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Old 07-27-2014, 02:07 AM
  #166
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There is no excuse to take a human life when yours isn't in any danger. You have burglary on the one hand, murder on the other one. Heck even if she had wrecked his home, still the crime of murdering is far more severe. I am a lawyer, but I am not familiar with the justice system in US. In my country , considering guns are prohibited, there would be no chance for the old man to get away with it.
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Old 07-27-2014, 02:32 PM
  #167
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Things are very different here certainly. May be not for the better.
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Old 07-27-2014, 06:42 PM
  #168
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He could still be charged with murder, but the way the police is talking about it in that article, specifically the part where they say "should you charge someone based on a series of split-second decisions made when he'd just been the victim of a crime," leads me to believe he won't be.

And that do feels that tells you something about how seriously gun violence is taken.

There's obviously no denying that he was the victim of what appears to have been a violent crime.

Mind you, he still managed to recover quickly enough to pursue them and kill one of them, so he made a remarkably quick recovery.

So it's not a matter of blaming the victim here. He was the victim of a crime.

But does that mean he's then free to commit one of his own? And is that what happened here?

I don't know.

I'm just hoping the death will be taken as seriously as the home invasion.
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Old 07-30-2014, 05:31 PM
  #169
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Domestic abuse victims to testify in support of new gun control law

Congressional hearing is the first on gun violence since post-Newtown gun control measures failed to pass

Victims of domestic abuse and gun violence have gathered in Washington DC to share their stories as the Senate holds a first-of-its-kind hearing on how to keep guns out of the hands of abusive partners.

Former champion boxer Christy Martin will be among the victims who are set to testify during the Senate judiciary hearing on Wednesday in support of a bill that would block abusive partners and convicted stalkers from legally buying or carrying firearms.

In Martin’s prime, the professionally trained fighter was a formidable opponent in the ring. But brute strength is no match for a man with a gun, she said. On 23 November 2010, Martin’s then-husband and manager attacked her after she talked to him about ending their relationship. He stabbed her repeatedly and then shot her in the chest with her own gun.

“If it could happen to me, it could happen to anybody because I was in good shape and I was pretty strong,” she said, adding that women in abusive relationships are especially vulnerable in the period after they leave their partner.

Martin, a West Virginia native nicknamed “the coal miner’s daughter”, said she was raised in a hunting family and always had guns in the home. While she doesn’t support broad gun control measures, she said it’s a no-brainer that batterers should not be allowed to possess guns.

She said being shot gave her “a little more respect” for guns’ lethal capacity.

Current federal law bans people convicted of abusing their spouse, including those placed under a restraining order for such a crime, from carrying a gun. It generally doesn’t extend to abuse by a dating partner, or someone who is not a spouse.

The bill being discussed Wednesday, introduced by US senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, would expand the definition of “intimate partner” to mean someone who has been in a romantic or intimate relationship with the abuser.

The bill would also prohibit convicted stalkers from buying guns. While US law does ban stalkers who are convicted of felony offenses from possessing guns, it does not prevent those convicted of misdemeanor stalking offenses.

New Hampshire father John Cantin said he plans to speak to this during the hearing.

His daughter Missy was shot and killed by her estranged husband who was under a restraining order for previously strangling her, Cantin said, his voice wavering. Cantin was there when it happened, and was shot as he tried to carry his daughter’s limp body out of the house.

“It’s too bad we have to have all of these laws to try to help protect people – there’s no guarantee – but it does work,” he said. “If we can prolong a person getting a gun they might change their mind. Sometimes people do things in the heat of the moment.”

Although he has become an advocate against domestic and gun violence in the years since his daughter’s death, telling this story has not gotten any easier. But he believes the law could save lives, and so on Wednesday he’ll tell his story again.

A women's issue

This will be the first congressional hearing on gun violence since senators failed to pass a bill that would have required universal background checks in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

The measure is strongly supported by Michael Bloomberg-funded Everytown for Gun Safety, which joins the victims and advocates in pushing Congress to pass Klobuchar’s bill.

Everytown and Moms Demand Action have helped push through similar laws in six states across the country, including Wisconsin and Louisiana. Kentucky took a different approach. A new state law fast-tracks the process for domestic abuse victims to get a firearm, allowing people with an emergency protective order or domestic violence order to get a concealed carry permit in a day.

Former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, a survivor of a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona, has been vocal on the issue of guns and domestic abuse, and called on the committee’s chairman, Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, to give the bill a hearing.

