The FBI issued more than 4,000 requests last year for agents from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives to retrieve guns from people who failed background checks…
It was not immediately clear how many gun seizure requests agents successfully executed last year or how many weapons were ultimately recovered.
The American Way of Death.
Five years after Sandy Hook, U.S. gun-control advocates switch strategy https://www.reuters.com/article/us-connecticut-shooting-anniversary/five-years-after-sandy-hook-u-s-gun-control-advocates-switch-strategy-idUSKBN1E617Q
2018 Gun Violence Archive (GVA) http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/ includes an interactive map of 2017 incidents
Tuesday’s school shooting in Benton, Ky., on Tuesday was the worst so far in 2018: Two 15-year-old students were killed and 18 more people were injured. But it was only one of at least 11 shootings on school property recorded since Jan. 1, and roughly the 50th of the academic year. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/us/kentucky-school-shooting.html Two decades ago there was another school shooting in West Paducah, about a 40-minute drive away. Three people were killed when a student opened fire into a prayer circle, and five more were injured.
As of this 10 AM this morning President Trump had not publicly commented on Tuesday’s shooting although White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday told reporters Trump had been informed of the incident and offered “thoughts and prayers … with the victims and families there.”
‘My backpack fell and the gun went off,’ 12-year-old girl reportedly told classmate in LA school shooting https://www.ocregister.com/2018/02/02/my-backpack-fell-and-the-gun-went-off-12-year-old-girl-reportedly-told-classmate-in-la-school-shooting/
“An Arizona man who sold ammunition to the gunman in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history was charged Friday with manufacturing armor-piercing bullets, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press.” http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ammo-dealer-las-vegas-gunman-raised-suspicions-52800910 “The records don’t say if the ammunition was used in the attack. Haig was charged shortly before holding a news conference Friday where he said he didn’t notice anything suspicious when he sold 720 rounds of ammunition to Stephen Paddock in the weeks before the attack that killed 58 people.”
‘Please keep kids safe from guns’: How Trump replied to a 7-year-old’s anguished letter”(Washington Post) https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/please-keep-kids-safe-from-guns-how-trump-replied-to-a-7-year-olds-anguished-letter/2018/02/04/5b8d9f9a-079b-11e8-8777-2a059f168dd2_story.html?utm_term=.fd98aefe4f53 “…Townville’s kids joined a group that now includes more than 150,000 students, attending at least 170 primary or secondary schools, who have experienced a shooting on campus since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, according to a Post analysis of online archives, state and federal enrollment figures and news stories. That doesn’t count dozens of suicides, accidents and after-school assaults that have also exposed children to gunfire.”
See also “Children under fire : Almost two dozen kids are shot every day in the U.S. This 4-year-old was one of them.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2017/09/15/road-rage-a-bullet-to-the-head-and-the-frantic-effort-to-save-a-4-year-old/?utm_term=.3a8751fc568c
“The showdown over the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act : A bill passing through Congress could change the way states recognize concealed carry permits” (CBS News “60 Minutes” 2/11/18) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/concealed-carry-reciprocity-act-showdown/ “The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act has already sailed through the House of Representatives and has the full support of President Trump. It has roughly 40 co-sponsors in the Senate where a showdown is shaping up between the gun lobby and law enforcement over states’ rights and the second amendment.”
“Gun Control Is as Old as the Old West : Contrary to the popular imagination, bearing arms on the frontier was a heavily regulated business” (Smithsonian 2/5/18) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gun-control-old-west-180968013/
“Trump slump? Remington files for bankruptcy amid declining gun sales.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/02/13/trump-slump-remington-files-for-bankruptcy-amid-declining-gun-sales/?utm_term=.52b48a4a83f8
“The NRA has a new ad out, and its message is downright bizarre. The video encourages Trump supporters to destroy their TVs with a sledgehammer over “fake news.”” https://www.dailydot.com/irl/nra-pro-trump-ad-smash-tv/ R. Crumb illustration: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/fc/07/16/fc07169dda750f5c3e2803c1014fa1c7–robert-crumb-robert-richard.jpg
America’s oldest gun manufacturer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to court papers filed in Delaware late Sunday. The move by Remington Arms Co. and its parent, Remington Outdoors, comes amid slumping sales at the firm founded more than 200 years ago. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/03/26/gun-maker-remington-americas-oldest-files-chapter-11-bankruptcy/457709002/ Stephen Jackson, Remington’s chief financial officer, said in the filing that the company has seen a significant decline in revenue and sales over the last 12 months. He said the “overall business and industry environments continue to cause significant financial hardship,” a situation that could be partly attributed to the perception that President Trump, a National Rifle Association supporter, won’t impose new restrictions on gun sales. There are no official federal statistics covering gun sales nationwide, but there have been correlations between the threat or risk of increased firearm regulation and so-called panic-buying among gun enthusiasts.
