Tell Facebook to clean up its act

November, 2019 –  Facebook’s lax policy is allowing advertising and pages that glamorize and normalize guns.

Videos showing everything from  violence against living creatures  to making old guns work again seem perfectly acceptable on Mr Zuckerberg’s social media site.

It’s time for us to speak out.

  • A Huffington Post report paints a damning picture of how Facebook’s lax ad policy is allowing people to think they are buying Virginia concealed carry permits.  The report says “Concealed Online, a for-profit company based in California, exploits a Virginia law that lets non-residents apply for concealed-carry permits after completing a safety training online. Through its website, it gives its customers the video training and a test, then charges them up to $130 for a certificate of completion.”  As it turns out, the ‘permit’ is not worth the paper it is printed on, as most states refuse to recognize it.  It is not upsetting to find would-be concealed-carry gun owners are being fleeced, but with tens of thousands of ads encouraging people to want to get a permit for a concealed gun, these ads both bilk the gullible and make having such a permit seem a desirable thing.
  • Sexualized imagery is allowed which glamorizes guns – there is a ‘Cassie Massacre’ nude model who poses with a large number of rounds and an automatic weapon between her legs.
  • A Facebook page, Guns, Ammo and Knives, glamorizes automatic weapons and has content many people would find alarming.  A ‘toy’ gun will kill insects by blasting them with table salt; a video shows how to make an inoperable, rusted handgun useable once more, and a man sprays a body of water with a semi-automatic weapon, after which dead sea life rises to the top of the water.
  • Scores of Facebook pages sell guns.  As reflected in a new report by Dallas/CBS news, we know that people in Texas are not disclosing whether they have been turned down for weapon ownership in the past.   The report ‘Thousands Lie To Try And Buy A Gun; Few In North Texas Ever Punished’ makes very worrying reading.  If thousands in Texas alone are skirting gun purchase laws, how likely is it that those buying weapons online are not being scrupulously vetted if those who try to buy through stores are able to lie about failing background checks?  To put it in context, the report said: “Years before the Odessa-Midland gunman went on a rampage that left seven dead and 25 injured, he was blocked from getting a gun.  In 2014, the gunman failed a background check due to “mental health issues,” according to law enforcement. However, a loophole in the system meant his failed attempt to purchase a firearm was likely never investigated by law enforcement. He later bypassed a background check by purchasing firearms from a private seller.”  One Facebook gun-selling page is owned by Steve ‘Doc’ Wacholz owner of ‘Cherokee Guns – who targeted congresswomen, calling them idiots and using their image to sell guns.

What this adds up to is that Facebook is:

  • making it easy and desirable for people to buy a gun online;
  • showing people ads encouraging them to want to have guns and concealed-carry permits (even if it is a scam);
  • allowing disturbing footage of animals (even if some are just insects) to be shot and destroyed by everything from toy guns to automatic guns;
  • teaching people how to restore rusted, broken guns to working order;
  • normalizing gun ownership, discharging automatic weapons;
  • allowing guns to be seen in a sexual context, with at least one offensive ad mashing up female nudity, sexuality – and the word ‘massacre’.

Facebook has many benefits; it has many flaws.  But with these situations, it is clearly part of the gun problem.

ACTION:

Please contact Facebook through one of the channels below and give them the following message, personalized to your liking:

 

I am begging you to get  the gun-selling, gun-glamorizing pages and ads off of Facebook.  No profit can be worth the damage I consider Facebook to be doing. 

Facebook is making it easier for people to get hold of guns, and with America’s gun toll last year 47,000 people shot, Facebook executives have to accept responsibility for the impact its gun content has.  There are pages glorifying guns, showing how to make inoperable guns work, making guns seem ‘sexy’ to the very damaged and deluded, and pages with videos of wildlife being shot by semi-automatic weapons.  Some Facebook users are bombarded by ads – at least one is a scam – offering concealed-carry permits – encouraging people to try and get them. 

Facebook executives know how huge its influence is.  Time to start being responsible about it.  The current situation is unacceptable.

Or for Twitter:

@facebook Time for Facebook to get rid of the out-of-control gun sales, imagery, gun violence videos and other gun-glamorizing content. 47k Americans were shot in 2018 and Facebook is bombarding people with gun ads and content. You’re contributing to the carnage- time to change.

