Tag Archive: Gun violence


The FBI Says ‘Active Shooter Incidents’ Are On The Rise. What Does That Mean?

 

 

Federal Bureau of Investigation

 

 

 

” The FBI released a report today suggesting that “active shooter incidents” grew more common from 2000 to 2013. Reason readers may wonder how to square that conclusion with the statistics we’ve published suggesting that mass shootings are not on the rise. There are two answers to that. One involves some potential problems with the FBI’s numbers; we’ll get to those issues in a moment. The other answer is simpler: “Active shooter” and “mass shooting” do not mean the same thing.

  You’re forgiven if you didn’t get that impression from the press coverage of the FBI report. The Wall Street Journal, for example, called its story on the study “Mass Shootings on the Rise, FBI Says.” The New York Times said “F.B.I. Confirms a Sharp Rise in Mass Shootings Since 2000.” The Huffington Post went with “FBI Study Finds Mass Shootings On The Rise, Often End Before Police Can Respond.” The Daily Beast didn’t just use the headline “FBI: Mass Shootings Are on The Rise“; every single sentence in its brief article includes the phrase “mass shooting” or “mass shootings.”

  While there are competing definitions of mass shooting out there, they all cover crimes that wouldn’t fit in the FBI’s list of active-shooter incidents; the FBI’s count in turn includes events that no one would call a mass shooting. The standard government definition of an active shooter is “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area.” (It doesn’t mention firearms, but the word shooter obviously excludes other means of murder.) The authors of the FBI report tweaked this definition slightly, dropping the word “confined” because they didn’t want to leave out crimes committed outdoors. They also excluded killings connected to gang rivalries or the drug trade—a major difference between these numbers and the mass-shooting statistics assembled by criminologists like James Alan Fox, one of the country’s leading authorities on mass murder. (For Fox, a mass shooting is basically any homicide with a firearm that leaves at least four people dead.) Another major difference: Rather than basing its definition on how many people were killed, the FBI report focuses on homicidal intent. If the perp only wounds his victims, or if he doesn’t even manage to do that, he still gets counted. Fewer than half of the incidents in the FBI report qualify as mass shootings under Fox’s definition.”

So is it true that these incidents are becoming more common?

  Fox isn’t convinced. “Unlike mass shooting data,” he says, “which come from routinely collected police reports, there is no official data source for active shooter events. Necessarily, these data derived from newspaper searches for the term ‘active shooter’ and similar words. Not only is the term ‘active shooter’ of relatively recent vintage (although created after the 1999 Columbine shooting, it wasn’t used much in news reports until the past two years)…”

 

 

Read the whole thing from Jesse Walker at Reason

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 15 Shot In NYC Within 8 Hours, 2 Dead

 

 

 

” Fifteen people were shot in a rash of violence in New York City.  The violence left two people dead and 13 others injured within a span of just 8 hours.

  The NYPD reported the first shooting late Saturday.  It happened at an East Harlem Park.

  In that incident, 3 people were shot, with one of the victims being seriously injured, at Jefferson Park on 113th Street and First Avenue; Shortly before 3 a.m.

On Sunday, 2 people were shot dead in Hamilton Heights when a driver got out of his car and opened fire.”

 

 

Imagine the violence is New York City wasn’t “gun free” … and “gun free” Chicago faired no better over the weekend …

 

 

Seven Killed, 29 Wounded In City Shootings Over Weekend

 

 

 

” Seven people have been killed and at least 29 others wounded in shootings across the city since Friday evening, police said.”

 

 

    We’re sure those 42 wounded and 9 killed in Chicago and New York are grateful for the safe environment created by those city’s draconian gun regulations .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Al Sharpton’s Chicago Town Hall Erupts Into Anti-Machine Revolt

 

 

 

 

 

Published on Dec 21, 2013

” This past Thursday, a town hall meeting hosted by Al Sharpton and the National Action Network to address gun violence exploded into a revolt against “Chicago Machine” politics, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and black alderman in City Hall with panel and audience members calling to vote out their elected officials. One 82-year-old preacher even called for “Tea Party” style meetings in some of Chicago’s south side communities such as Altgeld Gardens and Trumbull Park. “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11 Key Lessons From Officers’ Perspectives

 

 

 

 

 

 

” Never before has such a comprehensive survey of law enforcement officers’ opinions on gun control, gun violence, and gun rights been conducted.

