Still No Guns on Campus at the University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa News

With a few exceptions, the University of Alabama will continue its prohibition against the possession of firearms on campus by students, employees and visitors, according to a revised weapons policy released Friday.

The revised policy, which goes into effect immediately and is posted on the UA website, was issued in response to a new state law that sought to clarify where and how gun owners could carry and transport their firearms.

The law, which went into effect Aug. 1, reinforced the right of gun owners to openly carry firearms in public places and permitted open carry on private property with consent. It also allows concealed-carry permit holders to have handguns on public and private property, with some exceptions.

UA’s revised policy — which applies to faculty, staff, students, contractors, patients and visitors — generally continues a ban on the possession, transportation and use of firearms and other dangerous weapons on property owned, leased or controlled by the university and any affiliated foundation or health care entity.

Similar policies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of Alabama in Huntsville were also posted Friday afternoon, according to UA System spokeswoman Kellee Reinhart.

You know why?  Because the policy-making boards at the university represent an oasis of intelligence and common sense in a sea of Alabama ignorance and idoicy which extends even into the lawmaking halls.

Oklahoma Republican Congressman who Attacked ‘Fit’ Couple on Food Stamps Took $370,000 In Stimulus

Politicususa

Congressman Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) who blasted a “physically fit” couple for using food stamps at a suburban Virginia grocery store, collected 370,000 dollars in federal stimulus money for his Oklahoma plumbing company. Mullin who brags about turning the plumbing company into a successful business never mentions the government help he received to make it thrive. Or if he did not need the money to prop up his plumbing firm, he never mentions that his business was “physically fit” and that he did not actually need stimulus money to keep it afloat.

Mullin has become a text book case in Republican hypocrisy. He attacks food stamp recipients for collecting a couple hundred dollars a month in assistance needed to eat, but says no word about collecting 370,000 dollars in federal assistance to install toilets and lay pipes. To be fair, the projects that the stimulus money funded, which included building affordable housing in Northeast Oklahoma, are probably worthy projects. The problem is that Mullin is so quick to judge others for using federal money and that he espouses vehement anti-government rhetoric while he pockets federal money.

After winning his GOP House primary in 2012, Mullin remarked“government needs to have a limited role in our lives. We can take care of ourselves.”  Of course, it is easier to take care of yourself after the federal government cuts you a few checks totaling 370 grand. No wonder Mr. Mullin looks so physically fit. Like Michelle Bachmann who enriched herself as a tax attorney for the IRS, Markwayne Mullin has gotten wealthy with the help of the federal government. Like Bachmann, Congressman Mullin then turns around and attacks federal spending in order to curry favor with the Tea Party base that feeds off of his rabid anti-government rhetoric.  Mullin seems to think feeding people or providing relief for hurricane victimsis wasteful government spending, but when there are hundreds of thousands of dollars available to subsidize his business he is at the front of the line with his hand out.  Like so many of the Tea Party firebrands, Congressman Markwayne Mullin is a hypocrite of the first magnitude.

The Murder Rate Is Down 40% in Jamaica - The Reason?

Mother Jones

Jamaica started replacing leaded gasoline with unleaded in 1990 and banned leaded gasoline completelyin 2000. That's a pretty steep drop (it took the United States a full two decades to go from introduction to complete ban). So what you'd expect is a fairly steep drop in violent crime with a lag of 20 years—i.e., starting around 2010. What we got was a 40% drop in murder between 2009 and 2013.

Pretty remarkable, no? It fits the lead hypothesis like a glove.

Again: this is just murder, not violent crime in general. And all I have here is a horseback estimate of how quickly leaded gasoline was phased out in Jamaica. What I don't have is a time series of blood lead levels in small children going back to 1990. So don't take this too seriously. But don't dismiss it either. It's yet another data point that suggests leaded gasoline really does have a significant impact on violent crime.

'No Firearms' Signs Popping Up in Response to New AL Gun Law

WTVM.com-Columbus, GA News Weather

South Carolina Gun Owner Shoots and Kills an Innocent Bystander and Blames the "Bad Guys" He Was Aiming At

The State

Shannon Scott argues he should not be prosecuted for shooting and killing an unarmed Keenan High School basketball player.

In his Stand Your Ground argument in a Richland County courtroom this week, Scott and his attorney, Todd Rutherford, said Scott fired his weapon from his front yard to protect his daughter, who was being chased by people trying to hurt her.

ead more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/08/16/2924473/is-shooting-a-bystander-in-south.html#storylink=cpy

At time of the shooting, about 1:30 a.m., Scott was in fear of his life, and he was the only one who could take action against a carload of menacing teen “women thugs” who had just followed his daughter and her girlfriends home on the night of April 17, 2010, Rutherford said.

On their way home, his daughter telephoned Scott to tell him they were being followed. He met them outside and told them to go and lie down on the kitchen floor while he went outside with a pistol.

It is unreasonable to expect that Scott is required “to go back into his house, in his castle ... and hope that the cavalry (police) are going to come ... . All that matters is that Mr. Scott felt his life was in jeopardy. We know that because everyone there felt their lives were in jeopardy,” Rutherford said.

Isn't this the kind of situation the gun-rights fanatics say never ever happens. According to them, the police often shoot innocent people but civilian gun owners never do.

Well, there goes another well-worn pro-gun lie.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/08/16/2924473/is-shooting-a-bystander-in-south.html#storylink=cpy

NRA Member and Ex-Felon Shoots Up the Neighbor's Car - Gets Arrested

Local news reports

A San Bruno man accused of shooting up his neighbor’s empty car with an assault rifle while yelling about somebody harming his family had several other weapons inside his home along with a National Rifle Association membership card, according to prosecutors.

George Joseph Azich, 61, was arrested the night of Aug. 13 after firing an assault rifle three times into his neighbor’s parked car. That neighbor was on vacation but others reported him yelling about someone harming his wife, daughter and grandchildren.

It’s unclear if Azich believed that neighbor was the person he blamed, said District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Azich allowed police to search his home and they reported finding another assault rifle, two other rifles, a variety of ammunition and the NRA card.

Prosecutors charged Azich with eight felonies including reckless discharge of a firearm, being a felon in possession of an assault weapon, firearms and ammunition. 

Alternatives to Lead Ammo

The Herald

The fear is that eliminating lead bullets would amount to a ban on hunting, but that hasn't happened in the area where non-lead ammo is required. Not even close. Condors are still being poisoned because of lack of compliance with current law caused by an insufficient amount of alternative ammo on the market. Was paint or gasoline banned when lead was removed from these products? Of course not, and neither will hunting, just as waterfowl hunting in the 1990s continued despite the ban on lead shot.

At Ventana Wildlife Society, we gave out free nonlead ammunition, costing us about 5 percent of our annual revenue. The program is funded by private donors and the Monterey County Fish and Game Advisory Commission, from fines.

The society believes this is an effective approach and we encourage federal and state wildlife agencies to duplicate it on broader scales.

So, I guess our exhuberant commenters were mistaken when they said banning lead bullets would leave no alternative.

It make you wonder if those guys just make shit up and passionately push it as fact.