American Gun Sales Break Records

The June 2012 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 846,437 is an increase of 24.5 percent over the NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 679,840 in June 2011. For comparison, the unadjusted June 2012 NICS figure of 1,290,210 reflects an 11.4 percent increase from the unadjusted NICS figure of 1,157,714 in June 2011.

This marks the 25th straight month that NSSF-adjusted NICS figures have increased when compared to the same period the previous year.

The adjusted NICS data were derived by subtracting out NICS purpose code permit checks used by several states such as Kentucky, Iowa and Michigan for CCW permit application checks as well as checks on active CCW permit databases.

 Though not a direct correlation to firearms sales, the NSSF-adjusted NICS data provide a more accurate picture of current market conditions. In addition to other purposes, NICS is used to check transactions of firearms sales and transfers on new and used handguns and long guns.



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Gun Control Added to Cybersecurity Bill

(Washington, D.C.)

Senate Democrats slipped in a gun control amendment to a cybersecurity bill Friday, claiming that it is time to impose "reasonable gun control measures," according to The Hill.

The cybersecurity bill has advanced to the stage in the process when amendments can be attached. Amendments to bills often have nothing to do with the issue being addressed in the bill itself.

Senators Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., sponsored bill S.A. 2575 which would make it illegal to possess or transfer large capacity magazines, belts, feed stripes, or drums holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition.[…]

Although the Senate will more than likely pass the gun ban amendment to the cybersecurity bill next week, the measure will be dead on arrival in the House where Republicans hold the majority.

Isn't it interesting that virtually all prominent members of the gun control advocacy have 24/7 bodyguards?

Thornton Police Arrest Man for Open Carry

DENVER -- Thornton police arrested a Northglenn man Sunday after they said he walked into a movie theater with a handgun strapped to his waist.

 James G. Mapes, 48, went into the Cinebarre theater at 10001 N. Grant Street with a handgun in an open carry position, said police spokesman Matt Barnes.

 Police evacuated several theaters as a precaution and found Mapes, Barnes said.


More  Here

Note: Open carry is legal in Colorado except for Denver and Denver county. Mr. Mapes may end up with a fat settlement for deprivation of civil rights.

Career criminal rampage stopped by armed citizen (off duty police officer)

.AURORA, Colo. (CBS4)- The man who shot and killed the pastor’s mother outside a church in Aurora on Sunday had a long criminal record.

After he gunned down Josephine Echols at New Destiny Christian Center, Kiarron Parker was shot and killed by an off duty police officer from Denver who happened to be at the church.

That officer is Antonio Milow, Echols nephew. Milow is a 6-year veteran with the Denver Police Department.

Parker had a lengthy past including arrests for drugs in Colorado. He also spent time behind bars in Oklahoma for assaulting a peace officer and burglary. Parker was released early in November 2011
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VA: Woman shoots intruder

NORFOLK-- Police say a man was killed in broad daylight Sunday afternoon. Around 2:30 p.m., Officers responded to the 1300 block of Kingston Avenue in the Oceanview area of Norfolk. When police arrived, they found a man suffering from being shot. Soon after, medics pronounced the man dead.

Stephen Shifflett lives near the scene. He says he was mowing his lawn, when a neighbor ran over to him. "She told me she needed to use my phone because she just shot a man."

Shifflett says his neighbor explained she was home alone, when she heard some noise in another room. When she went to check, an unknown man was standing there. Shifflett says shortly after spotting the intruder, his neighbor shot him.

Police are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting. At this time, officers have not arrested or charged anyone in this death. Police are not releasing the name of the man killed until family is properly notified.

 Source

UT: Gun carrying man ends stabbing spree at Salt Lake grocery store:  "A citizen with a gun stopped a knife wielding man as he began stabbing people Thursday evening at the downtown Salt Lake City Smith's store.  Police say the suspect purchased a knife inside the store and then turned it into a weapon. Smith's employee Dorothy Espinoza says, "He pulled it out and stood outside the Smiths in the foyer. And just started stabbing people and yelling you killed my people. You killed my people."  Espinoza says, the knife wielding man seriously injured two people. "There is blood all over. One got stabbed in the stomach and got stabbed in the head and held his hands and got stabbed all over the arms."   Then, before the suspect could find another victim - a citizen with a gun stopped the madness. "A guy pulled gun on him and told him to drop his weapon or he would shoot him. So, he dropped his weapon and the people from Smith's grabbed him."

Open carry not OK in TN park:  "A judge has upheld a Tennessee statute that restricts the possession of firearms in a case involving a Williamson County man who carried a pistol at a state park.  Chancellor Russell T. Perkins on Monday ruled against Leonard S. Embody of Brentwood, whose loaded AK-47 pistol was seized by a park ranger at Nashville’s Radnor Lake State Park in 2009. The ranger, Steve Ward, said Embody posed a threat to others by carrying the pistol across his chest while walking around the park.  Embody earlier lost rulings in federal court on the same issue.  After the incident at Radnor Lake, the state in 2010 took away his permit to carry a firearm"

Gun Control Laws Will “Fundamentally Transform” America: Sound Familiar?

The scheme known as Fast and Furious is, for the moment, out of the headlines. It is to be hoped that this will change, since U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered with one of the thousands of weapons that Attorney General Holder and others conspired to allow Mexican drug cartels to purchase in Arizona in violation of U.S. law.

Since various Administration officials have lengthy records of extremist anti-Second Amendment activism it's no surprise that, as CBS News revealed, they utilized Fast and Furious to mobilize public opinion in support of harsher gun laws. Some members of the Administration have gone so far as to publicly express their disdain for the Constitution, and their intention to "fundamentally transform" the United States.  Depriving Americans of the right to possess firearms would be an important part of such a transformation.

Thus, this conspiracy to let agents of the Mexican cartels buy these guns was just one step in the Long March to that planned fundamental transformation. Accordingly, it must have seemed quite reasonable to Attorney General Holder and his co-conspirators to hatch a plot they had to know would inevitably lead to violence and death.  And given Holder's attitude it is clear that to him Agent Terry's life was but a small price to pay to promote the agenda. 

For those on the Left it is irrelevant whether gun laws reduce crime. Rather, it is part to their vision of a United States whose sovereignty, independence, power and self confidence are sapped. For the rest of us, those of us who care whether gun laws actually prevent criminals from obtaining weapons, the proof that such efforts simply cannot lower crime rates can be found in the archives of the NY Times.

For example:

On August 8, 1973, C.L. Sulzberger in a Times op-ed piece, Arms and the Soviet Man, reported that "underground gun factories had been discovered" in several Republics within the Soviet Union. "Machine tools have been stolen from government factories" and used to make guns, "including pistols disguised as fountain pens" and there are "considerable quantities of explosives and firearms" in four Republics."  Noted Sulzberger, "The interesting thing is that Soviet society, with its known predilection for discipline and supervision should be suffering at all from this kind of ailment."

Other newspapers have echoed these reports. On December 11, 1988 England's Manchester Guardian reported that "the number of weapons held illegally in Azerbaijan [then a part of the USSR] is clearly formidable."

The Times has reported several times on the illegal manufacture of firearms in that most brutal and effective of police states, Maoist China. On February 10, 1980 its Peking reporter, Fox Butterfield, described a recent Peking bank robbery and stated that during Mao's rule "many workers in factories are said to have fashioned knives and guns." In June of that year Butterfield reported on another Peking bank robbery in which two criminals carried four homemade guns. Other news articles in the Times have described gang wars and other criminal acts in China where such bootleg weapons were used.

In these two highly regimented Communist police states even the ownership of machine tools by private individuals was strictly forbidden, as was their use for private purposes. Yet in both nations, during the height of Communist power and despite omnipresent informers, bootleg guns were made either by stealing the machinery outright for use in underground factories or were used to make guns in state owned factories under the noses of authorities.

The Times archives provide many other examples of the ease with which guns of any sort can be fabricated quickly and in large numbers even in primitive conditions.   On may 7, 1987 Times correspondent Seth Mydans reported on Philippine gun bootleggers who manufactured to order "sophisticated copies of European and American handguns complete with nickel or silver plate and counterfeit brand markings." In the town of Danao "3,000 gun makers provided a livelihood, directly or indirectly, for 60% of the residents." A portion of their products are "periodically discovered" being smuggled into Japan.

Mydans described a typical gun maker, Benjamin Barriga, who produced these copies "on a hand turned lathe in a pigsty that abuts his thatched home..." And another manufacturer "whose five-man assembly line shares a thatched workshop with wandering pigs and chickens."

The Times reported on August 18, 1980 on fighting between Moslems and Hindus in the Indian state of Kashmir  "where the manufacture of so-called country guns is something of a cottage industry." On April 27, 1987 the Times reported widespread gun bootlegging in the Indian state of Bihar, where "even an old truck's steering wheel can be fashioned into a gun barrel at one of dozens of makeshift factories."

Thus, experience proves that even in the violently repressive police states or under primitive conditions the most sophisticated and varied kinds of weapons can be bootlegged.

