‘Evil’ like Texas massacre a reason to arm, not disarm: Trump

Former US president Donald Trump rejected calls for tightened gun controls Friday following the Texas school massacre, saying decent Americans should be allowed the firearms they need to defend themselves against "evil." 

"The existence of evil in our world is not a reason to disarm law-abiding citizens... The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens," he told members of the National Rifle Association.

Trump's remarks came as he headlined an NRA event in Houston, three days after a gun massacre at a Texas elementary school reignited the tinderbox debate about US gun control.

"The various gun control policies being pushed by the left would have done nothing to prevent the horror that took place. Absolutely nothing," he said.An 18-year-old gunman with a legally-bought AR-15-style rifle killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, marking the deadliest school shooting in the state's history.

Trump read out the names of all 19 children, whom he described as victims of an out-of-control "lunatic," before suggesting that efforts at gun control were "grotesque." 

"All of us must unite, Republican and Democrat -- in every state, and at every level of government -- to finally harden our schools and protect our children... What we need now is a top-to-bottom security overhaul at schools across this country," he added.

Multiple speakers, including Texas Governor Greg Abbott, pulled out of the event after the murders but Trump confirmed on Wednesday he would not be canceling his appearance at the NRA's annual "Leadership Forum."

President Joe Biden, who upbraided the US gun lobby in the wake of the shootings, is due in Uvalde on Sunday with first lady Jill Biden to "grieve with the community," White House officials said.

The NRA is considered the most powerful gun rights organization in the country, although its influence has waned as it has become mired in legal battles linked to a corruption scandal.

It has rejected most initiatives to prevent mass shootings, including expanded background checks on gun purchases, although it said ahead of Trump's speech that audience members would not be allowed to carry firearms.

Republicans in Washington have suggested "hardening" schools with beefed up security -- including armed guards posted at a single entry and exit point -- rather than restrictions on gun ownership. 

They have also spoken of the need to focus on mental health, although critics point out that other nations with stricter gun controls face the same issues and don't see regular mass shootings.

There have been 214 mass shootings this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive. 

They include a racist massacre at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, just 10 days before the Texas killings.

Agence France-Presse

Florida lawmakers pass gun-school safety bill three weeks after massacre

PARKLAND, Fla. — Florida state lawmakers gave final passage on Wednesday to a gun-safety package that raises the legal age for buying rifles and imposes a three-day waiting period on all firearms sales, while also allowing the arming of some public school personnel.

The bill was spurred by the shooting rampage three weeks ago that left 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and led to an extraordinary lobbying campaign by young survivors of the massacre.

But the legislation, while containing a number of provisions student activists and their parents had embraced, left out one of their chief demands — a ban on assault-style weapons like the one used in the February 14 massacre.

Supporters have defended the bill saying most school shootings are committed with handguns.

The bill also overcame strenuous objections to provisions permitting school staff to carry guns on the job — a measure critics see as posing a particular risk to minority students who they say as more likely to be shot in the heat of a disciplinary situation or if mistaken as an intruder.


Swift action in the Republican-controlled statehouse, where the National Rifle Association has long held sway, signaled a possible turning point in the national debate between gun control advocates and proponents of firearms rights enshrined in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The measure narrowly cleared the state Senate on Monday and was sent to the desk of Governor Rick Scott, also a Republican, on Wednesday’s 67-50 vote in the Florida House of Representatives.

The bill automatically becomes law within 15 days unless the governor vetoes it. A spokeswoman for Scott said on Tuesday he had not yet decided whether to support the bill.

As legislators debated in Tallahassee, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos visited Stoneman Douglas on the first full day of classes since the shooting.

source: interaksyon.com

Bank of America takes aim at gun-making clients; partners cut cord with NRA over gun control row

Bank of America Corp on Saturday became the latest financial heavyweight to take aim at gunmakers, saying it would ask clients who make assault rifles how they can help end mass shootings like last week’s massacre at a Florida high school.

Bank of America, the second-biggest US bank by assets, said its request to makers of the military-style weapons was in line with those taken by other financial industry companies to help prevent deadly gun rampages.

“An immediate step we’re taking is to engage the limited number of clients we have that manufacture assault weapons for non-military use to understand what they can contribute to this shared responsibility,” the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said in a statement.

