Following the Waco, TX, bike gang shootings where nine people were killed, it was only natural to bring up the issue of too many guns on the street again. It also is tragic that Americans continue to look on this kind of regularly occurring event as just normal in today's gun culture. It's not and it doesn't have to be. I have been saying this in recent years and John Traphagan of the Dallas Morning News has written a story in agreement with that point and several others I have talked about for some time. For example, he also believes that owning a gun should be tied to the universal background check and extensive training. Now is that asking too much? He continues...


"The solution to gun-related crime is not further arming the public. It involves enacting comprehensive gun control laws that prohibit many forms of gun ownership, significantly curtailing or eliminating access to and the ability to purchase guns..."


As a matter of fact, unlimited arming of the public is what has caused the crisis in the first place like Adam Lanza in Newtown, CT, who massacred 20 kids and six teachers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School using his mother's gun which was completely unsecured. It was a semiautomatic Bushmaster .223 caliber model XM15 rifle and he also took along two handguns and a shotgun, all hers. After shooting his mother he just picked up the weapons and went out on a rampage. And this woman knew her son was acting strange for some time, like covering his windows with black trash bags.

Thanks to the National Rifle Assn., this totally irresponsible person was able to maintain a fully equipped arsenal in her home and even with a gun closet, didn't see fit to keep it locked. Yet the gun rights bunch would have us put more guns on the street in the hands of other people just like this. Their cries that it is the criminals with guns that cause the problems has become meaningless since Sandy Hook, and Aurora, Colo. and Tucson, AZ, as well as all the dumb parents who leave handguns on the coffee table so their kids can spread theirs or their siblings' brains all over the couch.

It's disgusting and no one is listening, especially the gutless U.S. Congress. Gun control advocates should take their cue from Bernie Sanders and start their own revolution.

Sometimes when I am talking to gun enthusiasts, i think of this

Police broke up an unsanctioned gay rights rally in central Moscow on Saturday, detaining around 20 people, including anti-gay campaigners who attacked the activists.

The campaigners had requested permission to hold a gay pride parade today, but Moscow authorities blocked the request for the tenth year in a row - an annual ritual that has come to symbolize Russian authorities' hostility to public expressions of support for gay rights.

A 2013 law against gay "propaganda" also sparked an outcry among Russian rights activists and in the West. But partly reflecting the influence of the Orthodox church, many Russians back the law or have negative feelings toward gays.

Activists at Saturday's meeting on Tverskaya Square near the city center were heavily outnumbered by black-clad riot police who had lined the square in advance.

By Spencer S. Hsu May 18 


Ten months after striking down the District’s long-standing ban on carrying firearms in public as unconstitutional, a federal judge Monday ordered the city to halt enforcing a key provision of the new gun-permitting system it adapted in response.

As passed by the D.C. Council, the District’s new carry legislation remains among the strictest in the nation, requiring applicants to state good reason to carry a weapon in order to obtain a permit from police, matching laws in Maryland, New Jersey and New York.

However, in a 23-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. ruled that condition — known as the “good reason/proper reason” requirement — still “impinges on Plaintiffs’ Second Amendment right to bear arms,” because it fails to target dangerous people or specifically how or where individuals carry weapons.

“The issue here is not whether the .?.?. requirement is a reasonable or wise policy choice. Rather, the issue is whether this requirement, no matter how well intended, violates the Second Amendment,” Scullin wrote.

Residents of Arlington, Virginia — which in 2012 overwhelmingly voted for President Obama and sits directly across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital — are trying to bully Marine Corps veteran James Gates, 28, from opening a gun shop in their neighborhood. Last week, a petition was formed by local resident Susan Newton protesting the shop’s opening and demanding property owner Kostas Kapasouris renege on his lease to the young veteran. The shop’s grand opening is planned for August.

