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Not yet a VCDL member? Join VCDL at: http://www.vcdl.org/join
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VCDL's meeting schedule: http://www.vcdl.org/meetings
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Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html
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1. Reminder: VCDL supper meeting in Fredericksburg/Stafford area on Sunday!
2. Town Hall meeting in Newport News on March 2nd - VCDL represented
3. Emily Miller to speak at VCDL membership meeting in Annandale on February 28th
4. VCDL President speaking at Bedford Tea Party meeting on March 28th
5. Gun, ammo sales skyrocket at 'Nation's Gun Show' in Chantilly
6. VA's handgun permits could be concealed
7. LTE: Everyone wants the violence to stop (4th letter)
8. Many ask, "Who will protect our children?"
9. Debate simmers over doctors asking about guns
10. Groupon response re: firearm related deals
11. Carpe Diem - op-ed on gun control
12. MILLER: How Obama got a gun
13. Advanced age of gun rights opponents consistent with demographic shift
14. Dem Rep: 'We also need to look at handguns' [VIDEO]
15. Senate Dems, GOP clash over need for new gun curbs
16. Armed school guards are our best bet
17. Dorner discredits "only the government with guns" makes us safe
18. Suspected cop killer posted leftist rant on web
19. Woman shoots intruder; protects self and sister
20. How pistol grips and adjustable stocks make things more dangerous-er [Picture Story]
21. Don't worry, the city will protect you
22. New website: Defensive Gun Use
23. New gun rights resource site
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1. Reminder: VCDL supper meeting in Fredericksburg/Stafford area on Sunday!
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VCDL will have a supper meeting in the Fredericksburg area on February 24 at 5 PM.
Location:
Vinnys Italian Grill
397 Garrisonville Road
Stafford, VA 22554
No RSVP is required for this meeting.
Thanks to Donald Balsavich for making the arrangements.
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2. Town Hall meeting in Newport News on March 2nd - VCDL represented
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Dean Longo sent me this notice on a public Town Hall-type meeting. I have agreed to participate:
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I am hosting a Town Hall meeting in Newport News next Saturday, March 2nd from 12:30 pm - 3 pm at the new Denbigh Community Center.
The Town Hall will explore the role of God in our lives and our rights, how the Constitution protects those rights and frames the argument.
We will address the violence problem from a conservative point-of-view and develop solutions that don't infringe upon our God-given, Constitutionally-protected rights.
The goal is to engage the community, explore the issues surrounding gun violence, and start identifying potential solutions and recommend policy proposals that don't impact our God-given, 2nd and 4th Amendment rights.
The audience will be allowed to ask questions to, and comment on issues brought up by the panel. The outcome will be recommendations to local, state, and federal legislators of potential alternative solutions that don't infringe upon our Constitutional rights.
I will be the moderator, we will have an powerful panel of respected experts addressing issues and audience questions including:
Del David Yancey, 94th District (Newport News)
Newport News City Councilwoman Pat Woodbury
John Fredericks, Host of the John Fredericks Radio Show
Rabbi Eric Carlson, Congregation Zion's Sake
Curtis Harris, Founder and Director of the Original B.R.O.T.H.A.S Outreach Ministry
Representative from the Newport News Police Dept
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3. Emily Miller to speak at VCDL membership meeting in Annandale on February 28th
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Emily Miller, the reporter who has been doing a series of articles on the failed gun-control agenda of Washington D.C. for the Washington Times, will be speaking at our February 28 meeting at the Mason Government Center. The meeting will start at 8 PM and will be open to the public.
I have heard Emily speak at the Gun Rights Policy Conference in Florida last year and I think you are going to enjoy this!
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4. VCDL President speaking at Bedford Tea Party meeting on March 28th
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I will be speaking at the Bedford Tea Party meeting on Thursday, March 28th.
The meeting is open to the pubic.
The meeting will begin at 7 PM and is located in:
Bedford City Library
321 North Bridge Street
Bedford, VA 24523
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5. Gun, ammo sales skyrocket at 'Nation's Gun Show' in Chantilly
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Tom Bradley sent me this:
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Here is an interesting report on the Dulles Virginia "Nation's Gun Show" this weekend.
The statement near the end of the report and the video note that the Brady Campaign stated that the Columbine shooters purchased their firearms at a gun show.
Well, that's stretching the truth a bit. Neither shooter could purchase a gun because both were 17 at the time of the shooting. In fact, the guns were purchased in a straw man deal by a former girlfriend of one of the shooters with money provided by the boys.
There is/was a loophole in the straw purchase law that made the sale to the girl legal and she has not been prosecuted.
From wjla.com: http://tinyurl.com/bjnqzk6
Gun, ammo sales skyrocket at 'Nation's Gun Show' in Chantilly
By Mike Conneen
February 9, 2013
The debate over gun control was in the crosshairs at a gun show in Chantilly, Virginia today.
At what's billed as "The Nation's Gun Show" at the Dulles Expo Center, gun dealers say sales of ammunition and high capacity semi-automatic weapons are skyrocketing.
Organizers are expecting record-breaking crowds, more than 22,000 this weekend.
Dealers and buyers expressed opposition to the president's wide-ranging proposal for gun safety. Instead, they want the focus on prosecuting criminals and dealing with mental illness.
A bi-partisan senate deal is being worked on that could result in a universal background check.
The Brady Campaign points out Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold bought some of the weapons used in the Columbine massacre at a gun show.
Advocates of a universal background check say it's just common sense. They say law-abiding gun buyers have nothing to fear.
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6. VA's handgun permits could be concealed
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Walter Jackson sent me this:
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From dailypress.com: http://tinyurl.com/aqjs9jc
Virginia's handgun permits could be concealed
By Ashley Kelly and Peter Dujardin
February 10, 2013
There's a very good chance, it seems, that permits allowing people to carry concealed handguns could soon be hidden from public access.
Under current law, the handgun permits — and the applications for them — are public records. Anyone can walk into a circuit court in the state and view them.
