My Blog

Tag: Gun Issues

  • Gun Turn-In Weekend in Chicago

    Using the lure of $100 gift cards, the Chicago Police Department is encouraging people to get guns out of their homes and turn them in this Saturday, during the annual gun turn-in program.  …

    First Deputy Supt. Alfonza Wysinger says anyone who turns in a real gun will get a $100 gift card. Replicas and BB guns are worth $10.

    “No questions asked,” Wysinger said. “Just show up at the church, and hand over the weapons to the CPD officer that will be there, and get your $100 gift card. So we strongly suggest that people come out that have weapons lying around the house, or weapons, maybe, that they don’t necessarily want in their house. This is a chance to get some money for their weapon, and get another dangerous weapon on the street.”

    via CBS Chicago.

    I wish I heard about this a few weeks ago.  I could have pick-up a few cheap old worthless guns at an auction in Indiana or Wisconsin and made a few bucks.  Maybe I’ll get myself ready for next year.

    Kudos to the CPD for completely wasting taxpayer money on a program that does absolutely nothing to reduce crime.  Functioning illegal guns are worth more on the  street than $100.  Simple economics dictate that this program is nothing more than a PR event.

  • The ‘Wild, Wild Midwest’

    The city’s murder rate is quadruple New York City’s. Homicides since 2001 total twice the number of U.S. military personnel killed in Afghanistan in the same period. Police have moved to reduce the carnage, but activists say gun use must be reined in—and they will stage a peacemakers’ rally on Friday.

    via The Daily Beast.

    We’re making national headlines on a regular basis now.  In the meantime Rahm and The Machine that run this town are still telling everyone that crime is down.  The local news media is fully complicit with the ongoing lie.

    It’s like they’re all Frank Drebin:

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NNOrp_83RU?rel=0]

  • Personal Safety Demonstrated by Two Cases

    Two different stories in the papers recently on the same day (April 25, 2012.)

    The first:

    For nine years the “teardrop” rapist was one of Los Angeles’ most prolific serial predators, preying on women from Melrose Avenue to Manchester Boulevard.

    The assailant, sometimes described as having a teardrop tattoo below one of his eyes, targeted girls and women walking alone in the early-morning hours. He would force them into a secluded area at the point of a gun or knife before raping or sexually assaulting them.

    via L.A. Times.

    And then there’s this:

    Authorities in Georgia say a grandmother foiled a robbery attempt by two armed men by getting into a shootout with them, injuring one man.

    Police told The Telegraph that Lulu Campbell just dropped off her grandson at her daughter’s house early Saturday morning when someone demanded money outside her car, threatening to shoot her.

    “(The suspect) shouted, ‘Give me the (blanking) money and open the (blanking) door!’” Campbell told The Telegraph, describing her ordeal. “I said, ‘Oh my God, somebody is going to rob me.’ I said, ‘Baby, you’re going to kill me anyway, so I don’t have to open it!’”

    Campbell says the man fired at her, missing. The 57-year-old fired back, striking him in the chest. Her truck sustained eight bullet holes in the hood, one in the grill. Both front side windows were destroyed. The second man fled after she shot at him.

    “I thought that the only way to protect myself was to run him down,” she told The Telegraph. “Otherwise, he would have gotten away.”

    via CBS Atlanta.

    Note the differences:

    In LA, much like Chicago, people are not allowed to carry guns for their own personal protection.  And in our LA story, we have young fully able bodied “girls and women” are a serially sexually assaulted by some piece of scum while walking along city sidewalks.  Running away could not save them.  Yelling for help could not save them.  The police could not save them.

    In Macon Georgia, where people enjoy their Second Amendment rights, a 57 year-old woman was able to defend herself against not one but two stone cold criminals.  Grandma didn’t need to run, in fact she was trapped inside her car!  Grandma didn’t yell for help.  Grandma wasn’t helpless until the police showed up to survey the damage.  Grandma had a gun.

  • Self Defense Now a Federal Issue

    House Democrats said Tuesday they will offer an amendment to push to overturn stand-your-ground self-defense laws in states like Florida.

    The amendment, which would withhold some grants from states that have such laws, will come as part of the House’s debate on the Commerce Department spending bill.

