Tag Archives: guns

This Year Is on Track to Set Another Grim Record in Mass Shootings

by Ludie69E Posted on September 17, 2013

Mother Jones

At a press conference following Monday’s mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, Dr. Janis Orlowski, chief medical officer of Medstar Washington Hospital Center, offered some candid and heartfelt words: “I would like you to put my trauma center out of business. I really would. I would like to not be an expert on gunshots… Let’s get rid of this. This is not America.”

Unfortunately, this is America. Over the last few years there has been a pronounced rise in mass shootings, as our award–winning data investigation shows. The horror reached new heights not long ago: From a Colorado movie theater to a Connecticut elementary school, 2012 was a record year for what law enforcement refers to as “active shooter events” in public places, seven of which qualified for mass murder by the FBI’s definition. In terms of frequency this year is not far behind: There have now been five mass shootings in 2013, with more than 40 people injured and killed, from Santa Monica to Miami to to our nation’s capital. And without a quick response by law enforcement at a Florida university, or the heroics of Antoinette Tuff—an elementary school employee in Atlanta armed only with intelligence and courage against a gunman—there may well have been seven to date.

At Mother Jones, we’ve tracked mass shootings closely, analyzing 67 cases going back three decades. On Monday night, CNN’s Piers Morgan shared some of the data we’ve gathered—all of which is available to the public here—with several gun-rights enthusiasts. They didn’t seem to think much of it. Watch the heated exchange:

It’s not surprising that a discredited pundit like John Lott shows little regard for data. (That’s why Morgan keeps having him on; it makes for entertaining television.) But the reality of the nation’s gun-violence epidemic is getting harder and harder to dismiss, with new research from two different criminologists affirming that mass shootings have spiked. A report from Dr. Frederic Lemieux of George Washington University, presented at an international conference in July, found that “the frequency of this type of incident has accelerated in the past five years.” Dr. Pete Blair of Texas State University reached the same conclusion, as I detailed in this story in April.

And let’s not start up again with the NRA myth of arming “good guys” as a solution: As Blair observed in his research, not a single one of these attacks was stopped by an armed civilian. The carnage that took place in Washington, DC, on Monday was no exception. There the gunman died in a shootout with police—the second of two ways most mass shootings end when the perpetrator does not take his own life.

In the coming days, as more details emerge about Monday’s slaughter, some gun-rights advocates will no doubt continue to ignore the reality of mass gun violence. After all, it’s inconvenient for the $11.7 billion a year gun business. (Even when it actually increases demand.) But if we are to take Dr. Orlowski’s words to heart and set about getting rid of this problem, we need to recognize how often these killings occur, who’s carrying them out, and where the legally obtained, high-powered weapons used in them come from.

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This Year Is on Track to Set Another Grim Record in Mass Shootings

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What Does Aaron Alexis’s Race Say About the Navy Yard Shooting?

by dla@kk2.pl Posted on September 17, 2013

Mother Jones

The details emerging about Aaron Alexis, the now-dead 34-year-old suspected of killing 12 people and injuring more at the Washington Navy Yard Monday morning, paint the picture of a complicated and troubled man. He loved Thai culture and went to a Buddhist temple. He served in the Navy from February 2008 to January 2011, most recently as an Aviation Electrician’s Mate, 3rd Class. In 2010, prior to leaving the Navy, he was arrested by Fort Worth police after being accused of recklessly discharging a gun; no charges were brought. Prior to enlisting, he shot the tires out of someone’s car in an “anger-fueled ‘blackout'”; Seattle detectives referred the case the DA’s office, which never filed charges.

But one detail, like a shiny object to a magpie, has captivated a certain segment of the population: Alexis’ race. A few enterprising Twitter users have even found a way to loop both Barack Obama and Trayvon Martin into their commentary on the shooter’s skin color, using a tragedy to further a political viewpoint or validate a convenient narrative about race and violence. But the facts on mass shootings in the US tell a much different tale than the one some are spinning.

A look at the data compiled by Mother Jones on mass shootings shows that 16 percent of the 67 mass shootings that have occurred since 1982 were committed by black shooters, including the alleged Navy Yard shooter, while 66 percent were committed by whites. Monday’s shooting, and all the others that have occurred in the last 30 years, does tell a story—about guns and safety and violence in the US. But if you’re looking at Aaron Alexis’ skin color, you’re missing the point.

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What Does Aaron Alexis’s Race Say About the Navy Yard Shooting?

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A Political History of "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia"

by graptorm Posted on September 11, 2013

Mother Jones

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“The Gang” is back for its ninth season of dedicated nihilism and political incorrectness.

