First Anniversary of Newtown Massacre

From Reuters

On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza, 20, shot his way into the school he had once attended and murdered 20 first-graders, all aged 6 and 7, and six adults. Before heading to the school, Lanza killed his mother, who had legally purchased the guns he used that day.

Newtown officials said the town wanted to be left alone on the anniversary. Some of the victims' families have encouraged those moved by the shooting to mark the day by performing an act of kindness in their own communities.

At the White House, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama observed a moment of silence after lighting 26 candles to honor those lost at the school.

One year ago God received 26 angels, never forget #SandyHook pic.twitter.com/wyGLO08o2p

— Miguel Gutierrez (@miguel_gtz95) December 14, 2013

We are all Sandy Hook: pic.twitter.com/2M4sDq3tQd

— Reisa Miller (@ReisaMiller) December 14, 2013

And just yesterday, a reminder that nothing has really changed ... yet. Another school shooting in Arapahoe County, Colorado.

From Yahoo News

A schoolboy armed with a shotgun opened fire and wounded two fellow students on Friday before killing himself, the latest US mass shooting on the eve of the Newtown school massacre anniversary.

. . . Hundreds students locked themselves into classrooms as the shooter -- identified by authorities as Karl Pierson, 18 -- stormed into the school brandishing a shotgun, shouting that he was looking for a particular teacher in what police said was apparently a planned "revenge" attack.

America's perennial gun control debate is back in the headlines on the anniversary Saturday of the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that killed 26 people, including 20 young children.

In Friday's incident, students locked themselves in classrooms after shots rang out shortly after 12:30 pm (1930 GMT), triggering an all-too-familiar police operation.

This is a picture of the children of AHS with their hands in the air, traumatized. @MomsDemand pic.twitter.com/NhkM6tVQKO

— Rebecca Morgan (@Rebecca_221B) December 13, 2013

Proud to be a Warrior #prayforClaire #ArapahoeHigh @ahswarriors #ArapahoeHighSchool AHS! #PrayForArapahoe pic.twitter.com/e28ydkHztm

— Bill WØSUN ☢ (@w0sun) December 14, 2013

President Obama Speaks 100 Days After Sandy Hook

Story from CNN

"We need everybody to remember how we felt 100 days ago and make sure that what we said at that time wasn't just a bunch of platitudes, that we meant it," Obama said at a White House event on a national day of action by supporters of tougher gun laws.
His voice both somber and angry, Obama told the audience, which included family members of Newtown victims, that "we've cried enough" and it is time now for Americans to pressure their elected leaders to pass a package of laws proposed by Senate Democrats.

. . . Obama noted the political challenge as well as the poll numbers.

"There are some powerful voices on the other side who are interested in running out the clock, or changing the subject," the president said, adding that "their assumption is that people will just forget about it."

If that happens, Obama said, then "shame on us if we've forgotten."

In trying to rally further public outcry, he declared that "nothing is more powerful than millions of voices calling for change."

. . . "What we're proposing is not radical. It's not taking away anyone's guns rights," the president said in warning legislators against getting "squishy because time has passed and maybe it's not on the news every day."

Adam Lanza Warrants for Newtown Killings Released

Today shocking details were released about the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, including specifics about the warrants for the Lanza home.


From Gawker

Adam Lanza spent only five minutes at Sandy Hook Elementary School on the morning of December 14—from the moment he "shot his way into the school" to the minute he took his own life. But police found 154 spent casings from his Bushmaster rifle—and over a thousand rounds more at his home, authorities announced today.

According to search warrants newly made public, Lanza, who killed 20 children and seven adults before turning the gun on himself, had over 1,000 rounds of ammunition at his home, in addition to an arsenal of firearms and other weapons, including knives and a samurai sword. Also at the home and confiscated by police were journals, video games and computers, photographs of an unknown dead person "covered in plastic and blood"—and a holiday card made out to Lanza from his mother, including a check for "the purchase of a C183 (firearm)."

People of Newtown Speak Out ~ "Should Teachers Carry Guns? I Would Quit Tomorrow"

Newtown Parents, Teachers and First Responders Speak Out:



From Mother Jones:

Testimonials, in order of appearance in the compilation:
Nicole and Ian Hockley, parents of Sandy Hook victim Dylan Hockley
David Wheeler, father of Sandy Hook victim Benjamin Wheeler
Peter Paradis, stepfather of Sandy Hook teacher's aide and victim Rachel D'Avino
Neil Heslin, father of Sandy Hook victim Jesse Lewis
Scarlett Lewis, mother of Sandy Hook victim Jesse Lewis
Susan Ehrens, mother of Sandy Hook survivor Emma Ehrens
Dan O'Donnell, Sandy Hook parent
Laurie Veillette, volunteer EMT for Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps
Douglas Fuchs, police chief of Redding, Connecticut
Mary Ann Jacob, library clerk at Sandy Hook
Dr. William Begg, emergency room physician at Danbury Hospital and Newtown resident
Tom Swetts, teacher at Newtown High School
Darren Wagner, former police officer and father of a Newtown High School student

In the following video, Piers Morgan tries out various assault weapons described as "Spray and Pray" because the shooter points the gun, pulls the trigger, and prays he hits the target - which even the inexperienced Morgan can do because of the repeater effect of the rifles. The shooting range guy mentions he is afraid of the UN and the Military coming to grab his guns. He justifies assault weapons for killing wild hogs in Texas, missing the irony that the children of Newtown were shot down like animals. The stupidity and ignorance is really getting me down. It's shocking. We have to fight this.