In the U.S. there are of course no restrictions on the private ownership of machine tools; anyone with a little cash can buy a lathe and milling machine, and the necessary skills are readily acquired or hired.   With millions of available machine tools and millions of garages and basements in which bootleg factories can be established, the number of guns that can be illegally produced is unlimited.

Predictably, the tighter that firearms restrictions would become, the greater would be the rewards for bootlegging. Thus, the only way to enforce such laws would be to emulate, and go much further than, the Communist dictatorships which themselves failed to stamp out gun bootlegging.

It would be laughable to attempt enforcement without first prohibiting the private, individual possession of the machine tools. Those remaining in factories would have to be carefully monitored and controlled.  Naturally, few Americans would willingly obey bans on ownership of tools. To enforce those bans the guarantees under the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable search and seizure would have to be abandoned in order to permit random inspection of homes and shops suspected of harboring machinery or machinists.

So let us suppose Holder's Fast and Furious conspiracy had succeeded in mobilizing public support in such a way as to satisfy to the fullest the gun banning desires of Chicago Democrats. The evidence from Mao's China, the USSR, the Philippines, et al. via the NY times makes it obvious that the only way to enforce such a ban would be to abandon our long held Constitutional protections of personal freedom, property, and privacy. And that would require a fundamental transformation of American society.

Ah, but of course. That fundamental transformation is exactly what has been declared as the goal. A dead American lawman is a small price to pay for that, and as Holder has said, no apology need be given.

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U.S. Murders 2009: All Murders 13,636; All with guns 9,146; Hands and Feet 801; Blunt objects 611; Assault Rifles: less than 348

It is often said that guns, particularly assault rifles, are designed for one thing, and one thing only: to kill lots of people.

Assault rifles in the United States are failing miserably in this purpose.  There are tens of  millions of assault rifles in America. Because the definition of an assault rifle has been rather fuzzy, the number can be said to be anywhere from 10 million to 30 million. Of those, the AR-15 type is fairly common with numbers between 5 and 10 million.

The FBI murder statistics do not differentiate between types of rifles. There are about 100 million rifles in the United States. In 2009, the last year  in which numbers have been reported, there were 13,636 murders. Guns were used to murder 9,146 people. Hands and feet were used to murder 801 people.  Blunt objects were used to murder 611 people.   Rifles were used to murder 348 people, and that is all rifles, of which assault rifles are only a small fraction. Assault rifles are used so infrequently in homicides that many police departments almost never see them; in 2009, there were nine states that did not have a single murder committed with any rifle.

So why is the left so intent on banning rifles that are the most suitable for militia use (clearly protected by the U.S. Constitution), when they are used so rarely in murder? Banning baseball bats would make more sense, yet would be nearly as senseless.

It is this disassociation from facts and reality that lead many ordinary people to believe that when their government works to disarm them, it is up to no good.

Police harassment of gun owner found unjustified

Cop's claim that her gun was not visible rejected

A Milwaukee County jury on Tuesday found a gun rights activist not guilty of carrying a concealed weapon while parked outside a closed Milwaukee coffee shop last fall, using its Wi-Fi signal.

The current case boiled down to Sutterfield's word against an officers. Sutterfield testified her jacket was tucked behind her holster from the time she left home that night.

Milwaukee Police Officer Cassandra Benitez testified that when she  first looked into Sutterfield's car from the passenger side, with a flashlight, she did not notice the 9mm Glock on Sutterfield's hip, despite being extra alert to a possible weapon after seeing an National Rifle Association cap on the backseat.

When she re-approached Sutterfield's car a few moments later, Benitez testified, and made the same inspection, she saw the gun, now exposed in front of Sutterfield's jacket, within a couple seconds.

In her closing argument, Coffee told the jury in her closing argument that it made no sense that a certified firearms instructor who routinely open carries a gun would  conceal, then reveal, her weapon to police.

"The simplest explanation makes the most sense," Coffee suggested. "She had the gun and the officer just didn't notice it the first time."

More here




Ignorance, pure ignorance

Normally, I respect and enjoy Bill’s take on pressing issues, but OMG was O’Reilly out in leftist field on the guns and ammo issue.

On Monday, July 23rd’s Talking Points, O’Reilly made some outrageous and erroneous statements about guns and gun purchases. They were so misleading that I was wondering if Michael Moore was moonlighting as a writer for The Factor.

Initially Bill got off to a good start stating, “[Bill] Moyers has no clue, no clue at all. He apparently believes that federal and state governments can actually control gun crimes. That’s so dumb it hurts.” But then he follows up this statement with some of the most uninformed Talking Points that I have witnessed on his show, and yes, I am a regular viewer. Check it out …

O’Reilly: “Anyone who sells a heavy weapon or ammo should be compelled to report the sale to the FBI. It’s a felony if you don’t. That’s what we should have in the U.S.A. and it just makes sense in this age of terrorism. Right now some gun dealers do background checks but nobody reports the sale of heavy weapons like AK-47s to the feds. That’s insane.”

Bill, if you purchase an AK-47 today at a gun store, you will be required to fill out Federal Form 4473. On this form, you will answer a barrage of questions about your criminal history and citizenship. On page 2, section D, the form lists the type, model number, manufacturer, serial number, etc. of the firearm that is being purchased.

If a licensed gun dealer does not accurately complete this form, he would face penalties up to and including prison time. All dealers are required to complete this form for every firearm purchase. This form is a BATFE form, and if they do not talk to the FBI, then that is a problem between those agencies and not gun purchasers.

As it relates to purchases of ammo, the idea that one would report the hundreds of millions of rounds of ammunition sold yearly would take an army of federal employees to process the information. I would wager that they would catch as many criminals as the TSA has caught potential terrorists by groping Granny. However, they would be able to compile a great list of people like me who shoot regularly and buy their ammunition in bulk. That list would include my cowboy action shooting friends, trap and skeet shooters, prairie dog hunters, individual police officers, military personnel, gun collectors, reloaders and so on. Keeping lists of law-abiding citizens does not stop killers bent on bedlam.

Bill’s next ditty was so outrageous that it is near impossible to comment on without laughing. O’Reilly: “Terrorists could just move in here, buy bazookas and the FBI doesn’t know about it. Here is how crazy this is. If you take a flight lesson, the feds get a heads up. But you can buy a machine gun and they don’t know.”

Bazookas and machine guns are commonly referred to as class III weapons and/or destructive devices, which require a very special license to own. Yep, it’s a wee bit different than buying a Ruger 10/22. The “Feds” have been licensing machine guns since 1934. To own a machine gun, one must first live in a state where it is legal, and then complete a Federal licensing process that, as I understand, takes a few months. On top of the aforementioned, get ready to drop about ten grand because the manufacturing of new guns has been banned for years. To the best of my knowledge, only one legally owned machine gun has been used in a crime in the U.S. since 1934, and the owner was a member of the law enforcement community.

Another thing I was howling over was O’Reilly calling an AK-47 a “heavy weapon.” Heavy weapon? Uh … not hardly. Granted, I wouldn’t want any round from a .22LR up inside of my body, but the pipsqueak little 7.62x39 is hardly considered a heavy caliber by anyone who knows anything about guns.

Then to cap off Bill’s misinformation, the following night O’Reilly stepped in it again by wrongfully asserting that the Aurora jackwagon who shot up the theater ordered “60,000 rounds of ammo over the Internet.” Bill screamed that several times … “60,000 rounds!” Wrong again. Holmes ordered 6,000 rounds, and not one ton of ammo.

Look, folks can try to ban semi-automatic weapons and limit ammo sales all day long, but criminals will always be able to get their paws on them. The only thing that would have stopped James Holmes would have been a bullet to his head by an armed citizen who, in this case, was unfortunately banned from entering the theater.

“After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it.”  —William S. Burroughs

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Texas Teen Shot after Breaking into Home

A 15-year-old boy who took a shotgun blast to the abdomen after breaking into a man's East Side home was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries Friday night, authorities said.

Bexar County Sheriff's Department Sgt. James Hancock said the boy who was shot and another teen were entering a mobile home in the Regency Village park off Montgomery Drive through an open back door.

The homeowner saw a boy in his home, grabbed a shotgun and fired once, striking him in the abdomen. He and the other boy ran away, and deputies caught the injured boy a few blocks away in the park.

The other boy was not found. Hancock said it doesn't appear the homeowner will face any charges.

Source

Welcome, Dean!

As readers will have already seen,  I have welcomed Dean Weingarten aboard as a contributor to this blog.  As I am in now my 70th year I needed some extra help and Dean has come energetically to the rescue. 

I expect that most of the posting from now on will be done by Dean but I will keep a watching brief and will add stories that Dean may have missed from time to time.

Lucky Russians

(GunAuction.com) -- A bill that would allow Russians to possess handguns and use them for self-defense without fear of being exposed to criminal liability bill will likely be proposed in the State Duma early next year, Izvestia reports.

A report prepared by the Russian Federation Council suggests amending the Federal Law On Weapons that allows the possession of shotguns, non-lethal weapons, gas guns, stun guns, pneumatic weapons, and cold steel arms (knives), but says nothing about handguns.

Proponents insist that violent crime statistics tend to decline as the number of legal firearms owners increases.

