2013 America (and Friends!) Gun Violence Thread No Plows Allowed!

[archibaldcrane]

Someone can post the text I'm on my phone

Man shot in head, killed, after pulling into the wrong driveway; http://nbcnews.to/WOwnhR

It's ok Rhino, he was just doing what the Milwaukee County sheriff told him to do:

http://nbclatino.com/2013/01/29/geor...ay-police-say/

Wisconsin sheriff's warning: Arm yourself, we might not get there in time

A sheriff in Wisconsin has made a radio ad counseling residents to have a gun and know how to use it. He says it's a necessary warning, critics say it is irresponsible.

By Mark Guarino | Christian Science Monitor – Mon, Jan 28, 2013

A top law-enforcement official in Wisconsin is telling gun owners that, when faced with a violent criminal in their home, they should no longer just rely on dialing 911, but should take matter into their own hands.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke has attracted national attention by releasing a 30-second radio spot in which he tells the public they are needed “in the game” of personal protection.

“With officers laid-off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option. You can beg for mercy from a violent criminal, hide under the bed, or you can fight back; but are you prepared? Consider taking a certified safety course in handling a firearm so you can defend yourself until we get there. You have a duty to protect yourself and your family. We’re partners now,” he says.

Wisconsin has a “castle doctrine" law, which makes it legal for gun owners to kill or maim an intruder to their home. So Sheriff's Clarke plea has the force of law behind it. What makes his actions so unusual is the fact that he – as a sheriff – is essentially telling his citizens not to depend on the police.

“It’s highly irregular. Most law enforcement professionals will not encourage people to pick up their guns and engage in vigilante justice," says Randolph McLaughlin, a civil rights attorney in Manhattan and a professor at Pace University Law School. "What [Clarke] is saying is that ‘we in law enforcement are unable to protect you, so do what you need to do.’ It’s an extremely dangerous proposition to encourage citizens who have no law-enforcement training to use their weapons.”

The comments have resonance beyond Wisconsin. In all, 48 states have either a castle doctrine law or its variant – a "stand your ground" law that allows the use of deadly force outside one’s private property if a person feels threatened and cannot retreat – according to a 2012 study by Texas A&M University. Moreover, in the wake of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., Clarke's comments play into the national conversation about how involved a community should be in arming and protecting itself.
Clarke first agreed to talk to the Monitor for this story Monday but subsequently declined, citing a busy schedule.

Clarke defended the spot Monday morning, telling Fox News that “personal safety is a personal responsibility.… The police are not omnipresent. We can't be there all the time and sometimes we can't be there as fast as we'd like.”

Many law-enforcement experts suggest that studies show smarter police strategies and technology are more effective in reducing crime than more cops on the street. A better way of soliciting the help of the public might be to encourage residents “to be the eyes and the ears of the police” so law enforcement can help determine where to place their resources, says Tod Burke, a former police officer in Maryland who now teaches criminal justice at Radford University in Virginia.

He says Clarke’s campaign “could be a political ploy to make the statement he wants more police officers. I think arming citizens could possibly become a problem for police.”
Clarke has pushed for harsher sentencing guidelines and fewer restrictions on gun ownership since first being elected Milwaukee County sheriff in 2002. Last month, he called for the arming of teachers in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings. He is current serving his third term.

Wisconsin’s castle doctrine law was signed in December 2011. States' castle doctrine laws vary. Some extend the right to deadly force beyond the home into a person’s place of business or vehicle, others grant the individual immunity from civil liability. But the majority of castle doctrine laws say individuals are justified using deadly force where they risk death or serious bodily harm, and the laws do not necessarily have to prove a retreat was impossible.

In Wisconsin, the person would be immune to both criminal and civil liability if he uses deadly force against an intruder in his home, business, or vehicle, regardless if the intruder is armed or not.

Pace's Professor McLaughlin says Clarke’s message “goes beyond” both laws. “To encourage individuals to use their firearms because the police are unable to protect them … it’s a breakdown in the social contract,” he says.

While the radio spot has generated expected responses by both anti-violence and gun-rights advocates, it has also reignited the ongoing beef Cooke has maintained with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

Over the weekend, Mayor Barrett released a statement that criticized the spot, suggesting it promoted the kind of street vigilantism portrayed in a popular Clint Eastwood film franchise: “Apparently, Sheriff David Clarke is auditioning for the next 'Dirty Harry' movie,” the statement said.

