Isaac Stanley-Becker, Reporter - The Washington Post
Stephan: Just so there's no doubt about the linkage between those who make the death weapons, and the Republicans who protect them, assure their profits and see they cannot be held accountable because of carefully crafted laws.
An attendee picks up a rifle on display during the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2019. Credit: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
The owners of Daniel Defense, the manufacturer of the rifle apparently used in the massacre of 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., are deep-pocketed Republican donors, giving to candidates and committees at the federal and state level aligned against limits on access to assault rifles and other semiautomatic weapons.
The owners of the Georgia-based company have donated more than $70,000 directly to GOP candidates for federal office this election cycle, according to a review of filings with the Federal Election Commission. Daniel Defense itself gave $100,000 last year to a PAC backing incumbent Republican senators.
The spending by Marvin C. Daniel and his wife, Cindy D. Daniel, illustrates the financial clout of the gun industry, even as political spending by the flagship National Rifle Association has declined in recent years. And it shows how surging gun sales during the coronavirus pandemic have empowered manufacturers to expand their marketing […]
Stephan: An SR reader sent me this. All I can say is, yes, let's do that. (There is no click through.)
Face a mandatory 48-hr waiting period,
Make him show a note with parental permission,
Make him show a note from his doctor proving he understands what he’s about to do,
Make him watch a video about the effects of gun violence, and
Make him submit to an ultrasound wand up the ass (just because).
Let’s close down all but one gun shop in every state and make him travel hundreds of miles and take time off work, and stay overnight in a strange town to get a gun.
Make him walk through a gauntlet of people holding photos of loved ones who were shot to death, people who call him a murderer and beg him not to buy a gun
Stephan: Here are more facts about gun deaths. I am trying to give my readers objectively verifiable facts they can use in taking their own actions to cleanse this scourge from our culture. The one thing this article does not mention, but what is obvious as one looks at these various lists is that if you live in a state governed by Republicans there are more guns, and more gun deaths. The same is true, of course, with the Covid pandemic. Republicans = death.
People can debate the need for more or fewer armed guards at American schools, the use of active shooter drills and the wisdom of the idea that maybe even teachers should be packing heat.
But there’s one thing that is indisputable in the available data on gun violence — and the data is limited since until recently the federal government was effectively barred from gathering it.
The indisputable fact is that where there are more guns, there are more gun deaths.
This is true despite Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s attempt to explain away gun deaths at the elementary school in his state this weekby comparing them to gun violence in Chicago.
“I hate to say this, but there are more people who were shot every weekend in Chicago than there are in schools in Texas,” Abbott said on Wednesday, arguing stricter gun laws are not a solution.
Ryan Busse, former executive in the firearms industry, now a Senior Policy Advisor for Giffords - The Guardian U.K.)
Stephan: The measurable trends validate what Ryan Busse, a former executive in the firearms industry, is saying in this piece. Because as a society we have only one social priority, greed and the profit it produces, the military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned us about has been allowed to create a weaponized society. It has been unbelievably profitable. An 18-year-old in Texas, who couldn't buy a Margarita in a restaurant, or a handgun, could spend over $3,000 outfitting himself essentially as a soldier would be outfitted, down to both carrying an AR-15 long gun. A weapon designed for military combat offering the ability to kill a great number of people in a very short time. This is a form of social insanity. Nothing is going to fix it but you, me, and all the people who think as we do. Are we enough? November will tell us.
‘This Friday, Trump is scheduled to speak at the annual NRA convention in Houston – less than 300 miles from Uvalde.’ Credit: Lucas Jackson/Reuters
I was a firearms exec for years. The industry used to adhere to self-imposed rules and norms – until gun makers and lobby groups like the NRA realized fear and extremism sold more guns.
After the horrific mass murders in Buffalo and Uvalde, Americans are hearing a familiar chorus emanating from the cable networks. Every host and guest seems shocked. They search for the right words.
Eventually, their message becomes almost universal: Something is horribly broken in a country that allows troubled young men to arm themselves to the teeth and kill innocent people – especially young children. Social media explodes, expressing a version of the shock that the first lady, Jill Biden, expressed after the murders in Uvalde – “Stunned. Angry. Heartbroken.”
I too am angry and heartbroken. But I am not stunned, and I don’t believe anything is broken. The truth is that Americans now live within an escalating system of radicalized gun tragedy that is […]
Stephan: Republican governance produces violence and death. Could it be made any clearer? I know that sounds terribly partisan, but I do assure you it is not. It is a statement based on objectively verifiable data.
“There are a lot of MAGA Republicans for whom no amount of gun violence… will ever, ever convince them to take any action,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Less than two weeks after a white supremacist gunned down 10 Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked legislation aimed at combating domestic terrorism in the United States—specifically the growing threat posed by neo-Nazis and white nationalists.
The final vote on the House-passed legislation was 47-47, with every Senate Republican in attendance voting no. At least 60 yes votes were needed to overcome the filibuster and advance to a final vote on the bill.
Every Senate Democrat who cast a vote supported the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which proposed ensuring that federal agencies have the resources needed to detect and prevent “acts of domestic terrorism and white supremacist and neo-Nazi infiltration of law enforcement and corrections agencies.”
Last year, the head of the FBI—an agency that has long been criticized for ignoring rising white supremacist violence—told Congress that white supremacists comprise “the biggest chunk of our […]
