Saturday, August 29, 2015

How to Talk about Guns and Suicide

California Man Shoots and Kills Two Fleeing Robbers in Arizona and Gets Away With It

Cal GunLaws Porterville ShooterSaleh
Kamhen "Omar" Saleh

Guns dot com

Two years ago, a 20 year old California man withdrew $44,000 from the bank for the family business.  He placed the money in a backpack in his vehicle.  He also had a 9mm pistol in the vehicle.  Two men attempted to steal the money; he saw one in his SUV and confronted him; ultimately shooting both men.  In the confrontation they had occupied another vehicle, taking the backpack and money with them.


Saleh fired 8 shots from his 9mm pistol.  The men were in the other vehicle by the time he started shooting.  He says he feared that they were going to run him over.  His bullets hit the side and rear of the vehicle.

While the defense attorney criticized the prosecutor for pursuing this case, I can see the prosecutor’s side. The robbers were in a vehicle, so their knives were not a threat. Saleh shot into the side and rear of their vehicle. The prosecutor questioned Saley’s judgement on a couple of points.

3rd-Grader Brings Gun To School, Accidentally Shoots Classmate

Huffington Post

Officials in Georgia say a third-grader who accidentally shot a classmate at school found the weapon while exploring his family's kitchen.
The shooting happened Tuesday at Hornsby Elementary School in Augusta. Authorities said the child was playing with the gun inside a desk when it accidentally discharged, grazing a girl. School officials say she was treated at a hospital and released.
Richmond County Department of School Safety Chief Alfonzo Williams said in a statement the boy was looking around his house for a toy and found the gun hidden in a curio stand in the kitchen. Williams said he used a chair to climb onto a counter to get to the gun.
The students' names weren't released because of their ages.

George Zimmerman Calls President Obama An 'Ignorant Baboon'




Huffington Post

George Zimmerman, the Florida man who shot and killed an unarmed black teen in 2012 but was acquitted of second-degree murder charges, took to social media this week to call President Barack Obama an "ignorant baboon."

Zimmerman made the comment in a series of tweets posted on Wednesday and Thursday while referencing the shooting deaths of two journalists on live television.

In one, Zimmerman quoted the president's remarks on gun violence while also insulting him:

Earlier this year, Zimmerman complained that Obama had turned Americans against him, referring specifically to when the president said in 2012, "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon."

Friday, August 28, 2015

Gun Murder Rate

Ban It!

Gun Control Might Not Have Stopped The WDBJ Shooter. That's Not The Point.

Huffington Post

Would stricter gun laws have saved the lives of Alison Parker and Adam Ward? Probably not.
Would stricter gun laws have saved the lives of many other people? Probably.

That’s a fair reading of the latest research -- and something to remember now that Wednesday’s killing of the two television journalists, during a live interview, has politicians and pundits talking about gun violence again.

So far, the debate has played out in a familiar fashion. From the White House, Press Secretary Josh Earnest renewed the administration’s call for “commonsense” gun measures, such as extending federal background checks to private gun sales and limiting access to assault weaponry. Via Twitter, Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state and current front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, said “we must act to stop gun violence, and we cannot wait any longer.”

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Most Mass Shootings are Domestic not Random

Huffington Post

The untold story of mass shootings in America is one of domestic violence. It is one of men (yes, mostly men) targeting and killing their wives or ex-girlfriends or families. The victims are intimately familiar to the shooters, not random strangers. This kind of violence is not indiscriminate -- though friends, neighbors and bystanders are often killed alongside the intended targets.
The Huffington Post analyzed five years of mass shooting data compiled by Everytown For Gun Safety, a gun violence prevention organization backed by former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. We looked at shootings in which at least four people were killed with a gun (the common definition of mass shootings, though there is debate over the best way to define them).
We found that in 57 percent of mass shootings, the shooter targeted either a family member or an intimate partner. According to HuffPost's analysis, 64 percent of mass shooting victims were women and children. That's startling, since women typically make up only 15 percent of total gun violence homicide victims, and children only 7 percent. 

Vester Lee Flanagan II, The Latest Lawful Gun Owner Gone Bad


 Vester Lee Flanagan II

NYT


He was a fired television reporter with a history of conflicts at work and rage apparently stoked by racial grievances. And when he sought revenge on Wednesday, gunning down two former colleagues, he used the tools of social media to ensure that his crime was broadcast live, recorded from multiple angles and posted online.

Vester Lee Flanagan II, 41, identified by the authorities as the gunman, waited until Alison Parker and Adam Ward, young journalists at WDBJ in Roanoke, were on air, then killed them while recording on his own video camera. Mr. Flanagan shot himself in the head hours later, the authorities said, but as the chase for him was on, he wrote about the shooting on Twitter, uploaded his video to Facebook and sent a manifesto to ABC News that spoke admiringly of mass killers and said that as a black, gay man he had faced discrimination and sexual harassment.
The shooting and the horrifying images it produced marked a new chapter in the intersection of video, violence and social media.

Jody Lee Hunt, The Latest Private Sale Killer

 
Jody Lee Hunt, with a history of violence, was able to pick up his 9mm handgun through an ad on Facebook

Fox news

The gunman in three shootings that killed four people in West Virginia on Monday morning was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, State Police said.

