Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 071, Ed. 1 Monday, October 12, 2015 Page: 3 of 16
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STATE/NATIONAL
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Denton Record-Chronicle
Monday, October 12, 2015
Research on gun
violence under fire
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Lobbying leads to
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By Mike Stobbe
AP Medical Writer
NEW YORK - Amid the
bloodbaths of 21st-century
America, you might think there
would be a lot of research into
the causes of gun violence, and
which policies work best against
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Eric Gay/AP file photo
A visitor passes the Alamo on a Segway in July in downtown San Antonio.
Many sides want their
say in Alamo face-lift
it.
You would be wrong.
Gun interests, wary of any
possible limits on weaponry,
have successfully lobbied for
limitations on government re-
search and funding, and private
sources have not filled the
breach. So funding for basic gun
violence research and data col-
lection remains minuscule —
the annual sum total for all gun
violence research projects ap-
pears to be well under $5 mil-
lion. A grant for a single study in
areas like autism, cancer or HIV
can be more than twice that
much.
Rich Pedroncelli/AP
Dr. Garen Wintemute displays a copy of a study he did on
gun shows, last week at his office at the University of Cali-
fornia at Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, Calif.
the Study of the Southwest at
Texas State University.
Some critics say the Alamo
could learn from neighboring
attractions and offer catchier ex-
hibits and displays.
“History in and of itself will
not sell,” said Davis Phillips,
president and CEO of Phillips
Entertainment. “History, pre-
sented in the right way, can sell.”
Phillips owns three Alamo
Plaza attractions including Rip-
leys and Guinness World Records
Museum. The Texas General
Land Office is moving to acquire
the buildings housing those busi-
nesses across from the Alamo and
possibly incorporate them into
the mission’s original footprint
Phillips’ ventures and other
plaza businesses presumably
would be relocated and the
buildings used for other purpos-
es, such as a museum with more
than 200 artifacts donated by
musician and Alamo aficionado
Phil Collins.
State lawmakers have ap-
proved spending $31 million for
repurposing the site. San An-
tonio officials have OK’d spend-
ing $17 million. But both state
and city officials say private do-
nations could raise the tally by
hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Daughters of the Repub-
lic of Texas managed the Alamo
grounds for more than a century
before the state took over the op-
erations earlier this year. The
Daughters of the Republic still
maintains a research center
there that includes a 38,000-
item archival collection consid-
ered one of the most important
in the state.
Daughters of the Republic
president general Betty Ed-
wards said any Alamo-related
changes must be done with “rev-
erence and respect” given its his-
tory as a burial site for Native
Americans and the place where
the bodies of the defenders of
1836 were piled and burned by
Santa Anna’s troops.
Edwards supports restoring
the original footprint but said a
hotel, courthouse and other
buildings encroach on that plan.
‘We can combine entertain-
ment with history without being
Disneyland,” she said.
San Antonio Conservation
Society board member Sue Ann
Pemberton said an Alamo alter-
ation must include explanations
about early settlements in the re-
gion, how commerce grew and
the development that followed.
“The key issue is that we
haven’t told the story of that mis-
sion very well,” she said.
of them occurring in the South.
But while the rates for gun mur-
ders and unintentional shooting
deaths have been falling, firearm
suicides — which account for 60
percent of gun deaths — have
been rising. And nonfatal shoot-
ing injuries have reached their
highest level since 1995.
U.S. health researchers be-
gan to take a hard look at gun vi-
olence about 30 years ago, when
firearm homicide rates were
climbing to what were described
as epidemic proportions.
“The line is: ‘If it’s not a pub-
lic health issue, why are so many
people dying?”’ said Philip Cook,
a Duke University economist
who in the 1970s began studying
the impact of guns on society.
The CDC, the federal govern-
ment’s lead agency for the detec-
tion and prevention of health
threats, took an early leading
role in fostering more research
into violence. But beginning in
the 1980s, the National Rifle As-
sociation tried to discredit CDC-
funded studies, accusing the
agency and the researchers the
agency funded of incompetence
and falsifying data.
NRA officials in Washington
did not respond to repeated AP
requests for comment for this
story.
In 1996, lawmakers sympa-
thetic to the NRA took the $2.6
million CDC had budgeted for
firearm injury research and ear-
marked it for traumatic brain in-
jury. Congressional Republicans
also included language directing
that no CDC injury research
funding could go to research
that might be used, in whole or
in part, to advocate or promote
gun control.
Exactly what that language
meant wasn’t clear. But CDC of-
ficials, aware of how vulnerable
their injury research center was
becoming, ultimately adopted a
conservative interpretation. The
agency ceased to be the main en-
gine driving gun violence re-
search.
With the CDC largely out of
the picture, gun violence re-
searchers turned to other sourc-
es. But there wasn’t much. The
field withered, with limited
funding and not much new
blood.
By David Warren
Associated Press
DALLAS — As the Alamo
prepares for a face-lift of at least
$48 million, some critics say the
landmark — one of the most
recognizable in U.S. history —
must be transformed from a
one-dimensional
that’s struggled to find its footing
amid the clamor of downtown
San Antonio.
