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

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

Kyle Rittenhouse, who as a teenager shot and killed two people at an anti-racism protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is being sued by the estate of one of the men who died, according to court documents.

Since the killings Rittenhouse has become a high-profile figure on the US right, feted at events by rightwingers, appearing on conservative media and lauded by gun rights activists.

But in a lawsuit filed in Wisconsin this week, lawyers representing the estate of Joseph Rosenbaum, who Rittenhouse shot with an assault rifle in August 2020, said Rittenhouse and a series of other defendants had “intentionally and unjustifiably caused the death of Joseph Rosenbaum”

Rosenbaum’s estate is also suing several law enforcement departments, including the Kenosha police department and Kenosha county sheriff’s department, along with the City of Kenosha. The lawsuit was submitted on Friday, and the estate is seeking unnamed damages.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Rittenhouse, who was cleared of homicide and attempted homicide, responded: “I’m being sued again for defending my life.”…..

Kyle Rittenhouse sued by estate of man he killed at Kenosha anti-racism protest

Estate of Joseph Rosenbaum, who Rittenhouse shot with assault rifle in August 2020, is also suing law enforcement departments

www.theguardian.com

"Kyle Rittenhouse, center, speaks at the Defend Our Second Amendment: Michigan's Fight for Self Preservation rally, in Ionia, Michigan, on 19 July. Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images"

Say no more.

 

[Optimus Prime]

……Ongoing exposure to such acts of violence can have a compounding effect on Black people, according to experts. “We do not have a quality infrastructure for supporting Black Americans with overwhelming racism and racialized violence that our communities experience,” said Jessica LoPresti, a psychology professor at Suffolk University.

While all Americans are affected by the threat of gun violence, Black people face an additional fear of being targeted due to white supremacy, which can create intense anxiety and stress. “When we talk to white folks about their experiences of violence,” LoPresti said, “it’s unlikely that they are being targeted just because of who they are.”

That threat of being targeted and discriminated against extends to almost every public space, according to Kenneth Hardy, a therapist and expert on racial trauma, and the fear then becomes internalized, especially as hate crimes in the US are on the rise.

“Where is the safe place for Black people to be?” Hardy asked. “Not church, not the playground, not the supermarket, not the library, not the university, not the classroom. There’s nowhere. So, there’s a constant anxiety that Black people live with.”

LoPresti added that police violence against Black people also exacerbates safety concerns, as many of them feel that calling law enforcement could open them up to additional brutality. “The racialized violence that we’ve seen at the hands of police officers has led Black people in Black communities to feel as if there’s no one we can call,” LoPresti said. “There’s no one, we can sort of trust to value us as much as we value each other.”

Mass shootings like the ones in Jacksonville or Buffalo can also have a cumulative negative effect on Black people’s mental health. Experts noted that the pain caused by any individual event sits on top of grief associated with other instances of racial trauma.

“These incidents are not happening in isolation,” said Thema Bryant, president of the American Psychological Association. “We, as people of African descent and Black Americans, live with the intergenerational wounds of racism and recognize the harms that have happened as a result of racism, that are not only historical, but continue today.”

University students, especially those who attend HBCUs, can also experience specific trauma in this regard, with Hardy noting that they may find it difficult to concentrate or have nightmares in the coming weeks.

The Jacksonville shooter’s presence at the Edward Waters campus came at a time when several HBCUs across the country have faced bomb threats. “I don’t know how you could feel safe on the college campus, knowing that the shooter came there first,” Hardy said.

Education laws passed in conservative states to prevent the teaching of racism only increase feelings of despair associated with witnessing these hate crimes, said Bryant.

In Florida particularly, the Republican governor Ron DeSantis has signed education laws that restrict Black history education, limiting a complete understanding of the violence experienced by Black people historically and today.

“It’s not only that outrageousness of racism,” Bryant said, “but the additional layer of that denial and pretending that it does not exist.”…….

