Saturday, September 29, 2012

Senator Jim Webb on Romney's Failure with the Veterans

via Parsley's Pics

 

Lori Haas' Appeal to Stop Gun Violence

300th Prisoner Exonerated by DNA Analysis - 18 from Death Row

The Los Angeles Times reports

A Louisiana man was released from death row on Friday after serving 15 years for a crime that DNA evidence shows he did not commit.

Damon Thibodeaux, 38, was the 300th prisoner nationwide to see his conviction overturned based on DNA evidence, according to lawyers who represented him from the New York-based Innocence Project. He was the 18th death row prisoner freed based on such evidence.

“This journey to freedom was a long time coming,” said one of his attorneys, Caroline Tillman of the Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana, in a statement Friday. “The solitary conditions that Mr. Thibodeaux was forced to live under as a death row inmate were almost more than he could bear at times, but he never gave up hope that one day he would be free.”
The first and real reason we need to abolish the death penalty is because it's wrong. It's state-sanctioned per-meditated murder.  It can never be justified.

After that we have all these poor suckers who were wrongly convicted.  Thirdly, the cost is much higher than sentencing them to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Connecticut Gun Owner Kills His Own Son

ABC News reports

A Connecticut teacher shot a masked and knife-wielding person during a late-night confronation outside his sister's home when she believed she was being robbed. But Jeffrey Giuliano, 44, didn't realize that he had gunned down and killed his teenage son until the boy was identified by authorities. 

Police responding to a possible burglary attempt pulled up to a house in New Fairfield at 1 a.m. Thursday to find the local 5th grade teacher, dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, sitting on the lawn outside his sister's home (the two lived next door). Dead in the driveway was his 15-year-old son, Tyler. 

Lieutenant J. Paul Vance said that Tyler was found with obvious gunshot wounds and was holding a weapon. Police later specified that the "weapon in possession of the deceased at the time of this incident was determined by troopers to be a knife." 

"We received a call reporting possible burglary and shots fired," Vance told ABC News. "He was shot multiple times, but we still don't know the number of times or the location."
On the great blog TTAG, they strongly advise people who shoot others to STFU. But if you're going to say something, the key word is always "lunged" if a knife is involved. This, they think, justifies shooting someone several times in the chest.

The nightmare irony in this case is the vigilante gun owner killed his own son. Sad, pathetic, sick and predictable.  The chances of a homeowner in a low-crime area like this one ever needing to use the gun to save the day is lower by far than the chance that someday the gun will be misused.

This is an extreme example of that.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

OK Gun Range Accidental Shooting - One Man Dead

Local news reports

Cherokee County officials say a Tahlequah man died near Camp Gruber in what they believe is an accidental shooting.

Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office Investigator James Brown said James Woolard died at a gun range near the Zeb entrance of Camp Gruber.

Woolard, 44, died from what appeared to be an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound, Brown said.

“It looks like he was target practicing out there,” Brown said. “I don’t know if he was cleaning his gun, or what.”
I could understand shooting yourself in the leg or the foot by accident, but a lethal shot to the head or chest? I can't even imagine how a lawful gun owner who has some experience with guns could do that. Can you?

Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting in Missouri Kills Police Cadet - No Charges (Yet)

Local news reports

City police are investigating an apparent accidental shooting that killed a cadet.  The Lebanon Daily Record reports Russell Bragg, 24, died on Wednesday morning after being shot in the leg.

Police said Bragg's friend and fellow cadet was taking apart a gun on the balcony of Bragg's apartment Tuesday night when he bent down to pick up something and a bullet fired.  The round traveled through the victim's leg, then into his stomach and spine area.


Police haven’t said whether they’ll recommend the friend be charged with a crime.
They're not sure. It was only an accident, which in gun-friendly Missouri is certainly never a crime.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

New Hampshire Gun Owner Gets a Slap on the Wrist

Local news reports


Charged with a class B misdemeanor count of reckless conduct is Gregory Vaillancourt, 30, who police allege misfired his pistol on July 24 at 1:30 p.m.

According to a police report by Officer Dean Outhouse, Vaillancourt's neighbor reported finding a bullet hole in the side of his house near a front window and said he thought the bullet had also dented his stainless steel refrigerator. Outhouse reported he then interviewed Vaillancourt who admitted accidentally firing his gun while cleaning it in his living room the day before.

