Gun Control Stories From Around The Web
Here's my take on some selected news stories on gun control from around the web. These are stories I found interesting, intriguing, silly, stupid or just completely off the wall.
Joe Biden - Winner of the Forest Gump "Stupid is as stupid does" award.
That you could fill a book with the gaffes that come from Biden's pie hole is no surprise. Remember Dan Quayle's misspelling of potato? Oh my, how the press used that to paint Quayle as an ignorant, rich white boy. Some folks mocked President G. W. Bush's pronunciation of "Nuclear" (in Texas it's nuclur we'd guess) as a sign that he was a doofus.
Who can forget Biden's speech at an AARP town hall meeting where he said We have to spend money to keep from going bankrupt. Or his comment that during the depression, FDR went on television to talk to Americans.
Biden's gaffes are so frequent he has a full time podiatrist on his staff to extricate his foot from his mouth (we think Joe should probably hire a proctologist too).
During the National Rifle Association’s meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and the White House gun violence task force, the vice president said the Obama administration does not have the time to fully enforce existing gun laws.
Jim Baker, the NRA representative present at the meeting, recalled the vice president’s words during an interview with The Daily Caller: “And to your point, Mr. Baker, regarding the lack of prosecutions on lying on Form 4473s, we simply don’t have the time or manpower to prosecute everybody who lies on a form, that checks a wrong box, that answers a question inaccurately.”
So, the V.P. is admitting that the government fails to prosecute over 98% of the rejected background checks when prohibited people try to buy a gun. What that means is that if a deranged person is rejected, he need not fear being contacted, much less arrested, by the Feds. So instead of adding funding to the DOJ to go after these people, they'll let them "slip through the cracks" while adding even more onerous "gun control" laws that they won't have time to enforce.
Oh, just one more thing. Gun prosecutions in 2011 were down 35 percent from the previous administration’s peak in 2004, according to Justice Department data.
Your tax dollars
Winner Of The Off-the-Wall Category: Actor Danny Glover
Why: The Second Amendment was to protect slavery and conquest of the Indians.
I like actor Danny Glover and I think he is a fine actor. Best known for his role in the Mel Gibson Lethal Weapon series of films, Glover
I like actor Danny Glover and I think he is a fine actor. Best known for his role in the Mel Gibson Lethal Weapon series of films, Glover
manages to bring dramatic stature, along with a charming sense of humor to films. Sadly, however, Mr. Glover seems to view the world through a prism of race and also appears to harbor some smoldering hatred over events that happened generations ago.
At a Texas A&M University speaking event being held in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Glover told a student audience the "true story" behind the second amendment.
“I don’t know if you know the genesis of the right to bear arms,” said Glover. “The Second Amendment comes from the right to protect themselves from slave revolts, and from uprisings by Native Americans.”
“I don’t know if you know the genesis of the right to bear arms,” said Glover. “The Second Amendment comes from the right to protect themselves from slave revolts, and from uprisings by Native Americans.”
“A revolt from people who were stolen from their land or revolt from people whose land was stolen from, that’s what the genesis of the second amendment is,” he continued.
Really, Danny? The uniquely American right to arms can be traced to the English right to arms and the way the English required "all good Protestants" to have arms. Further reading reveals the influence of this right, combined with the ideas of Machiavelli on the relationship between citizens and government gave us the 2nd Amendment.
Did the right to arms and the weapons themselves contribute to what Glover says was oppression of "negro slaves" and the native American Indians? Certainly. Was that racist? Unquestionably, especially by today's standards. Does that make every white man who killed an Indian to survive, or every white man who returned a slave to the plantation an evil racist? No. These men were a product of their time. Their racism then was born of ignorance and arrogance. Their racism was no more evil than doctors were incompetent because they didn't know to wash their hands in 1791. Nor should Mr. Glover ever forget that it was other Africans who conquered villages, took slaves to sell to Muslim slave traders, who in turn sold the slaves to the British, Dutch, Arabs and other nations. We are ill-positioned to judge our forefathers, especially when trying to use today's standards of "civilized" behavior.Recommended reading list for Mr. Glover - and anyone else interested in the debate. All of these books are available at Amazon.com.
- To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right, Joyce Lee Malcolm
- The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, et al
- The Debates in the Several State Conventions On the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787 - Jonathan Elliot (republished Mar 9, 2010, reproduction)
Food For Thought: Who Protects Our Children?
Police officer William Kiphart analyzed, and tracked 90 active shooter/bomber/killer cases back through 1982 and 124 school-specific incidents back to 1927 (114 of which have occurred since 1982).Thus far, he has only been able to locate only two instances where a murderer entered a location with prior knowledge of armed security or police, and both are outside of the school house active shooter profile.
One was the U.S. Capitol shooting in 1998 and the other being the Kirkwood City Hall shooting in 2008. Both were revenge shootings by older males not fitting the school shooter profile or targeting children. This research is ongoing.
