Montana Man Holds Gun to his Head after Domestic Disturbance

 

Local news reports

A reported domestic disturbance led to a man pulling a handgun and pointing at his head, but fortunately ended with only minor injuries.

Billings resident Brad Sauter, 34, fled a home on Washington after Billings police responded to investigate a domestic disturbance complaint.

Sauter rode his bike to State Avenue and 9th Avenue South. That is when he took a handgun from the bag he was carrying and held the gun to his head.

 Sauter was taken to Billings Clinic, treated for minor injuries, and then taken into custody at the Yellowstone County Detention Facility on several charges, including partner/family member assault, obstructing a peace officer, and criminal possession of dangerous drugs.

Lots of gun owners use drugs or drink too much.  Many others have mental problems that have never been addressed. Still others have problems with rage.

These, among others, are your hidden criminals.

How Many Have Left the Ranks?

 from an op-ed in USA Today by Ed Tinsley, former commissioner of Lewis and Clark County in Montana.

I am a proud gun owner and, as such, I call on our nation to stand up and demand that our leaders tackle gun violence in this country. Specifically, the president and Congress must take up the question of whether assault weapons and high-capacity magazines have a place on our streets and in our homes.

This conversation will no doubt raise the hackles of those who disavow even the most minor regulations on their guns or ammunition. They'll say the government is infringing on their rights yet again.

Let them tell that to the grieving parents in Newtown who just buried their children.

The government regulates the amount of shells I can have in my shotgun when hunting waterfowl. It regulates the number of beers I can have at a local microbrewery. It determines whether or not I can talk on my cell phone while operating a 4,000-pound vehicle on public streets.

We need certain laws in place to protect our health, safety and the welfare of our citizens. Why then is it so difficult to reduce the number of assault weapons that pose a threat to Americans everywhere?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

"The Kindness of America" Meets the Vicious Insanity of American Gun Culture

We see the out of date 18th century 'right' to bear arms in a milita, and the common law tradition of self defense (in the larger context of the duty to retreat that is found in common law world wide - except here) distorted so as to viciously violate the right recognized world wide of a person to be safe.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the shooter is a gun nut, who is absolutely certain his penis, testicles and y-chromosomes are less important to his masculine gender identification than his firearm.

I'd bet with equal confidence that he carries it with him for that all important feeble excuse that he needs it for self defense...........excpet that isn't the reality of how guns are used by gun nuts like this one.  Quite the opposite.

Or maybe he just has a problem with geography and keeping up with current events; South Dakota is after all right next door to Montana.... where gun nuts tried, perhaps tongue in cheek, to mandate gun ownership (unless you were a LEGAL immigrant - because right wing gun nuts tend to be paranoid and delusional).  We can't trust those newer citizens with the full bill of rights; we have to ease them into those potent freedoms.

The irony of this pointless, mindless act of gun nut violence is of course the Title of the work of the author who was shot...

From MSNBC.com:
Hitchhiker writing 'The Kindness of America' memoir shot by motorist in Montana

By Sevil Omer, msnbc.com

A West Virginia man who was hitchhiking across the United States and writing a memoir titled “The Kindness of America” was shot by a motorist in a random attack in northeastern Montana, authorities say.
Valley County Sheriff Glen Meier said Raymond Dolin, 39, was sitting on his backpack on the side of U.S. Highway 2 west of Glasgow about 6 p.m. Saturday when a man drove up in a pickup, rolled down his window, shot him in the arm and drove off.
“He was preparing to eat his meal when the truck pulled in and he thought ‘hey, here’s a ride’ and jumped up to walk over to the driver,” Meier told msnbc.com on Monday. “When he got closer he saw the gun and as he was starting to walk back, the guy pulled the trigger.”
Dolin was struck in the upper arm. Meier said Dolin was able to flag down another motorist and was taken to the hospital in Glasgow with non-life-threatening injuries. Hospital officials refused comment for an update on Dolin’s condition.
Meier said authorities arrested a suspect in Culbertson, about 100 miles east of Glasgow, about four hours after the shooting. Glasgow is community of about 3,100 residents.
Charles Lloyd Danielson III, 52, of Washington state, was jailed in Roosevelt County on suspicion of felony assault with a weapon and driving under the influence, Meier said.
Danielson had been in the area looking for work, Meier said.
“This is unusual for our community or any community," Meier told msnbc.com, adding "for two people from opposite ends of the nation to end up here and this to happen – it’s totally random.”

