Open Season on KY Toddlers: 3 Shot Dead in 3 Weeks

But of course toddlers and children within a country mile of a gun are always in season.

From the Herald:

A 2-year-old child died after being accidentally shot by a sibling Tuesday in Western Kentucky.

The Barren County sheriff’s office said they were called to the home of an Amish family on Buck Creek Road after the shooting at about 8:45 a.m.

“The children had been sent upstairs to get some items for their parent prior to the incident taking place,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article217813570.html#storylink=cpy

The sheriff’s office said the juvenile sibling had been handling a loaded rifle when the toddler was shot. The child was pronounced dead at the scene.

It was the third fatal shooting of a small child in Kentucky in less than a month.

On Friday, a 3-year-old Harlan County boy died after sustaining a gunshot wound to the head on his front porch in the Totz community.

 

A 2-year-old boy died Aug. 15 after shooting himself in the head in Louisville.

A Herald-Leader investigation last year found that at least 36 Kentucky children had accidentally shot themselves or another child over the previous five years.

Send This Candidate ALL THE MONEY

Do it now.

Whether Pat Davis wins or loses, he's causing a bit of a stir in New Mexico with his rather blunt message for the NRA.

And from a quirk of election law, stations are not allowed to censor political ads, so his 15-second spot airs as is, without any bleeps.

Source: KRQE, Albuquerque

ALBUQUERQUE, NM (KRQE) - People see a lot of outrageous political ads, but it's not usually the language that's controversial.

Albuquerque City Councilor Pat Davis wants people to see his congressional campaign spot in which the Democrat uses profanity to get the viewers' attention.

"F*** the NRA," Davis says to start off his 15-second ad. "Their program policies have resulted in dead children, dead mothers and dead fathers. I'm Pat Davis and I approve this message because if Congress won't change our gun laws, we're changing Congress."

"I think the only people who are going to be offended are the NRA," Davis argued when asked about the ad Thursday.

Oh, please let this start a rude ads arms race among Democratic candidates.

Too Easy

Here's the question I want someone to ask the human simalcrum whose name, thanks to Dan Savage, means "frothy mixture of semen, lube and feces."

"Given your insistence that the only allowable sex is procreative sex, and given that your wife is post-menopausal, are you now celibate and if not, who or what are you fucking?"

Read it at LGM.

They Know, They Just Don't Care

Kentucky repugs have solved the problem of school shootings:  MOAR GUNS IN SCHOOLS.

Of course they know it will only make things worse.  They don't care.  The lives of Kentucky kids are irrelevant next to the danger of gun manufacturers losing a single sale to a guy wearing a T-shirt that reads "I needs gunz to massacre kindergartners."

Oh, and also babby jeebus.

However, almost all the gun legislation filed so far this session would expand access to guns in schools, including one bill that would allow guns on university campuses, and another that would allow unlicensed guns in public.

 Meanwhile, the Kentucky leader of an anti-gun violence movement said the Florida school shooting — just a few weeks after two students were killed at Marshall County High School in Western Kentucky— is another example of why such legislation should be tanked.

And Governor "No money for public schools, except assault weapons" is still parroting the NRA line.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article200319349.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article200319349.html#storylink=cpyMeanwhile, the Kentucky leader of an anti-gun violence movement said the Florida school shooting — just a few weeks after two students were killed at Marshall County High School in Western Kentucky— is another example of why such legislation should be tanked.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article200319349.html#storylink=cpy

 Meanwhile, the Kentucky leader of an anti-gun violence movement said the Florida school shooting — just a few weeks after two students were killed at Marshall County High School in Western Kentucky— is another example of why such legislation should be tanked.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article200319349.html#storylink=cpy

Only Gun Profits Matter

Tristero at Hullabaloo:

The NRA's Finest

Yeah, let's spend time and money trying to get votes from these folks.

Digby:

This story about the followers of Donald Trump's favorite conspiracy theorist Alex Jones attacking the victims of the Las Vegas massacre makes me believe this country is doomed. It is so, so awful that it's hard to believe we'll come through this without something catastrophic happening:

Via The Guardian:

Braden Matejka survived a bullet to the head in the Las Vegas massacre. Then, the death threats started coming.

