GUNS IN THE NEWS--April 12, 2004

As CO Liberal sez:
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Right wing pinheads and the gun lobby give criminals a free ride....

"DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina gun laws have some prosecutors frustrated as firearm charges are dismissed against convicted felons.
It isn't illegal in North Carolina for convicted felons to carry rifles or shotguns in their vehicles. Nor is it illegal for them to keep multiple guns in their home, as long as the weapons are not fully automatic.
"It's quite disturbing," said Assistant District Attorney John Phillips, a gun prosecutor in Durham. "If Charles Manson got paroled and came here, he could have a semiautomatic AK-47 assault rifle in plain view in his vehicle and not be in violation of the law.
Last year, former state Sen. Wib Gulley sponsored a bill to toughen the law by prohibiting convicted felons from possessing all types of firearms. It also would have deleted the provision that allows convicted felons to have guns in their homes or businesses. The bill didn't pass.""

http://newsobserver.com/nc24hour/ncnews/story/3505815p-3110180c.html

I only know what end of the gun to stand behind. I have never even held a gun, but for the cap ones we played with as kids.I also had a dart one that I could shoot at the TV when Bush turned up on it. My kids thoughts my sister and I would love them and we did.

"BUSHNELL, Fla. -- A 13-year-old boy accused of accidentally shooting his younger brother during a game of "cowboys and Indians" has been charged with manslaughter.
Mitchell Maddox was playing with his three younger siblings in February when he allegedly shot 7-year-old David Lanford in the head with a .410-caliber pump-action shotgun, officials said.
The state attorney's office decided to bring formal charges last week."

http://www.local6.com/news/2994859/detail.html

"In 2000 and 2002, the organization launched massive campaigns to enlist union members and women. Both efforts failed.
The NRA took credit for Al Gore's loss of Arkansas, Tennessee and West Virginia, any one of which would have delivered him the presidency. But among these, only West Virginia has any consistent recent history of voting Democratic.
More significant was the failure of the NRA to push larger swing states into the Bush column, including union-heavy states like Pennsylvania (which has the second-largest NRA membership next to Texas), Michigan and Illinois, or smaller swing states, including Iowa, Wisconsin or New Mexico.
The NRA's most significant policy accomplishments have yielded little. In 2001, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft reversed more than 50 years of Justice Department policy by asserting that the 2nd Amendment's right to bear arms applied to private individual gun ownership and was not limited to citizen militia service. Yet even Ashcroft has proved unwilling to extend this "right" to dozens of gun-related prosecutions. The result after three years has been no actual change in gun-owner rights.
And in January, supporters slipped into an omnibus appropriations bill a provision to destroy gun background-check records after 24 hours instead of 90 days. But this change, which will have no effect on law-abiding gun owners, may well prove embarrassing to the gun lobby, especially if there's another case like one from November. In that instance, the Justice Department had to issue a frantic order to the FBI to increase scrutiny of gun buyers after discovering that 12 people on the government's terrorist watch list had purchased firearms in 2003. "

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-spitzer12apr12,1,683303.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

...and convincing too. Convincing, that is, if you ignore the tidal wave of states going to shall issue CCW.

And this one...
"And in January, supporters slipped into an omnibus appropriations bill a provision to destroy gun background-check records after 24 hours instead of 90 days. But this change, which will have no effect on law-abiding gun owners, may well prove embarrassing to the gun lobby,"

It has no effect on law-abiding gun owners unless some politician says: "Mr & Mrs America turn them all in".

the RKBA crowd has such slimy playmates...

...washed away your comprehension? Their story is bogus.

I know gun nut horseshit when I see it.

...is a figment of my imagination?

You had to pick one little temporary set back in the flood of shall issue CCW states?
Bwa-ha-ha-ha!!!!!!!

(Could someone post that cool CCW map for Benchley?)

But then it's wonderful to see how often the RKBA crowd pimps for Republicans here, isn't it?

No rights? No due process? Guilty until proven innocent?

"An 18-year-old accused in the shooting death of his girlfriend on Dec. 7 claims he didn't mean to do it, Local 4 reported.
The attorney for Randy Smith said in court Monday that the teen's reaction to the shooting proves he did not intend to kill.
"You will hear from his sister and his friends that he was crying and he was upset and he was going to commit suicide because of what had happened. (This is) not the reaction of someone who intended to kill or wanted to kill," said William Cataldo, defense attorney.
Smith is accused of shooting Ashleigh Moomaw, 16, of Warren, Mich., in the head at his sister's home on West Madge Street in Hazel Park, according to the station's reports. "

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20040412/lo_wdiv/2091709

Quick...what scummy right wing lobbying group that has odious nutcase Grover Norquist on its board publishes a gun magazine for kids?