Divided Americans playing with fire

The bodies of Confederate soldiers are strewn along Hagerstown Turnpike after the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. /Photo by Alexander Gardner

I am uniquely positioned to gaze into the maw of the gaping divide between the law enforcement community and the African American community.

My father, who I love very much, is a retired Marine and arch conservative. He is an unwavering supporter of law enforcement who views the Black Lives Matter movement with disdain and suspicion.

My wife, who I love very much, is is an African American and champion of racial equality. She has experienced racial injustice perpetrated by public officials including law enforcement officers. My wife views the police with disdain and suspicion.

The events of the past week--including the fatal police shootings of two black men and the equally barbaric fatal shootings of police officers in Dallas--reflect divisions in American society that are as deep and wide as they were in the years leading up to The Civil War. 

If America fails to address the legacies of racial injustice such as police brutality directed at people of color, the nation is at grave risk of unleashing a downward spiral into a level of countryman vs. countryman violence at a scale not seen since the Civil War. If America fails to address the country's gun violence problem, law enforcement officers fearing for their lives will continue to kill civilians in unjustified shootings. If Americans do not stand in unity with all of their countrymen regardless of race, gender, sexuality, political partisanship, religious beliefs and a host of other relatively petty sources of divisiveness compared to our essential role as citizens of a great democratic nation, we will have no one but ourselves to blame for the crumbling of our society.

The events of the past week are so sad.

The problems facing our country are so apparent.

But like so many Southerners and Northerners in the prelude to The Civil War, most Americans are blind to the bloody carnage that is threatening to explode in their faces as the country careens into the current perilous corner of the nation's history.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." -President Abraham Lincoln

Lax gun laws enable lone wolf terrorists

A shooting victim is carried away from the Pulse nightclub on June 12, 2016. With 49 killed and more than 50 wounded, the Islamic-extremist terrorist attack in Orlando, Fla., is the most deadly mass shooting in U.S. history.

People on U.S. terrorist watch lists can buy military-style assault rifles.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the most deadly Islamic-extremist terrorist incidents on U.S. soil have been carried out with semi-automatic firearms. These "lone wolf" attacks--including the mass shootings in Santa Barbara, Calif., and Fort Hood in Texas--have emerged as a the primary Islamic-extremist terrorist threat in the United States.

Unless there are commonsense limits on gun ownership, terrorist mass shootings and other gun violence carnage will continue to rage across the country.

Terrorists exploit US gun culture in San Bernardino

On Dec. 2, 2015, a husband-and-wife duo killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif. The couple was armed with semi-automatic assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns. /San Bernardino Police Department image

You had to see this coming.

In America, easy access to firearms provides terrorists with an easy pathway to unleashing murderous hails of gunfire in the U.S. homeland.

Wednesday's apparently ISIS-inspired mass shooting in San Bernardino shines light on a glaring terrorism vulnerability in the United States: easy access to semi-automatic firearms.

ISIS, or any other terrorist foe, does not have to invade the U.S. homeland to inflict deadly damage. Whether they are lone wolves, cells or duos, as in the case of the San Bernardino shooters, easy access to semi-automatic firearms makes mass shootings easy for terrorists to execute.

You have to see more of this coming.

America ignoring gun violence wake-up calls

Television reporter Alison Parker, 24, is gunned down while conducting an interview on Aug. 26, 2015. /Image via washingtontimes.com

Maybe this time will be different.

I doubt it.

In December 2012, the slaughter of 26 school children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School barely moved the needle on common sense restrictions for the possession of firearms.

Last week's slaughter of two television journalists in Virginia, which was captured on video from both the perspective of the killed and the killer, is about as close as we can get to rubbing America's collective nose in the country's gun violence problem.

