At Least 50 Dead to the NRA Altar

If you do a search of the Internet it really isn’t that hard to find parts to make an automatic weapon. Indeed, the only thing that prevents more people from owning them legally is a tangles and expensive net of Federal Regulations. Once again the guns everywhere for everyone crowd gets their desired result.

This mass murderer appeared, at least from the sound of the rounds to have had a modified AK-47 type weapon.

The victims this time were Country Music fans, a group that stereotypically would be considered pro-gun. Although any American should consider the slaughter of innocent people, doing nothing worse that partying and listening to some music – morally repugnant at any level.

Two things interesting about this – One, the Chumph is flying in tomorrow, something he didn’t do for Puerto Rico – because statistically the victims of this horrific act will be almost all white.

Second, the MSM is already “whitewashing” the killer. “He never did anything wrong.” “He never showed any indication of being troubled.” “He was your average guy” “His girlfriend and brother never suspected a thing.”

Yeah – “It  was a total and complete surprise”…If you ignore the fact that guys just like him commit mass murders with guns, every few months in this country.

And “Concealed carry”? You fucking Glockity-Glock is useless against a guy with a high powered machine gun better than 150 yards away. It is why all out soldiers carry rifles, instead of cap guns. Might as well hang a sign on your chest -“I’m too fucking stupid to shoot.”

How much you want to bet, Republican’ts in Congress don’t do a damn thing about gun laws?

And yeah, I am pro-gun…Just not pro-insanity.

 

Murder Numbers Explode in Stand Your Ground States

So called “Stand Your Ground” laws are nothing more than a license and incentive to commit murder.With the massive rise in hate crimes propelled by the Chumph’s hate speech and election – we can expect a lot more gunfire on the nation’s street corners. The reason the NRA was such a staunch supporter of the Chumph – is you can sell more guns as Americans kill each other on the streets in an internal war.

Trayvon Martin’s murder was enabled by Florida Laws.

Spike in murders seen after Florida ‘stand your ground’ self-defense law: study

Florida saw a significant spike in murders after enacting a “Stand Your Ground” law allowing people to use lethal force in self-defense in public or on private property, international researchers said Monday.

The southern state’s 24 percent rise in homicide from 2005 to 2014 stood in sharp contrast to nationwide homicide rates, which have been declining since the 1990s, according to research published in a special issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine.

“This study highlights how Stand Your Ground is likely to be a cause of the rise in Florida murders, and provides crucial information which may influence future decision-making that affects wellbeing in the US and abroad,” said co-author Antonio Gasparrini of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Florida in 2005 became the first US state to broaden protections for those who use firearms for self-defense. A number of other states have since followed suit.

Before 2005, Florida state law said people could use firearms or other lethal force against home intruders if they believed they faced an imminent threat of death or serious injury.

The 2005 law, signed by then governor Jeb Bush, extended the law to provide individuals with immunity “for using lethal force to defend themselves in public places, as well as on private property.”

Homicides linked to firearms rose 31 percent from 2005 to 2014, researchers found, compared to the previous sampling period from 1999-2004.

Overall, homicides in Florida for the decade after 2005 rose 24 percent, the study found.

The nightclub shooting in Orlando, where 49 people were killed — making it the worst mass shooting in modern US history — happened in June 2016 and was not included in the study.

“The findings are strong evidence that… this change to the law in Florida led to deaths that otherwise would not have occurred,” said study co-author Douglas Wiebe at the University of Pennsylvania.

“We need to think about the implications of these findings and Florida should consider reversing this decision that appears to have increased the use of lethal force.”

All demographic groups were affected by the increases in homicide rates.

The largest proportional rises were seen in the 20-34 age group (which went up by 31 percent) and among the white population (which rose by 28 percent), the study said.

A 20 percent increase in homicides was found among African-Americans.

For comparison, researchers looked at homicide rates in four other states — New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Virginia — that had not enacted a Stand Your Ground law over the same period of time and found no increase in homicide rates.

Suicide rates in Florida were also unchanged, suggesting that other events such as the global financial crisis of 2007-9 was not the major factor associated with the rise in homicides in Florida….More Here…

 

Gun Crazies Lose – No Constitutional Right to Carry Concealed Weapons

Federal Appellate Court in California covers several states in the region. As such, this decision has farter reaching consequences, and since the Supreme Court isn’t going to take this up…

Becomes the law of the land. This probably won’t have any impact in Red States.