The officer's affidavit states the bullet went through Vaillancourt's television set and a wall before traveling 45 yards across the street, passing through the neighbor's house, ricocheting off the metal refrigerator and into a rear wall. 
This is what happens. The charges are inconsistent with the degree of irresponsibility. This is a guy who has proven himself incapable of safely handling guns.  Why wouldn't he lose his right to own them? Do we have to wait till he kills someone?

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Tennessee Man Shoots Uncle in Self Defense, Or Did He?

Local news reports


Police said Friday that no charges have been filed in the death of 55-year-old James Leon Ridley, Jr., who died after being shot by 31-year-old Leondra Ridley.

Police said the younger man was called Thursday night by other family members who said James Ridley showed up drunk and violent. When Leondra Ridley arrived, a woman and her children, ages 4, 6 and 7, were hiding in a closet in fear of James Ridley.

Police said Leondra Ridley told them he shot his uncle in self-defense. Police said the younger man has a valid pistol permit, remained at the scene and cooperated with detectives. The victim was shot once in the chest.
This is what I mean about the supposed DGUs. The police report is based on what the living guy says. The dead guy obviously cannot tell his side of the story. And what's the living guy gonna say? Would he ever admit that maybe the shooting was unnecessary? Of course not.

That little bit of logic is sufficient to deduce that the numbers of DGUs we keep hearing about include some that are nothing of the king, some of them are actually crimes disguised.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Concealed Carry as the Solution for Votier Fraud!

Sarah Silverman has it sussed!  What are those voter suppression laws really meant to do?

Why, get more guns on the street, of course!


The Human Cost of Gun Violence

op-ed in the New York Times

Every day 80 Americans die from gunshots and an additional 120 are wounded, according to a 2006 article in The Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Those 80 Americans left their homes in the morning and went to work, or to school, or to a movie, or for a walk in their own neighborhood, and never returned. Whether they were dead on arrival or died later on in the hospital, 80 people’s normal day ended on a slab in the morgue, and there’s nothing any of us can do to get those people back.

Gun advocates say that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. The truth, though, is that people with guns kill people, often very efficiently, as we saw so clearly and so often this summer. And while there can be no argument that the right to bear arms is written into the Constitution, we cannot keep pretending that this right is somehow without limit, even as we place reasonable limits on arguably more valuable rights like the freedom of speech and due process.

So I have a request for proponents of unlimited access to guns. Spend some time in a trauma center and see the victims of gun violence — the lucky survivors — as they come in bloody and terrified. Understand that our country’s blind embrace of gun rights made this violent tableau possible, and that it’s playing out each day in hospitals and morgues all over the country.

I know the gun-rights fanatics will immediately point out that among the 80 a day, half are suicides. They always say this as if it makes a difference to our gun availability argument. It doesn't.

This well written article about the cost of gun violence is just the tip of the iceberg. There are the traumatized onlookers, the orphaned children and the bereaved parents.  There's all the lost potential of whatever good these 80 people a day might have done in their lives.  You can't add it all up.

And you know what the gun rights crowd says?  "Don't inconvenience me even a little.  I won't stand for it."

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

No Charges for San Jose Cop Whose 3-Year-old Killed Himself with Dad's Improperly Stored Weapon


The Gilroy Dispatch reports


The father of the 3-year-old Gilroy boy who accidentally shot and killed himself on July 5 will not be prosecuted, according to a report by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office which called the shooting a “horrible, irreversible mistake.”

Three-year-old Preston Orlando, the son of nine-year San Jose Police Officer Brandon Orlando, was in his parent’s bedroom on Kentwood Court around 3 p.m. when he reached into the nightstand next to the bed and accidentally shot himself in the head with his father’s Glock .30 semi-automatic handgun and the child died en route to the hospital.
 


The DA report indicated that Orlando did not meet the required elements of “gross negligence” in the storage of the weapon to warrant prosecution – namely that he did not “reasonably know that a child is likely to gain access to the firearm.”

But one thing that was not considered at all – either in Orlando’s favor or against him – was the fact that he is an active duty police officer.  

“People will always ask if he got better treatment because he was a police officer, meanwhile police officers will question whether he got worse treatment. That is always going to happen,” Rosen said. “So we didn’t treat Brandon Orlando any better or worse because he was a police officer. We approached this fairly and objectively as we would anyone, regardless of their occupation.”
It's true that no punishment could match the loss of a child, and it may be true that his work did not enter into it, but it's also true that he should be held accountable for his actions.

When a man does something like this he should never be allowed near guns again.  That's my opinion.  What's yours.