 

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/FacebookUK/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/facebook

 

Once you have made contact, fill out the three fields below and click the orange banner to report taking action!

Ask White House to explain President’s snub to Pulse victims

June 18 2019 – President Trump arrives in Orlando, and to a throng of followers he announces he will run for the presidency again in 2020.  Not far away, others have been commemorating the tragic shooting at Pulse nightclub three years ago.  The president failed to even acknowledge the anniversary when he addressed his Orlando crowd.

Buzz Feed quoted one of those present at the Pulse gathering:  “We just had our anniversary, we just had a memorial mourning the fact that we lost all those lives. He barely even acknowledged the fact that we lost those 49 lives,” said Rocky Rivera. “It wracked the country, it wracked the globe. We’ve been thinking about it ever since … We’ve been scared, and ironically the people we’re scared of support him.”

President Trump CSpan image from Orlando Weekly

Trump claimed at the time that if one person present had a gun and knew how to use it, the Pulse tragedy would not have been so extensive.

In fact, the automatic weapon used on the 300-strong crowd did its devastating work in a matter of seconds.

 

 

The Orlando Weekly has called Trump out on his ignorance in this article,  reminding him how quickly the event happened and that a trained, gun-carrying person at the scene could not have reacted fast enough.  The paper said: “…OPD estimated from listening to 911 calls that Mateen fired about 200 rounds in less than five minutes and only stopped to reload.”

ACTION:

Write to president and give him the following message, personalized to your liking:

You visited Orlando to announce your bid for the 2020 presidential race, while at the same time mourners and supporters gathered at the scene of Orlando’s horrific Pulse shooting to commemorate the third anniversary of this American tragedy.  I call on you to rectify this huge insult by making a comment on Pulse massacre now – and to work to stop the sale of automatic and semi-automatic weapons.  You can and must take action to stop further wholly avoidable tragedies.

At the time of the massacre, you said that one person with a gun could have stopped or mitigated the casualties at Pulse.  Now that we know that the killer had an weapon that fired 200 rounds in under five minutes, and that there was a trained, competent gun-carrier at the event, I call on you to put the blame squarely where it belongs:  on the NRA and all those who want automatic and semi-automatic weapons to be available for sale, and I expect you to make a statement and take action accordingly.

I also call on you to reflect on the hatred the gunman had for the LGBTQ community, and how hate speech around him helped fuel his actions; I call on you to recognise the gravity and influence of your office, and to curb your own homophobic speech and actions.  There is no reason a LGBTQ member of the armed forces should experience anything but your thanks and the country’s thanks.

Finally, I expect you to take seriously the increase in gun-related deaths in 2018 in the US  – nearly 40,000 people according to the New York Times.  I expect you to take this epidemic seriously, and to end your ties to the National Rifle Association, now forever tainted with accepting funds from Russia:  something of course the American president must never be linked to.

I await your answer both by return and in your next address to the nation.

The White House  
Phone: (202) 456 1111
Email: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ (form)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/WhiteHouse/posts/?ref=page_internal 
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/POTUS 

And importantly, please consider copying your Senator what you send to the White House:

Your State Senators
Phone: (202) 224-3121 
Click here for a list of all senators and their contact information 

Once you have contacted The White House and/or your own senators, fill in the three fields below and click the orange banner to report taking action!

Demand freedom for wife who took husband’s guns for her safety

On Thursday 20 June 2019, Courtney Irby left a divorce court where she was trying to separate from husband Joseph Irby:  he then allegedly tried to run her off the road with his car hitting hers, terrifying her (he’s in custody for it).   Fearing for her life, she reported the incident to the police.  The next day, still in fear (and apparently having no domestic abuse support from the authorities), she entered her estranged husband’s flat while he was in custody, and took his guns in order to protect her life and presumably their child’s life.

While trying to hand the guns into Lakeland police, she was asked to say taking the guns to turn in was a crime by a police officer – and now she’s in jail.

Courtney Irby (left) –  jailed for trying to protect herself from estranged husband Joseph Irby (right)

In this mind-boggling case of an understandably distraught woman in fear for her life, Lakeland PD have denied her her rights, failed to help her, and need to immediately release her, drop all charges, seize the guns, and offer her support as a victim of assault and domestic abuse.

According to various news sources, when she phoned to explain about the guns, an officer asked her:  “So, you are telling me you committed an armed burglary?”