Sandy Hook Choir Sings at Super Bowl

These children are just precious - imagine what they have been through at Sandy Hook! When Jennifer Hudson started singing I had chills up my spine. Beautiful.

A Really Bad Week for the NRA and Wayne LaPierre (Not that there's anything wrong with that)

After the murder of children in Newtown, Connecticut, the NRA is under-fire. And momentum from the progressive gun-control side is showing no signs of slowing. In fact, the more NRA leader Wayne LaPierre pushes his crazy apocalyptic fearmongering and hatred for President Obama, the more foolish and out-of-touch he seems. This only invigorates the Left, giving us hope that the NRA's power is waning, and LaPierre is losing the battle.

Please, proceed, Mr. LaPierre.

Last week in a Senate Hearing on gun control measures, LaPierre seemed to blame everything in society for mass shootings except guns. Then he pooh-pooh'd background checks:

My problem with background checks is you’re never going to get criminals to go through universal background checks. All the law-abiding people . . . you'll create an enormous federal bureaucracy, unfunded, hitting all the little people in the country who will have to go through it, pay the fees, pay the taxes. We don’t even prosecute anybody right now that goes through the system we have. So we're going to make all those law-abiding people go through the system, and then we aren't going to prosecute any of the bad guys if they do catch one. None of it makes any sense in the real world.
~ Wayne LaPierre of the NRA

Mr. LaPierre, that's the point! Criminals won't go to purchase the guns, because there will be a background check! We'll stop them from the original purchase. You missed that point completely! And I think it's basic. (applause in the room)
~ Senator Dick Durbin, D-Illinois

More Quotes from the Gun Hearing Here:
Snark Amendment: Wayne LaPierre ~ Kids Need a Security Blanket of Guards and Guns


On Saturday there was the sad story of America's top military sniper, Chris Kyle, getting shot On a Gun Range in Texas. Yes, on a gun range, where everyone is probably a member of the NRA, everyone was armed and everyone is generally knowledgeable about guns. Another veteran suffering from PTSD shot Kyle and an acquaintance, and even though they were in a place built for the sole purpose of shooting at targets, the two men didn't have a chance to fire a single shot in return. There couldn't be a better example of how stupid it would be to "arm everybody," even teachers in schools. Because guess what? Plenty of armed people have died in the wars as well. Ask any soldier. Guns won't stop bullets.

Read the whole story with all the quotes here:
Snark Amendment: American Sniper Chris Kyle Shot to Death on Texas Gun Range

On ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Progressive economist Paul Krugman tore into the NRA and LaPierre:

PAUL KRUGMAN, NEW YORK TIMES: But what really strikes me -- I don't know how this plays, you know, what will happen. What strikes me is we've actually gotten a glimpse into the mindset, though, of the pro-gun people and we've seen certainly Wayne LaPierre and some of these others. It's bizarre. They have this vision that we're living in a "Mad Max" movie and that nothing can be done about it, that America cannot manage unless everybody's prepared to shoot intruders, that -- the idea that we have a police forces that provides public safety is somehow totally impractical, despite the fact that, you know, that is, in fact, the way we live.
So I think that the terms of the debate have shifted. Now the craziness of the extreme pro-gun lobby has been revealed, and that has got to move the debate and got to move the legislation at least to some degree.

During the Super Bowl the snti-gun group Demand a Plan started by NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg ran an advertisement with a video clip of Wayne LaPierre from a few years back saying he favored universal background checks. It's very effective because at one time the NRA made sense and that's what society wants, so LaPierre and his minions are totally out-of-touch with mainstream America.

Demand a Plan on Twitter




And the worst thing that happened to Mr. LaPierre was when he appeared on Fox News, usually a safe haven for gun-nuts. But not this time - it became his worst nightmare. Usually pro-conservative interviewer Chris Wallace raked the NRA spokesman over hot burning coals in a sudden fit of real journalism. Because basically LaPierre was lying about Obama "taking all our guns" - just absurd fearmongering. There is no universal ban on guns and there probably won't ever be. He also tried to pin all violence on "gangs" in Chicago and Washington D.C. when obviously the hometown Newtown shooter wasn't a gang member and neither was the man who shot Chris Kyle on the gun range. Guns are the key - not the class designation of the shooter.

WALLACE: The murder today, because one of the things that concerns people, it seems every day we talk about a shooting. Oftentimes, mass shooting.

LAPIERRE: Right.

WALLACE: Day after day after day. And the frustration is you don't think that the answering -- that limiting guns has anything to do with that. And I understand there is some things you think will work and we'll talk about that.

The murder yesterday of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, this was a man who wrote "American Sniper". This is a man credited with the largest number of confirmed kills of any American soldier ever. He and another man gunned down at a Texas gun range.

LAPIERRE: If you want to stop violence in this country, here's what you do, OK? First, if you want to protect or kids, you put armed security in schools. I'm not talking about arming teachers, I'm talking about police officers, and I'm talking about certified professional security people. There is not a parent that sends off their kid to school that wants those kids to be unprotected. Just in Atlanta this past week, armed security stopped a shooting in an Atlanta school. Stopped it, right? Stopped it.

Second --

WALLACE: Here's the problem -- but here's the problem, respectfully, sir. If you -- if you arm people at schools, a lot of these people aren't just motivated to kill people in schools, they want to kill people.

