Gun Violence in Peaceful Canada? Impossible!

Hard to believe that Canadians, who have often been dismissive of America's "Culture of Gun Violence", are finally admitting that they have their own share of crazed mass murderers.

Toronto City Council Urges Ban on Handgun, Ammunition Sales After Shooting:
On July 22, 2018, Faisal Hussain opened fire in Toronto’s Greektown, killing two and wounding 13. CBS News reported that Toronto Mayor John Tory reacted to the shooting by saying, “Guns are too readily available to too many people.” The National Post quoted Tory saying, “Why does anyone in this city need to have a gun at all? ....”

Eventually our Northern Neighbors will acknowledge that all nations need to address the problem of rising gun violence.   And banning guns and ammunition will only disarm the honest public, and turn their citizens into sheep at the mercy of the wild dogs.

Hard to believe that a nice Irish lad like Faisal would go rogue, isn't it?

(NOTE: Bearing Arms reports that the firearm was obtained illegally.   No great surprise.)

UPDATE: 

I mentioned "a nice Irish lad" ... then I read the current news.  It seems that the Irish (bless the ancestral home of my "DILDINE" ancestors) are still causing mischief:

July 27, 2018 by Zendo Deb And you thought the Criminal Justice System in the USA was screwed up. 

Violent burglar dressed up as garda during raid on family.
It seems things aren’t much different in Ireland.
He has 130 previous convictions for burglary, theft, road traffic offences, criminal damage, possession of drugs, taking vehicles and public order matters.
If he was sentenced to 6-months for each of those 130 offenses, he wouldn’t be out causing more mayhem. But the Irish, like their European neighbors, are too civilized to actually put people in prison.

https://wheelgun.wordpress.com/2018/07/27/failures-of-the-criminal-justice-system-international-edition/

Fisking Feinstein

Diane Feinstein recently published an "opinion piece" regarding the Second Amendment.   Some of her talking points are exemplars of circular logic; others demonstrate no logic at all.

GOP's false talking points against gun control are dangerous:

One frequent refrain:“Criminals don't follow the law.”This is absurd on its face. By this logic, we shouldn’t criminalize murder, rape or kidnapping. Laws exist to deter crime, and when a crime is committed, laws are there to ensure punishment is meted out. Banning assault weapons won’t prevent all shootings, but contrary to Republican talking points, we already know that banning these military-style weapons does reduce mass killings of six people or more.

Diane is right in that laws 'ensure punishment'; but murder is also against the law, and subsequent punishment is obviously not a determent.    We don't know that banning "military-style weapons" (not defined) reduces mass murder.

When the original ban was in place from 1994 to 2004, the number of such massacres fell by 37% and the number of people dying from them fell by 43%. 

Actually, the 1994 gun control law was allowed to 'sunset" because the statistics proved that the law did nothing to limit the number of murders ... which is why the Left was allowed to impose such an unconstitutional law on a "probationary basis".

 Another canard: The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Tell that to the 49 people killed in Orlando at the Pulse nightclub, where an armed guard was on duty and was unable to prevent the murders.

Clearly, a failure of the $9/hour Rent-a-Cop who decided he wasn't getting paid enough to get shot for defending attendees at a gay night club.   Had the "49 people killed" been armed, the outcome may have resulted in one murderer lying in a pool of his own blood, and the cowardly "armed guard" having been severely talked to by his supposed charges.

Another particularly terrible idea floated recently: arming teachers. How can we expect teachers, who already have too much on their plates, to undergo the same training as law enforcement officers and be able to confront killers armed with AR-15s? 

I don't entirely disagree with Di here; nobody realistically expects pedants to be protectors.   A few, perhaps.  After all, "if it just saves ONE CHILD..."

 The falsehood that is most frustrating, however, is that Democrats have no ideas to counter this violence. That couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Uh ... no.  That is, exactly, the truth.  Diane's own comments prove that:

 The first is getting military-style assault weapons such as the AR-15 off the streets. These weapons fire much faster than typical hunting rifles. They fire rounds that are also deadlier than those fired from a hunting rifle. A Parkland radiologist noted that an AR-15 round may leave an exit wound “the size of an orange.” These weapons are designed to kill people, not animals. Our current bill would ban 205 weapons by name, and any other weapons that accept a detachable magazine and have one military characteristic. The 1994 ban required two additional characteristics, a loophole that gun manufacturers exploited. We'd close that loophole. Importantly, the bill also bans high-capacity magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds. 