Before most Americans return to sticking their collective heads in the sand, I hope at least some of them see the eye-popping U.S. gun violence statistics compiled by German Lopez for Vox:

• There have been at least 885 mass shootings since Sandy Hook.
• So far in 2015, there has been an average of nearly one mass shooting every day.
• States with more guns have more police officers who are killed in the line of duty. Every 10 percent increase in gun ownership correlates to 10 more police officers dying in homicides.
• Firearms suicides outpace firearms homicides by a wide margin. In 2013, there were 21,175 firearms suicides and 11,208 firearms suicides.
• Based on homicides by firearms per 1 million people, America is a colossal outlier among developed nations. In 2012, the American rate of homicides by firearms per 1 million people was 29.7. Switzerland posted the next-highest rate at 7.7. Australia posted the lowest rate at 1.4.

Simply put, America's love affair with guns is a cruel joke. On this issue, we are the laughingstock of the world.

Sandy Hook report: Preventing school shootings

On Dec. 14, 2012, Adam Lanza of Newtown, Conn., used this Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle in the mass killing of 26 children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The weapon, which is a civilian version of the M-16 military assault rifle, was equipped with a pair of 30-round ammunition magazines. /Law enforcement image

In the United States, few issues are more polarizing than guns. Even the fatal shootings of 20 young children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut two years ago has failed to generate a consensus on ways to curb gun violence.

This week, the commission formed to advise Connecticut authorities about preventing school shootings issued its final report. The premise of the report is indisputable:

"There is at least one place, other than a home, in which every person, whether a child or an adult, should feel absolutely safe and secure from harm: school. Short of transforming our schools into gated communities or prison-like environments, however, no school can be freed entirely from the risk of violence. Nevertheless, through safe school design and operation strategies, and through closer coordination with our educators, local law enforcement, fire departments, EMS, public safety personnel, security experts and mental health professionals, our schools can become much safer environments."

The recommendations in the commission's report fall into three categories: safe school design and operation; law enforcement, public safety and emergency response; and mental and behavioral health.

While the shooter in this mass killing had been diagnosed with severe mental illness, the commission's report makes a key point about the role of mental illness in gun violence: "People with mental health challenges are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators." In my opinion, improving the quality and availability of mental health services in the United States would decrease the risk of mass shootings; but the primary benefit would be boosting the productivity and quality of life for those suffering from mental illness and their loved ones. 

After reviewing the commission's 277-page report, I hope widespread support can be established for these recommendations, which have been edited to remove jargon and verbose prose:

• Requiring classroom and other safe-haven areas to have doors that can be locked from the inside. 
• All exterior doors in K-12 schools should be equipped with hardware capable of implementing a full perimeter lockdown.
• School custodians should be included as members of school security and safety committees. Custodians have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share about the physical school building and grounds.
• Mandatory background checks on the sale or transfer of any firearm, including long guns, at private and gun show sales.
• A ban on the possession or sale of all armor-piercing and incendiary bullets.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of federal law in limiting the purchase of firearms via the Internet to only those individuals who have passed background screening.
• Prohibit the possession, sale or transfer of any firearm capable of firing more than 10 rounds without reloading. This prohibition would extend to military-style firearms as well as handguns. Law enforcement and military would be exempt from this ban.
• To allow, at a judge's discretion, the opportunity to temporarily remove any firearms, ammunition, and carry permits from a person who is the subject of a restraining order, civil protection order or family violence protective order, at the time of the issuance of that order.
• Recognizing that mental health is more than the absence of mental illness, build systems of care that go beyond treating mental illness to foster healthy individuals, families and communities.
• Build a mental health system that targets detection and treatment while building stronger communities of care.
• Addressing a fragmented and underfunded behavioral health system tainted by stigma requires building a comprehensive and integrated approach to care. This approach should stress family involvement and community resilience. Care should be holistic and involve pediatric and adult medical facilities from birth to adulthood, with efforts to ensure continuity of care.
• Many students and their families live under persistent and pervasive stress that interferes with learning. There are many potential resources such as school-based health centers that should provide access to preventive care.
• Schools should form multidisciplinary teams to assess and support children who may pose a risk to others or themselves due to toxic stress, trauma, social isolation or other factors.
• For many children, schools offer the only access to health assessment services. Schools should increase the availability of guidance counselors, social workers, psychologists, and other health professionals during and after school.
• Increase the behavioral health workforce.
• Funding decisions about behavioral health must look beyond the model that has prevailed over the past several decades to embrace psycho-social interventions, services directed toward the achievement of functional skills, and other efforts to engage the whole person, which frequently offer the best prognosis for recovery.
• Commercial health insurance should cover the full range of services available through the public behavioral health system, including programs that provide housing and occupational support for individuals struggling with severe mental illness. 
• A diagnosis of mental illness does not have to mean an end to achieving one‘s life goals. Systems of care that promote wellness generally and recovery for those who struggle with behavioral health challenges and the effects of traumatic stress can help to diminish stigma and its effects.
• For adolescents and adults facing mental health diagnoses, effective psycho-education of both individuals and families can decrease stigma. Psycho-education involves teaching individuals and families about mental illness and its treatment, as well as strategies for handling typical challenges that might arise with a particular condition. The goal of such programs is to recognize that someone considered "different" or "odd" may need professional help.

