The Pentagon as a Global NRA (Tom Dispatch)
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175637/tomgram:_engelhardt,_a_second_amendment_world,_pentagon-style/?utm_source=TomDispatch&utm_campaign=272308b908-TD_Engelhardt1_13_2013&utm_medium=email#more
The Pentagon as a Global NRA
For Washington, There Is No Arms Control Abroad
By Tom Engelhardt
Given these last weeks, who doesnt know what an AR-15 is? Who hasnt seen the mind-boggling stats on the way assault rifles have flooded this country, or tabulations of accumulating Newtown-style mass killings, or noted that there are barely more gas stations nationwide than federally licensed firearms dealers, or heard the renewed debates over the Second Amendment, or been struck by the rapid shifts in public opinion on gun control, or checked out the disputes over how effective an assault-rifle ban was the last time around? Who doesnt know about the NRAs suggestion to weaponize schools, or about the price poor neighborhoods may be paying in gun deaths for the present expansive interpretation of the Second Amendment? Who hasnt seen the legions of stories about how, in the wake of the Newtown slaughter, sales of guns, especially AR-15 assault rifles, have soared, ammunition sales have surged, background checks for future gun purchases have risen sharply, and gun shows have been besieged with customers?
If you havent stumbled across figures on gun violence in America or on suicide-by-gun, youve been hiding under a rock. If you havent heard about Chicagos soaring and Washington D.C.'s plunging gun-death stats (and that both towns have relatively strict gun laws), where have you been?
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