Kiphart did not located any active shooter/murderers with the school house shooter profile that occurred with armed security or police assigned to that location. And there are plenty of schools with such security or resident officers in place.
Kiphart describes the school house active shooter/killer profile. It is a combination of traits and circumstances that generally exist within these incidents.
The shooter is most often a Caucasian male, 14 to 17 years old with several incidents having them as young as 11 to 13 and an occasional anomaly of a female. They typically have documented behavioral problems and are currently or previously have been on drugs for such problems. In all cases, the weapons are illegally possessed and in all but one case that I have found illegally obtained.
This profile also indicates that the classic school house active shooter is non-confrontational.
Note that over a span of 83 years, most school shootings have occurred since 1982 (91.9%). And remember, from 1927 until 1968, people could mail-order firearms and there were no background checks of gun purchases. This means about 92% of the incidents happened in the last third (33%) of the time period studied (actually more, since Kiphart's research omits 2011-12). What has changed since 1982? More violent movies? Video Games? Routine drugging of our problematic kids in schools? I'd say all of the above.
Sheriffs, State Lawmakers Push Back on Gun Control
For most people, their local Sheriff is the most powerful local law enforcement agency. Since sheriffs are elected in most counties, they also swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. And many of these men and women take that oath seriously.
"A lot of sheriffs are now standing up and saying, 'Follow the Constitution,'" said Josephine County Sheriff Gil Gilbertson, whose territory covers the timbered mountains of southwestern Oregon.
And some sheriffs are being backed up by their state lawmakers.
In Mississippi, Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, urged the Legislature to make it illegal to enforce any executive order by the president that violates the Constitution.
Tennessee Republican state Rep. Joe Carr wants to make it a state crime for federal agents to enforce any ban on firearms or ammunition. Carr instead called for more armed guards at schools.
"We're tired of political antics, cheap props of using children as bait to gin up emotional attachment for an issue that quite honestly doesn't solve the problem," Carr said.
Legislative proposals to pre-empt new federal gun restrictions also have arisen in Wyoming, Utah and Alaska.
A Wyoming bill specifies that any federal limitation on guns would be unenforceable. It also would make it a state felony for federal agents to try to enforce restrictions.
A bill in the Alaska House would make it a misdemeanor for a federal agent to enforce new restrictions on gun ownership.
In Minnesota, Pine County Sheriff Robin Cole sent an open letter to residents saying he did not believe the federal government had the right to tell the states how to regulate firearms. He said he would refuse to enforce any federal mandate he felt violated constitutional rights.
If it comes down to a court battle, the sheriffs might lose. However, the matter is complicated by the whole idea of "states rights" too. Two sheriffs successfully sued the Clinton administration over the Brady Gun Control Act, which required local sheriffs to perform background checks for federal law, but without funding. The courts ruled that the Federal government could not force sheriffs to enforce a federal law without funding because that would violate a State's sovereignty. Now the sheriffs are fighting back against what they believe is an unconstitutional set of laws and executive orders. Hopefully it will result in a court show-down where the feds have to prove the constitutionality of their orders.
New York's Journal News Removes Gun Map
Two homes have since been burglarized after the map's publication. In one case, thieves stole valuables but couldn't open a locked safe to acquire any firearms. In the second case, thieves opened two safes, taking jewelry and valuables, then carted off a third safe containing firearms. Police have not yet tied these burglaries to the Journal New's website however it is reported that both homes were listed on the site.
New York legislators moved quickly to amend the law to allow permit holders to withhold their personal information from public release.
New York legislators moved quickly to amend the law to allow permit holders to withhold their personal information from public release.
New York Gun Law Follies
It's back to the drawing board for the New York legislature. In their rush to pass a new gun law that bans assault weapons and limits pistol magazines to only seven (7) shots, lawmakers forgot to exempt police officers from the statute. According to New York officials, this doesn't actually impact police because a prior statute limiting magazine to ten shots exempted police officers.
Other provisions of this unconstitutional bill include a mandatory one-hour waiting period when trying to register any firearm, an obvious ploy to discourage lawful ownership by making compliance with the law expensive, cumbersome and uncomfortable. One unnamed police officer asked "Can you imagine what it's going to be like when thousands of people show up to register their guns?" We can. There are other provisions of the law which are unworkable in practice. Such as the 10-shot magazines already owned will still be legal, as long as you don't load more than seven bullets, said a state spokesman. But how will police know if your shiny new 10-shot magazine was bought yesterday or five years ago? They won't. The law is largely unenforceable.
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| Gov. Cuomo |
Other provisions of this unconstitutional bill include a mandatory one-hour waiting period when trying to register any firearm, an obvious ploy to discourage lawful ownership by making compliance with the law expensive, cumbersome and uncomfortable. One unnamed police officer asked "Can you imagine what it's going to be like when thousands of people show up to register their guns?" We can. There are other provisions of the law which are unworkable in practice. Such as the 10-shot magazines already owned will still be legal, as long as you don't load more than seven bullets, said a state spokesman. But how will police know if your shiny new 10-shot magazine was bought yesterday or five years ago? They won't. The law is largely unenforceable.
