Lankford says that the main lesson from the study is an obvious one: Mass shootings can be reduced if the number of guns in circulation is reduced, as happened after a spate of shootings in Australia. "I didn't come into this study with any gun control agenda—I just let the data speak for itself," Lankford tells Deutsche Welle. "Whether people are willing to act on it is another question."Any suggestions, Mr. Lankford, about how this reduction might be accomplished?
How many times have you read about a workplace shooting, and the employees said something like, “I’m not surprised he did this,” or, “He always gave me the creeps, but I never thought he’d actually kill anybody”?
Experts on workplace violence offer a psychological profile of the typical perpetrator, and it’s worth the while of businesses to know the signs.
.... He asked if shouldering a rifle-caliber pistol with a SIG forearm brace was indeed illegal, and was told in no uncertain terms that yes, it is. Heck, they even showed him the ruling. Shouldering a pistol with a forearm brace magically classifies it as a short-barreled-rifle (SBR), which is taboo and requires certain tapdance numbers and bribery of the government (a.k.a. “tax stamp”) in order to be legal. The nameless agents, who spoke with him on the condition of anonymity, added that the reason this ruling was made is that too many of us asked too many questions.
Laughing at Microsoft MSFT 0.00%’s controversial data mining and privacy invasions within Windows 10? Well Windows 7 and Windows 8 users should laugh no longer as this most hated spying is now headed your way… Software specialist site gHacks has discovered that Microsoft has pushed four new updates to both Windows 7 and Windows 8 which introduce new data collecting and user behaviour tracking features.
A 22-year-old Milwaukee man accidentally shot himself in the femoral artery around 11:00 PM Friday evening while attempting to reholster a pistol. Despite the best efforts of the local hospital trauma units, Timothy Phonisay did not survive his wounds.Level I; Level II; Level III
Army organizations must be led by the highest caliber of officer. Ideal officers should always take the initiative and be capable of daring feats due to high self-confidence and a creative imagination. Their physical and moral courage must be unquestionable and they need a physical stamina that is equal to their mental flexibility. Leadership is the most important element in the Army and we have been blessed to continue to find excellent combat capable leaders because of our great education system.I read this article with great interest, because it reflected lessons I had learned during my own limited military experience:
It was the Michael Bloomberg-funded Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund that spent $764,232.35 in the reporting period covered, eclipsing even the Oregon teachers lobbying arm by $484,055.There are about 800,000 Democrats in Oregon.
With a population of about 680,000, some 83 percent of which is African-American, Detroit's growing embrace of Second Amendment rights has a racial component that is not unique to the city. According to a recent survey from Pew Research Center, 54 percent of African-American residents nationwide now see legal gun ownership as more likely to protect people than to put their safety at risk. That figure was up from 29 percent two years ago.Responding to encouragement by Detroit Police Chief James Craig, Detroit Denizens are applying for .. and getting ... licenses to carry concealed handguns.
“If anyone should have the right or need to carry a gun, it should be the African-American community,” Philip Smith, founder of the National African American Gun Association, told Reuters.
“It’s been a bad year,” Sean Connery’s character says in “The Wind and the Lion.” “The next one will probably be worse.” The Brady Campaign’s Legal Action Project might as well say the same, as the group’s attempts to legally destroy legitimate gun manufacturers and dealers have met repeated defeats that were capped, this June, by a blow that threatens to destroy the Project’s very existence.
CHATHAM(CBS) – There have been plenty of shark sightings off the Massachusetts coast this summer, but none quite like this. Dr. Greg Skomal of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries was working with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy off Monomoy, Cape Cod Monday when a great white shark jumped out of the water trying to grab a seal. It appears the seal escaped.
Train staff on board the high speed train which was the scene of a suspected Islamic extremist attack yesterday have been accused of barricading themselves in their staffroom and locking the door, leaving passengers to fend for themselves. The Moroccan terrorist was disarmed and beaten unconscious by US servicemen and a British man after he opened fire on a Paris-bound train with a Kalashnikov.My comments:
NASA confirms we won’t all be killed by an asteroid next month: There is no asteroid threatening Earth\ NASA titled its Wednesday announcement, saying that numerous recent blogs and web postings “are erroneously claiming” that an asteroid will hit the planet at some point from September 15th and September 28th near Puerto Rico.
