Update about blogCa

Who knew all this would happen afterwards! Flat Creek in November, 2024. Much changed by the force of the hurricane floods in Sept. 2024. The deck of the bridge is now under that pile of debris.

Saturday, January 6, 2024

Our thoughts and prayers are with the NRA!!

Gabby Giffords just posted this...(last evening around 8 pm)

 Wayne LaPierre, longtime CEO and Executive Vice President of the NRA, just announced that he is resigning from his position. This announcement comes just days before his corruption trial in New York begins.

Today, we’ve defeated the man in charge of one of the largest special interest groups in the country. It’s more evident than ever that our movement to end gun violence has the momentum to drown out the gun lobby and their dangerous “guns everywhere” agenda.

Riddled with scandal, fraud, and misconduct, the NRA is the weakest it’s ever been. In 2018, the NRA had 5.5 million members. But since its 2019 corruption scandal, NRA membership has dropped to 4.2 million members, the lowest since 2012.

Our efforts to take on the gun lobby are working. The NRA is a shell of what it used to be. We can and will defeat them. 

The Giffords contact for donations is here.

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Everytown for Gun Safety posted this:

Everytown was founded as a counterweight to the NRA and played a key role in their downfall:

  • Our investigations have exposed their shady practices
  • Our lawsuits have called them out in court
  • The media attention we generated through relentless research and endless conversations transformed their public image from a political powerhouse to a disgraced incompetent gang of self-dealing freeloaders

His legacy will be one of corruption, mismanagement, and destruction, and our supporters like you have worked TIRELESSLY over the last 10 years to make this happen.

This is a testament to the strength of our movement, and we need your support to keep up this momentum with a contribution today.

In three days, LaPierre and his cronies will stand trial in Attorney General of The State of New York v. NRA, which centers on blockbuster allegations that NRA leaders, including LaPierre, improperly diverted millions of dollars from the non-profit to benefit themselves.

And LaPierre's unceremonious resignation is just the latest sign that the NRA is locked in a doom spiral that shows no sign of letting up.

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But wait there's more, and it doesn't ask for any contributions!!

Everytown has ranked all the states' gun laws...and found

"states with strong gun safety laws have fewer gun deaths. Iowa, the site of yesterday's school shooting, ranks 31st of the 50 states on gun law strength, and voted in 2021 to eliminate both its permit-to-purchase and concealed carry permitting requirements."

Our latest research shows that nearly 300,000 lives could be saved over the next decade if every state in the country had the gun death rates of the eight states with the strongest gun safety laws.

When legislators start taking action to prevent gun violence, our communities see the impact. Failure to take action can be measured in constituent lives.

And this year's gun law rankings show the increase or decrease of states' rankings that illustrate shifts in gun policy.

Michigan and Minnesota—two states with newly-elected gun-sense trifectas who took swift action to pass life-saving legislation—saw some of the biggest increases in their state gun law rankings.

By contrast, Florida's 2024 gun law ranking decreased from 19th to 22nd after passing gun lobby-backed legislation that allows concealed carry of loaded handguns in public without a permit, criminal history check, or safety training.

One critical piece of our strategy to stop the death and trauma caused by the gun industry's dangerous agenda remains in these state legislative fights. For far too long, gun manufacturers and lobbyists have flooded our communities with guns and been able to get away with it—in part due to the weak gun laws they helped to create.

Look at your own states' gun laws (if you live in the US, sorry Canada, I don't know if stats have been taken, but I also don't hear of mass shootings there!)

Here's the article with lots of charts about these gun laws as compared to gun deaths.

Gun Safety Policies Save Lives

The top 50 laws we focus on represent a wide range of interventions. Some block gun access by people who pose a threat with a firearm while others focus on limiting gun violence in public. Some seek to increase police accountability and protect civil rights, while another set targets bad actors in the gun industry.

All states should start with a core group of five foundational laws—passing background checks and/or purchase permitting, along with Extreme Risk laws and secure gun storage requirements; and rejecting Shoot First (also known as Stand Your Ground) and permitless carry laws. While each of the top 16 states in the gun law rankings has all five of these policies in place, only one of the bottom 18 states has even one of these critical protections.

  • Passing background checks and/or purchase permitting
  • Extreme Risk laws 
  • Secure gun storage requirements
  • Rejecting Shoot First (also known as Stand Your Ground)
  • Permitless carry laws


High gun ownership rates also play a role in strong states where deaths are higher

Access to a firearm drastically increases the likelihood of suicide and a gun in the home is associated with more gun homicide.

Federal laws help prevent gun violence nationwide

All 50 states can rely on a backbone of federal laws to help keep guns out of the wrong hands. Yet the federal system is far too weak overall—for example, failing to require background checks on all gun sales and giving special legal immunity to the gun industry. State policymakers should protect their residents by filling the many gaps in federal law, and must also take action where state power is at its strongest, such as requiring a process for domestic abusers to turn in guns when they become prohibited from having them.


5 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Our hearts are saddened by this event...may it continue to make a wave that gives an increase in safety from better gun laws. Amen!

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  2. LOL, the NRA could disappear and it would not be missed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Do you remember when Oliver North briefly served as president of the NRA? He resigned a year later, apparently after disagreeing with LaPierre and board members. He accused LaPierre of financial improprieties. I wonder if his allegations had a role in finally uncovering the wrongdoings? I’m certain they helped raise awareness of what was happening.

    ReplyDelete

There is today, more than ever, the need for a compassionate regenerative world civilization.