Good Morning!
It’s Friday!!!
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On this day in 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered to the British at Rochefort, France.
In 1821 Spain ceded Florida to the U.S.
In 1862 National cemeteries were authorized by the U.S. government.
And in 1955 Disneyland opened in Anaheim, CA.
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Quote of the Day
“Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past.”
Berenice Abbott
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The Jackson 5 and Bach, from ThePianoGuys
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Wandering Views 
Morning all. Friday is ending here.
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How about that backlash that ESPN is getting for giving Jenner the Arthur Ashe Courage Award?
I have followed this story since I first became aware of it. There is a lot of extra garbage surrounding it. Football player. Baby Mama/Baby Daddy. Allegations of not paying child support. Worst of all, Gloria Allred was involved. But this little Cutie Pie? She deserved her award..
http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2015/07/17/devon-still-espys-speech-daughter-leah-photo
Oh, and Devon should have been removed from the stage about the time he started rambling, explaining his fiance’ and promising her the wedding of her dreams. THIS was his daughter’s moment.
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A quick internet search this morning for news on the shooting of 4 marines by an Islamic TERRORIST didn’t turn up much. Why isn’t it all over the media? Why isn’t is all over my FB news feed? Why isn’t it everywhere I look? Are we so used to dead Marines that we don’t care?
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No Kim, it’s because it’s not a mass shooting that the left can use to push more gun control laws. They see no benefit this time around. There’s no crazy white man to demonize.
Plus the guy’s name was Mohammed, and you know the leftist media doesn’t want people to think they have anything to fear from muslims/ISIS sympathizers. Now if he had been white, it’d be a whole ‘nother story.
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It was all over FoxNews last night.
It fact, that’s all that was on Fox.
I can’t say IT’S FRIDAY to Jo. She says it WAS Friday.
😆
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If you had elected me president, military bases would not be “gun free zones”.
Think about how ridiculous that is.
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Chas, I don’t disagree with you, however, you actually have a control group in this situation. One was gun free and one wasn’t. Both got shot up. Furthermore, this guy didn’t pick one over the other. One being gun free and one not had no impact on his decision.
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I did a double take this morning when I read in the Times-News, “Charleston church massacre trial set for July 11”. I looked at the date on my computer.
It’s going to be a full year before this guy comes to trial.
??????????????
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An armed marine might have changed the outcome, Linda.
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Isn’t it interesting that events like these bring out polar opposite opinions: one group wants to arm everyone while another wants to arm no one. I don’t think either is a solution so I sit comfortably on the fence.
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Thought of you tonight Chas when someone served me a dish that was mostly onions. And it was the main course, so no other choices. I did end up getting sick later which is why I’m still up. Feeling better now.
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If the main course had an onion in it, I would go away hungry, Jo.
Get some sleep.
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It is Friday indeed!.
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Linda, I don’t want to arm “everyone,” but to allow people who want a gun and can use it responsibly to carry it. I used to occasionally walk in a national park by myself, and I’d walk past a sign that said no guns allowed, and wonder how wise that was. Now, you don’t want hunters shooting the wildlife . . . that makes sense. But isolated parks with no one around have proven many times to be unsafe places for women to walk. Freedom to carry a gun if one chooses just might make the difference in self-protection.
I remember a story someone, I think it was Frank in Phoenix/Spokane posted, about a woman stopping at a rest stop to use the rest room. She often left her gun in the car, but this time she happened to take it with her. As she stepped into the rest room, a man with a chain stepped in after her and told her he was going to have some fun. She calmly pulled out the gun and said they could have some fun with this, too. He fled. That’s what guns are supposed to do in the hands of a citizen–offer self-protection. Forbid law-abiding citizens to carry, and you leave them sitting ducks to non-law-abiding citizens.
When I lived in Chicago, it was illegal to own a handgun in Chicago–they had the most stringent laws in the nation on that. But that didn’t keep the gun crime down. It simply meant burglars could break into any house they wanted and the owners probably didn’t own a gun, and even if they did own a gun they would probably be scared to use it, since they could be arrested on a felony themselves! Laws like that are very counterproductive to citizen safety, especially in places like Chicago where there is a large well-armed criminal element. Do we really want conscience-less teenage thugs and police officers to be the only ones owning guns?
