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La Régulation des armes à feu aux EU après la fusillade de Paeklnad

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La Régulation des armes à feu aux EU après la fusillade de Paeklnad

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SUPER DOSSIER, SUPER LIENS !

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L'engagement des lycéens et le mouvement #NeverAgain
https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZxD3o-9H1lY
Emma Gonzalez, élève au Lycée Marjory Stoneman Douglas, fait un discours lors d'un rassemblement en faveur de la régulation des armes à feu à Fort Lauderdale en Florida. Source : Youtube.

Transcription du discours d'Emma Gonzalez

We haven't already had a moment of silence in the House of Representatives, so I would like to have another one. Thank you.

Every single person up here today, all these people should be home grieving. But instead we are up here standing together because if all our government and President can do is send thoughts and prayers, then it's time for victims to be the change that we need to see. Since the time of the Founding Fathers and since they added the Second Amendment to the Constitution, our guns have developed at a rate that leaves me dizzy. The guns have changed but our laws have not.

We certainly do not understand why it should be harder to make plans with friends on weekends than to buy an automatic or semi-automatic weapon. In Florida, to buy a gun you do not need a permit, you do not need a gun license, and once you buy it you do not need to register it. You do not need a permit to carry a concealed rifle or shotgun. You can buy as many guns as you want at one time.

I read something very powerful to me today. It was from the point of view of a teacher. And I quote: When adults tell me I have the right to own a gun, all I can hear is my right to own a gun outweighs your student's right to live. All I hear is mine, mine, mine, mine.

Instead of worrying about our AP Gov chapter 16 test, we have to be studying our notes to make sure that our arguments based on politics and political history are watertight. The students at this school have been having debates on guns for what feels like our entire lives. AP Gov had about three debates this year. Some discussions on the subject even occurred during the shooting while students were hiding in the closets. The people involved right now, those who were there, those posting, those tweeting, those doing interviews and talking to people, are being listened to for what feels like the very first time on this topic that has come up over 1,000 times in the past four years alone.

I found out today there's a website shootingtracker.com. Nothing in the title suggests that it is exclusively tracking the USA's shootings and yet does it need to address that? Because Australia had one mass shooting in 1999 in Port Arthur (and after the) massacre introduced gun safety, and it hasn't had one since. Japan has never had a mass shooting. Canada has had three and the UK had one and they both introduced gun control and yet here we are, with websites dedicated to reporting these tragedies so that they can be formulated into statistics for your convenience.

I watched an interview this morning and noticed that one of the questions was, do you think your children will have to go through other school shooter drills? And our response is that our neighbors will not have to go through other school shooter drills. When we've had our say with the government -- and maybe the adults have gotten used to saying 'it is what it is,' but if us students have learned anything, it's that if you don't study, you will fail. And in this case if you actively do nothing, people continually end up dead, so it's time to start doing something.

We are going to be the kids you read about in textbooks. Not because we're going to be another statistic about mass shooting in America, but because, just as David said, we are going to be the last mass shooting. Just like Tinker v. Des Moines, we are going to change the law. That's going to be Marjory Stoneman Douglas in that textbook and it's going to be due to the tireless effort of the school board, the faculty members, the family members and most of all the students. The students who are dead, the students still in the hospital, the student now suffering PTSD, the students who had panic attacks during the vigil because the helicopters would not leave us alone, hovering over the school for 24 hours a day.

There is one tweet I would like to call attention to. So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities again and again. We did, time and time again. Since he was in middle school, it was no surprise to anyone who knew him to hear that he was the shooter. Those talking about how we should have not ostracized him, you didn't know this kid. OK, we did. We know that they are claiming mental health issues, and I am not a psychologist, but we need to pay attention to the fact that this was not just a mental health issue. He would not have harmed that many students with a knife.

And how about we stop blaming the victims for something that was the student's fault, the fault of the people who let him buy the guns in the first place, those at the gun shows, the people who encouraged him to buy accessories for his guns to make them fully automatic, the people who didn't take them away from him when they knew he expressed homicidal tendencies, and I am not talking about the FBI. I'm talking about the people he lived with. I'm talking about the neighbors who saw him outside holding guns.

If the President wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and how it should never have happened and maintain telling us how nothing is going to be done about it, I'm going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association.

You want to know something? It doesn't matter, because I already know. Thirty million dollars. And divided by the number of gunshot victims in the United States in the one and one-half months in 2018 alone, that comes out to being $5,800. Is that how much these people are worth to you, Trump? If you don't do anything to prevent this from continuing to occur, that number of gunshot victims will go up and the number that they are worth will go down. And we will be worthless to you.

To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you.

Crowd chants, shame on you.

If your money was as threatened as us, would your first thought be, how is this going to reflect on my campaign? Which should I choose? Or would you choose us, and if you answered us, will you act like it for once? You know what would be a good way to act like it? I have an example of how to not act like it. In February of 2017, one year ago, President Trump repealed an Obama-era regulation that would have made it easier to block the sale of firearms to people with certain mental illnesses.

From the interactions that I had with the shooter before the shooting and from the information that I currently know about him, I don't really know if he was mentally ill. I wrote this before I heard what Delaney said. Delaney said he was diagnosed. I don't need a psychologist and I don't need to be a psychologist to know that repealing that regulation was a really dumb idea.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa was the sole sponsor on this bill that stops the FBI from performing background checks on people adjudicated to be mentally ill and now he's stating for the record, 'Well, it's a shame the FBI isn't doing background checks on these mentally ill people.' Well, duh. You took that opportunity away last year.

The people in the government who were voted into power are lying to us. And us kids seem to be the only ones who notice and our parents to call BS.Companies trying to make caricatures of the teenagers these days, saying that all we are self-involved and trend-obsessed and they hush us into submission when our message doesn't reach the ears of the nation, we are prepared to call BS. Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this, we call BS. They say tougher guns laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS. They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call BS. They say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars. We call BS. They say no laws could have prevented the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call BS. That us kids don't know what we're talking about, that we're too young to understand how the government works.

