By Jack  Kearney

Part One is found here

Part Two is found here

The following is transcript of an interview conducted by Pierce Moran on Tuesday December 17th 2013. The subject is former Army Sgt. Matthew Tanner, who along with his co-conspirators were charged with terrorism for a short time. All charges have been subsequently been dropped. The news of his release came just days before an unprecedented wide sweeping gun safety law passed both houses and was signed by the president on December 14th, exactly one year from the Sandy Hook tragedy.

Mr. Moran: We are back with former Army Sgt. Matthew Tanner.(to Matt) Please tell our viewers what on earth possessed your group to go from a peaceful march on Washington, to shooting up some senators at the NRA bash? First of all, who came up with such a brilliant and outlandish plan?

Tanner: I think we all came up with some form of the idea, but it was me who actually came up with the final plan for Operation Paintball. We kept hearing people say that if this or that affected Congress they would act immediately. Look what happened with the Sequester. As soon as the FAA cuts started to affect business people and even Congress’ flight plans, they passed an amendment to aid the FAA in record time. Well we thought if there was a way to make them experience even a fraction of what the survivors and family members of all the mass shootings have gone through, we were sure they would act….and they did. After the Halloween Massacre, we knew that we were going to do something but we didn’t know how or where. That was until I received an email from the NRA inviting me to their grand ball Thanksgiving Gala on November 24….even though I was no longer a member I was still receiving their emails. We knew that they were throwing this last minute event to make a statement about gun control. They were gloating and had invited all the Senators who had once again voted no on the November eighth bill. As our luck would have it, seven Senators obliged. It  as their invitations that put everything into motion. There were many key components to the plan so if you don’t mind I’ll break them down as we addressed them.

Mr. Moran: By all means, please continue.

Tanner: Before I go any further I have to acknowledge Wiley for all that he did. Without him none of this would have ever been possible. He is the one who should be here today.

Mr. Moran: (to the camera) We invited all the heroes involved in the operation, including Randall Wiles, but the Sergeant here was the only one who responded.

Tanner: Mr. Moran you must understand…we’re not proud of what we did…we just know that it had to be done. I was picked as the spokesman for all of us. By the way we keep talking about the guys…that’s kind of a generic term. There were a number of woman vets that helped as well….The first thing we needed was funds to finance the operation. Besides material we needed to buy tickets…which by the way were outlandish! Also we put quite a number of guests up at the hotel prior to the event. Although it’s just us five who did the actual shooting, there were over thirty needed to pull off the operation. Wiley knew some big donor liberals because of his security connections. Of course we couldn’t tell them what we were planning, but as soon as they heard that we were going after the NRA, the money poured in. Wiley was so instrumental in the planning. We knew that security would be tight and of course everyone would be packing. He pretty much nailed it as far as how many guards and where they would be stationed. So to start we put him up at the Hyatt so he could reconnoiter. The fact that he had planned the security for events like these many times made our success more probable.

We decided that it would be best if the women were, for the most part, charged with taking out the outer guards and drivers, so that’s where Ernesto came in. His knowledge of darts, dart guns and even blow darts would be the key to the whole operation. Surprisingly it only took a few days to find qualified volunteers, and they immediately started an intensive three week training. We knew that women would have a better chance of getting close to the targets…and as it turned out we were right. By the way they have never been discovered, they got away undetected in all the commotion that followed. To this day no one knows how the darts got stuck to the necks and faces of the guards. Of course the guards assigned to LaPrima and the four senators we shot, were taken out with dart guns by the five of us, during the actual attack.

Mr. Moran: Tell us about the ingenious device that the women used as a blow dart.

Tanner: We knew that everyone would be searched, and contrary to popular belief, only the big shots and guards were allowed to carry concealed firearms. So Ernesto devised a     blowgun that screwed together from ballpoint pens with the NRA insignia on them, just sitting neatly in their clutches . Once by the checkpoint the ladies would, at different times during the course of the event, go to the ladies room and assemble the blowguns. The women  also helped take out the various drivers. That was no easy task, and a critical part of the plan. Wiley knew that in order for his plan to succeed the instant the guards went down we had to drive up in one of the senators’ SUVs…and to do that all of the drivers had to be unconscious.