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Chas, when my husband and I were in Chattanooga last month visiting my brother and his wife, my husband had said for some weeks that for sure on that Saturday we were going to watch the horse race. (It was the third race of the Triple Crown, and it looked highly likely that we were going to have the first Triple Crown winner since 1978 or something like that, as indeed we did.)
Well, 45 minutes or so before the race, my husband asked to turn on the TV and was told they didn’t really get TV reception, but just had it for videos (that was pretty much my own situation in Nashville, but that wasn’t true in this brother’s house that he had when I lived in Nashville, so I didn’t know it was true). My husband tried anyway, and couldn’t get the station. He was frustrated, since the race was important and something he’d looked forward to.
I quietly suggested we could go find a TV, maybe go to Applebee’s. He said we could try Wal-Mart and we left. I told my sister-in-law we would probably be back for supper, but don’t wait for us. (Other people were going to be eating, too, so it wasn’t like they wouldn’t know if it would be two or four.)
We tried Wal-Mart, but their TVs aren’t set to TV stations at all, but to a channel they provide, with chase scenes and nature scenes and commercials for Wal-Mart. So again I suggested Applebee’s, and my husband said we would have to buy something. I said we could go and get something to drink . . . or we could get supper if he wanted.
I’d been in the kitchen earlier and knew what my sister-in-law was cooking. She was reheating mixed veggies from the night before, and they had peas in them (and my husband feels the same way about peas that you and I feel about onions, if anything worse since he threw them up several times as a child, so now he can’t stand to see them or smell them); she also was making a veggie category, and it had squash (another non-starter with my husband, though not as bad) and onions (I pick them out) and tomatoes (I can’t eat them anymore, though I like them). She was also making baked chicken, but I had no idea whether it would have any forbidden ingredients, and even if it was “safe,” it still made only one of three dishes my husband would eat, and the veggie casserole was not going to work for me at all and reheated mixed veggies were at best only tolerable.
So I told him what I’d seen. We ate at Applebee’s. When we arrived back at the house, they were finishing supper and about to start on dessert. We waved off the offer of supper, joined them for dessert. They were quite puzzled at our choice, thinking that a horse race wasn’t all that important.
But two things were going on there: we were going to seem rude either way, whether we refused to each most of the food or whether we had somewhere else to be right at suppertime . . . so we might as well see the race, which my husband really, really wanted to see and which I wanted to see as well. (My family didn’t own a TV in the seventies when we had two Triple Crown winners, so I’d never watched one.)
And even though Applebee’s doesn’t have the sound turned up on their TVs (I guess because they have several sports events simultaneously at the same time, and the noise would be bad), at least two TVs were turned to the race and quite a few people were watching, enough that the place erupted in applause at the end. (That meant that people were watching carefully enough that, without sound, they knew as the race finished which horse won, and that he thereby won the Triple Crown.)
Anyway, I was quite pleased that I helped us find a way to get a better supper and watch the race, and do so with no more offense to family than we would have caused had we stayed for supper.
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Good morning! I saw a lot on Twitter yesterday about the Chattanooga shooting, but that is because I follow like-minded people. My friend’s mother and brother own homes in Hixson and my son has friends there. I do not know if any were from the exact neighborhood the shooter’s family lived in. Makes it feel really close to home. And there was a called in bomb threat to the CDC yesterday that I never heard any news about later in the day. Too close for comfort.
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Responsible gun ownership is important. Knowing your limitations. I have guns and I have ammunition. Until I can get someone to go back out on a gun range with me, they are not combined. I haven’t shot a gun in over 7 years. I don’t need to be armed right now. It hasn’t been a priority for me. I grew up around guns. I have a healthy respect and fear of them. I know the damage they are capable of doing. It is my firm belief that part of the reason we have the gun problem we have is that people play video games where they shoot ‘en up-bang, bang-game over, reset, play again.. If police forces taught gun safety to everyone and had guns people could use at a secure firing range and people got to see the damage a real gun is capable of doing we wouldn’t have the problems we have.
