#Sandy Hook Shooting

[unnnaturalselector89]

This may be my final straw i’m so fucking sad

Used to be unnaturalselector89 and ununnaturalselector89 so reblog like follow all that good stuff so i can see my faves again also if you reblogged my posts lmk so i can too

[hockstetters-overbite]

We need to talk about gun rights

This usually isn't the type of content I like to post and this has been said time and time again but I feel like I have to bring something to the table because of recent events in my life

Of course i'll put trigger warnings for those who don't wish to view this type of content from me

TW: Mention of school shooter threats

Hello, as you all know my name is Alec, I'm 17, Jewish, and I'm a Junior in Highschool. I have a little sister who's only three years younger than me and who is in MIDDLE SCHOOL.

Last night she had to tell me that her school had gotten a shooting threat, Of course I immediately contacted our mother to suggest that we both stay home today because I could not in my right mind have my sister dropped off at school when the notion of a threat looms right over her in an environment she should be safe in. I didn't feel safe enough to go to school today either.

I've been in a lockdown before where the threat was somebody with a weapon of an unspecified type and it was one of the most horrific things I've ever had to experience in my entire life and I'd wish that type of fear and panic to nobody on this Earth. Not even my worst enemy.

Nothing is worse than having to sit in a classroom and fear for your life and your friend's lives because of somebody else. A substitute didn't have a lock to lock the door and couldn't find the bolo stick to put into the floor by the door.

After we were allowed out I had asked him if everything went okay and that's when he had told me that. He had stood in front of the door and was completely ready to lose his life for the kids he was in charge of.

I've had to teach my best friend where every available exit in the school was his freshman year because in the event that something does occur I want him to have a chance of getting out.

I have lost experiences such as homecoming and valuable time in school because I was too afraid to show up because of these threats.

Adults and Students, especially young ones, alike shouldn't have to worry about getting killed in an environment where they're supposed to be safe and learn in! Everyone should have a right to feel and be safe in their schools. One day I hope laws will come down harder on gun laws so kids don't have to memorize exits in their schools, to always keep it in the back of their heads that they might not go home that day and especially so no parent has to lose their child to something so horrific.

If you would like to help prevent gun violence I'd recommend donating to Sandy Hook Promise, i'll leave a link below. Thank you all for listening.

[loukaiitis]

Today marks 11 years since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which took the lives of twenty children and six adults on December 14th, 2012.

Rest in peace,

Rachel D'Avino, 29

Dawn Hochsprung, 47

Anne Marie Murphy, 52

Lauren Rousseau, 30

Mary Sherlach, 56

Victoria Leigh Soto, 27

Charlotte Bacon, 6

Daniel Barden, 7

Olivia Engel, 6

Josephine Gay, 7

Dylan Hockley, 6

Madeleine Hsu, 6

Catherine Hubbard, 6

Chase Kowalski, 7

Jesse Lewis, 6

Ana Márquez-Greene, 6

James Mattioli, 6

Grace McDonnell, 7

Emilie Parker, 6

Jack Pinto, 6

Noah Pozner, 6

Caroline Previdi, 6

Jessica Rekos, 6

Avielle Richman, 6

Benjamin Wheeler, 6

Allison Wyatt, 6

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Edward Helmore at The Guardian:

The Infowars host Alex Jones has asked a court to sell off his assets to help meet a $1.5bn defamation judgment against him and his companies over public comments he made claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was faked. In a court filing, Jones dropped his petition merely to go into bankruptcy, admitted that he has to pay the Sandy Hook families, and asked the judge to convert the bankruptcy into a Chapter 7 liquidation.

If agreed to by a court in Texas, the move could end Jones’s ownership of Infowars, the influential rightwing business and platform he founded in the late 1990s that he used to broadcast conspiracy theories – and enrich himself with millions of dollars by marketing herbal supplements in the process. On Thursday, lawyers for Jones told the bankruptcy court that “there is no reasonable prospect of a successful reorganization” of his debts and liquidation would be a more streamlined procedure for selling his assets under the supervision of a court-appointed trustee. Earlier this week, the relatives of the Sandy Hook elementary school victims called for the court to reject Jones’s petition to financially reorganize his company, arguing that Jones’s Free Speech Systems, which includes Infowars, has “no prospect” of getting a reorganization plan approved and had “failed to demonstrate any hope of beginning to satisfy” the judgment.

Depraved far-right conspiracist Alex Jones is set to liquidate key assets to his empire, including the conspiracist outlet InfoWars, to help pay for the $1.5BN defamation judgment as a result of his Sandy Hook Trutherism comments that got him sued by the tragedy's victims.

