The Wages of Gun free Zones is More Deaths.

Here is a pretty good (and recently updated) article from the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) regarding the prevalence of mass public shootings in place where guns are prohibited for the unbadged versus localities where concealed carry is not meaningfully restricted. The author also explain how the propaganda from groups like "Everytown for Gun Safety" and "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" distorts the numbers to better serve their agenda.

I did not realize the the difference was so marked. In the 55 years since 1950, 98.4% of mass public shootings happened in places where carry for ordinary persons was prohibited either by local law or the venue owner's requirements. If only the years from 1998 to 2016 are considered that number drops slightly to 96.2%. While no solid conclusions can be drawn from just those two numbers, they do make it reasonable to consider the proposition that: If guns are a "Pubic Heath" problem, the best vaccine is not prohibition but empowering peaceable citizens to carry firearms for defense of self and, where appropriate, others.

That Moment When I Realize the Facepalm is Inadequate.

I used to think Kevin DeLeon was about as stupid on the subject of firearms as a person could get outside of a home for the mentally retarded. I still think that is true but Weld is definitely a contender to displace DeLeon. I guess it just goes to show that every time I think I've seen the bottom of the Well of Human Stupidity, someone will come along and start digging.

Bill Weld Just Compared AR-15s to “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” & Said Pistols Were Even Worse!

Martin Luther King was on a Watchlist

Many image memes are just plain silly but this one has considerable truth in it. It is true that Martin Luther King owned guns and, at times, was protected by armed volunteers. It is a matter of record that he applied for a concealed carry permit in Alabama. Unfortunately for King, Alabama was a de facto shall-issue state at the time and the local police decided he was not a suitable person.

It is also a matter of record that then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy approved the FBI’s wiretap and clandestine microphone campaign against King. This surveillance lasted until his assassination in April 1968.

Good Guy with a Gun

Stops a bad guy with a gun.

Despite the oft-repeated claims by the controllists, good people can and do stop crimes in progress. The reason we rarely hear of them is the death toll is usually too small to titillate the media. They want gallons of blood to dance in.

This Concealed Carrier Just Stopped A Mass Shooting At A Night Club, And The Media Remained Silent

Gavin Newsom wants me dead

I cannot say I am surprised at this. Wanting most people vulnerable to the depredation of criminals is entirely in keeping with the Left's attitude toward the hoi polloi. The endgame for the Left has always been the firing squad and the gulag.

On HBO, Gavin Newsom Defends Being a Sitting Duck at a Mass Shooting

Typical of New Jersey?

Radley Balko make somes valuable observations in his Washington Post article about the Shaneen Allen case in New Jersey. Among them is this particularly salient set of points:

When I first posted her story to Twitter, a couple of progressive responders predicted that because Allen is a black single mother, the gun rights community would all but ignore her. But that hasn’t been true at all. In fact, Allen has become something of a rallying point for gun rights activists. She is being represented by Evan Nappen, an attorney who specializes in gun cases and is a gun rights activist himself. Some conservatives have similarly accused progressives of ignoring Allen’s case because she stands accused of a gun crime. It’s certainly true that her case has received much more attention from the right than the left. But Nappen says he has seen plenty of support for her from racial justice groups, too.

Despite the cynical expectations of the controlists, gun owners are coming to the defense of a "black single mother". This is no surprise to any honest observer of the pro-gun scene. The prozis will make a big deal of that fact that Dick Anthony Heller -- the plaintiff in Heller v D.C. -- is white but ignore that Otis McDonald of McDonald v City of Chicago is black and, last I heard, a registered Democrat. They will also ignore that NORML and the NRA were allies in protecting the Second Amendment rights of Medical Marijuana patients in Oregon (Willis v Winters). There is clearly a disconnect between perception and reality.

Ultimately, the most relevant fact in this case is that this happened in New Jersey. While not alone in this distinction, the system there is full of people who just plain hate peaceable, honest gun owners and want them all dead or in prison. It's as simple as that.

Oh, give me a home
Where the criminals roam,
Where the rapists and murders play;
Where often is seen
a discouraging scene
of graft and corruption displayed.

The Human Cost of "Reasonable" Gun Laws

Dear Dartmouth: I’m Being Stalked – Please Let Me Protect Myself

Fearing for my safety, I finally contacted Dartmouth College’s Department of Safety and Security in June and asked if I could keep a permitted handgun on campus. But no luck. The advice was that I call campus security and arrange for an escort if I ever felt unsafe after dark. I was also told that there was no way to appeal this decision.

