Unacceptable Firearm Violence in Ohio

From MSNBC and AP:
Police: 8 shot to death in Ohio, including child

Family argument ends in shooting deaths in two locations; two wounded

COPLEY, Ohio — A family argument Sunday in Ohio ended in the shooting deaths of eight people in two places, including an 11-year-old, and two more people were wounded, authorities said Sunday.
One person shot five people to death in one location, then two more were killed nearby before police killed the gunman, police Chief Michael Mier told WKYC-TV.
The shootings happened in a wooded, residential neighborhood of older homes outside Akron, and police shot the gunman to death, Copley Township officers said. The neighborhood remained blocked off by police Sunday afternoon.
Jeff Kirby of nearby Norton said he was visiting his mother's home a block from the shootings around 10:30 a.m. when he heard gunfire — about 15 shots with several pauses between them.
Kirby, 53, said the last gunfire he heard occurred about the same time he heard sirens in the neighborhood.
Copley police Sgt. Eric Goodwin said he did not know the conditions of the wounded but said he believed there were no more victims.
"As far as I know, everyone's accounted for," he said.
He gave no more details, including how the shooter and victims were related, their names or what led to the argument.
"That's still under investigation," he said.
Copley Township is a town of about 14,000 people outside Akron, about 40 miles south of Cleveland in northeast Ohio.

This Is What We Need to Stop

People acting illegally, with illegal guns, kill people.  Solution - fewer illegal guns for them to use like this.
We need to make our country safer for ordianry civilians, and for our law enforcement too.

From MSNBC.com:

'Totally unprovoked': San Diego cop shot in head at stoplight

Suspect dies following gunbattle with police at nearby apartment

msnbc.com staff and news service reports

updated 8/7/2011 5:01:56 AM ET 2011-08-07T09:01:56

SAN DIEGO — A San Diego police officer was shot in the head Saturday in an apparent unprovoked attack, officials said. A suspect died later following a shootout with police.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the officer was wounded as he waited at a stoplight alongside a vehicle suspected of being involved in a shooting hours earlier.
KGTV reported that the officer had suffered a shotgun wound. The officer, whose name was not released, was in critical condition at Scripps Mercy Hospital.
'He had no idea' The officer was shot around 5:30 p.m. local time when he pulled up to a black Audi in the City Heights area on the city's eastside and a passenger in that car shot him.
"As far as we know, it was totally unprovoked," Police Capt. Jim Collins told the newspaper. "He was not attempting to stop the suspect vehicle. He had no idea that was the suspect vehicle."
He said the shooting led police to track down the vehicle to a nearby apartment, where a gunbattle occurred. One suspect was fatally shot.
Police believed a second suspect was holed up inside and surrounded the apartment, but later found the unit was empty.
The Audi was suspected of being involved in a shooting at an In-N-Out restaurant about two hours earlier and 14 miles away in El Cajon. Police chased the vehicle on the freeway, but had to give up after it reached speeds of more than 100 mph.
The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

The Fast and Furious Story Without the Hype

Huffington Post contributor Adam Winkler described it clearly and simply.

Now that Republicans in Congress won important concessions from President Obama in the debt ceiling debate, the next partisan battle is likely to be over what promises to be the first major scandal of the Obama administration: the botched gun sting known as "Operation Fast and Furious." The administration should waste no time and come clean about what happened, who approved it, and how it can be avoided again.

Unfortunately, the early signs are that Obama is going to handle this controversy as poorly as he handled the debt ceiling debate.

Professor Winkler goes on to point out that the cover-up is probably worse than the crime. Sting operations are used by law enforcement all the time. Sometimes you have to allow smaller crimes to occur so that you can capture the people behind far bigger crimes.
 
The real problem is all the attempts to stonewall and shirk responsibility. The NRA, which has long demonized Holder for his support of gun control, will continue to put pressure until he goes down, if possible. Naturally they'd try to destroy Obama with this too.

Around here we've written about this a number of times, including a wonderfully brief synopsis that JadeGold submitted.

Now, this is not to say any operation that is ill-advised or poorly executed shouldn't be investigated and those responsible demoted or fired, if need be.  But once more, the gunloons, in their phony outrage, have overreached. 

"Phony outrage" is exactly what it is. On the Sipsey Street Irregulars it's daily fare. And Farago is next in line with the exaggerated coverage (propaganda).

So, what's it really all about?  I'll tell you. It's the NRA vs the ATF. It's that simple. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is reviled by the NRA and many gun onwers as the symbolic representation of gun-rights opposition. ATF agents literally appear as the jack-booted oppressors who stand at the van of all common-sense gun control movements. As such they are the enemy of the Constitution and deserving of opprobrium.

Here's phoney outrage personified. 

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

15-Years for Negligent Discharge and Coverup

The Washington Post reports

An Albuquerque, N.M., man who accidentally shot his 3-year-old son and then tried to blame it on a drive-by shooting has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Hector Garcia-Salas pleaded guilty Thursday to child abuse, child abandonment and other charges before Judge Kenneth Martinez.

