Tag Archives: National Rifle Association

We can do this.

We can make Washington safer for all of us — and our families — by requiring all gun purchasers to pass a simple criminal background check.

Sure, a small group of very powerful lobbyists have managed to pull enough strings to stop commonsense reforms in D.C. so far, but when 80% of Washingtonians support criminal background checks, there are not enough big campaign contributions in the world to stop us from doing what’s right.

So we’re going to get this done — and we need your help, right now, to make sure it happens.

www.wagunresponsibility.org

That’s it. That’s all you need to do.

It may seem like just a few mouse clicks, or phone taps, but standing up to the big money lobbyists — right now — and showing your fellow Washingtonians that you are one of the eight in ten who demand such a simple, but powerful, reform will make all the difference.

If each one of us speaks up — there’s no way that anyone can stop us.

www.wagunresponsibility.org

We’re going to get this done. And it’s all because you took a moment, right now, to say that it is time for reform.

Thank you,

Zach

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President Obama Speaks on the Affordable Care Act

05/13/2013 Nativegrl77

President Obama delivers statement on the impact of the Affordable Care Act on the health, lives and pocketbooks of women and their families. May 10, 2013.

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Farm Bill debate begins–your voice is needed:

05/13/2013 Nativegrl77

The Pulse: Facts you need from experts you trust

Our government is currently paying farmers to grow virtually the opposite of what it recommends that Americans eat—including billions to subsidize items such as corn syrup that go into processed food. Not only do these policies undermine our health, they damage our air, soil, and water. Thankfully, there’s a better way. Check out our new analysis, The Healthy Farm: A Vision for U.S. Agriculture, that identifies four ways that modern, science-based practices can produce abundant, affordable, healthy food and protect our environment. Be sure to visit our interactive healthy farm and take action as debate on the Farm Bill heats up. —Karla

Science in Action
	Debate on Farm Bill begins—we need your help We have an opportunity right now to reorient government policies to provide greater support for healthy food and farms. A proposal has been introduced to strengthen support in the Farm Bill for programs that meet our food needs, provide economic opportunities, and minimize harmful environmental costs. Tell Congress: the Farm Bill should support healthy farms and food—not processed food and industrial agriculture! Share:

Cartoon of the Month
Click to view larger image.			VOTE for UCS! Support our submission in the Looking @ Democracy video contest. INFOGRAPHIC: Are U.S. farms growing the food we should eat? Find out! Organic dairy—it’s good for your bones and great for the local economy. Learn more. Just rotate the crops? How one scientific study is upending the claims made by chemical companies!

Ask a Scientist
Karen Perry Stillerman Senior Analyst, Food and Environment ProgramFollow Karen’s blog >>	Our country has one of the highest costs for medical care, and has increasing amounts of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other diseases. To what extent can changes in our food system help make Americans healthier and what is UCS doing about these problems? —Janet Cruz, Kamiah, ID It’s true that healthcare spending in the United States currently accounts for 18 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is expected to rise sharply as the population ages. And rates of diet-related chronic diseases are soaring. Most of us know we should eat a healthier diet—with more fruits and vegetables, and less meat, sugar, and processed foods—but we’re being undermined by a food system that sets us up to fail. MOREDo you have a question for UCS scientists? Submit your question today.

This Just In
	Take a trip to a modern, sustainable farm Healthy farms can meet our need for affordable, healthy food while providing real environmental and economic benefits. Our interactive graphic takes you on a tour of the top practices and benefits associated with modern, sustainable farming. Start your journey now!


	ALEC’s at it again: this time pushing state legislation that threatens our food’s safety by shielding factory farms from whistleblowers. Here’s what you need to know…
	MORE


	Laura Wisland: Solar Power Blooms Across the Country Michael Halpern: Duped Again on Emergency Contraception Todd Sanford: Wildfire Season Has Arrived in the West Kevin Knobloch: A Welcome Voice of Corporate Leadership
	MORE


	Did you miss Ricardo Salvador on @MHPnews? http://ow.ly/kwGSx Check out this weekend’s segment on #GMOs, Monsanto, hunger, and more… VIDEO: Planning for sea level rise http://ow.ly/kqsaI @weatherchannnel highlights the growing risks of rising seas. #climate We need a science champion for @EPAadm. Tell your senator to confirm Gina McCarthy: http://bit.ly/141B77I States are choosing renewable energy facts over fiction peddled by #ALEC, #Koch brothers @CSMonitor http://ow.ly/kr03y

DEFEND SCIENCE!

