Category Archives: Gun-violence

Obama to Expand Gun Background Checks and Tighten Enforcement – The New York Times

In addition to background checks, Mr. Obama will direct agencies to engage in more gun research, encourage more federal prosecution of domestic violence cases, crack down on gun purchases by corporations and trusts, and request new funding for 200 law enforcement agents and better access to mental health care.“Although we have a strong tradition of gun ownership, even those who possess firearms for hunting, for self-protection and for other legitimate reasons want to make sure that the wrong people don’t have them for the wrong reasons,” Mr. Obama told reporters.

Source: Obama to Expand Gun Background Checks and Tighten Enforcement – The New York Times

Armed anti-government militiamen seize federal wildlife refuge in Oregon | News | DW.COM | 03.01.2016

Many locals in Burns want the Bundy family to leave

The sentencing has stirred controversy in a tight-knit rural community and reignited a long-running dispute between ranchers and the federal government over grazing land.The Hammonds’ case has drawn the attention of far-right, anti-government groups , including the sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy.Previous standoffBacked by right-wing militia, the Bundy family challenged the federal government in a 2014 standoff after the federal Bureau of Land Management tried to remove cattle from public grazing land.Bundy owed more than $1 million in arrears to the government after not paying leasing fees for some 20 years. The Bureau ultimately handed back the cattle and federal agents withdrew.Taking up the Hammonds’ cause, Ammon Bundy and other militiamen arrived in Burns in December. Ammon told “The Oregonian” the militiamen demanded the Hammonds be released from prison.

Source: Armed anti-government militiamen seize federal wildlife refuge in Oregon | News | DW.COM | 03.01.2016

Confederate Flag-Waving, Anti-Government, Open-Carry Nut Fatally Shoots His Two Toddlers | Occupy Democrats

Neighbors report that Fuller was often intoxicated, and often firing off his guns. He was also reported to be very paranoid, convinced that his house was going to be broken into. He called a friend shortly after shooting his sons, telling him that he had shot his sons and was about to begin firing on law enforcement. Instead, he turned his gun on himself.It’s a horrific outburst of murderous violence from a delusional, paranoid, anti-government, gun-obsessed conservative. Or, as the NRA would put it, “just a regular Sunday.”

Source: Confederate Flag-Waving, Anti-Government, Open-Carry Nut Fatally Shoots His Two Toddlers | Occupy Democrats

Ray Kelly Is A Greedy Liar: Gothamist

This fight isn’t a “spontaneous dispute over the veracity of the NYPD’s official tally of shootings and murders,” as the Times reports. It’s part of a decades-long dick measuring contest between two powerful men who hate each other, a feud that has wasted an untold amount of energy and public resources. (These two even fought over who was invited to their rival anti-terrorism conferences—Leonard Levitt has much, much more).The difference now is that Bratton is in charge of the NYPD, and Kelly isn’t.There are many issues Kelly could credibly raise to criticize the NYPD and inspire reform—on onerous quotas, on costly use of force, on its lack of female and black police officers, and yes, even on stat manipulation. This will never happen, because these are just as much Kelly’s problems as they are Bratton’s (he also seems to be missing some crucial emails).This is a man who continued to defend a Muslim surveillance initiative that generated no leads, who insisted on having free meals and membership at the Harvard Club, and who didn’t bother to defend his stop and frisk program in federal court but happily cut the ribbon at his friend’s new Applebee’s.

Source: Ray Kelly Is A Greedy Liar: Gothamist

Ohio grand jury clears police in fatal shooting of 12-year-old | Reuters { Just so wrong in so many ways}

The Ohio grand jury had heard weeks of testimony on the Rice shooting, which occurred within seconds after police reached a park next to a Cleveland recreation center in response to reports of a suspect with a gun. Rice died the next day.ADVERTISING The shooting was one of several that have fueled scrutiny of police use of deadly force, particularly against minorities. The officers are white and Rice was black.Rice was holding a replica handgun when Officer Timothy Loehmann shot him within seconds of reaching the park in a squad car driven by his partner, Frank Garmback.

Source: Ohio grand jury clears police in fatal shooting of 12-year-old | Reuters

Malala Meets up Again with Syrian Schoolgirl Campaigner in Britain | Jakarta Globe

Newcastle upon Tyne. Nearly two years after they met in a dust-blown refugee camp in Jordan, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai welcomed Syrian fellow schoolgirl activist Muzoon Almellehan to her friend’s new home in rainy northern England on Tuesday.Malala, who moved to Britain in 2012 after being shot in the head in Pakistan by the Taliban for refusing to quit school, won acclaim for her advocacy of women’s right to education and becoming the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.Reuniting at a gleaming public library in the northeast English city of Newcastle, 18-year-old Malala and Muzoon, 17, pledged to campaign together for access to education for Syrian refugee children.The setting was a far cry from the sprawling lines of tents comprising the Zaatari camp for Syrian refugees in the Jordanian desert, where the pair first met in early 2014.Malala now lives in England’s second city, Birmingham, where she was treated after being shot, and Muzoon is among the first Syrians from refugee camps in the Middle East to have come to Britain.

