Reporting Multiple Sales

I just can't understand why the gun folks object to this one so much.

The newscaster's final remark is a riot.

Something Different - Mel Fisher's Heirs

No White Cops in Miami?

Oakland Police Shooting

Along with the article there's a good video.  Basically, you've got another criminal murdered by police for non-compliance.  Of course the cop said he was worried that the car was about the run over his partner.

I realize the cops have a tough job, that there's a lot of danger out there, but there's no excuse for this.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Hunting Rifle Shooting in Dallas

Here's a story about one of those extremely rare shootings, ones that are so rare they almost never happen. The angry young man used a hunting rifle to shoot someone during an argument. It's worth posting for its rarity alone.

What's your opinion?  Where did the idea of keeping shotguns and hunting rifles in the home without regulations come from anyway?  Aren't dangerous people who cannot be trusted with handguns liable to act up with long guns as well?

Please leave a comment. 

The Car Swerved Towards the Officer

Whenever the cops say this to justify shooting at criminals, just like when they say "the guy with the knife lunged," it's code for, "I didn't have to shoot the guy but I was so pissed off that he wouldn't obey me that I did anyway."

Here's the latest incident, San Jose style.

What's your opinion?  Is that too cynical?  Please leave a comment.

Misdemeanor Domestic Abuse

On The Volokh Conspiracy there's a fascinating post and wonderful discussion about domestic misdemeanants and their 2nd Amendment rights.

The opinion is United States v. Chester, just decided today.

We cannot conclude on this record that the government has carried its burden of establishing a reasonable fit between the important object of reducing domestic gun violence and § 922(g)(9)’s permanent disarmament of all domestic violence misdemeanants. The government has offered numerous plausible reasons why the disarmament of domestic violence misdemeanants is substantially related to an important government goal; however, it has not attempted to offer sufficient evidence to establish a substantial relationship between § 922(g)(9) and an important governmental goal. Having established the appropriate standard of review, we think it best to remand this case to afford the government an opportunity to shoulder its burden and Chester an opportunity to respond. Both sides should have an opportunity to present their evidence and their arguments to the district court in the first instance.

I think those government lawyers better get their act together and prove their case. What do you think?

Please leave a comment.

Ezra Klein on the Constitution

Australia's Murder Rate

Via Common Gunsense I was able to see this wonderful article which seems to put the lie to the popular por-gun nonsense that gun control does not work.

AUSTRALIA'S murder rate is at its lowest for two decades, but indigenous people continue to kill and be killed far more than the rest of the population, a new report says.

Overall, more murder victims died from stab wounds - 43 per cent - than any other cause, followed by beatings (24 per cent) and gunshots (12 per cent).

I don't think it takes a genius to put two and two together. Gun control works.

I'm sure the pro-gun crowd have some ingenious ways to wiggle out of it though.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

OMG - Even Farago's Doing It

Well I suppose it is New Year's Eve.

Just like I feel about responsible gun ownership in general, I don't oppose drinking for those who can handle it. What I do oppose is the gun owner who thinks he can drink without diminsihing his ability to be responsible. And of course, I oppose over-doing it.

Knowing that too many gun owners will be over-doing it tonight concerns me. At this point all I can do is wish you well and remind you to be careful.

Happy New Year

Tulsa Murder

Perhaps some of our commenters would like to know if the five bullets were what killed the guy or if he was still alive when the shooter began bashing his head into the concrete. If the latter, obviously, gun control would have nothing to do with it.

Even in that unlikely case, I'd like to point out that a guy with that much anger should not be in possession of a gun.

They were fighting over the shooter's wife and they'd done so before.  I guess there was some kind of stalking or perhaps even an affair going on.  Would that count as a domestic homicide, then?

One interesting fact emerged about the Tulsa murder stats.

Payne is Tulsa’s 61st homicide victim of the year, 10 short of the record 71 homicides last year.

