U.S. Teens Have Same Firearm Access Regardless Of Suicide Risk

Huffington Post

U.S. teens report easy access to firearms, even when they have mental health problems that put them at an increased risk of suicide, according to a new study.

Overall, 41 percent of teens who reported being in a home with a firearm had easy access to it. Among teens with a history of mental illness or suicidal acts, researchers found that percentage was the same.

The American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics advise healthcare providers to talk about firearm safe STORAGE with parents - especially those with at-risk youths at home.

"Our goal of this study was to find out if those recommendations were being implemented effectively in the community," said Dr. Joseph Simonetti, the study's lead author from the University of Washington School of Medicine's Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Simonetti and his colleagues write in JAMA Psychiatry that suicide is the second leading cause of death for U.S. teens. Having a firearm in the home is one risk factor for suicide, they add.

Previous studies have found a lower suicide risk among residents of homes that practice safe storage of firearms.

For the new study, the authors used data collected between 2001 and 2004 from 10,123 U.S. teens between ages 13 and 18 years.

A third of the teens reported living in a home with a firearm. Of those, about 41 percent said they had easy access to that firearm and the ability to shoot it.

The Best Prepper Guns List – Must Have Weapons for When the SHTF

D.C. Clothesline

I think there are 4 key survival concepts that every prepper should work on at all times to place you in the best possible position to survive anything that happens. These are Water, Food,  Shelter, and Security. If you have these four bases covered, you will be so much better prepared to survive anything from a flood, hurricane or Global pandemic. We talk about all of these survival concepts on the Prepper Journal, but there is one topic that comes around frequently that generates a substantial amount of debate so I wanted to write an article that focuses on Security.

There are a lot of opinions on firearms as defensive weapons. There are also numerous laws and regulations that govern what you may be able to legally purchase. I believe that all things being equal, the best defensive weapons you can own are firearms and with that I mind I want to discuss what I recommend everyone have if you are considering a firearm as part of your preparedness strategy.

What are the best prepper guns?

A shotgun makes a great first firearm for a prepper.

If you can legally own firearms I believe that there are 5 firearms that make up a well-rounded prepper battery of arms. With these 5 firearms, you will be able to deal with situations that we routinely talk about in a breakdown in society. Even if you never go through any disaster, having these firearms will benefit you in terms of security and firearms generally do not lose value, only appreciate so they are an investment that pays off in multiple ways.

I have listed the weapons below in priority order. If you can only afford one weapon, you should buy the first one on the list and add to your arsenal as your budget/resources allow.

1. Shotgun – If you can only have one single weapon for home defense in a collapse scenario, I recommend a shotgun. Shotguns are easy to use, the ammunition is reasonably cheap and they can pull double duty as both defensive weapons and hunting firearms. In terms of price, shotguns are cheaper than pistols (generally) and can be purchased a lot of times without the same background scrutiny that you get with other handguns.

Dumb & Dumber - Scientific Proof That People Are Getting 'Stupider'

Are people dumber than they used to be?  Were previous generations mentally sharper than us?  You may have suspected that people are getting stupider for quite some time, but now we actually have scientific evidence that this is the case.  As you will read about below, average IQs are dropping all over the globe, SAT scores in the U.S. have been declining for decades, and scientists have even discovered that our brains have been getting smaller over time.  So if it seems on some days like you woke up in the middle of the movie “Idiocracy”, you might not be too far off.  Much of the stuff that they put in our junk food is not good for brain development, our education system is a total joke and most Americans are absolutely addicted to mindless entertainment.  Fortunately we have a lot of technology that does much of our thinking for us these days, because if we had to depend on our own mental capabilities most of us would be in a tremendous amount of trouble.

Sadly, this appears to be a phenomenon that is happening all over the planet.  As a recent Daily Mail article explained, IQ scores are falling in country after country…

Richard Lynn, a psychologist at the University of Ulster, calculated the decline in humans’ genetic potential.

He used data on average IQs around the world in 1950 and 2000 to discover that our collective intelligence has dropped by one IQ point.

Dr Lynn predicts that if this trend continues, we could lose another 1.3 IQ points by 2050.

One IQ point does not sound like a lot, but when you go back even further in time the declines become a lot more dramatic.  For example, a psychology professor at the University of Amsterdam named Jan te Nijenhuis has calculated that we have lost a total of 14 IQ points on average since the Victorian Era.

And we don’t need a professor to tell us that this is true.  Just go back and read some of the literature from that time period.  Much of it is written at such a high level that I can barely even understand it.

