NORTHERN IRELAND SHOWS THE WAY FOR BRITAIN

That's where Protestants and Catholics are always shooting one-another, Right? Maybe. But note this:

"A United Nations report has labelled Scotland the most violent country in the developed world, with people three times more likely to be assaulted than in America. England and Wales recorded the second highest number of violent assaults while Northern Ireland recorded the fewest. The study, based on telephone interviews with victims of crime in 21 countries, found that more than 2,000 Scots were attacked every week, almost ten times the official police figures. They include non-sexual crimes of violence and serious assaults. Violent crime has doubled in Scotland over the past 20 years and levels, per head of population, are now comparable with cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and Tbilisi".

Source

So what's going on? We know that Scotland lives under very draconian gun bans. What about Northern Ireland? Why is its crime-rate so LOW despite the religious tensions? Answer: Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that is generally armed, or at least where you cannot assume that any given person is not armed. So it's that good old deterrent effect at work again. As in the USA, the more guns, the less crime.





Wichita, Kan. Teen kills mother: A Salina woman who died after a car crash had been shot in the heart minutes earlier with a pellet gun that her 14-year-old son had gotten as a Christmas gift from his grandfather, police said Wednesday. Police said the teen was protecting the grandfather when he fired the air rifle Tuesday afternoon at his mother, Elizabeth White, who had a history of drug problems and run-ins with the law. The death has been ruled a justifiable homicide, Capt. Randy Landen of the Wichita Police Department said during a news conference.... White, 40, had spent the weekend in Wichita after she was invited to spend Christmas at the house where her 73-year-old father and her 68-year-old mother were raising her children. Police said the altercation happened after White returned to the home Tuesday. Armed with scissors, White threatened to kill her father, who had only a cane to defend himself. His wife grabbed a kitchen knife. When the argument moved into the front yard, Landen said the teen's grandfather tripped over a planter. As his mother - still armed with scissors - moved toward her fallen dad, police said the teenager stepped onto the front porch and aimed. He fired only one shot from about 20 feet away, striking his mother in the heart.... State correctional and court records show that White has spent more time in prison than out over the past 16 years. White, who got out of prison for the last time a little more than a year ago, has convictions for drug offenses, prostitution, writing bad checks and making threats".

Pennsylvania wackiness: House of Reps guards armed but not Senate guards! "Uniformed officers who patrol the offices of the state House of Representatives will be armed with handguns in a move that House officials say has to do with terrorism prevention, not public outrage over the now-repealed pay raise. Acting on a request by the security officers, House legislative leaders decided in November to allow them to carry .357-caliber handguns, The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reported Wednesday. The 25 guards will begin carrying the weapons next month.... The security officers primarily monitor access to the House chamber and offices and provide security if requested by House members. In case of a problem, they are told to contact Capitol Police, an armed security force that monitors the entrances and grounds of state office buildings and whose officers are certified to file criminal charges in courts. The state Senate's security officers will remain unarmed".


Yugoslav guns coming: "Montenegro-Serbia's only arms factory, Zastava, will produce 24,000 weapons for U.S.-based Remington Arms Company, Inc., next year, the factory manager said Monday. Dragoljub Grujovic said that the production is part of a US$3.2 million (�2.7 million) deal with America's oldest gunmaker. The first shipment of 3,000 carbine rifles and small-caliber guns is ready to go in January, Grujovic said. Another is planned for February and six more for later in 2006. Cooperation between U.S. and Serbian companies became possible after the 2000 ouster of former President Slobodan Milosevic by a pro-Western coalition. The agreement between Remington and Zastava will help revive the Serbian factory, which had suffered huge losses during years of U.S. and other international sanctions imposed on Serbia as a punishment for Milosevic's warmongering policies".

Another success for gun control: "TORONTO � A city that prides itself as one of the safest in North America is bewildered by a surge in violence that has produced a record number of shooting deaths this year, the latest a 15-year-old girl on a street filled with holiday shoppers. Canada's prime minister and Toronto's mayor blame weapons smuggled in illegally from the United States, but others point to a growing gang problem. Whatever the cause, Canadians recoiled Tuesday after a gunbattle the previous day in Toronto left the teenage bystander lying dead and six other people wounded in a street near a popular shopping mall. It was the 52nd death inflicted by a firearm this year in Canada's biggest city, which is nearly twice as many as last year and raised the overall homicide toll to 78 � not far below the record 88 homicides of 1991. In 1995, there were only 12 shootings out of a total of 60 homicides".