Priggish Pedantic Professors:
"White Privilege" Behind Many Mass-Shootings Says Professor
CampusReform.org reports that Robert Jensen, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, claims mass shootings, such as those in Newtown Conn., and Aurora Colo., are often the effects of jilted “white privilege.”
“Why are the men who commit mass murder disproportionately white?” Jensen asked rhetorically. “My guess is that it has something to do with the sense of entitlement that most white people feel.”
“When the world doesn't deliver what those men feel they deserve, violence is seen as a reasonable response,” continued Jensen. He then tried to link the Tea Party movement to these violent acts.
My question is how in the hell a journalism professor thinks his position qualifies him to speak on issues of criminology and social issues? And given the low quality of journalism these days, perhaps he should focus on demanding excellence in journalism before letting himself be distracted by other fields of study that are over his head.
Some quick research shows that Jensen focuses on "feminist" issues and deplored the 9/11 attacks but said it was no worse that what the U.S. military had done in his lifetime. A rebuke from University of Texas President Larry Faulkner wrote in a letter to the editor published in the Houston Chronicle that he was "disgusted by Jensen's article" and called Jensen "a fountain of undiluted foolishness on issues of public policy."
Good News, Bad News - 60% of young Americans plan to purchase firearms
According to a study by American University professor Jennifer L. Lawless and Loyola Marymount professor Richard L. Fox, (both political science professors) about 40 percent of the American students surveyed said they definitely planned to own firearms once they had established their own households. Another 20 percent said they were “contemplating” owning guns.
Those findings were part of a broader study conducted which focused on the political opinions of young Americans. The study was conducted prior the recent Newtown massacre, but after the Aurora theater shooting.
Lawless told Campus Reform on Tuesday that in her view the findings were proof that President Obama should move swiftly, and without the permission of Congress if necessary, in order limit the availability of firearms.
“The next generation plans on owning guns, so if we want to avoid the tragedies that we've seen… we obviously need to move quickly and if an executive order is the way to do it, then that is the way the to do it,” she said.
Students who identified as Democrats were twice as likely to fear gun violence as those who were not, the study found. Only 33 percent of the respondents who were questioned were raised in households where guns were owned.
David Burnett, the public relations director of the conservative student group Students for Concealed Carry, told Campus Reform on Tuesday he was not surprised by the study’s result.
“With every single spree killing we've seen in this nation in the past twenty years, with every sexual assault that takes place, nine every day on college campuses, with every robbery report we have, with every campus that goes on lock-down, these gun free zones are proven to be indefensible and impractical,” he said.
“College campuses put pictures on the door and expect psychopaths to abide by them,” he continued. “I think more and more college students have been waking up to this reality in the past five years since Virginia tech and they don’t want it.”
The good news is that 40% of students graduating from high school or colleges plan to acquire a firearm and another 20% are considering it. That shows that young people are aware of the benefits of owning a firearm for protection and/or sport.
The bad news is the conclusion and recommendations advocated by one of the study's researchers. How appropriate is it that a professor named "Lawless" advocates the President take unconstitutional actions to prevent the next generation from owning guns? What is frightening is that she has a Ph.D in political science. I guess she skipped that pesky class on the U.S. Constitution. And I have no doubt she is one of those gun-fearing Democrats her study uncovered.
She offers no proof that lawful gun ownership is a cause of tragic shootings or that a lack of available firearms would actually prevent mass killings of any type. If anyone wanted evidence that academics will distort the truth to support the leftist agenda, just have a talk with professor Lawless.
Professor Ignores Colorado state law with personal Classroom Gun Ban
Colorado University physics professor Jerry Peterson said he stood by his policy stated last year that he would cancel class if he became aware of a student carrying a gun.
Peterson’s rule stirred controversy last August when he announced the policy in August 2012 because it seemed to directly defy a 2011 Colorado Supreme Court ruling that granted individuals the right to carry firearms CU campus.
In a description of the policy in August, Peterson said he would not tolerate any sort of firearm in his classroom space. “My own personal policy in my classes is if I am aware that there is a firearm in the class -- registered or unregistered, concealed or unconcealed -- the class session is immediately canceled,” Peterson told a local paper in 2011.
"I will tell you the position of the university is unchanged," Bronson Hilliard, Director of Media Relations for CU said, "Any faculty or staff member who withholds services from students based on their concealed carry weapons permit status will face university discipline."
David Burnett, the spokesman for Students for Concealed Carry, expressed regret to Campus Reform that the professor was seemingly failing to abide by state law.
"Until the carry ban was removed, Students for Concealed Carry urged our members to respect and abide by it," he said. "Apparently our opponents don't share our respect for the law."
Once again, a professor thinks he knows better than everyone else. He may know and understand the physics behind ballistics, but he is obviously unaware (or perhaps unconcerned) of the dangers some of his students may face in the real world.
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