Fishing for gun news this morning

Other countries must think America is nucking futs with the crazy that is in the news these days. We must be modern day Sodom and Gomorrah with all the Slut Walks, Shania Twain Love Triangles, The Price of a Suitcase of Cocaine in DC - it looks pretty awful.

I did pick up on this article warning America of the obvious dangers of barring doctors from counciling you on having guns in the home where your children are. It's so full of the same ignorant anti-gun rhetoric that has been going on for decades that it could have been written in 1971 and just reposted. It's that bad.

I'm too lazy to fisk the whole thing, but here's a little bit of fun anyways:

Florida is set to become the first state to pass a law that would limit doctors' ability to council parents about gun safety in the home. Pediatricians decry the law as wrongheaded, and they're backed by statistics that suggest the law will kill kids.

This is the part that I'm going to attack most viciously - "backed by statistics." So if all of these studies that you claim really do back your story with statistics and all, then where the fuck are they? The first link you have in the article, in the paragraph where you say that the Florida Pediatric Society "expects" an increase in injury and death from having guns in the home with children, links to "The Top 10 Leading Causes of Death." Wanna guess what's not on that list? Yeah, anything at all to do with guns. Bummer.

I caution doctors and journalists from hanging too much of their hope on expectations, as reality can be a real drag. Expectations are also not solid conclusions to draw from a study.

Next up you cite the infamous Kellerman study from 1986 (and I notice that you don't link to that one. I don't blame you) where Dr. Kellerman found that having a gun in the home makes you 43 times more likely to be killed by some shit or something. It's been years since I read that piece, but I recall his statistics also came to the conclusion that innocuous stuff like having a garage or PeeWee Herman doll makes you about certain to be killed by something. That study has been so thoroughly debunked that it's almost laughable that the author even mentions it.

The next link about doctors "decrying" not being able to warn incompetent parents about guns in the home - the one hyperlinking over the words "injury and death in children" - links to a health article talking about running related injuries in active kids. Do doctors warn parents about the dangers of their kids running? If it's so dangerous and all, maybe it's a good idea for doctors to council all of us dumbass parents about the hazards of life. Do doctors even get training on how to council people? Are they like Chaplains, but with medical skills? I can identify so many dangers to kids from where I sit right now that maybe I should sign up for my pediatrician to council me every single day, that my kids might live longer than I did. . . . .oh, wait.

"For pediatricians, prevention is the name of the game," St. Petery said.

Huh. To think that this whole time I've been taking my tribe of ankle biters to the doctor for vaccines and illness related stuff, when it's now quite obvious I should be bombarding him with questions regarding the dangers of running, septicemia, and Alzheimer's. Aggghhhh, I feel so silly right now.

More than one-third of American homes have at least one gun at home, but a 2007 study found 70 percent of guns are not stored safely.

Oooooh. . . .another study. Check that one out for details of how a survey about how guns were stored in homes was construed by one pediatrician to mean that 70 percent of those guns were stored improperly. Doctor DuRant knows this shit for real Yo, because of that huge block of training he went through in medical school that covered how to properly store firearms in the home in every situation; you know, that instruction you get in your third year right in between lessons on how to council people and the one on how to conduct years long studies about such things like gun violence and autoerotic asphyxiation. Doctors are like Jack Bauer, but with stethoscopes and latex gloves instead of Sigs and H&Ks.

"I would think there should be a law that says if you don’t [council parents about gun safety], that should be malpractice," said David Hemenway, a professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health who studies injury prevention.

Cool! I'm down with that, because if parents have a claim that you didn't council them about the dangers of guns in the home with their children and they got hurt, then they will also have remedy when their kids impail themselves on a pair of scissors, tumble down the stairs and bust their dome-piece, choke to death on a hermit crab, or wash their intestines out with peroxide. Does your doctor council you about every danger your kid could encounter in the home? Cause what your sayin is that you consider a doctor to be at fault for not giving parents fair warning about common hazards.

Children in the United States are 11 times more likely to die accidentally from a gun injury compared with children in other developed countries, he said.

Oh come on! You know that's bullshit right there; you don't even offer a link or the name of a study. But while we're on it, did you know that MyHealthNewsDaily writers and AAP doctors in the United States are 43 times more likely to die from a rare venereal disease they caught from licking their stamp collection than are MyHealthNewsDaily writers and AAP doctors from Botswana? Honest Abe!

The writer goes on to try and link child suicides using firearms to a study about the dangers of the internet - no guns mentioned in there. Here's the gist of the entire article summed up for you:

The best way to keep children safe from gun injury is not to own one, Hemenway said. This is also the position of the AAP.

