shooting – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Don’t vote Republican: it is a Matter of Life or Death

David Posnett — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 21:25:35 +0000

Photo credit: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/parkland-shooting/553778/

Letter to the Editor in the Southampton Press, Feb 22nd 2018, by James Ewing:

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was the 239th school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012 and overall there have been more than1600 mass shootings since then. On average, two dozen children are shot every day in the United States, and in 2016 more youths were killed by gunfire — 1,637 — than during any previous year this millennium.

Americans make up about 4.4 percent of the global population but own 48 percent of the world’s guns, estimated at more than 330 million—roughly one firearm for every citizen.
From 1966 to 2012 more than 31% of mass shootings worldwide —in which four or more people were killed—were by Americans. Only Yemen has a higher rate of mass shootings among countries with more than 10 million people and Yemen has the world’s second-highest rate of gun ownership after the United States.

A 2015 study by the NIH estimated that only 4 percent of American gun deaths could be attributed to mental health issues, suggesting that mass shootings were better explained by a society’s access to guns than by a false correlation with mental health or any inherent cultural baseline violence. “Epidemiologic studies show that the large majority of people with serious mental illnesses are never violent. However, mental illness is strongly associated with increased risk of suicide.”

According to this analysis of 130 studies from 10 countries around the world it was concluded that gun control legislation tends to reduce gun murders.

Between 1999 and 2015 the Center for Disease Control claims there were 533,879 gun related deaths. That’s an average of 33,367 killed every year.

So what is preventing our Government from enacting sensible gun control legislation if the correlation between gun access and gun violence is so well understood? What is the status of the debate right now? How are we doing?

The National Rifle Association gave $5,900,000 to Republican candidates and $106,000 to Democrats in the 2016 election cycle. The debate is governed by the obvious players and persuasions. “Republicans will never do anything on gun control.” says Rep. David Jolly, (R-Fla.).

Don’t vote for Republicans. Republican control of the government ensures that nothing is done to address a problem that kills more than 30,000 people every year. Don’t vote Republican.

How they Dealt with Gun Violence Down Under

David Posnett — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 01:34:07 +0000

In my mind the real issue is whether the shear number of weapons (guns) is a significant factor in increasing gun-related deaths.

If the number of guns per capita is NOT the problem, as Republicans and the NRA would have you believe, then why not have everyone bear an arm? Heck, we might as well make it mandatory for everyone to bear arms. Not just teachers, but also nurses and doctors, and bank clerks, and shop owners, and cashiers at the local food market, etc. The insanity of this approach is apparent (to most of us)! The omnipresence of guns leads to accidents and suicides. People are not infallible. They make mistakes.

So what is the data that overall numbers of guns results in higher rates of gun-related deaths? It is difficult to tease this out because there are many factors that contribute to gun-related deaths. Obviously, a country like Yemen, presently in a civil war, will have a higher rate of gun-related deaths. So researchers have limited their analysis to “advanced countries” according to the human development index. The following chart lists homocides by firearm per million people:

Chart I from: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/21/17028930/gun-violence-us-statistics-charts

The US is obviously a pretty violent country. Notice Australia on the far left of the graph.

Now how does this correlate with the number of guns? This chart, from researcher Josh Tewksbury, shows the correlation between the number of guns and gun deaths among wealthier nations:

Chart II From: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/21/17028930/gun-violence-us-statistics-charts

It is pretty clear that the higher the number of guns/100 people, the higher the gun related deaths. Notice Australia, down in the left lower quadrant. Of course there are confounding factors which these researchers carefully considered (war, poverty, slums, and social upheaval all contribute to gun-related deaths).

It is easy to imagine that fewer cars would lead to fewer car-accident related deaths. Why would that not apply to guns?

If we agree that the data suggest that increased numbers of guns per 100 people, are correlated with increased gun related deaths, ask yourselves what would prove causality. Well, there is an existing social experiment. A country that changed its laws and decreased its arsenal of guns! And the results were stunning.

The story is well described in Fortune. In 1996, a 28-year-old man drove to a popular tourist spot in Port Arthur, Tasmania, and opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon. Before the day was through, he had shot dead 35 people and wounded 18 others. With the weapons he carried—the AR-15 and a second, self-loading military-style rifle—aim was almost immaterial. He could fire multiple shots in seconds with little recoil. Pointing the gun at a crowd of tourists, it was hard not to hit somebody.

