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A gun in the editor’s top drawer

They don’t make editors like they used to . . .

When I was the editor of the Oakland Tribune back in the 1990s, I kept a loaded Glock in my top drawer.

I take issue with the blanket news reports that the shooting at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md., which killed four journalists and an employee, was a “surprise,” “a shock.” Newspapers in the ’90s didn’t have large budgets for security. Many today don’t have a check-in desk. At The Chronicle, there is at least a security person at the entrances, sitting behind a desk where visitors sign in. Not exactly Fort Knox, but it is something.

Newspapers and reporters — even photographers — receive threats all the time. Every day, there is someone out there unhappy with the coverage, either about an issue for which they have passion, or coverage of themselves or someone in their family. Newspapers get letters, phone calls. Nowadays, the threats come through social media.

I had come to Oakland from Texas, where having guns was part of the culture. When you go to a church or a bar in Texas, you usually see a sign saying “Leave your guns outside.” I bought mine at a gun show, with no background check, just cash on the barrel, so to speak. I took a gun safety class and started to target-shoot for a hobby. I got pretty good. Eventually, I became an instructor in gun safety and taught classes on weekends.

Washington i-1639 Gun Control
courtesy mynorthwest.com

I-1639 gun initiative reaches required signatures; opponents launch lawsuit

The Californization of the northwest continues . . .

Supporters of the new I-1639 gun initiative reached the required 260,000 signatures to get it on the November ballot. The fanfare was short-lived, however, as opponents just announced a lawsuit against the initiative.

“I dropped off the lawsuits today at the Attorney General’s office, the Secretary of State’s office, and also the sponsors of I-1639 and their attorneys,” prolific activist Glen Morgan told KTTH’s Todd Herman. “What it’s saying is that the Secretary of State’s office cannot count the signatures collected over the past month, because the people who sponsored it failed to print the correct language on the back of their initiative.”

Initiative I-1639 would: create enhanced background checks for semiautomatic assault rifles; raise the age to purchase them from 18 to 21; require a firearm safety training course; enact a waiting period before purchasing; and establish standards to responsibly store firearms.

Webster Groves Open Carry NRA Police
courtesy stltoday.com

Webster Groves police: NRA will not open carry in Fourth of July parade

We can’t have guns in an Independence Day parade . . .

The Webster Groves community takes their Fourth of July parade pretty seriously.

So much so that last year, chairs began appearing along the parade route a full nine days before the celebration. It’s an unofficial Webster Groves tradition for residents to claim a spot and put chairs out well before the parade starts.

But this year, some residents are concerned less with getting a spot and more with one of the groups in the parade, according to a Facebook post from the Webster Groves Police Department:

“The National Rifle Association is being represented by a float in this year’s Community Days Parade. The Police Department received several inquiries concerning the potential of members associated with the group carrying weapons in the parade.

Russia AK-47
courtesy dreamstime.com

Russia fan in Germany celebrates World Cup win over Spain with AK-47

But that’s illegal, isn’t it?

An AK-47 was confiscated in the German town of Essen as a German citizen with Russian heritage celebrated Russia’s round-of-16 defeat of Spain at the 2018 World Cup, local police have confirmed to ESPN FC.

The 39-year-old is now facing charges for violation of the Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz, the War Weapons Control Act, an offence punishable with a prison term of up to five years under German law.

After Russia advanced to the quarterfinals of their home World Cup with a penalty-shootout defeat of Spain, eye witnesses in Essen had reported a white Mercedes driving on one of the main streets of Germany’s ninth-largest city.

The witnesses reported an unknown man not only displaying a Russia flag but also a rifle. When police stopped the car minutes later, an officer “spotted the evidently real machine gun and under threat of their weapon asked the occupants to show their hands.”

that's not how this works that's not how any of this works

David Hogg Calls on Trump to Repeal Law Passed by Congress — Kyle Kashuv Embarrasses Him With Facts

In response to President Donald Trump calling out the National Security Agency for possible privacy violations and tweeting that it deleted “685 million phone calls and text messages,” pro-gun control Parkland activist David Hogg called for Trump to “repeal the Patriot Act” . . .

Las Vegas cop ‘terrified with fear’ as gunman murdered dozens, body camera footage shows

No one knows how they’ll respond in a situation like that until you’re there . . .

An armed, veteran police officer stood idle for several minutes last October as the Las Vegas gunman slaughtered dozens of concertgoers from a perch one floor up, and now that cop’s actions — and inaction — are being reviewed by the Metropolitan Police Department.

The investigation into Cordell Hendrex, and the rest of the city’s police department, comes as Las Vegas prepares to release its ninth batch of footage and records related to the shooting, which left 58 dead and hundreds injured.