Los Angeles (AFP) - Major League Baseball players are urging action to improve safety after another fan was hurt at a game on Friday night.Obviously, (a) the world may end this week but not because of a foul-asteroid, but (b) Chicken Little thinks that baseballs may be all it takes.
Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander took to Twitter to push for changes after a woman was hit by a foul ball in the eighth inning of the Tigers' home game against the Texas rangers.
As you may know I DQ’d on the 5th stage I competed in just before my last shot on the stage. It was certainly a just DQ. I was getting close to the 180 when the RO began informing me of the same. I turned to look at him and when I did I turned my shoulders and with pistol pointed in the air broke the plane big time. He apologized all over himself but I told him it was only me that was to blame and I believed that to be the whole truth, as I still do. I also was focusing on my trigger finger position because I was still having problems with that too.
THOU SHALT NOT SCARE THE RANGE OFFICER!
A California toddler fighting for her life Thursday after a brutal beating at the hands of an illegal immigrant with a long criminal record is the latest case to rile California sheriffs and police against a U.S. immigration policy they say is forcing them to release dangerous criminals out on the street.
Police describe eriberto Haro-Luna, drunk and incensed, confronting his recently estranged wife in a Boulder church parking lot, trapping her by the neck and threatening to slit her throat as she uttered final prayers.(RTWT: H/T - "The Hobo Brasser)
Seattle, WA – In yet another bonehead move by government officials, the city council of Seattle voted unanimously Monday in favor of a tax on all sales of guns and ammunition within city limits. At the same time, they passed a law making it a crime if you should fail to report a lost or stolen firearm within 24 hours.
Land of the free, you say? Not so much. Both measures are reportedly supported by Seattle mayor Ed Murray. The gun tax law is modeled after a 2013 gun &ammo tax in Cook County, IL (think Chicago), which has already been the subject of litigation.(Emphasis added)
Seattle’s new law is clearly aimed at punishing citizens and retailers for buying and selling firearms and ammunition. City council president Tim Burgess called the recent changes “innovative gun safety measures,” but as all thinking people know, criminals don’t buy their guns in gun shops anyhow.
This new tax will serve only to put gun shops out of business and force law-abiding citizens to travel farther to buy their guns outside of city limits.
The tax plans to steal $25 per firearm and 2 to 5 cents per cartridge. While city officials predict monetary gains in the $300,000 to $500,000 range, it’s far more likely that most gun shops will simply close their doors, and most gun buyers will go elsewhere. Any “profit” reaped by this tax will very likely be spent trying to defend it in court.
PORTLAND, Ore. -- A new law requiring background checks for all firearm sales and transfers, including private transactions, goes into effect in Oregon Sunday. But will anyone enforce it? One of the main sponsors of the bill, State Sen. Ginny Burdick (D-Portland), admitted Friday the law doesn't include money for enforcement. Still, Burdick said, “This will make it harder for the criminals and the dangerously mentally ill to get guns.” If you sell a gun privately, in person or online, the law says you have to meet the buyer at a licensed gun shop and have them go through a background check, which Burdick says costs $10.
Law enforcement authorities in the Portland area and throughout the state say they won't go out and find people who are breaking the law, though they will investigate any reports they get. "It’s just a simple practicality - until we have the resources here to fully fund law enforcement and prosecution, new crimes probably aren’t going to get much attention," Lane County Sheriff Byron Trapp said when asked about the bill in June.Ha Ha Ha! Hee Hee Hee!
I broke my gun on Monday, and gave it to my friend to fix on Tuesday. Wednesday the law came into effect. On Thursday my friend returned my repaired gun to me. On Friday my friend and I were arrested because we didn't go through a third party (someone with a Dealer's license) to register the transfer.