Please leave a comment.

New Zealand Gun Rights Folks Want to go Easy on Hunting Accidents

Local New Zealand news reports

Automatically charging hunters who accidentally shoot another person will do nothing to reduce the number of deaths, a firearms expert says.

And moves to make the hunting party as responsible as the shooter is just as problematic, says the Hamilton lawyer of a man accused of such a killing. 

The recommendations were among a raft of measures proposed by Coroner Wallace Bain yesterday in his finding on the death of Lower Hutt school teacher Rosemary Ives.

Ives was accidentally shot by Hamilton man Andrew Mears, who was spotlighting with a group of friends. He shot her in Kaimanawa Forest Park near Turangi in 2010 after mistaking her head-lamp for deer's eyes as she was brushing her teeth at a campsite. 

He was charged with manslaughter and served 11 months of a two-year jail term. Three others in his hunting party pleaded guilty to breaching their hunting permits by hunting after dark, and on Conservation Department land, and were fined $2500 each.
I'm not sure what they would call the incredible rationale in New Zealand, maybe bullocks or shite, or something like that. Around here we call it self-serving bullshit.

Not only should the shooter be held responsible for violating the 4 Rules of Gun Safety, but a comprehensive program of One Strike You're Out should be in effect.

The guys who are so irresponsible as to shoot and kill someone in the woods like this guy did are the same guys who drop their guns and have negligent discharges.  They're the same ones who brandish their guns in traffic and drink too much.  They demonstrate over and over again how unfit they are.  The gun right's crowd would have us think they're all first time offenders.

I don't believe it. How about you?

Please leave a comment.

Lawful Florida Gun Owner Shoots Wrong Man in Road Rage Incident

The Florida Times-Journal reports

A pickup driver in Jacksonville was wounded by gunshot Thursday in what police and the man’s father-in-law described as an accidental shooting.

The man’s gun went off when another passenger in the truck grabbed it in a confrontation with another driver, said James Borum, whose son-in-law was taken to Shands Jacksonville hospital.

Let me break it down for you. Two idiots in pickup trucks left the gas station together and and got into some kind of ego contest. Both were raging maniacs who felt the other had a lot of nerve to dare such a challenge. At the light one of the idiot's imbecile friend grabbed a gun intending on using it on the driver of the other pickup, but instead shot his own driver.

These are the kinds of redneck, hillbillies that make Florida the Most Baneful State in the Union.

But, it's not just them.  It's built right into the system down there.

No arrests have been reported by the Sheriff’s Office.


Don't you find it unbelievable that no one is arrested after a scene like that. You know they put other people in danger as well as themselves. And you also know they were lawful gun owners.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting Death of Louisiana Man - Friend Arrested

Local news reports

Garland Stockman, 35, was pronounced dead shortly after he was rushed into surgery at Ochsner Medical Center in Jefferson.

Stockman had been shot once in the chest, and then dropped off at the hospital by his friend, Dru Lilley. 

Lilley first told investigators that Stockman had been shot while the two were in New Orleans. But Lilley changed his story after he couldn't give detectives an exact location of the shooting.

He eventually admitted that the pair was in Metairie when Stockman pulled out and began playing with a black, semi-automatic handgun. Lilley told investigators that he took the gun from Stockman, and they both began "playing with the gun." 

Lilley said Stockman hit the pistol while it was in his hand, causing the weapon to fire, striking Stockman in the chest. Lilley delivered Stockman to nearby Ochsner hospital just before 10:42 p.m., then got rid of the gun on Interstate 10 West between Causeway Boulevard and Clearview Parkway in Metairie, Fortunato said. Detectives have not yet been able to find the gun.

Lilley was booked Thursday with negligent homicide and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
You see, you can always tell when a guy is NOT a lawful gun owner. They get charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

This story also illustrates that the biggest thing you can do wrong after a negligent shooting is lie to the police.  That pretty-much guarantees you'll be charged. They don't like it when you get rid of the gun too.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Minneapolis Shooting - 2 Dead 4 Wounded

Local Fox News reports

"Several" people are dead, including the gunman, after a workplace shooting in Minneapolis, police confirmed at a Thursday evening news conference.

That's an update from a previous report confirming two people dead and four others injured. Minneapolis Police Deputy Chief Kris Arneson said the exact number of those killed in the shooting could not be confirmed at this time.

The office shooting was reported around 4:45 p.m. Thursday at Accent Signage Systems Inc. on Chestnut Ave. W. in the Bryn Mawr area of Minneapolis, near Interstate 394 and Penn Avenue.