It did not name the clients who make assault rifles. The weapons have been widely used in US mass shootings, including the one on Feb. 14 that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The Bank of America move came after BlackRock Inc, the world’s biggest asset manager, said on Thursday it would speak with weapons manufacturers and distributors “to understand their response” to the high school massacre.


The First National Bank of Omaha has said it will not renew a contract with the National Rifle Association to issue a NRA-branded Visa card. The lender was among several corporate partners that have cut marketing ties with the powerful gun lobby in recent days.

PARTNERS CUT CORD WITH N.R.A.

Earlier on Friday, the fallout over last week’s shooting in Florida started to take its toll on the NRAn’s roster of corporate partners as a half dozen companies severed marketing ties with the gun advocacy organization.

The exodus of corporate names, ranging from a major insurer to car rental brands and a household moving company, occurred after the NRA launched a counter-offensive against a student-led campaign for tighter US gun ownership laws.

At the same time, gun control activists are stepping up pressure on Amazon.com Inc and other online streaming platforms to drop the online video channel NRATV, featuring gun-friendly programming produced by the NRA.

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, founded after 20 first-graders were shot and killed at a Connecticut school in 2012, sent letters to Apple Inc, AT&T Inc, Amazon, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Roku Inc on Friday, asking them to drop NRATV from their platforms.

“We have been just disgusted by NRATV since its beginning,” Shannon Watts, founder of the Moms Demand Action group, told Reuters. “It tries to pit Americans against one another, all in an attempt to further their agenda of selling guns.”

AT&T said it does not carry NRATV. None of the other companies immediately responded to requests for comment.

The issue of gun control, and the NRA’s role in opposing it, became the focus of renewed national debate on Feb. 14, when a former student killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, with an AR-15 assault rifle he had purchased legally.

The U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment protects the right of Americans to bear arms. The NRA, which has long used campaign donations and effective lobbying to command political influence, argues that stricter gun control would erode individual rights. The group has not commented on companies cutting ties.

Angry student survivors of the shooting have confronted politicians from state lawmakers to U.S. President Donald Trump himself, demanding stricter gun control laws.

In response, the NRA and Trump have suggested arming teachers who have received training to deter attackers, a proposal that has been met with skepticism by teachers unions and gun violence experts.

TRENDING ON TWITTER

Before the corporate defections, nearly two dozen companies nationwide had offered incentives to NRA members, according to ThinkProgress.com, a news site owned by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

The attrition started late Thursday when three rental car brands owned by Enterprise Holdings Inc said they were ending discount programs, and First National Bank of Omaha said it would not renew the NRA’s contract to issue a co-branded Visa card.

By Friday, the list of defectors expanded to include Symantec Corp, which ended an discount program for its LifeLock identity theft product. Home security company SimpliSafe and Hertz Corp also terminated discount programs.

Chubb Ltd said it would stop underwriting a NRA-branded insurance policy for gun owners that covers legal costs in self-defense shootings. Another insurer, MetLife Inc, also said it had ended an auto and home incentive program for NRA members. And North American Van Lines said it was scrapping its an affiliate relationship with the NRA.

David Hogg, one of the student survivors of last week’s attack who launched the #NeverAgain anti-gun violence movement, said the students would target any company with ties to the NRA, in addition to lawmakers who accept donations.

About a dozen other companies with marketing ties to the NRA, including FedEx Corp and Hertz, which offer discount programs, did not respond to requests for comment.

SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS

Activists have also called on public pension funds to divest from gun maker stocks, which were broadly lower on Friday.

Meanwhile, an online campaign using the Twitter hashtag #StopNRAmazon picked up steam, putting pressure on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to drop the channel. Many of those tweeting are in the entertainment industry.

“Ironic how the @NRA likes to point a finger at what kids watch on TV … while they spew vile rhetoric on NRAtv, streamed on @Amazon and aimed solely at boosting gun sales,” wrote screenwriter Randi Mayem Singer.

Moms Demand Action, which sent the letters to the streaming platform, also posted an online petition using the hashtag #DumpNRATV.

“To be affiliated with them, whether you are a company or a lawmaker, it is not going to pay off in the long run,” said Watts, the group’s founder, signaling the start of a broader campaign. “Doing business with the NRA is clearly bad business.”

The target of its ire is NRATV, which describes itself as “America’s Most Patriotic Team on a Mission to Take Back The Truth.” The channel features programming that leans heavily on speeches by NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre and spokeswoman Dana Loesch.

