Ohio Judges Declare Themselves a ‘Special Class’, Exempt from Carry Rules

(Ammoland.com)- This from friends in OH:

“Judges of our 4th District Court of Appeals, which covers fourteen counties in southeastern OH, are, by their own one-sided ‘proclamation,’ are licensing themselves to carry concealed handguns, both while sitting on the bench and at all other times.
They are not extending that special privilege to anyone else!
This ‘proclamation‘ altogether bypasses the legal requirements, including training and proficiency, that we peons are required to obey in order to acquire state-issued concealed carry permits.
These judges travel from county to county holding hearings. While traveling, they are accompanied by a bailiff and an LEO, both armed.
One judge casually stated:

‘The probability of an (life-threatening) occurrence is, in reality, pretty low. But the impact, when it happens, is devastating.’

Is that so, your honor?
Well then, I suspect when anyone, even one of us lowly peons, encounters someone who is trying to murder us, one could also accurately describe the event as ‘devastating!’
Yet, the term, ‘devastating,’ apparently only applies to judges. When the identical thing happens to any of us mere insignificant tax-paying citizens, it is merely ‘unfortunate.’

Read more: http://www.ammoland.com/2014/09/ohio-judges-declare-themselves-a-special-class-exempt-from-carry-rules/#ixzz3CWz1AZI4
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Theodore Wafer Slammed with 15 to 30 Years

Local news reports

Theodore Wafer said he was sorry from the bottom of his heart Wednesday for gunning down an unarmed young woman on the front porch of his Michigan home, but a judge said "mistake" was the wrong word to describe a murder and sentenced him to 15 to 30 years in prison.

Wafer, 55, looked down, his lawyer patting him on the back, as Wayne County Circuit Judge Dana Hathaway sentenced him for second-degree murder in the November shooting death of Renisha McBride, 19 -- a racially charged case because the victim was black and Wafer is white. 

Wafer had testified that he feared for his life when loud banging startled him awake in the early morning hours of November 2, 2013. He opened his front door and fired a fatal shotgun blast into the face of McBride, who prosecutors say was seeking help after a car accident.

"To the parents family and friends of Renisha McBride, I apologize from the bottom of my heart and I am truly sorry for your loss," Wafer said. "I can only hope and pray that some how you can forgive me. ... From my fear, I caused the lost of a life that was too young to leave this world and for that I carry that guilt and sorrow forever."

Hathaway said it was one of the "saddest cases" she had ever presided over. 

"I do not believe that you are a cold-blood murderer or that this case had anything to do with race or that you are some sort of monster," the judge said. "I do believe you acted out of some fear but mainly anger and panic and unjustified fear is never an excuse to take someone's life."

Hathaway said she was confident Wafer was remorseful and would likely never commit another crime in his life, but that McBride came to his doorstep seeking help and lost her life. 

"You made the choices that brought us here," the judge said. "I don't know that you could ever use the word 'mistake' to describe a murder, and a person was murdered."

Portraits of Gun Violence: Jessica Ghawi

You didn't need to meet Jessica Ghawi to feel her infectious energy.  It seems to be an energy which won't die since the first item that came up was her post on the Toronto shooting that she survived.  She managed to survive one, yet ended up the victim of another.

Part of the reason I'm writing this is that I know her mother who is coping with this incident.  I see Jessi's face and I think of the interview she did where she was wearing high heels on the ice at a hockey rink.  She kept falling down, but that didn't stop her from trying.

“She would walk into a room, and the place would light up. She was a jolt of lightning,” her mother,  said through tears Saturday. “She just had a spirit that was larger than life.”

You didn't even need to meet her to feel her energy as this remembrance of her attests:
caitykauffman.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/a-letter-to-jessica-ghawi-victim-of-the-colorado-shooting/

Maybe that's why I am writing this post.


I understand that she started a charity before she died to provide Sports Equipment for underprivileged children that recently held a drive to collect sporting gear.

Jessica may have died that night, but she is not a "victim" as her energy will carry on a live until something is done about this plague.