Hennepin County Medical Center confirmed they are treating at four victims from the shooting, including three in critical condition.

The shooter reportedly arrived at the office Thursday afternoon after being terminated from his job that morning. A source tells FOX 9 police have information indicating he may have been targeting specific employees.
Questions:

1. Was he a lawful gun owner
2. Was he an NRA member
3. Did he have a concealed carry permit
4. If you answered yes to any of those, is this kind of thing such a rare occurrence that we can write it off?

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Samuel L. Jackson Says WTFU

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Florida Concealed Carry Permit Holder Brings a Gun to the Airport - He Forgot It

The Sacramento Bee reports

A central Florida man faces charges after authorities say a loaded gun was found in his backpack at Orlando International Airport.

Police say 47-year-old Edward Jody Calderon was stopped Sunday morning after a security screener spotted a .22-caliber pistol, which was loaded with six rounds. An additional magazine with 10 rounds was also found in the bag.

Calderon, who has concealed weapon permit, told police that he forgot the weapon was in his backpack. He told them he had taken the handgun with him on a recent hunting trip for snakes he might encounter. 

Calderon was arrested and charged with carrying a firearm in a place prohibited by law, a second-degree misdemeanor.
How many times do we have to hear this excuse before something is done? You know what happens in gun-friendly states like Florida with second-degree misdemeanors? They're plea-bargained down to almost nothing and the dangerous and irresponsible gun owner continues on his way.

One strike you're out demands that irresponsible gun owners be held responsible for their actions.  Why would other gun owners, who are responsible, object to that?

By the way, he doesn't look like the kind of guy who would forget a gun was in his backpack.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Trigger-Happy Colorado State Troopers Fired

Local news reports

The Colorado State Patrol has fired two troopers who were involved in the 2010 shooting death of an unarmed suspect.

Trooper Ivan Lawyer and Cpl. Kirk Firko were notified Tuesday they are no longer employed by the agency.

The troopers went to Jason Kemp's home in 2010 while investigating a traffic accident. Lawyer said that during a struggle, he shot Kemp because he saw him raise his arm and thought he had a weapon.

The troopers had no comment.
This goes to show you how easily a criminal act can be passed off as a legitimate DGU. This one almost was.

But, even in gun-friendly Colorado, sometimes the trigger happy gun owners, cops in this case, don't get away with murder.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

The Cure for Hiccups - Fort Hood Style


Local news reports as well as TTAG where they can't make enough jokes about it.  You know, according to them, these irresponsible guys are so few we can just laugh them off.


A 22-year-old man is dead and a 27-year-old man is in jail in what police said was a fatal accident caused by one man trying to cure the other of the hiccups.

Fort Hood soldier Patrick Edward Myers was charged with manslaughter in connection with the deadly incident. Myers is in Bell County Jail with bail set at $1 million.

An arrest affidavit said Myers, the victim and another man were drinking alcohol and watching football Sunday night at a home when the victim got the hiccups. 

To make the victim’s hiccups go away, Myers produced a handgun and pointed it at the man’s head in order to scare him. Believing the gun to be loaded with dummy rounds, Myers then fired. A bullet struck the victim in his eye.
Far from being laughable, like the clowns at The Truth About Guns find it, this incident illustrates how lawful gun owners are often not fit to own guns in the first place.

 Of course, it also illustrates how guns and alcohol don't go together.  As our commenter Texas Colt carry recently put it, this is never acceptable.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Irresponsible Texas Target Shooters


Dr. Basil Long was struck in the back by a gunshot at his property on Rosenwall Road in Walker County in what is believed to be a target shooting accident.
According to the sheriff’s office, Long placed a 911 call at 5 p.m. to dispatch in reference to a shooting on Rosenwall Road. When deputies arrived, they found Long on his ATV with a gunshot wound to his back.
While on scene, deputies heard more shots coming from the back of Long’s property. Officers with the Texas Department of Public Safety and Huntsville Police Department went to the area on Duerer Road to investigate and found three people target shooting.
“(Long) was sitting on his ATV and it appears the shot came through the woods,” Buck said.
At this time, law enforcement do not believe the shooting was intentional and the case is still under investigation.
You know what that means, right? When they say "law enforcement do not believe the shooting was intentional and the case is still under investigation" they really mean "Oh, well, what can you do. The boys have got to shoot their guns." 

