Ben Carson, one of the leading Republican presidential candidates, too the stage in in this week's debate on CNBC. He was recently asked how he would react if confronted by a shooter, and he gave a response that shocked me:
Ben Carson's comments are insulting to everyone who has been affected by gun violence.
Please join me in calling on Ben Carson to apologize for his offensive remarks.
Your petition signature will be automatically delivered to the Carson campaign and CNBC.
Believe it or not, Ben Carson doubled down on his offensive positions. In another interview, he said, "I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away."
Ben Carson thinks he can score political points by blaming gun violence victims, while opposing common-sense measures that would keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people in the first place.
I don’t believe these insensitive comments have any place in our public discourse, and I know other survivors (and the majority of Americans) don't either.
Join me, and sign the petition telling Ben Carson to apologize for his comments about victims of gun violence.
"Whatever it takes" started as Andy Parker's call to action when his daughter Alison was shot on live television.
Now we're taking that call to action straight into next month's elections in Virginia -- the backyard of the NRA's headquarters -- and doing whatever it takes to defeat NRA-backed candidates. With your help, we have a real shot of winning a gun sense majority in the State Senate.
Supporters like you from across the country can use our tool to send a FREE personalized postcard directly to voters in Virginia to remind them to vote for gun sense candidates in the election in less than two weeks.
Send a FREE personalized postcard to voters in Virginia to make sure they know what's at stake in this year's election.
The postcards will be personalized with your name and picture, so that voters in Virginia know there are thousands of real, like-minded supporters from around the country who believe in electing lawmakers who'll stand up for common-sense gun laws.
Our hope is to flood homes with these "please vote" reminders right as we're calling voters, going door-to-door to hand out fliers, and running ads against NRA-backed candidates.
It's never easy to take on entrenched gun lobby-backed candidates -- but it's especially difficult in a non-presidential election year when not everyone will remember to vote. Sending a postcard is quick, easy, and totally free -- and it could make a difference in these tight races.
Send a free personalized postcard to a Virginia voter to help defeat NRA-backed candidates in the Virginia election on November 3.
Thanks for getting involved. We're grateful for your help in this important election!
Congresswoman To Introduce ‘Very Narrow’ Gun Control Bill This Week
Badger Guns has a bad reputation. Before selling the weapon that eventually shot two police officers in the face, the Milwaukee firearm dealer had racked up 130 federal gun regulation violations in nearly two years. Coincidentally or not, the store has one of the worst records in the country of selling guns that are later used in crimes.
But Badger Guns — with its myriad violations and crime gun sales — is also a rarity. According to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, nine out of ten firearms used in crimes can be traced back to just 5 percent of American gun dealers. The Brady Center deems these dealers “bad apples,” and accuses them of “willfully ignor[ing] telltale signs of illegal gun purchases.”
Now, one congresswoman is hoping that targeting “bad apple” dealers across the country can prove a bipartisan endeavor. On Wednesday, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) will introduce the Gun Dealer Accountability Act, which seeks to give the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) more authority to inspect dealers with a history of selling weapons eventually used in crimes.
“This is very narrow — it is not, ‘Let’s repeal the Second Amendment,'” Moore told ThinkProgress. “This would only provide some flexibility for [federal regulators] to be able to examine a store where a large number of crime guns are sold.”
Moore asserts that her bill is both narrow enough and timely enough to work. It’s timely, she says, because of Badger Guns’ recent conviction, and the recent mass shooting on an Oregon college campus. And it’s narrow because it only targets two specific classes of firearm dealers: Those that have already been found by a court to have knowingly or negligently participated in an illegal gun sale, and those that have sold more than 10 crime guns in two years.
“Every time we talk with our friends across the aisle, they say the same thing — no one wants to see an illegal gun on our streets,” said Eric Harris, Moore’s communications director. “This is a way we can prevent that.”
The Gun Dealer Accountability Act would give the ATF authority to put these dealers on probation. That “probation” would allow the ATF to inspect that dealer more than once a year. Moore argues this is necessary because right now, the ATF can only conduct spot inspections on gun dealers once every year, no matter how many violations they’ve racked up or how many crime guns they’ve sold.
“Right now, the ATF’s hands are tied,” Moore said, adding that under her bill “[inspections] wouldn’t be required, but it would give them the authority to do it.”
