Showing posts with label Arizona gun laws. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arizona gun laws. Show all posts

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Concealed carry permit holders responsible for over 800 gun deaths since 2007




According to the Violence Policy Center, "...Concealed handgun permit holders are responsible for at least 849 deaths not involving self defense since 2007, including 29 mass shootings that killed 139 people. That's close to 100 gun deaths per year from those cowboys who think they are protecting the public. It's time to put on the brakes and start limiting concealed carry to only those with a special need. I have talked to several of these people and they consider this a right given under the 2nd Amendment and it is not.

The VPC exclaims, “Our research makes it clear that allowing more guns in public places is making us less safe.” The organization's  Legislative Director Kristen Rand states, “It’s also clear that state lawmakers who weaken concealed carry laws increase the risk that even more of these tragic, fatal incidents will occur.” Like Arizona, where the only requirement for a concealed carry permit is that the person must be a warm body. Pathetic.


Sunday, April 19, 2015

NRA MEMBERS WANT TRAINING FOR CONCEALED CARRY GUN OWNERS


Requiring firearms training for concealed carry gun owners would be a step in the right direct except the concealed carry law itself should be banned in the U.S. My point is based on one simple fact. In Arizona if you are not a felon and have a warm body you can buy a gun and take it almost anywhere. No training. Yes, these cowboys can walk into the gun shop, purchase a handgun, and then walk around the streets with it brandished in a holster or hidden in a pocket. They claim it is for their safety but what these gun nuts really want to do is play vigilante. There are studies saying concealed carry saves lives but they are years old and even with the decrease in gun violence over the years there are still over 11,000 firearms related gun deaths each year. The sheer number of guns in this country--300 million--makes the idea of letting someone roam the streets with a hidden weapon plain dumb. But as an example of the lack of training that is prevalent, at least in the state of Arizona, two CC greenhorns at the attack of former Rep. Gabby Giffords in Tucson in 2011 attempted to come to the rescue to stop Jared Lee Laughner and almost shot each other. Laughner was stopped by one of the bystanders.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Arizona gun huggers and other stupid Wild West stories


Arizona is a state in which someone with absolutely no training can go out and buy a gun, carry it as a concealed weapon without a permit, and even take it into a bar.  That is the kind of rhetoric that has made the Grand Canyon State the laughing stock of the country.  The GOP-controlled legislature prides itself in passing the most asinine and loose gun control laws in the U.S. and then flaunts it to those hysterical over this obsession with guns.  And then you must add to that a foggy headed Governor, Jan Brewer, with shifting desert sand for a brain.

What more could the media ask for, particularly progressive bloggers like myself.  What is most disheartening about living in a state like Arizona is these fruitcakes are serious.  Their worship of guns transcends any reasonable approach to gun control and approaches the level of placing their weapons on a pedestal to be considered a divine entity.  I did a blog back in January, “Religious leaders say the worship of guns is a form of idolatry,“ that examines just how gun fanatics feel about their firearms.  The findings are pathetic.

But the religious community is reacting in force.  Rev. Gary Hall, dean of the Washington Nat’l Cathedral, said, “Everyone in this city {Washington} seems to be in terror of the gun lobby. But I believe the gun lobby is no match for the cross lobby.”  Rabbi Saperstein, dir. of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said: “Is the need for sensible gun control a religious issue?  Indeed, it is, for our worship of guns is a form of idolatry, the random distribution of guns is offense against God, and the only appropriate response is sustained moral outrage.”

Spoof on Arizona gun laws:

So where do these Arizona gun nuts come off pushing all these ridiculous gun laws to put even more guns on the street in the hands of completely unqualified owners when the state ranks eighth nationally in firearm deaths, with 15.1 deaths per 100,000?  They don’t care because they choose their celestial guns over human life.  Another source shows that in Arizona 65% of all murders are committed using firearms.  And yet another survey reports that there are 232 Arizona gun murders a year, or about 4.5 per week. 

