October 2, 2014

Propagunda vs Truth

Politifact rated 130 'gun claims' from both sides & neutrals I suppose, & the results are as expected, the gun lobby lies more & relies on deceptive propaGUNda far more (since 'honest' or inadvertent errors will arise from all input).
.... a 'half true' rating does not equate to a 'half truth' to deceive, just means about half the basis was factual, the other half inaccurate.

Rating .... Gun control opponents ....Gun control supporters .. april 2013
True ..................17%................... 20%
Mostly True ........16...................... 38
Half True ............. 22 ...................30
Mostly False.......... 7 .................... 3
False ..................24 ...................... 8
Pants on Fire .......14 ........................2
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/apr/07/how-claims-about-guns-often-miss-target/

Dismissing 'half true' results akin to a push, the remaining results are basically True & mostly true vs False & mostly false, giving the following results:

Gun Control Advocates tell mostly+ the truth 81.7% of the time (58/71)
Pro Gun zealots tell mostly+ the truth 42.3% of the time 33/78.
Ergo, Gun Control advocates won this survey by telling the truth twice the rate of gunnuts.

Gun control side mostly+ false approx. 18% of the time
Gunnuts mostly+ false approx. 58% of the time, three times more the rate, when discounting half true results.

Including half true results but disregarding them & using strict percents:
Gun control advocates tell mostly+ the truth 58% of the time, while mostly+ lying 13%.
Gunnuts tell mostly+ the truth 33%, while mostly+ lying 45%, nearing half the time!

Either way they look at it, gunnuts lose the credibility survey.

Politifact: .... when politicians or groups make claims about current laws being insufficient -- a common tactic for gun control supporters -- they often earn Half True ratings because they leave out important details or take things out of context. By contrast, claims about the Obama administration's plans for gun control, often made by people and groups opposed to gun control, typically earn a False or Pants on Fire.

August 14, 2014

NRA asked to remove ted nugent from bd of dir

.. columnist Frank Carroll, a member of the National Rifle Association, is calling for NRA board member Ted Nugent and "anyone else who either backs him or avoids their responsibility to confront him" to be removed from the NRA's leadership.

I suppose it's a start, at least one republican* from America is on the record as wanting to depose ted nugent. Yay.
* I presume.

Nugent caused widespread controversy this year over his characterization of President Obama as a "subhuman mongrel." Citing that comment and Nugent's lengthy history of racially inflammatory commentary, several concert organizers have canceled Nugent appearances while other concerts have been protested.

In an August 12 {2014} column, Carroll called the NRA "an organization I belong to and agree with on many issues," while bemoaning that Nugent is a representative of the gun group. He added, "No wonder conservatives are struggling to lead in this country. At the very time we need authentic, humane, passionate conservatives and patriots the most, the best we can come up with are people like Nugent? Get real, NRA. Nugent has to go."

Carroll also took issue with other members of NRA leadership, including Fox News contributor Oliver North, who have refused to condemn Nugent's inflammatory commentary:
What's really not OK is the failure of NRA leaders to unequivocally and immediately suspend Nugent from further representation of the NRA and our members. Instead our leaders, from Oliver North down the line, have equivocated, dodged, danced and tiptoed around an issue from which there is no escape. Nugent must go, for the sake of the integrity of our organization and our own credibility as members of a powerful and nation-wide lobby engaged in guaranteeing the rights and responsibilities of free Americans.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/08/13/conservative-columnist-kick-ted-nugent-out-of-n/200412

July 21, 2014

Does the nra really have 5 million members?

jan 2013, mother jones: In 2008, Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the pro-gun control Violence Policy Center, came across more evidence of the NRA's fuzzy math. He pointed to a piece of junk mail that the NRA's treasurer had sent to members peddling a specialized insurance plan aimed at gun owners. The pitch stated that "with about 3 million NRA Members 'on our side of the table,' we negotiated a bargain price." Sugarmann has an intriguing theory why this number may be more credible than the one that the NRA routinely gives the press: The underwriter for the insurance plan was in California, where making "untrue, deceptive, or misleading" statements in insurance materials is outlawed.

