Category: gun control

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Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Destroyed $5 Million Worth of Assault Weapons After Storewide Ban

The debate over gun control has reached a fever pitch in recent years, but it also feels like not much has been accomplished. You can point the finger in any direction you want to, but it’s a combination of many factors: politicians, big business, the NRA, shareholders, etc.

And as mass shootings continue to plague our country, Americans from all backgrounds grow more and more frustrated at the lack of action on gun legislation.

One CEO of a major company has decided to take a major step to prove that he and his company value human life over profits. Even though it cost his business an estimated $250 million, Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Ed Stack permanently removed all assault-style rifles from 729 stores in 47 states in the U.S. in February 2018 after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

In addition to that bold move, Ed Stack also recently announced that his company actually destroyed $5 million worth of assault weapons last year after it stopped selling them in stores.

Stack said he had the option to send the weapons back to the manufacturer for an 80%-85% refund or Dick’s could have tried to liquidate their inventory quickly through discounts. Stack recalled, “We’re in this meeting and I said, ‘We can’t do that.’ We think these guns should be outlawed. We think that the ban that was in place between 1994 and 2004 should be reinstated.”

Stack said he knew the weapons would end up out on the street if he chose either of those options, so they decided to destroy all the guns. Many people praised Stack’s decision but of course there was blowback from firearms manufacturers and NRA supporters.

Bravo, Mr. Stack. Let’s see if other CEOs and politicians will follow his lead.

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Meet 5 Teenagers Who Have Changed the World

Some people believe that you have to have a lifetime of knowledge and experience to change the world, or even to try – but these 5 teenagers don’t have any time to listen to that kind of crap because they’re too busy actually changing the world.

From gun rights to climate change to terrorism, there’s no problem too daunting…and honestly maybe their lack of experience gives them just the right amount of idealism needed to actually get sh*t done.

I just wish – I truly wish – that their passion and activism hadn’t so often been sparked by personal trauma.

But if you have to go through something terrible, using your experience and pain to stop other people from going through the same thing seems like the healthiest way to deal.

5. Emma Gonzalez

It was February, 2018 when a gunman entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and gunned down 17 people in cold blood.

Many of the teens who survived that day have gone on to support a campaign against gun violence, but 18-year-old Emma Gonzalez emerged a leader from the beginning. She co-founded the gun-control advocacy group Never Again MSD and, shortly after her classmates were buried, gave a powerful speech at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington D.C.

Since then, her work and others’ have encouraged lawmakers in Florida to pass a Public Safety Act, which raised the age to buy a firearm from 18 to 21 and instituted a three-day waiting period for most weapons. She is still working to prevent gun violence, and Never Again is going strong.

4. Jack Andraka

When he was only 15, Jack Andraka invented what appeared to be a new, cheap way to detect pancreatic cancer. He won $75k at the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for the test, which he created after reading free science papers on the internet.

The test is still undergoing official studies, but if it works like he imagines, it could save lives and millions of dollars.

3. Malala Yousafzai

At the tender age of 11, Malala Yousafzai wrote and published a diary about her life under Taliban rule in Pakistan. Though the diary was anonymous, she began to speak publicly at home about her passion for girls’ education.

Three years later, when she was 14, a Taliban gunman shot her in the face on a bus to put a stop to her activism.

Amazingly, Malala survived the attack, and though she can never return home, she works tirelessly on behalf of underprivileged girls around the world.

In 2014, she became the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and her passionate acceptance speech is one for the ages.

“This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change. I am here to stand up for their rights, to raise their voice. It is not time to pity them.”

2. Amika George

Amika read an article about girls in the U.K. who couldn’t afford menstrual products and was astounded that there were so many in her home country living in such poverty.

When she was 17 she founded #FreePeriods, organized a protest of over 2,000, and demanded the government take appropriate action.

In response, the U.K. government announced in March of 2019 they would be funding free sanitary products in all English schools and universities.

1. Greta Thunberg

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Here we go again… As you may have noticed, the haters are as active as ever – going after me, my looks, my clothes, my behaviour and my differences. They come up with every thinkable lie and conspiracy theory. It seems they will cross every possible line to avert the focus, since they are so desperate not to talk about the climate and ecological crisis. Being different is not an illness and the current, best available science is not opinions – it’s facts. I honestly don’t understand why adults would choose to spend their time mocking and threatening teenagers and children for promoting science, when they could do something good instead. I guess they must simply feel so threatened by us. But the world is waking up. See you in the streets this Friday! #fridaysforfuture #schoolstrike4climate #climatestrike #aspiepower

A post shared by Greta Thunberg (@gretathunberg) on

This 16-year-old Swedish girl has dedicated her young life to being an activist for climate change activism across the world.