Even considering all of the above, which really only scratches the surface, an Arizona legislature of Republican lunatics continues to propose and pass more bizarre gun legislation.  And it is all but guaranteed that the discombobulated Governor will sign the trash.  As an example, the gun bubbas got all up tight when a Tucson city Councilman did a gun “buyback” offering $50 gift cards for unwanted guns.  But the obsessed firearms crowd would have none of it and proposed a law to bar any destruction of guns in Arizona.  There’s lots more.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio
Another bill would allow people to carry guns into public buildings, unless secure gun lockers are provided which are expensive to construct.  Not a law, but another pitiable fact; Arizona ranked third in the nation for guns confiscated at the Phoenix airport checkpoints in 2012.  And Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is arming his 3,000 member “volunteer” posse with 400 military-style assault rifles.  That’s right, at least 400 scantily trained part-time upholders of Arpaio’s style of Arizona law on the streets with lethal weapons.  Hard to believe but true.

And now House Bill 2326 forbids state and local government agencies and federally licensed gun dealers from maintaining a database of people who own or sell guns.  State Attorney General Tom Horne, who himself has lawsuits filed against him for acting illegally as a candidate for office and leaving the site of a hit and run accident, wants to arm the teachers in Arizona schools.  And finally, a local pediatric cardiologist by the name of Dr. Scott Schnee responded to Denver reporter Adrian Dater re. something he wrote about the Phoenix Coyotes:

The Twitter user BabyDocScott tweeted "Go catch a movie in Aurora" and said Dater could "join Jessica for all I care." Dater was friends with Jessica Ghawi, who was killed in the Aurora movie theater shootings July 20.  Beyond pathetic.

So that’s the latest on a gun culture out of control from the Wild West state of Arizona, which for many of us is a beautiful and pleasant place to live.  But for those of us who want sane gun laws in our state, and throughout the country, the day is definitely on the horizon to get this accomplished, and the gun huggers will just have to go to the movies to get their violence.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Why we should really worry about some gun owners


 
Gun fanatic James Yeager
For the most part, the gun-owning-public is a safe bunch using and maintaining their guns properly and are a credit to this lifestyle.  However, in my mind at least, this does not include the cowboys with concealed carry permits that take their firearms out on the street to protect the citizenry of this country.  I don’t care if it is legal—it shouldn’t be—probably none of this group is fully trained as in law enforcement and some have no training at all.  Like in Arizona where all it takes to buy a gun is a warm body.  And there are several other states nationwide that do not require training to purchase a gun.
 
So that’s my soapbox on the concealed carry permit for the day, but there’s more to this story.  It is my way of illustrating the need for more control in the purchasing of firearms, particularly in the training the new gun owner should undergo.  In addition, a written and hands-on test should be given at the end and if the person doesn’t pass, he or she loses their gun until they do.  This should be retroactive to include all current gun owners, an unfortunate demand on states, but certainly worth the effort.  Gun owners will scream but it is the only way to insure responsible gun ownership.
 
And this need becomes so evident on a daily basis through the bizarre things that take place in relation to people and firearms. 
 
As an example, a mother in New York added some interesting items to her 7-year-old kid’s lunch in his backpack.  Along with a peanut butter sandwich, she placed a flare gun, a 22-caliber pistol, a loaded magazine, and 14 extra bullets, just in case.  The mother, Deborah Farley, said she had been out walking the streets of Queens earlier in the week when she had placed the guns in her son’s backpack, forgetting to take them out.  She was arrested for child endangerment and criminal possession of an unregistered firearm.  Police also found marijuana in her home.  So where did she get the gun?
 
And then those who are so eager to protect all of us by packing heat on the streets, can’t even participate in a rally for the support of gun rights without accidentally injuring themselves and others around them with their firearms.  
 
In Raleigh, NC, at the Dixie Gun and Knife Show, Gary Lynn Wilson had brought his 12-gauge shotgun to the event to sell to a private buyer; it discharged when being inspected at the entrance to the show.  Three people were injured.  The show shut down early.
 
Emory L. Cozee was loading his 45-caliber semi-automatic when he shot himself in the hand at the Indy 500 Gun and Knife Show.  What is interesting is that loaded personal weapons aren’t allowed inside the show.
 
Then in Ohio, a gun dealer was checking a semi-automatic handgun he had purchased when he accidentally pulled the trigger injuring his friend when the bullet ricocheted off the floor hitting him in the arm and the leg.
 
