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Ohio Shooting: Three Teens Now Dead. A Few Facts On Guns.

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Yesterday’s tragic shooting at a Chardon, Ohio high school left one teen dead at the scene. Now, reports have come that a second and a third teen are dead, including one who was pronounced brain dead earlier today.

The students who have now passed away are Daniel Parmertor, Demetrius Hewlin, and Russell King Jr., the student who earlier was pronounced brain dead.

Reports state that the accused shooter, T.J. Lane, 17, came from a “violent” home. This examination, while irresponsible in the conclusions and assumptions it draws, provides more information about the relationships of the students.

This may not be the time to pass judgment or to politicize this event, as we do not yet know the condition of the two remaining teens who were injured by a fellow classmate. One classmate who knew the shooter and the victims had said yesterday the victims were targeted. Hopefully we’ll be able to learn more soon and learn from this.

Then again, I cannot imagine that the parents of those children would be upset that people were trying to ensure this never happens again.

The one lesson that does not nor ever will come from this is what the right has been saying all along: If there were more guns in schools, this couldn’t have happened.

That, in fact, is a lie.

In America, 100,000 people are shot with a gun every year. And sadly, many are children. And, sadly, like these three teens, in a high school cafeteria, early one winter’s morning, a great many die.

More guns are not the answer. More guns are the problem.

So are trying to put guns in kindergarten classes.

A few fact courtesy of the Brady Campaign:

DID YOU KNOW? In one year on average, almost 100,000 people in America are shot or killed with a gun.

  • Gun violence impacts society in countless ways: medical costs, costs of the criminal justice system, security precautions such as metal detectors, and reductions in quality of life because of fear of gun violence. These impacts are estimated to cost U.S. citizens $100 billion annually (Cook, 2000).

DID YOU KNOW? Where there are more guns, there are more gun deaths.

  • An estimated 41% of gun-related homicides and 94% of gun-related suicides would not occur under the same circumstances had no guns been present (Wiebe, p. 780).
  • Keeping a firearm in the home increases the risk of suicide by a factor of 3 to 5 and increases the risk of suicide with a firearm by a factor of 17 (Kellermann, 1992, p. 467; Wiebe, p. 771).
  • Keeping a firearm in the home increases the risk of homicide by a factor of 3 (Kellermann, 1993, p. 1084).

DID YOU KNOW? On the whole, guns are more likely to raise the risk of injury than to confer protection.

  • Guns are used to intimidate and threaten 4 to 6 times more often than they are used to thwart crime (Hemenway, p. 269).
  • Every year there are only about 200 legally justified self-defense homicides by private citizens (FBI, Expanded Homicide Data, Table 15) compared with over 30,000 gun deaths (NCIPC).
  • A 2009 study found that people in possession of a gun are 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault (Branas).

See also this list of attacks related to secondary schools.

And then there is this list, via Wikipedia:

