Eddie Eagle for Parents

RuffRidr sent us this link proving, I don't know what. It is interesting though.

In a home where guns are kept, the degree of safety a child has rests squarely on the child's parents.

Parents who accept the responsibility to learn, practice and teach gun safety rules will ensure their child's safety to a much greater extent than those who do not. Parental responsibility does not end, however, when the child leaves the home.

According to federal statistics, there are guns in approximately half of all U.S. households. Even if no one in your family owns a gun, chances are that someone you know does. Your child could come in contact with a gun at a neighbor's house, when playing with friends, or under other circumstances outside your home.

It is critical for your child to know what to do if he or she encounters a firearm anywhere, and it is the parents' responsibility to provide that training.

What's your opinion? Why does it seem that this message is not getting through? There's certainly nothing wrong with the message itself. Perhaps it's not being disseminated properly. Or perhaps that old human tendency of assuming "it'll never happen to me" is so prevalent among gun owning adults, that they just don't pay attention. What can be done about that?

What's your opinion? Why does it seem that this message is not getting through? There's certainly nothing wrong with the message itself. Perhaps it's not being disseminated properly. Or perhaps that old human tendency of assuming "it'll never happen to me" is so prevalent among gun owning adults, that they just don't pay attention. What can be done about that?

Please leave a comment.

Underwater Assault Rifles

FishyJay sent us the link of something really cool. I just hope these things are banned, I wanted to go swimming on the Jersey Shore this summer.

Oregon Man Arrested

KGW.com reports.



In a later article, KGW published some of the polarizing comments they'd received on this issue.

"What? Arrest the guy who saves the day?"
"Give him a medal and then a badge!"
"It's so satisfying to see instant justice delivered at bullet speed to criminals."

Fellow concealed handgun licensee, Lars Larson always has an opinion and it's no different here.

"Shooting the tires out is something they do in Hollywood, even the police don't do it," said Larson.

Larson said he was angry that Witter's actions gave a bad name to those who lawfully carry concealed handguns.

"He was going against the law and to a certain extent making the case for those people who would like to take my rights away and I don't appreciate that," explained Larson.

What's your opinion? I guess the first commenter didn't realize the bad guys got away in spite of the dramatics. But, what do you think about Lars Larson's remarks? Does Witter give all the other CCW guys a bad name? Wouldn't it be better for other gun owners to support Witter as an example of manly virtues?

Please leave a comment.

California Man Threatens Mayor Daley

The Chicago Sun Times reports on the California man who was so incensed at Mayor Daley's remarks last week that he left a threatening message on the mayor's answering machine.

Christopher Fox, 39, was charged with making a threat against a public official, authorities said.

He was taken into custody by San Jose police and is awaiting extradition here.

When the story first broke, I thought anyone who claims to take the mayor's remarks seriously as a threat, like Kurt did in his article, was just doing the old rhetorical trick of the gun rights debaters: exaggerate the fault of the enemy and argue as if it's true.

But now I'm wondering. It seems inconceivable to me that anyone could have sincerely taken the silly remarks of Mayor Daley seriously, but maybe they did. This guy in California actually picked up the phone, dialled up Chicago and left a message.

Didn't he, or Kurt Hofmann for that matter, realize the mayor was really saying "guns are dangerous and if you get shot with one you'd realize it?" Didn't they understand it was a gritty or shocking way to express that simple truth of gun control theory?

I still think Kurt realized all that and took advantage of the situation to get on his soap box, the inevitable result being that the less intellectually gifted readers take it so seriously they spring into action by truly threatening people.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Gun Smuggling into New Jersey

NJ.com reports on the tremendous success investigators are enjoying in the war on illegal guns. (I'm being sarcastic, I don't think it's a tremendous success as much as it represents a mere drop in the bucket.)

Can you guess which states with lax gun laws are to blame, or I should say, are the source of these guns? Read the article, but don't expect any surprises.

Harvey Police Recover Machine Gun

The Post Tribune reports on the partial success of the Harvey Police in recovering an Uzi sub-machine gun which had been stolen from their shooting range earlier this month.

A Harvey, Ill., man is in custody on a felony gun charge, and a fully automatic submachine gun stolen in a burglary of Harvey, Ill., police firing range has been recovered.

Delekeists Quan Walls, 19, was charged in Lake Superior Court with felony possession of a machine gun.

Walls' bail is $20,000 surety, or $2,000 cash.

