Saturday, April 19, 2014

OK, not only are the Republicans making gun regulation a partisan issue, they are also using climate change. Guns aren't as much of a biggie as climate change is, but it's bad that the pseudoconservatives in the US are willing to play with the planet (unlike conservatives in other countries who admit there is a problem).

What if the world were a different place?  CHeck out this video from Congressman Jared Huffman:


Guns aren't as much of a biggie since people are more likely to kill themselves with their guns than stop a crime.

What loss is it if a gun loon accidentally kills himself (herself)?

Where's the Militia When We Need It

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Historical Fact the NRA and Gun-Rights Advocates Like to Forget

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Now, of course, the promiscuous toting of guns is a God-given, fundamental-human and Constitutionally-protected right.

The NRA is an Enabler of Death

South Carolina Woman Dead - Shot by a 6-Year-old Who Found a Gun in the Car

Local news reports

An Easley woman is dead after a six-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed her Thursday afternoon, authorities said.
They were both in a Dodge SUV stopped at Hasting Circle when the boy found a gun in the backseat floorboard and fired it, said Easley police Maj. Tim Tollison.
The bullet went through the passenger seat, striking Alexandra Anita Santos, 22, of 400 South D St., according to Pickens County Coroner Kandy Kelley.
Santos died at 12:53 p.m. of a single gunshot wound to the chest, Kelley said.
Two other children ages three and five were also in the vehicle but weren't injured, Tollison said.
None of the children were related to the victim, he said.
Police are still investigating how the weapon, a semi-automatic handgun, wound up in the vehicle, Tollison said.

In Indiana a Bullying Concealed Carry Permit Holder Breaks the Law and Denies Everything

Local news reports

Friday, April 18, 2014

Incredibly, Arizona is Becoming Even More Gun Friendly



Guns dot com

House Bill 2338 gives prosecutors in the state the ability to charge those who wrest a firearm from the hands of a gun user who was not in violation of the law with felony aggravated assault. Democrats contested this bill because the act of taking a gun from another is already a felony in the state. The measure passed the Senate by 21-7 but since that body amended it, it needs to be voted on again by the House before going to Brewer’s office.
If Gov. Brewer signs House Bill 2517 into law, local city and county boards who implement ordinances that are more strict than the state’s own gun laws could face fines of up to $5,000. Besides the fine, it would also allow the state to sue individual local lawmakers who establish such an ordinance. These types of preemption laws, modeled after Florida’s long-standing statute are growing across the country. HB2517 passed by a vote of 17-12 and has been transmitted to the governor.
“To protect Arizona’s law-abiding gun owners from a confusing patchwork of local gun laws, the state enacted a firearms preemption law over a decade ago. Unfortunately, some public officials are willfully ignoring the law, and they need to be held accountable,” said Catherine Mortensen, an NRA Spokesperson to Guns.com Thursday. “House Bill 2517 would finally hold local governments accountable for imposing gun control schemes that go beyond state laws.”
Yet another measure, House Bill 2103, which would allow military members who are at least 19 years old to obtain a concealed carry permit in the state, is also on Gov. Brewer’s desk. It passed the senate Tuesday by a 20-10 vote..
Of the five bills, House Bill 2339, which would allow Arizona’s 200,000 concealed carry permit holders to enter buildings, including most public buildings, that had ‘no guns’ signs posted, brought the stiffest resistance. The measure excludes those with enhanced security measures such as courts as well as schools and universities. While it passed the Senate by a narrow 16-12 vote with 2 abstentions, it is not guaranteed to be signed by Brewer who vetoed similar legislation at least twice before citing that, “Emotions can run high”.
We have whittled down our CCW laws over the last 10 years where they are unbelievably laughable,” Sen. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix, said about the concealed carry expansion, arguing there is little difference between those licensed to carry a concealed weapon and those who are not. “Just about anyone can obtain a CCW license.”
Governor Brewer is expected to make a decision on the pending legislation in coming weeks.