Legislation was introduced in the state senate, however, that would prohibit clerks from releasing permits of people who have active protective orders in effect against someone else.
But then everything took a far sharper turn.
On Friday, the Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee of the House of Delegates voted 16-6 to approve its own "substitute" legislation — a proposal that would block from public disclosure all handgun permit and application information.
"The clerk of court shall withhold from public disclosure the applicant's name and any other information contained in a permit application or any order issuing a concealed handgun permit," except for police officers needing the information for their jobs, the bill reads.
The Daily Press has not — at least as long as we can remember — printed lists of permit holders, and we have no plans to do so.
But decisions by two newspapers to reveal the names of gun permit holders are clearly prompting efforts to restrict public access to the permits.
The Roanoke Times ignited a firestorm in 2007 when it posted on its website a Virginia State Police list of 135,000 concealed-carry permit holders statewide. The paper was bombarded with angry calls and emails, and promptly took the list down.
Then, on Dec. 22, shortly after the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., the Journal News, of White Plains, N.Y., published an article called "The gun owner next door." Online, it ran with an interactive map that included the names and addresses of all permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties, outside New York City.
Bloggers fired back by running the names and addresses of Journal News staffers, and the newspaper's list was finally taken down on Jan. 19. Even some media experts questioned the decision to run the names and map the addresses, saying the paper had not adequately justified the decision with news reasons.
The Virginia Citizens Defense League, a pro-gun rights group based in Fairfax, has long pushed to shield such records.
"There are people there whose lives are at risk," Philip Van Cleave, the group's president, told the Daily Press a year ago following a failed attempt to exempt gun permit records from public release. He told the story of a woman who had to move after the Roanoke Times list because of threats from her husband.
Others, however, argued that nearly all government permits are public, and there's no reason for gun permits to be different. The Virginia Press Association said it was important to be able to determine if the system is working properly and to research whether those who commit crimes had permits.
"When it is government making the decisions on how to administer the program, then that program should have some measure of accountability," added Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government.
A bill to close off the records was killed last year, in part because of a vote by Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, R-James City, who crossed party lines and voted with several Democrats on the Courts of Justice Committee.
"We'll be back," Van Cleave vowed at the time. "We are going to get this shut off." [PVC: And so we did! ]
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7. LTE: Everyone wants the violence to stop (4th letter)
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Board Member Dennis O'Connor sent me this:
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From timesdispatch.com: http://tinyurl.com/aewoush
Everyone wants the violence to stop
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
I attended the Public Square on the subject of gun control. I am an old Marine, a life member of the NRA, the Virginia Citizens Defense League, several gun clubs and the International Defense Pistol Association. Although these affiliations may appear to place me on the far right, I am just as much against violence as anyone else and those in my corner are not the problem.
In fact, those on both sides of the issue of gun safety are interested in the same outcome, we just have different means to the end. The issue should be the fight to reduce "people violence." The word "gun" is as relevant to "violence" as the word "automobile" is to "DUI." The only part the object plays is the fact that it was used to accomplish the act.
Intoxicated drivers who wish to drive and mentally disturbed persons who look to do harm will come by the means, be it cars or guns, and regardless of laws. Putting more laws and restrictions on the books is like trying to control speeding on I-95 by putting up 100 more speed limit signs. The way to curtail speeding — or any unlawful act — is to enforce the laws that are already in place.
Those who attended the Public Square, regardless of their beliefs, will probably never change their minds on this issue. But as for me, I do not believe for an instant that the government is actually interested in making us safer — that is not its agenda.
Bill Marx Sr.
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8. Many ask, "Who will protect our children?"
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James Vesce sent me this:
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Many ask, "Who will protect our children?"
Here I am, Phillip! I'll do it. I'll protect our children. We, the People, shall do it.
Me, and all the other retired but still capable people. Or men and women recently discharged from the military, or mothers and fathers of students, or otherwise available and motivated men and women in the United States who will gladly volunteer to protect our schools. Just allow us to be trained, and badged.
We will be America's Constables on Patrol. (a.k.a.."Cops") That would be consistent with one aspect or fraction of "the militia", for those versed in constitutional law.
Give us liability shields, so if we do step up and apply lethal force, we won't spend the rest of our lives and fortunes protecting ourselves from criminal prosecutions and from civil litigation for doing what needs to be done. The spree shooting bad guys who would be thwarted include bad guys who may be the goofy-looking 16-year-olds in "Trench Coat Mafias" who are poorly socialized and their screwy parents who raised them the wrong way, and who would be exactly the personality-disordered clients who would scream with litigious zeal every time one of their messed up kids tried to shoot up a classroom, and who would want to sue any person who used lethal force to protect others from their armed, murderous kids.
We'll gladly be trained right next to the police (except for running up hills with heavy packs, and the rest of the exertion youthful trainees have to do, because we're old guys), suit up (at our own expense), load out (at our own expense), and stand a watch in our community schools so they schools will no longer be "gun free zones" where bad guys know they have the best opportunity to main and kill the most people with the least chance of running into armed resistance.
America doesn't need to hire and train 50,000 or 500,000 new, armed police to protect schools. We'll do it for free, for the chance to do good, to do the right thing. Just protect us from lawyers, and from the screwy courts that release the repeat offenders who are candidates to be the next "active shooters" in Americas schools, the same screwy courts that would predictably want to prosecute us and litigate against us when we must step up, in harm's way, and use the only proven tactic to stop an active shooter scenario.
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9. Debate simmers over doctors asking about guns
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Bill Watkins sent me this:
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From hamptonroads.com: http://tinyurl.com/b7v3tax
Debate simmers over doctors asking about guns
By Amy Jeter, The Virginian-Pilot
February 10, 2013
Do you have a gun in your home?
For some, that's a loaded question - particularly when asked by a doctor.
A debate is simmering over when and whether physicians should be allowed to talk to their patients about firearms.
