Guns And The Laws That Govern Them

IF that is a functional firearm,
as distinct from an imitation, then that might be a felonious assault.
I dunno if any "parent" is armed there.

I have never advocated pointing guns or knives at people
in non-defensive circumstances. I advocate ISOLATION of violent criminals,
after conviction, preferably not on the North American Continent.

If the baby had a gun, its not likely that he'd be able to use it,
the same as he 'd not know how to decide how to vote, if it were Election Day.

It is IMPOSSIBLE for babies to use guns,
but there is no age limit on the Bill of Rights.





David

Do Black People Have Equal Gun Rights?
By CHARLES C. W. COOKE
OCT. 25, 2014

CONVENTIONAL wisdom holds that firearms are the preserve of
conservative white men. You would never know this at my local
shooting range, which happens to be in a majority African-American
area, and has a clientele that reflects that fact. There, as a white man,
I’m often in the minority; just one more guy who likes to fire weapons —
another person to chat to and share stories with. It is, I’d venture,
how things should be.

By rights, the Second Amendment should serve as a totem of
African-Americans’ full citizenship and enfranchisement.
For centuries, firearms have been indispensable to black liberation:
as crucial a defense against tyranny for Frederick Douglass and Martin
Luther King Jr. as for Sam Adams and George Washington. Today,
however, many black Americans have a decidedly mixed relationship
with the right to bear arms.

In August, as the outrage over the police shooting of Michael Brown
in Ferguson, Mo., dominated the news, an African-American group
calling itself the Huey P. Newton Gun Club took to the streets of Dallas,
rifles in hand, to protest. Local businesses were supportive, and
the city’s police chief confirmed in a statement that his department
“supports the constitutional rights of all.” On Twitter, the hashtag
#blackopencarry prompted a warm response from conservatives
and yet, that same month, a 22-year-old black man named John
Crawford III was shot dead by the police in an Ohio Walmart after a
white customer claimed excitedly that a man was pointing a gun at
his fellow patrons. Later, the store’s security footage revealed that
Mr. Crawford had been holding a BB gun that he had picked up in the
sporting goods department, and that the caller’s testimony had been
wrong. Ohio is an open carry state. That didn’t make much
difference for Mr. Crawford.

Until around 1970, the aims of America’s firearms restrictionists
and the aims of America’s racists were practically inextricable.
In both the colonial and immediate post-Revolutionary periods,
the first laws regulating gun ownership were aimed squarely at
blacks and Indians. In both the Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies,
it was illegal for the colonists to sell guns to the Indians, while
Virginia and Tennessee banned gun ownership by free blacks.

In the antebellum period, the chief justice of the United States,
Roger B. Taney, wrote a grave warning into the heart of the
Dred Scott decision. If blacks were permitted to become citizens,
Taney cautioned, they, like whites, would have full liberty
to “keep and carry arms wherever they went.”

White Southerners would eventually be forced to accept blacks as
their fellow citizens, but old habits died hard. After the Civil War,
many Southern states enacted Black Codes to prohibit ownership of
guns by blacks. The measures served their purpose. In her remarkable
1892 disquisition on the evils of lynching, the writer Ida B. Wells noted
that “the only times an Afro-American who was assaulted got away
has been when he had a gun and used it in self-defense.” Wells offered
some blunt advice: “a Winchester rifle should have a place of honor
in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which
the law refuses to give.”

At the height of the civil rights movement, black freedom fighters
took Wells’s counsel seriously. Although he was denied a concealed-
carry permit, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had what his adviser
Glenn E. Smiley described as a veritable “arsenal” at home.

Far from being a digression from the principle of nonviolence, this
willingness to defend oneself was heir to a long, proud tradition.
Considering in 1850 what he believed to be the best response to the
Fugitive Slave Act, Frederick Douglass proposed: “a good revolver.”

The first major ban on the open carrying of firearms — a Republican-led
bill that was drafted after Black Panthers began hanging around the
State Legislature in Sacramento with their guns on display — was
signed in 1967 by none other than Gov. Ronald Reagan of California.
The federal Gun Control Act of 1968 was primarily a reaction to the
scourge of “Saturday night specials” — cheap handguns owned by the
poor and the black. The National Rifle Association opposed neither law.