Chas–Help me out here, except for gangsters and such how many of these type things happened when you were growing up?
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Whether it matters or not, both shooting sites were “gun free zones”. The recruiting center even had it posted on the door. And all military facilities are as well, thanks to a Clinton directive.
This is the same problem as at Ft. Hood. The best trained gunmen in the world are unable(not trusted) to carry on post. They have to do as school kids are forced to, shelter in place and wait for police. And hope the gunman doesn’t find you first.
This was after Ft. Hood.
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/040314-695840-another-fort-hood-shooting-in-gun-free-zone.htm
“In that tragedy, Hasan, a self-proclaimed “Soldier of Allah,” shouted “Allahu Akhbar” and opened fire on dozens of U.S. civilians and soldiers who were unarmed and unable to fire back. Then, as now and in the Sept. 16, 2013, mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, military personnel trained to defend themselves were unable to do so and had to wait until the police arrived.
Granted, a military base such as Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, is not like a fort in the Old West. It’s a place where soldiers trained for war prepare and those returning from war rest with their families and children. It’s more like a small town than an armed camp.
But in small towns all across America, private citizens freely exercise their Second Amendment rights and are allowed to carry concealed weapons to defend themselves and their families. Why not U.S. soldiers?”
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Why I blame Clinton…..
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/11/end-clinton-era-military-base-gun-ban/
“Among President Clinton’s first acts upon taking office in 1993 was to disarm U.S. soldiers on military bases. In March 1993, the Army imposed regulations forbidding military personnel from carrying their personal firearms and making it almost impossible for commanders to issue firearms to soldiers in the U.S. for personal protection. For the most part, only military police regularly carry firearms on base, and their presence is stretched thin by high demand for MPs in war zones.”
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Same problem again.
To see the “gun free zone” signs, this link has them.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/07/chattanooga-shooting-4-marines-killed-in-gun-free-zone-video/
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Cheryl, I’m the same way you are about tomatoes. I like cucumbers, but they come back on me now that I’m older. It would be the same thing with onions.
Kim. none of that happened that I know of. But we didn’t have television until 1953. I saw TV in the AF day r5ooms in the early fifties.
I think TV is partly the cause because it gets the event notarized.
I’ve told you many times. When I was eleven, I used to go down to the battery. It was dark in those days, and sell peanuts. I would return with $4.00. (Think $40.00 now)
Downtown Charleston was my playground. We never heard of kidnappings in those days.
(I know, nobody would want me. But I never heard of it happening.)
A lot of things wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for TV.
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When I was in the Air Force, all military police and the OD (Officer of the Day) were armed.
I see from the post above, that MP’s still are. In Charleston, during WW II, Shore Patrol were armed in town. They always went about in pairs. I never heard of anything bad happening.
Ever since I read a Clancy novel that started with a coordinated attack of four shopping malls, I have believed that every mall should have a well trained and well armed security. We see them in every mall, walking around with nothing but a phone.
Off to Lions. 🙂
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He attacked a Navy/Marine facility which included an armory, and yet he wasn’t killed until police responded to the scene?
I guess it’s like boot camp at Ft. Knox where you guarded a weapons facility with an M-16 with no bullets. But you did get a radio so you could call for help. I always found that insanely stupid. I still do. Seems like the same here too.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/shooting-confirmed-tennessee-navy/story?id=32494050
“Then he got in a car and drove to a military facility housing a Naval Operational Support Center and Marine Reserve Center where he ran his car through a security gate, entered the building and killed four Marines, officials said. The complex contains facilities for the Navy and Marine Corps Reserve including their armory.
A witness, Marilyn Hutcheson, who works nearby told the AP that she heard many shots.
“I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many,” she said, according to the wire service. “It was rapid-fire, like pow-pow-pow-pow-pow, so quickly. The next thing I knew, there were police cars coming from every direction.”