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Less Popular Than Pond Scum

05/01/2013 Nativegrl77

By ThinkProgress War Room

Senators Face Backlash After Siding with the NRA

Two weeks ago, a minority in the Senate filibustered a commonsense, bipartisan compromise that would expanded background checks so that most gun purchases would be covered.

If you thought that opposing a policy that more than 90 percent of Americans, including more than 80 percent of gun owners, support was both bad policy and bad politics, you’d be right. Polls out in the past few days show that support for senators who filibustered is plummeting.

Freshman Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), who is the most unpopular senator in America following his vote, acknowledged today that he is “somewhere just below pond scum” in terms of popularity. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) saw her popularity drop by a whopping 15 points. Meanwhile, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), the lead co-sponsor of the legislation, saw his approval rating hit a record high after he bucked the NRA.

Things got even more intense for Ayotte today. She was confronted by the daughter of a Newtown victim and things did not go well for Ayotte:

“You had mentioned that the burden to owners of gun stores that these expanded background checks would cause,” [Erica Lafferty, daughter of Sandy Hook Elementary principal Dawn Hochsprung] said. “I’m just wondering why the burden of my mother being gunned down in the hall of her elementary school isn’t as important as that?” […]

Lafferty abruptly walked out of the meeting after Ayotte responded to her question, and accused Ayotte of not being forthright after the Republican initially based her opposition on the burden new background checks would cause.

“It’s disappointing and disgusting that she can pretty much look me in the eye and try to justify my mother’s murder and the murder of five other educators and the mothers of six and seven year olds,” Lafferty said in an interview. “It’s disgusting.”

You can watch Erica Lafferty challenge Ayotte HERE.

As we’ve said before, this is just the beginning of the fight for commonsense gun violence prevention measures. We all need to redouble our efforts to persuade more senators to side with the overwhelming majority of their constituents and the victims of gun violence instead of the NRA. And we need to hold those that refuse to do so accountable.

BOTTOM LINE: There’s a political price to be paid for opposing commonsense gun violence prevention measures that almost all Americans support and some senators are just starting to get a sense of the cost.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Paul Ryan regrets voting against same-sex adoption.

Facebook rejects ad highlighting Zuckerberg group’s support for Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

Tea Party congressman: attorney general is on the side of the Boston bombers.

Chris Broussard and ESPN decline to apologize for attack on first openly gay NBA player.

Unpopular governor says his poor job creation numbers are because most unemployed are on drugs.

GOP’s launches war on women’s paychecks (and men’s too).

The FBI is investigating the GOP governor of Virginia.

Thousands of chemical facilities pose risks to cities with larger populations than West, Texas.

President Obama: LGBT Americans “deserve full equality,” “not just tolerance.”

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The Gun Debate

04/12/2013 Nativegrl77

By ThinkProgress War Room

Myths & Facts About Background Checks

This morning, the Senate took one of its most bipartisan major votes in years when senators voted 68-31 to begin debating a package of gun violence prevention measures. Despite being supported by more than 90 percent of all Americans and nearly as many gun-owning Americans, the National Rifle Association’s implacable opposition to common sense solutions has rendered expanded background checks controversial in Congress.

Here’s your ThinkProgress guide to the myths and facts around the policy at the center of the Senate gun violence prevention bill:

