NRA’s La Pierre has Blood on his Hands

Salon

For 21 years, LaPierre has been the executive VP and chief political strategist of the National Rifle Association. The blood of the victims of the Aurora, Colorado shooting is on his hands.

Of course, LaPierre didn’t pull the trigger, but he’s the NRA’s hit man when it comes to intimidating elected officials to oppose any kind of gun control and the nation’s most vocal advocate of gun owner rights.

The NRA not only lobbies on behalf of  “stand your ground” laws, but also offers insurance to members to pay for the legal costs of shooting people in “self-defense.”  

James Holmes, the man who walked into the Aurora movie theater, killed 12 people and wounded 58 others, is no doubt deranged. He’s not alone. There are lots of crazy people around. But if we make it easy for them to obtain guns, they are more likely to translate their psychological problems into dangerous and deadly anti-social behavior. 

LaPierre’s job (which he’s held for 21 years) is to make it easier for people to buy and use guns. And so far he’s been very successful.

It is no accident that the United States ranks first in the world — by a wide margin — in gun-related civilian deaths and injuries. Compared with every other democracy, we have the most guns and the weakest gun laws.

Wayne's no dummy. He knows the best way to mitigate the effect of an accusation like "blood on the hands," is to first and more frequently accuse his opponents of it.This is exactly what he's done.

How many times have we heard this from gun-rights fanatics?  How often have they attempted to silence us with the nonsense that we're "dancing in the blood" of the victims.

Mr. E. J. Dionne's Washington Post editorial of a few days ago described it best.

Nobody who points to the inadequacy of our flood-control policies or mistakes by the Army Corps of Engineers is accused of "exploiting" the victims of a deluge. Nobody who criticizes a botched response by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to a natural disaster is accused of "exploiting" the victims of a hurricane or a tornado. Nobody who lays part of the blame for an accident on insufficient regulation of, say, the airlines or coal mining is accused of "exploiting" the accident's victims. 

No, it's only where a gun massacre is concerned that an absolute and total gag rule is imposed on any thinking beyond the immediate circumstances of the catastrophe. God forbid that we question even a single tenet of the theology of firearms.

What's your opinion? Do you think La Pierre will be able to continue getting away with such flagrant trickery? Do you think the public might have had just about enough?

Please leave a comment.

Cheap Gun Safes are Good for Nothing

I don't know if I believe what this video is supposed to show, but the point is a good one. Some cheap gun safes are not good enough.

Gun safety has to be taken more seriously, especially when it comes to keeping kids safe. A quick scan of the daily news is enough to see this is not the case now.  We need increased awareness and stronger legislation concerning home security of weapons.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Olympic Security - The British Use of Private Contractors

via The Guardian, which I hope is a respectable enough source for our very particular commenters.

The saga surrounding the Olympics and G4S may have placed the spotlight firmly on the use of private companies to protect the public, worried MI5, embarrassed the Home Office, and pleased and angered the armed forces in equal measure.

It is unlikely to persuade governments to back away from relying increasingly on the private sector to provide public services, even those directly responsible for the safety of its citizens and to fight on their behalf.

Far from it. More and more tasks will be "outsourced" as the rather euphemistic Whitehall phrase has it.

G4S, with an annual turnover of more than £7bn and worldwide contracts including in Iraq and Afghanistan, operates in what has been described by a Seymour Pierce analyst as "a golden age in outsourcing". Central and local government are spending £80bn on contracts with private companies a figure predicted to rise to £140bn in 2015.

Of course these numbers are nothing compared to what's happening in The States. What's your opinion? Is this a necessary expense or just a scam to pour taxpayer dollars into the pockets of a few?

Please leave a comment.

They Make It Too Easy

We're constantly being told that gunloons are just like the rest of us; that they have rich and fulfilling personal lives and are highly successful in their professional pursuits.

But how is it when these gunloons act out badly, they always look like someone you want to keep children away from and have surely never had a date with anyone of the same species?

Meet NRA member, Neil Prescott of Crofton, MD.

Police have foiled what they believed could have been another Aurora-scale massacre after a man who called himself 'a joker' and had an arsenal of semi-automatic rifles threatened to shoot up the business from which he was being fired. 

Dear Gun Carriers (Open and Concealed): Here is Why We Do NOT Believe You When You Insist You Are Safe It is because you aren't.

Cross posted from Penigma:

Yosemite Sam walks into the Wal Mart Men's Room....or at least, something very like the gun carriers doing so....