There is other evidence that people are getting stupider as well.  For instance, SAT scores in the United States have fallen significantly in recent years…

There appears to be a disturbing trend in American high schools. If we judge the quality of education by the scores that students get on their SATs, then it appears that things are getting worse.

Since 2006, the overall average SAT score has fallen by 20 points, dropping from 1518 to 1498 in 2012. Scores are also down in each of the three categories tested, with reading dropping 9 points, mathematics dropping 4 points, and writing falling 9 points. It’s a fair bet that students aren’t becoming less intelligent, so exactly what is going on?

And this decline in SAT scores is not just limited to the past few years.  As the following chart from Zero Hedge demonstrates, SAT scores have been declining in America for decades…

Fight on Guns Is Being Taken to State Ballots

Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia has proposed the restoration of the state’s limit on handgun sales to one a month. 
CreditMolly Riley/Associated Press
The New York Times

The gun control movement, blocked in Congress and facing mounting losses in federal elections, is tweaking its name, refining its goals and using the same-sex marriage movement as a model to take the fight to voters on the state level.

After a victory in November on a Washington State ballot measure that will require broader background checks on gun buyers, groups that promote gun regulations have turned away from Washington and the political races that have been largely futile. Instead, they are turning their attention — and their growing wallets — to other states that allow ballot measures.

An initiative seeking stricter background checks for certain buyers has qualified for the 2016 ballot in Nevada, where such a law was passed last year by the Legislature and then vetoed by the governor. Advocates of gun safety — the term many now use instead of “gun control” — are seeking lines on ballots in Arizona, Maine and Oregon as well.

“I can’t recall ballot initiatives focused on gun policy,” said Daniel Webster, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. “There wasn’t the money.” Colorado and Oregon approved ballot measures on background checks at gun shows after the Columbine school massacre in 1999, but the movement stalled after that.

Michigan Woman Kills Herself by Accident

Local news

Authorities say a 55-year-old woman has died after apparently accidentally shooting herself in the head in southwestern Michigan.

The St. Joseph Public Safety Department says Christina Bond died at Bronson Hospital after being transported there following Thursday’s shooting.

The department says the gunshot wound to her eye appeared to be accidentally self-inflicted. The investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

Scared White Guy Bragging about His Gun Collection

Politix

daclark1911 from Missouri says:

There's a four thousand dollar (retail value) NRA Open Class Action Pistol in my safe and next to it a thirty-two hundred dollar self defense/carry pistol built for me by a friend.
Both are works of art and hand crafted to aero-space engineering tolerences.
Underneath those are some more high grade 1911s valued at fifteen hundred and above.
Underneath those on the lower shelf is a bobtailed Colt Officer's 1911 which uses a government model bobtailed mainspring housing.
It's the gun all the 1911 guru's said was impossible to build. 
Now days it's the gun those same guru's and engineers want their hands on to see how in the world I engineered it to work and still retain a functioning grip safety.

I don't own a single "scared white guy" gun.

Arma Virumque Cano Explained by Ammoland

Arma Virumque Cano, Free, Armed and Unafraid Since 19BC

(Ammoland.com)- “Arma Virumque Cano”

Translates to: “I sing of arms and of a man.”

Book 1, Line 1 from Virgil’s “Aeneid” ( tiny.cc/nm2mrx )

Two decades BC, Roman Poet, Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil), used the above line to reintroduce the Roman world, in poetic form, to “Aeneas,” a wandering adventurer whose descendants, according to legend, founded Roman aristocracy.

Aeneas, first written about (again, in poetic form) by Homer eight-hundred years earlier in “Iliad,” was a familiar literary character to at least the educated of Roman society.

Virgil died in 19BC, at the age of fifty. His epic poem, “Aeneid,” was never finished.

In that age, and in Roman society, bearing arms was the badge of free citizenry. It was a right not extended to slaves, other “non-citizens,” criminals, et al.

In a “nation of equals,” bearing arms, then and now, conveys a special dignity and self-respect to the bearer, not achievable in any other way. When this right, for all good citizens, is confirmed and protected by a righteous government, it is tantamount to your nation saying to you:

“You’re an adult citizen, in good standing, within our country. You’re one of us! We, your fellow citizens, have full trust and confidence in your moral character and judgement. We trust you to bear arms competently and honorably for personal defense, and that you, thus armed, will gallantly stand with the rest of us when our nation is threatened.”

Rights and duties of citizenship are thus solemnly confirmed!