Mr. Moran: Before we get to ahead of ourselves I must inform our viewers that…(to the camera) what you are about to see are excerpts from the hotels security tapes as well as tiny cameras that were mounted on helmets of the VAGS members.

(The hotel security tape is shown first)

Tanner: Well…as you can see, the Hyatt Fairfax has a very long entrance way, kind of like a long corridor, which we used to our advantage. Everything was being carefully orchestrated by our best computer geek, who shall forever remain nameless. He hacked into the hotel security and was monitoring everything from a van close by. Because we had commandeered the principles rides, the plan was to wait until enough senators were gathered at the curb and then put the final part of the operation into motion. He told us later that he couldn’t believe that several senators had already gathered, but were so engulfed in their conversation that they didn’t even realize that their cars were late. When Laprima walked up talking with Senator Cortez, he just couldn’t believe our luck  and gave us the go. You can’t see everything here but if you look closely you’ll begin to see guards from one end of the corridor to the other, start to topple.

Now if you look towards the front where the targets were you will see us speeding into view in one the senator’s cars… and jump out. The first to be targeted were of course the guards protecting the principals. Now you can see why anyone with a gun can’t always stop a surprise attack. We had to make sure we got them first because after all they would have shot us, for real. If you look closely you will see that there is no threat coming from any part of the rest of the corridor. With the help of our driver and two more vets we took out the remaining guards without any confrontations.

(The tape now switches to the helmet cam footage)

Now switching to the helmet cams you see how any person, in this case Senator Grammar, reacts when they think they are going to die. By this time we have all tossed the dart guns and have started pelting each of them with paint. For those who know paintball… they can leave welts if you are not wearing protective gear. We had the tension specially set at just enough to fire without causing pain or causing injuries. We used 120 round clips and purposely had a different color for each. That way we could give a very colorful account of how many times they were hit. It was really quite spectacular! As you can see from the Wiley cam he had the undesirable problem of shooting Senator Alott. Although you can see from the other colors that Darnell had no problem pelting her. The next to fall was…

Mr. Moran: Were you aware that several senators have boasted that they have carry permits for concealed weapons? Weren’t you afraid of actually getting shot for real?

Tanner: I understand that there were a couple of them that did have their firearms with them. In fact we hoping that they would draw on us, because we were dying to show all those misguided teachers and others that just because you have passed all the right courses to shoot a gun, you will never know how you will act in a real situation until you’re there. Especially when you see five guys dressed in full combat armor coming at you. Please show the other helmet cam footage. As you can see Ernesto took out Senator Cortez, something he was hoping for, and Darnell started spaying Senator Pauly. The other two were just doing a mass shooting of anyone and everyone in sight.  As we later found out, and what their helmet cams are showing, among the “casualties” were a CEO and his spouse, and a couple of lobbyist as well. I went after Wayne Laprima.

(They show the footage)

As you can see he actually drew his piece on me. I don’t know if it’s because he is being saturated with paint or he was so scared he was about to shit himself, but he fired at me point blank and missed. Look, you can see him cowardly jutting backwards as he unloads his gun. He ended up hitting the back of the SUV…and it’s a good thing that it was bulletproof, otherwise he might have shot the driver who was passed out in the back.

TO BE CONTINUED

Chicago

Armed citizens like George Zimmerman who killed Trayvon Martin in Florida last year have been accused of vigilante justice–taking the law into their own hands. Now four Illinois state officials are doing the same thing.

As Illinois waits for Governor Pat Quinn to sign a bill legalizing Conceal and Carry in Illinois (where carrying has been illegal), Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons, Randolph County State’s Attorney Jeremy Walker, Tazewell County State’s Attorney Stewart Umholtz and Clinton County Sheriff Kreke are jumping the gun, pun intended. They proclaimed this week they not will prosecute carriers for violating Illinois law. Why should they prosecute existing laws just because it’s their job?

“I started talking to law enforcement back in May about this,” said Walker according to the Belleville News-Democrat. “I said then that I would give the state legislature until June 9 (a deadline set by federal courts to repeal the concealed weapons ban) and they ran past their deadline in my mind.” Walker even enlarged his rogue disobedience, proclaiming his office would not prosecute arrests of illegal carriers by Illinois State Police. What?

