Aussie Gun Club Does the Right Thing

Too bad the NRA still supports Jared Loughner:

THE family of Vincent ''Lalin'' Fernando, who was allegedly killed by his mentally ill daughter with a pistol she had stolen from a gun club, has called for the independent vetting of unlicensed shooters.



Their call has received unexpected support from the Sydney Pistol Club, the club Ms Fernando joined and from which she stole the gun. Its president, Jan Ryan, said she would welcome a return to the old legislation when unlicensed shooters were thoroughly checked by the Firearms Registry before being admitted.

Good Op/Ed from Tucson

Mark B. Evans:

If everyone were armed, everyone would behave, so the fallacy goes.

In the past week, more than one knucklehead has opined in blogs, newspaper comment sections, cable news and elsewhere that if more people had been armed Jan. 8 outside the Safeway, Jared Loughner might have been stopped before he got off the first shot, or at least after he shot Giffords.

Hogwash.

Quotes from blowhards about how if they had been there they would have shot Loughner dead is just a bunch of tough talk from people who don’t know what they’re talking about.

A gun battle between untrained gun toters would have exponentialized the carnage, not limited it.

5-Year-Old Brings Gun to School

It happened in Florida, what a surprise. I suppose the boy should probably be tried as an adult, I mean, he's old enough to know better. Am I right?

Here's the funny part.

Florida police are trying to figure out how a 5-year-old boy came into possession of a loaded handgun that he dropped inside a pre-kindergarten class.

They're trying to figure it out, isn't that a riot?

What's your opinion? Do you think Florida should loosen up on all those silly gun laws that interfere with people's 2nd Amendment rights?

Please leave a comment.

Bloomberg - Eloquent and Correct

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

California Assault Weapons

I found this fascinating flow chart describing which rifles are illegal in California.  I wasn't sure whether this is current law or what these restrictions have to do with the Federal Assault Weapons Ban that expired some years ago.  I'm sure some of our commenters can enlighten.

Presented as a public service by:
California’s premiere firearms community
www.CALGUNS.net and
www.CalGunsFoundation.org

I admit it sure is complicated, but what if they had fewer exemptions, and what if they updated the lists of prohibited guns every year or so? The biggest problem with the AWB, it seems to me, was the definition of "assault weapon." Wouldn't something like this overcome that problem?

Please leave a comment.

Beck to Matthews about Bachmann

Trying to look beyond all the hysterics, there are some good questions here. Who is distorting the Constitution? Did the Founding Fathers of our country really do right by the slaves? Is that what the Progressives missed according to Glenn?

Did Michelle Bachmann just mis-speak when she said that thing about John Qunicy Adams? Is the Three-fifths compromise to be seen as a good thing?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Another Florida Gun Tragedy

This time it was the crazy mom.

An arrest affidavit said Schenecker shot her son twice in the head "for talking back" as she drove him to soccer practice Thursday night. She drove home, went inside and shot her daughter in the back of head while the teen sat at a computer doing homework, then shot her in the face, the affidavit said.

The kids never saw it coming and the neighbors thought they were just the nicest family.

Do you think mental health screening for gun owners might pick up someone like that? Do you think she would have cut their throats if there'd been no gun?

Now that she's been arrested, does 1st degree murder sound right to you?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

The MAIG Open Letter

The Mayors have published an open letter to the President and Congress urging them to do the right thing.Penigma. via

Dear Friend,

Right now, Congress and President Obama can complete a 43-year struggle to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people and close out America’s history of tragic shootings.

After the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, Congress passed new legislation to stop criminals, drug users, and the mentally ill from buying guns. Years later, Congress added a background check system to strengthen these laws.

But the flaws in this system have been exposed again and again, first in the massacres at Columbine and Virginia Tech, and now in Arizona.

Our leaders in Washington have a crucial opportunity to bring the nation together and call for common sense steps to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. Please sign our petition and let them know that it’s time to fix the broken background check system.

Send a message to President Obama and Congress to Fix Gun Checks.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns deals with the impact of gun crime every day. So as Congress and the Obama Administration begin crafting a proposal to fix gun checks, we have two recommendations to stop dangerous people from getting their hands on guns:

1. Get all the names of people who should be prohibited from buying guns into the background check system.
2. Require a background check for every gun sale in America.

It's hard to believe, but even in the wake of a mass gun murder that shocked our nation, there are those who still oppose fixing this broken system. That’s why we’re counting on supporters like you to raise your voice and strengthen our call for action.