“You are a lying piece of shit and I hope someone truly shoots you in the head,” a commenter wrote to Matejka on Facebook, one week after a gunman killed 58 people and injured hundreds more. “Your soul is disgusting and dark! You will pay for the consequences!” said another. A Facebook meme quickly spread with a photo of him after the shooting, captioned: “I’m a lying cunt!”

The 30-year-old victim – who narrowly escaped death in the worst mass shooting in modern US history – has faced a torrent of online abuse and harassment, forcing him to shut down his social media accounts and disappear from the internet. The bullying, taunting and graphic threats have also spread to his family and friends.

“There are all these families dealing with likely the most horrific thing they’ll ever experience, and they are also met with hate and anger and are being attacked online about being a part of some conspiracy,” said Taylor Matejka, Braden’s brother, who shared with the Guardian dozens of screenshots of the abuse. “It’s madness. I can’t imagine the thought process of these people. Do they know that we are actual people?”

Conspiracy theorists – some of whom claim that the government staged the shooting on 1 October or that the tragedy was a hoax – have targeted survivors and victims’ loved ones, spamming every social media platform with misinformation and abuse. On Facebook and YouTube in particular, users have published viral posts and videos calling people like Braden “crisis actors”, alleging they were hired to pose as victims.

Make Guns As Uncool As Smoking

Smokes aren't in the Constitution - although neither is the word "gun" - but social opproprium is a powerful force.  I am old enough to remember when people smoked unrestricted everywhere - planes, offices, schools - and anyone who dared suggest the smoker put it out was ignored as a rude freak.

It wasn't that long ago that no one would bet against Big Tobacco prevailing against even the hint of regulation.

But anti-tobacco advocates kept working, starting with local ordinances and then statewide anti-smoking laws, mostly in northern blue states.  Never happen in tobacco country, I scoffed.  And then Lexington, KY - burley tobacco capitol of the universe - banned smoking in restaurants and suddenly it was game over.

The tipping point won't be another gun massacre - we've proven we don't give a shit about those.  The tipping point will be the Surgeon General declaring guns a national health crisis.

Michael Maiello at TPM:

“Sorry, I can’t bring my kids to your place if there are unsecured guns in the house.”

“Thanks for coming over. Do you mind leaving your shoes in the hallways and your pistol off my property?”

“I can’t stay over if you keep a gun in the bedroom, especially if we’ve been drinking. Guns make things less safe when the lights go out.”

It’s surprisingly easy to imagine a society where gun ownership is looked down upon, if not scorned outright. This already happened with smoking, at least partly as a result of a public education campaign aimed at young people, and it happened when polite society finally came down against people flying the Confederate flag after the Charleston church shootings this year. Sometimes, when legislative action is difficult or downright impossible, a cultural approach works to curtail dangerous behaviors.

In short, we can make gun ownership uncool.

SNIP

Like cigarettes, guns are big business. Smith & Wesson has a $1 billion market capitalization and a CEO who made $1.9 million last year, Sturm, Ruger & Co. has a $1.1 billion market cap and a CEO who made more than $1.1 million in the latest fiscal year. The National Rifle Association boasts 4.5 million members and regularly takes in contributions approaching $100 million a year, in addition to its program revenues. In short, guns are part of the establishment and people who spend money on them are no more iconoclasts than people who fork over money to Phillip Morris on a daily basis.

Like the tobacco industry, the gun industry has obfuscated about the safety dangers of its products. It has sold a fantasy of self- and home-protection that is out of touch with reality. And like tobacco companies, the industry aggressively markets to young people. A presentation by Smith & Wesson from March 2015 says that two thirds of new shooters are 18-34 years old, that a quarter of first time purchases by a second gun within a year, and that 60 percent of new shooters are buying for personal defense or security.

Of course. when Smith & Wesson presents, it talks about marketing to younger adults. In many parts of the country (including New Mexico, where I grew up and was first told a rifle was “mine” before I was 10) kids take ownership of guns well before they can drive. Keystone Sporting Arms still advertises its Crickett .22 caliber weapon as “My First Rifle” even after a five-year-old Kentucky boy killed his two-year-old sister with the single shot rifle he had received as a birthday present. They also offer a youth-rifle called the “Chipmunk,” named for what kids are supposed to shoot with it.

