Week in Review

February 2, 2018

On Monday, Gabby Giffords took to Twitter, calling on President Trump to acknowledge America’s gun violence epidemic in his State of the Union Address. In her thread, Gabby illustrated how gun violence is impacting the nation, pointed to solutions that will save lives, and challenged the president to tell us how he will address this crisis.

While he began his remarks on Tuesday night by mentioning mass shootings, for the remaining 75 minutes Trump failed to detail even one policy solution to address America’s gun violence crisis. The gun violence prevention movement took note – and demanded that he start taking responsibility for enacting solutions.

Read reactions from the GVP community:

After his speech, the NRA tweeted a congratulatory message at President Trump, and called on him to pass concealed carry reciprocity. In her statement, Gabby Giffords pointed out that President Trump called on Congress to show our law enforcement officers “total and unwavering support.” Giffords said Trump should practice what he preaches by listening to every major law enforcement organization and rejecting policy that mandates concealed carry reciprocity.

Los Angeles Times | Warrants in Las Vegas Mass Shooting Reveal Additional ‘Person of Interest’ : Authorities are looking into an additional “person of interest” following the mass shooting in Las Vegas that killed 58 people and wounded hundreds of others, according to search warrants unsealed by a Nevada judge Tuesday.
Rolling Stone | Maren Morris on Gun Control: ‘Get Brave and Talk About It’ : Hours before the 2017 Grammy Awards, Morris broke ranks with country music’s conservative wing and opened up on the red carpet to discuss gun violence in America. “We need to protect ourselves and our children,” she said, “And I want the county music community to get brave and talk about it.”
The Trace | TSA Confiscated a Record Number of Guns From Travelers in 2017 : The Transportation Security Administration, the federal agency that oversees security at American airports, confiscated 3,957 firearms from travelers’ carry-on bags in 2017. A full 84 percent of guns seized from carry-ons in 2017 were loaded, and 35 percent had a round chambered.
Salon | NRATV Host: Preventing the Vegas shooter from buying 47 guns would have been “unacceptable” : Grant Stinchfield doesn’t believe there is any “common sense” in passing legislation that would have stopped Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, who purchased 33 guns in the last year of his life, from buying more weapons. He noted that any such proposals would also be unfair to the public, and gun owners.
Huffington Post | Public Outrage Over Mass Shootings Is Running On Empty : When it comes to gun violence, we’ve become numb. Blame the media, blame Trump, blame “compassion fatigue.”
U.S. News | Kentucky Shooting Fuels Debate on Allowing Guns in Schools : Guns have no place in our nation’s schools—but in the wake of last week’s deadly school shooting in Kentucky, some legislators want more, not less, guns on school grounds.
CBS News | Grandmother fights gun violence in Chicago, one checkmate at a time : One-hundred and eighty-seven people have been shot in Chicago so far this year. Now, a woman touched by gun violence is helping shield kids from danger, taking them from some of the toughest blocks to some of the friendliest squares.
Salon | Hope on guns? States are starting to take them away from abusers : Laws keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers were passed in seven states last year—even in states with strong gun cultures like Louisiana and Utah.

Lexington Herald Leader | The NRA has gone fanatic. Can it return to its sportsman roots? : “I am a former Army major and a gun owner, but I am now almost embarrassed to admit that I ever was an NRA member. It is very clear to me that our society needs to put at least as much oversight on owning and using a semi-automatic rifle or handgun as we do on owning and driving a car.”
Washington Post | Keeping guns out of children’s hands should not be this hard : How many more school shootings need to occur before steps are taken to try to keep guns out of troubled young hands? A fatal shooting in Kentucky underscores the need for better laws.
Courier Journal | We Need Strict Gun Laws to Stop Killings, Says Paducah School Shooting Survivor : “On the days following another school shooting, I am back in the lobby of Heath High School on Dec. 1, 1997. I am 14 years old again, lying prone on the floor watching blood spatter on the cold tile floor in front of me.”
GVPedia | Debunking Alternative Facts About Gun Violence : “Alternative facts. Fake news. Post-truth. America seems to be awash in misinformation. Perhaps in no other space is this deception felt more keenly than in America’s gun debate.”
Saratogian | Cynthia Tucker: Congress continues to ignore gun violence : “There is no other country on the planet that tolerates gun violence as we do. We have about five percent of the world’s population, but we account for 31 percent of the world’s mass shootings.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | Gun violence should spur social examination : “The U.S. is exceptional in the frequency of its gun violence. In a comparison with 22 other high-income countries, the U.S. gun-related murder rate was 25 times higher.”
Ms. Magazine | We Have the Tools to Help Young Women Survive This Gun Violence Epidemic : “In 2016, nearly 3,300 women and girls died by firearm suicide—nine every single day. We can change that.”