And for you hoaxers, I can assure you that Jessica Ghawi is quite dead and not physically present in this reality.  Her spirit may be strong, but her physical presence is no longer with us.

Florida Judge Incrediby Orders Gun Returned to Female Officer Involved in Deadly Domestic Dispute with Fellow Officer

Officer Luis “Dave” Monroig (left) had been a police officer for 10 years and Sgt. Amy Young (right) has been with the force for 14 years. (Photo: Naples Police Department)

 Guns dot com 

A Collier County, Florida, judge granted a request Wednesday for a Naples police officer who was involved in a deadly domestic dispute in July to have her gun returned to her.

Officer Luis “Dave” Monroig suffered a fatal gunshot wound, while his girlfriend and fellow officer, Sgt. Amy Young, suffered a gunshot wound to the face. The incident happened inside the couple’s Estero home on July 9.

Young, who was only recently released from the hospital and still on medical leave, was required to surrender her .40-caliber service pistol last month when Monroig’s ex-wife, Nina Diaz-Monroig, filed a restraining order against Young, citing she was in fear for the lives of her children, of whom Monroig was the father. Two of the three children were in the home at the time of the shooting, but were not injured.

According to a local Fox affiliate, Diaz-Monroig claimed Young shot Monroig before turning the gun on herself. However, authorities have yet to confirm this.

Nonetheless, the judge found no sufficient evidence that Young was a danger to the children and refused to grant Diaz-Monroig’s order of protection. Without a protective order, the courts had no legal means to hold onto Young’s firearm.

Now that's what I call a gun-friendly judge, the kind you often find in gun-friendly states like Florida.  

Portraits of Gun Violence: Patrick McKinley

I'll let his mother tell you about her son.  This was filmed at an art exhibition of Patrick's art which contained works that his mother hadn't seen:


I think Patrick would want us to remember him, how he died, and do something about this situation from what Jeanette says.  Unlike Colin Goddard and Stephen Barton, Patrick didn't survive to fight on, which means we need to continue the work to end this problem.

We aren't doing anything other than swim in the blood of the victims since there is so much of it soaked in the land.

Bumbling Idaho Professor (not Student) with Concealed Carry Permit Accidentally Shoots the Himself - No Charges Expected

Local news reports

An Idaho State University instructor was wounded in the foot after a concealed handgun in the person's pocket discharged during a chemistry lab session with students in the room.

Police said the person had the proper permits to carry a concealed weapon on campus.

Idaho State University spokeswoman Adrienne King said there could be an administrative review after police complete their investigation.

King said the school has an alert system but didn't use it because police quickly determined the shooting was an isolated incident.

"It's unfortunate," ISU President Arthur Vailas told the Idaho State Journal. "I'm sure the incident was scary and embarrassing."

Despite opposition from every public university college president, lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year allowing retired law enforcement officers and people with concealed-carry permits to take firearms onto public college and university campuses but not into dormitories or stadiums.

Yeah, "scary and embarrassing," but given the extreme nonchalance with which this incident was met, don't expect the bumbling permit holder to be held accountable. It was just an accident.

This is How the Gun Control Movement will Prevail - Targetting One Crooked Politician at a Time

Why hasn't the GV movement been more successful.

This comes via Ryanne Mace's mother, Mary Kay, who shared it on facebook from another person she knows,  Bob Weiss, whose daughter Veronika was killed during the Isla Vista spree (and who asked that this be shared):

A friend of mine on Facebook asked me why our movement has not been more successful. This is my reply:

This is a tough issue. For one thing, like most people, I saw the stories about all these tragedies and thought, "this is horrible for them but it could never happen to me or my kids because the odds are so against it." From a statistical standpoint that's nearly true. (Key word: "nearly.")

These atrocities happen, we get upset about them and then go back to our daily lives after a while...unless it happened to you or someone you know. Elliott Rodger's mission was a failure. He set out with 3 guns and 400 rounds of ammunition on that Friday night to kill dozens of girls. His plan was to enter a specific sorority that he had identified as his target and shoot everyone inside. The door was locked so he got back in his car and started shooting random kids, drive-by style.. Instead of the 50 girls inside the house at the time, he only shot and killed 3 students, 2 girls.