Not too long ago I wrote about the correlation between a state being red and the number of Wal Marts it had, along with the pattern of people having far lower levels of education, and being obese. In short, it tracks perfectly with the NRA tendency for their gun nuts to be old, white, flabby and crabby, conservative and not well educated.
And along with their obsessions with carrying guns at Wal Marts is the reported incidences of stupid accidents -- like guys shooting toilets out from under their own asses in men's rooms because their gun fell out while they were relieving themselves, and discharged.  The gun carriers span the spectrum from open carry to legal concealed carry to illegal carry, and a wider variety of demographics than the NRA members -- and they are all dangerous, they all put others at risk without a legitimate reason to carry.
There was another shooting at a Wal Mart this week in Dallas, there was one last month in Elizabeth, North Carolina. :

George Reichle  was seated in the men’s room stall next to Felty June 29 when to the surprise of them both, Felty’s .38-caliber pistol discharged a single round through the stall door and into the bathroom ceiling. Reichle wasn’t hurt, but the near-miss has angered him enough to publicly criticize Walmart for its reckless policy of allowing Felty and other customers to bring concealed weapons into the store.

Of course, changing the policy won’t be easy. Commonsense almost always loses out when it’s up against the often insane way gun rights are worshipped in this country. Simply suggesting that someone leave a dangerous weapon at home or in their car before entering a crowded store is considered by Second Amendment zealots to be tantamount to government storm troopers breaking into your house and confiscating your guns.

Sadly, many concealed weapon permit holders apparently are not above seeing the occasional customer shot to death if it means protecting their right to walk Walmart’s aisles with their handguns hidden at the ready. There are in fact dozens of websites where gun owners are constantly on the look out for any breach of their right to bear arms in Walmart stores, and there’s even one site that asked members how many of them performed their first “concealed carry walk” at Walmart. According to the poll, 18 of 43 respondents said they “proudly” did.

If you do a google search of gun discharges, Wal Mart, there is a shocking number. Here's another one, the most recent -- but then the week isn't over yet. There's time for another one any minute, given WallyWorld's are open 24 hours, and welcome people carrying guns.  And it is not like WalMart is the only place that gun guys put people in danger.
Next time a gun nut wonders why we don't believe they are safe, this is why - this and all the other incidents like it; this and all the other incidents where someone gets shot, intentionally or accidentally.

From CBS Dallas;

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - A woman and two young children were wounded on Monday night after a gun accidentally discharged inside of a Walmart store in northeast Dallas. The incident happened at about 9:20 p.m. in the 9300 block of Forest Lane.

According to police, a man identified as 23-year-old Todd Canady — who does have a concealed handgun license — went into the Walmart store to purchase groceries. But he had trouble pulling out his wallet at the check-out line. He accidentally dropped and fired his pistol instead. The bullet first grazed Canady in the back of his leg before ricocheting off of the ground.

Debris struck two children and a woman’s ankle as they were standing in line. They were not seriously hurt.

Todd Canady (credit: Dallas County Sheriff’s Department)

Canady left the store and then fled when police tried to question him about the incident. He was later arrested and will face a felony charge of injury to a child, as well as misdemeanor charges of assault and evading arrest. The pistol has been taken in as evidence as an investigation continues.

Chicago Improves Its Gun Law

The Huffington Post reports

Mayor Rahm Emanuel rewrote a section of the ordinance, permanently banning anyone with a violent felony conviction from firearm ownership, and placing a five-year ban on gun purchases for anyone convicted of a violent misdemeanor, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. 

Wednesday's vote to narrow the ban marks the latest in a long series of rewrites to Chicago's gun control policy: in 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the city's 28-year-old handgun ban, and City Council has been facing frequent legal challenges to its restrictions since then.

The revision was a necessary change following a judge's ruling last month that nonviolent ex-offenders could not be barred from obtaining a firearm owner's identification card and purchasing guns.

After that ruling, Emanuel promised to push back, and many pointed to the city's growing problem with gun violence as evidence that harsher restrictions were necessary.

It's good, although I see no reason to give violent misdemeanor guys a second chance after 5 years.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting of Illinois 10-year-old by his Little Sister - He's Dead - No Charges

Local news reports

A Granite City boy was killed after his sister accidentally shot him Sunday afternoon.

Jefferson County Sheriff Roger Mulch said Christian G. Clark, 10, and his sister, Halee R. Clark, 7, were inside the motor home of their grandfather, Jason G. Clark Sr., in rural northeast Jefferson County.

They were visiting their grandfather with their mother.

“They were alone in the camper,” Mulch said. “Their grandpa had opened the camper up and was doing some work. The kids could watch movies or whatever and stay in the air conditioning.”

Halee Clark picked up a long gun and accidentally discharged a round, which struck Christian Clark in the face, killing him, Mulch said.

Mulch said an investigation into the incident continues, but nothing points to foul play.

“All indications are that this was a tragic accident,” information states. “The investigation continues by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Jefferson County State’s Attorney, Illinois State Police and Jefferson County Coroner.”

"Nothing points to foul play," not even the granddad's decision to let the kids play in a trailer with an unsecured, loaded gun.

What's your opinion?  Is that kind of disregard for safety not tantamount to "foul play?"

Please leave a comment.