The new season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia last Wednesday, this time on FX’s newly launched spin-off channel FXX. The series—starring Charlie Day as Charlie, Glenn Howerton as Dennis, Rob McElhenney as Mac, Kaitlin Olson as Dee, and Danny DeVito as Frank—has a much-deserved reputation for outrageous and low-brow comedy (“Seinfeld on crack,” it’s been called). During a blind date with a beautiful woman, a nervous, sweat-drenched Charlie lies about his job by telling her he’s a philanthropist, but mispronounces it as “full-on rapist.” When Dennis visits his old frat house, the brothers are torturing a pledge with a stun gun to the genitals. You know, stuff like that. But the copious layers of crude humor mask one of the show’s less appreciated virtues: Oftentimes, it gets damn political—and on a wide range of issues, from foreign policy to welfare.

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A Political History of "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia"

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Politics Makes Morons of Us All

by euro9 Posted on September 4, 2013

Mother Jones

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Today, Yale law professor Dan Kahan presents evidence that we Americans really suck at math. “Correctly interpreting the data was expected to be difficult,” he says of the test subjects from his latest study, and he turned out to be right. But all he was asking them to do was calculate a simple percentage. If 200 out of 300 people in one group get better by taking a pill and 100 out of 125 people in a different group get better by doing nothing, which is better? Taking a pill or doing nothing? You’d pass Kahan’s test if you understood that the raw numbers aren’t enough to get the right answer. You have to calculate the percentage of each group that got better.

It’s disheartening that most people couldn’t figure that out, though hardly unexpected. But what came next is….well, not unexpected, maybe. But certainly discouraging. Kahan ran the exact same test with the exact same data, except this time the question was about gun bans and crime levels. Half of the time, he presented data suggesting that a gun ban increased crime, while the other half of the time the data suggested that a gun ban decreased crime. And guess what? Among the subset of test subjects who were very good at math, they suddenly got really stupid if they didn’t like the answer they got. Here’s the chart:

This comes via Chris Mooney, who describes the whole thing in much more detail here. However, there’s one big caveat: If I’m interepreting the dataset correctly, the sample size of highly numerate subjects is very small. Roughly speaking, there were about 30 liberals and 30 conservatives who were highly numerate and were given the gun ban version of the test. That’s not a lot.

On the other hand, the effect size is pretty stunning. There’s a huge difference in the rate at which people did the math correctly depending on whether they liked the answer they got. I’d like to see some follow-ups with more subjects and different questions, but it sure looks as if we’d probably see the same dismal effect.

How big a deal is this? In one sense, it’s even worse than it looks. Aside from being able to tell that one number is bigger than another, this is literally about the easiest possible data analysis problem you can pose. If ideologues actively turn off their minds even for something this simple, there’s really no chance of changing their minds with anything even modestly more sophisticated. This is something that most of us pretty much knew already, but it’s a little chilling to see it so glaringly confirmed.

But in another sense, it really doesn’t matter at all. These days, even relatively simple public policy issues can only be properly analyzed using statistical techniques that are beyond the understanding of virtually all of us. So the fact that ideology destroys our personal ability to do math hardly matters. In practice, nearly all of us have to rely on the word of experts when it comes to this kind of stuff, and there’s never any shortage of experts to crunch the numbers and produce whatever results our respective tribes demand.

We believe what we want to believe, and neither facts nor evidence ever changes that much. Welcome to planet Earth.

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Politics Makes Morons of Us All

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Chicago or Chiraq? “I Don’t Wanna Say There’s No Hope, But I Don’t Know, Man”

by Justin Thomas Posted on August 24, 2013

Mother Jones

Things have gotten so bad recently on the streets of South and West Chicago, Chi-town has earned a new moniker: “Chiraq.” But the city’s troubles with gun violence are old news—see our earlier chat with the filmmakers behind The Interrupters—and we’ve become desensitized. This gripping new documentary short, titled Chi Raq, by London-based filmmaker and photographer Will Robson-Scott is sufficient to shake you from the comfort of your armchair liberalism and give you a fresh dose of reality as it applies to Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods. I caught up with Robson-Scott to find out how he navigated these dangerous streets, and get his take on what’s wrong with America.

Mother Jones: A refreshing thing about your documentary style is that you don’t seem to have an agenda: You just take a complex issue and focus on those affected by it. Are you trying to help us understand what’s happening in Chicago at a more visceral level?