Does that seem like a low bail to you? I mean, anybody can come up with 2 grand and be back on the street doing their thing. Is this what they mean by excessively strict gun laws in Chicago?

What do you suppose happened with the other 20 weapons that were stolen? Maybe when young Walls makes bail he'll lead the investigators to them.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Lax Gun Laws in Maine

The Portland Press Herald reports on the gun-law situation in Maine.

In light of the recent “open carry rally” in Portland (where firearms were openly displayed), it might be of interest to review the gun situation in Maine.

Maine has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the country and a higher rate of death from firearms than Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire and six other states.

About 13 children and 100 adults die in Maine each year from firearms. The most recent data from the Maine Center for Disease Control show that the suicide rate for people ages 20 to 24 is 30 percent above the national average, and firearms account for more than 50 percent of these deaths.

It is legal for a 16-year-old (with parental permission) to buy a rifle and an 18-year-old, a handgun. Drinking is legal at 21 and a driver’s license at 16.

Maine is the No. 1 supplier of guns used in crimes in Massachusetts. The U.S. attorney in Portland, working with federal agencies in Maine and Massachusetts, has targeted two-way traffic (guns to Massachusetts and drugs to Maine) with extensive use of undercover agents, informants, specialized Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and FBI agents from outside the region and cooperative programs with local and state law enforcement.

It's always the same story isn't it? The reasonable and sensible gun control folks are struggling to communicate with the close-minded and biased gun rights folks.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

The War is Making Your Poor

Thanks to The Humble Libertarian.

Political Corruption and Gun Rights

Opinione has posted an interesting article on the relationship between Gun rights and political corruption.

A prime example of how a political action committee like the NRA has put its own interests first at the expense of the individual, is the Connecticut gun law requiring a resident who wants to own a handgun to take a handgun safety course. While this may appear to be a good law in itself, the required fee of $ 125 paid to a “licensed NRA instructor” proves without a doubt of how the NRA got legislation passed to benefit itself at the expense of the gun owner. This is evident in the fact that the entire $ 125 fee paid by the Connecticut resident goes entirely to the licensed NRA instructor and not a single dollar of that “fee” goes to the state. This “fee” is nothing short of a revenue-generating stream for the NRA, enabled by a corrupt political system, where the elected officials often act as agents for the people and groups they receive money and gifts from. This is one of the reasons why the United States is only ranked as the 17th most democratic in the world and the 18th least corrupt government.

While reading the rest of the post, I wondered what the Prince is trying to say. I suppose, less infringement on gun rights is one idea, plus big government is bad. What did you think of it?

Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting in Florida

The Miami Herald reports on another accidental shooting in which luckily no one was seriously injured or killed.

SPRING HILL, Fla. -- Two men were injured in Hernando County after one of them accidentally fired his gun while cleaning it.

The sheriff's office reports that 20-year-old Thomas Maffatone his Springfield semiautomatic handgun Monday evening when it discharged. A bullet went through Maffatone's left hand and hit his friend, 20-year-old Michael King, in the right foot. Another friend drove both men to a Spring Hill hospital.

All three men told deputies the shooting was accidental.

No charges were reported.

WHAT! No charges were reported? Are they so gun-friendly in Florida that they don't even bother with some silly misdemeanor like reckless endangerment or something? No, of course not. The boy was only exercising his 2nd Amendment right to own and handle a gun, however stupidly.

Here's an idea, Felony Recklessness. This would be a disqualifying conviction which would dramatically improve the quality of the rest who still do qualify. What do you think?

Please leave a comment.

Total Gun Ban

Did you ever notice how some words and phrases just do not translate?

RMN Networks provides the proof.

Comelec Total Gun Ban, malaki ang naitulong sa pagsugpo ng krimen ayon kay Central Luzon Regional Police Spokesman Supt. Baltazar Mamaril

A Really Cool Gun

"Designed for use against live targets, including targets protected with body armor, and unarmored vehicles (cars. trucks, etc.)"

The Afghanistan War

Masslive.com says, "So as Memorial Day approaches let’s not discuss numbers, but instead remember that somewhere in America someone is mourning the most important person in the world. That’s an uncountable loss."

The Age.com from Melbourne Australia says, "The toll of American dead in Afghanistan passed 1000 this week, after a suicide bomb in Kabul killed at least five US service members."

Having taken nearly seven years to reach the first 500 dead, the war killed the second 500 in fewer than two."