Well, criminals will have AR-15 rifles ... even if they must steal them (see below).  Diane would deny access to effective self-defense weapons to law-abiding citizens, only because the same firearms may be abused by criminals.

Again, the 1994 ban failed not only because it did not limit the amount of mayhem visited upon the public by criminals, but because it also disarmed citizens.   That Diane doesn't understand that salient point demonstrates her own willful disclination to allow "us" to defend ourselves against "them" by permitting us not to become criminals in our own defense.

The shooter at the  grade school in Newtown, Conn., for example, used 30-round magazines.  High-capacity magazines also lead to deadlier mass shootings. While law enforcement might be able to respond to mass shootings in a matter of minutes, a matter of minutes is all it takes to fire hundreds of rounds. 

The shooter at Newtown murdered his own mother in order to acquire her legally owned firearms.   He had multiple firearms ... so many that he didn't even use all of them.   He shot until he was stopped by the threat of police intervention, and then he killed himself.

He violated so many laws (including matricide), it is clear that the legality of his actions did not serve to dissuade him from his violent end.

In essence, it's difficult to say what laws might have been enacted which would have stopped any of these terrible murders.   Even if all firearms were outlawed and confiscated, we only have to look at Australia to see that would-be criminals will always have access to guns.

Is it wise for Feinstein to suggest that private ownership of firearms should be denied to honest American citizens?  Wouldn't that just serve to make criminals of the rest of us?

Because you know Americans will have our guns.

Dems fear NRA members: Their Fears Are Misplaced

In the latest push to subvert the Second Amendment rights of American, the Democratic Party is walking on cat feet.

They look at the latest flurry of mass murders, they hear their constituents cry out for them to DO SOMETHING! ... and they propose laws which will not affect the insane, but will only serve to impose draconian controls on law-abiding citizens to protect themselves against the murderers.

The problem is ... the Democrats fear Republicans.

Republicans are not the problem.

THIS IS THE PROBLEM!

The Great Aurora, Colorado Gun Debate

Recently, the Arapahoe County (Colorado) District Attorney George Brauchler and the Aurora Sentinel editor Dave Perry found the time to write opposing Editorials in Dave's Newspaper (in George's county).    Their subject was the 2012 Theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

I've decided to post large quotes from both public figures, if only to illustrate the margin of difference between the Liberal Editor and the Conservative D.A.

(Note: The quotes have been edited slightly to improve readability; no part of either statement has been edited in content.)

Due to the length of the comments, I've inserted a page break between the quotes for those who don't want to read a LONG post.

PERRY: Common sense, facts and hope refute DA Brauchler's gun-law claim and Nugent's nuttery - Aurora Sentinel:  BY DAVE PERRY, editor, Updated: July 26, 2017 7:05 am

Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler is the smart and affable Aurora DA who helped convict James Holmes for the Aurora theater shooting murders and assaults. Brauchler is now running for governor.

He nearly won a death sentence against the sadistic and hopelessly mentally ill Holmes for murdering 12 people five years ago on July 20.  ...  The anniversary of the grisly massacre coincided with the regular meeting last week of the politically rightest of the right, the Western Conservative Summit in Denver. In a straw poll, Brauchler won the group’s endorsement for governor in 2018. He came out on top among other conservative hopefuls in part because of his remarks about gun laws.  

Brauchler said — in the shadow of the anniversary of one of the worst gun-massacres in the history of the United States — that there is no gun law he’s heard of that could have prevented the Aurora theater shooting.   

 Now I know full well that Brauchler is just pandering to the gun set when he says things like that, even if he means it. It’s no different than Democrat gubernatorial candidates telling teachers they’ll help keep the union strong — except teachers don’t kill nearly as many people as do guns.

See Brauchler Quote Below:

Isn't it Ironic?

Amazing.