At first this little afterthought in the article seems to support the pro-gun contention that gun violence is down despite the increase in gun ownership. But, aside from the fact that there's no mention of how many of those murders were by gun, the fact that last year was the highest ever ruins everything. The cherry-picking stat hounds always say that violence and crime and gun crime and whatever else they're talking about has been going down steadily for years.

That's just not the case in Tulsa, just like it's not in Newark or Austin.

Another interesting tidbit in this story is the concealed carry guy who got involved.  Interesting that he didn't get involved until it was too late, but what I'm wondering is do we count this as a DGU?

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Murder - Suicide in Ohio

I think I may have posted about this one already, they're coming so frequently now I can't keep track. Maybe it's the end of the year, or the economy or lack of health care.  Or, perhaps, it could be all those things combined with the easy access to guns.

What do you think?

A Columbus man who killed his girlfriend Monday night before shooting himself in the head died Tuesday afternoon at a Columbus hospital.

I suppose our newest commenter from Ohio, the one who tried to excuse the whole thing because supposedly the cause of death of the woman was the blow to the head not the bullet to the body, will have no trouble admitting the guy committed suicide with a gun.

But, let me guess, if someone wants to kill himself it's none of our business and it's certainly not the gun's fault.

Please leave a comment.

Bullet Casings at the DC Sniper Shootings

I became quite concerned the other day when I wrote this post about Josh Horwitz' ideas on microstamping.  Our frequent commenters kaveman and Fat White Man both accused Josh of lying about the bullet casings at the scenes of the DC sniper shootings.

"Each of the DC shootings was a single shot fired by Malvo from INSIDE the trunk of a car. They had cut a hole in the trunk just large enough to poke the barrel out and get a sight picture.

It is highly unlikely any shell casings were recovered by police through this tiny hole." said kaveman.

First of all, Kaveman is quite correct. The reports at the time said that no shell casings were found at the scene of the crimes. said Fat White Man.

So concerned was I, thinking that it makes sense what they said about the shootings and that would mean that maybe Josh Horwitz is like they say too.  So I wrote to his organization.

On my gun control blog I'm daily bombarded with the vicious and usually badly-formed attacks of the pro-gun crowd. But in this case I'm a bit at a loss. How do you respond to them when they say Josh was lying when he said there were shell casings left at the scene of the DC sniper shootings?

I received a very quick answer frim Ladd Everitt, Director of Communications, CSGV.

Thanks for the email, Mike.

A great source of the extensive ballistic evidence recovered during these shootings is Charles Moose's book, "Three Weeks in October: The Manhunt for the Serial Sniper":

http://books.google.com/books?id=vHc3lICVE4AC&pg=PT113&lpg=PT113&dq=three+months+in+october:+the+manhunt+for+the+serial+sniper&source=bl&ots=-y7XiZ6FAt&sig=VY1-bfI9w2azWd727KnCKxJ3T3Q&hl=en&ei=WqMcTa37I4S8lQe6mJHcCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false

You can search the terms bullet, casing, shell in there, etc., etc.

Ladd Everitt, Director of Communications

Well, you know me. Those instructions to search for key words looked a little complicated for me so I did what I should have done in the first place. I went to Wikipedia. In less than a minute I found this about the first shooting.

At this crime scene the authorities discovered a shell casing as well as a Tarot card (the Death card) inscribed with the phrase, "Call me God"

Well, I haven't looked any further. I figurd that answered my questions adequately about whether I should believe what biased, close-minded gun-rights folks say. I apologize to you Mr. Horwitz, and the staff at CSGV, for having entertained even for a moment what these guys say about you. It won't happen again, I promise.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Ohio Supreme Court Decision

At Zorro's insistence.

The comment I left about this on several other blogs was something along the lines of how funny it is when government-hating, libertarian-leaning, folks revel in government intervention. 

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

The Neanderthal Gene

via The Lobster Scope.

clipped from www.npr.org

This year was a good year for Neanderthals. Yes, they did go extinct about 30,000 years ago, but scientists now say their genes live on — in us.
Scientists also found a 40,000-year-old finger in a Siberian cave that apparently belonged to an unknown human-like creature. And hair from the corpse of a 4,000-year-old hunter revealed his blood type and a predisposition for baldness.

