Now is not the time to talk about gun control (1 Viewer)

[brandon]

T&P

10 killed in Boulder shooting: Victims identified, suspect charged

Police said 10 people were killed, including an officer, after a shooting at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.

www.google.com

 

[Taurus]

Posted on EE too
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The man stood in a red Make America Great Again baseball cap pointing his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle toward the sidewalk.

An elementary school student ran home crying. Parents were terrified. Neighbors called the police. While he had not explicitly threatened people in this suburban neighborhood, just the sight of him walking near school bus stops was enough for the nearby elementary school in Anne Arundel County to delay bus drop-off this week.

“The presence of someone with a weapon at or near a bus stop raises fear and anxiety for students and parents, especially in a day and age where we’ve had a number of school shootings across our country,” said Bob Mosier, the spokesman for the school district of more than 83,000 students.

The man, J’Den McAdory, said in an interview with The Washington Post that he is protesting recent state legislation regarding guns by open carrying his weapon around the neighborhood and that he was not singling out school bus stops.

Although it crossed his mind that children — who have grown up practicing active shooter drills and who know that others just like them have been killed by men with big guns — may be scared by the sight of him, he thought he could soothe their fears by simply waving.

“I have remorse because the kids, you know, they were afraid. I have the remorse for that just because they’re still children,” said McAdory, who lives less than two miles from the local elementary school of about 500 students. “But I’m not saying what I’m doing is wrong either.”…….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/05/19/bus-stop-ar-15-gun-maryland/

In a different timeline, from 200 yards away...

BLAM!

"I thought he was a school shooter, officer. I acted to defend the children."

 

[superchuck500]

This is remarkable. Today Judge Carlton Reeves in the S.D. Miss., rules that Mississippi's felon gun prohibition (a law that prohibits felons from owning and possession guns) violates the Second Amendment. Reeves is not, however, a gun rights supporter and his opinion not only attempts to demonstrate the absurdity that the rationale behind Heller and Bruen compels him to rule that state law keeping guns out of the hands of felons is unconstitutional, he also illustrates the fundamental problem with Scalia-style "originalism" based on history: Judges are not historians and the history used to support these cases is often bullshirt or at least quite suspect . . . and none of it is even part of the case's record, where facts are developed with cross examination and experts.

This is where the challenge to the status quo comes from. This is the nuts and bolts of moving the needle.

Thread:

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

This is remarkable. Today Judge Carlton Reeves in the S.D. Miss., rules that Mississippi's felon gun prohibition (a law that prohibits felons from owning and possession guns) violates the Second Amendment. Reeves is not, however, a gun rights supporter and his opinion not only attempts to demonstrate the absurdity that the rationale behind Heller and Bruen compels him to rule that state law keeping guns out of the hands of felons is unconstitutional, he also illustrates the fundamental problem with Scalia-style "originalism" based on history: Judges are not historians and the history used to support these cases is often bullshirt or at least quite suspect . . . and none of it is even part of the case's record, where facts are developed with cross examination and experts.

This is where the challenge to the status quo comes from. This is the nuts and bolts of moving the needle.

Thread:

Haven't finished reading yet, but this quote from Chief Justice Warren Berger caught my eye:

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger endorsed the Militia‐based rationale in a 1991 oped. See Warren E. Burger, 2nd Amendment Has Been Distorted, Assoc. Press (Dec. 11, 1991). In a television interview that same year, he called efforts to broaden the scope of the Second Amendment “one of the greatest pieces of fraud—I repeat the word fraud—on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.”

 

[Optimus Prime]

Gun violence is a daily reality across the US, but an emerging body of research indicates the most risky day for mass shootings in the nation is the Fourth of July, when Americans celebrate their independence from Britain.

Using data from the Gun Violence Archive, James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University, found that there have been 52 mass shootings on the Fourth of July over the past decade, averaging just over five a year, and more than on any other given day.