In March, PoliceOne conducted the most comprehensive survey ever of American law enforcement officers’ opinions on the topic gripping the nation’s attention in recent weeks: gun control.

More than 15,000 verified law enforcement professionals took part in the survey, which aimed to bring together the thoughts and opinions of the only professional group devoted to limiting and defeating gun violence as part of their sworn responsibility.

Totaling just shy of 30 questions, the survey allowed officers across the United States to share their perspectives on issues spanning from gun control and gun violence to gun rights.

Breaking down the results, it’s important to note that 70 percent of respondents are field-level law enforcers — those who are face-to-face in the fight against violent crime on a daily basis — not office-bound, non-sworn administrators or perpetually-campaigning elected officials.”

 

 

   The graphic above accompanies the first question relating to “high capacity” magazines , while the next one deals with “assault” weapons bans . As you can see the opinions of the rank and file cops on the street facing danger every day have a decidedly different attitude about an armed public than do the political appointee chiefs and superintendents that inhabit the rarified air of city halls , conference rooms and media conclaves .

 

 

 

 

” 2.) The majority of respondents — 71 percent — say a federal ban on the manufacture and sale of some semi-automatics would have no effect on reducing violent crime. However, more than 20 percent say any ban would actually have a negative effect on reducing violent crime. Just over 7 percent took the opposite stance, saying they believe a ban would have a moderate to significant effect. ”

 

 

     The poll continues with a steady stream of majority positions guaranteed to make the most avid gun banners cringe , yet fall right in line with what gun owners and common sense would dictate . Here are a couple more examples from the poll . Be sure to read the whole thing . It is something you may want to bookmark and unholster the next time your progressive friends start in with the specious argument that “but police support gun control” .

 

 

Concealed Carry :

 

 

 

 

 

    Is it any surprise that the cop walking the beat recognizes the deterrent effect on criminal behavior of an armed populace ? 

 

 

 

Mass Shootings:

 

 

 

 

 

    The concept that the armed citizen on the scene would be much quicker to respond to mass shooting incidents than the police who are miles away is a simple matter of common sense , one that the anti-gunners must rationalize away by using their limitless powers of denial .

 The poll delves into all of the hotly debated gun control issues of the day such as , arming teachers , waiting periods , gun buy-back programs , causes of gun violence and many others . All in all it is a very insightful , comprehensive example of the attitudes of the average law enforcement officer that has the most skin in the game and thus is most closely associated with gun violence , crime and the imminent risk of death at the hands of the armed criminal element .

  Truly not to be missed .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Study: Gun Violence In Movies On The Rise

Movie Violence

 

” A new study finds there are even more shootings in PG-13 movies than in R rated films.

Researchers found that when the new ratings were introduced in 1984, gun violence in G films went down.

In R rated movies it stayed the same. But gun violence went up dramatically in PG-13 films.

Gun violence in PG-13 movies has more than tripled since 1985.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OC High School Student Ordered To Remove NRA T-Shirt Because It Promotes Gun Violence

 

 

 

” A student at a high school in Anaheim Hills said administrators ordered her to change out of a T-shirt that promoted the National Rifle Association.

Sophomore Haley Bullwinkle said when she wore her NRA shirt to Canyon High School last month, she landed in the principal’s office for violating the school’s dress code that forbids offensive, violent or divisive clothing.

“They were treating me like I was a criminal,” she said. “I was not allowed to wear that at school because it promoted gun violence.”

The shirt, which was a gift from Bullwinkle’s father when he became a card-carrying member of the NRA, features a buck, an American flag and a hunter’s silhouette. It also has the words “National Rifle Association of America: Protecting America’s Traditions Since 1871” written in the center.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are Guns the Problem?

 

 

A Page From The 1966 Sears Catalogue

 

 

” Every time there’s a shooting tragedy, there are more calls for gun control. Let’s examine a few historical facts. By 1910, the National Rifle Association had succeeded in establishing 73 NRA-affiliated high-school rifle clubs. The 1911 second edition of the Boy Scout Handbook made qualification in NRA’s junior marksmanship program a prerequisite for obtaining a BSA merit badge in marksmanship. In 1918, the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. established its own Winchester Junior Rifle Corps. The program grew to 135,000 members by 1925. In New York City, gun clubs were started at Boys, Curtis, Commercial, Manual Training and Stuyvesant high schools. With so many guns in the hands of youngsters, did we see today’s level of youth violence?”