See Also:

HuffPost: Alex Jones Moves To Liquidate Assets To Start Paying Sandy Hook Families

[techn0cel]

Today marks the 11th anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting. On the morning of December 14th 2012, 20 year old Adam Lanza shot his mother 4 times while she was sleeping then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary school. 20 children and 6 adult staff members were murdered and the shooting came to an end when Lanza turned the gun on himself.

We remember…

Olivia Engel, 6

Charlotte Bacon, 6

Madeleine Hsu, 6

Catherine Hubbard, 6

Jesse Lewis, 6

Ana Marquez-Greene, 6

James Mattioli, 6

Dylan Hockley, 6

Emilie Parker, 6

Jack Pinto, 6

Noah Pozner, 6

Caroline Previdi, 6

Jessica Rekos, 6

Avielle Richman, 6 and her father Jeremy Richman (49) who committed suicide in March 2019

Benjamin Wheeler, 6

Allison Wyatt, 6

Josephine Gay, 7

Grace McDonnell, 7

Chase Kowalski, 7

Daniel Barden, 7

Victoria Soto, 27

Rachel D'Avino, 29

Lauren Rousseau, 30

Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, 47

Anne Marie Murphy, 52

Mary Sherlach, 56

Rest in Peace 🕯️

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

May 24th, 2022 was awards day at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Fourth grader Mayah Zamora won three of them – in math, robotics, and for making the honor roll. Not long after the ceremony, an 18 year-old walked into the school with an AR-15 style Daniel Defense rifle and started shooting.

Nineteen children and two teachers were killed. Zamora was airlifted to the hospital and has had more than sixty surgeries in the year since. Zamora's mom, Christina, says her daughter had been a fearless child before the shooting.

"Mayah shows a fear of this world that she had never shown before," she says. "Someone unexpectedly knocking on the door is a scary trigger for her."

Last year, the Zamoras became the second family to file a lawsuit against law enforcement, the school district, the gun store, and the maker of the weapon, Georgia-based Daniel Defense.

Federal law protects the firearms industry from lawsuits if their products are misused. But the law has exceptions, and the lawsuits allege that Daniel Defense can be held liable for what happened because of how they market their products.

"We need to speak up, for our daughter, for our family, for children in the future, maybe this will make a change," Christina Zamora says. "Nineteen children died. They were massacred. By an 18-year old boy. There's something wrong there."

In 2005, Congress granted broad immunity to gun manufacturers. But some legal experts believe exceptions allow gunmakers to be held partially responsible for these mass shootings if they deceptively marketed their products in violation of the law.

Georgia State University Law Professor Timothy Lytton, an expert on health and safety regulation, says Daniel Defense is notorious for its provocative marketing.

The lawsuits argue that the company violated federal trade law by unfairly marketing its products to civilians as tools for offensive, military-style operations.

"And they also allege that the placement of this AR-15 style weapon in video games allowed young men in particular to fantasize about use of this weapon in a way that would simulate the kind of violence that we saw in Uvalde," Lytton says.

After the Sandy Hook school shooting, some families of the victims made a similar argument in the Connecticut courts against the gunmaker Remington, which was in bankruptcy. And while the families won a seventy-three million dollar payment, it didn't create a sea change.

"It's not like a manufacturer came to the table and said, 'We admit liability here for the carelessness of our marketing practices.' This was a bankruptcy in which bankruptcy creditors paid out in order to get the company back into business," Lytton says.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case on appeal. So while gun control supporters cheered the settlement, the litigation left many legal questions unresolved. One big question is whether violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act even apply to the exceptions allowed under that sweeping immunity law. As a result, the Uvalde lawsuits against Daniel Defense could be the biggest test yet of the extent of the firearms industry's liability protections.

The cases have been filed in federal court in Texas, with the help of Everytown Law, an arm of the group Everytown for Gun Safety.

Daniel Defense didn't respond to an interview request, but has called the lawsuit politically-motivated and legally unfounded.

Mark Oliva is managing director of public affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms industry.

"Trying to sue a firearm manufacturer for the crimes committed by a remote third party would be the same thing as trying to sue Ford and Annhauser Bush for the deaths caused by drunk driving," Oliva says.

Even if the Uvalde cases clears the stringent immunity law and are allowed a trial, the courts would still have to consider another set of thorny questions, like whether the company's marketing is protected by the first amendment.