Yup. We got that from you, boss. But I have to ask you: in your professional experience, what's the best way keep children safe from violent scumbags, home intruders, or dangerous animals? Counciling?

***Update: Ricky the doctor chips in to say that counciling you about everything imaginable because he thinks it's dangerous is "within the scope of his practice." Hey Ricky, does that include medical malpractice? Last I heard, doctors kill far more people every year from negligence than every firearm death combined. Is it absurd to suggest a law making it so doctors start their counciling with a disclaimer to stay the hell away from doctors because they are known to be extremely hazardous to your health?

Word smithing

Why is it that those who write an anti-gun piece feel the burning need to add "shooty" type words or conjure up the Wild West that really wasn't very wild? It's almost a subliminal thing, like those people who stick their tongue out when they draw, or those who bob and weave when watching kung-fu movies.

Here's an anti-gun opinion piece in USA Today (surprise!!) that starts out "When it comes to gun fights. . .", making the first thing the reader interprets a violent act, in an article regarding civil rights. Way to go, poncho.

I don't have the time to properly fisk this bird cage liner, but here's a taste (see what I did there?!):

Last month, for instance, Wyoming joined Arizona, Alaska and Vermont to become the fourth state to allow concealed firearms with no permit whatsoever.

Yeah, and it's already turning out to be such a bloodbath like in Arizona, Alaska, and Vermont, right? Oh, you didn't mention that absolutely nothing out of the ordinary has happened in those states since they passed those laws? Weird. You might want to mention that then because you make it sound like it was a disaster for other states, which isn't the case at all.

It goes down hill pretty fast from there. Perhaps another blogger will be by to give this piece the scrutiny it deserves?

The AP weighs in on GUNS IN PARKS!!!

And it's really stupid. They did spare us from the much of the ignorant rhetoric, but then again they did quote Paul Helmke.

"There is still time for Congress and the president to take steps to keep loaded firearms away from the valleys of Yellowstone, the cliffs of Yosemite, and the Statue of Liberty -- but they need to act quickly," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

It won't take long after the enactment of this law that nothing will happen. There won't be blood in the streets or anything of the sort, but sometime years down the road some poor citizen will gun down a violent scumbag or starving diseased animal and it will have been worth it. If it saves one life!!

On another note, it is fully presumed that the first family was protected by at least two dozen guys with guns during their trip to Yosemite this weekend.

In other news, seven people were shot in the "Gun Free" bastion of our nation this weekend. The Metro police are no doubt scouring their new gun registration for the whodunnit, as well as talking with local NRA members.

Our government the snakepit

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tells Mexico that the US shares the blame for the mess South of our border. It's all our fault, see.

Mexican officials have in the past, particularly under the Bush administration, complained that Washington never acknowledged the extent that the U.S. demand for drugs and weapons smuggling played in fueling the violence.

It's all our fault.

"These criminals are outgunning the law enforcement officials," she said, referring to guns and military-style equipment like night vision goggles and body armor that the cartels are smuggling into Mexico from the United States.

"Outgunned?" You know, I keep hearing that from the media, the Mexican government, the US government, but I just don't believe it. Something about the Mexican military and police being armed with H&K G3s, H&K MP5s, Barrett M82A1s, Galils, and WARSHIPS makes me have to call bullshit! The Mexican government has a fucking AIR FORCE!! And now we have our Secretary of State saying that it's the United States' fault that the cartels have night vision and body armor; the same stuff that we've been selling to the Mexican government for years?!?! Don't take my word for it, take former drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey's word for it:

"As a result, the U.S. government has stepped up military assistance to the Mexican military and police, mostly through transfers of free military equipment. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug policy director, traveled to Mexico in March 1996 smoothing the way for an agreement between the two governments which has resulted in Mexican soldiers beginning to train at Ft. Bragg and other American bases, and in the gift of 73 "surplus" helicopters, four C-26 surveillance planes, night vision goggles, radios and other military equipment. In addition, the White House has requested $9 million in military aid for Mexico for fiscal year 1998 (up from $3 million in fiscal year 1996) for the purchase of new weapons from U.S. arms manufacturers.

That was in 1996, but what does Gen. (Retired) McCaffrey have to say now:

The outgunned Mexican law enforcement authorities face armed criminal attacks from platoon-sized units employing night vision goggles, electronic intercept collection, encrypted communications, fairly sophisticated information operations, sea-going submersibles, helicopters and modern transport aviation, automatic weapons, RPG’s, Anti-Tank 66 mm rockets, mines and booby traps, heavy machine guns, 50 cal sniper rifles, massive use of military hand grenades, and the most modern models of 40mm grenade machine guns.