 

 

 

 

” What about gun availability? Catalogs and magazines from the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s were full of gun advertisements directed to children and parents. For example, “What Every Parent Should Know When a Boy or Girl Wants a Gun” was published by the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The 1902 Sears mail-order catalog had 35 pages of firearm advertisements. People just sent in their money, and a firearm was shipped. For most of our history, a person could simply walk into a hardware store, virtually anywhere in our country, and buy a gun. Few states bothered to have even age restrictions on buying guns.

 

 

 

 

 

”  Those and other historical facts should force us to ask ourselves: Why — at a time in our history when guns were readily available, when a person could just walk into a store or order a gun through the mail, when there were no FBI background checks, no waiting periods, no licensing requirements — was there not the frequency and kind of gun violence that we sometimes see today, when access to guns is more restricted?

 

 

Read The Whole Thing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHICAGO MURDERS SOAR: 67 SHOT, 11 KILLED OVER JULY 4 WEEKEND–SO FAR

 

 

 

” There were 67 people shot and 11 killed over the long Independence Day weekend in Chicago. Of the 67, eight were shot, with one killed, in a single Saturday evening attack in the West Side neighborhood of Lawndale.

For the 28 days leading up to this past Father’s Day weekend–another bloodbath itself, in which 46 were shot and 8 were killed, including one shot by a police officer–murder numbers matched 2012 exactly with 41. Chicago Police data show that in the two weeks following, another 27 were gunned down and killed.”

S.E. Cupp Lays Into Michael Moore For Characterizing Gun Owners As Pariahs (VIDEO)

 

 

 

 

 

” Responding to Moore, guest S.E. Cupp explained that a gun registry would be a type of false presumption of guilt directed towards law abiding gun owners. She also called Moore out for labeling gun owners as pariahs, informing him that gun violence continues to drastically decline.”

Who Goes To Prison Due To Gun Control?

 

 

” Somehow, left-liberals have associated the cause of gun rights with white racism, when if anything it is gun control that has a racist legacy. In the United States, early gun laws targeted recently freed blacks, and open carry first became banned in California under Governor Ronald Reagan to disarm groups like the Black Panthers. Today, blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately subjected to humiliating stop-and-frisk searches in the name of gun control.

Perhaps the most telling data concerns the racial makeup of who goes to prison for gun violations.According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, for Fiscal Year 2011, 49.6% of those sentenced to federal incarceration with a primary offense of firearms violations were black, 20.6% were Hispanic, and only 27.5% were white.

This is how gun laws actually work—those caught violating them go to prison. For the mere act of owning an illegal weapon—not necessarily for using it, not for threatening anyone with it, not for being irresponsible with it—people who have harmed no one are locked up in prison for years at a time. As with the rest of the criminal justice system, particularly the war on drugs, these laws disproportionately harm the poor and minorities. That is the inescapable reality of gun control.

It makes sense that blacks and others living in the inner city would rely more on private, illegal guns for self-defense. The police are unreliable at best in many of these communities. It also makes sense that minorities would be disproportionately hurt by these laws, because so many of the dynamics in play are the same as with the drug war—people are being punished for what they own, rather than what they have done to others; “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gun Crisis? What Gun Crisis? Part II

 

” It’s not just Pew. This Department of Justice report makes embarrassing reading for those who spend their time trying to make it appear as if America is in the middle of a gun-crime wave. The headlines:

  • Firearm-related homicides declined 39%, from 18,253 in 1993 to 11,101 in 2011. 
  • Nonfatal firearm crimes declined 69%, from 1.5 million victimizations in 1993 to 467,300 victimizations in 2011. 
  • For both fatal and nonfatal firearm victimizations, the majority of the decline occurred during the 10-year period from 1993 to 2002. 

Visually, the decline is particularly striking:

 

 

 

  Lest you think that category an anomaly : Controlled by race , sex , region , and even non-fatalities doesn’t matter . The trend is the same . Down , down , down . Even school shooting deaths are down 33% since 1993 , despite what the media would have you believe .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Hasn’t The Media Been Reporting On Or Booking Pro-Gun Newtown Parent Mark Mattioli?

