Misdemeanor Domestic Abuse

On The Volokh Conspiracy there's a fascinating post and wonderful discussion about domestic misdemeanants and their 2nd Amendment rights.

The opinion is United States v. Chester, just decided today.

We cannot conclude on this record that the government has carried its burden of establishing a reasonable fit between the important object of reducing domestic gun violence and § 922(g)(9)’s permanent disarmament of all domestic violence misdemeanants. The government has offered numerous plausible reasons why the disarmament of domestic violence misdemeanants is substantially related to an important government goal; however, it has not attempted to offer sufficient evidence to establish a substantial relationship between § 922(g)(9) and an important governmental goal. Having established the appropriate standard of review, we think it best to remand this case to afford the government an opportunity to shoulder its burden and Chester an opportunity to respond. Both sides should have an opportunity to present their evidence and their arguments to the district court in the first instance.

I think those government lawyers better get their act together and prove their case. What do you think?

Please leave a comment.

Ezra Klein on the Constitution

Australia's Murder Rate

Via Common Gunsense I was able to see this wonderful article which seems to put the lie to the popular por-gun nonsense that gun control does not work.

AUSTRALIA'S murder rate is at its lowest for two decades, but indigenous people continue to kill and be killed far more than the rest of the population, a new report says.

Overall, more murder victims died from stab wounds - 43 per cent - than any other cause, followed by beatings (24 per cent) and gunshots (12 per cent).

I don't think it takes a genius to put two and two together. Gun control works.

I'm sure the pro-gun crowd have some ingenious ways to wiggle out of it though.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

OMG - Even Farago's Doing It

Well I suppose it is New Year's Eve.

Just like I feel about responsible gun ownership in general, I don't oppose drinking for those who can handle it. What I do oppose is the gun owner who thinks he can drink without diminsihing his ability to be responsible. And of course, I oppose over-doing it.

Knowing that too many gun owners will be over-doing it tonight concerns me. At this point all I can do is wish you well and remind you to be careful.

Happy New Year

Tulsa Murder

Perhaps some of our commenters would like to know if the five bullets were what killed the guy or if he was still alive when the shooter began bashing his head into the concrete. If the latter, obviously, gun control would have nothing to do with it.

Even in that unlikely case, I'd like to point out that a guy with that much anger should not be in possession of a gun.

They were fighting over the shooter's wife and they'd done so before.  I guess there was some kind of stalking or perhaps even an affair going on.  Would that count as a domestic homicide, then?

One interesting fact emerged about the Tulsa murder stats.

Payne is Tulsa’s 61st homicide victim of the year, 10 short of the record 71 homicides last year.

At first this little afterthought in the article seems to support the pro-gun contention that gun violence is down despite the increase in gun ownership. But, aside from the fact that there's no mention of how many of those murders were by gun, the fact that last year was the highest ever ruins everything. The cherry-picking stat hounds always say that violence and crime and gun crime and whatever else they're talking about has been going down steadily for years.

That's just not the case in Tulsa, just like it's not in Newark or Austin.

Another interesting tidbit in this story is the concealed carry guy who got involved.  Interesting that he didn't get involved until it was too late, but what I'm wondering is do we count this as a DGU?

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Murder - Suicide in Ohio

I think I may have posted about this one already, they're coming so frequently now I can't keep track. Maybe it's the end of the year, or the economy or lack of health care.  Or, perhaps, it could be all those things combined with the easy access to guns.

What do you think?

A Columbus man who killed his girlfriend Monday night before shooting himself in the head died Tuesday afternoon at a Columbus hospital.

I suppose our newest commenter from Ohio, the one who tried to excuse the whole thing because supposedly the cause of death of the woman was the blow to the head not the bullet to the body, will have no trouble admitting the guy committed suicide with a gun.

But, let me guess, if someone wants to kill himself it's none of our business and it's certainly not the gun's fault.

Please leave a comment.

Bullet Casings at the DC Sniper Shootings

I became quite concerned the other day when I wrote this post about Josh Horwitz' ideas on microstamping.  Our frequent commenters kaveman and Fat White Man both accused Josh of lying about the bullet casings at the scenes of the DC sniper shootings.

"Each of the DC shootings was a single shot fired by Malvo from INSIDE the trunk of a car. They had cut a hole in the trunk just large enough to poke the barrel out and get a sight picture.

It is highly unlikely any shell casings were recovered by police through this tiny hole." said kaveman.

First of all, Kaveman is quite correct. The reports at the time said that no shell casings were found at the scene of the crimes. said Fat White Man.

So concerned was I, thinking that it makes sense what they said about the shootings and that would mean that maybe Josh Horwitz is like they say too.  So I wrote to his organization.

On my gun control blog I'm daily bombarded with the vicious and usually badly-formed attacks of the pro-gun crowd. But in this case I'm a bit at a loss. How do you respond to them when they say Josh was lying when he said there were shell casings left at the scene of the DC sniper shootings?

I received a very quick answer frim Ladd Everitt, Director of Communications, CSGV.

Thanks for the email, Mike.

A great source of the extensive ballistic evidence recovered during these shootings is Charles Moose's book, "Three Weeks in October: The Manhunt for the Serial Sniper":

http://books.google.com/books?id=vHc3lICVE4AC&pg=PT113&lpg=PT113&dq=three+months+in+october:+the+manhunt+for+the+serial+sniper&source=bl&ots=-y7XiZ6FAt&sig=VY1-bfI9w2azWd727KnCKxJ3T3Q&hl=en&ei=WqMcTa37I4S8lQe6mJHcCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false

You can search the terms bullet, casing, shell in there, etc., etc.

