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(We've made a LATE ADDITION, with data on firearms in civilian hands in America. It's at the bottom of the original post.)
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An urgent call has been issued for blood donors in Thousand Oaks, California. A number of victims of gunshot wounds are still alive in critical condition, and blood is desperately needed NOW, Thursday morning.
"O Negative" blood is especially needed, but the need for all donors is urgent.
Go to La Reina High School in Thousand Oaks, 10 am to 2 pm.
The address is 106 W Janss Rd, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360. Cross streets: between Dover Ave and Triangle St.
It's because it's happened again. Another mass shooting. The tragic scene late last night was the Borderline Bar & Grill, a popular country-music-themed venue known far and wide for the past 25 years.
This time, there are twelve dead and more wounded, in well-manicured Thousand Oaks, California, one of the "safest cities in America."
Almost unbelieveably, survivors of last year’s massacre at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas -- where a different gunman massacred 58 people and wounded dozens more, just last year -- are among the victims and those who escaped here. That almost brings you to full stop.
Eleven of the dead in Thousand Oaks were staff and patrons at the venue, and the twelfth was a Ventura County Sheriff's Sergeant.
The officer who was killed had entered the bar in the line of duty, in the company of a California Highway Patrol officer. The CHP officer, who, by happenstance, was writing a traffic ticket at the curb nearby, was alerted by a survivor fleeing the venue, and at first was skeptical. But the Sheriff's Sergeant, first on the scene in response to the call, immediately recruited that officer so the pair could make entry, backing-up each other. It was just six minutes after the first shots, and the Sheriff's Sergeant took multiple wounds that were mortal.
The officers at least distracted and may have killed the gunman with their own weapons. Their prompt entry is credited with saving many lives.
The dead gunman was identified as a 28-year-old former U.S. Marine combat veteran, a machine-gunner in Afghanistan, who "might have been suffering from PTSD." He had spent time, under mandated conditions, in a mental health evaluation which he is said to have "passed," and no provision was made to prevent him from having firearms or ammunition.
Witnesses reported that the gunman was clad in black, and he entered, threw smoke bombs, and immediately began shooting those inside the door where a receptionist and bouncers are stationed. He used a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun with an "extended magazine" that holds 21 bullets.
As a closely-spaced series of bangs registered as gunfire through the club, one patron pulled others to the floor behind a pool table. Others inside ran for cover. Some hid in bathrooms. Some climbed into an attic crawlspace. When shooting paused, some of those who were on the floor or behind what cover they could find used chairs to break windows to escape the building.
The number wounded includes some cut by broken glass, and at least one broken arm from a fall, as well as bullet wounds.
Survivors' frantic cell phone calls to loved ones began after midnight and continued through the night to those who were hearing reports of the shooting. Local TV stations carried coverage all night and are preempting network morning shows.
Law enforcement spokespersons making media appearances have reiterated the new paradigm for public awareness:
WHAT TO DO IF A SHOOTER APPEARS
If you hear gunfire or see those toting firearms ready to attack, then, in this order, take these actions:
• Run.
• Hide.
• Make your escape.
• Fight, if you can't do the other three.
After you get through that hierarchy of action, only THEN, when you can, without drawing attention from the shooter, use your phone to call 9-1-1.
AFTER THAT, then you can think about calling your loved ones. But only if you don't draw attention that can draw gunfire to where you, and others, are. And that means gunfire from the shooter or from law enforcement who could mistake you as a threat.
The old ideas about being submissive or negotiating for your safety are gone, deemed dangerously obsolete.
Knowing that simple "one, two, three" of action is a sad necessity of our times in this society.
Just consider: attending any event requires being able to pull your safety plan off a mental-readiness shelf.
Wednesday nights at the Borderline Bar & Grill have been a long-running, college-themed night, open to students as young as 18, prominently featured on the bar’s website.
Survivors last night said the event is popular with students from Cal Lutheran University, Moorpark College, Cal State Channel Islands in Camarillo, and Pepperdine in Malibu.
The Pepperdine student newspaper tweeted that students from its campus were inside at the time of the shooting.
Classes at nearby Cal Lutheran University have been canceled today because of the shooting.
The venue is such a hub for country music fans that attendees Wednesday night normally go to the annual "Stagecoach" country music festival in Indio and, tragically, some were survivors of last year's "Route 91" music festival in Las Vegas.
People were line-dancing as the shots rang out last night. We are in a time where a different consciousness is required. I think that's a quote from a high school student at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida. Another community that was thought exceptionally safe.
