NEW YORK: Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande urged US leaders Monday to act to tighten gun laws following the carnage in Las Vegas, as artists voiced shock at the deadliest shooting in modern US history.
While most artists left their comments to general messages of sympathy after the assault on a country music festival, Gaga used her social media power to press politicians.
“This is terrorism plain and simple. Terror bares (sic) no race, gender or religion. Democrats & Republicans please unite now,” the pop star wrote to more than 71 million followers on Twitter, where her account is the seventh most popular.
She took to task the call for prayers by House Speaker Paul Ryan, who like President Donald Trump and most other Republican leaders is a staunch opponent of regulations on guns.
“Prayers are important but @SpeakerRyan @realDonaldTrump blood is on the hands of those who have power to legislate. #GunControl act quickly,” she wrote.
Gaga also invited fans to join her in a live-streamed 20 minutes of silent meditation or prayer “to connect us all through inner peace.”
Grande — whose own concert in Manchester was attacked in May by a supporter of the Daesh group, killing 22 people — indicated that she saw little distinction with the assault in Las Vegas, where the gunman’s motivations were not immediately clear.
“My heart is breaking for Las Vegas. We need love, unity, peace, gun control & for people to look at this & call this what it is = terrorism,” Grande tweeted.
At least 59 people were killed and 500 were injured when a heavily armed gunman opened fire from his hotel room onto an open-air country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip.
The bloodbath changed the views of one artist present — Caleb Keeter, the guitarist for the Texas-based Josh Abbott Band.
A longtime supporter of gun rights, he said that members of his crew had legal firearms — which were useless in the chaos as bullets rained down.
“We need gun control. RIGHT. NOW,” he tweeted.
“My biggest regret is that I stubbornly didn’t realize it until my brothers on the road and myself were threatened by it,” he wrote.
Jason Aldean, who was playing the headlining set, called the attack “beyond horrific.”
“It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night,” he wrote on Instagram.
Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande urge gun control amid artist shock at Vegas carnage
Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande urge gun control amid artist shock at Vegas carnage
Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement
- Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October
- Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service
LOS ANGELES: A second California doctor was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to a single felony count of conspiracy to distribute the prescription anesthetic and surrendered his medical license in November.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another physician Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who in turn supplied the drug to Perry, though not the dose that ultimately killed the performer. Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful drug distribution, was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars.
He and Chavez were the first two of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s ketamine-induced death to be sent off to prison.
The three others scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks — Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen;” a go-between dealer Erik Fleming, 56; and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, 60.
Sangha admitted to supplying the ketamine dose that killed Perry, and Iwamasa acknowledged injecting Perry with it. It was Iwamasa who later found Perry, aged 54, face down and lifeless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
An autopsy report concluded the actor died from the acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television series “Friends.”
According to federal law enforcement officials, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusions for treatment of depression and anxiety at a clinic where he became addicted to the drug.
When doctors there refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous providers elsewhere willing to exploit Perry’s drug dependency as a way to make quick money, authorities said. Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties that is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. It also has seen widespread abuse as an illicit party drug.