WUSA9.com reports on the funeral of Marine Cpl. Kurt Steven Shea of Frederick, Maryland. "Shea loved horses, but military values of "honor, courage and commitment" are what drew him to the Marine Corps, Rev. Goulet told mourners."

That's just a few. My own feelings on this are that Obama inherited a difficult situation from Bush with regards the wars and that the new president has failed miserably to improve upon it.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Why Guns Differ from Knives

Knives were invented and have been developed through the years to do a number of cutting jobs. For example, you use a knife to cut your sirloin steak into bite-sized pieces. When Amazon delivers your new edition of John Lott's famous book, you grab a knife to quickly and efficiently open the package.

In all fairness, if you get really mad at someone and decide to stab them in the eye, a knife will serve that purpose, but that was not its original design. In fact many knife killings happen because there's no gun handy, but because the knife wasn't primarily designed to kill, the chances of failure are much greater than with a gun.

Guns, on the other hand were invented and have been developed throughout the years for one purpose: to kill. When you want to kill someone else or yourself, the first choice is a gun. This makes perfect sense because that's what it was made for.

Of course, people do use guns to fire into the air on New Year's Eve, and many people carry guns to feel safe and secure, but these things were not the original purpose. Some people do target shooting, but what's that but simulated killing?

But what about the self-defense capability of a gun, some might ask. Well, a gun can be used for that purpose, and occasionally is, but in most cases the attacker is using a gun himself attempting to kill the defender and in many cases the defender himself becomes the aggressor, sometimes killing the attacker needlessly. Even in cases of self-defense, the gun is being used for it's basic killing function.

So, it's very clear. The difference between knives, and many other objects that in a pinch can be used to kill, and guns, is like the difference between night and day.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Worst Persons in the World

Hitler's Precious Stormtroopers

Think Progress provided this video which seems better suited to The Onion.

American Family Association’s (AFA) homophobic Director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy, Bryan Fischer, is constantly pushing an extreme anti-gay agenda, even going after people he just thinks might be gay. This week on AFA Radio, he claimed that not only was Adolf Hitler gay, but all his “Brownshirts” were too:

NRA Teaching VA Gun Safety

The Raw Story reports on Virginia Governor McDonnell's move to allow the NRA sole access to the school kids for gun safety classes.

The Republican governor of Virginia has quietly changed a state law last month that would teach gun safety to elementary school students, mandating that it use a gun safety program run by the NRA.

The National Rifle Association exerts considerable influence in American politics, and has recently won a series of victories in the US Congress. Democratic leaders have been reluctant to challenge the powerful lobbying group, in part because they rely on a more conservative bloc of Democrats for their control of the legislative branch.

Now, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has delivered the NRA another coup: a monopoly on teaching gun safety to schoolchildren from kindergarten to fifth grade.

Maybe this is a quid pro quo action on the part of the gov. The NRA did help him get elected, after all.

The website for the NRA child gun safety program says their goal "isn't to teach whether guns are good or bad, but rather to promote the protection and safety of children."

Do you believe that? Do you believe an NRA sponsored program of gun safety can be delivered without the slightest indication of whether they feel guns are good or bad? I don't. I believe such a program would be a form of advertising for the gun culture.

It reminds me of the discussions about teaching safe sex in schools? When a health educator explains the way condoms are used to prevent disease and pregnancy, don't the conservatives say this is tantamount to encouraging the kids to have sex? I disagree with that. I believe that sex education is just what it's supposed to be. And it saves lives.

So what it boils down to is the gun culture hurts people and safe sexual practices helps them. The conservatives have it exactly backwards as usual.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

John Heinze Jr. Appears in Court

The Washington Examiner reports on the first court appearance of Guy Heinze Jr, whom we've discussed before.

"He's scared to death, and he knows he didn't do it," Tyler Heinze, the suspect's 17-year-old brother, told The Associated Press as he left the courthouse.

Police arrested Guy Heinze six days after the Aug. 29 discovery of the bloodied bodies of his father, Guy Heinze Sr., and several members of an extended family beaten with a blunt weapon inside the mobile home they all shared.

It was Heinze who alerted neighbors to call 911 that morning and sobbed as he told a police dispatcher: "My whole family's dead."

Tyler Heinze has supported his brother from the beginning.

What's your opinion? The first suggestion of his innocence was the fact that killing that many people by bludgeoning without ending up with blood all over himself would be impossible, but I thought of another reason. In gun friendly Georgia, why would someone bother with all that effort? Why wouldn't he just shoot them?

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

John Alba Executed in Texas

The Star Telegram reports on the execution of a man who killed his wife in 1991.

