Saturday, August 29, 2015

Andy Parker, father of slain Virginia reporter Alison Parker, appeals to President Obama to fight for gun control legislation.

Courtesy of the BBC:  

The father of Alison Parker, one of two journalists killed live on air, has appealed to US President Barack Obama to push through tougher gun laws. 

"You need to do this... I will help you do this and the press is with you on this because they just lost one of their own," Andy Parker told the BBC. 

"Mr President, you need to do this. Please do it. Please do it for us and for other people so they're not going to lose their Alisons and their Adams," he said in an emotional message.

I agree.

The President needs to continue this fight. As does the next President, and if need be, the one after.

This is not going away. If anything it is only getting worse.

One new study thinks they know why:

And what makes the United States such a fertile incubator for mass shooters? A comprehensive analysis of the perpetrators, their motives and the national contexts for their actions suggests that several factors have conspired to create in the United States a potent medium for fostering large-scale murder.

Those factors include a chronic and widespread gap between Americans' expectations for themselves and their actual achievement, Americans' adulation of fame, and the extent of gun ownership in the United States. 

Set those features against a circumstance the United States shares with many other countries — a backdrop of poorly managed mental illness — and you have a uniquely volatile brew, the new study says. 

......


Perhaps no single factor sets the United States apart as sharply as does gun ownership, wrote Lankford. Of 178 countries included in Lankford's analysis, the United States ranked first in per-capita gun ownership. A 2007 survey found 270 million firearms in US civilian households — an ownership rate of 88.8 firearms per 100 people. Yemen followed, with 54.8 firearms per 100 people. 

The other piece of significant data the study found is that as many as 65% of Americans believe that their right to own a gun is to protect themselves from tyranny.

In other words if they lose their guns they will lose their freedom.

And that belief is aggressively reinforced by the NRA and their political sockpuppets.

15 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:33 AM

    I read another recent essay that pondered America's crazy shooter problems. This one noted America's probable higher percentage of those who are affected by a culture of narcissism. Related to American "exceptionalism".

    These high-profile killings involve deranged individuals who believe that they are owed fame and great things and will get it at any cost. We seem to have more than our share of them.

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  2. Anonymous9:43 AM

    Totally O/T, but seems like Willblow and Jordan Lowe (Track Menard's 'handler') seem to have some SERIOUS drinking problems...

    https://instagram.com/p/6tGjSkH7Y2/?taken-by=jloewe_
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    .

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:07 AM

      It is far more than SERIOUS drinking.

      What happened to Track? Both he and Jordan were absent from something that means a great deal to both of them and the whole Palin family. That is what they say about PTSD, warriors, Navy Seals.
      http://www.adn.com/article/20150728/new-anchorage-hospital-service-members-named-sniper-chris-kyle

      Why were the Palins not supportive? Sarah barely dribbled a post. Both Track and Jordan are invested in Seals and snipers as if they care. Why would they fail at such an important matter?

      How is Track's gun collection? I hope someone is monitoring Track's signs and doing something to protect victims. I suppose they will all continue the cover ups with the Anchorage Brawl anniversary almost here.
      http://www.adn.com/article/20141009/anchorage-police-no-charges-palin-birthday-brawl

      Video appears to show man with hands up before Texas officers shoot him dead
      http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/29/texas-police-shooting-hands-up

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:06 AM

      My guess is that JL gal is seriously bi-polar.

      I looked at her photos when they were public and her pieces didn't seem to fit together. Widely traveled and an admirer of Buddhism, daughter of two doctors. Yet In the majority of her photos she looked drunk and joyously was displaying "the finger" in most pics. The intensity of her expressions were nothing short of manic.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:15 PM

      Can you find Track Palin? Where was Sarah?
      http://media.breitbart.com/media/2015/08/Chris-Kyle-Hospital-Ribbon-Cuttng-Sarah-Palin-FB-Page-640x480.jpg

      Breitfart did something as the Palin's EPIC FAIL. WARNING: ALASKAN HOSPITAL FOR VETERANS HONORS ‘AMERICAN SNIPER’ CHRIS KYLE
      http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/08/02/alaskan-hospital-for-veterans-honors-american-sniper-chris-kyle/

      Kyle, is a former Navy Seal American hero. Jordan's grandfather is a living Navy Seal American hero, an original, interviewed by Time.

