The recent mass killing in Maine will no doubt lead to a loud discussion about gun control. But guns led to more than 200 mass shootings in 2022 — about ten per week — more than one per day. Yet, despite gun violence researchers saying that there’s a contagion effect with every incident encouraging copy cats, little progress has been made.
Continue reading Guns and more Guns, Again – by Deborah Levine
Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press
We all know that after the back-to-back mass shootings this weekend, there will be renewed discussion over gun control and safety. We also know that the debate will probably go nowhere, as usual. Even though many of these massacres are committed using military style weapons, many anti-gun control folks maintain that owning these semi-automatic rifles is a constitutional right. Why should law abiding persons be limited because of a few crazies out there. But given that CBS news reports more mass killings in 2019 than days so far this year. It’s time to re-examine our cultural norms regarding military-style weapons.
Continue reading Gun debacle and debate, again – by Deborah Levine
For over two years now, every day and night, I have been scanning the media comments sections of mainstream media articles to gauge social ebbs and flows. And I have been tracking the influence of obviously professional trolls and bots. (I should write a thesis about their unfortunately profound influence.) I have been alarmed at how they have been largely successful in guilting, deriding, confusing, distracting, frightening, and shaming genuinely concerned, good-hearted commenters from taking solid, necessarily no-holds-barred action to reverse major societal and political wrongs and destructive movements and trends that have drastically increased in power and control during the same time period.
Continue reading Our Society has Finally Reached the Tipping Point – by Kathleen Sullivan