But Lytton says whatever happens, these liability cases put more focus on gunmakers.

"You only need one or two lawsuits to win to transform the whole industry," Lytton says. "If it got planted in Connecticut, and it flowers in Uvalde, that might be enough. And if it never takes root there, it's likely to pop up in Chicago. Or California."

Some states are passing laws that would make it easier to file these suits against gunmakers, but Oliva says the industry is pushing back.

"Are we going to bend to the idea that we're going to suffer death by a thousand cuts? I think your answer to that is we're challenging the law in New York. We're challenging the law in New Jersey. We're challenging the law in Delaware," Oliva says.

Back in Texas, the Zamoras want to make Wednesday's anniversary as normal a day as they can. Right now, they're focused on their daughter's recovery.

But they hope accountability will come, too.

[deadpresidents]

“Beautiful little kids...they had their entire lives ahead of them.” -- President Obama, December 14, 2012.

[bumblebeeappletree]

Infowars host Alex Jones must pay a collective total of $965 million to the family members of Sandy Hook shooting victims for falsely claiming the massacre was a hoax — here’s the breakdown.

For more U.S. news and politics, subscribe to @NowThisNews.

#AlexJones #SandyHook #SchoolShooting #Politics #News #NowThis

[naturalselection09]

how i’ll end up bc my hair falls off more and more

[jwood718]

10 Years On: Sandy Hook

Schools in Newtown, CT are closed today in recognition of the anniversary.

“Every year when the time comes around, it’s just like it kind of hits you again...He just kind of thinks about what could have gone wrong [for him] that day and how it could still happen today because nothing has changed.”  Michayl Wilford on Wilford’s brother and the anniversary of the school killings.

Joan E. Greve writing for The Guardian:

“Wednesday marks 10 years since the tragedy that devastated Sandy Hook, the village community that is part of the larger town of Newtown, and sent shock waves around the world. In the decade since, a reinvigorated movement aimed at ending gun violence has spread across the country...”

Mark Barden holds up a picture of his son, Daniel, on 4 October 2017 in Newtown, Connecticut. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

“’I will continue to have to adjust to the fact that Daniel’s gone forever for the rest of my life,’ [Mark] Barden said. ‘I don’t think I ever will, nor should I ever have to wrap my head around this, nor should anyone … [That’s] why we do the work we do at Sandy Hook Promise.’

Po Murray founded the gun safety group Newtown Action Alliance after her neighbor was identified as the Sandy Hook shooter, and she believes a ban on military-style assault rifles is critical.  ‘We know first-hand what an assault weapon can do,’ Murray said. ‘Assault weapons are designed to kill as many people [as possible] in a fraction of time.’”

Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut ends a 15-hour filibuster in 2016 by pointing to a picture of Dylan Hockley, a six-year-old who was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. C-SPAN

Full Story

The long-awaited Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial opened in November, nearly 10 years after the Dec. 14, 2012, school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  John Moore/Getty Images

Tovia Smith for NPR

"’Yeah, we're here,’ [Jennifer Hensel] sighs  ‘I honestly think that's quite a remarkable accomplishment. I feel like I'm living again, which I wasn't for a really long time. And I needed to do that for my children.’

’To the rest of the world, it is definitely like, 'Wow! So much time has passed.' But to me. It's another f------ day that we don't get to have our kids, [Francine] Wheeler says. ‘It's just another day. And we just keep moving forward the best we can.’”

Jennifer Hensel waits for the school bus with her 8-year-old daughter, Imogen, and her 6-year-old son, Owen, on the first day of school this year. They share hugs, kisses, excitement and still some anxiety 10 years after the shooting.  Tovia Smith/NPR

Jennifer Hensel’s daughter was killed in the school, then her husband killed himself.  

“’As a neuroscientist, he devoted his life after the shooting to a foundation they set up in [their daughter] Avielle's honor to research the neurological underpinnings that make people more and less prone to violence...

‘That's the tragic irony of all this,’ says Hensel. ‘It makes me angry, actually.’

Because Jeremy was so familiar with the signs, she says, he knew how to cover them up. Even in retrospect, she says it's hard to connect the dots and to understand what was a symptom of his ongoing grief and exhaustion and what was a sign that he was at risk of suicide.”

Hansel testified in the trial of Alex Jones: “The absurdist lies [Jones] spread that the families were liars and the shooting a hoax meant to spur support for gun control tormented many people like Hensel and fueled relentless harassment by countless Jones acolytes...

