Saturday, July 9, 2011

"You're Probably a Pro-Gun Extremist.."

Over at Baldir's place.  Go.  Read.

What's kind of amusing is that Keith Milligan of Sebastian Snowflake fame, chides Baldir for posting links to back up his comments.  Of course, when Keith posts a link it is usually at the behest of his SockMasters at the NRA.

Huh?

What sense does this make?

To recap: guy and girl go out one night to "shine" deer. ("Shining" deer is the illegal practice of hunting at night using a car's headlights or some other light source to locate and freeze deer)
Guy claims to mistake girl for a deer, shoots and kills girl.
When picked up by cops, guy is incoherent and stumbling around because of "multiple prescription medicines."
Guy gets 2-1/2 to 5 years in jail which means he'll be out in about 2 years.
For killing someone.

Thanks to the NRA, killing with a firearm has been largely decriminalized.

It's Good to be a Winner

We on the anti-Gunloon side are winning, every day.

I know, I know....how can I sagely say this?

Easy.  You just have to think about it for a minute.

For instance, take President Obama (please).  All the economic indicators are against him.  Yet, the GOP can't find anybody who can give him a run for his money in 2012.  Willard Romney is still battling the crazy as batshit Michelle Bachmann.  Heck, Obama probably doesn't need to campaign to win in a walk.

But what's this have to do with gunloonery?  Everything.

You see, the reason the GOP has turned to cartoonish extremnism is a sign of desperation.  Typically, when any opposing force is losing and realizes the future is bleak--they naturally resort to extremism.  It's true with respect to politics and public policy.

NRA Certification Course Video

Future Family Gatherings May Be Strained in the Future

Maine NRA member shoots nephew:
A local man was indicted by a Cumberland County grand jury on felony charges in connection with the shooting of a 9-year-old boy.
Daniel McGill, 26, was charged with elevated aggravated assault, punishable by up to 30 years in prison, and aggravated assault, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. He faces additional felony charges of assault on an officer and reckless conduct with a weapon, both punishable by up to five years in prison.
Police said McGill shot his nephew Gavin Gilmore on May 19 with a pellet gun while shooting at squirrels. The pellet lodged in the front of Gilmore's brain.

Also note said NRA member had been imbibing...

Wyoming NRA Member Does the NRA Thing

Everett E. Conant III :

A Wyoming man was charged Friday with four counts of first-degree murder after, authorities say, he shot dead three of his children and another relative inside his home.

Friday, July 8, 2011

The NRA is Mentally Ill

It's true.  Whenever you hear the NRA yap about 'safe gun ownership' or 'responsibility'--it's all gas.

NRA supports mentally ill gun use:

PULASKI, Va. — In May 2009, Sam French hit bottom, once again. A relative found him face down in his carport “talking gibberish,” according to court records. He later told medical personnel that he had been conversing with a bear in his backyard and hearing voices. His family figured he had gone off his medication for bipolar disorder, and a judge ordered him involuntarily committed — the fourth time in five years he had been hospitalized by court order.    
Ten months later, he appeared in General District Court — the body that handles small claims and traffic infractions — to ask a judge to restore his gun rights. After a brief hearing, in which Mr. French’s lengthy history of relapses never came up, he walked out with an order reinstating his right to possess firearms.    
      

We're ALL Less Free Because of Illegal Guns, or Illegally Used Legal Firearms

This shouldn't happen to anyone.  No one who is shot, whether killed or just injured, is free when they are the victims of gun violence.  Minnesota is supposed to be one of the safest states in the country, but we still have tragedies like this, far too many of them.