Alabama: Man kills brother in DeKalb shooting : "A DeKalb County man was killed and his brother and sister-in-law were hurt in a gun battle Friday morning in Collinsville, a Sheriff's Department spokeswoman said. Gary Kenneth Craig, 57, died after being shot once or twice during a gunfight with his brother, James Earl Craig, 62, said investigator Rhonda Jackson. The brothers were neighbors in Collinsville. .... Jackson said an alcohol-related dispute led to James Craig removing his brother from his home. Gary Craig then got a rifle from his pickup truck and fired through his brother's front door, striking his brother and sister-in-law. James Craig returned fire, killing his brother, Jackson said."

South Africa: Firearm saved us from hijackers : "I recently took delivery of a new BMW X5 and soon afterwards the hyenas tried to take it away from me on the road leading to my house .... The hyenas pulled up behind my car and the driver proceeded to fire at me where I had taken cover behind my car. The driver pointed his semi-automatic over the roof of his car in my direction. He fired nine shots and I returned fire with shots through the windscreen, but he managed to reverse. .... After phoning, two cars from the security companies arrived within minutes. Two hours later three members of the police arrived. They asked me in a disinterested manner to explain what had happened, meanwhile trampling the crime scene forensic evidence into the ground that the security guys had carefully circled and flagged."



Australia: Murder trial for woman who shot violent robber : "The security guard Karen Brown will stand trial for murdering a man who bashed and robbed her outside the Moorebank Hotel in July last year. A magistrate ruled on Friday that although it could be said she had a strong defence for killing William Aquilina, there was a reasonable prospect that a jury would reject her defence and convict her of murder."

Canada: Liberal gun ban fuels buying binge: "Paul Martin's plan to ban handguns may have backfired. As soon as the Liberals unveiled their promise to ban the weapons earlier this month, Vancouver gun shop owners saw a jump in handgun sales. 'Some customer came in that day and said Paul Martin told him to buy a handgun,' Lever Arms owner Kin Chung told 24 hours yesterday. 'It was meant as a joke but ... the day after he announced it, handgun sales tripled. Normally we sell about two a day. That day we sold eight.' And while he says sales have levelled off since, the store is still selling above average numbers of handguns daily."


South Africa: Gun owners welcome respite: "Firearm owners' associations and opposition parties have welcomed the extension granted for relicensing legal firearms, but have warned that the three months merely delays the crisis created by the new Firearms Control Act. Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula announced last Thursday that the December 31 deadline for renewals for gun owners whose birthdays fall between January and March would be extended to March next year. Crucially, he also announced that all licences would be valid until June 30 2009. This means there will be no prospect of legal action against gun owners who do not reapply until that date. There were mounting fears, based on threats by some police officers, that people who did not meet the December 31 deadline would face prosecution in the new year."

Indiana: Shooting spotlights self-defense law : "Laws allowing people to use deadly force to stop someone from unlawfully entering their dwellings are being highlighted by this week's fatal shooting of a burglary suspect by an off-duty state police trooper. Police said Trooper Joel D. Wilson, 39, was alone inside his east-side Indianapolis home Monday when he fired two shots through the front door, striking Theodore E. Hixenbaugh at least once. Wilson told authorities that Hixenbaugh had first knocked on the door and, when Wilson didn't answer, Hixenbaugh tried to kick the door down. ... Information on whether Hixenbaugh was armed wasn't available. Indiana University law professor Henry Karlson said state law says citizens can use deadly force to stop even an unarmed person's unlawful entry into their dwellings. 'If there are people in the residence, (burglars) are putting them at risk, and that's why Indiana law allows a reasonable person to use deadly force to prevent that,' Karlson said. Karlson said the law allows people to defend themselves from burglars without first exposing themselves."


Britain's gun control folly: "A former Texas police officer is causing a stir in jolly Old England. After leaving his job in Garland, Texas, and moving with his British wife and their three children to Reading, Ben Johnson took a job as a British bobby -- and had the audacity to suggest that he might want to carry a gun while on the job. 'We should value the lives of police officers enough to properly equip them and train them to do their job,' Garland told the Washington Post, 'even if that means getting rid of some old-fashioned notions.' The 'old-fashioned' notion Johnson is talking about is the very intense -- and irrational -- belief held by virtually all British people that guns are bad -- period."

