AndyS
AndyS's JournalJust gonna leave this here.
The Education of X González After the Parkland shooting, I became an activist, a celebrity, a “survivor” — and the pressure almost killed me.
The strangest part of being a survivor was how badly strangers wanted to touch me, like I was a living relic. They’d shake my hand, or hug me, or lean on me to cry. They also wanted to tell me about the tragedies that touched them. So many voices saying how their loved ones had been gruesomely shot and killed. I’m an empathetic person, and I had no idea how to guard myself, how to turn away and toward myself. So I listened and I hugged these strangers back. Only months earlier, none of these people knew who I was. I was just a high-school kid in Parkland.
Before the shooting — February 14, 2018, perpetrated by a 19-year-old white supremacist at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — my plan was to get the fuck out of Florida, the farther the better. Now, I write this from my pink childhood bedroom, having moved back home after graduating from college last year. I spend my days trying to get my future on the rails, finding new music, making zines, sewing, smoking weed, cooking, cleaning, figuring out what I want to do for work. I’m trying to be a good roommate to my parents. We watch movies together every night, making up for lost time.
It’s been almost five years since my classmates and I marched for the first time, and it’s hard not to feel like things are pretty much the same. Gun violence happens every day in this country. In November, the trial that was supposed to bring closure to our community brought only disappointment after the shooter was spared the death penalty. I see my March for Our Lives compatriots at protests once or twice throughout the year. I’m still trying to figure out what type of activism I want to engage in, since I don’t want to be passive for the rest of my life but I cannot exist in the way that I used to. I don’t know how I’m alive after all that.
https://www.thecut.com/article/x-gonzalez-parkland-shooting-activist-essay.html
So, the new measure of PTSD and trauma in our children
isn't "Have you been through a school shooting?" but "How many school shootings have you been through?"
At what point do we as a nation become enraged? When do we act on that rage? When do we go to the polls with ONE goal in mind; to vote out the ones who perpetuate guns everywhere?
SINCE PARKLAND
1,200 American kids killed by guns
1,200 stories about the lives they led, reported by teen journalists across the country
Fatal shootings of children have been on the rise, government data show. But as the deaths mount, the toll is bigger than what numbers can capture.
See their names.
About SINCE PARKLAND.
What does that say about US?
4 in 10
Three
Gun Control Advocates Petition FTC to Go After Gun Ads
Gun control advocates are petitioning the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the firearms industry’s marketing practices.
Gun marketing promotes an illusion of safety, the petitioners say. Americans have “been falsely led to believe that gun ownership is a safe way to protect their home and family,” they argue. The C.D.C. reported 45,222 deaths from gun-related injuries in 2020 . The F.T.C. “has effectively given the gun industry a free pass,” the petitioners say.
There is NO scientific evidence that guns make you safer. In fact there is abundant scientific evidence to the contrary!
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9134946/
Also, in other news:
WASHINGTON – Fred Guttenberg, Everytown for Gun Safety and Brady on Monday released a complaint calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Smith & Wesson’s advertising and promotion of its M&P line of assault rifles, citing substantial evidence the company uses unfair and deceptive practices to market the rifles to young, male consumers — a demographic that includes a disproportionate number of the shooters in the 10 most destructive mass shootings of the past decade.
And:
A new bill being introduced in Congress on Thursday seeks to use the powers of the Federal Trade Commission to limit the spread of guns. The bill would allow the F.T.C. to investigate gunmakers for deceptive advertising practices. That is something the agency is charged with doing for all industries, but has been reluctant to do so with gun manufacturers, which has long received extra protections from Washington, the DealBook newsletter reports.
==
It calls for the F.T.C. to file a report to Congress in a year’s time identifying ads that are designed to appeal to those under 18, feature semiautomatic assault weapons or imply or encourage an illegal use of guns.
PLCAA be damned there's a way to get at these mother fuckers and we're going to find it.
Long lines at NC gun buy back
They had to be functioning to collect $100 or $200 gif cards. More important than the actual number of kind of guns that were collected was the statement that people are just sick and tired of guns and violence. There is also the connection that the anti gun violence movement has made to the community and the new people who are willing to do something positive.
A letter to the editor . . .
Seriously, what’s wrong with this country?
— Darius Mohsenin, Santa Cruz
Some people think fighting gun violence is STUPID.
There are those who think gun regulation is a losing issue to campaign on for political office. Some even go so far as to call it a STUPID thing to have gun control as a plank in the Democratic Party Platform, call those who promote gun regulation STUPID and post STUPID stuff that sometimes gets hidden because that's a STUPID thing to do on a Democratic discussion board.
Well, I have some news for those who think running on gun regulation is STUPID.
In the last three election cycles 95 new Democratic representatives have been elected to the House running on restricting gun access as one of their top issues. 95 new voices added to the anti gun violence voices already in that 435 member body. That's a 20% gain in the House. Forty of those 95 defeated NRA supported Republicans. There is now a rather large pro gun safety majority in the House.
In 2018 Tammy Baldwin, Ben Cardin, Sherrod Brown, Tom Carper and Bob Casey ran for and won seats in the Senate after being endorsed by Moms Demand Action and including gun regulation as a top campaign issue. In 2020 John Hickenlooper ran for Senate against Cory Gardner and defeated the NRA backed Republican after passing background checks and banning high capacity magazines as Governor of Colorado. That's six new pro gun control Senators in as many years.
Gabby Gifford's organization endorsed 300 state legislators in 34 states and 256 won their elections. In 2019 that organization flipped the VA House AND Senate electing 24 pro gun control candidates.
Even Mitch McConnell is reading the tea leaves and knows that running against gun safety is a losing proposition which is why he instructed John Cornyn to negotiate a gun reform bill in the Senate with Democratic leaders.
I think it is time to put that tired old “gun control is a losing issue” to rest because that's a STUPID argument.
I also think that supporting organizations that promote gun regulation is a winning strategy. Look what the gun control movement has done in the last decade. Think how much further we can go supporting the momentum they've built in such a short time.
If you have ANY political money to spend consider some of these: link.
$5 can make a difference.
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Pelican Bay, TX 76020
Home country: United States
Current location: home
Member since: Thu Jan 20, 2005, 02:07 PM
Number of posts: 14,559