His analysis, which he implemented for USA Today, underscores how, in a country where Republicans in many states have acted to loosen gun laws, it is routine that the barbecues, block parties and parades held to commemorate the US’s birthday become scenes of bloodshed.

“The fact that you have states that allow concealed carry without a permit, without any training, is problematic. When you have block parties, for example, people are going there with guns in their pockets, and then they can get into an argument over even trivial things, which can lead to gunfire, and it’s a large gathering like a block party or a party at an Airbnb, lots of people get shot in the crossfire,” Fox said.

“They may not be involved in that argument, that dispute, but the bullet doesn’t know that.”

Last year, a gunman opened fire from a rooftop and killed seven people attending an Independence Day parade in the affluent Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois. The violence was part of a string of mass killings that led gun control-wary Republicans in Congress to partner with Democrats and pass legislation that contained modest reforms intended to halt the violence.…..

Fourth of July is a US celebration. Why is it the riskiest day for mass shootings?

Homicides spike in the summer, and large gatherings with a lot of people – and alcohol thrown in – can see gun violence

www.theguardian.com

 

[MT15]

I read this morning that at least 10 people have died so far in at least two mass shootings during this 4th of July long weekend. At least one, in Philly, was a man in a tactical vest walking down a couple streets randomly shooting people with an assault rifle. As one does to celebrate the 4th.

 

[Optimus Prime]

I read this morning that at least 10 people have died so far in at least two mass shootings during this 4th of July long weekend. At least one, in Philly, was a man in a tactical vest walking down a couple streets randomly shooting people with an assault rifle. As one does to celebrate the 4th.

One in Philly and another shooting in Baltimore

 

[Optimus Prime]

At 18, Zachary Burkard was too young to buy a handgun from a licensed gun store, and he was an admitted drug dealer with mental health issues, court records show. So he went to the website of 80P Builder, a seller of “ghost gun” parts with no serial numbers, bought a gun kit and assembled a complete pistol himself.


About two months later, Burkard watched a fistfight unfold between two schoolmates at a friend’s house. He entered the Springfield, Va., home’s garage and began shooting. Ersheen Elaiaiser and Calvin Van Pelt, both 17, were killed by bullets from Burkard’s homemade ghost gun. Neither of the victims was armed. Van Pelt was shot twice in the back as he ran away.


In court, an audio recording was played of the 2021 shooting, while the parents of both victims listened in agony. “You can hear our son, saying, ‘Hey cool it,’ like ‘Fight’s over, we good,’” Calvin’s father, Michael Winfield, said. “That’s Calvin. I mean, even in the face of death, he was being a leader, trying to calm things down.”


Van Pelt had never met Burkard, and Van Pelt’s family was stunned to learn how the gun wound up in Burkard’s hands.
“

They’ve just made it entirely too easy to get these guns,” said Winfield, sitting next to his wife, who during a recent interview wore a necklace with a picture of their late son smiling. “A child can buy one. There’s no background checks. You don’t even need a bank account. You can go to 7-Eleven and get a debit card, put money on it and buy a gun.”………

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) estimated that Polymer80 was responsible for more than 88 percent of the ghost guns recovered by police between 2017 and 2021, though there are nearly 100 manufacturers selling parts, or full kits, which can be made into unserialized guns, a list compiled by Everytown shows……

Because many ghost gun parts manufacturers do not consider their “80 percent” frames or receivers to be firearms, they do not believe they are required to conduct any background checks or to refuse to sell to teenagers. A full ghost gun kit can cost between $800 and $1,000, according to websites that sell them.


For years, the makers of ghost gun parts pointed to letters issued by ATF that ruled that an unfinished frame or receiver was not a gun.


To try to stem the ghost gun tide, the Biden administration and ATF last year published a rule that clarified that frames and receivers qualify as firearms under the Gun Control Act of 1968, and require serial numbers and background checks before being sold.

