CeasefireUSA: The GVP Report - April 28, 2015 |
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► Families steel themselves for the trial of the Aurora theater killer in Colorado. The trial is expected to be one of the longest and most emotionally wrenching criminal trials in a state touched by mass shootings. Some victims' family members have vowed to stay away, others are planning to be at the courthouse as much as they can bear. ► U.S. appeals court upholds Highland Park, Illinois' assault weapons ban. The 2-to-1 decision concluded the 2013 ban does not violate the Second Amendment, saying municipalities ought to have leeway in decided how to regulate firearms. ► Oregon teacher terrified by surprise "active shooter" drill in schoolhouse files federal lawsuit. The elementary school teacher was sitting at her desk when a man dressed in a black hoodie and goggles burst through the door, leveled a pistol at her face and pulled the trigger. ► Insurance risks of guns on campuses not addressed by lawmakers. Legislators in Nevada and elsewhere do not consider providing funding to state universities if insurance costs rise after approval of legislation allowing guns on campuses. ► Police in New York state learn new strategy to reduce gun violence. Studies show most shootings in cities involve only about 1 percent of the young men in a city's most dangerous neighborhoods. The new strategy deals directly with that 1 percent. ► When a gun is not a gun. An analysis of shootings by Philadelphia police officers found fifteen percent of those shot were unarmed and in half of these cases, an officer reportedly misidentified a "nonthreatening object or movement" as a weapon. Some of this could be due to a psychological phenomenon called "affective realism": the tendency of your feelings to influence what you see.
► ► Amanda Gailey, New Republic, Why Americans Don't Treat Fatal Gun Negligence as a Crime. Every year many gun owners unintentionally cause death and injury yet face no legal consequences. In criminal and civil courts, the legal system often fails to hold negligent gun owners accountable for such harm. ► David Hemenway, Harvard University, There's Scientific Consensus on Guns -- and the NRA Won't Like It. Can reporters please stop pretending that scientists, like politicians, are evenly divided on guns? We're not. Researchers agree guns make our society more dangerous. ► Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, launches a yearlong initiative, Confronting the Public Health Implications of Gun Violence. The program will explore what we know, what we need to know and what to do. ► Tim Johnson, Media Matters, Will the Media Report on the NRA's Second Consecutive High-Profile Nomination Defeat? The failure of the NRA to stop the confirmation of two Obama nominees - Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch - offers evidence that the NRA does not always get its way in Congress. ► ► Joel Kendrick, Flaglerlive,Responsible Gun Owner? Then Break-up with the NRA and Its Irresponsible Distortions. The NRA skews facts on self-defense and leans on its allies in Congress to gag gun violence research. It's essentially made ignorance the basis for garnering support from its members. ► Bridget Kuehn, Journal of the American Medical Association, Battle Over Florida Legislation Casts a Chill Over Gun Inquiries. Physicians have cause for concern about guns in patients' homes. Yet the ability of Florida doctors to continue routine inquiries about guns in the home without the fear of being reported to the state medical board now rests in the hands of the US Court of Appeals. ► Cliff Schecter, The Daily Beast, NRA Makes a Gun Cartoon for the Kids. The NRA wants you to think of the children - after marketing guns to them. ► Morning Edition, National Public Radio, The Day One Man Decided to Give Up His Gun. "I knew that my anger was so bad, if I don't control this thing, I'm going to hurt somebody or somebody's going to hurt me."
► Yahoo News investigation - The NRA's Brazen Shell Game with Donations. Thousands of transactions almost certainly violated multiple provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act and a legion of state and federal anti-fraud statutes. ► Misleading Breitbart.com campaign baselessly links country star Tim McGraw with gun confiscation. The musician has come under attack over his planned performance at a benefit concert for Sandy Hook Promise. ► Gun advocates in Oregon filed petitions to recall three Democratic lawmakers who sponsored legislation to require background checks for private gun sales. ► 2016 Republican candidates for President are all eager to flaunt their support for the Second Amendment. The latest issue they are tackling is how far they would extend gun rights and how easy it should be to carry a firearm in public. |
► Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort objects to bill that would eliminate the state's handgun waiting period. ► Gabby Giffords received the Diane Von Furstenberg Inspiration Award. Giffords plans to give the award money to Americans for Responsible Solutions Foundation. ► Brady Campaign, CeasefirePA, Heeding God's Call protest outside a "bad apple" firearms dealer in South Philadelphia. ► Ceasefire Oregon joins with others in marathon public hearing held by Oregon House legislators on a bill to expand background checks. The bill has already made it through the Senate.
► Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Keeping California on the Leading Edge of Smart Gun Laws. ► New Yorkers Against Gun Violence in favor of a proposed Poughkeepsie ordinance requiring safe gun storage. ► Safe Tennessee Project holds a gun-free playdate at the State Capitol to urge Governor Haslam to veto the guns in parks bill. ► Long Shot: A Mother of Two Keeps the Gun Debate Alive. A look at Ann Braden of Gun Sense Vermont. ► Moms Demand Action, Groceries Not Guns, asks people to stop shopping at Kroger until they stop open carry of guns and enter your receipt total from a Kroger competitor in their tally. ► Shira Goodman, CeasefirePA, praises the decision by Parx Casino to continue to ban firearms despite the recent change in state regulations on guns and casinos.
2-year-old Damani Terry of Milwaukee, Wisconsin ran out into the street and was struck and killed by a van driven by 40-year-old Archie Brown. After seeing Damani, his uncle, 27-year-old Ricky Chiles, went and got a gun and opened fire on Brown, who had stopped and gotten out of his van. Chiles shot and killed Brown and a stray bullet also shot and killed Damani's 15-year-old brother Rasheed. Four days later Chiles committed suicide as authorities went to arrest him at a Chicago-area hotel. A joint funeral service was held for family members Damani, Rasheed and Chiles. |
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
What does gun violence really cost?
What does gun violence really cost?
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
9% of Americans are Angry, Impulsive and Have Access to a Gun
9% of Americans are Angry, Impulsive and Have Access to a Gun
CeasefireUSA: The GVP Report - April 14, 2015
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 In a new study in Behavioral Sciences and the Law Duke University of Medical School Professor Jeffrey Swanson finds an estimated 9 percent of adults in the U.S. have a history of impulsive, angry behavior and have access to guns. Study participants who owned six or more firearms were also far more likely to carry guns outside the home.
► Sarah Brady, tireless advocate for gun violence prevention, died of pneumonia at age 73. After her husband, James Brady, President Reagan's press secretary, was shot in the head during an attempt to assassinate Reagan in 1981, Jim and Sarah Brady spent the rest of their lives advocating against gun violence.
► A bill introduced in the U.S. House by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) would provide up to $2,000 in tax credits for gun owners who voluntarily hand over assault weapons to their local police departments.
► In Denver, Chicago, Milwaukee, New Orleans and other cities, shell casings from crime scenes are loaded into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network within days of a crime. Matched shell casings have helped lead to at least 35 arrests in more than 50 shootings in the two years since Denver began using the technology.
► Investigative report by The Flint Journal finds that stolen Flint police guns have been used in crimes around Michigan. In all, 17 service pistols and shotguns are officially listed as stolen, while another 22 guns are listed as lost or missing - including a sub-machine gun.
► Reserve Tulsa, Oklahoma deputy who fatally shot a man thinking he was holding a stun gun when he pulled the trigger was one of 'lots of' wealthy donors in the Tulsa reserve program. Robert Bates, 73, is a local insurance company executive who has donated thousands of dollars worth of items to the Sheriff's Office since becoming a reserve deputy in 2008.
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 Everytown for Gun Safety investigated Oregon's online gun market and found an estimated 25,000 unlicensed guns posted for sale each year and of the people seeking guns in unlicensed, online sales, 1 in 18 are barred from owning guns by state or federal law.
► Two studies find that youth injured by firearms are more likely to commit a crime with a firearm in the future. The use of firearms is infectious, much like a virus. Dr. Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, University of Washington, looked at data over a 10-year period in Seattle. In the other study, Dr. Patrick Carter, University of Michigan, looked at data from Flint.
► Harvard Professor David Hemenway is working on surveying a wide range of experts on guns. Some of his preliminary results find that only 5% of these researchers think a gun in the house makes it safer. 64% of researchers think a gun in the house makes it more dangerous, while 32% are neutral or think it depends.
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 Jane Dougherty, If my sister was armed: The reality of guns in schools. I have sat through committee hearings and listened to the gun lobby activists avow that my sister Mary, the school psychologist at Sandy Hook, should have been armed. These people have a Hollywood idea of what my sister would have been capable of that terrible Friday morning.
► Firmin Debrabander, How Gun Rights Harm the Rule of Law. The well-meaning citizens who arm themselves in droves, perhaps even in public, are in that very process threatening the peace and order they seek to preserve, and claim to uphold.