Emphasis all mine.

So let me get this straight. We train the Mexican military and police here at US bases with US Soldiers, give them US equipment like night vision goggles, encrypted radios, helicopters, C-26 planes, automatic weapons, destructive devices, and millions of dollars so they can fight the bad people, and then we have Hillary and McCaffrey telling the world that the drug cartels are buying this shit from US gunshows and it's all our fucking fault?!?! Letting the Mexican government blame us for their incompetence?!?!

How bout' telling those dipshits to look at the plank in their own eye before pointing the finger at the only people who have been helping them thus far!

This is the excuse our corrupt and incompetent government is giving the world right before they make a move to take our rights. Awesome.

It's all one big gigantic lie, and our government is expecting us to pick up the tab. Typical.

Update: I'm finding more and more blasphemy from our Secretary of State, such as this:

The United States needs to stop the flow of guns, body armor and night-vision goggles to the cartels, Clinton said.

"When you go into a gunfight or are trying to round up these bad guys and they have military-style equipment that is much better than yours, you start out at a disadvantage. Since we know the vast majority of that comes from our country, we are going to help stop it from getting there in the first place."

The cartels have better night vision than the US supplied Mexican Army? Good to know that our gear sucks. I wonder if the F5 Tigers that the US provided to Mexico are inferior to the fighter jets that the cartels don't have? If the cartels steal one, will Hillary go back to Mexico and point the finger at US citizens for allowing the NRA to provide assault style aircraft to narco-terrorists?

"I think that the fact that the Obama administration is seized with the importance of this issue is a clear indication that they understand that, to defang the drug syndicates in Mexico, we have to eliminate two of their most powerful sources -- bulk cash from the United States into Mexico and illicit weapons."

So the US government is going to do that by giving the corrupt Mexican government more bulk cash and illicit weapons just like we've been doing for decades? What could possibly go wrong? And don't tell me that Obama is going to just send a hundred agents and $700 million dollars to the border and say that we're helping Mexico. The US government is going to shovel money and arms into that country like we've always done, and then bitch about the easy access to this stuff when the cartels wind up with the gear.

Now, I agree that we need to stop the flow of thousands of gaudy handguns and some semi-automatic rifles to Mexico; they're hard enough for US citizens to find at gunshows as it is, but let's put ourselves in the shoes of a Mexican drug kingpin in charge of a multi-billion dollar narcotics industry.

Your sitting there on your genuine ivory throne with a gold plated Magnum Research Desert Eagle wondering how to outfit your army of twenty thousand narco-killers with military hardware. You could pay a few thousand of your guys a nice salary to sneak across the border and convince Sally soccer moms to buy a dozen semi-auto AK-47 clones for $700 apiece and then have them smuggle them back into Mexico where you will have to pay $200 apiece to have the rifles modified for full auto fire (spanish). Not very economical, but it could work in the short term. You could call one of your several high ranking henchmen who are down in Guatemala brokering a deal on a shipping container of fragmentation grenades and see if he can get a sweet deal on a shipment of a couple of thousand select fire AK-47s while he's there, considering they don't need modification and the going rate on the world market is $100. Now, if only you could get M2 Browning Machine Guns, anti-tank rockets, mortars, night vision, body armor, encrypted radios, helicopters, and some Special Forces training. What to do what to do. I KNOW!! You can pay thousands of Mexican Special Forces soldiers who were trained in the US at top-of-the-line facilities and were issued all of this gear that you want to desert their job that pays them beans to be fodder in front of your current narco-killers and have them come work for you! Brilliant!!

Far fetched? I think not. These cartels didn't get this powerful by being stupid, and riping off the same government that they're fighting by buying out their troops is the smart play, and you don't think those soldiers will turn in that night vision and their automatic weapons before going to work for a drug syndicate, do you?

Update: I told you so!

Clinton also said Wednesday that the White House will seek an additional $80 million to help Mexico buy Blackhawk helicopters.

Wanna bet that in ten years when the cartels have control of several of these Blackhawks that Mexico will blame it on lax US laws?

And look at this "arsenal of shotguns" that FOX News is reporting:


This is the "iron river" of arms flowing by the hundreds into Mexico that the Obama administration is destined to stop via "assault thingy" legislation.

Why does anybody neeeeed more than one barrel anyways?





Those fully automatic bolt action rifles and double barrel shotguns are capable of tremendous rapid fire. All the drug militias have to do is pour these assault style bullets down the barrel and launch a barrage of shrap-nel at the Mexican police! They don't stand a chance!

Brady Campaign takes on law abiding citizen

What a bunch of shameless scumbags.

