Sebastian has some coverage from bitter Pennsylvania.

Shot Down: gun law study shows no effect:

In a new peer-reviewed study, Dr Samara McPhedran from the School of Psychology, and her colleague Dr Jeanine Baker, who also hold executive positions in the International Coalition for Women in Shooting and Hunting, show that the accumulated studies on Australia’s 1996 gun bans and half billion dollar ‘buyback’ do not point to an impact.

The authors say that this provides a clearer foundation for evidence based policy development, particularly within the area of suicide prevention.

Whoops.

University of North Dakota and University of Minnesota-Crookston:

Region’s college students wear empty holsters, protest concealed weapon bans

“People with concealed carry permits feel that police aren’t able to defend every single person,” [UMC junior Jared] Hendricks said. “Concealed weapons allow the tables to be a little more even, so we don’t have armed criminals and disarmed citizens everywhere.” Though campus shootings have made big news in the past year, they’re relatively rare, Hendricks acknowledged. But he said it’s still important for students to have the option to carry a weapon.

Legions Fate noted the high schooler who planned to bomb his school and notes:

There are a number of lefties who believe that if firearms were taken away from us mere civilians, than the world would cease to become violent because there would no longer be a way to kill. History says otherwise, and I often point this out:

• The deadliest school massacre in US history, and second deadliest spree killing in modern history was carried out with a bomb.
• The deadliest act of domestic terrorism in US history was committed with a bomb.
• The deadliest act of terrorism in US history was committed using airplanes which were taken by force using box cutters.
• The deadliest spree killing in modern history was committed with grenades and two rifles with only 18 cartridges.
• This man killed 30 people in an hour and a half with swords and a rifle.

Tempe man with road rage shoots self

A man accidentally shot himself in the stomach after waving his gun in anger at a fellow driver in Tempe, and police said Monday he will face charges.

David Lopez, 33, is expected to survive and could face charges including disorderly conduct, reckless display of a firearm and felony flight from police in the Friday night incident, Tempe police spokesman Brandon Banks said.

Banks said soon after Lopez shot himself, he tried to evade police by driving into a nearby neighborhood, but he crashed his car into a canal embankment. Lopez then ran on foot, but police soon caught up with him.

The other driver also fled the scene. When police caught up with him, they arrested him for drunken driving.

I’ll admit to being less, shall we say, opposed to law enforcement agencies than many of the gun bloggers. I certainly don’t depend on them for my safety and recognize that they suffer from the same bureaucratic problems that plague every government organization, but I also support them most of the time and am sympathetic to the problems that they face.

Then I read things like this. Hypothetical, to be sure. But entirely believable.

The guy, Melvind, who says that parts of a gun are human emotions actually commented on the Real Gun Guys post where I found the image.

I hadn’t bothered looking yesterday, but I decided to see what this guy had to say in the comments section of the Flickr page where he posted his “artwork” and on a second discussion page.

Here’s a gem:

i think all you gun owners should be shipped to a nice deserted island somewhere and be allowed to shoot the shit out of each other until there’s only of you left. then that person can blow their own skull open too.

He spends a lot of time insisting that he doesn’t hate anyone, but I’m pretty certain that his wish for gun owners to all kill each other shows serious symptoms of #1, #2, #7, and #11, likely caused by a good dose of #9 and more than a touch of #13.

He claims to want gun owners to come up with any reasons that he didn’t list, then giggles as he ignores them. For instance:

xadrian says:
I love how “defense” was not included.

Melvind says:
yup…that was deliberate

That’s pretty rational. In his comments he goes on about how he would welcome anyone who could change his mind, but he also says this:

i don’t know gun history, though I don’t see how that would help me. but i do know about guns.

you point one at somebody, a piece of metal flies out of the front and then someone dies or is horrifically injured.

i don’t feel i ever need to learn any more than that.

we could toss gun law statistics back and forth but my opinion won’t be changed. they’re bad; people who own them or seek to own them are morally flawed.

So he spends so much time saying that gun owners are fearful, intolerant, closed-minded, and so on when really it’s just him all along. Which is exactly what I was getting at when I asked “Don’t project much, do you?”
(more…)

On the past weekend in Chicago:

You don’t have too many guns in Chicago. You have too many criminals.

32 people shot, 6 killed, in violent Chicago weekend – CNN.com: “CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) — An epidemic of gunfire rattled the city during the weekend, with at least 32 people shot and six killed.

Police Superintendent Jody Weis blamed an excess of guns and gangs for the rash of violence. ‘There are just too many weapons here,’ Weis said at a news conference Sunday. ‘Too many guns, too many gangs.’”

I once lived near a military base, where they had a LOT of guns. In all the time I lived there, they did not have 32 people shot in violence, nor 6 people killed violently. Over several years, shootings in that community that was chock full of guns did not add up to 32.

As so many have pointed out already, Illinois in general and Chicago in particular have some of the strongest gun control measures in place this side of DC.

Visit, board, search and seizure team members from the guided-missile frigate USS John L. Hall (FFG 32) take control of Landing Craft Utility (LCU 1661) after boarding the vessel by rigid hull inflatable boat. Phoenix Express (PE) 2008 is the third annual exercise in a long-term effort to improve regional cooperation and maritime security. The principal aim is to increase interoperability by developing individual and collective maritime proficiencies of participating nations, as well as promoting friendship, mutual understanding and cooperation. Exercises like PE-08 enable participants to advance information sharing which is crucial to maintaining a region free from transnational threats, as well as enhance capability to conduct multinational peacekeeping missions. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Amanda Clayton

Two shotguns and three four ARs. No cutlasses?

(Cross-posted from Murdoc Online)

Police: Teen planned to bomb high school
He reportedly kept diary and had ammonium nitrate shipped to his home

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A high school senior collected enough supplies to carry out a bomb attack on his school and detailed the plot in a hate-filled diary that included maps of the building and admiring notations about the Columbine killers, authorities said Sunday.

Ryan Schallenberger, 18, was arrested Saturday after his parents called police when 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate was delivered to their home in Chesterfield and they discovered the journal, said the town’s police chief, Randall Lear.