Yet another campaign, using the hashtag #BoycottNRA, was the top trending topic on Twitter on Friday morning.

The push is the latest effort by social activists to use social media to apply economic pressure to force change.
Last April, Fox News parted ways with television host Bill O‘Reilly when sponsors started to drop his show in the wake of sexual harassment allegations against him.

Similarly the National Football League announced a tougher policy on handling domestic violence accusations against players when its marketing partners applied pressure for changes.

source: interaksyon.com

Oregon gunman in massacre had cache of 13 weapons, US agent says

ROSEBURG, OREGON - The Oregon gunman who carried out an execution-style massacre at a college classroom had a cache of 13 weapons, body armor and ammunition, authorities said on Friday as they sought a motive for the bloodiest US mass shooting this year.

Celinez Nunez, assistant special agent of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, disclosed the cache as details emerged about the suspect in Thursday's rampage at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, about 180 miles (290 km) south of Portland.

Six of the guns, plus body armor and five magazines of ammunition were recovered from the campus where the gunman stormed into a classroom, killing nine people before he was shot dead by police, Nunez told a news conference.

Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin declined to name the gunman, saying, “Again, you will not hear anyone from this law enforcement operation use his name. I continue to believe that those media and community members who publicize his name will only glorify his horrific actions. And eventually, this will only serve to inspire a future shooter."

Law enforcement sources confirmed reports identifying the suspect as Chris Harper-Mercer, 26.

The gunman shot a professor and then ordered cowering students to stand up and state their religion before he shot them one by one, according to survivors' accounts.

Another seven guns and a significant stockpile of ammunition were found at the apartment he shared with his mother in nearby Winchester, about 170 miles (273 km) south of Portland, Nunez said.

Although authorities have disclosed scant information about the gunman, they appeared to be learning more about him and why he might have opened fire.

The shooter left behind a "multipage, hate-filled" statement in the classroom, according to a tweet from an NBC reporter, citing multiple law enforcement sources who were not identified. Citing unspecified sources, CNN said the statement showed animosity toward blacks.

Hanlin declined to comment when asked about the writings at a news conference.

Harper-Mercer, who identified himself on a blog post as "mixed race," enlisted in the US Army and served for about a month in 2008 before being discharged for failing to meet administrative standards, military records showed.

A man identifying himself as the gunman's father Ian Mercer told reporters outside his home in Los Angeles on Thursday night, "It's been a devastating day, devastating for me and my family."

At some point of his life, Harper-Mercer appears to have been sympathetic to the Irish Republican Army, a militant group that waged a violent campaign to drive the British from Northern Ireland. On an undated Myspace page, he posted photos of masked IRA gunmen carrying assault rifles.

Harper-Mercer was born in the United Kingdom and arrived in the United States as a young boy, his stepsister Carmen Nesnick told CBS Los Angeles.

After the shooting, Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg received 10 patients, including one who died in the emergency room, hospital officials told reporters on Friday. Three were transported to other facilities because they needed a higher level of care, four required surgery, and two were treated and released. All were treated for gunshot wounds.

Gun control debate
The violence, the latest in a series of high-profile mass killings across the country, has fueled demands for stricter gun control in the United States.

Not counting Thursday's incident, 293 US mass shootings have been reported this year, according to the Mass Shooting Tracker website, a crowd-sourced database kept by anti-gun activists that logs events in which four or more people are shot.

Hours after Thursday's shooting, a visibly frustrated President Barack Obama urged Americans to press their elected leaders to enact tougher firearms safety laws.

"Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here, at this podium, ends up being routine," he said. "We’ve become numb to this."

Gun control advocates say easy access to firearms is a major factor in the shooting epidemic, while the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun advocates say the Second Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees Americans the right to bear arms.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown declined in television interviews on Friday morning to discuss gun control, as did the sheriff, and both said it was a time for healing the community.

A month after the December 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, Hanlin wrote a sharply worded letter to Vice President Joe Biden saying he would never enforce a federal law that violates the Constitution.

"Gun control is NOT the answer to preventing heinous crimes like school shootings," Hanlin wrote in the letter, dated Jan. 15, 2013. (Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington; Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago; Jane Ross in Roseburg; Shelby Sebens in Portland, and Katie Reilly and Angela Moon in New York)

source: interaksyon.com