Thank the God of Rhetoric

Or Ken Tingley at the Post Star. My letter ran today. So, I was happy when I opened the paper and saw it was there. I got happier when I saw that Andrew DiCroce had the letter preceding mine and ecstatic when I saw that it was also on guns. Thanks for coming early, Santa.

Right on cue the good little puppets at The Post-Star come out with once again another in their long line of anti-gun propaganda, this time they use training as the lead in. Gun control makes it easier to defend yourself? What are you guys smoking? It is gun control that has put more people in harm’s way and got more people killed. Almost every one of these mass shootings has happened in gun free zones. Same weekend as California, 18 died and over 70 injured in Chicago, by the way has the toughest gun laws. Did real well for the 18 killed?

On 9/11 thousands of lives lost and tens of billions of damage was done with box cutters! Oklahoma City, hundreds killed and millions of dollars in damage done with a van, diesel fuel and fertilizer, not one gun used! Israel, how many have been killed or injured because of car and knife attacks? DWI, how many deaths and have more laws stopped them? Heroin, how many stories about the epidemic have you done? Last time I checked it's illegal to make, sell or use, will more laws change that?

It is not the tool that is used, but the heart and mind of the people who use it, and that is the "common sense" part that you keep missing! Let’s face it, your way of doing it has not worked, and you just want to keep going down the same road of insanity doing the same thing over and over. 

May as well rerun mine.

If there was an epidemic killing 90 Americans a day, 33,000 a year, do you think we would be wise to spend money researching it? Yes, is the answer I'm hoping for. If so, you're not a congressman protecting his precious standing with the NRA. Mass shootings are less than the tip of the iceberg at 2 percent to 3 percent of the firearm deaths in this country. We need to have someone to look at the 97 percent that don't run on TV for days on end.

The Dickey Amendment in 1996 cut off funding to the CDC because Congress (the NRA) was afraid that research into firearm deaths would hurt gun and ammo sales. A study prior to the amendment found that having a gun in your house does not make you and your family safer. Why are gun producers allowed to control research on their deadly product? And push misinformation on the public? We don't allow cigarette manufacturers to control tobacco research and education.

Even Jay Dickey now says, "Doing nothing is no longer an acceptable solution." Continuing to allow the National Rifle Association to control gun policy in the U.S. is also not an acceptable solution. We can start fixing that next November in this district. Anyone who's stamped Grade A Prime venal by their organization is not going to help solve the problem. 

I have a few random thoughts on Mr. DiCroce's letter, though I hope not as random as the thoughts that run skittering around in the letter itself. He starts out complaining about the editorial and ends up going onto 9/11, Oklahoma City, Israel, DWI and heroin.  At one time, I would respond to the Post Star with a letter of my own disputing some of those fine points he makes. Reasons not to; include not wanting to pick low hanging fruit, not wanting to pick on the slow kids and not wanting to discourage him from writing these sterling missives. Dear Lord, don't stop! I do, in some perverse way, enjoy reading them and I can't believe he's doing his side any good. In fact, it's hard to believe that there isn't some mucky-muck, GOP chairman or some such that doesn't contact this guy and say, "I beseech you to please stop writing to the editor."  

Also wanted to point out that at least I answer my rhetorical questions. Really wish he had because I believe that on some of them I may not have been answering quite as he was indicating. On DWI: yes, I believe more laws have at least caused there to be fewer, though of course it cannot be proven. On heroin: the PS has run stories on the epidemic. Though maybe his point is that the stories didn't stop the abuse of this drug. 

Center for American Progress 28 Points

Just wanted to put this up quickly.