We call BS.

If you agree, register to vote. Contact your local congresspeople. Give them a piece of your mind.

La transcription est disponible sur le site de CNN.

Donald Trump reçoit les survivants de la fusillade
https://www.youtube.com/embed/3zJTvWaED1E
Les armes à feu aux États-Unis

Les chiffres clés

Le Pew Research Center a publié en 2017 un dossier très complet sur la relation complexe que les États-Unis entretiennent avec les armes à feu. Le dossier est composé de 6 chapitres, accompagnés de nombreux graphiques :

"As a nation, the U.S. has a deep and enduring connection to guns. Integrated into the fabric of American society since the country's earliest days, guns remain a point of pride for many Americans. Whether for hunting, sport shooting or personal protection, most gun owners count the right to bear arms as central to their freedom. At the same time, the results of gun-related violence have shaken the nation, and debates over gun policy remain sharply polarized."

"Understanding gun ownership in America is not as simple as knowing who does and does not own a gun. Some Americans who don't personally own guns live with someone who does or may have owned a gun in the past. And many who don't currently own a gun, including those who have never owned one, may be open to doing so in the future.

Three-in-ten American adults say they currently own a gun, and another 11% say they don't personally own a gun but live with someone who does. Among those who don't currently own a gun, about half say they could see themselves owning one in the future."

"Americans own guns for a variety of reasons, and the ways in which they use their guns differ. Gun use also varies along key demographic, social and attitudinal dimensions.

Overall, about a third of gun owners say they go hunting often (12%) or sometimes (22%), while roughly half say they go shooting or to a gun range with some frequency (13% often, 40% sometimes). Among those who own a handgun, roughly one-in-four (26%) carry their gun with them outside of their home all or most of the time, and an additional 31% say they carry some of the time."

"Just as reasons for owning guns and using them in daily life vary, so do the ways in which gun owners store their guns and the extent to which they see certain measures - such as taking gun safety courses - as essential.

Majorities of gun owners and non-owners alike agree that it's essential for gun owners who live with children in the home to talk to their children about gun safety, to take gun safety courses, and to keep all of their guns in a locked place. Most non-gun owners also say gun owners with children in the house should keep all of their guns unloaded and store guns and ammunition separately, but this view doesn't have majority support among those who own guns."

"Most Americans say gun violence is a problem in the U.S., but fewer see this as a problem in their local community. Overall, half of all U.S adults say gun violence is a very big problem in this country, and an additional 33% say it is a moderately big problem. By comparison, less than half (44%) say gun violence is a very big problem (19%) or moderately big (25%) problem in their community. Views on the severity of gun violence, nationally and locally, differ dramatically between gun owners and those who do not own guns."

"The public is divided in overall views of gun policy in the United States. Yet large majorities of Americans continue to support a number of specific gun policy proposals, including restrictions on gun sales to the mentally ill and expanded gun background checks."

Armes à feu et troubles psychiques

Le Washington Post propose une vidéo de trois minutes qui analyse la manière dont les américains perçoivent les fusillades et rappelle que les armes automatiques avaient déjà été interdites aux États-Unis entre 1994 et 2004, entraînant une baisse de 30% des fusillades sur le territoire.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/zumBTT5KC8Y
The National Rifle Association

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Question d'actualité - La régulation des armes à feu aux États-Unis après la fusillade de Parkland

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https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZxD3o-9H1lY Emma Gonzalez, élève au Lycée Marjory Stoneman Douglas, fait un discours lors d'un rassemblement en faveur de la régulation des armes à feu à Fort Lauderdale en Florida. Source : Youtube. We haven't already had a moment of silence in the House of Representatives, so I would like to have another one.

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This European comedy sketch explains how the world sees America’s gun problem

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This European comedy sketch explains how the world sees America’s gun problem

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WATCH

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When the rest of the world looks at America's gun problem, it's often with bafflement.

Sunday with Lubach, which is sort of like the Dutch version of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, looked at guns - specifically, the US's love of firearms. And it's very telling.

For one, the satirical Dutch video describes America's love of guns as so bad that it is an illness: Nonsensical Rifle Addiction, or NRA - a reference to the biggest gun lobby group in the country.

"Dear fellow Europeans," the video's narrator begins, "a devastating humanitarian crisis is threatening a small country on the coast of North America: the United States of America."

The video goes on to list some of the statistics related to America's gun homicides and accidents from Gun Violence Archive: 24,000 injuries and 11,000 deaths so far this year, culminating to roughly 40 deaths a day. The video pins this on "a terrible epidemic."

"NRA is a constitutional disorder caused by a dysfunction of the prefrontal Second Amendment in the nonsensical cortex, causing patients to shoot people," the narrator explains. "It starts with an innocent Colt, but soon patients will show signs of shotguns, sniper rifles, and M16s even. Often, patients use silencers to hide their condition."

The video goes on like this, showing pictures that you'd expect to see in a typical humanitarian crisis PSA about a major disease halfway across the world - black and white images, sad people, children suffering, and so on.

There are things in the video that some Americans, particularly supporters of gun rights, will surely disagree with or even find offensive.

But that's kind of the point. To the rest of the world, this problem is straightforward: If you have a problem with guns, then you should deal with the guns directly. That's what other nations have done, from Canada to the UK to Australia to Japan - and they see dramatically fewer gun deaths.

The empirical research shows these are related: Where there are fewer guns, there are fewer gun deaths. And gun control measures are truly followed with a reduction in gun deaths, suggesting that they save lives.

That America as a whole doesn't seem to get this is baffling to much of the rest of the world. So Sunday with Lubach reaches far for an explanation: It must be a disease.

"We Europeans can help," the narrator claims, citing programs like "the NRAA." "But your help is needed urgently. We cannot turn away. So donate now."