These are not Bernie Sanders’ gun stores up in Vermont. This is not Sarah Palin shooting the moose for her stew.
In addition to inspections, Moore’s bill would require gun stores on probation to temporarily conduct physical inventory of their firearms. She notes that, under the Tiahrt Amendment of 2003, the ATF was prohibited from requiring gun dealers to submit inventories. She finds this particularly egregious.
“It is amazing to me that gun shops are not required to [submit] inventory of the guns they have. That’s ridiculous,” she said. “We keep inventory of Barbie dolls, to make sure employees don’t steal them! It’s crazy.”
Of course, Moore acknowledges that gun stores can be fooled into illegal gun sales by particularly savvy people. That’s why the threshold for probation is 10 crime guns per two years, and probation is optional. But something has to be changed, Moore said, because with the ATF lacking authority to perform inspections and current federal law that makes it nearly impossible to sue gun stores, “bad apple” dealers are not being held accountable.
“These are not respectable businesses when people are murdered on a daily basis with these illegal guns,” she said. “These are not guns people are using for deer hunting season, to get some good venison for the Thanksgiving. These are not Bernie Sanders’ gun stores up in Vermont. This is not Sarah Palin shooting the moose for her stew.”
But Moore also admitted that she has not yet received any support from Republicans or even moderate Democrats. When the bill drops on Wednesday, she hopes that will change. If it doesn’t — and with a perpetually gridlocked Congress wary of anything even remotely resembling gun control, it likely won’t — she knows who she will blame.
“The influence of the [National Rifle Association] is just really a factor here,” she said, suggesting that the influential pro-gun lobbying organization would discourage members from supporting what they may see as a form a gun control. “They don’t want the NRA dropping $5 million worth of commercials on them during their next election.”
A spokesperson for the National Rifle Association did not return ThinkProgress’ request for comment.
The Human Brain Reacts to Guns as if They Were Spiders or Snakes. Meet a scientist who studies the psychology of guns. After each highly publicized mass shooting, there's a political debate about how to make them stop, with researchers and politicians alike firing up about assault-rifle bans, background checks, and other possible solutions.
"Not only would I probably not cooperate with him, I would not just stand there and let him shoot me. I would say, 'Hey guys, everybody attack him. He may shoot me but he can't get us all.'"Erica Lafferty's mom was the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and she didn't just "stand there" and let a gunman shoot and kill her -- she died protecting the students who were in her care.
Ben Carson's comments are insulting to everyone who has been affected by gun violence.
Please join me in calling on Ben Carson to apologize for his offensive remarks.
Your petition signature will be automatically delivered to the Carson campaign and CNBC.
Ben Carson thinks he can score political points by blaming gun violence victims, while opposing common-sense measures that would keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people in the first place.
I don’t believe these insensitive comments have any place in our public discourse, and I know other survivors (and the majority of Americans) don't either.
Join me, and sign the petition telling Ben Carson to apologize for his comments about victims of gun violence.
"Whatever it takes" started as Andy Parker's call to action when his daughter Alison was shot on live television.
Now we're taking that call to action straight into next month's elections in Virginia -- the backyard of the NRA's headquarters -- and doing whatever it takes to defeat NRA-backed candidates. With your help, we have a real shot of winning a gun sense majority in the State Senate.
Supporters like you from across the country can use our tool to send a FREE personalized postcard directly to voters in Virginia to remind them to vote for gun sense candidates in the election in less than two weeks.
Send a FREE personalized postcard to voters in Virginia to make sure they know what's at stake in this year's election.
Our hope is to flood homes with these "please vote" reminders right as we're calling voters, going door-to-door to hand out fliers, and running ads against NRA-backed candidates.
It's never easy to take on entrenched gun lobby-backed candidates -- but it's especially difficult in a non-presidential election year when not everyone will remember to vote. Sending a postcard is quick, easy, and totally free -- and it could make a difference in these tight races.
Send a free personalized postcard to a Virginia voter to help defeat NRA-backed candidates in the Virginia election on November 3.
Thanks for getting involved. We're grateful for your help in this important election!