Newtown: Open letter to those touched by shooting

Two-year-old Addison Strychalsky of Newtown, Conn., pets Libby, a Lutheran Church Charities comfort dog, days after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. /AP photo by David Goldman

I grew up in Connecticut. My heart will forever grieve for the shattered families of Newtown.

On top of a torment that will never go away, you face a terrible choice: silence or martyrdom.

Avoiding the spotlight is surely the safest way to guard your families against the pain associated with the loss of your children. In terms of human suffering, you have endured enough. You have no obligation to risk more.

As today's release of the local police 911 tapes has shown, if the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings become the icon of unbearable gun violence, then a reliving of the event will be part of the bargain. Your story could be a catalyst for change, creating something positive out of a hideously negative event. But the story would be told again and again.

Some of you want silence. Others want some gain to come out of a horrendous loss.

So much was taken out of your control. And more shocks will surely come: the Connecticut State Police tapes, the five-year anniversary, the 10-year anniversary, the stray revelations.

It would not be easy, but there is a conscious step you could take. Your 20 families share an unwanted bond. You can bear that bond in clans of silence or martyrdom. Or you can come together and choose a shared path.

As the situation stands now, periodic media frenzies are inevitable.

You are public figures who wish nothing more than a return to the private lives you had before Dec. 14, 2012. It is a terrible burden no one should have to bear.

Newtown: Meaningless death of 20 young children?

Snow blankets teddy bears last December in Newtown, Conn., at a sidewalk memorial to the first-graders and educators shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School. /AP photo

Nothing.

The first anniversary of the mass shooting that claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School will soon pass. Nothing has been done to stop the spread of military-style assault firearms. Nothing has been done to stop criminals and those suffering from severe mental illness from gaining access to these weapons.

A century ago, it took the death of 146 people in New York's Triangle Shirtwaist Factory inferno to curb sweat shops in America. Most of the dead were young women.

When it comes to entrenched U.S. political forces such as the gun industry, it apparently can require the wholesale slaughter of innocents to dislodge them.

How many people will have to die in a school or some other public place before constitutional limits on military-style firearms are established? Will the death of 20 first-graders be meaningless or the beginning of the kind of changes that have saved countless worker lives since the Triangle Fire?

On March 25, 1911, A New York City police officer stands guard over Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire victims as he watches the sweatshop blaze rage more than 100 feet above. /Image via thehistoryblog.com

Newtown: State's attorney releases shooting report

Excerpts of Connecticut State's Attorney report, Nov. 25, 2013

"On the morning of December 14, 2012, the shooter (Adam Lanza), age 20, heavily armed, went to Sandy Hook Elementary School (SHES) in Newtown, where he shot his way into the locked school building with a Bushmaster Model XM15-E2S rifle. He then shot and killed the principal and school psychologist as they were in the north hallway of the school responding to the noise of the shooter coming into the school. The shooter also shot and injured two other staff members who were also in the hallway.