For more on America's gun problem, read Vox's explainer.

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This European comedy sketch explains how the world sees America's gun problem

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When the rest of the world looks at America's gun problem, it's often with bafflement. Sunday with Lubach, which is sort of like the Dutch version of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, looked at guns - specifically, the US's love of firearms. And it's very telling.

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READ & UNDERSTAND

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The Second Amendment, often referred to as the right to bear arms, is one of 10 amendments that form the Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791 by the U.S. Congress. Differing interpretations of the amendment have fueled a long-running debate over gun control legislation and the rights of individual citizens to buy, own and carry firearms.

Right to Bear Arms

The text of the Second Amendment reads in full: "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." The framers of the Bill of Rights adapted the wording of the amendment from nearly identical clauses in some of the original 13 state constitutions.

During the Revolutionary War era, "militia" referred to groups of men who banded together to protect their communities, towns, colonies and eventually states, once the United States declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776

Many people in America at the time believed governments used soldiers to oppress the people, and thought the federal government should only be allowed to raise armies (with full-time, paid soldiers) when facing foreign adversaries. For all other purposes, they believed, it should turn to part-time militias, or ordinary civilians using their own weapons.

State Militias

But as militias had proved insufficient against the British, the Constitutional Convention gave the new federal government the power to establish a standing army, even in peacetime.

However, opponents of a strong central government (known as Anti-Federalists) argued that this federal army deprived states of their ability to defend themselves against oppression. They feared that Congress might abuse its constitutional power of "organizing, arming and disciplining the Militia" by failing to keep militiamen equipped with adequate arms.

So, shortly after the U.S. Constitution was officially ratified, James Madison proposed the Second Amendment as a way to empower these state militias. While the Second Amendment did not answer the broader Anti-Federalist concern that the federal government had too much power, it did establish the principle (held by both Federalists and their opponents) that the government did not have the authority to disarm citizens.

Well-Regulated Militia

Practically since its ratification, Americans have debated the meaning of the Second Amendment, with vehement arguments being made on both sides.

The crux of the debate is whether the amendment protects the right of private individuals to keep and bear arms, or whether it instead protects a collective right that should be exercised only through formal militia units.

Those who argue it is a collective right point to the "well-regulated Militia" clause in the Second Amendment. They argue that the right to bear arms should be given only to organized groups, like the National Guard, a reserve military force that replaced the state militias after the Civil War.

On the other side are those who argue that the Second Amendment gives all citizens, not just militias, the right to own guns in order to protect themselves. The National Rifle Association (NRA), founded in 1871, and its supporters have been the most visible proponents of this argument, and have pursued a vigorous campaign against gun control measures at the local, state and federal levels.

Those who support stricter gun control legislation have argued that limits are necessary on gun ownership, including who can own them, where they can be carried and what type of guns should be available for purchase.

Congress passed one of the most high-profile federal gun control efforts, the so-called Brady Bill, in the 1990s, largely thanks to the efforts of former White House Press Secretary James S. Brady, who had been shot in the head during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

District of Columbia v. Heller

Since the passage of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which mandated background checks for gun purchases from licensed dealers, the debate on gun control has changed dramatically.

This is partially due to the actions of the Supreme Court, which departed from its past stance on the Second Amendment with its verdicts in two major cases, District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and McDonald v. Chicago (2010).

For a long time, the federal judiciary held the opinion that the Second Amendment remained among the few provisions of the Bill of Rights that did not fall under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, which would thereby apply its limitations to state governments. For example, in the 1886 case Presser v. Illinois, the Court held that the Second Amendment applied only to the federal government, and did not prohibit state governments from regulating an individual's ownership or use of guns.

But in its 5-4 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which invalidated a federal law barring nearly all civilians from possessing guns in the District of Columbia, the Supreme Court extended Second Amendment protection to individuals in federal (non-state) enclaves.

Writing the majority decision in that case, Justice Antonin Scalia lent the Court's weight to the idea that the Second Amendment protects the right of individual private gun ownership for self-defense purposes.

McDonald v. Chicago

Two years later, in McDonald v. Chicago, the Supreme Court struck down (also in a 5-4 decision) a similar citywide handgun ban, ruling that the Second Amendment applies to the states as well as to the federal government.

In the majority ruling in that case, Justice Samuel Alito wrote: "Self-defense is a basic right, recognized by many legal systems from ancient times to the present day, and in Heller, we held that individual self-defense is 'the central component' of the Second Amendment right."

Gun Control Debate

The Supreme Court's narrow rulings in the Heller and McDonald cases left open many key issues in the gun control debate.

In the Heller decision, the Court suggested a list of "presumptively lawful" regulations, including bans on possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill; bans on carrying arms in schools and government buildings; restrictions on gun sales; bans on the concealed carrying of weapons; and generally bans on weapons "not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes."

Mass Shootings

Since that verdict, as lower courts battle back and forth on cases involving such restrictions, the public debate over Second Amendment rights and gun control remains very much open, even as mass shootings became an increasingly frequent occurrence in American life.

To take just three examples, the Columbine Shooting, where two teens killed thirteen people at Columbine High School, prompted a national gun control debate. The Sandy Hook shooting of 20 children and six staff members at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012 led President Barack Obama and many others to call for tighter background checks and a renewed ban on assault weapons.

And in 2017, the mass shooting of 58 people attending a country music concert in Las Vegas (to date the largest mass shooting in U.S. history, overtaking the 2016 attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida) inspired calls to restrict sales of "bump stocks," attachments that enable semiautomatic weapons to fire faster.

On the other side of the ongoing debate of gun control measures are the NRA and other gun rights supporters, powerful and vocal groups that views such restrictions as an unacceptable violation of their Second Amendment rights.

Sources

Bill of Rights, The Oxford Guide to the United States Government.
Jack Rakove, ed. The Annotated U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
Amendment II, National Constitution Center.
The Second Amendment and the Right to Bear Arms, LiveScience.
Second Amendment, Legal Information Institute.