Madison County’s top prosecutor, Tom Gibbons, also announced he would not do his job, drawing criticism from colleagues, “who question whether he’s wrongly acting like a maker of laws instead of someone whose job is to enforce them,” reports the Associated Press.

While it’s tempting to ask whether the attorneys would similarly fail to prosecute a breaker of drug laws because of rumors the law would be changed, there is a much bigger issue: conceal and carriers have been responsible for 494 US civilian deaths, 23 mass shootings and the death of 14 law enforcement officers since 2007.

Alabama, police officer Philip Davis, Tampa police veteran Corporal Mike Roberts, US Customs and Border Protection Agent Donald Pettit and Springfield, MA, police officer Kevin Ambrose are just some of the officials killed or believed killed by conceal carriers, reports the Violence Policy Institute. Four of the slain officers were killed by white supremacists, who are increasingly leading the armed citizens movement.

Many mass shooters were also legal conceal and carriers according to the Violence Policy Institute including Omar Thornton who killed eight at a beer distributorship in Connecticut in 2010 and Gerardo Regalado who killed four women and wounded three in Florida in 2010. (Three years earlier, the Gainsville Sun reported that 1,400 people licensed for conceal carry in Florida had pleaded guilty or no contest to felonies, 216 had outstanding warrants, 128 had active domestic violence injunctions and six were registered sex offenders.)

Incredibly, even Jared Lee Loughner who shot Arizona US Representative Gabrielle Giffords and killed six people in 2011 was a legal conceal carrier because Arizona does not require a permit of any type to carry a concealed handgun outside of the home. Thank you NRA. Thank you gun lobby. Let’s enforce existing laws!

It is hard to believe the four Illinois law officials would abdicate their sworn duties to enable a murky law responsible for at least 500 recent deaths. A law that enables people like Omar Thornton, Gerardo Regalado, George Zimmerman and Jared Lee Loughner and has cost the lives of 14 law enforcement officials.

“If the governor decides to act on the legislation before him, I will revisit this issue,” says Randolph County State’s Attorney Jeremy Walker imperially. “But for now I ask citizens to be responsible and use common sense in their carrying of concealed weapons.”

Got that Thornton, Regalado, Loughner, Zimmerman et al? Be responsible.

Act now for sane gun laws. Make the TELL AND COMPEL pledge.

Chicago

Every year at this time, thousands of walkers and runners in the Chicago area assemble for the Ricky Byrdsong Memorial Race Against Hate, honoring the legacy of the former Northwestern University Men’s Basketball Coach, murdered in 1999.

Byrdsong was shot and killed while walking with two of his three children at his residence by white supremacist Benjamin Nathaniel Smith. Also shot and killed in the spree, which occurred two months after the Columbine massacre, was Won-Joon Yoon, a 26-year-old Korean doctoral student in computer science at Indiana University who was on his way to church. Smith targeted African-American, Jewish and Asian people in his spree and also wounded nine Orthodox Jews and an African-American minister. After his three-day, two-state shooting rampage, Smith killed himself as police approached.

According to Illinois police, the state issued Smith a gun owner’s ID card two weeks before the shootings because a background check did not reveal an order of protection filed by an ex girlfriend. Let’s enforce existing laws! The problem was confusion over middle initial problems, explained officials.

The order of protection did appear during a background check at a gun dealer that Smith went to, so instead Smith obtained his weapons from Donald R. Fiessinger, of Pekin, Illinois, accused of funneling “dozens of guns” into the illegal market by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives officials.

“This unfortunately hits home the point that we have to start regulating the secondary market as well,” including gun shows, unlicensed gun dealers and sales over the Internet, said Lisa Morel Las, who was director of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence at the time. It is a refrain the families of the Smith’s 12 victims–and thousands of others–have heard in the ensuing 14 years.