Add your name to Fix Gun Checks today:

http://www.FixGunChecks.org

Lives depend on whether people like you will speak out at this time of crisis. Make sure you join our call today and keep up the pressure on our leaders in Washington.

Thanks for getting involved,
Mayors Against Illegal Guns

Facebook Privacy

via Liberality. Now if Facebook can do all this, could licensing all gun owners and registering all guns really be as difficult as Joe Huffman says?

Trouble Comin' Every Day

Arizona the Gun Paradise

This is a fascinating article.

From murders to suicides, Arizona is consistently among the most deadly states in the nation for gun violence, federal records show.

Over a nine-year span, the state's rate of gun deaths of all types ranked seventh in the United States and sixth for gun-involved slayings, according to an Arizona Republic analysis of death reports compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The rankings are based on data from 1999 to 2007, the most recent statistics available from the CDC.

Overall, violent-crime rates in Arizona are not far from rates for the U.S. as a whole, but the rate of deaths specifically tied to guns surprises national experts.

They even brought Prof. Kleck into it.

"You can take very seriously the CDC data," he said, "as long as you keep in mind that there isn't any relationship between gun-ownership rates and the total suicide rate or homicide rate."

That's fair enough, I suppose he's talking about the old "causality" thing. But then it gets really confusing

If Arizona is relatively high in gun deaths, it is likely because the state is one of the leading states in the nation for gun ownership, Kleck said.

One of the best indicators of gun ownership is the level of gun-involved suicide rates, he said. The CDC numbers show Arizona ranked ninth in suicides with guns.

Whose side is he on, anyway?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

San Jose Gun Deaths

They're off to a good start.   I guess they didn't get the memo about how crime is going down.

Gunfire erupted on the streets of San Jose once again Wednesday -- now an almost daily occurrence in the city -- leaving an unidentified 26-year-old male victim with at least one bullet hole, and police still searching for a motive.

Less than four weeks into the new year, San Jose has already logged nine homicides, nearly half the total for all of 2010. This year's tally includes two people who died of assaults committed before 2011.

What's your opinion? Do you think like Zorro that this is another anomaly?

Please leave a comment.

O'Fallon Police Officer Exonerated

I realize we don't have enough detail to really make a judgment, but it seems to me the cops sometimes shoot people for disobedience rather than lethal threat.  What do you think?

St. Clair County State's Attorney Brendan Kelly says he plans no criminal charges against an O'Fallon police officer who shot and killed a 20-year-old woman on Nov. 8.

Kelly tells the Belleville News-Democrat a coroner's jury has found the shooting justified, and says he met with the dead woman's family on Tuesday to explain his decision before announcing it publicly on Wednesday.

A special agent of the Illinois State Police testified at the inquest that the shooting occurred as Officer Adam Taulbee was attempting to stop Alexandra Nance from attacking a man who had broken up with her. The agent said Taulbee told Nance told four times to drop her weapon and shot her when she failed to comply.

Taulbee has since returned to active duty.

Darwinism in Action

Because Science is biased against gunloonery:

Results show that regardless of storage practice, type of gun, or number of firearms in the home, having a gun in the home was associated with an increased risk of firearm homicide and firearm suicide in the home.

Canada Laughs at US

 The inmates who run the asylum

The United States has by far the highest gun homicide rate in the industrialized world. In a study of 23 of these nations, the American rate was nearly 20 times higher than the others. Some 100,000 shootings take place in the U.S. every year, 30,000 of them fatal. In Canada, with about one-tenth the U.S. population, 190 people were killed by guns in 2006. More than a million Americans have died from gun violence, whether by murders, suicides or accidents, since Martin Luther King was gunned down in 1968.

For what it’s worth, a 2009 study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine estimated that people in possession of a gun during an assault were 4.5 times more likely to be shot than someone there without a gun. But let’s get real. This finding is worth precisely nothing to those who know that guns deter violence, and as we’ll see next week, they’ve had enormous success towards their goal of ultimately arming all Americans, and never mind criminal background or mental stability.

Utah Gun Culture at its Finest

The Associated Press reports on the incredible.

Utah has 24 state symbols recognizing the history, geography and culture of the state. They include a state cooking pot, a state tree, a state hymn and a state folk dance.

The committee approved the bill to add a state gun on a 9-2 vote.

If this passes, Utah can be proud to be in the company of such enlightened societies that proudly display weapons as part of their heritage.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Lone Wolf Trading in Glendale AZ

Now that's a gun store that knows how to turn a blind eye.

