Saturday, October 26, 2013

Words to Ponder

I normally dislike Memes, but this seems appropriate.  even more appropriate when you have people like Wayne LaPierre saying "the only thing we have to fear is an absence of fear."

Propaganda plays on emotions to get you to short circuit your intellect.  And what better emotion to use than fear to keep you in line:

The Fascinating Story of Young Joseph Hall - Product and Victim of the Gun Culture

cover2
Joseph Hall

Jeff Hall was killed by his own son, who was 10-years-old at the time, from a single gunshot wound to the head at point blank range from a .357 Magnum. (Photo credit: AP)
Jeff Hall was killed by his own son, who was 10-years-old at the time, from a single gunshot wound to the head at point blank range from a .357 Magnum. (Photo credit: AP)

Guns dot com

The hearing to determine where and how the now 13-year-old boy will spend the rest of his teen years and likely part of his young adulthood enters the final stage today, the Associated Press reported. But the task at hand for the Riverside County, California, judge isn’t simply to determine how to punish the boy for fatally shooting his neo-Nazi father at point blank range, but to also come up with the best plan of rehabilitation for the boy who grew up in an abusive home and has had a history of violence since kindergarten.

Gun Safety Laws Are Pointless If Nobody Bothers to Enforce Them

On Saturday, a 2-year-old North Carolina girl was playing in her house when she found her father’s loaded handgun hidden under the couch. She grabbed the gun, shot herself, and died later that day. On Sunday, the girl’s father, a 19-year-old felon named Melvin Clark, was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter.
I’m glad Clark was charged, and I hope he’s convicted. The speed with which charges were brought against Clark is somewhat surprising, given that, as the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer has reported, there have been several unintentional shootings in the Fayetteville area recently that have not resulted in charges. In March, a Robeson County man was cleaning his shotgun when it unexpectedly discharged, killing his 10-year-old son; it does not appear that charges were ever brought against him. (I’ve contacted the district attorney’s office, and will update this post when I get a definite answer.) That same month, a Columbus County man was playing with his gun when it suddenly discharged, injuring his friend; no charges were filed. In 2011, a Tabor City, N.C., man fired a rifle he thought was unloaded. It wasn’t, and the bullet went through the walls of his house and into a neighbor’s yard, striking three people, one of whom later died.The man was never charged.
These cases involved adults, not children, so they’re not directly comparable to this past weekend’s shooting. But the broader point still stands: Except in rare circumstances, guns don’t just magically go off on their own. So-called accidental discharges can generally be ascribed to carelessness on the part of the gun owner. The state can encourage compliance with gun safety protocols by charging those people whose failure to follow them results in injury or death. That’s one reason why I support prosecuting gun-owning parents whose children die or are injured in unintentional shootings: to send a message to other gun-owning parents, and hopefully encourage them to take gun safety more seriously. But that message gets muddled if the laws are inconsistently enforced.

Alabama Man Wounded in Accidental Discharge

Priceville's police chief said a man was shot Monday night when a gun accidentally went off at a bonfire party.
Police Chief Billy Peebles said around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday a man was brought into a Decatur fire station with a gunshot wound in his right side. The victim, identified as Derrick Couch, 20, of Decatur, was taken to Huntsville Hospital for surgery. His current condition is unknown.

Another person at the party told police he and his friends had been firing the weapon, and as he was emptying the gun it discharged. Couch was sitting to his left when the gun fired.
Does anyone think he'll receive any kind of punishment or sanction for his actions, I mean besides a bullet in the side?

No, he probably won't.  In Alabama this is just part of doing business.  He'll go on to commit one negligent act after another until one day he kills someone. Unless, of course, he learns a lesson and straightens out.

Do you think we should take a chance on that? Do you think people who grew up with guns and already know all about gun safety, yet prove to be stupid enough to do something like this can ever learn?

The risk is too high. Next time he might shoot someone else. He should be disarmed for his own good and the good of everyone else around him.

Gun-Rights Fanatics at an All Time High - But Still only 13%

Gallup
Americans' Preferences for Laws on the Sale of Firearms -- Trend Since 2000


The first chart shows that the true gun-rights fanatics, although more numerous than in the past, are still a tiny minority. The second chart shows that only they, in their lying way, claim that people want to ban guns entirely.

What else do you see here?

Friday, October 25, 2013

There's a serious difference between a blank firing pistol and a real one...

