Urgent: Bad Gun Bills HB 921 and HB 2011

Via Rob Conroy (Western PA Regional Director at CeaseFirePA):

Friends of CeaseFirePA: This is a BEYOND URGENT request. Please read and ACT between now and Tuesday morning.  

WE DESPERATELY NEED YOUR HELP. There has been a MAJOR development in the legislature that is designed to seriously undermine our safety as Pennsylvanians. IT IS UP TO YOU TO ACT NOW.  

Our state House Judiciary Committee just released a surprise agenda for this coming Tuesday (March 18) and it’s a doozy. The legislators controlled by the gun lobby are trying to railroad five firearms related bills—at least two of which are extremely dangerous for Pennsylvania—through the legislature without giving the public time to weigh in on them. These dangerous Bills are:  

-HB 921, which would eliminate Pennsylvania's background check system —a system that our state police swear by and that contains thousands of records, particularly mental health records, that are not included in the National Instant Check System (NICS);  

-HB 2011, which would—for the first time EVER in Pennsylvania history—allow a special interest group (in this case, the gun lobby and groups like the NRA) and the interest group’s entire membership base special, automatic standing to sue towns and cities because the group does not like the ordinances that these towns have passed to increase the safety of their citizens, even if the ordinance has not been enforced against any member of that group.  

WE NEED YOU TO ACT NOW. If there were ever a time to do something for us, NOW would be the time. 

We need you to call and/or write your legislator to tell him/her that you oppose these bills and that these Bills threaten the safety of every Pennsylvanian. Since I cannot import links to that information in this format, if you want to call and do not know who your state legislator is (or what their phone number might be) please take 3 seconds to message me privately with your e-mail address and I'll get you the information. 

Perhaps even more importantly, we need to let the Judiciary Committee know that they can’t operate like this. Tell them you know what’s going on and it’s wrong—eliminating PICS and passing the “punish towns” Bill would be disastrous for Pennsylvania. 

If Harrisburg is finally going to consider gun-related policies, it’s time to get to work on the measures that will keep us safer—background checks and “lost or stolen” reporting—instead of measures that will erode our safety. 

Tell your legislator to it’s time to protect Pennsylvanians and take a stand against gun violence. 

As always, thanks for your help and support. Only together can we eliminate gun violence.

You can find your legislator here.

March & Vigil Against Domestic Violence (In Honor of Ka'Sandra Wade) This Friday!

WHAT: March & Vigil Against Domestic Violence (In Honor of Ka'Sandra Wade)
WHEN: Friday, February 14, 2014, 10:00 AM
WHERE: City-County Building, 414 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
RSVP: Please RSVP on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/events/573131796114198)

10:30 AM: Press Conference at the City-County Building (Led by Ka'Sandra's Family Members).  

11:00 AM: After the speeches, we will proceed down Grant to Forbes, cross Forbes, and enter the Courtyard at the Courthouse.  

11:10 AM: We will conduct the visual dramatization of 110 Murdered Women and Children in the Courtyard. 

11:15 AM: From there, we will exit the Courtyard on the Fifth Ave side, and take Fifth Ave Back to Grant. 

11:20 AM: The March will continue down Grant to the DoubleTree, where we will join One Billion Rising 

11:30 AM: Vigil for Victims of Domestic Violence

12:00 PM: One Billion Rising Program will Commence!(https://www.facebook.com/events/619090258127854/)

When Ka'Sandra Wade was murdered by her ex one year ago, there was more attention paid by the media than for most victims of domestic violence. Her story stayed in the news because it exposed problems within police policies on responding to 911 calls for "unknown trouble." Her family and advocates for women worked tirelessly to change those policies.

But since Ka'Sandra's death one year ago, 110 more women in Pennsylvania have died from domestic violence! We must all come together to stop the death of the next Ka'Sandra.

We need 110 women to help visualize the 110 women murdered in our state -- please be one of them and help us to bring attention to this issue and to bring an end to the violence!

You can also learn more about this tragedy at the http://zairebrowntrustfund.wordpress.com/ website. Donations for Ka'Sandra's young son can be sent to: The Ka’Sandra Wade for Zaire Brown Trust Fund, c/o PNC Bank, 5932 PENN CIRCLE SOUTH PITTSBURGH, PA 15206

ANEW Rising Women's Collective and New Voices Pittsburgh are co-sponsors of this event.

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Please spread the word about this event! Feel free to use any of the following graphics:

Congressman Mike Doyle Knows His Internet Memes!

And puts them to great use -- good on him!