I'm waiting for someone like Anonymous to make excuses for why the victim 'deserved' to be shot.  In case you wonder what I mean, I'm referring to the comment made by one of the many Anonymous commenters back in April:http://mikeb302000.blogspot.com/2011/04/st-paul-minnesota-1-dead-1-wounded.html?showComment=1310134115720#c667963682101533638

From the 7/8/'11 STrib:

Teenage girl fatally shot in head in Brooklyn Park

By Paul Walsh

A teenage girl was fatally shot in the head late Thursday in Brooklyn Park, and police are hunting for the killer.
The shooting occurred about 11 p.m. outside an apartment complex near 73rd Avenue and Unity Lane, said Deputy Chief Craig Enevoldsen. The 17-year-old was found dead outside of a car at the Huntington Place apartments.
Enevoldsen said that as officers approached the complex they saw several people standing outside of the car, with one of its doors open. When the officers "lit up the car with their spotlight," those people ran from the scene, Enevoldsen said.
Authorities have yet to release the identity of the victim or say anything about the circumstances leading up to the killing. Enevoldsen said police don't think the victim lived at the apartment complex but aren't sure what brought her there.
As for suspects, "we have no arrests at this point," Enevoldsen said. "It's still really early on."

The Bush Legacy


5) The wars,
4) The imperial Presidency,
3) The national debt,
2) The Roberts/Alito court,

and the number 1 worst thing that George Bush gave to America….

Bush’s ultimate triumph was forcing the bleak, GOP worldview on our historically boisterously optimistic country.
Here is the BBC on that topic, but there are plenty of people talking about it. The GOP’s hard-on for a Mad Max outcome to history has always been laughed off by the rest of the country. Not now. We are all empty fin de cycle scarecrows guarding the burned and blasted fields of America’s broken dreams. Thanks Bush!
What do you think? Has Jason about covered it?

Please leave a comment.

Michele Bachmann's American History


Wild West Pennsylvania


Last week, Gov. Tom Corbett approved the expansion of the Castle Doctrine, which allows citizens to use deadly force against an attacker at any place where they have a legal right to be. It also limits civil liability for people who act within the guidelines.

Before, the use of deadly force was not justifiable if the person could safely retreat, except when the threat was made inside his or her home or business.

Every member of the state Legislature who represents Luzerne County voted for the bill except for state Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston. She called the law a "defense attorney's dream" and predicted violent criminals will try to use it in court.

"As far as I'm concerned, this was a solution in search of a problem and in the long run it's going to be detrimental to law enforcement and the prosecution of violent criminals," Mundy said.

During hearings on the bill, she said she asked sponsors to point to one instance of a person in Pennsylvania ever being prosecuted for legally defending themselves.
In other words among the Pennsylvania gun-rights folks they don't believe in the expression, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

There was not one single instance of someone being prosecuted becasue the old law wasn't broad enough. Nevertheless, it's broader now.

They keep saying it's not a license to kill or permission to shoot first, but what exactly is it then? How can they say no obligation to retreat is compatible with shooting only when absolutely necessary?  Wouldn't retreating be one of the ways to avoid having to shoot?

Of course, the macho men who push these laws can't accept that. Backing down to scumbags, no way. The righteous never back down. They've got god and the constitution on their side.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Michigan Murder Suicide - 8 Dead



A gunman opened fire in two Michigan homes Thursday, killing his daughter, ex-girlfriend and five other people before leading police on a high-speed chase and taking hostages inside a stranger's home.



Well, I guess that puts an end to the fat-white-guy myth, huh? Or, do you think this is a bit of an exception to the rule? Or, better yet, do you think we shouldn't generalize at all?

This guy was an ex-con, who obvioulsy had no business with ia gun. The pro-gun folks will tell you this has nothing to do with them. I don't buy it. It's their policies and their lax and non-existent gun laws that make it too easy for guys like Rodrick Shonte Dantzler to get guns.

Let's not forget that there is no criminal source of guns. They start out as the legitimate property of lawful gun owners. When they somehow end up in the hands of killers like this, those same lawful gun owners throw up their hands in feigned horror and insist they have nothing to do with it.

Gun control laws aimed at those lawful gun owners could stop gun flow into the criminal world which right now is like Niagara Falls.  Of course, this would mean a bit of inconvenience for our gun-loving friends.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Gun Horror, Breaking News from Michigan

One of the things which always strikes me when I read about episodes of tragic violence like this, is that the majority of us clearly believe what this person has done is wrong. But clearly this murderer was utterly convinced that he was right somehow in coming to the decision to do this terrible thing. Clearly, he was wrong.