Here’s a guy getting ready to give himself a “Hillbilly Vasectomy” as he blows his man parts off when the safety catches on his clothes.

Federal Court Shoots Down Concealed Carry 

Firearm owners have no constitutional right to carry a concealed gun in public if they face no specific danger, a divided federal appeals court in California ruled on Thursday, in a victory for gun control advocates.

The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sets a legal precedent in western states, was seen as unlikely to be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the near future.

The San Francisco-based court, in a 7-4 decision, found San Diego and Yolo counties in California did not violate the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects the right to bear arms, when they denied some applicants a concealed firearm license.

“We hold that the Second Amendment does not protect, in any degree, the carrying of concealed firearms by members of the general public,” Judge William Fletcher wrote in a 52-page opinion.

The two California counties had limited their permits to applicants showing “good cause” to be armed, such as documented threats or working in a wide range of risky occupations.

The ruling places the 9th Circuit Court in line with other U.S. appellate courts that have upheld the right of officials in the states of New York, Maryland and New Jersey to deny concealed carry applications in certain cases.

Under California’s concealed carry law, more than 70,000 residents or less than 1 percent of the state’s population had active permits last year, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2013, in the middle of a raging national debate on guns, declined to weigh in on whether firearm owners have a constitutional right to carry their weapons in concealment outside the home.

Gun rights group the California Rifle and Pistol Association declined to provide immediate comment.

 

Taxing Guns and Ammo…A “Gun Control” Strategy That Won’t Work

Making it more expensive to own or shoot a gun isn’t going to have any impact at all on folks who use guns to murder other folks. Cute idea by the Seattle City Council…

But utterly ineffectual from a prevention standpoint.

Right now, there is an ammunition “shortage”, with some of the most popular calibers such as the 22 round used by almost everyone for target shooting of paper targets or metal plates either being unavailable, or off the shelves entirely. As is usual in America in artificially induced “shortage” situations prices of a box of ammo have doubled and tripled. So hunters and target shooters are already paying 3 times what they were just a few years ago for ammo…And they are still clearing the shelves. One of my favorite “Varmint Elimination” rounds for down at the farm in the country has gone from an average of $8.00 a box of 50, to $18-20. Even the trusty 22 cal, I use for the occasional over aggressive Rat Tail Black Snake trying to set up residence in the house or barn has shot through the roof.

So how is paying $1.00 a round for 9mm ammunition going to prevent gangbangers and homegrown terrorists from buying bullets? The only thing this is setting up is a black market in selling “broken” boxes where some enterprising black market entrepreneur will start selling bullets by the half dozen for a 25% profit over the case price. Further, the profits from illegal drugs are so high…A small rise in prices can be absorbed by “the cost of doing business”.

I mean, admittedly there aren’t many legitimate uses for a gun in a major city – but people who want to buy (and use) guns and ammo will just drive outside the city limits to buy. My own state, Virginia gained a reputation a few years ago for being the principal supplier to guns for crime sin New York City. Admittedly the lax gun law of the time, which allowed anyone to buy 50 or 100 guns at a time didn’t help.

The only way to solve the “gun problem” in America – is some sensible restrictions aimed directly at the “loose” interpretation of the Second Amendment, and the NRA.

Want Fewer Murders? Tax Guns and Ammo

With a new national push to combat gun violence, the city of Seattle has begun to tax firearms and ammunition in an audaciously creative way to get around Second Amendment protections on guns. The tax has passed its first court test, signaling an approach that other municipalities could adopt, with a $25 tax on every firearm sold in the city, two cents on every round of .22 caliber ammunition, and a 5-cent tax for every other round of ammunition.

The tax went into effect on January 1^st after surviving a challenge from the NRA and other gun rights groups when King County Superior Court Judge Palmer Rubinson ruled in December that the city of Seattle has the “constitutional and legislative authority to impose taxes” – which, as she noted, is separate from the city’s ability to regulate guns.

City attorney Pete Holmes was initially surprised the NRA didn’t ask for a stay in the Judge’s ruling when filing its appeal Monday in state court.  If the NRA sought constitutional relief, they would have appealed in federal court. But, from a legal standpoint, this isn’t about the constitution. “Everybody assumes this is about the Second Amendment, but it’s not, and that’s the story,” Holmes told the Daily Beast in a telephone interview.