Responding officers engaged him a firefight and killed him. During the gun battle, one of the officers was wounded.
Also injured was a sailor, who was wounded at the Marine Reserve Center, and a Marine recruiter, who was treated and released.”
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I haven’t taken the time to read these articles yet (shared by a liberal Facebook friend), but I thought I’d toss them in here for discussion, since the issue of gun rights has come up. Lee & I are advocates of the 2nd Amendment, & I generally have been in agreement with most of the pro-gun-rights talking points. Do these article have valid points? (I’ll post them separately, so this comment doesn’t go to moderation.)
“Gunfight or Flee: New Study Finds No Advantages to Using a Firearm in Self-Defense Situations
The research provides the latest evidence debunking the myth of defensive gun use.”
http://www.thetrace.org/2015/07/defensive-gun-use-armed-with-reason-hemenway/
(The only qualm I have about how we interpret the 2nd Amendment is the phrase “well regulated militia”. The point has been made that individual gun owners do not make up a well regulated militia.)
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“New Harvard Study Obliterates Every Single NRA Lie About Guns (VIDEO)”
This says it’s a video, & there is a short one, but there is text to read. My objection, just from reading the headline, is that even if what the NRA says turns out to be false, that doesn’t mean they are actively lying, they could be mistaken. (It bugs me when people accuse of others of lying when they were merely mistaken or wrong.)
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/07/13/new-harvard-study-obliterates-every-single-nra-lie-about-guns-video/
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I should note that even if those articles are correct (not saying they, are but if) they are), people should still have the right to own guns & decide for themselves if they will use them for self-defense.
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Karen,
That “militia” nonsense is a red herring. The founders were quite clear they meant everyone.
“The great object is that every man be armed.”
Patrick Henry
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““A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves… and include all men capable of bearing arms. . . To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms.”
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“The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”
Richard Henry Lee
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I hadn’t heard that about military facilities. Sorry, that’s just wrong. Not mildly wrong, but evil.
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Seems odd that military facilities are gun-free, especially now that they’re among identified targets.
I’m not crazy about guns, but think it’s utterly simplistic to think that if they’re banned or even more tightly restricted there will be no more gun violence. I have a co-worker (hands down, one of the most partisan Democrats I’ve ever known) who always makes some remark about guns being too available when something like this happens.
It so misses the whole point (but, like banning a flag, it’s an easy knee-jerk way to “solve” a problem — rooted basically in fallen human nature and our own sin — or so people seem to believe).
And I agree that if this were a white “confederate flag” kinda guy, we’d be talking about this until the cows came home at mumsee’s.
It also worries me that when these events happen — and we are waiting for the details — that too many of us may now be silently almost “rooting” for the suspect to be our (politically) preferred bad guy — U.S. racist vs. Muslim terrorist. 😦 😦 (Another co-worker yesterday moaned, “Oh no” when she learned the suspect’s name; she sincerely worries, I think, about these things feeding an anti-muslim attitude.)
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And Harvard can say what they like and manipulate and cherry pick ’til their hearts are content, but the bottom line is gun ownership/concealed carry keeps going up, but gun deaths aren’t. And the crime rate is decreasing. You can say they’re not related, but that’s silly.
And I don’t need anyone’s talking points, not Harvard’s or the NRA’s. Just good ol’ fashioned govt. stats. 🙂
And note that the FBI doesn’t count suicides in their gun death stats. Can the Harvard study say that? That’s just one of the tricks anti-gun folks like to use. 🙂
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_8_murder_victims_by_weapon_2009-2013.xls
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https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-2013-crime-statistics
“The estimated number of violent crimes in the nation decreased 4.4 percent in 2013 when compared with 2012 data, according to FBI figures released today. Property crimes decreased 4.1 percent, marking the 11th straight year the collective estimates for these offenses declined.”
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Karen, I didn’t click on any of the links in that NRA article, so perhaps some of them could have answered my questions. But I can say with near certainty that something in their methodology was flawed, whether to deliberately give a false reading or because of more innocent reasons.
