How Many More School Shootings Need to Happen Before the Government Takes Action? Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Sept. 5, 2024

Indy Digest: Sept. 5, 2024

On April 20, 1999, two students began shooting at classmates Columbine High School in Columbine, Colo. They eventually killed 12 of their classmates and one teacher, and wounded 12 others, before killing themselves.

That was more than 25 years ago now, and I still remember where I was when I first heard the news. (I was visiting a friend at his home in Sun Valley, just outside of Reno.) While Columbine was not the first school shooting, it was, for various reasons, the shooting that seared the idea of violent, senseless incidents at schools into our country’s collective conscience.

Since then, school shootings have just kept happening, with disconcerting frequency—including yesterday’s shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga. A 14-year-old is accused of killing two students and two teachers, and injuring at least nine others, with an AR-15.

CNN reported that the shooting in Winder was the 45th school shooting in the U.S. this year. Think about that: 45 school shootings, with hundreds of kids hurt, and thousands traumatized, in just a little more than eight months—and much of Congress finds this to be completely acceptable, based on the fact that they refuse to do anything about it.

Not only do many legislators—mostly Republicans—refuse to do anything regarding basic gun control, like restricting assault rifles and high-capacity magazines; they refuse to let scientists even study the issue of gun violence.

NPR reported earlier this year:

Gun violence is among America’s most deadly and costly public health crises. But unlike other big killers—diseases like cancer and HIV or dangers like automobile crashes and cigarettes—sparse federal money goes to studying or preventing it.

That’s because of a one-sentence amendment tucked into the 1996 Congressional budget bill: “None of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.”

Its author was Jay Dickey, an Arkansas Republican who called himself the “point man” for the National Rifle Association on Capitol Hill. And for nearly 25 years the amendment was perceived as a threat to, and all but paralyzed, the CDC’s support and study of gun violence.

Even so, a small group of academics have toiled to document how gun violence courses through American communities with vast and tragic outcomes. Their research provides some light as officials and communities develop policies mostly in the dark.

The costs of this policy paralysis is immense. The Washington Post published a text-message exchange between a mom and her two daughters, Apalachee High School students, during the shooting. Even though the two daughters wound up being physically OK, the texts are … well, the word “horrifying” isn’t strong enough.

These are text messages, exactly as they were written and sent, between a mother and her two daughters during yesterday’s shooting at Apalachee High School.

The family shared the texts with The Washington Post. Both daughters were unharmed and now safe. pic.twitter.com/a2nWDyZK44— Dave Jorgenson (not JD Vance) (@davejorgenson) September 5, 2024

It’s time that we force our federal elected officials, especially those who consistently vote against assault-weapon bans (hello, Ken Calvert), to answer these questions with specifics: What actions and legislation do you support to curb mass shootings, in schools and out of schools, in the United States? If gun control isn’t the answer, fine—but what is? Why does the government continue to curtail research on the issue?

Check that … the time to demand answers to these questions was in 1999, or at least in 2004, when the assault-weapons ban expired.

—Jimmy Boegle

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More News

• David Robinson, the data-cruncher for the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership (CVEP), examined the area’s asthma rates … and what he found is alarming: “The prevalence of asthma in the U.S. has increased significantly over the past two decades, with adults below the poverty threshold and racial minorities experiencing disproportionately higher rates. Asthma is associated with a range of negative health outcomes, including depression, unemployment, and limited ability to work. … Such disparities are particularly evident in the Coachella Valley … (but) no Census Tract in the Coachella Valley has a proportion of adults with asthma lower than the national average.” I HIGHLY recommend clicking the link and checking out the maps.

• The CalMatters headline says a lot: “California companies wrote their own gig worker law. Now no one is enforcing it.” An excerpt: “Nearly four years after California voters approved better wages and health benefits for ride-hailing drivers and delivery workers, no one is actually ensuring they are provided, according to state agencies, interviews with workers and a review of wage claims filed with the state. Voters mandated the benefits in November 2020 when they approved Proposition 22. The ballot initiative was backed by gig-work companies that wanted to keep their workers classified as independent contractors and were resisting a 2019 state law that would have considered them employees. Prop. 22 stipulated that gig workers would remain independent contractors but be treated better. The state Industrial Relations Department, which handles wage claims, now tells CalMatters it does not have jurisdiction to resolve those related to Prop. 22, citing a July 25 California Supreme Court ruling that upheld the law and therefore maintains that gig workers are not employees. That effectively passes enforcement responsibility on to the state attorney general, whose office was noncommittal when asked about its plans, saying that it does not adjudicate individual claims but does prosecute companies that systematically violate the law.”

• From the “if only we had a scientifically verified way to keep this from happening OH WAIT WE DO” file comes this piece from USA Today: “Oregon’s measles outbreak is now the largest in the state in over three decades, mirroring a trend of rising measles cases across the U.S. this year. Nearly one-third of measles cases since the COVID-19 pandemic occurred in the past three months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of cases in Oregon’s outbreak first tracked in mid-June grew to 31 as of Tuesday, surpassing the last outbreak in the state, in 2019, when 28 cases were reported. Health experts attribute the reappearance of the disease to the falling rate of children getting measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccinations. They have noted that outbreaks are mostly confined to pockets of the population where young people have not been vaccinated.”

• New cars in California may soon have a new feature meant to curb speeding. The Los Angeles Times says: “A bill awaiting approval from Gov. Gavin Newsom would require vehicles to include a warning system to alert drivers anytime they went more than 10 miles over the speed limit. If passed, the requirement would go into effect in the 2030 model year for all new vehicles, with exceptions for emergency vehicles, motorcycles, motorized bicycles, mopeds and passenger vehicles already equipped with a GPS or a front-facing camera. … The system would alert drivers with a visual and audio signal each time they went over the speed limit by 10 mph. The European Union already requires the technology on new vehicles and Toyota uses such a system in the U.S. The technology would not physically limit the speed of a car.“

• Some local news: All of the Coachella Valley Firebirds’ home games will be broadcast on NBC Palm Springs this season via a sub-channel. From the news release: “The Coachella Valley Firebirds have partnered with NBC Palm Springs to bring all 36 Firebirds’ regular season home games to local television beginning with the 2024-25 season. The broadcasts, known as Hockey Night Coachella Valley, presented by your Southern California Toyota Dealers, will be aired LIVE on KPSE and feature a 30-minute pregame show, full game coverage, and a post-game show. … KPSE will be rebranded as My Firebirds TV and can be found on Spectrum Channel 20, FiOS Channel 9, DirecTV Channel 50, and over the air on Channel 50.1.“

• And finally … our friends at the Palm Springs Post report that a rebranded iconic Palm Springs resort is reverting back to its original identity: “Nearly four years after rebranding as a Margaritaville property, a well-known and much-loved hotel is reportedly going back to its roots. The 400-room property at 1600 North Indian Canyon Drive, which became the Margaritaville Hotel and Resort in 2020, is expected to revert to The Riviera Hotel, the name it carried when opened in November 1959, during the next few weeks. While unconfirmed, the move appears to come following a change of ownership between Davidson Hospitality Group and IHG Hotels & Resorts. … Already, materials with the Riviera branding are on order, including some from Bill Nicholson and his staff at Flooring Innovations, who spoke with The Post.”

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