California: Would-be robber shot and killed: "Police say a man who was shot fatally in Paramount Monday evening was a would-be robber. The would-be robber entered a mini-mart on the 7000 block of Somerset Boulevard around 5:30 last night armed with a handgun and confronted the employee behind the cash register, said Los Angles County sheriff's Sgt. Don Manumaleuna. After demanding money, the man slowly backed away toward the door when another employee came from the back of the store, Manumaleuna said. As the man turned to look at the other employee, the one behind the register grabbed a gun and shot the intruder, who stumbled out into the parking lot before collapsing, Manumaleuna said."


Colorado: A case of life or self-defense: "When Gary Lee Hill stood on the porch with a loaded rifle, he was afraid the people outside his home would attack him again, the jury in his murder trial was told. That left them no choice, the jury foreman said in an e-mail defending last week's harshly criticized verdict .... 'The fact that the group was not leaving and continued to engage Mr. Hill,' the foreman wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette, 'led us to determine that it was reasonable for Mr. Hill to believe that the group of assailants might use physical force against him.' Hill, 24, was found not guilty in a Colorado Springs courtroom Dec. 14 of first-degree murder in the shooting death of John David Knott, 19. Knott was shot in the back while sitting in a car outside Hill's home. "

UK: Support grows for British farmer : "Support was mounting yesterday for a Norfolk farmer who fired a shotgun at burglars on his land. Michael Human was questioned by police over the incident on Friday but released without charge. The 58-year-old had let off a single cartridge at two hooded intruders who had been breaking into one of his outbuildings. North-West Norfolk MP Henry Bellingham said Mr Human was 'quite entitled' to use the gun and backed calls to give greater power to homeowners. 'It is a fact of life that many burglars do come out armed and high on drugs and could be very, very dangerous indeed,' he said. 'If he hadn't taken a gun and had been killed, every-one would have said he was mad not to have it with him. I think Mr Human was quite entitled to do what he did and I am pleased he hasn't been charged by the police and hope he won't be.'"


Mississippi: Teen shot in home invasion: "A Jackson teen has been hospitalized after being shot during an apparent break-in attempt at a neighbor's house. The teen was with three other juveniles at the time, and was shot by the homeowner. ... During any other week, they'd probably be inside a classroom, but because there's no school, and they got into some trouble, two teens stand handcuffed, outside a crime scene. Precint [sic] Three Commander Ron Sampson says, 'About 10:45 we received a call of a house burglary in progress. The homeowner happened to be at home, two subjects made entry into the home, the homeowner fired a shot and hit the suspect in the right leg.'"

Mississippi: Suspected burglar fatally shot : "A man, who police say was attempting to rob a Jackson business, was shot and killed Saturday night. Jackson police were called to Livingston Towing and Recovery at 3228 Medger Evers Boulevard at 11:38 p.m. There they found 35 year old Timothy Darby of Jackson fatally shot in the rear of the business. J.P.D. spokesman Detective Brendan Bell said Darby allegedly attempted to burglarize a vehicle on the company lot when the business owners interrupted him. Bell said the owners struggled with the suspect over the owner's gun. During the struggle Darby was shot once in the left shoulder. "


Tennessee: Police say homeowner shot one, others scattered: "Police in Collierville say a homeowner shot and killed one of several people who broke into his house over the weekend. Police Lieutenant Greg Flint says homeowner Brian Harper was awakened by his burglar alarm early Saturday and fired at the intruders with a .45-caliber handgun, striking one of them. Flint says the others scattered and Harper doesn't know if the several other shots he fired hit anyone else."

Review of The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You've Heard About Gun Control Is Wrong by John Lott: "Following up on his controversial study More Guns, Less Crime, economist Lott argues that widespread gun ownership prevents crime. He cites survey data and news reports to argue that the fear that victims might be armed strongly deters criminals, and that guns are used in self-defense or to ward off criminal threats about 2.3 million times a year. Because they impede law-abiding citizens' access to guns, even mild gun-control regulations-assault weapons bans, "one-gun-a-month" laws-actually increase crime, according to Lott, while right-to-carry laws lower crime and help prevent (or violently terminate) terrorist attacks and "rampage" shootings. Even measures to keep guns away from children, like "gun-free school zones" and "safe storage" laws that require guns to be locked away, are misguided because children need guns for self-defense (he cites news reports of kids as young as 11 gunning down criminals). The benefits of untrammeled gun availability are clear, Lott insists, and only the anti-gun bias and selective reporting by the media and government officials have kept this fact out of public consciousness. Lott supports his bold claims with elaborate statistical analyses that tease sometimes small effects out of the welter of factors that influence crime rates; there are lots of graphs and tables, and much space is devoted to scholarly discussions of statistical methodologies. Many readers will find these sections rough going, but Lott's provocative thesis is sure to stir interest among second-amendment stalwarts and gun-control supporters alike"