What made these discoveries possible was DNA, which is becoming biological science's window into the past.

This year a team of scientists brought together by the Max Planck Institute in Germany actually decoded the billions of DNA segments extracted from Neanderthal bones. It was the culmination of years of research into retrieving intact, ancient DNA from the bones of humans and their ancestors.

"We estimate that about one to four percent of the genetic ancestry of non-Africans is from Neanderthals," says David Reich, a geneticist from Harvard University and a member of the research team.

Which reminds me of this.

Young Kids Are Dropping Like Flies

from the local Fox News.

It’s now up to a judge or jury to determine if leaving the items in a Wilton home in the vicinity of two unsupervised 12-year-olds for several hours last week was a crime.

Let's see, the gun owner broke no laws and the surviving 12-year-old gets charged with manslaughter. Does that sound right to you?

Please leave a comment.

Baltimore 13-Year-Old Dead

This was another so-called "gun accident."

Pretty soon we'll get the 2010 statistics from which the pro-gun crowd can pick and choose those which support their irresponsible policies.  Maybe I can help.  Let's take all the "accidental gun deaths" and divide them by all the stars in the galaxy.  This will clearly show how insignificant the number is.

Regardless of how many zeros there are after the decimal point, I still say arrest the gun owners who leave guns around for kids to find and strip them of their gun rights.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Murder - Suicide in Newark Ohio

I'm sure our favorite Ohio resident, Fat White Man, will tell us no laws could have prevented this.

I don't buy it.  How about you?

Please leave a comment.

Cops are Dropping Like Flies

In Arlington, Texas, there were 3 dead in a domestic violence incident, including one cop. Early in the year an Arlington policeman had been killed in a traffic accident.
 
The article mentions a Georgia incident in which a cop was gunned down making a traffic stop.

Soon we should know what the yearly statistics are for cops dying in the line of duty. I'm sure like usually happens, people will get what they want out of the various surveys and reports. 

One thing I'd like to mention is when a cop goes into a potentially dangerous situation practicing proper restraint, he's probably more likely to get killed.  Naturally, this leads many police to pre-empt the perceived danger, which results in more of those incidents I like to write about in which an unarmed man is killed.  This is the great dilemma of being a cop.  That's why they need much more screening and training than they get now.

Both types of tragedies, the one in which a cop is killed because he didn't shoot first and the one in which an innocent man is killed unnecessarily, both types are increased because of gun availability.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

TS Proves My Point

As I sagely noted in another most excellent post, when gunloons are confronted with a study they don't like, they respond in certain ways.  Commenter TS illustrates my sage assertions vividly.

Please recall I noted 3 typical responses:
1. they haven't read them (reading is hard) and thus feel free to pretend the study has overlooked or omitted something they feel is crucial;

2. they believe studies are conducted by universities, Government organizations, and professionals who are all biased against guns;


3. the gunloons don't understand statistics(math is hard). In fact, recently, a gunloon claimed all statistics are "hogwash."

Missouri's Lack of Gun Laws

via Ohh Shoot.

14-year-old Megan Reppond of Joplin, Missouri went to a slumber party Monday night with three of her friends at the home of Scott Arkle. Arkle had gotten a new concealed weapons holster for Christmas and was trying it out with his .38-caliber handgun. He left the gun, loaded, unlocked, with no safety on, in the holster on top of a piano in one of the rooms of the house.
 

When the girls went into the room one of the young teenagers picked up the gun, assuming it wasn't loaded, jokingly pointed the gun at Megan and pulled the trigger. Megan was flown to a hospital in Springfield and was taken off life support Tuesday morning and subsequently died.
 

The county prosecutor said that while it is never a good idea to leave a loaded gun out in a home where there are children, he does not anticipate filing any charge in the case. Missouri does not have any CAP (Child Access Prevention) laws that require guns be stored locked and unloaded and impose criminal liability on adults who negligently leave firearms accessible to children.