A group of residents in northern Idaho lined up outside a U.S. Navy veteran's house on Thursday to protest claims that federal officials are planning on confiscating the man's weapons. Idaho Republican state Rep. Heather Scott of Blanchard said the Veteran Affairs office has sent a letter to John Arnold of Priest River warning him that he cannot possess or purchase firearms.This is one of those situations where a veteran has been declared "incompetent". This is a word which has several possible interpretations, which range from "he needs a lawyer to help him understand the legal complications which may influence his fiscal decisions" to "he can't remember to put his pants on before he leaves his house to pick up the morning paper on his front yard".
Japan marked the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Thursday, with Mayor Kazumi Matsui renewing calls for U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders to step up efforts toward making a nuclear weapons free world. Tens of thousands of attendants stood for a minute of silence at 8:30 a.m. at the ceremony in Hiroshima's peace park near the epicenter of the 1945 attack, marking the moment of the atomic blast. Then dozens of doves were released as a symbol of peace.In other news, Americans who still remember the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 .... wonder whether America has grown too soft to defend itself against foreign aggression.
Outraged families of American victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism moved Wednesday to block the deal to lift economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for nuclear inspections, filing a federal lawsuit to stop frozen assets to which they stake a claim from being released to the Islamic Republic.I'm sure that President Barack "Has No Green Card" Obama and Secretary of State John "Unsafe At Any Speed" Kerry have the best interests of their country at heart.
Lt. Cmdr. Tim White, the CO of Navy Operational Support Center Chattanooga, has not been charged with "illegally discharging a firearm on federal property," said Cmdr. William Marks, despite the claim of a conservative commentator. "Stories of Navy personnel being charged with an offense are not true," Marks said in a statement. "There is still a long way to go in reviewing the facts of this tragic incident, but at this time we can confirm no service member has been charged with an offense."This statement by a U.S. Navy spokesman may be a result of pressure from the public at large, or it may be that the military is beginning to wake up to the FACT that Negligent Discharges by armed servicemen is a lesser consequence than having unarmed members assassinated because they are unable to defend themselves.
Congress pushes to allow troops to be armed on military bases - Stripes:
July 17, 2015
WASHINGTON – Congressional leaders said Friday they will direct the Pentagon to allow troops to carry guns on base for personal protection following a deadly shooting rampage in Tennessee that killed four Marines and seriously wounded a sailor at a recruiting center.From here, it sounds as if someone in Washington has finally removed their cranial box from their customary rectal depository, but ... you know Politicians.
(I may have mentioned my dislike of GFZ before. As in: February 2008 - May, 2013 ... for starters)Unfortunately, the Army's Top Brass has less confidence in the quality of our troops than has Congress!
The Army's top officer said Friday they would review security at military recruiting and reserve centers in the aftermath of the deadly shooting in Tennessee, but urged caution amid growing calls to arm more soldiers to protect against these kinds of attacks.[emphasis added]
Gen. Ray Odierno, chief of staff of the Army, told reporters that arming troops in those offices could cause more problems than it might solve.
"I think we have to be careful about over-arming ourselves, and I'm not talking about where you end up attacking each other," Odierno said during a morning breakfast. Instead, he said, it's more about "accidental discharges and everything else that goes along with having weapons that are loaded that causes injuries."
Frequently at USPSA matches there are stages that can be shot many different ways. It’s a thinking game almost as much as a shooting game. What is the best way to shoot this stage? And the best way frequently depends on the shooter tooI've been enjoying Joe Huffman's continuing story of his "Introduction to USPSA Competition", because so many of the issues he describes are typical of competitors ... both new to the sport and those who have been around a while and are just thinking about how they could be more competitive.
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!
In a free state, there can be no special rights. We take our rights equally. If the cake bakers had said they wouldn't bake a cake because one of the women was wearing a Confederate flag on her t-shirt, how would the press have handled it? It used to be I got to decide who I would buy things from and what I would buy. The businessman got to decide who he would sell to. It is no longer that way and it will not come back. Now I can be forced by law to buy things (healthcare, as a start) and businesses can be forced by law to sell.Equal Rights .. it's a wonderful thing!