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The Second Amendment, often referred to as the right to bear arms, is one of 10 amendments that form the Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791 by the U.S. Congress.

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NATION REELS AFTER GUNMAN MASSACRES 20 CHILDREN AT SCHOOL...

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NATION REELS AFTER GUNMAN MASSACRES 20 CHILDREN AT SCHOOL...

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READ & UNDERSTAND

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Connecticut State Police stood guard outside Sandy Hook Elementary School on Saturday morning. Credit... Don Emmert/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

A 20-year-old man wearing combat gear and armed with semiautomatic pistols and a semiautomatic rifle killed 26 people - 20 of them children - in an attack in an elementary school in central Connecticut on Friday. Witnesses and officials described a horrific scene as the gunman, with brutal efficiency, chose his victims in two classrooms while other students dove under desks and hid in closets.

Hundreds of terrified parents arrived as their sobbing children were led out of the Sandy Hook Elementary School in a wooded corner of Newtown, Conn. By then, all of the victims had been shot and most were dead, and the gunman, identified as Adam Lanza, had committed suicide. The children killed were said to be 5 to 10 years old.

A 28th person, found dead in a house in the town, was also believed to have been shot by Mr. Lanza. That victim, one law enforcement official said, was Mr. Lanza's mother, Nancy Lanza, who was initially reported to be a teacher at the school. She apparently owned the guns he used.

Although reports at the time indicated that the principal of the school let Mr. Lanza in because she recognized him, his mother did not work at the school, and he shot his way in, defeating a security system requiring visitors to be buzzed in. Moments later, the principal was shot dead when she went to investigate the sound of gunshots. The school psychologist was also among those who died.

The rampage, coming less than two weeks before Christmas, was the nation's second-deadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, in which a gunman killed 32 people and then himself.

Law enforcement officials said Mr. Lanza had grown up in Newtown, and he was remembered by high school classmates as smart, introverted and nervous. They said he had gone out of his way not to attract attention when he was younger.

The gunman was chillingly accurate. A spokesman for the State Police said he left only one wounded survivor at the school. All the others hit by the barrage of bullets from the guns Mr. Lanza carried died, suggesting that they were shot at point-blank range. One law enforcement official said the shootings occurred in two classrooms in a section of the single-story Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Some who were there said the shooting occurred during morning announcements, and the initial shots could be heard over the school's public address system. The bodies of those killed were still in the school as of 10 p.m. Friday.

The New York City medical examiner's office sent a "portable morgue" to Newtown to help with the aftermath of the shootings, a spokeswoman, Ellen Borakove, confirmed late Friday.

Law enforcement officials offered no hint of what had motivated Mr. Lanza. It was also unclear, one investigator said, why Mr. Lanza - after shooting his mother to death inside her home - drove her car to the school and slaughtered the children. "I don't think anyone knows the answers to those questions at this point," the official said. As for a possible motive, he added, "we don't know much for sure."

F.B.I. agents interviewed his brother, Ryan Lanza, in Hoboken, N.J. His father, Peter Lanza, who was divorced from Nancy Lanza, was also questioned, one official said.

Newtown, a postcard-perfect New England town where everyone seems to know everyone else and where there had lately been holiday tree lightings with apple cider and hot chocolate, was plunged into mourning. Stunned residents attended four memorial services in the town on Friday evening as detectives continued the search for clues, and an explanation.

Maureen Kerins, a hospital nurse who lives close to the school, learned of the shooting from television and hurried to the school to see if she could help.

"I stood outside waiting to go in, but a police officer came out and said they didn't need any nurses," she said, "so I knew it wasn't good."

In the cold light of Friday morning, faces told the story outside the stricken school. There were the frightened faces of children who were crying as they were led out in a line. There were the grim faces of women. There were the relieved-looking faces of a couple and their little girl.

The shootings set off a tide of anguish nationwide. In Illinois and Georgia, flags were lowered to half-staff in memory of the victims. And at the White House, President Obama struggled to read a statement in the White House briefing room. More than once, he dabbed his eyes.

"Our hearts are broken," Mr. Obama said, adding that his first reaction was not as a president, but as a parent.

"I know there is not a parent in America who does not feel the same overwhelming grief that I do," he said.

He called the victims "beautiful little kids."

"They had their entire lives ahead of them: birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own," he said. Then the president reached up to the corner of one eye.

Mr. Obama called for "meaningful action" to stop such shootings, but he did not spell out details. In his nearly four years in office, he has not pressed for expanded gun control. But he did allude on Friday to a desire to have politicians put aside their differences to deal with ways to prevent future shootings.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy of Connecticut, who went to Newtown, called the shootings "a tragedy of unspeakable terms."

"Evil visited this community today," he said.

Lt. J. Paul Vance, a spokesman for the Connecticut State Police, described "a very horrific and difficult scene" at the school, which had 700 students in kindergarten through fourth grade. It had a security protocol that called for doors to be locked during the day and visitors to be checked on a video monitor inside.

"You had to buzz in and out and the whole nine yards," said a former chairwoman of the Newtown board of education, Lillian Bittman. "When you buzz, you come up on our screen."

The lock system did not go into effect until 9:30 each morning, according to a letter to parents from the principal, Dawn Hochsprung, that was posted on several news Web sites. The letter was apparently written earlier in the school year.

Video

People attending a vigil at the St. Rose of Lima Church in Newtown, Conn., describe their reactions after the fatal shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Lieutenant Vance said the Newtown police had called for help from police departments nearby and began a manhunt, checking "every nook and cranny and every room."

Officers were seen kicking in doors as they worked their way through the school.

Lieutenant Vance said the students who died had been in two classrooms. Others said that as the horror unfolded, students and teachers tried to hide in places the gunman would not think to look. Teachers locked the doors, turned off the lights and closed the blinds. Some ordered students to duck under their desks.