In 2018 she began striking – alone – on the steps of the Swedish parliament in Stockholm in an attempt to get them to take meaningful, immediate action.

Since her solitary striking began, more than 1 million teens have joined her by walking out of their classrooms around the world.

“Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago. We have to understand what the older generation has dealt to us, what mess they have created that we have to clean up and live with. We have to make our voices heard.”

She recently spoke at the UN, and it’s really worth watching:

 

These teens are an inspiration, for sure – they make 18-year-old me look like a lazy loafing loser.

Do you believe young people can make a real difference? How can you not?!

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Therapy Dogs for the Survivors of the Parkland School Shooting Get Their Own Yearbook Page

It’s graduation season all across the country, and students everywhere are saying their goodbyes for the summer (or longer, if they’re graduating seniors) and of course, getting their yearbooks signed.

Unfortunately for the students of  Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the festivities are still clouded by the looming shadow of the tragic shooting that happened in February 2018, claiming the lives of 17 students and teachers. Staff and students are still dealing with the trauma of that day, a burden they will likely carry with them for years (if not the rest of their lives).

In an attempt to help its community cope with that trauma, Stoneman Douglas High School enlisted the help of 14 therapy dogs, and this year the helpful animals got their own yearbook page.

The yearbook’s editor-in-chief, Caitlynn Tibbetts, said:

“It’s a balancing act. After the shooting we wanted that yearbook to be perfect and had to cover as much as possible. This year, we wanted to give proper representation of our school and who we are now without giving so much focus to what happened to us in the past. The therapy dogs are the one thing from last year that is permanent and positive.”

The dogs attend classes with students and hang out in the courtyard outside the cafeteria as students go to and from lunch, so the students can stop for a quick pet.

Teacher and yearbook adviser Sarah Lerner was thrilled with the addition of therapy jobs to the Stoneman Douglas High School campus. Lerner said, “There’s nothing a dog can’t fix. I’ll be teaching and in comes a dog and these big 18-year-old adults all the sudden become mushy 5-year-old kids and it’s been such a comfort for us.”

Lerner had the idea to include the 14 therapy dogs in the school’s yearbook: “We sat them up on chairs, they were smiling for the camera. It was the greatest day of my life.”

A few of the pooches even ended up going to the prom.

A great, uplifting story that was born out of a tragic day that these students and staff will never forget.

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Poster of a Lockdown Song in a Kindergarten Classroom Is Heartbreakingly Sad

It’s almost impossible for people over the age of 40 to imagine this happening in their schools when they were growing up. But, sadly, school shootings are such a common phenomenon in American schools so kids have to learn how to stay in place should a shooting take place. A mother named Georgy Cohen shared this poster from a kindergarten class.

Photo Credit: Twitter,radiofreegeorgy

The lyrics to the song read:

Lockdown. Lockdown.

Lock the door.

Shut the lights off.

Say no more.

Go behind the desk and hide.

Wait until it’s safe inside.

Lockdown. Lockdown.

It’s all done.

Now it’s time to have some fun!

Cohen’s tweet went viral and other Twitter users weighed in on the topic.

Photo Credit: Twitter,mbloomstein

Photo Credit: Twitter,EuphoricEuler

Photo Credit: Twitter,TiaX_line

Cohen added that her child had already been taught lockdown drills in pre-kindergarten classes.

Photo Credit: Twitter,radiofreegeorgy

Cohen further added that Americans should call their congressional representatives to advocate for gun reform.

Photo Credit: Twitter,radiofreegeorgy

h/t: Mashable

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These 8 Tweets Sum up the Link Between Toxic Masculinity and Gun Violence

There are a lot of opinions out there when it comes to gun violence, ownership, and mass casualty events in the United States. And while some of them focus on the guns themselves or access to mental health, comedian Michael Ian Black thinks we should be looking toward a different culprit – a culture of toxic masculinity that is robbing boys and young men of the opportunity to develop healthy outlooks on the world around them.

He explains why in this series of 8 poignant tweets:

Whatever your opinion, it’s definitely food for thought!

h/t: Huffington Post

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