Doctor groups say physicians are obligated to warn their patients about guns along with other health risks, such as riding in a car without wearing a seat belt. However, gun rights advocates balk at what they see as a needless invasion of privacy and blatant attempt at gun control advocacy.
State and federal lawmakers are weighing in.
President Barack Obama's plan to reduce gun violence says that doctors should be permitted to ask about firearms in a patient's home and safe storage of the guns "especially if their patients show signs of certain mental illness or if they have a young child or mentally ill family member at home."
The plan also seeks to clarify that the Affordable Care Act doesn't "prohibit or otherwise regulate communication between doctors and patients, including about firearms." More guidance on the issue is forthcoming, the administration says.
Earlier this month, Kansas legislators introduced a bill barring doctors other than psychiatrists from inquiring about firearms in the home when asking about a patient's personal information and medical history.
Florida passed a similar law in 2011. A federal judge blocked it last year, citing a violation of physicians' First Amendment rights. The ruling has been appealed.
No one has taken up the issue in Virginia yet.
Local doctors say they object to laws that intrude on the relationship between a physician and a patient.
"The patient-physician relationship should be a safe and even sacred relationship where the patient feels safe, feels comfortable in discussing anything they need to discuss," said Dr. Christine Matson, the chairwoman of Eastern Virginia Medical School's department of family and community medicine. "If there are constraints in terms of what I can ask, that also limits the doctor-patient relationship. I don't think government ought to go there."
Matson asks her patients about guns during their routine check-ups. She gives them a seven-page questionnaire that includes a section called "Behaviors that may put your health at risk" with questions about tobacco, alcohol, drugs and environmental toxins, among other subjects.
"Are there guns in your home?" is on page three, between "Ever forced to have sex?" and "A working smoke detector?"
Matson said the screening helps primary care doctors take an active role in promoting health and disease prevention, rather than just reacting to injuries and illnesses that already exist.
"I would say strongly that anything that confers risk is a valid part of the discussion with the physician," she said.
Patients rarely, if ever, bristle at the question, Matson said.
Other Hampton Roads doctors said the same, pointing out that their query comes along with others about equally sensitive subjects, such as illegal drugs and sexual preference.
"It's just what we do as doctors," said Dr. Phillip Snider, a family physician with Amelia Medical Associates in Norfolk. "We poke and prod in places that people don't enjoy."
Still, some people - including Charlie Pike - think that asking about firearms in the home goes too far. The 29-year-old Chesapeake resident has a concealed-weapon permit and wears a gun most days - including to medical appointments.
Pike's doctor asked about hunting after he saw the gun, and Pike was happy to chat. He would have been less responsive to questions about how many firearms he owned and how he stored them, however.
"It's not any of his business if firearm ownership is not related to the visit," said Pike, a production designer.
Doctors say the question gives them a chance to talk about gun safety with patients and their families. Snider lumps the conversation in with other "practical, low-cost, high-yield advice."
"It's stuff that needs repeating over and over," he said. "You tell kids to wear their bicycle helmets. You tell people to wear their seat belts. To use sunscreen, get adequate sleep, things like that."
Dr. John Harrington, a pediatrician, has asked his patients about guns and ammunition in their homes. The answers sometimes surprise parents.
"Kids tend to know a lot more than what parents believe," said Harrington, division director for General Academic Pediatrics. "You may think that you have something secure, when in reality it may not be that secure."
Most doctors recommend keeping guns unloaded, separate from ammunition and locked away.
Dr. Timothy Wheeler and other gun rights advocates wonder why they should listen to physicians' advice about weapons.
"They have absolutely no training about firearms in medical school or residency," said Wheeler, director of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, a project of the Second Amendment Foundation. "Doctors and doctor organizations have consistently refused for the last 20 years to work with the real experts in firearms safety, groups like the NRA, groups like the NRA's state-affiliate gun owner organizations, groups like the National Shooting Sports Foundation."
Snider said his advice comes from his own experience handling guns when he was younger.
Harrington said the topic is tricky because there's not a lot of new research. Federal health agencies have been banned from studying gun violence since the mid-1990s because of concerns about using taxpayer money on a politicized topic.
The Norfolk pediatrician said his suggestions to families follow universal themes that apply with other child safety measures: If you make something less accessible, it's less likely to be used inappropriately.
However, Harrington said: "I would rather have evidence to go by, like I have with vaccines."
Dr. Firoza Faruqui takes her cue from guidelines by the American Academy of Pediatrics. When talking to patients' families, she cites the group's statistics showing that firearms in homes are more likely to harm family members or friends than to be used in self-defense.
Faruqui, a pediatrician with the Hampton Roads Community Health Center in Portsmouth, also tells families the academy's stance on the best way to avoid gun-related injuries in children: have no firearms in their home. She knows parents could be offended by such a suggestion, just as they could be offended by the notion that their smoking harms the health of their children.
Parents usually don't get rid of their guns after talking with her, but they often take pains to store their weapons properly, she said.
For Faruqui, the message isn't political.
"I'm not trying to control any guns," she said. "I'm just trying to keep children safe."
But Wheeler says the American Academy of Pediatrics and other doctor groups have taken a side in the gun debate. He fears physicians will misuse patients' trust to advance a political agenda.
He also is concerned about what happens to the information that patients provide. Doctors said they document whether a patient's home has a firearm in the medical record, but that the file is protected by privacy laws.
The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA, generally prohibits health workers from sharing patients' medical information without their permission. However, it allows disclosure under some circumstances.
Dr. Melissa Young, a New Jersey-based endocrinologist, worries that the government will elbow its way into doctors' conversations with patients about guns. It's already nosing into discussions about smoking, she said.
A federal program encouraging health providers to use electronic health records requires doctors to document the smoking status of at least 60 percent of their patients in their medical records. However, doctors do not report the data to the government.
Still, Young wonders if physicians may one day be required to report patient gun ownership information - even though the Affordable Care Act contains language saying it doesn't authorize the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services to collect or maintain records on legal ownership or possession of firearms or ammunition.
