Some Op-Eds and Letters to the Editor by Griffin Dix
“In 2003 California’s Governor signed a law requiring new semiautomatic handgun models to have a clear loaded-chamber indicator and a magazine disconnect safety. It was the strongest gun product safety legislation in the country, and because California was such a large market, the law made many of semiautomatic handguns sold in America safer.”
– America’s strongest handgun safety law, thanks to California
“The gun lobby claims that keeping records of gun purchases could lead to confiscation of firearms. This is the old smokescreen to hide the gun lobby’s primary goal, which is to sell as many guns as possible to anyone—including to criminals.”
– Gun lobby whistleblower warned against dancing with the devil
After Trayvon Martin’s death in Florida: “Three [gun industry] campaigns promised protection from violent crime. Instead, all three led to more gun-related crimes, deaths and injuries.”
– What loose gun laws have done
“A few blocks from the UC Berkeley campus, a group of young men asked Dartmouth student Meleia Willis-Starbuck and her old high school friends to party with them. They said no. Within minutes, bullets were fired. Meleia, a tenacious fighter for ‘at risk’ youth, was killed.”
– Gun violence tragedy in Berkeley / An exceptional life — cut short by an unexceptional bullet
“ATF crime-gun trace data show that only 1.2 percent of federally licensed gun dealers sell 57 percent of guns recovered in criminal investigations. In response, did Congress make gun-makers carefully monitor the dealers who sell their guns? No.”
– Why we will march on Mother’s Day
“The fear that the gun industry aroused in people has armed America and created a vicious cycle of lethal gun violence…”
– Gun violence and the marketing of fear
“With inspiration from a new generation of young activists, our nation is eager to require background checks on all gun buyers.”
– Senate should hold hearings on background checks
“During the Golden State Warriors fifth NBA finals, Coach Steve Kerr said, “I think the younger generation is our hope… My movement is the gun control and gun safety measures.”
– Warriors basketball coach Kerr, gun safety and tipping points
“H.R. 8, a bill in the U.S. Senate, is an attempt to improve enforcement of existing law. The “private sales” loophole that H.R. 8 would close, contributes to the death or injury of thousands of Americans every year.”
– Two gun bills for law and order go to the Senate
“California’s strong gun laws are helping save many lives. Since the peak U.S. and California firearm mortality rates of 1993, California’s rate has declined by 57% — more than double the reduction made in the rest of the nation.”
– Gun violence prevention in California: Successful, but more to do
Two young children from very different communities had both lost someone they loved in gun homicides. But when they began to talk with each other on FaceTime, they helped each other begin to cope. The book, Children Under Fire, by John Woodrow Cox is about the impact of gun violence on children.
– The impact of gun violence on children.
Distributed by Tribune News Service and published nationally in 23 newspapers or online media.
The real reason that some senators forced President Biden to withdraw his nomination for director of ATF wasn’t that the nominee was unqualified, and it wasn’t the Second Amendment; It was to make sure the gun industry can sell as many guns as possible, even to dangerous “prohibited persons” who cannot legally purchase them.
– Gun lobby pulls trigger on nominee
Distributed by Tribune News Service and published nationally in 13 newspapers or online media.
On Nov. 3, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the most significant firearms case in more than a decade. And it looks like it will rule in a way that ensures more deaths due to gun violence.
– A supreme threat of gun violence
Distributed by Tribune News Service and published nationally in 14 print and web media reaching 52,712,813 potential readers.
In 1995, when Ryan Busse began working for a tiny gun company, he believed that the gun industry and the NRA embodied wholesome values, he writes in his book, “Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America.” But from the mid-1990s until his resignation in 2020, he gradually saw the gun industry turn to spreading fear and conspiracy theories to sell military-style assault weapons designed to kill many people quickly. Busse’s book is the story of a man who refused to change his values as the NRA and much of his industry, blinded by profits, became a dangerous extremist force. – Gun industry exec turns whistleblower
Recent mass murders are the culmination of decades of lobbying and deceptive marketing by the gun industry. The most pervasive lie is that guns are a good means of protection. Compared to people without firearm access, those with access to firearms are about twice as likely to die in homicides, and three times as likely to die by suicide. Other lies include a misreading of the Second Amendment, and that requiring background checks on all gun sales would deprive law-abiding citizens of their freedom. – The gun industry’s six deadly lies
On June 23, 2022 the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for New York state to require gun owners to obtain a permit to carry a concealed handgun in public places. Fordham University historian Saul Cornell said the ruling was intellectual dishonesty and ignored basic legal historical method and well-established facts. The decision is likely to harm many people. Research by Stanford University law professor John Donohue, for example, found that within 10 years after states relaxed concealed-carry laws, violent crime rates increased by 13 to 15 percent. – Banning “Concealed Carry” Laws Is a Disaster
Mexico’s lawsuit against six U.S. gun makers and a wholesaler won in an appeals court. It argues that these companies violate U.S. laws by knowingly facilitating the trafficking of guns to drug cartels and other criminals in Mexico. This gun trade, it argues, contributed to enormous increases in gun homicides across the border. These companies’ unlawful conduct cost the Mexican government billions of dollars a year—including, in 2019, the direct costs to the injured, and the indirect physical, psychological and business costs from the 3.9 million crimes committed in Mexico that year with guns from the U.S. Armed with the defendant companies’ guns, “the cartels have aggressively marketed drugs such as fentanyl, destroying and ending lives in and outside of Mexico, including in the U.S.” This case is an eye opener.
Mexican Government Takes Legal Action Against Arizona Gun Shops
Before Republicans agreed to support President Biden’s $460 million spending bills that avoided a government shutdown, they demanded budget cuts to the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) of 6 percent and 7 percent, respectively. The Republican playbook rolls back existing firearm regulations and blocks new gun control laws. This will only worsen the gun violence they complain about.
–The Hypocrisy of Republicans’ Anti-Crime Rhetoric Distributed by Tribune News Service and published nationally in print and web media reaching 459,598 potential readers.
Letters to the editor New York Times
The Stop WOKE Act, a Florida law championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, bans from schools, books that discuss race, national origin, and sex if they could make students feel “discomfort.” This is like the 1950s McCarthy era, when my father was the principal author of The Freedom to Read Statement of the American Library Association. The ALA is circulating it now. It makes the case that, “The freedom to read is essential to our democracy.” The 1619 Project is a book the banners want to keep out of high schools—and even public libraries. An article in it explains that White Southern legislators insisted that New Deal programs exclude Blacks from most benefits. The resulting bank “redlining” meant that from 1934 to 1962, 98 percent of Federal Housing Authority-backed loans went to Whites. A recent study of redlining in 1930s Boston found a strong link to present day gun violence in redlined areas. Students are being dangerously indoctrinated unless they can learn about such structural racism.
–Republicans Fully Embrace McCarthy-Style Book Bans
“Gregory Gibson is so right that we dance around America’s gun-violence problem with inappropriate language. We hide from the reality that it could affect us.”
– Michael Bloomberg’s Bankroll
Distributed by Tribune News Service.
“[N]ow we’ll see which senators are for enforcing our laws, and which are for helping the gun industry sell guns — with no background checks — to criminals, domestic abusers and others.”
– ‘Tell Congress It’s Time to Step Up’ on Gun Control
Griffin Dix 