Saturday, October 20, 2012

Romney's Binders

via Jobsanger
You know what's gonna happen? On election day, millions of women who ostensibly have been for Romney are secretly going to vote for Obama.  How could they do otherwise?

This Issue Is Enough Reason to Vote Obama

Women's rights and gun control are others, but the issue of LGBT rights itself is a clincher.


Oklahoma 12-Year-old Shoots Intruder

News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports |

The pro-gun sites are going wild with this one. But at least on TTAG, some of the more honest commenters are questioning the wisdom of shooting through a door and of leaving a 12-year-old home alone with access to a gun.

I say all's well that ends well, but this is certainly not the pro-second-amendment story it's being presented as.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Disgruntled Employee and Lawful Gun Owner in Texas

Local news reports

Multiple Domestic Murder-Suicide in Florida

Bloomberg Business News reports

A gunman opened fire at a central Florida beauty salon Thursday, killing three women and wounding the manager, who had asked for a restraining order against him, police said. After the rampage, the gunman went to a friend's house and killed himself.

Authorities said the shooting was part of a domestic dispute, but did not elaborate. The gunman, identified by police as Bradford Baumet, was served with a domestic violence injunction Oct. 9 and scheduled to be in court Thursday for a hearing with the salon's manager, Marcia Santiago. Their relationship was not immediately clear.

About two hours before the hearing, Baumet, 36, entered Las Dominicanas M & M Salon in Casselberry and started shooting, police spokeswoman Sara Brady said. Two women hid inside a bathroom and one ran outside through a back door.
The difference between criminal gun owners and lawful gun owners is not all that great. Both groups contain individuals who are unfit to own and operate firearms. The problem is gun availability is such that the criminals can get guns just as easily as the lawful. This is a problem.

The NRA and gun-rights advocates won't have it any other way.  Refusing any and all restrictions which would impact on the criminal's ability to acquire guns, they are responsible for the gun violence we see every day.

There is a solution, which would amount to little more than inconvenience for truly legitimate gun owners. It's hard to imagine the selfishness of gun-rights folks who reject such simple measures as background checks, licensing and registration. Lives would be saved. Murder, like what took place in the Florida beauty salon, would be diminished drastically. In England there are 4 times fewer murders, per capita, and that's largely due to the lack of gun availability.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Cenk on the Republicans and Conservatives

Georgia Man Kills Wife - Says It was an Accident - No Charges

Local news reports

According to police records, Steven Thomas told Suwanee Police dispatch in the early morning hours of the shooting. Officers responded to the call about 3 a.m., and Steven Thomas soon surrendered without incident. He was taken into detention and later released.

Charissa Thomas' body was found at the top of the staircase. A gun was positioned between her legs, and a cell phone was next to her body. There was a "large amount of blood" on her head, face and body, the incident report said

There was blood leading away from her body, through the master bedroom and into the master bathroom. There was blood in the sink, and water was still running.

Police also said a rag and cleaning agent were found on the floor just outside the bathroom. In the master bedroom, a bedside stand had been moved away from a wall irregularly, the police report said.
I suppose this all means if it turns out to have been "just an accident," there's no problem.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Bullet Stopped by a Bible

via The Oddment Emporium

Bullet in a Bible

A soldier during the Civil War had his life saved by the Bible in his pocket.  He wrote to President Lincoln about it, and the President sent him a replacement with the Presidential signature.

The Greatest Rock and Roll Band of All Time - The Rolling Stones Celebrate 50 Years Together

Elizabeth Warren Can Really Tell It

Virginia is for Gun Lovers

If we ever had any doubt that VA is one gun-loving state, this report should put our minds to rest.

A Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court judge Thursday found a man not guilty of reckless handling of a firearm in the accidental shooting of a 3-year-old girl.

The judge acquitted Matthew Bairey, who was 24 at the time of the June 26 incident, of the misdemeanor charge.

The shooting occurred in the 5500 block of Seawall Court as Bairey was trying to check whether his pistol had a round in the chamber. His thumb slipped, causing the gun to fire a bullet through the floor of his second-story apartment and into the apartment below, striking the girl in the arm
This is a blatant and disgraceful miscarriage of justice.  How in the world could an act like than NOT be reckless handling of a firearm? 