‘Where is safe?’: gun violence takes particular toll on mental health of Black Americans

In aftermath of Jacksonville shooting, experts say Black people deal with additional fear and stress of racialized violence

www.theguardian.com

 

[MT15]

Not everyone should have a gun. There should be registrations and safety classes required. If you cannot be bothered to learn gun safety you should not have a gun.

 

[coldseat]

Not everyone should have a gun. There should be registrations and safety classes required. If you cannot be bothered to learn gun safety you should not have a gun.

What a horrible childhood and fate for that little girl.

That foster parent is a monster. Who the fork puts a gun to a child's chest a pulls the trigger? Too teach gun safety, no less. It sounds like she wanted to kill her on purpose.

 

[MT15]

What a horrible childhood and fate for that little girl.

That foster parent is a monster. Who the fork puts a gun to a child's chest a pulls the trigger? Too teach gun safety, no less. It sounds like she wanted to kill her on purpose.

I think they have charged her with murder. It’s so horribly sad.

 

[MT15]

 

[MT15]

 

[Optimus Prime]

A pro-gun group is suing the New Mexico governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, in an effort to block a 30-day emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public in Albuquerque’s Bernalillo county issued last week after a spate of shootings.

The governor announced open and concealed carry restrictions on Friday in a public health order relating to gun violence after the fatal shootings of an 11-year-old boy on his way home from a minor league baseball game last week, as well as the fatal shooting of a four-year-old girl in her bed in a motor home and a 13-year-old girl in Taos county in August.

Lujan Grisham said she expected someone to legally challenge her executive order, adding that she welcomed “the debate and the fight about making New Mexicans safer”.

That challenge arrived on Saturday when the National Association for Gun Rights said it would file a lawsuit in federal court against the governor, citing 2021’s Bruen US supreme court ruling easing gun restrictions.

The president of the pro-gun group, Dudley Brown, accused the governor of “throwing up a middle finger to the constitution and the supreme court”.

“Her executive order is in blatant disregard for Bruen. She needs to be held accountable for stripping the God-given rights of millions away with the stroke of a pen,” Brown said in a statement.

Lujan Graham said she issued the order to open up more resources to help New Mexico get the gun violence issue under control and called on the federal government for help.

“These are disgusting acts of violence that have no place in our communities,” Lujan Grisham said on Thursday, adding that Bernalillo county needed a “cooling off period” during an epidemic of gun violence.

After announcing the order, she said the state needed “to use the power of a public health [order] in a state of emergency to access different levels, different resources and different opportunities to keep New Mexicans safe”.

The order calls for monthly inspections of firearms dealers statewide to ensure compliance with gun laws and for the state health department to compile a report on gunshot victims at hospitals that includes age, race, gender and ethnicity, along with the brand and caliber of firearm involved, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.

Lujan Grisham has acknowledged that a violation of a public health order is the lowest level of violation. “The point is this – we better have the debate about what’s necessary to reduce the number of particularly illegal firearms and our ability to go after bad actors,” she said...............

Gun rights group sues New Mexico governor over emergency firearm ban

Michelle Lujan Grisham announced open and concealed carry restrictions on Friday after the deaths of three children

www.theguardian.com

 

[coldseat]

The president of the pro-gun group, Dudley Brown, accused the governor of “throwing up a middle finger to the constitution and the supreme court”.

“Her executive order is in blatant disregard for Bruen. She needs to be held accountable for stripping the God-given rights of millions away with the stroke of a pen,” Brown said in a statement.

God-given rights? God gave man the rights to own guns, that man created to kill other men, even though one of "God's" ten commandments is "thou shall not kill"?

The absurdity of it all doesn't stop these people from truly believing this nonsense.

 

[Optimus Prime]

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is creating the first-ever federal office of gun violence prevention, according to two people familiar with the plans.

The office will coordinate efforts across the federal government and will offer help and guidance to states struggling with increasing gun violence, while taking the lead on implementation of the bipartisan gun legislation signed into law last year.