The 1950s were a good time to be alive. ... It must have seemed to most Americans that God had truly blessed America. ... But an important change had been occurring in the nation. In the post-war period a massive demographic change began to occur. Blacks in large numbers started to move out of the South to other parts of the country.So ... if you don't like the way a vendor sells his wares, you don't buy from him. Okay, I get that. It's a Free Country.
Dear *****
I just sent you an email note and apparently this got confused with sp*a*m. You may recall my earlier correspondence regarding our defending gun rights, including the work by our Research Fellow Stephen Halbrook, the renowned Second Amendment legal scholar, author and attorney:
xxxxx DELETED LINK TO STEPHEN HOLBROOK PROFILE AT INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE xxxxx
Hence, would you be so kind as to advise your email provider to remove your spam complaint?
Thank you again!
Best regards,
David
June 28, 2015I may have not offended my friends sufficiently with my last article.
Last week, hunters took notice as the pope questioned whether gun manufacturers could call themselves Christians, and the U.S. president again suggested we start limiting firearms.
Pope Francis said: "It makes me think of ... people, managers, businessmen who call themselves Christian and they manufacture weapons. That leads to a bit a distrust, doesn't it?" The pope didn't make an exception for hunting weapons.
,,,, every pope for centuries has been protected by an elite military force called the Swiss Guard. Though these defenders of his holiness carry swords, they also carry submachine guns, specifically the Heckler & Koch MP5.
With the high court’s latest ruling on same-sex marriages, some contend the decision could lead to increased gun rights, specifically national CCW reciprocity, by using the same argument. Friday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Fourteenth Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and recognize those sanctioned by other states. “No longer may this liberty be denied,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority in the landmark decision that arguably made same sex marriage a reality in the 13 remaining states that continued to ban the practice.With all due respect for those who do not agree with this decision, I do not understand what the controversy is all about.
With similar logic applied, gun rights advocates argue that the nation’s patchwork of firearms laws governing the concealed carry of handguns are now circumspect under the same guidelines. In short, they reason if marriage equality is guaranteed from state to state, then so should concealed carry rights.(emphasis added)
Adding to the feelings of defeat is the sense that many of the gun-control policies that seem politically feasible wouldn’t necessarily have stopped the country’s most spectacular mass shootings. Mr. Lanza used his mother’s gun collection. Mr. Roof apparently didn’t set off alarms in a background check. None of the defeatism is warranted. Mass shootings draw attention to the nation’s relationship with guns. They should spur us to action because they demonstrate the easy, efficient horror that guns are capable of inflicting, and they make us wonder about permissive gun policies..... but they think that Gun Control Laws should be enacted 'anyway', because ...
Public policy can’t prevent every gun death. But it can do a lot more than it is now: make it harder for the mentally ill, family abusers or criminals to obtain and keep firearms; crack down on gun trafficking; require proper gun storage; and reconsider laws that seem to encourage people to use guns in situations they consider threatening.The odd thing is, most of the laws which they seem to espouse have been enacted here and there, with no apparent influence on those "mass shooters" who commit these heinous crimes.
Of course, gun control is hardly a panacea. It won't mean an immediate end to our hideous series of mass murders. And the measures gun-control advocates push will hardly mean endangering Second Amendment rights and wrenching all guns from the hands of law-abiding Americans, no matter what the National Rifle Association tries to tell you. Most of the measures are modest; Obama's centerpiece measures after the Newtown carnage would have established background checks for those buying firearms at gun shows and online and banned assault weapons.
But at least they are a start, an effort to deal with the recurring bloody episodes that have become an all-too-common part of the American landscape. That beats unctuous hand-wringing. The president's remarks about Charleston marked his 14th statement about shootings — 11 of them in the U.S. — since he took office, according to CBS News' Mark Knoller, who keeps track of all things presidential.
A man went on a machete-swinging rampage in Bryant Park Tuesday morning, slashing a woman who had just left a yoga class in the park in a startling burst of violence on the great lawn.
An hour after the random attack, Kyle Newberry described the incident as “just another day in the city.”
