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Some of you people have a lot of catching up to do . . . Mapped: Gun ownership in the US

Despite neighboring one of the states with the highest number of gun owners (Wyoming with 53.8% of its population), only 19.8% of Nebraskans own guns. Also, Texans, often depicted as trigger-happy people, are below the 50% mark (37.5% to be exact), way behind Hawaii where 45.1% of the population owns guns.

What the hell is wrong with Nebraska?

Rat, sinking ship . . .ย Board of The Brady Campaign and Center to Prevent Gun Violence Appoints Two Internal Executives to Lead Organization

The Board accepted the resignation of Brady’s immediate past president, Dan Gross, who will remain with the organization to assist with the transition. According to the Chair of the Board, “Mr. Gross has been an important and influential leader in the gun violence prevention movement for many years, has led Brady, and leaves the organization poised for even greater success. We are grateful for Mr. Gross’s service to this issue and organization and wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

This is what doesn’t happen in a disarmed populace . . . THREE Taco Bell employees pull out their guns to shoot and kill an armed robber in Cleveland

Three Taco Bell employees who were all carrying guns during a shift put them to use on Wednesday to shoot and kill an attempted armed robber.

None of the male workers at the fast food restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio, have been named.ย All were armed when two masked robbers stormed the restaurant at 2.45am on Wednesday to demand cash.

The employees, two of whom are 19 and one is 23, opened fire, shooting one of them in the ribs. The other ran away. …

‘Everyone at the store is okay, from my understanding. All the employees and all the customers are safe,’ (franchise owner Arthur) Giles toldย Cleveland.com.

Restricting Tannerite . . . Supervisors approve limits on the use of exploding targets

On Tuesday the Pima County Board of Supervisors made it illegal to use or sell mixed exploding targets in a number of circumstances, though the revised ordinance allows for a number of exemptions.

As originally proposed, the ordinance banned the use and sale of all exploding targets in unincorporated Pima County and would have made it illegal to even possess โ€œchemical or material intended to be used as an exploding target.โ€

After changes were made, Todd Rathner, of the Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association, said the approved ordinance accomplishes what the county wanted, but also protects gun owners, retailers and manufacturers.โ€

More PMAG love . . . The U.S. Air Force, Marines and SOCOM All Love This Piece of Gear

The Air Force has approved Magpul Industries Corps.โ€™s GEN M3 PMAG, a polymer-based ammunition magazine, for use with small arms and light weapons, becoming the second U.S. military branch to adopt the highly popular accessory this year, Soldier Systems reported on Aug. 29.

โ€œWe are certainly pleased that another major service component has taken their own look at the test data and come to the same conclusion as the Marine Corps and [U.S. Special Operations Command],โ€ Magpul told Soldier Systems in a statement.

The Air Force formalized approval of the PMAG in July in a document entitled โ€œUSAF Authorized Small Arms and Light Weapons (SA/LW) Accessories (as of 28 July 17).โ€ According to that document, the PMAG is now authorized in both black and tan for use with the M4/M4A1 Carbine, GUU-5P Carbine, and the M249 Automatic Rifle.

Click on the image to find out why Weisser is a deadbeat

Mikey the anti-gun guy stuck his head out of his hole again and apparently saw his shadow . . . Sooner Or Later, The Gun Is Coming Out Of The Safe

Let me make one thing very clear. Iโ€™m not opposed to any rational or reasonable strategy to reduce violence caused by guns. And despite the fact that I am an Endowment Patriot member of the NRA, I unequivocally reject the nonsense that itโ€™s the โ€œpersonโ€ and not the โ€œgun.โ€ But the problem with the safe storage strategy is that it flies in the face of how gun owners behave with their guns. Which shouldnโ€™t come as any great surprise, because itโ€™s not as if GVP organizations or public health researchers spend much time talking to people who own guns.

This is why we can’t have nice things . . . Police: Man pointed gun at woman over โ€˜stupidโ€™ political bumper stickers

A Missouri man faces a felony charge after he allegedly pointed a gun at a local Democratic activist whose political bumper stickers he disliked.