Giffords said during a June speech in DC: “Dangerous people with guns are a threat to women. Criminals with guns. Stalkers with guns. Abusers with guns. That makes gun violence a women’s issue.”

And specifically, it’s a US women’s issue. A 2003 study in the Journal of Trauma – which is often cited by supporters of the bill – found that American women are 11 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than women in other high-income countries.

While the bill has its detractors – the National Rifle Association is reported to be in opposition – it seems to have found broad, bipartisan public support. A poll by the Huffington Post and YouGov found that two-thirds of American voters support both provisions in the bill.

The NRA did not return repeated requests for comment.
I'm actually shocked that this isn't law already.

I thought the argument was always that people who want guns will always find a way to get their hands on them.

I never imagined there isn't a law against batterers and stalkers legally acquiring firearms.

I mean, that seems like a no-brainer to me, even without going into proper, wide-raning gun control.
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Old 08-03-2014, 01:13 PM
  #170
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Kids and Guns review – a terrifying look at the heart of American culture

Francine Shaw's documentary targets the relationship children and families in the US have with firearms, highlighting the appalling reality that these lethal weapons are treated like toys

Firearms companies in America are marketing guns – real guns – at children: pink for girls, blue for boys. Incredible, isn't it, in the 21st century? Gender stereotyping like that is so tired and out of date. Let the kids decide what colour guns they want.

You could say that isn't the main controversy in Kids and Guns (Channel 4), though. Little Kaylin in Kentucky has been given a .22 rifle for her fourth birthday by her dad JD, who lost his legs and an arm to an IED while serving in Afghanistan. You might have thought that would put him off weaponry. Not one bit; it made him realise his purpose, what he's supposed to do, and that's to teach his little girl everything he knows about guns and hunting.

Kaylin seems more interested in the bubble wrap around the gun than in her new weapon, but JD's going to make her fire that gun if it's the last thing he does. "What kind of animal are you going to shoot?" he asks her. "I'm not going to shoot any animal. I'm just going to shoot that target," she says. (I suspect she may feel differently to him about wildlife; later she refers to an unfortunate creature he's just gunned down out of its tree as "Mr Squirrel".)

Jesus, her gun is enormous – almost as big as she is. Wait, she needs something to cover her ears, she says. No she doesn't; go ahead and squeeze … BANG! Bloody hell – I needed something to cover my ears and I'm 4,000 miles away. And the recoil gave her a little kick in the chin. It hurts. Dad's pleased as punch though; is she ready to shoot again? No. Why not? "Because I don't like shooting." "You do, too, like shooting," he tells her. "She is going to learn to shoot whether she likes it or not," he says later.

Ah, this is better. At least Gia, nine, has Barbies; I'm caring less and less about gender stereotypes – dolls must be better than guns … Oh. The dolls aren't for playing with in the normal way. "We buy Barbie dolls but we shoot them," says her dad Spyder, who is training his daughter for a shooting competition. And here they are, the dolls, tied to a fence, and to bales of straw, some missing limbs, like Kaylin's dad. "I aim for the head a lot," says one-girl firing squad Gia, though actually none of them is missing a head. More practice needed, maybe. Spyder, who pushes his daughter hard, would agree. "Get used to it. You're going to cry in life, it's not a big deal at all," he says. "Just cry for the right things." Like shooting competitions.

It would be funny if it wasn't so appalling and terrifying and so very, very sad. There are 3,000 kids killed or injured in accidental shootings every year in the US because of the right to bear arms that is at the heart of American culture. Kids such as Hank, also nine, who shot himself in the head when he tripped while out hunting alone. Died instantly, at least. Hank's dad Brad can still hear his son's voice, saying: "Hey daddy, hey daddy." "I'd never thought I'd miss hearing 'Hey daddy' five hundred times a day," he chokes.

Hank's parents have regrets – of course they do. But not the ones you might expect, like letting a nine-year-old go hunting alone with a lethal weapon. The fault lies with the gun, which went off when it shouldn't have, they say. "I just want people to make sure the youth gun they buy is safe," says mom Kelli. "That any gun they buy is safe for their child."

Francine Shaw's excellent documentary is a measured and objective one. She probes gently from behind the camera ("Why don't you want to shoot?" to Kaylin. Or "Did you feel a little bit guilty yesterday?" to Spyder for making Gia cry after she failed to win the competition). It's about the US's relationship with the gun as much as it is about these families. And it's left to the viewer to yell at the television, as this one was: THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A SAFE GUN, youth or otherwise, you numbskulls. With respect.

