Americans want safety from guns

When it comes to common-sense gun regulation, Washington and the American people are living on different planets.

Fully 92% of the voters surveyed in a new poll — including 86% of registered Republicans — support mandating background checks before gun purchases.

But Congress has stubbornly refused to extend this most basic precaution against gun violence to all firearms sales.

So the federal law that requires instant background checks in licensed gun stores continues to exempt gun shows and private deals, which account for an estimated 40% of all weapons sales.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/people-article-1.1859526

In what states are guns most likely, and least likely, to kill people? Every day in America, nearly 90 people are killed by guns, a total of roughly 32,000 annually, according to federal gun violence statistics.

But blue states are far safer than red states, according new analyses of the most recent data. That’s because states with the most gun controls, which are almost all blue, tend to have fewer gun owners and fewer guns used in suicides, crime and domestic disputes.

Nearly two-thirds of all gun deaths are suicides. There, states with the highest gun ownership rates and loosest laws have the highest percentages of deaths this way. Otherwise, poverty is a major factor, correlating with gun violence.

“The five states with the highest per capita gun death rates in 2011 were Louisiana, Mississippi, Alaska, Wyoming, and Montana,” the Violence Policy Center (VPC) said in its latest analysis of federal statistics. “Each of these states has extremely lax gun violence prevention laws as well as a higher rate of gun ownership. The state with the lowest gun death rate in the nation was Rhode Island, followed by Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey. Each of these states has strong gun violence prevention laws and has a lower rate of gun ownership.”

http://www.salon.com/2014/07/04/10_states_where_guns_are_most_and_least_likely_to_kill_people_partner/

Ballistics experts said Monday that it may be difficult to determine who fired the errant shot that paralyzed a father of four on the Fourth of July in Charlotte because some bullets can travel up to several miles.

“I cannot imagine being able to solve that case,” said Gregory D. Lee, a criminal justice consultant and expert witness from California. “Who knows where that bullet came from?”

Brandon Yam, 47, was selling food and drinks with his wife and two of his children at a festival celebrating the opening of the Cambodian Buddhist Temple, at 219 Owen Blvd. in Charlotte.

About 9 p.m., as people at the temple started shooting off fireworks, Yam started to pack up his supplies to go home, his family said.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/07/07/5029597/experts-stray-bullet-that-injured.html

POCATELLO — A local man is facing a felony charge of aggravated assault after he allegedly brandished and pointed a handgun at customers and employees of the Chalk Horse in Pocatello.

Lt. Paul Manning, of the Pocatello Police Department, said the incident occurred during the early morning hours of June 22 when Omar E. Mahmoud and another person reportedly got into a verbal altercation. Both were asked to leave the establishment.

Manning says witness accounts in police reports suggest that Mahmoud got in his car and drove down the alley behind the Chalk Horse, employees believing he had left. But he came back to the establishment, entering from that alley area at around 2:30 a.m.

“A few minutes later he came walking back from the alley holding a gun in his hand,” Manning said, reading from the report. “He allegedly pointed the gun toward patrons in the parking lot.”

http://www.idahostatejournal.com/members/man-accused-of-brandishing-handgun-in-pocatello-bar/article_bc43c876-028d-11e4-ade2-001a4bcf887a.html

A Pulaski County man was arrested after he allegedly fired shots and brandished a rifle at neighbors, police said.

Dennis Ward, 66, of Burnside, was arrested Sunday afternoon on two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, the Pulaski County sheriff's office said.

David Moore told deputies that Ward fired several shots Saturday near Moore's home on County Road, according to the sheriff's office. Moore stated that when he went outside to see what was happening, Ward allegedly pointed the rifle at him and threatened to kill Moore and his girlfriend, deputies said.

http://www.kentucky.com/2014/07/07/3326179/burnside-man-fires-rifle-points.html

Today, after yet another school shooting, some gun nuts with access to Twitter barfed out one of their three or four defensive responses in these situations by channeling Charlton Heston and daring the vast expanse of the internet to take their guns away. One guy on Twitter found these people—some who had tweeted these sentiments before today—and told them that he was going to take their guns. It was so simple, yet so funny.

rob whisman @robwhisman
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@wes_bear i took your guns while your were at work today. you're down to zero guns
6:02 PM - 10 Jun 2014



rob whisman @robwhisman
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@bigobigcat i have your guns. i took them and they are in my shed
5:59 PM - 10 Jun 2014

http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/man-on-twitter-deftly-trolls-gun-nuts-1588958145

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court will consider whether convicted felons have the right to claim immunity under the state's "stand your ground" self-defense law — even if they are barred from possessing guns in the first place.

Justices agreed this week to hear the case of Brian Bragdon, who was charged in Palm Beach County with two counts of attempted first-degree murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle, discharging a firearm from a vehicle and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to court documents.

According to the Palm Beach Post, Bragdon was arrested in 2012 after he shot another man outside a strip club in suburban West Palm Beach.

An arrest affidavit, the newspaper reported, showed Bragdon and a group of other patrons got involved in a fight inside the club. The altercation continued outside and investigators said they later found 40 shell casings.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/state-high-court-to-rule-does-stand-your-ground-protect-felons-who-shoot/2187242

Colorado gun laws that mandate background checks on private sales and that limit ammunition magazines to 15 rounds are constitutional, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

The state's Democratic-majority legislature passed the measures last year in reaction to the 2012 mass killings at a Denver-area movie theater and the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. In a backlash by voters, two Democratic senators subsequently were recalled and a third resigned.

In her 50-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger wrote "evidence shows that large-capacity magazines are frequently used in gun violence and mass shootings, and that often a shooter will shoot continuously until a weapon jams or the shooter runs out of ammunition."

"Most experts agree that the size of a magazine correlates to the number of rounds that are fired in both an offensive and defensive capacity," she added.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/26/colorado-guns-background-checks-ammunition/11425105/

The Louisiana Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a state law that forbids felons from possessing firearms, ruling that lawmakers did not intend to invalidate the state’s weapons laws when they proposed a constitutional amendment declaring gun ownership a fundamental right.

Justice Jeff Hughes wrote in a unanimous opinion that the state’s ban on the possession of firearms by convicted felons “is not affected” by the constitutional language approved by voters in 2012.

The justices also found that the law, R.S. 1495.1, withstood a legal test known as “strict scrutiny,” the highest level of judicial review, which became necessary after voters in 2012 overwhelmingly approved constitutional language that gave Louisiana the strongest gun-rights laws in the nation.

“Such laws are effective, time-tested and easily understandable, and do not violate the constitution,” Hughes wrote in the 16-page opinion. “Common sense and the public safety allow no other result.”

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/9615293-171/la-supreme-court-upholds-gun

Our policy:

We want to help keep people safe both online and offline, so we don't allow the promotion of some products or services that cause damage, harm, or injury.

Here are some examples of products and services that we consider to be dangerous:

Guns & parts

Disapproval and suspension reason: "Guns & parts"

Functional devices that appear to discharge a projectile at high velocity, whether for sport, self-defense, or combat (Note that we err on the side of caution and apply this policy to sporting or recreational guns that can cause serious harm if misused, or that appear to be real guns.)

Examples: Handguns, rifles, shotguns, hunting guns, functioning antique guns, airsoft guns, paintball guns, bb guns

Any part or component that's necessary to the function of a gun or intended for attachment to a gun

Examples: Gun scopes, ammunition, ammunition clips or belts

https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/6014299?hl=en