I'm sure some of our gun-rights friends will be happy to tell us.

Please leave a comment.

Maryland 12-year-old Shooting at Roosters Hits Dad

Local news reports

The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an incident in which a 12-year-old boy accidentally shot his father in the chest while firing at roosters on a farm in Thurmont, authorities said Thursday.

The boy and his father, a 48-year-old Frederick resident, were outside at the farm, where the boy was shooting a .22-caliber rifle, said Cpl. Jennifer Bailey, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office.

“What they were shooting at were Bantam roosters, which were very aggressive on the property,” Bailey said.

The father was struck when one of the bullets ricocheted off a truck and hit him in the chest, she said.
Don't you think that boy was taught gun safety even the rule about being sure of your target and what's behind it? Sure he was.  That's how good education and safety training works with some people.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Virginia Sixth Grader Charged with Gun Crime

SF Gate reports

A Washington County sixth-grader accused of bringing an unloaded gun to school has been ordered to participate in a detention alternatives program.

Media outlets report that the boy has been suspended from Damascus Middle School. He was assigned to a home electronic monitoring system during a hearing Tuesday in Washington County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

School and court authorities say the boy is accused of bringing an unloaded .22-caliber pistol, a knife and several rounds of ammunition to the school Monday morning. He didn't make any threats to anyone at the school.

Another student saw the ammunition and told a teacher.
In gun-friendly Virginia, they don't even care whose gun it is. 12-year-olds stand alone when it comes to gun crime. It doesn't matter if dad or older brother left the gun around.

What's your opinion?  When a juvenile is caught with a gun, shouldn't the most likely source be investigated?

Please leave a comment.

Man Shoots Girfriend - Takes Her to Hospital - Gets Arrested

The Wall Street Journal reports

A Hudson Valley is being held without bail after police say he shot his girlfriend in the face, then brought her to a hospital.

Police in the Ulster County town of Lloyd tell local media outlets that 27-year-old Jorge Marrero used a handgun to shoot Lauren Watts during an argument last Sunday in their apartment in the hamlet of Highland.

Marrero took Watts to Vassar Brothers Hospital in Poughkeepsie after the shooting. The hospital then notified police that a shooting victim was being treated there.

Marrero was charged with felony counts of assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
You have to have a really explosive anger problem to do something like that. Unfortunately, this kind of rage is not limited to criminals.  A certain percentage of lawful gun owners have it too, just like all other societal ills.

One thing for sure, whether the bad actor is a criminal or a legitimate gun owner, guns are bad news for women. The gun-rights fanatics are so defensive about this, recently they were arguing that female-on-male domestic violence is a factor. They always demand statistics and proof, then when it's provided they ignore it.

There's definitely a violence problem in the US.  Guns make it worse.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Pennsylvania Getting Tougher on Straw Purchasing in a Bumbling Sort of Way

Philly.com reports

PEOPLE WHO BUY guns and then hand them over to criminals could soon face a mandatory five-year prison sentence, thanks to a bill passed unanimously by the state Senate Wednesday.

The bill would create a five-to-10-year sentence for any offender convicted of making multiple "straw purchases" of guns. It passed overwhelmingly in the state House last year and now goes to Gov. Corbett, who is expected to sign it into law.

Straw purchasing - buying a gun for a person who can't legally buy one because of a criminal record - drew attention last month after authorities determined that the gun used to kill Plymouth Township Police Officer Bradley Fox had been illegally purchased. The man who officials say bought that gun is accused of buying eight others for the cop's alleged shooter, Andrew Thomas, in a four-month period.

In Philadelphia, guns were used to commit more than 80 percent of the city's homicides in 2011, and more than 3,000 illegal guns were recovered by police during the same time period, according to the District Attorney's Office.
This is good, we should definitely take gun crimes like straw purchasing more seriously, but I'm afraid it doesn't go far enough. The only people caught up in this are the rare cases when a gun which is used in a serious crime is traced back to the original buyer.  Thanks to the NRA and the gun-rights fanatics who oppose any and all laws, tracing guns back to original buyers is not that easy.

