gun ownership
gregladen | November 29, 2009It is not clear how many gunmen were involved, but four police officers were killed in a coffee-shop ambush in Tacoma Washington.
The reason I bring it up at all is because it is an interesting case that wen unraveled may shed more light on the legal and social sides of the question of how to address unfettered access to and use of firearms technology in the US.
Details here.
The news currently says that it was one or two gunman, four of four cops in the coffee shop were shot, no one else hurt, and no details were given on the kind off firearms used. If you know more, please feel free to…
gregladen | November 12, 2009The man owned a virtual arsenal of firearms and ammunition, which was ineffectively secured. So it was fairly easy for his son, Tim, to arm himself and kill 15 people before turning a weapon on himself.
Subsequent to this horrific act, regulations have been rewritten to allow authorities to inspect gun collections in private homes, unannounced, to make sure they are secured properly. And now, charges are about to be filed against the gun-owning father.
It was a crime that plunged Germany into grief and shock. On March 11, 2009, Tim K., a 17-year-old from the small, Baden-Württemberg…
gregladen | November 12, 2009Matt Springer is LIVID with my commentary on gun control. Go read his post here and say something nice in the comment section to make him feel better.
Mike Dunford has further comments on this issue as well, and as has been happening all along (since the Ft. Hood news broke) Mike is adding important information regarding the setting of this catastrophe, bringing his military base experience to the table. Have a look at his post.
And, I'm going to take this moment to make my key points once more because the gun nuts, I mean gun "enthusiasts" continue to get it all wrong:
1) The NRA/Gun…
gregladen | November 11, 2009There have been questions raised as part of this discussion about the nature of the weapons Nidal Hasan used in the Ft. Hood shooting. He apparently carried two pistols, and both are designed to be effective killing weapons. The more newly designed Five-sevN that he had purchased under the noses of the FBI who was busy investigating him is specifically designed to be very effective at killing large numbers of people in close quarters, to have more controlled "follow-up shots" and to pierce body armor.
These are all features that I'm sure would be very handy for, say, moose hunting, but the…
gregladen | November 11, 2009 Yes, I'm afraid so.
The Gun Nut Lobby (GNL) did a very good job at eviscerating the gun-check law. When US Army Major Nidal Hasan purchased a super powerful pistol for the purpose of killing several of his fellow soldiers, the law required a background check which was processed by one part of the FBI as per usual. That information ... that there was a purchase of a deadly weapon ... could not be made available in any other way, so the other part of the FBI, which was busy looking into Hasan as a possible security threat, was not allowed to know about it.
Gun Nuts: You owe the family…
gregladen | November 10, 2009In Pine Plains New York, a gunman in his 40s, alone, has taken a high school administrator hostage, no shots have been fired, and it sounds like they are getting the students out of the school OK.
Pine Plains is east of the Hudson near Rhinebeck, near the Mass/Conn borders. This is a fairly rural area.
gregladen | November 6, 2009The numbers are vague. The shooter is identified as 50 year old Jason Rodriguez who opened fire in an office building in Orlando, Florida, killing 1 and wounding others. He was a former employee of where he did the shooting.
The killer is at large. They think he took off in his 2002 silver Nissan SUV. Plate: D119UX.
Turn on the TV now if you want to watch the Amazing Fluctuating Numbers of dead and wounded. I just watched the number shot go from 7 to 9 within one sentence.
gregladen | October 20, 2009Back in the 1990s, Khristian Oliver (that's an interesting name) was robbing a man's home. That man had a rifle to defend his home from robbers, but Khristian took the rifle from him, shot him in the face, and then used the rifle to beat him to death. In this way, the murdered man became one more example of how useful it is to own guns to defend yourself.
But that's not the interesting part of this story.
The interesting part of this story is that when Oliver was sentenced to death, in 1999, the jury consulted with the bible do help them come to a decision.
...while deciding whether he…
gregladen | October 13, 2009So, I said some things that got my friend DuWayne Brayton mad, and this caused him to write two blog posts (here and here), and now with a little time to spare I'm giving this the attention it deserves.
