Chalk Up Another One
Recently, in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary school, Larry Ward, president of Political Media, Inc. called for a national "Gun Appreciation Day," in which he encouraged people to “line up ‘around the block’ at gun stores, gun counters, gun shows, and gun ranges to protest the Obama administration’s post Sandy Hook assault on gun rights.”
Of course, there was no "assault on gun rights" by President Obama, as Ward claimed. The President came out with proposals for potential legislation and executive actions, not orders, on curbing gun violence. The proposals involved working toward common sense goals in light of the escalating occurrences of gun violence and mass shootings in the country in recent years.
Still, the gun lobby and groups like Ward's and the NRA are determined to gin up fear in order to sell more guns, and glean profits at the expense of innocent children, adults, and public safety in general. What better way to do that than run in circles yelling that the President is coming for your guns (again, he's not) and by announcing publicity stunts like Gun Appreciation Day?
Well, people did indeed "appreciate" their guns over the weekend, and all across the country people came out shooting on Saturday, but sadly not all survived to tell the tale. And yes, many were accidental shootings, and some by "law abiding gun owners."
David Waldman over at Daily KOS started searching Google on Saturday and began Tweeting the shootings as he found them. By his count alone, he came up with a list of 101 incidents in 35 states and the District Of Columbia. 67 were wounded and there were 37 deaths by his count. You can see his detailed list here.
According to Waldman's list, there were six incidents on Saturday in Florida. In Sanford, where the Trayvon Martin shooting occurred, there were six shootings, but luckily this time there were no deaths or injuries.
Shootings where four people were wounded took place in Tallahassee, (2 incidents), Orlando, (1), and Sarasota, (1).
One person was killed by a juvenile in a hunting accident near Rosewood, Florida, not far from the location of the sign in the photo above. The photo was taken just about a month after the Trayvon Martin shooting.
(Photo by Martha Jackovics)
