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UPDATE: 4-year-old shot through leg when mother's gun falls out of holster
UPDATE: 4-year-old shot through leg when mother's gun falls out of holster Tulsi Patil Tulsi Patil, Weekend Web Producer, tpatil@ktuu.com POSTED: 12:51 PM AKST Feb 21, 2015 UPDATED: 04:54 PM AKST Feb 21, 2015
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Austin Baird / KTUU-TV ANCHORAGE -
UPDATE 4:30 p.m.: A 4-year-old boy from Wasilla was shot through the leg, after his mother's gun fell out of its holster and discharged, Alaska State Troopers wrote in a dispatch, Saturday afternoon.
At around 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, troopers responded to reports of a child with a gunshot wound to the leg, at 4900 E Palmer-Wasilla highway.
Investigations revealed that "as the family was getting out of their pickup truck in the parking lot the mother's .357 magnum revolver fell out of her holster and struck the pavement by the hammer which caused the revolver to discharge a round," troopers wrote.
Troopers wrote that the fired round struck the child "just above the knee then exited his leg and lodged in the trim of the building."
... A sane definition of readily accessible would include loaded with a functioning safety such as a grip safety. Or with a biometric detection system. Or without a bullet in the chamber. ...
Or you could self impose a practice of having the gun in one holster without ammo and a quick-load ammo pack on the other side: you draw both and assemble as you hold the pistol with both hands to fire.
The gun by itself is then incapable of misfire. The ammo pack is also incapable of firing on its own nor when dropped (iirc).
Tea Party activists are encouraging people to "stop the land grab" meaning stop the state from buying 46,000 acres of land south of Lake Okeechobee that environmentalists say would be critical to cleaning up the Everglades. Tea partiers held a protest yesterday at the South Florida Water Management District's West Palm Beach office but now screen grabs seem to reveal that the group hired actors to pose as protesters.
A screen grab provided by Progress Florida seems to suggest that a Fort Lauderdale realtor named Karen Donohue posted an ad to the Broward Acting Group, offering $75 for people who would hold signs and pose as protesters.
All those actors were leftists hired to mock the Tea Party protest ... oh wait.
It can't be coincidence that I, personally, know three people who've fended off a criminal with their handgun ...
Ah the old anecdotal evidence ploy. Put that against the hard data of the number of children killed by guns and a skeptic should see the weaknesss of one vs the strength of the other.
... because our news agencies (and yours) tend to shy away from good news, ...
and the old worn out false liberal media conspiracy canard: why doesn't Faux Noise report it - trumpet it - as it would be their golden plum kind of story.
... two who did so just by showing said gun to the criminal.
Were these real criminal threats or just the fervid imagination of the gun bearer? How many innocent people are shot by gun totters that perceive they are criminals when they aren't? come to mind?
... two who did so just by showing said gun to the criminal.
Were they life threatening situations that meant a gun was necessary, or did the gun carrier just bully them with it? I choose my words carefully: I have been mugged, lost a couple dollars and live to tell the tale - would a gun have helped? No.
If I know of three ... how many others are out there that go unreported?
And how many of those are fantasies - like the old woman who shot innocent bystanders because she was convinced they were going to rob her.
Look at the "accuracy" of eye witness reports ... that is what you have with your anecdotal evidence, isn't it?
How many times will George ZImmerman flaunt his prejudicial behavior before it becomes indefensible to gun affectionados?
For every case you can find of anecdotal crime being stopped by a gun, you can likely find 10 cases of wrongful death by gun, and that is the critical point: the cost benefit is not on the side of gun holders.
Re: Okay ... off the debate horse and onto reality.
Curiously I find the juxtaposition of your comments re the Jade Helm 15 military exercise government takeover conspiracy (you forgot the tunnels under the Walmarts btw) and your comments on Open-minded Skepticism rather amusing:
Message 22: Really ... be a skeptic, as long as there is no concrete proof of the subject. In the face of absolute proof, skepticism = "Mary, Mary, quite contrary!"
Message 25: I thought being skeptical of ideas or theories IS being open minded. If you take everything at face value, THEN you don't investigate options.
Message 30: Facts are concrete ... what you believe does not change the facts. Circumstantial evidence might be interpreted incorrectly ... factual evidence cannot, no matter what you believe. Facts and evidence of facts should change how one believes, if previous beliefs were proven wrong.
Now I do note that you have changed position - somewhat - on Jade Helm 15, but your initial take on was not skeptical - apparently you only looked deeper when the reality of the conspiracy controversy was questioned.
First off ... my apologies. I did let myself be fooled by someone else's "research." Once I started looking into the "Walmart" part of the story for myself ... I found there was no actual pictures of military equipment in the stores. A guy, probably sleeping in the cab, with a few Humvees on the back of a flatbed, is no proof of anything. I am still not sure what the government agencies and military are doing with Jade-Helm 15. In my 12 years as a Marine, I NEVER trained anywhere but inside the boundaries of military bases. So, I've never been one to credit conspiracy theories and I am sorry for temporarily giving this one credence.
