DON’T BLAME THE GUN, NOR THE KIDS, ITS THE DUMB PARENTS.
SAYLOR MARTINE
- Saylor Martine, of Oklahoma, fifteen, died after she was shot in the head while toying with a firearm. She was with her sister. The culprit, according to the police, a semi-auto owned by her parents. It was purchased by Mom for her own protection. So the story goes, she and her sister had been handling the gun when they placed it down on a counter, where it discharged.
Fifty years in this game and I haven’t seen one go off by itself except in a fire. I’m not buying that, but I’m sure there is enough grief to go around, and the Sheriff is hesitant is doing anything about it. An accident means no one is charged, especially the only one who knows the truth. The sister or possibly the mother, but a child is dead and someone was negligent.
It’s just the tip of the iceberg and it is reaching Titanic proportion.
YEAR OLD SHOOTS SELF AT GUN SHOW
A family man goes to a gun show in his small New England town of Westfield, MA with his son and a camera. It was co-sponsored by the local traffic ticketing Sheriff who had a financial consideration in the show. With an instructor watching, (uncertified, recently recruited, 14 year old) the 8-year-old boy at the gun fair aimed an Uzi submachine gun at a pumpkin and pulled the trigger as his dad reached for a camera.
It was his first time shooting a fully automatic gun, and the recoil (muzzle rise) of the weapon was too much for him and literally shot his head off with Dad filming.
Now gun safety experts — and some gun enthusiasts at the club where the shooting happened — are wondering why such a young child was allowed to fire a weapon used in war. Local, state and federal authorities are also investigating whether everyone involved had proper licenses or if anyone committed a criminal act.
More on this story and the conclusion: http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/14/massachusetts.gun.show.verdict/index.html
FIVE YEAR OLD SHOOTS SISTER
- In Kentucky, a five year old, just given a rifle, a sort of rite of passage in some families, left out in the open in a corner of the room, loaded and he proceeded to shoot his sister who was four.
JAD SPEIGHTS
- 3-year-old Jad Speights, accidentally shot and killed himself last month with his uncle’s handgun, which he found in a backpack.
JARVIS JACKSON
- Jarvis Jackson (1) was accidentally shot and killed by a boy (4) last month after their baby sitter brought a handgun to the house for personal protection and then fell asleep after leaving the gun loaded and unsecured on the kitchen table.
CODY RYAN HALL
- 4-year-old Cody Ryan Hall, who accidentally shot and killed himself in April with a family-owned handgun he found in an unlocked gun case.
BRANDON HOLT - 4 YEARS OLD SHOTS NEIGHBOR
- A six-year-old Toms River New Jersey boy accidentally shot by Brandon Holt, 4-year-old neighbor on Monday night, has died. Police said Holt was shot in the head by his friend after the younger boy went into his home on McCormick Avenue and somehow got his hands on a .22-caliber rifle. the boy found the rifle under a bed. Police said the 4-year-old then went outside and accidentally shot the 6-year-old, who was sitting in a quad nearby.
The boy’s father, Anthony Senatore, was arrested and charged. Five counts of second-degree child endangerment one count of third-degree child endangerment. Each second-degree count could potentially bring 5 to 10 years in prison, which means that if Senatore is convicted, he could theoretically face up to 50 years in prison.
AUSTIN McCORD - IMBICILE
- Texas: Johnson County Austin McCord, “forgot he had a loaded magazine in the AK-47” when he pulled the trigger, shooting the girl in the stomach, on her 13th birthday, in a gun-cleaning accident must not watch much news.
4 YEAR OLD SHOOTS SELF
I guess the Dallas man who rushed his bloody grandson to the hospital pays more attention. He is fortunate as his 4-year-old grandson, who was visiting his home Wednesday, found a loaded handgun beneath a pillow. The little boy shot himself in the shoulder — but he’ll recover.
DON’T BLAME THE GUN
- It’s a social issue, the Guns are not the problems, as the expression goes, it’s the idiot behind the wheel, the finger on the trigger, and gross neglect. Weapons don’t have brains, children don't know consequence, and neither do some of the parents. They don’t “go off” of their own accord.
Responsible people do not “forget”. In the days before the NRA went total political the emphasis was the safety, classes and training as their forefront to hunting and the shooting sports. And we pounded safety, we pounded it in classes and at the range. That’s why I joined and became an R.O and worked in the industry. Not the same group of people today.
A large match. And I got the (honor) job of runner with the club champ. And I caught a lot of flack when I DQ’ed the local “A” shooter in a large match when he did an over the horizon reload and slammed the slide forward. His friends were appalled. I got called names. I almost felt threatened.
Being a real champ, he shook my hand and thanked me, he knew he had done a wrong. He was a class act. He said, “ Boy, imagine had I done that in a National Competition”. You can get lazy. The Competitive IPSC and other groups, the real competitors heartily endorse and enforced gun safety.
THE BASICS NEVER CHANGE
- Always expect that there is a live round in a weapon.
- Never allow a weapon, loaded or otherwise, to be pointed at another person.
- They don’t keep a loaded gun under the bed, or beneath a pillow, or in a drawer or any other place that a child is physically capable of touching it.
- Some states have laws about gun storage, a few really severe. But they are not often enforced. It is illegal to keep a gun where a child may have access to it, unless it is disabled with a trigger lock or locked in a secure box or environment.
- Children die in accidental shootings because inattentive parents leave their guns lying around, with ammunition chambered, in unsecured places where untrained shooters can access them.
- Only 27 states and Washington, D.C. have child access prevention laws on the books, and those laws vary. widely in scope and strength. It should be made universal, standardized, enforced, period.
