Together with a few other visionary souls in pain about our national gun violence problem, I began a labor of love. Last fall right around Labor Day that effort morphed into the birth of a new Daily Kos group. We began to pull together a Daily Kos resource library of accurate and useful information about American firearms law and policy. Our goal is to talk about gun law and policy where we live, and share what we learn with anyone who wants to walk a mile in our shoes. We hope to educate ourselves and others about one of the urgent problems in our mysfunctional society.
Excerpt from: Introducing a new Group - Firearms Law and Policy
We are afraid. How did we come to be so afraid? Consider one Canadian's perspective on our national obsession with the right to bear arms, (h/t Vetwife).
America is Afraid!! Canada Rants!
by Graeme Provencal
To join the Firearms Law and Policy Group send a Kosmail to the group.
The terrain of gun law, gun policy, and gun violence is vast and complex. Most maps of this land are inadequate to understand what's happening. The daily and weekly toll continues relentlessly. On average, 300 people are shot every day and 85 of them will die from their injuries.
We are a study group that includes people who want to understand Heller/McDonald. We include members who want to see the Second Amendment repealed someday and people who want to see expansion of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms right now.
We see ourselves somewhat like a reading room in the back of a large library. We are willing hold our best ideas up to scrutiny. That is how we hope to come to better arguments to support or refute specific gun laws or policy initiatives. Unlike many Daily Kos groups, we are not an advocacy group with political agenda. Readers are free to drop by with naive questions, to post requests on topics we should cover, to give us homework by posting links to references we should know about. We would like to start a gun news wire, and need contributors from all over the country to participate in that effort. [Contact We Shall Overcome with your ideas, or post them in the comments.]
If you are bored with meta, or tired of Daily Kos, join us and help us by taking a bite of this large juicy apple. Your perspective is valuable. We encourage all authors to write from their own perspective, what is true for them. We challenge our assumptions and vet sources and ideas for each other. That's how we develop better arguments. We hash over diary ideas together. That's one way we become more understanding of other points of view.
There is no ideological litmus test to join. No matter where you are on the spectrum of gun rights/gun regulations you may find valuable information that will help you become a better advocate for gun law and policy issues, wherever you live.
Please join me below the fold or skip straight to the comments and introduce yourself.
We passed the six month mark recently. Feel free to answer our poll, and give us feedback on what we are doing well and where we've dropped the ball. If you think we suck, feel free to comment too, just know that we've been attacked before and insults roll off our back like water off a duck. Whining just puts people to sleep, so we generally ignore that too.
Sponsored by the Firearms Law and Policy Group
We publish Open Thread diaries on Sundays and Wednesdays*
The Daily Kos Firearms Law and Policy group studies actions for reducing firearm deaths and injuries in a manner that is consistent with the current Supreme Court interpretation of the Second Amendment. If you would like to write about firearms law please send us a Kosmail.
To see our list of original and republished diaries, go to the Firearms Law and Policy diary list. Click on the ♥ or the word "Follow" next to our group name to add our posts to your stream, and use the link next to the heart to send a message to the group if you have a question or would like to join.
We have adopted Wee Mama's and akadjian's guidance on communicating. But most important, be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle.
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*except for March, and maybe April
Seriously, we don't have a set publishing schedule. Our authors publish or republish their original articles whenever they are ready.
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