“No one is telling you that you can’t own or buy a gun,” says Holmes.  “We believe we are in a safe haven. We’re not regulating guns; we’re simply adding a tax.”

In Seattle, satisfying the Second Amendment is easier for gun safety advocates than clearing “State Preemption,” a legislative barrier that the National Rifle Association employs to block gun safety regulation in some three-dozen states, including Washington.  It’s a short statute the gun rights lobby writes and then muscles through state legislatures, says no other body, such as the municipal authorities in cities like Seattle, can regulate firearms. The NRA’s Institute of Legal Action (ILA) churns out the statutes and lawmakers in state after state are happy to oblige.

And with so many state legislatures wholly owned subsidiaries of the NRA, it’s an effective maneuver. Holmes says it was the undoing of an executive order issued two Seattle mayors ago banning firearms in city playgrounds and parks. The Court overturned the ban not under the Second Amendment but under State Preemption.

So it is a big deal in Seattle that this modest tax is in place, and that the money it generates will go toward compiling data about gun violence and putting targeted intervention programs in place.  After the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre of first-graders, Seattle funded a study that found people with gun shot wounds treated at Harbor View Hospital, the regional trauma center, are 30 percent more likely to return with another gunshot, or as a homicide victim.

The study was the first of its kind done by a city, and researchers found parallels with alcohol-related injuries in the early 1990’s. Spending 20-30 minutes with patients injured in such incidents before releasing them to talk about risk and their chances of being readmitted paid off in lower re-admittance rates….Read the rest here…

 

 

McBride Killer to Be Tried

There is an old cultural myth in the South, of a farmer protecting his fields from theft by kids with a shotgun loaded with rock salt.  Of course this was in the times before the NRA armed every moron in America with lethal weapons or mass murder, and the racist right terrorized the public into committing, what has become genocide. The farmer certainly realized the loss of a couple of ears of corn wasn’t worth taking someones life, and was seeking to install a moral lesson by way of a painful warning.

As a kid growing up in an area which still had a fair amount of rural expanse – I can certainly remember a few times when a motorist knocked on the door in need of a phone to call for help due to a breakdown or accident. This was the days before we all (or anyone) had cell phones, little ones. As an aside, I can remember as a really little guy of about 5 or 6 visiting my Uncle’s farm in the country, and they had Party Lines. Of course in those days before the terror induced by he gun crazies, the first response to someone knocking on the front door, wasn’t to grab you gun and shoot the visitor.

Now, I have been a gun owner since I was 7, and with relatives who lived in rural areas of the Tidewater and mountains, grew up with folks where hunting and fishing was a way of life. In those days before the Tea Bagged Reich created the Jim Crow “Stand Your Ground” excuse for murder, we had what was called a “Threshold Law”. Ergo, if some Republican decided to dance buck naked on your porch and howl at the moon – it was a matter for law enforcement. If same Republican forced their way into your house (across the threshold) then you were within your rights to use deadly force if necessary. Of course a pot of hot water, or the Al Green Treatment (a pan full of hot grits) would likely prove to be a sufficient enough re-education lesson for all but the most “Cruz”esque of intruders…

But then, in the fast-food infected modern America, a pot of hot water might be pretty hard to come by.

Why are black murder victims put on trial?

Renisha McBride’s toxicology report is out and now we know the 19-year-old had a blood-alcohol level that was more than twice the legal limit for driving. This would explain why, according to her family, she was involved in a single-car accident.

However, it does not explain why Theodore Wafer shot her in the face.

McBride’s family says she was seeking help after the crash and knocked on the door of Wafer’s house in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The 54-year-old Wafer, who is white, told investigators he feared McBride, who is black, was trying to break in.

There are too many unanswered questions to know exactly what happened that night. But we do know this: If a black man told police officers “self-defense” was the reason why he shot an unarmed white teenage girl in the face with his shotgun, it would not have taken protests, national media attention and nearly two weeks for authorities to reject that excuse.

And this is why McBride’s death — ruled a homicide after protests and national media attention — draws comparisons to that of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen shot and killed by George Zimmerman, who is of white and Latino heritage, last year.

 

Oakland, Tired of Gun Murders – Tries Gun Control

The NRA has a new target – Oakland, California. Unfortunately for the NRA, this one isn’t as easy as Colorado.

Backing the city’s approach a recent study –

A new study of gun violence published by the American Journal of Public Health found that states with greater levels of gun ownership tend to have higher rates of gun-related murder.