... Over 100 people killed or injured by one person at a New Years Eve Party in Turkey, and there was nobody there able to stop the attack.

Don't you just hate it when Terrorists don't obey Gun Control Laws?

It isn't as if they didn't see this coming ...

Orlando

Some thoughts and comments on the massacre in the Orlando nightclub.

Means:  Gun shot
It could have been worse.  See: "Happy Land"

The Happy Land fire was an arson fire that killed 87 people trapped in an unlicensed social club named "Happy Land", at 1959 Southern Boulevard in the West Farms section of the Bronx in New York City on March 25, 1990. Most of the victims were young Hondurans celebrating Carnival,  largely drawn from members of the local Garifuna American community. Unemployed Cuban refugee [other mass murderer], whose former girlfriend was employed at the club, was arrested soon afterward and ultimately convicted of arson and murder.

Motive: Hatred for Homosexuals?

ORLANDO, Florida — Years before he shot up an Orlando gay club in what became the largest mass shooting in American history, [this murderer] regularly picked up lunch from a drag queen at Ruby Tuesday’s. He may have even gone to see a drag show or two, a former high school classmate told The Daily Beast.

(I'm guessing that he was "A nice Guy" .. other than his recent proclivity to murder strangers.)

Opportunity:  Gay Nightclub

This was possibly the most vulnerable target for a man intent on mass murder.  No firearms allowed, presumably, because even legal firearms carriers are usually prohibited from carrying in a bar and the customers may have even been "wanded" before entry. (Has there been any discussion on security precautions at this club?)

 Which would have presented no challenge to the armed murder because he intended to shoot his way in if necessary.   So, there was almost no chance that anyone would be armed and would defend themselves from attack in this "Gun Free Zone".  

Does anyone question that his choice of people to shoot was "a target of opportunity" rather than "a violent statement against homosexuality"?

Commentary: Evil

This has happened before, in variations too numerous to mention.  And it will happen again.

Nothing that our President says or does will stop it.  Not in America, not in any other nation.

Surely, we can pass laws against aberrant behavior .... and we have.
Surely, we can pass laws against access to guns by criminals and insane people; violent behavior; murder ... and we have.

We can pass laws against anything; but the only effect will be on law-abiding people.

Evil people exist, and nothing we can do or say will stop them from wreaking their vengeance on an unsuspecting, vulnerable populace.

In the weeks to come, you'll see people .. and politicians (not necessary the same group) trying to find ways to intercept this sort of thing.

But it will have no effect, will not stop the deaths; because anyone who would do THIS has no respect for life, laws, rules, regulations, "common decency", or the rights of others.

They just want to kill people.  Preferably, a lot of people.

They are carbuncles on the buttocks of humanity, and the only thing that you and I can do is to grit our collective teeth and remove them from society as soon as we can identify them.

That's all I have to say about this.

[NOTE: the names of murderers will not be displayed in 'original content' here, because they are anathema and should not be given the publicity which they so pathetically need.]

Don't blame the Killer; blame the Freedom

Exclusive: Jumping The GunGuns Magazine.com | Guns Magazine.com:
Opinion Article by David Codrea in reference to the Colorodo Planned Parenthood Attack

If you haven't already seen it, it's worth reading

The issue that should be of interest to all readers here is that religious, speech and firearms freedoms are being blamed for the evil actions of a defective individual, one who appears incapable of living freely among his fellow human beings. And further restrictions on those who do not share those defects will solve nothing, except to make it harder for good people to defend themselves against bad ones.

For Whom The Bell Tolls

I'm still trying to figure out who is responsible for the Parisian Slaughter of the Innocents.

Never Yet Melted suggests that it may be the Amish.

Well, of course.  It all seems so clear to me now.

I thought it must have been some Religion Of Peace.

But the Liberals demand with certainly the cause of the bloodbath could not possibly have been religious intolerance.


No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

Despite all this horror, the European Union elites are bringing into Europe millions of these savages. I have warned for years about this coming jihad. For doing so, I was attacked, smeared, and marginalized. We were right about it all, and yet still my colleagues and I are blacklisted. Hundreds are dead, and the war has just begun. We did everything in our power to save lives. But the political, media, and academic elites aligned with the savages. And now hundreds more are dead in Paris — and you ain’t seen nothing yet.