Now, I am certainly no expert on firearms but common sense does ring through loudly in all the above cases.  Shouldn’t Wilson have emptied the shotgun of all ammunition before even packing it up to bring to the show?  Shouldn’t Cozee have known loaded weapons were not allowed in the show and removed the rounds from his 45?  And shouldn’t the Ohio gun dealer have had the proper firearms training and known to be more careful in the handling of his weapon in public?  This is exactly why I worry about these gunslingers walking the streets with guns many have no idea how to use.
 
And then the ultimate example.  James Yeager, a wacko from Tennessee who is the CEO of Tactical Response, a firearms and tactical training company, said he would start killing people if further gun control policies are passed.  It was in a video posted on You Tube and Facebook, later revised to take out the killing part.  The Tenn. Dept. of Safety has now suspended Yeager’s handgun carry permit.  He was called irresponsible, dangerous, and deserving immediate attention by the Dept. Commissioner.  If ever there was a case of a disturbed individual with a firearm, Mr. Yeager fits the bill.
 
But all of the above no doubt continue to walk around with their weapons, except for Yeager, who probably still maintains an arsenal at his business and home.  Equally as wacky as Yeager, the head of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA), Wayne LaPierre, has instilled the kind of absolutist mentality in some gun owners, the gun nuts, that produces the fanatical reactions to any kind of gun control as evidenced by Yeager.  Another fanatic that comes to mind is Larry Pratt, exec. Dir. Of Gun Owners of America, a group known to be even more radical on gun rights than the NRA. 
 
The time for gun control has definitely arrived.
 

Thursday, October 11, 2012

More persuasions for gun control

Neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney broached the subject of gun control in the October 3, presidential debate.  Gun control advocates across the country took notice and many let their disappointment be known.  One such person was Stephen Barton who was one of the victims in the Aurora, Colo. movie theatre massacre.  Barton, who is from Brooklyn, was hit with 25 shotgun pellets and is suffering nerve damage.  However, Barton says he won’t give up.


Columbine shooters Eric Harris
and Dylan Klebold
Barton remarked it seemed absurd to not mention gun control in the Denver debate considering the short proximity to the Aurora carnage as well as the Columbine school shootings in 1999.  12 were killed in Aurora, 58 wounded.  In Columbine, 13 killed, 21 injured.  Barton places part of the blame for ignoring the gun issue on the debate host, Jim Lehrer, but mostly on the candidates.  You’d think a total of 25 killed and 79 wounded would raise some candidates’ hackles.

It didn’t, and, at least, this could have added some zip to Obama’s hollow performance.  Sorry, Mr. President, it was sorely lacking and some are saying it could put Mitt Romney ahead to stay.  I think not!  Whatever went on in your head that night has thoroughly confused many progressives, but we all know it was not the true Barack Obama.  But the fact remains that both you and Romney refuse to address the enormity of the problems of firearms in the United States.

Aurora and Columbine, and Tucson and Virginia Tech and the host of other major incidents of mass shootings should be enough to put any politician’s stomach in turmoil with it happening in the country he governs or wants to govern.  But not a word from either of you and that is unacceptable.  Maybe not to the gun nuts and the NRA and its leader, wacky Wayne LaPierre, but for the average citizen who values his or her life and that of family and friends.

Excellent video by Thom Hartmann making case for gun control:

And of course there is more.  On the streets of America each day 84 people are killed by guns, 603 weekly and 2,612 monthly, numbers that should drive any civilized government to regulate the source of the problem.  Like Canada and Australia, where steps have been taken to control this kind of individual and mass bloodshed due to firearms.  Recently a Quebec court let stand a law requiring the registration of even long guns along with the current handgun law.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has proposed strictly banning assault weapons and New York lawmakers want broad legislation to limit weapons purchases.  On the other hand Dem. Majority Leader Harry Reid says that body is to busy to debate gun control this year with no promises for next year.  It is simply astonishing to me that our Congress is too busy to do something about the death of 84 innocent victims a day from guns, many illegal.  I guess the question is what will it take?

Doctors have even weighed in on the issue, asking the question, “Is a gun like a virus, a car, tobacco or alcohol?”  They say YES and want to approach gun violence as a social disease.  “What we need, they say, is a public health approach to the problem, like the highway safety measures, product changes and driving laws that slashed deaths from car crashes decades ago, even as the number of vehicles on the road rose,” according to the Associated Press.