A Collin County man, asking forgiveness for killing his estranged wife, was executed Tuesday evening for forcing his way into a neighbor's apartment and shooting his wife not long after he had been released from jail on bail on a child molestation charge.

When a warden asked whether he had a final statement, John Alba, 54, said, "I wish I could go back and change it, but I know I can't."

He also addressed his son and daughter, who watched through a window.

"Just tell everyone I love them," he said. "Y'all will be OK. I will, too.

"OK, warden," he said. "Do it."

Among the witnesses were the parents of the girl he was accused of molesting.

As the lethal drugs began to take effect, Alba said he could taste them.

"I am starting to go," he said just before slipping into unconsciousness. He was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m.

Now that's what I call a graphic description of pre-meditated murder.

Alba and his wife, Wendy, 28, had a rocky marriage marked by alcohol abuse, infidelity and domestic violence, according to trial testimony.

While Alba was in jail for several weeks after a 12-year-old girl told police that he fondled her, Wendy Alba took refuge in a neighbor's apartment in Allen while she was trying to find a women's shelter.

Not long after leaving jail Aug. 5, 1991, Alba bought a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol at a Plano pawn shop. He showed up at the apartment, forced his way in and shot Wendy Alba. The neighbor, who was wounded, testified against Alba.

I wonder if it's as easy today to buy a gun in the Plano pawn shop? What do you think?

Sometimes it seems like a violent and dangerous character like this guy has the full support of other gun owners, he has a right to bear arms like everybody else, after all, but when he kills his wife, the pro-gun guys say, "he's not one of us, he's a criminal."

I can understand the gun rights folks wanting to draw a line between themselves and the gangbangers, but not between themselves and hard-drinking violent men like John Alba. You belong to the same group.

Please leave a comment.

Glenn Beck: Megalomaniac

Main Entry: meg·a·lo·ma·nia

Pronunciation: \ˌme-gə-lō-ˈmā-nē-ə, -nyə\

Function: noun

Etymology: New Latin

Date: 1887

1 : a mania for great or grandiose performance
2 : a delusional mental disorder that is marked by feelings of personal omnipotence and grandeur

Of course this word is much too progressive for Glenn, having first been used in 1887, but I don't know the Revolutionary War era word for what he is.

The Examiner reports on the latest symptoms.

Glenn Beck evidently believes the Purple Heart is some progressive invention which distorted a previous award called the "Badge of Merit."

Beck plans to give out his own Badge of Merits at a rally he is holding at the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of MLK's famous "I Have a Dream Speech." Beck essentially will be playing the part of the military in handing out his own military distinctions.

What's your opinion? Is he best defined by the first definition of "megalomania" or the second?

Please leave a comment.

More on the Arkansas Father and Son Shootout

The Brady Blog provided several links about the now infamous father and son team in Arkansas who killed two policemen before being killed themselves. We discussed them the other day, FishyJay providing some comments very rightly pointing out the difficulty in identifying these dangerous types. The Brady post provides a bit of illumination.

Jerry Kane publicly espoused violence, had strong anti-authority feelings, had multiple run-ins with the law, and caused local law enforcement to be concerned about his future actions. And, yet, he was still able to obtain AK-47 assault rifles in this country.

Among those "run-ins with the law" were these, according to the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Ohio police records describe Kane as a burly man, 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds, who for a time wore a black beard. Since 1983, Kane was arrested or cited six times in Clark County, Ohio, on charges ranging from passing bad checks to criminal trespass, drunken driving and driving with expired tags.

Kane was charged with felonious assault in 2004 after allegedly shooting a 13-year-old boy in Springfield with a “handgun-style BB gun.”

What's your opinion? Is it so difficult to identify a guy like this as unfit to own guns? I don't think so. One easy way is to allow the local police to approve or disapprove gun purchases. That would prevent a lot of this kind of thing.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Unintentional Fatal Firearm Incidents

Ohh Shoot reports on a wonderful study about unintentional shootings.

A study published in the July 2010 journal of Accident Analysis and Prevention examined data from the National Violent Death Reporting System for other-inflicted and self-inflicted unintentional firearm fatalities for the years 2003-2006. The study found:

- in almost half of all unintentional firearm fatalities someone other than the victim fired the shot.

- the younger the victim, the more likely the decedent was shot by someone else.

- victims of unintentional shootings were overwhelmingly male. So were the shooters. The few females who died were usually shot by another person, almost always male.

