World Examiner

UK Has Become Nation of Children

One camera for every 14 subjects.

Another Mass Knife (and Car) Attack Kills 7 in Gun Controlled Island Paradise

TOKYO  A man who police said "was tired of life" drove into a crowd of pedestrians Sunday and then went on a stabbing rampage in Tokyo's top electronics and video game district, killing seven people and wounding 10, authorities said. The deadly lunchtime assault paralyzed the Akihabara neighborhood, which is wildly popular among the country's youth. The killings were the latest in a series of grisly knife attacks that have stoked fears of rising crime in Japan. FOXNews.com - Man Plows Into Crowd, Goes On Stabbing Rampage; 7 Reported Dead.

 

SFGate.com: S.F. police chief has skipped target practice

...acknowledged that she has gone years without taking the target practice required for officers who carry guns.
S.F. police chief has skipped target practice.

Irish Examiner: Swords to be banned under Irish Knife-Control Plans

THE sale of swords is to be banned under Government plans to crack down on knife crime.
Irish Examiner | Irish News | News from Ireland.

 

WND: Firefighter stops at Burger King before saving woman

An Austin, Texas, firefighter has been fired after he made a pit stop at Burger King before responding to an emergency call from a 77-year-old woman in respiratory failure WND: Firefighter stops at Burger King before saving woman.

 

Subway sandwich contest: Homeschoolers not wanted - WND

Subway sandwich contest: Homeschoolers not wanted.

"NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Contest is open only to legal residents of the Untied (sic) States who are currently over the age of 18 and have children who attend elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted."

Subway's website promotion not only misspells "United" States, but offers the grand prize winner a "Scholastic Gift Bastket (sic) for your home."

UK Lax on Gun Smuggling, Yet Now Aims to Ban Knives...Anti-gun drive sees crimes up 40pc

Anti-gun drive sees crimes up 40pc : Express & Star:.

But the police need more back-up from customs, who still put nine times as much effort into stopping the smuggling of cigarettes as guns.
 ....
The Government also announced it is to inject £5 million into a new fight against knife crime. About 10 towns and cities will be selected to run pilot schemes designed to combat knife-related crime. The Home Secretary said of the gangs action plan: I'm determined that we do all we can to get all weapons off our streets.€

Japan Suicide Attempt Sickens Over 50 Japanese Subjects

Dozens sickened in Japan after suicide.

TOKYO (AP) - A Japanese farmer who committed suicide by drinking pesticide vomited the poison at a hospital before he died, releasing toxic fumes that sickened more than 50 people, the hospital said Thursday.

WND: 4 robbed, then fired for following instructions!

4 robbed, then fired for <I>following</i> instructions!.

The four were dismissed for "not following proper security procedures," the workers told KCNC. But they believe that following those procedures, which include punching in an alarm code while a robbery is taking place, would have left them dead.

Chicago Alderman Violates Own Gun Control Law, Writes CYA Law

CYA=Cover Your Alderman

Ald. writes law to cover his forgetfulness :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Politics.

forgot to re-register the weapons as required every year by the ordinance that he helped to pass as one of the City Council's most senior members. So, what does an alderman do when he finds himself in violation of the law? He writes a new law.

FOXNews.com - Gas Station Employee Fired for Fighting Off Robber

FOXNews.com - Gas Station Employee Fired for Fighting Off Robber - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News.

An act of bravery to defend a co-worker has cost a Minnesota gas-station attendant his job.

LaPierre: Scotland's Gun Ban Doesn't Work

Link: Scotland's Gun Ban Doesn't Work.

Scotland has had a gun ban in place for a decade now. Guess what? According to a Scottish newspaper, "Cases of attempted murder involving firearms [are] almost three times that of a decade ago." That's right. Ten years after a gun ban was put in place, crimes involving firearms have increased, not decreased.

Breitbart.tv » ‘Somebody Aimed a Gun at Him’: Huckabee Makes Shocking Obama Joke at NRA Convention

I don't think a truly conservative member of the gun culture would make a "joke" like this.

Link: Breitbart.tv » ‘Somebody Aimed a Gun at Him’: Huckabee Makes Shocking Obama Joke at NRA Convention.

"That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he's getting ready to speak. Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor."

Virginia Town Hall Sign Prohibiting Carry Removed, New Sign "Requests" No Carry

Link: Gun sign fires up Boones Mill meeting - Roanoke.com.