“We, the citizens of Arlington County, oppose a gun shop at this location,” the petition at Change.org reads, citing the proposed venue is within two blocks of a city school and close to others. “It is unconscionable, in an era where our children are forced to practice ‘lock down’ drills designed to train them how to protect themselves from armed intruders, to locate a gun shop anywhere in the vicinity of schools. The fear of armed intruders permeates their education, and placing a shop that sells guns and/or ammunition within immediate distance of schools is confusing to students at best, and sparks fears of access to them at school at worst,” the petition says. So far it has collected 1,741 signatures.

“We thought there maybe a little pushback, but nothing like this,” said Mr. Gates, who said some community members have been calling him voicing their concerns. “They really don’t know anything about the shop, what it’s going to be — or federal firearms laws for that matter. They’re really shooting first and then asking questions later.”

Mr. Gates served in the Marine Corps security forces from 2004 to 2008, enlisting after he graduated from high school. After completing his service, he bartended at Buffalo Wild Wings in Bowie, Maryland, and tried to figure out what to do with the rest of his life. That’s where he met Rachel Dresser, a former student at the University of Maryland, and the two decided to get a federal firearms license together — as he knew guns and how to shoot from his time in the service — and she wanted to be her own boss and run her own shop.

Household gun ownership in America is on a steady, long-term decline.

That's according to data from the latest edition of the General Social Survey (GSS), which is conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago.


In 1980, 23.5 percent of those under 35 owned a gun while 27.4 percent of those 65 years of age and older owned a gun, an age gap of 3.9 percentage points. By 2014, this gap had expanded to 16.4 percentage points, with gun ownership dropping to 14 percent among those under 35 and increasing to 30.4 percent for those 65 years of age and older.


The facts are these. A clear majority -- two thirds -- of Americans don't have guns in their homes. Almost four out of five Americans don't personally own a gun. And as the gun-owning population continues to age and die off, fewer Americans are taking their place.

By Alissa Tabirian | July 17, 2013 | 10:54 AM EDT


(CNSNews.com) – “Self-defense can be an important crime deterrent,”says a new report by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The $10 million study was commissioned by President Barack Obama as part of 23 executive orders he signed in January.
“Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns (i.e., incidents in which a gun was ‘used’ by the crime victim in the sense of attacking or threatening an offender) have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies,” the CDC study, entitled “Priorities For Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence,” states.

The report, which notes that “ violent crimes, including homicides specifically, have declined in the past five years,” also pointed out that “some firearm violence results in death, but most does not.” In fact, the CDC report said, most incidents involving the discharge of firearms do not result in a fatality.

“In 2010, incidents in the U.S. involving firearms injured or killed more than 105,000 Americans, of which there were twice as many nonfatal firearm-related injuries (73,505) than deaths.”

The White House unveiled a plan in January that included orders to the CDC to “conduct research on the causes and prevention of gun violence.” According to the White House report, “Research on gun violence is not advocacy; it is critical public health research that gives all Americans information they need.”

SALEM (AP) — House lawmakers have passed a bill allowing people with concealed handgun licenses from other states to use them in Oregon.

Under the bill approved Thursday, the same protections offered to Oregon concealed carry permit holders, such as the ability carry a firearm into certain public buildings, would be offered to out-of-state permit holders.

But the concealed handgun license requirements in those other states would have to meet the same criteria as Oregon’s. The State Department of Justice is tasked with making a list of states whose license requirements are as stringent as Oregon’s.

Supporters say those states would also have to recognize Oregon’s concealed handgun license, creating full reciprocity.

OREM, Utah — A man with a concealed carry permit fatally shot a man in a Maceys parking lot after intervening in a carjacking in Orem Saturday morning, and so far police say the man will not face charges as it appears the shooting was justified.

The incident started at the Summit Ridge Apartment Complex in the area of 1700 S. 400 East when police were called to a fight at about 10:45 a.m. Five people, three women and two men, fled the scene in a vehicle.

FOX 13 News’ Robert Boyd reports a resident of an apartment was nearly hit at some point as the suspects drove through a grassy area during their escape.

“I could have been hit, I was standing right here and they came up and the officer just followed pursuit,” Witness Rae Eddy said.