Name Location Date Year Number of Victims
Walpole Elementary School Walpole, New Hampshire February 10 2012 1 self inflicted injury [77]
Chardon High School shooting Chardon, Ohio February 27 2012 3 killed, 2 wounded (one still critical.) [78]
Martinsville West Middle School Martinsville, Indiana March 25 2011 0[70]
Millard South High School shooting Omaha, Nebraska, United States January 5 2011 2[69]
San Jose State University San Jose, California May 10 2011 3[73]
Pearl City Middle School Pearl City, Hawaii May 23 2011 1[74]
Ross Elementary School Houston, Texas April 19 2011 0[72]
Worthing High School Houston, Texas March 30 2011 1[71]
2011 Virginia Tech shooting Blacksburg, Virginia December 8 2011 2 [76]
Cape Fear High School shooting Fayetteville, North Carolina October 24 2011 0[75]
Belleville Township HS East Belleville, Illinois August 17 2010 1[61]
Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio March 9 2010 2[60]
Birney Elementary School? Tacoma, Washington February 26 2010
Deer Creek Middle School Littleton, Colorado February 23 2010 0[59]
University of Alabama in Huntsville Huntsville, Alabama February 12 2010 3[58]
Discovery Middle School Madison, Alabama February 5 2010 1[57]
Kelly Elementary School Carlsbad, California October 8 2010 0[66][67]
Marinette High School Marinette, Wisconsin November 29 2010 1[68]
University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas September 28 2010 1[62]
Alisal High School Salinas, California October 1 2010 1[63][64]
Mid-Atlantic Christian University Elizabeth City, North Carolina October 3 2010 1[65]
Covina High School shooting Covina, California April 30 2009 0[54]
Hampton University Hampton, Virginia April 26 2009 0
Henry Ford Community College shooting Dearborn, Michigan April 10 2009 2
Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge, Virginia December 8 2009 0
Wesleyan University1 Middletown, Connecticut May 1 2009 1
Canandaigua Academy shooting Canandaigua, New York May 5 2009 1
Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 18 2009 1[55]
Larose-Cut Off Middle School shooting Larose, Louisiana May 18 2009 1
Skyline College shooting San Bruno, California September 2 2009 0
Atlanta University Center Atlanta, Georgia September 3 2009 1[56]
Deer Valley High School shooting Antioch, California September 16 2009 0
Dillard High School shooting Fort Lauderdale, Florida November 12 2008 1
Davidson High School Shooting Mobile, Alabama March 9 2008 1
Central High School shooting Knoxville, Tennessee August 21 2008 1
Henry Ford High School shooting Detroit, Michigan October 16 2008 1
2008 University of Central Arkansas shootings Conway, Arkansas October 27 2008 2
Louisiana Technical College shooting Baton Rouge, Louisiana February 8 2008 3
Mitchell High School shooting Memphis, Tennessee February 11 2008 0
E.O. Green School shooting Oxnard, California February 12 2008 1
Northern Illinois University massacre DeKalb, Illinois February 14 2008 6
SuccessTech Academy shooting Cleveland, Ohio October 10 2007 1
Delaware State University shooting Dover, Delaware September 21 2007 1
Virginia Tech massacre Blacksburg, Virginia April 16 2007 32
Henry Foss High School shooting Tacoma, Washington January 3 2007 1
Herbert Henry Dow High School Midland, Michigan March 8 2007 1
University of North Carolina at Greensboro Greensboro, North Carolina March 24 2007 0[53]
University of Washington shooting Seattle, Washington April 2 2007 2
Orange High School shooting Hillsborough, North Carolina August 30 2006 1
Essex Elementary School shooting[52] Essex, Vermont August 24 2006 2
Pine Middle School shooting Reno, Nevada March 14 2006 0
Amish school shooting Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania October 2 2006 6
Weston High School shooting Cazenovia, Wisconsin September 29 2006 1
Platte Canyon High School shooting Bailey, Colorado September 27 2006 2
Campbell County High School shooting Jacksboro, Tennessee November 8 2005 1
Red Lake Senior High School massacre Red Lake, Minnesota March 21 2005 8
Columbia High School shooting East Greenbush, New York February 9 2004 0
Fairleigh Dickinson University shooting Florham Park, New Jersey April 4 2004 2
