Today, President Obama announced sweeping set of policies, including 23 executive orders, aimed at reducing gun violence. The unveiling was the result of the Joe Biden-led task force Obama formed last month in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings, and proposed policies include an assault weapons ban, universal background checks, and improved access to mental health care. The Washington Post calls it “the most expansive gun-control policies in a generation,” and the fact that the president issued no less than 23 executive orders suggests that he wants to avoid congress as much as possible with this (which, given his first term, is understandable). Here’s the flashy White House document outlining the proposals, here’s a list of the executive orders (one of which, somewhat amusingly, is “Nominate an ATF director”), and here’s audio of the event (courtesy of Matt Keys). Photo credit: AP source
Connecticut school may get named after Sandy Hook victim: Victoria Soto, a 27-year-old teacher who died while shielding her students from a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary, is likely to be honored by nearby Stratford, Connecticut. The town’s mayor, John Harkins, has recommended naming the town’s new school after Soto, who lived in Stratford and graduated from Stratford High School. The town will vote on the proposal tonight.
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A Connecticut newspaper ran an ad for a gun show next to a story about Sandy Hook today.
As a former newspaper guy, let me emphasize that in situations like these, you can generally check the ad stacks and change things to avoid situations like this.
Although the investigation is still under way, we are aware of no facts or legal theory under which the State of Connecticut should be liable for causing the harms inflicted at Sandy Hook Elementary School.Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen • Discussing, in a statement, a $100 million legal claim filed against the state, which has since been withdrawn, regarding the Sandy Hook shooting. The lawyer, Irv Pinsky, filed the claim upon request of a survivor’s family. (He later withdrew the claim, stating that there was new evidence to research, but he may refile later.) The withdrawn claim stated that the state did not do enough to prevent “foreseeable harm” or offer a “safe school setting.” “We all know it’s going to happen again,” Pinsky claimed last week. “Society has to take action.”
Earlier today, the New York Post put up a story discussing Ryan Lanza’s Facebook page and statements that he allegedly made to the newspaper, the first made since his brother committed the Newtown shooting (something he was initially falsely accused of). Funny story about that: They got duped and ran with a story based on a fake page with the username “Official.RyanLanza01”, because clearly the New York Post can’t figure out that a Facebook page was created this week. (Apparently the statements were made through Facebook chat, on top of that.) Good work dragging this kid’s name through the mud all over again.
And here’s another dirty little truth that the media try their best to conceal. There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its own people. Through vicious, violent video games with names like ‘Bullet Storm,’ ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ ‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘Splatterhouse.’National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre • Taking a swipe at a number of video games during his speech on Friday—where he also suggested that the solution to school shootings was having armed policemen at each school. Mind you, two of these games, Splatterhouse and Mortal Kombat, have each been around in various forms for two decades or longer, though both have had relatively recent entries. Anyway, can we call them the National Retro Association? It’s like they traveled back in time and pulled these lines out of the mouths of analysts in the wake of Columbine.
As it turns out, she was not a teacher. Nor does it appear that Nancy Lanza had been a substitute or a teacher’s aide at Sandy Hook Elementary School, as some reported. Other accounts said incorrectly that she had been killed at the school along with her students, rather than at home before her son’s rampage at the school.The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi • From an article today detailing the mistaken narratives and misinformation that sprung forth in the early hours after the Sandy Hook shooting, and how those mistakes can persist. This is not the first time we’ve seen so much bad information swarm a tragic incident, or even a school shooting — reports of motive in the aftermath of the Columbine shooting have also since proven dubious (perhaps explained best by Columbine author Dave Cullen). source
Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
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Ah, good catch! Here’s a bit from Bloomberg discussing this angle of the issue more in depth.
Dick’s Sporting Goods suspends sale of certain semi-automatics
CNN:
Dick’s Sporting Goods, one of the largest sporting goods retailers in the world, says it has removed all guns from its store nearest to Newtown, Connecticut, and is suspending the sale of certain kinds of semi-automatic rifles from its chains nationwide.
The move was made out of respect for the victims and families of last week’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting “during this time of national mourning,” the store said in a statement Tuesday morning.Photo: An American flag at the center of Newtown, Connecticut, stands at half-staff on Dec. 14. (John Makely / NBC News)
Related to the prior post.
The private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management said on Tuesday that it would sell its investment in the gunmaker Freedom Group in response to the school shootings last week in Connecticut.
Cerberus acquired Bushmaster — the manufacturer of the rifle used by the gunman in the Newtown attacks that killed 27 people, including 20 schoolchildren — in 2006.
The private equity giant later merged it with other gun companies to create Freedom Group, which reported net sales of $677.3 million for the nine months that ended in September 2012, a 20 percent increase compared with the same period last year.
Holy wow. That is a huge harbinger. (ht @BuzzfeedBen)
I’d also like us to encourage people to gang rush shooters, rather than following their instincts to hide; if we drilled it into young people that the correct thing to do is for everyone to instantly run at the guy with the gun, these sorts of mass shootings would be less deadly, because even a guy with a very powerful weapon can be brought down by 8-12 unarmed bodies piling on him at once.Megan McArdle’s solution to preventing mass shootings, as pointed out by New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait. “But I doubt we’re going to tell people to gang rush mass shooters, because that would involve admitting that there is no mental health service or ‘reasonable gun control’ which is going to prevent all of these attacks. Which is to say, admitting that we have no box big enough to completely contain evil,” she continues. Oh, so it’s an explanation to tell us that gun control won’t work… I think?!
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