And, forgive me, and, if it's -- school is too tough, they'll go to a movie theater. Like James Holmes. They'll go to a shopping center. They'll go to a gun range and kill Chris Kyle.



~~~~~~~~~~

Complete Transcript from Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace

WALLACE: All right. You oppose gun control as a form of government tyranny. But in the Senate hearings, this week, you offered a different reason for it. Let's take a look.

LAPIERRE: Right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAPIERRE: What people all over the country fear today, is being abandoned by their government. If a tornado hits, if a hurricane hits, if a riot occurs, that they're going to be out there alone, and the only way they will protect themselves, in the cold, in the dark, when they are vulnerable, is with a firearm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Do you really think that that is a more serious threat, marauding bands of Americans during a hurricane or a tornado, do you think that's a more serious threat to the average American than the steady drum beat of gun violence and sometimes mass gun violence?

~~~~~~~~~~

WALLACE: A couple of weeks ago, the NRA started running an ad that created a great deal of controversy. Here's a clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARRATOR: Are the president's kids more important than yours? Why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Mr. LaPierre, do you regret putting up that ad?

LAPIERRE: The point of ad was this -- it wasn't picking on the president's kids. The president not --

WALLACE: It mentions them.

LAPIERRE: The president's kids are safe and we are thankful for it. The point of that ad --

WALLACE: They also face a threat that most children do not face.

LAPIERRE: Tell that to people in Newtown. Tell that to people --

WALLACE: Do you really think the president's children are the same kind of target as every school child in America? That's ridiculous and you know it, sir.

LAPIERRE: You know, unfortunately, I think there are parents all over the school that think -- all over the country that think their kids are entitled to the same amount of protection when they go to school, and they want --

WALLACE: So, they should have Secret Service?

LAPIERRE: No, but what they should have is police officers or certified armed security in those schools to keep people safe. If something happens, the police -- despite all the good intentions, is 15 to 20 minutes. It's too long. It's not going to help those kids.

Certified armed security in schools, just like --

WALLACE: But that's not going to protect them in the shopping mall, in the movie theater, on the streets.

LAPIERRE: Which is why we need to do everything else I'm talking about. Let's enforce the federal gun laws which we did not do now against gangs with guns, felons with guns -- my gosh, in the shadow of where we are sitting now, gangs are out there in Washington, D.C. You can buy drugs. You can buy guns. They are trafficking in 13-year-old girls --

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: I understand there are lots of problems out there and this isn't going to solve all of them.

But you can't say, that -- first of all, the gangs don't commit the mass murders, Adam Lanza wasn't a member of a gang. James Holmes was not a member of the gang.

You talk -- one of the points of the ads that I want to ask you about, is you made it a class argument, the rich and elites.

LAPIERRE: Sure.

WALLACE: They have bodyguards. They have security.

LAPIERRE: Sure. And Mayor Bloomberg has it. Mayor Bloomberg has bodyguards.

WALLACE: I'll tell you who else has security. You do.

LAPIERRE: Sometimes. Yes.

WALLACE: And, you have security. Today you have security.

LAPIERRE: Yes, and you talk about hypocrisy right out in the open, we have had all kinds of threats on me, OK?

WALLACE: Does that make you an elite -- an out of touch elite because you have security?

LAPIERRE: I don't deny anybody the right to security when they need it. What I'm saying, it is ridiculous, Chris, for all the elites and all the powerful and privilege, the titans of industry, to send their kids to school where there's arm security. They have access to semi-automatic technology. They have access --

WALLACE: First of all, I don't know anybody who has -- I don't know anybody elites who sends their kids -- my children went to the same school that the Obama children went to, many years ago, and there were no armed security there.

LAPIERRE: A third of the schools in the country already have armed security.

WALLACE: I understand that, but the idea of an elite class, it's just nonsense, sir.

~~~~~~~~~~

Obama's Historic Plan for Gun Control

On Monday, Joe Biden promised us 19 Executive Orders on Guns.

Today President Obama surprised us by signing 23 of them on stage after his press conference surrounded by children who had written letters to him after the Newtown/Sandy Hook Massacre. He said the actions will take place immediately, plus told Congress he expects them to work on several more pieces of legislation such as an all-out ban on assault rifles.

He stressed responsibility, but also the fact that the children and parents of Newtown, Aurora, and other communities have a Constitutional Right not to live in fear of future attacks. So the 2nd Amendment rights of NRA members do not come before the safety of children. Obama stood up for Newtown, and for all of us, against a group that would rather see him dead and he knows it.

This is ground-breaking and earth shaking, and GOP heads are exploding right now.

I am so proud of my President and Vice President! Bravo!

Transcript Here on Washington Post

Details of Gun Control Proposals from the White House

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.

4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.

5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.

6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).

9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.

10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.

11. Nominate an ATF director.

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.

14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.

15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.

17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.

19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.

22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.

Joe Biden ~ 19 Executive Proposals About Guns

Vice President Joe Biden has given his gun committee recommendations to President Obama.

Reports say there are suggestions for at least 19 Executive Actions Obama could take as early as tomorrow.

From Politico

The executive actions could include giving the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authority to conduct national research on guns, more aggressive enforcement of existing gun laws and pushing for wider sharing of existing gun databases among federal and state agencies, members of Congress in the meeting said.

. . . Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Democrats’ Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, said the magazine ban and universal background checks would be far more effective than an assault weapons ban without the political cost.

“Probably the most recognizable thing you can say in this debate is ban assault weapons,” Thompson said. “But the other two issues” — forbidding high-capacity ammunition magazines and requiring universal background checks for gun purchases — “those two things have more impact on making our neighborhoods safe than everything else combined. Anytime you try and prohibit what kind of gun people has it generates some concern.”

Biden has gotten input from many groups including the National Rifle Association (who is "disappointed" and sees no point in restricting anything), Hunters and Sportsment, Mental Health Officials, representatives of the Film and Video Gaming Industries, and Multi-Faith Groups.

Biden also spoke to the parents of children killed in the Newtown tragedy.

From CNN

Beau Biden, attorney general of Delaware, said on CNN's "The Situation Room." "He was on the phone with many of the survivors of the tragedy in Connecticut."
"I was in and out of the room when he was on some of these calls," he continued. "I would, you know, go to the door and go away when I knew he was on the phone with these moms and dads," Biden said. "So he's listened to everyone that has a stake in this and is doing his best to come up with a comprehensive strategy."

Newtown Parents: "Change That Will Outlast Any Legislative Careers"

"Sandy Hook won't be remembered for the tragedy, but for what started here."
~ David Wheeler, Ben's father



Rachel Maddow did an incredibly moving interview in Newtown, Connecticut with the parents of seven-year old Benjamin Wheeler, a victim of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre. They were among the parents who met to start Sandy Hook Promise, a group pledging to take a measured approach beyond politics to make children safe from gun violence.