National Center for Biotechnology Information | Gun Shows Increase Local Firearm Injuries : Gun shows in Nevada were associated with more firearm related violence in nearby California. In contrast, potentially due to stricter gun laws in California, gun shows there did not correlate with increased gun violence locally.
Center for American Progress | Beyond Our Borders : How weak U.S. gun laws contribute to violent crime abroad.

California | San Francisco Report Finds Increase In Domestic Violence Involving Guns, Knives : Officials acknowledged an increase in domestic violence incidents involving weapons, highlighting the need for a program to ensure offenders prohibited from owning firearms surrender them to authorities.
Florida | Operation Ceasefire targets those at risk of gun violence in Pine Hills : Proven community-based violence intervention and prevention programs help save lives from gun violence.
Illinois | Economist: Giving more money to Chicago schools could significantly reduce violence : Chicago’s troubling homicide rate could be significantly reduced through a massive increase in state spending for Chicago schools. That’s just one of the proposals floated Monday by a prominent University of Chicago economist.
Louisiana | Words could take guns from Louisiana’s domestic violence offenders : Surrender? Divestiture? Relinquishment? Which word should the state use to confiscate guns from people convicted of domestic violence without offending gun users and their powerful lobbyists? That is a question with which the state Domestic Violence Prevention Commission has been struggling, and it has now made its choice: relinquishment.
Maryland | State Democrats unveil two bills on gun laws : Maryland Democrats have announced a pair of measures they say will help protect residents from gun violence. One of the measures highlighted Thursday would ban bump stocks. Another measure would repeal the state’s Handgun Permit Review Board and turn its functions over to administrative law judges.
Massachusetts | Bump Stock Ban Took Effect on February 1 : A Massachusetts law banning devices designed to make semi-automatic rifles mimic the firing action of fully automatic weapons went into effect this week. Massachusetts State Police said as of Thursday, people will be prohibited from possessing bump stocks under all circumstances.
Michigan | GOP lawmakers back school in opposing bill to allow guns in schools: State Reps. Rob VerHeulen, R-Walker, and Chris Afendoulis, R-Grand Rapids Township, are not crazy about concealed weapons legislation passed by the Michigan Senate in November.
New Jersey | NRA-Backed Rep. Frelinghuysen Decides Not to Run in 2018 : Powerful chairman of House Appropriations committee retires, joining Republican exodus from Congress.
New York | Ortiz wants to ban ‘bump stocks’ in New York; says device makes rifles ‘like machine guns’ : While using a bump stock is illegal in New York, owning or selling one is not. The proposed amendment would close this loophole, prohibiting the “possession, manufacture, transport or shipment and sale” of bump stocks.
South Carolina | Permitless carry bill to be heard by state Senate Judiciary Committee : The state Senate Judiciary Committee heard a bill this week that would not require lawful gun owners in South Carolina to obtain a concealed weapons permit before carrying their weapon in a public place.
Virginia | While Governor decries gun violence, state Senate OKs guns in churches : Lamenting the fact that more than 900 Virginians were killed by guns last year, Gov. Ralph S. Northam said Tuesday that the state should do more to restrict the proliferation of firearms. Just hours later, however, the state Senate passed a bill that would allow people to bring guns and knives to churches and other places of worship.

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