Source: Malala Meets up Again with Syrian Schoolgirl Campaigner in Britain | Jakarta Globe

Chris Christie Loosens NJ Gun Restrictions To Show What A Great Republican He Is: Gothamist – The Blood from the Next Gun Murder Will Be on Governor Christie’s Hands

Permitting was found to have been “unevenly” applied across New Jersey’s townships, so regulations will be broadened to apply to more people who desire firearms for protection. The qualifications for “justifiable need” have also been expanded, and applications from victims of domestic violence will be expedited.In some cases, out-of-state residents passing through New Jersey with firearms legally owned in their home states will not be prosecuted. For instance, gun owners are required to go from point-to-point unless a stop is deemed “reasonably necessary,” the criteria for which does not currently exist.Lastly, the Attorney General will crack down on towns that fail to speedily process gun permit applications, and processing times will be collected and published in an effort to create greater transparency.”New Jersey citizens should be permitted to defend themselves and not encounter unlawful delays and impediments,” Christie said a statement released to media, adding that the commission provided “a set of recommendations that I am proud to wholeheartedly embrace. We will work through the Attorney General to put these changes into effect as quickly as possible.”

Source: Chris Christie Loosens NJ Gun Restrictions To Show What A Great Republican He Is: Gothamist

Michael Moore on New Wave of Gun Violence: “The NRA Is Actually Half Right” (Guest Column) – Hollywood Reporter

It’s the fear of getting killed that is getting a lot of us killed. But it’s also other fears that are winding us up and making a few of us go crazy enough to take off on a shooting rampage. Unlike in other civilized countries where people take care of each other — with free health care, generous compensation for the unemployed, free or nearly-free college education, strict laws on credit card debt and junk mortgages, serious help and treatment for the mentally ill, aid for aging and infirm people and the list goes on and on. From Ireland to Italy to Norway, from New Zealand to South Korea to Morocco, governments all over the world have discovered that the real way to reduce violence is to simply take care of each other.What separates us from everyone else is the way we force the members of our society to live in a constant state of fear: fear of going broke, fear of losing your job, fear of getting sick, fear of getting old and being without. We know that there’s no safety net for us here in the USA. We are the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” nation, the “you take care of yours and I’ll take care of mine” and the “your problems are not my problems” society. Most of us find a way to cope with all of this. We suck it up and take the ulcer for the team. But then there are the few that can’t. And with easy access to any kind of gun — and as much ammo as they want — they find a way to act out their frustration and aggression. Not because they saw Kill Bill. But because they live in the home of the brave. That is something we can change.But first, it will require some of that “bravery.”

Source: Michael Moore on New Wave of Gun Violence: “The NRA Is Actually Half Right” (Guest Column) – Hollywood Reporter

The Black Mambas: Fearless all-female South African anti-poaching unit protecting rhinos | 3CHICSPOLITICO – Kill Bill would be a walk in the park to this crew.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3j5ord-c98

“Since we’ve started the Black Mambas anti-poaching project, there are no poachers in our reserve because we’re doing our job so well,” notes Mogakane.

Source: The Black Mambas: Fearless all-female South African anti-poaching unit protecting rhinos | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Franco Galdini: Kyrgyz Mercenary, Friend or Foe? – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

Last time I saw Manas, he was at his wits’ end. All his attempts to leave the country had come to naught and he seemed resigned to a life on the run. His tone was more conciliatory than threatening, but as usual self-criticism was conspicuously absent. It was everyone else’s fault that he had driven himself into a corner. In his mind, he was still a misunderstood Kyrgyz hero, as the pseudonym he had chosen for himself made abundantly clear (the Epic of Manas is considered the national heritage of the Kyrgyz people).Apparently, this is not so uncommon. A former Russian volunteer in eastern Ukraine interviewed by Dozhd TV channel stated that “most of those who came back either went on fighting, but for Kiev, or were jailed. They get into fights with the police or other people, trying to prove they are heroes back from the war. But come to think of it, are we really heroes?” Addressing President Putin, he concludes that the war “isn’t worth it.”Just how not worth it all was becomes painfully evident on assessing the state of the Donbass region today. “The war has come and gone, leaving behind poverty and pain,” writes Novaya Gazeta special correspondent Pavel Kanygin.If the conflict has passed its peak intensity, the situation on the ground remains extremely volatile, as recent incidents show. The media spotlight may have moved on, but left behind are the shattered lives of the thousands upon thousands of civilians who have to pick up the pieces.

Source: Franco Galdini: Kyrgyz Mercenary, Friend or Foe? – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics