WHY PEOPLE WHO USE GUNS ARE STUPID

An adult's responsibility is to protect their children not put them in harm's way. The father who gave his eight-year-old son an Uzi for target practice now knows that sad fact.




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WE MOURN

Whatever confronts me in my personal life, there cannot be the same devastation that is in Arkansas. A gunman shot and killed state Democratic Party chairman Bill Gwatney on Wednesday.

Police shot and killed murderer Timothy Dale Johnson after a high-speed chase. Earlier, Johnson had painted obscene graffiti on the Target store where he worked.

Officers later found a Post-It note with the chairman's name and keys from one of Gwatney's car dealerships at the killer's home.

This is the second attack on those of the liberal persuasion in less than two months. Underlying the attacks are work-related fears, anxieties, and paranoias. The American economy is stressed to its limits and so are those who are unemployed or underemployed. I know the strain of not being sure when the next paycheque will arrive or if my writing career will ever get past piecemeal stage. I've gone through ill health and no money. Health I hopefully retain at this point but there were times in the past where it has been touch and go. Life is sometimes difficult.

However, there is no reason to hurt or kill out of the pain and fear of a down-turned economy. The victims of wage rage are, in a shooter's mind, symbols of the financial devastation in America. These deaths don't touch the core of what is wrong in the United States. The fatalities won't change the mismanagement of the real estate market, nor the human and monetary cost of the Iraq war, or the country's failing infrastructure. Only each person's constructive and patient work will create a difference to solve these problems.

We are all neighbours in the same tough situation. We stick together or fall individually apart.

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DISNEY PACKS HEAT

Walt Disney World in Florida has shot down a proposal to have their employees bring handguns in their car. The National Rifle Association in Florida has passed a law in that state allowing people to take guns and secure them in their cars. The Magic Kingdom has fired a security guard, Edwin Sotomayor, for bringing a gun to work and leaving it in his car to protest the zero tolerance policy that Disney has mandated for its employees.

I think the CEOs of Disney are well within their rights to ban guns from theme park and administrative properties. Guns are a huge insurance liability and a potential source of immense tragedy. The nightmare scenario is of an employee who forgets to lock the car or of a car that is jacked and used to commit a crime either on the employer's property or at another location. Too, one never knows when an employee will go "postal" and seek to harm tourists or fellow employees. Businesses, especially in the entertainment industry, need to protect their clients and their workers. A ban on guns brought to work and left in a parked car is a sensible response for workplace safety.

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CLOSE THE GAP

The Virginia Legislature recently voted against S.B 109, legistlation that would have closed a loophole that allowed private sales without background checks at unregulated gun shows. The defeat came after the National Rifle Association and the Virginia Citizens' Defence League lobbied to torpedo the bill.

The defeat of the bill occurs after family members of students killed in the Virginia Tech Massacre staged a "die-in" on the lawn of the Virginia capitol to support S.B. 109. During the protest and support of the legistlation, pro-gun lobbyists heckled and taunted those who suffered the loss of their family and friends.

My sympathies are with those who supported closing the gun show loophole. I champion their cause not only for the common sense of requiring background checks on gun buyers and dealers but also for their civility. It is trashy to heckle and taunt someone whose family or friend was murdered in a horrible event such as happened at Virginia Tech. The NRA and the Virginia Citizens' Defence League are what is commonly referred to, regardless of skin colour, as "white trash" and "patterollers". Yes, those are loaded terms. The obscene behaviour of taunting someone whose family or friend has died in gun violence warrants harsh words of condemnation.


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UPDATE:CHRISTORPHER WORDEN

RCMP is still looking for evidence in the murder of Constable Christopher Worden who was shot at Hay River in October.

His alleged killer, Emrah Bulatci 23, is due in court on December 13.

Nice of the RCMP to give the death so much attention after the fact. According to news reports, neither Worden or Constable Douglas Scott had backup which should be standard procedure for all RCMP regardless of the funds that Constable Scott did not have in his region.
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CANADA'S FINEST

Constable Douglas Scott, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, of Brockville, Ontario was buried on Tuesday.

I can feel nothing but a sad tiredness when I watched his eulogy. Constable Scott's killer,Pingwaktuk Kolola, was an intoxicated driver that the Scott had pulled over for impaired driving. The shooter brandished a gun but Constable Scott could not shoot back. The killer held a baby as a human shield. Rather than risk the child's life, Constable Scott decided to take the bullet.

Why is the world not as weary of pain as I am of blogging gun deaths, especially one as noble as that of Constable Douglas Allen Scott? If there was any word to be placed in a thesaurus as a synonym for "hero", it would have to be this young man's name. His RCMP hat won't be one that anyone could wear as honourably and as proud.



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THE FALLEN

Once again, the stupidity of readily available firearms is proved. An 18-year-old man in Finland has shot and killed five boys, two girls, and an adult woman before police subdued him. The killer is now in critical condition in the hospital.

Before the massacre, the killer had posted a video on YouTube entitled "Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007"

Now, logically, all posts on YouTube that show violence aren't going to end up with people being killed. However, if a specific target is named, shouldn't someone at Google/YouTube be more involved with monitoring the videos and seeking help so this type of tradegy does not occur?

Where is corporate responsibility in Internet companies? Certainly not at Yahoo! which handed over its computer records on journalist Shi Tao on the request of the Chinese government. Shi Tao is now a political prisoner due to the corporate weak knees at Yahoo! Specifically, Chief Executive Jerry Yang and VP Michael Callahan lied to Congress about their knowledge of giving the information about Shi Tao to the Chinese government. Furthermore, Yahoo! has been implicated in the arrests of four other dissident journalists.

At Google/YouTube, the answer may lie in greater vigilance about content. At Yahoo!, there needs to be a corporate overhaul about human rights, and about honesty.

UPDATE: The shooter died of his self-inflicted injuries. The adult killed was the high school principal. Please keep the family and the seven students injured in your thoughts.

UPDATE TWO: The shooter, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, killed six students, the school nurse, and the principal. He was a loner who faced bullying at school.

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REMEMBER THE FALLEN

Const. Douglas Scott, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, of Brockville, Ontario was fatally shot last Monday night. The killer was an intoxicated driver that the constable had pulled over for impaired driving. The shooting was in Kimmerut. a hamlet in Nunavat that bans alcohol. Constable Douglas Scott was 20 years of age.

Earlier this month, RCMP Const. Christopher Worden was shot, possibly with a Glock 9mm pistol in North West Territory after responding to a noise complaint. His killer, Emrah Bulatci has been arrested. Constable Christopher Worden leaves behind a wife and eight-month-old daughter.

A list of fallen police officers from The Globe and Mail.

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THE GUN THING

Well, it seems that disgraced Senator Larry Craig jumped his pistol before solicitating an undercover officer for gay sex in June. Sen. Larry Craig was thinking of suing an Idaho newspaper that was delving into his personal life months before the washroom toe dance with the officer. The suit came to nought and Sen.Craig went onto infamy.

Speaking of guns, presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani believes that blind people should be able to possess firearms. At a town hall meeting, a former police officer who had injuries that left him blind asked about gun possession and disabilities.

Sure! Hell yes! Give the blind guns. At least they could hit better than Dick Cheney who is organizing another hunting party in Poughkeepsie. Dick Cheney once mistook one of his friends, Harry Whittington, for quail and peppered him soundly. Maybe he can take Condi Rice and try the quarter trick on her butt, with a shotgun. A friend of Ms. Rice joked that her posterior was so tight that he could bounce the coin off her gluteus maximus while she danced. He did, without her noticing the coin.

It wouldn't be a waste of a 28-gauge Perazzi.

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WORKS OF ART UPDATE

A survivor, Charlie Neitzel is in serious condition. The 21-year-old is recovering at a local hospital.

The dead are:

Katrina McCorkle

Leanna Thomas

Lindsey Stahl

Aaron Smith

Bradley Schultz.

More details emerge from the shooting. The killer used a AR-15 rifle, basically a semi-automatic, to murder his victims. He fled to another town and briefly held a family hostage. It is currently unclear whether a police sniper killed him or he killed himself.

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WORKS OF ART

I gave a groan of horror when I read about vandals who broke into the Musée d’Orsay and punched a hole into a painting,“The Argenteuil Bridge,” by Claude Monet. No cultured person would ever imagine such a deed. To destroy a treasured work is uncivilized. The authorities should severely punish the perpetrators.

I thought this barbarism disgusting until I scrolled down the page to read the other news stories. In Crandon Wisconsin, an off-duty sheriff 's deputy shot and killed six people at a party before himself dying under circumstances that police have not yet released.