Another community in a nation so saturated with easily-obtainable firearms -- with such high-capacity clips and magazines that they easily qualify as weapons of mass destruction -- that our notions of "safe communities" are rendered impossible.
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A telephone hotline number, and the location of a family reunification center are in the L.A. Times ongoing coverage. Their field reports continuously update their original story that first appeared at midnight, only 40 minutes after the tragedy.
Find it at:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-thousand-oaks-20181107-story.html
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TONIGHT the Fred Kavli Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Performing Arts Center will host a 6 pm "Vigil," a community gathering in support of victims, survivors, and their families and loved ones. Elected officials will be in attendance.
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Meanwhile, flags, nationwide, are being flown at half-mast.
And victims need blood. Urgently.
Other donations to families of victims can be made through the Ventura County Community Foundation, at:
www.vccf.org
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The Guide waves its copyright on this edition, provided it is shared intact, with no part omitted. We do this to allow and encourage you to share it, in hopes of spreading the word about the need for blood donors, and the list of what to do if a shooter appears.
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MORE - - -
LATE ADDITION...
This is an added section to our original feature coverage published this morning.
We've had time to absorb more research.
TIMELY DOCUMENTARY: "MAKING A KILLING"
This same morning that America is receiving continuous news coverage of last night's mass shooting, a cable/satellite premium channel proceeded with its scheduled airing of the 2016 documentary, "Making a Killing: Guns and Greed."
The film documents the numbers that prove the number of school-age American children killed by gun violence here in the US exceeds the TOTAL OF U.S. MILITARY CASUALTIES killed in our overseas wars in Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan, combined.
It also turns out that "Bowling for Columbine" was already scheduled to run this afternoon.
It is a chilling coincidence that both films will air the day after the latest massacre, and were scheduled days or weeks in advance. But the society is so awash in guns that these films are horrifically relevant anytime.
JUST HOW AWASH IN GUNS? -- THE SMALL ARMS SURVEY
The Small Arms Survey (www.smallarmssurvey.org) is an independent research project located at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Survey estimates that of the one billion firearms in global circulation as of 2017, 857 million (85 per cent) are in civilian hands, 133 million (13 per cent) are in military arsenals, and 23 million (2 per cent) are owned by law enforcement agencies.
The Survey reports "the new studies suggest that the global stockpile has increased over the past decade, largely due to civilian holdings, which grew from 650 million in 2006 to 857 million in 2017."
Let's clarify what they track and report as "small arms."
It includes "light weapons" — rifles (including assault rifles), shotguns, sidearms, sub-machine guns, machine guns and heavy machine guns.
It's not just that the majority of global firearms -- roughly 85 per cent of the known total -- belong to civilian owners. Civilian ownership is the fastest-growing category, as consumers continue to buy more guns, while military and law enforcement holdings remain more stable, and some of their weapons gradually shift into civilian hands.
What the Survey organization's research reveals about
GUNS IN AMERICA
-- guns of all the types listed above, from handguns to assault rifles to machine guns, both in raw numbers and a comparison of civilian numbers worldwide -- is even more stunning than you can imagine.
• There are more civilian-held firearms in the U.S. than any other nation.
• The US and war-torn, famine-ridden, Yemen have more civilian-held firearms per 100 people in the population than any other places on Earth.
• The estimate of number of firearms in U.S. civilian possession is 393,47,000.
• The estimate of civilian firearms in the U.S., per 100 persons is 120.48.
• Yet the number of registered firearms in the U.S., possessed by civilians, is "only" 1,073,743.
• That's because the number of unregistered firearms in the U.S., possessed by civilians, is 392,273,257.
• Every man, woman, child and infant in the U.S. could own just one of the guns that's already in civilian hands in this country, and there would still be 37 million guns left over.
These are not inflated numbers. The Small Arms Survey publishes many academic research papers, sponsors film projects, hosts seminars, and does press releases on new research -- the latter as recently as June 18, 2018.
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Two-thirds of our members of Congress will say they are for stricter gun control legislation. Yet none is forthcoming.
Will Rogers got laughs in the early 1930s when he observed "We have the best Congress money can buy." Today, one of the buyers is the Gun Lobby.
And until we throw them out, and cut-off the paths used by politicians to take campaign funding from the Gun Lobby, we should not expect that to change.
And it follows that we should expect evermore gun violence and mass slaughters by disturbed persons who have no business having access to guns.
Or we can listen to the impassioned cries of the victims. We can look at the flags at half-mast. And we can stand with the kids from Parkland.
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Again, the Guide waives our copyright, provided this LATE ADDITION is shared in full.
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