So, in a nation of 300 million, a few got shot. A moment of silence and back to business as usual for the almost all of us. Many of us survivors become activists, only to be shouted down by a rabid, mislead, well-funded gun "rights" lobby. The people who are trying to make the world a little safer from gun violence are terribly "outgunned" by the power of the those on the other side of the issue but we will keep fighting.

Ironically and sadly, thanks to gun violence, our small but determined ranks grow on a daily basis. We really have no choice but to fight for sanity in this matter because, unlike our adversaries, we know and will live the horror of gun violence every moment for the rest of our lives. We want to prevent it from happening to you and your kids.

Bottom line, our movement is so small because people think, like I did, that it could never happen to them.

I'm weird.  I'm one of the few this hasn't happened to a close family member.  Still, I know too many people who have been effected by this to not be touched.

Neo Nazi Gets Support from Larry Pratt and the GOA

 National Socialist Movement member Samuel Johnson, an organizer of illegal immigration rally in 2010 at the Veteran’s Memorial, shouts at pro immigration protesters. (Photo: Austin Daily Herald)

Guns dot com

A white supremacist whose case has made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court is at the center of the debate over gun control, pitting public safety against Fourth Amendment protections.

Several groups on both sides of the fight have recently weighed in on the case of Samuel Johnson, deemed a repeat violent offender under the Armed Career Criminal Act by a Minnesota court in 2012 and sentenced to 15 years in prison after he was caught with several firearms, including a 12-gauge shotgun without a serial number, according to court documents.

For Gun Owners of America — who submitted an amicus statement to the court in July in favor of Johnson — this is a Fourth Amendment issue.

“It gives the police an overly broad tool that they shouldn’t have,” Larry Pratt, GOA executive director, told Guns.com. “So, if we win, good — we protect the Bill of Rights.”

Pratt said that although the GOA is not endorsing Johnson as an individual (and a repeat offender connected to a racist hate group accused of plotting a terrorist attack on a Mexican consulate), the neo-Nazi might not be guilty of possession.

But the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence — which filed its amicus brief last week — thinks this is a clear-cut case of public safety.

“I would hope that everyone on all sides of the gun debate agree that felons in possession of illegal firearms should be severely punished,” Jonathan Lowy, director of Brady’s Legal Action Project, told Guns.com. “Gun Owners of American has a misunderstanding of what this case is about. They refer to this felon’s illegal possession of an illegal firearm as quote ‘mere possession’ of a firearm.”

Pro-Gun Lie Number 129: Swimming Pools are More Dangerous for Kids than Guns

reposted by popular demand

Pro-Gun Lie Number 129: Swimming Pools are More Dangerous for Kids than Guns

CDC

Every day, about ten people die from unintentional drowning. Of these, two are children aged 14 or younger. Drowning ranks fifth among the leading causes of unintentional injury death in the United States.¹


Huffington Post 

In 2011, guns were used to murder 8,583 people living in the U.S., according to the most recent FBI data available. Among those murdered by guns, there were 565 young people under the age of 18, and 119 children ages 12 or younger -- the latter number nearly equivalent to six Newtown mass shootings. And these figures include only homicides. 

Free Public (quoting CDC)

CDC data show number of accidental firearm deaths for children under age 15 has gone back up to 62, a number that it was at in 2008. The 48 accidental deaths in 2009 was unusually low. A similar pattern also held for total accidental gun deaths for all ages: 2008, 592; 2009, 554; and 2010, 606. 