And while you're at it check this out!

The Sparks Shooting and How Americans are Used to Gun Violence

 Everybody else gets it. Even the official US gets it with VOA posting something called Experts: Gun Violence Is Public Health Crisis in US. Yet, there are lots of people who are in denial that there is a problem and that the current course of action is the wrong one (so, where the evidence of those 3 million DGUs the gunloons keep talking about?).

Unfortunately, the US has a serious case of denial.  It is a nation that has a gun addiction.  The gun lobby enables the addiction because it means more money for them: screw the cost to society.

Anyway, people stage an intervention when someone has a serious problem and they are in denial.  It's time for the US to have a serious intervention with its gun addiction.

Either that, or the US hits rock bottom, which I hate to think about since 20 six year olds aren't enough to get people to show some compassion.

Millington Naval Base Shooting: Two Soldiers Shot, Gunman In Custody

Millington Naval Base Shooting
The Naval Support Activity Mid-South base, from its Facebook page. | Naval Support Activity Midsouth / Facebook
A gunman shot several people near a U.S. Navy base in Millington, Tenn., authorities say.
Fox13 reports that an employee of the base was relieved of duty today and is suspected of shooting at random people after going to his car. The suspect, an Army National Guardsman, is in custody, the Navy reported in a press release. Two National Guard soldiers were treated for non-life threatening injuries, and NBC News reports that one was shot in the leg and another was shot in the foot.

Henderson Nevada Gun Negligence - Woman Dead - Man Arrested

FOX5 Vegas - KVVU

More on the Virginia Brothers - Parents Charged with Felony Child Endangerment

A 10-year-old Amelia County boy has been charged with reckless handing of a firearm in an incident in which police said his 11-year-old brother was accidentally shot in the face two weeks ago.

The child, whose name was withheld because of his age, is accused of handling a pistol that apparently was involved in the Oct. 9 shooting in the family’s home in the county’s Mannboro area.
The boys’ parents, Patrick D. and Joanna E. Callaway, were charged last Tuesday with felony child endangerment in connection with the incident. Investigators said the Callaways had left their children alone during the time of the 6:23 a.m. shooting.
The 11-year-old victim was reported to be in stable condition and continues to improve at VCU Medical Center.
The Callaways and their 10 year-old son made their first appearances Monday in Amelia County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.
I say they should leave the kid the hell alone and punish dad twice.

California Students Hurt In Accidental Shooting By Cop At School Safety Event

Three California elementary school students were wounded in an allegedly accidental shooting with a police weapon at a safety demonstration on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
An officer's gun discharged and no one was hit by an errant bullet, according to the Associated Press. But it unleashed a murky chain of events that left the three youngsters with cuts and scrapes.
Two kids were treated at the hospital while the other child was escorted home by his parents.
The apparent accident occurred around 11:15 a.m in Newman Elementary School, outside Los Angeles, where the Chino police department was participating in Red Ribbon Week events.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Washington Boy Arrested For Bringing Gun, Knives And More Than 400 Rounds Of Ammo To School

An 11-year-old boy in Washington state was arrested on Wednesday and charged with one count of attempted murder after he allegedly brought an arsenal of weapons to school, The Columbian reported.
According to Evergreen School District spokeswoman Kris Fay, Frontier Middle School in Vancouver, Wash., and adjacent Pioneer Elementary School were placed into lockdown for two hours on Wednesday after the gun was discovered and police received a tip that a student had taken ammunition to school.
The boy, whose identity has not been released, is accused of bringing a handgun, more than 400 rounds of ammunition and multiple knives to school.
Detectives interviewed the boy, then placed him under arrest and booked him into the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center, police spokeswoman Kim Kapp said.
No one was injured in the incident and police have not said who was allegedly being targeted, CNN reported.
The kid should be home with his mom and the dad should be in the hoosegow. But in the gun-lovin' state of Washington, that's just not the way it shakes out, is it?

Sparks Nevada Shooter Got the Gun from Home - Naturally

Sparks Middle School shooting

Yahoo News

The 12-year-old student who opened fire on a Nevada middle school campus, wounding two classmates and killing a teacher before he turned the gun on himself, got the weapon from his home, authorities said Tuesday.

Washoe County School District police said they are still working to determine how the boy obtained the 9mm semi-automatic Ruger handgun used in the Monday morning spree at Sparks Middle School. The boy's parents are cooperating with authorities and could face charges in the case, police said.