Yet, the escorts have proved to be impractical and humiliating. Campus security has told me, “you can’t keep calling us all the time.” When requesting transportation, I am grilled over whether I have a justifiable reason.

Campus security tells me that I can’t call until after 9 PM, but my stalker doesn’t really care what time of day it is.

What are women in these circumstances supposed to do? Keep themselves locked in their dorm rooms, as I have done?

Gun laws always come at a cost to the individual. Ther more restrictive they are the greater the potential cost. No matter how safe it may make the self-righteous controlist feel, there will be instances where a peaceable individual is harmed because of restrictive gun laws. The infamous Merced Pitchfork Murders is a good example. I sincerely hope the young lady in the above story does not become another. The right of self defense is fundamental to all civilized peoples and, in a civilized world she would not have to live in such fear. She does because a significant number of her countrymen do not care about her and rank her genuine safety concerns as less important than their feelings of security.

Beretta Moves Manufacturing to Tennessee

This does not surprise me. It has been building for a long time and I am glad to see it finally happening though Beretta has no plans to move its headquarters -- yet. Hopefully more gun manufacturers will follow suit and disassociate themselves from anti-gun states.

Beretta USA Announces Decision To Move Its Entire Maryland Manufacturing Capabilities To Tennessee

Beretta U.S.A. Corp., located in Accokeek, Maryland, announced today that it has decided to move its manufacturing capabilities from its existing location to a new production facility that it is building in Gallatin, Tennessee. The Gallatin facility is scheduled to be opened in mid-2015. Beretta U.S.A. had previously planned to use the new Gallatin, Tennessee facility for new machinery and production of new products only.

Gun Control Parody Site.

Wonderdonkey is a new site but so far the parody is better-that-average clever and funny. Given that at least two Target stores have been robbed at gun point since announcing their no gun policy, this latest one may be prescient as well.

For local meth-heads, Facebook group “Everytown For Gun Safety” known as “EveryTownperson We Can Rob Safely”

Unofficially changing billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s “grass-roots” organization’s name to, “EveryTownperson We Can Rob Safely”, local meth-heads said they were excited how the Facebook groups’ openly unarmed members would increase robbery safety in their town.

“It’s a list of townspeople that don’t have a gun to defend themselves. And they TELL people about it,” gleefully explained meth-enthusiast Dennis Hutchlee. “They’re the best people to rob safely.”

Town meth-devotee Tyler Aingston expressed how this group will change his life. “Yeah, I used to be so nervous about being shot while robbing people’s homes that I actually got a J-O-B and worked to support my meth habit. Not anymore. Thanks, Michael Bloomberg!”

Another gem is this announcement that Fearless Leader is turning the White House into a Gun Free Zone.

To Avoid Being A Huge-Ass Hypocrite, U.S. President Makes White House “Gun-Free” Zone

“Therefore, all Secret Service, military personnel and those individuals previously entrusted to protect myself and my family with firearms, will now be required to just get rid of them. This will make the White House 100% gun-free and everyone will be safer. And it definitely won’t encourage maniacs who now know we can’t defend ourselves,” said the man who is absolutely “walking his talk” and not lying right to your face while trying to sell you some total bullshit that makes you and your loved ones more vulnerable.

H/T to Grant Cunningham .

Immumeracy in New Jersey

According to a recent "report" broadcast by 101.5 FM to the people of New Jersey using statistics from the Violence Policy Center (VPC), "New Jersey has a gun ownership rate of about 11 percent, and a gun death rate of about 5 1/2 percent, and that is very low,"

Low?

According to Census Bureau estimates , the 2013 population of New Jersey is 8,899,339. Using the VPC figures of an 11% gun ownership rate that equates to 978,927 firearms in the state. Using the figure of "5 1/2 percent" for "gun death" rates that comes out to 489,464 deaths or about 5,500 per 100,000 persons! Even Chicago or Washington DC cannot equal that on their most murderous weekends! It may be possible that Ms. Rand quoted the figure in error or maybe she simply lied. However, why didn't at least one person at the radio station pick up a calculator and check that figure?

I cannot give much credence to someone who is that ignorant of simple, grammar school arithmetic.

H/T to David Codrea and JPFO.

Family of Dead Criminal Wants more Gun Control.

In January of 2012, Dante Williams and Jawan Craig attempted to rob a Chesnee, South Carolina Waffle House.