Last week, the NRA claimed that it had added 100,000 new members in the weeks following he Sandy Hook massacre. "Our goal is to get to 5 million before this debate is over," a representative of the group told Politico. If all of the NRA's numbers are to be believed, it will hit its target by this fall {2013}.

UPDATE: A source writes in with another strong indication that the NRA's true size is closer to 3 million. The NRA gives members a free subscription to one of four magazines: American Rifleman, American Hunter, America's 1st Freedom, or NRA InSights. The first three magazines are audited by the Alliance for Audited Media, which as of July gave them a combined paid circulation (including newsstand sales) of 3.1 million. NRA InSights is an online-only magazine for kids, with a circulation of 25,000. Though some NRA members may opt out of a free magazine, it's likely that others pay to subscribe to more than one of them. Add in the fact that non-NRA members can pick up the magazines on the newsstand, and the 3.1 million figure is almost certainly an upper-bound for the NRA's true size.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/01/nra-membership-numbers

July 7, 2014

Bloomburg group (everytown/egs) presidential survey on GC

Bloomberg’s gun group to start 2014 midterms strategy by surveying candidates

Ten Questions America's Voters Deserve Answers To:
The Gun Sense Voter 2014 Federal Candidate Questionnaire

About this Questionnaire Every day, 86 Americans die by gunfire. That’s why the Gun Sense Voter Project is asking all federal candidates to complete this brief questionnaire. We are working to support candidates who will vote for common-sense laws to reduce gun violence. Using this questionnaire and the candidate’s past history on gun issues, we will make determinations that will help Gun Sense Voters decide where candidates stand. Opposing a gun safety policy in this questionnaire will not necessarily be considered a statement against gun sense – that’s why we ask candidates to explain their positions if they choose.

A project of Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America
Take the Gun Sense Questionnaire 1 of 11 Full Candidate Question Do you agree that we can do more to both keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people and protect the rights of responsible, law-abiding people?
article http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bloombergs-gun-group-to-start-2014-midterms-strategy-by-surveying-candidates/2014/07/06/d772a196-02ef-11e4-b8ff-89afd3fad6bd_story.html

questionnaire: http://gunsensevoter.org/10questions/

This is the first big step by Bloomberg — who has committed to spending $50 million of his personal fortune this year to build a national grass-roots movement that will pressure lawmakers to pass more restrictive gun laws — to devise a political strategy heading into the November elections.
Bloomberg’s group, Everytown for Gun Safety, is asking all Senate and House incumbents and candidates to complete a 10-part questionnaire stating publicly where they stand on issues such as expanding background checks for gun buyers, limiting the capacity of ammunition magazines and toughening gun-trafficking statutes.

June 7, 2014

Gunnut Claim ruled FALSE by politifact

FALSE: New Hampshire Republican Jim Rubens says armed civilians drastically reduce casualties during mass shootings ... Says when armed civilians stop mass shootings with guns, an average of 2.5 people die; otherwise, an average of 18 people die. (I think/glean that Rubens is in the GOP primary with scott brown to run for senator).

Refutal: ..an academic study published in an FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin by Dr. Pete Blair, dir of research Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center (ALERRT) and assoc prof criminal justice Texas State Uni...

Blair and two other researchers examined more than 100 shootings between 2000 and 2012, investigating factors such as average response time of law enforcement and outcomes based on the actions taken by civilians at the scene... the study found the median number of people shot is 5 (excluding the perpetrator).
.. Blair said it’s logical to assume casualties would be lower when civilians intervene before police arrive, but his research documented very few incidents that were actually stopped because a civilian was carrying a gun..... Blair said he found only three cases in which an armed civilian shot the attacker, and in two of those incidents, the civilian who took action was an off-duty police officer.

Roughly half of all active shooter events Blair studied ended before law enforcement officers arrived. The most common occurrence was that the shooter stopped the attack spontaneously on their own. .. When those who remained either ran away or barricaded themselves, shooters often made the decision to leave the attack site or commit suicide..