The teachers did not explain what was going on, but they did not have to. Everyone could hear the gunfire.

Yvonne Cech, a school librarian, said she had spent 45 minutes locked in a closet with two library clerks, a library catalog assistant and 18 fourth graders.

"The SWAT team escorted us out," she said, and then the children were reunited with their parents.

Lieutenant Vance said 18 youngsters were pronounced dead at the school and two others were taken to hospitals, where they were declared dead. All the adults who were killed at the school were pronounced dead there.

Law enforcement officials said the weapons used by the gunman were a Sig Sauer and a Glock, both handguns. The police also found a Bushmaster .223 M4 carbine.

One law enforcement official said the guns had not been traced because they had not yet been removed from the school, but state licensing records or permits apparently indicated that Ms. Lanza owned weapons of the same makes and models.

"He visited two classrooms," said a law enforcement official at the scene, adding that those two classrooms were adjoining.

The first 911 call was recorded about 9:30 and said someone had been shot at the school, an almost unthinkable turn of events on what had begun as just another chilly day in quiet Newtown. Soon, frantic parents were racing to the school, hoping their children were all right. By 10:30, the shooting had stopped. By then, the police had arrived with dogs.

"There is going to be a black cloud over this area forever," said Craig Ansman, who led his 4-year-old daughter from the preschool down the street from the elementary school. "It will never go away."

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Nation Reels After Gunman Massacres 20 Children at School in Connecticut (Published 2012)

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A 20-year-old man wearing combat gear and armed with semiautomatic pistols and a semiautomatic rifle killed 26 people - 20 of them children - in an attack in an elementary school in central Connecticut on Friday.

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"The gun lobby’s new tactic: redefining 'school shootings' so they don’t count"

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"The gun lobby’s new tactic: redefining 'school shootings' so they don’t count"

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READ & UNDERSTAND

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The drumbeat of news about gun violence in the United States is so steady and rhythmic these days that it's starting to fade into the background. Another week, another school shooting. One of the biggest risks now is of a population-wide numbness, eroding the will to tackle the crisis. So perhaps we should be grimly grateful whenever the gun lobby demonstrates that it retains the power to horrify.

Case in point: this sequence of tweets by the conservative journalist Charles C Johnson, featured on Glenn Beck's website The Blaze and on Hot Air, and being forwarded enthusiastically everywhere among pro-gun tweeters and bloggers. (I found it via Quinn Norton.)

Johnson takes it upon himself to debunk the claim, made by the gun reform group Everytown for Gun Safety, backed by Michael Bloomberg, that there have been 74 school shootings since Adam Lanza killed 20 children, six adults and himself at Sandy Hook elementary School 18 months ago. In fact, Johnson concludes, there have only been seven. How does he manage this feat of mathematical magic? Simple: by narrowing the definition of "school shooting" so far that almost none of them count.

Let's be fastidiously fair to Johnson and his supporters by acknowledging that a handful of the incidents he identifies do seem misclassified. Most people, for example, would surely agree that a shooting that doesn't happen on a school campus isn't a school shooting. But the rest of his alleged debunkings offer a truly depressing glimpse of how pro-gun argumentation works these days.

It doesn't count, for example, if you're a student shot at school by a gunman who wasn't originally planning to shoot up a school that day:

It doesn't count if the bullet you're injured by, on school grounds, was discharged accidentally:

It certainly doesn't count if you're the one who shoots yourself to death at school:

It isn't a school shooting even if it's a shooting, at school, so long as the victim, on this occasion, is an adult rather than a child:

It most definitely doesn't count if the shooting is gang-related - a recurring theme in Johnson's tweets - though he never clarifies why:

It doesn't count if the shooting arises from a dispute over a games console:

And (there are many, many more similarly tendentious examples, but I'll stop here) it doesn't count if it was in the school parking lot:

In short - as far as I can follow the logic - the message to parents concerned that there are loaded weapons going off on school property, and that their sons and daughters are at risk of being hit by bullets from those weapons, is this: it doesn't really count unless the shooter is a pupil, not involved in a gang, who made a pre-meditated plan to massacre a large number of students.

And not in the parking lot.

(If you think this kind of absurdity is confined to the fringe, see this only slightly less mendacious CNN piece, which brings the figure down from 74 to 15 by excluding, among others, shootings motivated by "personal arguments, accidents [or] alleged gang activities and drug deals". Johnson says the cable channel stole his work.)

What's especially dispiriting about this flat denial of reality is how little prospect it offers for rational discussion or compromise. Even if you're a supporter of gun control, you can still hold a reasoned discussion with somebody who believes that the benefits of widespread firearms ownership outweigh the harms. You can discuss international comparisons; and how no comparable country experiences anything like this level of gun violence; the other person can seek to establish why those comparisons aren't relevant; or that, yes, violent deaths are actually in decline in the US, and so on. But when the pro-gun side of the argument consists of simply insisting that the gun violence that people are so distraught about isn't real gun violence? Then there's no clear way forward at all.

And let's not forget the bigger point here. A pro-gun journalist applies the most stringent imaginable criteria to the term 'school shooting'; he rejects every instance he possibly can, for reasons many might regard as spurious, and then triumphantly declares that there have only been ... seven bona fide school shootings in America since December 2012!

Only seven school shootings since December 2012.

I hope I never to get to the point at which the word "only" in that sentence makes even the slightest bit of sense.

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The gun lobby's new tactic: redefining 'school shootings' so they don't count

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The drumbeat of news about gun violence in the United States is so steady and rhythmic these days that it's starting to fade into the background. Another week, another school shooting. One of the biggest risks now is of a population-wide numbness, eroding the will to tackle the crisis.

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LISTEN & UNDERSTAND

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LISTEN & UNDERSTAND

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WATCH

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Welcome to the Gun Show! - Inside Amy Schumer (Video Clip) | Comedy Central

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A home shopping show addresses callers who are concerned that they won't be able to buy a gun.

