November, 06 2009, 12:11pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Freedom States Alliance, Scott Vogel, 312-243-8980, scott@freedomstatesalliance.org;
Violence Policy Center, Mandy Wimmer, 202-822-8200 x101, mwimmer@vpc.org
Fort Hood Mass Shooting, Leaving 13 Dead and 28 Injured, Latest Example of Price Paid for Deadly Firepower Available to Americans
WASHINGTON
Following yesterday's shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, leaving 13 dead and 28 injured, two of America's leading national gun violence prevention organizations Freedom States Alliance and the Violence Policy Center--issued the following joint statement:
"Our sympathies go to all those affected by this terrible tragedy.
"The handguns used in yesterday's rampage shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, demonstrate the deadly firepower available to any American--whether that person is a member of the military or a private citizen. Initial news reports describe the handguns possessed by the shooter as a semiautomatic pistol and .357 revolver, apparently neither was military issue. Like the Luby's massacre in neighboring Killeen, Texas that occurred 18 years ago and left 23 dead and 20 injured, the facts are as simple as they are disturbing: easy access to unmatched firepower allows angry individuals to kill and wound at will.
"The answer to gun violence is not more guns. This most recent shooting serves only to demonstrate that all places where people gather are vulnerable to mass shootings--whether a school, church, shopping mall, or military base. This shooting also demonstrates the fallacy that mass shooters will avoid venues where people are likely to be armed or that mass shooters can be stopped easily by armed individuals. Ignoring the lessons of this most recent tragedy will only guarantee that the pattern will be repeated at yet another location."
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Jayapal, Sanders Offer Answer to Elon Musk's Healthcare Cost Question
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A social media post by Musk drew the attention of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who reintroduced legislation to expand Medicare coverage to every American last year and have long called for the for-profit healthcare system to be replaced by a government-run program, or single-payer system, like those in every other wealthy country in the world.
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Jayapal added that she has "a solution" to exorbitant healthcare costs in the U.S.: "It's called Medicare for All."
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But Sanders has sharply criticized the economic system and business practices that have helped make Musk the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $343.8 billion.
Another progressive, David Sirota of The Lever, suggested last month that DOGE could be used to eliminate the nation's vast health insurance bureaucracy and replace it with Medicare for All, pointing to a 2020 report from the Republican-controlled Congressional Budget Office that showed that a government-run healthcare program would save the country an estimated $650 billion each year.
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Musk drew the attention of Medicare for All advocates amid online discussion about the greed of for-profit insurance giants.
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"We disagree with the conclusions of such a report," spokesperson Vedant Patel said a day after the human rights group released the document. "We have said previously and continue to find that the allegations of genocide are unfounded."
The Israeli government has vehemently rejected the findings in the report.
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In the 296-page report released Wednesday—titled, "You Feel Like You Are Subhuman": Israel's Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza—Amnesty International found through its research and legal analysis "sufficient basis to conclude that Israel committed, during the nine-month period under review, prohibited acts under Articles II (a), (b), and (c) of the Genocide Convention, namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part."
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