Guns In Schools

09. March 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: Gun Control, Idiocy · Tags: ,

I am sure that by now just about everyone in South Dakota has heard that our fearless Governor recently signed the school sentinel bill authorizing local school districts to allow designated individuals to have access to firearms in our schools. Here is likely what we have to look forward to:

A New York town that began assigning an armed police officer to guard a high school in the wake of the Connecticut massacre has suspended the program after an officer accidentally discharged his pistol in a hallway while classes were in session.

What Does Threatening The President Get You?

11. February 2013 · 2 comments · Categories: Wingnuttia · Tags:

Well if you are washed up rocker, alleged draft dodger, and gun nut Ted Nugent, it gets you an invitation to the State of the Union Address.

Texas Republican congressman Steve Stockman announced today that he is “excited to have a patriot like Ted Nugent joining me in the House Chamber” during President Obama’s State of the Union, once again confirming Stockman’s position as one of the most far-right members of Congress.

Nugent in the past has threatened to kill President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

Study Provides Link Between Tea Party And Big Tobacco Going Back Decades

11. February 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: Big Business, Tea Party · Tags: ,

A recently released study funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health and published in the peer reviewed academic journal Tobacco Control, provides links between the billionaire Koch brothers and big tobacco going back as far as the 1980′s. The roots of the Tea Party it appears can be traced back to the third party campaigns funded by the tobacco companies that tried to discredit health studies showing the dangers of tobacco use as well as fighting increased taxes on cigarettes.

A new academic study confirms that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch brothers planned the formation of the Tea Party movement more than a decade before it exploded onto the U.S. political scene.

Far from a genuine grassroots uprising, this astroturf effort was curated by wealthy industrialists years in advance. Many of the anti-science operatives who defended cigarettes are currently deploying their tobacco-inspired playbook internationally to evade accountability for the fossil fuel industry’s role in driving climate disruption.

The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health, traces the roots of the Tea Party’s anti-tax movement back to the early 1980s when tobacco companies began to invest in third party groups to fight excise taxes on cigarettes, as well as health studies finding a link between cancer and secondhand cigarette smoke.

Read more via Desmogblog

Responsible Gun Ownership At Its Finest

29. January 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: Gun Control

Georgia man kills Cuban immigrant that pulled into his driveway due to GPS error.

Friends who were in the car with Diaz told WSB-TV that they were trying to pick up a friend on the way to ice skating on Saturday but their GPS directed them to the wrong address. The friends said that they waited in the driveway for a few minutes before Sailors emerged from the house and fired a gun into the air.

Gandy Cardenas, who was in the car, recalled to WAGA that the homeowner made no effort to speak to the group before opening fire.

“He didn’t talk to them, he just started shooting,” Cardenas explained. “The first shot was in the air.”

At that point, Diaz tried to turn the car around to leave, but Sailors fired another shot, striking the immigrant on the left side of the head. The group, which included a 15 and an 18 year old, said that Sailors held them at gunpoint until police arrived.

This Week In Wingnut Abortion Logic

28. January 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: Abortion, Catholic Church, Wingnuttia

First we have the Catholic Church admitting that a fetus is not a person in order to cover their ass in a malpractice lawsuit and now we have a legislator in New Mexico that wants to ban abortions in cases of rape because it would be “tampering with evidence”

House Bill 206, introduced by state Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R), would charge a rape victim who ended her pregnancy with a third-degree felony for “tampering with evidence.”

“Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime,” the bill says.

Third-degree felonies in New Mexico carry a sentence of up to three years in prison.

Stace Nelson Looks To Turn South Dakota Back Into The Wild West

28. January 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: Gun Control, Wingnuttia

Representative Stace Nelson (R-Fulton) wants South Dakota to return to its wild west roots. To accomplish that goal he has introduced HB1222 that would seem to make all federal gun laws unenforceable in the state of South Dakota.

FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to provide that any federal law that attempts to ban firearms, to limit the size of firearm magazines, or to impose other limitations on firearms is unenforceable in South Dakota, to provide a penalty, and to declare an emergency.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
Section 1. That chapter 37-35 be amended by adding thereto a NEW SECTION to read as follows:
No public employee as defined in § 3-21-1, or dealer selling any firearm in this state may enforce or attempt to enforce any act, law, statute, rule, or regulation of the United States government relating to a personal firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition that is owned or manufactured commercially or privately in South Dakota and that remains exclusively within the borders of South Dakota.

Section 2. That chapter 37-35 be amended by adding thereto a NEW SECTION to read as follows:
Any official, agent, or employee of the United States government who enforces or attempts
to enforce any act, order, law, statute, rule, or regulation of the United States government upon a personal firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition that is owned or manufactured commercially or privately in South Dakota and that remains exclusively within the borders of South Dakota is guilty of a Class 6 felony and, upon conviction, is subject to imprisonment for not less than one year, a fine of not more than four thousand dollars, or both.

Section 3. That chapter 37-35 be amended by adding thereto a NEW SECTION to read as follows:
The attorney general may defend a citizen of South Dakota who is prosecuted by the United States government for violation of a federal law relating to the manufacture, sale, transfer, or possession of a firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition owned or manufactured and retained exclusively within the borders of South Dakota.

Section 4. That chapter 37-35 be amended by adding thereto a NEW SECTION to read as follows:
Any federal law, rule, regulation, or order created or effective on or after January 1, 2013, is unenforceable within the borders of South Dakota if the law, rule, regulation, or order attempts to:
(1) Ban or restrict ownership of a firearm or any magazine of a firearm; or
(2) Require any firearm, magazine, or other firearm accessory to be registered in any manner.
Section 5. Whereas, this Act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, an emergency is hereby declared to exist, and this Act shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage and approval.