~~~~~~~
"It's really not about your party, right now. I really feel like it's about our children. At this moment my gut's telling me that we have to keep talking about the children. They are the future of this country. They're going to be the next set of parents and they would want the same things we want - protection and safety."
~ Francine Wheeler, Ben's mother

The policy debate may move quickly, but we all know that legislation does not move quickly, and we know that government doesn't move quickly. We know that culture and societal change moves much slower than that. It's glacial.
So there may be quick moves in legislation here and there. There may be quick policy announcements or quick policy stances taken by many different people. But what this group is talking about is change that may outlast a great number of legislators' careers.
So this may go through a few generations of people in positions of representation. If that's what it takes, that's what it takes, because we are in it for that long.
~ David Wheeler, Ben's father

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Make the Sandy Hook Promise

A new pledge movement is happening to honor the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. Please take time to join and spread the word.

I Promise to honor the 26 lives lost at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

I Promise to do everything I can to encourage and support common sense solutions that make my community and our country safer from similar acts of violence.

This Time There Will Be Change.

Website Here ~ Make the Promise

On Twitter @sandyhook

"Turn Conversations Into Actions"



SANDY HOOK PROMISE

Sandy Hook Promise (SHP) is a non-profit corporation* created by members of the community of Newtown, Connecticut in response to the shooting on December 14, 2012, at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, which killed 20 children, four teachers and two administrators.

A PROMISE IS BORN

There was a gathering of people in Newtown. It was in someone’s kitchen, and it was filled with friends and neighbors who knew they needed to be together. Gradually, as they spoke, they also realized something else. They understood that they had a responsibility. To honor the kids and teachers they’d lost, as well as the survivors. They promised to do whatever they could to not let this tragedy stand as just another in our country’s history.

WITH EVERY HUG, A PROMISE

The first mission of SHP is to support the families of the victims, the survivors, first responders and teachers and staff of the school as well as the community of Newtown, (“our community”) by providing financial and service support and assistance whenever possible and for as long as it takes for each individual to heal.

THE PROMISE OF COMMON SENSE

Moving forward, the SHP mission is to work to identify and implement holistic, common sense solutions that will make our community and our country safer from similar acts of violence through education, outreach and grass-roots discussion. SHP believes the time has come to enter into these discussions with equal parts of Love, Compassion, and Common Sense.

THE PROMISE, THIS TIME, OF REAL CHANGE

This is the time. The time to stand up and say that our society should not live under the threat of this kind of violence. Sandy Hook Promise is committed to making Newtown be remembered as the place where we came together both as a community…and as a nation, and decided that we must do everything we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening again. Let Newtown go down in history as the place where real change began.

Joe Biden Says Obama Will Use Executive Action on Gun Control

 Gun industry–aka The #NRA–declares war on civilization. ~ @BillMoyers

Joe Biden gave many victims of mass shootings hope today when he said that the President is willing to use Executive Privilege to change gun regulations in light of the Newtown Massacre. In other words, they aren't going to "drop it" or "forget it" as many Washington Insiders believe, and that's what many of us want to hear. But to the gun-totin' NRA members, them's fightin' words.

I want to make it clear that we are not going to get caught up in the notion (that) unless we can do everything we're going to do nothing. It's critically important (that) we act.
. . . The President is going to act, there are executive orders, executive action that can be taken. We haven't decided what that is yet. But we're compiling it all with the help of the Attorney General and all the rest of the cabinet members as well as legislative action, we believe is required.

This has been a crazy week for the pro-NRA, anti-Gun Control folks. And when I say crazy, I mean literally.

Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, survivor of the Tuscon shooting, visited Newtown, Connecticut with her husband. That's symbolic and meaningful, unless you are an NRA gun nut.

Connecticut House Member Tells Giffords to Stay Out

Connecticut State Rep. DebraLee Hovey had a rather insensitive message for former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who visited Newtown after the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings: “Stay out of my towns!!”

The six-term Republican took to Facebook to make the rant, arguing the visit “was political.”

“The Lt. Gov was there, [Sen. Richard] Blumenthall was there and ALL political types KNOW it is courteous to let sitting Reps known when another political is in their District. So……There was pure political motives,” she wrote Friday.

Giffords and her husband are not going to let nonsense like that stop them. They are gun owners but are starting a PAC called Americans for Responsible Solutions.


