What would happen if politicians could imagine it was their kids?

Wounded Times

Kathie Costos

February 14, 2023

Another mass shooting last night. When does this end? When do we, once and for all, force politicians to stop this madness? We are not the only country on the planet with a lot of guns, but we are the worst at the results of them. Take a look at the BBC report on guns and open your eyes to the simple fact that there is no reason this should be happening.

Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin expressed her frustration with addressing another school shooting more than a year after four students were shot dead at a Michigan high school.

"As a representative of Oxford, Michigan, I cannot believe that I am here again doing this 15 months later," the Democratic lawmaker said at a news conference Tuesday. "And I am filled with rage that we have to have another press conference to talk about our children being killed in their schools." The Michigan lawmaker went on to call out the lack of progress on gun violence.

"I would say that you either care about protecting kids or you don't," Slotkin said. "You either care about having an open honest conversation about what is going on in our society, or you don't. But please don't tell me you care about the safety of children if you are not willing to have a conversation about keeping them safe in a place that should be a sanctuary." (check CNN for updates on this)

Take a look at this from gunviolence.org

They happen all over the country but as bad as this seems, it is only February 14th and this is what has happened already.

So what do our politicians do? Worse than nothing. They ignore it. Refuse to take any responsibility for it. They say "now is not the time to make this political" as if that is supposed to solve a damn thing when they are playing politics with the lives of all of us. Yes, all of us. 

Ron DeSantis, wants people in Florida to have all the guns they want and carry them around as long as they are not near him. Yes, to him, it is ok to allow anyone to endanger others, as long as it isn't him.

"In a story first reported by the Washington Post, emails from a Tampa Convention Center employee said that the DeSantis campaign told the Florida Department of Law Enforcement it wanted weapons banned from the downtown Tampa event. The Tampa Bay Times verified those emails in which Chase Finch, safety and security manager at the convention center, also suggested the DeSantis campaign knew the request was politically tricky, given Republicans’ embrace of gun rights." (Tampa Bay Times)

He wants to be protected from guns but doesn't want to protect kids in school or any other law-abiding citizen that chooses to not be armed, or even the other responsible gun owners that do not want their lives endangered by those with no respect for the guns or the lives of others. Imagine that!

They keep saying the results of mass shootings are tied to mental illness as if anyone with a mental illness is dangerous, and yet, they see no reason to make sure those they say are dangerous do not have access to firearms. Sorry, but blaming people with mental illness is delusional. What makes it worse is that they do not want to limit anyone and now in too many states, they want no limits at all. Imagine that! 

Well, at least they want to limit them when they are the ones in fear for their own lives. So what will it take for them to imagine their own children being killed, wounded, and scared for the rest of their lives because they did not think of them as much as they thought of themselves? I wonder what would happen if they could imagine that.

What will you do when the gun turns on you?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 6, 2022

If you are a gun owner and believe that everyone should be able to buy whatever gun they want, or have as many as they want, have you ever asked yourself, "What would you do when the gun turns on you?"

Most people that own guns have a handgun for protection in their homes. Some carry one when they are out. These guns increase the odds of survival if an unarmed person breaks into your home while you are there. If you are not, then the gun you have for your own protection can end up in the hands of the criminal that broke into your home. It is a risk you are willing to take.

If a person breaks into your home and is armed, at least your odds of stopping them are equal. What if they break in with an AR15? Is your handgun going to stop them from obliterating your whole family? That is the chance you take if you are supporting the rights of anyone to get their hands on this type of weapon.

Most of the people I know have guns. They are responsible people. Over the years, I've asked them a lot of questions. I have always been a curious person, so they were used to it. They told me they keep their handguns near the bed when they go to sleep. If they had kids, then the gun was locked away.

You want to make sure your kids can't get their hands on it because you know that it is dangerous for them to get their tiny hands on it. You've read enough reports of what comes after they do get ahold of them.

On June 9, 2022, a one-year-old was shot by her brother. On May 26, 2022, in Florida, a Dad is dead and Mom has been arrested after their two-year-old son got his hands on the gun and shot his Dad. In April, in Philadelphia, a "4-year-old girl is dead after her younger brother apparently shot her by accident inside a car parked at a gas station." You can sadly find more of these reports because parents were irresponsible. You know what can happen, so you are careful.