Twenty people face federal firearms charges for participating in a ring that bought more than 700 guns to be smuggled into Mexico for use by a drug cartel, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.

The charges target two suspected leaders of the ring and "straw buyers" who authorities say were recruited to buy guns on behalf of smugglers.

Most of the guns identified in the indictment were sold by one gun store in suburban Glendale, Arizona. The store and its operators weren't charged.

Of course they weren't charged. What are they supposed to do, read people's minds?

The indictment states that Uriel Patino, who is accused of buying 239 weapons for the ring, bought all but nine from the Glendale store.

All right this is the last warning. If legitimate gun owners don't start policing their own and tightening up on these unsrcupulous gun shops, I'm afraid we'll have no choice but to implement severe measures.

Please cooperate before it's too late.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Colorado Man Shot by Police

I was pleased to read the cops didn't shoot him 15 times in the chest.  But I still wonder what the rules of engagement are.  if the guy was firing wildly into the air, he's certainly a danger, but that may not constitute lethal threat.  I'm just wondering.

According to police radio traffic, the man at one point exited the home, told officers he had a gun and challenged them to "come get" him.

Wow, who's that sound like? Are all our gun-blogging friends accounted for?

Do you see why the proliferation of guns is a problem? Do you see why the false idea that it's good having a gun in the house is a problem when the occupant of that house is unstable?

Do you see how proper gun control can help to lower the number of these cases?

Please leave a comment.

Multiple Killings Every Day

People are still talking about the Tuscon Shooting, but let's not forget there have been double and triple homicides in the news about every day since. The numbers keep rolling in, close to 100 gun deaths each day.

Here's San Francisco, two dead a third person critical.

I know the lawful gun owners who write blogs and comment on them insist they have nothing to do with this, but I continue to disagree.  The gun control advocates who don't own guns certainly aren't responsible.  But I say some of the gun owners are.  Those would be the ones who oppose common sense legislation that would keep guns out of criminal hands.

That's my position.  It's very simple.

Please leave a comment.

Gulfport, Mississippi Shooting

The AP has the story. Since the guy charged with murder doesn't have a lawyer, I'd like to suggest that the dead guy lunged at him in his own home and he had no choice but to blow his ass away. Isn't that what being a homeowner and a gun owner is all about?

Police say James John Rodgers argued with an acquaintance at his Gulfport mobile home and ordered him to leave, then shot the man in the chest.

Police Lt. Adam Cooper told The Sun Herald that a witness tried to intervene, but was unable to stop Monday night's shooting.

Police say the 49-year-old Rodgers was charged with murder in the death of 42-year-old Clinton Jackson of Lockney, Texas.

The witness who tried to intervene is interesting. Did he not have a gun, is that why he couldn't stop it in time? What do you think?

Please leave a comment.

Josh Horwitz on the President's Speech

Deafening Silence

6 dead and 14 wounded in Tucson at the hands of a severely deranged substance abuser who legally purchased guns and high-capacity ammuniton magazines.

13 law enforcement officers shots since Thursday in what is being described as a "war on police."

And President Obama still hasn't found the courage to speak out for stronger gun laws.

In his State of the Union address last night, the president spoke for over an hour and yet couldn't find so much as one second to address the issue of easy access to guns in our society. Meanwhile, another 86 Americans will die from gun violence today, and tomorrow, and the next day...

Barack Obama campaigned on promises to reign in the scourge of gun violence in our country and he's done absolutely nothing to fulfill them. Now it's our time to hold him to his word.

I agree. What do you think?

Please leave a comment.

Unintended Consequences

recommended by Orygunner.

From Wikipedia:

Unintended Consequences is a novel by author John Ross, first published in 1996 by Accurate Press. The story chronicles the history of the gun culture, gun rights and gun control in the United States from the early 1900s through the late 1990s. Although clearly a work of fiction, the story is heavily laced with historical information, including real-life historical figures who play minor supporting roles. The novel also features unusually detailed and intricate facts, figures and explanations of many firearms-related topics. The cover has a picture of Lady Justice being assaulted by an ATF agent.

The novel is currently out of print. However, the entire novel is available to be read online at http://www.scribd.com/doc/11793519/Unintended-Consequences.

The story hinges upon the enactment and subsequent unintended consequences of several important pieces of U.S. gun control legislation and regulation: the National Firearms Act of 1934, the Gun Control Act of 1968, the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986, the Assault Weapons Importation Ban enacted by Presidential executive order in 1989 and the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994.