“Every officer’s actions that night are being evaluated,” police spokesperson Carla Alston told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week. “One of the things Sheriff [Joseph] Lombardo has said from the beginning is that this is an ongoing investigation. Part of that investigation is the evaluation of the performance, actions and conduct of every officer and civilian employee involved in the incident.”

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73 COMMENTS

  1. Hoggzilla is right that the Unpatriot act should be repealed, other than that he is a nitwit.

    • Kind of like FDR was right on public sector unions but wrong on pretty much everything else. I guess being wrong on everything is probably statistically impossible.

      • “Kind of like FDR was right on public sector unions…”

        Well, SCOTUS just gutted them very recently…

        • The Unions gutted themselves with insanely corrupt practices like forcing the over 1/3 of “members” (forced to be in unions against their will) who are not Democrats to give their earnings to poltical Democrat pollical campaigns.

        • If by “banning” you mean: disallow police officers from meeting, discussing their work place environment, and bringing their concerns to the voters and city government, then I’m affraid that’s never going to happen. So long as police are American citizens in America that activity will be protected under the 1st Ammendment. If you want to take away union protections from police unions, that’s something else and not necessarily a bad thing, but it won’t necessarily change anything either. Police are already prohibited from “walking off the job” or going on strike. Courts have decided those are established grounds for termination. Police unions (or any unions really) exist for the same reasons as the NRA or GOA, etc exist: as a lobby group for like minded Americans to petition the voters and representatives. And while “the police” are “the government”, they are in the Executive Branch of government but their funding, mandates, and laws come from the Legislative Branch of government.

        • Police unions (or any unions really) exist for the same reasons as the NRA or GOA, etc exist: as a lobby group for like minded Americans to petition the voters and representatives.

          That is nonsense. About 2% of the NRA work is lobbying.

        • Fergus: Then why don’t YOU become a police officer and show us all how it SHOULD be done? Put up or shut up.

    • A broken clock.
      I don’t care if it does get it right twice every twenty four hours – it still gets thrown in the trash.
      🤠

      • when I was a kid every other house I went into had a picture of FDR on the wall…people idolized the guy….

    • The backlash against Hogg over demanding thay Trump repeal the Patriot Act is quite lame.

      Obviously, the president cannot unilaterally repeal the law (unless his name is Obama.) However, the president”s signature would be required on the repeal bill Congress passes, transforming it into law and effectuating the repeal. It isn’t as though Trump would have no part or that Congress has sole authority to make this change.

      Moreover, a change like that would require repeal becoming the president’s legislative priority. That requires his leadership and negotiation skills as part of his overall presidential powers. So while Trump can’t just repeal the act on his own, to ridicule Hogg (who deserve a deluge of ridicule for so many othet things) for calling om Trump to repeal the Patriot Act is disingenuous criticism revealing more about the critics’ ignorance of how D.C. works than it does about Hogg’s notions of how the Constitution works.

      • Hey snowflake it expires June 2019.UNLESS the President make it a priority to push thru a renewal. Renewal was priority for Obumer and his crew of misfits and thieves who got it renewed in June 2015.

  2. Armed to the teeth and scared like little boy’s. Las Vegas’ finest…the NRA was going to open carry in a parade?!? Cool…

    • From LVMPD, the home of Joe “I don’t care what the 2nd Amendment says” Lombardo. Quote from 2017 KXNT radio interview with host Alan Stock.

  3. When I lived in the Bay Area back in the early 1980s, the Oakland Tribune was the conservative newspaper of the area. I have no idea where it stands today…………

    • its in the bay area??? san fran… the BLUE hometown gone nuts covered in REAL shit

      I am sure It now leans so far left, it looks like a NASCAR driver at time behind the wheel–left left left!

  4. Here’s a political update for the ‘Digest’. It looks like good news for us and everyone else who is sane :

    The angry ‘Bernie Bros’ are forcing the DNC hard left :

    “DNC Chair Tom Perez Declares Socialist Ocasio-Cortez “The Future Of Our Party””

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-03/dnc-chair-tom-perez-declares-socialist-ocasio-cortez-future-our-party

    “Socialism is back, and it’s taking over the Democratic Party”

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/socialism-is-back-and-its-taking-over-the-democratic-party

    “…So welcome to a Democratic Party much further to the left than Bill Clinton or Barack Obama ever imagined.”

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/the-democrats-are-having-a-socialist-realignment

    • BS on the Obumer line. He has been a full on commie pinko since college. Same for the demtard party since at least Oct 1917. They are just coming out of the closet.

  5. Hmm, I wonder if his dad actually made $350 million as reported in the media. It sure did not like his dad actually invested into his education.

  6. Hoggs handlers will punish the boy for going off half cocked and off script. Bad boy, stick to the talking points.

    • You have to remember Hogg isn’t even a college drop-out. He didn’t gain acceptance.

      It would be worse if it was community college.