    “‘Shoot-first’ laws have already cost too many lives. In Florida alone, deaths due to self-defense have tripled since the law was enacted. Federal money shouldn’t be spent supporting states with laws that endanger their own people,” said Reps. Raul Grijalva of Arizona and Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the two Democrats who are offering the legislation. “This is no different than withholding transportation funds from states that don’t enforce seat-belt laws.”

    Florida’s law, which allows residents to use force in response to an attack without first having to retreat, has come under scrutiny after the nationally-polarizing death of teenager Trayvon Martin. George Zimmermann, a neighborhood watch volunteer, has been charged with murder in the case.

    via Washington Times.

    Surely they jest!  I guess Reps. Grijalva and Ellison would rather have dead victims.

    I have some news for these guys, our right to self-defense comes from our creator — not from the government.  If you think otherwise go put yourself between a mama bear and her cub.

  • Bank of America Hates the Second Amendment

    McMillan Fiberglass Stocks, McMillan Firearms Manufacturing and McMillan Group International have been collectively banking with Bank of America for 12 years. But no more: In a recent meeting, the mega-bank told the firearms company that its business is no longer welcome.

    Operations director Kelly McMillan told the Daily Caller that his company has never been late on a payment and has never bounced a check. …

    Writing Thursday on Facebook, McMillan described a meeting at his office with Ray Fox, a business banking Senior Vice President with the giant bank. What was originally scheduled as an “account analysis” meeting, however, quickly became a political smackdown.

    The Bank of America emissary, he said, “spent 5 minutes talking about how McMillan has changed in the last 5 years and have become more of a firearms manufacturer than a supplier of accessories.”

    “At this point I interrupted him,” McMillan said, and asked, ‘Can I possibly save you some time so that you don’t waste your breath? What you are going to tell me is that because we are in the firearms manufacturing business you no longer what my business.’”

    Fox’s reply, according to McMillan? “That is correct.”

    via The Daily Caller.

    Well that pretty much says it all (more details to the story at the link.)

    I hate it when people say this but…  please pass this story along.  It is just so wrong that BofA would stop doing business with a successful company solely based on their manufacture of a legal and non-prurient product.

    I, thankfully, don’t do any business with BofA.  Can say that I certainly don’t intent to do so now.

    UPDATE:  Title changed to more accurately reflect the story.

  • WI State Rep. Wants to Repeal Castle Doctrine

    Sounds to me like Rep. Tamara Grigsby is too dumb to understand the difference between the Castle Doctrine and Self Defense. While related, they are not the same. Just another Milwaukee liberal trying to make sure that a criminal has more rights than a victim.

  • Trayvon Martin’ death vs. 16 Others… Every Day

    A lot of energy is being focused on the death of Trayvon Martin as a sign of racism in our society.  Yet I find myself deeply troubled by the very selective upset of civil rights leaders.  In 2010, 6470 blacks were murdered in the United States, more than 17 per day.  Examining the single offender/victim table shows that 90% of black murder victims were murdered by another black. (No surprise: most murder is within race.)  I don’t mean to suggest that Trayvon Martin’s death is unimportant.  But where is the outrage and fury of the civil rights groups about the 16 black-on-black murders that happen every day in the U.S.?  We don’t know if Zimmerman did something criminal, or just something stupid that led to Trayvon Martin’s death.  But we do know that every day there are sixteen black-on-black murders in the U.S., and they almost never receive this kind of attention and concern. Or is it only a concern if the killer isn’t black?

    via PJ Media.

    Indeed.

  • Chicago Man, 80, Charged After Shooting Burglar

    Neighbors say they’re “outraged” that an 80-year-old owner of a local tavern has been charged after shooting a burglar who broke into his home in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.

    “What does it say to me and other senior citizens that we will be arrested if we defend ourselves?” asked Anita Dominique, head of the block club in the neighborhood. “This is an outrage.”

    Police say Homer Wright was inside his home in the 6400 block of South Morgan Street about 6:30 a.m. Monday when someone broke through several boards and entered through a rear bathroom window and tried to steal some liquor. Wright grabbed a handgun and shot the burglar in the lower right leg, police said.

    Anthony Robinson, 19, of the 6000 block of South Wood Street, was charged with felony burglary after he was treated at St. Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center and released.