Currently, Russian law allows for the victims of violent crime to be criminally liable for what is known as excessive self-defense. To avoid this situation, the report suggests that the self-defense doctrine, “my house is my fortress,” should be formalized in legislation.

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Going Postal, Pre-Pistol How did mass murderers operate before the advent of modern weapons?

The shooting spree that killed 12 people in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater on Friday has sparked a public debate about the availability of automatic weapons. Gun control advocates argue that mass murder is exceedingly difficult without them. One source told the Washington Post, “It’s kind of hard to be a pseudo-commando with a musket in the 18th century.” How did people commit mass murder before the advent of automatic weapons?

Often with fire. Revolutionary War veteran Barnett Davenport is widely considered the first mass murderer in U.S. history. On the evening of Feb. 3, 1780, Davenport burst into the bedroom of his employer, Caleb Mallory, and began to bludgeon Mallory and his wife with a club. When the club broke in two, Davenport beat the couple to death with Mallory’s gun. If Davenport had stopped there, he would be remembered as just an ordinary killer; most criminologists define mass murder as the killing of at least three people in a single incident. After beating the Mallorys to death, however, Davenport burned the house down, killing their three grandchildren.

Hundreds of other mass murderers have perpetrated their crimes without automatic firearms. Frenchman Pierre Riviere killed his mother, sister, and brother with a bill hook in 1835. In 1932, Julian Marcelino, a Filipino immigrant of relatively small stature, managed to kill six and wound 15 on a Seattle street using only a pair of blades. In 1915, Monroe Phillips shot seven dead and wounded 32 with a shotgun in Georgia.

Guns aren’t even the most lethal mass murder weapon. According to data compiled by Grant Duwe of the Minnesota Department of Corrections, guns killed an average of 4.92 victims per mass murder in the United States during the 20^th century, just edging out knives, blunt objects, and bare hands, which killed 4.52 people per incident. Fire killed 6.82 people per mass murder, while explosives far outpaced the other options at 20.82. Of the 25 deadliest mass murders in the 20^th century, only 52 percent involved guns. 

More Here

BBC Notices that Switzerland has Guns and Low Crime(2001)

Guns are deeply rooted within Swiss culture - but the gun crime rate is so low that statistics are not even kept.

The country has a population of six million, but there are estimated to be at least two million publicly-owned firearms, including about 600,000 automatic rifles and 500,000 pistols.

This is in a very large part due to Switzerland's unique system of national defence, developed over the centuries.

Instead of a standing, full-time army, the country requires every man to undergo some form of military training for a few days or weeks a year throughout most of their lives.

Between the ages of 21 and 32 men serve as frontline troops. They are given an M-57 assault rifle and 24 rounds of ammunition which they are required to keep at home.

Once discharged, men serve in the Swiss equivalent of the US National Guard, but still have to train occasionally

More HERE

Ezra Klein’s ‘Facts’ About Guns and Violence Tell a Slanted Story

Soon after the Aurora mass murder, Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein waded into the fray, citing curious data to “prove” that we need more gun control to make society safer. But what he said and how he said things show he’s just another anti-rights elitist using tragedy to advance his agenda.
Klein displayed bias by claiming that not politicizing the Aurora shooting is only to halt discussing gun control:

The aftermath of the Aurora, Colorado shootings has been thick with calls to avoid “politicizing” the tragedy. That is code, essentially, for “don’t talk about reforming our gun control laws.”

His assumption is code for “the only desirable outcome here is more gun control.” Klein’s politicizing is okay; your desire to have a viable self-defense tool—and not be held accountable for a murderer’s actions—is not.
Mr. Klein, why has the civil right of self-defense become political?

Klein attempts to make six major points in his defense of gun control.

1. America is an unusually violent country.

Klein supports this assumption by citing a researcher’s graph of assault deaths in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. By conveniently ignoring most of the dataset, he made it appear that America is much more violent than any other country.

The latest United Nations homicide data show that America tied Argentina for the 50th most violent country, again using murder as an indicator. Like Klein’s graph, this dataset consists of OECD member countries, except for Tajikistan, which had a lower murder rate and didn’t affect our ranking.

Including Small Arms Survey’s firearms inventory research destroys the “guns equals violence” premise. (SAS is a pro-gun control, UN-affiliated organization.) All countries with higher murder rates—and more gun control—have much lower rates of gun ownership than America. The graph below shows a downward trend in murder rates as firearms ownership increases (more guns, less murder).



Curiously, Klein considers a country like Syria “less violent” because its murder rate is lower than ours. Government agencies provide crime data, and murders that are carried out by government are legal and therefore not crimes. So when Syrian security forces killed 44 protestors last fall—or when the UN says “more than 5,000 people have died in the uprising since March [2011]”— according to Klein, that’s not violence. But those 5,000 victims mean Syria’s murder rate was about 22 per 100,000 population in 2011, not the 3 per 100k reported by the UN.

This would tie it with Brazil for the 12th highest murder rate in the world. Acknowledging these truths would undercut Klein’s goal of politicizing a mass murder to build more reliance on government, because it’s government that murders the most people. University of Hawaii Professor Emeritus Rudy Rummel studied government-sponsored mass murder, and concluded that governments murdered 262 million people in the twentieth century. Totalitarian countries that disarm their subjects are the most violent.

(For greater detail, read chapter 6 in Four Hundred Years of Gun Control.)

2. The South is the most violent region in the United States.

Here’s one fact Klein had right. The FBI divides America into four regions: Northeast, Midwest, South, and West. In 2010, the South accounted for 41.5% of all violent crimes reported to the FBI. But Klein ignores relevant issues to create a simplistic conclusion.

Between 2000-2010, the South experienced a 22.3% decline in its violent crime rate, beating the U.S. decline of 20.3%.

Also, Klein doesn’t account for illegal immigration-related crime, which has a significant impact on southern states like Texas. For example, a 15 year old was charged with nine murders after crashing a van smuggling illegal immigrants near the Mexico border. Fifteen more illegal immigrants died recently when another smuggler crashed his overloaded truck. Minus the dead driver, that’s 23 more murders in Texas this year, all related to illegal immigration.

Houston police officer Rodney Johnson and Dallas officer Brian Jackson were murdered by illegal immigrants.

In Florida, a Haitian illegal immigrant with a long rap sheet and deportation order murdered three people in their North Miami home. After Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, the president put deportations on hold, so ICE put him back on the street.

Obviously, illegal immigrants commit violence in other parts of the country. But simply saying the South is more violent ignores the impact of policies created by the government Klein believes will make us safer.

3. Gun ownership in the United States is declining overall.

Klein cited surveys by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) and Gallup as evidence that gun ownership is declining in America.

NORC received $300,000 from the Joyce Foundation in 2011. Joyce also gave the Violence Policy Center $500,000, and VPC is proven to manipulate data to advance their agenda. Joyce’s “gun violence” grantees are all demonstrably committed to gun control.

The Gallup survey shows that since 1991, gun ownership declined about 3%. But it also shows that ownership is the highest since 1996. Gallup recently found that support for bans on handguns and semi-automatic rifles reached an historical low.

The National Rifle Association estimates there were about 65 million gun owners in 2000 and 100 million by 2010. But there’s a major piece missing in Klein’s discussion: gun ownership grew from 31% to 43% of the voting population.

There’s lots of anecdotal evidence of gun owner growth, particularly among women.

CBS reported: “More women than ever are picking up rifles, shotguns, and handguns. And target shooting is one of the fastest-growing female sports.”

Women are also concerned about personal protection. From Florida ABC affiliate WTLV: “The number of women with a concealed carry permit in Florida was around 48,000 in 2004. By 2011 that number grew to 146,000.”
The Austin Statesman wrote: “According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the number of women who got their concealed handgun license grew by 65 percent between 2006 and 2010, the latest year that data was available.”

After the Aurora shooting, the Denver Post reported an increase in gun sales. Said one gun store employee: “A lot of it is people saying, I didn’t think I needed a gun, but now I do.”

4. More guns tend to mean more homicide.

Klein cited the Harvard School of Public Health—another Joyce Foundation grantee—which published research concluding that more guns equal more murder. But Centers for Disease Control data show the opposite: States with the highest gun ownership have the lowest murder rates. The graph below shows that right-to-carry states—with more liberal laws empowering citizens to carry handguns in public—average 17.4% lower murder rates than restrictive states.



States with the most gun control had the lowest gun ownership, the highest violent crime and murder rates, and the highest non-firearms murder rates. In short, they’re the most dangerous places to live.

5. States with stricter gun control laws have fewer deaths from gun-related violence.

To arrive at this conclusion, Klein included suicides. But suicide is not violence. For example, law enforcement doesn’t charge attempted suicides with any violent crime unless there was an assault on another (e.g. murder/suicide).

True, 2001-2002 CDC data show that states with higher firearms ownership have higher firearms suicide rates. But more guns doesn’t always mean more suicide. About 100 million guns were added to the civilian firearms inventory between 1991 and 2009, but the firearms suicide rate declined 17% while non-firearms suicides increased 22%. Using suicide to make a point about firearms-related violence is junk science that ignores the complex dynamics of self-harm.