Its thesis, as discussed in the Author's Note - A Warning and Disclaimer in the beginning of the book, is that enough bullying by what is widely perceived as a hostile occupation government will inevitably end in revolt if the occupied area is large enough and has a culture that is significantly different from the occupying state, and that this revolt will be undefeatable if the rebels use very low-tech "leaderless resistance."

Focus on the Criminal not the Gun

In Maryland, the governor is trying to take the old pro-gun advice. Unfortunately, his efforts are met with the same obstacles as straight gun control.

Gov. Martin O'Malley is joining Baltimore officials in calling for tougher penalties for gun crimes.

Similar proposals in past years have faced a tough audience in the House Judiciary Committee and Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, which hear testimony on crime legislation and have been reluctant to add mandatory sentences or to restrict the prison system's ability to release offenders early.

Maybe when they say don't focus on the tool but rather on the person, they're just spouting empty words. It seems like in Maryland both efforts are met with the same resistance.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

More on the Gun Smuggling

The Los Angeles Times reports on a big bust of a smuggling operation which worked from Arizona to Mexico.

In a case aimed at stemming the flow of U.S. weapons to the Mexican drug war, federal authorities indicted 20 men Tuesday on charges of buying an estimated 700 weapons in Arizona and conspiring to transfer them across the border, chiefly to the Sinaloa drug cartel.

The case involves the relatively common use of "straw purchasers," legal residents of the state who buy the weapons from licensed gun dealers and certify that they are for their own use, but end up selling the guns to the drug cartels.

We have an answer for that. I don't know what they're waiting for.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

More on That Nazi Business

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Minnesota to Mexico

The Minneapolis Star Tribune ran a four-part series on the gun smuggling business which has gone on between Minnesota and Mexico.  Here's part one.  (submitted by Dog Gone, of Penigma.blogspot.com)

All the old points are there, even the 90% figure that we all loved so much.  But, what's new, very new for me, is that this activity is going on in states other than the oft-mentioned border states of Texas, Arizona and California.

I find it interesting that no one that I know of ever mentioned this as perhaps an explanation for the high numbers. Smuggling operations from Houston and Phoenix, as widespread as they are, would be hard-pressed to account for the volume.  But, suddenly I have a different picture.  Just like the guy featured in the Minnesota story, you've got brazen, enterprising men streaming in from every state in the lower 48, converging on those border crossings.

That would account for the volume they're always talking about.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment. 

Oh Noes!! How Will the Swiss Protect Themselves?!?

And where will gunloons find another myth?

But a referendum on Feb. 13 will decide whether the Swiss should go on keeping their guns at home or store them in public arsenals. Lately, yes votes for the arsenal bill have led public opinion — 45 percent support it versus 34 percent who oppose, plus a wide undecided margin, according to a poll from early January.

As I've Sagely Noted..

..it's not about self-defense.  It's not about preventing tyranny.  It's not about the Second Amendment.

It's about the Benjamins.

Oh yeah, it's also about fat, middle-aged white guys who can't get a date.

NRA Losing Influence

Surprise:

Don't expect much gun-control legislation anytime soon. Historically, it takes at least a few years after a massacre or assassination to get sensible laws passed. Certainly, there’ll be no progress on gun control while the House is in Republican hands.

But the next time the Democrats have both houses of Congress and the White House, expect real gun control to move for the first time in years.

Meyer (an assoc. prof. at the very conservative George Mason U.) makes the argument "[o]ne of the key components of the NRA’s power has been the support of moderate and conservative Democrats. Even when the Democrats controlled Congress, there were more than enough pro-gun Democrats to vote with most Republicans and bat down any efforts at gun control."

Meyer argues that key component is gone.

Not Kosher

The Worship of Gunloonery

"I wasn't trying to make a statement, but a statement was made," said Meza, a former Baptist preacher who converted to Judaism and studied to be a rabbi.

"I'm not advocating for everyone to walk around with an AK-47, but I walk around with a handgun on the Sabbath, and I think it would be better if most Jews did. It's better to have the gun and not need it than need it and not have it, especially in a religious environment."

But Tommy Baer, a Richmond attorney who was president of B'nai B'rith International, a Jewish service organization, called that statement "vigilante nonsense." He said he viewed the video with "complete revulsion" and found it offensive.

"Weapons, especially … an automatic rifle, have no place in a synagogue," Baer said.

The Death Penalty in New Jersey

New Jersey certainly has problems, but state-sanctioned murder is not one of them.  In this issue, Jersey is quite enlightened, compared to some of your Southern States, that is.