Ladd Everitt, Director of Communications

Well, you know me. Those instructions to search for key words looked a little complicated for me so I did what I should have done in the first place. I went to Wikipedia. In less than a minute I found this about the first shooting.

At this crime scene the authorities discovered a shell casing as well as a Tarot card (the Death card) inscribed with the phrase, "Call me God"

Well, I haven't looked any further. I figurd that answered my questions adequately about whether I should believe what biased, close-minded gun-rights folks say. I apologize to you Mr. Horwitz, and the staff at CSGV, for having entertained even for a moment what these guys say about you. It won't happen again, I promise.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Ohio Supreme Court Decision

At Zorro's insistence.

The comment I left about this on several other blogs was something along the lines of how funny it is when government-hating, libertarian-leaning, folks revel in government intervention. 

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

The Neanderthal Gene

via The Lobster Scope.

clipped from www.npr.org

This year was a good year for Neanderthals. Yes, they did go extinct about 30,000 years ago, but scientists now say their genes live on — in us.
Scientists also found a 40,000-year-old finger in a Siberian cave that apparently belonged to an unknown human-like creature. And hair from the corpse of a 4,000-year-old hunter revealed his blood type and a predisposition for baldness.

What made these discoveries possible was DNA, which is becoming biological science's window into the past.

This year a team of scientists brought together by the Max Planck Institute in Germany actually decoded the billions of DNA segments extracted from Neanderthal bones. It was the culmination of years of research into retrieving intact, ancient DNA from the bones of humans and their ancestors.

"We estimate that about one to four percent of the genetic ancestry of non-Africans is from Neanderthals," says David Reich, a geneticist from Harvard University and a member of the research team.

Which reminds me of this.

Young Kids Are Dropping Like Flies

from the local Fox News.

It’s now up to a judge or jury to determine if leaving the items in a Wilton home in the vicinity of two unsupervised 12-year-olds for several hours last week was a crime.

Let's see, the gun owner broke no laws and the surviving 12-year-old gets charged with manslaughter. Does that sound right to you?

Please leave a comment.

Baltimore 13-Year-Old Dead

This was another so-called "gun accident."

Pretty soon we'll get the 2010 statistics from which the pro-gun crowd can pick and choose those which support their irresponsible policies.  Maybe I can help.  Let's take all the "accidental gun deaths" and divide them by all the stars in the galaxy.  This will clearly show how insignificant the number is.

Regardless of how many zeros there are after the decimal point, I still say arrest the gun owners who leave guns around for kids to find and strip them of their gun rights.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Murder - Suicide in Newark Ohio

I'm sure our favorite Ohio resident, Fat White Man, will tell us no laws could have prevented this.

I don't buy it.  How about you?

Please leave a comment.

Cops are Dropping Like Flies

In Arlington, Texas, there were 3 dead in a domestic violence incident, including one cop. Early in the year an Arlington policeman had been killed in a traffic accident.
 
The article mentions a Georgia incident in which a cop was gunned down making a traffic stop.

Soon we should know what the yearly statistics are for cops dying in the line of duty. I'm sure like usually happens, people will get what they want out of the various surveys and reports. 

One thing I'd like to mention is when a cop goes into a potentially dangerous situation practicing proper restraint, he's probably more likely to get killed.  Naturally, this leads many police to pre-empt the perceived danger, which results in more of those incidents I like to write about in which an unarmed man is killed.  This is the great dilemma of being a cop.  That's why they need much more screening and training than they get now.

Both types of tragedies, the one in which a cop is killed because he didn't shoot first and the one in which an innocent man is killed unnecessarily, both types are increased because of gun availability.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

TS Proves My Point

As I sagely noted in another most excellent post, when gunloons are confronted with a study they don't like, they respond in certain ways.  Commenter TS illustrates my sage assertions vividly.

Please recall I noted 3 typical responses:
1. they haven't read them (reading is hard) and thus feel free to pretend the study has overlooked or omitted something they feel is crucial;

2. they believe studies are conducted by universities, Government organizations, and professionals who are all biased against guns;


3. the gunloons don't understand statistics(math is hard). In fact, recently, a gunloon claimed all statistics are "hogwash."

Missouri's Lack of Gun Laws

via Ohh Shoot.

14-year-old Megan Reppond of Joplin, Missouri went to a slumber party Monday night with three of her friends at the home of Scott Arkle. Arkle had gotten a new concealed weapons holster for Christmas and was trying it out with his .38-caliber handgun. He left the gun, loaded, unlocked, with no safety on, in the holster on top of a piano in one of the rooms of the house.
 

When the girls went into the room one of the young teenagers picked up the gun, assuming it wasn't loaded, jokingly pointed the gun at Megan and pulled the trigger. Megan was flown to a hospital in Springfield and was taken off life support Tuesday morning and subsequently died.
 

The county prosecutor said that while it is never a good idea to leave a loaded gun out in a home where there are children, he does not anticipate filing any charge in the case. Missouri does not have any CAP (Child Access Prevention) laws that require guns be stored locked and unloaded and impose criminal liability on adults who negligently leave firearms accessible to children.

What's your opinion? Is that a backwards state, or what?

Glenn Greenwald on Julian Assange

via Crooks and Liars

Sex Fantasy Killer

We already know the average gun owner has a vivid fantasy life, but this guy took it a wee bit further.

via Microdot who says 2011 will be an interesting year.