The defense angle (whether self or society) is particularly vulnerable to clever media rebuke. There are the scores of dead children who have managed to get hold of the weapons kept by relatives. There are the sad tales of Oscar Pistorius and George Zimmerman. There was the well-intentioned gun owner who, during the heat of the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, nearly shot an innocent bystander. There is probably no end of military and police veterans, highly trained and skilled with firearms, who will testify how even the most practiced shooter is vulnerable to involuntary behaviors during the height of a threat.

The gun industry has also made itself vulnerable to outright ridicule by opposing the most common sense reforms. The NRA opposes biometric trigger locks, for example, that would render weapons useless to anyone but authorized users because it fears it will lead to a ban on existing guns without such locks. The industry also opposes requiring gun owners to carry liability insurance. PSAs on such issues are unlikely to sway the current generation of gun enthusiasts but, as with smoking, it might be possible to get young people thinking early and viewing both the industry and culture of gun ownership more skeptically.

On the legislative front it seems America has made its choice and there is little chance for legal reform in the near future except at the margins deemed acceptable by the gun industry and a current generation of gun owners who believe that "things happen" is an appropriate reaction to gun deaths. When lawmakers can't lead, a social solution is certainly worth a shot.

Responsible KY 2-year-old gun wielder shoots mother

Again, there is no such thing as a gun "accident." A shooting may not be premeditated, but any gun discharge is the result of deliberate actions by the owner of the gun, in this case leaving it loaded with the safety off in the reach of a child.

Child endangerment is the least of it. How about felony charges for leaving a loaded gun anywhere, anytime, beyond the immediate possession of its owner?  How about requiring all firearms to have true "safeties" that disable them when not in the owner's possession? How about showing some fucking sense?

 

WAVE-3:

Police say a woman is expected to be OK after she was accidentally shot by her 2-year-old son Saturday night.

The shooting was reported on Sunset Court, off New La Grange Road, around 9:30 p.m. The child was not hurt, according to police spokeswoman Alicia Smiley.

Three people were in the residence at the time, Smiley said. The mother, believed to be in her 30s, was taken to the hospital with injuries that are not expected to be life-threatening.

It is not clear how the child managed to get to the gun. Police are still investigating the incident.

The New Second Amendment

ummagumma.co:

(Source: livealifethatscompletelyfree, via redakota)

KY's Not Guns-Everywhere Georgia - Yet

But if an asshole with an assault rifle - oops, that's redundant - bumped into you in the Kroger parking lot, and you told him to take his substitute penis back home, and he shot you dead on stand-your-ground, do you really think a Kentucky jury would convict him, if he were even arrested?

No, it wouldn't.

Mike Wynn at the Courier:

The number of gun permits issued in Kentucky has quadrupled over the past 10 years, thanks in part to at least a dozen measures the General Assembly has passed to ease restrictions in the state's concealed carry law.

State police issued 59,530 concealed-carry licenses in 2013, a 447 percent increase from the 10,884 that were given out in 2004. More than twice as many people received a permit last year as compared to 2012, when a school shooting in Newtown, Conn., raised fears of tightened gun laws.

Meanwhile, the state legislature has passed at least a dozen measures over the past decade — often with support from the National Rifle Association — to speed up the application process and gradually give permit-holders more flexibility.

Because FREEDUMBZ!

From Hullabaloo:

Is the NRA Behind the Epidemic of Taser Deaths?

Because I can't think of anything more likely to make people distrust the police to the point of collecting a gun arsenal to protect themselves.


Diane Sweet at Crooks and Liars:

[Caution: This video is very graphic and may be difficult for some to watch.]

No one seems to know why 44-year-old Michael Ruiz was on the roof of his apartment building on July 28th, but when Phoenix police arrived to help him down, that day took a horrific turn for the worse.