Tyler Peterson stormed into the house and began shooting. Some of the victims were young, in their early teens. Others were graduates of the same high school. One victim was 14-year-old Lindsey Stahl. From the news photo, she looks like a pretty redhead. A child that any parent would be proud to call their daughter. Would have been proud to call their daughter.

The four inch hole in the Monet can be easily repaired. The lifelong hurt from these senseless gun deaths won't.

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THE NRA CAN'T HEAR YOU WHEN YOU SCREAM PART II

A woman and three children were found shot to death in a van outside of Chicago. A man is in custody.

Meanwhile, in an update to the Delavan Wisconsin story, the police have ruled the shootings as a murder suicide. Ambrosio Analco killed himself and five other people including his twin sons. He wounded his one-year-old daughter who is still in critical condition.

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THE NRA CAN'T HEAR YOU WHEN YOU SCREAM

Six people were shot to death in a Delavan,Wisconsin home. Four adults, and twin baby boys. The survivor is a one-year-old girl who was shot in the chest and is in critical condition.
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A BURDEN NO CHILD SHOULD CARRY

A four-year-old child killed his father in Vallejo, California. Brian Sparks was on disability leave when his son shot him. The child, due to his minority, is not identified.

No child should have to bear this burden for the rest of his life. This is why guns and children should never be in the same house.

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NO TAKE YOUR GUN TO WORK DAY

The NRA is trying to push legislation that allows employees the right to keep guns in their cars during the work day. This is not a good idea. Recently a construction worker,James Forrest Mobley, responded to taunts from fellow workers by taking a 40 caliber Glock that he had in his lunch box and murdering Grady Boseman and Rolando Matta before he committed suicide.
(UPDATED 10:20 PM 05/12/07)
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UPDATE:KANSAS CITY SHOOTINGS

David W. Logsdon had already killed a man in 1981 before he went on his murderous Kansas City rampage.

Logsdon killed Steven J. Foster in 1981, leaving two children without a father. Initially, Logsdon lied about the killing by saying that Foster had committed suicide with a gun but later Logsdon changed his story to say that he had a fistfight with Foster and that Logsdon acted in self-defence. There were no charges brought.

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MORE STUPIDITY

This is becoming more stupid by the day. Police arrested a Fresno college student,Jonquel Brooks, a 19-year-old freshman and criminology major at California State University,for killing one man, Brant Daniels, 19 and wounding two others over a Sony Playstation game console. Jonquel Brooks was accused of stealing the Playstation when his roommates confronted him over the theft.

The Playstation is just a damn toy. I don't understand the frenzy that accompanies the latest release of a gaming device. This is the same silliness that used to attach itself to Nike shoes. One might as well go flush the money down the loo, considering the nonesense that proceeds a game machine announcement. A Playstation or Gameboy or whatever is certainly not worth killing or dying.

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AND THE BEAT GOES ON: UPDATED STORY

Two people were murdered in a shooting and the killer committed suicide in College Park, Orlando Florida. Timothy James Frechou, age 23, shot Alicia A. Arseneault, age 22, and her boyfriend Christopher Paul Levitt, age 29 before the killer returned home and shot himself.Mr. Levitt was a former resident of Leeds, Great Britain.

Alicia A. Arseneault was studying to be a nurse and was one of several woman in Florida who died through domestic violence.

New Hampshire: A student gunman wounded his roommate before killing himself. Keene State junior Michael Dyke wounded his roommate Jason Lillibridge before committing suicide with a rifle. Mr. Lillibridge is expected to make a full recovery.

NOTE: This is just a sample of what I have read today. There have been numerous shootings around America today: drivebys, and people who get in fights and take to guns.

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UPDATE:KANSAS CITY SHOOTINGS

David W. Logsdon lived with the body of his first murder victim, Patricia Reed, before going on a killing spree at the Ward Parkway shopping center in Kansas City.Logsdon beat Ms. Reed to death, then stole her late husband's rifle and her car. He used the victim's credit cards for purchases.

With respect and sorrow for the dead woman, sometimes having a gun in the house is not a defence. Guns can be, and are often, stolen and used for criminal purposes.

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WE ALREADY KNEW THIS

Okay, it's official. Republican Texas legislators, with few exceptions, are stupid. In reaction to the Virginia Tech shootings, Governor Rick Perry has decided to introduce legislation to make it easier to carry concealed weapons with the addled thought that people can defend themselves against criminals. This despite evidence that access to guns make it more likely that people will kill themselves (and others) if there is gun availability. Hopefully,any legislation to loosen gun control laws in Texas will fail.

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