Let me introduce you to one of my pet concepts: the worldview cognitive dissonance bubble -- everyone has a worldview (made up of what they know and what they believe) and new information that conforms to that worldview is readily accepted into their bubble, while information that runs contrary to it is not easily accepted (if not rejected outright), Like a bubble-boy that is protected from pathogens by living in a large plastic bubble. See Cognitive Dissonance and Cultural Beliefs.
The cognitive dissonance arises when evidence contradicts beliefs. One way to "resolve" the dissonance is to reject the evidence, another much harder way is to change your belief/s.
Considering the number of entitlement programs ... and the constant drive to over-tax the very people who pay the most taxes already ... I will only trust the government when it starts reducing it's workforce and stops spending more than it takes in. Right now ... there is PLENTY to rail against in big government.
Where to start ...
The tax incentives (read give-aways) to large corporations, like oil companies, exceeds the total money spent on social programs, education and scientific research. The tax refunds to rich people in loop-holes and bush give-aways also exceeds the total money spent on social programs, education and scientific research.
The money spent on the military budget in the US exceeds that of the next 10 largest countries combined -- including Russia and China.
The people that pay the most taxes are the middle class workers. They pay for the tax cuts for the rich, they pay for the war debts, they pay for the food stamps that allow people working at poverty level jobs (like Walmart) to live (ie -- we subsidize Walmart, and all the other companies that don't pay a living wage while they pad their corporate profit pockets)
The biggest expansion of government has been under republican presidents. Clinton and Gore reduced the government workforce and left a surplus. Bush gave it away and then started two unfinanced wars that quickly put the government back in debt.
Now I'm fairly sure that you have seen things like this:
What's your take?
So, I've never been one to credit conspiracy theories and I am sorry for temporarily giving this one credence.
And yet I wonder what else you have accepted as valid information, especially regarding the availability of guns without license or background checks. The whole "they're coming to take away your guns" is a conspiracy theory. Registering guns is not a database collected as a "prelude" to coming for your guns. Background check are also not part of a scheme to take guns from legal citizens. Personally I think that the last registered owner of a gun used in a crime should be held accountable, bear some responsibility for the crime (aiding and abetting?) and I think you should be required to carry "wrongful or accidental death and injury" insurance similar to what you need to own a car.
The republican "fear" campaign is a conspiracy theory. When republicans use guns in their campaign speeches it is part of their "fear" campaign, not reality.
Re: Okay ... off the debate horse and onto reality.
... . I look at a government that is constantly spending money like it makes a profit on something. It doesn't. It's only "income" is taxes. ...
Correct. The ones that are making a profit from government are the ones that spend a few billion to buy politicians to get trillions in return -- your tax dollars going to rich people and corporations, either by tax cuts, tax loopholes (often now written by the corps) and the like or by going to poor working people to subsidize their sub-poverty wages while the corporations record record profits.
Forced charity ... it doesn't work, it's never worked and it won't work in our future.
Ummm, wrong. Several nations with strong socialist programs actually show that it works. There are also scientific studies that show providing a minimum living base improves life for all -- even the rich. And we also have the examples of places that have instigated a $15/hr minimum wage and are now showing an improved economy from the bottom up.
Compare Wisconsin and Minnesota. Objective empirical data: republican Gov Scott Walker and democrat Gov Mark Dayton, each elected about the same time. Scott went whole hog with the republican pogram of cutting taxes, cutting benefits, cutting schools, busting unions etc etc etc -- and has made record inroads into state debt. Mark went whole hog with the democrat pogram of minimum wage, increased benefits, school funding etc and raising taxes on the rich, and has a surplus now when he inherited debt.
So I would say that the data shows that if you do the opposite of whatever the republicans propose you will do better.
... So it keeps demanding more money for programs it can't afford to pay for.
Typical republican talking point used to get gullible people to let them strangle social programs while they feed their corporate hogs. The problem is not so much what the programs are but what your priorities are and how do you pay for them.
I don't trust any of the crooks in Washington, D.C. at this time ... they're all corrupt. That is reality ... not paranoia.
Then don't vote for them. Get involved in primaries and get vocal.
I grew up with guns. Country guns. Shotguns. .45s and .38s and beer cans on fence posts. That was back before public gun violence became a daily routine. If somebody got shot, it was a drug deal or domestic violence. There were guns all around me, practically under my pillow, and nobody got hurt. No one I know ever threatened another person with a gun. The few violent men I knew fought with their fists. Pulling a gun to settle a score wouldn't be worth the shame. Guns were for targets and critters. It seems like some kind of mythical world now.
From my experience traveling in northern Europe consistently the past few years, I offer a theory that is beginning to take shape in my mind. I'm in the UK now; their gun laws are famously rigid. The Olympic pistol team had to leave the country to practice. Intentional homicide rate is maybe a third to a quarter of the U.S., but I don't think the stringent gun laws are entirely responsible.
More interesting to this essay are other countries I've been to regularly: The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Switzerland. Canada is notably similar in that there are a lot of guns, but not much gun violence compared to the U.S. Almost every grown man in Switzerland has an assault rifle issued by the military. They have gun festivals with shooting competitions for the kids.
All these countries also take care of their citizens. You can go to school, see a doctor, or take a year off work and have a baby without worrying about losing your home or other financial catastrophes. Taxes are high, of course. Gotta pay for that stuff. Canada is closer on the scale to the U.S.: lower taxes and less social spending than most of northern Europe, but more than the U.S.
In the U.S. you are mostly on your own. If you have a strong family and/or community, you're set. If you don't you're screwed. 50% of foster kids become homeless when they turn 18. Three million U.S. citizens are homeless. That's one percent of us, sleeping on the ground, going to jail to get a decent night's sleep and breakfast. College? You know how that goes. I have friends in their forties who are finally paying off their student loans. Need mental health care? That's not covered. The ACA is not a national health care plan. It's a way to force everyone to pay for the same miserable shit that was available before. Very few people are better off with it. I'm one of them and I can still see it's a bad deal for the country. If you lose your job in the U.S., it can be life-threatening. How would you react to a life-threatening situation?
When millions of people live close to the bone in a country that doesn't seem to care about them, and the most effective weapons in the world are widely available, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to paint the resulting picture. It's not much harder to own a gun in Germany than it is to own one here. We have laws that prohibit convicted felons, the mentally ill, and non-citizens from owning guns. There are loopholes, but that's also true elsewhere. For instance, self-defense is not an acceptable reason to own a gun in the Netherlands, but being a member of a shooting club is. If you want a gun for self defense, you join a shooting club. Duh.
The availability of guns seems to be a problem in our country, but not a problem in others. As always, extreme viewpoints are suspect- "Guns are the problem" is just as extreme as "I should be able to openly carry an assault rifle into a department store." We do have laws. Colorado, one of the most gun-lovin', property-rights-conservative states in the union, passed a great piece of legislation after the school shooting in Columbine, legislation that was successful largely because part of its focus was to protect the rights of gun owners.
I appreciate everyone's passion on the issue. Sharing links from far-left and far-right sources is not likely to generate a productive discussion. Real people don't think that way. Real conversations don't happen in platitudes and memes.
Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms. Elected officials have a directive to ensure public safety. Humans have a responsibility to take care of each other. We're not all keeping our end of the bargain. I think socialism and the second amendment ought to meet and work things out. Education, health care, and a living wage might make guns fun again.
I'm not a political guy but it seems important to talk about this national crisis- a spiritual crisis, really. Does this sound foolish to anyone? Does it feel like a new way of looking at it? Did anybody else have a time in their lives when guns were kind of innocent and fun?
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So my thinking is that what we need is a happy functional society, that it is a moral goal for government to promote (ie - enabling the "pursuit of happiness" not just paying lip service to it).
This requires a functional socially responsible economic system, something unregulated capitalism is NOT. One that provides real justice to all citizens, along with respect and equality under the law.
We can also borrow some ideas from that socialist messiah who advocated feeding and housing the poor, treating disease ...
... respecting the "least of us" as fellow humans with a right to universal health care (including mental and dental), the right to a living annual salary, the right to shelter, the right to free education to pursue whatever interests them. The socialist democracies in Europe point the way: a regulated capitalist economy with a social conscience.
The solution to gun violence is social. It is not market driven, but morally driven.
I think there is a studied conspiracy to get rid of the Second Amendment to make America even more helpless than we've already been made over the last few decades, also by studied propaganda, and all the arguments based on how nice things are in gun-controlled nations are part of the propaganda to disarm us.
The studied conspiracy I see is to destroy the middle-class and drive everyone not in the elite class into abject poverty, where the don't own any property, work excessive hours for starvation wages at jobs with no respect, as near slavery as anyone would care to get -- your only choice is which mind-numbing starvation wage jobs you take to survive.
The propaganda includes that the liberals want to take your guns, and this is enough to keep you accepting their terms of employment, mortgages, etc etc etc.
That this also destroys society is readily obvious.
We don't need more of the same kinds of solutions, we need something radically different. ...
So you just became a Bernie Sanders supporter ... we also need a solution that is an evolution of our society to a more socially respectful and responsible one rather than our current capitalistic oligarchy with a patina of democracy, and if we can't change it then there will likely be a bloody revolution.
... What that is I'm not exactly sure but Christians should be praying our hearts out for it.
Rather than acting against the best interests of themselves, other individuals, the society and the country as a whole.
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