They get it in the EU...

From Deutsche Welle
Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem has said the EU can "no longer watch on without acting" as 1,000 Europeans are killed in gun violence each year. She is proposing unified, stricter rules for the whole bloc.
A little comparison here, the EU Comprises 28 nations and has a 2012 population of 507,890,191 whereas the US has a population of 316,915,000. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, killers used guns to murder 11,000 people in 2010 in the U.S., the latest year for which statistics are available. Twenty-thousand others used guns to commit suicides that year, and another 73,000 people were rushed to hospital emergency rooms for gunshot wounds (Source VOA).

Using those numbers, the EU has a larger population, but 9% (0.090909)  of the gun violence, yet they admit there is a problem. Although officially, the US admits it has a problem as the VOA article I mentioned about is titled: Experts: Gun Violence Is Public Health Crisis in US.

The DW article goes on:

The EU's home affairs commissioner wrote that one problem with the open-border bloc was "the danger that criminals try to get hold of their guns in the countries with the most lax laws" on gun ownership.
Let's also put out this bit of info:
The annual Small Arms Survey report in 2007 sought to estimate gun ownership per capita around the world. According to these results, Germany had 30.3 registered firearms for every 100 inhabitants – putting it above average in European Union terms, but behind countries like Finland (45.3), Cyprus (36.4) and Sweden (31.6). The US topped the global list by a considerable margin, averaging just under one gun per person, according to the research institute based in Switzerland.
The rule changes which are reported to be under European Commission consideration include revising which guns are eligible for home ownership, tighter regulations for the sale and ownership of antique weapons and air rifles or air pistols, and a possible ban on selling weapons or ammunition on the Internet.

I know the usual excuse is to blame the Second Amendment, but any interpretation that goes against the public welfare goes against the spirit of the constitution (and you don't need to go too far into the document to see that). 

California Police Shoot and Kill a 13-Year-old Boy With Replica Assault Rifle

Andy Lopez was shot dead by a Santa Rosa police officer
Andy Lopez was shot dead by a Santa Rosa police officer as he walked down the street carrying a pellet gun modelled on an assault rifle. Photograph: AP/The Press Democrat

The Guardian

A 13-year-old California boy carrying a replica of an assault rifle to a friend's house was shot dead by a sheriff's deputy who believed the gun was real, authorities have said.

Lieutenant Paul Henry, who is investigating the incident for the Santa Rosa police department, said two Sonoma county sheriff's deputies had been patrolling a street near the boy's home on Tuesday when they saw him walking with what appeared to be an assault weapon in his left hand.

One of the deputies, who did not immediately realise that the person he was seeing from behind was a child, shouted twice: "Put down the gun," according to Henry and a police statement.

"The subject turned toward the deputies, and as he was doing that the barrel of the weapon was rising toward the deputies," Henry said. The deputy then fired rounds, killing the boy.

More on the Texas 5-Year-old - Babysitter Charged

Orange County, Texas, Sheriff's Office. Melissa Ann Ringhardt, 19, of Vidor, Texas, was charged with abandoning or endangering a child after 5-year-old John Read shot and killed himself with her gun Monday, authorities said.
A teenage babysitter was arrested Tuesday and charged in the death of a 5-year-old Texas boy who accidentally shot himself with the babysitter's gun while she was napping, authorities said.
Melissa Ann Ringhardt, 19, of Vidor was being held in the Orange County Jail on a felony charge of abandoning or endangering a child, the county sheriff's office said in a statement. She could face a sentence of six months to two years if convicted
The sheriff's office said Ringhardt, who lives with the boy's family, left her semiautomatic .40-caliber handgun on a coffee table when she went into a bedroom to take a nap Monday afternoon. When she woke up, she couldn't immediately find the boy, identified as John Read, according to the sheriff's office. She eventually discovered him dead in the living room, it said.
Because the home has no telephone, Ringhardt carried John and a 6-month-old child, whom she was also watching and who wasn't identified, about a block to his grandparents' home to call 911, the sheriff's office said. John was declared dead there when emergency crews arrived.
Ringhardt told investigators she had the gun because she was frightened of being home alone, the sheriff's office said. 
No phone and no cell phone either? How is that?
This girl is another victim of the gun rights movement. She believed the lie that having a gun is a good way to provide for your safety.  Too often, it's not.

