French Roast News

Anne is reading …

Anne of Carversville is framing our approach to writing about the Newtown massacre of 20 American children by the son of one of Newtown’s highly-armed citizens. I have written about gun violence before and have pulled forward those articles. We will track gun violence and second amendment challenges in our new Facebook page Goddesses Not Guns.

For now, I am reading:

Mother of Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza ‘was a gun obsessive living in fear of society’s collapse’ Belfast Telegraph

NSSF Sats 2012 Firearms Sales Outlook Promising After Record-setting Year AmmoLand

Report: ‘Explosive’ Growth of ‘Patriot Movement’ and Militias Continues: The Two-Way NPR

Lovin’ Our Guns

Gun Love: Sobering Stats Reveal America As An Armed Fortress

View 2007 chart larger. We have updated info for a separate post. Gun sales have skyrocked since Obama became president.

Timothy Egan is a self-described third-generation Westerner who have lived in and around guns his entire life.  Writing “Myth of the Hero Gunslinger” for the NYT, Egan says that the argument that more guns will make people safer is flawed. This argument is front and center in the wake of the Tucson shootings.

Arizona is moving to legislate guns in the schools, and yes, packing a pistol in Congress will become law if Texas Republican Rep Louie Gohmert’s bill to allow firearms in the Capitol Building passes.

Are control control advocates just spineless, American whimps?

Americans & Gun Control

In July 2012 after the Aurora, Colo theater massacre, Pew Research made the point that these shootouts do little to change the public’s attitudes on gun control.

Looking at the same charts today, we see a major increase in support for gun rights from April 2007 to July 2012. These statistics jibe with a surge in gun ownership in America, a trend that skyrocketed under the Obama presidency.

Gallup presented similar results in their October, 2011 poll Record-Low 26% in U.S. Favor Handgun Ban. View graph larger.