Edward K. Burns, 48, of Ozark has been charged with unlawful use of a weapon after an alleged Aug. 24 road rage incident described in Christian County court documents. …

According to the statement, both drivers “exchanged offensive hand gestures,” and at one point, Umphenour allegedly pulled up alongside Burns and flipped him the bird.

At that point, Burns allegedly pulled a Smith & Wesson .380 handgun from his hip holster and pointed it at Umphenour, police said in the statement.

This was a stolen gun, but the Kansas City Star implies that legal campus carry is at fault…somehow . . . Gun found in bathroom in KUโ€™s Wescoe Hall was loaded .38 reported stolen in Olathe

Two weeks into the fall semester, the first in which Kansas students can legally carry concealed handguns on campuses, an unattended gun turned up Tuesday in a bathroom at the University of Kansas.

KU Public Safety officials said the weapon was removed late Tuesday morning from a fourth-floor bathroom in Wescoe Hall, an academic building on the Lawrence campus.

Officials said the gun was a loaded .38 reported stolen out of Olathe.

And finally, this video was taken today by RF, who’s in the Land of Hope and Glory for his daughter’s graduation. He witnessed this team building exercise — electronic trap shooting — on the quad at the University of Greenwich. With everyone shooting at once, we’re not sure how they know who hit the bird, but whatever. It was shocking enough that even this use of faux firearms was sanctioned on a UK campus.

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67 COMMENTS

  1. Anyone who believes that the gun ownership rate is below 30% of the population in Oregon and Vermont, is dumber than a rock.

    • Statistics from anti gun Injury Prevention journal and we expect them to be accurate? As Mark Twain said, “Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.”

    • If you split Oregon from top to bottom along the Cascades, you would find that the eastern rural side of Oregon has a very high proportion of gun owners, but it’s largely canceled out by the urban western side.

      • I’m in the urban west side. Me and my neighbors are working on changing that.
        We are but whispers in a crowded room though.

        • Things are very good for gun owners on the west side south of Lane County (Eugene) in fact I’ll bet if you removed Portland and Eugene alone from the mix Oregon would be close if not over 50%

    • The data is bad. Hawaii at 40+%? You have to get the police chief’s permission to buy a gun in HI, FFS!

      Bad Data = Fake News.

      • Noticed that, so by this chart Hawaii has a better armed population than Georgia. This is the same Georgia which is the number three state in the nation for silencer ownership, per TTAG chart from two days ago. Nope!

    • I’m from NH . 14%?. Yeah, right! Or maybe this particular bit of research is simply fatally flawed in method and interpretation. Could it be that old are not telling if they hav guns? It’s possible, you know. If the actual rate of NH gun ownership is under 50%, I’ll eat a box of .9 mm.

    • From that graphic, I can deduce that only 35.7% of gun-owning Texans will admit it to a nosy jackass pretending to be a pollster.

  2. Hmm. Tannerite is already banned in California, and I think it maybe limited in Utah–because, despite the company’s constant denials that Tannerite can cause fires, the use of Tannerite has been linked to a number of forest fires in both states.

  3. Y’know, I recently did a rough debunking in the comment section under an article here of gun-grabber’s claims that gun ownership rates correspond with suicide and homicide rates. Using the data behind the map pictured above, and homicide rates taken from the FBI’s UCR tables from the same year, and another use here (I forget their handle) took the liberty of putting in in graph form on Photobucket.

    Here is my oft-posted analysis below:

    Florida is not included because it does not appear in Table 20 of the FBIโ€™s UCR Data Tables.
    Alabama is not included due to limited homicide and supplemental weapons data.