National Library of Medicine

An estimated 115,131 (95% confidence interval, 76,769-153,493) children and adolescents were treated for a nonfatal gunshot wound during the study period. The estimated annual rates of injury (per 100,000) were 2.0 (children 0-4 years old), 2.2 (children 5-9 years old), 15.4 (children 10-14 years old), and 106.5 (adolescents 15-19 years old). The ratios of nonfatal to fatal firearm-related injuries were 4.0 (children 0-4 years old), 4.4 (children 5-9 years old), 5.0 (children 10-14 years old), and 4.4 (adolescents 15-19 years old). An additional estimated 103,814 children (95% confidence interval, 69,223-138,405) were shot with a nonpowder firearm (BB or pellet gun). Boys 5 to 9 and 10 to 14 years old had the highest rates of injury related to nonpowder firearms, an estimated 36.2 and 99.8 per 100,000, respectively. Fifty-six percent of those 15 to 19 years old were assault victims. An estimated 48% of children and adolescents with powder firearm-related gunshot wounds and an estimated 4% with nonpowder firearm injuries were admitted to the hospital.

The lie is a tricky one because near-drowning injuries are rare and generally don't leave permanent damage.  Non-fatal gun injuries do. So, when the gun-rights fanatic says swimming pools kill more kids than guns, it's a carefully worded trick and not a very fair comparison.  Just ask that kid who's in a wheelchair for the rest of his life due to a spinal gun-shot injury.

Let's take the CDC number. They say for kids under 14, two drown every day.  That's about 700.

The kids in approximately the same age bracket who die from murder (119 in 2011 for 12 and under, so let's say about 150) and so-called accidents (48 in 2009) are about 200.   The National Library of Medicine, quoted above, says the ratio of fatal to non-fatal gun shot incidents is 1:4, which sounds about right.

That means dead kids (200) plus injured kids (200 * 4 = 800) total 1,000

That's swimming pools 700, guns 1,000.

So, the next time you hear one of the gun apologists claiming that swimming pools are more dangerous than guns, you can remind him that unless he's very careful how he words that ridiculous proposition, it's just not true.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Arizona 11-Year-old with Access to Daddy's Gun Commits Suicide

Quote of the day

"A Republican doesn't care if it doesn't affect them. And a Democrat cares even if will never affect them."

Ever-growing Tribute to Gun Violence Victims in America

Pretty short to do justice to this topic.

It's not "dancing on the graves/in the blood of" or any of your other bullshit excuses for not paying attention to the victims of gun violence since the families live with it.  This was shared to me by one of the victims pictured in it.  The families of the people who are pictured here are active in the movement to end gun violence.


I don't know if Denise Decker or Nancy Faber are in this, but there are many people who have been victims who are remembered by only a few.

The time is long past for action as the number on this list grows longer on a daily basis.

Here's the latest numbers:

Public Opinion of the Open Carry Movement

Nope. Gonna have a hard time trying to get people to see you as somewhat "normal" no matter what you say.

Doesn't look like she's too happy with these people.

Kinda says it all: doesn't it?

Blind Florida Man Shoots Intruder - Turns Out it was His Nephew who Lived There.

Local news reports

A blind Florida man shot an intruder who broke into his home, who turned out to be his teenage nephew. Police detailed the incident Monday, now clarifying if either or both men would face any charges.

Melchisedec Williams was woken up on Sunday night when he heard a crash and stomping. The 50-year-old man grabbed his gun, Tampa police said. The intruder, armed with only a knife, had cut the power to the man’s house and broken in through a bedroom window, police added.

Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy told press that Williams, who is legally blind, called the name of his nephew, Isaiah Moses Carter, 15, asking if that was who had entered the house, McElroy said. Hearing no response, Williams fired his weapon.

The teen groaned loud enough after being shot, that Williams recognized him as Isaiah.

“That’s what made me stop shooting,” he said. “I was in the dark, and I was ready to unload that gun until I heard his voice.”

This reminds me of the 12-year-old Texas girl who shot an intruder through the closet door where she was hiding.  The gun nuts used that one the to justify kids having guns and shooting through doors. Would I rather that she'd been raped, tortured and killed, they asked.