I'm going to let DuWayne and you, dear reader, piece together most the threads that connect what he said and what I said and what he said and what I said. If you want. I highly recommend that you give it a skip. I have not been directly addressing DuWayne's questions, and his comments have little to do with anything I've said (sorry, but true). Given what DuWayne has said about what I…
gregladen | October 12, 2009No one was shot in the following video. So don't worry about carrying around guns. It's perfectly safe.
gregladen | October 8, 2009On September 11th, 2008 Meleanie Hain went to her child's soccer game with a Glock pistol in a holster strapped to her hip.
This was in the vicinity of Lebanon, Pennsylvania. To her and presumably others, it may have been an act of patriotism. I suspect it was an explicitly anti-Obama act given the ado about his remark during the primaries. But I could be wrong. The Lebanon County Sheriff very appropriately thought it was inappropriate for a gun owner to bring an overtly displayed dangerous weapon to a children's soccer game, so he revoked her permit. Hain managed to get the permit…
gregladen | October 7, 2009Pursuant to the recent discussion on the safety of carrying guns, I thought I'd throw this on the table:
According to this web page there are numerous studies demonstrating that increased firearms carrying decreases crime. The argument is being made that armed students will generally stop an attack in progress on a campus, if there are armed students but also notes that "in homes, in businesses and on the streets, ... people use guns to stop violent crime--without hurting themselves or any innocent bystander."
The study goes on to say:
The landmark study by criminologists Gary Kleck and…
gregladen | October 4, 2009In a first-of its-kind study, epidemiologists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that, on average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. The study estimated that people with a gun were 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not possessing a gun.source
From the abstract of the paper:
Objectives. We investigated the possible relationship between being shot in an assault and possession of a gun at the time.
Methods. We enrolled 677 case participants that had been shot in an assault and 684 population-based control…
gregladen | September 29, 2009I discussed the Hendrickson Incident here (and now Josh Henderson has come to Quiche Moraine to defend himself from the Hippies from Uptown) but I had missed, until Hendrickson himself pointed it out to me, this coverage from the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
To see Hendrickson's response, and some great "examples" of the use of "quotation" marks, here's Henderson's "blog" post on the matter.
I suggest you put on a pair of these before visiting Josh's site.
gregladen | August 23, 2009Teabagger and GOP party chairman Charles McAffee pulled out his piece to intimidate a man who's home he was photographing. McAffee was photographing the man's house on behalf of Wells Fargo bank because of a mortgage related problem. When the man came out to find out what was going on it is said that McAffee pointed his magnum at him.
Wells Fargo needs to explain why it has contractors using guns on its customers.
Mr. McAffee has to explain why he felt the need to stick his hand-held cannon in this poor old guy's face.
The Republican Party needs to explain ... oh n ever mind, we know…
gregladen | August 19, 2009The gun toting at the Obama Talk were organized by a crazy right wing radio talk host. Also, there are links to a major terrorist group.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
gregladen | August 5, 2009The man who entered an LA Fitness aerobics class and killed three women and shot many others legally purchased the two Glock 9 mm guns that he used. This makes him the current poster child for banning the sales of handguns in the US. Now. Not just one gun a month max, not just guns to people who are not known to be nutjobs. I'm talking about stopping all handgun sales now, without exceptions.
The National Rifle Association disagrees with me. But who cares? The National Rifle Association also told Congress to not allow Sonia Sotomayor to be appointed to the supreme court, but it looks…
gregladen | June 10, 2009MORE UPDATES: The guard, Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, shot earlier today by right winger von Brunn has died.
The 89 year old gunman, James Wenneker von Brunn 88, of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, shot one person, who is in grave condition in hospital. The gunman was himself shot by one or more guards and has also sustained life threatening injuries. Reporters on the street are saying he is not expected to live. The gunman was using a rifle.
D.C. police spokeswoman Traci Hughes said the suspect walked into the museum at about 12:50 p.m. ET with a rifle and shot a guard. U.S. Park Police…