Category Archives: Gun-violence

The gun lobby’s new tactic: redefining ‘school shootings’ so they don’t count | News | theguardian.com

In short – as far as I can follow the logic – the message to parents concerned that there are loaded weapons going off on school property, and that their sons and daughters are at risk of being hit by bullets from those weapons, is this: it doesn’t really count unless the shooter is a pupil, not involved in a gang, who made a pre-meditated plan to massacre a large number of students.

And not in the parking lot.

(If you think this kind of absurdity is confined to the fringe, see this only slightly less mendacious CNN piece, which brings the figure down from 74 to 15 by excluding, among others, shootings motivated by “personal arguments, accidents [or] alleged gang activities and drug deals”. Johnson says the cable channel stole his work.)

What’s especially dispiriting about this flat denial of reality is how little prospect it offers for rational discussion or compromise. Even if you’re a supporter of gun control, you can still hold a reasoned discussion with somebody who believes that the benefits of widespread firearms ownership outweigh the harms. You can discuss international comparisons; and how no comparable country experiences anything like this level of gun violence; the other person can seek to establish why those comparisons aren’t relevant; or that, yes, violent deaths are actually in decline in the US, and so on. But when the pro-gun side of the argument consists of simply insisting that the gun violence that people are so distraught about isn’t real gun violence? Then there’s no clear way forward at all.

And let’s not forget the bigger point here. A pro-gun journalist applies the most stringent imaginable criteria to the term ‘school shooting’; he rejects every instance he possibly can, for reasons many might regard as spurious, and then triumphantly declares that there have only been … seven bona fide school shootings in America since December 2012!

Only seven school shootings since December 2012.

I hope I never to get to the point at which the word “only” in that sentence makes even the slightest bit of sense.

via The gun lobby’s new tactic: redefining ‘school shootings’ so they don’t count | News | theguardian.com.

ISIS bids for global jihad leadership with Mosul attack – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

 

Before taking Iraq’s second largest city this week, ISIS had already seized most of Anbar province in Iraq and Raqqa province in Syria. There, it enforces a Taliban-style extreme version of Islam. Mosul represents a much bigger price, an ancient city with great symbolic value. ISIS is effectively creating a stronghold across the Syrian desert in the heart of the Arab world, erasing the borders set a century ago by the British and French after the fall of the Ottomans.

Baghdadi, like Zarqawi, has bigger ambitions. Last month, the Saudis foiled a major ISIS plot to carry out attacks in the kingdom, arresting dozens. ISIS has recruited thousands of foreign fighters to fight in Syria, and some are reportedly being trained to go home to fight in their native lands. ISIS probably trained the French Muslim who attacked the Jewish Museum in Brussels and killed four in May.

Taking Mosul could expose ISIS to counterattack by the larger US-equipped Iraqi army backed by Iran. It may provoke the Kurds, too. It’s a gamble. For Baghdadi, it is an audacious move to outshine his mentor.

via ISIS bids for global jihad leadership with Mosul attack – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

47 years of occupation: Every photo tells a story | +972 Magazine

47 years of occupation: Every photo tells a story

Marking 47 years of the Israeli occupation since 1967, we asked Activestills photographers to choose one photograph from their archive and write about it.

via 47 years of occupation: Every photo tells a story | +972 Magazine.

Jimmy Carter’s Call to Action – Women, Religion, Violence and Power – Look to the Stars

“It’s kind of a subtle thing that men enjoy their superiority in getting the best jobs, the best opportunity to go to university and that sort of thing,” says Carter. “Two of the most revered institutions in the United States of America is our university system and our military. Sexual abuse or assaults on campuses in our major universities, like Harvard and Yale and Emery University where I teach, is really horrendous and only four percent of the rapes on college campuses are reported. There are about six times as many reported in civilian life outside of universities, and this is primarily because presidents of colleges and universities and deans and so forth don’t want to bring discredit or a bad reputation on their own institution. So they encourage girls not to report.

“And soon, a few boys on the campus who are students realize that they can commit these crimes with impunity. So they become serial rapists and get away with it. The department of defence found that in the US military alone, 26 thousand sexual assaults took place, and only about 300 actually resulted in anybody being punished. That’s about one percent.

