It's Time For Obama To Pull The Trigger On Gun Control

The president's hints at change just drive more gun-lovers to load up on ammo.

There is probably one thing that Americans love more than their baseball and apple pie:

Guns. And more now than ever.

Over the last four years, gun sales have increased exponentially. Some of the trend can be attributed to Americans being fearful "the end of the world" is near. (Although if you're reading this today, obviously we're still here.) And with the social unrest that's taken the globe by storm over the last 24 months, not to mention the still high unemployment rate and the state of the U.S. economy, some Americans are feeling like the country could bottom out any day now, leaving every man to fend for himself.

Then you have the group of people who rush to gun stores whenever a mass shooting (usually with a gun just like the one they're planning to buy) takes place. Days after the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in Newton, Conn., three states reported historic spikes in gun sales. Five months prior, gun sales in Colorado jumped  41 percent after the "Dark Knight Rises" movie-theater massacre. Hey, you have to fight fire with fire, right?

And of course, you have the subsection of the population who are not only afraid of chaos and deranged gunmen, but also fear the man whom Esquire magazine labeled one of the most "lethal" men on the planet:

President Barack Obama.

But it's not because of the people he's actually had shot down, but for the threats he's made: threats against the almighty gun.

Since he's been in office, President Obama has hinted here and there about his interest in either re-introducing the Assault Weapons Ban that was valid from 1994 to 2004, or introducing new legislation altogether.

Whether he's saying so in a campaign speech...

...at a town hall debate...

Obama Announces 23 Executive Actions on Gun Violence

He says there are common-sense steps that can be taken to prevent tragedies like Newtown.

In a White House event on Wednesday, President Barack Obama announced his next steps in reducing gun violence. The official press release from the Office of the Secretary cited four major next steps and 23 executive actions, including the President’s plan to close background check loopholes, ban military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, make schools safer, and increase access to mental health services.

Of the 23 executive actions, the President will nominate a Director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tabacco, Firearms, and Explosive (ATF) and push multiple rules and procedures that make the background check system more accessible and efficient. In what seems like a foreshadowing of an ad campaign, the NRA released a video calling the President an “elitist hypocrite,” taking aim at his children and their ability to receive 24-hour security from law enforcement. (Washington Post)

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Sandy Hook Shooting Survivors Record Song For Charity

The song is available on iTunes and Amazon to benefit two organizations.

Twenty-one children who survived last months shooting massacre at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School recorded a version of “Over the Rainbow” to raise money for charity. The children performed the song Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America, alongside singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson. Copies of the music is available on iTunes and Amazon and will benefit the United Way of Western Connecticut and the Newtown Youth Academy.

The students recorded the song on Monday at the home of Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, two former members of the Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club rock bands. “Singing the song makes me feel like she’s with me and she’s beside me, singing along with me,” said Kayla Verga, 10, of one of her friends who died in the attack. Gunman Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 first-graders and six staff members of the school on Dec. 14. Some parents of the children killed spoke out on Monday, urging a national conservation to prevent similar tragedies. (New York Post)

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Conn. School Named After Teacher Killed in Sandy Hook Shooting

Cite her "extraordinary commitment"

A new school building has been named after Victoria Soto, one of six staff members killed last month during the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. Soto, 27, was raised in the town of Stratford, about 20 miles from Newtown, so the Stratford Academy's Honeyspot House building will be named after her. Construction for the new school building will begin over the summer and is expected to open in 2014. The Stratford Town Council said, "Soto’'s courage, dedication and self-sacrifice demonstrate a strength of character and extraordinary commitment to her students of the absolute highest magnitude." She died while trying to protect her first-grade students from gunman Adam Lanza. (NBC)

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10 Things You Need To Know For Friday

May the force be with them. "Star Wars" creator George Lucas is engaged to his long-time lady love, financier Mellody Hobson. Hobson, 43, serves as chairman of DreamWorks Animation and is a financial contributor to ABC's "Good Morning America." Lucas, 68, helped to launch the modern blockbuster age with his "Star Wars" sagas and "Indiana Jones" adventures.

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News in Photos: The 10 topics you should be ready to talk about today.

New Jersey Town Tests Armed Police in Schools

Following the Newtown massacre, a town votes to use uniformed police -- for now.

The town of Marlboro, N.J., is taking safety in its schools very seriously in the wake of the massacre in Newtown, Conn., placing armed guards on school campuses in the town.  As they returned from Christmas break, students at both Robertsville Elementary and Marlboro High School were greeted Wednesday with armed uniformed guards.