If your handgun is locked away, where is your key? If someone breaks in, do you have time to find the key, unlock your gun, take it out, find the invader, aim and shoot before they do? Do you have time if they have an AR15 or similar type of weapon? Huge difference in your odds.

If the answer is no, then why would want this type of weapon to be allowed for anyone to purchase? They are being used for mass slaughter on our streets at parades, in schools where your kids go, as a matter of fact, they are used wherever you are but so far, you've been lucky enough to not be there when it happened.

Aside from the fact that none of the attendees at the July 4th celebrations where chaos was caused, especially at the parade in Highland Park, will ever be the same, the slaughter was caused by one of these guns and not a handgun you keep for self-protection.

The debate around the country is the wrong one to have for one simple reason, the AR15 is not considered an "assault weapon nor assault rifle.

Definition of what’s actually an ‘assault weapon’ is a highly contentious issue
CNBC

POINTS
Exactly what constitutes a so-called “assault weapon” is a highly contentious issue and something that riles up some gun advocates.
Some gun control backers pushing for an assault weapons ban include the AR-15-style rifle used in recent mass shootings. But the firearms industry insists the AR-15-style rifles are technically neither assault weapons nor assault rifles.

Following last week’s Florida school killings, there’s movement by gun control advocates in some states to ban so-called assault weapons.

Yet exactly what constitutes an “assault weapon” is a contentious issue and something that riles up some gun advocates. In fact, many of the large gun groups consider “assault weapon” a made up and ambiguous term invented by the anti-gun lobby in the 1980s, maintaining that guns don’t actually “assault” people.

That said, the gun industry’s traditional definition of an “assault rifle” is a weapon the military generally uses and has “select fire capabilities,” or the capability to switch between semi-automatic or a fully automatic mode. However, the civilian AR-15s do not have the select fire capabilities, only semi-automatic settings, so the firearms industry insists they are not an actual assault rifle or assault weapon.

And that dear readers, is the problem. It's time for all of us to think beyond our own narrow view of gun rights. There are people out there that should never get their hands on any kind of weapon. I happen to be one of them. No, I'm not deranged or anything like that. I happen to be a klutz. Ask any of my friends and they'll confirm that one. You also wouldn't want me to hold a gun if you ever saw me throw something, including a frisbee. (I hit a priest in the head with one at a cookout.)

I am not against all guns for all reasons. I just want to see my friends stay alive and have their kids survive getting through school, being able to go to movies, shopping, and worship services, and be able to regain what it is like to want to celebrate the freedom that was hard-won with their service to this country. I want my friends on the police force to be able to confront these criminals with their "legal" weapons of slaughter to have a chance to stop them because these weapons are off our streets, instead of becoming one more death the suspect is charged for committing.

If you are finished reading this, do you know now what you would do if the gun turned on you?

5 dead, 21 others shot in Texas...will the Senate ever do anything?

update

Odessa news station evacuated mid-broadcast due to shooting Odessa, Texas, CNN affiliate KOSA-TV was forced to evacuate their studio in the middle of a live broadcast due to their proximity to the shooting that left at least five people dead.Source: CNN

update Hero cop shot multiple times in Texas rampage

One of the three law enforcement heroes injured in Saturday’s mass shooting in Texas was identified late Saturday on GoFundMe — Midland Police Officer Zack Owens.

Shooter killed in West Texas after 5 people died, at least 21 injured, police say

CNN
By Ed Lavandera and Ralph Ellis
August 31, 2019

(CNN)A gunman in West Texas who killed five people while firing from his vehicle and then from a hijacked mail truck was fatally shot by police in a gun battle in a movie theater parking lot, authorities said Saturday.

At least 21 people were injured, including some who were wounded by the shooter, Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke said at a news conference. Gerke said three law enforcement officers were injured: one from the Department of Public Safety, one officer from the Midland Police Department and one officer from Odessa Police Department. Gerke said the shooter was identified as a white male in his 30's. His name and a motive were not given. Midland Mayor Jerry Morales told CNN the chain of events began when a Department of Public Safety officer pulled over a vehicle on an interstate highway Saturday.

