The New Year's Looking Better Than the Old

First, in ringing out 2015.

 A father and heavy drinker fatally shot his wife and two others after an argument over the washing machine on New Year's Eve in the Los Angeles suburbs.

The son, Christopher Morey, wrestled the gun away from his father and fatally shot him. He has been arrested for murder and is being held on $1 million bail. While such domestic shootings are particularly difficult to predict, they are declining nationally, as are felony crimes.

I saw the story a few days ago, but not the wrinkle about the dispute over the washing machine. It's nice to see that this type of shooting is declining. We takes our good news where we can find it. 

Wilfred Calzadilla, brother to victim Ernesto Calzadilla, said his brother was a friend of the family, but he had generally stopped going to the house because of worries about the father, who drank heavily and owned a large collection of guns. Local law authorities had visited the house to investigate dozens of times, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.

"Mixing alcohol and guns never ends good," Wilfred Calzadilla told the Associated Press.

Words to live by, Mr. Calzadilla. 

I don't see prayer as a long range solution to gun deaths, but it's worth a try when that's all you've got. 

Pitting prayers against bullets, an armed intrusion at a church on New Year’s Eve ended in peace.

At a eastern North Carolina congregation Thursday night, an emotionally distraught man walked in with a rifle in one hand and ammunition in the other. But it did not turn into a scene of terror. Instead, hugs and prayers ensued, and the man stayed for the rest of the service before being taken into custody by police.

I'm definitely feeling more optimistic about 2016 now. 

Jerry Seinfeld With the Coolest of Presidents

I like Seinfeld's advice on handling hecklers. "You seem upset. I'm so sorry. Let's talk." Wingnuts hate when you respond to them politely. They're looking for you to get as unraveled as they are. 

Who Do You Root For?

It's Trump against the Union Leader. Is there a way they can both lose?

On Monday, the Union Leader — which has endorsed Chris Christie in the primary — published a front-page editorial written by its publisher, Joseph McQuaid, in which he criticized Trump for some of his rhetorical excesses and compared him to Biff from “Back to the Future,” a stereotypical bully. 

And here's Trump on McQuaid:

“I’ve watched this guy and, honestly, he’s a loser,” Trump said.

He really needs a thesaurus. Stock up on popcorn for when this starts to happen.

New Hampshire is absolutely critical to Trump’s campaign. Even if his support is not as fragile as many people have assumed, there is one thing that could crack it. It’s not his voters realizing that Trump isn’t a reliable conservative, or that he understands nothing about policy, or that he’s a jerk. The one thing that could really hurt Trump is if people start to see him as a loser. 

You think he's unhinged now?

It’s hard to overestimate just how central the idea that Trump is a winner is to his candidacy. (It’s also quite obviously central to his own self-image and psychology, which is part of why he’s constantly accusing people he doesn’t like of being losers.)

Where does he go from there if he loses badly in this campaign? He's gonna have that big "L" on his forehead forever, the biggest of 2016 losers.  

Etc?

It's the last day of the year and I don't want to work hard for a post, so why not a Post Star letter. This one from Chuck Sharrow has some stuff I like. And some that I don't.

I have to wonder if you have fallen victim to the rhetoric of people like Cuomo, Tingley, Doolittle, etc.

I've written three letters recently to the paper on guns and all I am is etc.? I'd like to think he writes in response to H.P. Oswald because he can't cope with my sterling rhetoric. Gonna go with that.

When the Second Amendment was adopted, it is true that only muzzle-loading firearms were available to the citizenry. However, that is all that was available to the government as well. Even-steven. Follow me? 

No. Not really. Are you saying the government of Britain or the U.S.?

Fast forward to 2015. Are you suggesting, sir, that the American citizen could mount an effective defense against an enemy, foreign or domestic, using muzzleloaders?

Sounds like it's the U.S. government. Could be wrong, but I think he's suggesting that he should have the same weaponry as the police and military. Guessing Santa did not bring him an MRAP. 

For that is what the Second Amendment is truly about. It is not about our hunting rifles. 

He has a militia? God, I hope not. It would make it a fairer fight, though. I still think this "fighting against a tyrannical government" stuff is just another way of saying suicide by cop. Want to thank all these brave volunteers for keeping me safe from my government whom I mostly voted for. 

Consider where you may be today if our forefathers had fought its government with an inferior weapon such as the bow and arrow. If you’re not sure, ask the American Indian and visit his reservation.

Is there any doubt that he's an Alex Jones fan? What happened to the foreign enemies? Fuck that. We got bigger ones here at home.

Look deeper into the Democratic agenda of bigger government with more citizen dependency and you will understand why they want to abolish the Second Amendment. After all, it’s their last hurdle in their march toward socialism!

I think I've used up my letters for the month to the paper and it's probably not worth responding to him anyway. There's likely no convincing him or anyone loony enough to listen to him that Andrew Hitler and Barack Stalin aren't coming for his precious guns. Or maybe they will.

President Barack Obama is expected to announce executive action expanding background checks on gun sales, media outlets reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with White House proposals and planning.

The changes, which could come as soon as next week, would include requiring more small-scale gun sellers to be licensed and to conduct a background check whenever selling a weapon, Politico reported.

