Revelations: Don’t Take Your Guns to Town
994 mass shootings in 1,004 days: this is what America’s gun crisis looks like (131)
Dream Defenders Stand Their Ground, Occupying the New Jim Crow
Dream Defenders and Trayvon Martin protesters take a stand in Sanford, FL. (Werth Media/Flickr) From In These Times: As nationwide protests erupted this July after a Florida jury acquitted George Zimmerman of murdering Trayvon Martin, President Obama asked Americans to exercise “calm reflection” and reminded demonstrators that “we are a…
Homicides soar in states with ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws
From Southern Studies: Many of the 22 states that have enacted “Stand Your Ground” self-defense laws — like the one at the center of the controversy over last year’s shooting death of unarmed Florida teen Trayvon Martin and the subsequent acquittal of shooter George Zimmerman — have experienced a dramatic…
New study finds vast online marketplace for guns without background checks
From WashingtonPost: The marketplace for firearms on the Internet, where buyers are not required to undergo background checks, is so vast that advocates for stricter regulations now consider online sales a greater threat than the gun show loophole. A new study by Third Way, a centrist think tank with close…
Florida Will Hold Hearings On ‘Stand Your Ground’ This Fall
From ThinkProgress: Will Weatherford, the Republican speaker of Florida’s House of Representatives, revealed on Friday that the state’s legislature will hold hearings on its infamous “Stand Your Ground” laws sometime this fall. While the announcement came buried in one sentence of a defensive opinion piece published this past Thursday in…
New plea for gun rights: NRA Petitions SCOTUS to Legalize Gun Sales to Minors
(Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi) The petition, with the lower court opinions attached, is now available, and can be read here. It is a large file. From ScotusBlog: The National Rifle Association and two individuals under the age of twenty-one have asked the Supreme Court to strike down a federal law that bans…