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The Washington Post - "The terrible numbers that grow with each mass shooting" 

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The Washington Post - "The terrible numbers that grow with each mass shooting" 

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READ & UNDERSTAND

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The Unified Homes shooting in Orange, Calif., is a developing story, and details will be updated.

The places change, the numbers change, but the choice of weapon remains the same. In the United States, people who want to kill a lot of other people most often do it with guns.

Related

The number of U.S. mass shootings depends on how you count

Public mass shootings account for a tiny fraction of the country's gun deaths, but they are uniquely terrifying because they occur without warning in the most mundane places. Most of the victims are chosen not for what they have done but simply for where they happen to be.

There is no universally accepted definition of a public mass shooting, and this piece defines it narrowly. It looks at the public shootings in which four or more people were killed, usually by a lone shooter. It does not include shootings tied to robberies that went awry, and it does not include domestic shootings that took place exclusively in private homes. A broader definition would yield much higher numbers.

Public mass shootings are a small slice of gun deaths

Source: Gun Violence Archive. Excludes the roughly 22,000 annual gun suicides, which are not publicly reported in real time.

This tally begins Aug. 1, 1966, when a student sniper fired down on passersby from the observation deck of a clock tower at the University of Texas. By the time police killed him, 17 other people were dead or dying. As Texas Monthly's Pamela Colloff wrote, the shooting "ushered in the notion that any group of people, anywhere - even walking around a university campus on a summer day - could be killed at random by a stranger."

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More than 50 years of U.S. mass shootings: The victims, sites, killers and weapons

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The Unified Homes shooting in Orange, Calif., is a developing story, and details will be updated. The places change, the numbers change, but the choice of weapon remains the same. In the United States, people who want to kill a lot of other people most often do it with guns.

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UNDERSTANDING KEY TERMS IN THE GUN CONTROL DEBATE

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UNDERSTANDING KEY TERMS IN THE GUN CONTROL DEBATE

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READ & UNDERSTAND - VOC

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READ & UNDERSTAND

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Two mass shootings within 24 hours, leaving 31 people dead, has once again brought the spotlight on gun ownership in the United States.

An attack on a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas on Saturday left 20 dead, while nine died in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio on Sunday.

But where does America stand on the right to bear arms and gun control?

When looking at the period before the Parkland school shooting in 2018, it is interesting to track how young people have felt about gun control.

Support for gun control over the protection of gun rights in America is highest among 18 to 29-year-olds, according to a study by the Pew Research Centre, with a spike after the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016. The overall trend though suggests a slight decrease in support for gun control over gun rights since 2000.

Pew found that one third of over-50s said they owned a gun. The rate of gun ownership was lower for younger adults - about 28%. White men are especially likely to own a gun.

Homicides are taken here to include murder and manslaughter. The FBI separates statistics for what it calls justifiable homicide, which includes the killing of a criminal by a police officer or private citizen in certain circumstances, which are not included.

In about 13% of cases, the FBI does not have data on the weapon used. By removing these cases from the overall total of gun deaths in the US, the proportion of gun-related killings rises to 73% of homicides.

Who owns the world's guns?

While it is difficult to know exactly how many guns civilians own around the world, by every estimate the US with more than 390 million is far out in front.

Switzerland and Finland are two of the European countries with the most guns per person - they both have compulsory military service for all men over the age of 18. The Finnish interior ministry says about 60% of gun permits are granted for hunting - a popular pastime in Finland. Cyprus and Yemen also have military service.

Up until 2012, a mass shooting was defined as when an attacker had killed four or more victims in an indiscriminate rampage - and since 2013 the figures include attacks with three or more victims. The shootings do not include killings related to other crimes such as armed robbery or gang violence.

The overall number of people killed in mass shootings each year represents only a tiny percentage of the total number.

Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show there were a total of more than 38,600 deaths from guns in 2016 - of which more than 22,900 were suicides. Suicide by firearm accounts for almost half of all suicides in the US, according to the CDC.

Attacks in US become deadlier

The Las Vegas attack in 2017 was the worst in recent US history - and eight of the shootings with the highest number of casualties happened within the past 10 years.

Military-style assault-style weapons have been blamed for some of the major mass shootings such as the attack in an Orlando nightclub and at the Sandy Hook School in Connecticut.

Dozens of rifles were recovered from the scene of the Las Vegas shooting, police reported.

A few US states have banned assault-style weapons, which were totally restricted for a decade until 2004.

However most murders caused by guns involve handguns, according to FBI data.

For those from countries where guns are not widely owned, it can be a surprise to discover that they are relatively cheap to purchase in the US.

Among the arsenal of weapons recovered from the hotel room of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock were handguns, which can cost from as little $200 (£151) - comparable to a Chromebook laptop.

Assault-style rifles, also recovered from Paddock's room, can cost from around $1,500 (£1,132).

In addition to the 23 weapons at the hotel, a further 19 were recovered from Paddock's home. It is estimated that he may have spent more than $70,000 (£52,800) on firearms and accessories such as tripods, scopes, ammunition and cartridges.

Who supports gun control?

But a majority of Americans say they are dissatisfied with US gun laws and policies, and most of those who are unhappy want stricter legislation.

Some states have taken steps to ban or strictly regulate ownership of assault weapons. Laws vary by state but California, for example, has banned around 75 types and models of assault weapon.

Some controls are widely supported by people across the political divide - such as restricting the sale of guns to people who are mentally ill, or on "watch" lists.

Who opposes gun control?

It is among the most powerful special interest lobby groups in the US, with a substantial budget to influence members of Congress on gun policy.

In terms of lobbying to influence gun policy, the NRA's spending jumped from about $3m per year to more than $5m in 2017.

The chart shows only the recorded contributions to lawmakers published by the Senate Office of Public Records.

The NRA spends millions more elsewhere, such as on supporting the election campaigns of political candidates who oppose gun controls.

