Nuclear Unicorn
Nuclear Unicorn's JournalReport: Navy officer and Marine fired upon Chattanooga gunman
A Navy officer and a Marine fired their sidearms at the gunman who killed five service members last week in Chattanooga, according to the Navy Times.
It is unclear whether either hit the gunman, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, according to the paper.
...
The Washington Post first reported that the Marine may have been carrying a 9mm Glock and possibly returned fire on the gunman.
The report is raising questions over why the service members were armed, since it is against Defense Department policy for troops other than military police or law enforcement to carry weapons on federal property.
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/248771-report-navy-officer-and-marine-fired-upon-chattanooga-gunman
Had the service members survived they could well be looking at military punishments such as reduction in rank, dishonorable or less-than-honorable discharges, loss of rank and pay or even courts martial.
Would that be justified?
If not, why keep the policy?
It seems of little value to maintain a gun control policy if the policy is waived in instances of legitimate self-defense. We should focus on crimes actually committed, not pre-crime punishments.
Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States
John R. Lott Jr.
Crime Prevention Research Center
John E Whitley
Crime Prevention Research Center; Institute for Defense Analyses
Rebekah C. Riley
Crime Prevention Research Center
July 13, 2015
Abstract:
Since President Obama’s election the number of concealed handgun permits has soared, growing from 4.6 million in 2007 to over 12.8 million this year. Among the findings in our report:
-- The number of concealed handgun permits is increasing at an ever- increasing rate. Over the past year, 1.7 million additional new permits have been issued – a 15.4% increase in just one single year. This is the largest ever single-year increase in the number of concealed handgun permits.
-- 5.2% of the total adult population has a permit.
-- Five states now have more than 10% of their adult population with concealed handgun permits.
-- In ten states, a permit is no longer required to carry in all or virtually all of the state. This is a major reason why legal carrying handguns is growing so much faster than the number of permits.
-- Since 2007, permits for women has increased by 270% and for men by 156%.
-- Some evidence suggests that permit holding by minorities is increasing more than twice as fast as for whites.
-- Between 2007 and 2014, murder rates have fallen from 5.6 to 4.2 (preliminary estimates) per 100,000. This represents a 25% drop in the murder rate at the same time that the percentage of the adult population with permits soared by 156%. Overall violent crime also fell by 25 percent over that period of time.
-- States with the largest increase in permits have seen the largest relative drops in murder rates.
-- Concealed handgun permit holders are extremely law-abiding. In Florida and Texas, permit holders are convicted of misdemeanors or felonies at one-sixth the rate that police officers are convicted.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2629704
Should NICS be available to private transactions?
I'm thinking NICS should be available for private sellers as an incentive to do so the seller would be provided with a reference number that is associated with the gun's serial number but not the buyer's personal information.
In the event the gun is later recovered in connection with a criminal act the previous owner could present the reference number as an immunity from civil or criminal complaints. That would incentivize private sellers to use the system.
Good idea? Bad idea? Needs amending?
The myth of the trigger happy vigilante
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/19/guns-in-america-for-every-criminal-killed-in-self-defense-34-innocent-people-die/
Okay. So, what are some underlying facts we should know about this stat?
* There are over 300 million guns in the US.
* Those 300+ million guns are owned by roughly 90 million households.
* 1% of the US population is responsible for approximately 60% of the crime
* Approximately 60% of homicides are perpetrated by someone with a prior criminal record
* Depending on the source there are 70,000 DGUs annually (though some studies assert hundreds of thousands of DGUs annually)
What's the takeaway? Americans are heavily armed but they aren't itching for a fight. Of the 70,000 who do find themselves in a situation where they are legally entitled to defend themselves only 258 actually killed their attacker.
Criminals, however, are on a trajectory to increasingly violent behavior and cannot be trusted to consider the consequences of their actions.
The mass killing the Controllers never told us about
Every time there is a tragedy the Controllers consider it their personal, moral duty to share it with us. We are to be made to feel the shame and regret that attends the loss of life from such wholly preventable tragedies as only they claim to feel it. To put forth any comment short of penitent self-flagellation over the human toll is to confess a heartlessness -- nay, soullessness -- that disqualifies the unrepentant from all future discourse.