Yeah, well maybe they don't get a lot of people from other places in their community, but random gun violence appears to be pretty common in the U.S.  It happens every day in this country, a reality of our violent gun culture.

Montana Gal Shoots ex-Husband and His New Girlfriend

Here's a better look at her on the video.

Poor sad girl who couldn't deal well with relationships, but knew all about guns. In Montana, the gun is the answer.

What's your opinion? Do you think it's a stretch for me to blame gun availability and the gun-friendly environment of Montana? I don't think so.

My idea is that access to guns should be controlled, strictly controlled. The result would be that some of these cases would be less damaging. Who really believes that Michelle would have killed her ex with something other than a gun?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Gun-Friendly Montana Paying the Price

LODGE GRASS, Mont. (AP) — Schools were closed and residents were told to remain indoors Wednesday as authorities fanned across the southeast Montana countryside looking for an armed man suspected in a triple shooting on the Crow Reservation.

This young man killed his grandmother! He really must have had mental problems. Too bad for him he lived in a State where guns are as available as toilet paper.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

University of Montana Negligent Discharge Doesn't Count

The Missoulian reports

Shootings on college campuses have dominated headlines in some parts of the country in recent years, but guns have not posed a serious threat at UM, Taylor said. There's not much the university can do to prevent incidents like the one Monday evening, Taylor said.

"This was just plain poor gun handling," Taylor said. "It wasn't a shooting. It was an accidental discharge because they didn't follow proper safety precautions."

And with that, the incident is closed.  The negligent and dangerous young man is given a misdemeanor slap on the wrist and everybody goes back to business as usual.

The fact is the guilty student broke about a half-a-dozen school and basic gun-safety rules and someone was injured. In the exact same way someone or more than some ONE could have been killed. This is proof that in some cases, in too many cases, young people do not respond to parental guidance, teaching and warnings concerning guns. Some people are not capable of apprehending these lessons, which is the reason we have the One Strike You're Out Rule.


What's your opinion?  Do you think they take gun negligence a bit too lightly in gun friendly states like Montana?  I do.

Please leave a comment.

Another Sick, Travesty of Justice

In Montana they go to any length to protect their so-called lawful gun owners, even sacrificing their own children.

An 11-year-old Great Falls boy accused of the negligent homicide of a 10-year-old boy could, if convicted, face juvenile detention until he's an adult, according to documents filed Monday by the Cascade County Attorney's Office.

This is something all gun owners can be proud of, especially the tough, personal-responsibility types. I mean, why would the dad have to answer for something like this? He did his best to teach the boy.

Gregg Zindell told GFPD detectives that he had taught his son "strict, strict, strict rules" about gun safety, including that he should only shoot under adult supervision, that he should keep the gun's bolt open until ready to fire and that other people should be at least five feet behind when he is shooting.

Gregg Zindell told detectives that his son wasn't even allowed to point toy guns at others, court documents stated.

Better would be if we lock up old Greg for a year or so, take his gun rights away, which he obviously is not responsible enough to handle, and give the kid some kind of juvenile counselling and probation.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Montana's Sick Twisted Perverse Gun Culture

The Billings Gazette reports. 

A 10-year-old boy brought a loaded semiautomatic pistol to Central Elementary on Tuesday.

Police say the boy had the pistol in his backpack and was showing it to other children on the playground.

At about 1 p.m., the school’s principal called a school resource officer with the Helena Police Department saying she had confiscated a handgun from a student after hearing about the gun from other students.

