America's Gun Violence

mrussel1 · May 2018

dudeman said:

mrussel1 said:

I never rarely shoot any weapons. I hate cleaning them after. And to be completely fair, I've never purchased one. All of mine were inherited from my father at his death. So I'm a gun owner, but not technically a purchaser. But you did bucket me with the rest of them.

That makes you a "responsible" gun owner until you're not.

Welcome to the criminals in waiting club.

Gotta love AMT.

Meh. That doesn't bother me as a statement. I would happily turn them in if it helped with this issue. Mine are locked tight in a cabinet and only I know where the key is. It's stashed next to my weed. My 16 year old son will NEVER find that!

tbergs · June 2018

The Texas governor is making some proposals and allocating funds in response to school shootings to increase safety for students. He also recognizes that this is "not an ending place". A lot of the things he mentioned seemed like an obvious step and I was surprised to see they weren't already doing it. The problem with some of these is that they simply state "encourage" instead of require so that doesn't necessarily mean they will happen unfortunately.

Highlights:

Increasing Law Enforcement Presence in Schools

A core tenet of the proposal is the need to add more police officers and marshals to school campuses in the state.

“When an active shooter situation arises, the difference between life and death can be a matter of seconds,” Abbott said. “Trained security personnel can make all the difference.”

Current state law allows specially trained school staff members, deemed marshals, to bring guns onto campus if they are stored and locked away.

The governor recommended many changes relating to officers in schools.

1. School should collaborate with local law enforcement to heighten police presence on school campuses. This could be done by adding campuses to officers’ regular patrol routes and allowing officers to go on break or file reports on campuses. The plan calls for the state to consider offering $10,000 grants to schools that draw down federal funds to make accommodations for law enforcement officers.

2. Prioritize hiring retired peace officers and military veterans for school security. In addition, the state should create a modified school marshal training program for veterans.

3. Increase the number of school marshals by funding training this summer. Funds from the Governor’s Criminal Justice Division will pay for all training costs from June to August of this year.

4. Increase the number of school marshals that can be appointed per school. Change the law to allow one marshal for every 100 students. The current law allows only one marshal for every 200 students. The plan estimates this translates to about one marshal for every four to five classrooms.

5. Remove firearm storage requirements for school marshals who are in direct contact with students. School marshals are currently required to store their firearms in a safe while on campus, but the plan recommends repealing that requirement to make guns easier to access in the event of a crisis.

6. Revamp marshal training to focus more on firearms training. The current marshal training course includes 80 hours of course training that volunteers must complete during their vacation time, which has limited use of the program. The governor argues the training course “should be streamlined to focus primarily on material that will improve the individuals the ability to respond to an active shooter scenario.”

7. Require annual refresher courses to maintain school marshal skills.

School Safety and Security Measures

The governor had discussions with architects, law enforcement superintendents, teachers and students in the lead up to his plan and says he learned that no one-size-fits-all program exists for school security.

School hardening can take several different forms, none of which are mutually exclusive. Typical infrastructure hardening is one option.

Structural improvements could include:

Building front offices closer to entrances and creating vestibules where doors must be remotely unlocked before visitors can enter the school
Erecting barriers around campuses and stadiums that prevent vehicles from being driven into crowds or students
Installing metal detectors at school entrances
Installing security systems that monitor and record entrances, exits and hallways
Providing telephones or radios in every classroom so that teachers can quickly report threats
Installing active shooter alarm systems
Controlling access to campus facilities

The plan also features several school security policy recommendations for lawmakers to consider.

1. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) should review school districts’ and charter schools’ safety and security audits. TEA should create a formal review process to review districts’ school safety audits with input from the Texas School Safety Center (TSSC). This review should be done once every three years for a school district.

2. Specifically require certain community members to serve on an ISD or charter school’s safety and security committee. The individual members of a committee should include:

One or more representatives from the county or city emergency management coordinator’s office
One or more representatives from the local police department or sheriff’s department
One or more representatives from the school district’s police department, where applicable
One or more representatives from the municipality with territory included within the boundaries of the district
The president of the school district or charter school’s board of trustees, board of managers, or board of directors
A member of the school district or charter school’s board of trustees, board of managers, or board of directors other than the president
If a school district partners with a charter school to provide instruction to students, a member of the charter school’s board of directors or her designee
Two parents or guardians of students in the school district
The district’s superintendent
One or more designees of the district’s superintendent, one of whom must be a classroom teacher in the school district or charter school

3. The School Safety and Security Committee should be required to discuss with law enforcement the expansion of patrol zones to include the school district. By including school campuses in patrol zones the governor believes response times will decrease significantly.

4. The School Safety and Security Committees should periodically provide updates to the school board, including emergency plan updates twice a year.