    Alaska: 12 total for 1.63 per 100K || Ownership rate: 61.7%
    Arizona: 184 total for 2.78 per 100K || Ownership rate: 32.3%
    Arkansas: 110 total for 3.72 per 100K || Ownership rate: 57.9%
    California: 1,224 total for 3.19 per 100K || Ownership rate: 20.1%
    Colorado: 88 total for 1.67 per 100K || Ownership rate: 34.3%
    Connecticut: 60 total for 1.67 per 100K || Ownership rate: 16.6%
    Delaware: 33 total for 3.56 per 100K || Ownership rate: 5.2%
    D.C.: 81 total for 12.53 per 100K || Ownership rate: 25.9%
    Georgia: 411 total for 4.11 per 100K || Ownership rate: 31.6%
    Hawaiโ€™i: 6 total for 0.43 per 100K || Ownership rate: 45.1%
    Idaho: 15 total for 0.93 per 100K || Ownership rate: 56.9%
    Illinois: 364 total for 2.83 per 100K || Ownership rate: 26.2%
    Indiana: 238 total for 3.62 per 100K || Ownership rate: 33.8%
    Iowa: 18 total for 0.58 per 100K || Ownership rate: 33.8%
    Kansas: 78 total for 2.7 per 100K || Ownership rate: 32.2%
    Kentucky: 111 total for 2.53 per 100K || Ownership rate: 42.4%
    Louisiana: 356 total for 7.7 per 100K || Ownership rate: 44.5%
    Maine: 12 total for 0.9 per 100K || Ownership rate: 22.6%
    Maryland: 268 total for 4.52 per 100K || Ownership rate: 20.7%
    Massachusetts: 78 total for 1.17 per 100K || Ownership rate: 22.6%
    Michigan: 440 total for 4.44 per 100K || Ownership rate: 28.8%
    Minnesota: 60 total for 1.11 per 100K || Ownership rate: 36.7%
    Mississippi: 110 total for 3.68 per 100K || Ownership rate: 42.8%
    Missouri: 273 total for 4.52 per 100K || Ownership rate: 27.1%
    Montana: 9 total for 0.89 per 100K || Ownership rate: 52.3%
    Nebraska: 39 total for 2.09 per 100K || Ownership rate: 19.8%
    Nevada: 87 total for 3.12 per 100K || Ownership rate: 37.5%
    New Hampshire: 5 total for 0.38 per 100K || Ownership rate: 14.4%
    New Jersey: 291 total for 3.27 per 100K || Ownership rate: 11.3%
    New Mexico: 59 total for 2.83 per 100K || Ownership rate: 49.9%
    New York: 362 total for 1.84 per 100K || Ownership rate: 10.3%
    North Carolina: 315 total for 3.2 per 100K || Ownership rate: 28.7%
    North Dakota: 4 total for 0.55 per 100K || Ownership rate: 47.9%
    Ohio: 309 total for 2.67 per 100K || Ownership rate: 19.6%
    Oklahoma: 127 total for 3.3 per 100K || Ownership rate: 31.2%
    Oregon: 43 total for 1.09 per 100K || Ownership rate: 26.6%
    Pennsylvania: 440 total for 3.44 100K || Ownership rate: 27.1%
    Rhode Island: 18 total for 1.71 per 100K || Ownership rate: 14.4%
    South Carolina: 224 total for 4.69 per 100K || Ownership rate: 44.4%
    South Dakota: 3 total for 0.36 per 100K || Ownership rate: 35.0%
    Tennessee: 223 total for 3.43 per 100K || Ownership rate: 39.4%
    Texas: 760 total for 2.87 per 100K || Ownership rate: 35.7%
    Utah: 31 total for 1.07 per 100K || Ownership rate: 31.9%
    Vermont: 5 total for 0.8 per 100K || Ownership rate: 28.8%
    Virginia: 225 total for 2.72 per 100K || Ownership rate: 29.3%
    Washington: 86 total for 1.23 per 100K || Ownership rate: 27.7%
    West Virginia: 30 total for 1.62 per 100K || Ownership rate: 54.2%
    Wisconsin: 103 total for 1.80 per 100K || Ownership rate: 34.7%
    Wyoming: 9 total for 1.54 per 100K || Ownership rate: 53.8%