Blair said he also documented cases in which civilians took direct action. Civilians stopped about one out of every six active shooter events, but their actions rarely involved the use of firearms.. The most common method was tackling the attacker, as was the case during a campus shooting in Seattle this week.

Blair said it would be difficult to draw any conclusions about the effectiveness of armed civilians in stopping active shooter events based on the limited data that exists. In general though, Blair said, fewer people were killed or injured in the events that ended before police showed up at the scene -- either because {UNARMED} civilians took action, or because the shooter spontaneously stopped or committed suicide. http://www.politifact.com/new-hampshire/statements/2014/jun/06/jim-rubens/jim-rubens-says-when-armed-civilians-stop-mass-sho/

Another canard from the 2nd Amendment Mythology Bible, bites the dust.

May 17, 2014

Happy Mothers Day video, from a gunnut

What you’ll see in the video: A man at a firing range looks at the camera, shows the pistol in his hand, saying, “Glock, model 19, 9mm.” He inserts the magazine and begins to fire, in a calm orderly fashion, 6 shots at a target about 25 yards away. He stops and draws the target back to assess his shooting skill. When it comes into view we can see that it is a poster for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. He turns to the camera, smiles and admires his accuracy, “Not a bad grouping. Happy Mother’s Day.”

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/15/1299528/--Happy-Mother-s-Day-threat-from-Florida-gun-instructor?detail=email

January 17, 2014

Targeting the NRA, new movie expose' (YAY!)

Harvey Weinstein and Meryl Streep to take on gun lobby with movie that will make NRA ‘wish they weren’t alive’Mega-producer revealed his plans to make a film to help battle the gun industry and the NRA
Said it will not be a documentary and will be big' like Mr Smith Goes To Washington
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2540727/Harvey-Weinstein-Meryl-Streep-making-movie-make-NRA-wish-werent-alive.html#ixzz2q0DthE2d

He also spoke about gun control that summer in the led up to the 2012 election, telling the Huffington Post: ‘If we don’t get gun-control laws in this country, we are full of beans. To have the National Rifle Association rule the United States of America is pathetic.’
He said that his intention is to make the movie such a condemnation of the use of guns in America that the ammunition industry would take a noticeable hit afterwards.
Weinstein said that people will be leaving the movie theater thinking 'Gun stocks — I don’t want to be involved in that stuff'.

I rarely go to movies, last was michael moore's fahrenheit early 2000's, but am going to make this one; you too I hope!
And also, but not directed at mr Weinstein, IT's ABOUT TIME we did this!!!!! (my dream is coming true!).

September 25, 2013

Heads Up

Wed Sep 25, 2013, 01:45 PM STARTING 90 DAYS FROM TODAY, if you have five hidden posts on your account you will be unable to post.
After nearly 2 years on DU3, it is apparent that the vast majority of people are participating in good faith, and are making the effort to avoid posting inappropriate comments that might get hidden. However, there is a very small contingent of people who do not seem to be trying very hard, are not particularly embarrassed or ashamed that they are getting posts hidden, and continue to engage in disruptive behavior. For these people, we feel it is time to provide an incentive for good behavior. Starting 90 days from today, if you have five hidden posts showing on your Transparency page (a 90-day period), then you will be temporarily unable to post. In order to regain your ability to post, you will need to wait until the oldest post of the five is more than 90 days old and "falls off" of your record. At that point you will only have four posts showing on your Transparency page, and you will regain your ability to post.
If this seems harsh, I would like to share a few stats with you. Over the last 90 days, only one half of one percent of DU members who posted managed to rack up five or more hidden posts. 99.4% of actively posting DUers stayed under the 5-hidden-post threshold (and 86% had no posts hidden).
.. But no matter how bad your record is right now, please note that NONE OF THE HIDDEN POSTS CURRENTLY SHOWING ON YOUR ACCOUNT will count toward the five hidden posts. That's just math. Over the upcoming 90-day "grace period," all of the hidden posts you got up until now will fall off your record. So, if you change your behavior today and stop getting your posts hidden, you'll be fine. But if you persist in disrupting DU, and persist in getting posts hidden, every single post you get starting from THIS MOMENT will count toward your 5-hidden-post limit.
.. Please note that creating additional accounts in order to get around -- or preemptively avoid -- any restrictions on your account would be considered a Terms of Service violation. The best way to avoid restrictions on your account would be to avoid getting your posts hidden in the first place. It is not that hard.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10132863