Meleanie Hain is back in the news because she is suing the county and the sheriff for revoking her gun permit. Good for her.

The Brady Campaign, who claims that they are not against law abiding gun owners, have offered to defend the county, as well as the local sheriff, against Meleanie, who has been abiding by the law this whole time. During the incident where Meleanie's permit was revoked, she was acting lawfully, and the court rightfully restored her permit; a concealed carry permit, I might add, which has no bearing whatsoever on open carry, which Meleanie was doing on the day her permit was taken.

So she was doing nothing illegal, had her rights infringed, and is suing because of those infringements. But that is against everything that the Brady Campaign is for. They can't have good citizens going about their day while lawfully carrying a firearm.

Last week, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence offered to defend DeLeo and the county for free.

"This is a case that calls out for common sense and sanity," said Daniel Vice, the center's senior attorney. "It's an incredible risk to bring a loaded semi-automatic weapon to a children's soccer game."

Is that so? Let me ask: if it's such a big risk then why are cops allowed to carry to the field? I presume it's because they believe that cops have much higher gun handling skills then any mere citizen, but yet they automatically think that way without any idea as to how much training Meleanie, or any citizen for that matter, has with their weapon. It's assumed that a uniform brings competence with weapons, and that's not really true.

DeLeo, who calls himself a staunch NRA member, said he has nothing against guns but felt it was his duty to take action "because of the safety and security issues involving [children] on the field."

****

DeLeo said he had rarely seen anyone other than a police officer walk around with a gun on the hip. In fact, doing so might make Hain more of a target, he said.

Good for thee, but not for me? I bet he feels real safe on a soccer field. And who has ever heard of a scumbag shooting it out on a soccer field in recent memory? Meleanie must be paranoid or something.

This article has some BiaS in it as well; because we can't have a group of idealistic scumbags who don't want law abiding citizens to have firearms without a little help from incompetent and opinionated journalists, can we?

Her babysitting business has suffered. Two babysitting clients have fled and she is down to just one family.

****

She carries the weapon cowboy-style because in an emergency - not that there has ever been one - "I don't really need anything extra in the way of the gun if I'm going to have to pull it out and I'm holding a baby and trying to shuttle two or three other kids," she said.

Fled? Cowboy style? No sir, writer Kathy Boccella is not at all trying to draw conclusions for the reader. That wouldn't be ethical, now would it?

Michael Long - who leaves Tyler, 2, and Joshawa, 8, with Hain one day a week - said he doesn't worry because she locks up her gun when the children are in the house.

So not only is she law abiding, she's safety minded as well. Who would have thought? So why does the Brady Campaign feel that they should go after this woman?

Anti-gunners are so clever

I found this hateful and nasty anti-gun opinion piece by Bill Cope from Boise Weekly on a thread at The High Road. What a load of BS. Here's a taste:

It's just that these 'open carry' clowns got me to thinking about it. You heard about them ... those simpletons who put on that big show by going to the zoo with their rods hanging out?

Nice, huh?

"'Scuse me for interrupting, but pass me another stuffed pepper there, would ya'? And then explain how this has anything to do with those dumb turd 'open carry' gun crackers.

And this:

"Yes, Billy. You're right. And anyone with the sense God gave a cucumber knows it. But you know how it'll play out as well as I do. The dumb turd gun crackers will claim that having pistols everywhere you turn cuts down on crime. They maintain two million crimes are prevented a year 'cause so many ambulatory dildos like them had gats in their pants. And pass those cucumbers over, if you would."

To be fair, this guy bashes more than just gun owners. SUV drivers and those who don't believe in global warming are also treated to this mess. Stuff like this needs to be spread far and wide to show the kind of mentality that exists in the anti-gun crowd.

Weapons Free

So, the FBI director is throwing a hissy fit over the Heller decision:

Robert Mueller said he tends to believe that "weapons harm people, and more often than not they harm the people carrying them."

Sorry, but your flat out wrong on that one. He then dribbles today's dose of stupid:

He said with his grandchildren going to college, he hopes "those campuses will be weapons-free."

And

He said college campuses and small communities could be "potential incubators of terrorism" even while major cities such as New York and Los Angeles remain primary targets for terrorists.

Jackass!

You would think that hunters and shooters would be happy...

...but the American Hunters and Shooters Association (not linked intentionally), a shill anti-gun group that swears they are pro-gun, doesn't seem to notice the landmark gun rights case.

Weird. The Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) sent me an email within seconds of the Heller decision.

Funny how real activism works, huh?

Brady Camp's lies

Over at Armed Canadian, this post details how the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership lies through their teeth about the facts. Found via Says Uncle.

Read it, you won't be disappointed.