But how do we EFFECTIVELY prevent people from committing violence, violence they commit more effectively with firearms than with other weapons? How do we stop them from acting violently, and how do we stop them from obtaining weapons? The alternative that everyone must be armed, and everyone must be shooting each other is not a solution.

From MSNBC:




Suspect kills self after 7 bodies found in Mich.

Children among the dead; alleged gunman led police on chase, took hostages

Image: Scene outside home where bodies were found
Chris Clark  /  AP
A man who claimed his daughter was inside a house where three bodies were found collapses in the street Thursday in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The suspect wanted in the deaths of seven people, including two children, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after an hours-long standoff, Michigan police said late Thursday night.
Hours earlier, dozens of police officers with guns drawn descended on a Grand Rapids neighborhood and cornered the suspect in a home.
Police said that after a high-speed pursuit, the suspect crashed his vehicle, ran and broke into a home and took what was intially reported to be two people hostage. One hostage, a 53-year-old woman, was released, but police later said two hostages remained inside the house.
Grand Rapids Police Chief Kevin Belk said police were communicating with the man, identified as 34-year-old Rodrick Shonte Dantzler. During negotiations to end the standoff, a gunshot was heard. Belk said Dantzler died from a self-inflicted wound.  Belk told reporters that the two hostages were safe, but were being evaluated by medical personnel.
Mayor George Heartwell described the saga as "a rolling rampage" that included gunbattles with police in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids that left a squad car shot up.
"This is so uncharacteristic of Grand Rapids. We are all stunned about it," Heartwell said in a telephone interview.
Chase begins The manhunt began after four people were found dead in one Grand Rapids home and three were found in another across town. A 10-year-old girl was reported dead in a home in the 2400 block of Plainfield Avenue Northeast, the Grand Rapids Press reported, and a child was dead in a home in the 1200 block of Brynell Court Northeast.  One of the victims was Dantzler's daughter, another was his ex-girlfriend, the Press reported.
The suspect led officers on a chase that tore through the city's downtown.
At one point, the suspect crossed a wide grassy median on the interstate and drove the wrong way down the highway while more than a dozen squad cars pursued him. The highway remained closed hours later.
Witnesses told NBC station WOOD of Grand Rapids that shots were fired from the vehicle at police during the chase.
Two other people were hit, but their wounds were not considered life-threatening. Some of the gunshots struck the windshield of a police cruiser in downtown Grand Rapids. No officers were hurt, Belk said.
The suspect abandoned his car on I-96 and ran into the woods near Soft Water Lake and Rickman Avenue, then broke into the home.
'Domestic issues' A friend told reporters that the killings stemmed "from domestic issues" and a neighbor said Dantzler had recently separated from his wife.
The home where Dantzler was believed to have taken hostages is a short distance from the Brynell Court house, where the four bodies where found earlier Thursday.
Lisa Schenden lives with her husband and their children two blocks from that home. Schenden said the homeowners are a couple whose daughter has a daughter with the suspect.
Schenden said she did not hear the shooting but did see the suspect and his daughter drive up to the house earlier in the day.
"Just last night, my kids went over there swimming, and I went over with them," she said.
Sandra Powney lives across the street from one of the homes where the shootings happened and said she had seen Dantzler at the ranch house, where a couple had lived for more than 20 years with two adult daughters.
Powney said she had been at home all day and did not realize anyone had been killed until police converged on the cul-de-sac in the midafternoon.
"For a while we couldn't come outside," she said. "They didn't know if there was someone still inside the house."
A few miles away, neighbors said police converged on Dantzler's home after the shootings.
Chelsea Snoderly told the Press that Dantzler was "really quiet, down-to-earth.” 
Image: Grand Rapids police response
Cory Morse  /  AP
Grand Rapids police investigate the scene on Knapp Street on Thursday.
She said he walked his dog and was fond of his pet.
She told the reporter that the suspect had separated from his wife and saddened by the recent developments.
“I really didn’t want to push it,” Snoderly told the newspaper.
Sonia Bergers said Dantzler lived in the home with a woman she assumed was his wife and their daughter, a girl who appeared to be about 10 years old.
"We've talked with the person they assumed did the shootings," Mary Lahuis said. "You would see him going up and down the street — and you'd hear him going up and down the street."