Six years later, another suspect in a high profile Chicago gun murder case also killed himself when police closed in. In a suicide note, Bart A. Ross, an electrician from Poland, confessed to killing the husband and mother of federal Judge Joan Lefkow after breaking into their residence. Ross, despite issuing a series of gun threats to his enemies in the medical and legal professions, passed a background check and bought at least one of his weapons legally in the Chicago suburb of Bensenville, said police. Suburban Chicago gun shops, like Chuck’s, linked to 1,300 crime guns since 2008, are blamed for many of the criminal guns flooding the Chicago market.

Finally, Chicago just commemorated 25 years since another legal gun owner issued death threats, killed people and then killed herself. Laurie Dann was investigated by authorities in three states for repeated threats to kill people and even stabbed her ex-husband with an ice pick. Yet Dann had no trouble purchasing Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, telling the salesman that she needed it for self-defense. Thank you, NRA. Let’s enforce existing laws.

The 30-year-old former babysitter shot six students at an elementary school in an affluent Chicago suburb, one of whom died, and another man. The police knew she was armed and “unsuccessfully tried to persuade Dann and her family that she should give up the gun,” according to news reports.

Dann mailed arsenic laced snacks to former acquaintances and her psychiatrist and started fires at a Winnetka home and a different school from the one she shot up. “Laws Failing To Keep Guns Out Of Hands Of Disturbed,” and, “Suspect Had History Of Bizarre Acts,” wrote the Chicago Tribune. Who has heard that before?

Twenty-five years after Dann’s rampage and eight years after Ross’, violent criminals still sail through background checks, including those who threaten to kill. Fourteen years after Byrdsong’s murder, illegal gun dealers still flourish thanks to laws the NRA has pushed through to protect them, largely behind the public’s back.

Clearly “voter power” will not pry lawmakers out of the NRA’s cold dead hands but “consumer power” can and will. Ninety percent of the nation wants universal background checks and the fight is moving out of the legislature and into the marketplace.

TELL AND COMPEL pledge.

Fictitious interview with “Pierce Moran” of TNN Part Two

by Jack Kearney

Part One is found here

The following is transcript of an interview conducted by Pierce Moran on Tuesday December 17th 2013. The subject is former Army Sgt. Matthew Tanner, who along with his co-conspirators were charged with terrorism for a short time. All charges have been subsequently been dropped. The news of his release came just days before an unprecedented wide sweeping gun safety law passed both houses and was signed by the president on December 14th, exactly one year from the Sandy Hook tragedy.

Mr. Moran: (To Army Sgt. Matthew Tanner) You’ll have to cut the details short because we want to leave plenty of time for the planning and execution of your unbelievable plot.

Tanner: Alright, just cut me off whenever I go over. This is all new to me…. So you want me to go into the bill that my group lobbied for?

Mr. Moran: Yes by all means. But tie it into the shooting. That’s the thing that everyone is waiting to hear about. I’m getting word that we are back in five. (Four, three, two..to the camera) We are back with the head of VAGS, Vets Advocating Gun Safety, former Army Sgt. Matthew Tanner. (to Matt) So tell us Matt, one day you come up with an idea to form a lobbying group, and in less than six months you have tens of thousands of veterans and put together a bill and present it to Congress. How on earth did you pull that off?

Tanner: Well Mr… Pierce…this is the era of social networking. If you put it out there, and it’s a worthy cause, they will find you. When my friends and me came up with a general consensus that not all gun owners were in agreement with the mouthpieces of the NRA, we began to seek out people who felt the same about the gun debate. By the way, more than half of our membership is non-military…and remember, back in March when we were putting it all together we were sure that Congress would, at the very least, pass a law extending background checks and closing loopholes. The plan was to show them that most gun owners want to limit the magazine size, and if that can’t be done, limit the places you can use them in.

When I heard Laprima say that a person can change a magazine in just a second, I almost threw the clicker at the TV. You know I blame a lot of this propaganda on the media. It seems that most of the so-called journalists are nothing more than interviewers, they never probe anybody anymore. That’s what you do on a show like this now, but not on the so-called news shows. I was dying for the news person to say, “very well Mr. Laprima can you show us how that can be done. We will get ten volunteer gun owners who use extended clips to take a time test. How many do think, Mr. Laprima will be able to change a thirty or hundred magazine clip in a second.” Laprima would then have had to walk his lie back. And then you have a news story.