Machine Guns in The Carolinas

As usual when the pro-gun crowd say something over and over again, you have to wonder if it's true.

Privacy laws make it impossible for the public to know who in their region owns machine guns. But there are thousands of them in the Carolinas.

In 2000, there were about 9,500 registered machine guns in the Carolinas, according to the most recent publicly available data. (Those numbers probably haven't changed much because a federal law - aimed at restricting automatic weapons - prohibits civilians from buying machine guns manufactured after May 1986, according to Earl Woodham, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.)

I know, now the argument will switch to what's so much more dangerous about an automatic weapon anyway.

The point is, the gun crowd commonly says they're banned or so heavily restricted they might as well be banned. That doesn't seem to be the case.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Stand Your Ground in New Hampshire

Boston.com reports:

In his veto message blocking the 2006 gun bill, Lynch, a Democrat, said he wanted to avoid a law that "would authorize any shopper to instantly shoot and kill a thief who had grabbed or tugged at the shopper’s purse or briefcase, regardless of how many shoppers might be placed in harm’s way by such actions."

His opposition led to a compromise this year that softened the prohibition against drawing a gun on someone. The new law takes effect Saturday and allows citizens to show a weapon to warn away a potential attacker.

This is a wonderful direction for gun rights to move, isn't it? What's important above all else is the right of the gun owner. What's unimportant is the life of the criminal. This is where the line is really drawn between the "only ones" and the rest. The "only ones" being the supposed law-abiding gun owners and the rest being everybody else.

The problem is some of the "only ones" doing the shooting are not really law-abiding citizens, and some of the criminals are not really criminals.

Shooting at the first sign of trouble is not responsible gun management. Encouraging this will certainly result in more misuse and abuse than we already have.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Utah Man Killed by Police

One thing for sure, you can't say this guy was unarmed.

A gun-toting man fatally shot by police outside a Mormon Temple on Christmas Day also was carrying a machete, as well as a rifle, shotguns and multiple swords.

But you can say he was mentally ill.

Police remained uncertain about Pogue's motive, but said family members have said Pogue had a history of mental health problems.

So, under the future guidelines of full licensing and registration, we can ensure that guys like this only have machetes and swords, no guns.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

License to Kill

The bad guy supposedly made a "threatening gesture."

Fort Collins police shot and killed a man Dec. 8 after he pointed a flashlight at officers trying to arrest him for multiple felony warrants, according to an official report of the incident that says the officers' actions were justified.

In Colorado, like in most of the country, they enjoy it when the police get rid of bad guys like this and they make it easy for them to justify their actions.

The problem with that is, the same cop who shoots a bad guy unnecessarily like this, is liable to do the same to an innocent person someday. Cops, or anyone else for that matter, who shoot unarmed people should be removed from the job and stripped of their right to ever own a gun. That's my opinion.

What's yours? Please leave a comment.

Josh Horwitz on Microstamping

From The CSGV.

As a resident of the Washington, D.C. area, I can vividly remember the 2002 sniper shootings. With each shooting, cartridge casings littered the crime scene, but none of them could be traced back to the assault rifle being used to kill innocent civilians. The frustration among investigators striving to protect the terrified public was palpable. 

Why would law-abiding gun owners oppose something like this? That's often the question, isn't it?

Please leave a comment.

Bizness is Hard: Linoge Claims His Website Makes More $$ Than VPC

Jon C. Sullivan Pedals Hard

Linoge is claiming his blog makes more money than the VPC.

Due to his low GPA at Georgia Tech, Linoge probably never understood the concept of a non-profit.

Again, it's no surprise Linoge makes yet another claim without any supporting evidence.  The least he could do is provide his sales numbers for his self-published book-Everything I Know, I Learned on Firefly.

Guess Firefly didn't teach anything about business.

Why Gunloons Have Difficulty With Studies Or, Math and Reading Are Hard

Remember Linoge's simply ludicrous assertion?

Of course, any student of statistics and history would already know that there is no correlation between firearm ownership and crime rates, and what correlation there might be is negative (in that as firearm ownership increases, crime rates typically decrease). But, then, “history” and “statistics” do not exactly fit into the anti-rights nuts’ misappropriated concept of “common sense”, so what do you expect?

Father and Son Gun Owners in Florida

The rule is that 99.9 percent of gun owners are responsible and sober. After all if they aren't they might lose thier right to keep and bear arms. It's the exceptions to the rule that give us joy and amusement.

Domestic Violence Turned Upside Down

Guns are bad news for women in most cases. Every once in a while the tables get turned around.  It's still domestic violence though, and it was still made worse due to the presence of a gun.

Officers arrived at a home near 39th Avenue and Encanto to find a man who was shot in the stomach.

The wife told police her husband was upset, and when she was sleeping on the couch, he attacked her. He had a gun, and she said he pistol-whipped her, pointed it at her and threatened to kill her.

When he put the weapon down she grabbed it, and she said they struggled over the gun, and it went off.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

San Bernadino Police Shooting

This time they used the old he "reached into his waistband while running away" justification. But the guy was running away at the time.

Too many gun owners, both civilain and law enforcement, are unfit to make the kinds of decisions that carrying a gun demands.

Increased screening and training is what's needed, along with proper restrictions.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Guns in Sports Bars - Atlanta Style

In Georgia, where just about anything goes as far as guns are concerned, there was more trouble in paradise.

