The Gun Control Debate Thread

[China]

Proportionate response:

 

A McDonald's manager had a gun pulled on them after 2 customers complained about the amount of salt on their fries

[Captain Wiggles]

Chance that the controlled substance with intent to distribute is methamphetamines? 

 

100% imo. 

[skinsmarydu]

1 minute ago, China said:

Proportionate response:

 

A McDonald's manager had a gun pulled on them after 2 customers complained about the amount of salt on their fries

It literally says "SALT THE FRIES" on every case. 

[China]

Grief counselors in short supply with gun violence rising

 

As Brett Roman Williams stood at the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s office staring at a photo of his older brother’s face, a familiar feeling welled in his chest.

 

Williams’ father was shot and killed in 1996, when Williams was 11, and the ebb and flow of grief had washed over him for 20 years. But in 2016, when his brother was killed by gunfire, Williams reached out to a grief counselor for help coping.

 

Now, Williams serves on the board for the organization where he once sought solace, and he’s trying to provide that same kind of support to others. But the demand is far outpacing the supply of counselors because of spiking crime.

 

With more than 270 homicides in Philadelphia during the first half of 2021, the city has been outpacing the number of murders in 2020, when 499 people were killed, mostly from gunfire — the highest homicide numbers in more than two decades. The number of people injured in shootings has also exploded over the past 18 months.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Utah company halts sales of Lego handgun case kits after cease and desist

 

A Utah company has stopped selling a kit that encases Glock handguns in Lego blocks, amid uproar and after the Danish toymaker demanded it cease and desist.

 

Marketing the “Block19” as a “a childhood dream come to life”, Culper Precision introduced it on Instagram, saying: “We wanted the second amendment to simply be too painful to tread on, so there was only one logical solution.”

 

Red, yellow and blue blocks made the original weapon barely visible, disguising it as a child’s toy.

 

 

Selling the kits for $549 to $765, the company enticed adult gun users to buy the gun “made out of the Legos you got from Santa”.

 

At the urging of gun control activists, Lego sent the company a cease and desist letter, demanding it stop producing the Block19.

 

Culper Precision’s president, Brandon Scott, told the Washington Post a lawyer told him Lego might have a case if he kept offering the Block19. He decided to comply.

 

“They had a similar reaction to you,” he said. “Where it was like: ‘Is it wise to make a gun look like a toy?’”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

1 hour ago, China said:

“They had a similar reaction to you,” he said. “Where it was like: ‘Is it wise to make a gun look like a toy?’”

 

Some people are just weird, that way.  

 

[visionary]

 

[skinsmarydu]

They keep getting younger. 

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/13-year-old-man-charged-in-georgia-walmart-parking-lot-murder/ar-AAMcfk5?ocid=winp1taskbar

[China]

 

[China]

Sad:

 

 

[China]

Pigeon racing apparently brings out the worst in people:

 

Multiple injured from shooting, stabbing at pigeon racing event in Sutter County

 

Three people were injured at a pigeon racing event in Robbins, California on July 10.

 

The Sutter County Sheriff's Office said that a shooting and stabbing happened at around 3 p.m. on July 10 in the area of Acacia Street and Del Monte Avenue in Robbins.

 

Deputies found out that "a large event" happened in the area, later determined to be a pigeon racing event, when four vehicles pulled up with multiple people who had "handguns and swords." They said that the subjects started shooting and stabbing victims at the event.

 

The Sutter County Sheriff's Office said that three people were shot and stabbed during the event "due to a dispute," according to a press release. They said that the dispute was an ongoing issue from a few weeks prior at another pigeon racing event.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

‘Muslim-free’ gun range closes in Oklahoma. ‘Looks like hate does not pay’

 

A shooting range and once self-proclaimed “Muslim-free” zone is up for sale in Oklahoma, following a years-long legal battle brought by a Muslim resident.

 

“WE THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING OUR CUSTOMERS AND FRIENDS. ITS BEEN A PLEASURE!” the owners of Save Yourself Gun Club said in a Facebook post. Announcing their intention to sell, they offered specifics last week about the 2-acre Muskogee County property priced at $125,000.

 

The business in Oktaha, about 17 miles southwest of Muskogee, has been downsizing since the lawsuit against it came to an end.

 

Muslim community leaders and others aren’t shedding any tears over the latest news.

 

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? Looks like hate does not pay after all,” Adam Soltani, director of the Council on American Islamic Relations’ Oklahoma chapter, said on Facebook.

 

“The same gun range we took to court in a federal lawsuit for banning Muslims by declaring itself a ‘Muslim-Free Establishment’ is no more,” Soltani said.