Biden tentatively plans to announce the new effort with an event Friday at the White House, said the people, who had direct knowledge of the plans and who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The office fulfills a key demand of gun safety activists who banded together as a coalition to endorse Biden for president in 2024, and is an effort by the White House to keep the issue front-and-center as the president pushes for a ban on so-called “assault weapons” and urges Congress to act.……

White House to announce first-ever federal office of gun violence prevention, AP sources say

President Joe Biden is creating the first-ever federal office of gun violence prevention, according to two people familiar with the plans.

apnews.com

 

[MT15]

Not everybody is cut out to be a gun owner….. there should be a safety course requirement.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

Not everybody is cut out to be a gun owner….. there should be a safety course requirement.

TBF, a safety course would not have prevented this! That course isn't designed to identify the stupid.

 

[MT15]

TBF, a safety course would not have prevented this! That course isn't designed to identify the stupid.

IKR, I have never actually fired a gun and I was watching that knowing what would happen. What was he thinking he was accomplishing? Lol.

 

[Optimus Prime]

California will double the taxes on guns and ammunition and use the money to pay for more security at public schools and various violence prevention programs under a new law Gavin Newsom, the governor, signed on Tuesday.

The federal government already taxes the sale of guns and ammunition at either 10% or 11%, depending on the type of gun. The law Newsom signed adds another 11% tax on top of that – making it the only state with its own tax on guns and ammunition, according to the gun control advocacy group Brady.

Newsom – a potential Democratic candidate for president beyond 2024 – has a reputation as one of the country’s most liberal governors. But he has often refused to raise taxes, even for causes he supports like combating the climate crisis.

But it would have been difficult for Newsom to veto this tax increase, given his outspoken support for gun restrictions at the state and national level. Newsom is in the middle of a national campaign to amend the US constitution to restrict gun sales to people over 21, require extensive background checks, impose a waiting period for purchases and ban the sale of assault-style weapons. Restrictions like that are in place in some states, but not in the constitution.

That campaign is unlikely to succeed, given the political makeup of the other state legislatures Newsom needs to convince. But it has put him at the forefront of an issue at the top of many Democratic voters’ lists.

Newsom said he viewed the tax as different than other general tax increases that he tends to oppose. He argued that gun violence already costs taxpayers a lot of money in health impacts and in the criminal justice system.

“I think this is a pretty modest investment in prevention and reducing those costs ultimately ... The carnage, it’s too much. We can’t normalize it, we can’t accept it. This is a small price to pay,” he said.

Also on Tuesday, Newsom signed a law overhauling the state’s rules for carrying concealed weapons. The new rules are a reaction to a new standard for interpreting the nation’s gun laws that the US supreme court issued last year.

California’s new law bans people from carrying guns in nearly all public places – including public parks and playgrounds – public demonstrations and gatherings, amusement parks, churches, banks and any place where alcohol is sold.

Newsom also signed a law that, starting 1 July 2028, would require all semiautomatic pistols sold in California to have micro-stamping technology. That means each bullet would have a unique marking making it easier for law enforcement to trace the gun it was fired from back to its owner…….

California doubles taxes on guns and ammunition to pay for school security

Gavin Newsom, the governor, signed a law that adds an 11% state fee to the existing federal taxes for arms sales

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Guess this can go here
==================
NEW BRAUNFELS, Tex. — To live in Texas is to live surrounded by guns.


Each morning, men here strap guns inside suits, boots and swim trunks. Women slip them into bra and bellyband holsters that render them invisible. They stash firearms in purses, tool boxes, portable gun safes, back seats and glove compartments.


Neighbors tuck guns into bedside tables, cars and trucks. They take guns fishing, to church, the park, the pool, the gym, the

movies — even to protests at the state Capitol. The convention center hosts gun shows where shoppers peruse AR-15s and high-capacity magazines outlawed in other states.

Texas billboards offer an endless stream of advertisements for ammunition, silencers and other accessories.

It has been legal here to openly carry long guns like rifles for generations. But Texas’s gun-friendly attitude isn’t just a relic of the Old West and ranching: Many restrictions on handguns were loosened only recently.