Can You Name Bloomberg's Two Big Mistakes in this Interview?

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Grand Funk Railroad Credited with The Best 2A Song Ever

M Live

Add a new type of recognition to the resume of Grand Funk Railroad, the Flint rock band that sold millions of albums in the 1970s and once sold out Shea Stadium faster than The Beatles. 

In a column from "Prepper & Shooter Magazine," Editor-In-Chief Vincent DeNiro calls Grand Funk's 1976 song, “Don’t Let Them Take Your Gun,” the "most pro-Second Amendment song ever." 

"Be sure to listen to the song ... and if you cherish the Second Amendment, you just can’t help but get goose bumps!" the column says. "It’s a real shame that with over 90 million gun owners out there, and with the millions of songs produced, that there is only this 'modern day' song to get us fired up about one of our rights. There may be a few more songs out there, but this one has to be the best."

 

Iowa Law: Children Under 14 Cannot Fire Guns Even with Parental Supervision

Local news reports with video

A Johnston father of two young daughters is joining with gun-rights advocates in seeking a change to an Iowa law that makes it illegal for children young than 14 to fire handguns.

Poor Persecuted Gun Owners Being Turned into Criminals for Owning "Sporting Rifles"


Ya get that? The law is MAKING them criminals.  It's not their decisions to not obey the law, it's the law's fault.

And did you notice how many times she said "sporting rifles?"  It sounds like a sinister conspiracy to purposely deceive the gullible listeners as to the true nature of those guns.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Isn't That Uncomfortable?

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Southern Beale's Irresponsible Gun Owners of the Week

Southern Beale

• April 9, 2014:1- A drunken Kingsport man was handling his 12-guage late at night when it accidentally fired, sending shots into his elderly neighbors’ house.
• April 13, 2014:A Chattanooga man thought he was “dry-firing” his 9mm Glock but — woopsies! — there was a bullet in the chamber. The gun fired through his living room window and took out a neighbor’s car tire.
Is there any reasonable person who doesn't agree that people like these two are unfit to own guns? Guys like these don't show up on anyone's statistics or on any surveys, at least not yet. It is my contention that misbehavior like this almost always precedes the tragedies that do show up on the statistics and surveys.
One strike you're out is the solution.


Frazier Glenn Cross and Family

KCTV5

Michael Bloomberg Is Starting A Gun Control Organization To Take On The NRA - "Everytown for Gun Safety"

message from ssgmarkcr:

    Just saw this pop up on the news.  Former Mayor Bloomberg is going to try to adopt tactics used by the NRA to lobby for gun control legislation.  I found this pretty humorous considering how much ink nationwide has been used by these groups maligning how the NRA is a bully because of its lobbying techniques.  This introduces a whole new paradigm suggesting that bullying is ok if your "cause" is just and your heart is pure.  It will be interesting to see how this works for them.
    The former Mayor seems to have no qualms about his standing both here and in the afterlife,

"I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close."

http://www.thewire.com/national/2014/04/michael-bloomberg-is-starting-a-gun-control-organization-to-take-on-the-nra/360728/
    It will be interesting to see where they take this, and it appears I'll get a ringside seat because they are going to be setting up in my home state, among others,

The group will post robust field staff in more than
a dozen states, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Indiana,
Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio,
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
Actually, I find it hard to believe Bloomberg said that about getting into heaven.  It sounds like something one of the Bloomberg-haters might have made up to make him look stupid.  But, if he really did say that silly shit, the point is clear.  He's proud of his philanthropy. Big deal.

The main thrust of the article is the pledge to spend more money on gun control. Does this amount to hypocrisy, as ss suggested?  I don't think so.  If the NRA and the gun lobby has been described as bullies, what's wrong with standing up to them? Isn't that what you're supposed to do with bullies?  In fact, when confronted with equal power and resources, bullies cease to be that.