I have a better plan. Straw Purchasing - The Solution. It works like this.
Any gun purchaser must be licensed and each weapon bought must be registered to him.

The registration document and firearm must be presented to the local police after three months from purchase and each year thereafter in order to receive a stamp allowing continuance of the legal registration.

Failure to present oneself will result in issuance of an arrest warrant.
Now, that's the way to stop straw purchasing. The combination of licensing owners and registering weapons as well as stiffer sentencing for straw purchasing will put an end to it.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Emily Miller, Shill for the Gun Lobby and Hack Reporter, Reads Obama's Mind

op-ed in the Washington Times

Mr. Obama feigned support for the Second Amendment before calling for regulation of inexpensive handguns, automatic weapons and resurrecting the so-called assault-weapons ban.

Interestingly, she didn't quote the president, she just gave us her interpretation of what he said, including that little bit of mind-reading about "feigning" to support the 2nd Amendment.

In typical gun-rights fashion, she concludes like this.

Gun owners finally got Mr. Obama on the record about what he would do if he wins Nov. 6. Consider it fair warning.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Reading other people's mail

I said this in a comment to another gun violence activist:
I have an interesting theory on the Heller-McDonald cases which makes them far more beneficial for the gun violence side than gun rights. I still don't like them even if they do result in strong gun control measures being enacted. They are unconstitutional and violate the rule of law no matter how you cut it.
Of course, most of you are too ignorant to know what hit you.

That especially goes for the Oik who likes to boast about stuff covered in A Levels: Hard a serious academic.

Ohio Shooting - 6 Shot - 3 Dead

Local news reports
Police say three people are dead -- including a 3-year-old child -- after a shooting at an apartment complex in northwest Ohio.

Mark Hummer, the police chief in Lake Township near Toledo, said a man shot five people in two apartments Tuesday night before coming outside and firing on officers. Two officers returned fire and killed him.
Sounds like domestic murder and suicide by cop. And it sounds like another gun owner that shouldn'ta oughta had a gun.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Mayor Bloomberg on the Debate

The Gothamist reports

In last night's Presidential debate Governor Romney and President Obama were asked about gun control, specifically keeping assault weapons out of the hands of criminals. And in case you were curious, Mayor Bloomberg—who really, really hates guns—was not amused by either candidates answers. At all. "We don't need more talk," he said of Obama's call for more discussion with the American people on the subject of gun control. "We need some leadership." 

 "I think number one it is unfortunate that it required an outraged member of the public and not the national press core" to "force the candidates to answer the question" said Bloomberg—who has been spending a lot to try and make guns a part of this election—before tearing into the candidates. According to Hizzoner what we got last night was a "a perfect example of obfuscation and very little honesty." 

"One candidate has had four years to do something and hasn't. And the other candidate says he won't even do what he once did!"
I wonder if Bloomberg has ever heard the theory that Obama is just waiting for his second term to take action.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Q&A: A Campus Shooter Talks

From the Daily Beast

Before Virginia Tech, before Columbine, there was Simon’s Rock. On 14 December 1992, Wayne Lo went on a 20 minute shooting rampage which resulted in 2 dead and four injured.    In 2007, Lo spoke to Newsweek magazine:
Do you believe that stricter gun control would help prevent such tragedies?
The people who do these things are people who don’t want contact. They wouldn’t be capable of going out there and stabbing people to death. But there’s such a disconnect when you’re using a gun. You don’t even feel like you’re killing anybody. The fact that I was able to buy a rifle in 15 minutes, that’s absurd. I was 18. I couldn’t have rented a car to drive home from school, yet I could purchase a rifle.
You were from Montana, and a member of the NRA. Had guns and hunting been a part of your life?
That night was the first time I fired a gun. Why should a person who has never touched a gun be able to buy one and the first time he fires it, be able to kill people? You wouldn’t be able to drive a car without a license.
What sort of gun control do you propose, then?
Ideally, guns should be eliminated, but I know that won’t happen. There should be stricter checks. Obviously a waiting period would be great. Personally, I only had five days left of school before winter break: school got out on Friday, and I did that on a Monday. If I had a two-week waiting period for the gun, I wouldn’t have done it.
There you have it, the words of a mass shooter.

