Showing posts with label James Holmes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Holmes. Show all posts

Friday, September 28, 2012

Catching up on gun nonsense and pandemonium

Ted Nugent
Back in April, out-of-date rocker Ted Nugent threatened President Obama and promptly received a visit from the Secret Service.  Nugent is a celebrity—although some question that status—gun nut that reminds me of the lunatic Charlton Heston in his famous tirade waving a musket over his head.  It seems that the NRA is constantly recruiting has-beens that are really not that good anymore at their day job.  Nugent is a NRA board member.


Wacky Wayne LaPierre
Josh Horwitz of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence says that although National Rifle Assn. (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre wants us to believe gun guys make the rules, the Founding Fathers “ratified the Constitution to obviate the need for political violence.”  What wacky Wayne and his lackeys have turned this into is a drive to put guns in the hands of anyone who wants them and allow them to carry their weapons anywhere they want.  This keeps gun nuts like Nugent happy.


James Holmes

Along the lines of unrestricted gun power, there is the fact that the purchase of ammunition online is essentially unregulated.  Firearms cannot be bought online except, of course, in Arizona.  But ammunition can be ordered online and shipped to the buyer’s address.  James Holmes, who killed 12 and injured 58 in the Aurora, Colo. movie shooting, purchased 6,000 rounds of ammunition online.  If regulated, this purchase would have certainly alerted police.

Arizona is one of the few states allowing the purchase of guns over the Internet, although they do restrict the sale of tobacco products.  KPHO CBS5 in Phoenix says, “Policy makers in Arizona can now rest easier, knowing that while no one is purchasing tobacco over the internet, every convicted felon and his brother can purchase guns online to kill or maim their local Congressman.”  The latter refers to the severe wounding of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in Tucson.

Back in August after the recent rash of gun massacres had died down, A CNN poll was taken finding that 50% of respondents favor no or minimum restrictions on gun ownership compared to 48% for major restrictions.  But 96% favor background checks and 91% support laws that will prevent felons or the mentally ill from buying guns.  That’s a start and if we added closing the gun show loophole and banning assault weapons we are on the way to gun sanity.

I base my opinion, above, on another CNN report on gun statistics in America:









CSGV asked National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) General Counsel Larry Keane if he felt that individual Americans had a right to shoot and kill government officials in response to what they personally perceived as ‘”tyranny,” Keane tweeted back at us plaintively, “Just like the Jews in the ghettos of Warsaw? The South Sudanese? Kurds? The American colonists?”  That pretty much says it all for the gun nuts.

Monday, July 30, 2012

The real American terrorist and the war over guns

There are two distinct issues here.  The new American terrorists are the James Holmes, the Jared Loughners, the Seung-Hui Chos and the other gun massacre artists that came before them and those who will follow.  Yes, many will continue the trend because they are given the means so readily to accomplish their goals.  Any kind of mass killing device their heart desires, compliments of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) and its leader, Wayne LaPierre.

And the war over guns will continue, not just on the street, but also at the White House, the U.S. Congress, and in the minds and hearts of the American people.  It is a battle that has been going on since the late 1970s when wacky Wayne took over the NRA and made a fight for the 2nd Amendment his platform to power and riches for himself and his organization.  He has amassed a claimed 4.3 million membership that has in the past literally licked the man’s boots.

In this war the American public is losing, as is the case in Aurora, Colorado most recently.


James Holmes the terrorist that no one knew

Bill Schneider writing for Politico says in his glaring headline, “NRA is real winner on gun laws,” continuing, “Nothing will happen. That seems to be the consensus among policy experts after the senseless tragedy in Aurora, Colo., last week.”  That line of thought pretty much follows the overall atmosphere of two presidential contenders and the chicken-hearted Congress we have been left with.  But I do see an inkling of hope, which I will cover in a later post.

The author says Americans have lost confidence in gun control measures. In 1959, a Gallup poll said 60 percent wanted it; in 2011 26 percent were in favor.  And in the fight to re-ban assault weapons, just last year a majority in the U.S. said no.  What we don’t hear from these polls is “why” these respondents reply as they do.  I am no expert in polling but my gut tells me all the NRA propaganda has thoroughly confused the American public, in their favor.

Schneider believes the opposition to gun control is due to the fact that people see no evidence that it works.  And why is that?  Because there are no valid statistics available to prove that regulations on firearms do work.  And why is that?  Because the NRA and its leadership have made sure that a minimum of records are kept on guns in this country simply to cover up their lies and brazen and flawed doctrine on gun rights.  All thanks to a cowardly Congress.