Mr. Moran: That’s a very astute observation, Matt. So tell us what was your idea, and how was your bill different from all the other ones that were kicking around?

Tanner: It wasn’t. It wasn’t even our original idea. Zack said he had heard it somewhere but no one had even considered it. The whole Second Amendment talking point is that a small percentage of gun enthusiasts should be able to shoot multiple rounds at one time at the shooting range. It is widely accepted that hunters don’t need multiple clips, so let’s address that small few. Our bill, The Extended Clip Limited to Ranges Act, is really a compromise to those few that just have to have their big clips. It is quite simple really.

All magazines with over fifteen rounds shall only be leased and used at the firing range. No exceptions. No more would you be able to buy extended clips at any store, gun show, and most importantly the internet. You rent it and use at the range period. A perfect free market proposal. The only exemption, gun owners who want to use extended mags on their own property will have to agree to sign for them when they buy them, to be admitted into a database that yes, will keep track of how many you are stockpiling. If you’re not planning anything illegal you shouldn’t have a problem. Remember…we are only talking realistically of a small percentage of gun owners.

Mr. Moran: Did you really think that any gun lover would go for this obvious restriction on their constitutional rights?

Tanner: We were surprised of how many agreed with us. Remember we are not preventing anyone from shooting as much as they want to. We only went with what all of their talking points say, and that’s all. For those knuckleheads who said that they needed to have extended mags for protection. Well…a fifteen round clip can do a lot of damage. And…we now know that with all of the mass shootings, lives would have been saved if they had only fifteen round clips…despite what the buffoons at the NRA say. James Holmes at Aurora was stopped when he tried to change his clip…we know that ten or eleven kids escaped at Sandy Hook when Adam Lanza had to change his thirty round clip.

We finally got them to agree that this small percentage of gun nuts were doing the bulk of their big mag shooting at the range. So why not limit it to the range. We almost passed. As you know the vote was fifty-eight this time. Of course the tipping point was the Halloween Massacre in St. Louis…where they still haven’t found the two shooters because they were in costume….they used the big hundred clip magazines so they never did have to reload.

Mr. Moran: You are, of course, referring to the October 24 shooting where 47 teens and seven adults were gunned down at a high school masquerade ball. The perpetrators dressed liked Ninja Turtles… also wounded 62 then sped off on motorcycles.

Tanner: Yea that’s right, hundreds of lives were affected. After our bill was filibustered in late August we swore we wouldn’t give up. We knew when we started that almost 60 percent of the public wanted to ban extended magazines, so our idea would be even more popular. And it was. Even with all the bashing from the right, when we presented our bill, we were at 72 percent. Almost 50 percent of gun owners in the red states were behind us. When the Halloween Massacre didn’t change anything we decided to conduct our own massacre.

Mr. Moran: (to the camera) And we will learn all about Operation Paintball after these
important messages. (Turning to Matt) It’s going very well, you’re doing great.

TO BE CONTINUED

by Jack Kearney

The following is transcript of an interview conducted by Pierce Moran on Tuesday December 17th 2013. The subject is former Army Sgt. Matthew Tanner, who along with his co-conspirators were charged with terrorism for a short time. All charges have been subsequently been dropped. The news of his release came just days before an unprecedented wide sweeping gun safety law passed both houses and was signed by the president on December 14th, exactly one year from the Sandy Hook tragedy.

Mr. Moran: Well Sgt. Tanner, I must say, as one who has been advocating for some kind of gun control for what seems like an eternity, I welcome you to the show.

Tanner: Please I am no longer in the army, just call me Matt.

Mr. Moran: Very well Matt. For those who are not up on this case, which I must say, you would have had to have been in a cave not to have heard about it, this probably couldn’t even be accepted as a feasible plot for a movie script… please tell us in your own words, what led to, what most experts are calling, the most radical form of social disobedience since Dr. King or Gandhi. Especially when everyone thought the whole gun control debate died after the Senate’s April debacle… and please feel free to call me Pierce.

Tanner: Well…Pierce that’s the precise event that led my friends and I to plan our original demonstration. When we realized that Congress was not going to do a damn thing even though ninety percent of Americans wanted extended background checks, we couldn’t stand idle and let the NRA executives win. Remember… eighty percent of members wanted common sense laws. When Laprima wins, we all lose. He will do anything to try to protect the big money he gets from the manufactures.

