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WestCoastJoe
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http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/23/us/georgi ... ?hpt=hp_c2
Georgia law allows guns in some schools, bars, churches

By Devon M. Sayers and Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN

updated 4:12 PM EDT, Wed April 23, 2014

Source: CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Pastor says he will not allow guns in Atlanta church, blasts politicians behind bill
Hundreds attended Deal's signing ceremony, some openly carrying handguns
Law will allow Georgians to carry guns into some bars, churches and government buildings
Critics say law takes state "out of mainstream," while proponents call it "meaningful"

Ellijay, Georgia (CNN) -- Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed a wide-ranging gun bill into law Wednesday that has critics howling and proponents applauding.

House Bill 60, or the Safe Carry Protection Act of 2014 -- which opponents have nicknamed the "guns everywhere bill" -- specifies where Georgia residents can carry weapons. Included are provisions that allow residents who have concealed carry permits to take guns into some bars, churches, school zones, government buildings and certain parts of airports.

GeorgiaCarry, which lobbied for the bill, calls it "meaningful pro-gun legislation," despite it being watered down from the group's perspective. Still, the group has lauded the legislation, which will go into effect July 1. Americans for Responsible Solutions opposed the bill, calling it "extremism in action."

Wednesday's signing came at an open-air picnic area along a creek in Ellijay, in northern Georgia. It opened with a prayer, the singing of the national anthem and a recital of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Hundreds of people filled more than 25 picnic tables, while others stood. Many were openly carrying handguns, and some wore National Rifle Association hats and buttons proclaiming, "Stop Gun Control" and "Guns Save Lives."

Is change to gun laws possible?
The bill, which easily navigated the state Legislature -- by a 112-58 vote in the House and a 37-18 tally in the Senate -- also earned the support of Democratic state Sen. Jason Carter, the grandson of ex-President Jimmy Carter and a 2014 gubernatorial candidate.

Calling it "a great day to reaffirm our liberties," Deal said the law allows residents to protect their families and expands the list of places where they can legally carry firearms, while allowing certain property owners, namely churches and bars, to make judgments on whether they want worshippers and patrons carrying guns.

"The Second Amendment should never be an afterthought. It should be at the forefront of our minds," Deal said while touting his NRA endorsement for governor and "A" rating during his 17 years in Congress.

The governor said the law "will protect the constitutional rights of Georgians who have gone through a background check to legally obtain a Georgia Weapons Carry License.

"Roughly 500,000 Georgia citizens have a permit of this kind, which is approximately 5 percent of our population. License holders have passed background checks and are in good standing with the law. This law gives added protections to those who have played by the rules -- and who can protect themselves and others from those who don't play by the rules."

Americans for Responsible Solutions opposed the original bill that GeorgiaCarry pushed for, and while the group is pleased that the version Deal signed Wednesday doesn't allow guns on college campuses or in churches, except in certain cases, it feels the legislation "takes Georgia out of the mainstream."

"Among its many extreme provisions, it allows guns in TSA lines at the country's busiest airport, forces community school boards into bitter, divisive debates about whether they should allow guns in their children's classrooms, and broadens the conceal carry eligibility to people who have previously committed crimes with guns," said Pia Carusone, the group's senior adviser.

"So it is no surprise that while being trumpeted by the NRA as the 'most comprehensive' gun bill in state history, the legislation ... was opposed by Georgia law enforcement, county commissioners, municipal leaders, and the Transportation Security Administration for its potentially harmful impact on Georgians' safety."

While the bill says no one is allowed to carry a firearm past an airport's security screening checkpoint, it allows guns in other areas, including "an airport drive, general parking area, walkway, or shops and areas of the terminal that are outside the screening checkpoint."

TSA spokesman Ross Feinstein would not say how the law might affect its agents at Georgia airports, particularly Atlanta's, the world's busiest, but he said, "Individuals who bring firearms to security checkpoints are referred to law enforcement and are subject to criminal penalties. However, TSA has the ability to impose a civil penalty."