Quote of the day

If we yielded to this contention of the plaintiff in error, we should render the sections invalid by giving them a strained construction, which would make them antagonistic to the law of congress. We cannot attribute to the legislature, unless compelled to do so by its plain words, a purpose to pass an act in conflict with an act of congress on a subject over which congress is given authority by the constitution of the United States. We are, therefore, of opinion that, fairly construed, the sections of the Military Code referred to do not conflict with the laws of congress on the subject of the militia.
        --Presser v. Illinois, 116 U.S. 252 (1886)

10 of the Dumbest Gun Nut Photos on the Internet

Addicting Info

This bumper sticker. If aliens ever visit Texas and say, “take me to your leader,” things will go bad really quickly.

What reason do you need to be shown?

"And he can see no reasons
'Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?"
 Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays

On the Attempt to Culturally Norm Insane Behaviour

Hitchhiking with a chainsaw isn't illegal per se....

Isis - All Girl Band from the 70s

How Could Proper Gun Control Laws Prevent Criminals, Who Don't Obey Them, Get Guns?

AnonymousAugust 31, 2014 at 5:57 PM

So mike b tell me how gun laws keep guns out of criminals hands. Most criminals have illegal guns not registered legal guns. So do you really think making it harder for normal joe to get a gun and protect themselves is going to help stop criminals from obtaining illegal guns... Ummm no just like anything let's say drugs you set laws and all and does that stop people from buying illegal drugs umm no not all. Actually their is proof in studies that's say the opposite. Such as in place were the drug laws are laxed there is less drug use, drug related deaths, and less crimes over all... So now with gun it will be the same people will get even more illegal guns as gun control makes it harder to obtain one legally. This is not to say I think everyone needs a gun I'm just saying making it harder makes the black market bigger we need to find other ways.

ReplyDelete

Replies

Mike BSeptember 2, 2014 at 10:57 AM
You must be new around here and like most gun-rights fanatics your ability to think a thing through is very limited. You content yourself with repeating the mindless stupid shit other superficial gun nuts say.

First of all you have to realize that almost every single gun used in crime started out the lawful property of someone. Criminals get those guns only a few simple ways. Theft - which would be mostly eliminated by enacting safe storage laws in the home. You guys love to leave guns around the house, in nightstands, in closets, under the bed, and thieves take advantage of that irresponsible behavior to the tune of half-a-million guns a year.

Next we have the private sales without background checks. You guys love to sell your guns on Craig's List and at gun shows and take advantage of the law that allows you to do so without demanding a background check from the buyer. A simple law would prevent most of that.

Another way that is often overlooked is the law-abiding gun owner who goes bad. Those are guns owned legally by someone who suddenly stops being law-abiding, so the gun doesn't even change hands and has gone from the law-abiding to the criminal worlds. What can be done about that is an overall tightening up of the laws which govern gun ownership. Proper gun control laws I call them.
http://mikeb302000.blogspot.it/2014/06/proper-gun-control.html

Washington Mother of Boy who Brought Gun to School Sentenced

Jamie Lee Chaffin pleads guilty at her court appearance on May 15, 2012.

Local news reports

The mother of a Washington state boy who brought a gun to school that went off in his backpack and critically wounded a classmate will spend more than a year behind bars.
Jamie Lee Chaffin was sentenced to 14 months Friday in Kitsap County Superior Court. She initially faced third-degree assault charges but was eventually prosecuted for unlawful possession of a firearm. She was convicted of forgery in 2007 and barred from owning or accessing weapons.
In February 2012, the gun that Chaffin's 9-year-old son brought to the city of Bremerton elementary school fired inside his backpack, injuring 8-year-old Amina Kocer Bowman. She had multiple surgeries and spent more than a month in the hospital.
The boy told investigators he took the gun from a dresser at the home of his mother's boyfriend, Douglas Bauer, because he was afraid of other students. Chaffin did not have custody of her son, who lived with his uncle.
The boy and his siblings testified that there were other firearms in Bauer's home that were not locked away.
Chaffin agreed in 2012 to testify against Bauer in exchange for the assault charge being dropped. She also agreed to plead guilty to unlawful possession of a gun, but her sentencing was postponed while Bauer's case wound through the courts. Her punishment moved forward after the state Supreme Court ruled in July that the third-degree assault case against Bauer could not proceed.
Bauer watched Chaffin's sentencing Friday. Her attorney, Michael Clark, sought less than the 14 months recommended by prosecutors, saying she could not care for herself and was dependent on Bauer, leaving her with few options despite knowing guns were in the house. But Judge Leila Mills imposed the full year and two months.
"I'm not finding there's anything to justify or excuse this behavior," Mills said. "You were under orders not to have a firearm. It was a direct violation."

