'Let's do what needs to be done': Florida school shooting puts more pressure on gun lobby

Welcome toTheNational Today newsletter, which takes a closer look at what's happening around some of the day's most notable stories. Sign up hereand it will be delivered directly to your inbox Monday to Friday.

TODAY:

• Three massacres in four months appear to have motivated Americans to rise up against their country's powerful gun lobby
• With its surivival at stake, Oxfam International is setting up an independent commission to investigate allegations of sexual exploitation against its staff
• Japan is taking a big gamble by ending a longtime ban on casinos,but legislators are bogging down in details of how they will be run

Taking on the NRA

For years now, Americans have asked "What it will take" to motivate citizens to rise up against the country's powerful gun lobby.

The answer appears to be three massacres in the space of just four months.

Despair and anger over last October's attack in Las Vegas and the November shootings in Sutherland Springs, Texas, seem to have crystalised in the wake of Wednesday's rampage at a Parkland, Fla., high school that took the lives of 17 people, most of them teenagers.

After the testimony of articulate and impassioned young survivors gun control groups received an immediate boost. Everytown for Gun Safety, reported $750,000 U.S. in new, online donations in just 24 hours.

And social media is filled with anti-gun messages under such hashtags as #thoughtsandprayers which is largely beings used to publicize political donations made by pro-firearms lobbyists and #GunControlNow.

Other activists like the Los Angeles-based Drain the NRA are trying to harness the power of the internet to bring pressure against companies that do business with the National Rifle Association or advertise in its print and online publications. The grassroots group is organizing petitions and consumer boycotts, giving its supporter the contact information of more than four dozen corporations.

The Parkland killings, alleged to have been committed by a 19-year-old man with a history of mental illness and a legally purchased AR-15 assault rifle, have spurred at least one politician to call for new legislation.

"To those who say now is not the time to talk about gun violence because it's too soon when is the time? How many more times do we have to do this? How many more folks have to die?" Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, asked his colleagues in Washington Thursday. "Let's do what needs to be done and let's get these assault weapons off our streets."

However, the "golden age" may already be over for American firearm manufacturers.

Sales have slumped considerably since U.S. President Donald Trump took office and fears of government action against guns have faded.

Last fall, the U.S.'s largest gun company, Sturm Ruger, announced a 35 per cent drop in quarterly revenues. And in December, Smith & Wesson's parent company, American Outdoor Brands, disclosed a 90 per cent decrease in year-over-year profits.

Earlier this week, Remington, the country's oldest gunmaker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an effort to restructure and shed $700 million of its $950 million US debt.

Cerberus Capital Management, the New York hedge fund that has owned Remington for more than decade, tried to sell it but couldn't find a buyer.

Now it will simply walk away under the bankruptcy agreement.

Remington is the manufacturer of the Bushmaster AR-15, the gun used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

The same type of weapon that was reportedly used in Florida.

Oxfam under fire

With its very survival at stake, Oxfam International has announced plans to set up an independent commission to fully investigate allegations of sexual exploitation against its current and former staff.

Winnie Byanyima, executive director of the global development, today pledged to "atone for the past" and "do justice" for "all the women who have been abused."

"There is no way this organization can die ... the world needs it," she told the BBC.

Later in the interview, she switched into her native Ugandan language of Runyankore to make a formal apology on behalf of the organization.

"From the bottom of my heart, forgive us, forgive Oxfam," Byanyima said.

The British-based organization has been rocked by allegations that workers dispatched to disaster and conflict zones like Haiti, Liberia and Chad took advantage of their positions and exchanged money and favours for sex with local women. And that senior Oxfam officials tried to cover up the behaviour, allowing staff to resign, and failing to inform police and other overseeing authorities.

On Thursday, the Times of London reported that one aid worker accused of using prostitutes in Haiti was fired by Oxfam, then rehired two months later to work on a project in Ethiopia.

And earlier in the week, the Daily Mail published an interview with an anonymous young Haitian woman who claims she was paid to have sex with a senior Oxfam official twice a week at his hilltop Port-au-Prince villa in the months following the 2010 earthquake, when she was just 16.

Roland van Hauwermeiren, Oxfam's former Haiti director, has admitted to having had sexual relations with a "mature" aid recipient, but denies having paid her.

"Myself, indeed, I am not perfect, I am not a saint a man of flesh and blood, and have made mistakes (not easy to admit), and I am deeply ashamed. I indeed admitted to investigators that I had three times intimate contact in my house," the 68-year-old Belgian wrote in an open letter published Thursday.