Nineteen-year-old Dante Williams' family said there is no doubt he entered the Waffle House in Chesnee back in January of 2012 intent on robbing it, but they say he didn't have to die.

FOX Carolina obtained surveillance video from inside the Waffle House that investigators said shows Williams and his accomplice Jawan Craig come into the restaurant. Deputies said Williams is the one seen pointing a gun and demanding money.

Fortunately for the would be victims there was a concealed carry permit holder in the restaurant at the time the budding young socialist and his accomplice were attempting the share the wealth. When the smoke cleared, Williams was dead and Craig had fled the scene. The latter was captured later and eventually convicted for his part in the attempted robbery.

The above, by the way, is exactly the kind of defensive gun use that Bloomberg's hireling Shannon Watts claims never happens. Which adds absurdity to tragedy in that the family of Dante Williams is now demanding more gun control. Perhaps they reason that with fewer guns in the hands of peaceable citizens -- the kind of people that will obey the law -- Dante could have had a longer and more successful criminal career.

Dante may have been a victim of bad upbringing, poor education or lack of intelligence but, for whatever reasons, he chose to be a bad guy who lived by the gun. Once he threatened others in that quest, he abdicated any right to not be shot by a good guy whom, I suspect, would have been perfectly happy to not shoot anyone that day. The difference between Dante and the man who shot him in self defense is one the controlists either do not understand or are ignoring in their despotic pursuit.

Do Hunters Think They are Safe from the Gun Controlists?

Here is an interesting pseudo study from the Violence Policy Center (VPC). On the surface it seems to be just a screed railing against the 50BMG rifles but buried near the end is this policy recommendation:

Military surplus armor-piercing (AP) and armor-piercing incendiary (API) ammunition for .50 sniper rifles is widely and readily available. Although Congress has banned the manufacture of some armor-piercing ammunition, those restrictions apply only to handgun ammunition. The existing ban on armor-piercing ammunition should be updated and expanded to cover all AP and API ammunition. This would most effectively be accomplished through the promulgation of a performance standard in which ammunition is tested for its ability to penetrate bullet-resistant vests, ballistic glass, and armor, as opposed to the existing standard based on the bullet's content. [Emphasis added]

Virtually any center fire rifle round will penetrate a Class IIIA or lesser bullet resistant vest. The Level III vest will stop rifle rounds up to a 308 but is too bulky for everyday use. To reliably stop center fire rifle rounds requires adding a "plate" which is usually only good once. In effect, the ban proposed by the VPC constitutes a ban on almost all rifles including those commonly used for hunting. That last part should alarm those hunters who stay aloof from the fight for gun rights. The Second Amendment is not about hunting but if the victim disarmers succeed in emasculating it, then your hunting rifle will be on the confiscation list too.

National Institute of Justice Ratings for Body Armor

Didn't Hickenlooper Read the Bill?

I mean before he signed it into law.

He blames his staff "...for not anticipating the opposition on gun control." But, if his staff failed him so badly then he hired the wrong people. If he hired the wrong people for his own staff then his competency to be a governor is questionable.

Additionally, he doesn't seem to care that the law is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and under Article II, Section 13 of the Constitution for the State of Colorado:

The right of no person to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person and property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall be called in question; but nothing herein contained shall be construed to justify the practice of carrying concealed weapons.

John Morse and Angela Giron both lost their positions largely because if that ill-thought-out law Hickenlooper signed. I can only hope the good people of Colorado continue the trend of removing incompetents in the upcoming election.

Colorado governor tries to apologize for gun control measures, blames staff, then curses

May Your Frustration Grow Ever Larger

And may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits!

Obama: Gun law inaction 'my biggest frustration'

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that it was “stunning to me” that Congress did not take real action to tighten gun laws following the late 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

“My biggest frustration so far is that this society has not been willing to take some basic steps to keep guns out of the hands of people who can do just unbelievable damage,” Obama said during a question-and-answer session hosted by microblogging platform Tumblr that came hours after a school shooting in Oregon.

Read the rest here if you really want to.

Another Useful Idiot Heard From.

This time in the Philadelphia Weekly:

Guns Do, In Fact, Kill People

Only the useful idiots on the gun control side are interested in public safety and probably not all of them. The real leaders, however, are interested in controlling the public. Controlling you right down to what size soft drink or potato chips you can buy. So at what point are symbolic feel-good laws more important than our Constitutional rights? In the gun control narrative that happens whenever some self-righteous schmuck decides he is scared or offended. In mine: never.

