In yesterday's NYT: Say Goodbye to the Assault Weapons Ban

By DAVID FIRESTONE

Fans of military-style assault weapons can stop worrying — their gun lobby has done its work, and all but assured that Congress will not pass a ban on their dangerous toys.

Senate Democratic leaders have decided not to include the ban, proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, in the official gun bill that will reach the floor in the next few weeks. It was always a long shot, but now Democrats have officially given the ban the cold shoulder.

Ms. Feinstein will probably manage to bring up the ban as a separate amendment, putting senators on record and letting the public know how they stand when given a chance to prohibit the kinds of guns used in so many massacres. As an independent measure, however, it’s guaranteed to fail. And it’s not even clear that an important piece of the ban, outlawing high-capacity ammunition magazines, will have enough support for a simple majority, let alone the 60 votes needed to get past a Republican filibuster.

Forcing supporters of gun control to hold votes on separate amendments carries significant danger. If Democrats like Ms. Feinstein get to introduce amendments, then Republican senators will do so, too. And they will almost certainly submit proposals designed to put red-state Democrats on the spot, like new limits on the responsibilities of federal firearms agents, or a bill requiring every state to honor other’s gun permits. If those kinds of measures pick up 15 Democratic votes, they could poison the entire gun package, making it unpalatable for gun-control supporters.

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GunCrisis.org: Seeking solutions to Gun Violence in Philadelphia

Their mission statement:

On the average, at least one person has been murdered in Philadelphia every day over the last 25 years — and more than three-quarters of them have been killed with a gun.

The Gun Crisis Reporting Project is a nonprofit, open source journalism organization intended to fill the gaps in gun violence reporting, seeking not to blame but contending that there is an epidemic of homicide by gunfire in Philadelphia and similar cities — and seeking solutions.

We will strive to bear witness to this crisis but avoid the perpetuation of fear, stereotypes and polarizing debates. We are interested in the theory that youth violence would be best addressed as a public health challenge — but will seek innovative solutions and evidence of violence reduction in every corner.

We study the landscape and the roots of the crisis, strive to illuminate the individuals and organizations working to intervene and disrupt violence, and expand the community of citizens who refuse to rest until we make a difference.
And we rememebr the victims.

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Heeding God's Call -- an Interfaith Group Preventing Gun Violence

Heeding God’s Call is a faith-based movement to prevent gun violence. We unite people of faith in the sacred responsibility to protect our brothers, sisters and children.

• We embrace Dr. Martin Luther King’s hope for peace and safety in our communities.
• We resist apathy to this epidemic of violence, because fear, closed doors, and separation will not end it.
• We unite to bring God’s vision of a peaceable kingdom, without the violent loss of over 30,000 American lives by gunfire each year.

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Trailer for Trigger -- the ripple effect of gun violence

In today's NYT: In some states, gun rights trump protection orders

By MICHAEL LUO

Published: March 17, 2013 Comment

Early last year, after a series of frightening encounters with her former husband, Stephanie Holten went to court in Spokane, Wash., to obtain a temporary order for protection. 

Her former husband, Corey Holten, threatened to put a gun in her mouth and pull the trigger, she wrote in her petition. He also said he would “put a cap” in her if her new boyfriend “gets near my kids.” In neat block letters she wrote, “ He owns guns, I am scared.”

The judge’s order prohibited Mr. Holten from going within two blocks of his former wife’s home and imposed a number of other restrictions. What it did not require him to do was surrender his guns.

About 12 hours after he was served with the order, Mr. Holten was lying in wait when his former wife returned home from a date with their two children in tow. Armed with a small semiautomatic rifle bought several months before, he stepped out of his car and thrust the muzzle into her chest. He directed her inside the house, yelling that he was going to kill her. 

“I remember thinking, ‘Cops, I need the cops,’ ” she later wrote in a statement to the police. “He’s going to kill me in my own house. I’m going to die!” 

Ms. Holten, however, managed to dial 911 on her cellphone and slip it under a blanket on the couch.  The dispatcher heard Ms. Holten begging for her life and quickly directed officers to the scene. As they mounted the stairs with their guns drawn, Mr. Holten surrendered. They found Ms. Holten cowering, hysterical, on the floor. 

For all its rage and terror, the episode might well have been prevented. Had Mr. Holten lived in one of a handful of states, the protection order would have forced him to relinquish his firearms. But that is not the case in Washington and most of the country, in large part because of the influence of the National Rifle Association and its allies. 

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In last Thursday's NYT: Assault weapons ban clears Senate Judiciary Committee

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

Published: March 14, 2013 

WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved a measure to reinstate a ban on assault weapons in the first major Congressional test of the issue since the law expired in 2004. But the ban remains unlikely to clear the full Senate. 

Still, the committee’s passage of the bill, along with three other measures that previously cleared the panel, demonstrated momentum by lawmakers who have sought new gun regulations after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. 

Taken together, the votes show a willingness by lawmakers to confront the pro-gun lobby, which has stifled new gun limits for years. As recently as last year, it would have been unthinkable for these bills to have even been considered in a Senate committee. 

But those measures — which include a ban on high-capacity magazines and enhanced background checks for gun buyers — will now be considered by the full Senate, where gun rights sentiments run far deeper than in the committee, to say nothing of the House, where members are even less avid to take up new gun curbs. 