Another provision of the new law allows firearms into any government building that is open for business and doesn't have security personnel restricting access or screening visitors.

Some critics have said it was hypocritical to allow guns in so many places but not the state Capitol. Deal addressed that perception in a question from reporters, saying the Capitol fell under a wider statewide provision that affects many government buildings, and it's "a uniform carved-out area all across our state."

The law also allows Georgians to carry guns into bars and churches as long as the property owner hasn't banned them. Anyone bringing a gun into a church that prohibits them won't be arrested but could pay a fine up to $100, the law says.

New York church to give away AR-15 semi-automatic rifle

One church that won't be allowing parishioners to carry weapons is Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, which remembers well the 1974 shooting deaths of a deacon and Alberta Williams King, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s mother, in its sanctuary.

The Rev. Raphael Warnock, the church's senior pastor, said a deranged man who had access to guns but not health care was behind that shooting, a circumstance that still resonates today. The shooting would have been even more tragic "had everyone been packing that day," Warnock said.

"The message of today's bill signing is very clear: Our politicians, tragically, are owned by the gun lobby," he said. "No one asked for this bill but the gun lobby, and still, we're here. ... We will remind them in November that they work for the people."

Most churches throughout the state are focused on social issues, such as better health care and education, Warnock said.

"I don't know of a single pastor in the state of Georgia who has been lobbying to have guns brought into their churches," he said. "When we say pass the peace, we mean P-E-A-C-E, not the P-I-E-C-E."

The law will also allow the carrying of firearms by any "duly authorized official of a public or private elementary or secondary school or a public or private technical school, vocational school, college, university, or other institution of post-secondary education or a local board of education."

Deal also touted how HB60 would allow soldiers to obtain a carry license at age 18 if they've completed basic training and are either actively serving or have been honorably discharged.

"If they're old enough to hold a gun in defense of our liberties, then they're old enough to hold a gun, and they shouldn't have to wait until they're 21."

Other notable provisions of the law allow hunters to use silencers and suppressors when the owner of the property where they're hunting is aware they're using such a device; permit gun owners who have had their licenses revoked to apply for a new license after three years; restrict access for anyone whom a court has deemed mentally incompetent or insane, or anyone involuntary committed to a mental institution; and forbid police officers who see a resident carrying a gun to ask for their permit unless they're committing a crime.
The power of the NRA. It certainly has a great number of politicians in its pocket.

This latest is comical ... Ummm ... make that sad. Guns in church and schools?

"Guns for everybody." "Guns everywhere." Yeeee Hawwwwww

"Stop Gun Control"

"Guns Save Lives"

"Why you no good sidewinder!" Pow ...
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Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

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http://www.theprovince.com/news/Gordon+ ... story.html

Gordon Clark writes on gun violence in the Province.

Excerpt ...
I'm not kidding when I say it's been nearly impossible over the past few days to keep up with all the massmurder news. Seems I was still reading about accused Calgary slasher Matthew de Grood and woman-hating Isla Vista, Calif., butcher Elliot Rodger, and trying to understand those shocking tragedies, when the horrible news out of Moncton, N.B., broke last week. And while the police manhunt for that killer was still underway, there was yet another incident of an angry young madman spraying bullets at innocent strangers at Seattle Pacific University. Just Sunday, two shooters, one a woman, killed three strangers and themselves in Las Vegas.

Rodger and de Groot, both 22, accused Moncton murderer Justin Bourque, 24, and alleged Seattle slayer Aaron Ybarra, 26, join a terrifyingly long list of young, angry, unstable, mostly middle-class, primarily white men who are nearly always behind these bloody eruptions.

