More from the Firearm Concierge

Just in case you forgot who he was, this may jog your memory:

I know I ruffled a lot of people's feathers when I commented on a certain open carrier's demise due to having guns around the home.  As I said at the time, she seemed to show that the studies saying that having a gun in the house was more harmful to the people who lived there than any criminal, but that's another point.

After all, it does hurt to know that any serious scrutiny of your positions show they are wrong.  After all that's why things like gun violence research funding was basically ended and Tiahrt Amendment were enacted.  After all, used to know which were the top gun stores in the state that were supplying crime guns:  little wonder the pro-gun side wanted to keep that embarrassing information under wraps!

As for reponsible gun owners.  Well, maybe the Firearm Concierge and I are on the same page here:

Nice,  talk about a party admission!  Who needs all the astroturfed BS you lot post! It does get even better!

Yeah, tell it brother:  mass shootings are great for business.

They are even better if you have a bunch of truly useful idiots out there who will make sure that not only won't strict gun laws be enacted, but the existing weak laws are repealed making it easier to sell guns to the wrong people without consequences!

BTW, I am now retired, which means that I make NO money from seeing strict gun laws; however,  I do see a public benefit from such laws.

But, I know full well you people will believe whatever you want--facts to the contrary.

Have a nice day!

Florida to Expand "Stand Your Ground" to Include Warning Shots

(Ammoland.com)-  Florida state legislators are a step closer to expanding their Stand Your Ground law to include the ability to legally fire a warning shot.

The expansion being considered “would grant the same protections already in place under Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law to people who only threaten to use force.”

According to Fox News, a state Senate committee “voted in favor of the bill (SB 488) on [January 8] and a house committee has… voted in favor of similar legislation (HB 89),” as well.

If the expansion takes place, law-abiding citizens who fire a warning shot “would be immune from Florida’s ’10-20-Life’ law, which requires anyone who shows a gun while committing certain felonies…be sentenced to 10 years in prison.” If someone is wounded, the “10-20-Life” law requires a sentence of 25 years to life.

The push to expand the “Stand Your Ground” law is partially due to the plight of Marissa Alexander, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after firing a warning shot during an argument with her estranged husband.

Her sentence was “thrown out by an appeals court,” and a new trial scheduled for this year.

In pressing for the expansion to include warning shots, state Senator Greg Evers (R-Baker) said the legislature is not going to put up with law-abiding Floridians being punished if they “brandish weapons, [and] even fire warning shots, to ward off would-be assailants.”

Florida Blind Man Who Shot and Killed his Drinking Buddy Granted Immunity Under 'Stand Your Ground' Law

John Wayne Rogers

Orlando Sentinal

The murder trial of a blind man was cut short Friday after a judge granted a "stand your ground" motion for immunity and ruled the man acted in self-defense when he shot a drinking buddy in the chest with an assault rifle.

Hours after the ruling, John Wayne Rogers, 40, left the Seminole County Jail, a free man for the first time in nearly two years.

He had killed James T. DeWitt, 34, an overnight guest on March 27, 2012, after a long drinking session in Rogers' home in Geneva, a rural community in eastern Seminole County.

Prosecutors charged Rogers with first-degree premeditated murder, and he was facing a possible sentence of life in prison.

Witnesses gave conflicting accounts of what happened that day, but defense attorneys described the case in simple terms: Rogers is a blind man who was defending himself from an attack in his home.

In the Rogers case, jurors heard two conflicting sets of facts: What Rogers said happened, that he fired a shot because he was under attack, and what the victim's girlfriend said, that the shooting was unprovoked.

Rogers has a history of violence. Four years ago, he fired 15 rounds from a handgun at Michael Rogers, his roommate and cousin, following a night of drinking and fighting in Geneva, according to court records.

Michael Rogers suffered scrapes but no gunshot wounds. The defendant was charged with aggravated assault but, in a deal with prosecutors, pleaded no contest to a lesser charge — unlawfully displaying a firearm — and was placed on probation.

That was revoked, however, when he pushed and punched a woman a year later, something that resulted in him spending 71 days in the Seminole County jail for domestic violence, according to court records.

Rogers shot DeWitt once in the chest with a .308 Remington assault rifle from a distance of 18 inches or less, defense attorneys said.

