A criminologist on cutting gun violence

With the reams of commentary on America's unique-in-the-world gun violence flying about, a criminologist from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Richard Rosenfeld, points to two uncomplicated measures -- which surely could be put into effect right away.

* Increase police patrols where gun violence is concentrated, an approach that has been proven to work.

* Cut the number of deaths caused by mass shooters by blocking the availability of high-powered guns and extended ammunition clips.

As the new year gets started, maybe the likes of NRA honcho Wayne LaPierre will do something like going on a world cruise. Then we might actually see some sanity and logic win in DC.

Madmen And Madmen

There are the madmen who kill with bullets, and there are the madmen who kill with words. Today the nation (and certainly countless bewildered people around the world) heard an insane message from one of the latter kind. Wayne Lapierre, the unhinged leader of the National Rifle Association, followed up on his promise of a meaningful press conference with a rant that maintained his fierce rejection of any kind of gun control and that called for posting armed guards in all of America's schools. (Costing billions of dollars to do what? There were armed guards at Columbine.)

Two questions:

Why doesn't the membership (70 percent of which believes in some gun control) run Lapierre off?

Why is he being paid $1,000,000 a year to engender universal fear and threaten elected officials with primary defeat if they so much as lean toward restoring the ban on assault weapons? (Answer: he is the goose that lays a thousand golden eggs for the arms industry.)

But now there is realistic hope -- if the great majority of Americans does not let the memory of the Newtown massacre fade and if President Obama holds firm. It will take a long time to reverse our country's unique culture of violence, but reversing the influence of Lapierre and his henchmen would be a wonderful start.

Honest and courageous monks

This from the National Catholic Reporter on Tuesday:

Two Swiss Benedictine Abbots....are calling for major church reforms.

Peter von Sury, abbot of Mariastein Monastery in the Sur diocese, questioned the leadership of the local bishop, calling him "not a bridge builder but a divider." The church is far too centralized, he said, adding, "Even if it is denied, in fact the dioceses are treated by Rome as administrative entities."

"In our church we have serious structural problems. It is important to me that questions [such as clerical celibacy and women's ordination] simply be dealt with," von Sury said. "Topics can only be solved when the structures are minimally functional and the procedures are worked out. One unresolved question concerns the selection of bishops. Many other problems in the church stem from this."

Meanwhile, Martin Werlen, abbot of Eisiedeln and a member of the Swiss bishops conference, authored a brochure that claims all the baptized and confirmed should have a voice in the naming of bishops. He also urged that cardinals have term limits and suggested that "people from the whole world, women and men, young and not so young, could be called for five years into the college of cardinals." His brochure, titled "Discover Together the Embers under the Ashes," is a reminder of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini's last interview, in which he spoke of the church as largely ashes above the flickering embers.

We HAVE to change, and right now

President Obama speaking in Newtown: "We’re not doing enough. And we will have to change.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is showing us how to start. On the first day of the new Congress, she will propose reinstating the assaults weapons ban and prohibiting high-capacity clips.

Today Rep. Raul Grijalva wrote that "grief cannot be the end of our response. With millions of other Americans, I say today that we should stop making emotional room in our hearts for each year’s new round of public shootings and killing sprees. We should resolve to end them rather than accommodate them.

“At some point, which I believe we long ago passed, the time comes to stop calling for ‘a national dialogue’ when one side is clearly uninterested in talking. Absolutism in defense of gun violence is no virtue, and we have been cowed by absolutists for too long. When we accept eight or nine thousand gun murders a year as the price of what some people think of as freedom, we have gone too far.

“It takes necessary courage in these moments to admit that our laws are part of the problem and that no amount of emotional healing is going to prevent the next tragedy. The scandalous availability of highly lethal weapons to even the least qualified, least competent and most dangerous among us has gone on long enough. If pro-gun activists will not negotiate in good faith, it is time for the country to move on without them. Sitting on our hands and hoping for the best is no longer an option.

“There are plenty of people who believe otherwise. I wonder how they would feel if it had been them at five years old.”

Amen. Amen!

In the President's words, we "have to change." No more waiting. No more postponing. This will take a much wider solidarity than what has existed until now. But together we surely can do it.

In the wake of the Connecticut massacre

A whole nation in mourning -- and some media personalities, like Fox commentator Mike Huckabee, are still making excuses.

Across the land, there are 32 gun murders a day. There have been 181 school shootings in the 13 years since Columbine.

40% of gun purchases involve no background check. It is as easy to buy a weapon at many a gun show (especially here in Arizona, where anyone can carry a concealed weapon without a permit) as it is to buy a bucket of chicken.

Waiting any longer to establish sensible gun control is beyond madness. It is a form of national suicide. (Even 70% of the NRA membership favor some gun control -- the basic problem lies with their frenetic leadership.)

Our particular culture of violence is unique, but right now we doubtlessly can move together like never before to turn things around. In the wake of the unbelievably horrific Connecticut massacre, the rest of the world is watching.

Most Disgusting Republican

I am having a hard time deciding who to nominate for most disgusting Republican of the past week. Should it be Senator McCain and Senator Graham for their senseless and vicious attacks on Ambassador Susan Rice? Or the mendacious governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder? Or Grover Norquist?

I am tending toward Norquist. His latest spewing out of hatred toward Barack Obama took the form of a declaration that the President should be kept on a "short lease." As Lawrence O'Donnell points out, you have to read those words against the backdrop of Norquist's past statements. In which case it is difficult if not impossible to see the statement as referring to either a dog or a slave.

How in God's name have so many Congressional Republicans spent years kowtowing to this guy?

Huffington Post on our weekly El Tiradito vigil

The writer, Gabriel Schivone, has been joining us at the vigil for some time now. As you will see, he did a lot of very good research. Here is the Huff Post link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gabriel-schivone/immigrant-border-crossings_b_2269547.html?utm_hp_ref=latino-voices

ricardo

I am finally back. Really.

The last time I posted anything here was way back on July 21. Among other things, I wrote:

"While this blog languishes, I continue to tweet links every day (4,377 to date) about social justice, especially concerning these borderlands and Catholic issues: http://twitter.com/relford

"I am also in the process of building a small web site. When that is up, I will put the URL here as well as on Twitter."

Hah!

Since that day:

-- my earnest attempts at building my own web site produced a total flop, and

-- a burglar broke into my house and stole my laptop, desktop and router (none of which I plan to replace)

Just tonight I discovered a free Blogger app for this iPad, so -- yes -- I am indeed back. And come hell or high water, I will be posting here tomorrow. If not before.

ricardo

P.S. My total number of posts on Twitter now stands at 5,149.