As I noted above, the video is hard to watch. It shows Ruiz on the roof of his apartment complex, and after he jumps down, police officers converge and repeatedly Taser him, put him in a choke hold for at least three minutes, then finally his hands and feet were handcuffed, and he is dragged -- face down -- down a flight of concrete stairs. Some witnesses say they saw police use a stun gun on Michael several times while he was still on the roof.

"Many of Michael's neighbors witnessed everything and recorded it all on their phones.

Gary Carthen was good friends with Michael, and witnessed it all.

"This was bad, very bad. Because he didn't deserve that to happen, not like that," he said.

Carthen and his neighbors want answers. Verna Young says you could hear his head banging on the stairs as police dragged him down.

"I started crying 'cause that's not right, to hurt nobody like that," she said. "He didn't deserve that. He was a nice person, very nice."'

Richard Erickson, Michael's father and retired LAPD detective told reporters that his son had some drug issues, but was never violent and respected police.

"I just felt sick to my stomach," he said, referring to the video. "I'd never seen anything like this before, even when I was with the police department."

Michael Ruiz had to be resuscitated at the scene, and when his family arrived at the hospital he was on life support. The doctors said that he was brain-dead. Family members removed him from life-support on August 2nd.

Erickson has hired an attorney and wants the officers involved fired.

"I don't want to see anyone else's son killed like this," he said.

"I think the video speaks for itself," said attorney Jocquese Blackwell, who has been hired by the family to get to the bottom of what happened. "They believe the officers involved in this particular case went too far. They went outside their authority."

The family is not seeking legal action yet.

Ruiz left behind 2 children and a wife.

Here's an idea to create jobs: a massive national program to train every single cop in the country on non-violent methods of dealing with  non-violent people and situations.

Make receipt of that sweet Homeland Security cash contingent on completing the training. And make loss of that funding the consequence for violating non-violent protocols.

Protect Your School: Fire Guards and Hire Art Teachers

Proof it works, via Firedoglake:

Roxbury’s Orchard Gardens public school was ranked in the bottom five of MA’s public schools until a new principal came along, fired the security guards and hired arts teachers.  Today it has “one of the fastest student improvement rates statewide”. Great story.

The NRA's Personal Responsibility for the Murdered MIT Police Officer

Let's make it simple: if a corporation or organization is enough of a constitutional "person" to exercise free speech and the right to buy the Congress of its choice, then it's enough of a constitutional "person" to get its executives thrown in prison for murder.

Down with Tyranny:

The inability to quickly track the gunpowders in the Boston bombs is due to government policy designed and promoted by the NRA, which has found a way to transform every massacre associated with weapons into an opportunity for the munitions companies that sustain it to sell more guns, gunpowder and bullets.

The price for such delays was put on terrible display Friday morning when the two brothers, who had been caught on video placing the bombs, killed one police officer, wounded another and carjacked a motorist, creating conditions so unsafe that the 7th largest population center in America spent Friday on lockdown.

But for the NRA-backed policy of not putting identifiers known as taggants in gunpowder, law enforcement could have quickly identified the explosives used to make the bombs, tracking them from manufacture to retail sale. That could well have saved the life of Sean Collier, the 26-year-old MIT police officer who was gunned down Thursday night by the fleeing bomb suspects.

"Cold Dead Hands"

scarce at Crooks and Liars:

Almost as soon as it went up yesterday the knives --or guns-- were out for Jim Carrey with this one.

va NBC

In a biting "Hee-Haw" themed Funny or Die spoof, the outspoken comedian takes aim at America's "heartless" gun enthusiasts -- including Charlton Heston, the late actor and former NRA president.

Carrey performed double duty in the video, as both Heston and the twangy lead singer of the band performing the catchy "Cold Dead Hand." (The title is an allusion to Heston's rifle-toting 2000 NRA address, in which he referenced the famous slogan "I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands."

"Charlton Heston movies are no longer in demand, and his immortal soul may lay forever in the sand. The angels wouldn't take him up to heaven like he planned, because they couldn't pry the gun from his cold dead hand," Carrey sings, with help from famous peace advocates Mahatma Gandhi, John Lennon and Abraham Lincoln -- all peace promoters assassinated by gunmen.
The lyrics also hit male gun owners below the belt, suggesting that they are overcompensating for an anatomical deficiency:

"You're a big, big man with a little bitty gland, so you need something bigger with a hairpin trigger."