- most firearm deaths occurred in the context of someone playing with the gun, cleaning or loading the gun.

- handguns rather than long guns caused most of the unintentional firearm deaths.

- in almost half the other-inflicted deaths the shooter is from the same family as the victim, often a brother.

- the danger to children and adolescents is largely from being shot by others - typically friends or siblings.

The authors, Hemenway, Barber, and Miller conclude:

These finds lend credence to programmatic and policy proposals to improve gun storage, and to make it normative for parents to ask about the availability of guns in the homes visited by their children.

The real costs of unintentional firearm death are not borne exclusively by the victim and his family, but also include the guilt and grief of the shooter and his family. In half of all other-inflicted unintentional fatal firearm incidents the shooter was a friend or acquaintance. Usually, both shooter and victim are young, with many expected years of life ahead of them.

By dividing unintentional fatalities into other-inflicted and self-inflicted injuries, our study underscores the need to examine another party along with the victim - the shooter - and suggests that prevention of unintentional firearm fatalities, should focus on influencing the shooter as well as the victim.

All that to say, "improve gun storage" and improve communications between parents? I'd go a lot further than that.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Jon Stewart on the Banks

Hoarders

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
www.thedailyshow.com
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Answering "The One Question"

WireUpdate reports.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday announced that New York City remains the safest big city in America, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report.

The report shows that total crime decreased by 5.1 percent in New York City during 2009, outpacing national trends. Murders fell by 9.9 percent, compared to 7.2 percent nationwide. According to NYPD Compstat data, crime is down an additional 1.5 percent citywide for the first five months of the year when compared to 2009 levels.

Do you think this has nothing to do with the strict gun laws in New York City? Is it just coincidence, then?

Please leave a comment.

Murder Suicide in NC

The Fayetteville Observer reports on the murder suicide which took place in Spring Lake.

22-year-old man shot and killed his parents Saturday before turning the gun on himself, according to Harnett County Sheriff Larry Rollins.

The shooter was identified as Richard William David Thompson, whose body was found Saturday morning along with those of his parents in a mobile home at 12665 N.C. 210 South, also called Lillington Highway.

Now, if you had to guess, do you think the young man brought the gun in from outside or was it a fixture in the mobile home of his father.

Either way, it brings up one of our favorite arguments, did the gun availability play a part? If there were no gun, would he have bludgeoned his parents to death, and turned the club on himself, or used a knife on them and done hari kari on himself?

For me the answer is clear. Although murder and suicide can be accomplished with any number of instruments, the high lethality of the gun makes it the best and easiest and contributes greatly to the probability of the incident.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Gov. Rick Perry and the Coyote

Statesman.com reports.

Rather, it's a handgun. But not just any handgun. It's Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc.'s newest .380 — the same model of the semi-automatic pistol that Gov. Rick Perry said he used to kill a coyote that threatened his daughter's Labrador during an early morning jog in February.

The Connecticut-based gun maker seemed to celebrate Perry's slaying of the varmint by creating the distinctive weapon, which is emblazoned with the words "Coyote Special" on one side of the slide and "A True Texan" on the other side.

As one of the customers said, this is a slick sales gimmick by a Connecticut company appealing to the Texan adoration of their governor.

What do you think?

It's All About Re-opening the Freeway

 

The Los Angeles Times provided this extremely funny video about the re-opening of the 101 Freeway after a police shooting. It's almost like they were trying to distract us from the fact that the wounded guy, who apparently was drunk driving and led police on a 30 mile chase, only pulled a knife and was shot down for his trouble.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

A Complicated Acquittal in Philadelphia

The Philadepphia Inquirer reports on a fascinating and complicated acquittal.

William J. Barnes, the 74-year-old petty criminal who was convicted and imprisoned for 16 years for shooting and paralyzing Philadelphia Police Officer Walter T. Barclay in 1966, was acquitted of murder Monday in Barclay's death 41 years later.

Although Barnes is now free of all charges in the death of the 23-year-old rookie he shot during a 1966 burglary, he is far from free. When he was paroled in 2006, he had served 16 years of a 20-year sentence for shooting Barclay, and was living in a halfway house and working at a Philadelphia supermarket.

When Barclay died in August 2007 at age 64, the District Attorney's Office ordered Barnes arrested on murder charges. Authorities found that Barnes had a cell phone and car keys - violations of his parole.

"Mr. Barnes won't be released today or any day soon . . . until the parole issue is resolved," said Samuel W. Silver, the defense attorney who led a team from the firm of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis L.L.P. that provided pro bono representation for Barnes.