Officers received a 911 call of an assault about 11:30 a.m. near 42nd Street and Bryant Park, an NYPD spokeswoman said. When they arrived, they found a 31-year-old woman with a slash would to her right arm. Members of the park’s private security team followed the slasher with folding chairs for protection as members of the NYPD eventually caught up with the suspect at the south entrance off of 40th Street.S(H/T: Borepatch)
If an individual wants to carry concealed that way that is fine by me but an open enrollment class with 15-20 different skill level shooters and upwards of 100 draws and reholsters is an accident waiting to happen when you add in a pistol like a Glock or M&PIn light of this more precise cautionary note, I'll modify my earlier position.
Speed the 150-year-old tortoise dies at San Diego Zoo | Fox News: SAN DIEGO – One of San Diego's oldest residents has died. The Los Angeles Times reports that the Galapagos tortoise known as Speed has been euthanized at an estimated age of more than 150 years. ... The massive tortoise had been in geriatric decline for some time.There has to be a great punchline to this story. Damned if I know what it is.
FREDERICK, Md. – Police say an ice cream truck driver in Maryland was gunned down as he was selling treats to children and a suspect has been arrested.Apparently, I'm not the only one who cannot abide "Turkey In The Straw"
Weapons Tests For Destroyer That Will Never Destroy Anything: WASHINGTON — Engineers at Naval Sea Systems Command are set to begin the next phase of their ongoing plan to test the effectiveness of emerging surface warfare technologies the Navy will never get to employ in actual combat this week, the Command announced.
“For heaven’s sake, we don’t actually want to ever use these weapons systems in battle,” said head of NAVSEA, Vice Adm. William Hilarides. “If we abuse this technology we might accidentally win a war, and that’s just an irresponsible use of smart power.”
Engineers hope to install an electromagnetic railgun on the fourth planned Zumwalt-class destroyer, USS Wesley R. Crusher, currently under construction at Bath Iron Works in Maine.
Railguns send high-powered electromagnetic pulses along a set of rails to shoot a projectile at supersonic speeds. Conventional naval guns use a chemical propellent and lack the “swag factor.”
Gun rights in California: court to hear another showdown - San Jose Mercury News: (August 15, 2015)
The 9th Circuit case has attracted national attention, in part because the court is reconsidering an earlier ruling that broke new ground by invalidating San Diego's strict but common guidelines for issuing concealed-carry gun permits. In that ruling last year, a divided three-judge panel found San Diego's restrictions trampled on the Second Amendment rights of private citizens to carry a gun for self-defense. After a tortured procedural battle, prompted by San Diego abandoning defense of the law, the 9th Circuit voted on its own to rehear the case. Most legal experts predict the court is likely to uphold the regulations, particularly given that much of the 11-judge panel is comprised of liberal to moderate Democratic appointees.[emphasis added]
The judges in recent months have been inundated with legal arguments pitting the gun lobby against gun control advocates and Attorney General Kamala Harris, who urged the 9th Circuit to uphold such regulations.(Which is to say, California's Attorney General .. who is running for Barbara Boxer's Senate seat in 2016 ... believes that 'may issue' protocols are just fine with California.)
NEW YORK -- Gun enthusiasts have plenty of options for industry news and firearms reviews. And the National Rifle Association boasts its own media arm to amplify any perceived threats against Second Amendment.
What’s missing in the gun-media landscape, say founders of The Trace, is a news outlet devoted to the prevention of violence.Oh! So, Bloomberg hasn't financed enough "Gun Violence" websites, clubs, pseudo-representatives and shills yet?
“We believe that the rate of gun violence is too high and we believe that there is not enough information about the issue as a whole,” editorial director James Burnett told The Huffington Post in an interview. “As journalists, we have it as our mission to address that shortage of information.”
Burnett, who left The New Republic a few months ago following a staff exodus, said The Trace will not publish editorials supporting specific legislation or candidates. But the site will operate from the standpoint that there are "too many people being killed and injured by guns," he said.(Burnett was so valued by TNR that his web record enumerates all of his many accolades. There were none.)