Carrey seems unrepentant.

'Cold Dead Hand' is abt u heartless motherf%ckers unwilling 2 bend 4 the safety of our kids.Sorry if you're offended… say.ly/jtu5rar
— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) March 24, 2013

Sanity Emerges on School Safety in Louisville

Kentucky is just 15 years removed from a mass shooting at one of our schools, and we know that neither armed guards nor armed teachers would have stopped it.

Antoinette Konz at the Courier:

Area educators and parents largely rejected a call by the National Rifle Association to place armed police officers in every school in America, saying it won’t solve the problem of gun violence in classrooms.“I support safety in our schools; however, no armed guard could have prevented the Newtown incident,”

Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday said. “The only way to deal with this issue is to address the many facets that create a culture of violence. We must address gun control, mental health, violence in media, including movies and video games, and other related issues in order to combat this culture of violence.”

Did you catch that?  Kentucky's Education Commissioner Terry Holliday used the words "gun control."  He used them in a way that could be interpreted as positive, as a thing to be achieved, not avoided.

There is hope of sanity, boys and girls, even in Red State America.

Rabid Ferret is Rabid

Seriously, if you need me to explain to you what is so wrong with the NRA's guns-and-only-guns-for-everybody-all-the-time, you need to go read other blogs, because this one is over your head.

This, however, makes a great deal of sense.

 

Some Things to Keep in Mind During the NRA's Announcement Today

Besides the fact that everything the NRA says is a lie, including "and" and "the."

Think Progress:

Since 1982, the nation has experienced at least 62 mass murders in 30 states and in at least 49 cases, “the gunmen obtained the weapons legally, and the majority of those weapons used were semi-automatic.” 

One of them was the Heath High School shooting in Paducah, Kentucky in 1997.

A Mother Jones analysis of 61 mass murders over the last 30 years found that “in not a single case was the killing stopped by a civilian using a gun.” As one leading expert explained, “given that civilian shooters are less likely to hit their targets than police in these circumstances,” arming civilians could often lead to more chaos and deaths. 

Digby:

Oh, and one more thing:

The retail sale of machine guns has been barred by federal law since the gangster era, but at ALEC's "policy summit" in Scottsdale in December, 2011, the NRA successfully obtained the approval of the ALEC crime task force for a modified "model" bill that would ban cities from barring the sale of "machine guns," expressly. The Center for Media & Democracy documented this in its two-part special report on how the NRA's gun agenda has thrived while Koch Industries has helped lead ALEC through its seat on ALEC's corporate board and on its crime task force last year. (Koch continues to bankroll and back ALEC.)

ALEC also strongly opposed the 1994 "Assault Weapons Ban," which sought to prevent the U.S. sale of semi-automatic weapons, similar to the notorious AK-47 -- a rapid-fire style weapon that has been used in numerous mass murders in the U.S. That ban has since expired. ALEC also filed papers with the courts calling for city bans on guns to be struck down as unconstitutional. And, ALEC's move in January, 2012 to urge state legislators to prevent city officials from limiting access to machine guns comes in the wake of an earlier decision by new justices on the U.S. Supreme Court who struck down D.C.'s gun ban, in part at ALEC's request. 

The NRA's gun agenda helps protect and expand the market for the firearms sold by the weapons companies that bankroll its multi-million dollar lobbying and influence operations. Although ALEC's crime task force no longer officially exists, ALEC is doing nothing to undo the damage done through its many years of advancing the wish list of the gun industry through laws like SYG, pushing for guns on college campuses, and even opposing codes of conduct for gun makers and sellers.

