In Chicago At Least 40 People Shot Over the Weekend - 4 Deaths

Huffington Post

An 11-year-girl was shot and killed during a slumber party as violence struck Chicago over the weekend, local media outlets reported on Sunday.

At least 40 people were shot, and four killed, in weekend violence in the third-largest U.S. city, the NBC affiliate in Chicago reported.

The deaths included an 11-year-old girl, shot in the head inside a first-floor bedroom on Friday night after someone fired a gun from outside the house, said Chicago Police Officer Jose Estrada.

Shamiya Adams, who died the next day, had been sitting on the floor during a sleep-over at her best friend's home, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The Chicago Police Department on Sunday had not released an official tally of the weekend violence. But reports of another outbreak of gunfire came as the city has been grappling with a wave of summer violence.

Mental Illness and Gun Control

 CDN

The National Institutes of Health estimates that over ¼ of persons 18 years and older in the US suffer from some type of mental health disorder. The World Health Organization indicates that this is the highest percentage in the world. Even though the statistics may be somewhat biased because mental health issues are likely reported more frequently in the United States than elsewhere, it is still an alarming number.

The issue becomes even more concerning when you combine the mental health problem with the wide availability of fire arms. There are currently about 270 million firearms in the United States, and they are relatively easy to acquire.

The NRA and the irrational cult of fire arms in our country has contributed to not allowing background checks to be implemented for people wanting to purchase fire arms.

14 States Can Now Boast of More Gun Deaths than Car Deaths

Local news reports

Oregon was one of 14 states where gun deaths outpaced motor vehicle deaths in 2011, according to a study by the Violence Policy Center.

Data was compiled from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

This marks the third year the Violence Policy Center has issued an annual report comparing gun deaths to motor vehicle deaths by state. The center is a nonprofit organization working to stop gun death and injury.

Oregon's number of gun deaths also exceeded its motor vehicle deaths in 2009 and 2010, according to the center.

Gun deaths include suicide by firearm, homicides, and fatal unintentional shootings. Motor vehicle deaths include both vehicle occupants and pedestrians.

The 13 other states where gun deaths exceeded motor vehicle deaths in 2011 were: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Washington state, as well as the District of Columbia.

Shameful, Disgraceful Decision by the Washington State Supreme Court

Amina Kocer-Bowman, pictured in a 2012 photo from KOMO/4. Amina was shot in the stomach by a 9-year-old classmate who'd taken a gun from his mother's boyfriend.

Seattlepi

A Bremerton man previously convicted of assault after his stepson accidentally shot a classmate with his pistol has been cleared by the state Supreme Court.

In a split decision, a majority of the high court found that Douglas Bauer shouldn’t have been convicted of assault after his girlfriend’s then-9-year-old son accidentally shot a classmate with his handgun.

Reversing the trial court’s decision, the majority ruled that Bauer’s conduct – leaving a loaded gun unsecured – didn’t cause the non-fatal shooting at the Bremerton elementary school.

“Bauer’s act of gun ownership, in contrast, is not felonious or criminal,” Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud wrote for the majority. “His decision to keep loaded weapons around the house is not, in itself, a crime in this state, either.”

Stand Your Ground Laws Lead To More Homicides, Don't Deter Crime

TPM

Homicides increase under the "castle doctrine" or Stand Your Ground laws, according to two studies published since 2012, while the laws do not appear to deter crime in any significant way.

Researchers at Georgia State and Texas A&M universities used different methodologies and data sources to reach their conclusions, but they ended up in the same place: More people are killed after these laws are passed.

Researchers at Texas A&M University, for a study published in the Journal of Human Resources, concluded that homicides had increased by 8 percent in the more than 20 states that had passed "castle doctrine" laws, many of which include Stand Your Ground provisions. That equals 600 additional homicides every year in those states, they wrote.

At the same time, however, the researchers found no detectable decrease in burglary, robbery or aggravated assault.

"Collectively, these findings suggest that incentives do matter in one important sense: lowering the threshold for the justified use of lethal force results in more of it," the authors concluded in the report. "On the other hand, there is also a limit to the power of incentives, as criminals are apparently not deterred when victims are empowered to use lethal force to protect themselves."

As the Texas A&M researchers noted in that 2013 study, their findings aligned with those of a 2012 study published by Georgia State University on Stand Your Ground laws.

The Georgia State researchers found that homicides in states with those laws increased by 7.1 percent. In particular, they detected an increase in homicides among white males, while the effect was mostly negligible among white females and blacks.

"Whether or not these killings should be considered justified in this case is beyond the purpose of this paper," they wrote. "However, it cannot be argued that the SYG laws are saving the lives of innocent people in this scenario as these individuals would not have been killed in the first place."

The Incredible Stupidity of Gun-Rights Fanatics - Comparing Bloomberg and Watts to Nazis

via Ammoland

Missouri Church Gives Away AR-15s

Inquisitr

According to the Joplin Globe, the AR-15 giveaway is intended to “get more people to follow Jesus” and Heath Mooneyham, lead pastor of Ignite Church, believes that arming the congregation is a good method for doing this:

“If we get people in the door, we get to preach the gospel. If we can get more people to follow Jesus, I’ll give away 1,000 guns. I don’t care.”

The reason that Ignite is giving away free guns is biggest the 18 to 35 age group of the Millennials is the “biggest black hole in our society.” In addition, they have sponsored shooting and hunting events.

For this past Father’s Day, Ignite held a raffle where each person could enter a name and they were given an additional ticket if anyone brought their father to church with them. The prize was two so-called “Black Rain AR-15 assault rifles.” Dan McCain, who won one of the two AR-15 rifles, explained his feelings on the matter:

“I was very happy to win the rifle. I’ve never won anything in my life, so it was exciting. I enjoy hunting and target shooting. I haven’t had the opportunity to hunt in a while, but hope to change that this season. Firearm ownership does not equate to violence.”

John Pliler (left) and Dan McCain were the winners of an AR-15 giveaway recently at Ignite Church.