Guns are special in America: good endings in movies & TV dramas (fiction); central to a (white person’s) telling of how the West was won (fiction); & is based on (a made-up) history of the 2nd Amendment). Local radio adds to the lies. Reality: 45,222 killed (2020)/54% suicides. 1/5

Gun narratives sell lies: guns deter/do not cause violence; guns brought America freedom. WIBC @guyrelford “Gun Guy” feeds gun culture. I criticized it. Mr Relford attacked me & invited me on…

A former pres, speaking Friday to the NRA, repeated the lie that you need a good guy w/a gun to beat a bad guy w/a gun. Lying is what trump does, but after mass shootings in Buffalo & Uvalde, where police had guns, one concept needs to be addressed. “You have to fight fire w/fire.” 1/6

The phrase is a mantra to defenders of private ownership of assault rifles & magazines that hold more than 5 rounds. The fire in New Mexico was exacerbated by planned burns, that seek to burn…

Memorial Day, as we were reminded us, commemorates the women & men who died in military service for this country. As we mourn we should be aware we can prevent more deaths of military personnel & veterans. First: fund programs for PTSD, housing, job training & 1/5

any other social net vets need. Second, we should cut the military budget in half. We are on a constant war-footing against the rest of the World. That engenders hatred. Fewer wars = fewer dead. The USA…

When someone pontificates about honoring veterans on Memorial Day weekend, I wonder what the person thinks. We shove military personnel into conflicts that have little to do with liberty & more to do w/corporate profit. Guy Relford, the gun guy, responded to my earlier blogs. 1/5

Military personnel enter environments laden w/toxins. Agent Orange, in Vietnam, exemplifies the problem. Burn piles distribute this crap into the air & we deny benefits to our people. Worse, we engage…

Indianapolis’s WIBC carries a radio show, “Gun Guy,” hosted by a lawyer named Guy Relford, on Saturdays. Today’s lineup of shows was missing that auditory gem. WIBC had not lapsed into good taste in respect for the shooting victims in Uvalde but has Indy 500 programs. 1/4

Deluges of right wing misanthropy need to be offset. This week the NY Yankees & the Tampa Bay Rays replaced play-by-play texts of a game w/statistics related to gun violence. Garnered my respect, but won’t grab…

“God” isn’t anyone’s property despite what the far right preaches. A minority seized control of the GOP & much of the USA. “God” is convenient for them to say “you can’t be moral if you’re not [they’re type of] Christian.” They shout & drown & bully others then grab tax $. 1/5

Sign says “No trespassing” outside an evangelical church. “God” didn’t license naming rights to that church or grant a monopoly to anyone to dictate to us what our gov’t is to be. People who say…

Mass shooters are inconsiderate of Indiana’s General Assembly & its recent “permitless carry” law, but GOP leaders won’t reconsider the new law. The Gov & the House Speaker say gun violence is a complex issue w/multiple factors. No. Gun violence involves guns. 1/

We can be more complex. Mass shootings involve assault-style weapons designed to kill as many people as fast as possible. HISTORY: Observers of the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-05 said there would be no more wars…

Mass shooters are inconsiderate of Indiana’s General Assembly & its recent “permitless carry” law, but GOP leaders won’t reconsider the new law. The Gov & the House Speaker say gun violence is a complex issue w/multiple factors. No. Gun violence involves guns. 1/

We can be more complex. Mass shootings involve assault-style weapons designed to kill as many people as fast as possible. HISTORY: Observers of the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-05 said there would be no more wars…

Sen Todd Young (R-IN) got $2.89 mil & a grade of A+ from the NRA. As proof that Sen Young earned that grade (& that $) NRA says Sen Young opposed bans on semi-automatic guns (such as AR-15s) & “green tip” (armor-piercing) ammo (that is 35% of AR-15 ammo sold). 1/4

Sen Young is not a friend of the AR-15 because one can’t be a friend of an inanimate object. We can say the slaughter at Uvalde might not have occurred if the 18-year-old killer faced barriers in purchase of the…

“Top 10" and “A+” are gauges of success. Usually, but not always. Sen.Todd Young (R-IN) is in the top 10 of members of Congress who receive $ from the NRA. Todd’s take was almost $3 mil & the A+ was the NRA’s grade for Sen Young as a whore on gun issues & earned that $. 1/4

