You don’t say . . . Candidates sharply disagree on guns in Virginia gov’s race
The two major party candidates in Virginia’s race for governor sharply disagree when it comes to guns.
Republican Ed Gillespie has an A rating from the National Rifle Association. He pledged to “oppose any and all attempts to weaken the Second Amendment.”
Democrat Ralph Northam said he favors stricter controls on gun ownership. He’s backed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s group as well as by former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was grievously wounded in a 2011 shooting.
The positions play against type. Northam grew up hunting on Virginia’s Eastern Shore and owns two shotguns.
Demonizing a producer of a legal product . . . Home of the ‘Bump Stock’ Says, Don’t Blame Us for Las Vegas
“It’s being used as a scapegoat — they’re looking for somebody to blame,” said Lanham Martin, a Shackelford County commissioner who lives in Moran. “Guns don’t kill people. Slide Fire stocks don’t kill people.” He added, “It could have been just as lethal, if not more so, with a good scope.”
Steven Taggart, the mayor, took a break from cooking curly fries for the homecoming football game to lament the tragedy in Las Vegas and the negative attention it has brought to his town.
“Everyone out there thinks we’re killers, and that’s very far from the truth,” Mr. Taggart said. “They’re trying to tear us down, and saying that we’re evil. That is heartbreaking. That’s what tears me up, that they think we’re bad people.”
Come on, people…let’s see if we can double that by 2020 . . . America is packing: Research estimates 3 million adult gun owners carry their guns every day
In addition to the 3 million who carried a gun every day, another 6 million people carried a gun at least once a month, researchers estimated.
The study was the first in more than 20 years to look at why, how often, and in what way adults carry loaded handguns, the university said.
Researchers reviewed the handgun-carrying behavior of 1,444 gun owners, using data from a 2015 nationally representative survey designed by Mathew Miller of Northeastern and Deborah Azrael of Harvard. The University of Colorado also participated in the research.
The research also found that 9 million people carry a loaded gun on a monthly basis.
“It was important to study handgun carrying because about 90 percent of all firearm homicides and nonfatal firearm crimes for which the type of firearm is known are committed with a handgun,” Rowhani-Rahbar said.
Brits considering banning .50 cals and lever guns . . . Home Secretary to consult on new laws on offensive weapons
Other measures included in the consultation include:
– amendments to threatening with a knife or offensive weapon offence to lower the standard of proof for prosecutors
– moving two firearms (.50 calibre and certain rapid firing rifles) from the general licensing arrangements to the stricter provisions of section 5 of the Firearms Act 1968
– updating the current legislation on the definition of flick knives
Why do we suspect that it was his mother who composed the list of questions? . . . A Cub Scout pressed a lawmaker about gun control. Then his den kicked him out, his mother said.
Ames pressed the Republican state senator, Vicki Marble, on an issue he knew was important to her: gun legislation. The Cub Scout in Broomfield, about 20 miles north of Denver, asked her a slew of questions about previous bills she had sponsored in support of the right to bear arms, and he wasn’t shy about inserting his opinion.
“I was shocked that you co-sponsored a bill to allow domestic violence offenders to continue to own a gun,” Ames said, according to a video posted to YouTube by his mother. “Why on earth would you want someone who beats their wife to have access to a gun?”
Because we hate guns and shut up . . . The NRA Wants Gun Owners To Carry Everywhere. Here’s Why They Shouldn’t.
Researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health compared homicide rates from 1991 to 2015 in states where law enforcement has wide discretion to reject concealed carry permits, which they call “may-issue” states, with those of states in which permits must be issued if an individual meets the necessary criteria, referred to as “shall-issue” or “right-to-carry” states.
They found that shall-issue states were associated with 8.6 percent higher firearm homicide rates and 10.6 percent higher handgun homicide rates. The study suggests that allowing law enforcement the discretion to reject applicants may save lives.
“If these findings are accurate, we are really moving in the wrong direction by making it easier for people to carry concealed weapons,” said Michael Siegel, professor of community health sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health and the study’s senior author.