This is wrong.  It doesn't matter if you're in the living room cleaning your weapons or out in the woods target shooting, the 4 Rules of Gun Safety should apply.  If they're followed no one gets hurt.  If they're not someone should be held responsible and we should dispense with this shoulder-shrugging nonchalance about "accidents."

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Child Abusing Gun Owner Shoots Cops then Himself

The LA Times reports

The shooting of two San Diego County Sheriff's Department deputies may have occurred as the deputies sought to arrest a Lakeside man Tuesday in connection with a case of suspected child abuse.

The deputies were wounded in a brief confrontation in an apartment in Lakeside, a blue-collar community in eastern San Diego County.

A young woman who identified herself as the girlfriend of the suspect told NBC7, the NBC affiliate in San Diego, that the deputies had gone to her boyfriend's apartment after she reported to them that she had found sexually explicit pictures of him and her 8-year-old daughters.

The woman told reporter Diana Guevara that she saw her boyfriend shoot the deputies and then shoot himself. She said she was unaware of the conditions of the three.
You know the rule, if there's no mention of a gun charge it's safe to assume he was a lawful gun owner, which illustrates one of our major premises.  Gun owners suffer from all the ills that afflict people at large, many of which make them unfit to own guns.

Whether it be alcohol abuse or drug addiction or depression or even child abuse, gun owners suffer from these things at exactly the same rate as the general population. So, we can dismiss categorically the absurd idea that gun owners are somehow safer and more responsible.  They're not.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Why Guns Aren't Allowed On Campus

 University of Tennessee:

Butt-chugging???  Really?

Look, I realize this is where InstaCracker Glenn Reynolds "teaches," but it really appears Tennessee students have a great deal of difficulty understanding what end the booze goes down.

And you want these kids to carry guns?

Say, doesn't Jonathan Clark Sullivan live in Tennessee?


Louis Farrakhan Speaks

The Daily News reports

Louis Farrakhan, the fiery leader of the Nation of Islam, directed his ire at New York City’s black community on Monday, saying it must take responsibility for the scourge of gun violence.

“They are building prisons, and who are they for? Not for the white man,” he told an almost entirely black crowd at the Van Dyke Houses in Brownsville, Brooklyn. “Nobody cares about you. You are the product of your former slave masters. You are not as bad as you are acting.”

“You ain’t manufacturing no guns, but you got some,” the minister said in a sermonic speech dubbed, “Stop the Killing.”

“Your people are being herded into a life-style — that is going to jail.”
He ages better than Dick Clark.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

D.C. Non-Residents Should Leave Their Guns At Home

The Washington Times reports

Under pressure from Congress and the public, D.C. officials are moving to ease one of the least defensible of their anti-gun ordinances. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, also the Judiciary Committee’s chairman, held a hearing Monday on his proposal to decriminalize possession of a gun or ammunition for nonresidents.

Mr. Mendelson opened by reading my accounts of military men jailed over innocuous mistakes with the city’s gun-control laws. Army 1st Lt. Augustine Kim was arrested while legally transporting his firearms through the city because he stopped for a doctor’s visit at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for an injury he sustained in Iraq.

Another veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, former Army Spc. Adam Meckler, was arrested at the Veterans of Foreign Wars building because he had 14 long-forgotten rounds of loose ammunition in his bag.

The bill under consideration would give the D.C. attorney general discretion not to charge nonresidents like Lt. Kim and Spc. Meckler with criminal counts carrying up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Instead, possession of an unregistered firearm or ammunition could be handled with a fine and no record.
The two examples given are both pretty flaky.

In the first one, how could the guy have been arrested if he was "legally transporting his firearms through the city?" Isn't the whole idea that it's ILLEGAL to do that?  That's not an "innocuous mistake" on the part of the arresting officers.

The second case is even worse.  "Long forgotten" ammunition is not acceptable, I don't care where you are.  Gun owners must be held responsible for their weapons and ammo.

Of course, to make their point in this transparently biased article they chose two examples of hero war veterans.  I suppose that's supposed to make the issue so much more sympathetic.

What about the crack dealer from Northern Virginia who happens to have a clean record and drives into DC to conduct his business?  Should he also be met with leniency and consideration like the war heroes?  What about the domestic abuser who goes to pay a visit to his estranged wife living back with her mother in DC? He deserves a break too, right?