To me, it sounds like a plan.

"Columbine: Wounded Minds" Documentary



ABC

Samuel Granillo survived the 1999 shooting at Columbine as a 17-year-old junior. He was in the cafeteria when the shooting started and found himself hiding from the shooters in a nearby supply room with 17 other terrified students. The supply room's door had no lock and Sam soon heard the shooters' voices on the other side. Sam immediately understood that if he couldn't keep the door shut everyone in the room would probably die.
Now 32 years old, Sam is still struggling with the traumatizing memories of the violence he encountered that day. Even though they're ever-present, he is able to live a fairly normal life for eleven months of the year — but everything changes when the month of April comes around.
"It's spring. The weather is beautiful. Everything is blooming with life. And all I think about is death," Sam says.
And he's not the only one. Fifteen years after the massacre, the lives of many Columbine survivors come to a stand-still as the shooting anniversary nears.

Pennsylvania 2-Year-old Shot by 4-Year-old Sibling - No Charges


A 2-year-old boy is being treated at a Pittsburgh hospital after state police said he was accidentally shot in the face in a Crawford County residence on Monday afternoon.

The boy, whose name was not released, was shot when a 4-year-old sibling retrieved a loaded .380-caliber Ruger inside their residence on Sugar Creek Lane in Wayne Township and accidentally fired the gun, state police spokesman Sgt. Mark Zaleski said this morning.

State police are investigating the incident.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Yeah, really makes your family safer...



Just remember:
In 1993, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published an article by Arthur Kellerman and colleagues, “Gun ownership as a risk factor for homicide in the home,” which presented the results of research funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study found that keeping a gun in the home was strongly and independently associated with an increased risk of homicide. The article concluded that rather than confer protection, guns kept in the home are associated with an increase in the risk of homicide by a family member or intimate acquaintance. Kellerman was affiliated at the time with the department of internal medicine at the University of Tennessee. He went on to positions at Emory University, and he currently holds the Paul O’Neill Alcoa Chair in Policy Analysis at the RAND Corporation.

The 1993 NEJM article received considerable media attention, and the National Rifle Association (NRA) responded by campaigning for the elimination of the center that had funded the study, the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention. The center itself survived, but Congress included language in the 1996 Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Bill (PDF, 2.4MB) for Fiscal Year 1997 that “none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.”  Referred to as the Dickey amendment after its author, former U.S. House Representative Jay Dickey (R-AR), this language did not explicitly ban research on gun violence. However, Congress also took $2.6 million from the CDC’s budget — the amount the CDC had invested in firearm injury research the previous year — and earmarked the funds for prevention of traumatic brain injury. Dr. Kellerman stated in a December 2012 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “Precisely what was or was not permitted under the clause was unclear. But no federal employee was willing to risk his or her career or the agency's funding to find out. Extramural support for firearm injury prevention research quickly dried up.”
Why cut the research if the facts actually did show that guns in the home made your family safer?

Interesting E-mail Exchange with Kurt Hofmann

Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 14:24:28 -0500
Subject: Why?

Why issue challenges and ask questions if you're not going to allow me to answer?  Some would see that as being more than a little indicative of moral and intellectual cowardice.
Count me among those.
With all due respect (guess how much that is).
Kurt Hofmann
This was obviously in response to my having deleted a few comments of his. His lying bullshit even carries over into a personal e-mail message to me. I had already posted his responses to those questions several times each.

My response:
On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 11:46 PM, M B <mikeb302000@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
I just got tired of your obnoxious insulting bullshit.  Fuck off.
And his:
Right back atcha, you sniveling little punk coward.  But do not mention me on your masturbatory little blog, if I am not to be permitted to respond.  Got that, coward?
I guess in his drama-queen kinda way, Kurt took my "fuck off" to mean he's banned from the blog entirely. Even in this however, he's being dishonest.  I deleted a few comments among many - and not all the latest ones. Ever playing the victim, Kurt loves to pretend he's the aggrieved, morally superior, martyr. And, with emphasis on the "not," I suppose he's threatening me, with what I can't imagine, if I mention him.

Well, Kurt, consider yourself mentioned. And do come by again if you'd like.  I'll give your comments the same consideration I give them all. Civil, on-topic comments free of gratuitous insults make the cut.

I wonder if his benefactors at the JPFO and The Examiner know what a vile, foul-mouthed, hyper-sensitive baby he really is.  Maybe he could include that last message in his on-line CV.


Pro Gun Hypocrisy

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Texas A & M Houdini Door

China Seizes 10,000 Illegal Guns In Weapons Raid, As Gun Culture Becomes More Popular

Guns in China
A policeman checks on confiscated illegal replica guns in Guiyang, Guizhou province, March 6, 2014. China has seized approximately 15,000 illegal guns in three provinces of south China, marking its largest haul of illegal firearms as it steps up efforts to crack down on violent crime. Reuters


IBT

A raid in southern China resulted in the seizure of over 10,000 illegally owned guns, in addition to thousands of illegal knives. And besides being the largest haul of illegal firearms to date in China, the raid in the city of Guiyang, located in Guizhou province, has brought to the light once more China’s evolving, underground gun culture.

China’s weapons laws are among the world’s strictest. The country bans all private gun ownership, with very few exceptions. This however has not prevented the emergence of an increasingly robust illegal gun business. China’s central television station, CCTV, reported that 10,500 guns and 120,000 knives were seized by authorities in the crackdown.
In general, gun violence in China is not a grave public concern; knives are the more common weapon of choice because of accessibility and availability. Illegal guns are becoming indeed an increasingly dangerous business -- fifteen people were arrested in the most recent raid, accused of gang involvement and illegal firearm trafficking -- but China does not have anything comparable to what an average American would know as "gun culture".

Cliven Bundy - Victim of Evil Government or Greedy Abuser?

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Tennessee Open Carry Defeated

Washington Times

A bill seeking to allow Tennesseans to openly carry firearms in public without permits was overwhelmingly defeated a House subcommittee on Monday night.

The House Finance Subcommittee voted 10-1 against the measure sponsored by Rep. Micah Van Huss. The Jonesborough Republican later told reporters that he will abandon an effort to bypass committees and call the bill for a full floor vote.

“I’m going to withdraw that, because they killed it fairly,” Van Huss said. “They killed it fair and square.”
The unusual step of calling a bill directly to a floor vote would have required the support of 66 representatives in the 99-member chamber.

Under current law, permit holders who undergo background checks and special training can carry firearms both openly and concealed. The bill sponsored by Van Huss would have allowed firearms to be carried openly by anyone legally allowed to own a gun.

The full Senate had passed its version of the bill on a 25-2 vote last week.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Private Prisons

Link

The_Private_Prison_System_in_USA

South Carolina Kids with Guns

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Southern Beale has the story

West Virginia Woman NOT Arrested at Airport Attempting to Board Plane with Gun, Extra Magazine and Brass Knuckles

Local news report with video

A woman missed her flight from Huntington Tri-State Airport after she was detained for having a gun and brass knuckles in her carry-on baggage.
According to a spokesperson with TSA, a woman was stopped by officers after a .32 caliber handgun, loaded with six rounds, as well as another loaded magazine, and brass knuckles were spotted on the x-ray machine. The weapons were in her carry-on bag.
The gun, ammo and brass knuckles were confiscated by Tri-State Airport Police.
The woman missed her original flight to Charlotte, but rebooked, minus the weapons, according to TSA officials.
TSA says, "Passengers are responsible for the contents of bags they bring to the security checkpoint, and TSA's advice to passengers is to look through bags thoroughly before coming to the airport to make sure there are no illegal or prohibited items."
WSAZ.com has a call into the Tri-State Airport Police Department to see if any charges will be filed in the case.

