Daily Kos: DK Gun Control

Report says NRA is hurting so bad, it can’t even give employees free coffee and water anymore

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday November 15, 2018 · 9:13 AM PST

2018/11/15 · 09:13

DALLAS, TX - MAY 04: (L-R) Donald Trump Jr., U.S. President Donald Trump, Executive Director NRA-ILA Chris Cox and NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre greet the crowd at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum during the NRA Annual Meeting & Exhibits at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center on May 4, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. The National Rifle Association's annual meeting and exhibit runs through Sunday. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) — People you don't want to be around

The non-profit news site Trace, an organization that focuses on gun control and gun safety news, reports that NRA officials have begun implementing an “austerity campaign,” spearheaded by executive director for general operations Josh Powell. The news organization says that free water-cooler access and free coffee have been done away with at the gun association’s Fairfax, Virginia, headquarters.

“Josh is going to greatly reduce education and training and slash the number of the NRA’s publications down to one magazine,” said a source close to the gun group’s leadership. The group currently maintains six publications, including four print magazines.

Powell is an unlikely budget hawk. A Trace investigation into his business history last month found a trail of defaulted debts, including 20 lawsuits for more than $400,000 from jilted vendors.

Trace says that the NRA, when asked, did not deny the report, though it did not confirm it either. As the Washington Post pointed out earlier this year, the NRA—after boasting about rising membership numbers every time a child died by gunfire—had suspiciously boasted the same not-growing numbers for years.

Medical professionals share images of gun violence, slam NRA's Stay in Your Lane nonsense

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday November 13, 2018 · 9:10 AM PST

2018/11/13 · 09:10

A hospital staff member talks on his phone as he walks past police outside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital as they respond to an active shooter north of Manhattan in New York on June 30, 2017..A gunman who opened fire inside a hospital in the Bronx borough of New York, injuring several people, is dead, a police spokesman told AFP.Several New York media outlets reported that at least two people were injured, while the New York Times said three doctors were hurt. The hospital, a 1,000-bed facility in a busy sector of the city's north, was encircled by police following the incident.. / AFP PHOTO / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

One of the most indefensible stances of the NRA—in a sea of indefensible stances—is that medical professionals and government public health experts cannot use taxpayer money to research gun violence in our country. After a few hundred American deaths in more headline-grabbing mass-shooting events over the past decade, Congress better defined the parameters of 1996’s Dickey Amendment, allowing the Centers for Disease Control to finally, after thousands of deaths, study gun violence. On Wednesday, after the CDC released statistics about rising gun violence, and probably feeling a bit butt-hurt after over a dozen Grade A NRA candidates lost to a bunch of Grade F Democrats, the NRA’s social media idiot tweeted out this statement.

Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane. Half of the articles in Annals of Internal Medicine are pushing for gun control. Most upsetting, however, the medical community seems to have consulted NO ONE but themselves.

Only people like Donald Trump, the NRA, Mitch McConnell, and the entire Republican Party seem to have the kind of chutzpah it takes to tell medical professionals to stay in their lane. Attacking a group of people who are both highly educated and highly dedicated to protecting the lives of others is a recipe for classic NRA failure. The initial responses were direct and to the point.

Do you have any idea how many bullets I pull out of corpses weekly? This isnÃ¢ÂÂt just my lane. ItÃ¢ÂÂs my fucking highway. https://t.co/48S9UIFaV2
Ã¢ÂÂ Judy Melinek M.D. (@drjudymelinek) November 9, 2018

One of the NRA’s top-funded Republicans just went down hard in Virginia in first big House flip

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday November 06, 2018 · 5:14 PM PST

2018/11/06 · 17:14

HAYMARKET, VA - OCTOBER 20: Democratic U.S. House candidate and Virginia State Sen. Jennifer Wexton (D-33rd District) participates in the annual Haymarket Day parade October 20, 2018 in Haymarket, Virginia. Wexton is challenging incumbent Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA) for the House seat that has been in Republican hands since 1981. Wexton is currently leading Comstock in the polls. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) — Democrat Rep. Jennifer Wexton

Democrat Jennifer Wexton has unseated Rep. Barbara Comstock. Rep. Wexton promoted more serious gun safety, while Barbara Comstock continued to be one of the top ten NRA-funded House officials.

NBC calls the first flip of the night: Jennifer Wexton (D) wins VA-10
Ã¢ÂÂ Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) November 7, 2018

Comstock’s refusal to do anything about gun violence was compounded this election cycle by her cowardice in hiding from questions about gun violence. It’s an important win for people who are sick of gun manufacturers making public health decisions with their pocket books. I guess we should send our thoughts and prayers to Barbara Comstock?

