The United States of Guns & Ammo

I was watching Rachel Maddow the other night, and she made at least one great point about gun control regulation.

The NRA doesn't want a watch list used to prevent somebody from getting a gun. They say the government could just put anyone it damn well pleased on that watch list--terrorist or not--and deny that person a weapon.

So Maddow suggested--and I'm paraphrasing--"Ok, so how about the FBI receives an alert any time someone on the watch list buys a gun?" This wingnut who murdered 50 human beings bought his gun 12 days before the massacre. What if the FBI could have gotten a text (or a notification!) and checked-in sometime throughout those 12 days? Given this guy a second look?

Would a limited bill like that at least win over the Reasonable Republican(s)?

It seems we might find out soon. After one of the longest filibusters in U.S. history, it seems Republicans in Congress are at least willing to put such a measure to a vote.

Maybe that still comes too close to spooky scary Minority Report-esque precognition for an organization as paranoid as the NRA to consider.

You either "violate" the "2nd amendment," or the 4th amendment, against unwarranted searches. In any case, it's a sad new low we've sunk to as a people if the best we can do after even more unnecessary bloodshed is say, "We'd still give him the gun, but we'd watch him!"

My "Middle Ground For Gun Control?" article reads like a comedy sketch right now. My satirical short play feels like it could happen somewhere in America tomorrow. Strange how time changes things. My occasional co-blogger, Robbie Republican, seems to be busy advising Donald Trump.

Welcome to the United States of Guns & Ammo, bought and paid for by the NRA.

Is there reason to hope that one day, we'll be able to keep guns out of the hands of murderers? Evan Wolfson seems to believe. Since 1983, he was at the forefront of the movement urging the government to recognize same sex marriages. Through a systematic offensive that engaged in debate on all levels of American political discourse, the goals of the gay community were finally realized in last June's Supreme Court decision.

The same strategy can work for sensible gun control, says Wolfson. "You never say you can’t do it. You never say it can’t happen. You never the give the opposition the satisfaction of walking way from the fight. You always have to be creating space for the decision-makers to rise to fairness, and to not have an excuse for inaction."

One key difference between the fight for gay rights and the fight for wackos not to get guns... Americans weren't getting slaughtered in the meantime.

"We will continue the pressure, and we will mobilize," Wolfson says. "Meanwhile, there is a cumulative effect. And if it didn’t crest after Newtown, it will keep accumulating."

How many lives will it take?

From MySpace To Murder - Part II



Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote one of the first articles to note the phenomenon of "personal" social networking profiles and blogs suddenly becoming very public due to their author's notoriety after a newsworthy event: a piece about 14-year-old Kara Borden and her 18-year-old paramour, David Ludwig. David was convicted of killing Kara's parents when they refused to allow her to date him. Their online profiles provided reporters and the public a small window into a relationship that led to tragedy.

Since then, we've seen countless examples of news organizations using information from the Facebook, MySpace and YouTube accounts of individuals who become newsworthy due to crime and scandal. The latest involves a University of Washington student, Amanda Knox, age 20, who allegedly aided and abetted the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, 21, a British exchange student, while the two were studying abroad in Italy.

The sordid details of the murder drew international attention. At first, the police were baffled. They looked through the victims Facebook pictures for clues.

After a friend of the victim mentioned strange men that had visited the apartment with Amanda, the victims roommate was questioned. Amanda's story didn't seem to add up. She acted odd and changed her story when confronted by police. Then Amanda's online profiles were uncovered.

Amanda had a MySpace and Facebook profile, and even was featured in a short YouTube video. In the context of the grisly murder, Amanda's online persona takes on a chilling tone.

On her MySpace page, Amanda goes by the handle "Foxy Knoxy" The British press has already adopted this nickname to refer to Amanda in their sensational headlines. Schoolmates allege Amanda was constantly bringing strange men to her apartment for sex.

Her profile states that she doesn't drink or smoke, but her YouTube video seems to indicate otherwise:



In her MySpace blog, she wrote a short story about the drugging and rape of a young woman:

"A thing you have to know about chicks is that they don't know what they want," one of her characters says.

Her MySpace account links her to one of the other suspects involved. A man she allegedly carried out the crime with is referred to on the MySpace page:

"I've been working every night (except for Monday night) from 10pm to 2.30am at a bar called Le Chic. It's a really small place owned by this man from the Congo. His name is Patrick."

News outlets have picked up on all this. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer questions whether or not online profiles are "fair game" for journalists to pick at. As the Seattle Crime Blog puts it, sarcastically:

How foolish we reporters are, thinking that something somebody puts up on the Internet is - gasp! - public information. The Internet is "a place to share and be open." ...Amanda Knox was open, and the media is sharing. Shocking, I know.

As I said two years ago, an online profile will never give an exact picture of a person, infamous or not. But in the case of sudden noteriety, everything on an online profile becomes open to interpretation. Reporters and the public seek out an online profile so they can attempt to sort out who a person is. Amanda is vehemently defended by friends back home, but pretty much vilified in this news article. What side of the story does the online profile, the only thing actually written by the defendant, seem to support? On one hand, Amanda liked Disney's The Lion King and listed her mom as her hero. On the other hand, she wrote stories about rape and refered to herself with a sexual nickname. How wholesome was she?


Amanda's (Now Public) MySpace Pictures

It's an answer the courts will decide for sure, but for now, Amanda's online persona invites the world to speculate. Amanda, like Kara and David before her, serve as reminders that online profiles are very public indeed, and users would be wise to be concious of what they reveal. Amanda is just the latest MySpacer to find that, in times of trouble, your "My Space" can become everyone's.

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Meredith's friends have set up a Facebook Group in her memory.