"That's when he shot the officer and then took off and started shooting randomly," Morales said. "Everything happened after that."

At one point, the shooter ditched his vehicle and hijacked a US Postal Service truck, authorities said. Law enforcement officers "trapped him in the parking lot of the Cinergy theater, and that's when they were able to engage him," Morales said.
read it here


Mitch McConnell is the head of the Senate and has blocked anything that the people of this country have been begging for! When he took over the Senate, he gleefully stated that the "number one priority was to make Obama a one term president, even if that meant everything else could go to hell.

While McConnell did not achieve that goal, he saw gains with the Republican takeover of the House in 2010. Two years later, despite the Democrats’ push for gun control legislation after the December 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, McConnell voted against a 2013 bill that would have expanded background checks for gun purchases.

So who is Mitch McConnell working for?

Report: Multiple people shot at Maryland newspaper office

UPDATE
CBSNews
5 dead and several wounded.

Report: Multiple people shot at Maryland newspaper office
Thomson Reuters

Jun 28th 2018

June 28 (Reuters) - Several people were fatally shot at a newspaper office in the Maryland capital of Annapolis on Thursday and a suspect was apprehended, the local sheriff told Fox News.

Anne Arundel Sheriff Ron Bateman told Fox News the incident took place outside the Capital Gazette office.

Phil Davis, a Gazette reporter, said that multiple people had been shot, according to a report from the Baltimore Sun, which owns the paper.

Agents from the Baltimore office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were responding to the incident, the bureau tweeted.
read more here

Acts of Love Outnumber Acts of Hate

The State of Hate in America on the Huffington Post by Brian Levin covers the statistics of hate crimes in the US. This followed the hate crime against members of the AME Church bible study group murdered after being "too nice" to the shooter so filled with hate he was still determined to kill them.

Levin writes,

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) collects data on crimes reported to police, but participation and accuracy varies significantly by jurisdiction. In 2013, the latest available year, the FBI enumerated 5,933 hate crime incidents and five hate crime homicides in the United States through the National Incident Based Reporting System. This number represents a significant decline in the number of hate crimes over the last 15 years.

There have been and will continue to be more hate crimes simply because the courageous stand for loving others while the perpetrators stand for themselves.

Many seem to be more shocked by the response following this unthinkable act but they forget we are all born to love.

The hater was captured because someone was praying for the victims and their families.

Police got a tip from Debbie Dills, who reportedly spotted Roof on her way into work. She followed him for 35 miles, the Shelby Star reported.

“I had been praying for those people on my way to work,” Dills told the newspaper about victims of the church shooting. “I was in the right place at the right time.”

The church itself was a victim of hate.

Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church has been a presence in Charleston since 1816, when African-American members of Charleston’s Methodist Episcopal Church formed their own congregation after a dispute over burial grounds. Known as “Mother Emanuel,” it’s been the headquarters for civil rights activity over the decades.

It was burned to the ground at one point but was rebuilt.

Throughout its history, it overcame obstacle after obstacle — destroyed by an earthquake, banned by the state. But its church members persevered, making it the largest African-American church in terms of seating space in Charleston today.

Some are taught to hate. Some are just so consumed with finding others to blame for their own misery they have to blame someone else and that way, they are not forced to take a good hard look at themselves.

“There is no greater coward than a criminal who enters a house of God and slaughters innocent people engaged in the study of scripture,” Cornell William Brooks said.

The church started because they responded to being mistreated with love and hope. While the rest of the country seems stunned by their support and compassion for each other, they are ignoring the obvious. People acting out of love always outnumbers those acting out of hate.