Philadelphia Banned the 3D Printing of Guns

RT

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has become the first city in the United States to officially ban the use of 3D printers to manufacture firearms, only six months after a Texas-based company published digital blueprints for a homemade handgun.

The 10-member City Council announced last week that its members unanimously approved a first-of-its-kind measure that makes it illegal for anyone within the city to “use a three-dimensional printer to create any firearm, or any piece or part thereof, unless such person possesses a license to manufacture firearms under federal law.”

Quote of the day...

"a massacre transpired on the campus of Ocean Park High School, claiming the lives of nine hundred forty-seven individuals — the largest school massacre in the nation’s history.”

Of course. the NRA response to this was "more guns".

Not to mention how much carnage happened during the years with nothing happening.

from www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/01/district-suspends-dangerous-teacher-for-writing-scifi-novel-about-school-shooting-in-2902/

Jim Jefferies - Gun Control

Jim Jefferies is an Australian comedian. Seriously good points here. 

Ockers won't feed you a raw prawn the way a septic will.



I'm sure most of you have a lot of enemies.

Quote of the Day

I may have run this one before, but it's pretty right on for the US's cult of ignorance:

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
― Isaac Asimov

And before your make stupid comments about ME being the ignorant one:  remember that one is not really allowed to give legal advice unless one is a member of the bar.  In fact, it is against the law to put oneself out as a lawyer or engage in the unqualified practise of law.

On the other hand, I have on more than one occasion shown that you have taken things out of context from legal decisions.

But, you know more about the law than I do.

Can a Smartphone App Fix America’s Gun-Control Problem?

from ssgmarkcr

This app started out looking sort of interesting,

"The 58-year-old inventor has created a new app called Lockdown, which he believes could decrease the country's number of gun-related crimes. The app works with a “clip” containing a GPS chip that a user can attach to his gun. The owner leaves his gun in designated areas and enters a code when he wants to remove his weapon. If someone removes the gun without entering the code, the smart chip sends a notification to the owner's smartphone. The gun owner can then cancel the alert, or forward it to police, family, neighbors, or anyone else he's chosen as an emergency contact on the app."

    This app could have promise as many gun owners have a lot of money invested in their collections and knowing if someone is messing with them is a good thing. And there are many apps out there which gun owners use, such as the app I've mentioned before that lists businesses that post that they ban guns in their venues. 

    But then comes the kicker that likely insures that this app will never become "profitable" without government intervention,

 "In an ideal scenario, Barron said, congress would pass a law that would require gun makers to include Lockdown’s technology on weapons—legislation that could possibly piss off gun-rights groups like the National Rifle Association."

    He even has a history of coming up with safety products that work and have become profitable on their own merit in the private sector,

"His company, Public Transportation Safety International Corporation, creates the S-1 GARD Danger Zone Deflector, the plastic arms that extend from the front of buses to prevent people from getting run over."

    I've seen these devices on school buses, a great idea that has a widening market.  While they are mandated in some states, they aren't in others.  However, with the recent exposures of government misuse of surveillance technology, Mr. Barron has just shot himself in the foot so to speak.  I do applaud his honesty though.

http://www.vice.com/read/can-a-smart-phone-app-fix-americas-gun-control-problem?utm_source=vicefbus

   

Texas Lawful Gun Owner Kills his Friend Accidentally and Goes to Jail

Local news reports 

An East Texas man is sitting in the Shelby County Jail on Saturday after an accidental shooting left another man dead. 

According to Sheriff Willis Blackwell, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office responded to a call of an accidental shooting at a residence on County Road 1024.