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Chicago or Chiraq? “I Don’t Wanna Say There’s No Hope, But I Don’t Know, Man”

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Montana AG: Public Records Requests Create "Chilling Effect"

by Bernadine Posted on August 9, 2013

Mother Jones

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In March, Associated Press reporters sent the Montana Department of Justice a public records request for a copy of the state’s database of concealed firearm permit holders. That’s not especially unusual; the AP has requested such information from the state regularly over the years. But there was a hitch: In 2013, Montana’s legislature passed a new law officially classifying concealed carry data as confidential. Tim Fox, the Republican attorney general, rejected the AP’s request in mid-July—and then proceeded to notify every sheriff and county attorney in the state of what he had done. The AP never wrote about the rejected request, but the word somehow got out anyway:

News of the AP request and Fox’s denial first broke July 24 on the website for Aaron Flint, a conservative Billings commentator and broadcaster with Northern Broadcasting System, who has a daily statewide radio show. Flint said he had received a copy of Fox’s memo from a source outside of the Attorney General’s Office and posted it on his website. A day later, Media Trackers, a conservative Montana website that covers Montana politics and the media, picked up the story.

The reporters who had requested the data found their personal information (including photos of their homes) posted on the Internet, along with thinly-veiled threats, prompting the wire service to file a complaint with the Helena Police Department. The fact that the AP never has and never planned to indiscriminately publish personal information about concealed carry holders in the first place was lost in the angry backlash.

So what is Fox’s response to the threats? Blame the media—for following up on the story.

“All of the media attention on this issue has come from the media,” he told Montana Public Radio’s Dan Boyce on Tuesday. ” I think that’s important to know. Because some reporters have blogged that I have initiated these things and my office has initiated it. But its been the media that’s run with this. That’s what the media does. The media asks for information. They did so on who it was that requested the concealed weapons permit information and then they wrote their stories.”

Although Fox was quick to call the online intimidation “darn-right wrong,” he ultimately warned journalists that reporters should keep such threats in mind when they request public information in the first place: “Whether or not there is a chilling effect I guess the media, the journalistic profession needs to contemplate when they ask for information whether or not they are creating a chilling effect in their own profession.”

Montana isn’t alone in relocating its concealed carry data to an undisclosed location; seven states passed laws to reclassify concealed carry databases as confidential information in the first half of 2013. And Montana’s isn’t even the most strict. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) signed into a law bill last spring that would criminalize the publication of private gun records by journalists.

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Montana AG: Public Records Requests Create "Chilling Effect"

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NRA to Supreme Court: Give Handguns to 18-Year-Olds

by Fredrick Wise Posted on August 6, 2013

Mother Jones

Last week, the National Rifle Association filed a petition with the Supreme Court (PDF) asking it to strike down a ban on the sale of handguns to people who are at least 18 and younger than 21. The NRA, which sued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in 2010 over the age restriction, argues that it denies young adults their Second Amendment right to self-defense by suggesting without sufficient evidence that they are too irresponsible to own handguns.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled last year that the restriction was “consistent with a longstanding tradition of targeting select groups’ ability to access and to use arms for the sake of public safety.” It also acknowledged that Congress found people below the age of 21 to be “relatively immature and that denying them easy access to handguns would deter violent crime” (PDF). The Supreme Court has never considered the restriction since it became law as part of the Gun Control Act on 1968.

The NRA’s petition, filed with two 19-year-olds, questions whether “a nationwide, class-based, categorical ban on meaningful access to the quintessential means to exercise the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense can be reconciled with the Second Amendment, the equal protection guarantee, and this Court’s precedents.” The petition argues that the appeals court’s ruling contradicts the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in DC v. Heller that affirms the right to own a handgun for self-defense, and the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in McDonald v. Chicago that applies the Heller decision to every state.

Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor who studies Second Amendment cases, predicts that the Supreme Court—if it even decides to hear the case—will uphold the restriction because of its tendency to be deferential to state and federal lawmakers on gun control. The court hasn’t reviewed a gun control case since 2010 and has turned down at least six since 2008. But if the court decides to review the case, the decision may be close because the NRA has a relatively strong argument, Winkler says.

“There’s something compelling about the argument that 18- to 21-year-olds who are able to bear arms in defense of the nation should be able to bear arms in defense of themselves,” Winkler says. “I think, symbolically, there’s a strong case to be made.”

On the other hand, the defense would have a variety of arguments for the law’s public safety merits. Risky behavior, which teenagers engage in more than older people, leads to increased gun accidents and violence. Greater access to guns would likely increase suicide rates among at-risk youth, and people between the ages of 18 and 24 commit the majority of gun homicides.