I know this has nothing at all to do with the world of legitimate gun owners. There is that gun, though.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Guns and Strippers - Phoenix Style

In Arizona, where just about anything goes as far as guns are concerned, Christmas weekend saw not one, but two shootouts in strip bars.

Obvioulsy what's needed is more and easier gun availability and fewer restrictions.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Just a Thought from Laci

Here it is in its entirety.

It amazes me that people in the US forget that the most destructive act of terrorism on American territory prior to 911 was the Oklahoma City Bombing, which was committed by an angry white bloke.

And up until the day of the bombing, the gun crowd would have been saying, he hasn't done anything wrong, you cannot punish someone for future crimes, this is not the Minority Report.

Afterwards, of course, they have nothing to do with him. He's not one of them. He's a nut and a criminal.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Police Station Shootings

 Dedicated to all our pro-gun friends who suffer from selective memory and keep repeating that crazy people with guns always choose gun-free zones for their sprees. Sometimes our biased friends even say, "You don't see these guys shooting up the police stations, do ya?"



This one's a bit old but quite dramatic.

Another one from this year. It's funny how many there are.

And another. Listen, I could go on all day with this. You get the idea, right? When pro-gun folks repeat things over and over again, you've got to consider that perhaps they're completely made up by someone and mindlessly repeated by the others.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

The Wire and Dungeons and Dragons

You can read the quotes chosen for each character better by double-clicking.  My favorite is McNulty. "Fuck the fucking numbers already. The fucking numbers destroyed this fucking department."

via MGK through Kottke (taken from Dungeons and Dragons alignment )

PA Domestic Shooting - 1 Dead 2 Wounded

It was your standard domestic shooting scene, girlfriend dead, girlfriend's mother wounded, shooter wounded.

What's your answer to this kind of thing? Please leave a comment.

Fort Campbell MP Kills Girlfriend

Imagine how angry you have to get to argue with your girlfriend, grab her by the hair, and shoot her in the head.

Some people are just not fit to own guns.

Please leave a comment.

Linoge at the Peak of his Game

From his post of December 21st: After pointing out, like all the other pro-gun bloggers, that guns are up and crime is down, Linoge penned this incredible two-sentence masterpiece.

Of course, any student of statistics and history would already know that there is no correlation between firearm ownership and crime rates, and what correlation there might be is negative (in that as firearm ownership increases, crime rates typically decrease). But, then, “history” and “statistics” do not exactly fit into the anti-rights nuts’ misappropriated concept of “common sense”, so what do you expect?

Now, I realize that the lengthy list of disparaging names Linoge has used on me is all a cover-up for his terrible feelings of inferiority, but even he should do better than this.  In the very same sentence he said there is "no correlation" and he said "what correlation there might be." 

Of course the correlation that might be supports his biased opinions. Then to cap off this unforgettable and masterful bit of thinking, he says it's the "anti-rights nuts" who have a problem with common sense.

What's your opinion?  Do you sometimes think Linoge is so busy linking to his own chart and trying to get to the part where he disparages the opposition that he loses focus?  I think that's it. Either that or he was having one of those stiff drinks again.

Please leave a comment.

Jason McDaniel - Poster Boy and Hero or Not

Whenever a guy with a gun shoots someone without a gun because the unarmed guy "lunged," I find it hard to accept as legitimate.  When the guy with the gun is as physically fit and agile as McDaniel proved to be on the video, it's even more suspicious. When afterwards there's not the slightest indication of remorse for having taken a life, I say something's wrong.  What do you think?

video

Colorado Man Protects His Family

In the gun-friendly State of Colorado they just love their legitimate gun owners who know how to protect themselves and their families.

Let me see if I got it all.  The jewelry store owner, McNulty leaves the shop late taking his gun with him. A robber, who's obviously seen too many movies, pretending to have a gun, says, "give me all your money, I'm holding your family."  

McNulty chased the robber across the parking lot, with the robber throwing rocks at him along the way. Eventually the robber got in a truck and headed straight for McNulty.

"He was driving after me," McNulty describes. "I got out of the way and I shot his tire."

It turns out McNulty's been watching too many movies too. If he'd been reading the news he'd know the cops use that "driving right at me" explanation to justify murder all the time.

I suppose this is sort-of an "how dare he" reaction combined with the Pennsylvania Castle Doctrine which encourages running down the bad guy and executing him. As I said, McNulty should be reading the gun news more and watching Bruce Willis movies less.

Here's the part that'll really make you laugh.

 Colorado Springs Police have been investigating. They say it's usually safer to cooperate in a situation like that, but it sounds like McNulty had a right to shoot.

"It sounds reasonable at this point," says Lt. Brian Ritz of the Colorado Springs Police Department. "The person has a right to use force to protect himself; whether it be deadly physical force or whatever the appropriate level of force may be to protect himself or his family."

What do you think that means, you can use deadly force, or if you choose, you can shoot at the tires?

Does it all mean that if someone says something completely unbelievable like "I got your family, man," you can chase him down and shoot him? I suppose that's exactly what it means. You can claim that you believed him.

What's your opinion? Are they completely nuts in Colorado, or what?

Please leave a comment.

Airport Security in Miami

Amidst recent reports that the airport scanners don't always work well, here's one for the good guys.

A man headed to Cuba has been arrested at Miami International Airport after security screeners said they found a loaded gun in his fanny pack.

Miami-Dade Police arrested 48-year-old Juan Manuel Baldoquin of West Palm Beach on charges of carrying a concealed weapon and grand theft of a firearm. He was being held on $10,000 bond.