Within weeks of that tragedy, elected officials in each of Australia’s six states and two mainland territories—pressed forward by police chiefs across the continent and by the then-newly elected prime minister—banned semi-automatic and other military-style weapons across the country. The federal government of Australia prohibited their import, and lawmakers introduced a generous nationwide gun buyback program.

Australia is a land of roughneck pioneers and outback settlers. Australia had never embraced much government regulation. This was the home of Crocodile Dundee. But there had been too many deadly shooting sprees and Australians were clearly sick of them.

In 2014, the latest year for which final statistics are available, Australia’s murder rate fell to less than 1 killing per 100,000 people (see Table I).

Remarkably, gun suicides in Australia dropped by some 70 percent, according to one analysis. What stopped many of those would-be suicides was the lack of access to a gun.

It is clear in my mind: more guns means more gun-related deaths.

A Mom Speaks Out: Wake up America, we are at War!

David Posnett — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 22:50:15 +0000

Speaking at Tuesday’s Feb 20 Rally on gun violence and international security: Mara Gerstein

Thank you for being here. I’m Mara. I’m a mom, a lifelong New Yorker, and a constituent of Lee Zeldin. And I’m here to tell my representative, and everyone who will listen, that as of this week, I am a single issue voter.

I only vote for people who will take basic steps to protect me and my family from preventable threats – both foreign and domestic. I am here to tell Rep Zeldin that if he cannot fight for the most basic measures to keep our children safe from gun violence. If he cannot fight for our country to defend itself from information and cyber warfare, then he is worse than useless to any of us.

Trump and Rep Zeldin and so many men like them run on “law and order”, borders, “security”, building up our military, “keeping us safe”. And here we are: 100 of us dying daily from gun violence, another day, another school shooting. Another 15, 20, 50 young lives lost. There is not a parent in this country who wasn’t afraid to send their children to school this week. There wasn’t a kid over the age of 5 in America who didn’t sit in their
classrooms this week afraid that maybe they were next. What is this? Why do we have to live like this? When the majority of Americans are desperate for sensible gun safety laws, why is Lee Zeldin actively working hard to make gun laws more lax?

At what point does this failure to address gun violence become a dereliction of his basic duty to protect us? At what point? A long time ago!

We have a couple of brilliant people who will talk more about our so-called “moderate” congressman’s voting record on gun safety so we can all understand why the NRA loves Zeldin so much. But I want to talk about one specific bill, voted on and passed by the House of Representatives in December. H.R. 38/ Senate Bill 446, the so called “concealed carry reciprocity” bill. It means that states with the weakest requirements for allowing people to carry concealed, loaded guns in their communities will set the national standard. So whereas now states are free to decide what gun laws will keep their communities safe, and can then enter into agreements with other states to honor out of state gun laws. Concealed Carry would mean that all states would be forced to accept the lowest gun safety standards in the country. And no one is talking about it.

It is time that we understand – and make sure everyone we know understands – what HR 38 / Senate Bill 446 – Concealed Carry will mean for New York.

NY awards concealed carry permission only to citizens with justifiable need who are not a danger to themselves or others, and can demonstrate a high level of knowledge of firearm use and safety. Our laws recognize and protect us from the potential threat of dangerous and violent people carrying concealed guns. This is one reason why NY has such a low incidence of gun deaths and injuries per capita. If the NRA – with the tens of millions of dollars they have spent to do so — succeeds in getting the Senate to pass Zeldin’s Concealed Carry Bill it would put domestic abusers and people convicted of violent crimes with hidden weapons on the streets of our towns — Patchogue, Bellport, Montauk, Smithtown, etc. I want Zeldin to tell me how this will make it more safe for me and my child to walk those streets, to go to school, to go to work. Tell me how!

And when you tell me, I will tell you this. You are lying to our faces. More guns, more concealed weapons, and looser gun laws will not make us safer. Until you stop serving the NRA over your constituents, until you stop selling our children’s lives to gun manufacturers, we are all single issue voters. And I ask all of you to tell everyone you know, about what HR 38 / Senate Bill 446 – Concealed Carry will do to NY and why it is
keeping you up at night. Here’s what else is keeping me up at night! We learned this week that there is incontrovertible evidence that the US is under attack from a foreign adversary. What most defense experts are calling the worst attack on our country since 9/11.

We know that Russia penetrated the systems of our major political parties, tampered with our voting machines, discouraged voting with fake information and media campaigns built on lies, that they rounded up support for Trump and are sowing disinformation and confusion about the harm he is inflicting upon us every day. We know that Russia helped sway public opinion to push Al Franken out of office. That they are acting to control social discourse after the Parkland shooting last week. America
needs to wake up. We are at war.

