America has more mass shootings than every other civilized country. After the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people were killed, the surviving students have ignited a movement. They're demanding adequate legislation to stop the epidemic of gun violence, such as by banning the AR-15, enforcing universal background checks and making it illegal for a mentally ill person to buy a gun. (The Parkland shooter was 19, mentally ill, and legally purchased the AR-15, which he used to commit the massacre).

However, it's difficult to pass any new gun control legislation, because so many lawmakers are corrupt, accepting millions of dollars each year from the NRA. Also, gun owners are successful at spinning even the most minor gun restriction as "taking everyone's guns away." Rather, they propose an alternative solution: The schools should arm the teachers, or hire an armed guard who is a military veteran or police officer. (Even though there was an armed guard at Parkland.) We've heard a lot of debate about all this recently - but how about arming the students?

Most kids get toys for their fifth birthday. Adriana MacDonald got a 22 caliber Ruger. Her, father, Joshua, 26, got her the pistol because she struck up an interest in his shooting hobby. Now they go out together every weekend in Tilton, New Hampshire, to fire some rounds. Despite her youth, Joshua insists his daughter knows how to safely handle the weapon. He believes those skills could come in handy, if her school is ever attacked"

"With school shootings becoming so common these last few years [my fiancee and I] both want her prepared and ready to defend herself if at all possible with a firearm. New Hampshire just passed a new concealed carry law that requires nothing more then a simple pistol permit to keep a gun anywhere including your purse and my daughter already wants a pistol holding purse."

After training Adriana with a B.B. gun, they moved up to the 22 Ruger, picking that particular pistol because it has a light recoil. To those who didn't grow up around guns, training a six-year-old to shoot may seem absurd. But in many rural areas across the U.S., it's considered normal. Joshua says so long as you teach proper safety, six years old is not too young. When he was six, he started hunting with his dad, and he can't wait to start the hunting tradition with his daughter. She loves shooting, just like him.

"Adrianna has a blast shooting and enjoys taking our time learning the proper ways to handle firearms and especially making targets... I have been hunting and shooting since I was about six or seven and it was an avid part of my youth and a great deal of my good memories with my father were while hunting/shooting.

"When I was growing up I had friends who showed interest in guns but didn’t have proper training with them or education. You could easily see the difference in how they handled a firearm. Honestly that scared me so I do my best to teach my family how to do it properly and safely."

Joshua does not oppose banning the AR-15, because he thinks that would not prevent anyone from getting it. According to him, they would just get it illegally. However, he does support arming teachers, as well as hiring armed guards that are retired marines or army veterans. Some people might criticize him for teaching his six-year-old daughter how to shoot. When asked what he would say to his critics, Joshua replied:

"Get a grip and open your eyes. Scaring your children away from guns is not going to help the situation. Educate them, familiarize them with them, support them... Maybe your kid could be the one who ends up saving an entire school or club from a mass shooting…simply by educating them on the topic of guns and safe handling."

 

Infowars has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

As reported by CBS News, filings for three companies - all owned by far-right radio host Alex Jones - were submitted under Chapter 11, which would allow them to pause any pending civil litigation and continue running as they draw up a turnaround plan.

The companies were Infowars, IWHealth (aka Infowars Health), and Prison Planet TV.

Per NBC News, it comes after Jones and his companies were found liable in a trio of defamation lawsuits last year after he made comments claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.

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Twenty children and six educators died in the Newtown, Connecticut, tragedy - but some of the relatives of the victims have since revealed that they have been subjected to harassment and death threats from Jones' followers as a result of his comments.

NBC adds that, back in March, 13 plaintiffs had rejected Jones' settlement offer of $120,000 each.

Court documents rejecting the offer state: "The so-called offer is a transparent and desperate attempt by Alex Jones to escape a public reckoning under oath with his deceitful, profit-driven campaign against the plaintiffs and the memory of their loved ones lost at Sandy Hook."

The families have already won their defamation case, and a trial in Connecticut to determine the size of the damages is set to take place in August.

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ABC News reports that Jones has recently been hit with another lawsuit that alleges the radio host of hiding millions of dollars in assets.

The lawsuit - which was filed in Texas by Sandy Hook families - states: "After Alex Jones was sued for claiming the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary was a hoax, the infamous conspiracy theorist conspired to divert his assets to shell companies owned by insiders like his parents, his children, and himself."

Jones' attorneys have branded the claim "ridiculous".

Christopher Mattei - who represents the Sandy Hook families in a Connecticut lawsuit - has stated that Jones is "delaying the inevitable: a public trial in which he will be held accountable for his profit-driven campaign of lies".

Per CBS News, Jones has since gone back on his original comments and said that he believes the massacre did happen.

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Amidst an ongoing gun violence crisis in the USA, court documents have emerged which detail an incident involving a 12-year-old boy who brought a gun to school with the intention of murdering his teacher. The child, who has not been named, allegedly entered a classroom on August 31st of this year, ordered everybody to get on the floor, then attempted to shoot his teacher in the face.

Fortunately, the safety was on.

The incident happened at North Scott Junior High in Eldridge, Iowa, which is ranked 18th out of the 50 states in terms of gun safety laws. It is not yet known how the child came to acquire the 22-caliber handgun he used in the attempted murder, but the state's relatively lax regulations on how guns can be acquired or stored may have something to do with it.

In this case, the teacher managed to wrestle the weapon off the boy - but other similar incidents have not ended without casualties.