    Most dangerous states, homicides committed with firearms

    Top 10

    1. Washington, D.C. โ€“ 12.53 per 100K || Ownership rate: 25.9%
    2. Louisiana โ€“ 7.7 per 100K || Ownership rate: 44.5%
    3. South Carolina โ€“ 4.69 per 100K || Ownership rate: 44.4%
    4. Maryland โ€“ 4.52 per 100K || Ownership rate: 20.7%
    5. Missouri โ€“ 4.52 per 100K || Ownership rate: 27.1%
    6. Michigan โ€“ 4.44 per 100K || Ownership rate: 28.8%
    7. Georgia โ€“ 4.11 per 100K || Ownership rate: 31.6%
    8. Arkansas โ€“ 3.72 per 100K || Ownership rate: 57.9%
    9. Mississippi โ€“ 3.68 per 100K || Ownership rate: 42.8%
    10. Indiana โ€“ 3.62 per 100K || Ownership rate: 33.8%

    avg. 5.35 per 100K @ 35.75%

    11. Delaware: 3.56 per 100K || Ownership rate: 5.2%
    12. Pennsylvania: 3.44 per 100K || Ownership rate: 27.1%
    13. Tennessee: 3.43 per 100K || Ownership rate: 39.4%
    14. Oklahoma: 3.3 per 100K || Ownership rate: 31.2%
    15. New Jersey: 3.27 per 100K || Ownership rate: 11.3%
    16. North Carolina: 3.2 per 100K || Ownership rate: 28.7%
    17. California: 3.19 per 100K || Ownership rate: 20.1%
    18. Nevada: 3.12 per 100K || Ownership rate: 37.5%
    19. Texas: 2.87 per 100K || Ownership rate: 35.7%
    20. Illinois: 2.83 per 100K || Ownership rate: 26.2%
    21. New Mexico: 2.83 per 100K || Ownership rate: 49.9%
    22. Arizona: 2.78 per 100K || Ownership rate: 32.3%
    23. Virginia: 2.72 per 100K || Ownership rate: 29.3%
    24. Kansas: 2.7 per 100K || Ownership rate: 32.2%

    avg. 3.09 per 100K @ 29.01%

    Bottom 25

    25. Ohio: 2.67 per 100K || Ownership rate: 19.6%
    26. Kentucky: 2.53 per 100K || Ownership rate: 42.4%
    27. Nebraska: 2.09 per 100K || Ownership rate: 19.8%
    28. New York: 1.84 per 100K || Ownership rate: 10.3%
    29. Wisconsin: 1.80 per 100K || Ownership rate: 34.7%
    30. Rhode Island: 1.71 per 100K || Ownership rate: 14.4%
    31. Connecticut: 1.67 per 100K || Ownership rate: 16.6%
    32. Colorado: 1.67 per 100K || Ownership rate: 34.3%
    33. Alaska: 1.63 per 100K || Ownership rate: 61.7%
    34. West Virginia: 1.62 per 100K || Ownership rate: 54.2%
    35. Wyoming: 1.54 per 100K || Ownership rate: 53.8%
    36. Washington: 1.23 per 100K || Ownership rate: 27.7%
    37. Massachusetts: 1.17 per 100K || Ownership rate: 22.6%
    38. Minnesota: 1.11 per 100K || Ownership rate: 36.7%
    39. Oregon: 1.09 per 100K || Ownership rate: 26.6%

    avg. 1.69 per 100K @ 31.69%

    Bottom 10

    40. Utah โ€“ 1.07 per 100K || Ownership rate: 31.9%
    41. Idaho โ€“ 0.93 per 100K || Ownership rate: 56.9%
    42. Maine โ€“ 0.9 per 100K || Ownership rate: 22.6%
    43. Montana โ€“ 0.89 per 100K || Ownership rate: 52.3%
    44. Vermont โ€“ 0.8 per 100K || Ownership rate: 28.8%
    45. Iowa โ€“ 0.58 per 100K || Ownership rate: 33.8%
    46. North Dakota โ€“ 0.55 per 100K || Ownership rate: 47.9%
    47. Hawaiโ€™i โ€“ 0.43 per 100K || Ownership rate: 45.1%
    48. New Hampshire โ€“ 0.38 per 100K || Ownership rate: 14.4%
    49. South Dakota โ€“ 0.36 per 100K || Ownership rate: 35.0%