Detective Javier Baez says a Transportation Security Administration screener spotted the outline of a gun while X-raying Baldoquin's bag. Police found the loaded gun when searching the bag by hand.

Baez says Baldoquin told officers that he had forgotten that the gun was in the bag.

The gun had been reported stolen in 1996 and it was unclear why Baldoquin was carrying it.

Would you say this story illustrates why it's important for people to report their stolen weapons?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Officer Martin Garcia - Houston's Finest

Last year he supposedly shot a driver who was trying to run him over. I didn't believe that one for a minute.  This time the unarmed man "made some sort of threatening gesture."

Officer Garcia should try a different line of work.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Yemen the New Hotbed

Well, at least we've ended our combat mission in Iraq and will be completely out of there this year.

via Phuck Politics.

Merry Christmas

Dedicated to all our booze-swillin' gun-totin' blog friends. You know who you are, especially you and you and you sweetie.

How would you interpret those two images? Please tell us.

7th Graders With Dad's Gun

It's a heartbreaker.



The thing I can't get over is that on blogs like Snowflakes in Hell and Say Uncle, where you've got thousands of readers, not a single incident like this is ever reported. According to those guys these incidents happen to other people not to them. Gun owners are more responsible than your average folks, at least that's what they say.

Well, I don't buy it. I say that among the readership of the popular gun blogs you've got all kinds of problem people. You've got the ones who allow negligent discharges to take place, you've even got the ones with anger issues who misuse the gun from time to time. In a group so large, you've got drunks and drug addicts, you've got the "hidden criminals" as well as the defiant ones who say "bad laws be damned." Of course none of this ever sees the light of day because it wouldn't be consistent with their misleading message.

Nicholas Naumkin is dead.  I blame the owner of the gun who somehow allowed his 12-year-old access to it.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Another Rough Day in Newark

When Newark has a single murder or a simple shooting it doesn't make the news. But the other night 7 people were shot, 3 of them fatally.

Here's the interesting part.

Already this year, the city was experiencing a rise in crime, including murder rates in some neighborhoods that are double what they were last year.

This is not the first major city which has had an increase in gun violence this year, in this case a doubling. Yet, how much do you want to bet the biased, closed-minded pro-gun crowd will continue to repeat that crime is going down as gun ownership increases?

What can explain such tunnel vision?

Please leave a comment.

Man Kills Wife by Mistake

Ohh Shoot has the story.

The story's got just about everything in it, rage, drinking, assault weapons.  I suppose this guy was one of the "lawful gun owners" who felt bad laws be damned. 

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Janice Crowther - Dallas Police Spokeswoman

I'm stuck on this one.  I need help fleshing it out.  I figure it could go one of two ways.  Either Officer Crowther is a raging maniac, a danger to herself and others or she's just run into a few white racists along the way who can't stand the idea of a black woman with a gun and uniform.

Which do you think it is?

Why Gun Availability is a Problem

Easy access to guns is a problem because there are guys like this out there. What do the pro-gun folks what to do about that? They want to make it easier, of course.

They're so concerned about being inconvenienced in the exercising of their god-given right to KandBA that they don't care what the results are, the inevitable, unavoidable results. They're counting on bad things always happening to the other guy, so who cares?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Thomas Jefferson's Code

The incredibly complex and ingenious code was not deciphered until 2007. The NRA moved in to suppress all dissemination of it's long-hidden and prophetic message. In part it reads:

The day will come when men will bastardize the intent of my words in order to use them for their own advantage. This will be especially true concerning the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights. As a safeguard, as soon as the young Nation is successfully thriving, perhaps 50 years, certainly no more, the 2nd Proposal shall be stricken from the document - a time limit or expiration date shall have been imposed.

via Dan Lewis, archive - subscribe.

21st Century Schizoid Man - kaveman

Dedicated to kaveman. He knows why.

Gun Control Extremists

The Gun Control Network is certainly on the far end of the gun control spectrum.  I guess we need guys like these to balance out, at least a little bit, the many, many on the pro-gun side, who are equally extreme in the opposite direction.

What do you think?

There Ought To Be A Law

Poster Boy - Media Sensation

Do you feel it? Yesterday he was pictured with the cutest little boy, today it's the dog. I can't wait to see what spin they put on it tomorrow.

He want's his rights back. And the good news is he's no longer suicidal.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Tammerlin Drummond on Gun Availability

After writing a very fair article in the aftermath of yet another justified Oakland police killing, pointing out how some of these incidents are indeed justified, Ms. Drummond makes the following observations.

There are countless young men in this city with guns who appear intent on annihilating one another -- and anyone else who gets in their way.

Why is it so easy for them to get access to guns?

Who is bringing them into the city?

What can we do to get this frightening arsenal off the streets?

That's the root issue that we need to be focused on.

What's your opinion? Is gun availability part of the problem?

Please leave a comment.

The Gunloon Swiss Fantasy

One could spend hundreds of posts debunking the gunloon perception of Switzerland.  To the gunloon, Switzerland is a country where the Govt. gives you an assault weapon that you can carry around, impress chicks with, and go out with your buddies and have some full-auto fun!

Of course, the reality is very different.  Switzerland has a national militia system that requires able-bodied civilian men of military age keep weapons at home in case of a national emergency. These weapons are fully automatic, military assault rifles, and by law they must be kept locked up. Their issue of 72 rounds of ammunition must be sealed, and it is strictly accounted for.  IOW, you don't get to carry your weapon around, you don't get to blast stuff in your backyard with your buddies. And no impressing of chicks.