"I'm not against the physicians asking it. There are certain patients to whom the question has to be asked," Young said. "But I think that the answers to that need to stay within the physician's office."
WHAT THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT SAYS:
LIMITATION ON DATABASES OR DATA BANKS
None of the authorities provided to the Secretary under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or an amendment made by that Act shall be construed to authorize or may be used to maintain records of individual ownership or possession of a firearm or ammunition.
FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES:
Q: Does the Affordable Care Act restrict communications between health care professionals and their patients concerning firearms or ammunition?
A: No. While we have yet to issue guidance on this provision, the statute prohibits an organization operating a wellness or health promotion program from requiring the disclosure of information relating to certain information concerning firearms. However, nothing in this section prohibits or otherwise limits communication between health care professionals and their patients, including communications about firearms. Health care providers can play an important role in promoting gun safety.
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10. Groupon response re: firearm related deals
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Stupidity from Groupon. Punishing good guys hurts bad guy how, exactly?
Member Tom Callahan sent me this:
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This is the response I received from Groupon about their decision to not carry any firearms related coupons.
From: Groupon Support
Date: Feb 10, 2013 5:16:36 PM
Hi Tom,
Thank you for taking the time to reach out to us.
We understand that this is a sensitive topic, and that some of our customers may not agree with our choice to pause the promotion of firearm-related deals. Groupon has always aimed to offer a diverse range of products and services to meet the various tastes and interests of our subscribers. However, at this time, enough customers and merchants have voiced their opinions that we believe a hiatus is warranted.
Please note that we have never sold guns, and this hiatus only applies to firearm-related deals including shooting ranges, clay pigeon shooting, and concealed weapons training classes. We have not made a final determination regarding this category -- we are simply taking a break and may reevaluate in the future.
We genuinely appreciate your opinion and the feedback you've given us. I'll be sure to share your comments with the appropriate people.
Regards,
Randy B.
Groupon Customer Support
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11. Carpe Diem - op-ed on gun control
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Fred Tippett sent me this:
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From fredericksburg.com: http://tinyurl.com/azuuyp9
CARPE DIEM >>
Mary Walsh's op-ed column on gun control
February 10, 2013
HOW MANY assault weapons are in your neighborhood? How many do you own? You might be surprised. There is probably one or two sitting in your driveway.
According to statistics from the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration, vehicular deaths are listed as one of the top 10 killers for every age group except over 65. In 2008, car crashes were the leading cause of death for those ages 8 to 34. In 2009, car crashes were the leading cause of death for ages 8 to 24. The first year that drunken-driving fatalities dropped below 10,000 was 2011--according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving--for a grand total of 9,878.
In all honesty, the drunken-driving statistic is sobering. It brings back memories of a hot, humid night in August, 1983. My siblings and I were watching an "I Love Lucy" rerun marathon when the phone rang. My grandparents in Pennsylvania had been in an accident and my grandmother would not make it. My grandfather was seriously injured. I knew it was a drunken driver before my mother got off the phone. The driver was 19 and intoxicated. In a Camaro full of friends, she careened over the crest of a hill at dusk, without headlights, doing 70 mph in a 35 mph zone as my grandfather turned left into his own driveway. My grandfather was charged with not yielding to oncoming traffic, but the speeding drunk, the daughter of the town sheriff, went free. She was involved in another drunken-driving accident two months later.
Of course, there were laws about drinking and driving that were ignored that day. Exceedingly poor decisions by others cost my grandmother her life. No amount of additional laws would have saved her since the drunk was concerned only about a fleeting good time. Laws fail without moral compass or common sense. No one would say my grandmother was killed by beer; she was killed by a young woman who had too much to drink and then got behind the wheel of a car.
Deaths as a result of drunken driving were 9,878 in 2011, and yet not a single bill was introduced to ban cars or alcoholic beverages. On 9/11, 2,996 Americans died in a terrorist attack, yet no one called for the elimination of buildings or airplanes. Andrea Yates, a mentally ill mother in Texas drowned all five of her children in a bathtub in 2006. There was no campaign to ban bathtubs. Theresa Brady, a Virginia nurse, pled guilty last month in Albemarle Circuit Court to attempting to kill her husband by injecting him with insulin. People have pummeled each other with their fists or other objects, and strangled, poisoned, or stabbed one another since Cain and Abel.
ONLY THE CRIMINALS
The Daily Mail reports in multiple stories that despite gun-control laws, England and Australia have a higher violent crime rate than the United States. This is not at all surprising. By removing options for self-defense, the population becomes more vulnerable while criminals do not suddenly morph into paragons of virtue. Take the guns and only the criminals will have them.
"God created men and Sam Colt made them equal." If you look at history across the centuries, you find that bigger and stronger provides an enormous advantage in any type of conflict. What happens when the restraining order against an abusive person doesn't work? How many shopkeepers have saved their businesses from a thug intent on robbery or worse? How do store owners protect their properties in the middle of a riot when the police are spread thin? Melinda Herman, a Georgia mother, made national headlines last month defending herself and her two 9-year-old children from an intruder who entered the bedroom. One common misconception among many people accustomed to living in civilized society is that the police are somehow responsible for their own personal protection. The police are sworn to protect the community but if you call them, and they are on another call or don't arrive on time--you cannot sue them for failure to protect you. Ultimately, you are responsible for your own protection.
WHAT WE DESERVE
Dumping tea bags into Boston Harbor alone would have never won the War for Independence. The basis for the Second Amendment concerns the nature of freedom and self-government. The Founding Fathers understood human nature very well. "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety," opined Benjamin Franklin. Crack open the history book and try to find one tyrant who did not confiscate the arms of his countrymen. The NRA's Wayne LaPierre was entirely right when he said, "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun." Why do we surround the president with the Secret Service and post guards in malls, banks, and airports? The answer is not to protect them from the good guys. It's to protect them from the bad guys. We defend what we value.