32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

35 Jesus wept.

36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” John 11

While the Sanhedrin wanted Jesus dead because they hated Him, what He said was pure love.
Trial and Death of Jesus

Like a terminally ill patient, Jesus knows that death is around the corner. God has mapped out a path and written a ticket reading "End of Earthly Life." Our mortality is a frightening thing. Jesus faces it by doing what he always did: he took his concerns to God in prayer. While warning the disciples throughout this scene of the danger of temptation, Jesus walks into his valley of the shadow of death through the heavenly courts of God's presence. Unlike some who face death, he is not angry; nor is he stoic. He is not withdrawn, he is not bereft of hope. He simply is honest with God: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me." If there is any way I can avoid experiencing your cup of wrath for others, he prays, then remove it. (on cup as wrath, Ps 11:6; 75:7-8; Is 51:17, 19, 22; Jer 25:15-16; 49:12; 51:57; Ezek 23:31-34).
Like many who face death, Jesus would like to avoid dying now. If he were considering only his personal preference, he would rather not experience the pain of mortality and the horror of paying for sin.

Hood officials downplay mental issues as details of leave argument emerge

Hood officials downplay mental issues as details of leave argument emerge
Stars and Stripes
By Jennifer Hlad
Published: April 4, 2014

FORT HOOD, Texas — Investigators believe that an escalating argument Wednesday afternoon was the “precipitating event” to the shootings that left four soldiers, including the shooter, dead and 16 more injured, Lt. Gen. Mark A. Milley said Friday.

Spc. Ivan Lopez was being treated for depression and other mental issues, and Milley on Thursday said there is “strong evidence that he had a medical history that indicates an unstable psychiatric or psychological condition.” However, Milley said, Lopez’s underlying medical conditions are now not believed to have been the “immediate precipitating factor” that caused the shooting.

The New York Times on Friday reported that Lopez met with superiors Wednesday about a leave request that had been denied. A law enforcement source told the Times that Lopez was acting agitated and disrespectful after the meeting.

Milley, the commander of the post and of III Corps, and Chris Grey, spokesman for the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, said they could not offer details about the argument, but said some of the soldiers injured in the gunfire were involved in the verbal altercation.
read more here

Publicity stunt for Iron Man backfires

Movie theater publicity stunt triggers officers to respond to active shooter situation
Daniel Winn
Jefferson City Reporter
May 09, 2013

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.
Management at the Goodrich Capital 8 Theaters is defending what it calls a publicity stunt at the movie theaters this past weekend.

During the opening weekend of the latest 'Iron Man' movie, a man walked into the theater in full tactical gear and carrying a fake gun.

Jefferson City police and witnesses, however, are not pleased with the stunt and are questioning the theater's logic after recent shootings in Aurora, Colo. and Newtown, Conn.

John Molock is a retired Army war veteran and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He told ABC 17 News this most recent trip to the movies triggered memories he never wanted to relive.

"We had just finished watching Iron Man 3," said Morlock. "We're just getting into the car when I spotted a man in full assault gear, carrying what appeared to be a modified M-4 and 9 mm on his side."
read more here

Mainstream media accountable to no one

Mainstream media accountable to no one
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
February 5, 2013

The only time mainstream media mentions PTSD or our veterans, it follows a terrible story like what happened to Chris Kyle. Where were they all these years? They have been too busy reporting on President Obama skeet shooting and Beyonce.

In 2008 I was about as angry as I thought I could be. I was wrong. Five years later as military and veteran suicides have gone up, I sit here everyday, post their stories and wonder why people pay good money to support mainstream media.

Mainstream media
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mainstream media (MSM) are those media disseminated via the largest distribution channels, which therefore represent what the majority of media consumers are likely to encounter. The term also denotes those media generally reflective of the prevailing currents of thought, influence, or activity.

Large news conglomerates, including newspapers and broadcast media, which underwent successive mergers in the U.S. and elsewhere at an increasing rate beginning in the 1990s, are often referenced by the term. This concentration of media ownership has raised concerns of a homogenization of viewpoints presented to news consumers. Consequently, the term mainstream media has been widely used in conversation and the blogosphere, often in oppositional, pejorative, or dismissive senses, in discussion of the mass media and media bias.

Media organizations such as CBS and the New York Times set the tone for other smaller news organizations by creating conversations which cascade down to the smaller news organizations lacking the resources to do more individual research and coverage, that primary method being through the Associated Press where many news organizations get their news. This results in a recycling effect wherein organic thought is left to the mainstream that choose the conversation and smaller organizations recite absent of a variance in perspective.