Recent ALEC "Model" Bills on Guns"

• ALEC Resolution on McDonald vs. Chicago Exposed

• Campus Personal Protection Act Exposed

• Castle Doctrine Act Exposed

• Concealed Carry Outright Recognition Act Exposed

• Concealed Carry True Reciprocity Act Exposed

• Consistency in Firearms Regulation Act Exposed

• Criminal History Record Check for Firearm Sales Act Exposed

• Defense of Free Market and Public Safety Resolution Exposed

• Emergency Powers Firearm Owner Protection Act Exposed

• Resolution on Child Firearms Safety Exposed

• Resolution on Firearms Purchase Waiting Periods Exposed

• Resolution on Semicopy Exposed

• Resolution on the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution Exposed

• Youth Firearm Safety Resolution Exposed

At least some of those bills are likely to be introduced when the Kentucky General Assembly convenes the first week of January. Let's keep an eye out for them.

"Shut Down the Damned Pump"

The agents of mass distraction are hard at work, pulling us away from our proper objective.

Kevin Drum warns:

Don't let mental health or Grand Theft Auto distract you, no matter how worthy you think those topics are. If you want to get anything done, keep your focus on guns and nothing but guns.

And Steve M. sees the NRA on the road to victory:

So -- unless enough fed-up Americans make enough of a sustained, relentless, ongoing effort to push back -- when we talk about Newtown we're going to talk more about Django Unchained and R.D. Laing than we do about Bushmaster, thanks to the gun lobby and the GOP and Fox News. So be prepared.

But as usual, it's Digby who nails it:

Here is an interesting story for you to read today:

British doctor John Snow couldn’t convince other doctors and scientists that cholera, a deadly disease, was spread when people drank contaminated water until a mother washed her baby’s diaper in a town well in 1854 and touched off an epidemic that killed 616 people.
[...]
Dr. Snow believed sewage dumped into the river or into cesspools near town wells could contaminate the water supply, leading to a rapid spread of disease.

In August of 1854 Soho, a suburb of London, was hit hard by a terrible outbreak of cholera. Dr. Snows himself lived near Soho, and immediately went to work to prove his theory that contaminated water was the cause of the outbreak.

SNIP

On 7 September 1854, Snow took his research to the town officials and convinced them to take the handle off the pump, making it impossible to draw water. The officials were reluctant to believe him, but took the handle off as a trial only to find the outbreak of cholera almost immediately trickled to a stop. Little by little, people who had left their homes and businesses in the Broad Street area out of fear of getting cholera began to return.

It took many more years before it was widely accepted that cholera came from the water. (In fact, it took a priest trying to prove that it was God's will to finally do it!)

But here's the relevant takeaway: they didn't need to cure the disease to end the epidemic. What ended it was shutting down the pump.

Here's another story for you to think about today:

From 1984 to 1996, multiple killings (in Australia) aroused public concern. 

SNIP

The Port Arthur massacre in 1996 transformed gun control legislation in Australia. Thirty five people were killed and 21 wounded when a man with a history of violent and erratic behaviour beginning in early childhood opened fire on shop owners and tourists with two military style semi-automatic rifles. Six weeks after the Dunblane massacre in Scotland, this mass killing at the notorious former convict prison at Port Arthur horrified the Australian public and had powerful political consequences. 

SNIP

Prime Minister John Howard, then newly elected, immediately took the gun law proposals developed from the report of the 1988 National Committee on Violence and forced the states to adopt them under a National Firearms Agreement.

SNIP 

This did not solve the problem of mental illness or end the primitive capacity of human beings to commit murder and mayhem. Those are huge problems that their society, like all societies, is still grappling with every day. But it did end the epidemic of mass shootings. They have not had even one since then.

The lesson is this: End the epidemic and then we can --- and must --- talk about root causes and mental health facilities and our violent culture. But first things first --- shut down the damned pump.

Stop the Bullshit: The NRA is to Blame

If you don't get that, you're to blame, too, and you can sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up until we get some serious fucking gun-control laws in this country.

As for Jay Carney: No, you lying motherfucker, now IS the day to talk about gun control. Every day will be THE DAY to talk about strict federal gun control and nothing else until this administration shoves those laws down Congress' throats.

Down with Tyranny has the details on who in Congress the NRA has bought, and how much they paid. 



If repealing the second amendment is what it takes, fine. Do it.
See also Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money. 

And finally: Stop Fucking Praying and Start Fucking Working for Gun Control.