I remind you of this adage from the Armed, Godless Heathen:

Of course I carry a gun! It gives me a chance against the sinners and protection from the righteous.

Brady Liars Cannot Figure.

In the wake of the recent Isla Vista atrocity, a lot of emotional rhetoric is being tossed around (This is known as Dancing in the Blood of the Dead or simply Blood Dancing). What is missing are some real numbers -- which comes as no surprise to me. In 2011, the Brady Campaign rated California as the number one state for gun control with a score of 81. At the opposite end of the list set Alaska, Arizona and Utah, each with with a score of 0. The rankings are available here (PDF) .

If the Brady assertion that more gun control means less "gun violence" is really true, then the difference should be evident in the relative statistics for the extremes. From the FBI Uniform Crime Report :

State	Gun Murders	Population	Rate per 100K
California	1,220	38.0 Million	3.2
Utah	26	2.85 Million	0.91
Arizona	222	6.55 Million	3.4
Alaska	16	0.730 Million	2.2

Compared to Utah, California is a veritable axis of gun murders. Even when Arizona and Alaska are factored in, California still doesn't look like the peaceful paradise its strict gun laws are supposed to make of it. Obviously the Brady equation needs work. Or, maybe they should just change their name to something more honest like The Brady Campaign to Promote Gun Violence.

CNN Cheats on Gun Control Poll

I thought there was something a little suspicious when the numbers didn't increment.

CNN Caught Red-Handed Sabotaging Gun Control Poll!

Update (19:45 PDT): Looks like the "No" numbers are incrementing now.

Lying for Gun Control

A recent Op-ed in the LA Times entitled California needs a Gun Violence Restraining Order makes some extraordinary and misleading claims.

Between 1999 and 2010, California reduced its gun death rate 56%, making the state a model for policymakers elsewhere seeking to reduce gun violence. California now has the ninth-lowest rate of gun death among the 50 states, but that isn't something to celebrate in the aftermath of the Isla Vista tragedy.

If California is really the "ninth-lowest" state for "gun death[s]" that statistic is not reflected in the overall murder rate for the state. According to the Uniform Crime Report statistics compiled at The Disaster Center , California has a murder rate of 5.0 per 100,000 population making it the the nineteenth worst state for murder (eighteenth if I exclude the District of Columbia with its 13.9/100K murder rate). The ten best states for murder rates are:

State	Murder Rate
NH	1.1
VT	1.3
IA	1.5
ID	1.8
MA	1.8
MN	1.8
UT	1.8
ME	1.9
HI	2.1
OR	2.4
WY	2.4

If Ms. Binder was interested in reducing murders and negligent homicides then she would logically be looking at those states with low rates. However, I suspect the author is not at all interested in reducing overall murder but only in the shibboleth of "gun violence". After all, seven or eight of the best states listed above have liberal gun laws meaning they will not fit into the boundaries of her superstitious nonsense.

Open carry in Carjack City (AKA Detroit).

There are certainly places where concealment of a firearms is a the more polite option -- Chipotle's Grill for example -- but, whenever the open carry versus concealed carry argument comes up, the Internet commandos will always claim a concealed firearm is a "tactical advantage". This is preferred because the bad guy doesn't know you're armed until it is too late. I've always found that argument a little dubious and my inclination is that open carry is a deterrent to an attack happening in the first place.

I know it is not an argument that will be settled anytime soon. Largely, I think, because there are a lot of unspoken assumptions on both sides. However, Greg Champion, a security guard in Detroit where violent carjacking has skyrocketed, offers his own reason for carrying openly.

To avoid becoming a victim, security guard Greg Champion wears a handgun on his hip whenever he's pumping gas.

"I don't want to surprise you," Champion said. "I want you to know I'm armed, and I want you to know I can defend myself, and I want you to go somewhere else."

A man after my own heart: I may not be able to make crime go away but I will try to make it go somewhere else.

No Guns Allowed Sign does not Stop Armed Robbery

The law may or may not apply to all persons equally but it is clear that laws are only obeyed by the law-abiding. Criminals do not operate under such restraints.

N.C. Restaurant With ‘No Guns’ Sign Robbed At Gunpoint

North Carolina police are searching for three men who robbed a newly opened Durham restaurant at gunpoint Sunday night.

The Pit Authentic Barbecue has a sign posted by the front door that reads “No Weapons. No Concealed Firearms,” according to North Carolina Gun Blog.

The North Carolina Gun Blog report is here.