In February of this year, a teenager brought a gun to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and massacred 17 people. His actions caused an unprecedented reaction from victims of the shooting, families of the deceased, and people around the world who saw the tragedy that had occurred and felt the need to do something in order to prevent further fatalities.

Emma Gonzalez, one of the students caught up in the Parkland shooting, later went on to deliver a powerful speech pleading for gun reform laws.

"The people in the government who were voted into power are lying to us. And us kids seem to be the only ones who notice and our parents to call BS," she said.

"They say tougher guns laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS. They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call BS. They say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars. We call BS. They say no laws could have prevented the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call BS. That us kids don't know what we're talking about, that we're too young to understand how the government works. We call BS."

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Since the Parkland shooting, however, not much has been done to improve gun laws, and so violent incidents involving firearms are still a daily occurrence in the USA.

In the last few days alone, four people were injured when a shooting took place at a nightclub in Tennessee, a man and a woman died of gunshot wounds in Wisconsin, and two deputies were killed in a house in North Carolina. All of these incidents may have been prevented if the shooters did not have such easy access to weapons.

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The boy accused of bringing a gun to his classroom last month had since been charged with attempted murder, having a weapon on school grounds, and assault while displaying a dangerous weapon. He has not yet been sentenced for his crimes, but remains in the Scott County Juvenile Detention Center.

Hopefully, by the time he gets out, gun laws will have been reformed.

One of the biggest suppliers of sporting goods in the United States has revealed that it will no longer be selling assault-rifles in its stores.

Dick's Sporting Goods made the announcement on Wednesday, with the company saying that the decision was made in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida last week.

According to the company, they will stop selling guns to anyone under the age of 21, as well as banning the sale of "high capacity magazine" and "bump stocks". In a statement posted on Twitter, the company said:

"We at DICK’S Sporting Goods are deeply disturbed and saddened by the tragic events in Parkland. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the victims and their loved ones.

"But thoughts and prayers are not enough.

"We have tremendous respect and admiration for the students organizing and making their voices heard regarding gun violence in schools and elsewhere in our country.

"We have heard you. The nation has heard you."

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They went on to say:

"We support and respect the Second Amendment, and we recognize and appreciate that the vast majority of gun owners in this country are responsible, law-abiding citizens.

"But we have to help solve the problem that’s in front of us. Gun violence is an epidemic that’s taking the lives of too many people, including the brightest hope for the future of America – our kids.

"Following all of the rules and laws, we sold a shotgun to the Parkland shooter in November of 2017. It was not the gun, nor type of gun, he used in the shooting. But it could have been.

"Clearly, this indicates on so many levels that the systems in place are not effective to protect our kids and our citizens.

"We believe it’s time to do something about it."

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The company said that beginning today, they will be committed to the following:

"We will no longer sell assault-style rifles, also referred to as modern sporting rifles. We had already removed them from all DICK’S stores after the Sandy Hook massacre, but we will now remove them from sale at all 35 Field & Stream stores.

"We will no longer sell firearms to anyone under 21 years of age.

"We will no longer sell high capacity magazines.

"We never have and never will sell bump stocks that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire more rapidly."

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The company also said that they implore elected official to enact some "common sense gun reform" and offer up a list of regulations that they would like to see. Edward W. Stack, the Chairman and CEO of the company, said:

"Some will say these steps can’t guarantee tragedies like Parkland will never happen again. They may be correct – but if common sense reform is enacted and even one life is saved, it will have been worth it.

"We deeply believe that this country’s most precious gift is our children. They are our future. We must keep them safe."

It's a huge leap by the chain, which will no doubt suffer losses as a result of their stance.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a new law allowing individuals, the state, and local governments to sue gun makers for negligence.

As reported by Politico, the bill, which was signed on Tuesday, could clear the way for a wave of civil lawsuits against companies that manufacture the guns used in crimes.

In a video message on Tuesday, Newsom said: "To the victims of gun violence and their families: California stands with you. The gun industry can no longer hide from the devastating harm their products cause."

He added: "If you’ve been hurt or a family member is a victim of gun violence, you can now go to court and hold these makers of deadly weapons accountable."

The governor said that "nearly every industry is held to account" when one of its products causes harm or injury - except the gun industry.

The new bill - officially known as California Assembly Bill 1594 - demonstrates California's efforts to strengthen gun laws in California - with the state already having the strictest gun safety measures in the United States, according to the Giffords Law Center.

"Our kids, families, and communities deserve streets free of gun violence and gun makers must be held accountable for their role in this crisis. Nearly every industry is held liable when people are hurt or killed by their products - guns should be no different," Newsom said.

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Politico adds that firearm manufacturers could face lawsuits if their products are deemed to be "abnormally dangerous", can be purchased in a way that allowed for easy and illegal conversion, or wind up in the hands of individuals who are prohibited from owning firearms.

Per CNN, Assemblymember Phil Ting - who co-authored the bill - hopes that the new law will "finally compel [firearm manufacturers] to step up to reduce gun violence by preventing illegal sales and theft".

Of course, the news also comes in the wake of a number of horrific mass shootings across the nation - such as the racially-motivated supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York, the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and the Independence Day Parade shooting in Highland Park, Illinois.

Of course, it is expected that the new bill will face legal challenges from critics.

CNN reports that a 2005 federal law has long offered legal protection to firearm manufacturers and dealers when the weapons they produce are utilized in criminal activity.

However, in a California press release, the new bill "utilizes an exemption to the federal statute that allows gun makers or sellers to be sued for violations of state laws concerning the sale or marketing of firearms."

Featured image credit: Twitter/GavinNewsom