Back in May this year, Andrea Colledani wrote an article for The Beacon suggesting that the Second Amendment needed to be revised to fit modern needs. Unfortunately, she did not have any suggestion for what course of action might be taken.

Colledani was right of course, the Second Amendment is outdated. Militias are redundant in the modern developed world, but the right to bear arms goes beyond that. The guns used at Lexington and Concord were hunting rifles, and regardless of your participation in the sport, there is no denying that its practice is beneficial. When deer populations skyrocket, the creatures destroy crops worse than rats, and coyotes are more violent pests. I realize that these are less of an issue in Miami than in my native Iowa, but the U.S. is made of much more than South Florida.

If I had my way, the solution to gun rights would be in your wallet. I don’t believe anyone needs to own a gun. Some careers may benefit from their use, but that’s on a professional level, not a personal one. If you need a gun at work, you should pick up your sidearm when you punch in and drop it off when you punch out. But what about the every man, those hunters I spent my last paragraph defending? They wouldn’t own their guns or their relatives. I say all ranged weapons – shotguns, rifles, pistols and bows – need to be collected by the government, catalogued and put in a library. You want to shoot Bambi? Fine, but I’ll need to see your gun-library-card.

They would, of course, be exceptions to the rule. Your grandfather’s WWI rifle is an heirloom, not a weapon, and would be categorized as such. Antiques would be examined by an expert who would make sure they are safe enough to be kept in a home and then be returned to their cabinets.

The National Rifle Assn. (NRA) has pushed the limits of the Second Amendment to the extent that there is daily gun violence all over America, unabated because a gutless Congress won't enact laws to control guns in this country. The 2nd Amendment is an antique that should either be drastically modified or repealed. There is no hope for reasonable gun control until the NRA, along with its leader, Wayne LaPierre, are backed into a corner and told to shut up.

Just yesterday I posted on my blog about the death of an innocent 19-year-old girl and asked the question I have been asking for a couple of years: Where did he get the gun? There is no answer to that because the NRA has refused to allow a gun registry that would assist law enforcement in tracing back every gun used in violent shootings. One of the reasons the gun lobby doesn't want that registry is that then many of the weapons used in gun violence might be connected to NRA members

By DAN SEWELL(0) Comments
CINCINNATI (AP) — A 3-year-old boy had been playing with a handgun he found in his home before fatally shooting himself in the chest with it, police said Friday.

In audio tape of a 911 call released by Hamilton police, a woman identifying herself as the mother of Marques Green said she carried the gun in her purse and had set her purse down after getting home.

"My son just shot himself, and I'm not getting a pulse," Elizabeth Green screamed Thursday afternoon. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I'm not getting a pulse ... I don't think he's alive!"

It's the second apparently accidental gunshot death of a young person this month in Hamilton, a city of 62,000 people nearly 30 miles north of Cincinnati.

A small but significant number of Americans are packing guns everywhere and all the time, including inappropriately during political gatherings. Rather than relying on stricter gun control laws, we might look to the model of public shaming provided by changes in tobacco use.

Tobacco use is and always has been legal in the U.S. At one time, tobacco was commonly chewed. Users spit the resulting juice into ever-present spittoons that were simply accepted by polite society, despite the poor aim that often resulted in disgusting piles of soggy leaves. By the 20th century, smoke-filled rooms and smelly ashtrays had replaced spittoons. Society, however, broadly continued to accept and even encourage the open use of tobacco.

There was some success in legally prohibiting cigarette sales to minors. Common wisdom held that smoking was bad for healthy growth. The health consequences of tobacco use on adults had little negative effect. Increased cost from higher and higher taxes also failed to dampen smoking.

Then it all changed. The tipping point came when smoking was perceived to be socially unacceptable.

Armed with guns and wearing masks, police say three men tried to hold up a smoke shop on Antoine early Tuesday morning. What they didn't know is the clerk was also armed. What felt like an eternity, in reality took no more than thirty seconds.

"They pulled in. They made a U-turn and they parked right there and he heard them yelling, 'Go, go, go,'" said the store owner, who didn't want to be identified. "When they opened the door, they had their mask on and everything." Armed and masked, the three suspects stormed their way in to the Happy Daze shop around 10pm. The store owner told us what happened when his clerk came face to face with the gunmen. "He kind of had the instinct of what to do what was going on," said the shop owner.

He says his clerk immediately reached for his pistol as the gunmen went in. One of the men then pointed his weapon at the clerk, who in turn fired three shots. "They ran in. They stepped two yards into the store and he discharged his weapon hitting the guy, And the guy stumbled out," the store owner added. Harris County deputies say the injured suspect collapsed in the parking lot as he attempted to get in the getaway car. He died on the scene.

Hours later, the owner was left picking up the pieces of a window shattered by bullets, relieved neither his clerk or his customers were injured in the ordeal, but frustrated, too, saying the suspects should have never tried to take the easy way out. "We hate to see any of that happen. We are just out here trying to make a living and it sucks when somebody comes and tries to take it from you when you are out here working for it," he said.

(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.”

ATLANTA — A man carrying a rifle inside Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport wasn’t breaking any laws, but he did raise a few eyebrows, including those of some police officers.

Jim Cooley says he carried his gun through the terminal when he and his wife went to drop his daughter off for her flight. He says he knew he wasn’t breaking any rules because he has a full understanding of Georgia’s gun laws.

“You can carry in unsecured areas of the airport. Past TSA, never,” Cooley said.
“You never know where something might happen,” said Cooley, posing here with his daughter at the airport.

That’s exactly what he did. Cooley carried his AR-15 fully loaded with a 100-round drum through parts of the terminal.

Gun Nut raises eyebrows carrying rifle through Atlanta airport

He lost his son, Christopher, in the Isla Vista, CA shooting near the UCSB campus, where he was a sophomore. Richard Martinez said soon after the shooting, "Why did Chris die? Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the (National Rifle Association). They talk about gun rights -- what about Chris' right to live?" How many times now have grieving parents had to come to grips with a loved one's death due to gun violence? It's vast but in each case it comes down to two things: a gutless Congress and the National Rifle Assn. (NRA). Unwilling to pass the gun control laws that will make this stop. However, Martinez has thrown down the gauntlet exclaiming:


"I have chosen to make this my life’s work. In choosing to do so, I was aware that the path to changing laws and minds would be challenging. I was still surprised to see how entrenched the gun lobby is with certain state legislators and the dangerous degree to which it pushes bills that endanger public safety."

Legal gun owners in Texas may soon be able to carry concealed firearms on college campuses now that the Legislature has overwhelmingly passed a gun rights bill.

The measure sailed through a final vote on Sunday, two days after lawmakers passed a bill allowing Texans to carry firearms openly throughout the state. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign both bills into law in the coming days.

The so-called Campus Carry measure cleared Texas' House of Representatives by a 98-to-47 vote.

"As a student and a veteran, I appreciate the fact that I will be able to defend myself and my fellow students in the unlikely event that there is an active shooter at my university," CJ Grisham, president and founder of a gun rights' group known as Open Carry Texas, said in a statement on the group's Facebook page. "This is common sense legislation that ensure our students and faculties will now be ... safer having abolished a major gun free, victim spree zone."

The bill would allow licensed gun owners in Texas to carry a concealed handgun while on a college campus. Campus presidents could prohibit carrying weapons in certain areas, but would be barred from establishing blanket provisions to prevent licensed gun owners from carrying their weapons on campus.
more