Wisconsin Concealed Carry - One Man's Opinion

Jim Stingle wrote a wonderful op-ed for JSOnline.

One of the concealed carry bills says there's no need for training or a permit. Now we're talking. Training schmaining, and I would add permits schmermits. It's going to take some trial and error to get our aim straight, but we don't need big nanny state government telling us it might be better if we had some minimum level of firearms proficiency.

One of the arguments that Stingle is ridiculing says that guns make us safer. Gun control folks and neutral parties agree that's nonsense. Pro gun folks keep saying it's true, just refer to Kleck and Lott. Certainly they're in the minority, but unfortunately it's a very vocal and well-financed minority.

But, it seems to me even they don't believe their own story. How could they, really? I believe the gun-rights folks who keep pitching this nonsense about being safer with more guns are lying through their teeth. They know damn well it's not true. So why are they doing it?

I believe their motivation is self-centeredness. They desperately do not want to be inconvenienced themselves and couldn't care less about society at large. That's why gun-rights folks are usually conservative right-wingers or libertarians. These two extremes on the political spectrum share this particular trait.

They're aided in this deception by the tendency to believe their own nonsense after repeating it ad nauseum. They tell each other how right they are and how wrong everyone else is. Just consider how many pro-gun blogs discourage dissenting comments and become echo-chambers of like-minded folks all telling each other how right they are.

No, I'm afraid guns make us less safe. Just consider that hilarious but sad cartoon Mrs. T. posted yesterday. 

What's your opinion?  Do you think the gun-rights folks who keep touting the Lott and Kleck theories really believe what they're saying?  Do you think they could be right?

Please leave a comment.

Midland, Texas Cop Uses Excessive Force

Westtexas.com reports

Basically it's like this: A domestic abuser has a 2-by-4. The cops have guns. When it's all over the guy is dead and one of the cops has minor injuries. Doesn't that sound like excessive force to you?

The caller said that a 34-year-old male was causing a disturbance with a weapon. Two officers arrived shortly after, and the male attacked the police officers with a 2-by-4-inch piece of lumber. Officers, according to MPD, suffered minor injuries.

When one policeman was unable to remove the man off the other officer, shots were fired. It is not known at this time if both officers fired, but both are considered part of the shooting since they are directly involved.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

New Armed Robbery Trend

Man holds up store with submachine gun: krqe.com

One for the Pro-gun Carry Crowd; More Gun Violence in 'Safe' Minnesota

(Reposted, trying to reconstruct lost content.)

An instance of an apparent self-defense shooting; hero graciously explains he is not happy about having shot his attackers.

Also from the May 12th STrib:

Fearing for his life, Uptown beating victim fired shots
Article by: ANTHONY LONETREE , Star Tribune

Latest Uptown beating victim says he had no choice but to shoot at his attackers. Police say he's a hero. 
Two days after firing at two men suspected in a recent string of violent south Minneapolis robberies, Edward Curtis, 61, wanted people to know he wasn't proud of what he'd done.
But given the beating the men were giving him Tuesday night, he figured he had no choice but to use his handgun, he said.
"I had to do what I had to do," he recalled Thursday. "I thought they were going to kill me. They didn't get a chance to."
The attack on Curtis was the fourth in four nights in the Uptown and Whittier neighborhoods, and after a quiet Wednesday night, most people along Hennepin Avenue on Thursday were preaching a simple message: Be careful. Be aware.
The assaults, the first of which occurred early Sunday, happened suddenly -- even after people gave up their belongings, victims and witnesses say. Some ended up with concussions from being beaten.
Curtis, blindsided outside his Pillsbury Avenue apartment building, was left with a broken nose and fractured right eye socket, he said.
Kaleb Melton, 30, who lives near Hennepin Avenue and W. 25th Street, said that the brazenness of the crimes had him thinking of his girlfriend walking home alone at night. Pointing to the English bulldog and a surly rescue dog that he had with him, he said: "I'll definitely make sure she has one of these around."
Police are pursuing "promising leads," Lt. Mike Fossum said. Evidence points to as many as four males driving along residential side streets at night, picking targets at random, he added. The victims, he said, "were just in the wrong place at the wrong time." No victim was drunk.
Fossum said three detectives were working on the case full-time and that some of the leads include the use of victims' stolen credit cards.
He said police have yet to find any evidence that Curtis' shots hit either of the suspects who fled Tuesday night.
As for whether the shooting was justified, Fossum said: "We don't have any plans at all in having him charged with anything. In fact, he's more like a hero than a villain, that's for sure."
His conclusion: Curtis, a Marine veteran, "certainly had justification to defend himself."

