GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, OR DO THEY?

[Carsman]

Unfortunately the RNC event is likely to see some kind of trouble.
(Hope not)

[Duchess]

Unfortunately the RNC event is likely to see some kind of trouble.

Yesterday a guns right rally was held in Cleveland. They wanted to make a statement. One man walked around with a Bushmaster Predator rifle with camouflage detailing slung over his shoulder, a .45 caliber handgun strapped to his thigh and ammunition around his waist. The rally attracted just 2 people.

[Carsman]

Unfortunately the RNC event is likely to see some kind of trouble.

Yesterday a guns right rally was held in Cleveland. They wanted to make a statement. One man walked around with a Bushmaster Predator rifle with camouflage detailing slung over his shoulder, a .45 caliber handgun strapped to his thigh and ammunition around his waist. The rally attracted just 2 people.

Sounds like he was loaded for Bear, not attending a rally.

[F.U.]

Unfortunately the RNC event is likely to see some kind of trouble.

Yesterday a guns right rally was held in Cleveland. They wanted to make a statement. One man walked around with a Bushmaster Predator rifle with camouflage detailing slung over his shoulder, a .45 caliber handgun strapped to his thigh and ammunition around his waist. The rally attracted just 2 people.

Sounds like he was loaded for Bear, not attending a rally.

Neither firearm are adequate for bear. Coyote, hog or coon hunting, yes. Bear, No.

[crash]

I'd love to shoot a bear. From a decent distance though..

Canon EOS 5DIII and a 400mm f2.8L IS II should do the trick.

[Carsman]

I'd love to shoot a bear. From a decent distance though..

Canon EOS 5DIII and a 400mm f2.8L IS II should do the trick.

[sally]

I shoot down about 15 bears a day.

[Cutz]

I shoot down about 15 bears a day.

Are they flying bears? That might be the scariest thing I've ever thought about.

[HairOfTheDog]

Does a bear shoot in the woods?

[Maggot]

Some do right next to the Dunkin Doughnuts dumpster. Its not really the woods but they crap after they eat a lot.

[Donovan]

I shoot down about 15 bears a day.

Are they flying bears? That might be the scariest thing I've ever thought about.

It's not that scary, She just misspelled "beers".

[Clang McFly]

[HairOfTheDog]

Tennessee - Dad Shoots 11-year-old Daughter

RIP Timea Batts.



Her father, who is a convicted felon, reportedly stayed home so he could drive Timea to her first day of 6^th grade.

Timea came home from school on the bus, entered the house and screamed. Timothy Batts, 29, perceived a threat and fired. He shot his daughter in the chest. He then rushed her to the hospital where she died.

Initially, Batts told police that Timea was shot before she arrived home. Later, he admitted what really happened. Police say the shooting was not premeditated and Batts did not intend to harm his daughter.

Batts is charged with reckless homicide, tampering with evidence, providing false info, and illegal possession of a firearm.

Story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/time...dc11f1698d?

[Maggot]

He looks like a gang banger.

[HairOfTheDog]

I don't know if Batts is a gang banger, Maggot. But, he's definitely a criminal with a record. His friends and family say he became a Christian and turned his life around and that he was a very devoted father. His neighbors and family have rallied behind him and helped him get out on a bond.



Turns out, Batts shot a guy in a car in 2012. He was charged, but not convicted and there's no public record beyond the charging documents in his criminal record. The guy he shot had actually shot him in 2011 and was sentenced to 10 years, but was already out on probation by 2012.

There are all kinds of incidents where people shot at unseen human targets in their homes and ended up hitting or killing family members they mistook for intruders. It wouldn't surprise me if Batts had enemies and figured one had broken into his home when he pulled the trigger, only to find out he'd just shot his daughter after she got home from her first day of 6^th grade (pictured middle). :(

Reckless homicide has been added to the charges against him since I first posted the story.

[HairOfTheDog]

Irresponsible Gun Idiocy or Murder Plot using Racial/Political Issues to Cover Motive?



A friend of a Georgia woman who was shot and killed on Sept. 25 said the woman’s husband had placed the gun in his lap as they drove through Atlanta, because they feared Black Lives Matter protests.

63-year-old Diane McIver was the president of Corey Airport Services, a marketing company based in Atlanta. McIver’s company is known for its 300-foot billboard in the downtown area. She worked with the company for 43 years.

McIver’s husband, Claud “Tex” McIver (a well known Atlanta-based attorney) was directly behind her, in the backseat as Diane’s best friend drove.

Bill Crane, who is friends with the McIvers, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the couple retrieved their gun from the center console because they feared a carjacking amid recent Black Lives Matter protests. When they hit a bump in the road, Crane claims the gun held by Tex accidentally went off, striking and killing his wife.

Atlanta Police, however, told the paper the shooting “more complicated” than Crane’s account, but they wouldn’t elaborate. The case is being investigated as a homicide, but no charges have been filed.

Atlanta Police Sgt. Warren Pickard told the paper Crane “wasn’t in the car, so he is not a witness to what happened. We are going to wait and see what all the witnesses have to say.”

Though Crane, who has acted as a spokesperson for the McIver family, told the newspaper the gun went off when the car hit a bump, he previously told WGCL that Claud McIver was removing the gun from a plastic bag when it was accidentally discharged.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/friend-man-a...shot-wife/
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I'm curious to learn more about this strange case.

[Duchess]

Whatever happened to getting a divorce.

[Maggot]

Those days are gone.

[HairOfTheDog]

Whatever happened to getting a divorce.

Divorce is alive and well, but some spouses who would be entitled to a lot of alimony and shared assets wind up dead.

I don't know if that's why Diane McIver is dead and her husband is being investigated. But, based on what was released today, I think LE has good reason to suspect her husband Tex McIver might have offed her intentionally.

The ME says the bullet entered through Diane's left, middle back. The bullet damaged her diaphragm, adrenal gland, left kidney, pancreas and stomach. The autopsy states the bullet “did not pass through any intermediate object” before striking Diane. The report also states that no bullet has been recovered in the case.

Doesn't seem very likely to me that Tex could have accidentally shot his wife from the backseat while she was in the front seat without the bullet going through a seat and without a bullet being found in his wife's body or in the vehicle.

Turns out, Tex has a previous gun-related incident in his background as well. He shot into a car full of teen-agers in 1990 and was indicted for aggravated assault, but he didn't get criminally prosecuted and instead settled out of court.

The latest on the case: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/claud-tex-mc...gun-crime/

[HairOfTheDog]

New Gun Research

Hopefully, gun-related research will stop being blocked in the U.S. and more information will be available on a periodic basis. The most in-depth research in 20 years was recently conducted by Harvard/Northeastern public health researchers. It's really interesting, in my opinion.

It confirms what some of us have long suspected; fewer Americans are choosing to own guns, but the number of guns in circulation has grown. This is due, in large part, to the fact that some men who do choose to own guns also choose to own quite a few of them.

Americans own an estimated 265m guns according to the recent research. That averages to more than one gun for every American adult. However, the research estimates that 133m of guns (about half of those in the country) are concentrated in the hands of just 3% of American adults – a group of super-owners (the majority of whom are older white men in rural locations and veterans) who have amassed an average of 17 guns each.

The Harvard/Northeastern public health research indicates that America’s gun stock has increased by 70m guns since 1994. At the same time, the percentage of Americans who own guns decreased slightly from 25% to 22%.

While fewer men own guns than 20 years ago, more women own a handgun than was the case 20 years ago. Women’s focus on self-defense is part of a broader trend. Even as the US has grown dramatically safer and gun violence rates have plummeted, handguns have become a greater proportion of the country’s civilian gun stock, suggesting that self-defense is an increasingly important factor in gun ownership.

“The desire to own a gun for protection – there’s a disconnect between that and the decreasing rates of lethal violence in this country. It isn’t a response to actuarial reality,” said Matthew Miller, a Northeastern University and Harvard School of Public Health professor and one of the authors of the study.

The data suggests that American gun ownership is driven by an “increasing fearfulness”, said Dr Deborah Azrael, a Harvard School of Public Health firearms researcher and the lead author of the study.

“If we hope to reduce firearm suicide, if we hope to reduce the other potential dangers of guns, my gut is, we have to speak to that fear,” she said.

The new survey also found a much higher estimate of annual gun thefts: 400,000 guns stolen per year, compared with 230,000 a year in a recent estimate from the National Crime Victimization Survey.

Refs:
-- GPS program, Fareed Zakaria (this Sunday morning)
-- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016...hip-survey