"I'm offended by that sign," he said. "If someone is frightened of an inanimate object such as a gun, maybe that person should go see a psychiatrist."

UC Davis Researcher: Microstamped Codes Easily Removed From Firing Pin

Link: Microstamping Can Help Police Match Guns to Shell Casings, Study Finds - Government Technology.

Codes engraved on the face of the firing pin could easily be removed with household tools, Beddow found.

OC Police and Sheriff Departments Hold Fierce Weight-Loss Competition

Link: News: Police, deputies drop 722 pounds in Battle of the Badges | police, weight, pounds, santa, deputies - OCRegister.com.

Santa Ana police beat the Sheriff's Department in the weight-loss competition, losing a combined 410.5 pounds in 10 weeks.

Meanwhile, at Front Sight...

Special license plates shield officials from traffic tickets - OCRegister.com

Link: News: Special license plates shield officials from traffic tickets - OCRegister.com.

An Orange County Register investigation has found that the program, designed 30 years ago to protect police from criminals, has been expanded to cover hundreds of thousands of public employees – from police dispatchers to museum guards – who face little threat from the public. Their spouses and children can get the plates, too.

Another Taser Death...

Link: News: Inmate dies after deputies' restraint | gomez, sheriff, county, investigation, orange - OCRegister.com.

SANTA ANA – Six days after a 35-year-old Anaheim construction worker turned himself over to authorities he was brain dead following a violent altercation with Orange County Sheriff’s deputies who used a Taser gun to restrain him. Jason Jesus Gomez, the father of a 1-year-old daughter

Ignorance of Law No Excuse, Unless You Are Enforcing It

Link: The Columbus Dispatch : Openly carrying gun not a crime.

An undercover agent with the Ohio Investigative Unit -- the police agency that enforces the state's alcohol, tobacco and food-stamp laws -- saw the gun and quickly ordered him against his truck with his hands on his head. "He came up and treated me like a felon for absolutely no reason at all," Turner said. "There wasn't even a suspicious action on my part to warrant him taking this action against me. Had I been out waving a gun around the parking lot, (then) yeah." After being detained for about 30 minutes, and after Hilliard police arrived at the agent's request, Turner was released without charges. An internal investigation that concluded this week found that neither Agent ***, who had stopped Turner, nor his partner, ***, did anything wrong. However, it also revealed that *** did not know it was legal for Turner to carry a gun openly, said Lindsay Komlanc, spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety. As a result, more than 100 agents in the unit are to attend a mandatory refresher course on Ohio's gun laws over the next couple of months, she said.

LaPierre: The Sound of Silence

Link: The Sound of Silence.

I read a heartbreaking story the other day. A woman is on the phone with 911 to report a burglar in her home. Dispatchers hear gunshots, then silence. When deputies arrive, the homeowner is dead. Her husband arrives a few minutes later, only to be told that his wife is dead. News reports say "he collapsed and started to cry, saying 'No! She just called me. You lie.'" The real lie is that gun control and gun bans make us safer. All they do is put innocent people at risk of violent criminals. In 2005, the FBI says there were more than 2,000,000 burglaries in this country. There were also more than 400,000 robberies. If you were one of the millions of victims of crime, would you not want the option to defend yourself with a firearm? Gun bans like Washington, D.C.'s only affect the law abiding. They don't disarm criminals, but they ensure that residents are left with one option: call 911 and hope helps arrive before it’s too late. And sadly, we know all too well how that often works out.

Calif. Woman Slain on the Phone With 911

Link: Calif. Woman Slain on the Phone With 911.

WEST COVINA, Calif. (AP) - A woman was asking a 911 dispatcher for help when her pleas were interrupted by gunshots, then silence. She was shot to death.

Video Of Woman Pushed Down Stairs Prompts Calls For Charges Against Officer

Link: Video Of Woman Pushed Down Stairs Prompts Calls For Charges Against Officer - Orlando News Story - WKMG Orlando.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Video showing a woman being pushed down some stairs by a police officer that led to a battery charge against the woman has prompted calls for charges against the officer.

John Longenecker's site is: Good For The Country

I just found John Longenecker's website site, "Good For The Country," due to his (much appreciated) request to be added to the "Catholic Guns" blogroll (right, sidebar) which I administer.  Now that I've seen his site, I recall seeing his work elsewhere.

