Do you really like being played for fools?

From this article:

That is how a kinda-savvy gun company commodifies the dissent of unsavvy gun nuts. Never mind that anyone who thinks an AR-15 or its shorter cousin, the M-4, is a valuable home-defense weapon is a shit-for-brains lemming. The gun's high-velocity, low-caliber, low-weight slugs won't stop shit up close, as those guys in Somalia and Iraq and Afghanistan have learned pretty succinctly. If you really want a home defense weapon, if you really want to open your family up to the high statistical probability that one of them will be killed or maimed at your well-intentioned hands, get a shotgun, or a large-caliber pistol, and get some training.
But I know, I know. The AR-15 and M-4 are the "it" guns now. So, fine. If you want to take down hajjis at distances greater than 50 yards, or you want to lay down suppressive fire for your squadmates' flanking maneuvers, or you want to massacre kindergartners, or you want to start the race war, or you want to shoot the shit out of peaceable moviegoers while blocking the exits, then yeah, at $1999.99, the nasty black assault rifle is your piece. 

Of course, all the right wing talking heads tell you that you need one and you rush off to buy them.

While a riot shotgun (or a shotgun in general) is a much better bet for home defence.

More responsible gun ownership

It seems that Lauren Tannehill, wife of Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill, turned in a rental car, but forgot to remove an AR-15 rifle from the back seat.  it doesn't appear that leaving a weapon used to slaughter people (e.g., small children) in rental cars is a crime.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/01/15/3872773/report-wife-of-miami-dolphins.html#storylink=cpy

Lawful Louisiana Gun Owner Charged with Negligent Homicide - AR-15 Used

Local news reports

A 16-year-old is dead after being shot in the neck by an acquaintance holding an AR-15 rifle.

Police tell WWL-TV a 23-year-old was showing a group of people the newly-acquired weapon at around 1:00 a.m. in the 200 block of James Drive in Marrero when the incident happened.

The gun owner later told police he didn't know there was a round in the chamber, and "that he pulled the trigger to clear the weapon and it went off, striking the victim in the neck," according to WWL-TV.

Emergency responders prounounced the teen dead on the scene.

Update:  JPSO (Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office) Spokesman Col. John Fortunato says Christian Cardon, who police say admitted firing the weapon, was booked this morning with one count of negligent homicide. 

Forgetting there's one in the chamber happen more often in states like Louisiana.  And pulling the trigger to clear the chamber while aiming at another person takes a special kind of intelligence and gun-safety training.

If there were proper screening and qualifying done before issuing a gun ownership license, many incidents like this would be avoided.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

The Amazing Story of Blaec Lammer and his Family

Guns.com

Open-Carry Protesters

Local news reports

An "open carry" gun activist caused a scare in Portland, Maine, on Monday after dozens of residents reported a man walking around with an assault rifle like the one used in the Newtown, Conn., school massacre.

Maine allows unloaded firearms to be carried openly in public.

Police began receiving calls about 11 a.m. and located the unidentified man carrying an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle along a popular recreation trail that loops around the city's Back Cove. The gun was fitted with a high-capacity magazine.

The man "identified himself as an open carry activist who was exercising his Second Amendment rights" under Maine law to openly carry an unloaded firearm in public, according to a police news release. Police said he was not violating any laws or ordinances.

I've heard pro-gun guys complain about the media's continual use of the phrase "loaded gun." I think they're right to point out that it's supposed to make it sound worse than just saying "gun." They say, of course the gun is loaded, there's nothing more useless than an unloaded gun.

But, what about these open-carry activists?  Hasn't anyone told them that there's nothing more useless than an unloaded gun?

They remind me of rebellious teenage boys, immature and belligerent.  The irony is they do their cause more harm than good.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Josh Horwitz on the Resistance Efforts

The Huffington Post published a wonderful article by Josh Horwitz, Executive Director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

On Monday, it was national news when a man (identified only as "Chris") appeared at a health care rally in Phoenix, Arizona, openly and legally carrying an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and a semiautomatic handgun. He was not alone. While President Obama addressed a Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) convention directly across the street, Phoenix police and Secret Service agents actively monitored "Chris" and twelve others who openly carried handguns (it is unknown how many of the protesters were carrying concealed handguns, which is also legal in Arizona with a permit).

Mr. Horwitz links to the same video we looked at yesterday in which, when asked about the AR-15, "Chris" states that "it aids me in my resistance efforts."

He goes on to say:

If the burden of all this thievery gets too thick and you can't make it anymore, if that's what's necessary, that's what's necessary. What do you think we did in the revolution, in the American Revolution? The British weren't stealing money from us for health care. They weren't taxing us the way they are now back then. And what did we do? We forcefully kicked them out of our country, and we will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us through the strength of the majority with a vote. Just because you sick a government on people doesn't make it morally OK to steal money from them. Taxation is theft--all taxation, all taxation.

It was revealed later that the appearance of the black man they called "Chris" and his interviewer was a put-up job for a local conservative talk radio station. This explains one question I had, which was the words themselves seem much stronger than his tone of voice and delivery of them. He seemed oddly calm to me on the video, even while saying very strong things.

Now that we know it was contrived, why do you think they used a black guy? I'm sure there are several good theories about that.

Josh Horwitz sums it up pretty well.

Today's self-styled "patriots" are eager to recall 1776, but fail to understand the tempering influences of the Constitution. Armed health care protestors have made it clear that individual safety is not their primary concern--instead their show of force at these events is a reminder to elected officials that, in their view, armed citizens have the final say. This elevation of "individual sovereignty" over the Constitutionally-mandated democratic process is the antithesis of what our Founders fought for.

Do you agree with Horwitz when he says, "Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution states that one of the purposes of the Militia is to "suppress Insurrections," not to foment them."

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.