Category Archives: Gun control

#NEVERAGAIN, California, Gun control, Gun violence, Mass shootings

Oh please, not again… (32 mass shootings in California in 2018)

By Roger Straw, November 8, 2018
[See also, Gun Control Links, from last May.  – R.S.]

Respectfully and profoundly, the Thousand Oaks, CA mass shooting is first and foremost about human lives, carnage, grieving, bullets and fear.

THE NUMBERS aren’t nearly as staggering as the personal loss and our common grieving.  But the numbers tell the larger story of legislative and executive governmental inaction.  The numbers may not have the passion, but they have the fact-based, incontrovertible, insistent, deadly proof that sensible gun control in the U.S. is needed NOW and long overdue.

California has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation.  And yet, California recorded 32 mass shootings in the first 312 days of 2018, one every 10 days.  49 individuals are dead with grieving families and friends.  Another 131 were injured.  (Mass shooting is defined here as 4 or more shot or killed, not including the shooter).

Nationally in 2018 to date, there have been  307 mass shootings, (just shy of ONE EVERY DAY), killing 328 (OVER ONE A DAY) and injuring another 1251 (OVER FOUR EVERY DAY).

These numbers are a call to action:

MASS SHOOTINGS IN 2018 – CALIFORNIA
Incident Date City Or County # Killed # Injured
Source: gunviolencearchive.org/ (GVA defines mass shootings based on the numeric value of 4 or more shot or killed, not including the shooter.)
7-Nov-18 Thousand Oaks 13 10
2-Nov-18 Long Beach (North Long Beach) 0 4
30-Oct-18 Vallejo 2 3
30-Oct-18 Los Angeles 0 5
29-Oct-18 Riverside 0 7
14-Oct-18 Palo Alto (East Palo Alto) 2 2
6-Oct-18 Oakland 0 6
30-Sep-18 Compton 1 3
23-Sep-18 Bakersfield 1 4
23-Sep-18 Baldwin Park 0 4
12-Sep-18 Bakersfield 6 0
2-Sep-18 San Bernardino 0 8
12-Aug-18 Clearlake 4 1
11-Aug-18 San Francisco 1 4
31-Jul-18 Gardena 2 3
28-Jul-18 Los Angeles 2 4
26-Jul-18 Oakland 2 2
5-Jul-18 Los Angeles 3 3
27-Jun-18 Oakland 1 3
21-Jun-18 San Bernardino 1 3
20-Jun-18 Modesto 0 5
14-Jun-18 Union City 0 5
14-Jun-18 Tracy 1 4
10-Jun-18 Valley Village 0 6
13-May-18 Stockton 3 2
13-May-18 Los Angeles 2 2
7-May-18 San Diego 0 5
20-Apr-18 San Francisco 1 5
9-Apr-18 Vallejo 0 4
21-Mar-18 San Francisco 1 5
12-Mar-18 Modesto 0 4
27-Jan-18 Los Angeles 0 5
TOTAL 49 131

What do do?  Protest in the streets, phone and write our state and national elected officials.  Weep.  Try like mad to stay hopeful…

Roger Straw
Benicia, California

#ENOUGH, #NEVERAGAIN, Electoral politics, Gun control, Mass shootings

Gun control links – renewed call to VOTE THEM OUT!

By Roger Straw
[Originally published in the spring of 2018 following the Parkland, FL mass shooting, republished here in November 2018 following mass shootings in Pittsburgh, PA and Thousand Oaks, CA.  – R.S.]

School shootings and other mass murders will never stop until we elect new leaders who are willing to stand up to the NRA.  Below you will find links to organizations dedicated to ending gun violence.  Many are focusing on electing new leaders who stand for change.  Please click on at least one today – sign a petition, make a contribution, join or start a new group.  Renew your commitment to resist!

National

Everytown For Gun Safety (everytown.org/throwthemout/)

header

Guns Down America (gunsdownamerica.org/)

States United to Prevent Gun Violence (ceasefireusa.org/)

States United to Prevent Gun Violence

Indivisible (indivisible.org)

The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus (keepgunsoffcampus.org/)

Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (lawcenter.giffords.org/take-action/)

Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (csgv.org/)

California & Benicia

Bay Area Student Activists (bayareastudentactivists.org/)

Bay Area Student Activists

Benicia March For Our Lives (facebook.com/groups/529647794085732/)

 

North Bay|#NEVERAGAIN (twitter.com/nbayNEVERAGAIN)

North Bay|#NEVERAGAIN

northbayneveragain (instagram.com/northbayneveragain/)

Women Against Gun Violence (wagv.org/)

Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, California Chapters (bradycampaign.org/)

Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence logo

Anti-Semitism, Benicia Standing Strong, Benicia vigil, Gun control, Mass shootings, Racism

VIDEO: Benicians gather in City Park, take a stand against hate

By Roger Straw, November 2, 2018

I hope to write up a short story about this important event when I get a few minutes.  Until then, MANY MANY thanks to all who showed up, to Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast for planning and leading the vigil, and to Dr. Constance Beutel, for this beautiful 20-minute video capturing much of the gathered spirit.  (Note that the first 5 or 10 seconds of this video are silent…)

Anti-Semitism, Benicia Standing Strong, Gun control, Hate, Mass shootings, Racism

Benicians asked to stand against hate on Thursday, 11/1, City Park

Repost from the Vallejo Times-Herald

Benicians asked to stand against hate on Thursday

By JOHN GLIDDEN, October 31, 2018 at 7:02 pm
5:30 p.m. Thursday (TODAY!), City Park Gazebo, First Street & Military West

BENICIA — A week after 13 people were violently killed in two separate shooting sprees, local residents have put together an impromptu gathering asking Benicians to stand against hate.

The event begins at 5:30 p.m., Thursday near the City Park Gazebo, located along First Street and Military West.

“Gather in solidarity, in song, in remembrance of those killed in Kentucky and Pennsylvania, in commitment to our common humanity,” according to an event flier.

One of the organizers, the Rev. Mary Susan Gast said that Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson is scheduled to office words of encouragement, Poet Laureate Tom Stanton will present a poem, while the Mourner’s Kaddish, a traditional prayer for the dead, will be offered in Hebrew.

“We will reflect on our unity as a nation and community of diversity,” she added.

Two African Americans were shot and killed in a Kroger grocery store in Kentucky on Oct. 24, which authorities are investigating as a hate crime.

Gregory Bush, a 51-year-old Caucasian man, has been accused of killing Maurice Stallard, 69, and Vickie Jones, 67, inside the Jeffersontown grocery store and outside the location, respectively.

Bush allegedly, prior to the shooting, attempted to enter a predominantly black church but was unable to get inside.

Then last Saturday, Robert Bowers entered Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue killing 11 people in one of the deadliest attack on Jewish individuals in U.S. history.

Bowers was indicted Wednesday on 44 federal charges, including 11 counts for obstructing religious freedom resulting in death and 11 counts of committing violent crime using a firearm.