My opinion is this.  Gun owners need to be responsible, and part of that responsibility is deciding when to leave the guns at home. It's just that simple.  When visiting the Nations Capital or New York City or when going to the airport, leave the guns at home.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Bloomberg, Ice T and Michael Moore

The Candidates on Gun Control

South Carolina Restaurant Shooting - 1 Dead, 1 Arrested

The Sacramento Bee reports


Twenty-three-year-old Terrell Lamont Bethel is charged with seven counts of attempted murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, firing a gun into an occupied place, possession of drugs and failure to stop for police.

Twenty-year-old Steve McCoy of Elgin was killed in the Sept. 15 shooting and two other people were injured. 

Police say Bethel was part of a group that became involved in an argument at the restaurant and several people drew guns. Police spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons says investigators do not think Bethel fired the shot that killed McCoy.

Officers are looking for a second suspect.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/25/4851959/man-arrested-in-columbia-restaurant.html#storylink=cpy
When I read the story I thought I'd focus on the absence of a "felon in possession of a firearm" charge and point out that these guys in the restaurant who all drew their guns and had a shootout over an argument were probably good ole boy lawful gun owners, NRA members and concealed carry permit holders.

Then I saw his picture.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

The Undecided Voters

Gunloon Medical Remedies

This is how the gunloons will spin this story:  Well...it did stop his hiccups!!


An arrest affidavit said Myers, the victim and another man were drinking alcohol and watching football Sunday night at a home in the 2800 block of Cantabrian Drive in Killeen when the victim got the hiccups.Man wanted to scare victimTo make the victim’s hiccups go away, Myers produced a handgun and pointed it at the man’s head in order to scare him.Believing the gun to be loaded with dummy rounds, Myers then fired. A bullet struck the victim in his eye.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

What is a Liberal?

Domestic Abuse - Murder with Knife - Suicide with Gun

Local news reports



Police believe a Bullhead City man stabbed his girlfriend to death before shooting himself with a gun early Sunday morning in what is being called a murder-suicide. 



He stabbed her and shot himself.  What do we make of that? 

Accidental Shooting of Baby in Concealed Carry Home

Local news reports

The child’s mother, Deshana Lisenbee, 24, who gave a 215 Terminal Road, Apt. B, address, was booked Saturday night into Montgomery County Jail and charged with aggravated child abuse. She was released on $5,000 bond.

A 1-year-old accidentally shot himself in the hand Saturday afternoon. 

The child lives in a Terminal Road apartment with a man and a woman who have gun carry permits, said Clarksville Police spokesman Officer Jim Knoll. He said he’s not sure who is the parent of the boy.
It makes you wonder how low a standard they have for issuing those concealed carry permits. It makes you wonder what the hell the pro-gun guys are talking about when they keep saying how safe these people are.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Ann Coulter, Sweetheart of the Right

How to Stop Straw Purchasing


For years Chicago and Cook County officials have been pushing a law that would help close the spigot of guns flowing illegally into the city.

So far, the National Rifle Association has blocked the law in Springfield, but officials here should keep pushing.

The so-called “lost or stolen” law would require gun owners to report a lost or stolen gun within 72 hours of noticing it is missing. It would help discourage “straw buyers” who purchase numerous guns legally in the suburbs and then sell them to felons in Chicago.

Straw buyers often say their weapons were lost or stolen when guns are traced back to them after a crime. A law requiring the reporting of lost or stolen guns would protect legitimate gun-owners, but discourage straw purchases.
That's good, but my way is better.

What do you think?

Negligent Discharge - No Problem, Lie to the Cops - Big Trouble


 Local news reports

According to information released today by the Buchanan County Sheriff's Department, the victim - Mark D. Jarrell, 41, of Canada, Kentucky - admitted the shooting was an accident and the wound was self-inflicted.

With the initial call to police, Jarrell stated an unknown assailant had shot him. The information prompted an immediate and agressive response from the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office, BCSO Emergency Response Team, Norfolk and Southern Police and the Virginia State Police - even prompting officials to close area schools for the day while police searched for the shooter.

After the investigation and once he was released from the hospital, Jarrell admitted it was an accidental self-inflicted gunshot. 

Criminal charges are pending against Jarrell for giving false information to a police officer during an investigation. 
This is a perfect illustration of one of the great truths of American society. You can be as irresponsible with your guns as the day is long, but don't lie to the police. That's when you get yourself in trouble.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting of Self While Practicing Tactical Shooting


 Local news reports


The victim, 58, told police he was practicing tactical target shooting, moving from one target to another. The man told police he shot himself in the right thigh with a .45-caliber handgun while moving behind a tree. 