DeWitt and his girlfriend had gone to Rogers' house to drink beer and had spent the night, according to his arrest report, and the next day the group had made a 10 a.m. trip to the store to buy more beer.

The defendant testified that he asked DeWitt to leave but that the victim attacked him, so he went into the bedroom, retrieved his rifle, walked back into the living room and pointed it in DeWitt's general direction.

DeWitt then charged him, he said, so he fired one round.

DeWitt's girlfriend, Christina Ann Robertson, told Seminole County deputies that the two men had been "play fighting," something they sometimes did, when Rogers walked into another room, emerged with the rifle and shot DeWitt without provocation.

Before being blinded, Rogers served in the U.S. Marine Corps, defense attorneys said.

UAW Vice President General Holiefield Faces Misdemeanor in Accidental Shooting of His Wife

UAW Vice President General Holiefield speaks during the 35th UAW Constitutional Convention held at Cobo Center in Detroit in 2010. A misdemeanor charge was announced Friday against him in the accidental shooting of his wife. / Rashaun Rucker/Detroit Free Press

Detroit Free Press

UAW Vice President General Holiefield faces a charge of reckless use of a firearm in what police called an accidental shooting at his home in Harrison Township on Dec. 30. 

The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office authorized a warrant for the misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a fine of $500 upon conviction, police said. “He will have to be booked, fingerprinted and (have) a mug shot taken,” Macomb County Sheriff’s Office Lt. John Michalke said. “But that has not been done yet.” 

Police said Holiefield’s wife, 50-year-old photographer Monica Morgan, was shot in the stomach in what appears to have been an accident. Holiefield could not be reached for comment today. 

Morgan underwent surgery for her injury. She has been released from the hospital and is recovering, Michalke said. 

Police have said that Holiefield, 60, was at his home on Mazuchet Drive, cleaning his semiautomatic handgun at the kitchen table when the gun accidentally discharged.

I realize he's the wrong color to receive such lenient treatment, but he's not your average black dude either. This is a guy with political connections and influence. Unfortunately, due to those connections and influence, he'll continue to be a menace to himself and those around him. Instead, he should be disarmed tout de suite.

South Carolina Accused Gun Dealer Said He 'didn't want government in his business'

Local news reports

A former corrections officer from Lexington County faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty to federal firearms charges.

William Andrew Cox, 56, pleaded guilty to dealing in firearms without a license in federal court in Columbia. Fox was a former officer with the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

Prosecutors say Cox bought guns from several area gun stores.  Two of those weapons were recovered after an arrest in the federal roundup of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang.  Prosecutors say a defendant in the Hells Angels case bought two pistols from Cox through a web site he managed called Armslist.com. Within three weeks of their purchase, prosecutors say the guns were sold to members of the Hells Angels who then sold them to law enforcement agents.

ATF records completed with gun sales shows between March 2009 and August of 2012, Cox bought more than 150 guns on 31 different occasions. Cox admitted this to investigators.

When asked why he didn't get a license to sell the guns, prosecutors said Cox told them he "didn't want the government in his business."

Jail Inmate Charged in Fatal Shooting at North Houston Apartments

(Photo By HPD) Jacob Brown


Houston Chronicle

A suspect has been arrested in the shooting death of a woman and the wounding of a man last summer as the victims sat in a car in north Houston. 

Jacob Brown, 27, is charged with capital murder in the shooting, which occurred about 12:30 a.m. June 27 at 7311 Curry, according to the Houston Police Department. 

Police said Titisha Denise Williams, 22, and 33-year-old Damon McClain were in a car in the parking lot of an apartment complex when two men approached them and demanded money. The suspects then shot them more than once and ran away. 

Williams died at the scene. McClain, 33, was rushed to Ben Taub General Hospital and was in critical condition. No update on his condition was released. 

Investigators later determined Brown was a suspect in the case. At the time he was charged in the shooting he was already in the Harris County jail for an unrelated robbery case.

When asked about the gun used, Brown admitted that a few days previous to the incident, he'd broken into the home of a fat white gun owner and stole it.  The gun had been found under the pillow in the main bedroom.  The victim of the theft had no comment.

Climate Change and the Polar Vortex

Somehow these didn't make it into the post:



In other words, there is a difference between "weather" ("what's going on outside the window right now") and Climate ("A longterm trend averaged over many years"):