VA Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho
Mass shootings don’t seem to be on the rise but the accounting of the number of dead and wounded by police agencies for these incidents aren’t always reported immediately, sometime not for a year.  Emergency medicine professor Dr. Garen Wintemute of the U. of Calif. Davis said, "The greater toll is not from these clusters but from endemic violence, the stuff that occurs every day and doesn't make the headlines.”  Like those 84 deaths reported by the CDC.

And finally, there’s Paul Ryan.  His Vice Presidential candidacy is enough to make any serious gun control advocate throw up.  Actually, any progressive for that matter.  Example: Re. guns, in 1999 he voted against more stringent background checks for people buying at gun shows.  And in 2011 he voted for the bill that, if you have a concealed carry permit in one state, you would be able to carry your weapon concealed in any state.

FLASH: Since the state of Arizona will issue concealed carry permits to just about anyone who wants one, and allow them to carry their weapons anywhere they want to in the state, you will have hundreds of people walking around the U.S. who are not even qualified to own a gun.  Come on…doesn’t common sense demand more sensible gun regulations in America?

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

When does self-defense become murder?

The “Stand Your Ground” law has taken flak since Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Florida where the legislation was enacted for the first time under the complete supervision of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) in 2005.  Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder and there is some concern over Zimmerman’s pursuit of Martin in the incident, which the bill’s sponsors say was not intended as an option.

It’s like playing Wyatt Earp or vigilante, and we all know that isn’t allowed anywhere but in Arizona.  Precisely where SYG was re-enacted recently; that state passed the law in 2006 after only 20 seconds of justification by the NRA before legislators.  A total of 33 states have passed a similar version that allows the expansion of deadly force in protecting yourself outside the home.  Some question whether the 2nd Amendment intended this.

Typical Arizona shootings yellow tape
Arizona just couldn’t wait to test the law and one of the state’s gun worshippers decided to do just that on April 3, at a Taco Bell in Laveen.  He shot Daniel Adkins, Jr. in what he claimed was self-defense.  The young man was 29 but with the mental capacity of a 13-year-old.  The shooter was not charged.  Adkins was walking past a Taco Bell just as the 22-year-old shooter was picking up his order.  The latter slammed on his brakes barely missing Adkins.

The two men exchanged words and according to the shooter Adkins swung his hands in the air in the direction of the SUV.  The question at this point is whether the shooter almost hit Adkins with his SUV; if so, who was the instigator of this altercation?  Or is that not considered under the SYG law?  Adkins wasn’t even close enough to touch the vehicle but when he waved his hands in the air again, the driver shot him with his S&W 40-caliber weapon, hitting him in the chest.

Adkins was not armed but the shooter “believed” he was carrying due to what he thought he saw was a metal pipe or bat in the victim’s hand.  Since the shooter’s fiancé was also in the car with him, it will be interesting to hear her take on the event.  CNN spoke to the shooter’s father who, behind the door of his home warned the reporter that he had a gun in his hand.  He did defend his son’s use of deadly force.  He also said witnesses said that Adkins “went berserk.”

Adkins family later said that all Daniel had in his hand, what the shooter thought was a weapon, was the leash of his loyal dog, a yellow lab named Lady.

In this retaliation Adkins is purported to say: “What the hell, you almost hit me,” and “watch where the f*** you’re going.”  Sounds like substantiation of the fact that the driver almost did hit him, and his following tirade does not appear to justify the taking of the man’s life.  It sounds more like wild-west justice based solely on the fact that the NRA has apparently driven home the ideology to its members and the public that it is OK to shoot first and ask questions later.

Local TV coverage of Daniel Adkins killing:

The senior Atkins told CNN, "Why didn't he shoot my son in the leg? It would've stopped him. He hit him right straight in the heart. He shot to kill."  Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, California, said:
"When you arm people on the streets, the opportunities for tragic shootings like the one in the Martin case increase."  A 2007 Nat’l Dist. Attorney’s study also found that law enforcement is concerned over the “Stand Your Ground” laws.