For one thing, looking at homicides state by state seems like the wrong way to do it. Why? Because people don’t just live in “Illinois,” but they live in Chicago or its suburbs or they live in a very vastly different culture if they live in a different city in Illinois. And Tennessee has a very high rate of gun ownership, but if it has a high murder rate, it’s because of just one city: Memphis. Guns for self-defense in Nashville, or guns owned by collectors in Nashville, cannot relevantly be used in the same statistic as gun deaths in Memphis, sorry.
But if they were to compare legal gun ownership in cities like Chicago with gun victims, they would find to their surprise what the rest of us knew all along: the vast majority of people killed by guns are not shot by responsible home owners who have guns for self-protection.
Now, guns that are owned for self-protection could still end up being used wrongly. They could, for example, be stolen and used in a crime. They could be taken by the owner’s son and used in a crime or used inappropriately (as a toy). They could be accidentally fired. They could be fired by someone with too little regard for the seriousness of firing a gun (the “shoot to wound” idea).
But none of those is a reason that people can’t own a gun and learn to use it well in self-defense.
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The inspired-by-ISIS ‘lone wolf’ scenario is a tough one to prevent, especially when the killers (as was the case with this young man yesterday) have never shown up on threat lists.
I’m actually surprised we didn’t see more of this after 9/11, though more in the way of isolated car bombs as happens so often in Israel.
But it seems to be upon us now, though let’s pray it is short-lived.
Ramadan is over after today, right? Any more Muslim holidays approaching? 😮
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“Who, exactly, thought it was a good idea to disarm Marines?”
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/07/the-futility-of-gun-free-zones-in-one-picture.php
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As soon as I logged out Donna I saw this. He wasn’t known, but it looks like his father was…
http://nation.foxnews.com/2015/07/17/chattanooga-gunmans-father-put-then-removed-terror-watch-list
“The gunman was not on the government’s radar, but law enforcement officials said that Mr. Abdulazeez’s father had been under investigation several years ago for possible ties to a foreign terrorist organization. At one point, a law enforcement official said that the father was on a terrorist watch list and was questioned while on a trip abroad but that he was eventually removed from the list. The official cautioned that the investigation of the father was old and did not generate any information on the son.”
So did Valerie Jarrett have him removed too, as in the case of other MB terrorists/sympathizers?
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And about that lady in the PP video talking about selling fetal body parts…..
http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/17/disgraced-planned-parenthood-official-works-for-white-house-staff-her-right-wing-hatred-exposed/#ixzz3g7dRShP2
“Disgraced Planned Parenthood official Deborah Nucatola’s shocking personal work history is coming to light.
Records reveal that Nucatola was employed by a former White House staffer at the time that she was selling aborted baby fetus parts.
A staunch political advocate, Nucatola railed against the “right-wing” Bush administration. What’s more, she so enjoyed her work in the abortion industry that she touted a T-shirt celebrating a drug used in the practice.”
“Nucatola is currently employed at Sexual Health Innovations, founded by former Obama White House staffer Jessica Ladd. Senior Obama administration officials sit on the board of the abortion activist group, including Praveen Basaviah of the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and Kyle Bernstein of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The IRS-approved 501(c)3 tech nonprofit is a major Obama administration contractor.”
Shocked? yeah, me neither. 😦
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My friend said her SisIL saw the shooter pass by and that he lived close to where they use to live. Yikes!
I went outside and it is miserable with heat and humidity. Stay out there for a few minutes and you will be five pounds lighter from sweating.
I have been rather mopey lately because of the house situation and not having any plans. Husband has not seemed too keen on my idea for a renovation. He tends toward cynical pessimism and I tend toward Pollyannaism/optimism until my bubble is burst and I fall into gloom.
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Miss Bosley will not let anyone stay gloomy for long. 🙂
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My grandson sometimes solicits for homeless military veterans with his Jr. ROTC group. He does this in a mall area not far from where the gunman had a job. I am thinking this is no longer a good idea. It is incredibly sad that our military people have to worry about wearing their uniforms in their own country. I am so totally disgusted.