"It was, in my opinion, a mature honourable lady, not an earthquake victim and no prostitute, whom I had met since I supported her young sister and very young mother with diapers and powdered milk. I never gave them money."

Oxfam is one of the world's largest charities, offering programs in more than 90 countries in partnership with 3,500 other aid organizations.

But its reputation has been severely damaged by the reports. Actor Minnie Driver and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have both stepped down as goodwill ambassadors for the charity. Public donations are down, while corporations are considering cancelling fundraising pledges.

And the fallout continues. Penny Mordaunt, the U.K's international development minister, met with law enforcement agencies on Thursday to discuss how foreign recipients of government charity aid can be protected from sex abuse. Oxfam received some $56 million Cdn from the British government last year, although that funding is now under review.

Today, Byanyima promised that the charity's own investigation will fully examine its internal culture and practices. And that Oxfam will create a safe and confidential process for whistleblowers as well as a global database for charities so that accused aid workers can't just move on to other organizations.

• Enjoying this newsletter? You may also like our early-morning newsletter, the Morning Brief. Start the day with the news you need in one quick and concise read. Sign up here.

Japan's big gamble

Japan's government wants to use tracking technology to help problem gamblers by limiting the number of times they can visit a casino.

A plan presented to lawmakers Thursday envisions that gamblers will have to scan their government-issued Individual Number Card as they enter gaming parlours.

Data from the cards, which have a photo and a microchip, will be captured and shared. And if a gambler has visited more than three times in a week or on more than 10 occasions in a month, they be will be denied entry.

Last fall, the Japanese legislature passed a law ending a longtime ban on casinos, provided they are part of large hotels or "integrated resorts." But legislators are now bogged down in the details of how such facilities will operate.

A full bill is due to be introduced by the end of next month and may include other proposals like a steep admission fee for Japanese nationals and limits on casino locations and size. But it is not clear if it will pass as there remains significant opposition to the efforts to liberalize gaming, even within Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party.

Even in the absence of casinos, gambling is a huge industry in Japan.

It is legal to bet on all sorts of races, from bicycles to horses, and sports pools and lotteries are popular. The current government take is 27 trillion yen ($32 billion Cdn) a year. And the annual revenue from grey market gambling, like Japan's 11,000 pachinko parlours, is worth even more perhaps $250 billion.

(Pachinko winners get ball bearings, which are exchanged for token prizes that can be cashed in later away from prying eyes.)

Experts estimate that the legal casinos will be a $37-billion-a-year business, putting Japan on a par with Macau, currently Asia's biggest gambling market.

But there will be a significant social cost.

A survey released last fall suggested that some 3.2 million Japanese are suffering from a gambling addiction. And the reported rate of addiction 3.6 per cent of respondents already appears to be higher than in other countries, where one to two per cent of the population develop gambling problems.

And there's another worry about organized crime the Yakuza muscling in via loansharking, protection rackets and in-casino skims.

Nevertheless, big gaming firms are salivating at the opportunity.

"Japan can be a bigger market than Las Vegas," James Murren, the chairman of MGM Resorts International, predicted during a Tokyo visit last year.

The first casinos are slated to open by 2023.

Quote of the moment

"Given the multiple allegations against Hedley, we have taken the decision to terminate our business relationship with the band, effective immediately."

- Watchdog Management, the longtime business representatives for Canadian rockersHedley, dropping the band via Twitter today. The group's career is cratering amid allegations of inappropriate behaviour toward young fans.

The National Today will be taking a long weekend. The newsletter will return Tuesday, Feb. 20.

What The National is reading

• Desperate family buys 27 billboards to find kidney for Calgary man (CBC)
• Donald Trump, a Playboy model, and a system for concealing infidelity (New Yorker)
• Aussie PM called 'inept" by deputy who had extramarital affair (CBC)
• Will the Rohingya ever return home? (New York Times)
• U.S. approves blood test for concussions (Gizmodo)
• India campaigns against public defecation; minister caught relieving himself on wall (Indian Express)
• DIY fecal transplants carry risks, experts warn (Guardian)

Today in history

Feb. 16, 2005: NHL put on ice for the 2004-05 season

Five months to the day after he locked out his players, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman pulls the plug on the entire hockey season. It would take five months more, but the players' association did eventually cave to his key demand and agree to a salary cap. And none of what transpired prevented another labour disruption in 2012-13 the third, and counting, lockout of Bettman's 25-year tenure.

NHL put on ice for the 2004-05 season

20 years ago

Duration 7:14

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman shuts down the 2004-2005 season.Footage source: NHL

Sign up hereand have The National Today newsletter delivered directly to your inbox Monday to Friday.