In 2001 when I finished my book For the Love of Jack, I was stupid enough to think that if people knew what I knew, then they would demand change for the sake of the men and women serving in Afghanistan. The troops were not in Iraq yet. If they got their act together they would have trauma specialists deployed with the troops to address what they went through and prevent the majority of PTSD cases, thereby preventing many of the suicides connected to PTSD.

Civilians had been doing that across the country when major traumatic events happen including the attacks of September 11 when specialists rushed into New York and Washington DC.

When I watch TV news, I am stunned by how little the "reporters" actually know about PTSD. They don't seem to understand there is a huge difference between the type of PTSD civilians get and the type of PTSD members of the military suffer from anymore than they seem to understand that just because the term is new to them, it has been studied for over 40 years and reported under different titles since wars began. Hell, it is even in the Bible!

So I sit here this morning while thinking about last night and how the coverage suddenly spread over all the mainstream media outlets since Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield were murdered at a gun range while trying to help a PTSD veteran.

Veteran in sniper killing talked of having PTSD
By Angela K. Brown and Jamie Stengle
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Feb 4, 2013

FORT WORTH, Texas — The Iraq war veteran and Marine reservist charged with killing a former Navy SEAL sniper and his friend on a Texas shooting range had been taken to a mental hospital twice in the past five months and told authorities he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, police records show.

Cpl. Eddie Ray Routh, 25, also told his sister and brother-in-law after the shootings that he “traded his soul for a new truck,” according to an Erath County arrest warrant affidavit obtained by WFAA-TV. Police said Routh was driving the truck of victim and ex-Navy SEAL Chris Kyle at the time of his arrest.

Routh is charged with one count of capital murder and two counts of murder in the shooting deaths of Kyle, author of the best-selling book “American Sniper,” and his friend Chad Littlefield at a shooting range Saturday in Glen Rose. He is on suicide watch in the Erath County Jail, where he’s being held on $3 million bail, Sheriff Tommy Bryant said.

Routh, a member of the Individual Ready Reserve, was first taken to a mental hospital Sept. 2 after he threatened to kill his family and himself, according to police records in Lancaster, where Routh lives. Authorities found Routh walking nearby with no shirt and no shoes, and smelling of alcohol. Routh told authorities he was a Marine veteran who was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Routh was a "danger to himself and others" but as we've seen, he did not get the help he needed. Yet none of this has caused mainstream reporters to learn enough to ask how this is still happening. Still? Yes, it has been happening for far too long when they are left off the "to do" list of the military. Congress gets away without asking anyone to be held accountable because the mainstream media is no longer interested in informing the public. Read this from 2009 and know that for all of these years of hearing speech after speech given to reporters, it has all left us with veterans being shafted to the point where almost one every hour takes their own lives. How many times does this have to happen before the media decides it is their job to keep the public informed?

"He went to Fort Lewis to kill himself to prove a point,"
January 12, 2009


" 'Here I am. I was a soldier. You guys didn't help me.' "

Those were the words Josh Barber's widow told a reporter in the article below. That's the real issue here. For all the talk about what's being done, no one is talking about what does not work and may in fact cause more harm than good. What good does it do to tell wounded veterans we're doing this and we're doing that but they still don't get the help they need? As for the "programs" they have in place, some are good but some are bad but they still use them. We don't know why they do and the widows, well they only know they sent their husbands into combat expecting they would be taken care of if they were wounded but they end up with a stranger needing help that never seems to come in time.

If anyone other than the government said they had a program that would cut down the number of PTSD cases, attempted suicide and successful ones, would you really believe them without proof? Wouldn't there have to be years of clinical trails and scrutiny from psychologist and psychiatrists from around the world before they even began to offer the program?

Had they paid attention to all of this all along, when Routh came home, he would have been helped the way he needed to be and two others would probably still be alive.

Who is defending the rights of the children to live?

I was watching CNN when Piers Morgan had a heated exchange with the President of Gun Owners of America while Larry Pratt once again said teachers should have been armed, just as he had on MSNBC.