      You would think she and Track would both insist on being there to help the wounded warriors. Isn't Taya Kyle someone Sarah and Bristol like?

      I don't get what is with them. Are they all total bullshit artists?

      Sarah Palin also lies about Trig Palin. You will never see her or Bristol doing jack shit for Special Olympics Alaska.
      http://www.specialolympicsalaska.org/

      Bristol is only an activiest when it comes to defunding Planned Parenthood. Or she wants a boycott for Facebook because she says they are into human trafficking.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous9:51 AM

    As I've said before, the response of LaPierre and Congress after Sandy Hook said it all. They aren't going to do JACK about it, and what should horrify is now commonplace.

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  4. Anonymous10:17 AM

    There isn't a thing President Obama can do about it! He's been trying throughout his two terms and has constantly run into obstruction from our horrid United States Congress which is controlled by Republicans.

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  5. Anonymous1:15 PM

    Oh the legal fireworks and drama has just begun folks…the NRA rantings just add fuel to the fire…and Palin is being investigated by federal agencies for crimes committed…remember no statute of limitations in alaska…
    Now how did that come to pass…smirk…head tilt…smile…

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  6. Anonymous1:24 PM

    Anonymous10:17 AM

    There isn't a thing President Obama can do about it! He's been trying throughout his two terms and has constantly run into obstruction from our horrid United States Congress which is controlled by Republicans.
    ***
    EXACTLY!!!
    What I tell everyone, but you see Faux news tells them Obama in charge of EVERYTHING! And if the 2nd amendment were amendeded, that would involve the SCOTUS also,too!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous1:29 PM

    Unfortunately, congress isn't going to help President Obama pass any gun-control legislation. I heard gun sales spiked after President Obama was elected. The hicks think President Obama is after their guns.

    Typical of the press to only support gun-control, only after two of their own are gunned down. Normally, the press trashes politicians who push for gun-control. The press can go fuck themselves.

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  8. Anonymous3:20 PM

    Great observation 1.29. Spike? more like flood.

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  9. Anonymous6:30 PM

    http://www.ktvu.com/news/now-trending/12804965-story

    We are averaging 1 mass shooting a day so far in 2015.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anita Winecooler7:49 PM

    I feel so badly for this courageous man. He's trying his best to deal with unfathomable grief, and as others have mentioned, President Obama HAS tried, and tried, and tried but without support from Congress, his hands are tied. We need to find a way to shame Congress (I know, snowballs chance in hell), but perhaps a good old fashioned letter writing campaign, or making it a key question in the upcoming election, a referendum to get it done.
    I saw this man in another interview, and he's resolved, he wants to become the "John Walsh" of Gun Control. I can't believe 88 in a hundred Americans feel the need to own a gun for protection. That's a hard statistic to wrap one's mind around.

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  11. Anonymous9:09 PM

    'Thirty-three thousand people were killed by guns in America in 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control, a rate that’s higher than any other developed country on the planet.'

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/30/we-almost-had-3-mass-shootings-last-week.html

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous9:19 PM

    FU to previous post:

    'According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting, there were 142,324 incidents of aggravated assault with a firearm in 2013—and another 21,175 firearm suicides.'

    'On the day Alison Parker and Mark Ward were murdered on live television, 27 other people were murdered with guns, according to the Gun Violence Archive. In 24 hours following all of their deaths, another 15 people were killed.

    Forty-five people killed by guns immediately before and after Flanagan’s attack. That just so happens to be the combined total of victims from Virginia Tech and Columbine.

    Americans did what Flanagan only wished he could do: kill 45 people.'

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/30/we-almost-had-3-mass-shootings-last-week.html

    ReplyDelete

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