Congresswoman To Introduce ‘Very Narrow’ Gun Control Bill This Week
Badger Guns has a bad reputation. Before selling the weapon that eventually shot two police officers in the face, the Milwaukee firearm dealer had racked up 130 federal gun regulation violations in nearly two years. Coincidentally or not, the store has one of the worst records in the country of selling guns that are later used in crimes.
But Badger Guns — with its myriad violations and crime gun sales — is also a rarity. According to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, nine out of ten firearms used in crimes can be traced back to just 5 percent of American gun dealers. The Brady Center deems these dealers “bad apples,” and accuses them of “willfully ignor[ing] telltale signs of illegal gun purchases.”
Now, one congresswoman is hoping that targeting “bad apple” dealers across the country can prove a bipartisan endeavor. On Wednesday, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) will introduce the Gun Dealer Accountability Act, which seeks to give the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) more authority to inspect dealers with a history of selling weapons eventually used in crimes.
“This is very narrow — it is not, ‘Let’s repeal the Second Amendment,'” Moore told ThinkProgress. “This would only provide some flexibility for [federal regulators] to be able to examine a store where a large number of crime guns are sold.”
The vast majority of gun dealers do not supply weapons used in crimes. The vast majority of gun dealers do not supply weapons used in crimes. CREDIT: BRADY CENTER TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE
Moore asserts that her bill is both narrow enough and timely enough to work. It’s timely, she says, because of Badger Guns’ recent conviction, and the recent mass shooting on an Oregon college campus. And it’s narrow because it only targets two specific classes of firearm dealers: Those that have already been found by a court to have knowingly or negligently participated in an illegal gun sale, and those that have sold more than 10 crime guns in two years.
“Every time we talk with our friends across the aisle, they say the same thing — no one wants to see an illegal gun on our streets,” said Eric Harris, Moore’s communications director. “This is a way we can prevent that.”
The Gun Dealer Accountability Act would give the ATF authority to put these dealers on probation. That “probation” would allow the ATF to inspect that dealer more than once a year. Moore argues this is necessary because right now, the ATF can only conduct spot inspections on gun dealers once every year, no matter how many violations they’ve racked up or how many crime guns they’ve sold.
“Right now, the ATF’s hands are tied,” Moore said, adding that under her bill “[inspections] wouldn’t be required, but it would give them the authority to do it.”
These are not Bernie Sanders’ gun stores up in Vermont. This is not Sarah Palin shooting the moose for her stew.
In addition to inspections, Moore’s bill would require gun stores on probation to temporarily conduct physical inventory of their firearms. She notes that, under the Tiahrt Amendment of 2003, the ATF was prohibited from requiring gun dealers to submit inventories. She finds this particularly egregious.
“It is amazing to me that gun shops are not required to [submit] inventory of the guns they have. That’s ridiculous,” she said. “We keep inventory of Barbie dolls, to make sure employees don’t steal them! It’s crazy.”
Of course, Moore acknowledges that gun stores can be fooled into illegal gun sales by particularly savvy people. That’s why the threshold for probation is 10 crime guns per two years, and probation is optional. But something has to be changed, Moore said, because with the ATF lacking authority to perform inspections and current federal law that makes it nearly impossible to sue gun stores, “bad apple” dealers are not being held accountable.
“These are not respectable businesses when people are murdered on a daily basis with these illegal guns,” she said. “These are not guns people are using for deer hunting season, to get some good venison for the Thanksgiving. These are not Bernie Sanders’ gun stores up in Vermont. This is not Sarah Palin shooting the moose for her stew.”
Most crime guns can be traced back to just a few dealers.Most crime guns can be traced back to just a few dealers.CREDIT: BRADY CENTER TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE
But Moore also admitted that she has not yet received any support from Republicans or even moderate Democrats. When the bill drops on Wednesday, she hopes that will change. If it doesn’t — and with a perpetually gridlocked Congress wary of anything even remotely resembling gun control, it likely won’t — she knows who she will blame.
“The influence of the [National Rifle Association] is just really a factor here,” she said, suggesting that the influential pro-gun lobbying organization would discourage members from supporting what they may see as a form a gun control. “They don’t want the NRA dropping $5 million worth of commercials on them during their next election.”
A spokesperson for the National Rifle Association did not return ThinkProgress’ request for comment.