Mr. Longenecker, one of the first paramedics in LA, articulate advocate of RTC and radio guest, now has a book out making the case for nationwide concealed carry.  The book is called Transfer of Wealth, a title I find interesting given my professional work as attorney and financial planner.

From the main page of Good For The Country is this reminder:

"Law enforcement agencies and personnel have no duty to protect individuals from the criminal acts of others; instead, their duty is to preserve the peace and arrest lawbreakers for the protection of the general public." - Lynch v. N.C. Dept. of Justice, 376 S.E. 2nd 247 (N.C. App 1989)

The idea that police can be relied on to protect everyone everywhere at all times (or at least, that there is no better solution than relying on police for such protection) is the primary example of what I call "blue helicopter thinking."  Thank you, Mr. Longenecker, for your efforts at countering this type of thinking.

Bernanke: Federal Reserve caused Great Depression

Link: Bernanke: Federal Reserve caused Great Depression.

Although economists have pontificated over the decades about this or that cause of the Great Depression, even the current Fed chairman Ben S. Bernanke, agrees with Friedman's assessment that the Fed caused the Great Depression.

Of Arms and the Law: Ebay Strict on Guns but Permissive on Switchblades?

Link: Of Arms and the Law: Ebay?.

Ebay won't let a person use it to sell a firearm (and I've heard of them giving people trouble about selling even dummy ammunition, but apparently it's happy to sell switchblades. The interstate shipment of which happens to be a federal offense...

Enough already: 200 surveillance cameras at Van Dyke houses fail to stop rape suspect

Link: 200 surveillance cameras at Van Dyke houses fail to stop rape suspect.

Once again a rapist was caught on videotape, and once again cops failed to see him, police sources said Thursday. A 19-year-old woman was raped at knifepoint inside the Van Dyke houses in Brooklyn early Thursday - a housing complex with more than 200 cameras supposedly monitored around the clock by the NYPD. Sources told the Daily News that at least one video camera recorded the rapist grabbing the young woman and pulling her into an elevator.

Critics take aim at gun buybacks - USATODAY.com

Link: Critics take aim at gun buybacks - USATODAY.com.

Tabarrok and others complain the programs are feel-good events that do not reduce gun crimes and are abused by gun dealers seeking to unload junk merchandise at a good price. None of the guns are turned in by criminals, Tabarrok says, and many don't even fire.

....

Oakland police bought more than 300 guns in the first few minutes, exhausting the $80,000 raised for the buyback by its creator, Democratic state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata. Because hundreds more people were still in line, Police Chief Wayne Tucker decided to issue IOUs and keep taking in guns, Holmgren says. More than 1,000 guns were turned in, and the police department issued $170,000 worth of promises.

Perata said in an interview that he is committed to raising $130,000 more to pay off the IOUs. The police will pay $40,000 from other accounts, Holmgren says.

Claim filed in Taser Death

Link: News: Claim filed in Taser incident | police, taser, claims, officers, anaheim - OCRegister.com.

Since 2005, this is at least the fifth Orange County incident in which a person died after an officer used a Taser on him or her.
....
Joana Terriquez, Renteria's wife, said in an interview she called the police because her husband slapped her in the face.

Only 38% of Dems claim excellent mental health

It's one thing to have an eminent psychiatrist find that liberalism is a mental disorder, but this new finding comes straight from the donkey's mouth. 

Link: Only 38% of Dems claim excellent mental health.

When the Gallup pollsters asked Americans what they thought about their own mental health, they were intrigued by the difference between Democrats and Republicans. While 58 percent of Republicans reported having excellent mental health, only 38 percent of Democrats described themselves that way.

WND: Top shrink concludes liberals are clinically nuts!

We all suspected it.  Now it's official.  Link (WND): Top shrink concludes liberals are clinically nuts!.

For more than 35 years he has diagnosed and treated more than 1,500 patients as a board-certified clinical psychiatrist and examined more than 2,700 civil and criminal cases as a board-certified forensic psychiatrist. He received his medical and psychiatric training at the University of Chicago.

Rossiter says the kind of liberalism being displayed by the two major candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination can only be understood as a psychological disorder.

Oakland Gun Buyback Turns Into Fiasco

Link (SFGate.com): Store owner can't get Dellums' attention.

Ready, aim, buy: This past weekend's $250 apiece, no-questions-asked Oakland gun buyback turned into quite the zoo. One of the first guys to show up at the police-sponsored event was a dealer with 60 guns in his trunk. The next guy up had 30 guns. After that, the cops imposed a five-gun limit. "People said some of the guns were junk, but the ones that I saw weren't," said state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, who raised $80,000 to pay for the buybacks. "One of the guys who came up was a manager at the Allen Temple Senior Center," Perata said. "He had 12 guns from different residents - two from women over 90 years old."

2008: Higher Brady Scores Again Correlate With Higher Crime

Link: NRA-ILA :: Legislation.

But, as usual, Brady's scores correlate inversely with states' crime rates. Using crime data published by the FBI for 2006, the most recent year available: * California, the state that has the most gun control and received Brady's highest score (79), has violent crime and murder rates that are 14% and 23% higher, respectively, compared to the rest of the country. * Brady didn't bother giving a score to Washington, D.C., which has more gun control than California and even higher crime rates. * Most of the 38 states that Brady gave 20 or fewer points to, have total violent crime, murder, and robbery rates that are below the national rates. * For states that have total violent crime, murder, and robbery rates that are below the national rates, Brady gave average scores of 19, 19, and 14, respectively. * For the 10 states with the lowest total violent crime, murder, and robbery rates, Brady gave average scores of 12, 12, and 9, respectively.

Leader of "No Guns" anti-gang group gets 8 years for selling guns

Link: Leader of anti-gang group was selling guns - Los Angeles Times.

The director of the antigang organization No Guns, which the city of Los Angeles once paid $1.5 million to steer Latino youths away from a life of crime, pleaded guilty Thursday to illegally selling assault weapons to federal undercover officers.

Man Bites Dog? How about Chaplain Shoots Practical Joker Brother-in-Law-(Enforcement)?

DGU's are so numerous, it's mainly the strange ones that get reported. Link: STLtoday - News - Jefferson County:

FESTUS — Police believe that a practical joke led to the shooting of a 23-year-old Ste. Genevieve police officer Tuesday. The rookie officer allegedly faked a break-in around 9:45 p.m. at his brother-in-law's home in Festus, said Festus Police Chief Tim Lewis. "He didn't tell the family he was coming and decided to sneak in the back door," Lewis said. "The resident asked him to call out who he was, and he didn't, and he shot him."

Poorly Regulated Militia Leads to Less Secure and Less Free UK

Link: Gun crime on the rise as number of armed police falls | the Daily Mail.

Conservative police spokesman David Ruffley said: "Poor ministerial planning means police officers are being thrown into gun hotspots without being properly equipped." He added: "This is yet further evidence that this Government, despite imposing a ban on handguns and pledging to tackle violent crime, has presided over a steady increase in the everyday use of weapons on Britain's streets."

Idaho State Police Grads Pick Evil Slogan

Link: FOXNews.com - Idaho State Police Grads Pick 'Stressful' Slogan - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News.

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho law enforcement officials say they are "mortified" by a slogan chosen by the latest group of state police academy graduates. The slogan, "Don't suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it," was emblazoned on the Dec. 14 graduation programs for 43 officers who completed the Idaho Police Officer Standards and Training Academy's latest course.

WorldNetDaily: Christmas shopping horror: Man, wife blasted by Taser

Link: WorldNetDaily: Christmas shopping horror: Man, wife blasted by Taser.

A Wisconsin man is reportedly planning to take legal action after he and his wife were blasted by a police Taser as they were finishing their holiday shopping Christmas Eve at a mall in Madison.

Permit holder stops road-rage attack by Cop?

Link: John Lott's Website: Permit holder stops road-rage attack.

Here is another case where a concealed handgun stopped road-rage and saved lives.

Missing Machine Guns Taken By Police Officers for Personal Use?

Link: WTEN: Albany, New York News, Weather, Sports - Tuffey and Safety Commitee Discuss Missing Machine Guns.

Albany's police chief says there are as many as five machine guns still unaccounted for in the ongoing probe of city officers who bought guns for their personal use.

U.N. Finds Fraud, Mismanagement in Peacekeeping - washingtonpost.com

Fraud, corruption, mismanagement...when applied to UN "peacekeeping" these are euphemisms for genocide.

Link: U.N. Finds Fraud, Mismanagement in Peacekeeping - washingtonpost.com.

A U.N. task force has uncovered a pervasive pattern of corruption and mismanagement involving hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts for fuel, food, construction and other materials and services used by U.N. peacekeeping operations, which are in the midst of their largest expansion in 15 years.

Police hit rates on shootings as low as 17.4 percent? Lower, most likely.

The police hit rate may actually be a lot lower than indicated in the NYT article, which omits some very important information.  About the article, Dr Lott writes:

The one important piece of information that is missing here is the number of people that the police shot at. If you take the estimate that I have that only about 5 percent of confrontations between armed victims and criminals result in the victim firing a gun, a 17.4 percent hit rate would imply that fewer than one percent of criminals would be shot. It would be interesting for someone to explain how this hit rate varies across cities.

Link: John Lott's Website: Police hit rates on shootings as low as 17.4 percent.

But there is other important information missing from the NYT article, which quotes a few stats from 2005 as well as 2006.  The article has this to say about LA police shootings:

In Los Angeles, where there are far fewer shots discharged, the police fired 67 times in 2006 and had 27 hits, a 40 percent hit rate, which, while better than New York’s, still shows that they miss targets more often they hit them.

NYT omits any discussion of what happened in Compton in 2005.  Compton may technically be a separate city but is basically LA and it was 13 LA County Sheriff's Deputies who were involved in this rather spectacular shooting exposition:

Events of May 9, 2005 in Compton, California, were brought into the living rooms of millions of Americans. Captured on video was the aftermath of a 12 minute vehicular chase in which 13 deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department engaged an “unarmed” suspect with over 120 rounds of handgun fire. The suspect, 44-year-old Winston Hayes, was hit only four times and survived.

I'm not sure I agree with applying hit rates of police to armed citizens.  Police venture into battle in unfamiliar circumstances, while armed citizens are in a better position to know exactly what is happening and where, so properly trained citizens should have higher hit ratios than police (and also lower incidence of innocent bystander shootings).  Armed citizens may have training on par with or perhaps even superior to police training (for example, see Front Sight video posted earlier).

BBC article on history of guns and gun control in UK

Great BBC article recounts history of UK guns and relatively recent gun control, all but admitting that recent violence is not caused by guns.

Link: BBC NEWS | UK | Britain's changing firearms laws.

In the wake of a series of high-profile shootings, an observer might assume that guns are suddenly pouring into the UK for the first time. But gun control is a relatively recent phenomenon in Britain, where ownership of firearms was relatively common a century ago.

Man arrested for shooting traffic camera - Yahoo! News

Surprised this is the first...

Link: Man arrested for shooting traffic camera - Yahoo! News.

Police have lost red-light cameras to traffic accidents but never to gun play. "This is the first one that's been shot," Capt. Gordon Catlett said of the wounded camera at the intersection of Broadway Avenue and Interstate 640

Greatest Generation, or Statist Generation? Maybe it's not too late to change the legacy...

Link: WorldNetDaily: Was it really the 'greatest generation'?.

There's no question that this generation made an important contribution. Let's look at what else that generation contributed that might qualify them for the generation that laid the foundation for the greatest betrayal of our nation's core founding principle: limited federal government exercising only constitutionally enumerated powers.

NYPD Cop charged with selling guns on the street

Link: Cop charged with selling guns on the street -- Newsday.com.

Video of Man Tasered for Refusing to Sign Speeding Ticket

Police Kill Yet Another with Non-Lethal Weapon

Chilling, and so tragically unnecessary as the victim appears not to be resisting.

Link: Breitbart.tv » Shock Video Shows Man Tasered to Death at Vancouver Airport.

A video released Wednesday shows the dramatic last moments of a Polish immigrant who died after police shocked him with a Taser and restrained him at Vancouver's airport last month.

Criminals stealing guns from police

Link: Criminals stealing guns from police in Palm Beach County -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com.

In the past year, gang members, thieves and drug dealers in Palm Beach County have broken into at least six police cars and stolen handguns and shotguns, officials say.

Woman dials 911, dies

83 year old woman bleeds to death after calling 911.  Deputy encountered door lock and left.  Link: Woman calls 911, dies -- why? -- OrlandoSentinel.com.

Florida's Finest Mistakenly Flatten Tires, Point In at CCW Holder

Link: Oops! Seminole deputies flatten tires on wrong cars -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com.