Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

I really should read my own blog.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Not all heroes wear capes.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

He really is that stupid.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

You are here: Home / Gun Issues / gun safety / One Year Later

One Year Later

by | 32 Comments

This post is in: 

It seems like forever since Parkland, but it’s only been a year.  Here are some survivors own words, as reported in the Guardian by the MSDHS Eagle Eye staff.

Politically, the survivors made, and are making, a difference.  As the numbers keep rolling in, we know we had a big increase in younger voter turnout, in part due to the voter drive run by March for Our Lives. Florida hurt, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.  I have a lot of hope for the future.

Reader Interactions

32Comments

  2. 2.

    randy khan

    The Parkland survivors are a real inspiration. I can’t even imagine how hard it was to do what they did in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, while they were actively mourning their classmates and trying to rebuild their own lives. The courage and persistence they’ve shown is remarkable.

  3. 3.

    Betty Cracker

    @randy khan: The way they handled building their movement is also inspirational. These are kids from an affluent area, and they could have made it all about themselves — a common failing with teens and people old enough to know better! But they made it inclusive and expanded it beyond mass shootings to address gun violence in all its forms. They also immediately understood the importance of voting and out-sized role money plays in driving policy, which is a tribute to their excellent teachers.

  4. 4.

    chopper

    they are amazing kids and amazing activists, even by adult standards. no wonder republicans hate their guts.

  5. 5.

    Frankensteinbeck

    We are entering a new era in American politics. Our generations* ground America into shit, and Obama gave young people a taste of hope. The Republican Party is a nihilist death cult bent on burning America down rather than sharing it with brown people, and these kids have never known anything different. They have the desperation and urgency and anger liberals haven’t had since Reagan assured the country everything would be great if we just let rich people shit on minorities for us. They have no reason to be polite and compromising. They have never seen politeness or compromise work. The existential war mentality that Republicans have had for over a decade (you could argue two and a half) is finally spreading to the liberal side. Good, because it’s the only thing that can save us.

    *Research says it’s not because of age, it’s because the younger generations are more brown, and it’s whites who are majority lunatic fuckheads. I say this as a white man.

  6. 6.

    geg6

    These kids are just amazing. But I also feel so for them. How hard it must be for them to be going to school in that same school where they saw carnage in real time. Eventually, the kids who lived through that will cycle out and it won’t be so traumatic for students. But I am amazed at the courage and persistence of the kids who are still walking those halls.

  7. 7.

    Patricia Kayden

    I admire their willingness to speak out in favor of gun control legislation and to get involved with politics. I can’t imagine the death threats and violence they have faced just for coming out against the “guns for everyone” NRA creeps. Looking forward to the day when we face gun violence with more than just thoughts and prayers.

  8. 8.

    Yarrow

    The kids are amazing. Parkland seems to have been a turning point for gun control as an issue. It’s still a slow slog to get legislation passed and Florida was a disappointment but overall they’ve helped move things in the right direction. The NRA losing Russian funding is helping too.

  9. 9.

    sherparick1

    @Frankensteinbeck: Yep. I say this as a guy in the perfect demographic zone of a Trump supporter. This has also been the problem in Florida. A flood of relatively prosperous white retirees have been moving to Florida the last decade, and they keep the state barely red along with white rural Florida looking at the yahoo in the White House and saying “Finally, someone who thinks (not) like me in the White House. https://www.ocala.com/news/20180322/villages-is-no-10-in-population-growth,

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    This quote from Beth González, Emma’s mom, really got to me:

    “Somebody said ‘Please, tell Emma we’re behind her,’ which I appreciate, but we should’ve been in front of her. I should’ve been in front of her. We adults, we should’ve dealt with this twenty years ago.”

    So true. There’s a learned helplessness in dealing with an organization like the NRA, when confronted with America’s absolutely insane gun culture. Many of us felt it after Sandy Hook. I still feel it sometimes. But we have to keep pushing back.

  11. 11.

    NotMax

    Yesterday:

    A sharply divided House Judiciary Committee approved legislation Wednesday to bolster background checks for gun sales, the opening barrage in Democrats’ push to use their new majority to press gun control legislation they have backed for years.
    [snip]
    Over the day, Republicans offered more than a dozen amendments to gut the background checks bill, tweak provisions or add language to allow transfer of guns in certain circumstances. Near the end, Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan said there were 90 more amendments Republicans wanted to introduce.

    Republicans contested whether votes on those amendments had started prematurely, repeated parliamentary inquiries and even made a motion to end the markup. Democrats accused Republicans of trying to frustrate and delay, and vowed to vote on the bill even if it took until midnight.

    Eventually, Chairman Jerrold Nadler forced a vote 10 hours after the meeting had started. It was on the eve of the anniversary of the day a gunman opened fire and killed 17 students and staff in a Parkland, Florida, high school. Source

    First bill addressing any sort of gun control legislation to show movement in Congress in 25 years.

  13. 13.

    BellyCat

    No amount of prevarication from the GOP is distracting the younger generation from the relentless pursuit of logical, reasonable and humane societal improvements.

    Whether the GOP will eventually collapse or change remains to be seen. My guess is over the next couple generations they will attempt the latter, but their existing constituents will cause the former.

    The greatest challenge may actually be the growth of third-party allegiances if the Democratic Party does not aggressively and convincingly pursue the progressive goals sought by these young people.