In Virginia - McAuliffe vs. Cuccinelli



Two weeks from Election Day in Virginia, most observers are getting very comfortable with the idea that Terry McAuliffe will overcome the powerful myth that the party controlling the White House always loses gubernatorial races in the Commonwealth (based on the outcomes of the last nine contests) and beat Republican Ken Cuccinelli, mainly because of Cooch’s extremism but aided by a backlash against the government shutdown engineered by his partisan and ideological friends up the road in D.C.
But today’s Rasmussen poll from Virginia is still startling: it shows T-Mac opening up a 17 point lead on Cooch (50/33, with 8% for Libertarian Robert Sarvis). This is a poll of likely voters, BTW, so it shows a race not terribly vulnerable to surprising turnout patterns.
Rasmussen’s last poll of this race a month ago had McAuliffe up 44/38, so the latest finding reflects a clear shift of support from one candidate to the other.
This is what's going to happen all over the country.  One result, as the Republicans, led by the Tea Party fanatics, crumble into obscurity, is that gun control will finally make its long-overdue comeback. 

More on the Sparks Nevada School Shooting

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Private Sale Loophole Has Found a New Home on Instagram

Gun swaps booming on Instagram
The gun market is booming on Instagram.
The popular photo-posting  app – bought last year by Facebook for $1 billion – has become the go-to place for folks looking to buy and sell firearms on the Internet, boasting a web of private owners and professional dealers with shotguns, handguns and assault rifles for sale on the open market, according to a report by The Daily Beast.
Instagram is not an e-commerce site, and has no stated policy barring firearm sales.
Potential deals are openly discussed in the Instagram comments section.
“Great setup,” a presumably interested user responds.
“Asking $3,000 for everything,” the seller writes back. “I’m really trying to get a package deal. Don’t need want to part it all out.”
Transactions then move from the public comments arena to private conversations via email and phone.
And the deals aren’t illegal.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has no authority on gun sales between private parties, and different states have different rules when it comes to buying firearms.

Gun Paradise Vermont is Moving Towards Stricter Gun Control Laws


Dozens of gun rights advocates spoke out against the gun control charter changes at Burlington's city council meeting Oct. 21.
VPR

Burlington is moving forward with a trio of gun control measures with wide backing from the mayor, city councilors and the city’s police chief.
Another proposed charter change called for a permitting system for the concealed carry of firearms. Both Mayor Miro Weinberger and Police Chief Michael Schirling voiced opposition to that plan.
The proposed changes now have to pass city-wide vote before they’re presented to the state legislature. If Burlington voters and state legislators approve the change, the city may begin to enforce them.

Why Guns Will Soon Top Cars on List of Killers

Guns
Guns currently kill about 30,000 Americans annually -- almost as many as cars. Photograph by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
Bloomberg

The results of the safety revolution [for cars] can be measured in mortality rates. In 1958, there were 35,331 motor vehicle deaths in the U.S. After a half century of improvements in auto and road safety, that number declined to 32,367 in 2011 even as the population increased by three-fourths. Fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles in 1958 were 5.32; by 2011, they had plummeted to 1.1. "Aspirational" brands such as Volvo, Mercedes and BMW now market cars based on their safety ratings.
The gun industry, aided by an ideology-infused gun culture, has resisted even attempting similar gains. Guns currently kill about 30,000 Americans annually -- almost as many as cars -- and injure another 70,000. It's unclear if gun-safety measures could achieve similarly dramatic results as auto-safety initiatives, or with similarly minimal inconvenience. But certainly they could achieve much -- if they were tried. Laws designed to keep guns away from criminals, domestic abusers, drug addicts and others have been thwarted, along with efforts to keep guns away from children. Technological fixes -- such as smart guns using fingerprint scanners -- get little encouragement from the NRA and its backers.

Unsecured AR-15 Rifle Stolen from Tea Party US Rep. Renee Ellmers' NC Home



Go Erie

An AR-15 military-style rifle has been reported stolen from an unlocked garage at the North Carolina home of U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers.

A report released Tuesday by the Dunn Police Department says officers were called to the Republican lawmaker's home last Wednesday after her husband noticed the rifle, a gun case and a GPS receiver were missing. The weapon was last seen the prior day, leaning against a gun safe in the home's attached garage.

Bret Ellmers told officers he and his son had left the rifle in the garage after going target shooting. The report does not say whether the weapon was loaded. The AR-15 is a semi-automatic carbine similar to the M-16 issued to U.S. troops.