The 18th-century former
Spanish mission is poised to un-
dergo one of its most significant
alterations as Texas moves to
buy nearby commercial build-
ings and hire a firm to develop a
master plan over the next year
that could change the area dra-
matically.
Some with a stake in the area
say nearby attractions like Rip-
ley’s Haunted Adventure are too
garish for the setting where
some 190 men died defending
the mission against the forces of
Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez de
Santa Anna. Others say the
landmark focuses too much on
the battle that eventually gave
way to Texas independence and
not enough on its role as a cul-
tural and commercial gateway.
“We’ve overly focused on
March 6,1836,” said Jesus F. de
la Teja, director of the Center for
attraction
There are public health stu-
dents who want to better under-
stand rising gun-related suicide
rates, recent explosions in fire-
arm murders in many U.S. cities,
and mass murders like the one
this month at an Oregon com-
munity college, where a lone
gunman killed nine people.
But many young researchers
are staying away from the field.
Some believe there’s little hope
Congress will do anything sub-
stantive to reduce gun violence,
regardless of what scientists
find. And the work is stressful —
many who study gun violence
report receiving angry emails
and death threats from believers
in unrestricted gun ownership.
Currently, guns rank among
the top five killers of people ages 1
to 64, accordingto the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Deaths from gunfire have
been holding steady at about
32,000 per year, with nearly half
In the past decade, funding
for gun violence grew so tight
that Dr. Garen Wintemute, a
longtime gun violence research-
er at the University of California
at Davis, spent more than $1
million of his own money to
keep different gun violence re-
search projects going.
Long rap sheets follow
some up for early release
ADVERTISING WORKS
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with the
MEDIA COMPANY
About 6,000 federal
drug inmates to be
freed in November
Kenneth Ev-
ans of Tem-
ple Hills, Md.,
holds images
of his son
Tuan, who is
scheduled for
early release
from prison
in 2018.
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By Eric Tucker
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A push
to overhaul criminal sentencing
is prompting the early release of
thousands of federal drug pris-
oners, including some whom
prosecutors once described as
threats to society, according to
an Associated Press review of
court records.
About 6,000 inmates are
due to be freed from custody in
the coming month, the result of
changes made last year to guide-
lines that provide judges with
recommended sentences for
specific crimes. Nearly 600 of
them are in Texas, which is the
most of any state, the San An-
tonio Express-News reported.
Federal officials say roughly
40,000 inmates could be eligi-
ble for reduced sentences in
coming years.
Many of them are small-time
drug dealers targeted by an ap-
proach to drug enforcement now
condemned by many as overly
harsh and expensive. But an AP
analysis of nearly 100 court cases
also identified defendants who
carried semiautomatic weapons,
had past convictions for robbery
and other crimes, moved cocaine
shipments across states, and
participated in international
heroin smuggling.
Supporters of lighter drug
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Alex Brandon/AP
sentences say there’s no evidence
that longer punishment protects
public safety. Studies show that
inmates released early aren’t
more likely to reoffend than those
who serve their entire sentences.
Still, the broad spectrum of
defendants granted early release
— including some about whom
prosecutors not long ago raised
dire warnings — underscores
the complex decisions confront-
ing the government as it pursues
an overhaul of drug sentencing.
“I’m a career prosecutor. I’m
a law-and-order girl, and I be-
lieve that you need to send dan-
gerous people to prison for a
very long time,” said Deputy At-
torney General Sally Yates. “But
I think that we need to be smart
about deciding who are those
dangerous people.”
Guidelines set by the U.S.
Sentencing Commission offer
recommended minimum and
maximum terms for federal
crimes. The independent com-
mission voted last year to reduce
ranges for drug offenses, then
applied those changes to al-
ready-imprisoned convicts.
Since then, prisoners have
sought relief from judges, who
can reject those they consider
public safety threats. About
three-quarters of requests had
been granted as of August.
The first wave is due around
Nov. \ and most of those getting
early release are already in half-
way houses or under home con-
finement. Others will be re-
leased to immigration authori-
ties for eventual deportation.
Though some released early
will reoffend, most will not, statis-
tically speaking, said Ohio State
law professor Doug Berman.
“Mark my words: The sky
will not fall,” said Julie Stewart of
Families Against Mandatory
Minimums.
Tuan Evans, who sold pistols
and cocaine to undercover offi-
cers, had 11 months shaved off his
108-month sentence. He wrote
from prison that he hopes to start
a landscaping business and men-
tor children once he’s freed. Re-
cords show a 2018 release date.
“You don’t have to lock us up
and throw away the key when
we make a mistake,” he said.
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ACROSS THE NATION
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Albuquerque, N.M.
Some cities recognizing
Native Americans today
More cities are recognizing
Native Americans on Columbus
Day this year as they revive a
movement to change the name
of the holiday to celebrate the
history and contributions of in-
digenous cultures around the
country.
As the U.S. observes Colum-
bus Day today, it will also be In-
digenous Peoples Day in at least
nine cities for the first time this
year, including Albuquerque;
Portland, Oregon; St. Paul, Min-
nesota; and Olympia, Washing-
ton.
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 071, Ed. 1 Monday, October 12, 2015, newspaper, October 12, 2015; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1124971/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .