guns

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Lusting for an Assault Weapon

I don’t know what it is about hearing the President and Vice President talk about gun control that stirs my animal spirit and make me want to go out and buy a gun. I am far more interested in cooking and brewing beer but I find myself distracted by this passion of owning an assault weapon. Obviously I don’t need an assault weapon. My wife owns a pistol and she is a pretty good shot. She has a concealed carry permit and I don’t think she would flinch about shooting someone in self defense. The problem is that the President and Vice President are such good gun salesmen.

The political rhetoric has been pretty fierce over gun deaths. The piece below has links to both the FBI and CDC estimates. At least we have one person in the debate who does their research.

That 30,000 number stood out to me because it seemed very high. According to the FBI, in 2011, there was a total of 8,583 firearm homicides in the U.S. That may well be 8,583 gun murders too many, but it’s nowhere near 30,000 (the total number of murders by all methods came to 12,664). The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) uses a different method and found about 11,000 gun-related murders in 2011 and the total number of homicides to be around 16,000 (see table 2). So How did Stewart get to 30,000? By adding the number of gun-related suicides to the number of homicides. When you add those figures in, you get up toward the 30,000 figure.

Barack Obama, Jon Stewart, Sandy Hook, and "Common Sense" Gun Control – Reason.com

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Could Concealed Carry In the Theater Saved People In Aurora?

It was just a few days before the shooting at the theater in Aurora that we were chuckling at the video at Ocala.com showing a 71 year old man shooting at and chasing some would-be robbers out of an internet cafe. That got me to thinking. What would have happened if the movie theater allowed patrons with concealed carry training to carry their weapon into the theater. My guess is that at least one person would have pulled out their gun and engaged in a gun fight with Mr. Holmes. Like the 71 year old man this act of defiance would probably be effective at diverting the attention of Mr. Holmes and saving the lives of many movie patrons. Mr. Holmes tactical position was very poor. He was in the middle of an open stage. The rules for engagement for concealed carry weapon holders are clear. If he is shooting at you, you can shoot back. Although Mr. Holmes was reported to be wearing a bullet proof vest, if one bullet hit him he would have likely been knocked off his feet. Even if they did not hit him it is very likely that Mr. Holmes would have tried to find cover before continuing the gun fight. This would have made it very difficult or nearly impossible for Mr. Holmes to shoot patrons as they tried to leave the theater. The key to success for this plan is that the concealed carry patrons would not need to kill or wound Mr. Holmes. They just needed to buy some time for the patrons to escape, Mr. Holmes to run out of bullets, and the police to arrive.