lives?

That's the big question this weekend. And there's not much time left to answer. As Carson City devolves into madness in the final hours of #NVLeg #77, is there enough time to salvage some sanity on gun safety?

Push-back

On Tuesday, the Assembly held a very heated and emotionally charged hearing on SB 221. Within hours of that hearing, Senator Michael Roberson (R-Henderson) dropped SB 520. It's supposed to be the Republican answer to Senator Justin Jones' (D-Enterprise) background checks bill. And of course, SB 520 doesn't expand background checks for gun purchases (while SB 221 does).

Funny enough, neither Senator Roberson nor Governor Brian Sandoval (R) wants to discuss the details of SB 520. And of course, they don't want to explain why they want to kill SB 221. And this is why the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Demand Action campaign is taking to TV airwaves.



The Nevada Republican Party has joined with the NRA and various "tea party" groups to kill SB 221. And of course, Governor Sandoval and Senator Roberson are deferring to them over the 86% of Nevadans who want expanded background checks.

So now, they're getting push-back. And that's not all. We'll also see a very important arrival in Carson City tomorrow.

RalstonReports: Just got robocall from Mark Kelly, who will be in Carson City on Friday to push gun control bill, telling me to call my assemblyman. #nvleg

Remember Mark Kelly?



Get ready for some serious push-back this weekend.

"Second Amendment Remedies"... Revisited

I know it may seem like such a long time ago, but it's important to remember what happened here in Nevada during the 2010 Election. During that year's US Senate campaign, Sharron Angle actually said this.



And just seven months later, an armed madman attempted to assassinate then Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona). Jared Loughner succeeded in shooting her and eighteen other people, and six of them were killed. And Loughner used a Glock pistol with a high-capacity magazine.

Fast forward to December 2012. In the wake of the horrific Newtown elementary school massacre in Connecticut, we saw renewed demand for gun safety reform. And despite some DC pundits' spin to the contrary, the solid majority of Americans are still demanding action on gun violence today.

And now, all of a sudden, the violent rhetoric and actions that plagued the country in 2010 and boiled over horrifically in Arizona in January 2011 have returned in a major way. Some even wonder if the violent rhetoric and actions really waned for very long in 2011. Take into consideration this...

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And this...

A sheriff known for cracking down on the drug trade in southern West Virginia’s coalfields was fatally shot Wednesday in the spot where he usually parked his car for lunch, a state official said, and a suspect was in custody.

State Police told Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin that Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum died of his wounds, said his chief of staff Rob Alsop. The suspect, who was also shot, was taken to a hospital in Logan, Alsop said.

The courthouse was evacuated, streets into the city were blocked off and officers held white sheets around the crime scene, Crum’s body further shielded by two vehicles.

The shooting occurred within a block of the county courthouse, said Office of Emergency Services head dispatcher Willis Spence. Officials planned a news conference for 6 p.m. in the county in the southwest corner of West Virginia, on the border with Kentucky.

And this.

“Yesterday, several death threats were phoned into my New York office in response to news reports about a bill I authored requiring gun owners to have insurance,” the congresswoman said in a statement Wednesday morning. “The calls were fielded by young interns, who were understandably shaken by this experience.” [...]

“They said they were going to kill me,” she told the [New York Daily News]. [...]

In her statement, Maloney said she’s proud of her work to stem gun violence and strongly supports President Obama’s gun control initiatives. “100,000 Americans are injured by guns every year,” she said. “Carrying insurance is the responsible thing to do.”

“Given all the acts of gun violence we have seen in the past two years, the shootings in Aurora and Newtown, the attack on my friend and colleague Gabby Gifford (sic), I take the threat of more gun violence very seriously,” the congresswoman continued. “But it is not something that I will allow to stop me from doing my work.”

Yes, this actually happened this week. Here we go again.

And again, Sharron Angle's words return to haunt us. We're now seeing "Second Amendment Remedies" materialize. Once again, Members of Congress are receiving death threats. And law enforcement leaders are being shot dead. And even schools are again vulnerable.

I'm sure Senator Dean Heller (R-NRA) is trying to blame Hollywood for all of this. Yet despite his & the gun lobby's best attempts to spin away all this violence, the fact remains that it's here. So what will we do about it?

Sure, taking hunting rifles away from law abiding citizens won't help. And no one's talking about doing that. The problem, rather, is with extremely violent rhetoric paired up with easy access to dangerous military grade weapons. And especially when those military grade weapons fall into the wrong hands at the wrong time, (even more of) these horrific tragedies happen. And the violent rhetoric that's seeped into our politics in recent years has made this problem even worse.

So when will we do something?

They're Not "Props", Joe Heck. They're Reality.

In the past week, we've been wondering where Joe Heck would fall in the gun safety debate in Congress. He released some "moderate" sounding yet very empty language just before several of his constituents tried to meet with him last week. But now, it looks like we finally have an answer.

.@RepJoeHeck on KDWN: "Anti-gun" forces trying to use "the cloud of emotion surrounding Newtown...to limit Second Amendment rights."

But wait, there's more.

