Houston's police chief Art Acevedo criticised politicians for not standing up to the National Rifle Association after the the fatal shooting of an officer. 'The NRA doesn't like the fact that we want to take firearms out of the hands of boyfriends that abuse their girlfriends. And who killed our sergeant? A boyfriend abusing his girlfriend,' Acevedo said
Category Archives: US gun control
US cinemas ban masks and costumes at Joker screenings
Following concerns about the potential for violence, several chains will not allow face coverings or clothing that ‘would make other guests feel uncomfortable’
Major cinema chains in the US have announced that they will enforce bans of masks, costumes and toy weapons at screenings of Joker, the new film starring Joaquin Phoenix as Batman’s nemesis, as concerns about the potential for violence connected to the film’s release on 4 October circulate.
Landmark Theatres says on its website that “no masks, painted faces or costumes will be permitted into our theatres”. AMC Theatres, the US’s largest cinema chain with more than 600 venues, has said in a statement that they are “working with law enforcement” and that their standard policy allows audience members to wear costume but “we do not permit masks, face paint or any object that conceals the face … [or] weapons or items that would make other guests feel uncomfortable”.
Continue reading...Trump showed interest in New Zealand gun buyback program, Ardern says
Prime minister says she and Trump discussed her country’s reforms on sidelines of UN general assembly
Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand prime minister, has said Donald Trump expressed “interest” in her country’s gun buyback program, as the US president faces calls for dramatic changes to the nation’s firearms laws.
After the two leaders met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Ardern told reporters that she “sensed an interest” from the US president in the sweeping gun reforms her government passed after the Christchurch mosque shootings in March.
Continue reading...Beto O’Rourke on gun control: ‘Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15’ – video
Presidential contender Beto O'Rourke does not shy away from saying he would require citizens to turn in their military-style weapons when asked about gun control during Thursday night's Democratic debate. 'Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,' O’Rourke said in one of the biggest lines of the night. O'Rourke added: 'We're not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans any more.' He said some people at a gun show accepted the weapons were not needed for hunting.
Continue reading...Is Congress finally ready to pass gun control legislation?
Retailers such as Walmart have taken a lead and public opinion appears in favour of new curbs but that may still count for little
Congress returns to Washington this week after a summer recess punctured by a string of mass shootings under pressure to confront a uniquely American problem: how to combat the scourge of gun violence?
Though it has been a quarter of a century since Congress passed significant gun control legislation, Democrats and advocacy groups are displaying a fresh sense of resolve as major American retailers heed public calls for action in response to the recent wave of mass shootings.
Continue reading...At least seven people die in latest Texas shooting – video
Seven people have been killed and 21 injured after a shooting near the twin towns of Midland and Odessa in west Texas. The gunman, who opened fire after his car was stopped by police on Saturday afternoon, was killed by police after being chased to a parking lot at an entertainment complex.
Continue reading...Hundreds mourn El Paso victim Margie Reckard after partner’s appeal
- Antonio Basco ‘felt like he was by himself’, pastor says
- Facebook appeal draws strangers to ceremony
When Jordan Ballard read that one of the victims of the El Paso massacre had few relatives and the public was invited to her funeral, the Los Angeles resident bought a plane ticket and flew to Texas.
Related: 'No one cares till someone dies': El Paso activists long feared their city was at risk
Continue reading...Jeffrey Epstein autopsy concludes death was a suicide – live updates
- New York City’s chief medical examiner finds death of financier and alleged sex-trafficker was result of suicide by hanging
- Sign up for the US briefing and get a new perspective
That’s all our live coverage for today, thanks for following along. Some key links and developments from the day:
The president says he is dining tonight with Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO:
Having dinner tonight with Tim Cook of Apple. They will be spending vast sums of money in the U.S. Great!
President Donald Trump called Apple CEO Tim Cook "Tim Apple" during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday pic.twitter.com/B6z3tzeBeO
Continue reading...‘We are Texas because of guns’: El Paso carnage unlikely to dent state’s gun culture
Texans can carry handguns openly in most public places and the state tends to respond to shootings by loosening controls
“It’s just a moral disaster, it’s heartbreaking,” said Dan Golvach of the mass shooting that killed 22 people at a Walmart in the Texan border city of El Paso last Saturday.