"The shooter then went into the main office, apparently did not see the staff who were hiding there, and returned to the hallway. After leaving the main office, the shooter then went down the same hallway in which he had just killed two people and entered first grade classrooms 8 and 10, the order in which is unknown. While in those rooms he killed the two adults in each room, fifteen children in classroom 8 and five in classroom 10. All of the killings were done with the Bushmaster rifle.

"He then took his own life with a single shot from a Glock 20, 10 mm pistol in classroom 10.

"Prior to going to the school, the shooter used a .22 caliber Savage Mark II rifle to shoot and kill his mother in her bed at the home where they lived at 36 Yogananda Street in Newtown. ..."

"It was fewer than five minutes from the first 911 call, and one minute after the arrival of the first officer, that the shooter killed himself. It was fewer than six minutes from the time the first police officer arrived on SHES property to the time the first police officer entered the school building. In fewer than 11 minutes twenty first-grade pupils and six adults had lost their lives. ..."

"All of the firearms were legally purchased by the shooter’s mother. Additionally, ammunition of the types found had been purchased by the mother in the past, and there is no evidence that the ammunition was purchased by anyone else, including the shooter.

"At the date of this writing, there is no evidence to suggest that anyone other than the shooter was aware of or involved in the planning and execution of the crimes that were committed on December 14, 2012, at Sandy Hook Elementary School and 36 Yogananda Street. ..."

"The evidence clearly shows that the shooter planned his actions, including the taking of his own life, but there is no clear indication why he did so, or why he targeted Sandy Hook Elementary School.

"It is known that the shooter had significant mental health issues that affected his ability to live a normal life and to interact with others, even those to whom he should have been close. As an adult he did not recognize or help himself deal with those issues. What contribution this made to the shootings, if any, is unknown as those mental health professionals who saw him did not see anything that would have predicted his future behavior. He had a familiarity with and access to firearms and ammunition and an obsession with mass murders, in particular the April 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. Investigators however, have not discovered any evidence that the shooter voiced or gave any indication to others that he intended to commit such a crime himself."

Marketing of guns to young children has high cost

A 5-year-old boy fatally shot his 2-year-old sister on Tuesday in this rural Burkesville, Ky., home. /AP photo

There are several risks linked to having guns in private households, including theft of firearms and household guns harming family members through incidents ranging from mistaken identity to childhood mishaps.

On Tuesday, a 5-year-old Kentucky boy playing with his .22 caliber "Cricket" rifle shot his little sister in the chest. The 2-year-old died before the family could get her to the hospital.

Here are some of the more stunning passages from an AP story on the incident:

• The rifle was made by a company that sells guns specifically for children - "My first rifle" is the slogan - in colors ranging from plain brown to hot pink to royal blue to multi-color swirls.
• The company that makes the rifle, Milton, Pa.-based Keystone Sporting Arms, has a "Kids Corner" on its website with pictures of young boys and girls at shooting ranges and on bird and deer hunts. It says the company produced 60,000 Crickett and Chipmunk rifles for kids in 2008.
• Sharon Rengers, a longtime child advocate at Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, said it is is "mind-boggling" to make and market weapons specifically for children: "We're having a big national debate whether we want to check somebody's background, but we're going to offer a 4-year-old a gun and expect something good from that?"
  