 

Save Yourself Gun Club — formerly Save Yourself Survival and Tactical Gun Range — made headlines in 2015 over a sign posted at the business that read: “This privately owned business is a Muslim free establishment!!! We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone!!! Thank you!”

 

Several months later, Raja’ee Fatihah, a Muslim man, filed a lawsuit against Save Yourself, alleging the owners made good on the promise of their infamous sign, and kicked him out after he came to the range because of his faith.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Ex-NRA Head Wayne LaPierre and Wife Worked to Secretly Turn Elephant They Shot Into Stools: Report

 

The former head of the National Rifle Association and his wife went to great lengths to ship parts of the elephant they killed in Botswana back home—and to keep their names far removed from it. According to The New Yorker, Wayne LaPierre and his wife, Susan, had elephant feet repurposed for stools, umbrella stands, and a trash can, all while trying to make sure the shipment couldn’t be traced back to them. A 2013 email from Susan LaPierre to a manager asked that the shipment to be sent to a taxidermist and for the company to “not use our names anywhere if at all possible.” Aside from explicitly violating NRA rules on contractor gifts greater than $250, the two were afraid of a backlash over their hunt after seeing the pushback from an episode of hunting show Under Wild Skies, in which the host shot and killed an elephant. New York’s Attorney General’s Office, which has sought to disband the gun-rights organization over corruption claims, said the gifts were worth thousands of dollars and “in excess of authorized amounts pursuant to NRA policy to LaPierre and his wife.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Ammunition shelves bare as U.S. gun sales continue to soar

 

The COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with record sales of firearms, has fueled a shortage of ammunition in the United States that’s impacting law enforcement agencies, people seeking personal protection, recreational shooters and hunters -- and could deny new gun owners the practice they need to handle their weapons safely.

 

Manufacturers say they’re producing as much ammunition as they can, but many gun store shelves are empty and prices keep rising. Ammunition imports are way up, but at least one U.S. manufacturer is exporting ammo. All while the pandemic, social unrest and a rise in violent crime have prompted millions to buy guns for protection or to take up shooting for sport.

 

“We have had a number of firearms instructors cancel their registration to our courses because their agency was short on ammo or they were unable to find ammo to purchase,” said Jason Wuestenberg, executive director of the National Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors Association.

 

Click on the link for the full article 

[China]

Documents show that participation in the group’s “Eddie Eagle” program dropped 96 percent while NRA execs slashed training and education budgets.

 

Each year in the United States, roughly 350 children under the age of 17 get access to a firearm and shoot themselves or someone else. About 700 children each year in the U.S. die by suicide using a gun. During the first five months of 2021, an average of 54 people died each day in shootings, an increase from an average of 40 shootings deaths per day over the past six years. According to a Washington Post data analysis published in June, accidental shootings rose by more than 40 percent between 2019 and 2020, with accidental shootings by children up 45 percent. American kids under the age of 15 are nine times more likely to die in an inadvertent shooting than kids elsewhere in the developed world.

 

For more than three decades, schools across the United States—including the one Rinehart attended as a child as well as the one Eli later attended—have used the National Rifle Association’s “Eddie Eagle” program to teach young kids about gun safety. Launched in 1988, the initiative is aimed at pre-K through fourth graders and features an animated eagle and his anthropomorphic “wing team,” that instruct children who encounter a gun to: “STOP! Don’t touch. Run away. Tell a grown-up.”

 

According to the NRA, the program, which in addition to schools can be administered by law enforcement agencies and civic groups, has been “honored or endorsed” by the National Sheriffs’ Association, the U.S. Department of Justice (through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention), and the Association of American Educators. Eddie Eagle has also “received bipartisan support from 26 state governors, as well as resolutions from 23 state legislatures,” the NRA states in its program materials, which further note that “26,000 school teachers and law enforcement officers have taught the Program to over 32 million children.”

 

Even staunch gun safety advocates like Mark Kelly, Navy combat vet and husband to gun violence survivor and former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, have spoken favorably of Eddie Eagle. This, claims the NRA, “verifies the popularity of the Program with those who deal with child safety issues every day.”

 

But the Eddie Eagle program—which was deemed largely ineffective in real-world situations by the American Academy of Pediatrics, among others—has in recent years failed to attain anywhere near that sort of reach.

 

The NRA has of late found itself embroiled in legal and financial trouble. 