Additional measures would impose tighter rules for reporting guns that are lost or stolen on their way to a buyer, the political news website said.

Background checks? Reporting lost or stolen guns? The horror. It's obviously the first step toward repeal of the second amendment. 

Jon Swift Memorial Round-up Link and, Surprise Gun Links

Why save the best for last? The Vagabond Scholar gives us a late Christmas present in compiling a list of wonderful blog posts from a wonderful collection of talented bloggers whom I am so in awe of. If I manage a good post this year, who knows?

A little pressed for time, but I should pass along some great news for the gun fetishists. Yes, you folks can take your perversion out in the open now. The shame and the need for concealed carry is no more. Whip it out proudly. 

As of Jan. 1, it’s a new world in Texas. Or a throwback to the past, depending on how you look at it.

For the first time in more than a century, licensed Texans will be free to walk the streets, or travel the state, openly wearing their holstered handguns.

It's a happy day for Scott Graves, I can assure you of that. 

Oh my beloved Adirondacks,

How I miss thee, 

Ne'er again will I,

Gaze upon your verdant hills.

Then again, maybe I'll stick to prose. 

This is a link to an article on this notion of "we'll just spend some money on mental health and that'll take care of the gun problems." Hoping to get back to this. Until then a letter to the Post Star about that very thing.

I'm just going to add this on to the end of this post. It's too sad to get one of its own.

Claude Campbell, Jr. placed a breathless 911 call late Tuesday evening as his step-daughter lay unconscious in his 10th Street home.

He tells the dispatcher that 27-year-old Ashley Doby has "passed out. She has a pacemaker. She has a heart problem," in a recording released by police.

But not once during the five-minute 911 call does Campbell, a veteran member of the St. Cloud Police Department, mention why Doby was struggling to breathe: a gunshot wound to the chest.

Campbell omitted that fact because he was asleep when his wife shot Doby, mistaking her for an intruder, police said on Wednesday. He didn't realize what happened until his wife — a 911 dispatcher with the Osceola County Sheriff's Office – explained it to him, according to authorities.

It was too late. Doby was taken to a local hospital, where she later died. Her death is being characterized by St. Cloud Police as an "accidental shooting," according to Sgt. Denise Roberts. Sherry Campbell, 45, fired one fatal shot. She has not been arrested on any criminal charges. 

May the New Year be a better one.

Who Will Speak for the Guns?

Jim Hull will in a letter to the Post Star today. Thanks, Jim. You mentioned something I've been meaning to mention.

Cars are plowing into crowds killing and injuring, ban cars? Far more are killed and maimed by drunken drivers than legal gun owners; put alcohol interlocks in all cars? More according to the FBI were killed in New York by hands and fists than guns, amputate citizens?

I get this argument a lot, "cars kill people and we don't ban cars." First, the obvious point is that most people who are calling for gun control are not calling for banning guns. When I say most, I mean all of them. They are calling for things like background checks to prevent firearms from being in the wrong hands. The second point is that drivers of cars are required to pass a written and practical driver's test before getting a license, have the vehicle registered and inspected, have insurance, follow laws and such. These are all things that the most extreme gun owners would have a conniption over. 

Just want to mention that there are no organizations around calling for the promotion of drunk driving. That is the equivalent of what the NRA and others like the Gun Owners of America do. In fairness, the NRA was not always what they are now. At one time they did promote hunter safety and were not merely a mouthpiece for the gun industry. 

Letter to a Texas Concern Troll

So, if the State of New York eliminates its income tax and all gun control laws, this guy will deign to once again live among us.

Yet another decade passes and still I hesitate moving back to my beloved southern Adirondacks. Why? I'm retired now so I certainly could go. The problems lie in the overbearing control that the state government exerts on its citizens. Your taxes are astronomical. Texas has no income tax. Your gun laws are horrifying. I buy and keep as many guns as I want in Texas including the dreaded AR-15. My Adirondacks will remain a distant memory and Texas my adopted home.

My response:

   

    In response to Scott Graves from El Paso: I'd like to say that your love for the Adirondacks must be very shallow if being required to pay a bit in taxes and follow some restrictions on your guns keeps you from living here. If you're retired, it doesn't even seem that your income tax bill would be that high. I know there are people here who own guns and hunt. Don't believe they use AR-15s, though. Unlike Texans, New Yorkers don't make a practice of going, en masse, into restaurants bearing assault rifles. We don't have that level of insecurity.

     Of course, recently a lot of folks in Texas were convinced that they were going to be invaded by the U.S. military. No, I don't get it either, but that's what they thought. So, they may have anxiety problems that are only relieved by their guns. And you know what; Governor Abbott, Senator Cruz and other Texas politicians did nothing to dissuade their citizenry of that notion. The governor even sent out the National Guard to keep an eye on the federal troops.

     The same Texas government fought the Affordable Care Act fervently while New York was working with the federal government to implement it here. The difference shows now, too. So, I'll take the "overbearing" government that works to ensure its citizens have health insurance over the one that doesn't, and is willing to allow its people to believe conspiracy theories. I'm retired, as well. I do love New York and I'm willing to pay taxes in order to live in a sane and civilized society.   

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate wingnuts in my morning paper?