Silver estimated it could be six months or longer before Barnes' case goes before the state parole board. His next scheduled parole hearing is in 2013, according to Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron.

Although he could not say what position his office would take on parole, Cameron said Barclay's sister and the FOP were opposed to it. He added that the cumulative time remaining on Barnes' other convictions - two robberies and a prison escape - could keep him behind bars until 2030.

This is payback pure and simple. The man paid for his crimes. Don't they have anything better to do in Philadelphia than this? No wonder law enforcement in the City of Brotherly Love has the reputation it does, frequent abuses in the police department and never-ending vengeance for the bad guys.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia

From Boing-Boing.

The Appalachian clan is notorious for criminal activity and reckless, larger-than-life characters. They tap-dance, shoot and stab people (including each other), and sell (and do) a lot of drugs. Think "Sopranos" meets "Coal Miner's Daughter."

When we talk about gun owners, as Guy Ohki pointed out, instead of "law-abiding" we should say "innocent." Yet, I don't suppose anyone would call these folks either law-abiding or innocent. But they're not inner city gangbangers either.

When folks talk about 80 million gun owners, you know in that way they have of trying to say there are that many who are innocent and stick together on gun rights issues, these rural characters must be included.

That's some fine company the pro-gun people are keeping.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Only in Texas

Microdot has the story about the Texas school books and the Atlantic Triangular Trade.

Domestic Murder - Suicide in Louisiana

The Daily Comet reports on the latest.

THIBODAUX - A Napoleonville man walked into a bar and shot his estranged wife multiple times before turning the gun on himself Sunday morning, police said.

Gary Leblanc, 50, of Napleonville, walked into Lakeview Inn Bar at Attakapas Landing at about 12:08 a.m. and shot his estranged wife, Jennifer Leblanc, 44, of Napoleonville multiple times before he shot himself, police said.

Officials from the Assumption Parish Sheriff's Department documented previous incidents between the couple that led to to the shooting. On Oct. 3, Leblanc was arrested for simple battery after deputies determined that he struck his wife in the face during an argument.

On Jan. 24, Jennifer filed a report that Leblanc shot her dog in July. He was arrested on Feb. 9 for illegal use of a weapon and aggravated cruelty to an animal.

On Jan. 27, Jennifer obtained a protective order against Leblanc. The order was to remain in effect until January 20, 2011.

Anyone with information concerning this matter is asked to contact the Criminal Investigation Division.

I have information concerning the matter. In gun-friendly Louisiana, a guy with a history like this continues to own guns. Do you think the police went to his home to disarm him after his many disqualifying actions? I doubt it. In states like this, some things are more important than protecting the battered women.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

New Jersey Woman Kills Husband

NorthJersey.com reports on another domestic murder in which the woman kills the man.

Amalia Mirasola, 44, was charged Sunday with homicide and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose in the shooting of her husband, according to a statement from the Morris County Prosecutor's Office. Amalia Mirasola, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair due to recent surgery, was being held Sunday in the Morris County Correctional Facility on $1 million cash bail.

Carl Mirasola was shot multiple times in the couple's home about 8 a.m. Saturday, while their three children — a 13-year-old girl and twin 7-year-old boys — were inside, authorities said.

The story gets a bit curious. I realize New Jersey has lots of gun laws, but does this mean if you own a gun legally, but use if unlawfully, you get charged with "possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose?"

Amalia Mirasola possessed a registered firearm, according to her attorney, Robert Stack.

As to motive, we have the following.

Stack said Amalia Mirasola hired him in April to initiate divorce proceedings.

Stack said Carl Mirasola had a "verbal altercation" with his wife Friday night because she had started to assert her independence by creating a personal bank account.

Overbearing and controlling husbands, even ones who abuse their wives in other ways, don't deserve to be murdered. They deserve to be left.

What else can we glean from this story? Could we say the laws about acquiring guns in New Jersey are too lax? A husband who doesn't allow his wife to open her own bank account probably wouldn't allow her to register and buy a gun either, don't you think? She must have been able to do that without his knowledge.

Maybe that's a restriction they haven't thought of in the Garden State. One member of the household cannot own a gun without the knowledge and agreement of the others. That's just common sense.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Guns and Kids - Urban and Rural

Il Principe sent us the link to this Yahoo News article about guns and kids.