6. Gun control is not politically popular.

That’s because gun control fails to work as advertised. Since the 1990s, pro-rights writers have been accomplishing top-notch research and getting the word out, resulting in more gun ownership and less stigma attached to being a gun owner.

There are 100 million gun owners of voting age, and they tend to be politically active. For example, many Democrats believe the Clinton gun ban was why Gore lost the presidential election.

Klein didn’t perform an objective analysis of all the data; his “research” is an op/ed. He simply wanted to complain that we’re minimizing the Aurora tragedy for political purposes. But the truth is: he’s promoting gun control, and his column was nothing more than an attempt to grab the moral high ground and shame people into exchanging liberty for the unproven fantasy that government makes us safer.

Source

The AR-15 Is The Number One Selling Rifle In The U-S

ELBERTA, Summerdale --
President Obama's decision to talk gun control and discuss a ban on assault weapons are hot topics along the Gulf Coast.

Despite the tragic, shooting massacre in Colorado, gun shops continue to sell AR-15's and AK-47's to gun enthusiasts and sportsmen.
The AR-15 is NOT widely used in crime.

According the FBI, of the 199 homicides recorded in Alabama in 2010, handguns were used in 112, hands, fists or feet were used in 17, knives were used in 23....none were committed with a rifle.

More Here

Reply to Obama

Wisconsin --(Ammoland.com)- Last Friday President Obama held a press conference to address the tragedy in Colorado. During his press conference Mr. Obama posed the following rhetorical question:

“I’m sure many of you who are parents here had the same reaction I did when I heard this news. My daughters go to the movies. What if Malia and Sasha had been in the theater, as so many of our kids do every day?

You can see his comments in the video above:

Wisconsin Carry would like to take this opportunity to answer Mr. Obama’s question for him.

Mr. Obama wondered what if his daughters had been in that theater. Mr. Obama’s children, like Mr. Obama have 24 hour armed secret service protection. If Mr. Obama’s daughters had been in that theater men with guns would have been there to protect them. Men with guns would have dispatched the threat to life. While we doubt every life would have been saved, we believe the death toll would have been significantly lower.

Wisconsin Carry hopes that while Mr. Obama enjoys the constant protection provided by men with guns, he would consider that the law-abiding citizens of Washington DC have their right to carry concealed to protect themselves and their families denied. As every law-abiding citizen deserves the opportunity to, if they choose, be able to protect our families.

We urge Mr. Obama to advocate for right to carry legislation for the District of Columbia so families there can enjoy the same opportunity to protect themselves that politicians protected by armed security details enjoy.

Nik Clark Chairman – Wisconsin Carry, Inc.
P.O. Box 270403
Milwaukee, WI 53227
nik@wisconsincarry.org

Read more at Ammoland.com: http://www.ammoland.com/2012/07/27/wisconsin-carry-answers-president-obamas-questions/#ixzz21sBMUMom

Video at the link

CCRKBA CREDITS GRASSROOTS FOR U.S. DECISION TO NOT SIGN ARMS TREATY

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today applauds the decision by the United States to not sign the proposed International Arms Trade Treaty, and CCRKBA credits grassroots action for the gun rights victory.

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, who is at the United Nations in New York, said the announcement came Friday morning after a week of intense negotiations.

“I think the grassroots surge by American gun owners against this treaty convinced our government to not sign this document,” Gottlieb said. “The proposed treaty, as written, poses serious problems for our gun rights, and the sovereignty of our Second Amendment.”
CCRKBA has been active in raising public awareness about the proposed treaty, and Gottlieb said he is proud of members and supporters who made “stepped up to the plate” and contacted their U.S. senators.

“This is freedom in action,” Gottlieb stated. “We are gratified that so many did so much to protect their Second Amendment rights from an international gun rights grab.

Source

MILLER: The assault on weapons

Gun grabbers wasted no time exploiting Friday’s shooting in Aurora, Colo., by calling for more restrictive firearm laws. Their liberal agenda is off target because, with U.S. gun ownership at its highest level ever, the public sees crime is way down. This blows a hole in the left’s argument, but it doesn’t stop it.

Despite the House being strongly pro-gun and the Senate marginally so, some Democratic senators want to seize the opportunity to peddle pet legislation. On Tuesday, Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey kicked off an effort to reinstate the expired ban on high-capacity magazines. His bill would prohibit the manufacture and sale of ammunition magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds — modern handguns generally hold between 12 and 17. It’s not clear what exactly Mr. Lautenberg would accomplish, unless the government also recalls the 300 million firearms already owned by Americans.

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg went off the deep end on Monday when he told CNN that police officers across the country should “stand up collectively and say, ‘We’re going to go on strike’” until states pass more gun laws, such as bans on certain kinds of bullets. The billionaire businessman also demanded that presidential candidates soften their stance on gun rights.

More   Here

101 Reasons Why You NEED an “Assault Weapon”

Eatontown, NJ --(Ammoland.com)-  When I was Counsel to the NJ Coalition of Sportsman I wrote this piece for the April, 1991 issue of the THE GUARDIAN which was the group’s newsletter.
It was later published by Harper’s magazine. Here is an updated version as the issue is being pushed again by the blood dancing anti-gunners.
A question we are all tired of hearing in the so-called “debate” over so-called “assault weapons” is, “why does anybody need one?” Here is the answer once and for all.
You need an assault weapon—

• 1. to help continue the American tradition of citizen/soldier.
• 2. for recreation.
• 3. to collect military small arms.
• 4. to get quick extra shots at more game while hunting.
• 5. to get quick extra shots at the same game while hunting.
• 6. for more fun plinking.
• 7. to defend yourself against a street gang.
• 8. to defend yourself against mob violence.
• 9. to defend yourself against looters.
• 10. to shoot in a Civilian Marksmanship Program competition.
• 11. to shoot in an “Action Rifle” or “Practical Rifle” target match.
• 12. to assist the police in an emergency (e.g. 1966 Texas Tower Sniper incident, citizens assisted with M1′s).
• 13. to help defend the country from a foreign invasion.
• 14. to help defend the country from an internal takeover.
• 15. to help the firearms industry remain economically strong.
• 16. to pay the federal tax on guns that goes to aid wildlife.
• 17. to encourage further research into new firearm technology.
• 18. to save time while shooting.
• 19. to have increased reliability in functioning.
• 20. to have a longer lasting firearm.
• 21. to have a less costly/ more affordable firearm.
• 22. to have an easier to manufacture firearm.
• 23. to have an easier to repair firearm.
• 24. to have an easier to take apart and clean firearm.
• 25. to have a more versatile firearm.
• 26. to own a highly weather resistant firearm.
• 27. to appreciate the evolution of firearm technology.
• 28. to defend your business.
• 29. to defend your home.
• 30. to defend your boat.
• 31. to defend your camp.
• 32. to defend your ranch.
• 33. to defend your farm.
• 34. to defend your family.
• 35. to have reduced recoil when shooting.
• 36. as an investment.
• 37. as a military souvenir.
• 38. as a hedge against inflation.
• 39. because criminals statistically prefer revolvers over all other firearms.
• 40. to have a more psychologically intimidating firearm. (often the mere presence of a firearm will stop a crime)
• 41. to own a firearm least likely to be used in a crime. (less than 1% are assault firearms.)
• 42. to own a firearm which purposely functions slower than other firearms thereby reducing recoil. (e.g. Remington 1100.)
• 43. to own a firearm used in Olympic competition.
• 44. to appreciate the mechanical genius of firearm designers.
• 45. to have a firearm which uses external magazines.
• 46. to shoot at the National Matches at Camp Perry.
• 47. to reject anti-gun bias.
• 48. to challenge “Big Brotherism”.
• 49. to protect yourself against a pack of feral dogs.
• 50. to own a firearm better for the physically handicapped.
• 51. to save all firearms by not giving in to “salami” tactics.
• 52. to do trick shooting (e.g. multiple aerial targets).
• 53. to shoot military ammunition. (Inexpensive surplus)
• 54. to be part of an armed populous, creating a tactical disadvantage for any potential enemies.
• 55. to familiarize yourself with your country’s military rifle.
• 56. to familiarize yourself with a foreign country’s military rifle.
• 57. because they are interesting.
• 58. to hang on your wall.
• 59. to shoot clay targets.
• 60. to shoot paper targets.
• 61. to shoot Metallic Silhouettes.
• 62. to exercise your constitutional rights.
• 63. to exercise a natural right.
• 64. to exercise a civil right.
• 65. to exercise a fundamental right.
• 66. to exercise an inalienable right.
• 67. to exercise a human right.
• 68. to defend yourself after a New York City-type blackout.
• 69. to defend yourself against a Miami-type riot.
• 70. to defend yourself after a St. Croix-type hurricane in which both officers and escaped prisoners have run amok.
• 71. to avoid a “Tiananmen Square” in the U.S.
• 72. to own a firearm in common use and therefore protected under the Heller decision.
• 73. to protect livestock from predators.
• 74. to show support for political ideals of the founding fathers.
• 75. to own a firearm designed to wound rather than kill (according to the Dir. Of the Wound Ballistics Laboratory).
• 76. to own a firearm not readily convertible to full automatic.
• 77. to own a firearm with that “shoulder thingy that goes up.”
• 78. to own a “state-of-the-art” firearm (e.g. FN SCAR).
• 79. to own a “turn-of-the-century” firearm (e.g. Borchardt).
• 80. which is more pleasant to shoot (lighter and less recoil).
• 81. because all of your other firearms will be banned next.
• 82. to own a firearm which is difficult to conceal.
• 83. to own a firearm which the media glamorizes.
• 84. to own a firearm which might be banned.
• 85. to own a firearm which is banned.
• 86. to own a firearm that is no frills and practical in design.
• 87. to own on of the most mechanically-safe firearms. (e.g. Uzi).
• 88. to own a firearm that is a “work of art”.
• 89. to own a Valmet M-76 which the BATF says has no sporting use.
• 90. to own a Valmet Hunter which the BATF says has sporting use.
• 91. to own a firearm that made history (e.g. M-1 Carbine).
• 92. to shoot a firearm that made history.
• 93. to own a firearm that can be dropped and still function.
• 94. to own a firearm that can be coated in mud and still function.
• 95. to own a firearm that can be dunked in water and function.
• 96. to own a firearm that can be frozen solid and still function.
• 97. to own a firearm that can be buried in sand and still function.
• 98. to be a prepared member of the unorganized militia as defined in the US Code (10 US Code Sect. 311 (a)).
• 99. to distinguish between an object and its misuse.
• 100.because you believe in freedom.
• 101.if YOU say you need one. In America, an individual’s need should not be determined by the state. There are approximately 100 million firearm owners in the country. That’s 100 million more reasons for owning any firearm.