The Late Great James Cagney

Almost As American as Apple Pie

via Laci from Philly.com

Rumors of shots being fired on the Ben Franklin Parkway during the Fourth of July fireworks Monday night sent hundreds of people stampeding down the street and left spectators terrified, witnesses said yesterday.

Police spokesman Lt. Ray Evers said that police received calls for shots fired on the parkway just before 11 p.m. but that the department found no shell casings or other evidence to suggest a shooting had occurred.
One video posted to YouTube shows two flashes of light accompanied by two loud pops, neither of which was part of the city's fireworks display, but it's not clear what caused them.
Actually, the celebratory gunfire is not as common in the States as you'd expect given the number of guns we have. In parts of Europe and the Middle East it happens at every party, especially New Year's Eve.

You know why it's not commonplace in the States? Because there are laws against it and laws work.

Pro-gun folks like to mock us and say "just one more law" is what we want. No, what we want is a comprehensive set of common sense gun control laws enforced equally throughout all the states. This we have never tried, as Laci often points out.

So, no we don't want "one more law." We want proper common-sense gun control.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Why would someone gun down mourners?

Makes you wonder how these bad guys got their guns; where did they come from, and how did they go from legal to illegal?

From Reuters and the AP by way of MSNBC:

Gunman fires on mourners of man killed on Las Vegas strip

Suspect mingled with funeral-goers before shooting 7 people, police say

LAS VEGAS — A gunman who at first appeared to mingle with funeral-goers on Wednesday later sprayed bullets at those paying respects to a man stabbed to death on the Las Vegas strip, police said.

"An individual ... wearing a red shirt approached a group of mourners who were outside the funeral and appeared to mingle," police spokesman Bill Cassel said. "After a few moments this individual opened fire."

The victims' injuries were not life-threatening. Cassell said six adults and one juvenile were wounded.

The incident occurred at just before 7 p.m. local time (10 p.m. ET) at the Palm Mortuary,
The Las Vegas Sun reported.

Cassell said police were looking for a white car with spoke chrome rims and a purple and brown design on the side as a vehicle of interest in the case.

Police do not know if the shooting was gang-related or how it was tied to Elena's stabbing, The Sun reported.

Guy in a Hat Shooting a Gun


Restoring Gun Rights to the Mentally Ill

Care 2 published a very thoughtful article on this complicated situation.

The horror stories are truly horrifying. What gun rights advocates seem to be forgetting is that having a gun carries a significant amount of responsibility. Access to firearms is not an inalienable right, it’s a serious social liability. There are some people who are proven to have mental illness and may not misuse guns. But authorities need to be more than completely sure that people who have access to guns can use them responsibly before they give them to anyone – much less people who have been legally denied their gun rights. This Fourth of July, with all of our talk about rights and freedoms, let’s remember that being an American also involves an obligation to preserve the safety of our country and communities. And that means erring on the side of caution when it comes to dispensing gun rights.

I love this line:
Access to firearms is not an inalienable right, it’s a serious social liability.
And I love the idea about "erring on the side of caution." In fact, I go much further. I say one strike you're out, and I consider any misuse of a firearm or any type of disqualification as a "strike." And by "out," I mean forfeiture of gun rights for life.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Paul Helmke's Parting Remarks

 The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne Indiana reports


“We needed more people at the local level talking to their elected congressional representatives,” he said. “Even in northeast Indiana, there’s a lot of folks I know who agree with me on these things. I hear from them. They are NRA members, they are gun owners. But they agree with the specifics I talk about. But somehow I haven’t in northeast Indiana translated that into pressure on (former Rep. Mark Souder and Rep. Marlin Stutzman) sufficient to convince them. And that’s the same thing multiplied in congressional districts throughout the country.