    Wright was charged with one felony count of unlawful use of a weapon after police discovered he had two prior weapons convictions from 1968 and 1994, officials said. Records show Wright also was convicted of theft in 1990. Wright turned his gun over to detectives.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    This is kinda a fine line here.  If Mr. Wright is really a felon, then he probably shouldn’t be handling any firearms.  But as a society we need to face up to the fact that the police cannot be everywhere and as it turns out Mr. Wright does have a very real need to be able to defend himself.

    What I wonder is why throw the book at Mr. Wright and not the countless gang bangers running around with guns?  I still want to know how many weapons possession cases Anita Alvarez has referred to the fed’s for prosecution.

  • Holding a Gun Gives You a Bias

    I’m not saying the “researchers” (a/k/a ivory tower academics) got it wrong, but they definitely have not thought through all the conclusions.

    A new study from the University of Notre Dame found that if you’re holding a gun, you are more likely to think others are packing heat as well.

    [T]he study was led by Notre Dame’s Associate Professor of Psychology James Brockmole, a specialist in human cognition and how the visual world guides behavior, with a colleague from Purdue University.  The research team conducted five experiments where participants, who either held a toy gun or a neutral object, viewed images of people on a computer screen and were asked to determine if they were holding a gun or another object, such as soda bottle or cellphone:

    The researchers varied the situation in each experiment — such as having the people in the images sometimes wear ski masks, changing the race of the person in the image or changing the reaction subjects were to have when they perceived the person in the image to hold a gun. Regardless of the situation the observers found themselves in, the study showed that responding with a gun biased observers to report “gun present” more than did responding with a ball. Thus, by virtue of affording the subject the opportunity to use a gun, he or she was more likely to classify objects in a scene as a gun and, as a result, to engage in threat-induced behavior, such as raising a firearm to shoot.

    […]

    The researchers showed that the ability to act is a key factor in the effects by showing that simply letting observers see a nearby gun did not influence their behavior; holding and using the gun was important.

    Brockmole said that this study shows that “people have a hard time separating their thoughts about what they perceive and their thoughts about how they can or should act.” Brockmole said in addition to “theoretical implications for event perception and object identification,” this research could also be considered for law enforcement and public safety implications. The infamous shooting of Amadou Diallo by plain clothes New York City police officers in 1999 comes to mind as an example. Diallo was unarmed and when approached by police at his doorstep who asked him to show his hands. Diallo reached into his pocket with his wallet in hand. In the low morning light, police identified this object as a gun and shot Diallo 19 times.

    via TheBlaze.com.

    I say the “researchers” are missing the much bigger picture here.  While unfortunate, it’s far more common for an armed criminal to shoot an unarmed victim than for a police officer to shoot an unarmed uncooperative person.

    Maybe they should apply their research to why criminals shoot first and ask questions later.   Perhaps while the criminal is standing in the convenience store holding the gun, they have a hard time separating their thoughts about what they perceive and their thoughts about how they can or should act.

    Cops kill maybe 100 folks a year nationwide.  Criminals kills 50,000 folks each year with guns.  Which is the bigger picture?

  • Fast-n-Furious Catches and Release Top Suspect

    I’m sorry this story is a few days old, I’ve been busy.

    As a courtesy the LA Times didn’t mention Eric Holder’s name in this article.

    Seven months after federal agents began the ill-fated Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation, they stumbled upon their main suspect in a remote Arizona outpost on the Mexican border, driving an old BMW with 74 rounds of ammunition and nine cellphones hidden inside.

    Detained for questioning that day in May 2010, Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta described to agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives his close association with a top Mexican drug cartel member, according to documents obtained this weekend by the Times/Tribune Washington Bureau.

    The top Fast and Furious investigator, Special Agent Hope MacAllister, scribbled her phone number on a $10 bill after he pledged to cooperate and keep in touch with investigators.

    Then Celis-Acosta disappeared into Mexico. He never called.

    Had they arrested him red-handed trying to smuggle ammunition into Mexico, Fast and Furious might have ended quickly. Instead, the program dragged on for another eight months, spiraling out of control.

    via LA Times.

    Will the Obama administration hold ANYONE accountable for this?