” Some of the most compelling voices in the current debate over gun violence are those who have been touched by itparticularly the parents of the twenty children slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14. It’s strange, then, that one of those parents, Mark Mattioli, has simultaneously been white-washed and virtually blacked out of the media’s post-Newtown coverage. While endorsing the NRA’s plan to arm school personnel Tuesday, Mr. Mattioli urged people to put politics aside, but it appears as though his politics may be a factor in the media’s treatment of him.

At a press conference to roll out the NRA’s 225-page report on school safety, Mark Mattioli praised the plan, and said “I think politics needs to sort of be set aside here, and I hope this doesn’t you know, lead to name-calling. But rather, this is recommendations for solutions. Real solutions that will make our kids safer.””

Mr Mattioli’s speech before the Connecticut legislature

Deterring Gun Violence, The NRA Way

 

 

 

 

” Essentially, the gun debate is about our rights. Moreover, there are millions of guns out there already, as many as 300 million of all shapes and calibers. Gathering them all up or even registering them would be an impossible infringement of our rights. Accommodating the views of gun owners and pro-gun-control advocates is time-consuming and, ultimately, futile.

While the debate rages, many schools have become war zones, and all school zones are vulnerable. That is why the National Rifle Association’s recommendations are not so primitive as they have been depicted. In fact, the NRA’s recommendations are forward-looking and their opponents’ recommendations are timid and futile. One cannot eliminate guns from American society. Anyone who says he can is not serious.

If we want to get serious about gun violence we should take the NRA’s National School Shield program, announced Tuesday, to heart. Train and enable school personnel to carry firearms. In high-risk schools station police. The NRA’s 225-page report contains dozens of recommendations to improve safety in our schools. Teachers and school administrators have charge of the nation’s students by day. They ought to have the tools to protect them. There is no reason why teachers and administrators cannot responsibly carry guns. Those who do not want to carry guns do not have to be armed, but just a few trained people in a school will act as a deterrent to violence. The evidence of recent years is that schools are the target of violence. They need to be defended.”

 

 

 

Daily Video 2.21.13

The Late Chris Kyle On Gun Violence, Gun Control, Veteran Life And SHOT Show 2013

Mayors Against Illegal Guns Threaten Gun Buy Boycott Over Gun Control

 

 

” “If we find out they’re not partners, and if we find out they’re working against us, then we all ought to have a conversation as taxpayers about whether our dollars should be used for people who are not working to reduce gun violence.” That’s the threat issued by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak (above) against gun and ammo makers who don’t tow the line laid down by The Mayors Against Illegal Guns. minnesota.publicradio.org reports that “Rybak told members of the City Council’s Public Safety and Civil Rights Committee that he and mayors from approximately 60 cities are taking a closer look at the companies that manufacture the guns and ammunition that cities buy for police officers . “

Typical statist scapegoating … blame the private sector for the failures of government policies . 

We can’t keep the people safe so it must be … your fault .

 

 

 

Anonymous Likens Obama Gun Control Policy To Hitler

Anonymous

” Hacktivist group Anonymous has now spoken out against President Barack Obama’s intentions to enact wider gun control in the U.S.

In a 15-minute YouTube video, which first appeared on the social network two weeks ago, Anonymous criticized the Obama administration’s leveraging of violent gun crime to achieve its goal to control guns.

“Throughout history, authoritarian governments have used gun violence as an excuse to take people’s firearms and control their population,” said Anonymous. “

Sheriffs To Lawmakers: Target Mental Health, Not Gun Supply

 

 

 

“If lawmakers want to curb gun violence, they must begin not with laws aimed at limiting the use of weapons, but with the state of mind of the people who use them.

That was the message many state legislators took away Thursday from a Maine Sheriff’s Association training session held at the Senator Inn & Spa. The session aimed to provide an overview of issues at the heart of the ongoing gun control debate.

Randall Liberty, Kennebec County’s sheriff and the association vice president, singled out mental health — not guns — as the key to reducing violence related to shootings.

Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, who held and examined a variety of rifles and guns with other legislators, said after the training that the Legislature must get beyond discussion about the danger of particular firearms to improve safety.