Furthermore, private firearms are subject to stricter gun control than the US; both guns and ammo are registered.

Lately, however, the populace of Switzerland has decided they have a gun violence problem:
IOW, the electorate of Switzerland is demanding the Swiss Govt. tighten gun laws.

Shaken by a number of high-profile killings over the past decade a broad alliance of human rights groups, churches, women’s organisations, trade unions and centre-left political parties has succeeded in forcing a nationwide ballot on an anti-gun initiative.

Linoge's Idiocy Knows No Bounds

Linoge expends several thousand words in an attempt to communicate that he will never, ever, never register his firearms.

Robert Farago, in comments, notes that...well, he already has by virtue of filling out a 4473 form.  I'd also add that since Jon-Boy also has a CCW (small penis) permit granted him by the state of Tennessee--should mandatory registration ever come about, his doorbell would be among the first rung.

What makes this so amusing is that gunloons like Linoge often make pronouncements knowing full well that if the law changes, they'll meekly get in line and comply.  The plain truth is Jon-Boy isn't willing to give up his lifestyle for any principle he imagines he holds.

Update: Thinking about this a bit more; it's hilarious that Jon-Boy -who rountinely posts photos of firearms he owns--thinks not registering his precious  manhood guns will keep the Govt.--who employs him--from seizing them.

San Diego Gun Buy Back

via Flying Junior. I'll let him set it up.

Couldn't help but think of you when I heard this on the radio. A religious group organized a buyback just in time for Christmas with grocery store gift cards. $100 for any gun in working order. $200 for an assault rifle. No questions asked. 168 weapons will be destroyed. One guy turned in an Uzi! Several people refused the cards. Several more turned in weapons after the gift cards ran out.

It was the third year that the United African-American Ministerial Action Council of San Diego has sponsored the event aimed at curbing gun violence.

The event began two years ago after two teenagers were fatally shot by gang members.


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/dec/20/people-line-turn-guns-cops/

I still don't understand why pro-gun folks object to these things.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Arizona Road Rage Maniac

Didn't Arizona recently pass a law which allows people to carry concealed weapons without a permit. In other words every gun owner is in effect a CCW permit holder.

Well, here's one.

Oman admitted to police to getting into an argument with the victim and pulling the gun from its holder on his right side, but initially denied pointing the gun at the victim, court records state.

Later, however, he said he pointed the gun because the victim spit on him. According to records, when officers told him the victim denied spitting on him and that was not justification to point a gun, Oman responded "I guess that was my mistake then, huh?"

Police found the handgun and a magazine containing eight rounds of 45 caliber ammunition in Oman's glove box, court records said.

Oman was arrested and is expected to face charges of aggravated assault.

Is that what they refer to as freedom? You can't even delay coming off a red light without some maniac gun owner coming after you. I suppose the "victim" in this case should have had his own gun, that would have helped.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

More on Our Favorite Loophole

There's an interesting post on a site called Bacon's Rebellion.  Happily, the blog title refers to the author's last name and not that vile food product some of you like so much.  After a very-well-done synopsis of the "gun show loophole" story, Mr. Bacon concludes like this.

The bottom line - I am a gun ownership advocate. I believe in the Second Amendment and the Supreme Court interpretation of that amendment in the Heller case. However, there is good reason to perform a background check prior to selling a gun. I support the adoption of Colorado's regulatory approach. Guns sold at gun shows must be through a registered firearms dealer with a background check. Private sales outside of gun shows are allowed without a background check. I can live with private sales and I can live with firearms shows - just not at the same time. 

I'm not sure where he's coming from. I know some gun control folks who suggest exactly the same and have been met with criticism from both sides that allowing private sales outside of gun shows to continue without background checks leaves us pretty much where we started out.

One obvious improvement would be, under the Bacon Plan, that all those lying gun sellers who fly under the radar and frequent gun shows as private sellers would be out of business. Or would they? Couldn't they just take their business somewhere else, the internet, the local want ads, their garage?

No, I'm afraid limiting the restrictions to gun shows is not gonna get it.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Shooting Range Suicide

Tampa, Florida was the site of this terrible incident. The reporter must have been either lazy or late for the deadline. Usually in these stories they list some of the other recent gun-range suicides that have happened in their area. It's not as rare as the pro-gun crowd would have you think.

What's your opinion? Is it right for depressed and suicidal people to have such easy access to guns? Wouldn't it be better if there were some attempt to screen them out and get them help. Isn't this a good place for the friends, relatives and shooting buddies to step in and help? I'm sure no one over at The Truth About Guns knows anyone like this, but sadly, they're out there.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Proper Sentencing for a Gun Incident

Anyone can get drunk and get themselves 86ed from the bar. But when you bring a gun back and threaten to kill people you've gone too far. You must pay the ultimate price, which for the gun owner is not loss of life it's loss of gun rights.

Along with the $50,000 bond came special conditions of absolute sobriety. Cozine is also not to possess any firearms.

What's your opinion? Do you think this guy was already a criminal? Do you think it's right for a guy like that to have such easy access to a gun?

Please leave a comment.

Proper Sentencing for a Gun Accident

When a terrible gun accident happens, whether the victim is a friend or relative, many times the shooter is already punished. Excessive jail time may not be necessary, but allowing future gun rights to continue would be a terrible travesty of justice.

Sometimes they get it right.

