Tag: National Rifle Association

Mass shooter in action

Posted on by kathiemm

By guest author Dr. Mike Corgan

“Run, Hide, Fight” is a new reality police video promulgated by the Boston University Police for the BU community.

The film, featured on some local news programs, is a powerfully realistic depiction of what could happen if a mass shooter went into action on the campus.

The instructions are clear and disturbing. Learn escape routes from your office. If you sense that an incident like the Aurora theater shooting is occurring. run away, even if others  are too scared to do so. If running isn’t possible, hide or barricade yourself into a secure and presumably bulletproof  area. Finally, be prepared to fight as best you can if trapped.

Is this the stuff of some latter-day paranoid McCarthyite fantasy? Alas, as recent events have all too graphically shown, mass shootings can and do occur anywhere.

Unfortunately, we as a citizenry can’t do much in advance about gunmen intent on violently settling grievances, then adding random killings to their spree.

But we can do something about the amount of killing taking place. So can the National Rifle Association (NRA).

The Second Amendment protects the right to “keep and bear arms” but like others in the Bill of Rights, this right is not absolute. You can’t own a machine gun or many other military grade weapons. Problem is the NRA tries to keep the prohibited list as small as possible and even shrink it.

It is the military grade weaponry (e.g., 100-round magazines for semi-automatic assault-type rifles easily  converted to full automatic firing) that make the mass killings possible. Without abrogating the Second Amendment, we can do something about that.

The NRA is fond of using the “slippery slope” metaphor to argue that any restriction on gun ownership is a step to confiscation.

That argument works the other way, too. The continued loosening of gun laws can also lead–and has certainly already led–to mass killings that have become far too abundant.

Michael T. Corgan, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of International Relations, Boston University

The Constitution corrupted, Part 2

Posted on by kathiemm

In my last post, I considered one factor contributing to mass violence—a form of domestic terrorism–in the United States. That factor is the corrupting of the U.S. Constitution by extremist right wing groups—often supported by and aligned with the National Rifle Association.

U.S. Bill of Rights
U.S. Bill of Rights. Image in public domain.

This post provides further examples of the distorted versions of Constitutional Amendments promoted by these groups, as well as examples of real Amendments they would like to nullify all together.

A)     Here are DISTORTED versions of real amendments:

Amendment 7.  Anyone can be incarcerated for any suspected crime and anyone can be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law because the country is in a continuous state of public danger;

Amendment 8. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury unless such a trial could prove embarrassing to those in power or their supporters;

In addition to several of the first 10 Amendments (the Bill of Rights) to the Constitution, there are several other Amendments that right wing extremists would like to gut, and already often ignore.

B)     Here are some REAL Constitutional amendments under attack from right wing extremists (see, for example):

Amendment 14. Citizenship cannot be denied on the basis of skin color and all citizens are guaranteed equal rights and equal protection under the law—even in the face of resistance by individual states and local communities.

Amendment 15. The right to vote cannot be denied on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Trying to destroy basic Constitutional protections because they do not promote your own interests, values, and prejudices is the opposite of true conservatism.

The right wing extremists, the neo-nazis, the white supremacists are not conservatives. They do not want to conserve or preserve the Constitution or democracy. They cloak their hateful agenda in distorted versions of Constitutional Amendments framed as justifications of personal freedom to dominate and terrorize.

As for Amendments designed to promote social justice and equality, the preference of those right wing extremists is to shoot them down, just like other obstacles.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

How many times must the cannonballs fly?

Posted on by kathiemm

Ban the bombs…all of them.

Nuclear weapons:  The United States is the only nation in the world that has dropped atomic weapons onto a civilian population. Right now it has a stockpile of about 5,000 nuclear weapons, many of which can be launched within 15 minutes.

Cluster bombs:  The U.S. dropped thousands of cluster bombs (weapons that kill large numbers of civilians, even after an armed conflict has ended) in Southeast Asia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. An international Convention on Cluster Munitions, sponsored by the United Nations, entered into force in 2010, yet the U.S.–along with Russia, China, and several other states–has been unwilling to sign the agreement. (See Feickert and Kerr [opens in pdf]).

Landmines:  The U.S. refuses to join its NATO allies and many other nations in banning the use of landmines.

Drones:  In secret meetings, the U.S. identifies individuals around the world as threats, then uses drones to kill them without trial or benefit from counsel.

Illicit arms sales:  A recent effort by the United Nations to establish an Arm Trades convention to help stop the illicit international sales of weapons failed in part because the U.S. government refused to sign off on the draft treaty. The National Rifle Association proudly takes responsibility for killing the agreement.

What can you do to help stop the U.S. government from acting like the world’s chief thug?

You can read The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb by Philip Taubman (see review).

You can support and volunteer for non-profits that strive to move the U.S. away from its preoccupation with power and destruction towards one of conflict resolution, reconciliation, social justice, and cooperation.

Engaging Peace, Inc. is one such organization, and we welcome your support in the form of reading and commenting on the blog, subscribing to the newsletter, as well as your financial donations.

In addition to Engaging Peace, here are some other groups you may want to learn about:

Please get involved in working to end the country’s headlong rush down the road to death for all.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

How many deaths will it take?

Posted on by kathiemm

“How many deaths will it take?” In how many places within the United States and abroad?

Aurora, Colorado? Tucson, Arizona? Virginia Tech? Columbine? The University of Texas tower?

Nagasaki? Korea? Vietnam? Grenada? Panama? Iraq? Afghanistan? Pakistan?

NRA headquarters
NRA headquarters. Photo by Bjoertvedt, used under CC Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

The answer, my friend, according to the corporate media, is that the number of deaths and injuries inflicted on Americans by Americans will grow without end because the National Rifle Association owns the government.

Another answer is that the number of deaths–mostly civilians–that Americans inflict around the world will grow without end because of

  • Fear promoted by the power structure
  • Glorification of violence in the media
  • National enthrallment with punishment, and
  • Belief in American exceptionalism to be defended at all costs.

How many roads must people walk down before they will choose civility and discourse over violence? Peace over war? Justice over guns? Humanity over profits?

For people who profit from the weapons business and gain power from manipulating fear, the rewards for making weapons available to individuals, groups, and nations far outweigh the costs.

According to The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), in 2010, Lockheed Martin, the biggest arms producer and military service company in the world, grossed $35.7 billion from arms sales.

Among the 100 top arms producers, 44 US-based companies accounted for over 60% of all arms sales (The Guardian DataBlog, March 2, 2012). Those are powerful incentives for pretending not to see all the gun-related deaths.

The NRA receives millions of dollars from online sales of ammunition and related products, as well as enormous donations from Smith & Wesson (manufacturer of the M&P15 assault rifle used in Colorado). Those are powerful incentives for not hearing the cries of victims and their families.

And what does the ready availability of weapons do for ordinary Americans? Among 23 high-income countries, 80 percent of all gun deaths and 87 percent of all gun deaths of children younger than 15 occur in the United States. (See Children’s Defense Fund report.)

If you are appalled by the loss of life, become an activist. To learn more about gun control, the NRA, and ways of promoting change, check out the following resources:

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology