Monday, January 25, 2010

The Gun is the Answer

The Houston Chronicle reports on the latest incident.

A man was arrested after he was accused of fatally shooting another man during an argument in Montgomery County on Saturday, authorities said.

Deputies arrived in the 15000 block of Palmetto Road in the Magnolia Bend subdivision, where they found Hollis Clayton Haley, 43, wounded with a shotgun wound to the chest, authorities said.

He was taken to Conroe Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at around 5 p.m.

Investigators said Haley and Russell Douglas Hubbard, 31, were arguing when Hubbard went inside a residence, retrieved a shotgun and returned outside. He then allegedly fired the shotgun once, striking Haley in the chest.

Hubbard was arrested and charged with murder. He was booked into the Montgomery County Jail. No bail has been set at this time.

I believe this kind of incident happens more in Texas than it does in New Jersey. We're talking about incidents involving normal citizens who decide to use the gun to settle things, as opposed to, say, drug dealers or terrorists.

Do you think the reason is the difference in the laws or the difference in the attitudes? Or, do those things go hand in hand?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

22 comments:

  1. It certainly seems to happen VERY often in Chicago & DC, where guns are of course banned.

    Just look at gilbert arenas.

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  2. Mike W. forgets about New Orleans. And Houston, And Orlando. Where gun laws are virtually non-existent.

    Of course, we saw Appomattox, VA (where gun laws are nil) have its bit of fun this week when NRA member Chris Speight defended his rights against 8 people--some of whom were children.

    --JadeGold

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  3. I couldn't argue on the reasons for specific situations, but in any case I know that statistically gun control hasn't made any positive difference in homicide rates or violence anywhere it's been passed. And that these situations are very rare in any case as the vast majority of people who shoot someone or get shot are already felons.

    I'm not going to choose to disarm myself against the real criminals out there on the belief that I am going to go out and shoot someone or get into an argument that turns deadly, because I know that ain't going to happen.

    More people die in D.C. or Chicago than Texas and they have(or have recently had) complete gun bans (hopefully chicago's gun ban will become past tense later on this year when the Supreme Court rules in McDonald).

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  4. Stephen said, "...these situations are very rare in any case," about gun violence. And then said, "I'm not going to choose to disarm myself against the real criminals out there."

    How many "real criminals" have you run into lately?

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  5. I have seen enough to know that it is a credible threat. Ranging from meth addicts and neo-nazis to uninvited "guests" requiring my 12 gauge "encouragment stick" to "pursuade" them to leave.
    You could say that I have bad luck, I blame Tacoma.

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  6. mikey says:

    "Just look at gilbert arenas."

    Yes, let's do that.

    Born in Fl, raised and schooled in AL, CA and AZ.

    http://sports.rightpundits.com/?p=3765

    Mr. Arenas owns a very nice home in suburban Los Angeles, stays in Great Falls, VA during the Wizards' playing season.

    http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/gilbert-arenas-house/

    And you failed to capitalize his name. Is this because he's a felon or for some other reason?

    Stephen says:

    "More people die in D.C. or Chicago than Texas..."

    hmmmm,

    186 murders in Washington, D.C. in 2008.

    http://mpdc.dc.gov/mpdc/cwp/view,a,1239,q,547256,mpdcNav_GID,1556.asp

    503 murders in Chicago in 2009.

    http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/2009.homicide.rate.2.1396760.html

    1362 murders in TX in 2008

    http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2008/data/table_08_tx.html

    Perhaps you meant something else?

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  7. MikeB: How many "real criminals" have you run into lately?

    Stephen: I don't know. Nobody committed any crimes against me and they weren't wearing any nametags identifying themselves as criminals.

    But I know what you're getting at ... in 27 adult years I've been in some threatening situations but never suffered a violent crime. And never would have even drawn a gun if I had one (though a few times I would have felt better knowing I had that kind of option -- but they never went that far for whatever reasons so having had a gun would have accomplished nothing except to make me feel more empowered).

    I hope to also have no reason to use a gun in whatever decades I have left, and since I've settled into a middle-class-suburban-white-guy life that's not an outrageous expectation.

    But how many criminals had Dr. William Petit Jr. met before those two showed up and beat him half to death and then raped and murdered his wife and daughters before killing them. Look at Clayton Cramer's site on Civilian self defense. How many of those people had met criminals before they had to defend themselves? How much violence had the Jews of 1930's Germany seen before the brownshirts swept through their neighborhoods on Kristallnacht? I could go on and on, both in terms of crime and political violence ...

    But the bottom line is: Anyone who thinks they are immune from violence or becomes safer by NOT being empowered to defend themselves is an idiot or, at best, ignorant. Any parent who lives in a place where s/he can legally own and carry a tool that could save his/her family's life and save them from murder, rape, etc. ... not to mention the best proven defense against a government turned tyranical ... but chooses not to, is just plain irresponsible.

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  8. democommie ...

    You just compared the entire state of Texas, one of the most populous STATES in the union, with the CITY of Chicago and the city of D.C. -- the last of which is not even that populous as a large city.

    Look at the only numbers that matter, which is murders per capita. The compare the state of Texas with either of those cities.

    Gun control doesn't work. It's been proven in every place it's been tried. Period.

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  9. As usual an honest look at the facts proves Democommie wrong yet again. It must be getting old for him by now.

    The population of DC in 2008 was roughly 592,000

    http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/11000.html

    The population of Texas in 2008 was roughly 24.4 million

    http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/chs/popdat/ST2008.shtm

    Now, I know Demo isn't really quick, so I will lay this out easy for him. Raw numbers mean NOTHING. Rates mean everything. You can't compare Texas and DC without standardizing the murder numbers to account for wildly different population size (in other words you must determine the RATE)

    Now, let's look at the actual numbers once we do that.

    The murder rate for DC in 2008 is 31.4 (per 100K)

    The murder rate for Texas in 2008 is 5.6

    You're nearly 6 times more likely to be murdered in "gun-free" DC than in gun-happy Texas.

    But hey, wouldn't want to make Democommie look bad or destroy her narrative now would we?

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  10. Steve - Thanks for pointing that out. I expanded upon it with actual FACTS (something Democommie doesn't like)

    Democommie is a gem. he makes us look good...

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  11. Stephen, First "But I know what you're getting at ... in 27 adult years I've been in some threatening situations but never suffered a violent crime."

    Then, anyone who chooses not to be armed "is just plain irresponsible."

    This is another one of those things we see differently, or is this the same one?

    The chances of your needing the gun to protect yourself are slightly less likely than your having an accident with it someday or using it unnecessarily in a tragic moment when you really think you need to use it. A bit less likely, depending on your mental health is that one day you go off the deep end and really do something stupid with the gun. Then of course there's always the possibility of theft, which you might be partly responsible for depending on your gun security habits.

    So, my idea of being responsible is different from yours.

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  12. So, my idea of being responsible is different from yours.

    That's perfectly fine MikeB. The problem with you and your ilk is that you can't just let it be. You want to force the rest of us to lived basued upon your idea of what's "responsible"

    Don't want to own a gun? Fine, your choice. Don't want to carry one? Fine. Again, that's your choice. I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is you, demo, and others advocating denying myself and others the right to make choices different than yours.

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  13. Demo - Are the facts hurting your little head again?

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  14. mikey:

    Try to just answer the question I asked of you, before you jump in the shit for someone else.

    Your snide remark about Mr. Arenas was made from ignorance--something you accuse your others of quite frequently.

    I suspect the reason you're so hot to answer the OTHER question is because you think it's low hanging fruit. Wrong.

    Stephen:

    Your exact words, the entire comment:

    "I couldn't argue on the reasons for specific situations, but in any case I know that statistically gun control hasn't made any positive difference in homicide rates or violence anywhere it's been passed. And that these situations are very rare in any case as the vast majority of people who shoot someone or get shot are already felons.

