It is now almost one year since Tucson and the nation were traumatized by a gunman outside a Safeway. Six dead, including a nine-year-old girl. Thirteen wounded, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, whose courageous steps toward recovery inspire us all. Yet the gunfire continues, in communities across our nation. And the dying goes on.
Some would suggest that American gun violence is an intractable scourge, with obstacles to progress that are just too high and too numerous. The American people don't believe that, not for a minute. There is no better time to make that clear than January 8, 2012, the first anniversary of the Tucson shooting.
We urge people across this nation, in cities, suburbs and small towns, to join with the Brady Campaign, and many others on that day, to stand as one to remember the victims of American gun violence and to say, with one simple act, that we will no longer tolerate the relentless loss of innocent lives to gunfire.
That simple act is to light a candle. Join us by participating in a nationwide candlelight vigil, to proclaim that there have been too many victims of gun violence for our nation to endure.
You can sign up to host a vigil in your community, or simply to participate in a vigil hosted by others, at www.toomanyvictims.org. This new website also will allow you to post a message, photo or video of a loved one you may have lost to gun violence.
Vigils are being organized in more than 20 cities and more are joining every day. Vigils will occur from coast to coast, in every region of the country.
The "Too Many Victims" Candlelight Vigil is about people. It is about the mothers and fathers, the sisters and brothers, the husbands and wives, the children and grandchildren, taken too soon. It is about the ever-mounting toll of devastated families, shattered communities, dashed and deferred dreams. It is senseless. It is unnecessary. It must be stopped.
When we declare with our lights, our prayers, and our songs on January 8, 2012, that there are too many victims of gun violence, we serve notice that we will not allow our loved ones to be forgotten. We will not allow our just cause to be shelved as "too difficult". We will light a candle to affirm that every life is precious and worthy, and already, far too many have been lost.
If not now, when?
If not for the more than 12,000 Americans murdered with guns since Tucson, then for whom?
If not for the more than 410,000 murdered with guns since we lost John Lennon in 1980, then for whom?
If not for the more than 530,000 murdered with guns since we lost Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, then for whom?
America, in so many ways, is a beacon of light, hope and justice to many nations throughout the world. But when it comes to gun violence, America has shined few lights and generated far too little hope for change. Our gun homicide rate is 20 times the combined rates of other western, industrialized nations. This is a uniquely American problem. It is time for Americans to insist that the time for action has come.
Please join us at www.toomanyvictims.org to be part of this effort. Help us light the way to a new American future free of gun violence. Help us send a message that there have been far too many victims. In fact, let's send a message that one victim is too many.
On January 8, light a candle against the darkness of gun violence.
Dennis Henigan is the Acting President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the author of Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths that Paralyze American Gun Policy (Potomac Books 2009).
This item and previous entries also are posted at the Brady Blog.
Jeff Biggers: Review: One Year Later: A Safeway in Arizona by Tom Zoellner
Finally a member of the Brady Campaign understands the scope of what they’re up against. Rising public support of gun ownership, rising gun sales, a lack of funding for the Brady Campaign, and a lack of political support for their ineffective proposals.
December 15, 2010
The Guardian
Are Right-Wing Libertarian Internet Trolls Getting Paid to Dumb Down Online Conversations?
There are daily attempts to control and influence content in the interests of the state and corporations: attempts in which money talks.
Reading comment threads on the Guardian’s sites and elsewhere on the web, two patterns jump out at me. The first is that discussions of issues in which there’s little money at stake tend to be a lot more civilized than debates about issues where companies stand to lose or gain billions: such as climate change, public health and corporate tax avoidance. These are often characterized by amazing levels of abuse and disruption.
Articles about the environment are hit harder by such tactics than any others. I love debate, and I often wade into the threads beneath my columns. But it’s a depressing experience, as instead of contesting the issues I raise, many of those who disagree bombard me with infantile abuse, or just keep repeating a fiction, however often you discredit it. This ensures that an intelligent discussion is almost impossible - which appears to be the point.
The second pattern is the strong association between this tactic and a certain set of views: pro-corporate, anti-tax, anti-regulation. Both traditional conservatives and traditional progressives tend be more willing to discuss an issue than these right-wing libertarians, many of whom seek instead to shut down debate.
90 comments (counting this one), mostly pro-RKBA.
The medium is the message. It's over. We won; the grabbers lost. Nobody's paying attention to guns but the gun people.
This is as it should be, for the right to keep and bear arms is not a "progressive/conservative thing, or a Black/White thing, of a gay/straight thing. It's an American thing. Something we can all get behind, putting aside our differences. I suppose we can thank Mr. Henigan, and all the gun-grabbers, for they are bringing us together, about this at least.
http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/28/gun-crime-continues-to-decrease-despite-increase-in-gun-ownership/
Happy New Year. Our resolution to to work harder to preserve, protect and defend the Constitutional RKBA.
Gotta love the nanny state.
http://extranosalley.com/?p=11266
If you are joking, it's friggin' HILARIOUS!
If you are serious OMG they really have hit rock bottom.
Henigan, it is quite possible for "gun violence" to be a good thing. Here is an example.
But it does add to the misrepresented 'body count' and keeps the Joyce Foundation money coming in.
Can't we at least ban assualt type candles?
I usually do a lever 45-70 and a SSA 44 mag. myself.
Wow Denny, how the mighty have fallen......
All that, and the winner would have to undergo a thorough background check and wait 5 days before he could inevitably go on a shooting spree.
It looks so scary, though!
We depend on these fringe rants to remind ourselves that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance
The other side uses endless qualifiers, nuance and disingenuous, twisted, warped and barely recognizable versions of the "truth" and steadfastly refuses to acknowledge any positive defensive gun uses.
Hopefully, anyone with the critical thinking skills of a twelve year old can see the difference.
Unfortunately, it's quite obvious that some people can't. It appears that Hennigan's appeals are sometimes successful in duping otherwise intelligent people into responding emotionally as opposed to logically. Thankfully, their numbers are small and shrinking.
Were it not for funding from the Joyce Foundation the VPC would quickly become a nonentity, unable to pay $1.99 per year for space for their website.
Never forget folks... Hennigan has spoken out in favor of suspending due process for persons who the government thinks might be suspicious. He not only hates the second amendment, he has a notable lack of respect for the fourth amendment as well.
You know, the whole "indefinite detention" unconstitutional monstrosity issue? Yeah, that, so do you support Obama signing it or not?