Portside

There is new interest in the slaughter and massacres that took place during the Vietnam War. This may in part be a response to the fact that last month (January 2018) marked the 50th anniversary of that war’s Tet offensive. In Vietnam many of the massacres (My Lai was by no means unique) were perpetrated by soldiers as well as their officers from the so-called “land of the free.” I use this descriptive term intentionally because one of the things that is often declared to be constitutionally “free” from rational regulation in the U.S. are guns.

Sheryl Crow, who is releasing a song dedicated to Newtown victims, says country musicians are afraid of speaking about gun laws and losing their audience. Money and fear have kept country music artists from speaking out about gun laws, the nine-time Grammy Award-winner said, even after thousands of country fans were targeted in October in the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.

Of all the ways in which American democracy is showing symptoms of turning into a dysfunctional state, the inability to face down the gun lobby is surely one of the most egregious.

Police violence and interaction could be seen as particularly extreme forms of maternal stress. If one lives in a community that is frequently policed, the accumulative effects of these interactions can have health consequences more insidious than those caused by actual physical violence.

"History is watching: - former CBS News anchor Dan Rather on Facebook rips Donald Trump's veiled assassination threat against his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. Trump in a bid to his followers, who also oppose gun control, said his "Second Amendment people" might be able to stop Hillary Clinton's appointment of Supreme Court justices. This is a new level of the GOP's war on women, where the right has fueled attacks on women and the murder of abortion providers.

It’s time that our politicians acknowledge that it’s way too easy to get guns – legal and illegal – in this country. No one should be able to get an AK-47 through a few phone calls – including me.

Ed Sheeran Performs “Ain’t No Sunshine.” Elizabeth Warren: Racial Justice. The Daily Show - Are All Cops Racist? Don't Worry Be Happy | Playing For Change. Oregon County Sheriff Vowed to Ignore Gun Control Laws.

The slaying of two journalists Wednesday presents us with a moment to mourn but also a moment to learn lessons and demand action. The horror isn’t just one macabre double-murder, but the unrelenting toll of gun violence that claims one life every 16 minutes in the United States. It is time we address gun deaths as a public health crisis, and move from our passive horror to take steps to reduce the 92 lives claimed by gun violence in the United States daily.