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The news we’re all supposed to know about from the Gabby Giffords assassination is that she has begun speaking. And that is indeed great news, and I hope it leads to a full recovery.
Less remarked-upon is the kinds of systemic issues with public policy that led to the shooting in the first place: the breakdown of the US mental health system, and the ease with which people with intent to kill large numbers of people can get the weapons they need for that purpose. This has become the dog that didn’t bark in this tragedy. One of the victims of the shooting in Tucson was Gabe Zimmerman, a staffer for Giffords. His fiancee is one of the few to actually identify a problem related to the attack, and propose a solution:
At a news conference yesterday, Kelly O’Brien spoke publicly for the first time since the shootings, which claimed the lives of six people and wounded 13 others. “The man who killed Gabe and five other people fired 31 shots in 15 seconds. That’s two shots every second,” O’Brien said. “Ten bullets are more than enough for self-defense, which is why most people own handguns,” O’Brien said. She became emotional at times, noting that “I was planning on spending the rest of my life with him, but one month ago today, Gabe was taken from me.”
O’Brien talked about a bill in the Arizona legislature that would ban these clips, but there’s companion legislation in both chambers of Congress. Everyone has turned their eyes away from this problem, but I could randomly Google and find you countless violent acts perpetrated every day in America. Yet even with a high-profile event like the Giffords shooting, nobody but the families of the victims want to talk about it.
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and for fellow FDL slugs, Gabe was a Santa Cruz grad.
I went there for a year. So did Ezra Klein.
The tragic part is high-capacity magazines (or at least their manufacture in the USA) were banned by federal law in 1994. Breaking a campaign promise, President Bush let the ban expire in 2004.
Okay here’s what I think really happened regarding the toast episode:
The item first appeared in a Politico story about Gifford’s staff. The reporter just happened to be talking to Pia Carusone, Giffords chief of staff, when Mark Kelly called for an update. She said, “Gabby asked for toast.” Subsequently her spokesman C.J. Karamargin confirmed that she was speaking “more and more” but he couldn’t give specifics so he probably doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
If Giffords just said toast in response to seeing a plate of breakfast, rather than asking for toast, it’s really not that impressive. Neuroscientists call it semantic prompting and it’s a very basic skill. Another example is seeing a peanut butter sandwich and saying _____. (Hope everyone got that right. If not talk to a doctor.)
Good thread, David.
But, post-massacre, the real tragic part is that the President of the United States has been so shit-his-pants scared of the gun lobby and it’s zealots, that he’s hardly breathed a word about the need to, at barest minimum:
outlaw high-capacity magazine and banana clips…
require a 48 hour waiting period for firearm purchase, along with a thorough background check…
make it a felony to bring a firearm to a political gathering, concealed or not…
and, to the end of accomplishing this, GET UP ON HIS FUCKING HIND LEGS AND CONFRONT THE ASSHOLES who like the idea of amurka as one, big, shooting gallery.
Nothing has changed; good, progressive, bloggers like we have here at FDL are TRYING to do the job that we hired this political hack to do.
Last week I spoke to Jackie Speiers about this incident and asked her, “What advice would you give Gabby when she is ready to talk about this issue?” Here is the audio link to my question.
The gun lobby have all their passionate people lined up ready to shout down anything that limits them in anyway. But the people, like Gifford and Speiers, have an opportunity to really make a difference in this area.
I hope that we can help her, of course James Brady, took a bullet for St. Ronnie and he is vilified by the extremist gun owners.
“But the people, like Gifford and Speiers, have an opportunity to really make a difference in this area.”
The sad thing is that we’re only talking about the victims and their families having the power to change the political climate, as we have abandoned the idea of the President doing anything about it.
Yes, supposedly he is going to address the issue “at a later time”
I guess he is waiting for the next shooting.
This shooting had to be moved quickly to the “crazy person” motive so as not to implicate the right. And the right worked very hard to make sure they couldn’t get stuck with this guy. So what about the “crazy person” part. This is something that could be asked of congress people, “How good is YOUR state at reporting “crazy people” to the NICS database?” For example Michele Bachmann’s state has submitted ZERO to the database. So if someone is “crazy” they background checkers would never know.
Expecting this president to lead on anything that might even slightly endanger his re-election is hopeless. The man is really quite rudderless now. It’s embarrassing.
Thanks, and my condolences, to Kelly O’Brien.
“I guess he’s waiting for the next shooting.”
Black-humor line of the month, Spocko. :o)— :o(
It just disgusting that he would give that speech, and make no effort to capitalize on the shock and anger in the country, at one more massacre in the long line of them that we’ve suffered.
He’s going to conciliate the democratic party right out of existence, and at they rate he’s going, I’m about willing to see it go, so that we can pick up the pieces and start anew.
Pres. Obama is hardly rudderless. He’s promoting the Make it in America policy to get more people employed and to export more. That is what a majority of Americans want. The gun clip is opposed by quite a few people and the they (Republicans) control the House. Blame it on the Republicans!
While I agree with the main premise of your article, I take exception of your broad paint brush labeling a system that never even had contact with the gunman.
I realize that the mental health system is underfunded, but lets be honest. Many people saw the shooter and his bizarre and threatening behaviour at school, among other places, and all of them could have called the police to have this person assessed at a hospital for his danger to himself or others.
This was not a “mental health system failure”, this was a “I don’t want to get involved” failure, which you failed to mention.
I hope that Kelly O’Brien gets a second chance at love… some day.