Random Gun Violence Post

Went to the Gun Violence Archive and looked at the last 72 hours. Since I'm interested in the Texas Experiment, I happened to click on this.

Someone tried to take the money from Oliver without exiting the vehicle.

However, Oliver, who was armed, pulled his weapon, and that's when people inside the car also pulled a gun and Oliver was shot, according to HPD. 

This was in Houston and he was making the money drop for McDonald's. Just give them the money! If he hadn't been armed he would likely still be alive. Is it reasonable to think the guy is going to take the money and then just shoot him for no reason.

And here's two recent cases where fear-mongering has left people less safe in their homes, or at least left their children less safe. In Florida, a woman shoots her daughter.

A Florida woman who fatally shot her daughter mistakenly thought the 27-year-old was a home intruder, authorities say.

The sleeping woman woke up when she heard a noise and saw a figure coming toward her late Tuesday night, said Sgt. Denise Roberts, of the St. Cloud Police Department. The figure was approaching quickly, Roberts said, and didn’t say anything.

“The homeowner fired one round at the subject,” a news release on the shooting states. “The subject was later identified as the homeowner’s daughter.”

In Cincinnati, a father shoots his son. 

A Cincinnati father accidentally shot and killed his 14-year-old son after he investigated what he thought was a burglary in his home Tuesday, police said.

Stop telling people they are unsafe in their own homes.

Link to Leonard Pitts piece at the Post Star. 

Bundy Gang Update

Just a few links from Oregon Live.

Here's Jon Ritzhimer having a fit over inappropriate gifts. Self-reliance isn't just an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson you know, Jon.

If I lived in Burns, I'd have to think about actually arming up myself.

Police and community members say the menacing is real and has been going on for weeks. 

There are a number of incidents at that link. It may not be the actual militia that are involved. It could just be that they draw a bad element. So, apparently on Friday they are going to let the town know when they'll stop holding it hostage.

The armed militants occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge announced Tuesday morning that they will drive into Burns at the end of the week to hold a community meeting and inform residents when they will leave.

BTW, I do think that Ammon Bundy would make a great running mate for whoever wins the Republican nomination for prez. 

Doolittle Link 

Checking In On Matt

I had to look back and see when my last Funiciello post was. It's been over a month, so I guess we're due. I try to limit it to one a month or so. Obsession behavior is never pretty. Note my many gun posts.

So, the Post Star has a short bit about a lady who has announced she's going to run as a Green Party candidate in the mayoral race in Glens Falls in 2017.

Patti Gray Whann recently enrolled in the Green Party as she solidified her decision to run for Glens Falls mayor in 2017.

“To be a registered independent, you’re not a party and you have no line,” 

To me that sounds as though it's possible that she's running as a Green because it's a low bar to entry onto the ballot. I could be wrong and it could be that she is dedicated to Green Party principles. Call me a skeptic when it comes to the fact that she has worked for the McCain/Palin and Romney/Ryan tickets.

Gray Whann was a local organizer in Saratoga Springs for Republican John McCain’s first presidential campaign in 2000, and she represented the Republican viewpoint at a presidential candidate proxy debate in 2004 at Crandall Public Library.

Now, of course I realize there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans. To some there isn't anyway. Kudos to Ms. Whann for driving an alternative fuel vehicle anyway. Moving on toward Matt.

 “Although I haven’t gotten my cute little postcard back from the Board of Elections yet, I filled out my (voter registration) paperwork and put it in the mail.”

I did leave a comment at the site and I'm proud of myself for resisting the urge to say something snarky about not asking MF for help on that. 

On Tuesday last, (Funiciello) went to vote and was told that "he didn't exist." It was unclear from listening to the show whether he was allowed to vote or not. (He wasn't) He wasn't on the voter rolls, but if he was actually registered, he should have been able to vote by affidavit. My belief is that he screwed up in registering and was not allowed to vote for that reason.

I could also have warned her about the conspiracy inherent in the Board of Elections against Green, Libertarian, Socialist, The Rent's Too Damn High and any other party not wearing blue or red jerseys.

So what I really wanted to get to here was MF's comment on the article. 

And I am very proud of her and happy to welcome her officially as a new member to the Green Party.

And I'm happy that he's happy. I did want to point out that she has run for office before. 

