The Gun Report: February 20, 2014

"Trustees at Occidental College in Los Angeles are pledging to stay away from any investments in companies that manufacture military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines for public sale. The recent move came at the urging of faculty members, who were horrified by the Newtown massacre. The college, President Obama’s alma mater, found that its endowment does not have investments in companies that manufacture such weapons for public sale, and its board of trustees voted to ensure it stays that way. “It’s a statement of principle about the mission of higher education to be a voice of reason in a world of a lot of violence,” said Occidental politics professor Peter Dreier, who was a prime mover on the issue.

• Massachusetts senator Edward Markey unveiled a bill requiring that all new guns include fingerprint-reading technology so they can only be fired by their owners. “In the 21st century, we should use advances in technology to our own advantage and save lives,” Markey said in a statement. “This is the type of gun safety legislation that everyone – regardless of political party or affiliation – should be able to support.” Markey also called on President Obama to include $10 million in his budget proposal for gun violence research.

• A juror in the Jordan Davis murder trial said she and her fellow jurors were deadlocked on a murder charge for Michael Dunn because of the defendant’s self-defense claim. Davis, 17, was shot to death in November 2012 by Dunn, who said he felt threatened by the loud music emanating from Davis’s car. Dunn was convicted on four counts of attempted murder for shooting at Davis’s friends, and could be sentenced to 60 years in prison. One of the reasons the jury felt conflicted was because of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, which grants people the right to defend themselves with violence if they feel they are threatened. The juror who spoke out said she voted to convict on the murder charge. “There’s no longer a Jordan Davis and there’s only reason one why that it is,” she said."

Here is today’s report (37 incidents, 14 fatalities):

http://nocera.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/20/the-gun-report-february-20-2014/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0#more-8021

Note: According to the Gun Violence Archive, 2,307 people have been injured by gun violence in America and 1,401 have been killed since Jan. 1, 2014.