Change Agent: Alicia Carrera Brings People Together for Action p. 2 San Pedro Neighborhood Pans Proposed Density Increase p. 3 Project Censored: Signs of Emerging Police State Under Obama p. 7 t Spielberg’s Lincoln: Possibly the
Best Movie of 2012 p. 11
The Local Publication You Actually Read
The Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights — James Madison, fourth president of the United States
T
A Well Regulated Militia/ to p. 6
December 28, 2012 - January 10, 2013
here have been more than 30 mass shootings in the past 20 years in America, but only now does the U.S. Congress seem ready to stand up to the National Rifle Association lobbyists, though it may seem hard tell—with these lawmakers—if any meaningful reforms will occur. However, this country does not stand alone in this modern day mayhem of inhumanity. Australia, Norway, Britain and even France have had mass murders of their own. Other countries have significantly reformed their gun laws. America with its Second Amendment is still lost in the debate over gun rights versus legal regulation as the murders of Sandy Hook Elementary School children and staff horrifies the country. Some, like former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee lays the blame on the “absence of God in civic life.” The nation now has come together to mourn, with the flags halfstaff, not unlike the aftermath of the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. This is our national tragedy. In a nation so awash in 300 million firearms, where 30 percent of American households own at least one gun, it is odd that our perception of violence has increased as the national homicide rate declines. Still, it is disturbing that these weapons turn up in domestic conflicts as well as in
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