 

This questioning wholly disregarded basic procedure, and denied Mrs Irby her Miranda rights.  If she were asked to confess to a crime – which there quite probably was no crime (in Florida, a couple have rights to each other’s property until divorced) – she needed to be read her rights, told she could remain silent, cautioned that anything she said could be used against her, and told she could have an attorney present.  The officer in question was way out of order.

This is not the first time Lakeland PD have shown themselves to operate outside of the law and with utter contempt for women and rights.  A sex scandal in 2013 saw the force accused of forcing women to have sex.  It’s time the department was fully overhauled, and it’s time Mrs Irby is released and exonerated.

State Rep. Anna Eskamani said this case illustrates the need to better support domestic violence survivors.

“The case of Courtney Taylor Irby demonstrates once more the dangerous linkage between intimate partner violence and access to firearms. Court records show that Irby applied for a temporary injunction against her husband and the two were in the process of a divorce. She was actively protecting herself and her family from an estranged husband who had not turned over his firearms to law enforcement, and was arrested for it. We should be outraged by her arrest, and Irby should not be prosecuted by the local State Attorney’s office,”

ACTIONS:

  1. Please contact Lakeland Chief of Police through one of the channels listed below and give him the following message, personalized to your liking:

I am absolutely outraged to learn your officer arrested a victim of domestic assault:  a woman you failed to protect from an abusive spouse, and a woman whose Miranda rights were completely disregarded.  I demand you release her immediately, drop any charges against her, seize her husband’s guns, and offer her a professional domestic abuse counselling service – today.

It is bad enough that Joseph Irby reportedly used his car in an assault on his wife Courtney:  can you imagine how terrifying, intimidating and shaking such an event is?  Please do tell me what your force did to help her in the aftermath.  I understand she came to you for help before:  please tell me what you did to protect and serve her.

When she entered her husband’s property and removed guns, no doubt fearing for her life and that of the couple’s child, she was likely acting legally under Florida law:  the couple are not yet divorced, and she may well have been legally entitled to enter the premises and take property.  That she took property in order to turn it over to Lakeland Police who were failing to protect her safety clearly is in  her favour should the state cruelly go forward with any legal action – but here’s why you can’t:

What happened next is unacceptable.  Your officer apparently said to her: “So, you are telling me you committed an armed burglary?” – wholly disregarding procedure, and denying her her Miranda rights.  If she were asked to confess to a crime, she had an unassailable legal right to be read her rights, told she could remain silent, cautioned that anything she said could be used against her, and told she could have an attorney present.  Your officer has some serious explaining to do.   Even if she had been read her rights – the confession of a person who is under duress (which you would be if someone tried to injure you with a car), is inadmissible.  Don’t your officers know any better?

I want to hear from you within the next three days maximum to be told you have done as I asked:  1. immediately released Mrs Irby;  2.  dropped all charges against her; 3.  retained the guns she rightfully feared would be used against her; 4.  offered her professional domestic abuse counselling; 5.  will re-train or release any officers who do not know what Miranda rights are, who will not give a domestic abuse victim appropriate care and consideration; and 6.  will undertake training of your staff so they can operate like a professional organisation recognizing abuse victims and protect – not criminalize them.

I will be watching what you do next, and will not hesitate to demand elected authorities take action if you fail to uphold the law.

Lakeland Police  Department, Ruben Garcia – Chief 
Phone: (863) 834 6907
Email: mailto: Carol.Ratcliff@Lakelandgov.net  (for some reason this name comes up under the email link on the Lakeland PD site for the Chief – I will look for his personal Email, which may well just be Ruben.Garcia@Lakelandgov.net)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakelandPD/
Twitter for assistant chief of police : https://twitter.com/drmikereik

2.  After you take the action above, if you feel like copying the message you sent to supportive State Rep. Anna Eskamani, and/or the Governor, here’s the contact information:

State Rep. Anna Eskamani
Phone: (407) 228-1451 
Email:  Anna.Eskamani@myfloridahouse.gov
Facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/AnnaForFlorida/ – she’s just done a media call to ask for Mrs Irby’s release
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/AnnaForFlorida

Governor Ron Desantis
Phone (850) 717-9337
Email (form): https://www.flgov.com/email-the-governor/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/RonDeSantisFlorida/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis

After you contact Lakeland Police Chief Garcia, click the orange banner at the top of this page to report your action!