While many parents support the new measure, some students said they thought the move was a bit of an overreaction to the murder of 20 students and six educators in Newtown. “I feel safer, I guess, but it’s Marlboro—nothing’s going to happen," said senior Alex Gonzalez. Following the Dec. 14 school shooting, town officials voted to staff the town’s nine schools with armed police officers on a temporary 90-day basis. (NY Daily News)

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Nearly $3M Raised for Sandy Hook School Fund After Shooting

Here's where you can donate

Nearly $3 million has been raised for the Sandy Hook School Support Fund since December 15, the day after Adam Lanza opened gunfire at the elementary school killing 20 kids, six adults and then himself. The team of Newtown Savings Bank and the United Way of Western Connecticut has collected $2.8 million, and one hundred percent of funds will go directly to the community. However, neither organization will have a say in where funds end up — instead, money will be distributed by an independent advisory board made up of Newtown residents, which could include school officials, parents and religious leaders. Though many opportunities for contributing have sprung up since the tragic shooting, the fund is the primary donation source listed on websites for Newtown Public Schools and the town of Newtown. To donate, click here.

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10 Shocking Facts About Children and Gun Violence

Black youth are more likely to die from gunfire than others.

The deadly mass shooting of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., has refocused the nation on the spate of school shootings that have robbed young people across the country of their lives in the past decade. Unfortunately, school isn’t the only place where America’s youth are being gunned down. Every day, children die of gun violence in their homes, neighborhoods and elsewhere. Each year, the Children’s Defense Fund examines the impact that gun violence has on the nation’s children. Below are 10 notable facts the CDF has identified about American children and gun violence. The year 2009 is the most recent year for which data was available.

[ALSO READ: 10 States With Most Guns]

Guns took the lives of 2,947 youth in 2008. The following year 2,793 youth died from gunshots.

Black youth are disproportionately victims of gun violence. From 2008 to 2009, they comprised 45 percent of youth gun victims. Nationwide, however, they only make up 15 percent of the youth population.

More black teens between the ages of 15 and 19 die because of gun violence than any other reason.

Guns killed 173 preschoolers from 2008 to 2009. That’s more than the 89 law enforcement agents killed in the line of duty during the same period.

In 2008 and 2009, 5,750 U.S. youth died from gun violence, which is more than the number of servicemen and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan during the same period.

The United States leads Western nations in deaths from gun violence. The country is home to 87 percent of gun-related fatalities in children under the age of 15.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that between 2006 and 2007, the cities of New Orleans, St. Louis, Oakland, Newark, Baltimore, Richmond, Miami, District of Columbia, Detroit and Cincinnati led the nation in gun deaths of youth between the ages of 10 and 19.

From 2006 to 2007, the homicide by gun rate of youth between the ages of 10 and 19 was three times as high in major U.S. cities as it was nationwide.

The good news about children and gun violence is that the number of youths killed by gunfire dropped in 2009 to 13,791 from a high of 20,596 in 2008.  

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In the Loop: Newtown Massacre

Matt Simon hits the streets in search of your opinion.

LET'S TALK: Follow Loop 21 on Twitter and join us tonight, Dec. 19, at 8 p.m. EST for a TweetUp about the shooting rampage that left 20 children dead in Newtown, Conn.

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Lanza Destroyed Harddrive, Cut Ties with Dad Before Shooting

Killer covered tracks prior to massacre

Before Adam Lanza, 20, opened gunfire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. killing 20 first-grade kids, six adult school officials and then himself, he destroyed his computer hard drive. The FBI’s computer-analysis response team is still trying to put its pieces back together. According to the Hartford Courant, Lanza had used the computer to play a violent videogame in which life-like characters participate in bloody battle scenes, but there is currently no other evidence of what else he did with it. Still, a law-enforcement said, "The kid knew what he was doing. This was a planned event. There is no question about it.”

Adam also killed his mother Nancy at their home, shooting her four times in the head while she was likely sleeping, but the relationship with his father hasn't been as widely reported on. Peter Lanza, a successful finance executive at GE, separated from Nancy in 2001, but still saw Adam every week. In 2009, the Lanzas officially divorced and, by 2010, Peter was dating a new woman, whom he later married. Adam cut his dad off then, and Peter hadn't seen or heard from him since, despite fully supporting them with monthly payments of more than $289,000 in alimony and also volunteering to pay for Adam's college, car and medical insurance. When a local reporter showed up at his Peter's doorstep to break the news, "his expression twisted from patient, to surprise, to horror. It was the first time that he considered a loved one could be involved," said Maggie Hogan of the Stamford Advocate. (Daily Beast, Today)

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Should We Allow Teachers To Bring Guns To Class?

Having more firearms in schools could do more harm than good.

The views expressed in this Op-Ed do not necessarily reflect those of Loop 21.

The tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., Friday has left America teary-eyed as 27 people, including 20 children, were gunned down by an obviously troubled man. Unfortunately, this isn't the first, second or even third time a mass shooting has happened on a school campus in the last 42 years.

“In our communities today the bad guys have guns and the good guys obey the law, and sometimes because of our firearm laws us good guys are put in a compromising position,” she said in a statement. “That is not OK. I will not hesitate to protect myself with my handguns. If I have to make a choice between saving my children’s lives or my own life or letting a scum bag take our lives, I’ll choose to take the culprit out.”