    Simply replace Bernie with a much younger, personable, and more galvanizing person (think along the lines of AOC or Beto) running as an Independent (or Other-New-Super-Progressive-Party) and the problem comes into sharp focus.

  14. 14.

    The Midnight Lurker

    It seems like forever since Parkland

    It seems like forever since yesterday.

    I always thought the collapse of Western Civilization would take years, not months.

    Guess I didn’t factor in the digital age.

  16. 16.

    Mike in NC

    The NRA (a Russian-affiliated domestic terrorist organization) spent >$30 million to elect Fat Bastard. No chance this Congress will pass anything to address gun violence.

  17. 17.

    germy

    I hope the Parkland kids outnumber the young conservatives Donald Trump Jr. gave his shout out to:

    Donald Trump Jr.: ’You don’t have to be indoctrinated by these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism’

  19. 19.

    rikyrah

    Those kids have been so brave. I worry about them. I get furious when I think about all the attacks that they’ve been under SINCE the shooting from the RW.

  24. 24.

    Martin

    The NRA’s time as kingmaker may be up with the russia investigation. That A rating really only mattered because campaign dollars followed. That seems to be over for now.

    On other bright news, Wisconsin became the 20th state to join the US Climate Alliance (21 members including PR). This is the organization that Jerry Brown initiated with Cuomo and Jay Inslee the day that Trump pulled out of the Paris Accord. It follows a similar formula to the multi-state CARB alliance (16 states follow Californias emissions standards). If these states are able to get emissions on the trajectory needed (and many are – not just CA) then it becomes really difficult to see how we won’t have a national policy and a lot of pain delivered to the states that are doing nothing.

  26. 26.

    Betty Cracker

    @germy: I still can’t quite wrap my mind around the stupidity of my fellow Floridians who elected that piece of shit to the senate.

  27. 27.

    Jeffro

    @germy: new GOP strategy: say exactly the same things Dems do, denounce Dems for copying them…then proceed with the usual looting when in office

  28. 28.

    gene108

    @BellyCat:

    Whether the GOP will eventually collapse or change remains to be seen. My guess is over the next couple generations they will attempt the latter, but their existing constituents will cause the former.

    As long as they have a lock on nearly half the states in this country – Alaska, Idaho, North and South Dakota, South Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska, Utah, Indiana, Oklahoma, Wyoming – and can eke out wins in Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia, and dominate other states like Montana, Louisiana, and Iowa, they have enough of a base of support to always be able to never change and given the right circumstances to take control of non-Republican states, as seen in 2010.

  29. 29.

    gene108

    @germy:

    I hope the Parkland kids outnumber the young conservatives Donald Trump Jr. gave his shout out to

    Really curious how many kids are more like the Parkland students, versus that Catholic high school in Kentucky, that went to the anti-abortion rally, in D.C.

    Will make all the difference in the world about our future.

  30. 30.

    Elizabelle

    One FTF NPR story is that gun control is considered less urgent, a year out from Parkland. They did a poll: NPR/Snooze Hour/Marist. Support down from 71 to 52 percent or something … Thanks, NPR! Link: https://www.npr.org/2019/02/14/694223232/poll-a-year-after-parkland-urgency-for-new-gun-restrictions-declines

    They kind of buried the lede, though.

    Americans broadly in support of specific gun restriction policies

    Despite the NRA’s efforts, Americans are still broadly in favor of various gun restrictions the organization has lobbied against.

    According to the poll, while Americans favor employing school resource officers or armed guards in schools (72 percent said it would make a difference), arming teachers was the least popular (39 percent) in a list of policy options to reduce gun violence.

    The list included requiring background checks at gun shows or private sales (82 percent); requiring mental health checks (79 percent); banning high-capacity ammunition clips (65 percent); creating a national database to track all gun sales (64 percent); and banning the sale of semi-automatic assault-style weapons (60 percent).

    I think that the urgency has actually fallen off a bit because people see how effective the Parkland teens and other gun safety advocates have been. Plus: Democratically-controlled House. Maybe there’s a sense that gun safety is on the agenda.

    I wonder if NPR’s poll oversampled Republicans.

  32. 32.

    J R in WV

    I’m really hoping hard that the new requirements regarding universal backgound checks for all gun transfers or sales passes, along with all the other “details” like linking mental health events and home violence events to the ability / legality of weapon ownership.

    I’m a gun owner and hobby target shooter. I carry a large caliber handgun in some backcountry areas, after being stalked by a V large lion in Arizona.

    But I also support strict licensing requirements, required training and testing for necessary permits, the whole necessary group of new regulations required to at least slow down the rampant gun violence in this nation. I took many classes from YMCA summer camp to military training to concealed carry classes (which NRA and GOP terrorist-supporting legislators have eliminated in many states!) in the past, and passed all tests with relative ease. Everyone should have to do that who wants to own functional firearms.

    The biggest danger to American Freedom is white fascist home-grown terror, racism, misogyny, etc. Those violent bastards are already here, no wall will keep them out. I’m not particularly afraid of violent nutjobs in Africa or the MIddle-east, we have plenty of violent fascist (and other flavors of) nutjobs right here, anonymously fomenting hatred and ticking until something triggers their explosion of violence.

Comments are closed.