NRA gave kudos as Sen Young opposed: 1) universal background checks; 2) ban on semi-auto firearms (e.g., AR-15s); 3) ban on “green tip” ammo (35% of AR-15 ammo market & that some call “armor-piercing”).…

Sen Todd Young (R-IN), by 2019, got nearly $3 mil & A+ grade from the NRA. If guns are more likely to harm, than prevent harm to, gun owners, some people won’t own guns. CDC studies can help us know guns’ deterrent effects. CDC is blocked, by Congress, from those studies. 1/4

NRA pays for what it gets. Of course, as individuals we can take first steps against gun violence by not owning guns. The “good guy w/a gun” is what stops a “bad guy with a gun” has been, this week, show to…

To: Sen.Todd Young. Did you accept almost three million dollars ($2,897,582) from the NRA? That was the number in a 2019 report of the Brady Campaign. Did you return any of that money? Was that the total you received from the NRA since taking office in the Senate to 2019? 1/4

That’s about a million bucks a year. A Senator makes a Hundred Seventy-four Thousand Dollars ($174,000). What does a Senator do to earn money at a rate over five times the pay from the U.S. public? Have you…

Can you pass a background check to buy a gun? If not, you have more problems than your rights under the 2nd Amendment. Do you need to own an assault-style weapon w/magazines that hold more than 5 rounds? Assault weapons are designed to kill as many ppl as fast as possible. 1/4

Are you safer owning a firearm to protect your home? CDC/peer-review studies of gun violence haven’t been allowed in nearly 30 years. The NRA has successfully blocked these measures. The NRA doesn’t believe its…

Guns: How many kids are dead? Guns: Are we really more safe like NRA always said? Guns: Is your home any more secure? Guns: Are you sure your kid will come home from school alive? Guns: are 40K dead each year enough? Guns: they were banned in the Old West. 1/2

Mass shootings - plural - at grade schools are the USA. We need gun control. I’m Mark Small: pro-choice, pro environment, pro-civil rts & anti-gun GOP nominee (I won the primary) for Indiana House District 86. I approve of…

May 23, 2022

To:

Kyle Hupfer

Indiana Republican Party

State Chair

Dear Mr. Hupfer:

This afternoon I received an email from you in regard to the “Spring Dinner Keynote Speaker” having hosted a guest at the 2022 Kentucky Derby. I would point out that by protocol the proper way to refer to a former president is reflected in The Louisville Courier Journal article to which your email was linked. There only is one President of the United States, and since January 20,…

Former POTUS posted statements that favor a civil war. No GOP voices raised yet to drown out his idiocy. Points about the Civil War, 1861-65. 1) States that tried to secede lost; 2) About 620K ppl died; 3) Keeping slavery was a reason given (by a minority), but also the main cause. 1/4

The GOP has crafted a machine to enforce the views of a minority (e.g., gun control & majority of us say leave Roe v Wade alone) through a stranglehold GOP has on gov’t. The GOP wants more: a…

Indiana’s economy has kept the same pace as its approach to social issues. We lag in the 1930s. In “Player Piano,” Kurt Vonnegut painted a stark future: Factory jobs are rare, machines have replaced people as technology has advanced. Today Indiana approaches that future. 1/4

Yet a lot of people cling to the past. In this context enabling billionaires to concentrate wealth in fewer hands is obscene. Their PR machine indoctrinates as early as it can (kindergarten) and has mass media at…

2 facts: 1) Nearly all burglars avoid homes when people are there & 2) Guns deter burglars only when person is at home to use the gun. One: ppl buy timers 4 lights & when they’re away no one tell if it’s vacant. You don’t post vacays on FB ‘til you’re back. For the same reason 1/4

ppl who live in apts in complexes w/high % of public housing crank v-o-l on TVs if they’re not home. Two: can’t use a gun to protect your home if you’re not home. It’s a bluff can’t work as burglars…

In the GOP primary for U.S. Senate, Dr Oz (apparently) opposes legalization of pot: “We need to get Pennsylvanians back at work. You got to give them their mojo. I don’t want marijuana to be a hindrance to that.” If Indiana legalizes pot, we help our economy in several ways. 1/5

First: we ditch catastrophic damage caused when ppl are busted/convicted for sale or possession of a plant. These busts prevent people from getting into college, getting jobs, etc. Second: we stick a nice fork…