Radio talker Alan Stock: "Nauseating....shameful act" to put up Gabby Giffords as a "prop" in the gun debate. @RepJoeHeck: "I agree."

Really? Did Joe Heck really just go there? I wonder if he's willing to call Gabby Giffords a mere "prop" to her face. I wonder if he's also willing to do that to the families of those who died in Newtown, Aurora, Tucson, Chicago, and/or Southern California.

Does Heck also think of Janay Mcfarlane as a mere "prop"?

18-year-old Janay Mcfarlane, a mother of a 3-month-old boy, was shot in the head and killed in a Chicago suburb just hours after her sister sat behind President Obama as he advocated for tighter gun regulations on Friday.

January was one of the deadliest in Chicago in more than a decade, with more than 40 people killed in homicides. “Last year, there were 443 murders with a firearm in this city,and 65 of them were 18 and under,” Obama said in his speech. “That’s the equivalent of a Newtown every four months. That’s precisely why the overwhelming majority of Americans are asking for some common sense proposals to make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun.” Obama also remembered Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old who was killed in a South Side park days after performing at his inauguration.

As we discussed on Sunday, Chicago has suffered immensely from gun violence despite its strict local regulations. That's because Illinois state law is more lax, and because it's incredibly easy for Chicago street gangs and other criminals to obtain firearms from "gun easy" states like Indiana and Mississippi.

Either Joe Heck doesn't understand this... Or he does, yet he still refuses to act on gun safety reform. Either way, it's reprehensible. And Joe Heck needs to open his eyes and notice the reality checks all around him on the vicious reality of gun violence.

It's not as if Nevada is immune from this epic gun violence. Something must change. And Joe Heck needs to see the reality check(s) right in front of him.

#SOTU Open Thread

5:50 PM:

This certainly isn't your typical State of the Union night. President Obama is speaking right on the heels of the epic final battle in Big Bear, California, between Christopher Dorner and law enforcement. Two San Bernardino County Sheriffs were shot earlier today. One died, while the other is still alive and undergoing surgery in a nearby hospital. Meanwhile, the cabin that Dorner was occupying is burning to the ground as I write. It's unclear yet whether Dorner himself is dead or alive.

Obviously, everyone will be awaiting what President Obama says on gun safety. However, that won't be the entirety of his speech. Obama will also be calling for jobs programs and more economic recovery, as well as for action on climate change and comprehensive immigration reform (CIR).

Stay tuned here for more updates on #SOTU, as well as for any new updates on the Dorner case in Southern California.

6:00 PM: Notice all the green ribbons in the House chamber? They're honoring victims of gun violence. It's especially poignant tonight considering what's still unfolding in Southern California.

6:20 PM: The President is starting with a conciliatory tone in stating his willingness to be a "partner in progress" with Congress. He's also noting recent economic improvement, as well as the end of the Iraq & Afghanistan Wars. And of course, he says the state of our union is strong.

6:22 PM: And here it is. The President is talking about "restoring the middle class. It's our task to make sire this government is working for the many... & opens the doors of opportunity to all our children." The President is hitting hard on economic justice... & hinting at his strategy to fend off threats of double dip recession.

While Obama touts recent deficit reduction, he also wants economic growth. Simply put, this is why we can't afford "The Sequester", aka Fiscal Cliff 2.0. It's imperative on Congress to stop the austerity madness.

6:27 PM: Obama is trying to thread the needle on Medicare & Social Security. He says he's open to reform, but he won't accept hurting seniors in need. Progressives will probably remain on the edge of their seats as Congress keeps wrangling over "The Sequester"... And Medicare & Social Security are still on the table.

6:29 PM: And here come taxes. Obama demands more revenue and fewer synthentic fiscal crises. Again, if we have to pursue deficit reduction, we must be careful in doing so while the economy is still in early stages of recovery. And the super-rich are the ones who can most afford to pay for it.

"Deficit reduction alone is not an economic plan."

6:33 PM: President Obama is talking about the real deficit problem we still face: the jobs deficit. He wants to continue beefing up manufacturing here in America. And he's promoting scientific research! Yes, it works. And you know what? It also helps the economy.

Again, we can't afford austerity.

6:35 PM: Yay, energy time! But boo, fossil fuels.

Oh yay, he says, "We must do more to combat climate change." So what will we do? He offers an olive branch to one-time rival John McCain on cap-and-trade. Remember when Republicans liked that?

But if Congress won't act, the President must do something. And Obama is promising that. He's offering executive action on expediting renewable energy programs, an "energy security trust", and some sort of carbon cap should Congress decline to implement a cap-and-trade system.

6:42 PM: "We can get this done". That's what President Obama said on infrastructure repair & reinvestment. That will be nice. Check out our roads, our libraries, our schools, and more. We need it. Oh, & we need jobs!

6:45 PM: "The sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road."

Ah, universal pre-school. I'm down with that... But are #NVLeg & Brian Sandoval? They've yet to agree on universal kindergarten.

But really, more education tends to mean less crime and less poverty. If we're serious about crime prevention and economic empowerment, we need to do better in supporting our schools.