      But then Adolf Hitler failed the entrance to art school, several times.

  7. Now this is just *precious*.

    A Leftist has come to the conclusion America needs a new Constitution, and idly wonders if it will take violence to achieve :

    “Our nation is once more in the grip of division and change. When we emerge, the United States will be different. Our government and society will once more be restructured and new rules will be decided.

    What will the next American constitution look like, given the trajectory of the Trump presidency and the swirl of conflict around it? Like Turkey’s and Hungary’s, with dictatorial government wrapped in old constitutional forms? A naked kleptocracy, where forms and norms are simply ignored?”

    https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/The-next-U-S-Constitution-is-forming-now-13047939.php

    Serge, you’re gonna need a new type-rating for a lot bigger helicopter.

    Because the article author, Thomas Neuburger, doesn’t seem to grasp what that is gonna entail…

    *snicker* 😉

      • You could pack a few hundred in a C-130 and drop the loading ramp at altitude and yank the nose up to practice a hammerhead stall…

        • Or get an old freighter and play either “Lusitania” or “Billy Mitchell” depending on what else you have around.

    • We are not in a shortage of bullets or handy ditches.

      But please. Someone tell me how I should be tolerant of a group that is running on “destroy America as a country” platform.

      • “Someone tell me how I should be tolerant of a group that is running on “destroy America as a country” platform.”

        That’s the ‘Crux of the biscuit’, so to speak…

    • Yeah, that story is so full of shit. I’m willing to bet her story about being rammed on the freeway past midnight because of her “Anita Hill for President” bumper sticker is completely made up.

    • I read that as well… I have no idea why she wrote that. Either she has no idea how her pistol works or she is trying to create a mental image for people

      • Weird, she says she got into the gun hobby, became a gun instructor teaching gun safety, and specifically said Glock 17, so the flipped the safety off sentence just doesn’t fit, as even depressing the trigger dingus thingy is not really “flipping the safety off” nor safe gun handling. Unless she had a rare glock 17 with a manual safety….

        But then, the comment “generally against gun ownership” while claiming to use weapons for protection, and a gun in a defensive gun use scenario, plus keeping a Glock in the desk at work in California is pretty conflicted as well. I sure couldn’t keep a Glock in my desk drawer at any of my last 4 jobs in the 90s through the present, in Florida. I mean technically anyone can bring a weapon concealed anywhere but I sure wouldn’t have remained employed very long if it was discovered. I can’t imagine California newsrooms are more lenient unless editors are all powerful and they really are that hypocritical.

        All I can surmise is she, in her threatened occupation as news editor, had a legitimate need and reason to be armed, perhaps Anita Hill did too, but the rest of you common and potentially scary folk should not be allowed to own guns.

        • well the author was fired from that oakland job way back in the early 90’s.. she was having an affair with a city councilman that was causing big conflicts of interest..
          So either she left that handgun in the drawer all night, alone.. or carried it illegally everyday to and fro…
          As for the saftey issue.. maybe she just didn’t know what she had..
          uninformed gun owner, potentially bought illegally, potentially carried illegally, and generally against gun ownership.. but still kept it unsecured in a desk drawer. in Oakland no less.

        • No, they’re not; but that doesn’t mean some people still refer to any polymer frame pistol (and some folks, to any semi-auto) as a “Glock.” I suspect that might be the case here.

    • I am SO glad other people caught that too. After I read it, I immediately submitted a letter to the editor at the SF Chronicle, but in the two days since, they have not published my letter. What a surprise, but at least I tried.

  8. “Newspapers and reporters — even photographers — receive threats all the time.”

    I guess it’s true — as you sow, so shall you reap. Have fun, media. You wanted it, you got it. Karma is a bitch, and she’s in heat.

    • “Karma is a bitch, and she’s in heat.” Is she in heat or is she PMSing?

      I’d say that the “Media” yanked too hard on Karma’s tampon string.

      For everyone’s edification, when in an argument with a woman and you want to see her head EXPLODE, I double-dog dare you to say to her:

      “Who pulled on your tampon string?!!”

      I did it once. Just once.

      • You can get the same reaction by saying :

        “You’re just like your mother…”

        • Yep. True. Especially if her mother is a really terrible person and she knows it.

      • really wanna piss her off? Just tell her she’s over reacting. Bonus points if you can combine it all.

        “who pulled your tampon string? Jesus! you are over reacting just like your mother! Is it because you’ve put on weight or because you forgot to make me a sammich?”

        • ^OMG
          To say THAT should officially be known as “the nuclear option”.
          ‘Cuz once you press that button, it’s all over.
          Much worse than peeing into the wrong side of a fan.
          More like peeing into the electrical outlet.

          Moltar’s headstone…
          “Poor Moltar… Good looking, but dumb. Really dumb.”