The study, conducted by Boston University professor Michael Siegel and coauthors Craig S. Ross and Charles King III, examines this relationship in all 50 states from 1981 to 2010. The researchers found that “for each percentage point increase in gun ownership, the firearm homicide rate increased by 0.9 percent.”

The authors note that, though they can’t prove a causal relationship between higher levels of gun ownership and homicide, “states with higher rates of gun ownership had disproportionately large numbers of deaths from firearm-related homicides.”

Their findings echo past studies about the relationship between gun ownership and homicide, though Siegel, Ross and King look at the relationship over a larger window of time than previous research.

According to a fact sheet from the Harvard School of Public Health:

Our review of the academic literature found that a broad array of evidence indicates that gun availability is a risk factor for homicide, both in the United States and across high-income countries. Case-control studies, ecological time-series and cross-sectional studies indicate that in homes, cities, states and regions in the US, where there are more guns, both men and women are at higher risk for homicide, particularly firearm homicide.

Gun Control in the US, may well break down into Urban versus Rural laws – based on the reality that cities tend to have more violent crime. To make this work may take some creative thinking, beyond just the knee-jerk reaction of either side of the argument. Control of guns has a long history in the US, where it wasn’t uncommon for the local Sheriff to confiscate guns within the city limits to protect the relative peace of the community.

Perhaps, instead of some sort of outright ban – that could be a solution for cities. Regulated, privately owned arsenals operating at the city limit, which would keep or store firearms for city residents or visitors until they leave the urban confines of city. It isn’t clear at this point whether this type of nuanced approach is acceptable to either side.

It will be interesting to see where this one goes, as if it is successful – it may be a model for other cities.

Pallbearers carry the casket of Alaysha Carradine, 8, who was shot to death at a slumber party in Oakland in July. A 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy were wounded. Last year, 12 children were among the city’s 130 homicides — 90% of them gun-related.

Oakland, reeling from gun violence, aims for unprecedented solution

City seeks exemption from the California law that bars local governments from regulating the registration or licensing of firearms.

As a City Council member here, Libby Schaaf is notified each time someone is shot. That, it turns out, occurs several times each day.

It is a relentless reminder of Oakland’s sweeping public safety crisis: So far this year there have been 3,026 gun crimes in this city just shy of 400,000 residents, which tops the list of the state’s most dangerous.

Extreme conditions, reasoned Schaaf — among the public officials who recently attended the wrenching funeral of an 8-year-old girl strafed with gunfire at a slumber party — require exceptional measures.

And so was born an unprecedented effort to seek an exemption from the California law that bars local governments from regulating the registration or licensing of firearms.

“Since the moment I came into office I’ve been on a quest to understand … the tools that Oakland could use to reduce the bloodshed in any way,” said Schaaf, who tapped academics in criminology and law for ideas.

The legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) has passed both legislative chambers and is sitting on the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown, an Oakland resident and two-term mayor here. It joins a dozen other gun control measures awaiting the governor’s decision, including bills that would outlaw the sale of rifles with detachable magazines, expand the list of crimes that result in a possession ban and crack down on straw purchasers of firearms.

No municipality has previously received such an exemption, yet Bonta called the “targeted approach” to hand this regulatory decision-making to local officials “good policy,” noting that 12 children were among Oakland’s 130 homicides last year — 90% of them gun-related.

This year has also seen the slaying of several children, among them Alaysha Carradine. Known to her family as “Ladybug,” she was slain at a July slumber party when an unknown suspect knocked on the door and opened fire. A 7-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy were wounded.

California does not require registration per se but rather a “dealer record of sale,” provided to the state Department of Justice at the point of purchase. That data can quickly become out of date.

Oakland officials say a city licensing and registration program would help police better track local gun patterns, including thefts; locate straw purchasers; remove firearms promptly from the hands of those barred from possessing them; and allow for better gun safety education.

The gun lobby is opposed, saying the state Department of Justice already tracks gun purchases and that local interference would layer undue costs on law-abiding firearms owners.

“The bill does nothing useful and is just going to make it more difficult for poor people in Oakland to defend themselves and their families,” said Brandon Combs, president of the California Assn. of Federal Firearms Licensees, which lodged its formal opposition to the bill.

But some experts say Oakland could prove a worthy test case for local control for larger cities, such as Los Angeles, which tend to face the greatest crime concentrations. Home rule, they note, allows faster local access to better data in high-crime areas without imposing the same controls on rural areas, which would likely fight them most and arguably need them least.