What's your opinion? Is that a backwards state, or what?

Glenn Greenwald on Julian Assange

via Crooks and Liars

Sex Fantasy Killer

We already know the average gun owner has a vivid fantasy life, but this guy took it a wee bit further.

via Microdot who says 2011 will be an interesting year.

Machine Guns in The Carolinas

As usual when the pro-gun crowd say something over and over again, you have to wonder if it's true.

Privacy laws make it impossible for the public to know who in their region owns machine guns. But there are thousands of them in the Carolinas.

In 2000, there were about 9,500 registered machine guns in the Carolinas, according to the most recent publicly available data. (Those numbers probably haven't changed much because a federal law - aimed at restricting automatic weapons - prohibits civilians from buying machine guns manufactured after May 1986, according to Earl Woodham, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.)

I know, now the argument will switch to what's so much more dangerous about an automatic weapon anyway.

The point is, the gun crowd commonly says they're banned or so heavily restricted they might as well be banned. That doesn't seem to be the case.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Stand Your Ground in New Hampshire

Boston.com reports:

In his veto message blocking the 2006 gun bill, Lynch, a Democrat, said he wanted to avoid a law that "would authorize any shopper to instantly shoot and kill a thief who had grabbed or tugged at the shopper’s purse or briefcase, regardless of how many shoppers might be placed in harm’s way by such actions."

His opposition led to a compromise this year that softened the prohibition against drawing a gun on someone. The new law takes effect Saturday and allows citizens to show a weapon to warn away a potential attacker.

This is a wonderful direction for gun rights to move, isn't it? What's important above all else is the right of the gun owner. What's unimportant is the life of the criminal. This is where the line is really drawn between the "only ones" and the rest. The "only ones" being the supposed law-abiding gun owners and the rest being everybody else.

The problem is some of the "only ones" doing the shooting are not really law-abiding citizens, and some of the criminals are not really criminals.

Shooting at the first sign of trouble is not responsible gun management. Encouraging this will certainly result in more misuse and abuse than we already have.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Utah Man Killed by Police

One thing for sure, you can't say this guy was unarmed.

A gun-toting man fatally shot by police outside a Mormon Temple on Christmas Day also was carrying a machete, as well as a rifle, shotguns and multiple swords.

But you can say he was mentally ill.

Police remained uncertain about Pogue's motive, but said family members have said Pogue had a history of mental health problems.

So, under the future guidelines of full licensing and registration, we can ensure that guys like this only have machetes and swords, no guns.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

License to Kill

The bad guy supposedly made a "threatening gesture."

Fort Collins police shot and killed a man Dec. 8 after he pointed a flashlight at officers trying to arrest him for multiple felony warrants, according to an official report of the incident that says the officers' actions were justified.

In Colorado, like in most of the country, they enjoy it when the police get rid of bad guys like this and they make it easy for them to justify their actions.

The problem with that is, the same cop who shoots a bad guy unnecessarily like this, is liable to do the same to an innocent person someday. Cops, or anyone else for that matter, who shoot unarmed people should be removed from the job and stripped of their right to ever own a gun. That's my opinion.

What's yours? Please leave a comment.

Josh Horwitz on Microstamping

From The CSGV.

As a resident of the Washington, D.C. area, I can vividly remember the 2002 sniper shootings. With each shooting, cartridge casings littered the crime scene, but none of them could be traced back to the assault rifle being used to kill innocent civilians. The frustration among investigators striving to protect the terrified public was palpable. 

Why would law-abiding gun owners oppose something like this? That's often the question, isn't it?

Please leave a comment.

Bizness is Hard: Linoge Claims His Website Makes More $$ Than VPC

Jon C. Sullivan Pedals Hard

Linoge is claiming his blog makes more money than the VPC.

Due to his low GPA at Georgia Tech, Linoge probably never understood the concept of a non-profit.