Deputies say 25-year-old Bret Anderson and 21-year-old Taylor Keele were handling a 9 mm pistol when Anderson unintentionally fired the weapon. It struck Keele in the chest.

Keele was transported to a San Augustine hospital where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. Anderson was arrested and transported to the Shelby County Jail on a manslaughter charge.
Police say the incident is believed to be accidental, but is still under investigation.

Remember the rule:

The 8 ways to ensure you do time for an accidental shooting:

1. do it in a residential area
2. lie to the police
3. hide evidence
4. be drunk at the time
5. have drugs around
6. have neck tattoos
7. have dred locks
8. be black or Hispanic

Now he doesn't seem to have qualified for the last three, but either he did pretty good on the first 5 or else he was just an exception to the rule.

What do you think?

Please leave a comment.

Georgia Legalizes Handgun Vending Machines

Come on, admit it.  Nothing like easy access to firearms, right?

In a ceremony today in Atlanta, Gov. Nathan Deal signed the Firearms Freedom and Accessibility Act (FFAA), which allows the sale of handguns in automated machines that accept cash, credit and debit cards.

The machines will be installed in grocery stores, convenience stores, bars, schools, airports and gas stations. They aren’t required to verify buyers’ identity and won’t perform background checks.

“Millions of people in Georgia lack access to quality firearms,” the governor said in a signing statement. “This bill will finally bring handguns from top manufacturers into every neighborhood and hopefully every household.

“By helping more Georgians to defend themselves, we expect this bill to lower crime significantly. By the end of my second term murder, rape and armed robbery should be nearly eradicated.”

The legislation comes just months after Georgia significantly loosened its gun laws. In April, Deal signed a so-called “guns everywhere” law which allowed registered gun owners to take their weapons nearly anywhere, including bars and government buildings.

BTW, I do know this is satire, but it's the can gun loons get any crazier than satire thing.  I know it's really hard to tell whether gunloons are crazy or engaging in self-parody.

Mass shootings, as American as apple pie?

You would hate to think that mass shootings are incredibly common in the US.  After all, it seems that only the biggies seem to make it to the press these days since the topic is beginning to seem like an Onion Article: "we'll only cover them if 20 people, make that 30 people, no 50 people died".

I thought there actually was a definition of this term, but there doesn't seem to be:

Broadly speaking, the term refers to an incident involving multiple victims of gun violence. But there is no official set of criteria or definition for a mass shooting, according to criminology experts and FBI officials who have spoken with Mother Jones.

Generally, there are three terms you'll see to describe a perpetrator of this type of gun violence: mass murderer, spree killer, or serial killer. An FBI crime classification report from 2005 identifies an individual as a mass murderer if he kills four or more people in a single incident (not including himself), typically in a single location. (The baseline of four fatalities is key) Source

That may be why there is a "mass shooting" where 12 people are shot, but they don't die.  It doesn't really make the news either.

If we are going to come up with a number, there is this site which comes up the the number 200 for the period from 1 Jan 2014 to 17 Aug 2014.  I'm sure that number will be questioned, but it is a lot.

Part of the issue with the open carry movement is how much does it prevent or promote the occurrence of mass shooting in the US?  Actually, we can say that for either open or concealed carry since the big argument for more permissive carrying of weapons is that they somehow stop crime.

On the other hand, if it ends up enabling mass shootings, is it such a great idea?  And let's face it: there is a lot of gun violence in the US.

One thing I've been see a lot in the comments on Kroger's facebook page are the pro-gunners saying that a business could be sued if it is a gun free zone and there is a mass shooting.  Their claim is that the business is liable if an armed civilian could have stopped the shooting.

But, the whole matter hinges on how foreseeable the event would be.  As U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson said in regard to the litigation around the Aurora Cinema shooting "I reiterate that this court is in no way holding as a matter of law that Cinemark should have known of the danger of someone entering one of its theaters through the back door and randomly shooting innocent patrons."