Witnesses also reported the shooting was accidental and self-inflicted. The man was taken to a hospital with a wound from a bullet that entered in his thigh and exited behind his knee. 

The location of the shooting "appears to be an appropriate site" for target practice, Saginaw County Sheriff's Office Lt. Randy Pfau said.
Who could ever forget Tex Grebner? But, the truth is I haven't seen all that many of these.  Maybe they're hiding them among the other negligent discharges, but I would think there would be more accidents among tese silly fantasy-dwellers who practice tactical drills with their fetish items.

Maybe the reason is that guys who practice are pretty safe.  The ones who don't practice and all-of-a-sudden decide to show the girlfriend how cool the guns is are the dangerous ones.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Hmmm, What Have We Here?

Looks like the NRA has discovered new avenues to endanger children.

Seems the manufacturer of NRA-approved "Saturday Night Specials" seems to have another hobby, other than gunloonery and the NRA.

Meet  Bruce Lee Jennings--former owner of Bryco Arms and NRA member.  Be sure to read the entire story linked; NRA member Jennings is a real piece of work.  A sample:


In the current criminal case, Jennings told ICE agent Joseph Grey that he had been looking at child pornography for at least five years and that he was aware that the children he was viewing were "real children who had been sexually abused," the complaint says. When Grey asked Jennings how much child pornography he possessed, the suspect answered, "A lot," the complaint says.
Jennings then told Agent Grey that he had a laptop computer hidden in his Chrysler. When ICE investigators searched the car, they found the laptop which contained hundreds of images and movies, the complaint shows.
Geez, it's pretty bad when your perversion extends to your car.  Then, again, gunloons need their fetish everywhere. 

Monday, September 24, 2012

Georgia Gun Range to Serve Alcohol


A Georgia couple is building a $3.5 million indoor shooting range that will feature a full bar, serving alcohol to its patrons.

So is this the start of a potentially dangerous new business model where intoxicated firearm enthusiasts will literally be shooting from the hip? Well, not exactly.

Brown sent WSB-TV a statement clarifying that once someone has ordered a drink in the lounge, they will not be permitted to enter the firing range:

"Customers will have to order a drink with their identification card and once the card is accepted, and flagged, they cannot be checked back into the range that day," the statement reads.

Still, Brown and her husband are not naive about their unique sales pitch. The rest of the statement goes on to add, "Georgia Law allows persons with gun permits to bring their weapon into a restaurant that serves alcohol, we are taking it even a step further."
Even with that qualification, don't you think it's dangerous and stupid to associate guns and alcohol in this way. Wouldn't the folks who "have a couple" after using the firing range be less fit going home with their guns? Of course they would.  What's wrong with these people?

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Supposed DGU in Wisconsin


Local news reports
"I heard somebody coming up the steps to my room and just kind of said, 'here goes nothing,'"the victim said.

She then grabbed her gun and her phone. As she was dialing 911, a masked intruder appeared who attempted to use a form of pepper spray on her. That’s when she fired several shots at the intruder, police said.


Investigators believe the intruder forced himself into the residence through a closed and secured window. They are confident he was trying to rob the house. The victim said he was successful in taking a few items.


Police said the intruder fled when those bullets were fired. After a canine search of the area, the man has not been located.


Sorry, I'm not buyin' it. For one thing, home invaders cannot silently enter a home through "a closed and secured window." 

Secondly, and most importantly, if the guy was close enough to use pepper spray on her, she could not have fired several shots without hitting him. I don't care how bad a shot she is or how poorly trained, at close quarters like reported, he would have been a dead home invader.

So, I have major doubts as to the veracity of this report.

What about you?  How does it sound to you?

Please leave a comment.

Reckless Utah Gun Owner Gets a Big Break

Local news reports


I applaud the courts for not sending this guy to prison. That part is right and just. But the technical watering down of the definition of "reckless" is a travesty. The downgrading of his charges from felony to misdemeanor is a miscarriage of justice.

This happens in gun-friendly places like Utah. It's a disgrace.

A Juab County judge ruled there is not enough evidence to prove a Weber County man was reckless in the shooting death of his younger brother.

Please tell me how handling guns while under the influence of alcohol and forgetting there's a round in the chamber and pointing a gun at someone's head and pulling the trigger does not add up to reckless.