So the fact that one of the seminal Second Amendment cases in
American history is named for a black plaintiff is a beautiful and
moving thing indeed. McDonald v. Chicago, argued in 2010, was
brought by Otis McDonald, a 76-year-old black man tired of watching
his neighborhood give way to crime and gang warfare. The Supreme Court
ruled 5 to 4 that the Second Amendment applied not just to all people,
but to the states as well as to the federal government, and that
Chicago was therefore not permitted to prohibit Mr. McDonald from
keeping a handgun for his defense.

Yet African-American activists typically refrain from involvement
in the issue of gun rights. In October 2013, Shaneen Allen, 27, a black
single mother of two, was arrested in New Jersey for carrying a
firearm without a license (she was under the impression that her
Pennsylvania concealed-carry permit was accepted across state lines),
and threatened with a prison sentence of up to 11 years for her mistake,
but it was conservative publications, such as my own National Review,
and the N.R.A. that came to her defense.

The N.A.A.C.P. and the usual champions remained unusually quiet.
(There was no news conference featuring the Rev. Al Sharpton.)
They have been largely absent, too, from the case of Marissa Alexander,
a black Florida woman given a 20-year sentence for firing a warning
shot near her abusive husband.

It’s a problem of perception, an assumption that the Second Amendment
is the province of whites, that cuts both ways. In 2009, as the first
Tea Party rallies swept the country, Contessa Brewer of MSNBC showed
a video of a man at an anti-Obamacare rally with a pistol on his hip
and suggested that “there are questions about whether this has racial
overtones ... white people showing up with guns.” Later, it came out
that the man in the video was actually black.

At least 15 percent of African-Americans report that they own guns —
about the same rate as all other “nonwhites” but as anybody who has
attended an N.R.A. convention can attest, there is a gaping hole in
the organization’s membership. Look around the convention center
and you will see plenty of women, children, a good number of Asians
and Hispanics. Blacks? Not so much.

This is a tremendous shame. It is one thing for the N.R.A. to celebrate
black Second Amendment advocates such as its spokesman Colion Noir,
and Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. of Milwaukee County, but it is quite
another for Wayne LaPierre to inveigh against “home invaders, drug
cartels, carjackers, knockout gamers, and rapers, and haters,” and
for the camera to then pan around a sea of white faces clapping in unison.

Malcolm X may have a deservedly mixed reputation, but the famous
photograph of him standing at the window, rifle in hand, insisting on
black liberation “by any means necessary,” is about as American as it gets.
It should be celebrated just like the “Don’t tread on me” Gadsden flag.
By not making that connection, the movement is losing touch with
one of its greatest triumphs and forsaking a prime illustration of why
its cause is so just and so crucial.

If supporters of the right to keep and bear arms want their pleas to
be heard in their proper context, they might consider talking a little
less about Valley Forge and a little more about Jim Crow — and
attempting to fill their ranks with people who have known much
more recently what tyranny really looks like.

Charles C. W. Cooke is a staff writer at National Review.

[All emfasis has been added by David.]

http://www.whdh.com/story/27129211/taunton-teens-suspended-over-airsoft-homecoming-photo

TAUNTON, Mass. (WHDH) - Two teens from Taunton are facing
10-day suspensions over some pictures they took before Homecoming.

The pictures in question showed the two dressed in their
Homecoming outfits holding Airsoft guns.

“It's not like it happened at school, we had the guns [at home] and
that's where the pictures were taken and they said it didn't matter,”
Jaime Pereira said. "I guess the school took that as a threat but we
didn't mean it in a threatening way."

School officials said the pictures, which were captioned “Homecoming 2014,” created a scare.

“What it's about is a couple students engaging in an activity that create a total destruction of the school day,”
Superintendent Richard W. Gross said.
[ I woud probe his definition of "total destruction".
Presumably, he meant that no one learned anything that day. David ]

"They're juniors in High School, and it's proactive and they should know better
and it scared students." [That is probably a lie. It shud be challenged as to specifics.
I wish I had him on the witness stand for cross-examination. David]

Jamie and her boyfriend Tito Velez said they hadn't received their discipline letters in the mail yet,
so they were still waiting to see if it was just a suspension or something else.