The Human Brain Reacts to Guns as if They Were Spiders or Snakes. Meet a scientist who studies the psychology of guns. After each highly publicized mass shooting, there's a political debate about how to make them stop, with researchers and politicians alike firing up about assault-rifle bans, background checks, and other possible solutions.
But Brad Bushman, a psychology and communications professor at Ohio State University, takes a broader view. Bushman researches the psychological mechanisms behind gun violence: Does having a weapon around make us more aggressive? How about watching video games? How do we respond biologically to seeing a gun? In a recent episode of the Inquiring Minds podcast, host Indre Viskontas spoke to Bushman about what he and others in the field have found.
Over the years, Bushman explains, dozens of studies have confirmed what researchers dub the "weapons effect": People act more aggressively in the presence of a weapon, especially when something angers them. One study by researchers at Harvard found that drivers with guns in the car were more likely to engage in road rage, closely tailing other drivers and making obscene gestures—even when researchers controlled for things like gender, age, urbanization, and more.
Similar studies in labs have found that the presence of a gun causes participants enraged by another person to choose to make that person physically uncomfortable for longer periods of time, from delivering more electric shocks to forcing them to hear louder noises or keep their arms plunged in ice water for longer. In a review of 50 such studies, including more than 5,000 participants, Bushman found not only that the weight of the evidence support the weapons effect, but that the effect was also seen, though not to the same degree, with those who hadn't been angered.
People act more aggressively in the presence of a weapon, especially when something angers them.
Some studies hint at the biological mechanisms at play, finding, for example, that our brains recognizeguns just as quickly as other threats that we've evolved to quickly spot, like snakes and spiders. (It's worth noting that this effect isn't unique to guns:Syringes have been found to have a similar effect.)
A 2006 study went a step further, connecting biological changes with aggression. Here's how it went: Researchers took saliva samples of 30 male college students in order to test their levels of testosterone, a hormone typically associated with aggression. Then, the students were told to hang out in a room by themselves—inside of which was a TV, a couch, and either a pellet gun or a kids toy—and write down instructions on how either the gun or the toy worked.
After 15 minutes, the students gave another saliva sample, and then they were told to add some hot sauce to a cup of water that they were led to believe another participant would have to drink. The results: Those participants in the rooms with pellet guns had higher increases in testosterone, and the more the testosterone levels increased, the more hot sauce they added to the water.
Of course, these studies often run into the same problem: No matter how spicy the hot sauce or cold the ice water, forcing people to endure physical discomfort in a lab isn't the same as shooting people. Bushman acknowledges this, explaining that researchers can't, for example, expose participants to a gun and then send them out into the real world with a weapon to see what happens.
"It's not possible to know whether playing a violent video game causes violent criminal behavior such as a school shooting."
Still, he says, the overwhelming evidence that exposure to weapons causes physical aggression is worrisome, particularly when you consider that about a third of American homes have guns. "I think this has important implications," says Bushman. "They should put those guns in opaque containers or lock them up, separate from the ammunition. Some people display the guns in glass cabinets; that’s a really bad idea because research shows just the mere presence of guns can increase aggression."
If seeing guns makes people more aggressive, it follows that violent media would do the same. This has been a controversial question for years, in part because so many people play violent video games and aren't violent. A number of studies in leading medical journals, from The Lancet to Pediatrics, have found a link between exposure to violent media and physical aggression, a lack of empathy, and asocial behavior. And several medical organizations—including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychiatric Association—consider violent media exposure to be a risk factor for actual violence.
None of this, of course, proves causation—and Bushman admits, "It's not possible to know whether playing a violent video game causes violent criminal behavior such as a school shooting."
But when it comes to video games, having weapons in the house, and general exposure to guns, Bushman takes a cautious tone. He quoted Leonard Berkowitz, the psychologist who conducted the first study on the weapons effect, back in the 1960s: "The finger pulls the trigger, but the trigger may also be pulling the finger."
Inquiring Minds is a podcast hosted by neuroscientist and musician Indre Viskontas and Kishore Hari, the director of the Bay Area Science Festival. To catch future shows right when they are released, subscribe to Inquiring Minds via iTunes or RSS.You can follow the show on Twitter at @inquiringshow and like us on Facebook.