    avg. 0.69 per 100K @ 36.89%

    National average: 2.54 per 100K @ 32.8%

    https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/tables/5tabledatadecpdf/table_5_crime_in_the_united_states_by_state_2013.xls

    https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/tables/table-20/table_20_murder_by_state_types_of_weapons_2013.xls

    http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/early/2015/06/09/injuryprev-2015-041586.full.pdf?keytype=ref&ijkey=doj6vx0laFZMsQ2

    And, now, for a graphical representation of the above data. Almost ZERO correlation between gun ownership and homicide rates.

    http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p199/LewisAcid/Data/GunHomicideRate_vs_GunOwnershipRate.png

    Note: r^2 = -0.0096

    http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504851.2013.854294

    • The problem with state-level analysis, is that states in the US are the size of countries, and even the little ones are big enough to house very different regional populations. City, or even County level stats are…jarringly enlightening, to put it mildly. These capture not only population density effects (crime opportunity), but also local economic effects (poverty/education/lawless culture/unique wealth generation), and of course demographic patterns (not just racial, but also religious/national/etc common traits) making it much easier to tease out relationships between these powerful forces driving human behavior, but which are often rather jumbled when observed at the state level or higher. As you would imagine, it’s a lot harder to parse a dataset at that local level of granularity, however; I believe most of the public state level stats are driven by federal grant programs that require only that level of resolution, which is why the local numbers are harder to pin down.

      • Funny that you mention that. The FBI’s UCR tables do contain city-level data. Of course, to post all of that information at once would mean that this thread will be the equivalent of a full spiral notebook in length. It seems, based on demography and voting patterns, that the vast majority of the crime happens in just a few counties, within them concentrated in one or two cities, and at that can be narrowed down to just a few neighborhoods. This data isn’t exactly hard to find, just very tedious to lay out county-by-county and city-by-city. It’s just easier to do it at the state level because the numbers are easier to juggle and compare.

    • As the starting point for your analysis is the deeply flawed ownership rate data, I’m afraid your work is also deeply flawed. No conclusions based on that data can have validity.

      • That’s a fair point. However, in my defense, I am using the gun-grabber’s own data set. Like so much of their other work, it is deeply-flawed and has no validity outside of their echo chambers. I’m just showing how easy it is to use even their absurdly fallacious “research” to undermine literally everything that they say. ๐Ÿ˜‰

  4. OK, I admit it, I read Mike’s screed. And for the life of me I can’t figure out what he was trying to say–except that maybe safe gun storage laws are useless because bad people will do bad things with guns even if they’ve been safely locked in a safe. Which means? That we shouldn’t have any guns, I am supposing. Is this some kind of ,marketing ploy? Or has his business already tanked?

    • What I got out of the HuffPo piece is that science and physics don’t count; guns are the cause of gun violence. Somehow, guns, all by themselves, and without any interference from people, somehow get up from wherever they are (even safe storage), and shoot people.
      Personally, I’ve never seen that happen. I’ve never even heard of any reliable report of that happening. No where.
      But this guy believes that guns are sentient beings with the ability to act on their own.

  5. I don’t buy(get it?) the % who owns guns. I’ve never been polled and no one I know has been questioned. If I WAS I wouldn’t tell a pollster a damn thing. The spin never ends๐Ÿ˜ซ

    • My thoughts exactly. I know for a fact that 3 out of 4 California gun owners won’t say crap about their guns and the numbers that keep coming out are way off base.

      The article itself is isnt very well thought out either. It says that Wyoming has the highest NUMBER of gun owners rather than the highest admitted rate of gun ownership…. our (admitted) 20% of gun owners in California, in absolute numbers, dwarfs Wyoming by several orders of magnitude.