In the final analysis, it comes down to the triumvirate of intention, instrument, and the problem of evil. Fists, knives, guns, airplanes, bathtubs, poisons, and medications are inanimate objects. They possess no lives of their own. Never once has a gun bounded off the counter and shot someone. Tools are entirely dependent on the intention of the person using them. The problem of evil has plagued mankind since its inception.
In all the discussions of new gun-control schemes and violations, I have not heard the 10 Commandments mentioned once. We teach our children to be nice to one another, but we provide them no rational basis for their behavior. Teach them to be kind to one another because it is the right thing to do, not because it's bare cordiality. In the desolate void left by the absence of right and wrong lurks the narcissism that contaminates the culture and leads to our current chaos.
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12. MILLER: How Obama got a gun
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From washingtontimes.com: http://tinyurl.com/bzbc33y
MILLER: How Obama got a gun
By Emily Miller - The Washington Times
February 8, 2013
The White House quietly posted a photo of President Obama shooting a shotgun late Friday on its Flickr account, with little information to explain it. The only details came from the caption: "President Barack Obama shoots clay targets on the range at Camp David, Md., Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012."
The photo left many questions unanswered. Mr. Obama recently said in an interview that he shoots skeet "all the time," but his stance and hold seemed oddly amateur.
The White House would not say where the president got the shotgun. When asked Monday if Mr. Obama personally owns any firearms, Jay Carney, the White House press secretary replied: "Not that I'm aware of, no."
Now we may have some answers.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), which represents firearmand ammunition manufacturers, donated the equipment and consulting time to renovate the skeet field at Camp David around 2003. The organization gave tens of thousands of dollars worth of machinery and consulting services to build the regulation shooting facility and to provide shotgun shooting instruction to Camp David staff.
Also during the President George W. Bush administration, the NSSF donated several Browning Citori and Remington semi-automatic shotguns to the office of the president for use at Camp David. Spokesmen for the White House would not respond whether Mr. Obama was using one of those Browning shotguns in the photo.
Neither Browning nor Remington gave or sold any firearms directly to Mr. Obama. Even if they had, the president would have to go through the same onerous registration process that every District of Columbia resident endures to just keep a gun in the home.
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13. Advanced age of gun rights opponents consistent with demographic shift
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Mike Stollenwerk shared this with me:
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From examiner.com: http://tinyurl.com/abda2rz
Advanced age of gun rights opponents consistent with demographic shift
by Mike Stollenwerk
February 10, 2013
[SNIP]
Ever notice something about the leading political opponents of gun rights? Hint: They are really, really old.
Examples: Senator Dianne Feinstein (D - CA), 79. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D - DC), 75. Vice President Joe Biden (D), 70. Mayor Mike Bloomberg (R - NYC), 70. Representative Jim Moran (D - Alexandria), 67.
These political activists have been pushing their anti-gun rights agenda before most Americans were born. But over the last century, American's views on gun rights have dramatically changed.
"Historically, large majorities of Americans favoured [British English] stronger gun laws, way back to the 1930s," said Robert Spitzer, author of the Politics of Gun Control and chair of the political science department at State University of New York College at Cortland. "But visibly in the last decade public opinion has shifted toward being more sympathetic toward the gun rights position."
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14. Dem Rep: 'We also need to look at handguns' [VIDEO]
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Do they just want your Personal Defense rifles? Nope. They most certainly want your handguns and, eventually, your shotguns, too.
Walter Jackson sent me this:
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From breitbart.com: http://tinyurl.com/c2tof27
DEM REP: 'WE ALSO NEED TO LOOK AT HANDGUNS'
February 11, 2013
Illinois congressman Luis Gutiérrez interviewed by Rachel Maddow Show guest host Melissa Harris-Perry…
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15. Senate Dems, GOP clash over need for new gun curbs
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Member Bill Hine sent me this:
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From wtop.com: http://tinyurl.com/bjhsho7
Senate Dems, GOP clash over need for new gun curbs
by Alan Fram, Associated Press
February 13, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The toll of gun violence and the widespread disgust it has generated makes it time for new federal gun curbs that balance public safety with gun rights, Democrats said Tuesday at the Senate's latest hearing on restricting firearms.
Republicans said today's unenforced gun laws give criminals no reason to fear ignoring them. And they warned that the Constitution's right to bear arms must be protected, even after unspeakable events like the December slaughter of 20 first-graders in Connecticut.
Each side trotted out their own legal experts, statistics and even relatives of people slain by gun-wielding assailants. In the end there was little partisan agreement, though Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said cooperation was possible on stopping straw purchases, in which someone legally buys a gun for a criminal or a person barred from owning one.
As always with guns, emotion and the issue's personal impact colored the day's session.
The crowded hearing room was filled with people from gun control groups and according to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., included relatives of some killed in the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shootings. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee holding the hearing, asked friends and families of gun victims to stand, and dozens rose.
"We know that we have to act," Durbin said.
At another point, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., began his questioning of the panel's first witness, Timothy J. Heaphy, the U.S. attorney for the western district of Virginia and an appointee of President Barack Obama, with one question: "Do you own a gun?"
"No," responded Heaphy, who said, "I do not feel comfortable having a gun in our home" because he has children.
One witness, Suzanna Gratia Hupp, told the senators of being in a cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, in 1991 when a gunman smashed his truck through the front window and fatally shot 23 people, including her parents. Hupp says she left her gun in her car because Texas law barred her from bringing it into the restaurant.
"I don't view myself as a victim of gun violence," said Hupp, now a Texas state official and gun rights advocate. "I view myself as a victim of a maniac who happened to use a gun as a tool. And I view myself as the victim of the legislators we had at the time who left me defenseless."
Taking the opposing view was Sandra J. Wortham, whose brother, Chicago police officer Thomas E. Wortham IV, was fatally shot outside their parents' home by robbers in 2010, though he and his father, a retired police sergeant, fired back.