NRA DEFEAT: Gun safety champion Jennifer Wexton has defeated Rep. Barbara Comstock, a top recipient of NRA funding whose Virginia district was home to NRA headquarters. Wexton's campaign was backed by former congresswoman and gun violence survivor Gabby Giffords pic.twitter.com/5HXSmCQ0eD
Ã¢ÂÂ NowThis (@nowthisnews) November 7, 2018

Students demanding action on gun laws release moving video reminding everyone why we must vote

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Friday November 02, 2018 · 12:06 PM PDT

2018/11/02 · 12:06

Everytown for Gun Safety is a movement to end the unacceptable gun violence that affects millions of children every year in the United States. A new video campaign by the organization, using pop music star Sia’s “I’m Still Here,” was released last week. The video shows a child going into a school and being handed a balloon by other students who are promoting a student election. The balloon pops, and across the entire school, everyone goes dead quiet. The pause hangs in the air until one by one, children begin dancing.

Holding up the balloons to reclaim their childhood

The video begins melancholy and desperate, single students emotionally moving, while other students stand or sit frozen among empty spaces where once fellow students lived alongside them. As the song continues, more and more students join in the movement, literally and figuratively building triumphantly, as they reclaim the balloons as the joyous items of the childhood they should be living.

Researcher: Twice as many children die from firearms in states with lenient gun laws

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Friday November 02, 2018 · 8:23 AM PDT

2018/11/02 · 08:23

OLYMPIA, WA - JANUARY 19: Abby and Emily, whose parents declined to provide a last name, play with the toy guns in their free gift bags provided by organizers during a pro-gun rally on January 19, 2013 in Olympia, Washington. The Guns Across America national campaign drew thousands of protesters to state capitols, including over 1,000 in Olympia. (Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images) — Your parents are wrong, kid.

The second-highest cause of pediatric death in the United States is firearms. More children die from them every year than die from cancer and heart disease combined. According to new research, even when adjusting for factors like poverty, unemployment, and education, rates of pediatric firearm deaths were markedly lower in states with strict gun laws. In fact, states with the most lenient gun laws had twice as many pediatric firearm-related deaths. Additionally, researchers found that states without child access prevention laws had death rates four times as high as states with strict gun laws.

"Firearm-related injuries are the second leading cause of death among children in the United States, but we found a clear discrepancy in where those deaths happen that corresponds with the strength of states' firearm legislation," said Stephanie Chao, MD, FAAP, FACS the abstract's lead author. "In states with lenient laws, children die at alarmingly greater rates."

Jewish doctor treats Pittsburgh shooter: 'My job isn't to judge him...my job is to take care of him'

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday November 01, 2018 · 11:38 AM PDT

2018/11/01 · 11:38

When 46-year-old Robert Bowers rushed into the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue and killed 11 people, wounding six others—including four police officers—he was taken into custody badly hurt. Authorities brought him to Allegheny General Hospital, where he was treated by a team of doctors—including doctors who identify as Jewish. Britain’s Channel 4 interviewed the president of Allegheny, Jeffrey J. Cohen, about Bowers.

Cohen: Yesterday, I went up to meet him. I was just curious about, who is this guy? And quite honestly, he’s just a guy. People say he’s evil, he’s this ... he’s some mother’s son. And how did he get from that to where he is today? That’s going to be a large debate that we have to wrestle with as a society.

Reporter: Effectively, you were sort of at the head of a team that saved his life.

Cohen: It may be a bit of an overstatement, but yes. He was severely injured and he got great care here. Many of the people that attended to him were Jewish. And they’re heroes. They did like the cops did; they did their job. They went and they confronted the problem, and they were true to their core beliefs, and I’m very proud of them.

Reporter: And as a doctor, but also a parishioner of the synagogue, and you looked into his eyes, what did you see?

Cohen: I just looked at him and he’s like a lot of people that come in here. They’re scared, they’re confused. They don’t quite understand it. But once again, my job isn’t to judge him. Other people give that—that’s a pretty awesome responsibility. My job is to take care of him.

Large global study shows that stricter gun laws mean fewer deaths from firearms, suicide included

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Monday October 22, 2018 · 4:06 PM PDT

2018/10/22 · 16:06

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA - JULY 19: Molten slag is seen behind a pile of approximately 3,500 confiscated guns about to be destroyed at the Gerdau Steel Mill understand supervision of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department and other law enforcement agencies on July 19, 2018 in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The weapons were seized in criminal investigations, probation seizures and gun buyback events, and will be recycled into steel rebar for the construction of highways and bridges. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

The Journal of the American Medical Association has published the results of a global study by hundreds of academics of “firearm deaths outside of war zones between 1990 and 2016” and their relationship to different degrees of gun control laws. The report shows, among other things, that the rates of accidental death, suicide, and homicide due to firearms have dropped in Australia over that period of time. Guess what? Yes. You already guessed it!