Chuck and Carolyn Engeldinger, parents of recent Minneapolis mass shooter Andrew Engeldinger Interviewed on MPR

Cross posted from Penigma

This is an excellent, but heartbreaking interview:


October is Mental Health Awareness month.

We do NO screening whatsoever for mental illness before a person can buy a firearm, other than in the instance of purchases from a FFL seller checking the NICS data base.

Unfortunately, that data base is painfully incomplete, even in the cases of the names of known, adjudicated mentally ill individuals. It is extremely difficult, and costly, to have an individual adjudicated mentally ill. Many of those who pose the greatest risk to themselves and others, like James Holmes the (alleged) shooter in Aurora, Colorado, like Andrew Engeldinger, in the Minneapolis mass shooting, like Ian Stawicki in Seattle, like Jared Loughner in the Tucson mass shooting, like Neil Prescott in Maryland, have no barriers to buying an unlimited amount of firearms, including assault-style weapons, expanded capacity magazines, massive quantities of ammunition, or body armor to resist intervention by law enforcement.  All of the above were diagnosed and treated for mental illness, all of them were recognized by the people around them as dangerous.

This is by no means an exhaustive list; these were just the first few off the top of my head.

But no one could stop them from exercising their 2nd amendment rights when they planned to shoot people.  Not law enforcement, not their mental health personnel, not law enforcement.

Not only do we not have any screening that prevents dangerously mentally ill people from slaughtering innocent people in large numbers, we don't even test for the most rudimentary necessary qualities to safely and appropriately use a firearm, like the eye test we require to drive a car.

The basic rules of firearm safety require that you be able to see what you shoot at, and that you be aware of what is around and behind what you are aiming at, or you do not shoot.

Not only do we require no minimal testing or screening to own a firearm, we require no check whatsoever to privately transfer a firearm to another person.  You aren't supposed to sell or give a firearms to someone who is deranged, or a drug addict, or convicted of a crime.  But people do it all the time, and beyond that, gun owners are not required to keep their firearms secure from theft or abuse.

We have more than 3 murder suicides a week in this country, involving two or more people, where one of more of those who are killed did not want to die, often women and children.  One could argue that anyone who takes that route out of this world is at least temporarily dangerously mentally ill.  Certainly their judgment is not what we consider normal in function.

We MUST stop allowing access to firearms to override every other consideration.  It is time we stop treating lethal force as an option everyone should have, and recognize the horrific harm done by people with it, not just in homicides and suicides, or injuries, but in accidents, in intimidation in domestic violence, and other circumstances.

Civilized countries do not condone everyone having lethal weapons. It is not necessary, it is not appropriate, and it is not the case - as pro-gunners claim - that we have to accept criminals having firearms EITHER.  In other countries, firearms are not common in their crime incidents; they are the exception, not the rule. 

We shouldn't condone or allow such widespread lethal force and violence either.  There are better alternatives. But we need to begin with our gun culture, which argues against any impediment, even if it means unlimited access for the dangerously mentally ill to lethal weapons to engage in mass killings.

We have a choice, and it is time we exercised a better one than the one we have now.

I will post the second part of the interview tomorrow.  My heart aches for these parents, and for the family and friends of all those who were the victims of Andrew Engeldinger.  This should have been an avoidable tragedy.

For those readers who may not be able to easily access the recording, here is an edited transcript of the MPR News interview:

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Many lives changed the afternoon of Sept. 27 at a small but growing Minneapolis business called Accent Signage Systems.
An employee, Andrew Engeldinger, had just lost his job, and he responded by opening fire, killing six people and wounding others. He took his own life with the weapon as well.
"It is hard. We have lost our son. And we know that all these other families are suffering due to his actions and that's very hard," said Carolyn Engeldinger, who, along with her husband Chuck, spoke with MPR News.
The Engeldingers said their son had shown signs of mental illness for years.
"The person he became bore no resemblance to the son we knew and raised," she said. "He was never violent, just a normal little kid who brought us a lot of joy."
Below is an edited transcript of Cathy Wurzer's interview with the Engeldingers. The second part of the interview airs Wednesday.