Recent similar cases include:
•Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old who slaughtered 20 kids in 2012 at Sandy Hook elementary in Newtown, Conn., before shooting himself in the head.
•James Holmes, who was 26 when he killed 12 and injured 70 during a 2012 shooting spree at a Colorado cinema.
•Jared Loughner, who fatally shot six people and injured 13, including U.S. congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in Tucson, Ariz., in 2011 at age 22.
•Seung-Hui Cho, a Korean mostly raised in the U.S., who took his own life at age 23 after fatally shooting 32 people and injuring 17 others during the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.

Further back, there were:
•Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, who murdered 12 students and a teacher and injured 24 before killing themselves during the notorious Columbine high-school massacre in 1999.
•Timothy McVeigh, who was 26 when he detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people and injuring more than 600.
•And we should never forget Marc Lepine, who killed himself after fatally shooting 14 young women, injuring 10 other women and four men during the 1989 Montreal massacre.

Despite the unimaginable horror it represents, this is only a partial list.

Clearly, mental-health problems are identified in most of the perpetrators. And while it is common after these episodes of carnage to hear calls for more mental-health care, experts such as New York psychiatry professor Dr. Richard Friedman say that it is virtually impossible to predict if an individual is going to go on a killing spree. Writing in the New York Times last month, Friedman noted that, "we have always had — and always will have — Adam Lanzas and Elliot Rodgers. The sobering fact is that there is little we can do to predict or change human behaviour, particularly violence."

Access to guns is also a large part of the problem, despite the idiotic comments of the gun lobby. The fact that well-trained and armed Mounties were gunned down in cold blood shows the absolute stupidity behind the fauxmacho views of gun nuts that we'd all be safer if packing heat.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

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WestCoastJoe
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Human society shows signs of going crazy. Put two rats in a big cage, and it can be quite peaceful. 5 or 10 in a crowded situation and violence breaks out. Seems to be the same for the human condition, IMO.

With all the changes happening, humans must adapt. Religion is a primary cause of violence these days, it seems to me. And I am not advocating against religion. But it has much intolerance involved in the various practices.

The NRA in the US has politicians in its grasp.

Gun owners resent registration. I have seen this with colleagues in Canada. It is OK to demand car registration, but not guns.

Drive by shootings in Vancouver. Not safe in a restaurant or a cafe or a Tim Hortons. :dizzy:

"Guns don't kill people. People kill people." Hard to do a drive by shooting without guns.

'nuff said. Bring on the next "senseless" shooting.

Oh yeah, and by the way, thank you, United States, for bringing your gun culture to Canada.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

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Toppy Vann
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The open carry movement might have unintended consequences for them as many businesses are banning them.

Bill Maher has a great take on this:

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/youre-ammose ... -everyone/
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Sir Purrcival
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But it could be a new business opportunity. Gun locker businesses in malls and such. They are so concerned with their rights down there, they don't seem to care that they are trampling on the the basic right to feel safe. I can't wait until we get a full on gun battle between two of these gun toting fools. At their core, I think they are cowards. Too afraid to go out without having the security of big weapon and confusing fear with respect. So sad that many fail to realize that they are hurting the very values that they seek to protect. Anyone prepared to speak their mind to someone who is carrying an assault rifle strung across their back?
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http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/10/justice/o ... ?hpt=hp_t1
Oregon high school shooting: 'This is not a drill'

By Dana Ford and Jason Hanna, CNN

updated 4:10 PM EDT, Tue June 10, 2014

(CNN) -- When the shooting started at her high school near Portland, Oregon, early Tuesday, student Jaimie Infante didn't recognize the sound of the gunshot.

She thought maybe somebody had dropped a book.

In reality, a lone gunman had opened fire at the school, killing one student and forcing others to flee.

An assistant principal told students to go into lockdown mode.

"At the end he said: 'This is not a drill,'" Infante told CNN.

A teacher also suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

The suspected gunman is also dead, the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office said. It was not immediately clear how he died.

Authorities are working to notify the relatives of both the shooter and the student, neither of whom has been identified. Officials believe they know who the gunman was, but they are "not confident enough" to reveal details yet, Troutdale Police Chief Scott Anderson told reporters midday Tuesday.