About:
Evan Nappen (www.EvanNappen.com) is a criminal defense attorney who has focused on New Jersey firearms and weapons law for over 23 years. He is the author of the New Jersey Gun Law Guide. Visit his website at www.EvanNappen.com

Source

Obama gets something right



Via Seadog bytes




The other Aurora shooting

After the Aurora, Colorado shooting of last Friday, there have been a wave of people calling for new gun laws. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President Barack Obama have joined this chorus. Mayor Bloomberg actually encouraged police officers across the country to strike until gun laws were passed to take guns away from every citizen, though he retracted that statement; President Obama has made the far more reasonable call for keeping assault rifles out of the hands of gun owners.

However, the shooting in Aurora, Colorado is not a case against public ownership of guns. In fact, it is a model case for the public to own guns. Mainly because there was not just one shooting in Aurora in the past few months.



On April 22, 2012, convicted felon Kiarron Parker, just released from jail, entered the parking lot of an Aurora, Colorado church and shot and killed one of the members of the congregation before being killed himself by a member carrying concealed. Parker had been convicted for assaulting two police officers, breaking and entering and drug abuse.

However, it is the Aurora shooting no one heard about, because there was a different outcome. The Huffington Post reports:

"Parker sped into the parking lot of New Destiny Center church in Aurora, crashed into a car, then fired at people who came to his aid. The shooting killed Josephine Echols, the mother of a pastor at the church, police said. Echols’ nephew Antonio Milow, an off-duty Denver police officer who was attending a church service, then shot and killed Parker, authorities said.

“Who knows what would’ve happened if the officer had not been there. It certainly could have been a lot worse,” Fania said.

A standard argument would be that this was an off-duty police officer and as such it was perfectly okay for him to have a weapon. What would have happened had officer Milow not been attending the service?

At the end of the day, a potential mass murderer was stopped by someone carrying a concealed weapon. One woman died in the April shooting, a nurse and a mother of one of the pastors at the church.

Further gun control laws will not stop criminals from carrying weapons, only law-abiding citizens. From a viewpoint of self defense, citizens carrying guns lower the crime rate. Switzerland has the highest per capita gun ownership in the world, where every household has an assault rifle; they also have the lowest percentage of gun crimes in the world.

What we need is more people who obtain guns and train with them so that they can effectively use them, such as Officer Milow did, to protect themselves and take out the bad guy should they face a similar circumstance.

Source




Massacres: Some interesting history from 1999

A shootout at a California shooting range ended a bizarre hostage drama during which three gun store employees found themselves staring down the barrel of one of their own rented rifles, police said Tuesday.

Sgt. Anton Morec of the Santa Clara Police Department said the aspiring gunman, 21-year-old Richard Gable Stevens, was subdued after tense moments Monday evening at a shooting range and gun store in this town 30 miles (48 km) south of San Francisco.

"He intended to go out in a blaze of glory," Morec said, noting Stevens had accumulated more than 100 rounds of ammunition for his rented 9mm semi-automatic weapon. "It certainly looks like he intended to take a lot more people out."

Morec said Stevens arrived at the National Shooting Club Monday evening and rented the rifle for target practice. The club allows people to rent a range of weapons for use on its own shooting range.

After several minutes on the range, however, Stevens returned to the club's gun store and shot at the ceiling. He then herded three store employees out the door into an alley, saying he intended to kill them, Morec said.

Unknown to Stevens, one store employee was carrying a .45 caliber handgun concealed beneath his shirt. When Stevens looked away, the employee fired, hitting Stevens several times in the chest and bringing him to the ground.

The employee kept his gun trained on Stevens until police arrived, Morec said. When Stevens refused to comply with police demands that he show his hands, he was shot again with several rounds of rubber bullets.

Morec said Stevens was taken to a hospital where he was listed in critical condition from the initial gun wounds. Criminal charges against him were pending.

Police investigating the case believed the quick action by the gun club employee may have headed off a massacre.

"He was full of rage, and felt he was getting no respect," Morec said. A suicide note found in Stevens' vehicle and addressed to his parents indicated he may have planned to go on a much broader shooting spree, Morec said.

"Now you'll spend the rest of your lives fighting lawsuits from my victims' relatives and die with only dimes perhaps," Morec quoted the note as saying.

Source




VA: Man acquitted of murder: "After a little more than an hour of additional deliberations this morning, a jury in Roanoke Circuit Court found Terry Nicole Preston not guilty of murder in the fatal shooting of Patrick Ryan Dennis. The jury also acquitted Preston of a related firearms charge in the case. Dennis, 19, died late Oct. 21 outside a mobile home in the 4200 block of Palmer Avenue. Testimony in the case showed Dennis had an intimate friendship with Roberts that caused tension with her live-in boyfriend, Lewis “Flip” Rumley. Dennis and Rumley came to blows that night at Dennis’ Plantation Road apartment, and Dennis later drove to the couple’s Palmer Avenue home and fired three rounds from a shotgun in the yard. Once back in his car, Dennis was fatally shot in the head by Preston, Rumley's cousin and a stranger to Dennis. Preston has said he was simply walking up to the house when the shooting started, and both he and another cousin on the scene, Ernest Wray, later said they were hit by pellets from Dennis’ gun."

The Aurora Shootings

The horrendous and calculated killings in Aurora Thursday evening are a great tragedy not just for the victims and their families but for everyone who can clearly see the utter evil of such acts and the helplessness we all feel as a result.

However this massacre might have been far less likely for there are a number of key problems that have gotten virtually no attention in the media and the political demagoguing that has resulted.

1. The patrons of the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises had entered a zone in which there existed no real protection of any kind against acts of violence. The theater chain owned by Cinemark maintains a strict no-gun position, not just for customers but for all employees, including security personnel. Of course, the theater has full right to ban guns for its customers not just for safety purposes but to keep insurance costs to a minimum, but I draw the line when it also includes security personnel, deferring the only security to the local government police.

And while Colorado has a liberal policy of issuing concealed carry permits for adults over 21 years of age, the City of Aurora and twelve other cities in the state (including Colorado Springs, Denver, Littleton, and Boulder) have adopted local ordinances that prohibit concealed carry permits. In addition, most of the theater goers were under-age for such permits. Furthermore, at midnight the rest of the shopping center area was closed and deserted of employees and patrons, so that aid from others was not possible. Nevertheless, film critic Roger Ebert has predictably and ignorantly made wild claims that the incident proves the failure of concealed carry permits and that America’s gun laws as “insane.”

That James Holmes is insane, few may doubt. Our gun laws are also insane, but many refuse to make the connection. The United States is one of few developed nations that accepts the notion of firearms in public hands. In theory, the citizenry needs to defend itself. Not a single person at the Aurora, Colo., theater shot back, but the theory will still be defended.

Ironically enough the scene of the Columbine High School shootings took place just sixteen miles away on April 20, 1999, where the school zone for blocks also had a strict no-gun policy, giving predators open and unchecked access to murder at will. Contrary to Ebert, the evidence is overwhelming that private ownership of guns is not just a major deterrent to crime but enables rapid responses when crimes occur (see here, here, here, and here). Indeed, here is an instructive video:



2. The shootings went on for fifteen minutes with the initial recording at Aurora police at 12:39 am. Fortunately, the theaters are close to the police station which explains the short response time, but the fact remains that the police could only arrive after the fact and no one on the scene was allowed to be armed to stop the assailant. Indeed, most all police response occurs after crimes have been completed and for Cinemark, the decision was to defer such threats solely to the local police, producing the government failure that occurred.