Conditions of his probation included following recommendations of a chemical dependency evaluation; no use of alcohol or controlled substance and random testing; no use or possession of guns, and forfeiture of the Glock semiautomatic pistol involved in the death.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Xmas Shopping Tip

What do you get the gunloon in your life?

Sure, it's easy enough to get the usual and the expected.  But he got that the year before and the year before that...

A DVD? He's got Red Dawn and the Die Hard box set.  Books? Nope. His Turner Diaries may be dog-eared but it's got a couple readings left in it.

What to get?

Another DGU Gone Wrong

Whoopsie:

They got out to confront the teens and Breonna Roberts got into a fight with them, deputies said.



"At some point during that confrontation Roberts returned to his vehicle and retrieved a firearm," Humboldt County sheriff's spokeswoman Brenda Godsey said. "During the continuing fight, Roberts’ firearm discharged, striking his wife."

The DGU Gunowners Dream About

The title of this post is meant quite literally.  Once, I think it was, Robert Farago posted about dreams, which naturally must be a part of every gun owners subconscious life.

This DGU story doesn't quite qualify for the super duper category, for that you have to disarm the criminal and kill him with his own gun.  But this one is pretty dramatic, just the kind our gun-loving friends must fantasize about.

A 19-year-old man is dead after he fired a semiautomatic pistol at a boxed-in motorist who then shot him back, Seminole County deputies said Saturday. 

The driver, whose name was not immediately revealed, told authorities that he was heading home about 2:15 a.m. Saturday near Old Lake Mary Road and Egrets Landing when he saw two cars following him. Sheriff's Lt. James Clark said the driver tried to turn around, but was boxed in by the vehicles. 

A man later identified as Desmond Willis got out of one of the cars and began firing a semiautomatic pistol at the motorist in what the Sheriff's Office called an attempted robbery. The driver had a gun and returned fire, Clark said.

What's your opinion? Is that a clean DGU? Do you think the investigators determined so quickly that there was no connection between the men? Did the shooter have to provide a Florida gun license of any kind and explain his whereabouts at 2:00 a.m.?  Do you think they checked to see that he himself was not a prohibited person?

Of course if the source information in Florida is anything like that in Colorado, this hero could have been Jack the Ripper in disguise.

Please leave a comment.

Colorado Gun Permit Database

It's not surprising that the maintenance of this tool, which law enforcement finds useful for obvious reasons, is a total mess.  But why?  What's so difficult in keeping records.

Colorado's concealed-weapons database does not contain information about 16,000 permits — 45 percent of those issued — partly because 20 counties, including Douglas and El Paso, don't enter the information with Colorado Crime Information Center.

And that is just part of the problem. Among other audit findings:

• Of 51,000 records that are entered by participating sheriff's offices onto the computer system, 32,000, or 63 percent, of the records contain inaccuracies, the audit says.

• Although concealed-gun permits expire in five years, the database contains records for dozens of permits claiming they won't expire for 40, 50 or 100 years.

• 2,000 records in the database are duplicates, with one showing the permit as valid, and a second showing it as revoked — for the same person.

• Another 2,700 permits indicate on an initial screen that a person has a permit while a secondary screen shows that they were denied a permit.

How do you account for this mess? Who is it exactly who is failing to report or creating duplicate records? Who's responsible for this?

Who benefits from this confusion? Wouldn't this be one of those situations that benefits all gun owners.  The out and out criminals, the hidden criminals and the law-abiding gun owners all enjoy this one.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Gun Licensing in Scotland

If you listen to the pro-gun crowd you'd get the impression that lawfully-owned guns have practically disappeared in the United Kingdom. They use expressions like "guns have been banned there," and other ignorant and misleading statements to paint a false picture. If questioned, they fall back on that tedious argument over the meaning of "ban."

This story is interesting because it shows that there's a very different situation in Scotand than we've been led to believe regarding gun ownership. It also brings up the fascinating subject of children and guns.

A minimum age limit for shotgun licences should be introduced, according to the Scottish Government, after it emerged one had been given to a child of 10.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Chris Christie Commutes Sentence of Criminal

Three triple decker burgers, please.  And super-size 'em

The NJ governor whose name sounds like a fairy elf has opted to commute the sentence of criminal gunloon Brian Aitken--posterboy of the oppressed small penis crowd.

Remember this: as I've sagely noted, gunloons like to talk about getting tough on crime--more enforcement, longer sentences.  But when a (white) gunloon commits a gun crime....well, laws are for other (black, brown) people.

The Complicity of Gun Owners

Over on Snowflakes in Hell I've been met with the usual resistance. Here's my latest comment on that thread.

Allow me to repeat my assertion in a different way. Most of you guys have friends or relatives who you know are not fit to own guns. You do nothing about it for several reasons, you feel it's none of your business, or you feel it's their right to own guns in spite of whatever disqualifying problems they may have.  Maybe you even have mixed feelings about it but inertia takes over, you do nothing.

That's where you're complicit.

To clarify for you contentious guys who like to purposely miss my point, but disqualifying problems I mean all those things I itemized on my post The Famous 10% (no link provided because you know where to find it if you want and I'd hate to prove Sean the mindreader right that all I'm looking for is traffic).

I'll change that "most of you guys" to all of you guys. Every one of you knows some gun owner who drinks too much for his own good, or who flies off the handle showing signs of anger problems.  You justify not intervening because maybe, let's hope, it never results in a bad scene. How about the prescription medication guys, the ones who've had back problems or depression and got hooked on the medicine. And let's not forget the accident prone.

