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More Mass Shootings Than Days: Right Now Is Exactly The Time To Politicize Gun Violence

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Don’t listen to a single word from the NRA, its supporters, or the pro-gun crowd. When there have been more mass shootings than days this year, the “now is not the time to talk about gun control” means we will never talk about gun control.

Something very big happened yesterday. 

Amid the carnage, amid the horrific San Bernardino mass shooting – the worst since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that left 26 dead – people said, “enough!”

During every mass shooting, as the nation is glued to out TV screens and Twitter feeds, we gun control supporters wonder if it’s “OK” to express our outrage that Congress has refused to do its job, and to do what at least 8 out of 10 Americans want: close background check loopholes, and strengthen gun laws.

Something very big happened yesterday. 

Gun control advocates, in a crescendo of anger, began telling their pro-gun Congressmen – who were busily tweeting their “thoughts and prayers” tweets – your thoughts and prayers have not translated into action, and time’s up. As NCRM wrote last night, “Twitter Explodes Against Pro-Gun Politicians Offering ‘Thoughts And Prayers’ On Shooting.”

It wasn’t an organized movement, it just happened. And the more people saw those tweets, the more comfortable they felt joining in.

This was mine:

Perhaps those people who took action yesterday were motivated by the fact that we just had a very public mass shooting at Planned Parenthood. 

Perhaps they were motivated by Senator Chris Murphy’s tweet, now favorited over 11,000 times:

Or perhaps thy were motivated by ThinkProgress’ Igor Volsky, who sent dozens and dozens of tweets responding to politicians offering prayers. Volsky’s tweets included the amount of cash the NRA had donated to each lawmaker’s campaign. A sampling, including some from today:

Volsky later appeared on MSNBC, explaining to Chris Hayes the thought process behind his tweets:

Pro-gun conservatives immediately pushed back, labeling the tweets demanding more than thoughts and prayers, “prayer shaming,” which is absurd, as some on the left are pointing out:

Make no mistake. America is sick to death of gun violence, and America is sick to death of Congress doing nothing.

LOOK: San Bernardino Shooting: NY Daily News Slams GOP ‘Cowards’ Who ‘Hide Behind Meaningless Platitudes’

I don’t know about you, but I can feel it. 

“We do not have to tolerate the intolerable,” the Rude Pundit wrote yesterday during the San Bernardino shooting. “We have chosen to tolerate it. We have chosen to pretend as if the extremists who demand no regulation of guns have a valid point of view. We should be politicizing every shooting even more. We should be asking our politicians how they can dare not do something to help a nation afflicted with bullets.”

Now is exactly the time to politicize gun violence. Because it’s only getting worse.

We have momentum, but we all need to take action.

Call your Congressman and call your Senators and tell them you’ve had enough. Explain to them, if you’re like me, that you’re afraid for your family’s lives. You’re tired of your children seeing another mass shooting on the news. You’re tired of senseless murders. 

Now is the time for action.

Call the Capitol Hill switchboard and tell them where you live. They’ll connect you with your Congressman and Senators: (202) 224-3121.

Politicize a mass shooting, when we have at least one every day?

Damn right I will.

 

Image via Twitter 

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BREAKING NEWS

Trump Indictment Is a Massive 34 Counts: CNN

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March 30, 2023

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When he appears in New York next week, Donald Trump will face a 34-count indictment.

CNN’s John Miller on-air Thursday evening announced, “I am told by my sources that this is 34 counts of falsification of business records, which is probably a lot of charges involving each document, each thing that was submitted, as a separate count.”

Attorney Tristan Snell, who assisted in the successful prosecution of the Trump University case for the New York Attorney General’s Office, responded via Twitter:

“This is WAY more than expected. If this is correct, it could mean that the indictment covers FAR more than the Stormy Daniels hush money — like Karen McDougal hush money or other hush money/catch-and-kill cases.”

READ MORE: Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Says It Is Coordinating With Trump to ‘Surrender’

“My hunch for a while,” Snell adds, “given [David] Pecker’s involvement and the drawn-out timetable of the indictment, plus the TWENTY interviews of Michael Cohen with the DA, showed that something far larger than Stormy might be in the works.”

“May still be wrong, of course. But 34 counts is a LOT!”

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News

Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Says It Is Coordinating With Trump to ‘Surrender’

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March 30, 2023

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Donald Trump’s attorneys were notified Thursday afternoon a Manhattan grand jury had voted to indict him on felony charges related to his alleged hush money payoff of a porn star he reported slept with.

The ex-president’ attorney recently said if indicted Trump would travel to New York to turn himself in.

The Office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has just issued a strongly-worded statement saying it is “coordinating” with Trump’s attorneys for his “surrender.”

“This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.’s Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal. Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected,” the statement reads.

READ MORE: ‘You Can’t Stand on Fifth Avenue and Just Shoot Somebody’: Donald Trump Indicted – Legal Experts Respond

The Daily Beast’s Jose Pagliery posted the statement to Twitter.

NBC News explains the process, noting he is expected to be arraigned next week.

“After the indictment, Trump will be arrested and taken into custody. He will likely have a mug shot and fingerprints taken,” NBC reports. “Trump will then appear in court to be arraigned, where he will hear charges and enter a plea. Two sources familiar with the situation told NBC News that the former president is likely to be arraigned next week. Trump will either be jailed or released while pre-trial hearings take place.”

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'INDICTED FOR HIS BEHAVIOR'

‘You Can’t Stand on Fifth Avenue and Just Shoot Somebody’: Donald Trump Indicted – Legal Experts Respond

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March 30, 2023

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Just past 5:00 PM ET The New York Times broke the news that Donald Trump, the ex-president, had been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on felony charges.

It is a historic moment.

Legal experts are weighing in to help guide Americans through an event that has never before happened in this country.

Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Ackerman says the fact that this is the first time in U.S. history a president is facing criminal charges is itself a problem.

“I think it would have not been a novel event,” Ackerman said on MSNBC, “if we had done this 49 years ago with Richard Nixon, and he had not been pardoned, this will not be a big event [that] it is today.”

READ MORE: New Poll Sends Trump Damning Message About 2024 if He’s Criminally Indicted

“Everybody should be held accountable,” Ackerman added, citing former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s earlier remarks. Cohen testified repeatedly before the Manhattan grand jury that indicted Trump late Thursday afternoon after a three-hour session.

Ackerman lamented that despite over 30 people being indicted during Watergate, “Richard Nixon was pardoned, he wasn’t held accountable.”

“I think this is very important,” Ackerman continued, “establishing a principle, a line in the sand, that even if you’re the President of the United States, and you commit a crime, you can’t stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and just shoot somebody.”

Ackerman was referring to Trump’s infamous comments during the 2016 election, when he bragged he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

Attorney and civil rights activist Maya Wiley, also on MSNBC, said, “It’s important and sobering that we had somebody who had the highest office of this country who has now ben indicted for his behavior, his acts, in order to win that office, but also faces what are more shoes that will drop, I believe.”

“It is a sobering moment for this country, that we are witnessing this happened to somebody who was entrusted with such power who has now had a jury of his peers, because that is what a grand jury also is, say we believe he had to face the music.”

READ MORE: Here’s How Five Republicans in Congress Are Responding to the Mass Shooting of 3 Children and 3 Adults in Nashville (Video)

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, now a professor of law, called this a “moment where we would do well to seriously assess who we are as Americans and who we are not as Americans, because we re all so familiar with Donald Trump’s tactics.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

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