She told jurors how conspiracists hid in the bushes around her house, taking pictures they thought would help prove that grieving parents like Hensel and Jeremy were just actors, and that the kids, like her sweet, spitfire Avielle, either never died or never actually existed in the first place.

‘She was such a big presence,’ Hensel testified, sobbing. ‘How do you how do you negate a presence? How do you do that? How do you do that?’"

Full story with audio

[don-lichterman]

Jury orders conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay Sandy Hook families nearly $1 billion

Jury orders conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay Sandy Hook families nearly $1 billion

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been ordered to pay nearly $1 billion for the lies he spread about the Sandy Hook school massacre in 2012. Jones falsely claimed the attack was a hoax and accused a grieving parent of being an actor in the days after the murders. Attorney Jesse Gessin joined Amna Nawaz to discuss the verdict. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app:…

[carbinekisses]

God I love Pinterest lmfao

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jon Passantino, Nicki Brown, Oliver Darcy, and Hadas Gold at CNN:

A Texas bankruptcy judge has rejected a proposed liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ company Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Infowars, saying that a denial of the bankruptcy plan was, in his opinion, in the best interest of the creditors. But the judge approved a separate liquidation of Jones’ personal assets.

Judge Chris Lopez said the Infowars bankruptcy process had dragged on and that it needed to stop “incurring costs” and let the families of Sandy Hook victims try to claim what they are owed through state courts. The families have not received payment of the approximately $1.5 billion in damages against Jones that they have won after he lied about the 2012 school massacre. “The right call is to dismiss this case,” Lopez said Friday. Lopez made his ruling in a lengthy decision where he seemed emotional at times, once even noting the timing of this decision being made shortly before Father’s Day. “I think it needed to happen,” he said towards the end of the hearing. “I wish I would’ve picked a better day.” [...]

Unanswered questions

The rejection of the bankruptcy plan leaves many questions to sort out in the decision’s wake. Among them: What happens next for Infowars? And what legal avenues remain for the victims’ families to collect the massive sum Jones still owes them?

This judgment could be viewed as a partial victory for Jones, who fought the liquidation proposal – but so too did some families, whose attorneys said they’ll benefit more from the bankruptcy plan’s dismissal by going after Jones’ assets immediately – rather than waiting for a prolonged bankruptcy procedure to play out. That ruling leaves Free Speech Systems to face its creditors outside of bankruptcy in state courts, noted Marie Reilly, professor of bankruptcy law at Penn State University. In a statement, an attorney for the families said they would press on. “Today is a good day. Alex Jones has lost ownership of Infowars, the corrupt business he has used for years to attack the Connecticut families and so many others,” said Chris Mattei, an attorney for the families. “The Court authorized us to move immediately to collect against all Infowars assets, and we intend to do exactly that.” Lopez noted that the case is far from over. The interim trustee, and later the permanent trustee, in Jones’ personal case will ultimately decided Infowars’ fate.

Judge Chris Lopez has rejected the bankruptcy plan that would liquidate far-right conspiracy theorist outlet InfoWars and its parent company Free Speech Systems, but did approve liquidation of right-wing conspiracist Alex Jones’s personal assets.

[b0rnt0bebeheaded]

I think about this every day

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Infowars host Alex Jones and his company were ordered by a judge Thursday to pay an extra $473 million for promoting false conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook school massacre, bringing the total judgment against him in a lawsuit filed by the victims’ families to a staggering $1.44 billion.

Connecticut Judge Barbara Bellis imposed the punitive damages on the Infowars host and Free Speech Systems. Jones repeatedly told his millions of followers the massacre that killed 20 first graders and six educators was staged by “crisis actors” to enact more gun control.

“The record clearly supports the plaintiffs’ argument that the defendants’ conduct was intentional and malicious, and certain to cause harm by virtue of their infrastructure, ability to spread content, and massive audience including the infowarriors,” the judge wrote in a 45-page ruling.

Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, said he hopes the award sends a message to conspiracy theorists who profit from lies.

“The Court recognized the ‘intentional, malicious ... and heinous’ conduct of Mr. Jones and his business entities,” Mattei said in a statement.

On his show Thursday, Jones called the award “ridiculous” and a “joke” and said he has little money to pay the damages.

“Well, of course I’m laughing at it,” he said. “It’d be like if you sent me a bill for a billion dollars in the mail. Oh man, we got you. It’s all for psychological effect. It’s all the Wizard of Oz ... when they know full well the bankruptcy going on and all the rest of it, that it’ll show what I’ve got and that’s it, and I have almost nothing.”