Lawful New York Gun Owners Acting Recklessly

Local news reports

Rome Police announce that two men have been arrested following an accidental shooting at a business that came dangerously close to hitting a customer.  According to authorities, 56-year-old Ricky J. Hoke and 45-year-old Edward F. Lemmon Jr. are now facing reckless endangerment charges.

While at Hoke's business, Hoke Auto Sales on Erie Boulevard, he was showing Lemmon a recently purchased handgun around 9:30 a.m.  Hoke handed Lemmon the weapon, who pointed the gun at the office wall and pulled the trigger, authorities describe.

Law enforcement officials say the bullet passed through the wall into the parking lot, passing through the sleeve and stomach area of a customer's coat. The male customer was not injured.

Rome Police Detective Commander Timothy Bates said the men removed the magazine from the gun but were unaware of a bullet in a chamber.  The weapon, which was determined to have been possessed legally, has been secured by police.
First of all, this story goes against all the nonsense we've heard about New York being a de facto gun free zone. Only celebrities and politicians, we're continually told, can own guns legally. Obviously this is not the case.

Secondly, this story goes against the idea that gun owners are, for the most part, responsible and intelligent enough to safely manage their weapons.  In fact, the propaganda goes, we're all better off because of them.  Obviously that's just not the case either.

One thing I will say about New York is this, as opposed to, say, Indiana or Florida, one mistake like this and you can probably forget about owning guns again in the future.  At least I hope that's the case.

Can someone please explain how it's possible for a gun owner to remove the magazine and not consider the fact that there might be a round in the chamber?  We read about this quite frequently as the explanation for an unintentional discharges.  But, I still don't get it.  Are these people that stupid?

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Lawful Maine Gun Owner Gets a Slap on the Wrist for Criminal Negligence

Local news reports

Kittery police said they were called to the housing development around 1 a.m. after a resident reported what appeared to be a stray bullet fired into the residence.

Kittery police said that following their investigation they determined a 45 caliber bullet had entered the victim's apartment after being fired through the floor of an upstairs tenant. The projectile passed through a child's bedroom ceiling, through a door and became lodged in a Sheetrock wall.

Police charged Christian Gochez, 21, no address given, with reckless conduct, a class D misdemeanor. According to police, Gochez was visiting with a friend in an upstairs apartment when the gun was fired. The downstairs tenants were not aware of the incident, police said, until they noticed the hole in the ceiling and then reported it to the property management company and police.

Kittery police on Saturday morning said they are continuing to investigate what was reported to them as an accidental discharge. 

Gochez was released from custody and is scheduled to appear Dec. 13 in York District Court.
Don't you find it a bit discouraging when they treat serious incidents of gun negligence with such nonchalance? Why do you think that is?

Wouldn't my one-strike-you're-out rule be better to clean up the gun-owning world?

Yes, it would.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Detroit Gun Owner Doesn't Like the Google Camera Truck

ABC News reports

Google's effort to revamp its mapping system took an eerie turn when one of its Google Street View camera trucks captured a young shirtless man pointing a gun at a Detroit street. 

In September 2009, Google's camera snapped photos of a man with a gun standing on the porch of the house that appears to be the house where a 17-month-old child was found dead in a closet under a pile of clothes this summer. 

There are four other people standing behind the man with the gun, all gazing toward the camera, which was lodged atop a Google Street View mapping car. 

All parties on the porch look young, perhaps in their teens. The series of photos shows how they all turn to look at the Google truck as it passed by.

How come they keep saying the UK has the most domestic surveillance?  These Google trucks are mapping EVERYTHING, and recording what's going on in the meantime.

Besides, is it a bad thing?  Doesn't it prevent crime while not depriving lawful citizens of anything?

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

A Good Legitimate DGU

Local Fox News reports with video 


I have no trouble crediting this as a good legitimate DGU. I do question the wisdom, however, of locking the front door like she did effectively ensuring a show down with the bad guy. If she hadn't done that or if they hadn't had a gun in the house, what probably would have happened is he would have run off with the 7 bucks, but we don't know that.

My biggest problem is with leaving the back door unlocked. That's just stupid. It's easy to prevent stealth thieves from entering. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as they say.

A Question for Republicans

Republican Desperation

via Bark Bark Woof Woof 

The Australians Know

via The Guardian (with video)  

Australia's deputy prime minister and treasurer, Wayne Swan, says in a speech on Friday that 'the biggest threat to the world's biggest economy are the cranks and crazies that have taken over a part of the Republican party'. Swan also labels the Tea Party wing of the Republicans as 'extreme'