-- Sarah Geller

Welcome to Hell!

Here's your Hand-Basket:

Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines | Photos & News Videos:

. BREAKING NEWS: FRENCH AUTHORITIES IDENTIFY one of the eight Paris assailants who created havoc in the city Friday night, killing 128 people and wounding more than 300 others, as 29-year-old Ismael Omar Mostefai, according to Sky News. Mostefai was reportedly a French citizen who was living in Chartes, just southwest of the capital.
.  CONFERENCE HEATS UP: Obama expected to come under pressure for more ISIS involvement at G20 summit
. ARRESTS TIED TO PARIS ATTACKS: Belgium makes three arrests linked to Paris attacks
. NO MERCY: France's Hollande responds to Paris attacks that leave at least 129 dead
. DC VIGIL: French ambassador to US joins hundred in Washington vigil for those killed in Paris
. KERRY: World leaders take step to end Syria war and spreading terror concerns, but disagreements persist
. LIVE BLOG COVERAGE OF PARIS TERROR ATTACKS | France-bound plane grounded after tweet
.VIDEOS: French president confirms ISIS behind attacks | ISIS claims responsibility for Paris attacks
. VIDEO: Heavily armed police gather outside Paris hotel
. 'IT WAS CARNAGE': Survivors describe horrific scene in concert hall

I know, it's  easy to blame this on "Extremist Muslims", but according to at least one source, it's NOT THEIR FAULT!

SOLON: It's all the fault of Right Wing Exploitation!

According to that article in Solon:

We must mourn all victims. But until we look honestly at the violence we export, nothing will ever change

,,,

Any time there is an attack on civilians in the post-9/11 West, demagogues immediately blame it on Muslims. They frequently lack evidence, but depend on the blunt force of anti-Muslim bigotry to bolster their accusations.
Actual evidence, on the other hand, shows that less than two percent of terrorist attacks from 2009 to 2013 in the E.U. were religiously motivated. In 2013, just one percent of the 152 terrorist attacks were religious in nature; in 2012, less than three percent of the 219 terrorist attacks were inspired by religion.

Actually, Americans have been rather sensitized by the events of 9/11/01.
Which was .. ahem ... universally acknowledged to have been caused by Muslim extremists.  Most of whom came from privileged backgrounds.

mmm   I'm not convinced that this isn't a "Three-Percenter".   We've had other news reports since the Salon article was published which suggest that it wasn't an attack by Christians, or Jews, or Budists,  And I didn't see anyone in Saffron Robes wielding an AK47 in the photos.

Actually, some people are relating this to the 2008 Mumbai attacks.  But what do they know?

The article goes on to state:

As soon as the news of the attacks broke, even though there was no evidence and practically nothing was known about the attackers, a Who’s Who of right-wing pundits immediately latched on to the violence as an opportunity to demonize Muslims and refugees from Muslim-majority countries.
In a disgrace to the victims, a shout chorus of reactionary demagogues exploited the horrific attacks to distract from and even deny domestic problems. They flatly told Black Lives Matter activists fighting for basic civil and human rights, fast-food workers seeking liveable wages and union rights, and students challenging crippling debts that their problems are insignificant because they are not being held hostage at gunpoint.
More insidiously, when evidence began to suggest that extremists were responsible for the attacks, and when ISIS eventually claimed responsibility, the demagogues implied or even downright insisted that Islam — the religion of 1.6 billion people — was to blame, and that the predominately (although not entirely) Muslim refugees entering the West are only going to carry out more of such attacks.

Oh, that's so slick   It's a work of art to conflate "Black Lives Matter" and the slaughter of over a hundred innocent victims in Paris.

But since I'm a WASP, I guess it's obligatory for me to jump to the conclusion that because this massacre was aimed at a group of citizens of a nation which has been accepting muslim refugees in record numbers in the last few years, the violence has been due to the national reluctance to support said muslim refugees.

Most of those refugees, though, have 'forted up' in neighborhoods where even the French police are loath to enter.