Clarke has long criticized Barrett’s strategy for fighting crime and accused him of being in denial about the most effective methods to reduce gun violence. On Friday, Clarke released a statement that referenced a 2009 tire iron attack Barrett suffered after coming to the assistance of a woman outside the Wisconsin State Fair.

“I would think that [Barrett] would be a lot more sensitive to people being able to defend themselves in such instances. A firearm and a plan of defense would have come in handy for him that day,” Clarke said.

[Rhinox]

An honor student who performed at Obama's inauguration shot and killed in Chicago http://gaw.kr/W21CTdt

[archibaldcrane]

Shouldn't have been hanging out with gang members in a war zone (read: Chicago)

[Waraji]

No arrests have been made yet, and investigators say they lack a good description of the attacker or his getaway car because witnesses are refusing to cooperate.

Typical.

[Qalbert]

[Byrthnoth]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/s...ouble-18350303

Prosecutors say a retired barber accused of fatally shooting a California doctor in an exam room was a patient of the victim and brought the gun to his medical appointment.

The Orange County district attorney's office said Wednesday that 75-year-old Stanwood Fred Elkus has been charged with murder in the Monday attack that killed Dr. Ronald Gilbert.

The 52-year-old doctor was shot multiple times in the upper body at his office in Newport Beach and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Prosecutors say Elkus had an appointment and waited for Gilbert in the exam room before opening fire when the doctor walked in.

Neighbors say Elkus suffered from prostate problems and was angry about his incontinence after a recent surgery.

The Lake Elsinore man was set to make a first court appearance Wednesday.

[kuronosan]

Okay seriously enough of this shit.

[quannum]

Okay seriously enough of this shit.

nah

[Niiro]

It's just gonna drag on until some politicians start getting offed by random people.

At which point a budget proposal for increased spending on personal security for representatives/senators will pass with overwhelming bipartisan approval.

[archibaldcrane]

It's just gonna drag on until some politicians start getting offed by random people.

um

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabrielle_Giffords

[Niiro]

Aside from being a largely sarcastic remark it was meant to imply that they wouldn't do anything until they were being targeted by these people to a large degree.

Also, you know, Arizona....

[Lucavi]

um

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabrielle_Giffords

Woman, non-republican = irrelevant. Off Karl Rove or Dick Cheney and see what happens. Oh wait, they have round-the-clock security protection.

Except on hunting trips.

[Byrthnoth]

The earlier shooting:

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/art...ot-4235198.php

CHICAGO (AP) — A 15-year-old girl who had performed in President Barack Obama's inauguration festivities is the latest face on the ever-increasing homicide toll in the president's hometown, killed in a Chicago park as she talked with friends by a gunman who apparently was not even aiming at her.Chicago police said Hadiya Pendleton was in a park about a mile from Obama's home in a South Side neighborhood Tuesday afternoon when a man opened fire on the group. Hadiya was shot in the back as she tried to escape.

The city's 42nd slaying is part of Chicago's bloodiest January in more than a decade, following on the heels of 2012, which ended with more than 500 homicides for the first time since 2008. It also comes at a time when Obama, spurred by the Connecticut elementary school massacre in December, is actively pushing for tougher gun laws.

Hadiya's father, Nathaniel Pendleton, spoke Wednesday at a Chicago police news conference, which was held in the same park where his daughter died.

"He took the light of my life," Pendleton said. He then spoke directly to the killer: "Look at yourself, just know that you took a bright person, an innocent person, a nonviolent person." Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy consoled him, the girl's mother and 10-year-old brother.

Hadiya was a bright kid who was killed just as she was "wondering about which lofty goal she wanted to achieve," her godfather, Damon Stewart, told The Associated Press. Hadiya had been a majorette with the King College Prep band.

"She was a very active kid, doing dance, cheerleading, who felt like she could accomplish just about anything, a very good student who had big dreams about what she wanted to be, a doctor, an attorney," said Stewart, a Chicago police officer and attorney. "She was constantly getting good grades."

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that the president and the first lady's "thoughts and prayers are with" the teen's family, adding: "And as the president has said, we will never be able to eradicate every act of evil in this country, but if we can save any one child's life, we have an obligation to try when it comes to the scourge of gun violence."

In Chicago, gangs routinely and often indiscriminately open fire. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and McCarthy are pushing for tougher local, state and national gun laws and longer prison sentences for offenders.