 

In addition to the NRA’s very survival being at stake, the Eddie Eagle initiative has essentially fallen apart, according to internal NRA documents newly made public during the organization’s recent bankruptcy bid and shared with The Daily Beast by Everytown For Gun Safety, the nonprofit founded in 2013 by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. (Everytown and the nonprofit Moms Demand Action for Gun Safety have their own program, called Be SMART, which is aimed at educating families with school-age children about responsible gun ownership.)

 

In minutes from several recent board meetings, NRA staffers told board members that Eddie had reached an average of more than a million children per year since its inception. And while this is technically true (32,371,095 averaged over 32 years between 1988 and 2020 yields 1,011,597), a mere 32,000 children were reached by the Eddie Eagle program in 2020, a drop of nearly 95 percent compared to 2019.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

1 hour ago, China said:

a mere 32,000 children were reached by the Eddie Eagle program in 2020, a drop of nearly 95 percent compared to 2019.

Just observing that schools in 2020 were slightly different from schools in 2019. Can't remember why. 

[China]

Man, woman hit by bullet while wrestling over gun at church

 

A gun went off in an Alabama church as a man tried to disarm a woman, wounding them both, police said.

 

Linda Walker entered the sanctuary of Amity Baptist Church in Mobile with a gun after services ended Sunday, Officer Katrina H. Frazier told al.com.

 

Walker, 58, aimed the weapon at the unidentified man and another person, Frazier said. When the man tried to take the gun away, it went off, sending a bullet through Walker's right arm and into the man's right leg, Frazier said. Both were brought to hospitals with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening.

 

After her release, Walker will be taken to jail on charges of domestic violence and lack of a pistol permit, Frazier said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

D.C. Man Flaunts New Machine Gun on Instagram, Promptly Gets Arrested: Docs

 

A D.C. man took to Instagram Live last Saturday to show off a 9mm handgun that had been converted to fully-automatic fire. What he apparently didn’t know was that the D.C. Metro Police were among those watching. 

 

 

According to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in D.C. federal court, the weapon Ryan Parker was handling in the livestream was modified with a “giggle switch,” which effectively turns a semi-automatic pistol into a machine gun. Cops recognized Parker and figured out his location, arriving on the scene “within minutes” of the broadcast, the complaint states. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

Appears that there are places where openly boasting about the crime you're committing is a bad idea.  

[China]

Not sure whether this should go here or the parenting thread:

 

Florida toddler fatally shot mother during Zoom call, police say

 

A 21-year-old woman was accidentally shot and killed Wednesday by her toddler while she was on a work video call, according to investigators with Altamonte Springs Police Department.

 

One of the participants of the woman’s Zoom call dialed 911 after hearing a noise and then seeing the coworker fall backward, according to a news release.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[China]

The wild west in Texas:

 

San Antonio sports bar shooting leaves 3 dead, 2 wounded, authorities say

 

An argument between two people at a bar in San Antonio, Texas, ended in a mass shooting early Sunday, with three people killed and two others gravely wounded, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said.

 

The suspect is still at large, McManus said at a briefing.

Police were called around 3:35 a.m. (4:35 a.m. ET) about an altercation inside the Boom Boom Sports Bar, which was operating after-hours, McManus said. It's believed that the owner was trying to close the establishment when the altercation began, the chief added.

The chaos spilled over into the parking lot, where a man went to his car, grabbed a long gun and started shooting. Five people were struck, McManus said.

Two of the victims are women, the other three are men, all in their 20s and 30s, McManus added.

Two people were pronounced dead at the scene -- a man and a woman, the chief said. One person died in the hospital and two others are in critical condition at the Brooke Army Medical Center, CNN affiliate KSAT reported.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Shocking moment US homeowner opens fire at four armed robbers who kicked his door down

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

An Alabama man thought he’d been shot by an intruder. It turns out it was his wife’s boyfriend, secretly living in their house

 

An Alabama man was shot by his wife’s boyfriend, who was secretly living in the couple’s home, officials said.

 

The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office said the wife told her husband that an “intruder” was in their Creola home Sunday night and he armed himself with a gun, WPMI reported. The men shot each other and both went to the hospital, the news outlet reported.

 

The sheriff’s office said Michael Amacker, the wife’s boyfriend for over a year, had been living at the house shortly before the shooting, WALA reported.

 

“She had been allowing him to stay within the home for a couple of days, providing him food,” Mobile County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Paul Burch told WKRG. “There were bottles of urine in the room, which indicated he had been in there for a little while.”

 

The sheriff’s office hadn’t uncovered a motive for the wife telling her husband that Amacker was an intruder, WKRG reported. Investigators said she was too intoxicated to be interviewed after the shooting, the news outlet reported.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[LD0506]

^^ Was it a dbl wide?