 The Washington Times - Wednesday, January 7, 2015

A backdrop to the massacre in Paris on Wednesday by self-professed al Qaeda terrorists is that city officials have increasingly ceded control of heavily Muslim neighborhoods to Islamists, block by block.
France has Europe’s largest population of Muslims, some of whom talk openly of ruling the country one day and casting aside Western legal systems for harsh, Islam-based Shariah law.
“The situation is out of control, and it is not reversible,” said Soeren Kern, an analyst at the Gatestone Institute and author of annual reports on the “Islamization of France.”

That sounds like it could have been written on November 14 rather than January 7, doesn't it?

But no, it's part of the reporting on the Charlie Hebdo attack.  It's not as if we ... and Paris ... hadn't been warned.

Apparently, it's reactionary to assume that if Muslims attacked Paris in January, and people using the same (or similar) terror tactics and equipment attack Paris in November ... oh, I can see that I am SO NOT Politically Correct, for I am jumping to conclusions before sufficient evidence has been ascertained.  (But after all, I remember this "walks like a duck, quacks like a duck" racist cultural heritage that drives my knee-jerk reactions to large-scale public massacres by groups of individuals.)

Unfortunately, France continued its irresponsible Right Wing Exploitation (apparently by allowing unrestricted immigration of Muslim 'refugees'), and so of course it deserved every thing it got.

It was just a matter of time until "open carry" demonstrators became indistinguishable from mass murderers

Colorado Springs mayor has no 'appetite for' changing city's open-carry law:
November 06, 2015

Officers didn't respond until after the first shots rang out at 8:55 a.m.

At 8:55 a.m., Harpham gunned down a passing bicyclist, Andrew Alan Myers, 35. Officers were then told to stop what they were doing and respond.
Armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, a .357 revolver and a 9mm pistol, Harpham continued the rampage. He killed Jennifer Vasquez, 42 and Christy Galella, 35, before dying in a shootout with Colorado Springs police.

How does a LEO know when an "open carry" fanatic is discovered to be a potential "mass murder"?
Answer, He doesn't.

"You legalize it to be OK to carry a gun - and the hard part of that is it only takes moments to level the barrel of a gun and shoot someone," Jackson said. "So these weapons are there legally. Many people can legally carry them. And sometimes really bad things happen."

Exactly.

This is just one of the reasons why I don't appreciate people abusing the "open carry" law, which they seem to do for the sole purpose of performing "in your face" demonstrations.

Or, in other words:  "I do this, because I can, and you can't stop me."

It's impossible for a LEO to know the difference between a protester, and a murderer, until the blood runs in the gutters.

That's not acceptable.

Guys, I understand that the new laws make it permissible to "open carry" but you have a responsibility to your community.  "Making a legal point" is no excuse for creating a disturbance.

 Legitimate  "Open Carry" was not evolved so you could prance around with a rifle on your shoulder; it was created so that you could just do normal "stuff".  Deliberately flaunting firearms is not the way to convince "other people" that you are a responsible gun-owner

And so, when a certifiable maniac shows up looking exactly like a "right to carry protester", there is no way for police to tell the difference between a capering protester (like you) and a legitimate threat to public safety.

"Right To Carry" demonstrators are no longer just making the rest of the law-abiding firearms owners look bad.

They (YOU!) have muddied the waters so thoroughly that innocents are being killed without the police protection they deserve, because YOU  (Yes, YOU!) have generated an environment where a murderer looks just like you.

So, I'm asking you to down-grade your rhetoric; because you're not making things better, you're making things worse.

If you were the kind of people that I enjoy sharing range-time with, I would not have to spell it out to you like this.

But you're not.  You don't even realize how your political activities make it easier for a mass murderer to hid himself among the smoke-screen you create, so he can do the things which you would never do; which is to say, he can murder people because folks think he's just another over-toe-top protester:

"You legalize it to be OK to carry a gun - and the hard part of that is it only takes moments to level the barrel of a gun and shoot someone," Jackson said. "So these weapons are there legally. Many people can legally carry them. And sometimes really bad things happen."

You're a bunch of idiots with guns, and even *_I_* don't want to be associated with you!