N.Y.: Silly Shelly Silver: "Gun dealers could be held liable if they sell weapons that are later used to commit a crime under an Assembly proposal that's under fire by gun-rights proponents. The proposal, drafted late last week, merges Republican proposals that would stiffen penalties against illegal gun sellers with Democratic proposals to increase restrictions on legitimate dealers. The Assembly bill calls for dealers to carry at least $1 million in liability insurance, affix new and lengthy warning labels to all guns, and cancel a sale if there is a "reasonable suspicion" the gun could be resold to criminals. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, the bill's architect, has been under political and media fire since the recent shooting deaths of two New York City cops. "They're trying to hold gun dealers liable for criminal misuse of firearms," but that's prohibited by federal law, said Jacob Rieper, legislative director of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association. "They're just doing it as harassment.""

South Africa: Ready to bite the bullet to get a firearm licence: "No more. It appears that the Chinese torture of applying for a licence renewal and certificate of competency is successfully disarming an innocent populace without a single shot being fired. ... I took myself off to an authorised firearms dealer in order to obtain a proficiency certificate for a pistol I had owned for 26 years without incident. ... Time passed slowly on the hard wooden benches, not because of a lack of manpower assigned to the task. ... I have no doubt there are some really nasty people out there with guns. None of them appeared to have chosen that morning to queue up. I believe it costs the hopeful applicant about R400 and more than four hours of his/her personal time to apply to be legal. I suspect that it will consume at least two hours per applicant for the total processing (including home visits) by the constabulary. At the end of this are we all better off? Are the good people of this land safer? Has the vast amount of money and time involved by the applicants and the police been well spent? Or have the majority of my law-abiding friends simply been disarmed because they did not have the stamina to see the process through, while the bad guys laugh all the way to the nearest cash-in-transit van?"


Tough Hispanics: "A Milwaukee father and son said they thought it was a joke when two men with guns entered their home on Friday night. But once guns were at their heads, they fought back, reported WISN-TV. Police said two armed men walked up the stairs, knocked on the door and planned to rob the home of Alfredo Hernandez and his son. "I saw the pistol ... to my son's head," Hernandez said. "If they were going to shoot anybody, they were going to shoot me." While one of the men attempted to make off with his son's recording equipment, Hernandez said he wrestled the other man to get the gun away from his son's head. Hernandez's son also didn't give into the robbery. "He clenched onto my arm and I just kept punching him till finally I ripped my arm out," said the son, who didn't want his name publicized. "Then we got him down, then I kicked him a couple times." The man who nabbed the valuables was able to get away, while Hernandez sat on the other robber, trapping him. By the time police arrived on the scene, Hernandez told WISN-TV, they had injured the man so badly that an ambulance had to come to the home. Hernandez said he stabbed the man three times in the leg with a cheese knife and his son hit the man in the head with a snow shovel, which authorities took for evidence. According to Hernandez, the man was screaming for help, begging not be arrested by police. Hernandez also said the crooks pointed the loaded guns at his daughter and his 3-year-old granddaughter. With his family in peril, Hernandez said he did what he had to do. "Oh yeah, I messed him up," Hernandez said. "He came in walking and left in a stretcher."

Choosing our own ground to defend hunting & firearms

Below is just an excerpt from an excellent article

Isn't it time we stopped letting our enemies set the agenda and choose the grounds for battle? After all, the gun and hunting prohibitionists include the media and the governing and intellectual elites, so are far too powerful and devious to resist with mere facts and truth. As well, we need to adopt the techniques developed and proven by this century's successful dissident and protest movements.

Two of these techniques are especially powerful, yet we make little use of them. The first is to develop a simple, coherent and attractive story that bundles your claims in populist form so that they can be marketed as being both Truth and essential to the welfare of society. The second of course is to seize control of the terms of debate and this is what I will mostly be discussing.

For example, our opponents are allowed to claim all sorts of imagined social and ethical advantages for banning guns, hunting and much of our culture while manoeuvring us into only being allowed to argue our case on grounds of strict utility. In other words, we have allowed ourselves to be restricted to the single argument that a law will cause no reduction at all in the rate of death by firearm.