And the president said nothing. He attacks the FBI and goes golfing. He spends NO TIME thinking about how to protect us from the very real threat that Russia will decide in 2018, who runs our government. Russia, is clearly exercising control over the people they have handpicked for the job. Why are Trump and Zeldin doing nothing? Why won’t Trump institute sanctions (H.R. 3364) that were passed by a huge margin 419-3 in the House?

Why is that ok with Zeldin? Is it because the GOP & Zeldin know that they can only stay in power with Russia’s help? Well I’m sorry. That’s too bad. If you can only keep your jobs with Russian help, you’re out. This is OUR country. Not Russia’s.

The people in Washington running the Republican party are dirty. They give tax cuts to the rich and spend millions of dollars to fly first class, and in the same breath take away veterans healthcare, children’s healthcare, food for the poor. They are dirty and corrupt from the inside out. Lying to the FBI, money laundering, tax evasion, defrauding consumers, bank fraud, exploiting their office for personal gain.

Before we even get to collusion with a foreign adversary, if even half of the things these people are accused of are true, Republican leadership in Washington should be in jail. And if they were black they would be.

Every day in this country feels more and more like a national version of the godfather. Here’s what we know. 130 white house staff didn’t have security clearance as of Nov of 2017. The people with the highest levels of security access in the country, have been deemed by our FBI to be unfit for that access. Unfit means that – for whatever reason – be it domestic abuse or foreign debts or lying repeatedly on disclosure forms – our top law enforcement has said that giving these people access puts our lives in danger.

This is not hyberbole. Our government is burning. It is being run by people who are beholden, literally, financially and probably more, to a foreign adversary, and special interests, like the NRA, that is controlled by companies who sell guns and, it turns out, has its own ties to Russia.

What has happened, and is happening, in our government is so insane that we can’t admit it. Because no one knows what to do in the face of this all being true.

What does Donald Trump do? He goes golfing. And what does Lee Zeldin do? He defends him. And worse. Zeldin is actively working to derail the Russia investigation and to attack people who have devoted their lives to protecting our country. A proud member of Devin Nunes #CoverUpCaucus, Zeldin is doing far worse than nothing. Just this morning on Twitter, Zeldin continues his constant and desperate scramble to undermine the efforts of those who are trying to understand what happened and protect us from attack.

And all of these people – Trump, Zeldin, Devin Nunes – every person who holds elected office – has taken an oath to “protect and defend our constitution.” And they won’t even try. A basic dereliction of duty to perform their basic oath of office.

So we are all single issue voters! If Zeldin cannot take basic steps to protect us from threats – both foreign and domestic – he is worse than useless, he is doing us great harm. He is endangering our children, our rule of law, our constitution, and our basic rights as Americans. Zeldin, we are all single issue voters. If you cannot put basic gun safety measures in place, you need to step aside. If you fail to recognize and respond to Russia’s attacks, you need to step aside. You need to step aside and make room for someone who will do their job to protect us and to protect our constitution.

Alexandria Shooting

David Posnett — Fri, 16 Jun 2017 20:44:59 +0000

From my friend S:

One can only hope that this horrible shooting results in some tampering down of the D.C. vitriol. From my perspective, Trump unleashed this intense anger and permission to spew uncivil rhetoric. Trump started by using the debates to debase participants, calling them names. Exactly when did that become an acceptable debate technique? And now, we will have to abide the debate about “gun control” versus “Congress should be allowed to carry guns”. Really, have we returned to the Wild West?

I am not interested in living in a country where everyone is free to carry a gun. It’s simply uncivilized. How did we arrive at this awful crossroads?

And a day later:

I’m no Pollyanna and know that the professed unity of Democrats & Republicans in the face of the awful events at yesterday’s baseball practice will be short lived & some cracks are already evident.

However, in a small but revealing way, Jake Tapper had a joint interview with Pelosi and Ryan, who spoke of their respect for each other and personal anecdotes concerning their families. Americans need to see more of these insightful moments of the humanity between opponents and how they respect and are respectful of each other.

Someone like Sean Hannity should be forced to watch the Pelosi/Ryan interview multiple times. Even perhaps the McConnel and Schumer interview. In my memory, politicians have never before underscored their ability to work together rather than the animosity resulting from their differences of opinion. I watched some of Hannity’s program last evening, my first time ever, & was struck at how he spews hateful views and ideas.

This may not last, but it’s helpful and a modest step forward. Something struck a chord and this kumbaya moment, no matter how short, is valuable.