On February 21, 2018, students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School traveled to the state capitol in Tallahassee, Florida demanding action on guns.
The legislative session began with a prayer for the victims and survivors of the shooting. This should have served as foreshadowing of what was to happen.
Rep. Kionne McGhee, a Democrat, introduced a bill to ban assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines. The bill was brought to the floor for debate on Wednesday.
However, by a vote of 71-36, legislators voted not to debate the bill and it wasn't considered. So, even though there was a majority who would vote the bill down, those opposed to the bill didn't want to risk a public debate on the merits of it. And they had the gall to do it when the students who survived the shooting were in attendance.
But, not to despair, the legislature did vote for a bill to declare pornography a public health risk.
That's Florida for you. Where boobies are bad but guns are good. In other words, in Florida, the 2nd Amendment trumps all.
Showing posts with label violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label violence. Show all posts
Thursday, February 22, 2018
Friday, December 21, 2012
What's to blame for our addiction to guns?
Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco released a study earlier this year stating that portrayals of smoking in the movies in 2011 were up 7% over 2010. That reversed a five-year trend downward.
Public health officials wanted the studios to cut down on the number of portrayals out of fear that young people would see their favorite actors and actresses lighting up on the big screen and would go home and do the same.
But no one has such compunction regarding the portrayal of gun violence on screen. In the wake of the school shootings in Newtown, the premieres of Django Unchained and Jack Reacher, two violent films starring Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise were either cancelled or closed to the public. I must point out, though, that the producers of Django claim that the cancellation of the public premiere of the movie had nothing to do with the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary.
However, on Christmas Day the viewing public will get to see Quentin Tarantino's latest ode to a bucket of blood when the film opens nationally. Mr. Tarantino's films have been marked by gratuitous violence and lots and lots and lots of blood. Alongide Django will be plenty of other action-adventure, suspense and thrillers featuring scores of dead bodies.
What does it say about our society that we are more obsessed with keeping smoking out of the movies than we are about gun violence?
There is approximately one gun in circulation in this country for every citizen of the United States. Gun sales have continued to rise while violent crime rates have continued to decline. Most cities in the US are safer now than they've ever been (at least in recent history) but still we are stocking up weapons like there's no tomorrow.
I suspect part of the reason is the mass marketing of fear. The other reason has to do with something that Bill O'Reilly said on Election Night. While his comment that President Obama won re-election because he was giving "stuff" to various interest groups neglects the fact that Mitt Romney's entire campaign was dedicated to him pledging to give lots of "stuff" to the rich and to corporate interest, his comment about the end of the "White Establishment" was right on target.
For most of this nation's history older white males have dominated positions of power and white voters vastly outnumbered everyone else. That has changed. There are more and more urban areas in this country where whites are in the minority. That's scary to some people. I think there's a reason that most of the doomsday "preppers" are white. They are trying desperately to hang on to a past that no longer exists and it scares the shit out of them.
Over the last week I have heard colleagues whom I believe to to be rational and intelligent say some of the dumbest things I can remember. Now we may disagree on what measures we can take to address the rising level of gun violence in this country. I know we need to do something because the course we've been taking isn't working, but I don't know what. While we're talking about how to get a handle on guns, we also need to get to the bottom of why there are so many guns on our streets.
I have colleagues who have proposed that we arm teachers and administrators. I have colleagues who believe we need to implement school security measures than simulate airport security measures. I have colleagues who believe the answer is to post armed guards at schools. They then veer into the slippery slope argument about banning any particular type of weapons.
We don't need draconian security measures at our schools. Such measures will only indoctrinate students into the view that whatever the government wants to do in the name of protecting us is okay. Our children will be turned into lapdogs who don't question authority. Is that what you really want?
And we don't need more guns at schools. We need fewer. As a society we don't need more guns on the street. We need fewer. And we need to address our addiction to guns. We need to diagnosis our illness and find a way to heal ourselves. Because if we don't, there will just be more bodies that need to be buried.
Public health officials wanted the studios to cut down on the number of portrayals out of fear that young people would see their favorite actors and actresses lighting up on the big screen and would go home and do the same.