Again, it's no surprise Linoge makes yet another claim without any supporting evidence.  The least he could do is provide his sales numbers for his self-published book-Everything I Know, I Learned on Firefly.

Guess Firefly didn't teach anything about business.

Why Gunloons Have Difficulty With Studies Or, Math and Reading Are Hard

Remember Linoge's simply ludicrous assertion?

Of course, any student of statistics and history would already know that there is no correlation between firearm ownership and crime rates, and what correlation there might be is negative (in that as firearm ownership increases, crime rates typically decrease). But, then, “history” and “statistics” do not exactly fit into the anti-rights nuts’ misappropriated concept of “common sense”, so what do you expect?

Father and Son Gun Owners in Florida

The rule is that 99.9 percent of gun owners are responsible and sober. After all if they aren't they might lose thier right to keep and bear arms. It's the exceptions to the rule that give us joy and amusement.

Domestic Violence Turned Upside Down

Guns are bad news for women in most cases. Every once in a while the tables get turned around.  It's still domestic violence though, and it was still made worse due to the presence of a gun.

Officers arrived at a home near 39th Avenue and Encanto to find a man who was shot in the stomach.

The wife told police her husband was upset, and when she was sleeping on the couch, he attacked her. He had a gun, and she said he pistol-whipped her, pointed it at her and threatened to kill her.

When he put the weapon down she grabbed it, and she said they struggled over the gun, and it went off.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

San Bernadino Police Shooting

This time they used the old he "reached into his waistband while running away" justification. But the guy was running away at the time.

Too many gun owners, both civilain and law enforcement, are unfit to make the kinds of decisions that carrying a gun demands.

Increased screening and training is what's needed, along with proper restrictions.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Guns in Sports Bars - Atlanta Style

In Georgia, where just about anything goes as far as guns are concerned, there was more trouble in paradise.

I know this has nothing at all to do with the world of legitimate gun owners. There is that gun, though.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Guns and Strippers - Phoenix Style

In Arizona, where just about anything goes as far as guns are concerned, Christmas weekend saw not one, but two shootouts in strip bars.

Obvioulsy what's needed is more and easier gun availability and fewer restrictions.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Just a Thought from Laci

Here it is in its entirety.

It amazes me that people in the US forget that the most destructive act of terrorism on American territory prior to 911 was the Oklahoma City Bombing, which was committed by an angry white bloke.

And up until the day of the bombing, the gun crowd would have been saying, he hasn't done anything wrong, you cannot punish someone for future crimes, this is not the Minority Report.

Afterwards, of course, they have nothing to do with him. He's not one of them. He's a nut and a criminal.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Police Station Shootings

 Dedicated to all our pro-gun friends who suffer from selective memory and keep repeating that crazy people with guns always choose gun-free zones for their sprees. Sometimes our biased friends even say, "You don't see these guys shooting up the police stations, do ya?"



This one's a bit old but quite dramatic.

Another one from this year. It's funny how many there are.

And another. Listen, I could go on all day with this. You get the idea, right? When pro-gun folks repeat things over and over again, you've got to consider that perhaps they're completely made up by someone and mindlessly repeated by the others.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

The Wire and Dungeons and Dragons

You can read the quotes chosen for each character better by double-clicking.  My favorite is McNulty. "Fuck the fucking numbers already. The fucking numbers destroyed this fucking department."

via MGK through Kottke (taken from Dungeons and Dragons alignment )

PA Domestic Shooting - 1 Dead 2 Wounded

It was your standard domestic shooting scene, girlfriend dead, girlfriend's mother wounded, shooter wounded.

What's your answer to this kind of thing? Please leave a comment.

Fort Campbell MP Kills Girlfriend

Imagine how angry you have to get to argue with your girlfriend, grab her by the hair, and shoot her in the head.

Some people are just not fit to own guns.

Please leave a comment.

Linoge at the Peak of his Game

From his post of December 21st: After pointing out, like all the other pro-gun bloggers, that guns are up and crime is down, Linoge penned this incredible two-sentence masterpiece.