Then there was scary tinfoil-hat enthusiast Alex Jones threatening CNN's Piers Morgan with another American Revolution.
Snark Amendment: Gun Nut Alex Jones Goes Bonkers on Piers Morgan
Snark Amendment: Alex Jones Day Two: Paranoia in the Big City





Then today when Joe Biden said that Obama might use his Executive Powers to strengthen Gun Controls, the far side when completely Godwin, comparing Obama to Hitler, Stalin, and George III. And not just the bloggers, but Fox News Nation.
Snark Amendment: Right Wing Goes Godwin on Guns



I think it's all good because from these extreme reactions on the Right, every sane person in America can see what the problem is - the rabble rousers who crave power on the right are determined to paint Obama as a tyrant or a dictator, and it plays right into the paranoia of guys like Alex Jones who have thousands if not millions of followers. They have hated Obama before they even knew anything about him just based on the color of his skin, and his second election has left them drooling and confused. They were just sure he would be a one-term President - Karl Rove promised them. So where can they go now? When all you have left is a bunch of guns, every situation seems like High Noon at the OK Corral, so the rhetoric gets ramped up higher and higher.

To me it is exactly like cuckoo Cling Eastwood arguing with an empty chair - they are projecting themselves onto Obama and creating him in their own image, which is batsh*t crazy and always aching for a fight.

That's why gun nuts believe Obama wants to be an oppressive dictator. Recall that President George W. Bush said wistfully several times that being a dictator would be so much easier, and we all know that Dick Cheney believed that - he basically declared war on several countries all by himself.

And the Tea Party seems to want a new Civil War over their right be dictate humiliation on anyone who is not a rich white man. They want to oppress the poor, the elderly, the immigrants, minorities, and women. They want the uppity folk back in their places, circa 1776 or 1862 or 1950 or whatever historical fantasy is popular at the moment.


People who ask "Why do you need guns with 300 rounds of ammunition?" get no answer because it's a power trip, pure and simple. Guns are like porn to these people, and websites like Breitbart, Drudge, and Fox News feed the addiction. Happiness is a warm gun with lots of ammo. It's not about hunting or even protection. They want chaos and anarchy so they can go around blasting the creeping marauders like Ralphy in the Christmas Story.

People like Donald Trump and John Sununu made it clear during the election that Obama was the "Other" - their Moriarty, their Nemesis, what John Stewart called their "Invisible Hitler." We've got a nation of George Zimmermans assuming that everyone who isn't them is up to no good, and that they have a right to swagger around like Marshall Dillon on the wild streets of Dodge City, aiming their weapons at any imaginary threat.

Snark in Pictures

Wisdom of Youth: Teens React to Newtown

Out of the mouths of babes. These teenagers make so much sense, which begs the question of why grown-ups are so stupid sometimes?

LaPierre on the Crazy Train

source: Matt Bors
OK, Mr. LaPierre - I call you Crazy!

From Meet the Press, Sunday December 23, 2012

DAVID GREGORY: This is a matter of logic, Mr. LaPierre, because anybody watching this is going to say ‘hey wait a minute. I just heard Mr. LaPierre say that the standard is we should try anything that might reduce the violence. And you’re telling me that it’s not a matter of common sense that if you don’t have an ability to shoot off 30 rounds without reloading, that just possibly you could reduce the loss of life? Would Adam Lanza have been able to shoot as many kids if he didn’t have as much ammunition?’

WAYNE LAPIERRE: I don’t buy your argument for a minute.

From NBC News

“If it’s crazy to call for putting police in and securing our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy,” LaPierre told NBC’s David Gregory. “I think the American people think it’s crazy not to do it. It’s the one thing that would keep people safe and the NRA is going try to do that.”

. . . President Barack Obama has tasked Vice President Joe Biden with the job of consulting with members of the Cabinet and outside organizations to come up with legislative proposals by next month.

When asked about this initiative, LaPierre said, “if it’s a panel that’s just going to be made up of a bunch of people that for the past 20 years has been trying to destroy the Second Amendment, I’m not interested in sitting on that panel…. The NRA is not going to let people lose the Second Amendment in this country.”

Following LaPierre on Meet the Press, Sen. Charles Schumer, D- N.Y., said that the NRA leader is “so extreme and so tone deaf that he actually helps the cause of us passing sensible gun legislation in the Congress…. He is so doctrinaire and so adamant that I believe gun owners turn against him as well.”

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Bill Moyers: "The Bells Rang for the Lost" in Newtown

First-graders. Six and seven years old. Pledge Allegiance to the flag. Lock and Load. Our new Head Start.


BILL MOYERS: Welcome. The bells rang for the lost: Charlotte Bacon, Olivia Engel, Ana Marquez-Greene, Dylan Hockley, Madeline Hsu, Catherine Hubbard, Jesse Lewis, James Mattioli, Emilie Parker, Jack Pinto, Noah Pozner, Caroline Previdi, Jessica Rekos, Avielle Richman, Benjamin Wheeler, and Allison Wyatt. All were six years old.

Daniel Barden, Josephine Gay, Chase Kowalski, and Grace McDonnell were 7.

Six adults died with them: Mary Sherlach, Anne Marie Murphy, Dawn Hochsprung, Lauren Rousseau, Rachel D’Avino, Victoria Soto.

It helps to say their names, to rescue them from the statistical anonymity that always settles over these awful events. It helps those of us distanced from the loss to imagine, even grieve, the emptiness in the homes and hearts of those who loved them. They will never forget. We mourn, move on, and too soon forget. And then it will happen again one day, and we will scratch our heads and ask ourselves, “Was the last time Newtown? Or Columbine? Was it Aurora? Or that college in Virginia?” And once again we will mourn, move on, and too soon forget.

