WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Supreme Court’s recent decision to guarantee the constitutional right of people to carry firearms in public spaces for the purpose of self-defense has become a complicated issue for Black Americans.
Black gun owners have mixed feelings about the Supreme Court’s concealed-carry ruling
Related:
After only a week, the Army has swiftly reversed a new policy that would have allowed potential recruits to enlist into the force without a high school diploma or GED, according to an internal memo reviewed by Military.com and confirmed by a spokesperson.
Army Swiftly Backpedals on Policy Dropping High School Diploma Requirement
Previously:
Matt Agorist | May 29, 2022
In the last week alone, the nation has been rocked by two extremely violent, horrific, and disgusting acts of mass murder. In total, between the shooting in Buffalo, NY and Uvalde, TX, more than 30 innocent people have been slaughtered. It is also true that according to the FBI, the number of active shooter incidents in the United States has risen significantly since 2020.
No, There Haven’t Been 27 Mass School Shootings This Year, Corporate Media is Manipulating You
Related:
What we know about mass school shootings in the US – and the gunmen who carry them out
The latest mass shootings in Texas and New York highlight the frequency of such attacks — and how they can spread like a disease
The Contagion Effect: From Buffalo to Uvalde, 16 Mass Shootings in Just 10 Days
Related:
Our Narrative of Mass Shootings Is Killing Us
Mass Shootings Are Contagious:
The idea that violence might be contagious is not new. Suicides often cluster, in a phenomenon known as suicide contagion, in which vulnerable people are inspired to take their own lives after reading about the details of previous suicides. In an attempt to stop the contagion, many media outlets abide by voluntary reporting standards to not sensationalize suicides.
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“The contagion that appears to be apparent in the mass killings and school shootings may have something to do with the media coverage,” Towers said.
This doesn’t mean the media shouldn’t report on mass shootings, Towers said. But voluntary efforts to de-emphasize the killer’s name and portrait might help stave off additional shootings.
American Shooter: The Intersection of Alienation and Desperation Under Capitalism
Universal Healthcare and Easy Access Mental Health Services
59% of gun deaths are suicides. Getting healthcare in the United States is nigh impossible for many people whether it be the cost of services, lack of insurance, or the stigmatization that comes from seeking medically necessary mental health services. We need to make concerted efforts to ensure that anyone who needs healthcare can walk into a facility and get the help they need with no questions asked nor strings attached. Whether it is nationalizing healthcare or instituting dual power healthcare structures we need to get this done and we need to do it now. Getting people the healthcare they need drastically reduces rates of mental illness while also reducing the rates of economically motivated crime which is sometimes violent in nature.
In May 2002, The Secret Service published a report that examined school shootings. Among much else, they found that the majority of school shooters had difficulty coping with loss and personal failures, attempted suicide, felt persecuted, and exhibited alarming behaviors toward those around them. All of these are signs to immediately provide accessible healthcare, particularly mental healthcare. We need to be proactive about getting people the help they need. Simply scapegoating mental health issues as the conservative gun lobby does is about as helpful as thoughts and prayers. We need to directly address mental healthcare and build the systems that prevent violence.
Stable Food and Housing
Violence is quite often a symptom of economic distress. Ensuring the stable material conditions of a community not only reduces the incentive to commit economically motivated violent crime, but it also reduces interpersonal violent crime. We need to build communities that have affordable housing and accessible food. The fastest and easiest way to work towards both is to ban R1 zoning because this form of zoning creates food deserts, makes communities car dependent, and skyrockets the cost of housing. This is not to say that we should not be working on dual power structures in housing. We also need free lunch and breakfast programs run by local radicals and community-powered housing programs.
Source: Socialist Rifle Association
Graham, Blumenthal say they’re making progress on “red flag” talks
Discussions centered around offering grants to states that impose “red flag” firearm seizure laws are slowly progressing, according to Republican Lindsay Graham and Democrat Richard Blumenthal, who first teamed up to push the federal gun control legislation in 2019. CBS News reported on Wednesday that the pair have had multiple discussions around potential changes to their previous legislation with an eye towards attracting at least 10 Republicans, which would allow the bill to overcome a potential filibuster.
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Another issue with red flag laws is the lack of mental health resources for those deemed by a judge to be a danger to themselves or others. None of the 19 red flag laws on the books in various states require the state to help that supposedly dangerous individual find treatment or counseling, and only Maine’s version of a red flag law requires a mental health evaluation from a medical professional in addition to a judge’s determination.
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Red flag laws are ultimately a gun control solution to a mental health problem, which is one of the reasons I continue to oppose them. They do nothing to stop truly dangerous individuals from harming themselves or others, but they do allow lawmakers to avoid addressing our crumbling mental health systems by claiming they’re “doing something” to block dangerous people from doing bad things. Maybe Graham and Blumenthal’s final proposal will find a way to address each and every one of these fundamental flaws, but I’m not holding my breath.
Related:
Pro-gun group improving access to mental health:
While politicians in Washington D.C. are looking to find some sort of gun control “compromise” in the wake of the horrific murders in Uvalde, Texas, gun owners and Second Amendment advocates involved in the grassroots effort known as Walk The Talk America are taking on the challenge of improving access to and removing the stigma around mental health and gun ownership. I’m so glad that WTTA founder Michael Sodini could join me on today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co to talk about the program and how it’s helping to save lives, and I hope you’ll check out the entire conversation in the video window above.
My personal notes:
Republicans will blame gun violence on mental health, psychiatric medications, or violent video games, yet they aren’t willing to support solutions, such as affordable healthcare, affordable prescriptions, or defund the military industrial complex! As for Democrats, all they will offer is banning guns!
Speaking of mental health, and psychiatric medications, Peace Labor May made some good points in her most recent YouTube video (you may have to turn your volume up).
Re-post of The Rifle on the Wall: A Left Argument for Gun Rights (Reprise)
In light of the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, and because I’m a glutton for punishment, I’m re-posting a link to my left argument for gun rights from 2017. (One among many. See links at end of article)
Some points covered in the article:
The class concept of the state. It’s not a neutral arbiter to be trusted with a monopoly of armed power. “The concentration of wealth and the concentration of armed power in the hands of a few, are both bad ideas—and the one has everything to do with the other.”
The net effect of eliminating the right of citizens to possess firearms will be to increase the power of the armed capitalist state. Whatever strict gun-control regime is instituted, ruling-class families and institutions will still have all the guns they want.
But what about horrible mass shootings? Recognize that *gun homicides have declined even as gun ownership has increased,*. that mass shootings are a small portion of gun deaths in the US & a lousy index of the social problem of gun violence. But they do grab one’s attention.
For the full argument, go to the article:
The Rifle on the Wall: A Left Argument for Gun Rights
(Reprise)
Related (including some random archived links that I noticed were behind paywalls and/or 404):
A Marxist-Leninist response to Gun Control
Read More »Smart War Disinformation and the U.S. Military State
Should the elimination of citizens’ right to free speech by the government proceed, backed up by the threat of punishment, then no dissenter anywhere will be able to challenge official narratives without risking the fate suffered by U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki. A formerly moderate Muslim cleric who spoke out publicly against the crimes of September 11, 2001, al-Awlaki was executed in 2011 without indictment or trial, having been put on the drone killers’ hit list when he began speaking out against the U.S. government’s own war crimes.
The Russian invasion has laid bare the West’s hypocrisy, piercing its tattered cloak of righteousness and morality
Ukraine wins West’s boundless sympathy, but did they forget Iraq?
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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