In the next post, the incident that spawned the “Stand Your Ground” laws.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Loose guns…an Arizona staple

The typical Arizona
machine gun adventure
Arizonans love their guns and adore their Republican lawmakers who make it possible for anyone to own a gun and take it anywhere with little or no training.  The GOP legislature is proud of this, as well as the gun worshipping public that sport their firearms around the state like a bunch of sophomoric Wyatt Earps.  Some companies even hold their conventions in the capital city of Phoenix just so they can participate in the newest fad, the Machine Gun Adventure.

But this post is about a 22-year old woman who took her lunch break to buy herself a gun and get a concealed weapons permit. 

As Kellie Mejdrich describes it, that short amount of time plus $100 was all it took.  Mejdrich is a senior at the University of Arizona and is the Bolles Fellow this semester covering the Legislature.  She’ll now be able to carry that concealed weapon into restaurants that serve alcohol, most national and city parks, near schools—and 36 other states that recognize that permit.  The rest of her story is still more bizarre, even in Arizona.

Of course there are some restrictions in getting the concealed carry permit, she says, like “citizenship, being 21 years old, not suffering from mental illness (this isn’t ever evaluated though), never have been convicted of a felony, and having ‘satisfactorily completed a training program or demonstrated competence with a firearm,’ according to state law.  I’m using a lot of Kellie’s article text in this post because of its tone; the “can you believe this?” approach.


Kellie Mejdrich

Here are some examples of “can you believe this?”  A prior 8-hour training course has been reduced to only 1 by the state.  Kellie took her one-hour course from Bob Denis of CCW AZ School, LLC.  Their website proudly advertises “1hr Law Gets Permit.”  The site does say you should have experience, but Denis didn’t even ask Kellie if she had shot a gun or test her proficiency.  And, of course, there is nothing in Arizona law that requires that.

Denis is DPS (AZ Dept. Public Service) and NRA certified, and he showed them a PowerPoint presentation which included the phrase, “Now that I’ve taken human life, what’s next?”  The instructor also provides a business card to be given to police in a situation where Kellie used her weapon.  It says:

“If I have given this to you, it has been necessary to take actions to defend innocent life,” and continues to set out legal parameters: “I wish to make no further statements until I have contacted an attorney and composed myself.”

Kellie asked Denis why he didn’t quiz the class on their gun experience.  His answer, “I can’t ask 20 or 30 people independently, I have to cover it as a blanket statement,” Denis said. “Plus my attorney told me that the website does in fact cover me, as far as the legality of that, if anybody ever tried to come against CCW AZ School.”  He later admitted that without adequate training, the gun owners are “hurting themselves.” 

And even more “can you believe this?”  Denis advised his students to “…shoot first and deal with the consequences later in the event of a home invasion.”  Not, attempt first to confirm that it isn’t your wife or children you are shooting, just shoot first.  Precisely what George Zimmerman did in killing Trayvon Martin, but he wasn’t even in his home.

Kellie eventually gets around to the dim-witted GOP legislators {my words} that enacted these stupid laws.  One such state lawmaker, Rick Murphy, R-Glendale, raved over the fact that concealed carry holders were “trained and following the law.”  She asked Murphy his opinion of her ability to defend herself in public, I am assuming based on her descriptions of Denis’ training.  Just what you might expect from a politician, particularly one who passes idiotic gun laws {my words}:

“I think it would be irresponsible of you to try,” Murphy said. “But then again we cannot always legislate responsibility and when we try we always fail. You cannot legislate common sense any more than you can legislate responsibility.”  What the hell did he say?   

“Rep. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, expressed his support for concealed carry on college campuses on Twitter the day of the Oakland shooting at a small religious college that killed seven.”  But when Mejdrich told him of her experience with training, Harper replied, “well, you know, it’s still a background check. That’s important. Obviously you took a one hour course, that is some kind of training.”


The perfect twins

Kelly countered with the question of whether or not “…he thinks the law should be changed back to the training requirements he boasted the CCW involved, he defaulted to the Second Amendment.”  He continued, “You’ve been influenced by academia.  The constitution is absolute.”  Pathetic!

When Mejdrich asked House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Tempe, if a 22-year-old woman holding a permit without having ever fired a gun was too much, Campbell answered: “That’s a problem.  And that’s why I have a problem with some of the gun bills down here.  Previous CCW law required ‘good training, good background checks.’  We basically gutted it.  The CCW program is irrelevant now in this state.”  Amen!

The epitome of understatements!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) uses Super Bowl to launch latest drive for more gun control

The Giants beat the Patriots 21 to 17 in the 2012 Super Bowl where no one turns down the sound on commercials that can sometime be as interesting as the game itself.  One in particular stood out on February 5, showing New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino vying for their local teams, food etc.  But the real focus of the 30 second commercial was a new push by Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) for more gun control.

Bloomberg and Menino co-founded the organization in 2006 which currently has more than 600 mayors nationwide participating.  Their main thrust is to keep criminals from getting illegal guns. 



A good example of their work is the recent sting by MAIG at an Arizona gun show, a state where gun laws are the loosest in the nation.  MAIG investigators bought guns from a private weapons dealer there without anything but the money it took to make the purchase.  They even told the seller they probably could not pass a background check.  The seller simply laughed at their comment and sold them the guns, which is illegal.

MAIG plans to keep the heat on for more gun control right through the November election, although the Democrats still cringe at the thought of supporting any gun discipline legislation.  Unfortunately, there are more people in the U.S. with guns now and these newly created National Rifle Assn. gun worshippers are fixated on no control so anyone can buy a gun and take it anywhere.  And there lies the problem.


Arizona gun show sting

According to a Reuters report, “Members of the MAIG says it is not trying to take guns away from their legal owners, just to close loopholes that allow criminals to get guns and move them around undetected.”  Although murder is down in New York and nationwide, the mayors also comment that they still see too many killings of cops and teens.  It is rare for a day to go by in Arizona without a shooting, some of which end up as deaths.

This gun show loophole/background checks issue is one area that needs fixing.  But another is required education and training before you can own a gun.  Arizona has nothing, zip.  Most states don’t.  I decided to ask an expert so I contacted Ladd Everitt, Director of Communications for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, and asked the following question: “Can you tell me the average gun training/education a gun owner is required to have?”  His answer below.

“If they're simply purchasing firearms, none whatsoever.  If they are going to be carrying that gun in public, they MIGHT be required to have training.  In 28 states you can now openly carry a loaded gun in public with no permitting, screening or training.  Four states now require no permitting, screening or training to carry a concealed firearm in public. 

And even in ‘Shall Issue’ states that require one to obtain a permit to carry a concealed firearm in public, several have no training requirement.  In Arizona, it is wide open.  Law enforcement would have no idea what the background of a gun carrier is until he opens fire (unless that individual voluntarily obtained a permit to carry a firearm into certain sensitive public spaces).”

Phew!  That means a mentally unstable person from Arizona could walk into a gun store there and buy a Glock 19 with a 15-round clip, hop in his car, and assuming Congress passes HR 822, the federal open-carry bill, with a carry permit drive to any state and commit mass murders like Jared Loughner in Tucson and Seung Hui Cho at Virginia Tech.  Assuming he wasn’t caught, he could be on his merry way to another state to commit more mayhem.  Only in America.

More on MAIG later.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

More…gun insanity…state by state


Gun insanity

This is a continuation in my series to point out that there is gun insanity all over the country that needs to be corrected with sane gun control.  Of course, there is no better place to start than Arizona.

ARIZONA: Add animal abuse to the charges against this suspected gun freak.  It seems that Mark Donald Arneson gave his pit bull “Buddy” to another man and somehow the animal ended up with two rounds in his head.  Arneson has a criminal history which makes it illegal for him to have a gun, if in fact he did.  Arneson said Buddy had become aggressive and he decided to unload him on this other man.  The cops say at the least, he facilitated the dog’s death.

WASHINGTON: Another school shooting of an 8-year-old girl in an elementary school in Bremerton, Washington.  They had the shooter in custody but there was no report as to whether he or she was also a student.  School shootings are becoming more and more prevalent, but some states still want to legalize bringing a gun on college campuses.

ARIZONA: In a “Walmart Special” recently, a man from Mesa, Arizona dropped his Ruger .357-caliber Western-style revolver in the restroom as he started to sit for his constitutional.  The gun went off when it fell out of his holster and hit the floor, the bullet passing through the stall door, ricocheting off the wall into a light on the ceiling then back at the floor almost hitting a man at a urinal.  It wasn’t clear whether Andrew Seals would be prosecuted for endangerment.  In Arizona?  HA!