So who needs a gun?

How about a real life Granbo from Austria (that's the country in Europe, not the place in the South Pac-Indian Ocean Area--That's AustrALIA)?

A bank robber who was armed with a gun and a home-made bomb was thwarted by an 82 year Old Granny, Hertha Wallecker, ripped the thief's mask off his head and tore a bag containing cash he had stolen out of his hand, shouting: "The money belongs to the bank."

Now, if an 82 year old granny has the balls to do it WITHOUT A GUN--what's YOUR excuse for needing one?

Jon Stewart on the Fox Spin about the VP Debate

Accidental Shooting of Tennessee Teen by his Brother - He's Dead - No Charges

Local news reports

Officials tell us the 15-year-old was at home with his 18-year-old brother Monday. The older brother was reportedly cleaning a handgun when it accidentally fired and killed the 15-year-old.
The gun "accidentally fired and killed the 15-year-old" because older brother violated more than one of the 4 Rules of Gun Safety. By calling it an accident and saying the gun fired rather than he fired the gun, we remove the accountability factor. That's what gun-rights folks want.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.


Gun Range Suicides

News-Press.com reports

Suicides like the one Sunday at a Fort Myers gun range, while not common, are difficult to prevent, local firearms experts say.

Richard Arlen Kelley, 75, of Fort Myers, committed suicide at Fowler Firearms and Gun Range on Fowler Avenue. He had taken shooting practice for about 20 minutes, a store official said Monday. Josh Hackman, general manager at the Fowler store, said there’s nothing anyone at the store could have done to prevent Kelley from shooting himself.


“He came in, showed his ID, signed the waiver, we showed him how to use the gun, and then he shot for about 20 minutes,” he said. “Then he shot himself. That was it.”
The biased spin job of an article goes on to say "The News-Press archives show at least six other similar suicides at gun ranges around the United States in the past three years." Now, we know that's some shabby archives they've got there. A casual look shows more than that. The Scottsdale Gun Club has had half that themselves, for crying out loud.

No, this problem is a lot more widespread than the pro gun crowd would have us believe.  That's their strategy, to lie about the extent of a problem and then divide by all the guns in the entire country and say the percentage is insignificant. They combine that approach with the one in the article in which they claim nothing can be done about it.  But that's usually self-serving nonsense.

The problem with all their justifications is we're talking about lives, human lives. Renting guns to suicidal people is wrong and every effort should be made to stop it.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.


More on the South Carolina to New York Gun Smuggling

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Lawful Gunowner Mistakes Girlfriend for Intruder - Kills Her - No Charges

Local news reports


It's a terrible tragedy that he lost his girlfriend like this, but he should also lose his freedom and his gun rights forever.

The last time I checked, you were in violation of the 4 Rules of Gun Safety if you shoot into the darkness at a silhouette.

What's your opinion?  Please laeve a comment.

A Promise Not Kept: Profits Over People

Via The MCA Blog

In early 2012, reports circulated detailing some of the profit-centered entitlement raids that occurred at Bain Capital under Republican Presidential nominee, Mitt Romney. The Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance became intrigued when asbestos industry defendants appeared on a list of these types of corporate liquidations and commissioned a three-month investigation of the company’s handling of GS Industries through journalist, Gary Cohn. What we uncovered is the true human tragedy of collateral damage stemming from this profit model. We found a community affected by decades of toxic exposure, gasping for breath while picking up the pieces among an uncertain future.

Pastor Kelly - The Gun Rights Movement's Best Friend

ABC News reports on Pastor Kelly of St. Petersburg, Florida. He's the one whose daughter was killed in his church by Moises Zambrano's negligence.

 

Now, I'm all for forgiveness. I think it's wonderful. But it shouldn't be offered at the cost of accountability and responsibility. When someone forgets there's a round in the chamber and ends up killing a young girl, there should be some accountability.  That person should go to jail and lose their gun rights, not get off scott free and enjoy the embrace and forgiveness of the victim's father.  That's just wrong.

Pastor Kelly holds God responsible but not the shooter.  That's sick. He compared the incident in which an unfit concealed carry permit holder negligently fired his gun resulting in the death of his daughter to a lightning strike that took the life of another kid.