    • I pass my NICS check, I got my cpl, they got my finger prints. I own multiple firearms. WHAT THE F#@$ GOOD IS A WAITING PERIOD AND “ENHANCED” BG CHECK DO BESIDES INFRINGE ON MY RIGHT TO OWN FIREARMS!!!!

    • When buying a handgun in Washington State, in addition to the federal background check, the local police look into your background, also. That’s why there’s a 5 day waiting period for handguns. However, you don’t have this waiting period, if you have a valid Washington CPL. Currently, rifles and shotguns don’t require the additional background check and 5 day waiting period. They will, if this passes.

      • Can you hear that? That’s The “Chip-Chip-Chipping” of our US Constitutional 2nd Amendment rights! Others are on the chopping block too! Soon YOU’LL be like Massachusetts, *(Permits for EVERYTHING. Long waits for the permits…Unless your not approved…Multiple Local/State Police Permissions and Local interviews with a “Licensing Authority without an Attorney.”etc,etc…Infringements all! )*, NJ., MD., NY. ,and so on…

  9. I had a friend who told me the following Oakland story, I believe from the early 1970s:

    His officemate and friend had just bought a new gun and brought it to work for show and tell. They were discussing it when the boss walked by, did a double take, and said “You can’t bring a gun to work!”

    My friend opened his desk drawer, pulled out his own gun, and said “Doesn;t everybody in Oakland have a gun?”

  10. Actually, I honestly can’t blame the LVPD for hesitating. If I was in that situation, I would hesitate too. If I heard a high rate of fire coming from beyond a door, every part of my being would be screaming to try and find cover. It’s called a survival instinct.

    • If I heard a high rate of fire coming from beyond a door, every part of my being would be screaming to try and find cover. It’s called a survival instinct.

      Find cover, come up with a plan, storm the room. It (used to be) called being a cop. Innocents are dying as the pathetic excuse for a cop worries about how he’s going home tonight.

      Disgusting.

      • Come on, man! Cops got a family and a dog waiting at home. The government said they don’t have to do their job if they don’t want to. Officer safety is the most important; more important than your human rights or life. Give them a lot of slack, they have the most dangerous job around.

        • I call bs on cops having the most dangerous job. I was an armored car guard in the mid 90’s. You want a dangerous job ride on the truck from the mint to the airport. 600 million in cash. Cops don’t have nothing on that.

      • Hey 16v, let’s see how you perform under the same situation. You are about to face, for all you know, a fully automatic AK being wielded by a terrorist who may blow themselves up when you go through the door. I’m pretty sure you too would hesitate.

        Now I am no cop lover, but I at least understand that humans are animals too, and like all animals, we have a hardwired self preservation instinct.

        • And I call that cowardice in the face of the enemy… we used to shoot people for that.

        • Gralnok, as noted in my post – hesitate, plan, then storm room. Not stand around outside like this typical cop, waiting for the shooter to run out of targets or ammo.

          Having trained/practiced clearing rooms with guys who have IRL cleared rooms, I’d like to think I would follow my training. I haven’t panicked with a gun to my head yet, so a shooter in another room should be straightforward. Especially with two other friendlies.

          Or, maybe this will push me over some edge, I’ll freeze up, cry like a child. All things are possible I guess.

    • It is training. Civilian police (civilians in uniform) hardly ever train for real gun fights. Sure, give them a traffic stop with gangbamgers who cannot shoot straight, they have a chance. They train for that. They typically do not train for this kind of action. Blue cities intentionally albeit confidentially avoid hiring veterans who have that training as I learned in the 80s. I have heard because they believe it is too hard to retrain veterans . I suspect it is more political than anything, but I digress. It sounds like they could have used a few well trained veterans in Las Vegas and the Florida school shooting doesn’t it. BTW, notice that this crap only happens in blue areas…

    • That links to today’s paper
      I did a search for gazette shooting on that site and could not find anything that said someone at the paper was armed with 2 guns
      Please find the date of that article in that paper, I am interested to read that.
      There is no mention anywhere about someone having a gun at work that day

  11. But the chief said his guys were busy evacuating guests so they couldn’t possibly go up to the floor where the shooter was and stop him! Either way, officer safety is most important.

    I guess that’s why he didn’t want any evidence being released to the public. Las Vegas police continue to be corrupt liars.

    For a second there I thought that cop in the video was one of the guys that gun down a CCWer [Erik Scott] in the parking lot of a Costco. I guess cops tend to look alike. Too bad the camera footage from that shooting disappeared.

  12. Master Hogg needs a civics lesson, among other things. In this country, it is Congress that enacts or repeals legislation, not the president. Of course, the president has the option of a veto over legislative enactments, which Congress can override if it so chooses. Otherwise, I agree with Hogg concerning repeal of The Patriot Act, which is an abomination.

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