There is an old Hassidic saying that, “In remembrance is the secret of redemption.” But America forgets quickly, and gives no lasting indication it seeks redemption from its fetish with guns, its romance with the free market of violence. With the sport of it all. The show must go on. It’s our right. At any price. What were their names again? Oh, yes, Charlotte, Daniel, Olivia, Dylan, Allison, Dawn. Poor things, such a tragedy. Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition.

And so we make our peace with violence. And make ourselves over in its image. A state senator in Missouri, a life-time member of the National Rifle Association, is pushing a bill to require that all first graders be enrolled in the NRA’s gun safety course. First-graders. Six and seven years old. Pledge Allegiance to the flag. Lock and Load. Our new Head Start.

A state senator in Tennessee’s Republican legislature says he will introduce a bill that would allow the state to pay for secretly armed teachers in classrooms. Saintly Miss Simpson, packing heat. Hey, Mr. Russell, it’s show and tell, can we see your Glock 9? After the Newtown killings, a sixth-grader at an elementary school near Salt Lake City brought a gun to school, saying he wanted to protect himself and his friends. Instead, allegedly, he used it to threaten some classmates. As The Good Book says, get with it, “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Ready. Aim. Fire.

And for the child who has everything this season, how about body armor? A Utah company named Amendment II offers a new line of it for kids. Mother Jones Magazine reports sales have tripled in one week. A Massachusetts company is promoting The Bullet Blocker, a “rugged computer backpack designed for work or play.” Made of the same materials used in bullet-proof police vests, currently on sale for the holidays for $199.99. And on Facebook, an outfit called Black Dragon Tactical that sells vests and other combat gear sent this message: “Arm the teachers, in the meantime, bulletproof the kids.”

This market never closes. America’s turned violence into a profit center. And if you haven’t finished your Christmas shopping, no need to wait for Santa; his sleigh couldn’t even hold the heavy weapons. Step this way. Black Friday is every day. And we have something for everyone, from cradle to grave. From cradle to grave.

Surely this can’t go on. This spilling of innocent blood, this bleeding of democracy’s soul. We’re losing faith in ourselves, acting as subjects, not citizens, no longer believing that it is in our power to do the right thing. We Americans are not smarter than other people, and certainly no more virtuous. Our exceptionalism is our capacity for self-correction. To reach the bridge of the ship, point to the iceberg dead ahead, and demand of the captain a change of course before it’s too late. “They,” the gun industry, its profiteers, zealots and apologists, its political stooges, fabulists, and constitutional originalists, who would have us think the “well-regulated militia” of a sparsely-populated frontier nation in the 18th century really means tolerating a perpetual wild west here in the 21st century. “They” say, “don’t tread on us, get off our well-armed backs, there’s nothing you can do.”

Of course there is. Register all guns. License all gun owners. Require stringent background checks. Get tough on assault weapons of any kind. Crack down on high-capacity ammunition as the President has now proposed. And then, enforce the laws. Yes, I know, determined killers will always find a way. But we can minimize the opportunities, and scale back the scope of destruction. Why do we accept the need for driver’s licenses? Or submit to the sometimes humiliating body scans at airports? Because it’s the law, and deep down we know we’re safer for the inconvenience of the law.

Good laws are hard to come by. Civilization, just as hard. The rough and tumble of politics makes them so. But democracy aims for a moral order as just as humanly possible, which means laws that protect the weak and not just the strong. Lest we forget.

NRA Blames Everyone Except Themselves for Gun Violence

Many people thought that the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut might bring the National Rifle Association to its senses and it would be ready to work with Joe Biden on his Task Force to make the world a safer place for children while protecting gun ownership and the Second Amendment.

Boy, are we stupid. After a week of internet silence, the NRA instead put their spokesman Wayne LaPierre up front to rant, rave and lecture us on how shootings are caused by the lamestream godless media and video games such as Mortal Kombat - really old games, like 20 years old - and the only way to protect children is to have NRA Guardsmen posted in every school of the nation.

No really.

Full Text of Wayne LaPierre's Speech
Snark Amendment: Shocked Responses to the NRA

From Paul Tassi on Forbes

The message here was clear, blame everything but guns. Why bother considering that violent video games are played in all corners of the world, yet somehow it’s only the US with its lax gun laws where tragedies like this happen with this frequency? Video games are an easy target, almost as easy as the NRA itself which is doing everything it can to act like they’re the solution to the problem, not one of the primary causes.

The press conference went from standard stump speech to truly bizarre when the NRA’s big idea to help protect children in school turned out to be a national program to enlist an army of volunteers to patrol the corridors of high schools, junior high and elementary schools, keeping the kids safe from potential shooters. A direct quote from LaPierre: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

He is literally suggesting that retired police and military members patrol schools with guns. The program would be nationwide, and schools could opt out of it, but that would be up to the faculty and the parents. You know, those freedom-haters who who WANT their children to be at risk.

It’s the transformation of our country into a police state, pure and simple, or at least a very broad first step.

source: cognitivedissonance on Tumblr

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Changing the Gun Culture

President Obama spoke today about creating a task force headed by Joe Biden to figure out ways to stop gun violence.


Of course the President has the best of intentions, but with Congress out of session for the holidays, and the President's Inauguration early next year, the timeline for working out a plan will take until at least the end of January. Many are worried that it will take too long to get legislation going, or that the will of the people will dry up at the grassroots level, allowing the NRA to usurp the message after their press conference on Friday of this week.