3. While the theater firm bans guns, they encourage customers to come “in costume” as a marketing ploy and even carry “weapons” as characters in the film, including the mass-murdering Bane! And indeed, James Holmes apparently did just that, dressed in full-body armor including helmet and gas mask and carrying a shotgun, rifle, pistol, and gas canisters. The first question then is was no one watching, including all entrances? No, the answer is that the theater believed that people attending “in costume” was just A-Okay and looking like a mass murderer is apparently no reason to check for Cinemark. And why would Warner Brothers have such a hyper-violent film rated PG-13, except to entice unprotected children to see it?

4. Cinemark’s deferring entirely to the government police is also all part of the “Progressive” myth of the Zeitgeist view that holds that the citizenry cannot be trusted or allowed to make their own decisions but instead should be regulated and controlled by secular, government, bureaucratic “elites.” So for Cinemark and the Hollywood culture it works for, being P.C. to have a gun-free zone is a convenient “Progressive” way to be in sync with the entertainment industries’ support for gun control.

5. Finally, the “chic” entertainment culture of gratuitous death, sadism, depravity and torture, a/k/a Quentin Tarantino films, slasher films, gangster films, and vampire films, etc., reflects the post-modern, moral relativist norms in American elite, popular, and youth cultures. Ironically enough, the Obama re-election campaign tried initially to use the film to link the character Bane to Romney and Bain Capital with Obama and Biden the alleged Batman and Robin, but this has completely backfired as the director Christopher Nolan attacked the idea.

In addition and despite the violence, the film’s themes are clearly anti-”Progressive” ones of a courageous, private and wealthy citizen (Bruce Wayne) standing up to the incoherent and immoral, “Progressive,” collectivist and statist forces of moral depravity and violence. In this regard, the Zeitgest support now for gun control in response to the Aurora shootings incoherently translates to mean that all innocent and peaceful citizens should be subject to the threat of lethal force by the State if they do not comply with gun control edicts, exactly what the views of the Bane and Joker characters in the films advocate.

In other words, for Roger Ebert, Michael Bloomberg, Dianne Feinstein, Piers Morgan, Frank Lautenberg and other “Progressives” (i.e., authoritarians) the solution to a lone nut using lethal force against the innocent is to disarm them and subject everyone to a universal threat of lethal force so long as it is done “scientifically” and “fairly” by their revered, secular State.

Source




PA: Off-duty officer kills burglar in his home:  "The officer, his wife and their four children were asleep about 3:50 a.m. when the burglars apparently broke in through a ground floor window of the home. ... Awakened by the noise, the officer confronted an intruder in a bedroom and opened fire, striking the burglar multiple times, police said."


CT: Homeowner shoots naked intruder:  "A naked intruder shot by a homeowner who said he was protecting himself after a struggle with the man was apprehended by police after he waded into the water behind the man's house on Point Lookout, police said. ... According to Mello, at about 10 p.m. Mirto, who was alone in the large house, heard a noise and went to investigate. He was confronted in his living room by Prue, who was naked.The two men struggled on the back porch, Mello said. During the struggle he said Prue bit Mirto several times on the arms and hit him on the side of the head"

Gun Sales Jump After Colorado Movie Massacre

(Denver, Colorado) Here's some unsurprising data.

Firearms sales are surging in the wake of the Colorado movie massacre as buyers express fears about both personal safety and lawmakers who are using the shooting to seek new weapons restrictions.

In Colorado, the site of Friday's shooting that killed 12 and injured dozens of others, gun sales jumped in the three days that followed. The state approved background checks for 2,887 people who wanted to purchase a firearm _ 25 percent more than the average Friday to Sunday period in 2012 and 43 percent more than the same interval the week prior.

Other locations reporting double-digit percentage sales increases include Florida, Oregon, California, Georgia and Washington's King County.

Navy SEAL: Lessons Learned From Aurora Colorado

As I continue to read about the terrible tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, I can’t help but think there’s some lessons from my time as a Navy SEAL that I can pass on to the average citizen. I want to make sure that the victims of the Aurora do not suffer or die in vain. As a country, we need to learn from this tragedy, raise awareness, and save lives in the future. So here goes…
Don’t Make Yourself an Easy Target

When at sporting events, concerts, and the movies, choose seats that give you a tactical advantage always.  What do I mean? Choose seats that allow good and east vantage points and a hasty exit point.  Always stack the odds in your favor. It’s the reason I still combat park (back in to a space) and sit with my back to the wall when I’m eating.

Active Shooter Scenario Advice

Take cover and not concealment.  Concealment hides, cover hides AND protects.  It’s the difference between hiding behind a movie seat or a concrete wall.

Don’t lie there with your eyes closed and get shot. Think and move.  In these situations you have to take charge and get in the mindset of self-rescue. You cannot wait for first-responders – it takes too long. A good decision executed quickly is better than a great one never executed. Violence of action, as we call it in the Spec Ops community, will often change the odds in your favor.

For close quarter combat drills we’d draw a gun with someone over 20 feet away running at us.  In most cases you can be on someone before they can draw and take a shot.  I’m not advocating running straight at someone but if you have the tactical advantage (jam, re-loading, distraction or the shooter isn’t paying attention) then take the shooter down or get the hell out of there. 

Remember that a moving target is extremely hard to hit, even for the well-trained shooter. Deal with the situation with your eyes wide open.

In Aurora, the shooter was severely weighted down with armor and his helmet would have also limited his vision. You can use all this to your advantage.

Flashlight anyone? I have one for daily carry and take it everywhere with me.  It’s become another extension of me and has defused at least two potentially violent confrontations in a non-lethal way. I recommend the Surefire P2X Fury Dual Output LED.
How to use it in this situation?

I would have pulled my high lumens pocket flashlight and blinded this guy. The high powered beam would have taken away his vision for 3-4 seconds, which is an eternity and enough time to flight or fight. There’s also no shame in surviving and getting you and your loved ones out of harm – especially little ones.

Be a Hero to your kids and family for surviving, nobody can expect more of you than that. Like we say in Survival Escape Evasion Resistance (SERE) school, “Survive with Honor.

More here




SC: 89-year-old woman scares away burglars with pistol:  "When burglars invaded the home of Ruby Hodge, 89, they got a lot more than they bargained for.  Hodge was in her bedroom just after 8 a.m. Monday morning, when she heard a knock at her back door.   Before she could get to the door, the burglars had forced their way inside.  The great-grandmother came face to face with two men dressed in black down her hallway.  "I reached and I got my pistol and I met them right outside of my bedroom. Right inside of my bedroom door two black men passed and they were two medium black men and they were dressed in black and when they saw me standing in there with my pistol , they left and run."   Hodge says this is the second time in a few months, she's had a break-in at her home. She's a little nervous, but not afraid to use her gun, if necessary. She has it close-by at all times.  "I sleep with my pistol," said Hodge.  Marlboro County deputies arrested Nelson Hawkins, 42, and Ronnie Stevenson, 31, later Monday afternoon. They are both charged with Burglary in the First Degree and Damage to Property"


MO: Self-defense asserted in Sunday slaying in KC:  "The man who allegedly shot and killed James R. Jackson on Sunday said he fired in self-defense, according to Kansas City police.  Police found a gun near the body of Jackson, 55, when the found his body in the street about 9:15 p.m. Sunday near 39th Street and Oakley Avenue.   A 23-year-old man said Jackson had confronted him prior to the shooting. Police arrested the man but later released him, pending further investigation.  Police plan to send their investigative file to prosecutors, who will decide whether to file charges."


OH: Father not guilty of killing son’s girlfriend:  "A Licking County man and his lawyers contended he was acting in self-defense when he exchanged gunshots with his son as their cars rolled along a rural road in southern Knox County last year.   Yesterday, a jury pronounced itself satisfied that Michael T. Collins had proved his self-defense claim, finding him not guilty in the shooting death of Lilly Dawn Pressley-Claggett, the girlfriend of Collins’ son.  The jurors did, however, convict Collins, 55, of Fallsburg, of tampering with evidence and illegal possession of a firearm after about eight hours of deliberations over two days.  Collins’ lawyers argued that he acted in self-defense when he fired shots in response to gunshots fired from a car driven by Pressley-Claggett and carrying his son, Jesse B. Collins, 31, on Rt. 586 on July 1, 2011.  Authorities charged that the men got into a fight that grew into a chase and shootout as the elder Collins pursued his son along Rt. 586. The younger Collins suffered gunshot wounds and later recovered."

U.N Arms Trade Treaty Potential Assault on 2nd Amendment

Defenders of Americans’ constitutional right to “keep and bear” arms have been rightly alarmed by treaty negotiations underway in Turtle Bay. Thankfully, the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is finally getting the congressional attention it deserves.

How bad is it? Here’s one clue: Iran was selected to provide one of the 14 vice presidents for the ATT conference. That’s right: a treaty that’s supposed to be about stopping terrorism and preventing human rights abuses, and the U.N. decides to give the ceremonial spotlight to Iran, a nation that supplies arms to Hamas, Hezbollah, and the murderous Syrian government.