August 13, 2013

gunnut fearmongering at it again

Politifact: A reader recently sent us a realistic-looking document from the United Nations with a pretty explosive claim -- that the world body is moving forward with plans to help member nations disarm their civilian populations of "military grade," "concealable" and "hunting grade" firearms, and even "ammunition.."

text (I wonder if breitbart/dotcom got the 'scoop'): "The issue of military grade weaponry in the hands of civilians looms ever larger in the face of the global implementation of 22/Agenda 21 by member nations. In particular, the United States has an estimated 500 million weapons in the hands of its civilian population.. a massive dynamic problem for the process of confiscation as there will be those who refuse to surrender their firearms.

"Within the discussion framework, we have identified several problem areas that must be addressed, they are:
"1. Classification of military grade weapons to be made illegal for possession.
"2. Creation of programs to provide reasonable compensation for voluntary surrender of said arms.
"3. Codification of laws to begin the restricting and strict licensing of concealable firearms.
"4. Codification of laws to begin the restricting and strict licensing of hunting grade firearms.
"5. Codification of laws to restrict the sale of, and possession of ammunition and components to manufacture ammunition.
"6. Finally, codification of laws to completely makes (sic) any and all firearms illegal to own, possess or use outside of military and law enforcement usage.
"7. Creation of a United Nations Police Taskforce with the specific mission of assisting member nations with the collection of weaponry from civilian hands. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/aug/12/chain-email/united-nations-document-shared-social-media-says-c/

PS: PANTS ON FIRE LIE.

July 21, 2013

Do you support U.N. Arms Trade Treaty?

(Repost,xpost) Before you decide to vote, more info in a following post; links, opinions.
The UN Arms Trade Treaty is currently July 2013 in the ratification process in the UN.
.. UN: Insurgents, armed gang members, pirates, terrorists - they can all multiply their force through the use of unlawfully acquired firepower. The illicit circulation of small arms, light weapons and their ammunition destabilizes communities, and impacts security and development in all regions of the world.. a comprehensive, legally binding instrument establishing common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms..

Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) multilateral UN treaty that regulates international trade in conventional weapons.. treaty negotiated at a global conference of the UN Jul2012 in New York.. 2Apr2013, UN Gen Assembly adopted ATT - 154-3 vote with 23 abstentions. US voted for it .. NKorea, Iran, Syria voted opposition.. treaty has been signed by 79 states, but will not enter into force until it has been ratified by 50 states. As of 20Jul2013, 79 states signed the Treaty and 2 ratified it .. Treaty will enter into force 90 days after date of 50th ratification.. A majority of {US} Senate members against treaty, 2/3 majority needed to ratify.
.. UN: the treaty will not do any of the following: interfere with domestic arms commerce or the right to bear arms in Member States; ban the export of any type of weapon; harm States' legitimate right to self-defence; or undermine national arms regulation standards already in place. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_Trade_Treaty

The most vocal groups opposing ATT {are from USA}.. National Rifle Assoc (NRA), Nat Shooting Sports Fdtn (NSSF), Heritage Fdtn. NRA and Gun Owners of America say treaty an attempt to circumvent {2ndA} and similar guarantees in state constitutions..
.. Advocates say that ATT pertains to international arms trade, and would have no effect on current {US} domestic laws.. resolution explicitly states“the exclusive right of States to regulate internal transfers of arms and national ownership, including through constitutional protections on private ownership."