NRA: Jovan Belcher’s Girlfriend Would Be Alive If She Had A Gun. Well, They Had 8.
var addthis_config = {“data_track_addressbar”:true};
National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre claims that Jovan Belcher‘s girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, would be alive today if she only had had her own gun. LaPierre is dead wrong: there were eight guns in the Belcher-Perkins house. So much for NRA bull.
“The one thing missing in that equation is that woman owning a gun so she could have saved her life from that murderer,” LaPierre told USA TODAY Sports, talking about Kasandra Perkins and Jovan Belcher.
Belcher, of course, is the Kansas City Chiefs linebacker who shot to death Kasandra Perkins, who was just 22-years old, Saturday, December 1, then shot himself to death minutes later.
The couple had a three-month old infant.
“Owning guns is a mainstream part of American culture and it’s growing every day. My God, there’s nothing more mainstream in this country than 100 million Americans who own firearms,” LaPierre says.
Which is utterly pathetic.
Guns shouldn’t be considered part of “culture.” Guns are designed to do one thing, one thing only, and to do it very well: kill. If LaPierre wants to promote guns as “culture,” he’s promoting a gun culture, which is equivalent to a culture of death. So much for the “pro-life” radical right, which isn’t truly pro-life, but pro-birth. And the moment a child is out of the womb, they’re on their own. Like three-month old Zoey Michelle, Kasandra Perkins’ daughter who will now be raised by her grandmother.
“According to Kansas City police, Belcher owned multiple guns, and they were in the house,” USA TODAY reports. “In addition, Sports Illustrated has reported that Perkins went to shooting ranges with Belcher.”
Jack Dickey at Deadspin writes, “Jovan Belcher and Kasandra Perkins kept ‘about eight guns’ in their house and liked to go shooting together, according to a new report from Sports Illustrated.”
So, Wayne LaPierre and the NRA are full of it.
“The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence reminds us that since 1968, when Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, over one million people have been killed with guns in the United States,” Daniel Kaufmann at the Brookings Institution, one of the most-respected think tanks in the world, reports. “On average, almost 100,000 people in the United States are shot or killed with a gun annually.”
Noting that “there appears to be substantial evidence that removing guns saves lives,” Kaufmann writes that the Brady Campaign “indicates that 94 percent of gun-related suicides would not occur had no guns been present. Since keeping a firearm at home increases the risk of homicide by a factor of three, it is not surprising that guns are more likely to raise the risk of injury than to confer protection. In fact, they claim that every year there are only about 200 legally justified self-defense homicides by private citizens.”
Kaufmann’s article, written just after the Aurora, Colorado, massacre in July at the midnight premiere of “The Dark Night,” addresses all those arguments gun advocates like to try to use to derail the only sane argument: guns kill.
Making Wayne LaPierre even more full of it.
And he’s using the murder-suicide of a popular sports figure to advance a falsehood.
Disgusting.
“So here are some statistics,” Amy Davidson at the New Yorker writes. “According to the Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice, ‘The data are clear: More incidents of murder-suicide occur with guns than with any other weapon. … In 591 murder-suicides, 92 percent were committed with a gun. States with less restrictive gun control laws have as much as eight times the rate of murder-suicides as those with the most restrictive gun control laws.’ Another study found that the mere presence of a gun in the house increased the chance that domestic violence would escalate to murder six fold’.”
But at least some NFL players have learned from this tragic event.
“At least seven NFL players have turned their guns into their respective team’s security following the murder-suicide involving Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher earlier this month, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King reported on ‘Football Night in America’ on Sunday,” ESPN reports.
According to the report, at least one player handed over multiple firearms, telling his team’s personnel that he didn’t trust himself with the guns.
Yeah.
Pretty sure football is far more mainstream than guns.
Let’s see LaPierre, and the NRA, fight that.
Â
Via:Â Doktor Zoom at Wonkette
Image composed from Wikimedia Commons
Â
Enjoy this piece?
… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.
NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.
Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.
 |
Prominent podcaster Joe Rogan warned that the handling of the Epstein files “looks terrible” for President Donald Trump and his administration.
“During Tuesday and Thursday’s episodes, Rogan criticized redactions the Department of Justice made from the files,” The Hill reported.
“Who knows what f — — happens with all this Epstein files s — —,” he said, according to video of his streaming show. “It just keeps getting crazier and crazier and crazier and deeper and deeper.”
“Why would your name be redacted if you’re not a victim?” Rogan also asked. “Like, this is what’s crazy about all this. Like, how come you redact some people and you don’t redact other people?”
READ MORE: Far Right Extremist Leader Puts Trump on Notice Over Epstein Files
“Like, what is this?” the podcaster continued. “This is not good. None of this is good for this administration. It looks f — — terrible. It looks terrible. It looks terrible for Trump when he was saying that none of this was real. This is all a hoax. This is not a hoax. Like, did you not know?”
“Maybe he didn’t know if you want to be charitable? But this is definitely not a hoax. And if you’ve got redacted people’s names, and these people aren’t victims, you’re not protecting the victim. So what are you doing?”
“And how come all this s — — is not released?” Rogan asked.