Mr. Moran: Your group Vets Advocating Gun Safety were all members of the NRA, were you not?

Tanner: Yes. At first anyway…later we got support from all walks of life. Only half of our membership today is made up of vets. One of the most under reported aspects of the NRA’s propaganda during those first few months when they were claiming the incredible membership increases, they failed to mention how many memberships they lost. That is where it all started. When I first was discharged I found a paintball club near my house as a way to keep in shape. I also belonged to a local firing range but I don’t like to shoot alone so I was spending a lot of spare time at PaintballScrimden. That’s where I met Zack, Wiley, Darnell and Ernesto. They are all ex grunts like me just looking for some fun. As we got to know each other better we also found out that we all growing increasingly embarrassed to be members of the NRA.

Mr. Moran: The right calls you terrorist while the left is praising you as heroes. We know that the political parties are divided but why do you think so many on the right have called you un-American and have called for you to renounce your citizenship?

Tanner: This was never about politics, hell most of my friends and colleagues are Republican. It just so happened that one side was, for the most part, preventing the will of the people. My friends and family have gotten a kick out of the whole circus. On one channel they call us terrorist and thought we should have been tried as enemy combatants while on another channel they are erecting monuments to us.

Mr. Moran: Well you did bring about the most comprehensive gun control safety law in the history of this nation. I’m sure everyone wants to hear how it all came about.

Tanner: Lets see…oh yea, I started to tell you about a few of the original guys that helped me hatch the plan. Although I can’t mention everyone in the group by name, there are four that need just as much recognition as I’m getting. Like I started to say…I met them at the PaintballScrimden. We had just finished a very competitive match, when someone on the losing side said that the next time they would use extended magazines on their paintball guns and they would wipe us out. That’s when my friend Zack said that all extended magazines should be outlawed. At that point someone got in his face and started spouting second amendment rights. That’s when Darnell, who looks like a larger version of Denzel Washington, jumped in. The next we knew Wiley, Ernesto and I were standing beside them and the losers backed down. That’s what started it all. Afterwards we went to a local bar and got to know one another. What started as four guys swapping war stories became ultimately, the gun safety group we are today.

Mr. Moran: So tell us a little about this band of brothers (as Matt answers a montage of pictures and video begins to play)

Tanner: Well I grew up like most guys from a small town in Texas. Snyder is a West Texas town probably best known for being the home of the “Land of the White Buffalo,” about a hundred miles south of Lubbock. Other than a dream of playing quarterback for the Cowboys, I always knew I’d end up in the army. As a member of the Seventy Fifth Ranger Regiment I completed nine tours in Afghanistan. I got an honorable discharge last year. I am married to my high school sweetheart Angie and have two Kids, Jason and Keri. We live in Columbus, Georgia. My wife is a nurse and I’m studying Business Management when I’m not working at the VAGS office.

Mr. Moran: You’re being too modest Matt. For our listeners benefit, the Seventy Fifth Ranger Regiment is one of the most decorated units in the history of the Afghan war. The tours are shorter than the average year-long army or marine deployment, because they are acknowledged as unusually intense tours averaging one operation every single night.

Tanner: We lost a lot of terrific men, a lot of great friends.

Mr. Moran: So tell us how VAGS, Vets Advocating Gun Safety,… that’s quite a interesting acronym, how did you come up with that one?