MYTH	REALITY
Background checks are ineffective and restrictive.Checks “would significantly restrict the rights of law-abiding Americans while doing little or nothing to protect against further gun violence.” [Sen. Mike Lee,4/9/2013]	Ninety percent of background checks can be completed in less than two minutes and the Manchin-Toomey proposal would expedite the process. Under the amendment, if a background check at a gun show does not result in a definitive response within 48 hours, the sale may proceed. After four years, the background check would be required to be conducted in 24 hours. Background checks have already contributed to violence reduction. In the 14 states and Washington D.C. that require background checks for private handgun sales (including Toomey’s home state of Pennsylvania): 38 percent fewer women are shot to death by intimate partners, 17 percent fewer firearms are involved in aggravated assaults, and 48 percent less gun trafficking.
Criminals will avoid background checks. “My problem with background checks is, you’re never going to get criminals to go through universal background checks.” [Wayne LaPierre, 1/30/2013]	From 1999 to 2009, 1.8 million people were blocked from purchasing guns after failing a background check because they had criminal records or suffered from mental illness. In fact, Seung Hui Cho, the shooter at Virginia Tech and Jared Loughner, who targeted Gabby Giffords, both obtained their guns legally and slipped through the cracksof the existing background check system. The Manchin-Toomey bill addresses this by encouraging states to provide their available records into the federal database and directing future grant money towards creating systems to send records into the database. The bill will also reduce federal funds to states that do not comply.
Background checks will lead to a gun registry. “The Democrats’ proposed legislation would require universal background checks for private sales between law-abiding citizens, which according to DOJ would be effective only if accompanied by a national gun registry. ” [Sen. Ted Cruz, 4/9/2013]	Federally licensed gun dealers have conducted background checks for more than 40 years without ever creating a national gun registry, which federal lawspecifically prohibits. Under this agreement, federal dealers would conduct screenings for private sellers and keep the record; the federal government would not. When a gun is recovered at a violent crime, law enforcement can use the records to track down the perpetrator. All information identifying the buyer generated by the background check would be destroyed by law enforcement within 24 hours. The Manchin-Toomey amendment explicitly bans the federal government from creating a registry in three different places and treats the misuse of records for the pursue of creating a registry as a felony punishable by 15 years in prison. From the legislative language: And:
Background checks wouldn’t have prevented Newtown.“The reality is, when you look at the tragedy of Newtown, nothing that’s been proposed would have any effect on that at all.” [Sen. John Boozman,4/10/2013]	As Toomey admitted during a press conference announcing the measure, background checks will not prevent every gun crime, but they can keep hundreds of thousands of people who shouldn’t have weapons from obtaining them. For instance, it’s estimated that 62 percent of private gun sellers on the Internet and 63 percent of private sellers at gun shows have agreed to sell a firearm to buyers who said they probably couldn’t pass a background check. More than 6.6 million gun sales were transferred in 2012 without a criminal background check and a survey of prisoners who committed crimes with handguns found nearly 80 percent of them acquired their firearm from a person who was not a licensed dealer.
Obama isn’t prosecuting people who fail background checks. “[T]he Obama Administration has failed to make this a priority — in 2010, out of more than 15,700 fugitives and felons who tried to illegally purchase a firearm, the Obama Justice Department prosecuted only 44.” [Sen. Ted Cruz,3/28/2013]	Federal firearm prosecutions has remained steady, varying by no more than 5 percent each year, data from the Department of Justice reveals. Republicans and the NRA specifically cherry pick prosecutions for background checks to imply that the Obama administration has stopped enforcing existing law, though it has gone after gun-related crimes at the same rate as its predecessors.Law enforcement officials often see these cases as a poor use of resources because prosecutors must prove that “the person knew they were lying when they tried to purchase the firearm” in order to secure a conviction which “usually carries a maximum sentence of just six months.”
Obama isn’t enforcing the laws on the books. “It’s not about new gun laws; it’s about enforcing the ones we have.” [Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), 4/4/2013]	The laws on the books are inadequate. Criminals and mentally ill individuals can buy guns at gun shows or online and many who go through a federally licensed dealer often slip through the cracks because states are not putting records into the NICS system. In fact, following the Newtown tragedy, the NRA successfully attached riders to the resolution funding the government through September that limited enforcement tools against crooked dealers and interfered with ATF gun trace reports. That’s why the Manchin-Toomey bill expands checks and improves the existing system.
Background checks are an invasion of privacy. “You just worry that you’re going to see searches of the databases and an expansion for purposes that were not intended when the information was collected.” [ACLU, 4/4/2013]	Federally licensed gun dealers have successfully performed millions of background checks without violating personal privacy and Americans disclose personal information to the DMV or the IRS and their data is successfully walled off from nefarious uses.