      • I’m inclined to believe a whole lot of folks who answer “no” to the question are flat lying when asked that by a pollster.

        And the ones doing the most lying are likely Leftist in political bias. They want their little Leftist buddies thinking they are “Good Progressives”…

      • The numbers could have something to do with the amount of violent leftists nearby. In Wyoming they probably think “yeah I own guns. Duh, what you gonna do about it?”. In Utah more of us would be inclined to say “no, no, no! No guns here. No need to come rob me or try and file some bs complaint to take me guns away.”

        I’ll tell anybody to there face I own guns. I’d never say it over the phone and probably not over some internet survey that had any info on me.

        • “…In Wyoming they probably think โ€œyeah I own guns. Duh, what you gonna do about it?โ€

          Exactly. ๐Ÿ™‚ I’d really like to see someone try to do a door to door “survey” of gun ownership here. Wouldn’t last long, but it might be very entertaining if they come out into the countryside. LOL

          But, unfortunately, the liberal and gun grabbing idiot population continues to swell in some places here in Wyoming. Cheyenne has always been the epicenter of political nonsense, and Laramie is the center of the rapidly deteriorating university and the snowflakes that inhabit such places. There are only three or four actual “cities” in this state, and all of them have become very bad places to live (or even visit) if you love liberty and expect to exercise your right to carry. But heck, it’s easy to avoid such cesspools. ๐Ÿ™‚

      • I know someone in California who is in blatant disregard of California’s gun laws.
        They don’t give a rip.
        Even though they voted Obama, both times, they don’t understand why the law would ever constrict them.
        They are conflicted democrats.
        I nudge them…

  6. I wonder if Gross’ resignation had anything to do with the fallout from his group’s representation and ultimate abandonment of plaintiffs in cases unsuccessfully attempting to do an end run around the federal protections of firearms manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. most publicly the Aurora parents who ended up owning a couple of hundred thousand dollars to the victim of their ill-advised lawsuit, a judgment Brady pointedly declined to pay.

    • “I wonder if Grossโ€™ resignation had anything to do with the fallout from his groupโ€™s representation and ultimate abandonment of plaintiffs…”

      Serious question, Mark –

      Outside of the mocking laughter from our side for them perusing those doomed lawsuits in the first place, from where would that “fallout” be coming from?

      Leftists *love* being the proverbial sacrificial lamb for stunts like that, it’s kind of a pride thing for them…

  7. I have to disagree with the number you show for Ca. Even in LA and surrounding counties, most households have at least 1 gun. If they count the homeless, homes with felons and illegal aliens as households that do(of course)not have firearms, that may be true. But we all know that many ex felons have a gun hidden away somewhere, as do many illegal aliens. They do have a point, also, the poor are the most likely to be robbed and abused.

      • Rules/laws regarding things like CHL are extremely illogical.
        Eighteen year olds can vote. But can’t hold a CCW ‘license?’
        I never quite got that logic.
        Ask anyone about how much stupid voters can destroy a country. If you’re a Dem, both Bush II and Trump demonstrate it. If you’re a Repug, Obama and Clinton demonstrate it. Either way, voting brings about the destruction of the country. So if we allow the 18s to vote, and they obviously do such a bad job of it, what’s the rationale behind restricting their second amendment rights? They are too stupid? WE LET THEM VOTE! And voting is far more dangerous.

        And I still keep clicking on “Notify me of follow-up comments by email,” which I guess shows my stupidity, since I know it still doesn’t work.

  8. What the hell is wrong with Nebraska?

    They know how to STFU better than their neighbors?
    Like the other comments state, I’m not believing the numbers.

    But it does seem feasible for the state of Oregon to have low gun ownership rates, there’s a lot of empty land in the state and a lot of Portholes living on the west coast. Why do you think Cali style laws pass so easily in Oregon?

    • Q: “Do you own *a* gun”?
      A: No sir, I don’t. Definitely don’t own *a* gun. Neither does the wife or any of my four kids. Nobody in this household owns *a* firearm.