  
  
  

Republicans missing political revival mark

U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte fires an assault rifle at the opening of a firearms accessories factory in Keene, N.H. The Granite State Republican, who is a possible 2016 White House candidate, helped shoot down a Senate proposal this week for universal background checks on all gun purchases. /Union Leader photo by Meghan Pierce

After polling poorly with everyone except white men in the November 2012 elections, Republicans engaged in collective hand-wringing over broadening the party's appeal. The party's race to become competitive before the 2014 congressional elections has started with Republican lawmakers in Congress stumbling to their knees out of the gate:

• Couldn't or wouldn't cut a deal to stop the meat-axe "sequester" federal budget cuts, which have slowed the job market and probably weakened economic growth overall
• Blocked universal background checks for all gun purchases
• Made little progress on immigration reform

President Obama is off to a good start politically in his second term, without having to do too much. Only 20 months until the midterm elections.

Reality check on gun background checks

The Duck Dynasty boys are armed to the teeth. During a recently aired episode of the reality show that celebrates American "redneck" culture, a Robertson clan hunting party deployed to the forest with assault rifles, shotguns and at least one pistol in search of giant rats called nutria. /Image via Tumblr.com


Attention U.S. gun rights advocates: You win! Game over! The fat lady has sung! The gun-toting genie is out of the bottle and even a federal army of jack-booted thugs could not collect the 310 million guns in private hands.

Gun makers and their political mouthpiece at the National Rifle Association have fought tooth and nail for the right of every American to possess a firearm. Now there are enough guns to arm every man, woman and child in the country. Regardless of your opinion about private gun ownership, firearms have established a permanent presence in American culture.

The question about whether U.S. citizens should be allowed to possess guns has been settled. The United States is a society that cherishes democracy and freedom. The right to bear arms is written into to country's constitution. The only way the government could confiscate everybody's guns is through a military coup that turned the country into a totalitarian dictatorship. If that ever comes to pass, which is highly unlikely, the condition of the country and the world will be so dire that gun ownership will be among the last of our worries.

The only question now is how do Americans keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals and people suffering from severe mental illness. To achieve that goal, strengthening background checks for gun purchases and laws against the transfer of guns to criminals should be a matter of common sense.

Most U.S. employers require new hires to undergo background checks. The federal government requires background checks for anyone working in a job related to national security. Political parties conduct background checks on candidates for public office. Reputable organizations that work with young children do background checks on employees and volunteers.

What's the problem with requiring background checks for possession of devices that can kill and maim dozens of our fellow citizens in minutes literally with the pull of a trigger?

Here are some of the justifications being put forward against universal background checks for gun purchases:

• "Republican opponents of the new background-check law (in Colorado) said it would make criminals of hunters lending each other weapons for weekend hunting trips. In response, Democrats changed the bill to give people a 72-hour grace period to share guns without triggering background-check requirements. Republicans then said the bill would imperil weeklong hunting trips." The Washington Post
• "Opponents including the National Rifle Association say background checks are easily sidestepped by criminals and threaten creation of a government file on gun owners, which is illegal under federal law." heraldnet.com
• "Mass shootings would continue to occur despite universal background checks. Criminals will continue to steal guns and buy them illegally to circumvent the requirements. When that happens, we will be back here debating whether gun registration is needed. And when registration fails, then the next step is gun confiscation." U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa

It's apparent that gun rights advocates are not satisfied with their overwhelming victory.

PBS telling truths about gun violence in America

On Dec. 14, 2012, Adam Lanza, a troubled 20-year-old armed with an assault rifle, shot and killed 27 people including 20 first-graders. This horrific massacre has sparked a heated debate about gun violence in America. /Image via AP


With all due respect to Big Bird, the crown jewel of America's Public Broadcasting System is journalism.

This week, PBS is airing After Newtown, a series of special reports on gun laws, mental illness and school security. After watching two of the Frontline special reports last night, I urge all of my fellow Americans and anyone overseas who is interested in the U.S. gun culture to watch these television programs. There is also a wealth of information available online at the link above.

PBS is providing a dispassionate, in-depth and highly professional examination of the key issues surrounding gun violence in America. It's free and literally available at your fingertips.