Pastor Kelly should be on the board of the NRA with that kind of thinking.

What's your opinion?  please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting of Sister - Big Charges in this Case

The Chicago Tribune reports

Aysheh and his sister, Nawal, were alone in his bedroom in the 4800 block of West Wolfram Street at about 9:10 a.m. Saturday when he showed her a .380 caliber handgun that he said he had “found hidden on the street,” Assistant State’s Atty. Yulia Nikolaevskaya said.

Aysheh took the clip out of the gun, saw that it was empty, put it back and pulled the trigger, Nikolaevskaya said.

“The gun went off and the defendant saw his sister fall to the ground,” Nikolaevskaya said. While he picked her up and carried her out of the house, their other sister called 911 and then hid the gun in a dog food bag in the basement, the prosecutor said.
He was a criminal and gang member, a guy who'd already had a gun conviction, and he still didn't know about the one in the chamber?  How could that be?

Well, when you're dealing with lowlifes you shouldn't expect them to know any better. It's not like lawful gun owners who are almost always safe and responsible, like this one and this one.

What's your opinion?  What can explain the phenomenon of "forgetting the one in the chamber."  I honestly can't understand it.  An absolute novice with guns should know this.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting of San Antonio Teen by Himself - No Charges

Local news reports

A teen was transported to the hospital after he was accidentally shot in the stomach.

Officers say it happened just after midnight at an apartment complex on the 400 block of Utopia.

Investigators say Ray Fernandez, 18, was showing off a gun to friends when it accidentally went off. Fernandez was shot in the stomach.
Let's take some wild guesses. In San Antonio, Texas, teenage boys are raised with guns, right? Their dads and uncles all have 'em. They're taught gun safety from the very beginning.

Yet, we have so many of these PREVENTABLE incidents.  What could account for that?

Let's make some simple deductions. Teaching gun safety to kids doesn't work in many cases. The more guns there are the more gun accidents we have. Too many people are just unfit to own guns and use them safely.

What can be done about it?  Well, as our pro-gun friends keep telling us this is not the Minority Report, we cannot predict future events, so we have to work with what we have. When someone demonstrates their inability to safely handle firearms they lose the right to own them.  It's that simple.

How else are we going to improve the situation?  Why should we take a chance on these once-proven dangerous gun owners and hope they learned their lesson?  No, I say one strike you're out.  No second chances.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting of Alabama Teen - No Charges

The New York Daily News reports

Jesse Rainey, 15, went with seven male friends early Saturday to an unoccupied Tuscumbia home belonging to the grandmother of one of the boys. They decided to spend the night there after a football game.

“One of the young men cut the lights to the house, then a few of the other guys snuck back inside, wanting their friends to believe there was an intruder.”

Rainey reportedly hid in one of the closets, and decided to jump out and scare one of his friends. Authorities say the other boy, who was carrying a .38 caliber handgun, was spooked and fired at Rainey.
The shooter probably grew up listening to his dad and his uncles talking about the castle doctrine and how we all have a right to defend ourselves without retreating.

Here's the result. And the gun-rights fanatics wonder why we call it the "shoot first" law.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Even Gun-Rights Advocates are For Gun Control

via Nasty Jack


This is a bit old, but it's still good. Thom Hartmann is the only person I've heard other than myself say that given the gun laws in Arizona, there were probably other armed people around the Giffords shooting.

I also like the way he insisted that even gun rights fanatics are for gun control. It's just a question of where we draw the line.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Chuck Norris - Evangelical Drama Queen

via Addicting Info 

Remember The Dixie Chicks

via Addicting Info 


Jon Stewart on the Republican Lunatics in Office - Some of Them

Accidental Shooting at Mississippi Gun Show - 4-Year-old Injured - No Charges

Local news reports
A 4-year-old child was injured when hit by bullet fragments Saturday morning after a gun accidentally discharges at a Tupelo gun show.

The child was hit by fragments from a bullet that went through a wall. Also, a man was grazed in the leg in the same accident.

Tupelo Police say both were treated at North Mississippi Medical Center. Neither suffered life threatening injuries.