"The fact that they were armed that night didn't prevent Thomas' murder," said Wortham, now a Chicago police official.
The hearing came just hours before Obama was to deliver his annual State of the Union address, in which he was expected to repeat his call for gun curbs.
Obama has proposed banning assault weapons and ammunition magazines that can carry more than 10 rounds, and wants background checks for all firearms purchases. Currently, the checks are required only for sales by federally licensed gun dealers, omitting the many transactions at gun shows and between individuals.
Democrats have been more receptive to Obama's proposals than Republicans, most of whom -- along with the National Rifle Association -- have opposed them.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who plans to write gun legislation soon, called for expanded background checks and cracking down on straw purchases, but said nothing about banning assault weapons or high capacity magazines. In a written statement, he suggested that the First Amendment would limit government attempts to reduce violence in popular culture and said the entertainment industry should be "a responsible leader in this area."
Cruz, top Republican on the panel, expressed sympathy for gun victims but said constitutional rights must be protected "not just when they're popular, but especially when passions are seeking to restrict and limit those rights."
In the battle of statistics, Cruz said that of the six cities with the nation's highest murder rates, five -- Detroit, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Chicago -- have tough anti-gun laws. Only Memphis, Tenn., has less vigorous firearms controls, he said.
Responding to Cruz, Heaphy, the U.S. attorney, said there are too many factors that influence crime to conclude that strict gun measures don't work.
Graham said that of 80,000 federal background checks for gun purchases turned down annually by the FBI, barely any result in prosecutions. He said the odds of being prosecuted for lying on a background check are "probably a whole lot less than being struck by lightning or hit by a meteor."
Democrats cited the 11,000 Americans killed annually by gunfire.
Daniel W. Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, which favors tighter gun control laws, said that 2004 data showed that nearly 8 in 10 prisoners who committed gun-related crimes got firearms from unlicensed private sellers, whose transactions do not require background checks. That, he said, underscored the need to expand those checks to all sales.
Laurence H. Tribe, a liberal Harvard Law School professor, said that 2008 and 2010 Supreme Court rulings made it clear that sweeping proposals to flatly take guns away from citizens "have been decisively taken off the table." Banning assault weapons and other especially lethal firearms would not violate the Second Amendment's right to bear arms, he said.
But conservative attorney Charles J. Cooper, who has long defended gun rights and represented the NRA, said the court's rulings ensure that bearing arms "is not to be treated as a second-class right, or singled out for special or unfavorable treatment."
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16. Armed school guards are our best bet
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From independent.org: http://tinyurl.com/ac7jvok
Armed School Guards Are Our Best Bet to Stop Future Newtowns
By Stephen P. Halbrook
January 28, 2013
When he heard police arrive at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a "gun free zone," Adam Lanza ended his murder spree by killing himself.
Days earlier, in Portland, Ore., Jacob Roberts had slain two at the Clackamas Town Center mall. When a licensed gun owner pointed a pistol at him, Roberts likewise killed himself.
James Holmes murdered 12 at the Aurora Century movie theater in Colorado, another "gun free zone" that prohibited armed security personnel. Holmes surrendered when police showed up.
Rampaging gunmen seek victims at places where they expect no immediate resistance. They continue their evil deeds until they are no longer in control due to the intervention of armed defenders. Then, they typically seek to remain in control by taking their own lives.
The tragic Newtown, Conn., school massacre was instantly politicized by calls to ban "assault weapons" and magazines holding more than 10 cartridges. Violent video games were deplored, but there were no pre-written bills to ban them. Mental illness was a hot topic, but no firm solutions were offered. Increasing police presence at schools was not in the cards during the media-driven frenzy.
Virginia's Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell suggested that not only police, but armed school officials who so chose could be trained to stop aggressors. A loud chorus responded against "shootouts" in schools. Perhaps unopposed executions are better.
For now, consider just increasing the law enforcement presence.
When the NRA's Wayne LaPierre proposed armed security at every school, the media reacted with a tidal wave of derision and contempt. How could anyone dare say that we live in a society where our children need armed police protection, and need it now?
Shall we live in a fantasy world and kid ourselves into thinking that we can simply pass new laws and such tragedies won't happen again?
In the days after Newtown, school authorities nationwide notified parents that police were patrolling schools more often and that security was being tightly monitored.
The Washington Post, openly advocating a gun ban, derided the NRA proposal—a verboten topic, apparently, for the nationwide "conversation." Curiously, the Post then published an article noting that police had stepped up patrols at schools in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia and that some schools, particularly in D.C., had permanent security guards. Law enforcement presence is focused mostly at urban middle schools and high schools, not at elementary schools—doubtlessly to control drugs and gang violence.
So the issue is not whether armed security personnel should be present at schools—nationwide, some 17,000 sworn officers already serve in schools, according to the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing—but whether their presence should be increased to protect against the inevitable copy-cat killer.
No guarantee exists that the presence of an armed officer would stop the next disaster. But it would give the potential victims a chance.
Remember, the massacre at Columbine High School, a "gun free zone," took place after passage of the federal "assault weapon" ban. The killers didn't use the banned guns; they didn't need them.
Somebody intent on mass murder has many weapons from which to choose: fertilizer-based explosives were used to kill 168 in Oklahoma City; box cutters were the initial weapon used by the 9/11 hijackers who left 2,977 dead.
Murder and mayhem are not abolished by banning possession of selected physical objects by law-abiding individuals. No "conversation" is needed to know that armed security can protect schools, just as they protect courts and other public buildings, airline travelers, banks, and even convenience stores.
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17. Dorner discredits "only the government with guns" makes us safe
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Ed Toton sent me this:
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This case proves that even these professionals can turn their skills to the murder of innocents. The problem is clearly the people who use guns, not the guns themselves.
From investors.com: http://tinyurl.com/b6szl4j
Officer Turned Suspect Discredits Gun Control Argument
February 8, 2013
Second Amendment: Alleged killer Christopher Dorner has provided the country with a vital lesson as the gun-control debate rages: The government's officially sanctioned gun owners can slaughter innocents too.