It's extremely hard to find this kind of unbiased information on the polarizing issue of gun violence anywhere else. I implore my fellow citizens: view this valuable information, educate yourself about aspects of the issues that are unfamiliar to you, draw your own conclusions, then contact your elected officials at all levels to help make sure effective measures are taken to rein in a problem that is killing and maiming thousands of Americans every year.

Bullwork Report: Gun control reality check

This week's Bullwork Report focuses on many of the harsh realities of gun violence in America, including the difficulty of keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and the consequences of having 310 millions guns in private hands.

The answer to this week's Bullwork Know It Hall of Fall Challenge will post before midnight on Twitter @cccheney.

Guns in America by the numbers

A Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle similar to this model was used in the attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The Bushmaster is a direct descendent of the fully automatic M-16 rifle used for decades by the U.S. military.


Truth is often the first casualty in political warfare and there are plenty of untruths being spewed into the debate over gun control in the United States. The statistics listed below were picked selectively from U.S. Justice Department reports to shine light on many of the key factors and considerations related to gun violence in America:

- There are about 310 million firearms in private hands, including 114 million handguns. There were about 200 million guns in private hands in 1994.

- From 1999 to 2003, an average of 11,345 Americans were shot to death in homicides.

- Homicides committed with firearms peaked in 1993 at 17,075.

- About 68 percent of the 16,929 murders in 2007 were committed with firearms.

- In 2008, 303,880 victims of violent crimes stated they faced an offender with a firearm.

- Incidents involving a firearm represented 7 percent of the 5.1 million rapes, sexual assaults, robberies, and aggravated and simple assaults committed in 2008.

- According to a 1997 survey of prison inmates, 80 percent of the convicts who had possessed a gun at the time of their arrest obtained the weapon from family, friends, a street buy, or an illegal source.

- Of the 55 law enforcement officers killed in 2005, 50 were shot to death, and 45 of those cop killers were armed with handguns.

- An estimated 57,500 nonfatal gunshot wounds from assaults were treated in hospital emergency departments from June 1992 through May 1993. Over half of those victims were black males.

- From the inception of the Brady Act in 1994 to the end of 1999, about 536,000 of the more than 22.2 million individual applications to purchase or pawn firearms were rejected based on federal, state or local laws. The Brady Act is named for Jim Brady, a former White House press secretary who survived a gunshot wound to the head inflicted during an assassination attempt on President Reagan.

- In 1999, of the 123,000 gun purchase rejections made by state and local agencies, 73 percent were rejected because of a felony conviction or indictment. Domestic violence convictions or restraining orders accounted for 11 percent of the rejections.

- In 2011, about 45 percent of Americans over age 18 had guns in their homes.

NRA's opening salvo on gun control blasts Obama

The NRA's first ad campaign since since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School clearly shows any attempt to pass new gun control laws in Congress is going to face unyielding political resistance. The ad started running Jan. 16, hours before President Obama's unveiling of the White House's plan to curb gun violence.

It's rare for political ads to target the president's children. It's also a rare crowd of students that attends Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., where Sasha and Malia Obama take classes. The first children's classmates include the kids of other top government officials, diplomats and wealthy business leaders. Sadly, it's common worldwide for private schools with the kind of clientele found at Sidwell Friends to be armed and secured facilities.

The NRA's claim that President Obama cares more about his children than those of ordinary Americans is clearly a manipulation of the facts aimed at flaming emotions rather than seeking ways to staunch gun violence. If you winced during the 2012 presidential election's open silly season in political advertising, you better brace yourself for the assault on reason and productive dialogue that is being unleashed over gun control.

Newtown: Obama launches gunfight month after Sandy Hook massacre

Children are led from Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., after a gunman killed 20 first-graders. /Image via AP 

Exactly one month after 20 first-graders were shot to death in Newtown, Conn., President Obama foreshadowed his strategy and objectives in the battle ahead over new laws to curb gun violence.