Out of nowhere

About 9:45 p.m. Tuesday, Curtis said, he was returning to his apartment in the 2500 block of Pillsbury Avenue S. after playing bingo.
He knew of the assaults on the three previous evenings. But to Curtis, that was Uptown, he recalled Thursday, an entirely different neighborhood. (The nearest attack, in fact, took place about a half-mile away in the 2500 block of Colfax Avenue, authorities say.)
Near the front steps, Curtis said, were two men, one a heavyset Hispanic man and the other an 18- to 20-year-old man whom he believed to be white. The second man appeared to be talking on a cellphone. Curtis said he wasn't paying close attention. But as he got to the steps, the Hispanic man rushed him and struck him, said Curtis, adding that he went down.
Then he went for his weapon. "They yelled, 'Gun!'" Curtis recalled. And he fired. Fossum said there were three shots. The suspects fled, and Curtis, his face now so bloody that he could no longer see, yelled for help. A neighbor shouted: "Man, the police are coming, put the gun down!"
On Thursday, Curtis said he was aware that some people might praise him for what he did, but he said he wasn't one to wield a gun: "I'm not that individual. I'm quiet," he said. "Life is precious. That's what I'm trying to say here."
At Sudz Salon, 2400 Hennepin Av. S., Steven Spafford, an assistant manager, recalled an afternoon robbery two years ago during which a masked man threw a female customer down and ordered everyone else to hit the floor. But like other people there and at the neighboring Spyhouse Coffee Shop, Spafford said he generally felt safe in Uptown.
"As with every environment, you have to be aware of and present in your surroundings -- no matter what time of day," he said.
Erika Byrd, 28, who lives in the Whittier neighborhood, said she might be more mindful now of what happens at night. But she said she already practices common sense in situations such as when she is approached by a group of men.
"I'll say, 'Hi guys. How's it going?'" she said. "Just see what the vibe is."
Curtis, who planned to have his right eye re-examined Friday at the VA Medical Center, said that he's learned a lesson.
"I'm cautious," he said. "But I guess I'm not cautious enough."

Another 'Safe' Minnesota Gun Death, Minister Shoots Teacher?

(Reposted as we try to reconstruct what went missing in the blogger crisis.)
 So we have a pastor allegedly shooting someone from an area school?  Anyone want to take bets on whether or not the gun was obtained illegally or legally? 

From the May 12th 2011 STrib:
Minister is held in North Side slaying

Article by: PAUL WALSH and COREY MITCHELL

Victim Kristopher Miller, found shot on his front porch, worked at North High School.

North High students knew something was wrong Wednesday morning.
Kristopher Miller, a member of the Minneapolis school's support staff, wasn't there to greet them with the hugs, handshakes and fist bumps that were part of his daily routine with them.
Miller, 27, had been found shot to death after midnight on the front porch of his apartment in the 1100 block of Irving Avenue N., a few blocks south of North High, his alma mater.
Minneapolis police arrested a 40-year-old man, an associate minister at a north Minneapolis church, Wednesday in connection with the killing. The suspect surrendered to police at his home without a struggle and was booked at the Hennepin County jail on suspicion of murder.
He has yet to be charged. Police Sgt. Stephen McCarty declined to discuss a possible motive for the shooting. The Star Tribune generally does not name suspects before charges are filed.
Minneapolis schools Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson, a longtime friend of Miller's mother, went to the school Wednesday to console grieving students and staff. A profound sorrow has swept over the school, she said.
"They're trying to figure out how to deal with their grief," Johnson said from his mother's home. "People are sad."
Miller is survived by two daughters, ages 9 and 2, his mother, father and several siblings.
"I have never seen a young man love his daughters like he did," said a cousin, Chanda Smith Baker. "They deserved to have him longer, and that was completely taken away."
A lifelong north Minneapolis resident and 2002 North High graduate, Miller returned there in 2005 as a member of the school's support staff.
"He loved North," said his mother, Mardella Milton, a retired Minneapolis principal.
Each morning, Miller stood at the school entrance warmly greeting students, almost all by name, North High Principal Peter Christensen said.
"He knew everybody," Christensen said. "He had that kind of connection."
When Christensen came to North in March, he leaned heavily on Miller to help him adjust. The two last spoke Tuesday afternoon as they watched students board buses for home.
"He was a totally unflappable kind of guy," Christensen said.
During his time at North, Miller had also coached sports and worked as a family liaison.
"Kris was respected professionally and embraced personally," Superintendent Johnson wrote in an e-mail to North High parents and supporters. "He will be missed by his students, friends and staff at North and throughout the school district."
Miller recently earned an associate degree in criminal justice from Minneapolis Community and Technical College.
Late Wednesday afternoon, police had yet to present the case to the county attorney's office for consideration of charges, McCarty said.
According to county and state records, the suspect was convicted of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, and of attempted theft, a gross misdemeanor, in recent years. The latter case involved a theft-by-swindle allegation, records show.
Milton last saw her son alive about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, when he stopped by to feed his dog. Two hours later, she stood over him and wept as he lay dead on the apartment porch.
"I feel a great weight," Milton said. "It wasn't their right to take him away. They took away somebody who was a real asset to the North Side."

Tough Times and Guns Don't Mix

Tampa Bay Online reports

She had a stable job as an office manager. She had a husband who made decent money as a delivery man. They had a cute blonde daughter.

That was in 2008, and the ensuring three years weren't so kind. She went through a divorce, her husband fell behind on child support and she was arrested several times, including on embezzlement and drug charges. She no longer had the office manager job.

Still, no one could have envisioned what would happen Thursday night.

Foster shot her 10-year-old daughter in their Dunedin apartment, then put the gun to her own head and pulled the trigger, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office investigators say. Foster died at the scene; her daughter, Kassidie Rae McMillen, was flown by helicopter to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, where she underwent emergency surgery and was in critical condition on Friday.

A large-caliber handgun was recovered in the apartment at the Windemere apartment complex, 1763 Main St., deputies said.

Gun availability strikes again.

What's your take on it? Please leave a comment.

OMG

Wow,  is all can say.  More here.