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I always like ThePianoGuys, and today’s video was no exception. Kind of fits in the category, “What will they think of next?” 🙂 Jon Schmidt at the harpsichord in his powdered wig reminded me of Tom Hulce in Amadeus. 🙂
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Donna, I forwarded the link in your 11:56 comment to my brother in Chattanooga. His reply really brings it home: “We walked through those very doors when [stepson] enlisted.”
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God’s Word Pray the Scriptures Bible (Psalms and Proverbs) is .99 on Amazon for Kindle.
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My daughter and I were amused by the “gun free zone” signs in Virginia Beach. We really didn’t see the point.
I’m a big fan of gun regulations ie permits, registration, training, etc. Much like car ownership. Given that a military base would be the last place to be gun free ….the personnel are well trained, registered, licensed, etc.
Is there a particular reason for the current rules….did a soldier go postal once and spark legislative action? Or is this a standard across all federal workplaces.
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Crime has been.going down since the 80s. It has nothing to do with the current level of gun ownership. Crime correlates extremely well with the rise and fall of the young male population, armed or unarmed. In fact gun ownership neither increases or decreases crime except in the case of domestic related homicide. The presence of a gun in the household dramatically increased the death rate of a family member by an other family member.
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“The presence of a gun in the household dramatically increased the death rate of a family member by an other family member.” . . . which doesn’t really answer which is the chicken and which is the egg, because in many of those cases (as in many suicides-by-gun), the person bought the gun because he intended to use it to kill. The fact that people misuse gun says nothing about the lawful, appropriate use of guns, anymore than illicit use of knives says bad things about knives.
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After Lions today, my new SS teacher came over to visit. We had a nice long visit. He has a ThD from Southwestern. Seems he entered SWBTS the year after I left. And we had some of the same professors.
He taught a seminary in Calgary, Alberta. I suspect a couple of you are familiar with that..
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The camera that took the header shot must have an amazing focus. Trefoil’s blooms are tiny.
@ Donna’s 11:52: you may remember that Canada suffered two such attacks last year within days. The one man did have a gun, but so did the Sergeant-at-Arms in Parliament. The young reservist gunned down at the war memorial did not carry ammunition, as it was purely a ceremonial position and tourist attraction, but even if he had it wouldn’t have done any good, since he was shot in the back. That lone wolf was of Muslim extraction. [Strangely, since that time the Conservative government (who abolished the gun registry and so are pro-gun) has tried to trim down the Sergeant-at-Arms’ position to merely ceremonial and the man who was the Sergeant-at-Arms during the attack has been sent away as ambassador to Ireland – I suspect that some were jealous of the hero.]
However, the other lone wolf terrorist was a Canadian of European descent, who had converted to Islam and radicalized. His weapon was a car, with which he ran down two off-duty military personnel in a store parking-lot. He was later killed by police during a car chase. One of the victims died of his injuries in hospital. So as Donna says, such lone wolf attacks are extremely hard to predict or stop. It is hard to tell the difference between their attacks and the mass shootings that have been perpetrated by disgruntled employees or megalomaniacs like Holmes. The results are generally the same – in fact, Holmes killed far more people than any of the lone wolf terrorists I’ve heard of.
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I will teach for him on July 26. He’s going back to Calgary. My lesson is on Revelation 2 & 3. Both chapters on the Seven Churches of Asia. Lots to cover in one lesson.
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Three of us had a nice few minutes of after-dinner humor. My husband was at the kitchen window laughing hysterically, so our daughter and I went to see what was so funny. (We expected it to be some sort of bird humor, since most of our feeders are in the tree outside that window.) It wasn’t long before some small, reddish creature went hurtling out of the tree, and then he told us what he had seen.