Strengthening background checks

1. Issue guidance to licensed gun dealers to encourage them to conduct voluntary background checks on behalf of private sellers
2. Require background checks for private sales at gun shows that are held on publicly owned property
3. Create an interagency working group to evaluate the state’s progress in providing prohibiting records to the background check system
4. Apply for federal grant funding to improve background check records
5. Ensure that all domestic violence and drug abuse prohibiting records are pre-validated and flagged in the background check system

Enhanced enforcement of current laws

6. Investigate and prosecute cases in which prohibited individuals attempt to purchase guns from licensed dealers and fail a background check
7. Create a dedicated gun crime investigative unit in state and local police departments to focus on illegal gun trafficking and gun crime
8. Create an illegal gun tip line
9. Increase the use of technology to solve gun crimes and prevent shootings
10. Implement de-escalation training for police officers and increase the use of independent prosecutors in investigations of police officers who use lethal force
11. Implement a lethality assessment program for officers who are responding to domestic violence calls
12. Implement statewide standardized protocol requiring prohibited domestic abusers to surrender all firearms in their possession
13. Provide guidance to local judges to ensure that they order the surrender of firearms by domestic abusers in appropriate cases

Improved data collection and analysis

14. Require state and local law enforcement agencies to trace all crime guns
15. Conduct an annual review of trace data to identify the largest sources of crimeguns in the state
16. Create an opt-in program for law enforcement agencies across the state toshare trace data
17. Create a review commission to study every gun-related death in the state
18. Improve statewide collection of crime and gun death data

Enhanced community engagement

19. Implement a violence-intervention program in local hospital emergency rooms for gunshot victims
20. Implement community-based programs to prevent violent crime in vulnerable communities

Enhanced oversight of gun carrying

21. Conduct an annual review of concealed-carry permit reciprocity agreements with other states and rescind those agreements with states that fail to meet certain standards
22. Conduct monthly background checks to ensure continued eligibility for individuals who have been issued concealed-carry permits
23. Use existing criminal laws to discourage reckless acts of open carry

Enhanced regulation of the gun industry

24. Increase security measures and improve other business practices of gun dealers
25. Create a grading system for gun dealers that incentivizes adoption of best practices
26. Use state and local buying power to encourage best practices by gun manufacturers and dealers
27. Divest public funds from gun manufacturers that fail to adopt best practices
28. Enforce state sales tax laws on high-volume sellers of guns who have notobtained a federal firearms license

An Observation on Gun Cultists

Just wanted to put up a few thoughts on debates I've had in various locales (mostly the PS) with gun fetishists. One thing I've noticed is the defeatist attitude. First, I saw it in the idea that criminals get guns so why bother having gun laws. I'm not going to bother looking now, but I kinda believe that most of the deaths that occur from firearms are ones that were legally acquired. But, there's this idea from them that since criminals are able to get guns there's no sense in trying to regulate them at all.

Then there was the terror watch list vote. I had some of them saying to me that since there are people on the watch list who maybe shouldn't be there we had to respect their due process rights. I admit that maybe there are people on the list unjustly, but that doesn't seem like a reason to just say fuck it, let 'em all get armed.

So, what I'm seeing is a real quitter attitude. And what gets me is that these are the same guys who expect to be in a shooting situation and blow away the bad guy and be the hero. I don't think so. Maybe on Xbox or Play Station.

Post Star Letters and Such

First, link to a comment thread at the GF paper of record. And another.

And a link to Al Scoonz who had a letter in, today.

And since Al mentioned him in his letter and I had meant to put this up:

Will Doolittle and Ken Tingley try using their Alinsky tactics on people because we do not believe we should bring the Syrian so-called refugees here and how we will be safe because of the vetting. Is this the same vetting they are going to use that let the wife, who with her husband, killed 14 people? Homeland Security could not even vet this one woman who they knew where she came from, but thousands of people from who knows where, they will get, right? Willing to put yours and your family’s life on the line for that decision?

The Y story: Why is it the vile and mean language is coming only from the fascist left? Why can’t this person have shown concern for the people around them? Until you have the surgery to become one or the other, use the private unisex room. It's called common courtesy, something those of you on the left have forgotten.

Does anybody else worry that the Liar in Chief is more concerned with phony global warming than terrorists killing Americans? 

ANDREW DICROCE

Glens Falls

Andrew DiCroce in all his glory. He's become a regular on the letters page lately. I don't bother responding to out and out nuts. Alinsky blah blah. Fascist blah blah. 

Robert Bateman on Carpet Bombing

Because this is interesting and educational and I want to link to it.

