Dear Reader,

I spent all last year and the first four months of 2019 reporting on guns—who has them, who profits off them, which politicians say they want reform but accept donations from firearm lobbyists, and more. The articles have been read several thousand times, and are thorough accounts of the state of weapons in Mass that will continue to find readers searching for answers for years; at the same time, they’re hardly viral, probably because they’re extremely long and don’t appeal to pro-gun news consumers or reactive gun reform proselytizers.

I do not always agree with progressives on this issue—I don’t own a piece myself, but have come to believe that many of the measures taken by Democrats in state legislatures and at the federal level are pure theater, worthless, or in some cases harmful. At the same time, and these most recent shootings in Texas and Ohio have helped push me to this point, I no longer believe there is much middle ground. I may not see eye to eye with all my fellow lefties on the details of reform, but I am decidedly on the side of anyone who supports more of it. I’m not even going to bother listing the sensible changes that could be made that would clearly save lives. Everyone of sane mind knows what they are, whether they admit it or not.

As for the other side—right-wingers, NRA geeks, gun nuts, conservatives, Republicans, and all the stubborn phoney faux-libertarian frauds among them, from YouTube to your family dinner table—as far as I’m concerned, from now on they’re all lumped together when it comes to this exhausting topic. There’s no difference between someone making a cowardly attempt to sound moderate on the subject, and the people writing the kind of shit I copied from Twitter and pasted below. They both have the same mission—to protect the status quo on guns. Let that sink in. Some of this crap’s been retweeted several thousand times; all those amplifiers can’t be Russian bots.

@omegaflare: I’m seeing two/three different photos of alleged shooter who looked different. #FalseFlag #NWO #GeorgeSoros

@bobby_0081: One guy with a rifle against 3000 people and no one hit him with anything or threw something at him. Texas also has a lot of people with guns and no one in the store was carrying and able to subdue this guy. This doesn’t add up. #FalseFlag

@timsout: Yeah he changed his appearance within minutes from thin to fat, from dark hair to red hair, clean shaven to a few weeks growth #FALSEFLAG

@EricBrazeal: Hmmm Q says theres gonna be a false flag, and boom ….active shooters … #FalseFlag #WWG1GWA #DeepStateCorruption

@americatheugly1: Cute a “gun control” activist just happens to run right by the shooter and was terrified? That seems quite convenient. This is definitely a #FalseFlag and go figure, right before the #DemocraticDebate! This seems more fixed than the @NFL! KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN FELLOW PATRIOTS!

@TruthSeeker2115: Replying to @ChrisCJacksonNo dont research 9/11. #MSM is scripted TV fakery. USA is not a country. Muslims did not fly planes in the twin towers. Actually no planes did. #ProjectBlueBeam CGI. #FalseFlag by USA incorporated, Israel, CIA and Massod. But Im guessing you know nothing about the that. #Truther.

@Magagirl2016: MORE ON THE TEXAS SHOOTER.. WHY WAS PAUL P MURPHY of CNN FOLLOWING THE SHOOTERS TWITTER ACCOUNT?

@ihaterichbeckys: If you can’t see that all of this random violence is originating from the Deep State pulling triggers on #MKUltra puppets because they’re desperate for a narrative change, then you’re a low IQ sheep. #Dayton #ElPaso #instagramdown #massshootings #FalseFlagShootings #FalseFlag

@MichaelCoudrey: BREAKING: The El Paso shooter was a left-wing extremist and a registered Democrat. At 2:50pm shortly after the shooting, his Democrat political affiliation was scrubbed from the web and replaced with Republican. At 2:52pm, it was changed again to say he is a “qanon” member.

CHRIS FARAONE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

CHRIS FARAONE

A Queens, NY native who came to New England in 2004 to earn his MA in journalism at Boston University, Chris Faraone is the editor and co-publisher of DigBoston and a co-founder of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. He has published several books including 99 Nights with the 99 Percent, and has written liner notes for hip-hop gods including Cypress Hill, Pete Rock, Nas, and various members of the Wu-Tang Clan.

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