John Lott wrote for Fox News that we know a lot about the Treaty just by virtue of the nations negotiating its details. Many of the countries included in the negotiations ban handguns and do not recognize the inherent right of personal self-defense. And, as Lott notes, “The Obama administration is undoubtedly the most hostile administration to gun ownership in U.S. history, with Obama having personally supported of handguns and semi-automatic weapons before becoming president.” All of this should raise red flags for constitutional conservatives.

Lott worries the ATT will give U.S. anti-gun activists leverage to regulate private ownership of guns. According to Lott, “The most likely regulations to be pushed by the UN treaty are those that have been the favorites of American gun control advocates for years -- registration and licensing, micro-stamping ammunition, and restrictions on the private transfers of guns.” Given their political failures, the best way for anti-gun activists to implement these sneaky schemes is through an ATT that contains language requiring the U.S. government to promote their favorite policies.

Pro-gun groups are already fighting back. Wayne LaPierre of the NRA addressed the ATT conference earlier this month and said, “No foreign influence has jurisdiction over the freedoms our Founding Fathers guaranteed to us.” John Velleco of Gun Owners of America tells Townhall that “we have seen bad gun control ideas in the past, but we have never seen anything as insidious as the Arms Trade Treaty.”

Thankfully, two members of Congress, Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Penn.) and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), are standing their ground and leading their colleagues against this bad idea.

Rep. Kelly is fighting any attempt to put limits on the Second Amendment. Though only a freshman Congressman, Kelly understands that international pacts can affect his constituents at home. In early July, he released a carefully-drafted letter to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, co-signed by 130 members of the House, expressing a broad range of concerns with the potential impact of an ATT.

“The U.N.’s actions to date indicate that the ATT is likely to pose significant threats to our national security, foreign policy, and economic interests as well as our constitutional rights,” Kelly wrote. He urged the Administration to “establish firm red lines” for its negotiating team. One of those lines: Reject “an ATT that infringes on our constitutional rights, particularly the fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms.” The letter also noted that the Treaty could produce significant job loss across the U.S., damage our defense industrial base, and make it harder for us to arm our allies.

Sen. Moran introduced S. 2205, the Second Amendment Sovereignty Act, in May. By blocking funding, this bill would prevent the Administration from negotiating any Arms Trade Treaty that violated the Second Amendment. Moran argued on the Senate floor that a treaty allowing international bodies to regulate civilian firearms could wind up letting those institutions “restrict the lawful private ownership of firearms in our country.” The Senate is unlikely to ratify any treaty that does this, but Moran was smart to introduce legislation to forbid the Administration from negotiating an ATT that explicitly targets the Second Amendment.

Rep. Kelly and Sen. Moran have shown good conservative leadership. Let’s hope their work, and the expression of concerns from Congress and Second Amendment defenders, limit the risks of this unwise and secretly-drafted treaty.

Source





George Will and Jennifer Rubin Demolish Time's Joe Klein on Gun Control Laws

Time's Joe Klein on Sunday found out what it's like to actually have to debate conservatives rather than the liberal media members he normally appears with on political talk shows.

When he uttered the typical left-wing line on ABC's This Week about the need for more gun control in the wake of Friday's movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colorado, Klein got a much-needed education from George Will and the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin

GEORGE WILL: The killer in Aurora, Colorado, was very intelligent and farsighted and meticulous. I defy you to write a gun control law that would prevent someone like this with a long time horizon and great planning capability from getting the arms he wants. I just think this is a mistake.

A moment ago Joe made a statement, he gave us a theory, it's an empirical theory for which there is or is not evidence, which is that the globalization and coarsening of entertainment will cause or is causing -- I don't know what your point was -- things like this to happen more and more. These are testable hypothesis. Let's test them.

JOE KLEIN, TIME: I think it's undoubtedly true that we're seeing more frequent incidents like this in this country. It's all part of a zeitgeist. I mean, you know, we're on a national sugar rush in this country. The internet is part of it. You know the entertainment industry is part of it. The irresponsibility about gun laws is part of it. I mean, it's all together.

JENNIFER RUBIN, WASHINGTON POST: Listen, we can make all of the declarative statements we want. There is no shortage of empirical data in criminology. In fact, it's one of the most researched areas of social science. When we had the gun law, the assault ban weapon, there wasn't a decrease, when we let it expire, there wasn't an increase.

We have had a gradual decline over the last 40 years in gun violence and all kinds of violence, in part, because of better policing, in part, because incarceration. So I think some of these statements that there are -- we're having more of these incidents, they simply are not true.

More here (See the original for video)




AZ: Man arrested in deadly Phoenix shooting:  "A 48-year-old Phoenix man was arrested after police said he shot a homeless man who walked into his front yard late Friday night.  Donald Jackson Taylor was arrested and charged with one count of misconduct involving weapons after the incident.  Police said a 57-year-old transient man with a history of threatening people in the area walked into Taylor's front yard and began shouting at him at about 11:30 p.m. Friday.  Taylor told the man to leave and warned him not to come any closer, according to police. The man continued to walk toward Taylor, who reportedly fired one round from a shotgun, striking the man.  Police said Jackson was prohibited from owning firearms because of a previous conviction about three decades earlier in another state. He was booked into Maricopa County Jail.  The case has been turned over to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for review."


OH:  Disabled man shoots robber:  "John Mutter was asleep on a couch inside his 474 Sunset Drive home when the paraplegic awoke to a masked man pointing a shotgun at Mutter’s head at 2:15 a.m. Sunday, Johnstown Police Chief Don Corbin said.  The intruder, later identified as Brian Dyer, 27, of Johnstown, had stolen the shotgun from a bedroom in Mutter’s home after entering through an unlocked door, Corbin said. Dyer said he had taken medication and wanted to know where more guns were located, Corbin said. Mutter told him while pushing the shotgun aside, then shot Dyer with a handgun Mutter kept nearby, Corbin said. “Somebody broke in my house. They had a gun to me, and I shot at them,” Mutter told the 911 dispatcher.   Dyer attempted to leave but collapsed in another room, Corbin said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Corbin does not intend to charge the homeowner but will present the case to the Licking County Prosecutor’s Office once the investigation is complete."

The way we were






MI: An attempted home invasion ends with a deadly shooting:  The man who pulled the trigger is 73 years old. He was armed and ready after being targeted last week.  Detroit police tell us a man who was likely in his mid 30's is dead because he broke into a home on the city's west side. The homeowner says two men tried to break into his home on Sunday.  On Thursday, he heard a noise coming from downstairs. He knew something was not right, so he grabbed his gun to see what was going on and he encountered a stranger he believed was one of the men who tried to rob him before.  Police tell us the bad guy had kicked in the front door and walked in but the man of the house was right there and opened fire. One shot to the chest.  The suspect ran out of the house and collapsed in the driveway of the home next door, where he died."


NM: Shooting following intrusion:  "The Taos County Sheriff's Office has clarified the circumstances surrounding a shooting that occurred early Saturday morning (July 14).  Undersheriff Ed Romero told The Taos News early Tuesday morning that no charges have yet been filed in the shooting, as the 19-year-old intruder — Robert Carpenter — is now recovering in St. Vincent Hospital's Intensive Care Unit in Santa Fe.  Romero said that Carpenter knocked on the door an unidentified homeowner on Los Alamitos Road, getting the man in a headlock and robbing him of $150 cash and a jar of medical marijuana at gunpoint.  Romero said that the homeowner was calling authorities about the intrusion when he heard Carpenter returning to the house.  "The intruder, though a doggie door, displayed a weapon," Romero said. "At that point, the owner discharged a high-powered rifle through the steel door, striking the intruder six times in the lower extremities."

FL:  Homeowner justified when shooting intruder:  "Prosecutors say a man was legally justified when he fatally shot a 40-year-old man who barged into his Winter Haven home.  The Polk County State Attorney's Office on Tuesday announced that William Cornwell won't face charges in the May 27 death of Christopher Deese. It's the second time prosecutors have found Cornwell justified in using deadly force.  The Ledger of Lakeland reports Cornwell shot someone who was breaking into his home in 2009. That person survived and was later sent to prison.  Authorities say Deese was intoxicated and likely trying to find his girlfriend's house when he started beating and kicking Cornwell's door about 4 a.m. Cornwell grabbed his gun and confronted Deese at the door while his wife called 911. He fired when Deese charged at him."  


TX: Alleged burglar shot in left leg:  "A Wichita Falls man with a history of criminal activity was shot in the left leg when a surprised homeowner found him in a room Tuesday afternoon.  Wichita Falls police were en route to a burglary of a habitation call at 4:27 p.m. when dispatchers told officers shots were fired. According to Public Information Officer Joe Snyder, the homeowner shot at the suspect when he found him in the master bedroom of his home.  Nieves Molina Jr., 29, was arrested and charged with one count of burglary of a habitation and one count of criminal trespassing following the incident.  According to police reports, the homeowner heard noise in the master bedroom of his home. When he went to investigate, he found the suspect holding a pry bar in one hand. The homeowner fired one shot at him."