But I don't think so - not this time. Things are happening all over the country that are fundamentally different in a way we've never seen before and people are taking action - Check it out:


New Jersey Has Record-Setting Gun Buyback

"A lot of people said they don't want the guns around the house now," said state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa as he announced the result of the program held Friday and Saturday at two Camden churches. The state brought in 1,137 guns, surpassing the previous record of 700 weapons from a 2009 Essex County event. Among them were scores of rifles, shotguns and pistols, sawed-off shotguns, a century-old antique weapon, a rifle used for hunting elephants and five fully automatic weapons. Some 90 percent were in working condition. Many were illegal weapons under state laws; some were so-called community guns stashed around neighborhood. Nearly all are to be destroyed.
. . . The state had $110,000 in cash to give to those who turned in guns, along with $6,000 in gift cards left over from a previous program.
"At 2 o'clock," he said, "we were out of money."

From Gawker:

Stephen Barton, one of the 58 movie-goers injured during the mass shooting in Aurora that claimed the lives of 12 people, appears in a new non-partisan PSA asking voters to demand a plan from both President Obama and his GOP rival Mitt Romney to curb gun violence.
"I was lucky," Barton, who was struck by 25 shotgun pellets, says as he sits inside an empty movie theater. "In the next four years, 48,000 Americans won't be so lucky because they'll be murdered with guns in the next president's term — enough to fill over 200 theaters."
The push for a "plan" is backed by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of 725 mayors called who have set up an online petition that has received over 250,000 signatures to date.

Danbury, CT, Gun Show Cancelled

The Danbury Gun & Knife Show scheduled for Jan. 5-6 has been canceled. The show’s promoter, Big Al’s Silver Bullet Productions, announced the cancellation on its website, as did Mayor Mark Boughton on Twitter.
The show was to include ”Premium Knives, Firearms, Gun Accessories, Ammo, Tactical Clothing, Hard-to-Find Items, Tactical Gear and more!”
A call to Big Al’s was picked up Tuesday afternoon by a person who responded, “No comment,” when asked why the gun show was canceled.

Florida Pawn Shop Owner Stops Selling Guns

“Dropped her (his daughter) off yesterday, saw the children, came to work prepared to display our firearms, and the first one I display is a Bushmaster AR-15," James said. "I said to myself, 'that’s it; I just can’t hang this on my wall.' ”
James said he is still a firm believer in the Second Amamendment. He’ll continue to carry a firearm, and he will have them in his home, but he can no longer fathom the possibility of a gun he sells end up in the wrong hands.
“It would have been devastating," he said. "I think of that scenario every day."
James and his daughter have tacked up green and white ribbons in place of the guns to honor the victims of the Connecticut shooting.
James said he’s not sure what he’s going to do with all of the guns, and since gun sales were such a large part of his business, he will have to make some changes in order to keep the store open.

Private Equity Firm Cerberus Sells Bushmaster Gun Stake

Calling the deadly assault "tragic and devastating," private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management said Tuesday that it will sell its 95% stake in Freedom Group Inc., which makes the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle that police said was used in the attack.
The massacre was a "watershed event that has raised the national debate on gun control to an unprecedented level," Cerberus said.
. . . The California State Teachers' Retirement System said Monday that it would review its holdings in Cerberus in early January because of its link with Bushmaster. Through its investment in Cerberus, CalSTRS owns 2.4% of Freedom Group.

Dick's Sporting Goods Pulls Guns from Shelves

Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc., the largest U.S. sporting-goods chain, suspended sales of modern sporting rifles nationwide in the wake of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, as the massacre’s victims are mourned.
Sales of all guns have been stopped at its store closest to the shooting, the Coraopolis, Pennsylvania-based company said today in an e-mailed statement.
. . . “We are extremely saddened by the unspeakable tragedy that occurred last week,” the company said in the statement. Dick’s is removing the guns “out of respect for the victims and their families.”

Coach Pat Kelsey Demands Action on Guns

The last thing I want to say is I'm really, really lucky, because I'm going to get on an eight-hour bus ride, and I'm going to arrive in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and I'm going to walk into my house, and I'm going to walk upstairs, and I'm going to walk into two pink rooms with a 5-year-old and a 4-year-old laying in that pink room, with a bunch of teddy bears laying in that room," he said, concluding his remarks in the wake of a 65-55 loss at No. 7 Ohio State.
"And I'm going to give them the biggest hug and the biggest kiss I've ever given them. And there's 20 families in Newtown, Conn., that are walking into a pink room with a bunch of teddy bears with nobody laying in those beds. And it's tragic."


. . . "I know this microphone's powerful right now, because we're playing the (seventh)-best team in the country," he said. "I'm not going to have a microphone like this the rest of the year, maybe the rest of my life."
"I don't know what needs to be done. I'm not smart enough to know what needs to be done, OK?" he said. "I know this country's got issues. Is it a gun issue? Is it a mental illness issue? Or is it a society that has lost the fact, the understanding, that decent human values are important?"
Kelsey called on political leaders to get past petty differences and accomplish something.
"I didn't vote for President Obama. But you know what? He's my president now. He's my leader. I need him to step up," he said. "Mr. (John) Boehner, the Speaker of the House ... OK, he needs to step up."
"Parents, teachers, rabbis, priests, coaches — everybody needs to step up. This has to be a time for change," he said. "And I'm going to be an agent of change with the 13 young men I get to coach every day and the two little girls that I get to raise. But hopefully things start changing, because it's really, really disappointing."
His voice rising, and with his eyes welling, he finished by saying, "I'm proud to grow up American. I'm proud to say I'm part of the greatest country ever. And that's got to stay that way. And it'll stay that way if we change.
"But we've got to change."

