From TPM Reader JW …
I was having dinner with a childhood friend earlier this year in Texas. (I live in NYC now.) This was shortly the April tornadoes that hit the area pretty hard, and he was telling me how scary the roads were. No street lights, fallen trees, tornado sirens wailing, a sense of general panic and that spooky pre-tornado quiet. I assumed the reason he was on the road was because he was trying to get home, but then he told me that he had actually been at home when the sirens began, and left precisely because the danger seemed imminent.
The Connecticut vigil for the victims of Friday’s shooting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. ET. President Obama is in attendance. Watch.
There’s been some level of mystery about just why Adam Lanza’s first victim, Nancy Lanza, had such a stock of weapons, particularly military style weapons like the .223 Bushmaster, the weapon we now know was actually used in the killings. She wasn’t just into guns. She was apparently stocked up for when the economy collapses and when everyone’s on their own with their guns.
Yeah, like that. Read More
RNC Finance Chairman says Detroit voting all about boozing and vote fraud.
SNL opened with the New York City Children’s Chorus singing Silent Night. Not easy to watch.
Most of us are aware of studies that show that having a firearm in the home increases rather than decreases your chance of violent injury or death — usually through accidents or suicide. I was not aware of this peer-reviewed 2009 study by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study which concluded that people in possession of a gun were 4.5 times more likely to be shot during an assault than those who didn’t have a firearm.
In the words of the study: “On average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. Although successful defensive gun uses occur each year, the probability of success may be low for civilian gun users in urban areas. Such users should reconsider their possession of guns or, at least, understand that regular possession necessitates careful safety countermeasures.” Read More
From TPM Reader JB …
Getting drunk and driving 100 miles an hour is also fun, but it’s still illegal. Same with crystal meth. The point is there is a social cost to allowing recreational gun ownership, and gun owners need to acknowledge we are all paying a certain price for their entertainment. For those of us who never have and never will own a gun, it is most definitely not worth it.
As we talk about the rights and wrongs of mass gun ownership, I thought I’d share a few thoughts. Read More
A response from TPM Reader MH …
Quick response to SS. I am also a gun owner and recreational shooter with very liberal politics. But unlike SS, I have always loved what has come to be called “Tactical Shooting”, particularly the tactical handgun. I started out shooting customized 4″ .357 revolvers in the seventies. Then came Jeff Cooper, “Wondernines” and IPSC competition. I have always enjoyed it as a recreation, as something I found truly enjoyable. It’s not real – we’re not wannabe killers, any more than people who ride horses think riding horses is a practical real life skill.