Even then we are denied a fair hearing and the argument that it is pointless to stop death by one means if it then simply occurs by another is dismissed as irrelevant. Yet there is so much more that should be considered. For a beginning, I suggest we force recognition of three facts.

1. Restrictive and discriminative laws have harmful side effects.

They harm both society and individuals and they are harming us. As there are many of us a lot of harm is being caused. That restrictive and discriminative laws are harmful and wrong is now so well acknowledged that it needs no further argument. Only the most willful and selective blindness allows our persecutors to pretend that somehow this doesn't count in our case.

2. Firearms and hunting are an ancient part of the Western European Dreaming and indeed of many cultures.

Weapons, hunting and the like are, after all, deep and ancient parts of human nature, though of course how this is expressed, in fact, if it is expressed, varies widely between individuals, the sexes and ethnic groups. Firearms and hunting with firearms in particular are an especially characteristic and ancient part of the Western European Dreaming and part of that group's multicultural rights. Hunting is one of the primary ways we have always bound ourselves to nature, both a practical resource gathering activity and a sacrament that allows humans to enter into the great web of life. Likewise, being able to trust ordinary citizens with weapons is a good marker of a healthy and fairy free society. This is also of necessity generally a society in which the rulers have agreed to forgo the grosser excesses of power.

It is useful to remember that over much of the world, especially Europe and those areas that came under European control, wildlife survived largely because influential classes and individuals liked to hunt. And yes, they also liked having the non-game species and non-timber trees around as well, but they were able to justify setting aside and managing large, near natural areas because of the hunting and timber they provided.

Doubt this, then check areas of the world where the influential classes weren't so universally keen on hunting, shooting and fishing. Horizon to horizon peasants, or sterile, commercial farms on the good lands and the marginal lands that should more properly have been left to forestry and hunting flogged back to bare rocky hillside or desert.

The mistake even hunters and shooters make is to think of what they are doing as a sport; it isn't, it's more of the nature of a cultural tradition or a religious sacrament. In fact, I've always thought that describing hunting as a sport was rather inappropriate, demeaning of nature and the animals we take. Target shooting maybe, hunting no. So when you see a bunch of guys heading out to the range or a duck hunt, some with sons (and yes, even daughters) in tow, just think of a bunch of blokes in funny leather shorts off to folk dancing, or a crowd of Catholics off to Sunday Mass and you'll get the right idea.

We too have rights to our own culture and we too are part of the Multicultural. To seek to destroy our culture is no different from attempting to destroy any other minority culture. Worse in fact for ours is no mere cultural tradition or minor religion, ours is more ancient than humanity itself, was one of the very forces that molded us into what we are.

3. We have been hurt and our health, wellbeing and connections with society damaged by being attacked and having hatred incited against us.

When we are persecuted, lied about and attacked in terms that would be unacceptable if we were a more fashionable minority group it does real damage, both to us and to society. When a hostile, unified government and media ignores our views and needs and worse, whips up public hysteria against us, they subject us to real discrimination and cause us the kind of harm that other persecuted minorities suffer. We too are victims.

Notice how even partial public acceptance of these points would totally change the terms of argument. The whole debate would be moved to ground much more favorable to us.




Georgia: Macon homeowner fatally shoots burglar: "Macon police say a 75-year-old man shot and killed a 21-year-old who was burglarizing the older man's home this afternoon in the Peach Orchard neighborhood. ... The older man entered his Irwin Avenue home and saw two men inside at about 2:15 p.m., Fletcher said. One man jumped out a window. Fletcher said Baker, the other man, was shot in the head."

Florida: Homeowner not charged in shooting: "Criminal charges will not be filed against a Gulf Breeze man who shot and killed a teenager found hiding in a spare bedroom closet in the man's house. Eduard Richardson, 17, a Gulf Breeze High School senior, died at the scene. The incident occurred early Sept. 7 in Allen Ambrose's house, in the 3400 block of Tibet Drive in the Tiger Point subdivision, just down the road from Tiger Point Golf and Country Club. Richardson resided next door to Ambrose. ... Assistant State Attorney Harmon Massey said Tuesday he has reviewed the case, and it does not warrant criminal prosecution. 'It's an unfortunate taking of someone else's life but justifiable under the circumstances,' Massey said. State law permits the use of deadly force against a person who has illegally entered a home and poses a reasonable threat of death or great bodily harm, Massey said."