    I'm not going to choose to disarm myself against the real criminals out there on the belief that I am going to go out and shoot someone or get into an argument that turns deadly, because I know that ain't going to happen.

    More people die in D.C. or Chicago than Texas and they have(or have recently had) complete gun bans (hopefully chicago's gun ban will become past tense later on this year when the Supreme Court rules in McDonald).

    January 25, 2010 9:38 PM

    I assure you that I can read. I also assure you that I can count. I know that the ENTIRE state of TX has more murders than the cities of Chicago and Washington, D.C.

    I also know that NY with as population of 19,490, 297 had a total of 835 murders in 2008. Texas with a population of 24,326,974* had 1362 murders in the same time period.

    Of those murders, NY records a total of 107 committed with a handgun. Texas records 706 commited with a handgun.**

    It would appear, then, that someone living in Texas would be far more likely to be murdered with a handgun than someone living in New York.

    I did ask you if you meant something else. Is it really that difficult for you to admit that you mis-spoke?


    *Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division

    **Source: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2008/data/table_20.html

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  15. democommie, Thanks for that wonderful breakdown comparing the State of Texas with the City of New York. I'll take NYC any day.

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  16. How was my comment on Arenas "ignorant?" It was correct. Where he was raised and that he lives in VA has NO bearing whatsoever on what he did in "gun-free" DC, in direct violation of the law.

    Still butthurt from getting smacked down by facts yet again Demo?

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  17. Of course if you use the very same 2008 FBI table as Demo, comparing murders between "gun happy" Texas and #1 Brady Ranked "Gun-Control Utopia" California you get virtually IDENTICAL numbers for total murders. The same holds true if you look at only murders with handguns.

    CA's totals are just slightly once you control for population. The population of TX is roughly 65% of CA's.

    It would appear you're just as likely to be murdered in #1 ranked CA (the state Obama thinks should be the model for gun control nationwide)as you would be in TX.

    Obviously gun control isn't having an impact on the murder rate.

    As usual those who support gun control have no evidence that it actually works.

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  18. mikey:

    You are such a blowhard. Your comment about Mr. Arenas was, and you know it was, a gratuitous swipe at someone that you mistakenly believed to be a resident of D.C.

    As for the comparison between CA and TX that's not the comparison that was made by Stephen so I don't guess that it's really part of this discussion. Now. You've made the comment to me, twice now, on this blog that I must be "butthurt". I'm not sure what that means. Does it mean you think you've "spanked" me--you're not likely to get that done--or is it that you have some sort of fantasy about gay sex? I'm not gay, although like you I do support gay rights. I actually support gay rights much more than gun rights, but but you say you support them equally. So, like I say, I'm not sure what you mean by that remark. It's either an extremely juvenille reference to corporal punishment or something altogether inappropriate as I would certainly not want to date you.

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  19. Ah, once again, I see mikey has decided it's the better part of valor to sneak off because he said something stupid and doesn't know how to defend it.

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  20. As for the comparison between CA and TX that's not the comparison that was made by Stephen so I don't guess that it's really part of this discussion.

    Ah, Democommie still ignoring facts he doesn't like.

    He's also projecting in his last comment, as usual.

    Arenas incident took place in DC, which is why I mentioned it. I'd usually be surprised that someone could claim I was inferring Arenas was a DC resident from my comment, but with Democommie such a lack of comprehension is par for the course.

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  21. For all of you....The victim was my uncle. He was going out to fix the water on his mothers property. The man who shot my uncle knew he was coming out...it was NOT self defense. So anyone who says different needs to get their facts straight! The man who killed my uncle sat around and did nothing while my 70 year old grandmother worked her butt off at 2 different jobs to support herself and this scumbag moocher and his wife. ALSO since the reports didn't put this out...when my uncle was shot...his 24 year old son, his 8 year old son and his 3 and 1 year old granddaughters were there when this happened.

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  22. RenOliv, I'm very sorry to hear about your uncle.

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