New Jersey's death penalty was, in any event, useless. From the time it was reinstated in 1982 no one was executed; the last execution in the state occurred in 1963. Instead, inmates languished on death row throughout an almost endless appeals process. Calls to speed up that process were misguided, however, considering the many instances across the country of convicted killers — including those on death row — having their sentences overturned thanks to fresh DNA evidence.

Morality issues remain, with the enduring question of whether eye-for-an-eye justice has a place in an evolving society. A special commission that examined the death penalty in New Jersey before its repeal suggested that capital punishment is not consistent with evolving standards of decency. But that's a debate unlikely to ever be resolved to everyone's satisfaction.

I don't know why everyone's not satisfied, I certainly am. "Capital punishment is not consistent with evolving standards of decency."  What could be simpler than that?

Please leave a comment.

Gallup Poll on Gun Laws

They offered an open-ended question about what are the most important things that could prevent mass shootings.

1. Stricter gun control
2. Better mental health screening

The third one about education contains a little something the pro-gun crowd will like.  But you know what's missing completely, perhaps they asked the wrong sampling of people, but nowhere on the list is More guns among the law-abiding.

What do you think that means?  Do you think only extremists and fanatics believe in that as a remedy? That's what I think.

Please leave a comment.

Indianapolis Cop Shot at Traffic Stop

This story is about another cop shot by a disqualified person who had a gun.  Or, perhaps he wasn't disqualified yet, he was facing 4 felony charges. I'm not sure, but perhaps in Indiana one retains one's gun rights until convicted. That sounds about right, don't you think?

Actually it doesn't matter much.  The way things are now in that gun-friendly paradise, anyone can easily get a gun, anytime.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Three Dead in St. Petersburg, Florida

from Dog Gone, of Penigma.blogspot.com.

Two of the dead were police officers, the third was the shooter. The article goes on to chronicle several other recent incidents in which police were shot.

It looks like 2011 is off to a good start in this particular grim statistic.

Does it make you wonder about the supposedly decreasing crime rate when you see things like this?  It does me.  It makes me wonder. How can more cops be getting killed all the time as well as several major cities be experiencing major increases in murders and yet crime is steadily going down?

Something doesn't add up.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Bloomberg's Statement

When we mentioned this the other day, TS said, "I’ll tell you what the statement won’t be. It won’t be, “we need to open the NICS for private use”."  He was certainly right about that.  

Today after reviewing the statement, Sebastian summed it up in his typically lop-sided way. " It’s basically just another call for banning private sales."

Here's part of the statement.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a bipartisan coalition of more than 550 mayors, proposes that the U.S. fulfill the intent of the 1968 law by fixing the broken background check system.

            First, the system should contain all the records of felony convictions, domestic violence incidents, drug history, and determinations of mental illness that would prevent those categories of troubled people from buying guns. The new Congress should set a goal of getting this job finished within three years.

            Second, Congress should subject every gun sale to a background check by closing the loopholes that permit guns to be sold without them. Licensed gun dealers are covered by the Brady Bill. But “occasional sellers,” for example those that sell firearms at gun shows, through classified ads or even on the internet, do not have to conduct background checks. The only way to prevent guns from falling into the hands of violent criminals, the mentally unstable, and other already prohibited dangerous persons is through a comprehensive national background check system with no loopholes. Reasonable exceptions would include, for example, transfers of guns within families, or by wills, or to people who have a valid state-issued gun permit issued within the last five years that meets or exceeds the Federal background check standard.

What's your opinion? Would fixing the database and requiring background checks on all transfers be a good thing or not?

Please leave a comment.

The Joys of a Gun Show

This is one man's description of a gun show, very much like that of Fat White Man's. No mention of the misogynist posters, or those used copies of The Turner Diaries, and certainly nothing about the Nazi memorabilia.

There was this incisive observation though.

For example, I have never seen or heard of a firearm purchase at a gun show where the buyer was not put through the same registration process that is done at stores.

To be fair, I'm sure if you're a guy who loves guns and is not into that racist, misogynist or Nazi crap, there's a lot of fun to be had at a gun show. But don't try to tell us it's all good clean fun. Many of the clients at these shows are the more stereotypical types who go for that other stuff. That's what brings the purveyors of those things around.

Am I wrong?

Please leave a comment.

Suggestions for Obama about Gun Control

An interesting op-ed in the New York Times provides some hints as to what Obama should do.