It's maybe easy to say for a limey with no proper understanding of guns or hunting in the US or the deep cultural and historical significance of the right to bear arms. But I understand the statistics of those accidents and of gun crime. And they are bonkers.
Now, obviously, there is a big bias in this opinion piece as well as in the documentary it's reporting on.

Personally, I just don't believe most gun owners in the U.S. allow kids to handle weapons. That'd be madness.

If anything, it'll be more like when I was growing up and the hunters in my family thought me the proper respect and fear of firearms, seeing as indeed there is no such thing as a safe firearm.

Mind you, this does help explain why so many of my European friends think most Americans walk around "packing."
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Old 08-03-2014, 03:16 PM
  #171
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Originally Posted by sunnykerr (View Post)
Now, obviously, there is a big bias in this opinion piece as well as in the documentary it's reporting on.

Personally, I just don't believe most gun owners in the U.S. allow kids to handle weapons. That'd be madness.

If anything, it'll be more like when I was growing up and the hunters in my family thought me the proper respect and fear of firearms, seeing as indeed there is no such thing as a safe firearm.

Mind you, this does help explain why so many of my European friends think most Americans walk around "packing."
I think this article seems pretty bias. I think many adults try and teach safety and respect...at least that was my experience. But clearly there are plenty of bad parents out there.

However, guns are being manufactured in colors to appeal to women and kids. I think it is dangerous and very stupid.
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Old 08-04-2014, 05:02 PM
  #172
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Marketing to women, I have no issue with. In theory, adults are supposed to have the wherewithal to see through these ploys.

Marketing dangerous weapons to children???

I don't understand how that's legal.

And, yeah, I know I'm anti-gun, but come on...

Marketing cigarettes is illegal now (right? I think it is) because we all know how dangerous that is. Even marketing to adults is illegal.

So how is marketing weapons legal? You have to be a certain age to enter the armed forces and/or become a cop.

Surely part of that is the understanding that you need a certain level of maturity to handle the weaponry involved in those jobs.

If nothing else, parents should be the ones to introduce their children to firearms, since they'll be the ones held responsible if it all goes to hell.
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Old 08-04-2014, 08:18 PM
  #173
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Originally Posted by sunnykerr (View Post)
Marketing to women, I have no issue with. In theory, adults are supposed to have the wherewithal to see through these ploys.

Marketing dangerous weapons to children???
It is the pink, yellow, and blue guns that I object to. I don't think a women or girl needs the gun to be pink. They look toy like and that is dangerous IMO. Guns can be sized to fit smaller people...that isn't really a new thing and it makes them easier and safer to handle.

I don't think guns are advertised during kids shows etc. not like cigarettes were when I was a kid.
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Old 08-05-2014, 06:50 PM
  #174
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Pink guns for women is paternalistic crap as far as I'm concerned but, again, women are presumably able to see through that ploy.

I looked into it and, here, it's illegal to market things to kids, full-stop.

Not entirely sure how that actually works, since we do have plenty of toy commercials on U.S. channels (and, presumably, if it was that illegal, those adds wouldn't make it to air here).

But, yeah, marketing guns to children? That sounds criminally insane to me.



But then, I suppose this is also how we get 12-year-olds being charged with murder.

(I'm well aware that's a stabbing incident, which is not the same as a shooting. I am saying that, to me, this all enters a space in which the marketing creates a space in which kids will become crazy kinds of violent.)
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Old 08-08-2014, 05:47 PM
  #175
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Quote:
Texas boy, 8, in critical condition after being shot by 7-year-old cousin

TEXAS CITY, Texas -- Texas City police say an 8-year-old boy is in critical condition after being shot in the face by his 7-year-old cousin.

Capt. Joe Stanton said the boys were playing unsupervised at a Texas City apartment Thursday when the 7-year-old found a handgun and it discharged. The 8-year-old was shot in the left cheek.

Stanton said Friday morning that the older boy was out of surgery and in the intensive care unit at a Houston hospital.

Police say there were no adults in the apartment when they arrived. Stanton says a boyfriend of the victim's mother may have been responsible for supervising the children.

Texas Child Protective Services is reviewing the incident.
I love how everyone is just absolved of responsibility.

A boyfriend was supposed to watch them, but evidently they were "unsupervised."

They found a gun. No one left the gun out to be found. They found the gun.

It went off. Like guns go off on their own all the time or something.
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