There is plenty of talk about the rights of gun owners but not enough about people to go to school, to go to a movie, go shopping or simply do what they do in a normal day when an un-normal person gets their hands on assault weapons.

I decided to turn my computer back on and tackle this part of the debate we should be having when I read this.

EXCLUSIVE: Fear of being committed may have caused Connecticut gunman to snap
By Jana Winter
Published December 18, 2012
FoxNews.com

“From what I've been told, Adam was aware of her petitioning the court for conservatorship and (her) plans to have him committed," Flashman told FoxNews.com.
"Adam was apparently very upset about this. He thought she just wanted to send him away. From what I understand, he was really, really angry. I think this could have been it, what set him off.”

The shooters Mom knew he was mentally ill enough to want to have him committed. Think about that for a second. She still had taken him to the gun range to go shooting and still had assault weapons in her home while she thought her son was dangerous. How can this be justifiable?

Getting back to Pratt and his comments about the rights of people to own guns, that is fine when they are responsible and respect the power of the weapons they own but when the same laws allow dangerous people to get their hands on assault weapons, that cannot be defended.

The shooters Mom, for whatever reason, did not remove those weapons even though she though her son needed to be committed. People still defend her right to have those guns? What about the rights of the 20 children to live? The 6 other adults to live? For the rest of the students in that elementary school to feel safe? For the families to feel that they had nothing to worry about when they sent their kids to school? Her guns were legally owned yet Pratt said the teachers should have been armed too? Her guns were legal but Pratt's answer is more guns. In what? The "right hands" because he is so sure that everyone that owns guns are responsible? He must have thought the shooters Mom was responsible as well because she bought the guns legally and had permits for them. We saw how all that turned out.

Real life is not the movies. In the movies people aim a weapon and it hits the target. Cops don't have to fire multiple times, miss and have to keep shooting until they hit the person they are aiming at. The director tells the person to just fall down. Real life isn't like that and it is time we stopped pretending it is.

There shouldn't have to be laws for someone to remove guns from a house with a mental illness so severe they should be committed. That is what should just be common sense and it is not happening.

If there is ever going to be an honest debate in this country about guns, then we need to stop pretending that every gun owner does the right thing.

UPDATE December 19, 2012

If you want a gun to protect yourself and your home, most people can understand that. If you want a gun to go hunting, most people are ok with that too. Why on earth do you want an assault weapon? You don't need them. If normal gun owners do not take a stand against assault weapons then you'll be part of the problem in the eyes of the rest of the country. Do the right thing and push these gun owner groups to come up with a solution that will protect your rights and the rights of others to not have to fear what some do with their "legal" guns.

Fort Hood Shooting Survivor Begins 80-Mile Run To Capitol

Ft Hood Shooting Survivor Begins 80-Mile Run To Capitol
KCENTV.com
Posted: Nov 01, 2012
By Sophia Stamas

A soldier who survived the Fort Hood massacre hit the road for an 80-mile run to the state capitol Thursday morning.

It was an emotional send-off near Fort Hood's Clear Creek gate, as others wounded that tragic day waved him off at the starting line.

CW5 Chris Royal was shot twice in his lower back, on either side of his spine on November 5, 2009, while getting ready for a deployment on Fort Hood.

He remembers it like it was yesterday.

"A lot chaos broke out, it was a lot of gunfire," said Chris.

His wife, Stephanie, is also a Fort Hood soldier and was taking part in a training exercise across post, when she got the news.

"I was reading the text message that said Chris was shot, and I was just like, oh my God," she recalls.

The couple will never forget the events of that day.

Now despite shooting pain caused by his wounds, Chris is running to the Texas capitol so that the nation doesn't forget those who are still hurting.

"I want America to see that the 32 still standing, we're going to be here, we're not going anywhere, but we do need their support," Chris said.
read more here and see video

Gunman opens fire on NIU campus

Gunman opens fire on NIU campus


Published: Feb. 14, 2008 at 5:36 PM

DEKALB, Ill., Feb. 14 (UPI) -- A gunman opened fire in an auditorium on the campus of Northern Illinois University Thursday, wounding at least two students, reports said.
click post title for the rest