► Public Radio International, Gun owners face much higher murder risks, researchers said. Then the NRA silenced them. Back in the early 1990s, the Centers for Disease Control and the National Center for Injury Prevention provided funding for studies on gun violence. The NRA was not pleased.
► Jeremy Borden, Post & Courier, Charleston, South Carolina, Lawmakers wary of domestic violence gun ban because of political risks. Rep. Chip Limehouse believes a gun ban keeping convicted batterers from having firearms is needed if the state is going to stem an epidemic of domestic violence. But he is worried voting for the bill could be used against him in a primary.
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 Jean Peters Baker, Jackson County, Missouri prosecutor,Public safety threat involving Missouri firearms must be fixed. Last year I warned the legislature that it was about to approve language with potentially deadly consequences. The legislature didn't listen then, and now it's poised to make things worse.
► Nathan Robinson, Accidental shootings by kids contradict many of the NRA's best talking points. Guns cannot be both safe and ubiquitous; the inevitable consequence of widespread gun ownership is a never-ending series of tragedies involving children.
► JD Supra, Pro Bono Q&A: How One Law Firm is Helping a California City Curb Gun Violence. Farella, Braun & Miartel partner Tony Schoenberg discusses his work related to defending a Sunnyvale ordinance that bans the possession of large-capacity gun magazines.
► Greg Sargent, Washington Post, Why expanding background checks would, in fact, reduce gun crime. Daniel Webster, a leading expert on gun violence, director of Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, responds to questions about background checks and conservative misdirection and distortions.
► Mike Weisser, Mike the Gun Guy, Kansas Joins the Crazy Carry States. We require candidates for the police academy to pass a battery of physical tests before we let them carry guns, but we seem unwilling to exercise the same degree of caution or common sense when it comes to whether John Q. Public should be allowed to go around armed.
► Matt Lallo, Salon, A gun lover sees the evils of gun culture: White supremacists, Obama haters, and me. When I went to sell the pistol I once loved, I came face to face with a black hole of potential human destruction.
► Five things to know about the NRA's new president Jim Porter. The Alabama lawyer is a conspiracy theorist who calls the Civil War the "War of Northern Aggression."
► 'Concealed Carrie,' Pink Guns, and the NRA Convention's Attempts to Appeal to Women. Women were in the minority at the NRA's annual meeting last weekend, but those who did attend were not ignored.
► The Outdoor Channel's new gun documentary promises a parade of right-wing media gun myths. The new documentary on gun-free zones will feature myths including the false claim that gun-free zones encourage mass shootings.
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► Jennifer Thorne, Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, speaks out against permitless concealed carry bill.
► Heeding God's Call targets Pennsylvania gun shop, site of straw purchases.
► North Carolinians Against Gun Violence launches petition to keep guns out of the State Fair and other safe places.
 ► Connecticut Against Gun Violence had a large turnout at their fundraising luncheon. Michale Waldman of the Brennan Center for Justice was the keynote speaker.
► Tom Franklin, Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence, op-ed, Guns everywhere is not the way life should be.
► Josh Horwitz, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence talks to Judy Woodruff about why the battle over guns is being fought at the state level.
► Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence will hold a "Stand Up Rally" at the State House in Providence April 16th to highlight top legislative items.
► Larry King Now featured a debate with Margot Bennett, Women Against Gun Violence, gun attorney Chuck Michel and UCLA Professor Adam Winkler.
► Dan Gross, Brady Campaign, Josie Henderson, Oregon Public Health Association, op-ed, Treat gun deaths and injuries as a public health issue.
► Jeri Bonavia, Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort, Governor Walker: We Dare You to Tell the Truth.
► Country singer Tim McGraw will perform a special concert for Sandy Hook Promise July 17 in Hartford. 100 percent of the net proceeds will benefit the organization.
 ► Shira Goodman, CeaseFire Pennsylvania explains how thanks to a new law the NRA is suing Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Lancaster and they want your tax dollars to pay for their gun lobby lawyers.
44-year-old Denise Berry was driving in Hawthorne, California with her 12-year-old son. They saw a person in a Cadillac with his feet hanging out the window and chuckled about it. The car then began following them. Denise pulled in front of a police patrol car. The Cadillac also stopped and a gunman got out and opened fire with two handguns. Denise was shot and killed and her son was injured. The police officer returned fire, killing the gunman.
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