5. Schools should be required to notify parents if a significant threat to students’ safety occurs.

Mental Health, Behavioral Threat Assessment Initiatives

The governor’s plan also includes recommendations to improve mental health support structures.

1. Expand access to Texas Tech Health Sciences Center’s Telemedicine Wellness Intervention Triage and Referral (TWITR) Project. The TWITR project created a model for identifying junior high through high school students at risk for committing school violence and intervening with those students before incidents occur. Students are identified by trained school staff and screened for risk-based behaviors by Licensed Professional Counselors in schools then provided psychiatric services by Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) over a telemedicine link. Two telemedicine psychiatry sessions are provided through the project.

2. Increase Mental Health First Aid training during the summer of 2018. Mental Health First Aid is an eight-hour, evidence-based program designed to develop the skills to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illness.

3. Prioritize the importance of the mental and behavioral health needs of students by freeing up counselors to focus on those needs, encourage school districts to add more counselors at the camp level and appropriate funds to fill gaps.

4. To better respond to the needs of students and school faculty following a crisis, expand the Texas Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Network to improve outcomes. The CISM Network assists emergency service providers and first responders who have experienced a “critical incident” in the line of duty.

5. The Texas School Safety Center will partner with SIGMA Threat Management to deliver training on Behavioral Threat Assessment to school personnel.

tbergs · June 2018

Using Technology to Improve School Safety

1. Increase the use and awareness of the DPS “iWatch Texas” reporting system to encourage parents, students and teachers to easily report potential harm or criminal activity directed at schools, students and staff members. Texas DPS’ “iWatch Texas” app will launch on June 7 to make tip reporting easier and anonymous.

2. Increase the number of fusion centers in Texas to improve law enforcement’s ability to identify, process and resolve potential threats that appear on social media.

Improving Gun Safety

One of the more anticipated and controversial aspects of the plan (particularly for Governor Abbott, who is in an election year) was the gun safety measures. The plan discussed gun safety measures extensively, including giving the following recommendations:

1. Create a statewide case management system to give magistrates immediate access to critical information and to speed the timely reporting of court records for federal background checks.

2. Encourage Texas lawmakers to issue an interim charge to consider the merits of adopting a red flag law allowing law enforcement, a family member, school employee or a district attorney to file a petition seeking the removal of firearms from a potentially dangerous person only after legal due process is provided.

3. Adjudications affecting the right to legally purchase and possess firearms should be reported within 48 hours. This 48-hour requirement should also extend to protective orders and family violence convictions. Courts should ensure that all disqualifying felony convictions are entered as soon as possible.

4. Firearm storage laws should be changed so that parents of children up to 17 are obligated to securely store their firearms.

5. Change the threshold for prosecution of people inadequately storing their guns so that they are criminally liable whether the weapons are loaded or not.

6. When a child’s access to inadequately stored guns results in death or bodily injury, increase the penalty for the gun owner to a third-degree felony.

7. Promote voluntary use of gun locks

8. Require gun owners to report when their firearms are lost or stolen to law enforcement within ten days.

Providing Emergency and Active Shooter Training

1. Better prepare campus security to respond to active shooters. All school security officers in the state should receive active shooter response training. Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) was mentioned specifically as a high quality option.

2. The Texas School Safety Center will deliver a workshop-based course that allows for hands-on application of high quality planning practices. First responders must collaborate when school officials are developing emergency operations plans. This course will be provided free of charge.

3. The Texas School Safety Center will partner with the I Love U Guys Foundation to provide training in the Standard Response Protocol and the Standard Reunification Method for school personnel. These trainings will be delivered using a train-the-trainer model, which acts as a force multiplier in that trainers are able to offer this material in their regional areas. These will be delivered in partnership with the I Love U Guys Foundation at no cost to schools.

Bentleyspop · June 2018

https://twitter.com/PearlJam/status/1002653664878714881?s=19

chime · June 2018

So on the level of being training to be responsible gun owners where would an FBI agent fall v those armed teachers some people want to see In schools?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/03/off-duty-fbi-agent-accidentally-fires-gun-while-at-denver-bar

my2hands · June 2018

chime said:

So on the level of being training to be responsible gun owners where would an FBI agent fall v those armed teachers some people want to see In schools?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/03/off-duty-fbi-agent-accidentally-fires-gun-while-at-denver-bar

More guns mean more problems, no matter how well trained and responsible people are.

mickeyrat · June 2018

heres an issue that needs addressed....

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/06/03/us/atf-gun-store-violations.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

By Ali Watkins

June 3, 2018

WASHINGTON — As they inspect the nation’s gun stores, federal investigators regularly find violations of the law, ranging from minor record-keeping errors to illegal sales of firearms. In the most serious cases, like a sale of a gun to a prohibited buyer, inspectors often recommend that gun dealers lose their licenses.