"Today is a very tragic day for the city of Troutdale and Reynolds School District," he said. "I'm very, very sorry for the family, and for all the students, and everybody who will be impacted by this tragic incident."

About an hour after the shooting, Oregon State Police said the area was secure and the situation was contained.

The shooting happened at about 8 a.m. (11 a.m. ET) at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, about 12 miles east of Portland. The city has a population of about 16,400 people.

Classes were in session at the time. Details about what led to the shooting weren't immediately available. The gunman is believed to have used a rifle.

A couple of SWAT teams responded, said Sue Strickland of the Troutdale Police Department.

Anxious parents waited for news that their children were safe. One couple, Craig Tuholski and Tawnjia Reimer, were talking with CNN affiliate KGW, about how agonizing the wait for news was, when Tuholski's cell phone rang.

"Is that Chris?" Reimer asked before letting out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank God."

"That's what we were waiting for," Tuholski said after hanging up.

CNN first learned of the shooting through reports on Twitter.

"My thoughts and prayers are with students, staff and the Reynolds High School community during this difficult time," said Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber.
Another day, another shooting in the USA.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

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http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/17/world/eur ... le_sidebar
Dunblane: How UK school massacre led to tighter gun control

By Peter Wilkinson, CNN

updated 5:57 PM EST, Wed January 30, 2013

London (CNN) -- The deaths of 16 children aged five and six together with their teacher in the Scottish town of Dunblane in 1996 was one of Britain's worst incidents of gun-related violence. The massacre stunned the country, but what did the UK do to try to prevent such a tragedy happening again?

What happened at Dunblane?

Shortly after 9 a.m. on March 13, 1996, Thomas Hamilton, a 43-year-old former Scout leader, burst into the gymnasium of a primary school in the tranquil Scottish town of Dunblane.

Within minutes 15 children aged five and six had died in a hail of bullets. One died later in hospital. Their teacher, Gwen Mayor, a 44-year-old mother of two, died in the attack, reportedly while trying to shield her pupils. Two other teachers were also seriously injured while heroically trying to protect children. Hamilton turned one of his four handguns on himself and was found dead at the scene.

Tennis star Andy Murray, who grew up in Dunblane, was present during the attack at his school, but normally refuses to speak about his experience. He posted this tribute during the weekend on his website: "My heart goes out to all those poor children, their families and the community in Newtown in Connecticut, so so sad."

In his autobiography "Hitting Back," Murray recalled how as an eight-year-old boy he was walking to the gymnasium when shooting broke out. A teacher led him and his classmates into the headteacher's study where they took refuge.

"Some of my friends' brothers and sisters were killed. I have only retained patch impressions of that day, such as being in a classroom singing songs. The weirdest thing was that we knew the guy [Hamilton]. He had been in my mum's car. It's obviously weird to think you had a murderer in your car, sitting next to your mum."

Who was Hamilton?

Many local people said Hamilton was an oddball -- a loner obsessed with guns and young boys, someone who didn't fit into society. He was reported to have held a grudge against the Scouting movement and his local community after police questioned him about inappropriate behavior to boys in his care. Raymond Reid, secretary of a local shooting club that rejected Hamilton for membership, described him as "sleazy."

"He was just one of these people that you got a gut feeling about ... didn't like -- or at least I didn't particularly like him," Reid said. Nevertheless, Hamilton held a permit to own handguns, possibly including the ones he used at Dunblane.

What was the reaction to the massacre?

The massacre, one of the worst incidents of gun violence in Britain, had a massive impact in Scotland, the rest of the UK and around the world. "This is a slaughter of the innocents, unlike anything we have ever seen in Scotland, and I think Scotland is going to have to come to terms with it," said Scottish MP Helen Liddell at the time.

After the massacre, appalled residents of Dunblane and bereaved relatives demanded to know how a person like Hamilton could be allowed to own guns. A highly successful public campaign in the months after Dunblane against gun ownership culminated in a petition being handed to the government with almost 750,000 signatures, according to British media reports.