“It doesn’t isolate the big cities in California, it isolates one city in California,” said UC Berkeley law professor and criminologist Franklin Zimring. “It says, ‘OK, Oakland, you’ve got a big problem now, let’s see what you want to add to the existing California policy that responds to the nature of firearms violence Oakland-style.'”

The Oakland experiment, Zimring said, could serve to “test the waters of local control and to see whether the political process that produces city-level gun policy can get inclusive and responsible, and whether it can get specific and selective in ways that can solve the problem.”…

 

Another Black Teen Murdered

In this one a 75 Year old white man shoots an unarmed teen doing house chores bringing in the empty garbage cans.

Two differences between this and the Trayvon, this one had a video recording of it by the murderer’s “security camera” so it was hard to cover up…

And it wasn’t in a Stand Your Ground Get Away With Murder of Black Kids State.

John Henry Spooner Shooting VIDEO: Evidence Shows Darius Simmons Killed

John Henry Spooner has been found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide in the fatal shooting of Darius Simmons.

ORIGINAL STORY — A video entered as evidence in the murder trial of John Henry Spooner on Tuesday appears to show the 76-year-old shooting his 13-year-old neighbor Darius Simmons dead.

The Milwaukee senior is charged with first-degree homicide after the alleged incident in May last year. Jurors saw the video (below), taken from Spooner’s ownsurveillance camera, that shows the suspect walk out of his house, brandishing a gun. After a short argument, the man in the video waves the gun around before he shoots Simmons in the chest. Simmons manages to flee outside the scope of the camera before dying.

 

Fla. ‘Stand Your Ground’ sponsor talks about Martin case

“Stand Your Ground Law” Sponsor says law does not apply in the Zimmerman-Martin case.
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Chicago Returns Fire on SCUMUS 5

Not surprisingly, the City of Chicago has pushed back on the SCUMUS 5 Majority ruling on the Second Amendment. This one ought to provide fodder for the courts for the next 20 years.

Another bad decision leading to a Draconian response.

Chicago approves tough new handgun restrictions

The Chicago City Council on Friday approved what city officials say is the strictest handgun ordinance in the United States.

The 45-0 vote came four days after a Supreme Court ruling made it almost certain that Chicago’s handgun ban would be overturned. The high court ruled Americans have a right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they live.

The new city ordinance bans gun shops in Chicago and prohibits gun owners from stepping outside their homes, even onto their porches or garages, with a handgun. It will take effect in 10 days.

The ordinance also:

_ Limits the number of handguns residents can register to one per month and prohibit residents from having more than one handgun in operating order at any given time.

_ Requires residents in homes with children to keep them in lock boxes or equipped with trigger locks.

_ Requires prospective gun owners to take a four-hour class and one-hour training at a gun range. They would have to leave the city for training because Chicago prohibits new gun ranges and limits the use of existing ranges to police officers. Those restrictions were similar to those in an ordinance passed in Washington, D.C., after the high court struck down its ban two years ago.

_ Prohibits people from owning a gun if they were convicted of a violent crime, domestic violence or two or more convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Residents convicted of a gun offense would have to register with the police department.

_ Calls for the police department to maintain a registry of every handgun owner in the city, with the names and addresses to be made available to police officers, firefighters and other emergency responders.

Those who already have handguns in the city — which has been illegal since the city’s ban was approved 28 years ago — would have 90 days to register those weapons, according to the proposed ordinance.

Residents convicted of violating the city’s ordinance can face a fine up to $5,000 and be locked up for as long as 90 days for a first offense and a fine of up to $10,000 and as long as six months behind bars for subsequent convictions.

Though Monday’s Supreme Court ruling did not specifically strike down Chicago’s handgun ban, it ordered a federal appeals court to reconsider its ruling.

Mayor Richard Daley moved quickly to get a new ordinance in place and has indicated that he expects legal challenges to the new restrictions.

 

Get your Guns Here! Virginia Becomes a Terrorist Pitstop

17 years ago, then Virginia Governor Doug Wilder put a stop to the high volume illicit gun trade in the state which was supplying handguns used in up to 60% of the murders and mayhem along the Eastern Seaboard. Much as gun dealers in Texas supply the arms to the Mexican Cartels which result in over 2,000 deaths a year in just one Mexican border city…

Virgnia is ready to step in as the armaments capital of the East Coast, and perhaps steal a bit of the carnage business from Texas.