Children in the most rural areas of the United States are as likely to die by gunshot as kids in the biggest cities, a new analysis of nearly 24,000 deaths finds.

Not surprisingly, murders involving firearms are more common among city youth. But gun suicides and accidental shootings level the score: They are more common among rural kids.

"This debunks the myth that firearm death is a big-city problem," said lead author Dr. Michael Nance of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "This is everybody's problem."

The pro-gun supporters have a few words they use too much, "draconian" is one. Another is "despicable." They often use "despicable" to describe gun control efforts, you know "taking away rights" and all that nonsense.

Well, I'll give you an example of despicable. On gun blogs you'll sometimes read a mocking and sarcastic phrase aimed at the gun control folks, an attempt to indicate their arguments are silly. They say "it's for the children," as if there's something wrong with that. That's what I call despicable.

The new findings add important information to what's known about guns and kids, said Dr. Elizabeth Powell of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, who has conducted research on firearms in Chicago, but was not involved in the new study.

"Prevention strategies need to be targeted to youth in rural areas as well as urban areas," Powell said.

Why do you suppose the rural kids are having as much trouble with guns as they are? Aren't they taught by their dads what to do and what not to do? Aren't they being "gun proofed?" We can understand the stats in inner cities, what with gangs and drugs all around, but what's the problem in those less populated areas?

I'll tell you what the problem is, it's guns. Guns are inherently dangerous and kids, as well as adults, are going to make mistakes with them. The more guns there are the more mistakes we have.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Kurt Hofmann Gets into the Act

The well-known pro-gun writer Kurt Hofmann wrote for the Examiner in total agreement with the hysterical article by John Kass.

But old Kurt took it one wild step further. here's his title.

Is Chicago's Mayor Daley guilty of 'terroristic threats'?

When the pro-gun guys resort to such ridiculous exaggerations it proves they are not as convinced about their argument as they pretend to be.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Those Hysterical Pro-Gun Writers

The Philadelphia Inquirer published an absolutely hysterical op-ed piece about the pending Chicago gun decision.

The Chicago gun ban, in place since 1982, forbids residents from keeping a handgun in their homes. Any gun owned before that law was passed, or any long gun kept in the home, must be kept disassembled and locked. It cannot be assembled even in case of a break-in. It cannot be carried from one room to another within the home. Moreover, a firearm must be reregistered every year. The city fathers of Chicago accept no excuse for failure to reregister a firearm - not hospitalization, amputation, not death.

Have these pro gun writers all gone off the deep end today? Neither amputation nor death is an excuse for not complying with the, I'll supply the one buzz word that's missing, draconian gun laws?

After this article and the other one I posted earlier, I no longer accept the pro-gun accusations that the other side is hysterical.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Guns are Bad News for Men

The Mercury News reports.

A man was in critical condition tonight after a shooting that apparently resulted from a domestic dispute at an apartment complex in unincorporated Bay Point, a Contra Costa County sheriff's lieutenant said.

The shooting was reported at 8:07 p.m. at an apartment complex in the 2900 block of Mary Ann Lane, sheriff's Lt. Steve Simpkins said.

The victim was shot at least twice and was taken to John Muir Medical Center. He was in critical condition as of 9:45 p.m., Simpkins said.

A woman was arrested on suspicion of the shooting, which apparently was the result of a dispute between her and the victim, both of whom are in their 40s, according to Simpkins.

He said investigators were still at the scene of the shooting as of 9:45 p.m. and were "working to determine exactly what happened."

Not much to go on here. I'd hate to invent all kinds of possible scenarios when the facts are so scant. Suffice it to say, there goes another loser, or perhaps two losers.

If the relationship was so abusive, she should have got out before she had to shoot the guy. If she shot him because she was out of control, raging or high, that's even worse. Come to think of it, even in this case, guns are bad news for women.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Mayor Daley's Remarks

FishyJay provided the link for this Chicago Tribune article. John Cass really rips into Mayor Daley, partly because of that stupid remark the mayor made last week, but it sure sounds like Cass has an axe to grind.

What do you think? When the mayor said if the justices were attacked by thugs with guns they'd see things his way, Cass responded with this.

Chicago politics is a rough business. But suggesting that Supreme Court justices need to suffer before becoming enlightened is despicable. It not only embarrasses the mayor, but everyone who lives or works in Chicago.

His press aides put out a statement saying the mayor used "less than ideal" language when he suggested inserting the rifle into his critics and pulling the trigger.

And there was no word of any plans to apologize to the Supreme Court.