Wouldn't the issue be if the business made it easier for a mass shooting to happen by allowing the instrument of destruction onto their property If the matter hinges on foreseeability?  In other words, if a business allows a person to bring a weapon of war onto their property and a mass shooting happens because of that--it would then be liable for what happened.

Likewise, one would have to be able prove that an armed civilian would have actually stopped the event, which hinges on both the foreseeability that an armed civilian would have actually been present and the actual ability of armed civilians from stopping mass shootings in the past.

Given situations such as the Columbine Shooting where the shooters engaged an armed Jefferson County Sheriff's deputy and other mass shooting incidents where armed citizens were present, yet did nothing to stop the incident (e.g., the shooting in Tucson where Gabby Giffords was shot).  There seems to be a significant evidence problem in proving that an armed civilian would stop anything: even if they were present.

NRA Shill Dave Kopel Adds 'Misogynist' To His CV

And why the heck not?  After all, if you have bigot, racist, liar, and Holocaust-revisionist on the list---well, what the hell--why not try for the whole shebang?

Seems Dishonest Dave is really, really upset (in a manly way, of course) about Shannon Watts calling herself a 'stay-at-home-mom.'  Because she used to be a communications and PR exec with bigtime firms like GE and Monsanto--Dishonest Dave believes a woman couldn't possibly be a a mom and also head up a group called "Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America."

It's impossible.  You can't do both, reasons Dishonest Dave.  Therefore, Shannon Watts is just a canard to fool innocent Americans.

Et tu, Dishonest Dave?

Prose and cons: Back in '93, local Independence Institute activist David Kopel co-wrote an op-ed piece with a fellow named Theodore H. Fiddleman that accused the federal government of a "coverup" in the Branch Davidian debacle. The only "coverup" that can be proven so far is that Theodore H. Fiddleman doesn't exist. The name is a pseudonym used by Paul Blackman, chief researcher for the National Rifle Association's research and lobbying arm.

Readers of numerous letters to the editor across the nation haven't known, of course, that "Fiddleman," instead of being "a freelance writer from Arlington, Virginia," is really the grinder-in-chief of the NRA's propaganda mill. The charade was uncovered in July by the Washington Post, and there was much hemming and hawing by Blackman and his allies. Kopel, who merited only a small part in the Post story, doesn't hem or haw. He knew Blackman was Fiddleman, he says, and he defends his pal.

Government surveillance cameras?

OK, given that most of the CCTV cameras I see are owned by private individuals, this strikes me as amusing.

Quote of the day

It's not distasteful to act in the name of victims of gun violence. What's distasteful to squander the burning anger and intense political focus that such senseless bloodshed inspires. There's nothing dishonorable in taking the swift and necessary action to prevent other children from being massacred by an idiot with a war rifle.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-to-beat-the-nra-in-7-not-so-easy-steps-20140714?page=2#ixzz3Bh49URGF

Florida Man Commits Triple Murder - "He Just Snapped"

George Mason III

Local news reports

His half-brother Gabriel "Bo" Taylor lived there with their mother Tracy Taylor and their 81-year-old grandmother, Jannie V. Taylor. So did Tracey's other son, Ralph Peyton.

"He was here every day," Donna Stanley, who lives across the street, said about Mason as she stood in the middle of the road Saturday morning. "He'd be here right now."

Instead, the 42-year-old Lutz man with a lengthy criminal record was in the hospital under police guard, accused of one of the most horrific shooting rampages in the city's history.

Police say Mason fatally shot Peyton, Jannie Taylor and Tarasha Yata Townsend, his 37-year-old girlfriend and mother of two of his daughters. Gabriel Taylor, 33, was critically wounded.

According to investigators, Mason chased Gabriel Taylor to the nearby corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Main Street and shot him multiple times with a 9 mm handgun. Almost in the same moment, Mason was struck by a Dodge pickup truck heading east on MLK.

Mason and Taylor were taken to Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point, where Taylor underwent surgery, Brooksville Police Chief George Turner said. Taylor was in guarded condition Saturday night. Mason has a broken back, broken leg and a broken arm, Turner said. No condition was available.