But the Texas gun enthusiast does not believe the carnage, which has sparked a political crisis in the US, demands tighter firearms laws.
Continue reading...Trump visits intensify US divisions as calls for action on gun control grow – live
- President’s visits to Dayton and El Paso met by hundreds of protesters
- 200 mayors sign letter demanding the Senate take up gun legislation
- Sign up for the US briefing and get a new perspective
Nancy Pelosi is leading a bipartisan congressional delegation to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, after which the group will see a migrant detention center in McAllen, Texas.
Estoy entusiasmada de viajar a Guatemala con la Presidenta de la Cámara @SpeakerPelosi y la delegación del Congreso para que escuchen y hablen directamente con el pueblo guatemalteco como lo he hecho yo. https://t.co/1mZQcJjrKp
Trump has turned his focus to the Federal Reserve, which he has repeatedly bashed for not lowering interest rates fast enough.
....John Deere, our car companies, & others, to compete on a level playing field. With substantial Fed Cuts (there is no inflation) and no quantitative tightening, the dollar will make it possible for our companies to win against any competition. We have the greatest companies...
....in the world, there is nobody even close, but unfortunately the same cannot be said about our Federal Reserve. They have called it wrong at every step of the way, and we are still winning. Can you imagine what would happen if they actually called it right?
Continue reading...FBI says Dayton gunman who killed nine explored ‘violent ideologies’ – live
- Bureau to conduct ‘thorough, methodical’ investigation
- Trump not welcome in El Paso – Democratic congresswoman
- Sign up for the US briefing and get a new perspective
Venezuela’s U.N. ambassador is accusing the Trump administration of trying to start a war by sabotaging talks between president Nicholas Maduro and his opposition, as the Trump administration’s national security adviser John Bolton doubled down on his view that “Maduro has to go,” according to the Associated Press.
Addressing a summit on Venezuela’s crisis in Peru’s capital, Lima, Bolton pronounced Maduro’s “dying regime” doomed – even though a seven-month US-backed campaign has so far failed to topple Hugo Chávez’s authoritarian successor.
Bolton claimed Donald Trump’s latest moves – which will also see those who do business with Maduro’s government sanctioned – would help end “Maduro’s tyrannical reign”.
Related: 'It will not work': experts question Venezuela sanctions as Bolton touts them
Two members of Congress have sent a letter to the National Archives seeking records related to the supreme court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“In the coming year, the supreme court will again address important matters regarding civil rights, criminal justice, and immigration,” reads the letter, authored by the New York congressman and House judiciary committee chairman Jerrold Nadler and the Georgia congressman Hank Johnson.
Related: Judicial council tosses misconduct claims against Brett Kavanaugh
Continue reading...What about the 30-50 feral hogs? Man’s defense of assault weapons goes viral
A Twitter user’s loaded question has been widely mocked, but there’s actually more to it than many have assumed
As the gun control debate rages in the US in the wake of a weekend of devastating mass shootings, calls for an assault weapons ban have resurfaced. While this has led many Americans to cite their second amendment rights, one man in Arkansas has asked a simple question: “How do I kill the 30-50 feral hogs that run into my yard within 3-5 mins while my small kids play?”
It all began when Willam McNabb, who identifies as a libertarian, waded into a debate about assault weapons (high-powered rifles were reportedly used by the gunmen in both El Paso and Dayton).
Continue reading...Trump gets it wrong on mass shootings, but Republicans deserve the blame
Recent tragic events have, critics say, displayed once again the moral collapse of one of America’s two great parties
Presidential addresses in the wake of national tragedies are typically attempts to heal and unite. For critics of Donald Trump, it was more a case of wondering how much more damage he might do.
Standing in the diplomatic reception room at the White House after a weekend of bloodshed in America, the US president declared: “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy.”