The fired Los Angeles Police officer and ex-U.S. Navy reservist terrorizing Southern California, allegedly killing three and wounding three, is no Adam Lanza of the unspeakable Newtown infamy, no Jared Lee Loughner, who allegedly murdered a judge and maimed a congresswoman in Arizona, no James Eagan Holmes, whom officials say murdered 12 and injured another 58 moviegoers in Colorado.
In the gun-control fanatics' fantasy world, Dorner is one of the Good Guys: the controlled, heavily trained few within federal, state and local governments who are entitled to own and handle high-performance firearms as Americans' protectors.
To the predictable response from the left that the government fired Dorner — in the form of the Los Angeles Police Department sacking him for issuing false statements — it should be pointed out that someone capable of Dorner's apparent crimes could well have done so while still wearing a law enforcement or military uniform, and for rationales other than those he chose.
Armed police officers turning into serial killers might be rare, but the Dorner nightmare is further proof that the problem is not guns, but criminality; not the tools of crime but its perpetrators.
Just on Friday, a video posted on the Web showed a San Bernardino, Calif., police officer in a helicopter circling a woman minding her own business on an exploratory hike in the desert, then landing near her and apparently unconstitutionally searching her.
The same day, a private security guard for the federal Food and Drug Administration reportedly opened fire on a 15-year-old boy at the FDA's Pacific Regional Laboratory Northwest. Is the guard guilty of an act of criminality? Was it violent mental illness? A mix-up or misunderstanding? Or was the 15-year-old a criminal danger?
The point is that guns can be misused by anyone — even those appearing the be the most upstanding citizens. Even ones employed to use deadly force to protect the innocent and the threatened. Tomorrow, God forbid, a crazed federal agent could snap and open fire on the high-level government official he was assigned to protect.
But liberal Democrats, and their lackeys in the media, insist on presenting the most horrific incidents of gun violence through an intentionally distorted ideological lens. By their logic, the crimes of Dorner — a supporter of President Obama, whose Facebook "manifesto" declares that "Whether by executive order or thru a bi-partisan congress an assault weapons ban needs to be re-instituted. Period!!!" — should be seen as an indictment of his left-friendly, pro-gun control views.
Why does he want an assault-weapons ban? So only those with his military and law enforcement training, and with his access to destructive firearms, can even the score with those he thinks have slighted them? Don't expect the ax-grinding establishment media to ask any such questions.
In the meantime, with this presumably dangerous and heavily armed accused criminal on the loose and a massive police manhunt under way, Californians restricted by the state's gun control laws are defenseless should Dorner show up at their home.
Americans believe in the right of private individuals to defend themselves. And, to paraphrase a sneer used by the gun-control lobby, that doesn't mean the right to keep and bear bayonets — because the nature of the weapons used by violent criminals has changed since the Bill of Rights was drafted.
An armed, law-abiding citizenry does not the Wild West re-create. America's latest alleged gun criminal is the furthest thing from a National Rifle Association Second Amendment champion.
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18. Suspected cop killer posted leftist rant on web
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New member Joe Vacchio sent me this:
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From pjmedia.com: http://tinyurl.com/a7xar6f
Suspected L.A. Cop Killer Posted Pro-Obama, Pro-Gun Control, Leftist Rant on the Web (Update: KTLA Whitewash)
by Bryan Preston
February 7, 2013
Sooper Mexican is following the breaking story of the former Los Angeles police officer who has gone rogue, allegedly shooting three officers and hunting others and their families after he was fired from the police force.
The suspect, Chris Dorner, posted a manifesto on the web, but media are ignoring some of its key passages. Dorner's rant begins with an attempt to justify his crimes, and then reveals a man steeped in typical Think Progress, Media Matters style leftist thinking.
He supports strict gun control:
Who in there right mind needs a (expletive deleted) silencer!!! who needs a freaking SBR AR15? No one. No more Virginia Tech, Columbine HS, Wisconsin temple, Aurora theatre, Portland malls, Tucson rally, Newtown Sandy Hook. Whether by executive order or thru a bi-partisan congress an assault weapons ban needs to be re-instituted. Period!!!
Mia Farrow said it best. "Gun control is no longer debatable, it's not a conversation, its a moral mandate."
Sen. Feinstein, you are doing the right thing in leading the re-institution of a national AWB. Never again should any public official state that their prayers and thoughts are with the family.
He is a strong Obama supporter, supports Hillary Clinton for president in 2016, and hates the NRA:
Wayne LaPierre, President of the NRA, you're a vile and inhumane piece of shit. You never even showed 30 seconds of empathy for the children, teachers, and families of Sandy Hook.
He gets his media cues from MSNBC and CNN's Piers Morgan:
…give Piers Morgan an indefinite resident alien and Visa card. Mr. Morgan, the problem that many American gun owners have with you and your continuous discussion of gun control is that you are not an American citizen and have an accent that is distinct and clarifies that you are a foreigner. I want you to know that I agree with you 100% on enacting stricter firearm laws
Dorner also lamented the fact that George Zimmerman was not murdered by Trayvon Martin. NBC injected race into that story, and may have helped drive a disgraced cop over the edge.
It's pretty clear that Dorner is disturbed. It's also pretty clear that the media and left have fueled his madness. His writing reads like a regurgitation of media narratives he could pick up on any mainstream leftist web site or media outlet. The same media are now censoring his manifesto. This comes just a day after news broke that another leftist gunman used leftwing propaganda to launch an armed attack on the conservative Family Research Council. Most media have ignored that angle, too.
A couple of days before that, a mass killer confessed to being taught to hate white people in college. That hasn't become a media narrative, either.
If there's no Tea Party angle and the media can't make one up, they're just not interested in reporting all of the facts.
Update: KTLA posted most, but not all, of Dorner's manifesto. They left out all the parts in which he espouses leftist and anti-gun views.