Frazier Glenn Cross, Gun Owner and Former KKK Grand Dragon Kills 3 in the Kansas City Jewish Community

Kansas City Frazier Glenn Cross
Frazier Glenn Cross, also known as Frazier Glenn Miller, is escorted by police in an elementary school parking lot in Overland Park, Kansas. Photograph: AP
Authorities investigating the killing of three people in attacks on the Jewish community in Kansas City declared they were treating the incident as a hate crime, as a deeper picture emerged Monday of the suspect’s longstanding ties to hate groups.
Frazier Glenn Cross, 73, was booked into Johnson County jail on a preliminary charge of first-degree murder and is scheduled for an initial court appearance on Monday afternoon. He was arrested on Sunday after a shooting spree that killed a 14-year-old boy and his grandfather outside a popular Jewish community center, and a third victim outside a nearby Jewish retirement home in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park.
US attorney general Eric Holder said he has instructed the Justice Department to provide all available support to state and local authorities. Officials said Cross would face federal criminal charges.
Television crews caught Cross yelling “Heil Hitler” during his arrest after the shooting. But at a news conference on Sunday, Overland Park police chief John Douglass said it was too early in the investigation to tell whether Cross, also known as Frazier Glenn Miller, had an anti-Semitic motive. “We know it's a vicious act of violence. Obviously two Jewish facilities, one might make that assumption," Douglass said.
The incident has brought attention to Cross’s decades-long affiliation with hate groups. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit that tracks hate movements in the US, said Cross was once the grand dragon of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He has also been arrested for using intimidation tactics against African Americans, and he has authored a book filled with hateful rhetoric.
Our commenters have told us that racism is almost gone in the US. Yet, we see daily indications that it's alive and well, thriving even.  Then every once in a while one of these overt sickos makes himself known. And in spite of all this evidence, the gun-rights fanatics, who apparently take this very personally, insist there's nothing to it.
My question is not whether racism is still prevalent in the US society, that's a no brainer, my question is how prevalent is it. How many white supremacists and Aryan nation maniacs are there. And of them, how many are gun owners?
You see how that works? The percentage of Klan members or Aryan brothers who own guns is a lot higher than, let's say, your Pax Christi members.
This is a problem that cries out for stricter gun control.


SAFE Act Deadline Looming



lohud

Come Tuesday, owners of assault weapons in New York will be faced with a choice: Register those firearms with the state or potentially face a felony charge. 

With the registration deadline set for Tuesday, they'll soon have their chance. 

"We are not asking our members what they are going to do, nor are we advising them what to do," said Tom King, president of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association. "When someone asks me, I say it's a personal choice and I don't want to know." 

The consequences of ignoring the deadline are severe. If a gun owner is found to have knowingly violated the registration requirement, they could face either a misdemeanor for failing to register or a felony for illegal possession of an assault weapon.

North Carolina 3-Year-old Dead - No Foul Play Involved - It Was Just an Accident - No Charges Expected

UPDATEMcDuffie (the responsible adult) said that he has a concealed weapon permit but that he keeps his gun hidden.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/04/14/4841497/grandfather-3-year-old-in-northwest.html#.U04MnfmSzeI#storylink=cpy


Local news reports

A 3-year-old died from an apparent accidental shooting Sunday afternoon, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said.

The shooting was reported about 1:20 p.m. in the 700 block of Glasgow Road, near Moores Chapel Road in northwest Charlotte. The 3-year-old boy, whom police did not identify, was taken to Carolinas Medical Center and pronounced dead, police said.

Police say they believe the child was inside a home when he was shot. Preliminary information indicates that there was no foul play involved, and family members who were inside the home at the time of the shooting were cooperating with the investigation and were being interviewed by detectives, police said in a release.




Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/04/13/4839312/3-year-old-killed-in-apparent.html#storylink=cpy

The Republican Base has Elements that Are Animated by Racism

Man with a Muckrake

 Over 50 years after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, the issue of race is back in the political headlines, after comments from Attorney General Eric Holder and events marking the anniversary of the law’s passage renewed the dialogue over race relations in the 21st century.
Rep. Steve Israel, D-New York, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that “not all” of his GOP colleagues are racist but “the Republican base does have elements that are animated by racism.”
What can be said of the GOP can also be said of the gun rights movement.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Another Detroit Home/Gun Owner Gets Away with Manslaughter

Fox News

Fox 2 News Headlines

Colorado Private Sale Background Checks

Previously released statistics related to the newly regulated private sales of guns in Colorado — figures which became a flashpoint in recent legislative debates — don't tell the full story.
The actual number of private gun purchases submitted to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation is much lower, a Denver Post analysis finds.
While the Colorado Bureau of Investigation reported in January that 6,198 private-sale checks were conducted from July 2013 — when the law went into effect — through December, the actual number is almost half that.
That's because, under the "private checks" category, the CBI lumped in the newly regulated private sales with sales conducted at gun shows, which the bureau has tracked since 2001.
The Post asked the CBI to separate out the new sales and found that for the six-month period, there were only 3,838 background checks. Forty of those resulted in denials, or a rate of 1.04 percent, according to The Post's findings.
During those same six months, CBI processed 2,361 background checks from gun shows, also netting 40 denials, according to The Post's findings.
First of all, I have to say, with this new law, private sales have not been banned, as one of our commenters continually says. 
Secondly, regardless of the percentage, the 40 people denied a gun sale make the whole thing worthwhile. 
Thirdly, this story is all about convenience vs. inconvenience.  A few thousand lawful gun owners had to go through the inconvenience of doing a background check in order to prevent 40 known unfit people from obtaining a gun. Only the most fanatical extremist self-centered maniacs would complain about that.

Oklahoma Ingenuity - The First Gun Range with a Liquor License

via Southern Beale

Sunday, April 13, 2014

14 States Had More Gun Deaths than Car Deaths in 2010

Mother Jones

It's little surprise that many of these states—including Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Utah, and Virginia—are notorious for lax gun laws. What's more, the numbers aren't driven just by "bad guys with guns." Nationally, close to two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides, and the split is much higher in states such as Alaska, which reported more than twice as many gun suicides as traffic deaths in 2010. Utah (the "most depressed" state, whose suicide problem we cover in detail here), Nevada, Oregon, and Washington are also seeing more gun suicides than traffic fatalities. Idaho, Montana, and others are close behind. We'll leave you with this chart showing the most recent nationwide numbers available:

North Carolina Woman Dead in Accidental Shooting - No Charges


The fatal shooting of a Mount Airy woman in late March has been ruled accidental, a city detective said Friday when additional details also were released indicating that the death resulted from a “perfect storm” scenario.

Darlene Jeanette Combs Tate, 57, died from a single gunshot wound to the abdomen on the night of March 29 during a family gathering at her home at 338 Austin Drive, an investigation showed.

The official classification of the death as accidental was based on an investigation at the scene, including interviews with witnesses, and the results of an autopsy.

“It was just a family get-together,” James said of what preceded the incident, during which Tate’s husband, Edgar, who is wheelchair-bound, was present. He was in possession of a .22-caliber derringer at the time, although no explanation has been given for his being armed.

Family members were helping Edgar Tate get out of his wheelchair so he could go to bed. “And the weapon fell from his person,” possibly from the man’s lap, James said.

“It just hit the floor and discharged,” the detective added of the gun, with the bullet striking Mrs. Tate. He described the situation as resulting from an unlikely set of circumstances that “you probably couldn’t duplicate.”

Police Chief Dale Watson said early on in the investigation that the failure to properly secure the weapon appeared to be the main culprit in the death.

Friday’s ruling closes the case, with no charges to be filed.

But, failure to secure the firearm is not a crime? That's the problem.  That's the special treatment.