It never ceases to amaze me how the gun nuts will do anything to protect what they see as anything preventing them from proving how big their manhood is but stand silent when our 4th Amendment rights are trampled on (still waiting on Nelson et al to submit a bill making the Patriot Act unenforceable here). Also could someone please tell me how this would affect the ability of violent felons or the mentally ill to legally purchase guns because we sure wouldn’t want to infringe on their 2nd Amendment rights would we?

What’s next bazookas and RPG’s for home defense? How about a Predator drone in every garage?

5 Injured Celebrating Gun Appreciation Day

19. January 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: Gun Control · Tags:

At least 5 people were injured in 3 different firearms related incidents at gun shows celebrating gun appreciation day today. Don’t you feel safer?

From WISH-TV:

A person who was loading a gun outside of the Indy 1500 Gun and Knife Show at the State Fairgrounds was accidentally shot when his gun discharged Saturday afternoon. … The man, identified as Emory L. Cozee, 54, was walking back to his car, was loading his .45 caliber semi-automatic and accidentally shot himself in the hand, [police said.]

From the News & Observer:

A 12-gauge shotgun discharged shortly after 1 p.m. as its owner unzipped its case on a table for a security officer to check it at a security entrance at the Dixie Gun & Knife Show, according to Joel Keith, police chief of the state Agriculture Department. Keith said birdshot pellets hit Janet Hoover, 54, of Benson, in the right torso; Linwood Hester, 50, of Durham, in the right hand; and Jake Alderman, a retired Wake County sheriff’s deputy from Wake Forest, in the left hand. Hoover and Hester were taken to WakeMed, but officials said their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.

From WJW-TV:

Jim Conrad, event organizer, said there were about 200 people there at the time, and they heard one gun shot. Conrad said a visitor to the event had handed an exhibitor his gun to look at. It apparently was loaded, and while the exhibitor was looking at the gun, it accidentally went off, hitting another man in the arm.

(h/t – TPM)

Youtube’s Popular Gun Nut Found Shot To Death

11. January 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: Gun Control · Tags:

If only he would have had a gun to protect himself…

Mr. Ratliff’s passion for firearms made him something of a celebrity on the Internet, where he helped make scores of videos about high-powered and exotic guns and explosives. His YouTube channel, called FPSRussia, became the site’s ninth largest, with nearly 3.5 million subscribers and more than 500 million views.

But last week, the authorities said, Mr. Ratliff, 32, ended up on the wrong end of a gun. The police in northeast Georgia found him dead at his office on Jan. 3, shot once in the head. He was surrounded by several guns, but not the one that killed him. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is treating it as a homicide.

Congress Can’t Agree On The Fiscal Cliff But They Have No Problem Agreeing On Abridging Our 4th Amendment Rights

28. December 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: 4th Amendment, FISA · Tags:

When is the last time the Senate passed anything with 73 votes? Well the same Senate that can’t agree on a way to prevent millions of Americans from paying higher taxes and losing their unemployment benefits come January 1st has voted 73-23 to renew the Bush-era warrantless wiretapping portion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act of 2008.

The US Senate has voted to approve the FAA Sunsets Extension Act of 2012, which will authorize warrantless surveillance of Americans for counter-terrorism purposes for another five years. The bill extends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act of 2008, which granted retroactive immunity for wiretaps and email monitoring under the Bush Administration and created a framework for future warrant-free surveillance as long as one party is located outside the US and terrorism is suspected.

And if you think it’s just the Senate working in a bi-partisan manner to take away our rights, the House passed the same bill back in September by a 301-118 vote.

Obama Making Bush Look Like A Privacy Rights Crusader?

22. December 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: 4th Amendment, Barack Obama, Privacy · Tags: ,

If you thought the Bush years were hard on your 4th Amendment rights, what is happening under Barack Obama might have you wishing for the good old days of just having to worry about the Patriot Act and warrantless wire tapping.

The latest challenge to the 4th Amendment is documented in a Wall Street Journal article about a little known agency’s program that allows them to examine the government files of U.S. citizens for possible criminal behavior, even without having any reasonable suspicion.

The rules now allow the little-known National Counterterrorism Center to examine the government files of U.S. citizens for possible criminal behavior, even if there is no reason to suspect them. That is a departure from past practice, which barred the agency from storing information about ordinary Americans unless a person was a terror suspect or related to an investigation.

Now, NCTC can copy entire government databases—flight records, casino-employee lists, the names of Americans hosting foreign-exchange students and many others. The agency has new authority to keep data about innocent U.S. citizens for up to five years, and to analyze it for suspicious patterns of behavior. Previously, both were prohibited.

The changes also allow databases of U.S. civilian information to be given to foreign governments for analysis of their own. In effect, U.S. and foreign governments would be using the information to look for clues that people might commit future crimes.

So how does our government get around the “Privacy Act of 1974″ which was passed to outlaw such practices?

Congress specifically sought to prevent government agents from rifling through government files indiscriminately when it passed the Federal Privacy Act in 1974. The act prohibits government agencies from sharing data with each other for purposes that aren’t “compatible” with the reason the data were originally collected.

But the Federal Privacy Act allows agencies to exempt themselves from many requirements by placing notices in the Federal Register, the government’s daily publication of proposed rules. In practice, these privacy-act notices are rarely contested by government watchdogs or members of the public. “All you have to do is publish a notice in the Federal Register and you can do whatever you want,” says Robert Gellman, a privacy consultant who advises agencies on how to comply with the Privacy Act.

Again I must ask, where is the outrage from the Tea Party and other groups supposedly so worried about the government infringing on our Constitutional rights? Oh that’s right they are too busy trying to get guns into our schools…

« Older articles