Ellmers spokesman Thomas Doheny says the congresswoman was in Washington when the rifle was stolen but declined to discuss details, citing the ongoing police investigation. He added that, as a mother, Ellmers is concerned that the rifle was left unsecured.

"Her family is very big on gun safety and she wants to get to the bottom of this herself," Doheny said.

Ellmers is a political conservative aligned with the tea party. In the 2012 election she was endorsed by the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun groups.

Ted Nugent Gets Involved in Texas Politics


Since when is Agriculture Commissioner a "high profile state race?"

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Open carry

Some people enjoying their freedom and right to walk about carrying assault weapons...

Is this what the US has become?

Fifty Women a Month Die by Guns in Domestic Violence Incidents

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, but most people are in fact unaware. One reason is that Republicans in congress frittered away most of the month by closing the government and creating a manufactured crisis over the debt ceiling.
But the statistics on domestic violence and guns ought to get our attention. If October is like every other month, nearly 50 women in the U.S. will be murdered with a gun by an intimate partner — overwhelmingly a husband or boyfriend. We’ve had so many mass shootings in places like Tucson, Aurora, Newtown, and the Navy Yard that it would be easy to conclude gun violence knows no gender. But that’s not quite true.
Women are over three-and-a-half times more likely than men to be killed by an intimate partner. And a gun in a household with a history of domestic violence increases that risk by twenty fold. Stalkers also use guns to harm their victims — and you guessed it — more than 75 percent of those victims are female.
A few common sense changes in the law would make women safer. For starters, we need to close the loopholes on background checks for gun ownership. Right now, if you want a gun without submitting to a background check, just pick one up at a gun show or online. No problem — no questions asked.
True, it’s against the law for people convicted of domestic violence or subject to restraining orders to buy a gun. But even that paltry prohibition doesn’t cover dating partners — federal law only protects women victimized by spouses or co-parents. And if someone already owns a gun when convicted, they don’t necessarily have to surrender it. A lot of the time they get to keep it to use another day.
Stalkers are usually home free too, even if convicted. Only seven states bar them from buying or owning guns. There’s no federal ban at all, despite the often increasingly violent nature of their behavior.

Accidental Shooting at Voorhees College South Carolina

Local news reports

A student at Voorhees College was shot Monday afternoon according to a statement on Voorhees College Facebook page. 

According to the post, at approximately 3:07 pm on Monday, October 21, in the Dawson Health and Human resources center on campus an accidential shooting occurred. 

While playing basketball in the gym, a gun dropped out of a student's pocket and a bullet discharged. 

The bullet struck , 21-year-old student Jasmine Parker-Grant, a senior from Nashville, in the chest area. The student, the statement goes on to say, is receiving medical treatment for her gunshot at the Regional Medical Center in Orangeburg. 

President Sellers said in the statement, "It should be noted that this was an accidental shooting, but Voorhees College does not tolerate any weapons on our campus." 

The statement goes on to say that there is a person of interest and more information will be provided as it becomes available.

Accidental Shooting Leaves Texas Man Wounded - It Was the Gun's Fault

Port Arthur News

A 27-year-old Vidor man sustained a gunshot wound to his thigh during an accidental shooting in Vidor on Monday. 

Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the accidental shooting at about 6:30 p.m. Oct. 21 in the 1800 block of Erin Drive, according to a press release from Orange County Sheriff’s Office. They met with the victim, identified as Keith Thomas, who told deputies he was cleaning a .22 caliber revolver when the cylinder jammed. When he could not clear the jam, he handed to revolver to his father, identified as Monte Thomas, who attempted to clear the jam. 

According to both men, the handgun went off while in the father’s hand and the bullet struck the 27-year-old man in the thigh. Acadian Ambulance responded to the scene and the man was taken to Christus Hospital-St. Elizabeth in Beaumont for a non-life threatening injury. 

The sheriff’s office believes the shooting was accidental based on statements of witnesses and evidence gathered at the scene.

When bumbling gun owners point guns at each other and touch the trigger with their fingers, bad things happen. This had nothing to do with the jam. This had only to do with shitty muzzle control and failure to keep the finger off the trigger.