Continue reading...Trump blames shootings on ‘glorification of violence’ – video
Donald Trump has blamed ‘the glorification of violence’ in a speech that identified video games, the internet and mental illness – but not guns – as the cause of the attacks that left at least 30 dead and 53 injured in less than 24 hours over the weekend.
In his first public remarks on the shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Trump also condemned white supremacy as authorities said they were investigating an anti-Hispanic, anti-immigrant manifesto allegedly tied to the El Paso suspect.
Continue reading...Trump blames ‘violent’ video games as El Paso death toll rises to 21 – live
- Trump says mental illness ‘pulls the trigger, not the gun’
- Top Democrat: Trump’s response ‘reminds me of 1930s Germany’
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Trump has turned his attention away from the shootings if his Twitter feed is any indication.
The president has instead been busy attacking China for harming America’s economy and repeating the (false) claim that US consumers are not covering the cost of his trade war:
....used currency manipulation to steal our businesses and factories, hurt our jobs, depress our workers’ wages and harm our farmers’ prices. Not anymore!
Another Democratic presidential candidate, Cory Booker, has dismissed Trump’s statement on the shootings this morning as woefully lacking.
The New Jersey senator specifically cited Trump’s focus on mental illness in his remarks. “Mental illness didn’t kill the people of Dayton,” Booker said. “People are too easily getting their hands on guns.”
Continue reading...California has strict gun laws. Here’s how the Gilroy gunman evaded them
US lawmakers renew calls for federal gun reform after shooter purchased weapon legally in Nevada
California has some of the most stringent gun laws in the country, including a ban on the type of rifle that a shooter used to kill three and wound 15 at the garlic food festival in Gilroy on Sunday.
But the gunman had legally purchased the “assault-type rifle”, in the style of an AK-47, from the neighboring state Nevada on 9 July before carrying it illegally over state lines into California, highlighting what some gun control advocates say is a loophole in the way laws operate, state by state.
Continue reading...‘I don’t understand’: Jacinda Ardern mystified by lack of US gun control
New Zealand prime minister says laws changed after massacres in her country and in Australia
New Zealand’s prime minister has said she cannot understand America’s failure to ban automatic and semi-automatic guns, despite dozens of mass shootings.
Jacinda Ardern told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in unusually blunt language: “Australia experienced a massacre and changed its laws. New Zealand has had its experience and changed its laws. To be honest with you, I don’t understand the United States.”
Continue reading...Trump withdraws from UN arms treaty as NRA crowd cheers in delight
- Democrats condemn Trump’s ‘myopic’ decision to withdraw
- President at NRA summit vows to defend second amendment
Donald Trump has announced that the US will withdraw its support for a United Nations treaty regulating the multibillion-dollar global arms trade.
Addressing the National Rifle Association (NRA) in Indianapolis, the president said he would revoke America’s status as a signatory of the arms trade treaty regulating conventional weapons including small arms, battle tanks, combat aircraft and warships.
Continue reading...One Nation’s James Ashby filmed seeking $20m from NRA to weaken Australia’s gun laws
Al-Jazeera journalist posing as gun campaigner films senior party figures in Washington DC soliciting financial support to help One Nation seize the balance of power
Senior One Nation figures James Ashby and Steve Dickson have been caught seeking millions of dollars of political donations from US gun rights group the National Rifle Association in a bid to seize the balance of power and weaken Australia’s gun laws.
The revelations are contained in an al-Jazeera investigation which used hidden cameras and a journalist posing as a grassroots gun campaigner to expose the far-right party’s extraordinary efforts to secure funding in Washington DC in September.
Continue reading...Death of second Parkland student being investigated, police say
- Police say, ‘It hasn’t been confirmed as a suicide’
- Second death of a Parkland survivor in about a week
A second student from the Florida high school targeted in a mass shooting has died in little more than a week, police said on Sunday.
The boy was believed to be a survivor of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas school on 14 February 2018 in which 17 people were killed and 17 wounded.
Continue reading...