Eight victims’ relatives and the FBI agent testified during a monthlong trial about being threatened and harassed for years by people who deny the shooting happened. Strangers showed up at some of their homes and confronted some of them in public. People hurled abusive comments at them on social media and in emails. Some received death and rape threats.

Six jurors ordered Jones to pay $965 million to compensate the 15 plaintiffs for defamation, infliction of emotional distress and violations of Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Jones, who lives and works in Austin, Texas, has bashed the trial as unfair and an assault on free speech rights. He says he will appeal the verdicts. He also has said he doesn’t have the money to pay such huge verdicts, because he has less than $2 million to his name — which contradicted testimony at a similar trial in Texas. Free Speech Systems, meanwhile, is seeking bankruptcy protection.

Jones said Thursday that he has only a “couple hundred thousand dollars" in his savings account.

Jones’ lawyer, Norm Pattis, wrote in a text message to the The Associated Press, “To paraphrase Karl Marx, the verdict was tragedy, this latest ruling is farce. It makes our work on appeal that much easier.”

Bellis found Jones and Infowars' parent company liable for damages without a trial last year, as a consequence for what she called his repeated failures to turn over many financial documents and other records to the plaintiffs. After the unusual “default” ruling, the jury was tasked only with deciding on the amount of compensatory damages and whether punitive damages were warranted.

Jones says that he turned over thousands of documents and that the default ruling deprived him of his right to present a defense against the lawsuit.

The punitive damages include about $323 million for the plaintiffs’ attorney fees and costs and $150 million for violations of the Unfair Trade Practices Act.

In Connecticut, punitive damages for defamation and infliction of emotional distress are generally limited to plaintiffs’ legal fees. The Sandy Hook plaintiffs’ lawyers are to get one-third of the $965 million in compensatory damages under a retainer agreement.

But there is no cap on punitive damages for violations of the Unfair Trade Practices Act. The plaintiffs had not asked for a specific amount of punitive damages, but under one hypothetical calculation they said such damages could be around $2.75 trillion under the law.

In a similar trial in Texas in August, Jones was ordered to pay nearly $50 million to the parents of another child killed in the Sandy Hook shooting for calling the massacre a hoax. A forensic economist testified during that trial that Jones and Free Speech Systems have a combined net worth as high as $270 million.

Jones hawks nutritional supplements, survival gear and other products on his show, which airs on the Infowars website and dozens of radio stations. Evidence at the Connecticut trial showed his sales spiked around a time he talked about the Sandy Hook shooting, leading the plaintiffs' lawyers to say he was profiting off the tragedy.

In documents recently filed in Free Speech Systems' bankruptcy case in Texas, a budget for the company for Oct. 29 to Nov. 25 estimated product sales would total $2.5 million, while operating expenses would be about $740,oo0. Jones' salary was listed at $20,000 every two weeks.

On Wednesday, Bellis, the Connecticut Judge, ordered Jones to not move any of his assets out of the country, as the families seek to attach his holdings to secure money for the damages. Jones, meanwhile, has asked the Judge to order a new trial or at least reduce the compensatory damages to a "nominal" amount.

A third and final trial over Jones' hoax claims is expected to begin around the end of the year in Texas. As in Connecticut, Jones was found liable for damages without trials in both Texas cases because he failed to turned over many records to the plaintiffs.

[au-hemeanssomething]

On April 20 2016, Dylan Klebold had been dead for as long as he had been alive

On April 20 2016, Eric Harris had been dead for as long as he had been alive

On March 21 2021, Jeffery Weise had been dead for as long as he had been alive

On November 7th 2025, Pekka-Eric Auvinen will be dead for as long as he had been alive

On December 5th 2026, Robert Hawkins will be dead for as long as he had been alive

On November 28 2028, Jeffery Dahmer will be dead for as long as he had been alive

On April 16th 2030, Seung Hui Cho will be dead for as long as he had been alive

On January 24 2031, Ted Bundy will be dead for as long as he had been alive

On December 14 2032, Adam Lanza will be dead for as long as he had been alive

On May 23rd 2036, Elliot Rodger will be dead for as long as he had been alive

On October 17th 2036, Vladislav Roslyakov will be dead for as long as he had been alive

On May 24nd 2040, Salvador Ramos will be dead for as long as he had been alive

On June 8th 2041, Andrew Blaze will be dead for as long as she had been alive

On November 30th 2042, Nikita Lytkin will be dead for as long as he had been alive

On June 7th 2066, Richard Ramirez will be dead for as long as he had been alive