Randallstown High School shooting Randallstown, Maryland May 7 2004 0
Rocori High School shooting Cold Spring, Minnesota September 24 2003 2
Red Lion Area Junior High School shootings Red Lion, Pennsylvania April 24 2003 2
Case Western Reserve University shooting Cleveland, Ohio May 9 2003 1
John McDonogh High School shooting New Orleans, Louisiana April 14 2003 1
Appalachian School of Law shooting Grundy, Virginia January 16 2002 3
Martin Luther King, Jr. High School shooting Manhattan, New York January 15 2002 0
University of Arizona Nursing School shooting Tucson, Arizona October, 28 2002 4
Santana High School shooting Santee, California March 5 2001 2
Granite Hills High School shooting El Cajon, California March 22 2001 0
Buell Elementary School shooting Mount Morris Township, Michigan February 29 2000 1
University of Arkansas shooting Fayetteville, Arkansas August 28 2000 2
Lake Worth Middle School shooting Lake Worth, Florida May 26 2000 1
Fort Gibson Middle School shooting Fort Gibson, Oklahoma December 6 1999 0
Heritage High School shooting Conyers, Georgia May 20 1999 0
Columbine High School massacre Littleton, Colorado April 20 1999 13
Parker Middle School dance shooting1 Edinboro, Pennsylvania April 24 1998 1
Westside Middle School shooting Jonesboro, Arkansas March 24 1998 5
Thurston High School shooting Springfield, Oregon May 21 1998 2
Heath High School shooting Paducah, Kentucky December 1 1997 3
Pearl High School shooting Pearl, Mississippi October 1 1997 2
Bethel Regional High School shooting Bethel, Alaska February 19 1997 2
Hetzel Union Building shooting State College, Pennsylvania September 17 1996 1
San Diego State University shooting San Diego, California August 15 1996 3
Hamilton High School shooting Scottdale, Georgia February 2 1996 1
Frontier Middle School shooting Moses Lake, Washington February 2 1996 3
Blackville-Hilda High School shooting Blackville, South Carolina October 12 1995 2
Richland High School shooting Lynnville, Tennessee November 15 1995 2
Wickliffe Middle School shooting Wickliffe, Ohio November 7 1994 1
Margaret Leary Elementary School shooting Butte, Montana April 12 1994 1
Grimsley High School shooting Greensboro, North Carolina October 12 1994 1
Amityville High School shooting Amityville, New York February 1 1993 1
Reseda High School shooting Reseda, California February 22 1993 1
Fairfax High School shooting Los Angeles, California January 21 1993 1
East Carter High School shooting Grayson, Kentucky January 18 1993 2
Central Middle School shooting Sheridan, Wyoming September 17 1993 1
Wauwatosa West High School shooting Wauwatosa, Wisconsin December 1 1993 1
Simon’s Rock College of Bard shooting Great Barrington, Massachusetts December 14 1992 2
Edward Tilden High School shooting Chicago, Illinois November 20 1992 1
Berkner High School shooting Richardson, Texas November 6 1992 1
Palo Duro High School shooting Amarillo, Texas September 11 1992 0
Lindhurst High School shooting Olivehurst, California May 1 1992 4
University of Iowa shooting Iowa City, Iowa November 1 1991 6
Cleveland School massacre Stockton, California January 17 1989 6
Atlantic Shores Christian School shooting Chesapeake, Virginia December 16 1988 1
Hubbard Woods School shooting Winnetka, Illinois May 20 1988 1
Pinellas Park High School Largo, Florida February 11 1988 1
Pine Forest Senior High School Fayetteville, North Carolina May 6 1986 0
Goddard Middle School shooting Goddard, Kansas January 21 1985 1
Portland Junior High School shooting Portland, Connecticut December 10 1985 1
Parkway South Middle School shooting Manchester, Missouri January 20 1983 2
Deer Creek Middle School shooting Littleton, Colorado April 7 1982 1
Cleveland Elementary School shooting San Diego, California January 29 1979 2
California State University, Fullerton massacre Fullerton, California July 12 1976 7
St. James Grammar School Penns Grove, New Jersey February 24 1975 1 killed 2 wounded
Princeton Day School Princeton, New Jersey April 3 1975 1 wounded
Olean High School shooting1 Olean, New York December 30 1974 3
University of Texas Massacre Austin, Texas August 1 1966 16
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News

