Quote of the Day -- Police Officer Edition

"I know some have strong feelings about gun rights but I want you to know I’ve hit rock bottom and I am not interested in your views as it pertains to this issue. Please do not post anything about guns aren’t the problem and there’s little we can do. My feelings won’t be hurt if you de-friend me and I hope yours won’t be if you decide to post about your views and I de-friend you." 

"...people at the state level and the federal level in too many places in our country are not doing anything other than offering prayers. I'm grateful that I'm working a city with the mayor who is transformative, Sylvester Turner, and what we're starting to see is that local governments are starting to make a difference, and I think that the American people, gun owners, the vast majority of which are pragmatic and actually support gun sense and gun reform in terms of keeping guns in the right hands. We need to start using the ballot box and ballot initiatives to take the matters out of the hands of people that are doing nothing that are elected into the hands of the people to see that the will of the people in this country is actually carried out."

-- Art Acevedo, Chief of Police, Houston Texas

Link:

Transcript: Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo On "Face The Nation," May 20, 2018

America: We Learn Nothing

It's not remotely deniable.

Proof? 

This was first posted on Facebook in 2012.

We learn nothing.

We don't learn and we don't give a damn.

Two Headlines That Tell All About Guns In America

Yet another shooting.

Yet one more mass shooting in America.

This one in Santa Fe, Texas.

More students killed in their own grade school.

And with all we know about these and however much we don't want them to occur, there were two very telling headlines, articles in the news this week that describe the situation we're in. It tells of what we're allowing, what with all the far-too-easy-to-obtain weapons. Here they are. Here's the first:

Santa Fe school shooting is 2nd this week, 3rd this month and 16th this year

Let's face it, there are so many shootings, so many mass shootings in America, we can't even keep track of them, it's that obscene.

Here's the second headline and article.

2018 has been deadlier for schoolchildren 

than service members

It's nearly incomprehensible that even one of the above is true, let alone both.

It's unconscionable this is our situation. It's unconscionable we allow it.

What's it going to take America?

How many innocent Americans---of any age, really---have to die before we have simple, intelligent, meaningful weapons reform and controls so these at least happen less frequently?

The rest of the world does it.

We should, too.

Link:

Santa Fe school shooting: 10 dead 

and 10 wounded in Texas

Another Shooting. Today. More Students Dead

Students and parents at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Tex., where there were reports of an active shooter on campus Friday.CreditMichael Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle, via Associated Press

10 killed, 10 wounded in Texas school shooting

10 more people dead, today, this morning.

No more "thoughts and prayers."

NOW is the time to talk about gun control.

Now is the time to ENACT weapons controls.

Background checks for mental stability and criminal history, at the very least, required, coast to coast, for all weapons purchases.

For starters.

On This Day In Weapons History

On this day, April 29, 1996, a rampage by a gunman in Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia, killed 35 people. Australians were horrified. Their governmental representatives responded.

It took one massacre: 

how Australia embraced gun control

They quickly and wisely did what we have not done and will not do, no matter how many slaughters of innocents we experience and keep experiencing, repeatedly.

We learn nothing. 

We do nothing.

Thanks, National Rifle Association, NRA! Thanks, Wayne LaPierre!

Thanks, Republican Party!

Link:

Depth Of Russian Politician's Cultivation Of NRA Ties Revealed

The Time Has Come. Our Time Has Come

Yes sir and ma'am. The time has come.

Our time has come.

The time to put people, people's lives, Americans, innocent Americans, at that, as a higher priority than weapons and weapon ownership has come. Is now.

No one's talking eliminating guns in the nation, either.

Not remotely.

We're not proposing doing away with the 2nd Amendment or confiscating all the weapons in the country.

It's just that the taking of, again, innocent American lives must end.

A few simple, obviously necessary, helpful, intelligent regulations of weapons only makes sense.  Three that come to mind are:

• Background checks, required, coast to coast, for mental stability and criminal history, for all weapons purchases to finally, finally close the gun show loophole
• Making the maximum number of shots per clip to be 10
• Re-instituting the Assault Weapons Ban

This is no way asking too much. And again, people would still have their weapons if they wish.

It should have ended long ago.

This is a grassroots effort and movement. It's coming from the people. It started with the students and we mustn't let it stop.

Let's do this.

Again, To Missouri State Legislators, Are You Kidding Us Here?

In the face of the latest mass slaughter of innocent Americans, check out what our Missouri State Legislators are doing this week in Jefferson City. Check this out from the Star today.

In wake of mass school shooting, Missouri lawmakers push forward pro-gun legislation

After hearing five hours of testimony Monday afternoon and into the night, lawmakers returned to the Capitol on Tuesday and voted out of committee a handful of bills that would expand where Missourians can carry their concealed firearms. They voted down bills that would have required background checks and repealed aspects of concealed carry without a permit, which lawmakers legalized in 2016.

It's nearly unbelievable.

We keep getting more and yet more shootings and killings and all these Right Wing, Republicans can come up with is the NRA mantra: "MORE GUNS!!"

It's insane. It also goes against every scientific study out there.

Guns Do Not Stop More Crimes, Evidence Shows 

- Scientific American

Heck, it even goes against Missouri's own experience with guns after they just loosened our laws a few years ago, in 2015, with negative results.

In Missouri, Fewer Gun Restrictions 

and More Gun Killings

They learn nothing.