About three blocks from Hadiya's school, she and a group of 10-12 young people, including members of her volleyball team, had taken refuge under a canopy at a park to avoid the rain Tuesday afternoon. A man climbed a fence behind the park, ran at the group and started shooting, and then jumped back over the fence and into a white Nissan. The group scattered, but Hadiya was shot once in the back and a teenage boy was shot in the leg.

Police said Hadiya had no arrest record and there was no indication she was a member of a gang or was the gunman's target. In fact, McCarthy said there are no indications that anyone in the group was gang-affiliated. He said the police suspect that the gunman may be a member of a gang that considers the park its turf and that he mistook somebody in the group as someone from an encroaching rival gang.

McCarthy vowed to put a police officer at the park "24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year" if that is what it takes to show the gang that the park belongs to no one but the community.

Comments by both Stewart and the girl's father echo the message that city officials have long said: Gun violence is not confined to street corners in dangerous neighborhoods. Obama's neighborhood, Kenwood, is just north of the University of Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry.

"Her parents had done everything right and she was doing everything right," he said. Stewart, who was 12 when his own brother was shot and killed, said his family and Pendleton's family were so close that his own children saw the 15-year-old as an older sister.

"The worst thing in the world was when yesterday I had to sit there and tell my children that their sister is gone," he said.

A different shooting: http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/30/justic...ing/index.html

Phoenix, Arizona (CNN) -- Phoenix police said Wednesday they were searching for a suspect in the shooting of three people in an office building.

One of the victims was in "extremely critical condition," and the other two suffered non-life-threatening injuries, said Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a public information officer with the Phoenix Police Department.

The incident was reported at about 10:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. ET) near the intersection of 16th Street and Glendale, he said.

"A man described as a white male, possibly older, went into an office, got into some type of an altercation, and he shot three individuals," Thompson said. "He fled the scene, we believe, before we got there."

Thompson said he did not believe the shootings were random. "We believe that this individual was probably known to the victims," he said. "We believe that this individual came to this location, for whatever purpose, got into an argument, which turned into gunfire."

Attorney Mark Hummels was identified by his law firm, Osborn Maledon, as one of the victims. He was involved in a client mediation when he was shot, the Phoenix firm said.

The building houses several medical-related businesses, Public Information Officer James Holmes said. He said witnesses described the suspect as a man in his mid-60s who fled in a white vehicle.

Former astronaut Mark Kelly referred to the shooting during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington on gun violence. "There's 50 or so police cars on the scene," he said.

Kelly and his wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, this month launched "Americans for Responsible Solutions," which seeks to raise money to counter the influence of the gun lobby.

Two years ago, Giffords was shot in the head by a gunman in a parking lot in Tucson.

I hypothesize that this level of gun violence is pretty normal, and the only reason that we're hearing about it more is because the liberal media is exploiting it to fuel the gun control debate and push their own agenda of taking all our gunz.

[Niiro]

I hypothesize that this level of gun violence is pretty normal, and the only reason that we're hearing about it more is because the liberal media is exploiting it to fuel the gun control debate and push their own agenda of taking all our gunz.

I've been wondering this myself, when a high profile shooting occurs the overwhelming attention and overall media frenzy surrounding it supposedly incites other shootings in the following weeks/months but at this point it's kind of hard to tell whether there are more shootings than normal or if the shootings that do occur are just getting more publicity because of the gun control "debate".

Best case scenario is the increased attention results in actual legitimate efforts to curb gun violence (might as well result in world peace as well while we're dreaming).

Worst case would be the increased publicity is leading to even more shootings which leads to more publicity...etc.

[archibaldcrane]

Obviously given that we have like 30 gun murders a day, they're still very under-reported, but unless there's an "active shooter" angle or something particularly interesting (kids involved, random Obama connection, etc.) you likely won't hear about it.

[zoobernut]

It could easily be a combination of observational bias, we as viewers are more sensitive to those stories right now and a little bit that they are being covered more right now.

[archibaldcrane]

Just remember, half of all murder victims are black, and you never hear about that shit, so let's not get too caught up in "omg the MEEEEDIA is overhyping gun violence!"

http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/off...rtable_02.html

[Ghost_Wheel22]

Just more proof that black things are scary and we should ban them.

[Melena]

Just more proof that black things are scary and we should ban them.

Good thing Miz is white. Would hate to lose him.

[quannum]

upper class city, now it's a tragedy, etc etc