That a man who is running to be the President of the United States of America, a lawyer who has submitted briefs and argued before the Supreme Court, is apparently so ignorant of not only the law, but also the definitions of simple military terminology and history, is more than interesting.

Oh yes, and because Ted Cruz is an asshole and probably more psychopathic than Trump.

Good News on Guns

Because I like to look at the half full portion of the glass.

While the attack at the holiday party in San Bernardino, Calif., and the June shooting at the Emanuel A.M.E. church in Charleston, S.C., will remain seared in public consciousness, in 2015, mass public shootings remain the least common form of gun violence in America.

Focusing on the widely accepted FBI definition – an incident in which four or more victims are shot and killed – there have been 22 mass shootings this year, according to a Monitor analysis of two crowdsourced databases that rely on news reports.

I've seen stories where it's stated that there is a mass shooting on average more than one a day. I don't want to minimize these tragedies, but exaggerating them doesn't help either. The focus on them in general bothers me. When over 97% of the firearm deaths are in incidents that are not mass shooting events and are given short shrift. 

Barring further shootings before the end of the year, 2015 should end up being just slightly above average when compared with the past 15 years.

I realize that saying things are not totally falling apart is not that reassuring maybe. I take solace where I can find it.

A report published by the Congressional Research Service in July found that, using the same definition, between 1999 and 2013 there were an average of 21 mass shootings per year, killing 1,554 people in total and wounding 441. During that 15-year period, the CRS found that about four incidents per year could be defined as “public mass shootings.” According to the CRS, there were 4.1 mass public shootings a year in the 2000s and 4.5 from 2010 through 2013.

I had forgotten about this one in Vermont. Close to home. 

In 2015, the most common type of mass shooting was a “familicide” mass killing, in which a family member or former intimate partner shoots four or more victims. There were nine such cases. Jody Herring is accused of going on a shooting rampage in Barre, Vt., in August after losing custody of her daughter, with three relatives and a social worker killed.

We need a lot more study and a lot more education. Fewer guns would help, too. But, how realistic is that?

One anomaly found in 2015 mass shootings is the decline in the number of “felony mass shootings,” a subcategory that the CRS defined as “attributable to an underlying criminal activity or commonplace circumstance.”

........

These subcategories are important, researchers say, because different kinds of mass shootings require different policy responses.

"The guy who goes home to his family [and shoots them], that’s a different event than someone who goes out and shoots someone in public," says Deborah Azrael, associate director of the Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center.

"I don't rank one as being more important than the other. I think they have really different policy implications," she adds. 

......

Dr. Azrael argues that subdividing different kinds of mass shootings and improving data collection on them will help researchers detect trends to better direct policy responses. 

The NRA is on the run. Keep at them.

"the warm heart of the Republican party"

Had to use that quote for the post title because it's not the sort of idea I would ever see expressed anywhere.

They can't admit it. It goes against all their conditioning, all their training. They simply cannot admit that, for going on 40 years now, the warm heart of the Republican party—namely, the conservative movement and the fundamentalist Protestant right, both of which rose to power in the late-70's—has converted that party into an identity-based cult, and now the reactor's gone super-critical and nobody can remember which buttons to push and which dials to spin. At this point, their identity is their ideology—an ideology of victimhood, and of the fantasy oppressors that people outside the cult see merely as evidence of a changing world. They look at the country's shifting demographics the way that the Heaven's Gate people looked at the Hale-Bopp comet. It's going to take something seriously awful to shake them to their senses and, frankly, I'm not sure I want to live through whatever that has to be.

Thanks for writing me a post, Mr. Pierce. Might as well steal the rest of it. I feel like DD doing this.

 It's because they've become moronized by the weaponized ignorance that spews forth every day from their favorite radio hosts and their favorite TV news stars, and their crazy drunk uncle who can't stay off the Internet, and Alex Jones, and the prejudices and meanness that every human heart is heir to and to which Frank Luntz has made a career of appealing, and the awful journalistic malpractice that has allowed the ignorance to run unchecked simply because it wins elections and the country gets worse, and there's always somebody else to blame.

That's how professionals write.