“You see, there’s an aversion to admit what goes on even in our most cherished institutions.”

via Jimmy Carter’s Call to Action – Women, Religion, Violence and Power – Look to the Stars.

Rupert Murdoch paper prints picture of Duchess of Cambridge’s bare bottom | Media | theguardian.com

Sick, sick, sick – Rupert Murdoch paper prints picture of Duchess of Cambridge’s bare bottom

Sydney Daily Telegraph criticises ‘ridiculous’ UK media ban as it follows German tabloid Bild in printing controversial image

Daily Mail follows Bild in racing to the bottom

via Rupert Murdoch paper prints picture of Duchess of Cambridge’s bare bottom | Media | theguardian.com.

Roundup: Essential feminist writing on the Isla Vista shooting

We, as a feminist community, have spent the last four days in shock after the Isla Vista shooting. That the roots of the tragedy — violent misogyny — may be too intimately familiar to so many of us hasn’t softened the blow. Here we’ve tried to compile some of the best feminist writing in the aftermath, highlighting how our movements are processing, responding, and fighting back. Let us know what you’ve been reading in the comments.

via Roundup: Essential feminist writing on the Isla Vista shooting.

Israeli forces deny Nablus farmers access to fields to harvest wheat | Maan News Agency

Israeli forces on Saturday morning prevented Palestinian farmers from accessing their fields to harvest wheat south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian official said.

Ghasan Daghlas, who monitors settlement-related activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that dozens of Palestinian farmers were on their way to harvest wheat in the area of Lafjan near the village of Aqraba when they were stopped.

Daghlas said that Israeli troops blocked the farmers and told them that they could not access their fields because the area had been declared a closed military zone, with no further explanation.

via Israeli forces deny Nablus farmers access to fields to harvest wheat | Maan News Agency.

Just because they can… Israeli forces deny Nablus farmers access to fields to harvest wheat | Maan News Agency

Israeli forces on Saturday morning prevented Palestinian farmers from accessing their fields to harvest wheat south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian official said.

Ghasan Daghlas, who monitors settlement-related activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that dozens of Palestinian farmers were on their way to harvest wheat in the area of Lafjan near the village of Aqraba when they were stopped.

Daghlas said that Israeli troops blocked the farmers and told them that they could not access their fields because the area had been declared a closed military zone, with no further explanation.

via Israeli forces deny Nablus farmers access to fields to harvest wheat | Maan News Agency.

Elliot Rodger, Isla Vista Shooting Suspect, Posted Misogynistic Video before Attack | Hatewatch

Elliot Rodger, son of “Hunger Games” assistant director Peter Rodger, reportedly carried out a series of drive-by shootings last night near the University of California, Santa Barbara campus to exact revenge for being rejected by women. Seven, including Rodger, were killed, and seven others were wounded.

Hours before the attack, Rodger recorded a chilling video message in his BMW, which he reportedly used to carry out the attack. In the recording, which he posted to YouTube under the title, “Elliot Rodger’s Retribution,” he announced his plan to exact “revenge on humanity” because girls rejected him in his life.

via Elliot Rodger, Isla Vista Shooting Suspect, Posted Misogynistic Video before Attack | Hatewatch.

Settlers use bulldozers to level Palestinian land near Salfit | Maan News Agency

Occupiers creating “facts” on the ground with IDF assistance – Israeli settlers on Thursday leveled Palestinian land in the village of Kafr ad-Dik west of Salfit, local Palestinian officials said.

Settlers from Alei Zahav and the Bruchin outpost used

bulldozers to level land in an area known locally as Thair Subih.

Witnesses say the settlers were escorted by Israeli military forces.

A day earlier, settlers from Ariel used bulldozers to raze agricultural lands belonging to Palestinian farmers from the Salfit town of Kifl Haris.

A local activist who monitors settlement activities told Ma’an that Ariel settlement is expanding to the West and South and construction work has increased dramatically during the 9-month period of peace negotiations.

Ariel settlement is located 16.5 kilometers east of the green line in the center of the Salfit district, blocking Palestinian development in the area.

via Settlers use bulldozers to level Palestinian land near Salfit | Maan News Agency.