A preliminary investigation indicated it was an accident and no charges are expected.
It was only an accident, why would any charges be brought?

What's your opinion?  Please leave  a comment.

Alabama Man Kills Himself with Stolen Police Gun

SF Gate reports
An off-duty police officer who was also at the bar went to the bathroom and left his Glock handgun in a bathroom stall. By the time the officer realized his gun was missing, it was gone from the bathroom.

Police said Steven Michael Bradford, 25, of Bessemer, found that gun and quickly sold it to a friend, Matthew Lee Dodd, 26, also of Bessemer, for $225. Not long after, Dodd and the man who died stopped at a gas station. The gun was tucked between two front seats.

Authorities said Dodd entered the convenience store, heard a popping sound and came outside to find his friend dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Hoover police have charged Bradford with second-degree theft of lost property. Dodd has been charged with second-degree buying and receiving stolen property. Phone listings for the two men could not be found. It was unclear Saturday whether they had an attorney.
Did anyone notice what's missing? Everyone is charged with a crime except the bumbling cop who started the whole chain of events in motion.And he didn't report his gun stolen until AFTER the shooting.  That should be another charge.

Gun owners, both civilian and law enforcement, are the source of all guns used in crime. They should be held responsible every time a gun flows over to the dark side.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Macho, Macho, Macho Man

I have been musing on the topic of what would American Males do if they didn't have their guns, but the Commongunsense post "I Almost Died Laughing" pointed out the insanity of US gun culture. Here we have deadly and dangerous weapons which people mistakenly believe is their "right" to own (Sorry, but the Second Amendment right is to belong to a Militia set up according to Article I, Section 8, Clause 16, but few people want THAT right).

A far more productive pastime comes to mind when I go to the DIY Centre. What is more masculine than building things? That is being constructive rather than destructive (although one can demo old buildings to build on them). The pride I feel when I know that I can handle power tools to build projects. Although, it was dangerous when shopping for tools when the sales person said "you could build a deck in an afternoon with that!"

Not within earshot of my wife, please!

Her abode is a Wendy House as is a large,expensive one, but a Wendy House nonetheless! It would be an even more intricate Wendy House with me spending my free time doing that (of course, that is much more productive than blogging).

But the feeling that you made something on your own is far more empowering than shooting a tin can that is unable to shoot back at you.
Trainspotters

Of course, there are my other passions, Archaeology and Astronomy. Even playing with a metal detector can be considered archaeology of sorts, although most archaeologists dislike metal detectorists who just dig things up without consideration for what they have found. Metal detectorists have, however, made some significant archaeological finds: I've mentioned the the Crosby Garrett Helmet and Terry Herbert’s Anglo-Saxon hoard before.  There needs to be archaeological sensitivity on the part of metal detectorists.

There's trainspotting as well.  That's much more productive.  I remember a rail journey where I saw both trainspotters and hunters.  The trainspotters were having much more fun with their flasks of tea and anoraks, whilst the hunters were stalking a dear that was several miles from where they were slogging (and would have been a dangerous shot to take).  What's the fun of spending hours in the cold trying to kill something that eludes you because it is much smarter than you are?

I can think of several commenters who would be much better trainspotters than they are gunslingers.

Or much else for that matter.

Perhaps, that answers my train of thought that these people are incapable of tasks which require complex skills.  Even trainspotting require than one is numerically literate to track which train one has seen (and where).  I can imagine that the gunsels are lost on dry land, let alone trying to look at the heavens to find messier objects.  These pastimes require thought, which is a characteristic sadly missing in the American mind.

The Ten Commandments of Gun Safety

Carroll County Times

1. Treat every gun as if it were loaded;
2. Watch the muzzle, and keep your safety on until it’s time to shoot;
3. Unload your gun when it is not in use and keep the action open;
4. Be sure of your target before you pull the trigger;
5. Never point a gun at anything you don’t want to shoot;
6. Never climb a tree or fence or jump a ditch with a loaded gun;
7. Never pull a gun toward you by the muzzle;
8. Never shoot a bullet at a flat, hard surface, or at water and always be sure of a safe backstop;
9. Store guns and ammunition separately, beyond the reach of children;
10. Never mix gunpowder and alcohol.