One complicating factor that may improve the NRA’s case is that the so-called gun-show loophole that Congress failed to close earlier this year already allows people between the ages of 18 and 21 to buy handguns. Federal law prohibits them from buying guns from federally licensed dealers but not from private sellers at gun shows or on the internet. “That strongly undermines the value of the law, and I think helps the NRA,” Winkler says. “Their argument’s made stronger by the fact that you can’t buy a gun from a federally licensed dealer, but you can buy a gun from anyone else.”

Still, Winkler says, “In general I think the idea of keeping people who are too young to use firearms responsibly from getting their hands on guns is a perfectly legitimate government objective.”

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NRA to Supreme Court: Give Handguns to 18-Year-Olds

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Federal Gun Agency Gets Its First Permanent Director in Seven Years

by Aaron Darek Posted on August 1, 2013

Mother Jones

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On Wednesday, the Senate confirmed Todd Jones to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the agency tasked with enforcing federal gun laws. Jones, an attorney and former Marine, has served as the acting head of the agency since 2011. He becomes its first permanent director since 2006, the year that the National Rifle Association successfully lobbied Congress to require that ATF directors be confirmed by the Senate.

When President Obama nominated Jones to head the ATF in January, politicos expected a gun-lobby showdown. But although the NRA has opposed all ATF nominations since the 2006 rule change and for decades has prevented the agency from fully enforcing gun laws, it unexpectedly announced on Tuesday that it would not take a position on Todd’s confirmation vote. The Newtown, Connecticut-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association that represents gun manufacturers, announced its support for Jones the same day.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the co-chair of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, hailed the vote as a “critical step in the fight to reduce gun crime.” Boston Mayor Tom Menino, the group’s other co-chair, said, “After seven years without a permanent director at the helm, ATF will finally have the strong leadership it needs to stem the flow of illegal guns onto our streets and help keep our communities safe.”

With the vote stalled at 59-40 through Wednesday afternoon, senators waited for Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) to arrive at the Capitol en route from her home state to cast the deciding vote needed to overcome a filibuster. Heitkamp, whose return to Washington was delayed because of an illness, was one of only four Democrats to vote against the Senate’s failed gun reform legislation in April. All four voted to break the filibuster against Jones, as did six Republicans: Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), John McCain (Ariz.), and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska).

I emailed Sarah Binder, a political science professor at George Washington University, to ask how common it is for senators to fly into Washington to cast a deciding vote:

It’s not very common (at all), but neither is it unprecedented. The example that comes to mind is a (roughly) similar situation when the 2009 stimulus vote was held open to give Sherrod Brown time to get back to Washington amidst funeral services for his mother in Ohio.

But other than that recent example, nothing else expressly similar comes to mind. There are older stories of the House GOP leadership holding open the vote on Medicare expansion in 2003 for several hours, and a House Dem open vote some years earlier (involving Rep. Jim Chapman and Speaker Wright). Both of those episodes entailed holding open a vote for the winning side to squeak by (if I’m recalling correctly!).

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Federal Gun Agency Gets Its First Permanent Director in Seven Years

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Images of Protest: Rallying for Trayvon Martin Across the US

by Aale Thomas Posted on July 15, 2013

Mother Jones

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Saturday’s verdict in the George Zimmerman murder trial triggered waves of emotion, ranging from elation to despair, that rippled far beyond the confines of Sanford, Florida, where Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, last February. Zimmerman claimed self-defense in the closely watched, divisive trial, which ended Saturday evening with an acquittal.

Unfounded speculation that a not-guilty verdict would lead to riots and widespread violence was rampant in the week before the jury made its decision. The riot rumor-mongers were right about one thing: People were angry enough to take to the streets Sunday, but the protests, which occurred from coast to coast, were largely peaceful demonstrations of anger and disappointment.

Here are images from some of Sunday’s demonstrations:

Hundreds gather in Boston’s Dudley Square. Nicolaus Czarnecki/Metro US/Zumapress.com

Two people lean on each other as a protest begins at Fort Mellon Park in Sanford, Florida. Jacob Langston/MCT (Zumapress.com)

Reverend William Brown of Morning Star Baptist Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, speaks to a crowd at the city’s Civic Plaza. Around 200 people participated in the protest. Adolph Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal/Zumapress.com

A Los Angeles police officer watches a crowd of demonstrators. Thousands of Angelenos took to the streets in protest. Ringo Chiu/Zumapress.com