Hillary Clinton says "Australia is a Good Example" as a model for American Gun Control. ?

Hillary Clinton seems determined to resolve "The Gun Control Issue".
Her approaches are different from mine;  I think gun control means hitting your target.  Hillary thinks gun control is ignoring the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

Well, she's younger and wiser than I am.

But she has never spent a sleepless night in her bed listening to the sound of gunfire in her neighborhood, knowing that there are neighbors who would kill her for the $11.27 in her purse.

She is an academic.  She has no real-world experience with actual day-to-day violence.  She cannot possible relate to the millions of people in Hillary-Stan who face danger just walking down the street.

She is a politician; everything she says is carefully tuned to "Let's make it sound like she is doing something to resolve the problem".  Granted, as a politician she IS a target.   And so are we all, targets.  Whether in our neighborhood or in our homes, we are always targets.

She's a target for what she represents; we are targets for what we own, or for what we might own, or just because some random crazy thinks we smiled at the wrong time, the wrong place, at the wrong person.

She thinks that the problem is that there are too many guns on the street, but the problem is that the crooks and gang-bangers own all the guns on too many streets.
The definition of "trite" is a saying that is so obvious that it has become passe'.  She believes that she can make a perfect law against firearms ownership, it it will magically wipe out all "gun violence'.

The problem is, only law-abiding people pay any attention to the laws she would pass.  The trouble makers in our world ignore the laws.  Laws won't keep guns off the streets, they will only disarm the innocent.

The Underside of the Umpqua School Shooter

Oregon shooter: New details emerge about Chris Harper-Mercer | OregonLive.com:

This article isn't particularly informative, but one of the comments was!

I'm going to include the entire comment (from someone who knew the freak as a child) because I think it serves a purpose:  it gives us an insight to the warped personality from his earliest years.

This is an article, authored by "BENJI", a self-identified name in the comments section.  I don't know if it's true, or made up.  But it's chilling.

And it may be applicable to this incident.

Note that the author doesn't claim that the child described here is the Oregon School Shooter.

UCC Was Not A 'Gun Free Zone'

UCC Was Not A 'Gun Free Zone' Because Public Colleges In Oregon Can't Ban Guns | ThinkProgress:

Yes, it was.
They're liberals, they lie .. but they are so sly and we are so stupid that sometimes we even tempted to believe them!

They say that we CAN carry guns on campus to defend ourselves, but they carefully don't mention the fly in the ointment:   Oregon State Colleges (Universities) can keep you from carrying a weapon on any campus by simply refusing you permission to "carry" inside any building (or all buildings) by simply denying you permission.  And it's legal.

Roseburg, Oregon is in Douglas County, and even the county sheriff  has said that he will not enforce certain Oregon laws which are, in his words, "not enforceable",  But that doesn't mean that the laws are not still in force.

THE PASSIVE/AGGRESSIVE EFFECT OF A NON-COMPLIANT BUREAUCRACY!

Think Progress made an effort to dispute the GUN FREE ZONE issue, which many pro-gun people have cited as the reason why the murderer chose that venue for his massacre,

On Thursday, a shooter reported killed at least 13 people and injured many others at a community college in Oregon. Just minutes after the incident, commentators sought to attribute the incident to the fact that Umpqua Community College was a “gun free zone.” “The gun free zones are the areas that tell licensed gun owners that you are not allowed to carry your weapon in this facility…If you’re going to perpetrate some act, you know that most people are not going to be armed,” CNN “military analyst” Rick Francona said a few minutes after the shooting. A retired Navy Seal, Jonathan Gilliam, also appearing on CNN, went even further. Blaming the “gun free zone” for the scope of the tragedy and adding “the only thing that’s going to stop a gun is another gun.”

Okay so far, but here's the unspoken hitch:  You NEED PERMISSION to carry a gun on campus, and you can get permission; but you have to ask for it.  Oh, like how long is THAT going to take?

Not that they will listen ....

Oregon gunman singled out Christians during rampage | New York Post:

 A former president of the college said that it has only one unarmed security officer and that the community decided against armed guards last year. “I suspect this is going to start a discussion across the country about how community colleges prepare themselves for events like this,” Joe Olson told CBS.