Trump Sues Murdoch Over WSJ’s Epstein Birthday Letter Story

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President Donald Trump is reportedly suing Rupert Murdoch and Dow Jones, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, over the publication of a story alleging he sent a “bawdy” birthday letter in 2003 to Jeffrey Epstein, the now-notorious convicted sex offender who died in 2019.

“Court records show that Trump filed a lawsuit alleging libel against Murdoch, the Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones, and the reporters who wrote the article in federal court for the Southern District of Florida,” CNBC reported late Friday afternoon.

Trump vehemently denied the Journal’s report and publicly threatened to sue after it was published. The Journal had reported in its story that Trump had warned he would take legal action if the story ran.

“The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Thursday night. “These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his a– off, and that of his third rate newspaper. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DJT”

READ MORE: FBI Told to Flag Mentions of Trump in Epstein Files, Dem Says in Scathing Letter to Bondi

Image via Reuters

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FBI Told to Flag Mentions of Trump in Epstein Files, Dem Says in Scathing Letter to Bondi

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One thousand employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation sifting through thousands of pages of the Epstein files were instructed to flag any mentions of President Donald Trump, according to Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee.

“According to information my office received,” Senator Durbin wrote in a letter (below) to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday, “you…pressured the FBI to put approximately 1,000 personnel…on 24-hour shifts to review approximately 100,000 Epstein-related records in order to produce more documents that could then be released on an arbitrarily short deadline.”

“My office was told that these personnel were instructed to ‘flag’ any records in which President Trump was mentioned,” Durbin charged.

The files are from the criminal investigation into the notorious Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of child sex offenses.

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In his letter, Senator Durbin also posed a series of more than a dozen questions to Bondi. Among them:

“Have you personally reviewed all files in DOJ’s possession related to Jeffrey Epstein?”

“The records DOJ released on February 27 did not include a client list. Why did you
publicly claim on February 21 that the client list was ‘sitting on my desk right now to review’?”

“Why were personnel told to flag records in which President Trump was mentioned?”

“Please list all political appointees and senior DOJ officials involved in the decision to flag records in which President Trump was mentioned.”

“What happened to the records mentioning President Trump once they were flagged?”

CNBC reported that “Durbin asked the Justice Department and FBI to explain what his office called ‘apparent discrepancies’ regarding handling of the Epstein files and findings from a Justice Department memo.”

In his four-page letter, Durbin also wrote, “in 2002, Mr. Trump said of Mr. Epstein, ‘I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy, He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.’ Just yesterday, it was reported that the Department previously reviewed a ‘leather-bound album’ comprised of dozens of letters from Mr. Epstein’s friends in celebration of his 50th birthday in 2003.”

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“The letters were collected by Mr. Epstein’s partner Ghislaine Maxwell and included one from President Trump that allegedly ‘contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker … and the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist.'”

“Despite tens of thousands of personnel hours reviewing and re-reviewing these Epstein- related records over the course of two weeks in March, it took DOJ more than three additional months to officially find there is ‘no incriminating ‘client list,’ and the memorandum with this finding includes no mention of the whistleblower or additional documents, the existence of which you publicly claimed on February 27.”

Read a copy of Senator Durbin’s letter below or at this link.

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‘Would the President Say This?’: Rubio Demands Diplomats Echo Trump

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after cutting 1,300 employees last week, is now ordering diplomats to not comment on foreign elections and internal affairs—limiting official communications to congratulating the declared winner.

“Rubio has instructed U.S. diplomats not to comment on the legitimacy or fairness of foreign elections, breaking with decades of American diplomatic practice,” The Daily Beast reports. In a memo, the Secretary stated that U.S. missions will no longer issue election-related statements unless there is a “clear and compelling” foreign policy reason for doing so.

“Diplomatic personnel writing official messages are instead instructed to ask themselves: ‘Would the President say this?'”

The memo, seen by Reuters, says the messages “should be brief, focused on congratulating the winning candidate and, when appropriate, noting shared foreign policy interests.”

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The memo makes clear, based on President Trump’s remarks, that the U.S. will “pursue partnerships with countries wherever our strategic interests align,” regardless of democratic values.

U.S. promotion of human rights, democracy, and press freedoms has traditionally been a “core foreign policy objective,” Reuters reported.

“Under Trump, the administration has increasingly moved away from the promotion of democracy and human rights, largely seeing it as interference in another country’s affairs.”

The Washington Post adds that for “decades, the United States has offered judgments on whether elections were conducted in a free or fair matter [sic], a judgment that can have significant impact in countries.”

“Scholars have accused the United States of democratic backsliding since Trump, who refused to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election, returned to office this year.

President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have defended right-wing and far-right political groups, including Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which reportedly has ties to right-wing extremists.

Secretary Rubio in May ignited a “spat” with Germany’s foreign ministry when it “hit back…after he criticized the decision to classify the Alternative for Germany party as a ‘right-wing extremist’ organization,” the Associated Press reported at the time.

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