Some unusual things are happening... by Niki2

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Some unusual things are happening...

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 10:10
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Wednesday, December 19, 2012 10:10 AM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

...as a result of Sandy Hook:

--Cerberus, the $20-billion equity firm that has made a ton of profit from owning "Freedom Group", which has been buying up many of the nation's gun companies to create a giant conglomerate gun company. They pretty much dominate the gun industry. Elliot Spitzer came out saying it might be time for major investors to pressure Cerberus to get out of the gun business. Last night one very large investor, the California teacher's pension fund, did just that by saying they were reviewing their investment in Cerberus in light of Sandy Hook.

Then, at 1am (!), Cerberus announced it was selling Freedom Group--which includes Bushmaster, the gun used by the shooter at Sandy Hook.

--Dick's Sporting Goods "Suspended sales of modern sporting rifles" (AR-15 style rifles)at ALL of its stores nationwide in the wake of Sandy Hook, and sales of ALL guns at its stores closest to the shootings.

--Walmart has removed the description of the Bushmaster from it's website (you can still buy them, they're just not listed on the website).

--A gun show planned for February in Westchester County (New York, near Newtown) has been cancelled. That same annual gun show was banned for a decade after Columbine and was only brought back in 2010.

--Another gun show in Danbury, Connecticut (very near Newtown) has been cancelled.

--Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder vetoed legislation that would have allowed concealed weapons in churches, schools and day-care centers. The bill had passed by Michigan's Republican legislature just hours before the Sandy Hook shootings. He said the Newtown massacre had been weighing on his decision, that public safety concerns had been heightened in the wake of Newtown and "deserved extra consideration". He told a story about a shooting at his dorm back when he was in college at the University of Michigan in 1981. Apparently a student set a fire by throwing Molotov cocktails. Snyder was a resident advisor in the dorm and dealt with the fire alarm while two other advisors went up to the floor where the gunman was. One of them was killed. If it had played out differently, Snyder said, "that would have been me".

--Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper introduced a $19-million expansion plan to strengthen and redesign Colorado's mental health services and support system, establishing a single, state-wide, mental-health crisis hotline and five, 24/7 mental-health walk-in stabilization services for urgent mental-health needs, as well as streamline reporting of mental-health commitments to gun sale registries.

--Jim Beheim, head coach at Syracuse University spoke up during a press conference held in recognition of his 900th career win as head coach. Beheim finished the press conference by saying "If we in this country as Americans cannot get the people who represent us to do something about firearms, we are a sad, sad society. I'm a hunter, I've hunted, I'm not talking about rifles, that's fine. If one person in this world, NRA president or anybody, can tell me why we need assault weapons with thirty shots in the thing, if one person in the world...this is our fault. This is my fault, and your fault, and your fault, and all your faults. If we don't get out and do something about this--I saw one representative I was very proud of, someone in his state came out and said we need more guns, we don't need less guns, we need to give teachers guns so they can shoot people. Yeah, that's really good thinking, to do that. If we can't get this done, I don't know what kind of country we have."

--The Los Angeles premier of "Django Unchained" ws cancelled, as was Pittsburgh's screening of "Jack Reacher".

--Radio stations around the country yanked "Die Young" from the new Keisha album from their

While I find those last two rather disingenuous and unimportant, they all reflect how this tragedy has affected different aspects of American life. There's more, much more, from politicians--but not Republicans. But what will manage to be done, only time will tell. If time is any perspective, little will happen.

We can go all the way back to LBJ, who, after JFK, King and Bobby were assassinated, tried to get some gun control in place. It seems to take horrific things to make us think about these things. LBJ tried to get a national registry of guns and a licensing for owners of all guns in 1968:

Quote:
For the fact is, there are over 160 million guns in this country--more firearms than families. If guns are to be kept out of the hands of criminals, and out of the hands of the insane, and out of the hands of the irresponsible, then we just must have licensing. If the criminal with the gun is to be tracked down quickly, then we must have registration in this country. The voices that blocked these safeguards were not the voices of an aroused nation. They were the voices of a powerful lobby, the gun lobby, that has prevailed for the moment in an election year. We have been through a great deal of anguish these last few months and these last few years. Too much anguish to forget so quickly. So now we must complete the task which this long-needed legislation began.

He didn't get his wish. He got a crack down on mail-order guns, a crack down on gun sales to kids, on Saturday-Night Specials. But that's all...no national gun registry. What a long way we've come! Not only do we still not have a national registry, but there are MORE guns than ever and gun restrictions are looser than ever.

I hated LBJ at the time, for a number of reasons. I even half bought into the conspiracy theory that he was behind JFK's death. Over the years, however, I've become educated to many of the things he accomplished, including on the environmental level, and come to respect him. He was certainly right on this issue--every word--and it's more true today than it was back then. And still we've made no progress.

Movement is afoot. The Senate unanimously passed a bill that authorizes federal officials to help local authorities respond to mass shootings or other violent crimes in public places. Whoopee...after-the-fact enforcement.

On the other hand, an amendment was passed in the 1990s which stripped the Center for Disease and Prevention of $2.1 million--the specific amount it spent on gun research the previous year--and OUTLAWED research on gun control! The provision states: "None of the funds made available for injury prevention and control may be used to advocate or promote gun control."

Once the ATF used to release statistics on gun violence to the public. But in 2003, the Republican Congress introduced an amendment which prevents the ATF from releasing all kinds of gun crime data--not data on who OWNS guns, mind you, but any data on gun VIOLENCE. Tthe Republicans continue to add it as a rider to every spending bill ever since, so we aren't allowed to know what the ATF knows about gun crime.

Will any of that change? LBJ saw the problem almost 35 years ago and tried to do something about it. He barely made a dent. The NRA has been powerful enough ever since to keep anything from being done. I'm hearing and reading that they aren't as powerful anymore, that all their threats, money and effort to defeat Obama and others garnered them only--I believe it was either 1% or even less--return on their money. Many of their stances in no way reflect the majority--and in some cases the VAST majority--of their members. They reflect themselves and the gun CORPORATIONS, nobody else. Can they be fought? I sincerely hope so.

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