monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

“Be a nuisance where it counts,” Douglas once said. “Do your part to inform and stimulate the public to join your action. Be depressed, discouraged, and disappointed at failure and the disheartening effects of ignorance, greed, corruption and bad politics—but never give up.”

Chondi🌙
@_omg_chondi_
@nra my favorite teacher at Dalton high school just blockaded his door and proceeded to shoot. We had to run out The back of the school in the rain. Students were being trampled and screaming. I dare you to tell me arming teachers will make us safe.

1:10 PM - Feb 28, 2018

Black students are twice as likely as whites to face corporal punishment in Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. In Maine, black children are eight times more likely to be hit than white children are.

Your position is that I shouldn't have a handgun for home safety unless I can justify it to your satisfaction

and that if I have one, it means that I'm frightened.

Chondi🌙
@_omg_chondi_
@nra my favorite teacher at Dalton high school just blockaded his door and proceeded to shoot. We had to run out The back of the school in the rain. Students were being trampled and screaming. I dare you to tell me arming teachers will make us safe.
1:10 PM - Feb 28, 2018

I'm interested in hearing your reasons for wanting one.

And that's a bad thing?

Maybe we should disarm police officers just in case a police officer goes on a killing spree.

Reagan and Arnold. Who am I missing?

Because I didn't elect the NRA to ****, and they have no authority in my country.

After a mass shooting, Americans hone in on the specifics to try to prevent the next one: Was he mentally ill? Did he use a bump stock? Is 18 too young to buy an AR-15?

Democrats and Republicans, and President Donald Trump, are considering the last question. A bill in Congress would raise the age from 18 to 21 to purchase a semiautomatic rifle; the legislation, if it had been in place, might have prevented a former student from killing 17 people at the school in Parkland, Florida, he had attended.

A measure seeking a reduction in gun deaths is a worthy cause, but the age increase proposal won’t lead to sweeping change. Since 2009, men under 21 committed two mass shootings with a semiautomatic rifle, according to the gun control group, Everytown for Gun Safety. Only one of the two guns used was purchased legally, meaning only one shooting (where four or more people were shot and killed) would have been prevented.

“Far, far more young people ages 18 to 20 commit violent crimes with handguns than they do assault rifles,” Webster said.

Everytown’s research puts the rate at which 18- to 20-year-olds commit homicides at nearly four times higher than adults 21 and older.

What’s another option?
Looking across the spectrum of mass shooting data, the most relevant factor is ammo/magazine capacity, or how many times an active shooter is able to fire a gun before he needs to reload it.

While the name “semiautomatic” might seem to indicate a high magazine capacity, there’s actually no correlation between the two: Automatic refers to the loading mechanism, not the firing capability.

Webster advocates laws that limit large capacity magazines. He also recommends looking to California as a model, which has started treating ammunition sales similarly to gun sales. The state now requires ammo be sold from a licensed dealer and, starting in July 2019, will require background checks.

At one point, he said some in the group were “petrified” of the national gun lobby and sided with Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein (CA) and Amy Klobuchar’s (MN) proposals over those of Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL).

In the televised meeting, which felt a lot like the freewheeling discussion Trump held on immigration last month, the president called for a bill that was “powerful” on background checks and that would address mental illness and possibly raise the age limit for buying assault rifles from 18 years old to 21. He also repeatedly stated support for beefing up armed security at schools and getting rid of “gun-free zones.”

In all, it was an undeniable call for comprehensive gun control — something Republicans have been wary of touching.

“I like that word, comprehensive,” Trump said. “They say it is a bad word. I like the word. I would rather have a comprehensive bill. ... It would be really nice to create something that’s beautiful.”

Whether this discussion will actually yield legislation — and whether Trump sticks to the positions he supported in the meeting — remains to be seen.

Only last month, many of these same lawmakers listened to Trump publicly support compromise immigration legislation, only to have his administration derail every bipartisan proposal put forward. Trump said he wants to be the president that gets gun reform passed through Congress. It’s not yet clear if that will translate into helping Congress pass a bill.