Two years ago, state lawmakers gave those 21 and older the right to carry handguns without a permit; in 2015, they gave those with concealed handgun permits the right to carry on public college campuses.

Two years earlier, Texas lawmakers responded to the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut by allowing public school staff with concealed handgun permits to arm themselves.

After the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Tex., by a gunman using an AR-15-style rifle he bought within days of turning 18, a state House committee passed a proposal to raise the age to buy, lease or receive certain semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21.

But the House rejected the proposal and the legislature instead passed a law requiring armed security at every school and mental health training for some district staff.

Unlike California and some other blue states, Texas has no state firearm sales registry, no required waiting period to buy a gun, no red flag law guarding against the mentally ill or violent having weapons, no restrictions on the size of ammunition magazines and no background checks for guns purchased in a private sale.


While a majority of Americans favor stricter gun laws and say it’s too easy to obtain a gun, many Texans see guns as a solution to the problem, not the problem itself.


Without their weapons, more than two dozen gun owners said in interviews, they feel nervous. They worry about crime, after a spike in murders during the pandemic, even though rates of homicide and other serious crimes are largely down this year in the United States. They also say they worry about government overreach and societal collapse.


They take solace in knowing that they are armed and that someone else around them likely is, too; some relish spotting the telltale imprint of a concealed gun……..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/09/26/texas-guns-open-concealed-carry-laws/

 

[zztop]

Maybe he just wanted to talk

Man with handgun seeking governor arrested in Wisconsin Capitol, returns with assault rifle

A state spokesperson says a man brought a loaded handgun into the Wisconsin Capitol and demanded to see Gov. Tony Evers and returned at night with an assault rifle.

apnews.com

A man illegally brought a loaded handgun into the Wisconsin Capitol, demanding to see Gov. Tony Evers, and returned at night with an assault rifle after posting bail, a spokesperson for the state said Thursday.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Guess this can go here
==================
Police in Florida arrested three teenagers last week after allegedly foiling their plans to carry out a school shooting.

All three of the students — two 14-year-old boys and a 15-year-old boy — were arrested on Thursday and charged with two felony counts.

The charges relate to text messages exchanged between the teenagers where they discussed attacking Creekside High School in the Jacksonville suburb of St Johns, according to the St Johns County Sheriff’s Office.

The texts reportedly included encircled photographs of their intended targets, as well as their class schedules and home addresses.

Officers also discovered the teenagers had sent each other aerial photographs of the high school, according to arrest reports.

“Nothing is more important to me than the safety of our children,” St Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick said in a statement.

“I am proud of the youth services deputies assigned to this investigation, who acted quickly on the information that was provided and prevented a potential tragedy.”

Arrest reports showed the boys had formed a “Russian communist group” named “the United Boyopolis Socialist Republic” after they were allegedly bullied at the school,USA Todayreported.

The teenagers then allegedly used a group chat to formulate plans for an attack on the high school and also discussed the potential use of weapons.

In one of the text messages, a student allegedly wrote: “I’m bringing my AK-47 tomorrow”.

One of the other suspects allegedly responded: “Me too.”

The three boys also made a “hit list” of students they wanted to hurt and a “lethal hit list” of students they wanted to kill, according to the arrest reports.

The teenagers had aimed to recruit others to their group, according to arrest reports, and created a logo that they placed on a patch as an identifying insignia.

But they were caught after a member of their group chat became “concerned and fearful” after the teenagers insisted the plan “was not a joke,” the documents state. That individual then reported them to school officials.…..

Florida police foil school shooting plans by three teenagers

Arrest reports state that the three boys had formed a ‘Russian communist group’

www.the-independent.com

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

Alec Baldwin may be charged again over shooting on film.

Alec Baldwin may be charged again in fatal ‘Rust’ set shooting | CNN

A New Mexico grand jury will soon decide whether Alec Baldwin should once again face criminal charges over the 2021 death of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

www.cnn.com

I have felt all along that he should be charged.