A chipmunk has been hanging around our backyard for some weeks, including spending a lot of time under that tree, presumably picking up dropped sunflower seeds. Well, tonight he decided it was time to stop getting others’ leftovers and go straight to the feeders. (We’ve seen him climb the tree, but previously he has made no attempts on the feeders.) Well, my husband saw him climb down the wire to the roof of the largest feeder, but as soon as he got to the roof, he found it a bit more slippery than he expected, and it catapulted him off into space. Well, he didn’t even get as far as the feeder when we saw him fall off the tree and land in the weeds underneath. But we kept watching, and sure enough he ran back up the tree and onto the feeder, this time treading very carefully . . . but eventually sliding off and being thrown into the weeds below. He tried repeatedly, until finally my husband stepped out the door and he ran off. (My husband figured it’s better to have multiple attempts all fail than to have him keep trying and end up encouraged by success.)
The fall to the ground is probably about five feet, so it’s a courageous little guy that kept trying again, but we are glad it didn’t succeed. I admit I think chipmunks are cute, but that isn’t who we’re trying to feed.
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Chas, I’ve heard much about Calgary, Alberta, including the famous Calgary Stampede; but I have never been there. It may be in Canada, but it is as far away as Mumsee’s place.
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@HRW’s 5:54 “Crime correlates extremely well with the rise and fall of the young male population, armed or unarmed.”
That is what Maria Hvistendahl observed in her book Unnatural Selection. Apparently, it is in part due to hormones. Testosterone in high levels is associated with aggressive behaviour, and having a wife and children actually lowers high testosterone in men. In places such as Saudi Arabia, there are large groups of young men who, for lack of money to pay dowries and possibly because of the practice of polygamy, are unable to get married. That is one of the concerns in India and China, with the generation of missing girls. It is possibly the reason why there are so many hideous crimes against women being committed in India right now.
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Cheryl, its simple correlation. The presence of a gun correlates with a higher death rate (homicide, suicide, accidental death). Causation is not an issue, remove the gun andctlyandc the death rate goes down.
Roscuro — exactly.
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Fifty!
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Just beat me to it, Cheryl! I saw 49 comments, and when I opened the page, it said 50 at the top. Too slow. 🙂
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“The presence of a gun correlates with a higher death rate (homicide, suicide, accidental death).”
You know, the fact that the presence of a gun is necessary for there to be a gun death is pretty obvious. But I personally know one person who bought (and hid) a gun specifically to kill herself with it. When her husband found and confiscated the gun, she killed herself with a different method (with equal success). It wasn’t the presence of the gun that caused her to kill herself, and its absence didn’t save her life. She got the gun because she intended to kill herself. Likewise, young men who intend to do mischief at school may stockpile guns or they may make bombs . . . but the desire to kill predates the method, and the method may vary.
In other words, “this person had access to a gun, and this person killed with that gun” doesn’t begin to answer “Did the presence of the gun influence his choice to kill” unless we know, minimally, whether the gun was purchased with intent to use it violently! And even if the person saw the gun and said, “Hmm, I know how I can use that gun,” it was still his sin, and not the gun, that was the primary factor. And he might well have procured a gun or a different weapon on his own if he hadn’t had that access.
But the violence of the person’s heart is the major problem, and a second big problem is that most likely his potential victims will not be defended by anyone with equal ability to protect them to the ability and desire he has to kill them. He will have a gun, but they will not. That was the huge problem with gun violence in Chicago, that only the criminals had guns.
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I made a comment and then the power went out before I could post. After an hour or so, it is back on.
I mentioned being in Israel and seeing young men with rifles slung over their shoulders. What I heard was that there was mandatory military time and then they kept their rifles.
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Jo, furthermore, I have heard that because they keep their rifles (and they know how to use them), home break-ins in Israel just don’t happen. There’s a huge deterrent factor when you know you have a very high chance that your home invasion will be met by someone who has a gun and knows how to use it. Kinda like the difference between entering a military base with armed Marines and entering a military base with (shamefully) disarmed Marines, no?
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Calgary is my home town. One of the nicer cities in Canada 🙂
We’ve had over 2 inches of rain since Sunday and now the fires north of us are getting rain. Most of those evacuated are able to return home. A few homes were lost, but not as many as feared.
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Can it be?
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Yes it can! 57!!
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