But no one has such compunction regarding the portrayal of gun violence on screen. In the wake of the school shootings in Newtown, the premieres of Django Unchained and Jack Reacher, two violent films starring Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise were either cancelled or closed to the public. I must point out, though, that the producers of Django claim that the cancellation of the public premiere of the movie had nothing to do with the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary.
However, on Christmas Day the viewing public will get to see Quentin Tarantino's latest ode to a bucket of blood when the film opens nationally. Mr. Tarantino's films have been marked by gratuitous violence and lots and lots and lots of blood. Alongide Django will be plenty of other action-adventure, suspense and thrillers featuring scores of dead bodies.
What does it say about our society that we are more obsessed with keeping smoking out of the movies than we are about gun violence?
There is approximately one gun in circulation in this country for every citizen of the United States. Gun sales have continued to rise while violent crime rates have continued to decline. Most cities in the US are safer now than they've ever been (at least in recent history) but still we are stocking up weapons like there's no tomorrow.
I suspect part of the reason is the mass marketing of fear. The other reason has to do with something that Bill O'Reilly said on Election Night. While his comment that President Obama won re-election because he was giving "stuff" to various interest groups neglects the fact that Mitt Romney's entire campaign was dedicated to him pledging to give lots of "stuff" to the rich and to corporate interest, his comment about the end of the "White Establishment" was right on target.
For most of this nation's history older white males have dominated positions of power and white voters vastly outnumbered everyone else. That has changed. There are more and more urban areas in this country where whites are in the minority. That's scary to some people. I think there's a reason that most of the doomsday "preppers" are white. They are trying desperately to hang on to a past that no longer exists and it scares the shit out of them.
Over the last week I have heard colleagues whom I believe to to be rational and intelligent say some of the dumbest things I can remember. Now we may disagree on what measures we can take to address the rising level of gun violence in this country. I know we need to do something because the course we've been taking isn't working, but I don't know what. While we're talking about how to get a handle on guns, we also need to get to the bottom of why there are so many guns on our streets.
I have colleagues who have proposed that we arm teachers and administrators. I have colleagues who believe we need to implement school security measures than simulate airport security measures. I have colleagues who believe the answer is to post armed guards at schools. They then veer into the slippery slope argument about banning any particular type of weapons.
We don't need draconian security measures at our schools. Such measures will only indoctrinate students into the view that whatever the government wants to do in the name of protecting us is okay. Our children will be turned into lapdogs who don't question authority. Is that what you really want?
And we don't need more guns at schools. We need fewer. As a society we don't need more guns on the street. We need fewer. And we need to address our addiction to guns. We need to diagnosis our illness and find a way to heal ourselves. Because if we don't, there will just be more bodies that need to be buried.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Is it genocide
A Northeastern University study has found that between 2002-2007, the number of black male juveniles murdered increased by 31% and the number of black perpetrators increased by 43%.
The numbers in Houston are even more alarming. Between 2001-2007, the number of young African-Americans (age 14-24) suspected of murder increased by 139%. The number of young black males murdered in the city increased from 42 to 129.
I'm not going to sit here and pretend to know why this is and what needs to be done to bring the numbers down, but I know that something ain't right.
Whether it's a culture that glorifies violence and materialism or whether it's a society that has marginalized the poor; whether it's a lack of role models and father figures or whether it's an education system that has abandoned the inner city; whatever it is, it needs to be fixed.
It may be that the statistical methodology in the report is faulty and that the numbers aren't as alarming, but that doesn't change the fact that one young life lost at the hands of violence is one life too many.
The numbers in Houston are even more alarming. Between 2001-2007, the number of young African-Americans (age 14-24) suspected of murder increased by 139%. The number of young black males murdered in the city increased from 42 to 129.
I'm not going to sit here and pretend to know why this is and what needs to be done to bring the numbers down, but I know that something ain't right.
Whether it's a culture that glorifies violence and materialism or whether it's a society that has marginalized the poor; whether it's a lack of role models and father figures or whether it's an education system that has abandoned the inner city; whatever it is, it needs to be fixed.
It may be that the statistical methodology in the report is faulty and that the numbers aren't as alarming, but that doesn't change the fact that one young life lost at the hands of violence is one life too many.
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