Jody Lee Hunt, 39, of Westover, was found Monday evening in the woods in the southern part of Monongalia County, located in the north-central part of the state. Two of the shootings happened in the Westover area and the other was in the Cheat Lake area, both in Monongalia County, authorities said.

Walmart Quits Selling AR-15s

Huffington Post

Walmart says it will stop selling AR-15s and other sporting rifles, a spokesman confirmed to The Huffington Post on Wednesday.

The chain won't stock modern sports rifles such as the AR-15, nor semi-automatic shotguns. The price of remaining inventory will be reduced, Walmart rep Kory Lundberg told HuffPost. BearingArms.com first reported the change Tuesday.

The company will continue to sell shotguns and other “hunting weapons,” Lundberg said. "We're focusing on firearms more associated with hunters and sportsmen."

Though the retail giant said the move was simply a reflection of changing customer tastes, it comes at a time when Walmart has been moving to a kinder, gentler image under new CEO Doug McMillon. The chain is under pressure as the minimum wage movement gains steam and the economy picks up. 

This new move is a sign of a more empathetic Walmart, said Bill George, the former Medtronic CEO who writes often about leadership. "This comes as a big surprise, given Walmart’s market. Good for them," he said in an email to The Huffington Post.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Charley Vacca's Kids Launch a Petition to Ask for the Obvious

Charlie Vacca’s children: Tyler, 15, Christopher, 12, Ellie, 16, and Ashley, 20.
 Charlie Vacca’s children: Tyler, 15, Christopher, 12, Ellie, 16, and Ashley, 20.

Guns dot com

One year ago an Arizona firearms instructor was killed when a 9-year-old girl lost control of a fully automatic uzi she was firing and on the anniversary of the incident, the instructor’s kids are asking for a law to prevent children from shooting such weapons.

Charlie Vacca’s children — Christopher, 12, Tyler, 15, Ellie, 16, and Ashley, 20 — launched the online petition “Kids and Machine Guns Don’t Mix.”

“We’re the children of Charlie Vacca. Last year, a nine-year-old lost control of an Uzi on an Arizona shooting range and our dad lost his life. It’s time for a change,” reads the petition.

The 39-year-old Vacca was assisting a the young girl at an Arizona shooting range when the young girl lost control of an uzi on Aug. 25, 2014.

Video of the incident, which was caught on a cell phone camera by the girl’s parents, shows machine gun drift up as the girl shoots. The muzzle points up and at that point Vacca, who is standing beside her, is shot in the head.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

National Rifle Association sues Seattle over 'gun violence' tax

Yahoo News

The National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups sued Seattle on Monday over a new tax on firearms and ammunition sales, arguing the city had violated a Washington state law barring municipalities from enacting local firearms regulations. 

Earlier this month, Seattle City Council unanimously approved a "gun violence tax" on sellers of firearms and ammunition, directing proceeds toward violence prevention programs and research beginning in January. A companion measure requires gun owners to report cases of lost and stolen firearms to police.

"The Seattle ordinance is nothing but a 'poll tax' on the Second Amendment and an effort to drive Seattle's firearms retailers out of business," said National Shooting Sports Foundation General Counsel Lawrence Keane, a plaintiff.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday in King County Superior Court, argues that Washington state law bars municipalities from creating their own gun regulations, the NRA said.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Lincoln Quote

That Which Only Lying Gun Rights Fanatics Could Oppose

Local news

Pennsylvania law precludes people with records of felonies, domestic abuse or severe mental illness from owning firearms, which makes good sense and is not controversial. But many state lawmakers who cower before the gun lobby can’t bring themselves to enact a simple mechanism to help enforce the law.

The records of most people who are prohibited from gun ownership would show up in standard background checks conducted by licensed gun dealers. But a foolish exemption in state law allows those very same prospective buyers to avoid background checks if they buy “long guns,” including assault-style, semi-automatic rifles most often used in mass shootings, from private sellers.

Oddly, Pennsylvania law requires background checks for private sales of handguns but not for long guns, one of just six states to do so. 

A bill has been reintroduced in the state Legislature to apply the same standard to both types of weapons, a step that has been taken by 16 states in recent years.

The bill does not add any restrictions regarding ownership. It does not preclude anyone from legally owning a gun.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Texas Judge Goes to Jail for Illegally Selling Guns


Former judge, Tim Wright apologizing for being a dirtbag


Daily Kos

It's hard to be from Texas and figure out a way to violate a gun law. That's because they have so few gun laws! But a former Texas county judge was just sentenced last week to 18 months in a federal prison for being an arms dealer.

Tim Wright, 70, had entered a plea bargain with prosecutors earlier this year and will be placed on supervised release for three years once he completes his prison sentence, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas said.
Wright was facing a lot more time as his crimes were pretty bad.
Prosecutors say Wright sold guns to a known felon, traded dozens of firearms without a license and lied to federal agents in 2014. Daniel Jones with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms said Sparks sent a message that no one is above the law. “It does not matter if you are a judge, a doctor, a lawyer, or a dirtbag, you do something wrong and we will investigate you,” said Jones.

Bernie Sanders Position on Gun Control