Growing up in the Arsenal of America, my generation was the first in my family NOT to work at the Remington Arms factory in Bridgeport, CT. A firm not alone in bankruptcy provoked by pigheaded reliance on nutballs to feed recurrent floods of demand-at-any-price. The NRA’s siren call for gun lust ignored many realities — not the least of which was an end to panic buying by folks who need bigger and “better” firearms to feel virile in the face of sensible regulation. Another statistic diminishing in the era of Trumpiness.
Law enforcement struggling to combat unregulated, DIY “ghost guns.” CBS News correspondent Carter Evans explains. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/law-enforcement-struggling-to-combat-unregulated-diy-ghost-guns/
Recent school shootings in the US (FOX News 2/14/18) http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/14/recent-school-shootings-in-us.html
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 12:50 PM – 14 Feb 2018
“My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.”
“290 School Shootings In America Since 2013” https://everytownresearch.org/school-shootings/5832/ (prior to yesterday’s shooting in Parkland, Fla.)
50 years of U.S. mass shootings: The victims, sites, killers and weapons. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/mass-shootings-in-america/?utm_term=.0ca8da29e315
“Have your representatives in Congress received donations from the NRA?” (list) https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/nra-donations/?utm_term=.c27542013197
An analysis of U.S. census and Education Department data shows that more than 800,000 students go to school in public school districts where school shootings took place. More than 6 million people live within those districts, census data shows. That’s 2 percent of the U.S. population. https://www.local10.com/education/over-800k-students-live-in-school-districts-with-past-shootings
The NRA and the Safari Club Are Gunning for Grizzlies https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-nra-and-the-safari-club-are-gunning-for-grizzlies The gun lobby and big-game hunters are teaming up to get the bears off the endangered species list. But that’s just a first step toward stealing public land.
Guns Explained With Cats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxwPcUh97oc
Gun culture (The New York Review of Books April 5th issue) http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/04/05/guns-bang-for-the-buck/ see also related at bottom
A 9-year-old wanted a video game controller from his 13-year-old sister — so he shot her in the back of the head, police say. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/03/19/a-9-year-old-wanted-the-video-game-controller-from-his-sister-so-he-shot-her-police-say/?utm_term=.d61d9955b551
“According to a 2017 report in the medical journal Pediatrics, firearms-related injuries are the third leading cause of death for children between the ages of 1 and 17 in the United States. From 2012 to 2014, an average of 1,297 children in the United States died each year from a firearm-related injury, the study showed.
Analyzing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, The Post’s editorial board found that “on average, 23 children were shot each day in the United States in 2015. Of the approximately 8,400 shootings, 1,458 were fatal, a death toll that exceeds the entire number of U.S. military fatalities in Afghanistan this decade.”
Why Are White Men Stockpiling Guns? (Scientific American) https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/why-are-white-men-stockpiling-guns/
“Tennessee college senior defends posing for graduation picture with gun in her waistband” http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/04/10/tennessee-college-senior-defends-posing-for-graduation-picture-with-gun-in-her-waistband.html
“Georgia governor candidate aims gun at teen in campaign ad. ‘Get over it,’ he tells critics.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/05/02/georgia-governor-candidate-aims-gun-at-teenager-in-campaign-ad-get-over-it-he-tells-critics/?utm_term=.1f106734230c
The ad shows Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state, sitting in a room filled with firearms. he holds a shotgun in his lap, cleaning it off as he speaks to the camera.
“I’m Brian Kemp, this is Jake, a young man interested in one of my daughters,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” a nervous Jake replies.
“Jake asked why I was running for governor,” Kemp said before listing off several reasons, including capping government spending, cutting regulations and promoting small business.
Finally Kemp asks, “and two things if you’re going to date one of my daughters?”
“Respect,” Jake responds, and “a healthy appreciation for the Second Amendment, sir.”
Kemp then closes the gun, as if it was ready to fire, pointing it toward the teenager.
“We’re going to get along just fine,” Kemp says, as the young man grins anxiously.