But that rarely happens. Senior officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regularly overrule their own inspectors, allowing gun dealers who fail inspections to keep their licenses even after they were previously warned to follow the rules, according to interviews with more than half a dozen current and former law enforcement officials and a review of more than 100 inspection reports.

One store was cited for failing to conduct background checks before selling a gun. Another store owner told investigators he actively tried to circumvent gun laws. One threatened an A.T.F. officer, and another sold a gun to a customer who identified as a felon. All were previously cited by the A.T.F. In each instance, supervisors downgraded recommendations that the stores’ licenses be revoked and instead let them stay open.
Image

Of about 11,000 inspections of licensed firearm dealers in the year starting in October 2016, more than half were cited for violations. Less than 1 percent of all inspections resulted in the loss of a license.

The episodes shed light on the A.T.F.’s delicate role in policing the gun industry, which has historically resisted regulation and holds powerful political sway over the A.T.F.’s appropriators in Congress. Lawmakers set a stringent requirement decades ago for gun inspectors: They must prove that store owners not only violated the law but intended to do so. The bureau has sidestepped the potential legal appeals and political fallout of revoking licenses by trying to work with gun dealers rather than close their stores.

The approach is widely seen by the A.T.F. as the best option to regulate the gun industry without fostering an adversarial relationship, but some in the bureau consider it a compromise that is at best nuanced and at worst unsafe.

“We’re not selling ice cream here,” said Howard Wolfe, who retired from the A.T.F. in 2006 after 36 years on its industry operations side, including as an inspector and supervisor. “You’re selling something here that if you screw up, somebody can be killed.”

The A.T.F. declined repeated requests for comment.

article continues.....

tbergs · June 2018

Another victory for gun violence.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/06/04/suspect-in-arizona-killings-fatally-shoots-himself-in-hotel-room-as-officers-close-in-police-say/

Bentleyspop · June 2018

tbergs said:

Another victory for gun violence.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/06/04/suspect-in-arizona-killings-fatally-shoots-himself-in-hotel-room-as-officers-close-in-police-say/

Snowflake

josevolution · June 2018

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/06/03/denver-fbi-agent-mile-high-spirits-dance-shooting/
Even with great training people make mistakes...

HesCalledDyer · June 2018

Went to three different pharmacies today, could not get pseudoephedrine at any of them.

Easier to buy a fucking gun in this country than god damn cold medicine.

Bentleyspop · June 2018

HesCalledDyer said:

Went to three different pharmacies today, could not get pseudoephedrine at any of them.

Easier to buy a fucking gun in this country than god damn cold medicine.

Was it sold out or locked up behind the counter?
The pseudoephedrine that is not the guns.

unsung · June 2018

63 yr old senior citizen fights off gang.

http://www.fox32chicago.com/news/crime/concealed-carry-license-holder-shoots-attempted-armed-robber-in-south-chicago

tbergs · June 2018

unsung said:

63 yr old senior citizen fights off gang.

http://www.fox32chicago.com/news/crime/concealed-carry-license-holder-shoots-attempted-armed-robber-in-south-chicago

Might not make the point you're hoping for with this one.

PJPOWER · June 2018

Nothing to fear in good ol’ Cali.
https://www.themaven.net/bluelivesmatter/news/california-farmer-charged-with-12-felonies-after-trying-to-register-his-guns-KaYA9xPcY0eSpeNnNm6PCw/

mrussel1 · June 2018

PJPOWER said:

Nothing to fear in good ol’ Cali.
https://www.themaven.net/bluelivesmatter/news/california-farmer-charged-with-12-felonies-after-trying-to-register-his-guns-KaYA9xPcY0eSpeNnNm6PCw/

Why would the federal DOJ charge him with 12 felonies based on state gun laws. This doesn't make any sense. Something is misaligned in this story.

tbergs · June 2018

PJPOWER said:

Nothing to fear in good ol’ Cali.
https://www.themaven.net/bluelivesmatter/news/california-farmer-charged-with-12-felonies-after-trying-to-register-his-guns-KaYA9xPcY0eSpeNnNm6PCw/

I wonder what violations he was charged with? Must have been pretty extreme to be locked up and charged. This was one of my favorite comments though from below the article:

"It's a racist law. And Hetero-phobic as well. Mostly straight caucasian males will attempt to comply with this law thus unfairly targeting this group. Also it is a violation of the 2nd and 5th amendments. Of course this is CA and the politicians see a clear path to pure dictatorship and self enrichment. The Democratic party points straight to Venezuela as a metric they are trying to achieve. Abject poverty and military rule with zero liberty. This is the Democratic dream. Oh and an ethnostate run by La Raza. Funny how much heroine is flowing through the state and not one big drug bust? Not a one. But farmers... oh they are state enemies for attempted compliance. It's going to get ugly."