Texas: Homeowner confronts, shoots burglar: "Police say a Dallas homeowner took the law into his own hands when he shot an alleged burglar. Investigators said the homeowner saw a man peering into his window on the 3700 block of Crown Shore Drive on Sunday afternoon. The man told police he got a gun and went outside. Investigators said the man reported seeing two men leaving his home carrying boxes. He followed them into the driveway and confronted them. The man shot one of the men while the other fled, police said. So far, no charges have been filed against the homeowner."

South Carolina: Man killed in road rage incident: "Shehan was driving a Chevrolet Suburban. He stated a Suzuki Sidekick had run into the back of the trailer towed by Shehan's Suburban just beyond the I-20 overpass. Shehan reported he stopped in the curb lane to assess the damage and the Suzuki pulled up parallel to his driver window. Shehan acknowledged they both exchanged verbal comments. He said the other subject accelerated away from the scene of the accident. According to Shehan's statement, he then began to follow the Suzuki while trying to call 911 on his cell phone to report the incident. The Suzuki reportedly stopped abruptly in front of Shehan's Suburban near the intersection of Knobcone and Martintown. The driver of the Suzuki allegedly exited the vehicle, quickly approached Shehan's door and immediately initiated a physical confrontation with Shehan. During the struggle, Shehan was able to reach his .45 caliber pistol from the glove box and fire a single shot, fatally wounding the subject."


Boston: Students want weapon screenings : "Student leaders are pushing Boston public schools to force high schools to better screen students for weapons, given last week's gunfire in a high school and the recent spike in youth violence in the city. The school district requires 15 of the city's 38 high schools to screen every student daily with walk-through metal detectors, but according to its own police chief only half of the schools with detectors check every teenager daily. And several use the detectors only on randomly picked days. Members of the Boston Student Advisory Council, a group of 50 students representing high schools across the city, say they will submit a proposal to the Boston School Committee by March and focus their recommendations on setting stricter search policies in schools with metal detectors. They want high schools to use the detectors consistently and follow the district's rule of checking every student."

Florida: "Do not come in! I have a gun! Leave!" : "In Needham's case, it came on a business trip to Florida, where she had checked into a hotel room, chained the door and set her pistol on the bedside. 'I was relaxing for a moment when somebody suddenly opened the door,' Needham said. 'They were coming into the room. The chain stopped them. I grabbed my pistol and racked a round so they could hear the action and know I had a gun.' Needham remembers shouting: 'Stop! Do not come in! Who are you?' The guy yelled back, deep and menacing, 'I'm coming in,' Needham recalled. 'Do not come in!' she shouted back. 'I have a gun! Leave!' The intruder wedged his arm past the door and wrestled to try to unhook the safety chain. The arm was 'huge and hairy and it scared me,' Needham said. Her training kicked in. She positioned herself around a corner, pointing her .45 Colt semi-automatic pistol at point-blank range and again shouted a warning: 'Do not come in. I have a gun. If you come in, I will shoot you.' For the intruder, logic apparently set in -- and the man ran off down the hall. Needham said hotel security did not find him."



Canada: What's wrong with this picture? : "If you eliminate all the hype and emotion from both sides of this issue, what this handgun ban really comes down to is paying $150 million, over five years, to collectors and/or target shooters to buy back their registered and licensed pistols. That's all, nothing more, nothing less. So, the Liberal solution to the violent crime in the black community, crime surely driven by economic and social hardships experienced within that community, is to pay out 150 million tax dollars to mostly white, middle and upper-middle class pistol target shooters and collectors. What's wrong with this picture?"

GLASGOW STILL VIOLENT DESPITE GUN BAN

Scotland's reputation for casual, drink-fuelled violence was once again underlined last night when official figures showed that the homicide rate for 2004-05 was the highest in almost a decade. There were 137 victims of homicides - including murders and culpable homicides but excluding death by dangerous driving - in Scotland, 29 more than in 2003-04 and the highest annual total since 1995-96.

In almost three-quarters of the cases, the main accused was known to the victim. As in previous years, a knife or other sharp instrument was the commonest weapon used, accounting for 72 victims, again the highest figure for 10 years. In the 127 cases where the physical and mental state of the alleged killer was known, 45 per cent were drunk, 15 per cent were both drunk and on drugs, and 10 per cent were on drugs.

The figures show that Glasgow remains the murder capital of Scotland, with 55 victims per million of population compared with 22 for the whole of Scotland.....