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Two mass shootings within 24 hours, leaving 31 people dead, has once again brought the spotlight on gun ownership in the United States. An attack on a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas on Saturday left 20 dead, while nine died in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio on Sunday.

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WHY ARE AMERICANS SO OBSESSED WITH GUNS ?

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WHY ARE AMERICANS SO OBSESSED WITH GUNS ?

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READ & UNDERSTAND

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7 REASONS IT'S SO EASY TO BUY A GUN IN THE US.

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7 REASONS IT'S SO EASY TO BUY A GUN IN THE US.

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READ & UNDERSTAND

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Editor's note: This story was first published on June 13, 2016, shortly after the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Miami, Florida, that killed 50 people.
The monstrous shooting at Pulse, an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida, two Sundays ago has brought America's lax gun laws back into tragic focus.

The killer, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, used a 9mm Glock 17 and a Sig Sauer MCX assault rifle that he purchased legally - despite investigations in 2013 and 2014 by the Federal Bureau of Investigations for his potential ties to terrorism.

The U.S. has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world, according to data compiled by The Guardian, with around 88 guns for every 100 people. That's almost one gun for every person in the country, including children.

The next runner up, Yemen, is currently in the middle of a violent civil war; it has just 54.8 guns for every 100 people.

The U.S. comes in 28th in the world in terms of gun violence, behind developing nations like El Salvador and Jamaica, according to The Guardian. No other developed nation comes close to the U.S.'s gun homicide rate.

The biggest reason for these numbers is America's easy access to guns. As Vox pointed out last year, studies consistently show that more guns mean more gun deaths.

But why are there so many guns in the U.S. to begin with? Here are seven disturbing reasons:
1. The only real restriction is your age.
Under federal law, a person has to be 18 to buy a shotgun or rifle and 21 to buy a handgun. There are other federal restrictions, too, which are generally enforced using background checks. But as you'll see below, the background check system has more holes than the targets at a firing range.
2. Unlike a car, you don't need a license.
Every state in the U.S. requires a permit to operate a motor vehicle. But most don't require a permit to purchase or own a firearm. Just 14 states require a permit to own a gun, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and many of those laws don't cover rifles and shotguns.
3. Background checks are incomplete.
Gun dealers in the U.S. who are licensed by the federal government are required to run an FBI background check before selling someone a weapon. These background checks are meant to catch people banned from purchasing a gun under federal law, and includes:

● anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year in prison
● fugitives
● anyone found dangerous or incompetent due to mental illness
● anyone dishonorably discharged from the military
● anyone subject to certain kinds of restraining order
● anyone convicted of domestic violence

The man who killed 32 people and injured 17 at Virginia Tech in 2007 shouldn't have been able to purchase the handguns he used in the massacre because a Virginia court had declared him a danger to himself. But gaps in the reporting process let him slip through the cracks.

The Virginia Tech massacre led to legislation, signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2008, aimed at closing loopholes in background checks. But there are still major gaps, according to a 2014 report by the gun safety advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.

"Many states report only a subset of all prohibiting records, for example reporting mental health commitments but not other court findings that a person poses a danger to the public," the report said.
4. If a background check takes more than three days, you can still buy a weapon.
The FBI has three days to complete a criminal background check on a person who wants to buy a gun. If the bureau cannot complete the check in three days - because of problems getting records from states, budget shortfalls, or understaffing, for example - the person can buy the weapon. It's a fail-open system, and it makes no sense.

The Nazi sympathizer who killed nine people at a black church in Charleston, S.C., last year should not have been able to purchase the handgun he used because he had previously admitted to drug possession, according to The New York Times. But the gun seller didn't get an answer back from the FBI background check within three days; on the fourth day, the future killer walked away with a Glock 41 .45-caliber handgun.
5. Suspected terrorists can buy weapons, even with a full background check.
As you can see above, the list of people barred from purchasing a gun under federal law isn't short. But there's one notable exception: suspected terrorists.

Some members of Congress tried to plug that loophole after an attack in San Bernardino, Calif., last December left 14 dead. But the measure failed in a vote that largely split along party lines.

But after Orlando, and a 15-hour filibuster by Sen. Chris Murphy (D - Conn.) last Wednesday (June 15), Congress is once again considering bills that aim to limit suspected terrorists' access to firearms.

It's worth noting that some left-leaning groups, like the American Civil Liberties Union, have been critical of this approach because of what they say are flaws in terrorism watch lists.
6. 'Individual sellers' don't have to do background checks at all.
So-called "private sellers" - friends, relatives, and collectors, for example - don't have to do background checks under federal law. This loophole is commonly called the "gun show loophole" because these kinds of sellers often frequent gun shows. But, as Vox pointed out earlier this year, that's a misnomer; licensed gun dealers still have to perform background checks at gun shows.

Some states do require background checks for private sales, at least on handguns. They're not required under federal law, and many states don't require them, either.
7. Guns are easily available on the internet.
The internet has opened up news ways for people to purchase guns. Private sellers can usually ship within their own state without doing a background check. To ship to another state (called "interstate sales"), they have to use a licensed dealer as an intermediary. In those cases, the dealer must do a background check, as licensed dealers always have to do a background check, online and off. Last year, however, a reporter at Wired Magazine built his own semiautomatic assault rifle with parts and equipment he bought online.

Related: 5 Things That Are Harder to Get in America Than a Gun

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7 Reasons It's So Easy to Buy a Gun in the U.S.

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Editor's note: This story was first published on June 13, 2016, shortly after the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Miami, Florida, that killed 50 people. The monstrous shooting at Pulse, an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida, two Sundays ago has brought America's lax gun laws back into tragic focus.

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NRA SPOKESWOMAN DANA LOESCH ON MASS SHOOTING

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NRA SPOKESWOMAN DANA LOESCH ON MASS SHOOTING

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WATCH, LISTEN & UNDERSTAND

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National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch said Thursday that the media exploits mass shooting to capitalize on ratings.