Whether you like Obama or not, he has the admirable quality of generally doing what he says he's going to do. Soon after the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the nation's chief executive said Vice President Joe Biden was going to lead an effort to review federal guns laws and find more ways to prevent mass shootings.

At a press conference Monday, Jan. 14, Obama said he would be unveiling the fruit of Biden's labor by the end of the week. While careful not to reveal too many details, the president once again called for a "meaningful ban" on assault weapons and large capacity ammunition clips.

In a sign that the national outrage sparked in Newtown continues to burn, a Pew Research Center poll conducted last week found growing support for several gun control measures. There was overwhelming support for new measures to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill and to strengthen background checks. About 55 percent of those polled favored bans on assault weapons and large capacity ammunition clips.

The first big political struggle of 2013 is heating up.

Mass shootings: Four more dead in Aurora

Ironically, one of the strengths in the movement to curtail U.S. gun violence is continued gun violence across the country.

On Jan. 5, a gunman and three others were shot to death in Aurora, Colo., where another gunman killed 12 people and wounded 58 at a movie theater in July 2012.

For a quantitative perspective on U.S. gun violence, check out slate.com's collaboration with twitter maven @GunDeaths. According to @GunDeaths, there have been at least 429 gun homicides in the United States since the Sandy Hook Elementary School schooting last month.

Newtown: Narrow window for nation to act

Two days after Christmas, snow blankets stuffed animals tagged with shooting victims' photos in Newtown, Conn. /Image via www.ap.org


Citing the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, President Obama threw down the gun control gauntlet Sunday in an interview with NBC's Meet the Press. At the end of the 4-minute portion of the interview that focused on gun violence, Obama gives a frank assessment of the political struggle ahead over new laws and other measures to stanch the bloodshed: "(Are we) actually shook up enough by what happened here that it does not just become another one of these routine episodes where it gets a lot of attention for a couple of weeks and then it drifts away. It certainly won't feel like that to me. ... That was the worst day of my presidency, and it's not something I want to see repeated."

For more insight on the politics of gun control in Washington, check out Meet the Press host David Gregory's smirk as he presses Obama about the difficulty of getting gun control laws through Congress. It's also interesting to note the dislike-to-like ratio on this YouTube clip of the Obama interview is running about 18-1.

Gun violence: 'clear ambush on first responders'

A house burns in Webster, N.Y., on Christmas Eve morning, when police say a 62-year-old convicted killer went on a rampage that left three dead, three wounded and seven homes razed. /Jamie Germano photo via Reuters

A report today from The Buffalo News shows chilling parallels between the Newtown school shooting and the carnage unleashed in Webster, N.Y., on Christmas Eve. Just as in Newtown, a Bushmaster .223 caliber rifle is the likely weapon used in Webster to shoot four firefighters and an off-duty police officer. Just as in Newtown, a deranged man in Webster got his hands on a deadly arsenal and unleashed a planned attack on his community.

According to Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering, William Spengler, who had served 17 years in prison for killing his grandmother with a hammer and was living in a Webster house with his sister, typed a three-page letter before killing two firefighters, wounding three other first responders, and burning down seven homes. The body of Spengler's sister was found in the ruins, but it's not known yet whether she was shot to death or died in the inferno.

Pickering called the Webster shooting a "clear ambush on first responders" and read one line from Spengler's letter: "I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down, and do what I like doing best, killing people."

Police: Webster shooter had 'mental health issues'

William Spengler apparently set fire to his Webster, N.Y., home early Christmas Eve day then shot four firefighters and an off-duty police officer before fatally shooting himself. In the chaos after the shootings, seven homes went up in flames. /Monroe County Sheriff's Office image


William Spengler served a lengthy prison sentence for manslaughter after beating his grandmother with a hammer in 1980.

"Just looking at the history, obviously this is an individual who had a lot of problems, to kill his grandmother. And I'm sure there were ... mental health issues involved."
- Police Chief Gerald Pickering, Webster, N.Y., Dec. 24, 2012