It is ez to get mad at our hirelings for their failure
to show proper respect for their employers (i.e., us, the public),
but the penalty that thay sought to apply was merely a vacation of 10 days.
Presumably, the students' pay will remain un-affected.

Still, the public servants show some CONFUSION qua who the boss and owner is.

Ideally, public servants, such as school administrators,
shud clearly understand that the public are their bosses
and show the proper respect for them, including the public
in those schools. To enforce employee discipline,
those public servants shud be held to account by the public
with penalties of reduction of salary, loss of vacation days, demotion, etc. for infractions.

In this case, those employees shud have known that what their
employers do OUTSIDE of the school is none of their business.





David

Jose Canseco Shoots Self in Hand While Cleaning Gun
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/jose-canseco-shoots-self-hand-while-cleaning-gun-n236161

He woud NOT have to worry about such things,
if he used revolvers instead of pistols, like decent people.

It is almost INCONCEIVABLE that anyone can have
an accidental discharge while cleaning a revolver.
Revolvers are GOOD!





David

Even for those folks
who INSIST on using pistols:
all thay need to do is remove the magazine
and then rack the pistol and look inside its chamber.

Its not hard.





David

Agreed.

But since it happens so often, it must have something to do with stupidity.

Pistols are an inferior technology,
tho, of course, some of them have greater magazines, but thay jam more.

I saw a bailiff whose magazine kept falling out on the floor.

REVOLVERS make more sense.





David

Un-Armed Victim Repeatedly Stabbed

‘Grim Reaper’ attacks San Diego-area woman
in her bathroom

Victim stabbed several times in her home in a gated community.
It’s not known how costumed person gained entry.
BY DEBORAH HASTINGS NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Friday, October 31, 2014

Halloween attacker: Someone dressed as the Grim Reaper stabbed
a woman several times Friday in her California bathroom.
A woman has been hospitalized after someone dressed
in a Grim Reaper costume stabbed her several times
in the bathroom of her Vista, Calif., home, authorities said.

The unidentified resident of a gated community in San Diego County
was attacked around 2 a.m. Friday as she dried her hair in a bathroom,
the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

She suffered non-life-threatening wounds, according to KSND-TV.

The attacker fled, and San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies said
they found no trace of the assailant.

It's sad she wasn't armed at the time, but how many gun owners bring a gun into their bathrooms when there's something they need to do there?

Yeah. I must agree with u.

I guess that the perp. knew that.





David

Alabama Elections 2014 |

Voters Approve Right to Bear Arms
State Amendment


MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -
Alabama voters have approved a Constitutional Amendment
to make gun ownership a fundamental right.

The measure called Amendment 3 won easily in statewide balloting Tuesday.

The Republican-backed amendment used language from the National Rifle Association.

The measure would make owning firearms a fundamental right in Alabama.

It would also require that measures to control firearms would have
to pass the toughest review by state courts.

Supporters say the amendment was needed to guard against overreaching gun control.
Opponents say the proposal could lead to a dismantling
of existing limits on gun possession and ownership.

Louisiana and Missouri have approved similar measures.
[All emfasis has been added by David.]

This amendment of the State Constitution is somewhat redundant
in that the US Supreme Court has already declared the right to bear arms
to be a fundamental right in McDONALD v. CHICAGO 561 U.S. 742 (2010)

Candor moves me to say that, thank God,
last Tuesday's Election was an outstandingly very good day
for Guns And The Laws That Govern Them, Rex.





David

Do you think it is right for you to tell someone what type of gun they are supposed to own? That's anti second amendment and nothing more than gun regulation! Even it if saves innocent lives you have no right trying to regulate the types of guns people own! (cynical)

Its good to c u again, Rex.
Where have u been, voting ??
Once in a while, people ask my advice on what defensive ordnance to buy.
It can get a little pricey sometimes. Its like discussing the relative merits of cars.
Pistols can be too expensive in that thay can cost u your life,
if thay don t fire when thay shoud; (jam too much).