“I came from the local level, and I see the power in change in Washington is coming from the local level, and I wasn’t able to translate that idea into juice at the local level to get it done. Looking back, I probably should have put more emphasis on that more quickly and started building at the local level … get our numbers up a little higher than they are now.”

Not to worry, Paul, that's exactly where we come in, grass-roots level carrying of the message.

The pro-gun bloggers and antagonistic commenters that we seem to have so many of are really a tiny percentage of what's out there. Many gun owners agree with the sensible gun control laws we're talking about. I predict a turnaround within the next five years.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Proper Gun Handling - Russian Style


I think this fake Russian guy is getting more reckless all the time. He's certainly not a good example for all the Neanderthal types who've watched the video, out of 3 million views, I'm sure there are plenty of those who think he's more fun than a tornado in a trailer park.

Florida Murder - Attempted Suicide


A woman visiting a patient at a southwest Florida hospital was fatally shot by her estranged husband, who then turned the gun on himself.

The Collier County Sheriff's Office says 53-year-old Christine Ann Moretz died at the scene after being shot Tuesday at Physicians Regional Medical Center in Naples. Her estranged husband, 54-year-old Jeffrey Moretz was airlifted to another hospital for treatment.

Court records show the couple was in foreclosure and in the process of divorcing. Jeffrey Moretz had been charged in 2009 with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after firing a gun in his home, but the charge was later dropped.
You see, that's how they do it. They make sure they kill the woman and then only wound themselves.

And that's how Florida's lax gun laws treat gun crime, they drop the charges so the maniac can continue to be a "lawful gun owner." We wouldn't want to infringe upon his rights, now would we?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Christopher Vaughn, Husband, Father, Gun Owner



The Oswego man accused of staging the deaths of his wife and children to look like a murder-suicide spent an hour at a Plainfield shooting range the night before the murders, Will County court records show.

Newly released documents show Christopher Vaughn spent a half-hour at Mega Sports, a gun store and shooting range on U.S. 30 near Renwick Road, according to story published by the Sun-Times Media. The gun he allegedly used to shoot targets at the range was the same one found beneath his wife's feet on the day of the shooting, June 14, 2007, the story said.

A commenter named Grandpa Mike had this observation.

Am I the only one that sees an uncalled for inference to Mega Sports as somehow abetting his behavior the day after using their facilities ? How does mentioning Mega Sports in the story in any way relevant to his actions ? Just asking ...

Here's a fairly recent article on the trial.

What's your opinion? I think the fact that he went to the shooting range the night before helps describe what kind of guy he was. He was a cold-blooded normal-looking gun owner. Definitely a member of the illustrious Famous 10%, wouldn't you say?

Please leave a comment

Two Reflections on The Dawn of the Dead

In the great remake of Dawn of the Dead as well as in the original, the protagonists say things like, "let's just wait for someone to come and save us." These remarks come early in the story before it becomes all too clear that no one is coming.

I wondered if these films, and a number of others just like them, have contributed to the self-sufficient and survivalist mentality which many folks espouse today. Growing up with movies like this, especially as young impressionable people, could partly explain the attraction of the Libertarian philosophy which eschews dependence on the government.

Whether the attitudes of today's gun-rights extremists came as a result of these films or if the films came as a way of portraying these attitudes already present in the society, it doesn't matter.  What matters is they're ZOMBIE MOVIES, not reality.

Another reflection I had was, since we're going to take these films so seriously, the supposed instructions that police receive to always shoot COM, center of mass, is nonsense. So often I've questioned whether it was necessary for the cops to shoot someone in the chest rather than in an arm or leg.  Always the defenders of shooting people say they have to shoot center of mass otherwise it's too easy to miss.

Well, re-watching this great movie, I realized that's just not so. The heroes of the story discovered that they had to shoot the zombies in the head, only head shots would stop them from rising again.  And in the remake they didn't just rise again zombie-style, they jumped up and attacked furiously.