“The student indicated he didn’t plan on hurting anyone with it,” Helena Police Chief Troy McGee said.

No other children reportedly had contact with the gun. The boy said he had taken the .25-caliber pistol from home, McGee said.

Police cited the boy for misdemeanor charges of bringing a loaded weapon to a school and carrying a loaded weapon within city limits, and referred him to juvenile probation.

The boy has been suspended from school while the incident is investigated, Superintendent of Helena Schools Bruce Messinger said.

What's the "Sick Twisted Perverse" part you ask?" The fact that the boy's father or mother or older brother were not immediately arrested for suspected child endangerment and locked up. The boy took the gun from home, which should be enough to strip that home and all its occupants of their gun rights. Obviously they are irresponsible to the point of recklessness.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Gun Fired Outside Bar

The action took place in Great Falls, Montana. A 20-year-old was arrested, but since he's got a clean record and comes from a good family, the "assault with a weapon and criminal endangerment" charges will surely be plea-bargained down to misdemeanors. Perhaps in Montana those charges already are misdemeanors. The important thing is that this young man doesn't have to forfeit his gun rights. He's young and will have lots of reasons to own guns throughout his long life.

Yes I made up that part about the clean record and good family, and the rest was pure sarcasm.

What's your opinion? Isn't it true this is what often happens with misuse of guns as well as accidents? Hasn't it been proven that people who do this kind of stuff tend to do it again? Oh, sorry, I just made that up too. But don't you think it's true?

Please leave a comment.

States' Rights vs. The Fed

Bloomberg Businessweek reports on the battle between states' rights and the federal government.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is joining the federal government's fight to stop states that want to exempt themselves from national gun control laws, arguing the effort threatens public safety.

The gun control advocates and the U.S. Department of Justice both filed new arguments Tuesday in the ongoing legal battle over federal gun control and states rights.

The issue was sparked with the "firearm freedoms act" first enacted in Montana last year and subsequently in several other states, and is leading to a constitutional showdown over the reach of Congress into state borders.

"That concern is no less important here, where an illegal market for firearms exists across state lines," the federal government's court brief said in asking for a quick dismissal. "In essence, Montana will create weapons that are readily accessible to those who seek to avoid a background check, with no record of transaction and no traceable markings."

It said the firearms freedom acts would stimulate the illicit interstate market in firearms.

Doesn't that make sense, the idea that gun control laws are made less effective if individual states exempt themselves? It seems pretty obvious to me.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Montana vs. the Fed

SFGate.com reports on the battle between States' rights and the Federal Government as it pertains to Montana gun rights. Thanks to Laci for the link.

Montana doesn't have the authority to exempt itself from national gun control laws, the federal government argued in new court filings, hoping to beat back a movement from states adopting the Firearms Freedom Act.

The Department of Justice, in a brief filed this week in U.S. District Court in Missoula, said that federal gun control is a "valid exercise of Congress' commerce power under the Constitution."

The agency asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed last year by gun advocates in Montana who argued the state should decide which rules, if any, would control the sale and purchase of guns and paraphernalia made in Montana. The state would then be exempt from rules on federal gun registration, background checks and dealer-licensing.

I know this has come up before but I still don't understand it. In this case the gun rights people say the Fed should stay out of it and let the local folks decide what's best for them. But in Heller vs. D.C. and McDonald vs. Chicago it's exactly the opposite. In those famous cases the gun rights folks want the Fed to step in and prevent the local governments from doing what they think is best.

Does that about sum it up?

Please leave a comment.

Montana

Deadwood

I just started watching Deadwood. I wondered what our friends in Montana think about it. Are the present-day residents of that state offended by the depiction of their fairly recent ancestors? What must the folks of a hundred years earlier been like? So often from the pro-gun crowd we hear talk of the "Framers" and the "Founding Fathers," as if we were talking about the golden age of Pericles.

It's certainly a thought-provoking and interesting show on many levels. What do you think?