  9. Living in the Peoples Demokratik State of Maryland and being a law-abiding citizen, I can only guess what or what not Tannerite will or not do. (My Independence Day display is exactly that – a display of my independence from the nanny-state buffoons in Annapolis.) Were I to decide that I’m not going to abide by yet another nanny-state rule and shoot at some Tannerite, I would likely do the same as I do with banned fireworks – have reasonable fire suppression equipment handy. After all, the only thing more motivating than full automatic fire is something explosive – and setting off an explosion with automatic fire is the ultimate!

    • And under 15% in NH; I’ll readily believe that’s the percentage who admitted to having a gun to some pollster on the telephone.

  10. Wait, what?
    “This study was performed using the 4000 respondents who were identified as a nationally representative cohort……Gun ownership was measured using six questions that asked status of gun ownership such as whether being a gun owner, the gun was gifted, bought before year 2000, bought after 2000, the gun was used for hunting, have attended gun safety classes and whether the owner advocated responsible gun ownership. We categorised the individual as a gun owner if they responded โ€˜yesโ€™ to any of these six questions.”

  11. “I unequivocally reject the nonsense that itโ€™s the โ€œpersonโ€ and not the โ€œgun.โ€”

    Someday I’d like to hear MW’s explanation for this.

    Are they really smart-but-evil guns just biding their time? Are they vessels of evil that compel their owners to do bad things? What? Because unless one invokes the supernatural or the super-high-tech, the gun is just a lump of metal, plastic and / or wood. Blaming human actions on an inanimate object is two short steps of “logic” from saying that nobody is ever responsible for anything they do.

    And if MW isn’t responsible for his own mouth, then I’d certainly like to know who is.

  12. And you are going to take the word of the democrat? Maybe the guy was dumb and maybe it never happened. Maybe he had a good reason like the demoncrat threatened him. Sounds like we are trusting the media and a demoncrat to tell the truth… That path is paved in disappointment.

  13. Good on those Taco folks. Quite a while ago, a guy walked into a Burger King here and slaughtered two employees.
    I think he was a disgruntled X employee, but who cares when you’re laying on a slab in the morgue. Oh, and I have been in the morgue here….many times. Not the place to be, its creepy. So carrying in a high risk environment seems prudent. BTW, the perps name in this case was Blake Pirtle and this was in Washington State.

  14. Nebraska isn’t lagging, not even close. These numbers are pulled from background check information, and Nebraska has this nifty $5 “Handgun Purchase Permit” scheme that can be used in lieu of a background check at point of sale.

    You just go to your local LEO, fill out one page of paperwork, and pick up your card the next day.

    Most people interested in guns get one, even if they have no intentions of buying a handgun, just for the convenience of it.

    Although it runs afoul of the strict principle of the Second, as it is technically “asking permission” to exercise your rights, pragmatically speaking the quick turnaround to actually get it coupled with the convenience of use makes most of us here glad we have it.

  15. It’s nice to read that the franchise owner of the Taco Bell is (at least so far) sticking up for his employees. One thing I do wonder though – the 19 year old. Many states require you to be at least 21 before you can carry a handgun. I’m wondering if that’s the case in Ohio, and if the 19 year might be in legal peril if not?

    • I was wondering the same thing, so I looked up Ohio’s CCW laws. Seems you have to be 21 to get a license to carry, so presumably the two 19-year-olds in that story could be in trouble if the police or prosecutor want to be dickbags about it.

    • Taco Bell and likely the parking lot it’s in are private property so the employees carrying guns is at the discretion of the property owner. As long as they follow transport laws or store the guns there (and it’ll be hard to prove they didn’t) they should be safe.

    • Maybe the 19-year-olds were carrying openly?

      Possession of a handgun by a person who is at least 18 but under 21 doesn’t seem to be a crime in Ohio – at least, not that I can find under chapter 2923 of the Ohio Revised Code.