“The harder work is to take a hard look at our mental health system and see if we’re really getting at the root,” Katz said. ”

 

 

60% of Gun Murders Take Place in Major Cities Which Voted for Obama

 

 

” It would be interesting to look at the homicide rate for Obama voters and Romney voters and that is doable on a community level. But for the moment let’s take a look at the big picture. As discussed in my previous article, “America Doesn’t Have a Gun Problem, It Has a Gang Problem“, gun violence is concentrated in urban areas where most victims and shooters have existing criminal records.

Not only is gang violence dramatically higher in cities compared to surrounding areas, but 60 percent of U.S. firearm homicides happen in the 62 cities of the country’s 50 largest metro areas.

In the 2012 election, Obama won 70% of the vote in cities. He won the plurality of votes in every major city with the exception of Jacksonville and Salt Lake City. In some of the biggest cities he won 85% of the votes.

These are the cities where gun violence rates are the highest in the country. Often, the higher the gun violence rates, the bigger the margin of victory for Obama, as documented in my article, America Doesn’t Have a Gun Problem, It Has a Gang Problem above.

It’s quite clear that America does not have a gun violence problem. Obamerica does.

 

 

 

Obama’s Gun-Violence Executive Orders And The Constitution

 

 

 

“As soon as tomorrow, President Obama will announce his administration’s initial steps for dealing with gun violence. It is expected that he will propose measures for congressional action. But recognizing that most legislative proposals will attract powerful resistance, including from some in his own party, the president has indicated that he is prepared to act unilaterally. “My starting point is not to worry about the politics,” the president said. “My starting point is to focus on what makes sense, what works.”

Of course we should all want our president focused on what works. We have more than enough dysfunctional and counter-productive federal policies in place, thanks to both Congress and the president. But there is one consideration that is even more important than whether an executive action will work to reduce gun-related violence: whether the president has the constitutional authority to implement it.

The obvious constraint on executive actions relating to guns is the Second Amendment. It is a constraint that applies equally to Congress and to state and local governments. Though the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller made clear that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms, it left unresolved whether particular regulations on gun ownership and gun use are consistent with that right. Both the president and Congress will get an earful on this topic over the coming weeks and months.”

Illustration By AF Branco

Ten Gun Bills On Congress’s First Day

 

Control

 

” Members of the 113th Congress introduced 10 bills on Thursday relating to gun violence, most of which came from Democrats seeking new restrictions on gun ownership.

The flurry of legislative proposals show that members are likely to push the issue in the wake of the December shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that left 20 children dead.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), whose husband was shot to death in 1993, introduced four of the bills. The congresswoman has vowed to seek changes in federal law in response to the school shooting. “

…Ending the Drug War

 

 It is good to remember that the bulk of murders committed in the US are criminals/thugs killing each other and not preying on the innocent . That being said it is also well to acknowledge that a very substantial portion of the criminal murders involve the drug trade . Just as gangsters shot up each other and the occasional bystander during prohibition , gang-bangers and criminals uphold those traditions today in the battle for turf in the drug trade .

 

 

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” Nor is there any certainty that marginal reductions in gun ownership would bring matching reductions in the murder rate. Brazil, for example, has a murder rate more than four times as high as the U.S., with less than 10% of the gun ownership that we have. In other words, it’s possible that appreciably reducing gun murders might require a truly huge (and unrealistic) reduction in gun ownership. Now, if the U.S. banned gun ownership, and confiscated all the guns that people currently own, it would probably be very effective. But this is almost certainly politically infeasible, and if somehow the 14th Amendment were repealed and this law were passed, it would cause violent civil unrest. Additionally, lots of people could hide their guns. The effort required to confiscate them would be likely to turn our country into a police state. So universal gun confiscation is out. “

PAGING, PIERS MORGAN: GUN VIOLENCE EXPLODES IN ENGLAND

 

 

” Gun crime has almost doubled since Labour came to power as a culture of extreme gang violence has taken hold.

The latest Government figures show that the total number of firearm offences in England and Wales has increased from 5,209 in 1998/99 to 9,865 last year – a rise of 89 per cent.

In some parts of the country, the number of offences has increased more than five-fold.

In eighteen police areas, gun crime at least doubled. ”