Dr Franklin said the Australian National Firearms Agreement, enacted following the murder of 35 people in Tasmania in 1996 by a lone gunman armed with high-powered weapons, has been closely linked with declines in firearm deaths in Australia.

"We've seen a decline particularly in firearm suicides and an absence of mass shootings. It's a pattern we see in South Africa and Brazil, with tougher gun laws leading to a fall in firearm deaths in those places too," he said.

The study found that stricter gun laws mean fewer suicides, fewer gun deaths where people don’t get a chance to change their mind about an impulse they might have. The researchers also pointed out that making it harder to have an unsecured firearm in the home could have profound impacts on lessening the number of cases of accidental deaths of children. There is already data showing that, in our country, the need to secure firearms in the home is egregiously unchecked.

Want to help Democrats vote for candidates who believe in intelligent gun laws, but unsure how? Try this: Click here, enter your zip code, and RSVP for a volunteer shift.

Beto O'Rourke nails Ted Cruz and his bought and paid-for votes: 'Follow the money!'

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday October 17, 2018 · 1:13 PM PDT

2018/10/17 · 13:13

Screen_Shot_2018-10-17_at_10.06.57_AM.png

With the ballooning deficit, a clear result of the Republican Party’s single-minded fleecing of American taxpayers on behalf of its big-business overlords, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz had his most deceitful work ahead of him during Tuesday night’s debate against Democrat Beto O’Rourke. After making a big deal about all of the debates he wanted to have against Beto, Cruz has recently found himself a tad bit shy, and for good reason, as his track record, that of the political party he represents, and current economic and environmental conditions all speak poorly of him.

During one exchange, Cruz attempted to lie away about how the need to balance the budget, and Beto O’Rourke’s lack of experience in the Senate, would not bode well for the country. O’Rourke responded with a well-articulated explanation of his track record at the local level, and of how insanely hypocritical Cruz is in even daring to say the phrases “balanced budget” and “too much government spending,” after the robbery he and his fellow Republicans pulled off last year.

NRA TV puts KKK hoods on Thomas and Friends as a 'joke' in protest of new Kenyan female character

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday September 11, 2018 · 10:57 AM PDT

2018/09/11 · 10:57

Screen_Shot_2018-09-11_at_10.05.54_AM.png — Get it?

What do you do when you are an organization known for supporting mass murder of children and a white supremacist politician, and maybe having involved yourself with possibly treasonous money laundering? You attack children’s television! The National Rifle Association, best known for hate-filled jingoistic rhetoric—and probably misrepresenting their membership and finances—is still trying to chug along with their television network, NRA TV. Dana Loesch decided to use the last moments of her show—let’s call it “Hating things not white, with Dana Loesch”—to attack one of the bigger problems in society today: Thomas the Tank Engine!

Loesch begins by saying how her daughter loved Thomas but Loesch always found Thomas and Friends “creepy.” Thanks for that info, Loesch.

Loesch: Anyway they’ve decided that the next stop is “virtue town,” as the tank is now bringing gender balance to the show—by adding girl trains.

Here’s a quick note for those of you who didn’t have children in your life, that overlapped with Thomas and Friends: They’ve had “girl trains" for a very long time. They’ve had “international,” non-United Kingdom train personalities for at least 10 years now.

Loesch: Seriously. One of those trains, Nia, will be from Kenya to add ethnic diversity to the show. And -- which that by the way, that’s where it gets really strange to me because I’ve looked at Thomas and Friends, at their pictures, and I see gray and blue. Am I to understand this entire time that Thomas and his trains were white? Because they all have gray faces. How do you bring ethnic diversity, I mean they all have gray faces. I guess they like paint what I guess they thought was some kind of African pattern along the side of Nia’s engine?

Yes. That, and the voice and an accent, and stories about Kenya that Nia will tell Thomas, and by extension the children watching Thomas. That’s how you go about trying to make your show a) more diverse, and b) fucking interesting after hundreds of episodes about basically the same thing.