Check out the data for yourself:

Homicide | Harvard Injury Control Research Center 

Gun Threats and Self-Defense Gun Use | 

Harvard Injury Control

Gun Ownership | 

Harvard Injury Control Research Center

Then, very famously, there is the glaring Australian example of what works with guns.

Massive study of Australia's gun laws 

shows one thing: they work

I'm not suggesting we here in the US are capable of doing what they did. What I am saying is that it proves less weapons are the way to go for reducing shootings and killings. It doesn't even seem it needs to be said but sadly, it does.

How many people have to die, have to be killed, until they realize and then act on the hard fact that more guns is exactly the opposite, wrong way to go? We are the only nation in the world with this many weapons that also has these problems. Does that tell us nothing?

The NRA's America

The way the NRA would have us.


Giddyup.

Proof Gun Legislation Works

This right here.



So now, by all means, go online. Do a search. You'll find this--and more--is what these things cost.

Let's do this.

Gun Nuts, Overrun by Facts

The pesky Second Amendment, NRA set keep going back to the same, tired arguments, it seems, even now, on the heels of yet another slaughter of innocents here in the US. The "thoughts and prayers" crowd. The "It's too soon to talk about it" and "Don't politicize this event", ad infinitum.

What gets me about this is their complete, total denial of facts, of the facts on these matters.

Here's the first one:

In Wake of Florida Massacre, 

Gun Control Advocates Look to Connecticut

And of the entire article, I'll break it down to just this one simple fact, this paragraph, from the beginning of it:

Analyses by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence show that, with few exceptions, states with the strictest gun-control measures, including California, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, have the lowest rates of gun deaths, while those with the most lax laws like Alabama, Alaska and Louisiana, have the highest.

That one alone will make them choke but there they are. Facts. All those pesky facts and statistics and hard data.

Here's another.

After Sandy Hook, More Than 400 People Have Been Shot in Over 200 School Shootings

And that's just the school shootings. There have been far, far more of other shootings and killings. This is only our unprotected children in our schools.

How can we do nothing?

The fact is, we can't. And with this shooting, this killing, this massacre of still more children, the following makes me think we may have, finally, finally turned a corner. 

Prominent Republican Donor Issues Ultimatum 

on Assault Weapons 

Maybe we really will do something this time.

Here's hoping. Let's do this, America. It's long, long overdue.

Link:

This Interactive Map Shows all the Mass Shooting in America 

Since1966

What We Need to do About and With Guns in America

Herewith, a short but necessary and intelligent list of just what we need to do about guns in our nation.

Defend Gun Control With Facts

It's gotten so tiresome over the years, trying to discuss weapons in our nation and the damage they do to us all. The Right Wing and Republican Party and NRA and all their supporters insist nothing will work, nothing will help and, gosh, we have to support our Constitution and the oh so precious Second Amendment.

The fact is, the facts are, the facts need to be looked at and accepted.

So herewith, some of those facts.

America's unique gun violence problem, 

explained in 17 maps

--America has six times as many firearm homicides as Canada, and nearly 16 times as many as Germany

--America has 4.4 percent of the world’s population, but almost half of the civilian-owned guns around the world

--On average, there is more than one mass shooting for each day in America

--There have been more than 1,500 mass shootings since Sandy Hook

--States with more guns have more gun deaths

--It’s not just the US: Developed countries with more guns also have more gun deaths

--States with tighter gun control laws have fewer gun-related deaths

--Where there are more guns there is more homicide

--Across high-income nations, more guns = more homicide

--Across states, more guns = more homicide

--More guns = more homicides of police

More:


We have to get over the emotionalism and empty opinions with facts.

Links, sources:

Harvard Injury Control Research Center 

We Need to Reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban

Australia did it.

We could, too.

And we need it.

Las Vegas proved it.

You've Outdone Yourself, America

Las Vegas attack is deadliest shooting 

in modern US history

The time has come, America.

The time has come to talk about and work for, work toward solutions.

Right Wing, Republican, Conservative Saint Ronnie, On Assault Rifles

Bill Moyers On Guns

And he's correct, of course.

NOW, America

Las Vegas shooting: At least 50 dead, 

more than 400 sent to hospitals

'Beyond horrific': Shooting on Las Vegas 

Strip kills at least 50, wounds 400

When is the time to talk about what we can do, as a nation, about weapons in this country?

Now.

Now is a great time.

Now is the perfect time, America.

And it's long, long overdue.

The Idiocy of Missouri's New "Guns Everywhere" Law

Here it is.

An Accidental Shooting in a Missouri 

Supermarket Shows Risks of New Law

Fortunately, thank goodness, the gun-toting pea brain only shot himself. This time.

So way to go, Missouri. Good on you, right? Making "guns everywhere" not just an option or possibility but a likelihood.

You Right Wing, Republican dolts.

Tom Waits was right, of course.

"We are monkeys with money and guns."

Links:

Man toting loaded gun accidentally shoots himself in U. City grocery

Man accidentally shoots self while at grocery store

Carrying a gun increases risk of getting shot and killed 

Good guy with a gun myth: Guns increase the risk of homicide

Study: Guns in home increase suicide, homicide risk

What Guns Allow -- And Don't

Not Done There, Another Mass Shooting Today

At Least 4 Killed, Including Gunman, In Workplace Shooting In San Francisco

Too.

Many.

Guns.