Who's Next

This has got to be one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Listening to it this morning I couldn't decide which song to post about. Who could choose from among such greats as Baba O'Riley (teenage wasteland) and Won't Get Fooled Again (new boss - old boss)?

So, when in doubt, I always pick the song with the gun reference. Which is your favorite?

Glenn Beck at the Convention

On The Truth About Guns, one of my new favorite gun blogs, Brad Kozak posted his live-blogging description of Glenn Beck's talk at the NRA convention. It was a fascinating account. Several times Brad referred to the crowd loving it, but I wondered what Brad himself thought.

I really hope his not specifically saying he loved what Beck was doing is an indication of some reservations on his part about Glenn Beck. I find The Truth About Guns to be a refreshing change from the usual fare in the gun blogging world, but if they're Glenn Beck fans, I don't know, I may have to reconsider.

I'll add that the fact the NRA conventioneers enthusiastically encourage Glenn Beck's nonsense says more about them than it does about the "rodeo clown."

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

3-Year-Old Alaskan Boy Dead

Fox News reports on another tragedy in Alaska.

Anchorage police say a 3-year-old boy has died after finding a gun and accidentally shooting himself.

Police spokeswoman Anita Shell says the father called 911 after 9 a.m. Friday. The father reported the child had taken a gun off a TV stand and shot himself.

Shell says investigators were interviewing both the father, the only other person at home at the time of the shooting, and the mother.

There's your gun paradise.

Paul Helmke's Steady Consistent Message

This was at the NRA gun rally last month. I find it more and more difficult to understand the animosity of gun rights folks towards this man. He's a paragon of reasonable discourse and common sense.

Ohio Cop Guilty of Shooting Motorcyclist in Back

The Toledo Blade reports on the conviction of cop who shot a motorcycle rider in the back during a traffic stop. The story is about former Police Officer "Thomas White, 27, who was indicted on one count of felonious assault with a firearms specification for the May 23, 2009, shooting of Michael McCloskey, Jr."

Video taken by a dashboard camera about 2:15 a.m. showed Mr. McCloskey pull over his motorcycle and look back at the patrol car. When Mr. McCloskey again turns to look back, he is shot and he and the motorcycle fall over.

The officer then appears on the screen and has his gun drawn while the victim is on the ground. After a period, the officer and another man lift the motorcycle off of the victim.

Mr. Lingo said the video was the prosecution's strongest evidence.

What's your opinion? Is McCloskey another one for the VPC list? Oh, I almost forgot, even if they did include cops on that list, this one didn't kill anybody.

At least he's been convicted and will be punished. It shows they don't always get away with that old "I thought he was about to pull a gun and my life was in danger" excuse.

What do you think is the appropriate punishment for this? Should he spend a lot of time in jail, or would the career-changing felony conviction itself be punishment enough?

Please leave a comment.

Washington State Cop Loses It

CNN reports on the double murder and suicide of a Pierce County Deputy.

A Washington state deputy accused of killing two relatives was found dead in a home Saturday morning, police said.

The suspect, an 11-year veteran Pierce County deputy, had been barricaded in the home for hours after shooting his in-laws, police said.

Authorities were not "100 percent" sure that the suspect died from self-inflicted wounds, according to a police spokeswoman.

The suspect's father-in-law died in the home, said Ed Troyer, another sheriff's department spokesman. His mother-in-law was taken to a nearby hospital where she later died, police said.

Troyer added that the deputy held his teenage children hostage for a while, but that they had been released.

A sad story indeed. It made me wonder about the VPC tabulations. Maybe they need to add police killers as a separate category. They count too.

The answer is not to disarm all the policemen, or to disarm all the people. The answer is to screen them better and to monitor them better.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Bloomberg is Not the Enemy of Gun Rights

FishyJay sent me this New York Times article about Mayor Bloomberg's plans to streamline the system for obtaining gun permits in NYC.

The Bloomberg administration announced on Friday that it was moving to simplify the process for New Yorkers to obtain gun permits, thus speeding up a set of byzantine licensing requirements that gun-rights advocates have long criticized as among the most restrictive in the country.

Now, that doesn't sound like the ogre gun rights advocates like to make him.

A spokesman for the mayor said on Friday that despite Mr. Bloomberg’s continuing fight, he had never taken issue with legal gun ownership, a perspective that Colin Weaver, of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, said he was in sync with.

“The mayor is focused on crime control, not gun control,” said the Bloomberg spokesman, Jason Post. “He has no problem with people who want to go hunting. The issue is illegal guns that are killing people and, all too often, police officers.”

"The mayor is focused on crime control, not gun control." Who could object to that?

Even Alan Jura said it “sounds like progress.” What's your opinion? Wait, let me guess. Some will say it's too vague and won't change anything, that the system will continue to be too subjective. Others will say, the statement is political smoke and doesn't mean anything. And of course, we'll have some who insist Bloomberg is the enemy and we can't trust anything he says.

What do you think? Myself, I believe it when Bloomberg says he has nothing against legitimate gun ownership and that he's interested in crime control not gun control.

Please leave a comment.