6:48 PM: Obama also talks about higher education. He wants to reform the Higher Ed Act so that the feds consider affordability of colleges when determining federal funding.

6:50 PM: And now, #CIR! Obama again demands reform... Including a "responsible path to earned citizenship". He again shouts out bipartisan efforts in Congress to tackle this issue. Will they take kindly?

He's also addressing the Violence Against Women Act, the Paycheck Fairness Act, & ending the overall War on Women. See, he hasn't forgotten.

6:54 PM: Here, Obama returns to economic justice. He calls for investment in hard hit (by the recession & decades of neglect) communities. And in a surprising twist, he also calls on a raise in the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour. When was the last time we heard poverty discussed in a State of the Union speech?

7:00 PM: In the foreign policy portion, Obama talks North Korea, arms reduction, drones, bringing home 34,000 troops from Afghanistan, and continuing to support flourishing "Arab Spring" democracies.

7:07 PM: In discussing the military, Obama shouts out #DADT repeal and equal service for women. The military is (again) becoming a catalyst for civil rights.

7:10 PM: Obama also shouts out the fundamental right to vote. Remember that? And remember all those efforts to block people from voting?

7:15 PM: Obama is closing with gun safety. Obama is hitting all the major policy points: assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, gun trafficking, and background checks. He evokes Hadiya Pendleton in Chicago, along with the 20 kids of Newtown. And Gabby Giffords & Tucson.

"They deserve a simple vote. Our actions will not prevent every senseless violent act in this country... But we weren't sent here to be perfect. We were sent here to do what we can... We were sent here to look out for our fellow Americans."

And while he's speaking, Southern California is still reeling from the Christopher Dorner manhunt.

7:17 PM: Obama closed in calling for collective action. And he closed in reminding the audience of our duty to help each other. Again, he evoked economic justice. And he reiterated his drive to solve CIR, gun safety reform, climate change, and more. This was a moving speech, especially considering the saddening backdrop of tonight.

Witness Tonight

Yesterday, Rep. Joe Heck's district office heard from constitutents on gun safety reform.

8 News NOW

Tonight, he will be listening to President Obama making his case for gun safety reform at tonight's State of the Union Address. And not only that, but he will also be seeing several gun violence survivors in the audience. One of them will be Heck's former colleague in Congress, Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords herself as plenty to say about gun violence, and she isn't waiting until tonight.



I've already caught this ad on local cable here. Constituents of Heck, and of Senators Harry Reid & Dean Heller, are seeing this. And they're reminded of the horror of what happened in Tucson just over two years ago. Can we really afford any more of that, or of what happened in Aurora & Newtown last year?

That's not the question that the gun lobby wants us to think about. That's why a NRA lobbyist tried to dismiss current efforts for gun violence prevention as "The Connecticut Effect". You see, it's easier for the NRA to sweep this under the rug when it's just some distant, esoteric, and sterilized philosophical debate. It becomes much more difficult for gun industry lobbyists to defend what they're doing when confronted with actual reality.



Yet that's what's happening today. The gun lobby, along with Members of Congress, must confront reality. Harry Reid, Dean Heller, and Joe Heck must see those who lost loved ones to gun violence tonight. And they must ask themselves if we can go any longer without significant gun safety reform.

Pay Attention, Senators.

Earlier today, the Senate Judiciary Committee invited a very special guest to testify. And her testimony was quite moving, even with it lasting less than two minutes.

"Thank you for inviting me here today. This is an important conversation for our children, for our communities, for Democrats and Republicans. Speaking is difficult, but I need to say something important. Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something. It will be hard but the time is now. You must act. Be bold. Be courageous. Americans are counting on you. Thank you."

Gabrielle Giffords knows firsthand the pain of gun violence and the horror of a mass shooting. She was nearly assassinated just over two years ago, when she represented Southern Arizona in Congress and was conducting a "Congress at Your Corner" event just north of Tucson. While Giffords survived the shooting, eight other people passed away. Her husband, retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, explained to the committee the impact of the Tucson Massacre, the shock following the Newtown massacre, and why they & other gun owners support common sense gun safety reform.



Of course, the latter particularly frightens the NRA. After all, they claim to be the monolithic voice of America's gun owners. And they really don't like being called out on their nonsenical, idiotic "ideas".

"My problem with background checks is you are never going to get criminals to go through universal background checks. And all the law-abiding people, you'll create an enormous federal bureaucracy, unfunded, hitting all the little people in the country, will have to go through it, pay the fees, pay the taxes," LaPierre said. "We don't even prosecute anybody right now that goes through the system we have. So, we're going to make all those law-abiding people go through the system and then we aren't going to prosecute any of the bad guys if they do catch one. None of it makes any sense in the real world. We have 80,000 police families in the NRA. We care about safety. We support what works."

After a brief interlude by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the committee chairman, Durbin went after LaPierre.

"Mr. LaPierre, that's the point," Durbin fired back. "The criminals won't go to purchase the guns because there'll be a background check. We'll stop them from original purchase. You missed that point completely. It's basic."