There was no COM injunction, there were just heads exploding one after the other, which is proof positive that the police don't have to kill people when they don't want to. Just like shooting zombies in the head, they could shoot that drunk and dangerous armed maniac in the shoulder of his shooting arm.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Police Kill Mentally Ill Gun Owner for Disobedience

SFGate reports

A 55-year-old man who showed up with a loaded gun at a senior center in Suisun City and said he was "going on assignment" was shot and killed by a police officer, authorities said Thursday.

Bernardo Ararao was shot in the chest by a Suisun City police officer about 11:25 a.m. Wednesday after he refused to drop a 9mm handgun, police Lt. Tim Mattos said. The gun turned out to be loaded, he said.

The incident began when Ararao rode his bicycle to the Suisun City Senior Center on Merganser Drive while dressed in camouflage, police said. He showed a woman a gun and told her he was "going on assignment," prompting her to call 911, Mattos said.

An officer repeatedly ordered Ararao to drop his gun, but he refused and was shot, police said. He was pronounced dead at NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield.
I don't care how many times the defenders of this kind of violence tell us about the Center of Mass theory, I don't buy it. The reason is, there are other incidents in which the police shoot to wound.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Michele Bachmann Imitates Sarah Palin


Negligent Discharge on Video




my comment:

What do you think about my theory which says that folks who do this once should lose their right to own guns because they’re more likely to do it again. One who has proven himself capable fo such stupidity, is just not safe.

I know thr opposite argument, that people learn from their mistakes and a guy like this is LESS likely to repeat it. But I don’t think that’s consistent with human nature, do you?

What do you think?

Why We Need Gun Registration


A woman who helped her mentally-unstable boyfriend obtain a gun that he later used to kill a Clark County deputy sheriff pleaded guilty this morning to two felonies.

Maria Blessing, 56, pleaded guilty to obstructing justice and complicity to having weapons under disability. Clark County Common Pleas Judge Douglas M. Rastatter said he will sentence her on July 18. Under a plea agreement, the maximum sentence Blessing could receive is five years, said Clark County Prosecutor Andy Wilson.

Blessing had been, for at least 20 years, the live-in girlfriend of Michael Ferryman.

Ferryman, who had a history of mental illness and had once been found criminally insane and spent time in mental hospitals, shot and killed Clark County Deputy Suzanne Waughtel Hopper and shot and wounded German Township police officer Jeremy Blum on Jan. 1.
The way it is now, people think their 2nd Amendment rights permit them to buy guns and do anything they want with them. Even the ones who understand that it's wrong to buy a gun for a disqualified person, feel they can get away with it.

Registration of newly bought firearms to individual licensed owners would largely put a stop to this. The new gun owner would have to renew that registration after three months and every year thereafter by presenting the documents and the gun itself to the police.

A law like that, properly enforced would cut down on straw purchasing by 87% in the first year. The second year it would be over 90%.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Hemingway's Suicide Gun




Not long after that tragic day in Ketchum, Idaho, the gun was given to a local welder to be destroyed. “The stock was smashed and the steel parts cut up with a torch,” the authors write. “The mangled remnants were then buried in a field.”
Fascinating, it sounds like they were blaming the gun.

What do you think? Please leave a comment

Illinois Gun Owner ID Publication Exemption Approved


Governor Pat Quinn today quietly signed legislation that exempts Illinois Firearm Owner’s Identification Card holders from the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, easing the fears in armed households around Illinois.

“As Governor, I have made increasing openness and transparency in government one of my top priorities,” said Quinn, who released the news Saturday afternoon. “…[H]owever, it should not come at the expense of the public’s safety.”
It's a fascinating discussion. Gun owners have long claimed that having a gun is a deterrent to crime. They ridicule gun control folks for their attempts to establish gun-free zones, claiming that criminals flock to such places to do their thing.

But, in Illinois, they mounted a tremendous and successful opposition to Attorney General Lisa Madigan's attempt to make public the list of FOID cardholders. Does that make sense? Wouldn't burglars and home invaders avoid the addresses where gun owners live in favor of those unarmed sitting ducks?

What could be the reason behind this? I would think if the reason for having guns in the first place is for personal protection, there'd be no better way than to advertise the fact.