This is not brain surgery. You don't need a brain like Stephen Hawking to understand this. This is basic common sense. Even the more commonly cited 4 Rules of Gun Safety contain no secrets. They list common-sense ideas that should go without saying, that should be obvious to anyone with half a brain.

But, unfortunately, incidents happen every day in every city which seem to indicate that some gun owners don't even have the minimum amount of good sense they'd need to operate guns safely and, to make matters worse, they have not learned and followed the Rules or the Commandments. 

That's why One Strike You're Out is so important. How else can we identify these unfit gun owners? We can't test them for common sense or basic intelligence, the NRA and gun-rights activists would never allow that. No, unfortunately, we cannot anticipate these things. But, when someone proves themselves to be in violation of the safety rules which should be obvious to anyone, they should lose their gun rights.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.


More Gun Smuggling - South Carolina to New York

Mickey Collins (left) and Dario Wynerman.




 The New York Post reports

An ex-con who’ll be old enough to collect Social Security next month was among 13 suspects busted for running two East Harlem gun-smuggling rings that sold mainly to teenage buyers, authorities said yesterday.

Infamous gun runner Mitchell “Mickey’’ Collins, 64, was the main target of a sting operation dubbed “Mickey Mouse Trap,’’ said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

Collins and three cohorts eventually peddled 88 guns to the undercover, including an AK-47 that fetched $1,600 and a .32-caliber Smith and Wesson that went for $400, Kelly said.

One accomplice, Sampson Taylor, 34, would allegedly take a bus to South Carolina, stock up on firepower from pawn shops and gun dealers, and transport the illicit arsenal back to the city, where the weapons sold for a 100 percent profit. 

A total of 10 came from South Carolina, and one was purchased in Virginia, prosecutors said.
Why do the gun-rights advocates always try to ridicule the fact that guns are smuggled from lax-gun-law states to places like New York? Doesn't it make sense?

I think the reason they try to make fun of this or downplay it in one way or another is because they see how bad it is for their cause. This touches on the exact point at which guns pass for the law-abiding to the criminals. In places like South Carolina that happens too easily.

If measures were taken to stop that, the legitimate gun owners would be slightly inconvenienced. This is what the can't accept.

What's your opinion?  Has there ever been a more self-centered advocacy group than the gun-rights crowd?

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting of Brother while Shooting Pigs in California - No Charges

Local news reports

The accidental shooting happened around 6:24 a.m. Saturday near Kinder Lane and Calvine Road during a family event. 

Apparently, when trying to put down a pig for the event, the pig jerked after being shot and caused the rife to slide backwards and go off a second time.

The 27-year-old was hit in the face and was sent to the hospital in critical condition. The gun is said to be a .22 caliber rifle.

About a dozen people were at the event and saw the shooting.
I guess these are not your slick Los Angeles types or your urbane San Francisco residents.  No, these are more like California rednecks, rural people who think a good family event starts out with shootin' some hogs.

The only problem is some of them are unfit to handle guns.

What's your opinion?  Why was no one arrested?  Is this different from the Des Moines story? In this one the "pig jerked" and the rifle slid backwards and went off, in the Iowa case the shooter "thought the gun was unloaded" and shot his friend. Are these different kinds of accidents? Do they deserve different kinds of legal responses?

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting in Des Moines - One Dead One Arrested

 Local news reports with video

Des Moines police responded to 1444 E. Walnut St. after a report of a person being shot. Authorities found Corey L. Hamilton Jr., 16, with a gunshot wound to his head.

Medics from the Des Moines Fire Department transported the teen to an area hospital, where he later died from the injury.

Police interviewed several witnesses and arrested 15-year-old Dontavius Sharkey. Police said the gun used in the incident was recovered with the cooperation of the suspect.

As a result of the investigation, Sharkey has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm.

Why was he arrested immediately while so many are not? Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about this case, I'm complaining about all those that are under investigation.

When someone is shot by another, the shooter should be arrested immediately and all his guns confiscated, unless it's an unequivocal case of self defense. Then they can investigate all they want.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.