Authorities say Garcia-Salas accidentally shot his son in November 2007 while he was handling a gun inside his home. He then carried his son’s body outside, put him on the sidewalk and told police the boy had been killed in a drive-by shooting.

Garcia-Salas was on felony probation at the time and was not supposed to have a gun in his possession.

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. An accident plus a clumsy attempt to cover it up usually wouldn't add up to 15 years in my book. But, since he was already a felon in possession, obviously the MikeB-is-king rule, formerly known as the one-strike-you're-out rule wouldn't work.

What do you think? Is this too harsh a sentence? I mean, the guy already suffered the loss of a child, isn't prison on top of that a bit much?

What about the racial angle? Do you think that played into this? They probably don't give too much leniency to brown people down there on the border.

Please leave a comment.

The Other Side of Michigan's Coin

Mlive.com reports

Two men have been sentenced in federal court on felon in possession of a firearm charges, the first such cases completed since an initiative to aggressively prosecute gun-toting convicts was announced last month by U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade.

Dedrick D. Harris, 19, of Flint was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Mark A. Goldsmith to 70 months in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

Dwan L. Brown, 38, of Flint was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison and another 18 months for violating terms of a federally supervised release, according to McQuade's office.

According to court records, Brown, who was convicted in 2006 of possession with intent to distrbute cocaine, pleaded guilty in March to possessing a firearm in April 2010.

Harris, who was convicted of attempted carrying a concealed weapon in 2009, pleaded guilty in March to possessing stolen .38-caliber semi-automatic pistol in May 2010, according to court records.

"Cases like this should put felons on notice that we are aggressively prosecuting those who illegally possess firearms and that federal prosecution brings stiff sentences," said McQuade in a news release.

It's not all bad in Michigan like it seems in our other discussion. In this they're certainly doing the right thing. But, how much you wanna bet the pro-gun guys oppose this? They'll tell you about those poor pot-possession felons who've led exemplary lives for the past 20 years who need to protect their families. They'll remind us of that supposed natural human right all of us have.

Just like they do when choosing statistics to "prove" their points, the gun-rights crowd pick and choose the times they want to be tough on crime.  In restoring gun rights, they're suddenly as liberal as can be.

What's your opinion? Should convicted felons be allowed the restoration of their gun rights in some cases. Should it be allowed in all cases?  Is my position of "no, never" too harsh?

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Shooting in the UK Leads to Riot

From MSNBC.com and the AP:

Riot, fires break out in north London after protest

Initially peaceful demonstration over fatal shooting erupts into looting, violence

LONDON — Police were in a tense standoff with protesters who burned two patrol cars, set a bus and shops ablaze and looted stores in the gritty north London neighborhood of Tottenham, British media reported early Sunday.

The incidents began Saturday night after an initially peaceful protest over the Thursday fatal shooting of Mark

Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four who was killed after an apparent exchange of fire with officers.

The protesting crowd swelled to more than 300 outside a police station on High Road and violence erupted, the BBC said. A member of Parliament appealed for calm, but officers on horseback and others in riot gear clashed with hundreds of ­rioters armed with makeshift missiles.

No officers were inside the two patrol cars set upon by the crowd, officials said.

Later, police told NBC News that one officer was hospitalized in seven others were injured in the rioting.

Firefighters initially could not reach a blazing shop blocked by the disorder. A woman who lives above the shop told British TV she was trapped with her baby by the blaze and mayhem. Several buildings were later seen on fire and police tried to clear paths for firefighters.

A post office and supermarket were among the losses, according to media reports.

Stores in the area were looted and people were seen pushing carts full of stolen goods, the Telegraph of London reported. Some of the rioters were said to look as young as 7 to 10 years old. They were fleeing with looted TVs and stereos, the Guardian said.

Hundreds of residents gathered to watch the unrest and there several were reports of attacks on bystanders, the Guardian said. Rioters were seen beating up a man attempting to film the scene.

Can Gunloons Be Good Parents?

Think about it.  Jon C. Sullivan hasn't:

To take it from the top, there is absolutely no shortage of firearm-owning parents who also weblog, who have been 100% successful at keeping their children from unintentionally or intentionally shooting themselves or others through the use of “setting firm boundaries” in addition to self-imposed safety measures – SayUncle, JayG, NancyR, Les Jones, and Robb Allen are all ones that come to mind right off the top.

I could easily "fisk" this, but I won't.  But I will note a couple of items.  First, Linoge (Sullivan) has no idea whether these weblogging gunloon kids have been involved in intentional or unintentional shootings.  Second, isn't the notion that a kid has to shoot himself or another, a very low bar for good parenting?  And do near-accidents or near-incidents count?

For example, I'll bet a very small fraction of a percentage of drunk drivers are ever involved in an accident.  Does that mean it's ok?  Most rational people would say, 'hell, no.'

And I'd bet most of us could recount stories of people we knew growing up who had absolutely abysmal parents who managed to escape childhood relatively unscathed and more or less intact.