Strangely enough, as the hearing continued and Mark Kelly was being questioned, news broke of another Arizona shooting. This time, it was at an office complex in Phoenix. So far, three people have been wounded.

Truth can so often be so much stranger than fiction.



Before today's hearing, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-It's Complicated) insisted he will bring gun safety legislation to the Senate floor. Yet so far, he still hasn't said whether he would vote for the Assault Weapons Ban favored by his good friends, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) & President Obama. We don't even know for sure how he will vote on universal background checks & efforts to curb illegal gun trafficking.

Meanwhile, Nevada's other Senator, Dean Heller (R-46%), has hardly said a peep on gun safety since Newtown. Even with a mountain of evidence illustrating the need for gun safety reform along with overwhelming public support for it, Heller has kept his silence. Wait, isn't "Senator No Labels Postpartisan" supposed to ditch his "tea party" past in favor of a "moderate" new agenda? Well, now is a good time for both Heller and Reid to demonstrate that.

Hopefully, at least some of their staff are paying close attention to today's hearing. This should be a learning experience for the entire US Senate.

Tucson. Gabby. Guns. Two Years Later.

Almost exactly two years ago, this happened.

I'm incredibly horrified by what happened today in Southern Arizona... But sadly, I'm not all that shocked. This was bound to happen. When our political climate becomes so heated, so polarized, and so radicalized, violence is bound to result. In the next few days, I hope Gabrielle Giffords survives surgery and begins full recovery. And I hope all of our political leaders- left, right, and center- condemn this horrid, criminal, possibly terrorist act, and urge Americans not to allow our politics to become so bloody.

Fortunately, Gabrielle Giffords survived that assassination attempt. However, 8 people died that day and several others were wounded. And even since that happened, there have been more horrific mass shootings throughout America.

Back in January 2011, we discussed this.

Yes, yes, I've heard that famous clause: "Guns don't kill. People do." But you know what? When mentally disturbed people can access extremely lethal "weapons of mass distruction" so easily at the neighborhood gun store or local gun show, that's a serious problem.

Unfortunately, nothing happened after Tucson... Other than even more mass shootings. After the July 2012 theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, I just couldn't contain my frustration over a crisis that we let get out of hand.

It's become so easy in most parts of this country (Nevada included) to purchase not just guns, but the very assault weapons that are DESIGNED to kill masses of people. As we've discussed before, it's been easier to buy guns than to access affordable mental health care in most states. There's something seriously wrong with that. [...]

Frankly, I don't think we can afford to keep avoiding this subject. And I don't think it's fair to dismiss all gun safety advocates as "nanny state socialists who want to ban hunting". That's actually not what we're talking about.

Rather, we're asking how logical it is that instruments intended for mass murder are so readily available. And does it make sense that nearly anyone and everyone can access these instruments intended for mass murder? So when will we finally be allowed to have a rational discussion on improving gun safety?

And then, Newtown happened. Apparently, the sight of 20 children and 7 adults slaughtered in their elementary school horrified the entire nation. And it finally led to some deep soul searching on the issue of gun safety.

Of course, there are deranged and disgusting people in this world. Unfortunately, that will never change. However, what has to change is allowing these very people to commit acts of terrorism on our soil. And what has to change is the celebration and downright worship of assault weapons that should have never been allowed to become so commonplace in civilian life.

There. I said it. [...]

[... S]o far, it's looking incredibly likely that Newtown, Connecticut, is now suffering immense loss because of a deranged individual getting one's hands on dangerous assault weapons. There may have been no background check. And clearly, there was no fail-safe to prevent so many bullets from being released so quickly.

Will we ever learn? And will we ever have an honest discussion on how to correct this horrifying failure in public policy? How many more people have to die before we reconsider our extreme allegiance to the gun lobby?

Even Giffords herself, a formerly "pro-gun Democrat" in Congress, has had second thoughts on the extremely permissive attitude towards deadly assault weapons in this country. And she & her husband are now taking action to change that.



And they're not alone. President Obama plans to continue pressing for gun safety reform. And other grassroots voices have emerged in calling for better gun safety. Some of these voices even know firsthand the horrors of extreme gun violence.



Tucson was not the first incident of mass gun violence, nor has it been the last. But as we look back on the last 2 years, we must ask ourselves how much we've done to make our communities safer and free our people from the fear of being "the next victims". And we must demand change.

10 of 11: Gabby... & Jared

Even though this clip is from 2010, it's a lurid foreshadow of how 2011 was to begin:



And yes, sadly, there's a Nevada Angle to this story.



While she may not have been the main cause of the Tucson massacre that killed six people and wounded nineteen others, including US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona), Sharron Angle's and the tea party's increasingly violent rhetoric certainly helped to create the environment that encouraged fringe radicals like Jared Lee Loughner to use "Second Amendment Remedies". Back in January, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik pointed it out.

“When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And, unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.” [...]

“We need to do some soul searching … It’s the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business. People tend to pooh-pooh this business about the vitriol that inflames American public opinion by the people who make a living off of that. That may be free speech but it’s not without consequences.”