This isn’t about the ability to buy a gun in the state – this is about the ability to buy mass quantities of guns. The ability to purchase quantities of guns suitable to mayhem on a small war scale.

Virginia lawmakers aim to loosen firearm restrictions

Not Having to smuggle guns into America... Priceless! Thank You, Republicans!

RICHMOND, FEB. 14 — A little more than a year ago, Virginia gun owners joined millions of Americans who began stockpiling weapons for fear that Barack Obama would win the White House and push for new gun controls.

Now that the former Illinois senator is president, the prophesied gun control measures have not come to pass, and Virginia’s gun advocates are feeling almost giddy about their chances to loosen restrictions on buying and carrying firearms.

With a new Republican governor, attorney general and Republican-led House of Delegates, pro-gun legislators in Virginia are pushing a raft of bills, including some that would have had little chance in previous years.

Among them is a bid to fend off federal regulation of firearms and ammunition made and sold only in Virginia and a proposal to repeal the 17-year-old ban on buying more than one handgun a month, a signature achievement of former governor L. Douglas Wilder (D).

The repeal sailed through the House on Monday, despite opposition from law enforcement agencies and the Catholic Church, and delegates also passed the bill on federal regulation. Both measures face an uphill climb in the Senate.

“You shouldn’t have your constitutional rights rationed. Do we ration the First Amendment? Why not one church service a month?” said Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter (R-Prince William), who is sponsoring the repeal of the one-gun-a-month law.

Other bills are designed to swell the ranks of Virginia’s approximately 214,300 concealed-weapons carriers and open more doors to them. On Friday, the House approved a bill, HB505, that would allow people to carry concealed weapons in establishments that serve alcohol, as long as they refrain from drinking. On Tuesday, the Senate is expected to take up a similar bill, SB334, sponsored by Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr. (R-Augusta).

In previous years, the guns-in-bars bill cleared both chambers but was vetoed by then-Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D). Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) has expressed support for the measure.

Similar efforts to loosen gun restrictions are underway in Arizona, Mississippi, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Among a dozen pro-gun bills under consideration in Arizona this year is a measure to allow residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit, effectively abolishing existing training and certification requirements. Wyoming’s House overwhelmingly passed a similar bill last week.

 

Got Y’er Guns Here! Get ’em While You’re Hot!

The Supreme Court this session is considering a Second Amendment case which, considering the “5-4”, will eliminate the ability of state and local authorities to regulate guns in their municipalities.

(The Supreme Court)…will hear the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago, and decide whether the right to keep and bear arms secured by the Second Amendment protects Americans from overreaching state and local governments.

At issue is a 27-year-old Chicago law banning handguns, requiring the annual taxation of firearms, and otherwise interfering with the right of law-abiding individuals to keep guns at home for self-defense. The case was brought on behalf of four Chicago residents, the Second Amendment Foundation, and the Illinois State Rifle Association.

Last year, in the landmark case of District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms. However, as that case concerned the actions of the District of Columbia government, a federal entity, the high court was not called upon to decide whether the right bound states and local governments. Over the years, almost the entire Bill of Rights has been held to apply to state and local governments by operation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

It would seem “Big Gub’ment” is bad for conservatives except where it is overriding local and state attempts to restrict guns within their jurisdictions. Notice, that is the Fourteenth Amendment, an Amendment originally passed to protect newly freed slaves from persecution and re-enslavement by former confederate states which is being utilized as a basis to establish primacy of federal over state and local laws.

The State of New York, and New York City have found that over 30% of the guns confiscated in crimes come from Gun Shows…

Despite the fact that the vast majority of gun owners in this country are law abiding citizens, outside of major urban areas, you have a far better chance of getting shot by a “law abiding citizen” than a career criminal or gangbanger.

BTx3 is nominally pro-gun. I grew up in a “gun culture” of hunters and sportsmen. But the reason I, as a black man own weapons whose usefulness would fall strictly into the range of self defense has nothing to do with the statistically nonexistant chance that some gangbanger is going to drive 25 miles outside the city to conduct a home invasion to steal my computers or big-screen (which with street prices for used computer equipment might even – just barely – cover the gas to drive from the city and back)…

It has to do with the right wing (sometimes racist) gun crazies, like the guys toting their armament to Town Halls.

One needs to wonder, what the death toll from this one is going to be.