A Senior Marine Corps Officer Got Fired For Negligently Firing A Gun Inside His Office

Colonel quantico

Business Insider

A Colonel serving as the commanding officer of Security Battalion at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va. was relieved Friday after he allegedly fired his pistol accidentally inside of his office, Hope Hodge Seck of Marine Corps Times reports.
Citing “loss of confidence” stemming from the alleged shooting of his M9 pistol into his office floor, Maj. Gen. Juan Ayala relieved Col. Daren Margolin of command and he also faces military charges. The specific charge was not made public, but Article 134 is often used for “negligent discharges” — leading to possible penalties of jail time and/or loss of pay.
Negligent discharges are somewhat common in Iraq and Afghanistan — the military’s public affairs site mentioned 126 being reported in just 2007 alone — but back stateside, where troops are not armed all the time, it’s certainly out of the ordinary.
Margolin was in charge of Security Battalion, the unit made of fire and police personnel responsible for the protection of the base.
The Marine Corps knows how to respond to negligent handling of firearms.  They make no attempt to downplay it or white wash it. Negligence is just what it is, and it's inexcusable.
Gun-rights fanatics could learn something from this.

Lawful North Dakota Gun Owner Accidentally Fires Gun while Drunk - Minor Charges Follow


Police here say a guest at a Fargo hotel will face misdemeanor charges after accidentally firing a handgun in the hotel lobby Monday night.

According to police Lt. Joel Vettel: The incident was reported about 9 p.m. Monday at the Motel 6 in the 3100 block of 39th Street South.

Hotel staff told police they heard a gunshot and officers found glass shot out of the hotel’s lobby door.
A review of hotel video determined that a guest at the hotel was responsible and a small-caliber handgun was involved.

Vettel said it was determined the shooting was accidental and the individual involved will be charged by long-form complaint with unlawful discharge of a firearm within city limits and reckless endangerment.

Other charges are also possible, according to Vettel, who said alcohol was a factor in the incident.

He probably has a concealed carry permit but nobody's checking that.  These minor charges will amount to nothing more then a slap on the wrist and he'll carry on till someday he kills somebody.

Molon Labe - The Film

Concealed Carry Pastor Stops Robbery

Poll Results Just Keep Getting Worse and Worse for Republicans

Mother Jones 
Today's ABC/Washington Post poll is the worst horror show yet for the Republican Party. Of the respondents:
  • 81 percent disapprove of the government shutdown.
  • 53 percent think Republicans are solely to blame (compared to only 29 percent blaming Obama).
  • 77 percent believe that Republicans only care about doing what's best for themselves, not what's best for the country.
These numbers are way, way higher than just the ordinary partisan divide. Ted Cruz and his fellow tea partiers have done tremendous damage to the Republican Party brand. If I were sociopathic and didn't care about my country, it would almost be enough to make me hope that they do it again a little closer to Election Day.

Another Concealed Carry Permit Holder Arrested at Salt Lake Airport

Yet another gun was discovered by Transportation Security Administration screeners at the Salt Lake City International Airport over the weekend.
Zackery Gage Ogden, 23, of South Jordan, was arrested Sunday for investigation of a weapons violation after screeners at the airport found a gun in his carry-on bag, according to a Salt Lake County Jail report.
The incident marks the 27th gun seized at the airport this year. Twenty guns were seized in all of 2012 at Salt Lake City International Airport and 24 at all of Utah's airports combined.
A person convicted of a misdemeanor or felony charge of having a firearm at the airport can have their concealed weapons permit suspended for up to five years in addition to any penalties the court levies.
Did you catch that part about how they CAN have their permit suspended?  I wonder how many actually do? I doubt it's very many. 
No, in spite of the bogus statistics they keep showing us, permit holders are as bumbling and incompetent as any other group.  They certainly don't make us safer.

New Concealed Carry Law in Illinois Raises Questions

Lake Forest Deputy Police Chief Karl Walldorf told a League of Women Voters forum on the new concealed carry law in Illinois that officers are being trained on how and when to ask whether individuals have weapons and what to do about violations.
"A permit person is not required to tell us they have a gun unless we ask," he said at last week's event. "We're going to be training the officers to always ask drivers if they're armed."
Walldorf said state police still are determining several administrative elements of the law that was passed in July and takes effect in January, including how police will be notified of a violator and local law enforcement's ability to object to a person's application to carry.
Whether concealed carry permit holders are required to tell the cops they have a gun or not is a good question. I think this is required in some states, most even, but I always thought it was more a common sense thing.  Wouldn't telling them you're carrying legally be the best way of avoiding misunderstandings?
What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.