Gray Whann was a long-time Republican who became an independent in 2013, when she was considering a run for a Common Council seat in the 2nd Ward.

She was the Republican candidate for the 3rd Ward Common Council seat in 2009, and lost to incumbent Democrat Scott Watson.

Yes, she's run for Common Council and lost as a Republican and is now running for mayor as a Green. The nonsense is strong in this story. If you can't win running for the lower office, try for a higher one. But just to bring the nonsense on home, here's Matt!

Patti has done a great job with the GF Collaborative and, should she run for Mayor, she will certainly be doing so with my full support!

Matt Funiciello's radio show lead-in starts with some bullshit like, "take off your red or blue jersey because it's time for uncommon sense." Ms. Whann has announced, essentially, that she is going to run for mayor of Glens Falls. She has no announced opponents yet. 

Councilman at-large Dan Hall, a Democrat; Water and Sewer Commissioner Nancy Underwood, an Independence Party member; and former 1st Ward Supervisor William Brown, a Conservative Party member, have said they are exploring the race.

My question then is, mustn't you be wearing a green jersey if you are giving a candidate your full support based on nothing other than the fact that she is running on the Green Party line? He doesn't know what her positions or anyone else's are. And you have to overlook the fact that all the potential opponents at least have some experience. 

I'm big on word definitions. I always try to make sure a word, "means what I think it means," before I use it. So here's the definition of un. 

a prefix meaning “not,” freely used as an English formative,  

I hate nonsense and try to use common sense myself. I can only speculate that uncommon sense is the opposite of common sense and would therefore be not common sense. The more I look at the things MF says, the more I realize that the name of that radio show is impeccable.

This One's For You, Smith29-2

I'm tired of leaving links at the Post Star site, so just going to do a little blog posting today. Once again want to give a Hometown thumbs up to Kathleen Parker. When they're right, you gotta acknowledge it. So here's commenter Smith29-2:

The one thing I get sick and tired of hearing is the "gun lobby'. You know who the gun lobby is? Gun owners, the elderly veteran who lives down the street, fought in Korea or WWII who hunted his whole life, never got in trouble. He's the gun lobby. The father who just got his kid a .22 rifle, he's the gun lobby, the woman who bought a handgun because after fourth or fifth time her ex violated the order of protection and realized that the ten minute plus response time from the cops after she called 911, she's the gun lobby. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the suck ups to both and their like in the media would have you believe the gun lobby are rich executives, they're not. The gun lobby is everyday people, people who are sick and tired of being treated like criminals for doing nothing wrong. Gun sales are the highest they've ever been, why? Because of the lack of response from the GOP and being treated like criminals for exercising a right they have.

I did leave a comment on the Home Depot shoplifter shooter. As to the father who just bought his kid a .22, guess I could have mentioned the father of Dylann Roof and the mother of Adam Lanza. I'll just point out this guy who's also the NRA.

Authorities discovered a laundry list of weapons and ammo in Stockert’s truck which included an unloaded 12-gauge pump shotgun, a bolt-action rifle, 289 rounds of .22 caliber long-rifle bullets, 71 rounds of 12-gauge shotgun ammunition and two rounds of .223 rifle ammunition, plus a 12-inch machete and an 18-inch billy club.

The Congress can't approve that money for mental health soon enough. 

Thank You Texans

I've been remiss in extending my thanks to the people of Texas for so enthusiastically agreeing to take part in the experiment involving total firearm insanity. How total? Here's the Texas AG:

The attorney general of Texas said late Monday that banning guns in college dorm rooms violates the state's newly approved "campus carry" law,...

"If a public institution of higher education placed a prohibition on handguns in the institution's campus residential facilities, it would effectively prohibit license holders in those facilities from carrying concealed handguns on campus, in violation of the express terms of Senate Bill 11,"

Sure it may sound crazy to you, Don't worry though. It's not open carry, it's concealed carry.

“When people hear campus carry, they’re like ‘Oh my gosh, guns are going to  be all over campus’ but it’s really not going to  be that way,” Christopher Lee says. He’s student body vice president at UNT in Denton. “Students aren’t just going to be walking around with guns on their hips.”  

Oh my gosh indeed.

Only those 21 years and older can get a license.

Thank God for that anyway. In fairness:

The UNT task force studied Colorado, the state with the most years of campus carry law – 12. There had been few campus gun incidents there.