And the Southern Poverty Law Center researched the origins of the conspiracy theories Loughner embraced, and found some startling clues for what motivated him to turn violent.

At one point, Loughner refers disparagingly to “currency that’s not backed by gold or silver.” The idea that silver and gold are the only “constitutional” money is widespread in the antigovernment “Patriot” movement that produced so much violence in the 1990s. It’s linked to the core Patriot theory that the Federal Reserve is actually a private corporation run for the benefit of unnamed international bankers. So-called Patriots say paper money — what they refer to with a sneer as “Federal Reserve notes” — is not lawful.

At another, Loughner makes extraordinarily obscure comments about language and grammar, suggesting that the government engages in “mind control on the people by controlling grammar.” That’s not the kind of idea that’s very common out there, even on the Internet. In fact, I think it’s pretty clear that Loughner is taking ideas from Patriot conspiracy theorist David Wynn Miller of Milwaukee. Miller claims that the government uses grammar to “enslave” Americans and offers up his truly weird “Truth-language” as an antidote. For example, he says that if you add colons and hyphens to your name in a certain way, you are no longer taxable. Miller may be mad as a hatter, but he has a real following on the right.

Loughner talks about how you “can’t trust the government” and someone burns a U.S. flag in one of his videos. Although certain right-wing websites are already using that (and his listing of The Communist Manifesto as one of his favorite books) to claim that Loughner was a “left-winger,” that does not strike me as true. The main enemy of the Patriot movement is certainly the federal government. And so-called Patriots have certainly engaged in acts like burning the flag.

And if you think this is all just "crazy talk", tell that to Iowa. According to PPP, Ron Paul has now taken the lead there as the Iowa Caucus is fast approaching. Remember, Ron Paul has repeatedly winked and nodded at these conspiracy theories as he's trying to turn the fringe into mainstream. And it's not just Paul. The whole radical right likes to play footsie with this kind of crazy... Until something like this occurs, when they then try to rewrite history.

As I wrote back in January...

OK, so Loughner may have been dabbling in some looney tunes nonsense, possibly even including a known white supremacist hate group. What does this have to do with Glenn Beck... Or Sarah Palin and Sharron Angle for that matter? Well, it comes back to the ["tea party"]. The "tea party" is a sort of umbrella classification of a number of far right organizations and politicians, but there is definitely strong evidence to show that leading "tea party" figures are trying to legitimize the same extreme ideology of the extreme right that influenced past terrorists, like Timothy McVeigh.

And worse, as Glenn Beck warns of supposed "conspiracies of the left" to bring about "imminent violent revolution", and as Sarah Palin tells her followers, "never retreat, instead RELOAD!", and as Sharron Angle suggests "Second Amendment Remedies" to take care of "enemies in our own system... in the walls of Congress"...

Far too many media pundits and politicians in DC have been far too willing to simply dismiss this as "politics as usual". This is NOT "politics as usual". This is an ever escalating culture of political violence that must stop!

Again, I had feared something like this would eventually happen. Last year, I feared Harry Reid would be the victim. I had seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears the teabaggers' unplugged, unfiltered, and unfettered irrational hatred of Harry Reid... As well as President Barack Obama, for that matter. While "Tea Party, Inc." consultants in California were just focusing on building enough opposition to win an election, the opposition among many teabaggers ran far deeper.

And that January, we found out the hard way how deep that was.

Yet while we saw the far right turn increasingly radical, we also saw glimmers of hope as folks in The Southwest turned away from it. Pay attention again to Gabby's own words.



Strangely enough, Giffords talked with an long time Republican friend about starting a campaign to tone down the increasingly extreme rhetoric in today's politics right before her "Congress on Your Corner" town hall that turned so bloody. Yet while Giffords herself ultimately couldn't lead on this, others soon filled that void. Extreme anti-immigrant Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now facing his own legal troubles for politicizing law enforcement there. Russell Pearce, the state senator who briefly turned Arizona's legislature into a breeding ground for "tea party" extremism, was recalled by his own constituents just last month. Jan Brewer, the Arizona Governor that signed the SB 1070 "papers, please" law and campaigned for reelection on it, is now seeing her popularity fade fast in light of a failed redistricting power grab. And in another twist of fate, Daniel Hernandez, the intern who helped to save Gabby Giffords' life, won election to a seat on the local Tuscon school board.

So maybe there is hope, after all. Gabby Giffords herself continues to recover. She's showing remarkable progress for someone who suffered that kind of brain injury, and is showing interest in running for reelection to Congress.

I'll leave you with this from Time.

There was much to hate about politics this year, especially the amount of hate that seemed to poison it. But if there was an antidote, it came from one of the victims: Gabrielle Giffords, vibrant and valiant member of Congress from Arizona, gunned down when a deranged shooter outside a supermarket put a bullet through her brain. That she survived at all was a miracle; that she recovers — slowly, stubbornly, each day a search for another word, another milestone — is a model. "You have to have hope and faith," she says at the end of Gabby, the book she wrote with her husband and fellow warrior against all odds and expectations, astronaut Mark Kelly. "I will get stronger. I will return."

