Weekly Feminist Reader: Newtown Shooting Edition

names of the sandy hook shooting victims

Rest in peace.

The bravery of these teachers who risked–and lost–their lives protecting their students is astounding.

An open letter to the media from a woman who was traumatized by overzealous reporters when she was 14.

“The gun is our Moloch. We sacrifice children to him daily.”

Check out Mother Jones’ mass shooting guide.

Nicholas Kristof: “Why can’t we regulate guns as seriously as we do cars?”

Chauncey DeVega: “Once more the luxury of being white in the United States is the freedom to have your violent deeds be a reflection of a personal failing, as opposed to a cultural or racial one.”

I am Adam Lanza’s mother. And counterpoint: You are not Adam Lanza’s mother.

“The people who fight and lobby and legislate to make guns regularly available are complicit in the murder of those children.”

Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States.

Aaron Bady: “Gun control is a kind of utopianism, the idea that if we got rid of the objects themselves, the desire for them, the need for them, and the culture that is built around them and makes them necessary, that all of that would go away.”

Advice for how to talk to kids about tragedy from Mr. Rogers.

Three common-sense gun laws that can’t seem to get passed in Congress. But could the politics of gun control finally be changing?

A reminder that mentally ill people are not more likely to be violent than any other group. Some more facts and resources from s.e. smith. Plus, any speculation on Lanza’s mental health is pure speculation at this point, but there’s no link between Asperger’s and violence.

William Hamby: “I think it’s important to at least entertain the idea that strongly conservative religious communities which indoctrinate young white men into male superiority are breeding grounds for these kinds of criminals.”

We don’t really have any idea if this applies in Lanza’s case but certainly true in general: Men’s social isolation is more accepted than women’s.

Senator Dianne Feinstein says she’ll introduce legislation to ban assault weapons at the start of the next Congress.

Holy shit: Twice as many preschoolers are killed by guns as police officers killed in line of duty.

So many tears.

Add your links on the Newtown tragedy, as well as anything else you’ve been reading/writing/watching/learning this week.

St. Paul, MN

Maya Dusenbery is executive director in charge of editorial at Feministing. She is the author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (HarperOne, March 2018). She has been a fellow at Mother Jones magazine and a columnist at Pacific Standard magazine. Her work has appeared in publications like Cosmopolitan.com, TheAtlantic.com, Bitch Magazine, as well as the anthology The Feminist Utopia Project. Before become a full-time journalist, she worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. A Minnesota native, she received her B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. After living in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Atlanta, she is currently based in the Twin Cities.

Maya Dusenbery is an executive director of Feministing and author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm on sexism in medicine.

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