What’s more, while the F.B.I. database, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, has nearly 6.5 million records of prohibited buyers, two-thirds are simply the names of undocumented immigrants, who as a group constitute just 1 percent of those who were denied a gun. 

In contrast, the entire prohibited-buyer database holds just 2,092 names of drug abusers, and only one of every 5,000 prospective buyers in 2010 was denied for reasons of mental instability. 

A big part of the problem is that people who should be on the list, like those diagnosed with severe mental-health problems, are often left off, either because of bureaucratic hurdles or because several states are slow to report them to the federal government. According to a report by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 

New Jersey submitted just eight names in 34 months from 2008 to 2010, compared with 60,677 from Texas.

The president should therefore call for several additions to the database: names on the terrorist watch list, military recruits who fail drug tests and patients ordered to undergo mental-health treatment, if their doctor or family requests they be added. He should also demand that reluctant states supply court records on mentally incapacitated residents. 

An approach aimed at the person, not the gun, has a real chance of winning bipartisan support.

Somehow, I feel an approach like that, which certainly does focus on the people and not the gun, would not receive any more support from the pro-gun folks than an outright ban would.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Gun Flow from NH to MA

More relaxed gun laws in a neighboring state can have a direct impact on gun violence.  Such is the case with New Hampshire and Massachusetts. 

Straw purchasing can be stopped cold.  Here's how.

Any gun purchaser must be licensed and each weapon bought must be registered to him.

The registration document and firearm must be presented to the local police after three months from purchase and each year thereafter in order to receive a stamp allowing continuance of the legal registration.

Failure to present oneself will result in issuance of an arrest warrant.

Now, tell me, what's so difficult about that?

Please leave a comment.

Mass Shooting in Detroit Police Station

Fortunately in this frightening scene the cops were better marksmen than the criminal shooter. As we know, that's not always the case. This could have been "mass murder" and not just a mass shooting.

I couldn't help but notice that this story defies the logic that crazy killers choose their targets and prefer gun-free zones like universities. I've always said that's not true, that crazy people are not usually that circumspect.

The other obvious conclusion is that it's wrong to say law-abiding gun owners would be able to stop someone like this BEFORE he kills. The only thing that prevented this guy from killing, was the fact that he was a lousy shot or just unlucky. In the most gun-rich environment possible, he shot four people before they could stop him.

I wondered if the female police officer who survived due to having had a vest on always wore it in the station. Maybe she knew that in spite of their superior fire power, something like this could happen.  Good for her.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment. 

Shooting at a Police Helicopter

It looks like this Florida man is going to jail for having fired upon a police helicopter which was responding to a shots-fired report at his home.

I say he should get some time off his sentence for the most imaginative explanation.

McGuire says he wasn't shooting at the helicopter. He testified that he had been planning to commit suicide with the gun, but changed his mind. He said he was firing into the air and at a tree in his driveway because he didn't want a loaded weapon in his house.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

"Shoot Them in the Head" Spin Job

I'm not a supporter of Glenn Beck's by any stretch, but I thought this was going too far in an attempt to make him look bad. These last days, site after site is showing this 22-second clip, inferring or actually saying that he's recommending violence. I believe he has done as much, but not in this case. Check out the longer version.

Jon Stewart on The Big Lie of Cohen

I think Jon Stewart is the greatest. But this routine received some critical feedback from the left. Jon Stewart says politicians shouldn't be making statements comparing Republicans to Nazis. Some of the better-known lefty bloggers took issue with that. Demosthenes, making reference to the lengthy post from Digby, had this to say.

But that said, Digby's right. Just because the Nazis came up with the "Big Lie" technique does NOT mean that using the label is somehow out of bounds.

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Bloomberg Promises Announcement

Mayor Bloomberg's office issued a statement that on Monday there would be a major announcement on "illegal guns and the federal background check system."

"The more we learn, the more it becomes clear that this case is fundamentally about a mentally ill drug abuser who had access to guns who shouldn’t have," Bloomberg said of the Tucson shooting at the Jan. 11 meeting.

"As this case makes terribly clear, deadly gaps [in the nation's gun laws] still remain."

Yes, indeed "deadly gaps" exist not to mention a couple of loopholes.

What's your opinion?  Any guesses as to what the statement will be.

Please leave a comment.

Another Gunloon Myth Goes Bye-Bye

Assault Weapon Ban Deterred Gun Crime

The number of guns with high-capacity magazines seized by Virginia police dropped during a decade-long federal prohibition on assault weapons, but the rate has rebounded sharply since the ban was lifted in late 2004, according to a Washington Post analysis.