- When it comes to gun safety, ignorance is negligence, and negligence is too often fatal.
THE TRAYVON - ZIMMERMAN ENCOUNTER
- Its time to start thinking about a highly concealable self-defense carry firearm, the bad guys already have thought of it. But it is a tremendous responsibility and for some, even good intentions can turn afoul. Unless you live in a cave… this incident has gone national and we all know what happens during an election year. Even when two theoretical good guys get together, the end result can be a tragedy. Fate and mayhem have no boundaries. Politicians wake up and start thinking gun bans. The NRA wakes up and starts pouring money into political campaigns. Something is wrong here as 84% of the NRA members want restrictions like the background checks. I guess the 2% of the staff at the NRA who already has your money decided differently.
BOTTOM LINE
- A good guy with a weapon thinks he sees a bad guy doing something wrong. Unfortunately the youngster was in the wrong place at the wrong time and the good guy makes a judgement to confront him, after being told specifically not to engage by 911, officers were already on the way, he confronts the seventeen year old.
The seventeen year old thinking he is being attacked defends himself and dies during the confrontation by a single fatal wound. He was outgunned, he had no weapon. He was fighting for his life being outweighed by the other good guy. Tragedy, a single shot and a 17 year old is dead.
An expert witness many times, hit it on the head, this whole case is based on who is the aggressor. As predicted there is plenty of conjecture, opinions by those who weren’t there, witnesses who heard but did not see, more opinions, slants, spins, public outcry, those who will use it for political reasons, but the bottom line is two good guys entered the arena of life and only one came out. The case is on fast track and will come to fruition sooner rather then later as this is a no nonsense judge and this case has national following.
6/24/2013 - This week the case went to trial in Sanford, Florida, about 100 miles from my home. Already it is political with opinions, slants, fake juries, 24/7 BS, and those talking heads who know little but have great hair and get paychecks for telling you what they think…many times undocumented, filled with, usually a large dose of lawn fertilizer. The bottom line is someone is dead, in the bottom of a hole, thats about as bottom as you can get. And someone might have overstepped their bounds.
I keep thinking of what I call “The Titanic Syndrome”. Thousand plus lives lost and they blamed the iceberg. The iceberg was doing its thing, just floating along, and along comes the Titanic running on all eight boilers by an over-exuberant Captain trying to break the record after being coached by the designer looking for glory. The iceberg didn’t hit the ship, the ship hit the iceberg.
A seventeen year old, still a child, was having an Arizona iced tea, carrying a loaded bag of Skittle’s, he was bringing home for his dad. He was confronted by block captain of their sub-division, the eyes of law enforcement. Not a certified member of any police organization.
GUARANTEED, MAYBE NOT, THIS WILL AMEND THE STAND YOUR GROUND LAW
With legislature in the works once again, and with lots of heat coming from the "Stand your ground laws" which went many states have adopted and already some lawyers have abused, this all comes at the wrong time.
Florida now has a "Stand Your Ground Commission looking at the law". It is composed of community leaders, law officials and legal authorities. It has only one, call it a representative of the NRA on board. The Florida Congressmen and Senators fostered this bill a couple years ago with heavy FINANCIAL campaign donations and support of the NRA and not that much is expected to change. Hammer who is the Florida Rep of the NRA is very strong here politically. She carries the checkbook.
Maybe as the Vegas odds-makers have it, a change in wordage by amendment, not much more. The bottom line, political as usual, nothing happened. The head of the committee, the Lieutenant Governor resigned because of another scandal.
THE NEW CARRY PASSED IN CONGRESS…NOW THERE IS THE SENATE
By a bipartisan vote of 272-154, the House passed a measure that will enable non-resident gun owners to carry a concealed firearm across state borders. Forty-three Democrats joined 229 Republicans in supporting the measure, which had 245 co-sponsors. Just seven Republicans joined 147 Democrats in voting against the bill. H.R. 822, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, allows gun owners with valid state-issued concealed firearm permits to carry a concealed firearm in other states that also allow concealed carry.
“The Second Amendment is a fundamental right to bear arms that should not be constrained by state boundary lines,” said the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. “This legislation enhances public safety and protects the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.
THE SENATE BILL
Currently, Illinois is the only state that bans individuals from carrying concealed firearms, while 49 states allow concealed carry permits. Forty of those that do allow it extend some degree of reciprocity to permit holders from other states. This bill simply applies the states’ reciprocal agreements nationwide.
The bill is unlikely to pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where companion legislation has not yet been introduced.
Brian Malte, the federal legislation director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said the bill would create a “race to the bottom,” where people would flock to states with the most lax requirements in order to obtain a concealed handgun license.
“This bill says, ‘Forget states rights, forget the ability of states to determine which states you want to have a reciprocal agreement with,’” Malte said. “It’s a one-size-fits-all that tramples states rights, that allows dangerous and untrained people to carry in any state.”.
A bill passed last week would require any state that allows the carrying of concealed weapons to honor permits that other states issue to their citizens. A traveler from Texas, say, would be entitled to pack his pistol on a visit to California — regardless of the preferences of Californians. (Because it doesn't issue such permits, Illinois would not be affected.)
Advocates compare these permits to driver's license's, which are recognized across state lines. But Northwestern University law professor Andrew Koppelman points out this reciprocity came about by mutual consent of the states, not by federal decree.
States are free to do the same on guns. Most right-to-carry states, as it happens, already honor permits from some or all other states. California and New York, by contrast, restrict concealed weapons to licensed residents of their states.