(emphasis added)

College and University Administrators are scrambling for a safe place in the face of an oncoming firestorm of protest against collegiate rules forbidding self-defense on campus, and at least one former Oregon Administrator has pulled his head out of his Academia to ask:  "Is this going to hurt my career?"

Dear Joe, and all the oh-so-Academic-Joes who have been making life-altering decisions for your students for the past century:

Well ... yes.   There probably will be a 'discussion across the country' about this.  Except that the discussion has been going on for DECADES!  This is merely the first indication that someone in Academia might notice it.   (You sanctimonious bastards!)

Oregonians died today. And it's my fault. And yours.

Oregon shooting: Gunman dead at Umpqua Community College - CNN.com:

Is anyone surprised that this happened in a "Gun Free Zone"?    Anyone?

U.S. President Barack Obama was briefed on the situation and will continue to receive updates throughout the day. He pushed for a change in gun laws when he spoke to reporters about the shooting Thursday. "Our thoughts and prayers are not enough. It's not enough. It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel, and it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in America -- next week, or a couple months from now," he said.

(Presidential statement here)

__________________________________________________________________
at about 2:17 on the statement video, The President says:

It cannot be this easy for anyone who wants to inflict harm on another person to get his or her hands on a gun!

Easy?

EASY

Firearms are the most restricted, legislated-against, controlled commercial product in American history.  And yet Obama bemoans that it's to EASY?
Well, for someone who has no history of mental disease, or felonious actions, it's easy.  That's in keeping with the Second Amendment.  But the issue isn't about guns, it's about people.  As soon as we get technology which allows us to predict how people can act in unpredictable ways, we can stop this unpredictable activity. (re: Minority Report)

_____________________________________________________________

(Local sheriff statement here ... the sheriff refused to name the shooter, and rightly so)

(This current piece in REASON has a few things to say which  I wish I had said first):

What's important in regards to the politics of Obama's speech right now is that neither you nor I nor Obama knows anything about what sort of weapon was used and how it was obtained or the shooter's background. I don't even know his name as I type. 

Thus, he is undoubtedly overreaching beyond the facts when he speaks over and over about how apparently easy and simple gun-safety laws would have prevented this, or future tragedies like this

The arrogance of our current president surpasses understanding.

I read the news about the massacre at Umpqua Community College (which by the way is pronounced "UMP" as in "Umpire" and "QUA" as in "QUALITY"), and I'm appalled once again by the societal influences which bring a person to the decision that they only way he can be made whole is to cause the slaughter of innocents.

Usually, this sort of tragedy is ended when the shooter commits suicide, and I wonder:   "why the HELL didn't he just shoot himself first?"

UPDATE:  May have posted his intentions on Social Media

Today, the police in Roseburg, Oregon (nice town, I've been there many times, it's only 120 miles away from my home) were both pro-active and timely.  They responded to the calls quickly,  found-and-fixed their target, and resolved the situation as expediently as possible.   But they were too late to stop that asshole before too many people were slaughtered like lambs.

Unfortunate that there were no CHL (Concealed Handgun License) holders on the scene; they could have minimized the death toll, which was far too many innocents.  I often wonder why America is so plentifully staffed with innocent lambs, and so understaffed with the sheep-dogs that a proper flock requires.   We need to pay more attention to the needs of our sheep-dogs local police departments.

And we need to revisit the collegiate rules which mandate no CHL on campus in Oregon.  The state laws allow CHL, but (as I've said so many times before) the colleges can make their own rules about no guns on campus, and enforce them by firing an employee who violates them, or by terminating a student who legally has the temerity to carry a firearm on campus.

... and this most recent tragedy is my fault because I am vehemently against Gun Free Zones, because that's the Happy Hunting Ground for mad men.

"Domestic Terrorism" My Ass!

Chattanooga Shooting: Four Marines Dead in Shooting at Military Offices - ABC News:

 Four Marines were killed and three other people were injured today in a shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, according to the mayor and military officials.

THIS IS JUST WRONG in so many ways!