Now, c'mon. Is that a reasonable response? I don't think so. Has Mr. Cass lost his mind to suggest that it was so "despicable" that an apology is owed to the Supreme Court?

I find this to be the worst kind of pro-gun approach. This is exaggerated nonsense to the point of being ridiculous.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Fear Motivates

I'm always fascinated by the pro-gun guys' explanations of why they carry. Usually it's disguised as a calm and rational decision, often likened the carrying of any other tool. Sometimes they try to emphasize the crime problem and the likelihood of their becoming a victim of violence. Bob S. is one of the best at this. Here's one of many examples. Here's one of my many answers.

A few days ago we were treated to a rare glimpse into the true reason. Mike W. included the following line in a post about his trip to North Carolina for the convention last week.

Had I flown I likely would not have carried, but there was no way I was going to drive 9 hours alone & unarmed throughout the night.

I'm sure Mike W. and Bob S., for that matter, would be able to offer lengthy denials, but my contention has always been that they suffer from inordinate fears. The above statement is so telling, it's so revealing, that it's embarrassing. A grown man afraid to drive "throughout the night" without a gun!

It wouldn't be so embarrassing except he's talking about driving on I-95, for crying out loud. That's one of the best highways in the country. There are no detours through any inner cities, you've got that ring road that goes right around Washington D.C.

If the assignment had been to drive through Newark NJ, make your way up to the George Washington Bridge, go over into Harlem, then make your way over to some dicey section of the Bronx, I could understand it. But this, is pathetic.

Some have asked, "So what? What if we are motivated by fear?" Well the problem is this. When the gun owner is operating on unreasonable fears, they cannot be trusted to handle the grave responsibility of carrying a gun. These are people who may make life or death decisions based upon their perceptions and judgment. An example of Mike W.'s judgment is "but there was no way I was going to drive 9 hours alone & unarmed throughout the night."

What's your opinion? Are you concerned that the more nervous and skittish among the gun owners may do more harm than good?

Please leave a comment.

Travesty of Justice in Georgia

The Macon News reports on the seriousness with which the local school system took the incident of a 9-year-old carrying a gun to school to protect himself from a bully.

A 9-year-old boy who took a handgun to Morgan Elementary School earlier this year pleaded guilty in Bibb County Juvenile Court on Friday to a felony count of possessing a weapon on school grounds.

The third-grader also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of possession of a pistol by an underage person and disrupting a public school.

The boy took a Ruger handgun with six bullets in the clip, but none in the chamber, out of his mother’s purse Feb. 26 and carried it in his backpack to the Bibb County elementary school.

A fifth-grader was threatening to beat him up, attorneys said, and he took the gun to show students so they would think he was cool.

The mother should be in jail. She should forfeit her rights to own firearms for having demonstrated such a complete inability to secure this handgun properly. The rest of the family should be investigated to see what other breaches of the law they're guilty of. (I realize, in Georgia these laws may not exist).

After that, the fifth-grade bully should be investigated and if warranted, suspended from school.

Only then should we get around to the boy in question.

But in Georgia, they have their own priorities. Gun rights are to be protected first, we couldn't possibly cast aspersions on the mom for exercising her right to own a gun. And, being a macho little bully in school is good too, it teaches the other kids to toughen up.

The judge perfectly upheld these sick priorities. It's no wonder Georgia is one of the most backward states in the country.

Juvenile Court Judge Quintress Gilbert asked the 9-year-old why he didn’t tell a teacher or his parents about the bullying.

“I’m also asking the parents to lock up their guns and put them in a place of safety,” the judge said.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Like Father Like Son

CNN reports on the highly dramatic shootout that left two cops and two suspects dead in Arkansas.

Two suspects accused of gunning down Arkansas police officers this week may have ties to extremist anti-government groups, two civil rights organizations say.

Jerry R. Kane, 45, and his 16-year-old son Joseph Kane fatally shot two police officers and wounded two others during a wild shootout Thursday, according to Arkansas state police.

The father and son were shot and killed during the battle on the streets of West Memphis, Arkansas.

The Anti-Defamation League said the two suspects belonged to "an extreme right-wing movement that believes that virtually all existing government in the United States is illegitimate and which seeks to restore an idealized, minimalist government that never actually existed."

It sounds like a familiar theme, the anti-government one. Is it so difficult to identify the ones who cross the line from the more acceptable complaining about big government to the dangerous category which guys like this inhabit? Do you think the government doesn't have lists to do just that? Is it wrong?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.