Saw this bit in Twitter:

Slate has a blog post titled: Child shootings: How to report on unintentional child shooting deaths. On its surface, it just a guideline for journos on how to write about accidental “unintentional” child shootings. Then you realize that the who-when-where-what-why-how should be already basic knowledge to anybody working the news. It is this next set of instructions that are the eye opener.

We have come a long way on reducing the firearms accidental deaths, specially in the children demographic, but we also know that shit will happen and there is no 100% safety in this world.

But these people, the same people that would rather set a school on fire rather than allow the Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program be taught to kids, want to make any accidental death a cause to strip rights. Then again, if there were not kid’s corpses, they would not know what to write about.

And somewhat related, Bitter gives us a preview of future journalists in action.

“What the findings essentially tell you is that the people who are most at risk of becoming a victim are sort of surrounded by victims within a few handshakes,” Papachristos says. “These are young men who are actively engaged in the behaviors that got them in this network.“…

The network in question consists of more than 3,700 high-risk individuals – young, African-American males from a poor neighborhood – who were clustered into a network by instances of co-offending, meaning each person in the group had been arrested with another person.

Overall, the community’s five-year homicide rate was 39.7 per 100,000 people, which was still much higher than the averages of other areas of Chicago (14.7 per 100,000). But being a part of that network of co-offenders, essentially just being arrested, raised the rate to by nearly 50 percent, to 55.2 per 100,000. What’s more, being in a network with a homicide victim increased the homicide rate by 900 percent, to 554.1 per 100,000……. “It’s the behavior of sharing needles that puts you at risk for contracting HIV, not simply being poor and black and living in a certain neighborhood,” Papachristos says. “The same is true with violence. It’s who you hang around with that gets you in trouble.”

via Gun Violence Significantly Increased by Social Interactions – US News and World Report.

Hang around Stupid People. Do Stupid Things. Win Stupid Prizes. How many times have we heard this? How many times much nicer versions of the above were told to us by our parents? But apparently for some in the Intelligentsia, it was not true until somebody from an “accredited” house of parchment actually made a study.

I am expecting that the Bradys and others would use the study to tell parents to steer kids away from all people with guns because, you know, all those killings happening in the Scholastic Shooting Sports.

What was the surest winning bet in Florida last week? That the legislative committee hearing on repealing the state’s controversial Stand Your Ground law would end up with a lopsided No vote. The roll-back effort never had a chance.

But you can’t fault the repeal’s supporters for trying. Not with a self-defense law that gives immunity to someone who shoots first and asks questions later.

via Stand your ground law needs clarification – Editorials – MiamiHerald.com.

I will grant you that it is a nice talking point for the average Anti, but that the editors of a major newspaper in the country do not realize the sheer stupidity of the cliché is nothing short of pitiful.

These are the idiots that not only think that self-defense is a sporting event, but that the bad guy won the coin toss and get to injure/kill you first.

And then we have:

And there’s the major problem with Florida’s Stand Your Ground statute. It is so loosely written that the self-defense claim often is interpreted differently in separate cases.

Testing found that the type of material used in the 3D printing was critical to whether the weapon would function properly. The ATF produced several versions of the weapon, some using plastic produced by the company Visijet and others using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic material. The Visijet version actually exploded during the test, as seen in the video above.

via Feds Printed Their Own 3D Gun And It Literally Blew Up In Their Faces.

Are we really surprised that the Federal Government is unable to do what private citizens can without too much sweating? Gun agency can’t make a gun. Healtcare agency can’t get insurance up… Call me suspicious but I see a pattern here. [snicker]

Vince Warde was kind enough to leave a comment with a link to his defense of Dick Metcalf. Please read and then come back for my response.

Now, my rebuttal:

Lets get something clear: The Second Amendment does give protection if all parties agree that the Constitution is the only set of rule which we all follow. But given that there are those who will rather ignore and/or change what it means, we are faced with the constant threat of having our rights curtailed. Basically the game is bowling and the other side is playing football.

There is a misguided concept that both Heller & McDonald are the last word on the Second Amendment: that is false. As the Opposition liked to say back in the 90s, it is just a good first step. May I remind you that SCOTUS basically had not addressed the Second Amendment since US v. Miller in 1939 and we are now still trying to recover from basically 60 years of encroachment. And it also makes sense that WE (the people who knows guns) and those who want to negotiate in truly good faith, dictate what are the restrictions and not an Opposition who wants to keep us pretty much unarmed. You do not agree or make commitments with a party that is negotiating in bad faith.
No, Dick Metcalf is not a traitor, but what he did made him stupid, specially being a famous and longtime writer. Again, we are not dealing with people who have the best interest of the Citizens in their hearts and they are playing with a different set of rules and they do not include a respect for the Constitution. This enemy has no qualms in lying, cheating, denigrating and putting people at risk as long as their political side wins. This enemy has very deep pockets and an almost unlimited access to the Media to propagate their views and I think it is stupid that somebody with a (formerly) high name in our side comes out to talk about restrictions.

It is a question of strategies (Did I mention we are in an intellectual and legal war?) Knowing how easily they can propagate and inundate the flow of information to the public, why in Sam Houston’s name should we give them any ammunition? Specially one that will hurt us deeply?

We are in a political, intellectual and legal trench warfare. The niceties of tea room dealings and aristocratic handshakes do not apply. Our weapons are the truth, a sound strategy and a common front from millions of gun owners interested in everybody enjoying a widely applied Second Amendment.

The fight has now commenced, go to fighting or get away!
Wyatt Earp.

We can discuss the pretty philosophical things after the fighting is done.

The photo is of a Moscow Subway ticket machines. It accepts money or 30 squats. My mind went immediately to:

‘Smith!’ screamed the shrewish voice from the telescreen. ‘6079 Smith W.! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You’re not trying. Lower, please! That’s better, comrade. Now stand at ease, the whole squad, and watch me.’
1984. Part 1, Chapter 3.

Weird….

So the Brady’s were today at Capitol Hill with another round of …whatever is that they do against guns.

And they had the obligatory pic of an innocent young girl with a poster….

Which, of course, I had to mess with to portray the bottom line of what Brady had achieved this year.

Feel free to share with your friends…. and anti gun acquaintances.

Feel free to share with friends and anti-gunners.