"Many in legacy media love mass shootings," Loesch said after walking on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference to a standing ovation. "I'm not saying you love the tragedy, but you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold."

Her comments echoed a video that NRATV released Wednesday, which slammed the mainstream media for being the "casting call for the next mass shooting." Loesch also said she is debuting a one-hour show on NRATV next month to combat the mainstream media.

Her comments at CPAC were also reminiscent of some President Donald Trump has made. The president regularly claims that news outlets such as CNN and NBC News spread mistruths about him and his administration in order to boost ratings.

"The mainstream media love mass shootings. I'm going to say it again; the mainstream media love mass shootings...and you, the #MSM, just put out the casting call for the next mass shooter." @MrColionNoir #NRA pic.twitter.com/1XtqVoA23l
- NRATV (@NRATV) February 22, 2018

Loesch said it's not up to the NRA to protect children from gun violence.

"A failure of law enforcement is not a failure of the law, it is a failure of enforcement," she said, blaming the FBI for "dropping the ball" by not acting on a tip it had received about the suspect in last week's massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

"We have resources available at anyone's disposal if they want to reinforce their schools, but I'll say it again loud and clear: We're parents too," she said.

Loesch also appeared at a CNN town hall event Wednesday night to discuss gun violence. She told survivors of the Parkland shooting that she was "fighting" for them and defended herself by saying people who are "nuts" should not be allowed to buy guns.

Many in the crowd of about 7,000 people booed her, and Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, who was on stage beside her, challenged her.

"I understand that you're standing up for the NRA ... but you just told this group of people that you're standing up for them," he said. "You are not standing up for them until you say, 'I want less weapons.'"

Loeasch said during her CPAC appearance that she needed a security detail to exit the town hall because people rushed the stage and threatened her.

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NRA's Dana Loesch: 'Many In Legacy Media Love Mass Shootings'

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National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch said Thursday that the media exploits mass shooting to capitalize on ratings. "Many in legacy media love mass shootings," Loesch said after walking on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference to a standing ovation. "I'm not saying you love the tragedy, but you love the ratings.

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Third-graders are selling AR-15 raffle tickets in Missouri

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Third-graders are selling AR-15 raffle tickets in Missouri

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READ & UNDERSTAND

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Third-graders in a Missouri community are continuing to sell raffle tickets for an AR-15 to benefit their traveling baseball team after the same type of rifle was used to slaughter and injure dozens at a Florida school.

Levi Patterson, the coach of a 9-and-under baseball team in Neosho, Mo., told The Star the idea was conceived before the shooting in Parkland, Fla.

A father of one of the players - who co-founded Black Rain Ordnance Inc., a weapons purveyor in Neosho - offered the weapon for the raffle.

Patterson said by phone Saturday that he considered finding a different raffle item after Wednesday's mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, but ultimately decided to "turn it into a positive thing" after "getting the hate."

"One of the people from the hate group turned in (a Facebook post about the raffle) for I don't know what," Patterson said. The post had shown a weapon next to the school logo, leading to fierce criticism by some until Facebook removed the post, according to Patterson.

After this story was published, Patterson said he mistakenly said the critics were part of a hate group. He said he does not view them as a hate group but as a concerned group that has "every right to stand up for what they believe in."

"I applaud them for standing up for what they believe in. I just think they have feelings to this specific type of gun (that are) different than people around here do," he said.

Patterson said donations have poured in as the criticism reached a peak following the Florida shooting; people from as far away as Colorado offered to buy tickets on Facebook.

The perpetrator in Florida killed 17 people and injured at least 14 with an AR-15 in six minutes.

"Are you all tone deaf?" wrote Dan Weaver in a comment on Patterson's page. "AR15 kills seventeen so you raffle a gun for child sports? Lord, people wake the hell up. Justify all you want but you are wrong, period."

Patterson responded by writing that "gun raffles have been going on for years. Evil has and will always exist. Our hearts break for those involved, and we do not take that lightly."

He also told The Star that he was not making a political statement with the raffle item. It was simply what had been offered by Black Rain.

He said critics view the weapon as a "killing machine."

On Wednesday, Patterson took to Facebook to fire back at the "concerned group" critical of the raffle.

"We appreciate your 'concern' but please understand, we are not, have not, and will not force one of our boys to sell raffle tickets for the Black Rain AR15 Spec 15, if they are uncomfortable doing so," he wrote.

He told The Star that all the players, who range in age from 7 to 9, are selling the raffle tickets.

The raffle is not affiliated with the Neosho School District.

The winner must pass a background check before receiving the gun.

Lee Woodward, the principal of South Elementary School in Neosho, announced the raffle on her Facebook page and encouraged purchases to support the "9u Neosho baseball players, coaches, and parents." The post was made hours after the Florida shooting.

Woodward did not return a call or text to a phone number listed in her name.

Tyler Tannahill, a Republican congressional candidate from Kansas, also drew criticism this past week for offering an AR-15 giveaway as part of his campaign.

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Third-graders are selling AR-15 raffle tickets in Missouri

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Third-graders in a Missouri community are continuing to sell raffle tickets for an AR-15 to benefit their traveling baseball team after the same type of rifle was used to slaughter and injure dozens at a Florida school. Levi Patterson, the coach of a 9-and-under baseball team in Neosho, Mo., told The Star the idea was conceived before the shooting in Parkland, Fla.

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PRESENTATION

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READ & UNDERSTAND EMMA GONZALEZ 'S SPEECH

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WATCH, LISTEN, READ & UNDERSTAND TO EMMA GONZALEZ 'S SPEECH

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Florida student Emma Gonzalez to lawmakers and gun advocates: 'We call BS' | CNN

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Emma Gonzalez, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, addressed a gun control rally on Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, days after a gunman entered her school in nearby Parkland, killing 17 people.