One interesting result, I'm sure it's not their chief motivation, is that when those burglars and home invaders do come in, gun owners can have the element of surprise, all the easier to blow the bad guys away in the dark.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Monday, July 4, 2011

How Wonderful THIS Guy Had a Firearm to Protect His Family

Clearly my title is sarcasm.  I can only suggest that to claim this man's ownership of a firearm was not only disastrous, it was as opposite from the intention of the 2nd amendment as it is possible to be.  So much for the LIFE, liberty and pursuit of happiness of the victims.  It's not like he threatened people .....oh wait, he did.

Gunman kills wife, her twin, mother-in-law, ex-wife

A man suspected of killing four people, including his wife and ex-wife, killed himself Sunday after leading police on a chase back to the scene of three of the slayings, authorities said.
Kenneth Myers, 46, was driving his dead ex-wife's car when deputies began chasing him early Sunday morning, Aiken County Sheriff's Capt. Charles Barranco said.
Officers fired several shots at Myers as he tried to ram their cruisers before the chase ended back at the home where deputies found three people dead around 6 p.m. Saturday. Myers then apparently shot himself.
Aiken County Coroner Tim Carlton identified the dead as Myers' wife, 25-year-old Angela Myers; her twin sister, Tabitha Brown; her mother, 50-year-old Vicki Brown; and Myers' ex-wife, 47-year-old Esther Baldwin. All four died from single gunshots.
Police were checking in with several more people who they thought could be threatened by Myers when they found him and he fled, Barranco said.
Investigators spent all night trying to piece together why Myers might have gone on the killing spree. Deputies weren't immediately familiar with him before Saturday night.
"It's hard to say at this point in the investigation why those people were killed," Barranco said.
Threats Phone calls to several listings related to Myers were not answered Sunday.
Investigators have uncovered some threats Myers made to people in the past, but people who have been interviewed so far didn't think he would turn violent, Barranco said.
The first three bodies were discovered in a secluded, rural home near Wagener, about 40 miles east of Augusta, Ga. Deputies going to check on another person living nearby discovered Baldwin's body about seven hours later, authorities said.
Robin Halsey, who was a neighbor of Myers, told WRDW that only days ago the shooting suspect has discussed how he was feeding a "little stray dog."
"He was talking about how he was going to catch it and take it home and try to save its life, and he was saying, 'I don't see how people can just throw a stray dog out on the street,'" she added.
Investigators initially thought Myers might be heading for Alabama before finding him not far from where all the killings took place.
"We need to try to find some answers," Barranco said.
The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Big Federal Government is Bad, Big State Government is Good


This new law has been eerily and accurately titled: "Preemption of local firearm regulation." This unnecessary law, pushed by Republicans but endorsed by many Democrats, tells cities and towns across the state that the General Assembly and the National Rifle Association know what is best for them. It also tells the state's urban centers that they must adhere to the wishes of lawmakers who in most cases don't live in those cities.

The idea is not that a city like Indianapolis doesn't know what's best for itself and the state of Indiana does, it's simply a matter on not inconveniencing gun owners. Let's say there's a guy from Gary Indiana who carries a gun everywhere he goes, you know, just in case. If Indianapolis is allowed to prohibit guns in its parks, that poor guy from Gary would be faced with a terrible dilemma if he had some reason to go to the Indianapolis park. He'd either have have to decline to go, that's bad, or leave his gun in the glove compartment of the car, that's really bad, or LEAVE IT HOME IN THE GUNSAFE WHERE IT BELONGS. Naturally, we can't expect gun owners to have to face such choices so we depend on the State to govern.

Of course, the gun enthusiasts in Indiana, and everywhere else for that matter, have no proplem with Federal laws that support their cause too.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Jon Stewart on the Supreme Court, Video Games and Wisconsin

Global Warming Explained


Not only is the global warming explanation useful for some of our denier friends, but the description of "cherry-picking" is great too.

Pregnant Florida Woman Shoots Boyfriend

The Orlando Sentinal reports on the action.