Nearly half of the homicides took place at the weekend where the victim and the accused were both male, aged between 16 and 49, and where the main motive was a fight or quarrel. More than 50 per cent of those accused were acquaintances of the victims and nearly 20 per cent were a partner or relative....

Kenny MacAskill, the SNP's Shadow Justice Minister, said that what was staggering was that Glasgow's homicide rate was higher than Belfast's and more than double the Scotland-wide rate. "The underlying causes of crime need targeted, but there must be no mercy shown to those who use guns, knives or other weapons randomly or indiscriminately," he said.

In September, a controversial report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) claimed that Scotland had the second highest murder rate in Western Europe. According to the study, Scots were more than three times as likely to be killed as people living in England and Wales and 1� times more likely than people in Northern Ireland. Only Finland had a worse murder rate, the report claimed. Another study, this time from the United Nations, said that Scotland was the most violent country in the developed world. It stated that more than 2,000 Scots were attacked every week, almost ten times the official figure, and that Scots were three times more likely to be the victims of violent assault than Americans. That report was criticised by police over its methodology.

The WHO study showed that the murder rate north of the border was 2.33 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with 0.7 in England and Wales, 1.02 in Spain and 0.96 in Italy. France and Norway made it into the top three safest places with murder rates of 0.85 and 0.73. Germany had the lowest murder rate on record, of 0.68.

More here




Canada: Martin a 'jackass': "Prime Minister Paul Martin is a "jackass" if he thinks that banning handguns will "choke off" the deadly weaponry of Toronto street gangs, says a man whose son was slain. "For this so-called prime minister of ours to come into the low-income areas of this city and make a statement banning guns ... I look at him as a jackass ... and I'll never vote Liberal again as long as I live," said Theodore Huxtable, whose eldest son Jason, 18, was killed on Aug. 30.And Huxtable gave a stern warning that if justice is not served in his son's death, he will seek his own vengeance."I'll be part of your news ... I've told police the same thing ... they say 'Mr. Huxtable, you shouldn't make these statements' ... they can't say I didn't warn them," he said. "

Texas: What one woman wants for Christmas: a returned gun : "Susan Gaylord Buxton wants her gun back. She could have a long wait, given how slowly the wheels of justice can grind. Buxton, known from hither to yon as the gun-toting granny, is confused about why Arlington police seized her handgun after she shot an intruder Nov. 9. It's not as if the circumstances under which Buxton used the Smith & Wesson .38-caliber featherweight are in question. The 66-year-old Buxton shot Christopher Lessner, 22, as he lunged at her from inside her hall closet. He'd broken into the house after fleeing from Arlington police at a traffic stop. The story became fodder for late-night TV jokes, radio talk shows -- even a song parody. Buxton, who's got spunk to spare, doesn't mind the jesting but she's serious as a stroke about getting her gun back. .... Buxton, who has not been criminally charged, understands that the officers who responded to her 28-year-old granddaughter's 911 call needed to secure the premises. She willingly handed over her gun -- actually, she dropped it to the ground when directed to do so by an officer who was pointing his sidearm at her. Why police confiscated the gun is what has her baffled. "What does it have to do with the case against Lessner?" Buxton asked. "It's not like he's charged with getting himself shot.'"


North Carolina: Charlotte man, 70, shoots intruder: "Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say a 70-year-old man confronted two intruders who had broken into the tool shed of his southwest Charlotte home Monday morning, shooting one at least three times. The incident occurred on Sleepy Hollow Road. According to police reports, the homeowner confronted three men in his driveway shortly after 10 a.m. as they carried power tools and fishing rods out of his shed. As the men jumped into a sport-utility vehicle, Bailey shot at the driver with a handgun, police reports said. The men drove away but later crashed near the 5000 block of South Tryon Street, according to police records."

More Illinois idiocy: "Retired Chicago Police officers will be getting letters in the mail soon saying the city won't certify them to carry guns -- a move that angers the head of the local Fraternal Order of Police. Congress passed the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004 to allow retired and off-duty officers across the country to carry concealed weapons. But the city is worried about the liability of allowing retired cops to carry guns when they haven't gone through refresher training or undergone mental and physical fitness evaluations. The city also is concerned about the lack of a national database of retired officers authorized to carry guns. Sheri Mecklenburg, general counsel to police Supt. Phil Cline, said the federal law does not define how a department should determine an officer had retired "in good standing. We would want some federal legislation to protect us from liability and some national database of people authorized to carry a gun," she said. Mecklenburg said she did not know how many of the city's 9,000 retired cops have asked to be certified to carry a gun. The letter to retired Chicago cops says "until these areas of concern are addressed by federal legislation, the Department has declined to adopt new procedures for qualifying retired officers to carry a firearm." "They have no right to do this," responded Mark Donahue, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police.


