In Newtown, healing comes slowly

CeasefireUSA: The GVP Report - September 30, 2014
In The News ► Politico reports on how in Newtown, healing comes slowly. As the two-year anniversary of the deadly shooting approaches, students and staff in the school district still struggle with the sense that school is an unsafe place, post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, and grief. ► A U.S. District Court judge upheld Highland Park, Illinois' ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. The judge ruled that the ban does not violate the Second Amendment. ► Democrats not "shying away from guns" in Colorado district. During last year's CO state senate recall elections, political consultants decided the risk/benefit to "engaging the gun issue" wasn't worth it. But pretending there's no 800-pound gorilla in the room is not a good strategy. Mailer starts to undo this thinking. ► Jersey City, New Jersey to award contract for weapons and ammunition under new innovative policy using the city's purchasing power clout.  Bidders had to answer questions regarding how they handle firearms they purchase back from the city, questions about assault weapons and whether they agree not to sell certain firearms to civilians. ► NPR report To Counter Gun Violence, Researchers Seek Deeper Data.  There are big gaps in what gets reported and what doesn't when it comes to gun violence. The CDC has begun offering grants to states to expand the National Violent Death Reporting System. ► New FBI analysis of "active shooter" situations from 2000 through 2013 shows a rise in incidents. The study found an average of six incidents per year from 2000 through 2006. The number rose to 16 incidents annually in the past seven years. Click here to read full report. ► A new report from BMJ Open finds that firearm-related deaths are twice as high among African-Americans compared with whites. The study correlates gun-related deaths to ethnicity and groups the statistics into state-specific categories. Click here to read the full report. ► Daniel Webster, Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, talk at TedMed 2014,America's Path to Fewer Gun Deaths. Our standards for legal gun ownership are too low and our laws are too weak to hold individuals accountable if they put guns into the hands of criminals. ► Olympia, Washington convicted felon was buying and selling guns on Facebook with little trouble, federal prosecutors contend.  Michael Joanen was able to deal in guns for months before federal investigators caught wind. Community Support ► Bob Costas on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell.  In what O'Donnell calls   the best defense of gun safety laws, Costas makes a strong case for stronger gun laws. ► Kay Campbell, Alabama Media Group, 'Jesus was not a member of the NRA;' no biblical grounds for emphasis on self-defense."It's hard to articulate a strong Biblical case for a heavily armed society," said one of the panelists on "God and Guns" at the Religion Newswriters conference. "That's not Biblical reasoning; that's cultural reasoning." ► Hunter, Daily Kos, Sen. Mark Pryor backstabbed his state for the NRA.  It got him nothing. Last year Pryor (D-AR) voted with the NRA against background checks. The NRA just announced a $1.3 million ad buy supporting his Republican opponent in the upcoming election. ►Guns in the Hands of Artists  is a new exhibit at the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans, Louisiana. It features works from 30 artists from across the country. ► Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, Stranger Danger and Guns. "I may have been a fool for trying to reclaim my phone. But we're all idiots for accepting a society where knocking on a door is a deadly risk." ► Harmon Leon, Cracked.com, 5 Terrifying Things I Learned While Buying Guns on Facebook. Most people agree that in a perfect world, there'd be a few obstacles in between, say, a disturbed teen and a brand-new assault rifle. But here's what we found instead. ► AllHipHop partnered with the League of Young Voters and Snoop Dogg to bring their gun violence prevention campaign #NoGunsAllowed to the 2014 BET Hip-Hop Awards red carpet in Atlanta, Georgia. ► Tom Sullivan, Huffington Post,The Midterm Election in Aurora, Colorado Where My Son Was Shot Must Address Gun Control. Our children's lives and our communities are at risk. Let the politicians in Washington know that enough is enough. We will work for change, with or without them. ► NBA Stars Fight Gun Violence with Basketball at Chicago Church. St. Sabina Parish hosts the third annual Peace Tournament.  NBA All-Star Joakim Noah,  NBA legend Isiah Thomas and others helped with the event. What the Gun Lobby is Doing ► Washington Post, The NRA's over-the-top ad stretches the facts with its images. Fact Checker gives a new ad airing in Louisiana against Senator Mary Landrieu Four Pinocchios (factual whoppers). ► Wicomico County, Maryland Sheriff Mike Lewis told a local tv station,  "Who am I to tell them they shouldn't have a magazine with 30 rounds behind the door when some thug is trying to break into their home?" The Maryland Attorney General responded by saying, "If a sheriff takes an oath to defend the laws in Maryland, then that sheriff has taken an oath to defend this gun law." ► Larry Pratt, Gun Owners of America, tells interviewer that Democratic lawmakers are rightly afraid of being shot by gun owners because "that's what the Second Amendment is all about."		Blogs Art on Issues, Placing Gun Violence into a Human Rights Framework: Our Moral Imperative National Gun Victims Action Council, Why Should Weapons With No Defensive Use Be Sold to Civilians? Joan Peterson, Common GunSense, Gun Laws in Italy Cathie Whittenburg, Ohh Shoot Blog, People who carry concealed guns and unintentionally shot themselves in public restrooms. TAKE ACTION OCTOBER IS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH Tell Congress: Violent partners and stalkers should not have guns.   Advocacy ► Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort makes the first of five stops on its Hearts and Soles tour. 467 pairs of empty shoes symbolize the men, women and children who are killed in WI every year with guns. ► CeaseFire PA held a rally at the Pennsylvania State House in support of a bill to expand background checks and a bill to require gun owners to report lost and stolen guns. ► Everytown for Gun Safety report shows criminals in Washington state use online gun marketplace to evade background checks. ► Everytown for Gun Safety announces its endorsements of state and federal candidates in the 2014 elections. ► Arizona congressional candidate Martha McSally reverses her position on the "stalker gap" bill in response to Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC advertising. ► New Yorkers Against Gun Violence defends the SAFE Act  in The Daily Gazette. ► Violence Policy Center releases its annual study, Lost Youth: A County-by-County Analysis of 2012 California Homicide Victims Ages 10 to 24. ► Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence reports on the results of a straw poll taken at the Common Ground Fair. ► Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the parents of Jessica Ghawi, who was killed in the Aurora shooting, filed a lawsuit against four Internet ammunition and military supply companies who they allege recklessly supplied the man accused in the shooting. ► Virginia Center for Public Safety and Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence hosted a gun violence forum that talked about the intersection of gun violence and mental illness. ► Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence was joined by hundreds of people in Wilmington's March For A Culture of Peace. Worst of the Week A 51-year-old Florida man shot and killed his daughter and six grandchildren before turning the gun on himself.  The children ranged in age from 3 months to 11 years.  The shooter was a convicted felon and wasn't allowed to possess a gun. Police did not say how he got the gun but did note that he had previously been sent to prison for unintentionally shooting and killing his 8-year-old son in a hunting accident in 2001.