The renewal of the assault weapons ban, an earlier version of which was rejected by the full Congress in 2004, even with the tacit support of President George W. Bush, is almost certain to fail in the Senate, should Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, even allow it on the floor.

“The road is uphill. I fully understand that,” Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, the author of the bill, said after its passage by the committee. “My passion comes from what I’ve seen on the streets,” she said, adding, “I cannot get out of my mind trying to find the pulse in someone and putting my fingers in a bullet hole.” 

Mr. Reid said on Thursday that he had talked with Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who leads the committee, and had promised a vote on some type of bill that considers the committee’s actions, probably by mid-April. 

While the plan has not been formulated, it will probably include a limited gun safety bill focused on stemming gun trafficking and enhancing background checks to compel states to better comply with laws on reporting records regarding criminals and mentally ill people. But even those measures will not have broad support, and 60 votes will be needed to cut off debate and move to a vote. Lawmakers will probably work with a measure passed by the committee last week that would make the already illegal practice of buying a gun for someone who is legally barred from having one — known as a straw purchase — a felony and increase penalties for the crime. 

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Joe Nocera's blog: gun violence, day by day

Joe Nocera is an op-ed columnist for the New York Times.  Each day, since Feb 1st 2013,  his blog has been recording gun violence incidents in the US -- they google "shooting" each day, and choose from the results.

That is what my assistant, Jennifer Mascia, and I did last week in compiling the stories for today’s column. The column gives only the smallest of hints as to how many shootings there are on any given day; my guess is that even Google doesn’t find them all. To give you a fuller picture, we’ve reconstructed the Google search for “shooting” from Monday to Saturday last week. Since the Newtown shooting on December 14, the United States has suffered 18 gun deaths per day, for a total of 1,330. In case you were wondering.

Every day, when Jennifer Mascia and I compile this report, we are stunned at the number of children who are accidentally shot — and often killed — because a gun-owning adult in their household has put a loaded gun someplace where they can get their hands on it and shoot it. We have three such examples in today’s report, one of which resulted in the death of a 4-year-old in Houston. Other nations mandate that gun owners keep their firearms in safes bolted to the floor. Why don’t we?

Today on NPR: Zombies aside, gun control faces obstacles

Two more gun control bills are heading to the Senate floor after narrowly winning approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. The legislation requiring background checks for nearly all gun sales will likely face stiff opposition in its current version, but it's the second proposal, banning assault weapons, which may get particularly heated pushback from lawmakers.

Maybe if zombies attacked, you might need a semiautomatic assault weapon for self-defense. That was one concession Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was willing to make this week when the Senate Judiciary Committee was debating the assault weapons ban. But short of an entire zombie takeover, Leahy says he's always been perfectly satisfied with his .45-caliber at home.

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In today's NYT: Focusing on violence before it happens

By ERICA GOODE

 LOS ANGELES — In the days after the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., Tony Beliz and his staff at the county’s mental health department here made a series of calls.

They checked in with a 16-year-old boy with a fondness for bomb-making chemicals who, two years before, told them, “I have to get rid of the bad people in this world,” and described a “special plan” he said he would put into action in a few years. 

They called the mother of another teenager — they have nicknamed him “Jared Loughner,” after the man who shot Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson in 2011 — who was obsessed with weapons and killing, had access to firearms and had extensively researched school shootings. 

They contacted a 20-year-old who in 2010 was fantasizing about killing members of his family and carrying out a shooting at school. 

The young men had been brought to the attention of the School Threat Assessment Response Team program overseen by Dr. Beliz, one of the most intensive efforts in the nation to identify the potential for school violence and take steps to prevent it. The program, an unusual collaboration involving county mental health professionals, law enforcement agencies and schools, was developed by the Los Angeles Police Department in 2007, after the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech University, and was taken countywide in 2009 by Dr. Beliz, a deputy director of the mental health department. 

In the national debate that has followed the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, much of the focus has been on regulating firearms. But many law enforcement and mental health experts believe that developing comprehensive approaches to prevention is equally important. In many cases, they note, the perpetrators of such violence are troubled young people who have signaled their distress to others and who might have been stopped had they received appropriate help. 

“When we looked at kids who had committed attacks, the vast majority had come to the attention of an adult for a behavior that was concerning but would not necessarily cause someone to conclude they were planning an attack,” said Bryan M. Vossekuil, former executive director of the National Threat Assessment Center, part of the Secret Service, and a co-author of a 2002 guide to threat assessment in schools published by the service and the federal Education Department. 

Many secondary schools and universities around the country have protocols for dealing with students who threaten violence. And cities besides Los Angeles have started programs intended to identify students at risk. But criminal justice experts say that the program in Los Angeles, financed under California’s Mental Health Services Act, is noteworthy for the sharing of information among agencies and for the degree of follow-up in keeping track of worrisome students over time. 

“I think L.A. really is a shining star and a standard in relation to how a big city can actually collaborate,” said J. Kevin Cameron, an expert on school shootings and executive director of the Canadian Center for Threat Assessment and Trauma Response, who has consulted with the program. 

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Last week in Media, PA: Democracy Unplugged discussion on gun control