The local media is covering up some of the motivations behind a deadly crime spree, while that spree is underway.
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19. Woman shoots intruder; protects self and sister
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From gopusa.com: http://tinyurl.com/ac7m7wy
Woman shoots intruder; protects self and sister
By St. Louis Post-Dispatch
February 11, 2013
HIGHLAND - Debi Keeney says she last fired her gun 15 years ago, when she took shooting lessons.
The gun was a gift from a friend but it mostly stayed in a side-table drawer, she said, gathering dust. Then, early Sunday morning, Keeney pulled the trigger again -- this time, she said, to save her sister's life.
"I'm very grateful that it fired this morning," she said Sunday afternoon.
Keeney, 55, said a man forced his way into her apartment in Highland, threw her to the floor and then put her sister, Donna Carlyle, 47, in a choke hold. He demanded money as Carlyle gasped for air.
"All I could see was Donna's face going blue, like her life was being choked out of her," said Keeney.
The alleged intruder, 33, was being treated at a hospital Sunday for two gunshot wounds and was listed in critical condition, police said. They have not released his name.
The incident occurred about 3:30 a.m. at an apartment complex in the 2600 block of Eagle Way in Highland. Keeney and Carlyle live next door to each other. Carlyle was visiting her sister's apartment when the assault happened.
Highland Police Chief Terry Bell said Sunday that the man was shot twice and that police were still "piecing it together." He added that he had no information to believe the man knew the women. Police for now are keeping the gun as evidence.
Keeney said she thought she only shot the man once with her gun, which she described as a five-shot, .22-caliber derringer. The first bullet she fired, she said, was supposed to be a warning shot.
Keeney also said neither she nor her sister knew the intruder.
"I have no idea where he came from or where he was going," she said.
She had a clue something was wrong on Friday night, she said, when someone was heard going through the complex jiggling door knobs. She took the gun out from the drawer that night and laid it on top of the side table.
On Sunday afternoon, Keeney expressed some remorse but also pointed out that she felt she had no choice but to use the gun.
"I wish I hadn't shot him," she said. "I gave him an opportunity to leave. I wish he had left without me having to shoot him. ... I hate the idea that I had to pull that trigger."
Still, she added, "Put in the same situation, I would do it again."
Some of her neighbors did not second-guess her actions.
"I'm proud of her for shooting that dude," said Rodney Rusick, 68, who lives a few doors down.
Illinois' self-defense law allows a homeowner to use deadly force if an intruder breaks in violently, or if the homeowner believes deadly force is the only way to prevent the intruder from committing a felony.
Keeney says she was attacked after stepping outside her apartment to smoke a cigarette.
"As I was closing the door behind me, this really big man pushed his way through the door," she recalled. "I started pushing back. ... He put one arm behind my arm and picked me up and threw me over my couch."
The man then went behind a recliner, where her sister was sitting, and put Carlyle in a choke hold.
"He had her trapped like a rat," Keeney said.
Carlyle said she was trying to dial 911 with a cellphone in her left hand while fighting for air with her right hand.
"When he was yanking me up, my feet were in the air," Carlyle said. "It hurt so bad. I couldn't lean forward. I could feel the air closing off. I couldn't breathe at all."
Keeney said she grabbed the gun -- the side table is near the apartment door -- and warned the man to let her sister go. He was demanding money, but Keeney said she and her sister both have multiple health problems and support themselves with disability benefits.
"We both were saying we don't have any money," she said. "If we would have had any money, we would have given it to him."
Keeney says she then fired what she thought was a warning shot.
"I told him, 'I'm going to shoot you if you don't let her go,' " she recalled. "With that, I shot him in the back because he moved from behind the chair. He let her go. He took some steps toward me."
The man fell to the floor, and Keeney stood over him, waiting for police to arrive.
"I was scared to death that he was going to kill my sister," she said. "It was dark. He was a huge man, and it was 3-something in the morning."
One neighbor, Lynn Palenchar, 69, heard the commotion but did not learn what happened until later.
"I was absolutely stunned," she said. "You don't expect something like that to happen. I'm just glad both are OK. If he had picked my place over theirs, it would have been a lot worse."
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20. How pistol grips and adjustable stocks make things more dangerous-er [Picture Story]
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Sean Carrana shared this in Florida Open Carry:
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From allnineyards.com: http://tinyurl.com/anbkeyc
How Pistol Grips and Adjustable Stocks make things more dangerous-er
by Sean Caranna
February 12, 2013
People keep telling me that pistol grips and adjustable stocks make things much more dangerous and must be banned to save "the children"… So. I conducted a series of tests to confirm this wisdom...
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21. Don't worry, the city will protect you
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Another reminder that:
1) the police have no duty to protect anyone - they can stand there with impunity while you get stabbed to death
2) Knives and cars are deadly weapons, just like a gun
Member Paul Henick sent me this:
From armsandthelaw.com: http://tinyurl.com/b7l7jvr
Don't worry, the city will protect you
by David Hardy
FEBRUARY 11, 2013
Strangely, NYC doesn't take that position in court. A madman kills four, NYPD manhunt follows. Two officers are in a subway cab when the madman enters the car, and they do nothing to stop him. He stabs a passenger right next to them, who in turn wrestles him down, at which point the NYPD folks finally emerge. Now he sues the city, and it of course argues that it has no legal duty to protect the citizenry.
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22. New website: Defensive Gun Use
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James Durso sent me this:
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reddit dgu: http://www.reddit.com/r/dgu/
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23. New gun rights resource site
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David Theroux sent me this:
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We have recently created the following, new, online resource site on gun rights, that features hundreds of articles, books, and videos that defend Second Amendment rights, including the work of Second Amendment legal scholar and attorney Stephen P. Halbrook (Research Fellow, The Independent Institute).
"Firearms, Violence, and the Second Amendment" http://tinyurl.com/ado7zcn
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(VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization
dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to
Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.
VCDL web page: http://www.vcdl.org [http://www.vcdl.org/]
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