Where Has the Dream Gone?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had a dream. All too often, we don't talk about the entire dream. And all too often, we don't want to talk about our failures over the last four decades to get anywhere close to that dream.





So where are we? And what has happened to King's dream? When did the dream become this nightmare?









Not that long ago, it was easy to just laugh off "tea party" extremism as silly... But look at what's happened. And for far too long, questions of inequality have been placed aside. And as we wonder when our occupation of Iraq will end, when our occupation of Afghanistan will come to a close, and when another military invasion and occupation might ensue, we must wonder if we've become far too much of a culture of violence.

When did we forget this...



And embrace this?





What happened? What happened to Dr. King's dream? Where have we gone wrong in the last 43 years? Why are so many of our people still treated as "second class citizens"? Why do we never have the resources to help our people help themselves, but we somehow always have more money to wage more wars? Why have we become so violent toward each other?

These are the questions I have today. As six people have been buried in Tucson, our country is still mired in two wars abroad, Congress is set to debate (again) why we should or shouldn't have access to affordable health care, and federal courts consider whether queer folk actually have Constitutional rights, we need to ask ourselves what happened to Dr. King's dream... And how we can finally turn the dream deferred into the dream fulfilled.

After the Attack: Can We Change? Will We Change?

When I saw this, I was frustrated... Yet again. Why don't they get it?

Tom Danehy at Tucson Weekly makes a really good point.

I would never say that the Tea Party wanted somebody to put a bullet in Gabrielle Giffords' head, but at the same time, you can't tell me that everybody in that movement feels bad that it happened.

I would never claim that talk-show lemmings—who leapfrog each other in a desperate attempt to be the one who is most out there—are giving secret orders to listeners to go out and shoot members of Congress, but at the same time, you can't tell me that the ratcheting up of the vile content by some of these creeps isn't enough to push some Travis Bickle-wannabe over the edge.

And I don't believe that Sarah Palin wanted Gabby Giffords to get shot, but damn you if you try to claim that putting a bulls-eye over the district of a United States congresswoman is all just good, clean fun.

This all goes way past disingenuous. You can't build a bonfire in a clearing and then deny any culpability when the embers get caught in the breeze and ignite dry tinder somewhere downwind. You don't have to ascribe to chaos theory to make that connection. You do, however, have to practice self-delusion on a grand scale to claim that the connection doesn't exist.

As Rush Limbaugh himself loves to say, words mean things; words are important. Messages tend to morph and degrade as they are passed along from one person to the next, even if they are done so on a word-for-word basis. It should surprise no one that hate speech that is spewed as self-congratulatory cleverness can, after a few iterations, become an insistent whisper in some nut-job's head.

Many Tucsonans understand this. After all, they've been living this nightmare for the last week. And they saw firsthand the build-up of anger from all the diatribes of the last two years.



Words matter. People matter. Actions matter. That's why it's critical for all of us to lead by example.

Gabby Giffords understands that. I'm reminded again of her victory speech last November.



And I'm reminded of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's speech last night. Yes, you heard me right. I've had plenty of policy disagreements with her before, but that's just it. Those disagreements over policy should not negate someone's human value and should not prevent us from finding common ground.



I appreciate what Governor Brewer is doing there, as well as President Obama's words yesterday. Hopefully, we can all continue to learn from their example.

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Gabby Giffords is healing and recovering... And perhaps our democracy can, too. I guess some on the extreme right, a few on the far left, and others will continue slinging mud and hurling dung until the cows come home, but that doesn't mean our government has to plagued with vitriol and reduced to paralysis just because the "tea party" demands its pound of flesh and no one wants to negotiate in good faith.

We need to learn from this. Danehy concludes his essay with this.

I'm actually proud to live in a community that reacted the way it did, from the woman who grabbed a spare magazine away from the shooter, to the emergency-response teams and medical personnel who all did their jobs heroically. I'm especially proud of Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, who spoke his mind and did his job while wearing his emotions on his sleeve. He focused in with laser-like precision and told all the Tree of Liberty jackasses what they could do with their cooler heads.

I don't want to hear about "senseless tragedy." This was a calculated act with a cause and an effect. Let's just hope that part of that effect is to admit that the cause exists—and to take peaceful steps to deal with it.

Perhaps we can all learn from the good people of Tucson.

After the Attack: Hope Restored? Change Coming?

I watched and listened as President Obama spoke in Tucson last night. And I came away with the kind of sentiment that Joan Walsh expressed at Salon.com last night.

The event billed as a memorial service for victims of the Tucson, Ariz., massacre turned into what critics called a "pep rally," with cheering and hooting and hollering crowds. I don't understand what bothered people, because it was clear to me from the start: The University of Arizona crowd was celebrating the heroism that was on display last Saturday, when ordinary people became heroes and saved lives. And they were cheering the very idea of America.

