The GVP Report - May 21, 2013 | ||||||||||
► ► A California law passed in 2007 that requires all new semi-automatic handguns be equipped with microstamping technology is now in effect after years of delay. New guns must stamp a bullet casing with a code identifying a gun's make, model and serial number whenever the gun is fire. ► Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley signed sweeping legislation strengthening Maryland's gun laws. The new law requires anyone buying a handgun to submit fingerprints to obtain a license, limits gun magazines to 10 rounds, and bans 45 types of assault weapons. ► The US State Department told Cody Wilson to remove 3-D plastic gun blueprints from his website but not before the plans had been downloaded across the world. Now, policymakers are scrambling to catch up with this new frontier of gun control jurisdiction. ► MediaMatters, Conservative media misread Dept. of Justice report on fall of gun homicides, ignoring multiple factors that could account for the decrease. ► NPR All Things Considered reports on The Low-Tech Way Guns Get Traced. It involves lots of phone calls and often, manual labor. ► A new study by Stephen Teach, MD presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting finds that nearly one in five children and teens found to be at risk for suicide report that there are guns in their homes and 15 percent of these youth know how to access both the guns and the bullets. ► Guns obtained in a January gun buyback in Seattle, Washington will be melted down and turned into steel "bricks" that will be adorned with messages about gun violence penned by Seattle school children and placed throughout the city. Seattle students in grades 1-12 can submit quotes to the Weapons to Words contest.
► ► James E. Causey, Milwaukee, WI Journal Sentinel, Are You Safer Owning a Gun for Home Protection? Dr. Eric Fleegler, Harvard Medical School, told me I would be much safer if I didn't own a gun in a home invasion than if I did own a gun. I didn't believe him, so we went through a series of exercises. ► An important new book from Tom Diaz, formerly of the Violence Policy Center, The Last Gun: How Changes in the Gun Industry Are Killing Americans and What Will It Take to Stop It. Read what one book reviewer has to say. ► Amy Showalter, Forbes.com, Five Reasons the NRA Won the Recent Gun Control Debate That Have Nothing to do with Politics. There are lessons we can learn from the recent battle on background checks. ► Charles Simic, New York Review of Books, Shooting Our Way to Safety. Following on the premise that the more guns a person owns, the safer he and his family are going to be, the nation Wayne LaPierre and his supporters envision is one in which law enforcement would be supplanted by vigilantes in our communities. ► Robert Wielkopolski, New Jersey Star Ledger, Why Does the NRA Fear Facts? As a magistrate in Alaska for 32 years, I saw firsthand that choice of weapon often influenced body count. Yet the NRA blocks knowledge that could reduce gun deaths like the auto industry tried to silence Ralph Nader. ► Arkadi Gerney, The New Yorker, Guns and My Mother. For five years, I managed Mayors Against Illegal Guns, but I never told anyone - not the people I worked with every day, or the victims I convinced to go on camera to share their stories - how my own life was changed by a gun. ►
► Adam Kokesh hopes to lead 1,000 protesters armed with guns in Washington, D.C. on the 4th of July. Kokesh compares himself to Mahatma Gandhi. He also calls D.C. chief of police a "criminal" for reminding Kokesh that under D.C. law it is illegal to carry a gun openly or concealed. ► A vendor at the NRA's annual convention sold a target, called "the ex" of an ex-girlfriend that bleeds when you shoot it. The company, Zombie Industries, markets itself as the maker of "life-sized tactical mannequin targets" that you shoot directly at. ► Christina Wilkie & Nick Wing, This is what happens when the gun industry sees kids as customers, looks at the various ways the gun industry and the NRA market to children. ► The NRA has sent out mailers in Colorado urging people to sign a petition to recall Democratic state Senate president John Morse after the state recently strengthen gun laws. "They're just testing here to see if they can take out the Senate president and make a statement, a statement that says: 'Don't ever be a leader and be for sensible reforms,'" Morse said. "And they're targeting me because I'm in a swing district, surrounded by conservative ideologues." |
► Lawrence O'Donnell, The Last Work, featured States United to Prevent Gun Violence's new public service announcement in the Rewrite section. ► Shira Goodman, executive director of CeaseFirePA, op-ed Keep Gun Violence from Marring Next Mother's Day.
► Ceasefire New Jersey and Art=Ammo held a flash mob in Newark to urge support for bills to strengthen gun laws currently before the NJ legislature. ► Heeding God's Call held a prayer vigil for 25-year-old Robert Diggs, the eighth homicide victim this year in Harrisburg, PA. Diggs was shot and killed when a confrontation boiled over during a party in his apartment. ► The Brady Campaign has filed suit against a north George town that recently passed a law requiring all residents own a gun. The suit cotends that the Second Amendment doesn't require anyone to have a gun and government cannot require citizens to arm themselves. ► Project for Safer Communities New Hampshire and Granite State Progress held a news conference to criticize Sen. Kelly Ayotte for her vote against the Senate bill to strengthen background checks.
► Washington Ceasefire is running ads on King County Metro buses asking people to "Think twice about having a gun in your home." The ads were rejected by Community Transit due to a new policy barring political advertisements.
► Is your House Representative a cosponsor of HR 1565, the bill to expand background checks? Mayors Against Illegal Guns makes it easy for you to find out and then to contact them. ► The GVP Report is the only publication that offers a consistent, comprehensive, inclusive look at the gun violence issue in this country. Won't you make a donation today in support?
A gunman opened fire at a Mother's Day parade in New Orleans, injuring 19 people. Ten men, seven women and two children were injured in the shooting. The children suffered graze wounds. Other injuries ranged from minor to severe. Police have arrested two brothers with gang ties in connection with the shooting. Columnist David Dennis asks Why isn't New Orleans Mother's Day parade shooting a 'national tragedy'? |
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
This Fight Is Not Over
This Fight Is Not Over
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