Following is a must-see video on Arizona gun laws:



PENNSYLVANIA: Tyrirk Harris is accused of killing his neighbor, Franklin Manuel Santana, in Philadelphia over his dogs running free and making a mess.  Police say it was an ongoing dispute that eventually prompted Harris to pull out his 9-mm handgun and shoot Santana several times.  The victim left a wife and 2-month-old baby.  Harris was charged with murder and was not licensed to carry a gun at the time.

ARIZONA: A 42-year-old man, from Mesa again, was arrested on suspicion of threatening his 19-year-old son at gunpoint.  Jeffrey Higgins is a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office detention officer; one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s boys.  He was booked into jail on suspicion of aggravated assault and criminal damage and was placed on administrative leave by the Sheriff’s office.  Higgins has a history of threatening his son with guns but the incidents have been unreported.

Sarah Palin with best pal

Jared Loughner, Tucson shooter

MISSOURI: Several Democratic state lawmakers found stickers on their office doors with rifle crosshairs on them.  Shades of Sarah Palin and her 2010 crosshairs on Gabby Giffords Arizona district.  Coincidentally, it was just one day before Giffords announced on Capitol Hill that she would resign to concentrate on her recovery from being shot at the 2011 Tucson massacre.  Some lawmakers removed the stickers only to return later and find even larger ones.

ARIZONA: In Mesa, once again, a 7-year-old boy brought a handgun on a loaded school bus and discharged it.  There were about 30 students on board when the boy manipulated the gun in his backpack, firing a single shot.   His father,
Mike Place
, was “grateful nobody was hurt.”  The kid found the weapon in a closet at home and had carried it around school all day.  What kind of moron gun owner leaves his handgun unsecured in a closet?  One from Arizona, of course.   

From accidents to intent to harm, there are too many guns on the streets and too many of those guns are in the hands of those who either legally should not possess a weapon or are not educated well enough to carry a gun.  More coming up on the lack of gun education later. 
  

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Rick Santorum can eliminate Mitt Romney in Arizona…just use a gun

It’s all but guaranteed.  Mitt Romney supports the 2nd Amendment but his more moderate politics may lead some to believe it is also where he stands on gun rights.  Even if not true, his conservatism is not quite fanatical enough for Arizona Republicans, some of which think a middle-of-the-roader is a bleeding liberal.  Rick Santorum, on the other hand, goes all the way with his views, so far to the right that he almost circles the political globe back to the left.

All the polls report that Santorum and Romney are close in the latter’s home state of Michigan leading into Wednesday’s debate in Arizona, and the Christian Science Monitor reports that a new CNN/Time poll announces that Santorum may now be closing the gap in Arizona.  Romney does still have a lead prior to Wednesday. 

But all Ricky boy has to do to get the majority’s attention in Arizona is to swagger into the debate wearing a Glock 19 at his side, an AK-47 over his shoulder.  I can see it now.  With a tumultuous applause including standing ovation, Santorum tells his loving audience, I feel your pain and one of my first acts as President will be to pass a law that will make it legal to shoot illegal immigrants as they cross the border.  Forget the fence; just work on improving your aim.


Typical Arizona lawmaker

Now, of course, Rick Santorum would never do that but there are some in Arizona that would welcome a law like this.  The Arizona Republican state legislature, after hearing of this idea, is probably already checking out the concept to see how they might turn it into legislation.  And if they don’t get them at the border, just confront the first immigrant at your local bar, starting an altercation that ultimately ends up in you shooting them, illegal or not.

I know.  Purely bizarre and maybe I am pushing the envelope, but all within the realm of possibility in a state that hates a huge portion of its workforce, and loves its guns more than it does the safety of Arizona’s citizens.  I don’t want you make-believe vigilantes protecting me with your concealed weapons.  You don’t have the proper training, nothing even remotely close to law enforcement, and it is time you cowboys understood that.



The National Victims Action Council (NVAC) has an interesting illustration of how those packing heat probably would never have the chance to react, even if they had enough training.  It’s a fantasy, they say, advanced by the gun lobby, that gun owners need their weapons with them at all times for self defense.  Like walking down a street in Dodge City waiting to draw and shoot.  Doesn’t happen that way.  The criminal almost always has the element of surprise. 

