After a week of media silence following the school shooting in Florida, the National Rifle Association went on the offensive in its first public response to the massacre, pushing back against law enforcement officials, the media, gun-control advocates and the teenage survivors of the massacre who have pleaded for stricter gun laws. In a series […]
gun control
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Video: School shooting town hall: Marco Rubio on defensive on gun control
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Republican Sen. Marco Rubio was put on the defensive by angry students, teachers and parents who are demanding stronger gun-control measures at a town hall after the shooting rampage that claimed 17 lives at a Florida high school. But Rubio, the lone Republican at CNN’s “Stand Up” town hall Wednesday night, […]
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Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Video: Tearful Parkland student asks Donald Trump, ‘How do we not stop this?’
WASHINGTON (AP) — Spilling out wrenching tales of lost lives and stolen security, students and parents appealed to President Donald Trump to set politics aside and protect America’s school children from the scourge of gun violence. Trump listened intently to the raw emotion and pledged action, including the possibility of arming teachers. “I turned 18 […]
Posted inLetters, sj-web
Update the assault weapons ban
This is an urgent plea to support common sense gun control. Again this nation is faced with another tragedy, this time resulting from an expelled high school student armed with an AR-15, who took the lives of 17 individuals during his shooting rampage. How many more lives will be extinguished as a consequence of gun […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Parkland shooting surviving students issue call for action at Florida Capitol
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Survivors of the Florida school shooting descended on the state’s Capitol on Wednesday with one overarching message: It’s time for action. The students entered a gun-friendly political climate in Tallahassee, where lawmakers have rebuffed gun restrictions since Republicans took control of both the governor’s office and the Legislature in 1999. The […]
Posted inLetters, sj-web
I no longer feel safe here
As Bob Dylan wrote years ago, “How many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.” Well, certainly the answer is not blowing into Congress. Only thoughts and prayers are, as they always are, after each one of the horrific shooting […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Fighting gun violence after shooting gives teens purpose
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Chris Grady was a theater kid counting down the days until he reported for duty in the U.S. Army this summer, when a gunman opened fire at his school. As he huddled in his classroom at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last Wednesday listening to shots ring out nearby, what he […]
Posted inLetters, sj-web
New thinking about guns needed
Gun control has become a hot button issue, but it shouldn’t be. Virtually no one is advocating the abolition of all guns. That is not going to happen. People have the right to hunt and defend themselves. No one disputes that. We can have a conversation about concealed weapons in public. My opinion is law-abiding […]
Posted inNation / World
White House supports better background checks for gun buyers
President Donald Trump signaled support for one piece of gun control legislation on Monday, five days after a mass shooting at a Florida high school left 17 people dead and scores injured. “The president is supportive of efforts to improve the federal background check system,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, wrote in […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Survivors of Parkland school shooting vow to lead new gun control movement
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Student survivors of the deadly Florida school shooting who hope to become the face of a revived gun control movement are on a potential collision course with President Donald Trump. Several of the students have criticized the president, whose election was strongly supported by the National Rifle Association and who ran […]