Niciah Petrovic (center) and Joanna Cherry (right) comfort each other at a protest in Washington, DC. Miguel Juarez Lugo/Zumapress.com

Demonstrators hold up a sign at they march down Washington Boulevard in Detroit. Courtney Sacco/Zumapress.com

Emmanuel Thombs, 13, joins about 100 people at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. Travis Long/MCT/Zumapress.com

Protestors convene in New York City’s Union Square. Thousands took to the streets of the city in protest. Staton Rabin/Zumapress.com

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Images of Protest: Rallying for Trayvon Martin Across the US

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Zimmerman Has Been Found Not Guilty. Now What?

by gt67dx1 Posted on July 14, 2013

Mother Jones

After more than three weeks of testimony and nearly 17 hours of deliberation, the jury in the Trayvon Martin case has found George Zimmerman not guilty.

Zimmerman shot and killed the 17-year-old after a scuffle in a gated condominium complex in Sanford, Fla., on February 26, 2012. The case became a racially charged national story almost immediately due to the circumstances of Martin’s death—a black, unarmed teen shot after being tailed by Zimmerman for merely looking suspicious—and the fact that Sanford police did not arrest Zimmerman until 46 days after the killing.

But the actual trial boiled down not to racism or police inaction but whether or not Zimmerman wanted to kill Martin and if Zimmerman’s life was in danger when he pulled the trigger. To get a murder conviction, the prosecution had to prove to the six women on the jury that Zimmerman acted with malice or intent when he killed Martin. This was tough to prove, given that the victim wasn’t around to offer his version of events. During the trial, the defense sought to paint Zimmerman as a poor fighter who was overpowered by Martin and who came to fear for his life during the scuffle. During his closing statement, attorney Mark O’Mara brought a slab of concrete into the courtroom, arguing that the teen used the sidewalk as a weapon.

More on the Trayvon Martin Killing:


The Trayvon Martin Killing, Explained


Trayvon Martin’s Death Extends Sanford’s Sordid Legacy


Here’s the Latest in Race-Baiting Conspiracy Theories From the Right


Verdict Nears in Trayvon Martin Caseâ&#128;&#148;and the Right Fixates on Race Riots


Why the Latest Zimmerman Race Riot Conspiracy Theory Is the Dumbest Yet

“That is cement. That is a sidewalk. That is not an unarmed teenager with nothing but Skittles trying to get home,” he said. “That was someone who used the availability of dangerous items, from his fist to the concrete, to cause great bodily injury.”

The prosecution contended that Zimmerman killed Martin not because he had to, but because he wanted to. On Thursday, the judge in the case ruled that the jury could find Zimmerman guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter. This option—described as a possible compromise by numerous legal observers—was not accepted by the jury.

For the people who believed that Zimmerman was guilty, this case±—and the Sanford police department’s reaction to it—was far more signficant than a local murder. It inspired deep emotions about the value of the lives of young black men, and this verdict will provoke deep feelings of disappointment and frustration for many who pushed for Zimmerman to be charged with murder.

But it’s not over. Now that the verdict is in, here’s what could happen next.

Federal charges: The Department of Justice launched an investigation last March to investigate whether Martin’s shooting amounted to a federal hate crime—that is, if Zimmerman followed and killed Martin because he was black. In July 2012, the FBI released a statement saying that investigators had found no evidence that Zimmerman was motivated by racism. The July statement indicates that federal charges are highly unlikely, but the DOJ has not announced that the case is closed. It’s still being brought up as a post-trial possibility. NAACP president Benjamin Jealous, for instance, said Saturday on MSNBC that “there are still additional legal avenues. He could still be charged with federal civil rights charges.”

Civil lawsuit: Martin’s family reached a settlement in April with the homeowners’ association of the subdivision where the killing occurred. The details of the settlement were not made public, but the Orlando Sentinel reported that the family was “said to” have been awarded at least $1 million. The suit did not include Zimmerman, but the family’s attorney Benjamin Crump has said that the family intends to sue their son’s killer at some point in the future. It’s not uncommon for families to seek a form of justice through civil courts, even when a the defendant is acquitted in criminal court. And the standards for judgments are different in such civil cases.

The public’s reaction: In the week leading to the verdict, speculation that people—specifically black people—would riot if Zimmerman were acquitted spread through the mainstream media, after taking off in the conservative press and cable news. What’s more likely, based on how Martin supporters have reacted initially—after the verdict was read, the crowd outside of the courthouse dispersed peacefully—is that protests (of the non-violent variety) against racial profiling will continue.

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Zimmerman Has Been Found Not Guilty. Now What?

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