Battleships to go? "Capitol Hill lawmakers are considering whether to retire the Navy's last two battleships, the Iowa and the Wisconsin, and turn them into museums. Critics warn that the move could leave Marines vulnerable in future battles. The Navy expects that most such battles will be in or near coastal waters, and that it will need ships that can deliver huge amounts of gunfire to support land operations. Cruisers and destroyers serve that purpose now, and the Navy expects the new DD(X) destroyer to take over the job when it goes into service in 2014. A small group of critics doubts the capabilities of the DD(X) and says the Navy can't afford to wait until the next decade. "At present the Navy's active fleet has no effective (naval fire support) capability," says a statement by the U.S. Naval Fire Support Association, a group that supports reactivating the two battleships. "The Navy's attempt to rectify this serious deficiency by developing long-range 5-inch and 6.1-inch 155-mm gun systems and medium-range missiles is not adequate." The Navy currently uses 5-inch guns on its destroyers and cruisers to support land operations. The battleship supporters say only battleships can provide accurate and high-volume fire in all weather and conditions."

A good cop to the end: "A New York policeman was shot dead yesterday as he tried to stop a former Sopranos actor and an accomplice from allegedly breaking into a house in a search for drugs. Lillo Brancato Jr 29, who played Matt Bevilacqua, a doomed small-time mobster in the 1999-2000 season of the mafia television drama, is the latest in a line of Sopranos stars to have had real-life and violent run-ins with the law. The police officer, Daniel Enchautegui, was shot in the chest allegedly by Mr Brancato's accomplice, Steven Armento. But as he lay dying in his driveway he shot and seriously wounded both men. Mr Brancato, who got his acting break in the 1993 Robert De Niro film A Bronx Tale, was last night critically ill in hospital after being shot twice by Mr Enchautegui. Mr Armento was shot four times and was in a serious condition. In 2002, Robert Iler, who plays Tony Sopranos's son AJ, pleaded guilty to taking part in a mugging. Richard "Richie Blue Eyes" Maldone, who played Albert Barese, a mafia boss, was arrested in 2003 and charged with buying drugs".


Chinese goons reined in: "Four days after Chinese police opened fire on villagers protesting against the appropriation of their land, the Government announced that several were killed and the commander who gave the order to fire had been detained. Amnesty International, the human rights group, said that it was the first time Chinese police had fired on protesters since the crushing of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989, when hundreds died in the heart of Beijing. The Government placed the death toll at three. Residents put the number of dead at anywhere from two to twenty. The violence erupted on Tuesday in the village of Dongzhou in southern Guangdong province, bordering Hong Kong. Armed police opened fire when villagers gathered to demand more compensation after their land was seized to make way for a wind farm.... The Government defended the shootings, saying police opened fire after protesters with knives, spears and dynamite attacked a power plant and then turned on authorities. But, within hours, the authorities announced that the commander who ordered his men to shoot had been detained. The commander was to blame for the deaths, the provincial government said. "The commander's wrong actions caused deaths and injuries," the Government said"

NRA's newest convert: Even a hippie needs a gun: "About two weeks ago, a male approximately 5 foot 9, 150 pounds broke and entered my house. (SIDE NOTE: This is funny because it is true.) ... I peek in my front room. If anyone's there, they are not in eyeshot of the doorway. Then I see the shadowed reflection of a man in the double glass doors leading to the dining room. ... (SIDE NOTE: I am a pretty liberal hippie when it comes to life, a make-love-not-war type of girl. But I know enough about anatomy to know a butcher knife doesn't protect from a bullet. I have been an anti-hand gun person for years, mainly because they serve one purpose: to kill people. However, this has become a matter of self-defense. Damn it, this is Texas, and I'm gettin' a gun.)"


Activate the citizen militia: "The best way to deter not only terrorists, but also rogue governments and ordinary criminals is by activating the citizen militia. Law-abiding adults should be able to receive tactical training from the U.S. government and should be allowed to carry arms as needed to keep our nation secure. If you think this sounds far-fetched, keep in mind that the military and the police force are comprised of average Americans who join on a daily basis."