There it was, folks, Saturday morning and again Wednesday night: our country, as good as it gets. Remember how great it looked and felt and sounded, when things inevitably get ugly again. Reagan-appointed Supreme Court Justice Sandra O'Connor, now retired, sat admiringly next to Daniel Hernandez Jr., the 20-year-old Gabrielle Giffords intern who helped save her life Saturday (who happens to be gay and Mexican American). Attorney General Eric Holder was side by side with Gov. Jan Brewer, whose racial profiling law he's fighting. The service began with an Indian blessing from Dr. Carlos Gonzales, who described his mother as Mexican, his father as a Yaqui survivor of "genocide," and his son as a soldier in Afghanistan, who praised "this great country, where a poor barrio kid from the south side of Tucson could get an education at a fine institution like the University of Arizona -- and then, even better, come back and teach here."

Like it or not, that's American history: We are imperfect, descended from people who took land from Indians and Mexicans and who held slaves, but also from people who fought for equal rights for everyone, and who, over time, managed to create laws and values and customs that (mostly) do that. Daniel Hernandez began his speech with the words "e pluribus unum" -- out of many, one -- and even if it's not an ideal we always live up to, it's the best idea we've ever had as a nation. President Obama delivered what I think was his best speech ever, but for a while Wednesday night, Hernandez stole the show, reminding us "what defines us is not difference ... we are all Americans," and rejecting the label "hero," since he said, "The real heroes are those who have dedicated their lives to public service." Obama correctly differed with Hernandez, congratulating him as a hero for helping to save Giffords' life.

E pluribus unum. When did we lose this? And how can we get it back? President Obama's speech last night gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, we can find our way again.

Last night, Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes for the first time since last Saturday. So far, her recovery has been remarkable. Just 10% of those shot in the head survive this kind of injury, and even fewer make the kind of full recovery that Giffords' doctors now say may be possible for her.

It's already encouraging to see Giffords recover, but I hope that as she recovers, our representative democracy also recovers. For far too long, our system has been ripped apart. People have been intimidated out of participating. Congress has often descended to a madhouse of constant "political warfare". We have to get past this.

So will we? Will we see the kind of change that Americans have been longing for so long? Will we see our government work? Will we see inflammatory rhetoric on caustic politics replaced with honest dialogue on good policy? I think this may very well be the best way we can honor Gabby Giffords, the other survivors of last Saturday's attack, and all those we've lost.

Below is the video from last night's ceremony.

They Still Don't Get It

Just as Americans keep asking what happened last weekend and what we can do to stop the madness, the "mad hatters" of the "tea party" continue to be more preoccupied with gaining some sort of "political advantage" after this.

"ZOMG, Obama's approval is up again! We can't allow that. Let's nip that in the bud!"

"Clarabelle Dopenik." That's what one wit on the popular conservative Web site freerepublic.com called Clarence Dupnik, the Pima County, Arizona sheriff who turns 75 this week. Elected continuously since 1980, he is the public face of the investigation into the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and 19 others. He is also, according to bloggers on that site, "an incompetent unhinged sonofabitch" and "a jerk" "using this tragedy for baseless, cheap political shots."

Sheriff Dupnik's crime was decrying

"the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business.... When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government -- the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on this country is getting to be outrageous, and unfortunately Arizona has become sort of the capital.... People tend to pooh-pooh this business about all the vitriol we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living off of doing that. That may be free speech, but it's not without consequences."

The problem with Sheriff Dupnik's calling out vitriol, blogged one conservative, was that it was actually "calling out Rush, Glen[n], Sean and Fox!!!!!" Dupnik was, wrote another, "inciting violence accusing Rush, tea parties, Palin, and Republicans of bigotry and murder."

What threatened the right the most was losing control of the national political narrative. Until the slayings in the Safeway parking lot, the master story had been the triumphant G.O.P. sweeping into Congress to repeal "the job-killing health care bill." But as of Saturday, the new story connected the dots between the inflammatory rhetoric of McCain/Palin events in 2008, the ugly confrontations at congressional town halls in the summer of 2009, the "lock and load" cackling of the 2010 campaign - and the cultural climate of the Tucson murders. Within the space of a few hours, the story had been transformed from a revenge narrative (Obama brought low) to a soul-searching meta-narrative: How has our society come to this season in hell, and what must be done to heal us?

So now Sharron Angle tries to rewrite history.

Former Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle has spoken out against the shootings in Tucson this weekend that included Rep. Gabrielle Giffords -- who remains in critical condition after being shot in the head -- saying that "expanding the context of the attack to blame and to infringe upon the people's Constitutional liberties is both dangerous and ignorant."

Angle has been repeatedly mentioned by the media in the wake of the shootings, for her comments during the campaign: "People are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying, my goodness, what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you, the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out."

Politico reports that Angle now says that "the irresponsible assignment of blame to me, Sarah Palin or the TEA Party movement by commentators and elected officials puts all who gather to redress grievances in danger." [...]

She continued: "Finger-pointing towards political figures is an audience-rating game and contradicts the facts as they are known - that the shooter was obsessed with his twisted plans long before the TEA Party movement began."