The law has long defined “firearm” to mean any weapon that “is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile” or “the frame or receiver of any such weapon.”

But the parts makers quickly challenged the new rule in court. In two courts, they were defeated. But in the federal court of northern Texas — the same jurisdiction where a judge recently imposed a ban on abortion pills — the ghost gun makers found a sympathetic ear.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that the new ATF rule exceeded the agency’s authority under the Gun Control Act, writing that “the liberty interests of law-abiding citizens wishing to engage in historically lawful conduct … outweighs the Government’s competing interest in preventing prohibited persons from unlawfully possessing firearms.” Late last month, O’Connor issued a decision vacating the rule……..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/07/12/teens-ghost-guns-deadly-shootings/

 

[MT15]

 

[MT15]

 

[nolaspe]

I have one word to describe this heartless piece of barely sentient garbage that has 4 letters and starts with a 'c'... It's a word I almost never use at all...

 

[DaveXA]

I have one word to describe this heartless piece of barely sentient garbage that has 4 letters and starts with a 'c'... It's a word I almost never use at all...

Yeah, but really, par for the course with her.

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

"After a driver flipped off a car near Dallas, the other driver opened fire, shooting the man’s wife in the head. No arrests have been made.

Permitless carry went into effect in Texas in 2021; Texas has more road rage shootings than any other state."


Wow, that says a lot.

 

[nolaspe]

Yeah, but really, par for the course with her.

Oh, I know...

 

[Optimus Prime]

guess this can go here
===============

The 17-year-old who killed four students and injured seven others in a Michigan school shooting two years ago doesn’t want their bodies shown at an upcoming hearing.

Ethan Crumbley is also trying to stop prosecutors from showing security footage of the 2021 killing spree he carried out at Oxford High School, about 45 miles north of Detroit. His lawyer also wants to bar a video of him torturing a bird.

The prosecution intends to show all of it next week at a so-called Miller hearing, a mandatory procedure during which the judge will determine whether a life without parole sentence is appropriate for his crimes. Crumbley pleaded guilty to the murders last fall.

On November 30 2021, Crumbley left a boys bathroom at the school and opened fire with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol, gunning down four classmates: Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17. Seven others were injured in the hail of gunfire.

His case has drawn national attention not just because of the heinous nature of the massacre but because his parents are also facing involuntary manslaughter charges — the first parents in America charged in a mass shooting.

James and Jennifer Crumbley gave him the gun he used as an early Christmas present. They were summoned to the school the morning of the shooting to discuss his disturbing behavior. He had been researching bullets online during class the day before and he drew a violent picture of guns, a bullet and blood. The Crumbleys said they would get him counseling but declined to take him home.

They have denied wrongdoing, maintaining they had no way of knowing their son would carry out a mass shooting, and that their son is solely responsible for the deaths, not them. Their effort to block the charges against them is pending before the Michigan Supreme Court.

In Ethan Crumbley's case, his lawyer says the prosecution is going beyond what's required to determine an appropriate sentence and is "determined to introduce graphic evidence of the crime itself."

"The people intend to do this in a courtroom packed full of family members of victims, and the media," Crumbley's attorney, Paulette Michel Loftin wrote in a court filing this week, adding that it would be "needlessly prejudicial and inflammatory." Loftin stressed that her client has already pleaded guilty to his crimes and does not dispute what the prosecution intends to show.............

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[MT15]

At least this guy didn’t succeed

 

[Optimus Prime]

Never heard of this group before
========================

A business trade group representing 10,000 gunmakers, dealers and other firearm firms is emerging as a rising force in the US and starting to eclipse – in some respects – the might of the powerful but scandal-plagued National Rifle Association.

Meet the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s conservative and aggressive lobbying group. Its range of activities are broad but always geared to zealously and single-mindedly preserving and extending the power of the gun industry.

It has been lobbying Congress to pass bills that would block financial institutions from using environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria in making investment and loan decisions to protect gun companies’ bottom lines.