Patricia Ann Jaggon, 27, faces a charge of attempted murder. Bobby Cord, 58, described by Daytona police as Jaggon's on-again, off-again boyfriend, suffered non-life-threatening injuries to the arm and chest.

Jaggon is about six months pregnant with Cord's child, police said.

According to Jaggon's arrest report, Cord arrived at the couple's Jean Street apartment to take away his belongings at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Inside were Jaggon, two other adults — identified as Kyla Cord and Osnique Smarts — and seven children, ranging in age from 1 to 12 years old.
She told people she was going to kill him. She said she'd injure herself in order to claim self-defense. But the best part is this.

As Cord searched, Jaggon took a .380-caliber handgun from under her pillow and shot him, according to the report.
"Under her pillow," in a house full of kids. This is Florida at its gun-lovin' best.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

What the 2nd Amendment WAS

From Time Magazine where they understand exactly what the 2nd Amendment was and what it is today.



Sunday, July 3, 2011

The Bad Kind of Fireworks

From the AP, by way of the STrib:

DA: Child, man shot dead in suburban Philadelphia, 3 hurt; manhunt under way for suspect

POTTSTOWN, Pa. - Authorities say a shooting in a rural area outside Philadelphia has left two people dead and three others injured, and a manhunt is under way for the killer.
Police were sent to Douglass Township in Montgomery County late Saturday after reports of a shooting.
First Assistant District Attorney Kevin R. Steele told multiple news outlets that a child and an adult were slain and three other people were injured and hospitalized. Their conditions weren't immediately known.
Steele says all the victims appear to be from the same family. He says no suspect in in custody, and police don't have a description of the shooter.
The shooting took place about 30 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

Wisconsin Concealed Carry Confusion

Yahoo News published a wonderful article by Joshua Huffman (not to be confused with Joe Huffman because Joshua sounds quite reasonable).
Fortunately, Lambeau Field officials will have ample time to interpret the law for the new Wisconsin concealed gun law that should be passed this October. Green Bay police aren't aware of how the law impacts their ability to prevent fans from entering the stadium with a handgun.

The NFL prohibits fans from carrying guns into any stadium. However, they could be prohibited from enforcing their own policy on Lambeau Field. The NFL doesn't own the stadium, therefore can't impose their anti-gun policy. Pat Webb, the stadium's executive director, stated, "I don't know enough about Wisconsin's specific law to know if the stadiums are exempt or not or can be exempt."

I wouldn't be comfortable with people carrying guns in an environment of 50,000 people or greater. Post-game driving is hardly safe with the alcohol that's consumed at these sporting events. It only takes one person to create a chaotic scene. I'd be worried about someone trying to pry the gun away from the holder. Some people make irrational decisions when angered. That irrationality is magnified under intoxication.
What's your opinion? How does it work in other states with lax gun laws? Are folks permitted to carry concealed at sporting events in say Florida or Arizona?

I would think the fanaticism of some sports fans is even worse when mixed with guns than your general bar and drinking environment. At huge sporting events some of those sports nuts might also be CCW permit holders and some of them might decide to drink a few beers, you know, bad-rules-be-damned and all that.

What do you think? Good idea or bad idea?

Please leave a comment.

Mistakes Can Happen to Anybody



Mayor Sam Adams said Friday that the mistaken use of lethal rounds instead of beanbag rounds in a Thursday officer-involved shooting was "a tragic mistake" and he wished a speedy recovery to the man who was shot. 

Chief Michael Reese the incident was "a terrible tragedy." He said he spoke with the officer involved last night "and he certainly feels horrible." Reese said his thoughts and prayers go out to the man who was shot.
The article made it sound like the cop used his weapon too quickly, thinking it was "less lethal." But that's wrong, isn't it? I thought beanbag guns and tasers are only supposed to be used when absolutely necessary just like real guns. Not only did this guy screw up the ammunitions, supposedly, but he may have fired unnecessarily.

The best part is that Mayor Sam Adams apologized to the guy who was shot. He certainly is a breath of fresh air when it comes to incidents like these.


What do you think? Please leave a comment.