Angle added that the shooting "is a horrifying and senseless tragedy, and should be condemned as a single act of violence by a single unstable individual" and that she has "consistently called for reasonable political dialogue on policy issues to encourage civil political education and debate."

And Sarah Palin is joining her in doing the same... And making sure we know that SHE is somehow the real victim here.

After nearly a week of silence and waves of bad press, Sarah Palin finally speaks. To Facebook.

Since journalists and pundits are manufacturing "blood libel," the former Alaskan governer must want to speak directly to the people. However, as The Guardian points out, she probably could've picked a better phrase to describe the media's unified attack against her use of violent rhetoric -- most notably putting Giffords in the crosshairs on a campaign poster distributed before the shootings.

"Blood libel" according to Wikipedia:

"Blood libel (also blood accusation) refers to a false accusation or claim that religious minorities, almost always Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays. Historically, these claims have–alongside those of well poisoning and host desecration–been a major theme in European persecution of Jews."

Also, Gabrielle Giffords is Jewish. Oh dear.

Really, Sarah? Really, Sharron? So everything is all hunky dory and coming up rainbows because Palin never actually took out a pistol to duel with Joe Biden during the 2008 Vice Presidential Debate? And it's obvious that Angle has always been about "reasonable political dialogue on policy issues" because she didn't actually take out her "best friends, Smith and Wesson" when she was debating Harry Reid last fall?

Give me a break!





Leo Gerard has a good point here.

[... I]t's difficult to directly link violent political rhetoric like Sarah Palin's illustration showing gun sight cross hairs on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' Arizona district to the shattering of Giffords' office door after her vote for health insurance reform last March or Jared L. Loughner's shooting spree last weekend that left six dead and Giffords and 13 others wounded.

What is clear, however, is that vile and threatening communication that becomes so repetitive that it's routine has the effect of sanctioning an atmosphere of violence.

Conservatives are yammering that they're not the only ones who engage in brutal rhetoric. That's true. But in a contest for production of violent words and images, Republicans would, to use their words, "kill" the Democrats.

The Department of Homeland Security concluded in an April 2009 internal report that right-wing extremism, with a growing potential for violence, was on the rise. That was followed last spring by Capitol security officials reporting a tripling of threats against members of Congress -- almost all from opponents of health care reform -- in other words, from Republicans, right-wingers or people influenced by GOP TV and radio front men who personally profit from the hostile climate they generate.

I remember that report. And I remember the teabaggers whining about how that report was trying to "criminalize politics". So that report was ignored... And this happened...



"Read what Jefferson said about the 'tree of liberty'. It's coming."



"It's time to water the tree of liberty."

This isn't even about health care any more with these radical righties. For them, it's all about racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia... To sum it up in one word, hate. And how sick are the GOP & sick care industry to actually use this thinly veiled hate to rile up these people and encourage them to start violence!

I actually don't mind debating the merits of universal health care with rational conservatives that want to talk about the economics of health care. Where are they? Has today's Republican leadership scared them all out of the party? Are the GOP, the HMOs, and the pharmaceutical companies so afraid of rational discussion of health care that they have to resort to this?

Violence should NOT be condoned, and xenophobia should not be celebrated. If the GOP wants to debate us on health care, then I encourage it. I'm not afraid or making good arguments, and I know many more progressives who feel the same. However, I am afraid of this "teabagger/birther/deather" cult, fully funded by the GOP and the sick care industry, becoming increasingly violent.

I wrote that back in August 2009. And I was already starting to fear what would eventually bear fruit in January 2011. And for Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, and others to blithely ignore the consequences of "politics" turning violent is nothing short of horrifying.

Maybe we need to pay more attention to Gabrielle Giffords herself, and to outgoing Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson (R).

The friendly email Republican Trey Grayson got from Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) last Friday night, congratulating him on a new job, came amid a flood of similar messages. The Kentucky Secretary of State, and erstwhile Senate candidate, recently accepted a position as director of Harvard University's Institute of Politics. It was only the next day that Giffords' message took on a particular significance.

"After you get settled, I would love to talk about what we can do to promote centrism and moderation," Giffords wrote. "I am one of only 12 Dems left in a GOP district (the only woman) and think that we need to figure out how to tone our rhetoric and partisanship down."

On Saturday, Giffords was shot in the head at an event in Tucson, by a gunman who killed six and wounded 13 others. Giffords miraculously survived, but remains in critical condition. As the national conversation turned to what role, if any, violent political rhetoric played in the shooting, Grayson's office released Giffords' email.

"If we could honor Gabby, honor other victims, by having this conversation, and actually doing it, it's a way to honor them," Grayson told TPM in a phone interview.

Grayson, who said he was "really disturbed by how it immediately became political on both sides" after the shooting, said he and Giffords spoke often about the need for more civil discourse. Friday's message was just the latest dispatch in a years-long back and forth of texts and emails.

"We want to have good Republicans and want to have good Democrats," he said, citing the close relationship between the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as an example. "If we would show that a little more publicly, maybe, maybe that would help."

I hope we can learn and we can stop repeating these scary mistakes.