I'll be thankful to be watching from the relative safety of upstate NY.

Assorted Links On Guns

In no special order. Here's Tbogg:

We’re tired of lunatics bursting into schools and slaughtering screaming 6-year-olds with assault weapons.

We’re tired of weekend warriors strutting around Home Depot looking for toilet plungers while dressed like they’re setting out on a midnight raid to capture Osama bin Laden; AR15 at the ready in case someone jumps the line at the self-check out.

We’re tired of heavily-armed home-schooled Constitutional scholars who steal or occupy property belonging to all Americans because… freedom. They’re not patriots, they’re gun-packing thieves — and not very bright ones at that.

But mainly we’re tired of dying from gunshot wounds.

Tom had the deaths at my next link at 157. It's at 205 when I just looked. It'll pretty much rise by the minute though, so look fast. Another link from that piece contains a wealth of studies refuting the stupidity of ho so much. 

Lots of good stuff there, but just to point out two stories: 

Despite the astronomical odds against being killed, this fear of home invasion often drives people like Becca Campbell of Ferguson, Missouri, to gun ownership. This past November, Campbell was riding home in a car with her boyfriend after purchasing a gun, preparing for the unrest expected to follow the grand jury decision about whether to pursue criminal charges against the policeman who killed Michael Brown. She joked that “we’re ready for Ferguson,” waving the gun. Distracted, the boyfriend ran into the car ahead of them, and the gun fired, killing Campbell.

And:

In light of the overwhelming evidence that guns are a public health threat, gun advocates often retreat to an “it could never happen to me” mentality. This worldview is tragically mistaken. Consider the case of Veronica Dunnachie. She was, by many gun advocates’ definition, a good gal with a gun. A strident voice for gun rights, she was an open carry advocate, dedicated to expanding the unlicensed open carrying of firearms. In Texas, open carry is currently restricted to long guns; she pushed to include handguns. She frequently attended rallies and protests organized by Open Carry Tarrant County (an offshoot of Open Carry Texas). In a domestic dispute on Dec. 10, she allegedly shot and killed her husband and stepdaughter.Horrified, Dunnachie called a friend, telling him she “had just done something bad” and, at his urging, checked herself into a nearby mental health clinic.

To just end on a light note:

Black Op Arms owner Mark Limoges showed up for his interview with CNN sporting a special edition AR-15 like one that the company had recently presented to Trump.

“This is an exact replica of the gun we gave Mr. Trump,” he explained. “It has our Black Ops Arms symbol on it with our Black Ops Arms symbol on the handrail. And the other side, we have the ‘Live Free or Die’ with the American flag on the handrail.”

For the remainder of the five minute interview, Limoges continued to hold the weapon across his chest, pointing it upwards.

He's going to make them pry it from his cold, dead fingers.

“Most of the people that come in [to the gun store] are real nervous about what Mr. Obama is going to do to limit their chances of getting weapons,” he said.

That's because they're nuts who listen to propagandists. 

Link to a piece on Chris Gibson, gun fetishist for governor. Shout to Kathleen Parker: 

It is one thing to be in the pocket of the National Rifle Association. It is another to do nothing and then assume a superior posture of purposeful neglect, as though do-nothingness were a policy and smug intransigence a philosophy.

That's beautiful. I'm going to definitely steal that. 

It's Like Woodstock for Wingnuts

Please arrest them and charge them with anything you can think of. They got away with their bullshit at the Bundy Ranch. If we are to be nation of laws, they must be dealt with.

A group of militants broke into and seized the federally owned headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, The Portland Oregonian reports.

They can't be allowed to continue. 

Ammon Bundy once helped his father repulse the government in an armed showdown on a Nevada desert. He was Tasered for his effort.

Ryan Payne, an electrician from Montana, joined that same standoff and boasted of organizing civilians into sniper squads that drew a bead on federal agents.

And not long ago, Jon Ritzheimer worried the FBI with his threatening rants against Muslims in Arizona and elsewhere, according to press reports.

Thank God for this.

The Hammonds don't want to be part of the outsiders' cause, and neither do many in Harney County.

Doolittle link.

Charles Pierce link.

Link from Ray Cranston at Shaw's place. Hungry, hungry terrorists.