Tanner: That would be Wiley. (As Matt speaks the montage changes to a montage of the life of Russell Wiles) He hates politicians but loves politics. He knew that the right was going to be the biggest obstructionist to what we were trying accomplish, so why not really piss them off. Also whenever the folks at Fix News talk about our bill we have forced them into having to say the full name of our group, because they just can’t bring themselves to say VAGS. Yea, Wiley is our elder statesman. I never even knew his real name until our arraignment. After countless tours in Iraq, he did a stint for a few years with the state department. He now works for a private security group. His knowledge of how security works was vital in planning our operation. Both Zack and Ernesto were crack shots so we knew we had the makings of great team. (As Matt talks the montage changes to portray the life of Zachery Robinson) Yea, Zack is our resident lawyer. He won’t talk about his military service to much. All we know is that he used his GI Bill to get a law degree and lives in Columbus because his wife is a civilian worker at Ft. Benning. Ernesto… (The montage changes to show Ernesto Sanchez) don’t call him Ernie, was also stationed out of Benning. He was a top sharp shooter and also has, as we were soon to discover, a remarkable skill with darts. He can throw’em, and even shoot’em like an aborigine. He is the perfect poster boy for the Dream Act. Now I’ve already mentioned Darnell (Darnell Mosier’s montage begins. There are not many pictures of him to show) he can’t talk about his military service, and no buddy knows how a Navy Seal ended up in Columbus. He has been kicking around mostly as a bouncer for local clubs. He will cop to this however,… that VAGS probably kept him out of jail or worse.

Mr. Moran: So what happened, one day you were sitting around drinking a few beers and decided to attack some senators?

Tanner: (as he tries holding back the laughter) Actually, you’re not far off. It first started with our bill.

Mr. Moran: That would be the bill that you brought before Congress in August, limiting extended magazines over fifteen bullets to be only available for shooting at a range. (Looks into camera)

We’ll learn more about this progressive idea when we return after these messages. (Off camera) TO BE CONTINUED

use your economic power to force gun laws

Boycott Starbucks

http://gunvictimsaction.org/the-starbucks-boycott/

Make the TELL AND COMPEL pledge

http://gunvictimsaction.org/blog/2013/03/pledge-tell-and-compel/

According to an infographic from the George Washington University’s Master of Public Health program two thirds of all mass killings involve guns while gun related deaths in the U.S. have reached 31,000 deaths with 19,000 of those being self inflicted. The truth is that there are a couple of issues that need to be brought to the table; our country’s gun control deficiencies and gaps in our mental health system.

Let’s start with gun control deficiencies. Our federal gun laws require background checks on firearm purchases from licensed sellers, but why is this not the case for unlicensed sellers? In President Barack Obama’s address on January 16 he shared that “as many as 40 percent of all gun purchases are conducted without a background check.” Whether this statistic is current or not, this seems to be up to debate, even if this number was a fraction of 40 percent there is still a discrepancy between federal and state law and licensed and unlicensed sellers that might be partially rectified by creating a database of background checks.

The other side we need to talk about is our nation’s broken mental health system. This is not to say that there is a correlation between gun violence and mental health. Simply saying that if there are no people with mental health issues than there would be no gun violence is unfair. Seven million Americans suffer from severe mental health issues and less than half of them receive adequate treatment. In 2009 $1.6 billion in state mental health services was cut. Another scary fact from a recent report from the Center’s for Disease Control shares that 20 percent of American children has a mental health disorder, of which only 21 percent receive treatment. If we know that half of all lifetime cases of mental illness start by age 14 (and three quarters by age 24) we must fix deficiencies in the U.S mental health system to avoid a lack of resources in the future.

Thinking about both gun control and mental health, it seems obvious that keeping guns out of the hands of people with mental health disorders and creating a database of gun owners is essential. We must work hard as a nation to de-stigmatize mental health and instead begin to provide support and resources.
Check out the infographic below, “America’s Gun Violence Epidemic” for more information.

This op-ed was written by Sarah Fudin, all opinions expressed are her own. Sarah works in community relations for the George Washington University’s online MPH program and is passionate about working with the public health community to make positive changes in the world. You can connect with Sarah on Twitter at @sarahfudin and with GW’s online MPH at @GWonlineMPH.

Brought to you by: The George Washington University’s Master of Public Health Online

]]> http://gunvictimsaction.org/blog/lets-fix-our-nations-broken-mental-health-system/feed/ 0 http://gunvictimsaction.org/blog/new-yorker-magazine-reports-on-ngac-work/ http://gunvictimsaction.org/blog/new-yorker-magazine-reports-on-ngac-work/#comments Fri, 24 May 2013 19:08:38 +0000 NGAC http://gunvictimsaction.org/?p=3430 Read New Yorker article by John Cassidy

HOW CAN WE DEFEAT THE N.R.A.? (May 8, 2013)

May 8, 2013
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