Of course some of you go much further, you have friends or relatives with violent criminal pasts who seem to have straightened out. What are you going to do, play cop and criticize their desire to exercise a natural human right like everybody else. Of course not.  That's why you're all complicit in this.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Teaching Kids Gun Safety

Down in Shreveport, where a teenager was just killed by accident the other day, they're starting gun safety classes for kids.

Here's the part that really makes me laugh.

"We're trying to take the curiosity away from children so no one is injured by a firearm found in the home," said sheriff's deputy Cpl. Jim Dunn. "Its the worst call I've ever been to when a child is unintentionally injured by a firearm."

I don't believe such a thing is possible. The inquisitiveness and mischievousness of many children is such that nothing can overcome it. The more a kid is told not to touch, the more he'll want to do just that. It's irresistible.

I've been a bit ambivalent about this question, but now it's clear to me. Teaching kids gun safety does more harm than good, just like gun ownership itself. The incredible naivete of the pro-gun folks who think safety and common sense can be taught to very young children is typically self-serving of them. The fact is it cannot, but what can be taught is the idea that guns are good, that owning guns is the answer, that hunting animals is a healthy activity. These are the lessons the kids learn, meanwhile the dads continue to leave their guns around in closets and nightstands.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Tennessee Boy Dead Cleaning Guns

The boys who were only 13 and 14 were "seasoned hunters," according to the report. Yet, one of them pulled the trigger while pointing the gun at the other. Of course the TV reporter said the gun just went off. That's how they describe these incidents, when it's convenient, the gun has that magical power, other times they mock gun control people for focusing on the gun.


I say the parents should be arrested for not having taught the 4 Rules of Gun safety and for not having supervised this gun-cleaning operation.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Arizona Bar Shooting

Already covered by Jadegold.

I'm sure the characters involved in this shooting have nothing to do with the squared-away, responsible and upstanding gun owners of Arizona, except for the fact that they enjoy the same permissive atmosphere with regards to guns as their more-legitimate neighbors.

On the other hand, not to be guilty of racial profiling, who's to say the shooter wasn't one of the good guys who happened to be "Hispanic and about 25 years old."  Oh, I remember, the good guys don't drink and get in fights in bars when they're carrying.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Colorado Man Shoots Pregnant Wife

Unlike the characters in Stephen Wright's book, these are your real Coloradans.  Of course the neighbor described them "as down to earth and normal people."

Castle Rock Police arrested a man who held SWAT officers at bay for more than 10 hours Saturday.

Officers said the standoff came to a peaceful ending just after 7 p.m.Police said the situation started after a man in the Castle Rock home shot his pregnant wife.

Shannon Orendorf, 33, was shot at 8 a.m. in her home on High Plains Street and High Plains Place. At least report, Orendorf was in stable condition at a local hospital after surgery. Family members and friends told 7NEWS Orendorf is three months pregnant.

Since they were such normal people, one possible explanation is that something was wrong with his medication. Of course when I suggested that folks with this problem make up a small part of the Famous 10%, it was met with unanimous dismissal by the pro-gun crowd.

The news report also revealed that he'd had a restraining order against him some years ago, but in Colorado such things are of little importance. Out there in the Centennial State, they're mainly interested in freedom and rights. The problem is guns are bad news for women, especially in places like Colorado.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Fast Forward

Stephen E. Wright, when he's not hawking his horribly awful vanity press e-book, writes:

My children will someday have to know there are people like you in the world; but I don't need to invite you into my house.

Now, I could write something snarky such as reading your daddy's book should be trauma enough but, in truth, this is very likely what his children's wedding will look like:

The Cost of Gunloonery

I'd meant to post this earlier, but life intervened.

All too often, we tend to think of the cost of gunloonery in terms of lives lost.  Certainly, that's a very heavy cost.  And gunloons would like for us to forget about the lives that are shattered in terms of families and friends. But there are many more instances where a gunloon's victim doesn't die; at least, not right away.

Here's one such story:

Six weeks later, he was in a rage when he tracked down Ms. Keo, then 17, at a friend's house in Oakton. He broke through the door of a bedroom where she had taken refuge and flashed a handgun, yelling "You're gonna die, bitch!" before shooting her four times.



She bled for two hours before police found her, then spent seven weeks fighting to survive. Doctors saved her life, but not her spinal cord: Ms. Keo was paralyzed from the neck down.

Her case riveted Washington for months. But the headlines eventually faded, and Ms. Keo's efforts to fashion a life continued in private. She was 45 when she died Dec. 8 of a respiratory illness at her home in Alexandria.

Drinkin' 'n' Gunloonery

Still don't mix:

At about 11:35 p.m., someone called 911 from the bar to report that "at least one man had been shot."


Police arrived at the bar to find one man suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken to hospital, where he died a short time later. He is Hispanic and about 25 years old, Ronstadt said.

The Matrix Stockroom

via Mother Jones, where there's a fascinating discussion about the Brady Brief on carrying guns during North Carolina emergencies. 

Big Victory for the Gun Lobby

The long overdue White House decision about multiple sales of long guns has been delayed until spring.

It seems clear that pressure from the NRA and their lobbyists is responsible for this.  What could be more reasonable than to require gun dealers to report bulk sales of weapons, the very fact that they are being bought in bulk being an indication that they may be destined for Mexico.

What's your opinion?  Is this another example of Obama just not doing what he said he'd do?

Please leave a comment.