      However, whoever furnished those 19-year-olds with the handguns might be in trouble (if that act happened in Ohio). With very limited exceptions, O.R.C. ยง 2923.21 seems to prohibit the sale or furnishing of a handgun to persons who are under the age of 21.

      • The news report used the word “carrying,” but we know reporters (and editors) are extremely careless when it comes to reporting about guns.
        It is entirely possible the 19-year-olds had their guns being carried openly, or even had them stashed somewhere close. No where did I see that they were carrying concealed.
        As for open carry, the definition (as with all laws concerning guns) will depend on who’s crafting the law, and their personal feelings about guns. In some places, if only a small part of the gun or holster is showing, it’s open carry. In other places, it needs to be a substantial part in view, or completely unobstructed (otherwise it’s “concealed”).
        As always, check your local laws.

  16. The myth that New Hampshire only has 14% ownership is laughable.

    If our ownership rate is less than 45% I’d be shocked. In my New Hampshire town, nearly everyone I know owns a gun. I own a hardware store which sells ammo… I know a lot of people and know that even the little old ladies in town own and/or carry guns.

    Just goes to show that surveys asking if people own guns don’t give good information. 14% of those of us in New Hampshire are willing to admit on some survey that we own a gun.

  17. No way NH is so low. I haven’t yet met a person who doesn’t have at least one gun in the house.
    Even the most rapidly anti-gun pro-Shillary (D)’s I’ve met still have a gun in the house. Albeit it’s never touched and they live in constant fear of it loading itself and murdering their family but they still have one tucked away somewhere. Usually it was grandpas and they have no idea what to do with it.

  18. NC under 30% seems to be quite low as well. We’ve had quite the influx of northeast and far west coast emigrants over the years which could explain things somewhat. But then again, nearly everyone I know (including my Yankee and Cali friends) has a firearm in the house. I grew up in Charlotte which is totally overrun by lefties now, as is Raleigh and Asheville. Still plenty of armed folks in those cities. But there is a lot of NC country between and beyond those cities and I’d be willing to bet that more than 1 outta 3 Tarheels are armed.

  19. RE the gun ownership survey: No way that Hawaii has a higher rate of gun ownership than TX! That should debunk the survey right there. But then you have them reporting New Mexico at nearly 50%, despite their squishy gun laws compared to their neighbors.

    Oh, and good on the Taco Bell employees. Surprising that three of them were carrying, but good for them. I hope that the 19-y.o. that was involved won’t face any charges, in light of the situation.

  20. Experience tells me that the number for tx is likely closer to 75%. No body polled me or my neighbors to ask if we have guns or how many. I think you have to take into account gun owners aren’t gonna tell someone they don’t know over the phone how many guns they have or if they have one. I’ve heard the I lost them in a tornado, boating accident,etc

  21. This entire anti-gun report is flawed.

    “We used data from a nationally representative sample of 4000 US adults, from 50 states and District of Columbia, aged
    >18 years to assess gun ownership and social gun culture performed in October 2013.”

    So that’s about 78.43137 per state, assuming equal distribution. Yeah, that’s a really big sample, not. The first two sentences of the report speak volumes as to the total lack of integrity:

    “Firearm violence in the USA continues to be a major public health concern.1 There is little question that the high prevalence of gun ownership in the USA contributes to the burden of firearm related injury.2”

    1 Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
    2 School of Public Health, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    At first glance I have a really tough time believing that gun control utopic Hawaii has almost twice the per capita ownership than extremely friendly Virginia, even considering all of the D.C. crowd populating NoVA.

  22. And what kind of moron, in 2013 no less, admits on the phone that they own a gun to a total stranger? Me thinks what this map shows is Democrat gun ownership only.

  23. 45% in Hawaii versus 37% in Texas? Only 54% in Wyoming, 57% in Idaho, 32% in Utah? Now that’s off the charts laughable. Maybe that’s how many people lied when asked by a stranger if they owned any guns. Enough said.

  24. I live in Nebraska. Trust me, this is BS. We have all the guns. We don’t talk to pollsters about our ammo stockpiles.

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