Can I burn down your house? No Just the 2nd floor? No Garage? No Let's talk about what I can burn down. No YOU AREN'T COMPROMISING!
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) October 2, 2013

UPDATE: And Congress just went into recess because of reports of shots fired near/around the Capitol--so much for a lighthearted post...

#PghBlog4Justice - Trayvon Martin's Murder & George Zimmerman's Acquittal: It's About Race & Politics

I'm not a racist, but... 

The President is making this about race...  

The media is stirring up trouble and making this about race...  

It can't be about race because Zimmerman isn't white...  

What about black-on-black crime...  

You dress like a thug, people are going to treat you like a thug...  

They always get away...

Yes, it's about race. It was about race when this country was built on the backs of slaves. It was about race when there was a one-drop rule. It was about race when there were Jim Crow laws. It was about race when the first African American president had to show his birth certificate to prove he is a real American. It was about race when Acorn was attacked and destroyed. It's about race when states pass laws to try to suppress voting. It's about race when the NRA doesn't say that Trayvon Martin would be alive today if only he had a gun (like they do in every other newsworthy case where an unarmed victim is killed). And, it's about race when, "Only in America can a dead black boy go on trial for his own murder" (SyreetaMcFadden).

Trayvon Martin is dead because George Zimmerman saw black skin and assumed the worse. It all springs from that same ugly well of racism.

And George Zimmerman is not in jail today largely because of politics. First, because the NRA's answer to gun violence is "more guns." And, second, because Florida has a "Stand Your Ground" law which can make prosecution absurdly difficult when someone claims self-defense -- especially when their victim is not alive to give their side.

And, Stand Your Ground was most certainly used in this case. It's one of the reasons that the police didn't initially charge Zimmerman (even though he did not evoke it by name). It was written into the jury instructions. And, it was a reason given by one of the jurors for Zimmerman's acquittal. Not surprisingly, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) adopted Stand Your Ground as a model for other states in early just months after the NRA pushed it through Florida's legislature.

Race and Politics is why the man with the gun is alive and free and the teen with the Skittles is dead and buried.

Thankfully, many Pittsburghers -- of all races -- recognize this intersection of race and politics. There were two protests the day after the verdict (Thank you Commander Rashall Brackney for your cool head). The group, Pittsburgh for Trayvon, had a rally turned into a sit-in, turned into a sleep-in, turned into a visit to the missing mayor's home. They have issued a list of demands to city officials. You can see it here. And, on Saturday there was a rally Downtown.

I'll leave you with an amazing poem by Paradise Gray which was performed at some of the above events. It somehow manages to hit every damn mark:

On being terrorized

Just a reminder that between the carnage caused by the terrorists in Boston and from the horrible industrial accident in Texas in a substandard plant located right by a school and nursing home this week, it's actually the 'NO' vote from the fucking cowards in the Senate which will have the longest lasting impact and lead by far to the most deaths and grave injuries.

Tweet of the Day

In 5yrs when you can't buy a gun b/c a doctor says ur crazy for believing in a resurrected Jesus, thank @sentoomey
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) April 11, 2013

(h/t to Spork)

They're coming to get you, Barbara!

 I don't know where some of these gun zealots live, but I suspect that they didn't get the memo from the CDC that we aren't actually facing a zombie apocalypse.

The way this women talks about needing to defend screaming babies at home from "three, four, five violent attackers," you'd think she was living in Zombie Central. And, not in the world of the shambling slow pokes of "Night of the Living Dead" either, but the manic speed demons of a "28 Days Later" for that matter.

Sadly, the fact is that if a woman is going to be killed in her home, it's most likely going to be by her intimate partner who, no doubt, knows where the gun is and is turning it against her. No outsiders -- zombie or otherwise -- needed!

 

Vs.

NRA makes ad out of your cousin's Facebook post

Yeah, this is what it's come to -- the NRA is making the same goofy argument that your cousin/old high school classmate made on Facebook a couple of weeks ago. You know, the ridiculous one that goes, "Obama's kids get armed protection! Why can't mine?"

You can see the ad here (but Lawrence O'Donnell announced on his show tonight that it's already been disappeared from the NRA website).

And, then there's this...

One more thing

When writing this post about Ka'Sandra Wade, I specifically did not want to get too political, but it is impossible for me not to think about her murder and the friends I know who knew her without remembering that her death occurred during at time when Congress has let the Violence Against Women Act expire and when the NRA's answer to gun violence is MORE GUNS.

I'm eternally grateful that when women that I have known have suffered from domestic abuse, there wasn't also a gun in the house...