Right-wing rhetoric partly to blame for shooting sprees

Kudos to Paul Waldman for telling it like it is: relentless, crazy right-wing rhetoric is indeed responsible for stirring some disturbed gun nuts to go on shooting sprees [italics and emphasis mine]:

But the argument that no sane person could actually believe many of the things conservatives say shouldn’t absolve them of responsibility. When you broadcast every day that the government of the world’s oldest democracy is a totalitarian beast bent on turning America into a prison of oppression and fear, when you glorify lawbreakers like Cliven Bundy, when you say that your opponents would literally destroy the country if they could, you can’t profess surprise when some people decide that violence is the only means of forestalling the disaster you have warned them about.

To my conservative friends tempted to find outrageous things liberals have said in order to argue that both sides are equally to blame, I’d respond this way: Find me all the examples of people who shot up a church after reading books by Rachel Maddow and Paul Krugman, and then you’ll have a case.

I would go even further than Waldman: conservatives spewing such radical rhetoric should not only not be surprised when some people take what they say literally to its "logical" conclusion; conservative radicals have no moral leg to stand on whatsoever. They don't even have the right to condemn these shooters, because they stand do not stand at a moral distance from these shooters like the rest of us do.

Alas, my satisfaction in being right on gun control is little consolation. Nothing is going to change because half of America is nuts about guns; and the shooting rampages will continue....

How much does right-wing rhetoric contribute to right-wing terrorism?

By Paul Waldman

June 9, 2014 | Washington Post

URL: http://wapo.st/1n275d6

Sandy Hook anniversary and America's gun sickness

Whenever FOX needs somebody to say why gun control is bad, they call on John Lott.

Here Lott is gloating that stricter gun control hasn't come to pass one year since the Newtown massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary where 26 people were shot and killed, including 20 children ages 6-7, most of them left beyond recognition even by their parents. Here is the website created by the 26 families in their memory.

As I've described before in meticulous detail, when it comes to gun violence, Lott bends and twists the truth. For instance this: "But gun control advocates aren’t giving up. They are patient, and they have money."

They are spending more money lately, but gun control advocates are still being outspent 13 to 1 by gun rights groups.

Sure, Lott can gloat about even more lax gun control laws passed since Sandy Hook in Red States such as Utah, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Mississippi, North Carolina, Indiana, Louisiana, Arkansas, South Dakota and Kansas, while only a few states such as New York and Delaware passed even more strict gun control laws. 

But he can't simply lie that a clear majority of Americans opposes gun control. Over the past 10 years, the share of Americans favoring stricter gun laws has fluctuated between 44 and 60 percent, with the most recent Gallup figure at 49 percent in favor, 37 percent for the status quo, and 13 percent for even less strict gun laws.  

So, about half of Americans have a sickness that's killing all of us, and they need an intervention. Indeed, since 9/11, about 364,000 Americans were killed by firearms. That's more Americans than died in combat in the Civil War. 

The truth is though, fewer and fewer Americans are choosing to own guns. So how are gun makers' profits at an all-time high since Sandy Hook? Easy. They use the NRA to scare fewer people into buying more and more guns to "defend" themselves against tyrannical Big Government and hordes of non-existent criminals (usually in the guise of minorities). 

It's a sickening paradox, but gun rampages like Sandy Hook are good for gun makers, because as soon as politicians make a peep about sensible measures afterwards like universal background checks, the NRA's fear machine cranks into high gear -- "They're coming to take your guns away!" -- Red States make pre-emptive attacks on existing gun laws, and sales to gun nuts go through the roof again.

1 year after Newtown, support for stricter gun control has disappeared

By John Lott

December 13, 2013 | FoxNews

URL: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/12/13/1-year-after-newtown-support-for-stricter-gun-control-has-disappeared/?intcmp=HPBucket

Duck and cover...and block and charge and flee

Remember when schools used to have only fire drills? Maybe tornado drills?  Ah, the good ole' days.

Now teachers and students train to flee a shooting spree, defend themselves with ballistic chalk boards (no joke), or even charge attackers as a desperate last resort. Meanwhile, kids walk to school with bullet-proof backpacks made extra-long to cover more of their little bodies.

They say necessity is the mother of invention.  Thanks, NRA, for making all this necessary!

UPDATE (05.05.2013): NPR is a little slower than me; here is an article about the same thing, and how these offensive-defensive measures are basically a scam by companies looking to get education grant money: "Bulletproof Whiteboards And The Marketing Of School Safety."

US schools weigh bulletproof uniforms: 'It's no different than a seatbelt in a car'

By Dan Roberts

April 26, 2013 | Guardian

URL: http://gu.com/p/3fdmd

Mass shootings increasing, esp. after RTC-CC laws

MJ has proven once and for all that good guys with guns don't stop bad guys with guns. Right-to-carry and concealed-carry laws haven't improved things, in fact, mass shootings have increased over the same period.

And don't forget to check out this amazing study by Mother Jones of all mass shootings over the past 30 years: "A Guide to Mass Shootings in America."  Some key takeaways:

• Most of the killers were white males;
• Most of the guns were obtained legally;
• One-third of the guns that killers used would have been outlawed by the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013.

New Research Confirms Gun Rampages Are Rising—and Armed Civilians Don't Stop Them

By Mark Follman

April 11, 2013 | Mother Jones

URL: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/mass-shootings-rampages-rising-data