In response, then Conservative Prime Minister John Major set up a public inquiry to look into gun laws and assess ways to better protect the public.

What happened next?

In the wake of the 1987 Hungerford massacre, in which one lone gunman killed 16 people, Britain introduced new legislation -- the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 -- making registration mandatory for owning shotguns and banning semi-automatic and pump-action weapons.

Within a year and a half of the Dunblane massacre, UK lawmakers had passed a ban on the private ownership of all handguns in mainland Britain, giving the country some of the toughest anti-gun legislation in the world. After both shootings there were firearm amnesties across the UK, resulting in the surrender of thousands of firearms and rounds of ammunition.

Britain has never had a "gun culture" like that of the United States, but there were about 200,000 legally-registered handguns in Britain before the ban, most owned by sports shooters. All small-bore pistols, including the .22 caliber, were included in the ban, along with rifles used by target shooters. Penalties for anyone found in possession of illegal firearms range from heavy fines to prison terms of up to 10 years.

"It was one of the most shocking things that has ever happened in this country and it united the country in a feeling that we had to do something," Gill Marshall Andrews, of the Gun Control Network, told CNN. "And I don't think that it would have been possible to make the kind of progress that we have made without that tragedy."

The swamp of gun use has not been fully drained and while tighter gun control removes risk on an incremental basis, significant numbers of weapons remain in Britain

The public generally supported the ban, with most saying they saw no need for guns. However, others complained bitterly that the ban deprived legitimate sports shooters of their hobby and demonized them.

"Just because we enjoy shooting doesn't mean that we think everybody should be free to go into any shop on any street corner and buy a gun without having some suitable checks," firearms expert Michael Yardley, spokesman for Britain's Sportsmans' Society, said at the time. "There is obviously a balanced position. What we don't like is being scapegoated.

"Anyone who has any expert knowledge in this field realizes that a simplistic ban, bureaucratic ban on one category of firearm, was never going to solve a real world problem," Yardley said. "But that's what's happened, and what we're going to see is handgun crime will continue as ever. It will probably grow."

What effect did the ban have?

According to bare statistics, the ban initially appeared to have little impact, as the number of crimes involving guns in England and Wales rose heavily during the late 1990s to peak at 24,094 offenses in 2003/04.

Since then the number has fallen in each year. In 2010/11 there were 11,227 offenses, 53% below the peak number, according to the official crime figures. Crimes involving handguns also fell 44% -- from 5,549 in 2002/03 to 3,105 -- in 2010/11.

Despite this, the effectiveness of Britain's gun laws has been repeatedly questioned. The most high-profile mass shooting happened in 2010 when a lone gunman killed 12 people in a four-hour shooting spree in rural Cumbria, northern England. After a huge manhunt, the body of 52-year-old taxi driver Derrick Byrd was found alongside two powerful rifles, one equipped with a telescopic sight.

Criminologist Peter Squires said the real picture shows a slight but significant decline in the use of firearms since Dunblane. The figures don't tell the whole story, he said, but "the murder rate has fallen and all the indicators are moving in the right direction."

Squires, professor of criminology at Brighton University and a member of the Gun Control Network, said he believed the fall in crimes where guns were used was due to new legislation coupled with better policing against gangs.

"Any weapon can be misused in a crime. Gun control will never be a complete solution to events like the mass shooting we saw in Connecticut. The swamp of gun use has not been fully drained and while tighter gun control removes risk on an incremental basis, significant numbers of weapons remain in Britain."

He added it was important to note that a big problem remained in Britain and other countries with imitation guns, converted weapons such as starting pistols and air guns, "which many people regard as only one step up from a toy."
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
TheLionKing
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Mass shooting is not a big deal these days in the States unfortunately. Happens all the time. The NRA's response is have more guns so citizens can "protect" themselves.
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