ABC News got their hands on emails between alleged Russian agent and top NRA officials

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Monday September 10, 2018 · 1:02 PM PDT

2018/09/10 · 13:02

Maria Butina is the alleged Russian agent and “gun activist” arrested earlier this summer in connection to the 2016 election of Donald Trump. The 29-year-old was arrested a day after 12 other “Russian intelligence officers” were indicted in connection to hacking Democratic officials’ computers during the 2016 election cycle. Butina is alleged to have “infiltrated” the NRA and other American conservative organizations with the blessing of Russia’s top brass in order to help affect the 2016 election outcome. ABC News says that they’ve gotten their hands on “dozens of pages of email correspondence between August 2015 and November 2016” that show Butina’s possible influence in setting up a meeting in Moscow between high-ranking National Rifle Association officials and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Campaign Action

The delegation included NRA board member Pete Brownell, Trump campaign surrogate Sheriff David Clarke, major NRA benefactor Dr. Arnold Goldschlager and his daughter Hilary, NRA fundraiser Joe Gregory, former NRA president David Keene and Outdoor Channel CEO Jim Liberatore. They reportedly met with Butina, her alleged handler Alexander Torshin, the Deputy Governor of the Russian Central Bank who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2018, and Dmitry Rogozin, then-Russian Deputy Prime Minister who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2014.

Emails suggest Butina was eager to add Lavrov, the powerful Russian foreign minister, to their schedule, and according to one of the members of the delegation, the meeting took place.

Butina’s purported high-level Russian handler is Alexander Torshin. During the 2016 elections, Butina and Torshin are alleged to have attempted to set up a meeting between Putin and Trump. According to reports, this fell through after Jared Kushner nixed the idea, but was picked up by Donald Trump Jr., who is alleged to have had a private dinner with Torshin during the NRA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, a few weeks later.

See ya! Spotify deletes a bunch of Infowars' Alex Jones Show podcasts

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday August 02, 2018 · 10:55 AM PDT

2018/08/02 · 10:55

Screen_Shot_2018-04-19_at_12.06.43_PM.png

Numerous outlets are reporting that the the hate-hellium filled clown balloon that is called Alex Jones has had a series of his podcasts removed from the popular streaming service Spotify. This is another blow to the locust-filled windbag conspiracy theorist who has received blowback from other social media outlets like Facebook and YouTube this past week. This comes on the heels of Jones suing Sandy Hook Elementary School families for court costs, after he mocked and promoted outrageous lies for years, endangering the already grieving families.

Variety received a statement from Spotify about the action.

“We take reports of hate content seriously and review any podcast episode or song that is flagged by our community,” a spokeswoman said in an email. “Spotify can confirm it has removed specific episodes of ‘The Alex Jones Show’ podcast for violating our hate content policy.” The company did not provide details about the alleged hate speech in the Jones podcasts that were removed, an action it took after many Spotify users complained about them.

The nicest thing one can say about Alex Jones is that he’s a violation of intelligence and morality. According to Rolling Stone, it is unclear how many of the episodes were removed and what the criteria for removing them is. So, while this is a good step, it continues to allow Jones’s brand of “news” a voice. He seems to peddle his shows as news except when he is being sued and then he argues that his show is fictional entertainment. Jones is either entertainment or he is not and it would be important for Spotify to be more transparent in the details of this new policy. We have seen similar public displays of being “tough” on hate speech from companies like Facebook that don’t really seem to be either consistent or tough. A policy is only as good as its implementation.

McConnell says it's a 'darn shame' but there isn't 'much to do' about school shootings

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday July 03, 2018 · 2:10 PM PDT

2018/07/03 · 14:10

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 05: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks as Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) (R) looks on after attending the Senate Republican policy luncheon on June 5, 2018 in Washington, DC. McConnell anounced that he has canceled the Senate's August recess. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

The Senate Majority Leader and Kentucky’s answer to decency, Mitch McConnell, was talking about his victory over the hare when the subject of school shootings came up. The Lexington Herald Leader reports, Sen. McConnell is as impotent as the rest of his political party.

“I don’t think at the federal level there’s much that we can do other than appropriate funds,” McConnell told a group of community leaders in Danville Tuesday.

McConnell did however, think that we need to turn children’s schools into security states, implying that local legislatures need to follow the example set by “how much it takes to get on an American plane or given how much it takes to get into courthouses.” Considering that more children have been murdered by guns in school this year than military murdered during “combat operations,” maybe the way to go is just send kids into combat instead of school?

In what may be a first for Republicans, McConnell did use the “E-word” to describe our country’s gun violence issue.

“It’s a darn shame that’s where we are but this epidemic is something that’s got all of our attention,” McConnell said of the school shootings. “And I know it’s got the attention of every school superintendent in the country.”

Republican leadership: the buck stops somewhere below us, anywhere but with us.

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