Of course, any student of statistics and history would already know that there is no correlation between firearm ownership and crime rates, and what correlation there might be is negative (in that as firearm ownership increases, crime rates typically decrease). But, then, “history” and “statistics” do not exactly fit into the anti-rights nuts’ misappropriated concept of “common sense”, so what do you expect?

Now, I realize that the lengthy list of disparaging names Linoge has used on me is all a cover-up for his terrible feelings of inferiority, but even he should do better than this.  In the very same sentence he said there is "no correlation" and he said "what correlation there might be." 

Of course the correlation that might be supports his biased opinions. Then to cap off this unforgettable and masterful bit of thinking, he says it's the "anti-rights nuts" who have a problem with common sense.

What's your opinion?  Do you sometimes think Linoge is so busy linking to his own chart and trying to get to the part where he disparages the opposition that he loses focus?  I think that's it. Either that or he was having one of those stiff drinks again.

Please leave a comment.

Jason McDaniel - Poster Boy and Hero or Not

Whenever a guy with a gun shoots someone without a gun because the unarmed guy "lunged," I find it hard to accept as legitimate.  When the guy with the gun is as physically fit and agile as McDaniel proved to be on the video, it's even more suspicious. When afterwards there's not the slightest indication of remorse for having taken a life, I say something's wrong.  What do you think?

video

Colorado Man Protects His Family

In the gun-friendly State of Colorado they just love their legitimate gun owners who know how to protect themselves and their families.

Let me see if I got it all.  The jewelry store owner, McNulty leaves the shop late taking his gun with him. A robber, who's obviously seen too many movies, pretending to have a gun, says, "give me all your money, I'm holding your family."  

McNulty chased the robber across the parking lot, with the robber throwing rocks at him along the way. Eventually the robber got in a truck and headed straight for McNulty.

"He was driving after me," McNulty describes. "I got out of the way and I shot his tire."

It turns out McNulty's been watching too many movies too. If he'd been reading the news he'd know the cops use that "driving right at me" explanation to justify murder all the time.

I suppose this is sort-of an "how dare he" reaction combined with the Pennsylvania Castle Doctrine which encourages running down the bad guy and executing him. As I said, McNulty should be reading the gun news more and watching Bruce Willis movies less.

Here's the part that'll really make you laugh.

 Colorado Springs Police have been investigating. They say it's usually safer to cooperate in a situation like that, but it sounds like McNulty had a right to shoot.

"It sounds reasonable at this point," says Lt. Brian Ritz of the Colorado Springs Police Department. "The person has a right to use force to protect himself; whether it be deadly physical force or whatever the appropriate level of force may be to protect himself or his family."

What do you think that means, you can use deadly force, or if you choose, you can shoot at the tires?

Does it all mean that if someone says something completely unbelievable like "I got your family, man," you can chase him down and shoot him? I suppose that's exactly what it means. You can claim that you believed him.

What's your opinion? Are they completely nuts in Colorado, or what?

Please leave a comment.

Airport Security in Miami

Amidst recent reports that the airport scanners don't always work well, here's one for the good guys.

A man headed to Cuba has been arrested at Miami International Airport after security screeners said they found a loaded gun in his fanny pack.

Miami-Dade Police arrested 48-year-old Juan Manuel Baldoquin of West Palm Beach on charges of carrying a concealed weapon and grand theft of a firearm. He was being held on $10,000 bond.

Detective Javier Baez says a Transportation Security Administration screener spotted the outline of a gun while X-raying Baldoquin's bag. Police found the loaded gun when searching the bag by hand.

Baez says Baldoquin told officers that he had forgotten that the gun was in the bag.

The gun had been reported stolen in 1996 and it was unclear why Baldoquin was carrying it.

Would you say this story illustrates why it's important for people to report their stolen weapons?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Officer Martin Garcia - Houston's Finest

Last year he supposedly shot a driver who was trying to run him over. I didn't believe that one for a minute.  This time the unarmed man "made some sort of threatening gesture."

Officer Garcia should try a different line of work.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.