WELL SAID, Rex! SO STIPULATED,
but we can still discuss the relative advantages of revolvers over pistols, like safety.
I love the First Amendment almost as much as the Second one.

GALLUP POLLS:
GUNS ARE POPULAR, GETTING MORE POPULAR


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The percentage of Americans who believe having a gun in the house makes it a safer place to be (63%) has nearly doubled since 2000, when about one in three agreed with this. Three in 10 Americans say having a gun in the house makes it a more dangerous place.

Having a Gun in the House -- Safer or More Dangerous?

Gallup originally asked Americans about their views on the implications of having a gun in the home in 1993, and then updated the measure in 2000. Between 2000 and 2006, less than half of Americans believed having a gun at home makes it safer -- but since then, this percentage has significantly increased to a majority.

Republicans (81%) are about twice as likely as Democrats (41%) to believe having a gun improves home safety. About half of Democrats say having a gun makes a home a more dangerous place to be.

Although there is a gender gap in the results for this question, majorities of both men (67%) and women (58%) believe having a gun improves home safety. While one in three women say it makes for a more dangerous place to be, only one in four men say the same about guns in the home.

About two-thirds of whites and Southerners endorse having a gun to improve home safety, as do majorities of nonwhites (56%) and residents of the other three regions.

Having a Gun in the House -- Safer or More Dangerous?

Since 2000, Americans of all political stripes have become more inclined to believe a gun makes a home more secure, but the rate of increase has been greatest among Republicans, with 81% now holding this position, up from 44% in 2000.

While those who identify with the GOP have seen a 37-percentage-point growth in this sense of safety, independents show a 29-point climb and Democrats show a 13-point increase.

Do you think having a gun in the house makes it a safer place to be or a more dangerous place to be?

More Than Four in 10 Americans Keep a Gun in Their Home

Forty-two percent of Americans report having a gun in their home, similar to the average reported to Gallup over the past decade. This self-reported measure has fluctuated from survey to survey, but is consistent with trends since 2004. Longer term, Gallup has found that household gun ownership has ranged from a low of 34% in 1999 to a high of 51% in 1993.

Percentage of Americans Who Have a Gun in Their Home

Republicans are twice as likely as Democrats to have a gun in their house. A majority of Southerners say there is a gun in their home, much higher than the rate among those in the West and East.

Men are about equally as likely to have or not have a gun at home. About six in 10 women say they do not have a gun in the home.

Percentage of Americans Who Have a Gun in Their Home, by Demographic Group

Most survey respondents report that the gun in their household belongs to them personally (30%), as opposed to another household member (14%). This means that about one in three people who have a gun in their home are not personally owners, but are aware the gun is there. The personal ownership trend has been generally stable over the past 13 years.

Gun Ownership in Household

Americans who have a gun in their household are significantly more likely than others to say that having a gun makes a home safer (86%), though one in 10 believe it makes a household more dangerous.

Bottom Line

While Gallup figures on U.S. gun ownership have not shifted much since 2006, the percentage of Americans who say that having a gun in the home makes that household safer has drastically climbed over the past eight years.

Americans own guns for a wide array of reasons, but the increase in the perceived safety value of owning them suggests that guns are taking on more of a protective role than they have in the past. Florida passed the nation's first "Stand Your Ground" law in 2005, followed by dozens of states that passed different versions of the law. In the decade since, Americans have become more likely to view guns as a means of self-protection.

Regardless of Americans' perceptions of crime and their need to protect themselves, violent crime rates fell significantly from 1993 to 2012. While it may be a contentious assertion, some attribute falling crime rates to increased gun sales.

Survey Methods

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Oct. 12-15, 2014, on the Gallup U.S. Daily survey, with a random sample of 1,017 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 50% cellphone respondents and 50% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.

Second Amendment Prevails Over
Cash-Flush Anti-Gun Candidates

Wednesday, 05 Nov 2014 12:11 PM

By John Blosser

Despite the lavishing of funds on anti-gun candidates and statements by anti-gunners that this would be the year they would mount a head-on challenge against the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), when the smoke cleared, candidates supporting the rights of gun owners were the clear winners.

