And if one of those sugar babies you’ve mentioned elsewhere are not happy with their treatment-- watch out, they might be packin’.
Part of the problem is that those who think they or their families are different - more responsible, more protective, smarter - may only find out to the contrary when it’s too late. Only their own direct experience could show them they are wrong, amd you can’t say “I told you so” to a dead man.
Glad the cops stopped this terrorist before he got violent:
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/12/20/tip-leads-bomb-squad-to-man-suspected-of-making-bombs-in-richmond-home-to-harm-muslims/
Richmond, California is not the place I’d be expecting to find this guy, though.
So the Feds now require us to register drones but there is no federal registration for guns. Good grief.
I am living in a rural area where everyone has guns. On my road, with three neighbor families, there have been at least three accidental shootings in the last 15 years: a ten year old accidentally killed when his father was cleaning a gun, a hunting accident, another gun cleaning accident although that one may have been a suicide. I have heard various versions. This is only a three mile long road and I haven’t heard all their stories yet, since I’ve only been here five years. When I expand out from my road, there are more accidental gun death stories, including a handful of children. (I haven’t asked anyone about gun deaths. They just tell me the local history and that is part of it) Some do seem to have been suicides and it is sometimes difficult to figure that out. One of the accidental spouse shootings is suspected by some to have been deliberate. However, this idea there aren’t accidental shootings in rural areas where folks are used to living with guns is just nonsense.
And as I a wrote on the other thread, there have been no armed home invasions within the memory of the oldest inhabitants who are now in their 90s. You might have to go back to the Civil War for an armed home invasion. I am pretty sure that did happen then.
We have black bears and coyotes and wolf/coyote mixes and big cats of some kind and no one has even been mauled that I have heard of, but they are exterminated because of danger to livestock. And of course, also it is creepy to have coyotes hanging around your back door and we worry about rabies, though goodness knows how valid a worry that is.
Last week foxes were yipping and barking and calling out to each other because it is that time of the year. I hope the neighbors didn’t shoot them because I like them on my property for the mice and rabbits.
Soo, back to topic… http://www.cbsnews.com/news/san-bernardino-shooters-friend-enrique-marquez-held-without-bail/. Let him sit in the slammer for a long time, please. And they are now saying he purchased the guns illegally.
"In the past decade, Missouri has been a natural experiment in what happens when a state relaxes its gun control laws. For decades, it had one of the nation’s strongest measures to keep guns from dangerous people: a requirement that all handgun buyers get a gun permit by undergoing a background check in person at a sheriff’s office. …
Research by Daniel Webster, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, found that in the first six years after the state repealed the requirement for comprehensive background checks and purchase permits, the gun homicide rate was 16 percent higher than it was the six years before. During the same period, the national rate declined by 11 percent. After Professor Webster controlled for poverty and other factors that could influence the homicide rate, and took into account homicide rates in other states, the result was slightly higher, rising by 18 percent in Missouri."
More on Marquez and his issues:
.http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-marquez-legal-20151216-story.html
Interesting facts:
77% of gun deaths among whites are suicides.
82% of gun deaths among blacks are homicides.
90% of the guns used in the black homicides were stolen or purchased illegally.
(This from 12/18 Washington Post article. I would link but have no subscription).
Having listened to his 911 call, I can’t figure out Marquez. He seemed surprised and appalled about the shooting, yet allegedly he had plotted a previous shooting with Farook. I guess he is just a dim catspaw.
Argues even more strongly that awc (if he is white, which I think he is) should be more concerned about a family member using his guns for suicide than a home invader shooting a family member.
CF-
I think he was covering his tracks-- trying to make it look like he was a good guy and throwing Farook under the bus-- then presenting to the hospital for admission, where they could not readily touch him while he was on an inpatient psych unit.
Yeah, jym, I tend to agree that Marquez called 911 probably in a panic to get a phony story out there. "I gave him the gun for “storage”…gun in singular when there were two. And the fake “why did he do it?” question when he had participated in plotting with Farook, even if those plots never came off.
I still think he’s a dimwit as well as a lying POS…maybe he backed away from being a jihadist wannabe, but he left the guns with Farook and never told anybody. Throw away the key, I say.
I agree with this sentiment, in general, for the untrained.
However, what is totally missing from this sentiment is direct experience can also be positive. As I said, my wife and my families all have guns and everyone is still alive with them, with no accidents that have harmed anyone or any intentional acts that have harmed anyone. That is over 70+ immediate people who have been handling and using guns all our lives. And there are millions and millions of families that can say the exact same.
The post is what I call “I will be right one day,” which is really a false cope out position. This concept that something cannot be done unless there is a 100% chance of no accident or misuse ever is obviously not a way to live and to take decisions. And we know this because no does that anywhere else in their lives. So this argument of "direct experience’ will teach them some day is simply a narrative to advance an ideological position, Fine, advance the position, but when you use a philosophical construct no one uses ever in their lives, why do you expect anyone to even take the argument seriously? Well, they do not.
With our families’ guns, can an accident happen and someone gets harmed or even killed? Yes it can. But that is a risk we accept. And would it make us give up our guns? No more than a car accident would make us give up our cars.
And what is even more telling of why the above post fails to catch on and sway people is this: my family and my wife’s family have had more people seriously hurt and actually killed in car accidents over the last 50 years than ever harmed by our guns, car accidents 11, guns 0. I do not need to look up the stats, but I bet this is true for the vast majority of gun owning families - lots more families harmed from car accidents than from their guns, yet, everyone still drives, so no reason to not still use their guns.
A basic suggestion - if someone does not want guns in their homes, then do not have guns. And as for the people who want to have guns, just ask and then do not visit them. I am sure you would not be missed.
If they are taking appropriate safety precautions with their guns, why would I need to avoid visiting them?
No, there aren’t. I don’t need to provide statistics, I “just know”.
A car’s primary purpose is to transport; a gun is designed to maim or kill. Comparing deaths by the two is ridiculous.
This groupthink and follow approach always amazes me. Why in the world would my family and I take decisions based on what other people do? That is just weird to me.
Anyway, I am not concerned about my family members committing suicide with a gun; if I were concerned, the gun would not be my concern - it would be the suicidal behavior. And I say this given that I have had several people from college and grad school who have committed suicide, one a very close friend. All owned guns or had open access to guns - however, all choose other methods.
Here is a link with more info and graphs that @TatinG mentioned above.
http://hotair.com/archives/2015/12/21/the-racial-divide-on-gun-deaths-in-america/
A friend of mine’s wife was a public figure.
My friend discussed with law enforcement getting weapons to protect her.
She was receiving threats like “You are doing the work of the devil” and “I am going to kill you”.
My friend was told by a friend in law enforcement, “Don’t get a gun. If you want to protect your wife, get a large dog”.
If the guns for this shooting were obtained illegally, then doesn’t that prove that we need more restrictions on illegal gun sales?