READ MORE: ‘No Going Back’: Report Warns Post-MAGA America Will Never Be the Same
Far-right extremist livestreamer Nick Fuentes — who leads a “Groyper” following of mostly young men and brands himself “America First” — is putting President Donald Trump on notice ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
“I won’t even consider voting in the midterms unless the Epstein Files are fully unredacted, mass deportations resume, and we don’t go to war with Iran,” wrote Fuentes, who has 1.2 million followers on the X social media platform.
Some of Trump’s MAGA allies were furious this week as Attorney General Pam Bondi deflected numerous questions in a congressional hearing on that very topic.
Even before Bondi’s widely-criticized performance, Fuentes had called for her impeachment.
READ MORE: Trump’s Pardon ‘Blizzard’ Grows With Clemency for Five Former NFL Players
“Pam Bondi needs to be impeached,” he said on his February 9 Rumble show, “America First,” as The Daily Beast reported. “You lied about the existence of the files. You lied about unindicted collaborators and accomplices.”
Fuentes has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “white nationalist,” an “admirer of fascists,” and someone who “frequently relies on antisemitic tropes.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League, “Fuentes has used his platforms to make numerous antisemitic, racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments,” and spreads “white supremacist propaganda.”
President Trump “has not condemned Fuentes,” and Vice President JD Vance “has only criticized him for attacking his wife,” The Week reported last month. “But Vance also appears keen to avoid alienating young Fuentes supporters, who could help him secure the GOP presidential nomination in 2028.”
READ MORE: ‘No Going Back’: Report Warns Post-MAGA America Will Never Be the Same
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump issued another batch of pardons on Thursday, granting clemency to five former NFL players — the latest in what the Cato Institute has labeled a “blizzard” of pardons.
Trump’s pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson praised the move, which covers cases including those involving drug-related offenses and perjury convictions, according to The Guardian,
“Today, the President granted pardons to five former NFL players—Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry, and the late great Dr. Billy Cannon,” wrote Johnson. “As football reminds us, excellence is built on grit, grace, and the courage to rise again. So is our nation.”
Johnson went on to applaud the president “for his continued commitment to second chances.”
“Mercy changes lives,” she added.
READ MORE: ‘No Going Back’: Report Warns Post-MAGA America Will Never Be the Same
The Cato Institute on Wednesday had said the scope and magnitude of Trump’s “blizzard” of pardons are “unprecedented.”
Before this latest round of pardons, Trump had issued 166 pardons — plus the mass pardons of about 1,500 people convicted on charges in connection with January 6 — since taking office just over one year ago. By comparison, President Joe Biden in four years issued 80 pardons.
“In other words,” Cato’s Dan Greenberg wrote, “even putting aside the rioters’ collective pardon, Trump is now issuing pardons at eight times the rate Biden did.”
READ MORE: ‘Political Stunt’: Trump Admin Rages After NYC Re-Raises Pride Flag at Stonewall
Greenberg put Trump’s pardons into several categories.
He noted that Biden’s pardons eliminated about $680,000 in penalties owed to victims or the federal government, whereas Trump’s pardons have wiped away about $1.5 billion.
Greenberg also said that “Trump has normalized the pardoning of disgraced politicians, such as former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez (who orchestrated a spree of state-sponsored drug trafficking leading to a 45-year prison term),” and others, such as Nevada legislator Michele Fiore, Virginia sheriff Scott Jenkins, Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada, and Arkansas legislator Jeremy Hutchinson.
Other concerns Greenberg noted are that aspects of some of Trump’s pardons “set off alarm bells for self-corruption—either of the president or of his associates.”
Finally, “Trump has increasingly focused on providing pardons to his campaign supporters who stretched or broke the law, such as John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, and Jenna Ellis.”
READ MORE: ‘Politically Toxic’: Voters Say Biden Was Better Than Trump
Image via Reuters
Rogan on Epstein Files: ‘Looks Terrible’ for Trump
Far Right Extremist Leader Puts Trump on Notice Over Epstein Files
Trump’s Pardon ‘Blizzard’ Grows With Clemency for Five Former NFL Players
‘No Going Back’: Report Warns Post-MAGA America Will Never Be the Same
‘Political Stunt’: Trump Admin Rages After NYC Re-Raises Pride Flag at Stonewall
News4 days ago‘Political Stunt’: Trump Admin Rages After NYC Re-Raises Pride Flag at Stonewall
News3 days agoRogan on Epstein Files: ‘Looks Terrible’ for Trump
News3 days ago‘No Going Back’: Report Warns Post-MAGA America Will Never Be the Same
News3 days agoFar Right Extremist Leader Puts Trump on Notice Over Epstein Files
News4 days ago‘Politically Toxic’: Voters Say Biden Was Better Than Trump
News4 days ago‘100% Exonerated’: In Wild Rant Trump Ties Bondi’s Epstein Hearing to Russia Probe
News4 days agoTrump Working Systematically to Unravel Democracy and ‘Destroy Institutions’: Columnists
News3 days agoTrump’s Pardon ‘Blizzard’ Grows With Clemency for Five Former NFL Players