Same incident, but explained with the circumstances that led to charges in this case. The dummy submitted a photo with an illegally modified AR-15 in it, which led to a further investigation of his home where they found more violations. I guess he should know his gun laws, right?

http://www.kget.com/news/local-news/member-of-prominent-farming-family-faces-felony-weapons-charges/1186514586

PJPOWER · June 2018

tbergs said:

PJPOWER said:

Nothing to fear in good ol’ Cali.
https://www.themaven.net/bluelivesmatter/news/california-farmer-charged-with-12-felonies-after-trying-to-register-his-guns-KaYA9xPcY0eSpeNnNm6PCw/

I wonder what violations he was charged with? Must have been pretty extreme to be locked up and charged. This was one of my favorite comments though from below the article:

"It's a racist law. And Hetero-phobic as well. Mostly straight caucasian males will attempt to comply with this law thus unfairly targeting this group. Also it is a violation of the 2nd and 5th amendments. Of course this is CA and the politicians see a clear path to pure dictatorship and self enrichment. The Democratic party points straight to Venezuela as a metric they are trying to achieve. Abject poverty and military rule with zero liberty. This is the Democratic dream. Oh and an ethnostate run by La Raza. Funny how much heroine is flowing through the state and not one big drug bust? Not a one. But farmers... oh they are state enemies for attempted compliance. It's going to get ugly."

Same incident, but explained with the circumstances that led to charges in this case. The dummy submitted a photo with an illegally modified AR-15 in it, which led to a further investigation of his home where they found more violations. I guess he should know his gun laws, right?

http://www.kget.com/news/local-news/member-of-prominent-farming-family-faces-felony-weapons-charges/1186514586

He probably saw a Facebook video showing him how to illegally modify a firearm, lol. So is ignorance of laws a reasonable excuse for being in possession of illegal firearms? What if someone posted a video on Facebook of them accidentally making an illegal firearm?

HesCalledDyer · June 2018

Bentleyspop said:

HesCalledDyer said:

Went to three different pharmacies today, could not get pseudoephedrine at any of them.

Easier to buy a fucking gun in this country than god damn cold medicine.

Was it sold out or locked up behind the counter?
The pseudoephedrine that is not the guns.

One pharmacy didn't have any at all. Another tried 4 different boxes but none of them would scan at the register. They told me they couldn't sell it if it doesn't scan. And then something about not renewing their license? Idk? The last one had it, but I took the card up for the generic store brand and they claimed to only have the name brand, which cost twice as much. Be damned if I was paying $30 for 16 caps. Don't put the fucking cards out for the generic if you don't have it.

tbergs · June 2018

PJPOWER said:

tbergs said:

PJPOWER said:

Nothing to fear in good ol’ Cali.
https://www.themaven.net/bluelivesmatter/news/california-farmer-charged-with-12-felonies-after-trying-to-register-his-guns-KaYA9xPcY0eSpeNnNm6PCw/

I wonder what violations he was charged with? Must have been pretty extreme to be locked up and charged. This was one of my favorite comments though from below the article:

"It's a racist law. And Hetero-phobic as well. Mostly straight caucasian males will attempt to comply with this law thus unfairly targeting this group. Also it is a violation of the 2nd and 5th amendments. Of course this is CA and the politicians see a clear path to pure dictatorship and self enrichment. The Democratic party points straight to Venezuela as a metric they are trying to achieve. Abject poverty and military rule with zero liberty. This is the Democratic dream. Oh and an ethnostate run by La Raza. Funny how much heroine is flowing through the state and not one big drug bust? Not a one. But farmers... oh they are state enemies for attempted compliance. It's going to get ugly."

Same incident, but explained with the circumstances that led to charges in this case. The dummy submitted a photo with an illegally modified AR-15 in it, which led to a further investigation of his home where they found more violations. I guess he should know his gun laws, right?

http://www.kget.com/news/local-news/member-of-prominent-farming-family-faces-felony-weapons-charges/1186514586

He probably saw a Facebook video showing him how to illegally modify a firearm, lol. So is ignorance of laws a reasonable excuse for being in possession of illegal firearms? What if someone posted a video on Facebook of them accidentally making an illegal firearm?

Well, Facebook should make sure it takes down videos that specifically instruct people on how to make a firearm illegal. I have not seen any videos of that kind, but hopefully they are removed. In the meantime, I'm glad these laws are helping educate everyone in the importance of proper gun ownership.