Mitt Romney, Mr. 1%
In most instances a police officer would have the upper hand by most likely being in uniform, trained to spot the bad guys before they get the upper hand.  He or she can anticipate their moves and already has a strategy for almost any kind of confrontation.  Gun fanatics take notice: you don’t have any of this talent but if you do it is no doubt limited to watching TV cop dramas.  I keep bringing this up but two gun nuts almost shot each other in the Tucson massacre.

Let’s be realistic.  Because of a lousy economy law enforcement has been cut back but I’ll still wait for the police any day rather than put my life in the hands of a vigilante cowboy.

NVAC says in a 2009 study commissioned by the National Institutes of Health and published in the American Journal of Public Health, “…guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault.”  Further, “The study found that people carrying a gun were 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not carrying a gun.”  Go to the NVAC site, above, for more facts on this issue.

In the meantime, when you read this post, it will probably already be evident how both Romney and Santorum stand on gun rights from the debate last night; that is if anyone dares bring it up.  My exposition above is simply to shed light on the fact that gun rights in Arizona, and several other states, are simply insane.  I would settle for just one of the candidates saying, ‘Ah, come on Arizona and the rest of the country.  Can’t we just agree on sane gun control?’  Yeah, right.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

More…gun sense and nonsense

TSA gun inspection
Here’s the latest.  The gun freaks now want to be able to extend their concealed right-to-carry privileges to airplanes.  J.D. Schechter from, where else but gun-totin’ Arizona, who runs the Arizona Citizens Defense League, says some of his readers think, because of the relaxing of guns laws in many states, this could become a reality. 

Just what we need.  Some yahoo from Arizona where anyone can own a gun and who probably has absolutely no training in firearms, to protect us on an airplane.  I’ll take the train.  Some lame brain gun owners still continue to end up at the airport daily with guns packed in carry-ons that they claim they forgot were there.  In the week before Christmas, the T.S.A. discovered 31 guns with rounds actually in the chamber.  National Rifle Assn. (NRA) education at its best.



And what happened to the uproar over improved gun control following the shooting of U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords.  The one year anniversary was last Sunday and immediately following the incident a year ago President Obama sounded as if he might be willing to move forward on the issue.  We also have heard nothing from Giffords herself. 

Jared Loughner
Jared Loughner, the shooter in the Tucson massacre has been judged mentally ill by many and at least we should be addressing that part of the problem.  But over one year later only a small number of states pass along records of those judged to be mentally ill.  Loughner killed six in Tucson, and another mentally unbalanced gunman Seung Hui Cho killed 32 at Virginia Tech U. in 2007.  Why doesn’t the NRA, which supports reporting, lobby for more state participation?

But there is definitely a wave in this country toward looser weapons laws, and gun control advocates like me are fast becoming the minority.  It makes sense that the more guns that are available, the more likely they are to get in the hands of the Loughners and Chos.  Having a gun in the home as a means of protection for an emergency is one thing, but some rube walking around on the streets with a gun in his pocket with no training or background check is preposterous.

If you think these relaxed gun laws is what has reduced violence across the U.S., think again.  Although it isn’t completely clear, the experts say it is due in part to higher rates of incarceration, and a decrease in the number of teenagers who commit a disproportionate share of offenses.  In New York City, as an example, their gun laws have not changed and there are still problems such as oppressive poverty, but murders have declined to 1950’s levels.


Old West cowboy

No matter how you view the loose weapons issue, Arizona is the leader in making guns available to anyone who wants them.  During a very somber period this past Sunday when a vigil was being held in Tucson for those killed in the Arizona shooting, the Tucson Gun Show decided to hold its annual event at the Pima County Fairgrounds.  This can only be described as tasteless beyond reasoning, devised by a bunch of double-digit IQs that have absolutely no feelings for the six dead.  Next, same state, the Republican legislature has renewed its push for legalizing guns on campus.

If there is anything I learn from all this show of masculinity it is that these gun wackos have to pack heat to feel like a man.  It’s an attempt to revive the days of Wyatt Earp when every cowboy carried a gun.  The big difference is in those days they knew how to use them.

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