John Horgan in Scientific American wonders "How many massacres will it take for politicians to stand up to gun nuts?"  He uses the term “gun nut,” which I also use frequently, to describe the kind of person that loves his or her guns more than they do life.  He describes Obama, the Illinois Senator in favor of some gun control, to the presidential candidate who came out strong for defending the 2nd Amendment.  A fact that has soured many progressives.

 
Easily available weapon of choice 

The Brady Center reports a total of 100,000 Americans are wounded by firearms each year in the U.S.  Of those, 31,347 are deaths according to the CDC, and Brady adds that more than a million Americans have been shot to death since 1968.  The gun nuts cry that self defense makes a gun necessary; the fact is that “a gun is 22 times more likely to be used in a suicide attempt; criminal assault or homicide; or unintentional shooting death or injury than for self-defense.”

Come on America.  What makes you people believe such garbage that spews from wacky Wayne LaPierre and his minions?  Don’t you have a mind of your own?  Anyone who cannot sit down and quickly analyze a situation like the Aurora move theatre killing which took 12 lives and injured another 58, and not come up with the conclusion that assault weapons should be banned, has a real problem with logic.  This isn’t rocket science, folks, it’s common sense.

Monday, July 23, 2012

It’s time to make the NRA accountable…was Aurora movie shooter a member?

The National Rifle Assn. (NRA) has bragged for years about what a law abiding bunch its members are, with the implication that no one from their membership would be involved in illegal shootings or homicides, certainly not something as outrageous as the shooting last Friday at a movie in Aurora, Colorado.  Well, I am here to tell you it is not true.  J.T. Ready, who killed five, including himself, in a smaller scale execution in Arizona recently, was an NRA member.

Shooter James Holmes
Similarly, was Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan of the Fort Hood, Texas incident a member?  How about Seung-Hui Cho in the Virginia Tech shootings or Jared Loughner of Tucson, Arizona shooting fame?  And of course was James Holmes, the latest maniac wielding a gun to do his dirty work in an Aurora, Colorado theatre last Friday a member? 

What is equally important is whether or not NRA members had anything to do with the 569 shootings resulting in 311 deaths as documented in my Monthly Shooting Report.  I don’t expect an answer from Wayne LaPierre, who heads up the NRA but all Americans should be wondering by now.


Aurora, Colo. movie shooting

In this latest incident in Colorado, 12 people were killed and 59 injured, but those numbers were changing rapidly at this writing; it could be more by now.  Holmes was armed with 2 Glock handguns, a shotgun and an AK-47 type assault rifle.  He bought them over a period of time, avoiding federal reporting requirements in a state that has failed to pass significant gun control legislation even considering the Columbine massacre 13 years ago, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.   

Top secrets at the CIA or National Security Admin. probably aren’t guarded any more closely than the NRA’s membership roster.  But Joan Peterson on her blog, Common Gunsense, has a theory that their membership is declining so the group has resorted to desperate tactics, which you can read about on the link above.  And that makes sense with the study done by Paul Waldman and reported on Think Progress, showing gun ownership dropped 22% from 1973 to 2010.

Some gun nuts are finally turning into rational thinking individuals, while painfully discovering at the same time that they have been conned by NRA higher-ups into contributing unlimited sums just to keep those like top gun wacko Wayne LaPierre living like kings.  Most non-profits like the NRA spend only 25% on fundraising which includes administrative/salaries.  The NRA spends 46% on the latter which amounts to 84% above normal.  Does that tell you something?

Aurora movie shooting video:

This is not an attempt by me to expose the members of the NRA; there are many who are law-abiding citizens that even believe in some forms of gun control, like strengthening background checks.  But because the NRA bases its concept of 2nd Amendment rights on the need for guns to protect its membership, it owes the American public as well as the U.S. Government a look at those members.

If, for instance, a significant percentage of members, or former members, have felony backgrounds related to shootings or killings, certainly if any of them were involved in past shooting massacres, then maybe it is time to examine just how valid the NRA mandate for their 2nd Amendment rights is.  This makes perfect sense to me in view of the concentration by the NRA on fear mongering that Obama is going to take away their guns, resulting in more mass purchases.

I am an optimist when it comes to Americans finally waking up to force Congress and the White House to get tough on gun control.  It may even require getting rid of every Republican and some Democrats in Congress.  It also means taking a long look at President Obama since he says his views on gun control haven’t changed, even after the Aurora, Colo. Movie melee.  I am doing a post later this week on why the gun lobby will have absolutely no effect on the Nov. election.

Donald Trump Says He Will Be Indicted On Tuesday

  THAT'S TODAY... Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has brought the case to this point, now looking at a possible indictment. Trum...