Discovery Channel Cancels Two Gun Shows ~ Including Ted Nugent!!!

Discovery Channel has cancelled "Ted Nugent's Gun Country," as well as a show called "American Guns." This is good news at least. I think it's poetic justice (or merely dang good justice) that Ted Nugent is one of the first gun nuts to be affected by the shooting at Sandy Hook, especially after some of the things he said about Obama during the election (see Here, Here, as well as what he said about Bob Costas just a few weeks ago ).

Here is Nugent's latest tweet about the Newtown Massacre and gun control - seriously, being cancelled couldn't happen to a nicer guy. With any luck he'll start threatening people again and this time perhaps the FBI or CIA will take him to jail.

300million American guns were not misused again this week-leave us the hell alone
— Ted Nugent (@TedNugent) December 18, 2012

Breitbart touted Nugent's show in October with some colorful language - you could call it "gun porn" - that seems even more crass and inappropriate now. They aren't ashamed, of course, but they should be.

Breitbart: All Guns All the Time

Ted Nugent's Gun Country premieres on October 10 on Discovery Channel. Coupled with the recent release of a full line of Ted Nugent Ammunition, it puts Uncle Ted right where he likes to be -- with guns in his hands and targets down range.

His Discovery Channel show is literally going to be a celebration of life with guns. His wife and children will all be featured with various firearms, reflecting what Nugent says is a "very serious, very sincere relationship all of them share with firearms." His show will cover hunting and shooting for recreation, and will also shine the spotlight on new firearms and firearm products.

The message Nugent wants to get out is that these aren't things he and his family are doing just because the cameras are rolling. Rather, these represent "the natural, every day activities the Nugent family undertakes with guns."

But that's all over now. Buh-Bye, Crazy Uncle Ted....



Fox News Reports:

“American Guns," came under intense scrutiny in the wake of Friday’s mass shooting at a Connecticut grade school, with people flooding the show’s Facebook page calling for its cancelation.
“I know you all have to make money but would Discovery Channel PLEASE consider ceasing to broadcast the show in the U.K.? Sadly your program makes buying/owning guns seem fun, glamorous, even normal,” wrote one. Another tweeted, “Dear Discovery Channel: it’s not appropriate showing the program American Guns now!” Another weighed in: “With Discovery shows like 'Sons of Guns', 'American Guns', 'Ted Nugent's Gun Country' etc it's not surprising how guns r seen as acceptable.”
It seems the critics may have been heard.

From E-Online

American Guns is no more.
Discovery Channel confirmed today that the reality show about a Colorado family in the gun business will not be back for a third season. The show's second-season finale had aired Sept. 5.
"American Guns concluded earlier this year," the network said in a statement. "Discovery Channel chose not to renew the series and has no plans to air repeats of the show."

From Media Matters:

. . .While Discovery has described Ted Nugent's Gun Country as a "one-hour special," Nugent claimed that Discovery "want[s] to do it as a regular feature." Nugent has also said the show would help him advance his view in the "culture war."
The episode of Ted Nugent's Gun Country that aired in October showed Nugent shooting a scimitar-horned oryx, an animal extinct in the wild, and using a .50-caliber Browning armor-piercing machine gun to blow holes in a steel door used by a team of "preppers" to protect their armory.

From Raw Story

The Discovery Channel confirmed to Raw Story on Tuesday that firearms enthusiast Ted Nugent will also not be returning to the channel in any form or fashion.
Speaking to Raw Story in remarks specified as “not for attribution,” a spokesperson admitted that “Ted Nugent’s Gun Country” didn’t do very well when it aired in October, even with fellow firearms fashionistas. Nielsen Ratings placed the viewership at about 864,000 people in all. But the network’s decision is not just about the numbers.
After Friday’s devastating massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the spokesperson said that Nugent would definitely not be returning to the Discovery Channel.

Mr. Rogers Goes Viral (Again) After Newtown Shooting

Photo by Jim Judkis
I'm such a huge fan of Mr. Rogers, and I can't imagine what he would think about the way some are shrugging off this massacre of young children as just "business as usual" in America.

But with the magic of video, Mr. Rogers is still around spreading his wisdom. There happens to be a video he made after the assassination of Bobby Kennedy beseeching parents to realize the effect that the news coverage has on the minds and emotions of children. The original doesn't seem to be around on the internet right now, but I bet PBS will put it up soon. For now you can see a clip of it in the video discussion below.

There is also an amazing picture (see above) that was taken for magazine spread and went viral on Facebook just hours after the shooting. It truly captures the innocence of childhood, and gives us hope that not everyone in the world thinks guns are the answer to everything. I would HATE for any child to believe that.

PBS has the story:

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of 'disaster,' I remember my mother's words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers -- so many caring people in this world."

On Friday, 170 Million for Public Broadcasting posted the image and quote on their Facebook page. Since then, the post has been seen by hundreds of thousands of people and shared more than 90,000 times on Facebook.

The quote was taken from a timely video in which Rogers advises parents on how to help their children during times of tragedy....

. . . Photographer Jim Judkis captured the photo in 1978 at The Children's Institute in Pittsburgh, then known as the Memorial Home for Crippled Children. On Tuesday's NewsHour, Judkis's daughter Maura Judkis talks about the virality of her father's photo.

Video Responses to Newtown Massacre

Saturday Night Live opened with a sweet Children's Choir singing "Silent Night."


Tribute with Names of the Victims from ABC News:



From Political Carnival - a video montage of news and comments about the tragedy entitled: "Another Day, Another Shooting."



This is one asks "Is There Christmas in Heaven." Get tissues.