Legislation is not the answer.

The recent tragedy in S.C. proves several things:

• Making something illegal is not a preventative measure.
• Mental Health tests and Gun Control Laws will not prevent Evil.
• Some people don't care about physical survival, but only want to prove that they actually EXIST;  they will go to any extremes to accomplish that.
• There are NO gun-control laws which will eliminate "mass murders"; those countries which have the most stringent anti-gun laws still suffer from the slaughter of the innocents (I am Charley Who?)
• Although it seems trite to say "When Seconds Count, The Police Are Minutes Away" ... maybe more people should think about that.

And you never know who's going to freak out next, or when, or where, or how, or with what.  Guns, knives, hammers, or a gallon of gas on a ballroom floor, only these things are sure:

It's going to happen.  We won't see it coming.  And there is no way in the WORLD to defend ourselves against it.

Gun Nuts Are Safer

When you look at mass shootings, one thing is clear: the people who are shooting people are folks that buy guns to shoot people.

Statistics show that people who might be described as "Gun Nuts" are less likely to be involved in Mass Shootings than people who only want to be executioners.

In fact, almost ALL "Mass Shootings" are caused by people who have (relatively) NEVER used a firearm for hunting, or for competition, or for any other "Legitimate Gun Use",

Most frequently, they (a) just bought the gun, or (b) they just stole the gun, or (c) they just murdered a family member so they could steal the gun out of their gun safe.  Which doesn't say much for the "Safe Gun Retention" laws we're seeing a lot of, recently.

Excuse me .. AMNESTY INC accuses Hamas???

Amnesty International accuses Hamas of torturing, killing Palestinians in new report on Gaza conflict | Fox News: 

Amnesty International accused Hamas militants Wednesday of abducting, torturing, and carrying out summary executions of Palestinians during last year's conflict in the Gaza Strip.

We have never before seen AMNESTY point the finger at anyone but Israeli's in the Mid-East Conflict.   Those  "Hamas Militants" must have done some seriously Bad Shit to be cited by A.I.

Or is there some dissension in the TransNational Progressive Love-Fest?

 (Enquiring People want to know.  *_I_* want to know!)

It's extremely rare for the Transnational Liberal Progressive Community (hey, they chose the label, not me!) to target people who actually choose to unibomb buses and schools and places of worship in non-combat moments to be The Bad Guys.  Usually, AMNESTY INC points the fingers at the Israeli's because they are mean to Palestinians.

(You know, the Israeli's allow Palestinians to become citizens, and vote, and not get their women whipped because their burkas are too short, and all that oppressive shit?  Unlike HAMAS Dudes.)

So when Amnesty, Inc. accuses Hamas of the same stuff that Amnesty, Inc. has been accusing the Israeli's of for decades, it's like .....
.. uh ...

I don't know.  My mind is too boggled to present cogent thoughts.

You think it through.  Let me know if you can figure it out, okay?

Gun Sales Surge in St. Louis Suburbs Ahead of Jury's Ferguson Decision - NBC News.com

"We're selling everything that's not nailed down," (gun store owners declare .. which may prove to be an economic boon to save Colt Manufacturing LLC from bankruptcy.)

It's an old story, reminiscent of the surge in gun sales when Barack Obama was elected President.

You never need a gun, until you really need one.  That's the story.

Apparently, folks in the Saint Louis area expect they will 'really need one'.

Why?

Riots, of course.   Also known as "Civic Disturbances" (not to be confused with "Civil Unrest" because there's nothing 'civil' about a Race Riot), the population expects that police officer Whatshisname will be acquitted of murder charges, and the fine, gentle Citizens (much like Michael Brown was a 'gentle giant'?) will be tossing beer barrels, overturning police cruisers and torching Korean grocery stores.

Unless the Koreans have their AK47's handy.  Which may evince more protection of private property than will the PO-lice and their MRAPs (or whatever ...)

THIS JUST IN: 

1. Islam is the Nation of Peace!
2. Obama to enforce Immigration Laws!
3. "Global Warming" is now "Global Cooling"

Well, one out of three ain't bad, in the Teens of the 21st Century.

File this under: "What a Maroon!"