Meanwhile, gun manufacturers are relying on this same group to mount legal challenges to several state laws that limit the gun industry’s highly prized and unique protection from contentious liability laws enacted by Congress in 2005.

During Donald Trump’s presidency, the NSSF used its lobbying muscle to help prod his administration to move regulation of gun exports from the state department to the commerce department, a shift that seems to have yielded financial dividends for gun exporters due to the department’s pro-business approach.

In the past few years, as the 5-million member NRA has been battered by financial woes, internal rifts and legal threats from the New York attorney general and private interests, the NSSF has expanded its legal and lobbying spending to fight gun-control efforts nationwide, while boosting gun rights and industry sales.…….

As the NSSF has become a more robust force in pushing gun-industry priorities, gun-control advocates see similarities and differences with the NRA.

“Make no mistake: the NSSF is even more insidious than the NRA with its ever-expanding lobbying operation and abnormally cozy relationship with its regulator,” said Adzi Vokhiwa, the director of federal affairs at Giffords, the gun control advocacy group. “The NSSF hides behind its public identity as a simple trade association, while aggressively working to undermine any and all attempts to slow this nation’s devastating gun violence crisis.”

Vokhiwa, for instance, noted that the NSSF ran a television ad blitz, its first ever, to scuttle the Biden administration’s first nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, David Chipman, by stressing his role as a Giffords adviser after 25 years of serving as an ATF agent.

“From leading dangerous smear campaigns against ATF director nominees who publicly promise to better regulate the gun industry, and bullying members of Congress to vote against even the most reasonable pieces of legislation regulating guns, the NSSF continues to value gun-industry profits more than the American people’s right to live in safe communities,” Vokhiwa said.

Other gun-control advocates say the NSSF, like the NRA, has often exploited fears of gun owners and pushed conspiracy theories about “big government” efforts to undermine the second amendment, in order to rally opposition to gun-control measures.…..

‘Even more insidious than the NRA’: US gun lobby group gains in power

The National Shooting Sports Foundation has been aggressively pushing gun manufacturers’ interests, and is starting to eclipse its bigger rival

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

The US supreme court on Tuesday granted a request by President Joe Biden’s administration to reinstate – at least for now – a federal regulation aimed at reining in privately made firearms called “ghost guns” that are difficult for law enforcement to trace.


The justices put on hold a 5 July decision by US district judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, that had blocked the 2022 rule nationwide pending the administration’s appeal. O’Connor found that the administration exceeded its authority under a 1968 federal law called the Gun Control Act in implementing the rule relating to ghost guns, firearms that are privately assembled and lack the usual serial numbers required by the federal government..............

Supreme court reinstates Biden’s ‘ghost gun’ restrictions for now

Federal regulation aims to reining in privately made firearms that are difficult for law enforcement to trace

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Kyle Rittenhouse is launching a pro-gun rights nonprofit in Texas, seemingly part of his efforts to become an influential operative in the state’s far-right political scene.

The 20-year-old last month filed papers with the Texas secretary of state’s office to establish The Kyle Rittenhouse Foundation, according to the Texas Tribune.

The nonprofit reportedly seeks to protect “human and civil rights secured by law, including an individual’s inalienable right to bear arms” and ensure the Second Amendmentis “preserved through education and legal assistance.”

Mr Rittenhouse is listed as a director along with prominent state political activists Chris McNutt, the president of Texas Gun Rights, and the Defend Texas Liberty PAC treasurer Shelby Griesinger, The Tribune reported.

The foundation’s registered agent is the law firm of Tony McDonald, whose social media bio declares that he “sues the State of Texas for not being right wing enough”.…..

Kyle Rittenhouse launches anti-gun control effort

Man who killed two people during protest establishes nonprofit to protect the ‘inalienable right to bear arms’ with backing from powerful Texas political figures

www.independent.co.uk