Today, in the city of Denver, a trial moves into the penalty phase for a capital murder case in which the convicted killed 5 people. Five is more than the 4 killed in Chattanooga last week and better than half the number killed in Charleston (the perpetrator ran out of victims on the premises). Obviously we were informed of these tragedies immediately and are to be reminded for as long as they can remember. Yet, I cannot recall any mention of this crime from the Controller side that insists, in the name of human decency, we grant our full attention to every mass murder perpetrated in the US.
Why were we not informed?
Fake Ammo Causes Real Panic on MBTA Bus in Brighton
At about 4:20 PM on Friday July 10, 2015, officers assigned to District D-14 (Brighton) responded to a call for a person with a gun on an MBTA bus in the area of Cambridge and Harvard Streets. Officers learned that the driver had pulled the bus over as passengers began calling 911 when a male suspect boarded the bus with what appeared to be military grade ammunition strapped around his waist. The driver stated that the passengers were in a panic, fearing that the suspect was about to pull out a weapon. The suspect, later identified as Kevin Young, 26, of Watertown, exited the bus and was stopped by police on Penniman Road at which time it was discovered that the ammunition was fake. Officers recovered 69 replica bullets in all. The suspect was wearing what was described as spiked fighting gloves and spiked leather bracelets.
The suspect was placed in custody and will appear in Brighton District Court on charges of Unlawful Possession of Ammunition, Unlawfully Carried Dangerous Weapon and Disorderly Conduct.
http://bpdnews.com/news/2015/7/11/fake-ammo-causes-real-panic-on-mbta-bus-in-brighton
Gun control hysteria has reached its apex. The guy is a heavy metal rocker, he had no ammunition -- not that it should be a crime to do so -- nothing dangerous or a weapon yet he's looking at jail time.
The only thing he's guilty of is being a fashion cliché.
Some people seriously need to learn to control themselves before they reach out to control others.
Hedging bets in 2016: Some donors give to Bush and Clinton
WASHINGTON — John Catsimatidis, a Manhattan grocery chain owner, gave as much money as allowed to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Democratic primary campaign. Two months later, he gave the same amount, $2,700, to Jeb Bush, her would-be Republican challenger.
“I’ve been friends with both of their families for many, many years,” he said. “They both love America, and I’d be happy if either of them won.”
The billionaire is one of at least 60 donors hedging their bets heading into 2016 by giving to presidential campaigns of both parties, an Associated Press review of federal campaign finance records found. While those contributions totaled only about $300,000, they are an odd wrinkle of presidential politics in a race expected to see 22 candidates vying for billions of dollars in contributions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hedging-bets-in-2016-donors-give-money-to-bush-and-clinton/2015/07/16/6d152bca-2bfc-11e5-960f-22c4ba982ed4_story.html
America's politicians are so awesome some people buy two.
I'm nauseated beyond polite description.
That's just an NRA talking point
"That's just an NRA talking point" is not a refutation of an argument; it's an admission of defeat.
First of all: We don't even know what the NRA does or doesn't say because no one is providing citations. It seems those accusing me of citing the NRA are far more familiar with their material than I will ever be. They either know NRA material front and back (which usually entails financial support of the group) or they're just parroting a trope.
Presumably everything the NRA says is factually incorrect. If the NRA said the sky was green it would be a simple matter to discuss how light is refracted in the atmosphere into which wavelengths of the spectrum and thus perceived by the human eye.
But those shouting "That's just an NRA talking point" never provide such presumably ready facts. They simply drop the statement and flee the discussion as if it were some rhetorical caltrop.
So what are we to think of this then? If we have no citation that the NRA claims a certain thing and -- particularly -- no evidence that the thing is in error we can only be left to assume the interlocutor has no countering argument.
"That's just an NRA talking point" isn't so much a rebuttal as it is a cry of, "Uncle!"
Missing California girl found inside sex offender’s garage
A missing California teenage girl was found alive, locked inside the garage of a registered sex offender’s home, deputies said.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies arrested 26-year-old Kaene Dean on Wednesday and charged him with oral copulation of a minor after he allegedly sexually assaulted the girl inside his parents’ Santa Clarita house, where he lives.
Dean — who registered as a sex offender in 2008 after a conviction for indecent exposure — was on parole for a burglary conviction, KTLA reported.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/missing-california-girl-found-sex-offender-garage-article-1.2294207
Put him in a hole he can never climb out of.
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