Breitbart News reported, "The Second Amendment crushed gun control candidates
in Senate and gubernatorial races around the country," and added that while gun-control PACs donated heavily to anti-gun candidates, "The Second Amendment trumped their endorsement and their money."

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged $50 million of his own money to gun-control candidates with his groups Everytown for Gun Safety, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, The New York Times reports.

Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS), founded by former Arizona Democrat Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly, amassed an $8 million war chest for the fight against guns, The Christian Science Monitor reports.

However, Giffords-favored candidates like Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist, who received $100,000 from ARS in his campaign for governor of Florida against Republican Gov. Rick Scot, and Democrat Fred DuVaul, running against Republican Doug Ducey for governor of Arizona, both lost, Breitbart reports, while hand-picked Giffords-supported candidate and Rep. Ron Barber is in a tight race in Arizona with pro-gun Republican candidate Martha McSally, who was slightly ahead in the vote count, KVOA-TV reports.


In Senate races, NRA endorsements carried the day, including Republican Rep. Cory Gardner's defeat of Sen. Mark Udall in Colorado, North Carolina Democrat Sen. Kay Hagan's loss to the GOP's Thom Tillis, and NRA-endorsed Republicans Sen. Pat Roberts (Kansas), Bill Perdue (Georgia), Tom Cotton (Arkansas), Shelly Moore Capito (West Viginia), Joni Ernst (Iowa) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) all winning.

In gubernatorial races, the NRA also took the day, with Republicans Greg Abbott (Texas), Larry Hogan (Maryland), Gov. Robert Bentley (Alabama), Gov. Scott Walker (Wisconsin), Gov. Rick Snyder (Michigan), Gov. Bryan Sandoval (Nevada), Gov. John Kasich (Ohio), Gov. Mary Fallin (Oklahoma), Gov. Matt Mead (Wyoming), Gov. Bruce Otter (Idaho), Gov. Sam Brownback (Kansas) and Gov. Paul LePage (Maine), all winning, Breitbat reports.

Only in one instance, the passage of Initiative 594 to expand background checks in Washington state, can gun-controllers claim a clear victory.

Dave Workman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms told US News and World Report, "There is a great deal of concern that this kind of big money can be brought to bear against a whole rather large group of law abiding citizens."

"The Second Amendment won the day, Republicans won the Senate, and gun control took a beating," Breitbart concluded.
[All emfasis has been added by David.]

Q.E.D.:
Love of Liberty of personal defense trumps oppressionists' loose cash.

ARMED RODENT SURVIVES INTACT!

Video Showing a Porcupine Fending Off 17 Lions
Shows How Weapons Can Level the Playing Field

http://gunssavelives.net/blog/video-showing-a-porcupine-fending-off-17-lions-shows-how-weapons-can-level-the-playing-field/?utm_source=Guns+Save+Lives+Daily+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=a95c1654f2-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_eaeaa815c4-a95c1654f2-65800281

NOVEMBER 7 2014

BY DAN CANNON


I don’t think we’ve ever gone to the animal kingdom to make a point
about firearms ownership, but here goes.
In the above video we see a well armed porcupine going up against
a pride of 17 lions.

The fearless rodent has extreme confidence even when outnumbered
by larger, faster, stronger adversaries, all because he is armed.
Ultimately, the lions retreat after deciding that dealing with
a well armed victim simply wasn’t worth it.

While humans don’t have quills to defend ourselves from would be assailants,
we do have the ability to own and master weapons, including firearms.


We’ve reported countless stories here in which victims who were older,
smaller, slower and weaker than their attackers were able to fight back
because they were armed with a firearm, the human equivalent of quills.
The porcupine in the video is an African crested porcupine for those that care.

Did u Like the Porcupine, Rex ?

Despite the lavishing of funds on anti-gun candidates and statements
by anti-gunners that this would be the year they would mount a head-on challenge
against the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), when the smoke cleared,
candidates supporting the rights of gun owners were the clear winners.

Breitbart News reported

"The Second Amendment crushed gun control candidates in Senate
and gubernatorial races around the country," and added that while
gun-control PACs donated heavily to anti-gun candidates,
"The Second Amendment trumped their endorsement and their money."
Read more: Newsmax.com
[ALL emfasis has been joyfully added by David]