MI:  66-year-old woman  shoots intruder:  "Facing a menacing intruder in her home on Wednesday night, 66-year-old Rosa Myles said she was "nothing but a trembling leaf."  With a gun in her hand.  Fearing for her life, she shot the intruder once in the chest.  "He said 'don't shoot me again," Myles said.  She fired again anyway, this time striking him in the left arm.  Two gun shot wounds, however, were enough to send the man running from the home -- only to be caught by police within minutes at a nearby home.  On Friday, Dominique M. Carter, 19, was arraigned on first degree home invasion and assault with intent to rob while armed charges. He had a large cast on his arm and hospital gown over his body, looking very much like he messed with the wrong woman.   Friday, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said Myles will not face any charges in the shooting."

Aurora, Colorado, Already Had Gun Ban

Leftists are trying to spin this as a black eye for gun advocates but it is in fact a black eye for the gun ban advocates.  If someone in the audience had been armed, he might have been able to cut the shooting spree short

Around 12:30 am, a masked gunman opened fire on one of the 3,700 midnight showings of The Dark Knight Rises, leaving 12 dead, 50 injured, and one in custody.

Liberals everywhere are wasting no time to use this massacre in an effort to push gun control and gut the Second Amendment. Mayor Bloomberg asks the Obama administration for stricter gun laws following Colorado shooting. Comedian DL Hughley tweeted, "Aurora is 13yrs and 13 miles from Columbine! Since the 60s over 500,000 ppl have bn killed by guns in the US we have no right 2 b shocked!"

How will stricter gun laws bring an end to criminals having guns, when the laws against murder have not been able to stop them from killing innocent people?

Currently in Aurora, Colorado, where the shooting took place, it is considered unlawful to carry a concealed "dangerousweapon," discharge firearms, unless by law enforcement on duty or on shooting range, and have loaded firearm in motor vehicle. Yet these laws were unable to stop James Holmes.

Crime rates alone of cities such as Chicago and Washington D.C. prove that gun bans only increase crime. The D.C. police response rate is eight minutes; most crimes are done in less than one. Gun bans create a trouble-free world for criminals considering no one can defend themselves.

If I were ever to face a situation like this, I would want to be prepared. I cannot help but think, if one person in that audience was carrying a gun with them, they could have saved lives.

Unfortunately-despite what some of the Left have said this morning-this tragedy is an example of the significance of our Second Amendment Rights.

As I look into the history of mass shootings, one detail stands out: most of the gunmen are between the ages of 17 and 24. In the Columbine High School massacre of 1999, students Eric Harris, 18 and Dylan Klebold, 17, opened fire at their school. In 2007, the worst mass shooting in our nation's history took place on the campus of Virginia Tech by 23-year-old Seung-Hui Cho. Currently, police have 24-year-old James Holmes in custody for the mass shooting that took place in theater 9.

Why do these young people feel the need to take innocent lives? That question I do not know, but as a young individual I have a Constitutional right to protect myself. I should not be scared to go to the movies, walk around campus, and attend class.

Some people seem to think guns are to blame for these murders. Not only did Holmes gas his victims but his apartment is completely rigged with explosives. Now tell me, did his guns set up explosives and throw tear gas at his victims too or did he?

Mass shootings can be stopped. People need to arm themselves with the facts (and with weapons). If one law abiding person in the theater would have been carrying a gun on them, they could have saved lives.

Source

Perspective on the Colorado shooting



The worst shootings have been in places with extensive gun restrictions

Without being flippant, the Colorado guy got "only" 12

OH: Pizza Delivery Driver Fires Shots At 2 Would-Be Armed Robbers:  "Police said Tuesday that a pizza delivery driver shot at two people who attempted to rob him.  According to police, the Padova’s Pizza delivery driver was delivering a pizza when two men armed with shotguns approached him, in the 5000 block of Hatfield Dr., at about 11:45 p.m. Monday.  The driver, who was licensed to carry a gun, told the men to stay away from him. When the men continued to approach the driver, he shot at them. One of the alleged would-be robbers was found a short distance away, on Rutledge Drive, with wounds to his face, chest and thigh.  “He immediately pulled out his gun, fired five to six rounds, definitely hit one that we know of,” said Madison Township police Det. James Galvin.  The man who was struck by bullets, identified as 20-year-old Cortez Bradley, was transported to Grant Medical Center. Investigators said that the second suspected robber, Bradley’s 16-year-old cousin, fled the scene and sent a text messages to family members, indicating that he was shot twice." [Sounds like the pizza guy was a good shot]


OR: City's Gun-Crime Exclusions, So Far, Mostly Affect Black Portlanders:  "Nearly two years after Mayor Sam Adams first announced plans for a package of local gun ordinances meant to ease gang shootings—including a controversial plan to exclude gun criminals from shooting hotspots—an oversight committee has released a report that, at first blush, appears to confirm some of the worst fears raised by civil liberties advocates.  So far, of 42 people convicted or charged with a gun crime, and then given an exclusion, 36 are African-American. In other words, 75 percent of everyone told they can't come back to one of the three zones, in downtown, along Interstate 5 in North Portland, and outer Southeast near Gresham, is black. Portland's black population is just about 6 percent." [Big surprise!]



This is undated so may be an urban legend


SAAMI Testifies at U.N. Arms Trade Treaty Negotiations:  "The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute (SAAMI), as a recognized non-government organization (NGO) of the United Nations, testified at the Arms Trade Treaty negotiations this week, saying “that hundreds of millions of citizens regularly use firearms for the greater good” and that a “treaty that does not support the positive use of firearms is doomed to cause more harm than good.”  Richard Patterson, managing director, addressed the delegates at United Nations headquarters in New York City. SAAMI was established in 1926 at the request of the U.S. government to create safety and reliability standards in the design, manufacture, transportation, storage and use of firearms, ammunition and components.  With its myopic focus on criminal and terrorist misuse of firearms, the treaty lacks a comprehensive view of firearms trade and use. Patterson pointed out the benefits and popularity of target shooting and hunting, and the universality of firearm use for protection."

Reward offered for White House Fast & Furious info

One of the nation's oldest conservatives group is offering whistleblowers a $100,000 reward for information from the White House and Justice Department on the "Fast & Furious" administration gun-running bungle.

The Conservative Caucus told Secrets that it believes that the scandal which led to the death of a U.S. Border Control agent is a potential Watergate.

Their reward poster reads: "If you have verifiable evidence that President Obama or one of his aides knew about Operation Fast & Furious while it was underway, Call 1-888-692-7374 toll free. This is your opportunity to save yourself before Operation Fast & Furious comes crashing down like Watergate. Don't go to jail. Turn states evidence now just like John Dean did. The truth will come out. Will you be caught in the web of Operation Fast & Furious, or will you avoid jail time?"

Peter Thomas, who heads the grass roots conservative group formed by Howard Phillips in 1974, said "We felt forced to run this advertisement and offer the $100,000 reward because justice was not being served, and we wanted to offer an opportunity to anyone who knows the truth to save yourself before Operation Fast & Furious comes crashing down like Watergate; to make the right choice now."

Congress recently held Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, claiming that he was stonewalling Republican demands for more information about the affair, which has become politically explosive in border states.

The group is running the ad in Wednesday's Washington Times.

More here




MI:  Man fires gun at armed car thief:  "A Hazel Park man fired a gunshot at a would-be car thief, police say, after the fleeing man raised him arm as though he were going to fire a gun.  “The suspect was jumping over a privacy fence when the resident saw the suspect’s arm come up,” said Hazel Park Police Lt. Brain Buchholz. “The resident thought the other man was pointing a gun at him and then fired his own gun.”  The resident told police he heard the man hit the ground on the other side of the fence in the 300 block of East Evelyn before he went home and police were called about 5:30 a.m. Friday.  Police said no one was hit by the gunfire, but officers found a revolver near the fence they believe the would-be car thief was carrying. Police later learned the revolver was stolen in Indiana more than 30 years ago.  “It’s possible the suspect was trying to fire the gun but it wouldn’t fire because it is so old,” Buchholz said."


NYC: Car thieves make BIG mistake when they break into FBI agent's car... and he comes out shooting:  "Three hapless car thieves picked the wrong target when they broke into an FBI agent's shiny red Lexus -- and he came out shooting.  The off-duty agent in New York City shot one of the thieves in the back as he fled on Wednesday morning.  Officers found one of the men when he showed up at a hospital emergency room with a bullet wound in his back.  The agent, who was not named, was home in Queens when the thugs went after his car about 5.15am, police say.  He walked outside and confronted them and opened fire as they fled, shooting multiple times.  A team from FBI headquarters in Langley, Virginia, is traveling to New York to conduct an investigation into the shooting.  The agent has been taken off active street duty until the investigation is complete."


MD: Rudy Dean Free on Bond After Six Months in Jail:  "An Elkton man who has languished in jail for six months is finally free Thursday night. Forty-six-year-old Rudolph Dean was arrested in January, shortly after a series of events along Eastside Highway led to the shooting of Robert Crawford.  Supporters of 46-year-old Rudolph Dean Jr. have been working to get him free on bond, and convince prosecutors to drop a pair of shooting charges against him.  They got part of their wish Thursday.  Those charges are malicious wounding and using a firearm.  He's accused of shooting Robert Crawford in January, during a road rage incident near Grottoes.  Prosecutors argue that Dean followed Crawford to his house, and shot him in his own driveway.  Friends say there's no way Dean was the aggressor.