Source of image: screen capture from the web posting of the WOWT report.
Justin Joseph had a nice "Crime Beat" report on WOWT Tuesday night (9/9/08), in which he documented 61 year-old Juanita Brown's purchase of a gun for self-defense.
View the report at:
"State Senator Karen S. Johnson of Arizona is the sponsor of a bill permitting firearms on campuses." Source of caption and photo: online version of the NYT article quoted and cited below.
(p. A10) PHOENIX -- Horrified by recent campus shootings, a state lawmaker here has come up with a proposal in keeping with the Taurus .22-caliber pistol tucked in her purse: Get more guns on campus.The lawmaker, State Senator Karen S. Johnson, has sponsored a bill, which the Senate Judiciary Committee approved last week, that would allow people with a concealed weapons permit -- limited to those 21 and older here -- to carry their firearms at public colleges and universities. Concealed weapons are generally not permitted at most public establishments, including colleges.
Ms. Johnson, a Republican from Mesa, said she believed that the recent carnage at Northern Illinois University could have been prevented or limited if an armed student or professor had intercepted the gunman. The police, she said, respond too slowly to such incidents and, besides, who better than the people staring down the barrel to take action?
For the full story, see:
John Lott earned his PhD at the University of Chicago in economics. What he says below is not popular, or politically correct, but it is probably true. And if it is true, and if we fail to act on its truth, then more good people will continue to be killed, who could have been saved.
The horrible tragedy at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Neb. received a lot of attention Wednesday and Thursday. It should have. Eight people were killed, and five were wounded.
A Google news search using the phrase "Omaha Mall Shooting" finds an incredible 2,794 news stories worldwide for the last day. From India and Taiwan to Britain and Austria, there are probably few people in the world who haven’t heard about this tragedy.
But despite the massive news coverage, none of the media coverage, at least by 10 a.m. Thursday, mentioned this central fact: Yet another attack occurred in a gun-free zone.
Surely, with all the reporters who appear at these crime scenes and seemingly interview virtually everyone there, why didn’t one simply mention the signs that ban guns from the premises?
Nebraska allows people to carry permitted concealed handguns, but it allows property owners, such as the Westroads Mall, to post signs banning permit holders from legally carrying guns on their property.
. . .
The law-abiding, not criminals, are obeying the rules. Disarming the victims simply means that the killers have less to fear. As Wednesday's attack demonstrated yet again, police are important, but they almost always arrive at the crime scene after the crime has occurred.
The longer it takes for someone to arrive on the scene with a gun, the more people who will be harmed by such an attack.
Most people understand that guns deter criminals. If a killer were stalking your family, would you feel safer putting a sign out front announcing, "This Home Is a Gun-Free Zone"? But that is what the Westroads Mall did.
For the full commentary, see:
(Note: ellipsis added.)
(Note: I am grateful to Luis Locay, for forwarding me Lott's commentary.)
Venus Ramey shows how she balanced her pistol on her walker to shoot out the tires of an intruder on her farm. Source of photo: screen capture from CNN clip "Granny's Packing Heat" as viewed on 4/23/07.
In the wake of the Virginia Tech killings, there have been some renewed calls for more gun control (see the WSJ and NYT articles cited way below). But we should not forget that a gun can also be a leveler; it gives the ordinary citizen a fighting chance against the thief and the murderer.
There was a great scene in the first Indiana Jones movie (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 1984) where Indy is being chased by a huge bad guy armed with swords. The crowd clears, and the the huge man confidently and ominously twirls his swords. Indy looks at him quizzically for a couple of seconds, pulls out a pistol, and shoots him.
When I first saw that scene, the theater erupted in laughter and applause.
Laughter and applause are also appropriate responses to the story of 82 year old, former Miss America, Venus Ramey:
Miss America 1944 has a talent that likely has never appeared on a beauty pageant stage: She fired a handgun to shoot out a vehicle's tires and stop an intruder. Venus Ramey, 82, confronted a man on her farm in south-central Kentucky last week after she saw her dog run into a storage building where thieves had previously made off with old farm equipment.
Ramey said the man told her he would leave. "I said, 'Oh, no you won't,' and I shot their tires so they couldn't leave," Ramey said.
She had to balance on her walker as she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-caliber handgun.
"I didn't even think twice. I just went and did it," she said. "If they'd even dared come close to me, they'd be 6 feet under by now."
For the full story, see:
Associated Press. "Armed Miss America 1944 Stops Intruder." Forbes.com Posted 04.21.07, 5:00 AM ET Downloaded on 4/23/07 from http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/04/21/ap3637737.html
CNN has a great clip on this story, under the heading "Granny's Packing Heat."
The WSJ article mentioned above, is:
The NYT article mentioned above, is:
As a live-and-let-live libertarian, I think the war on drugs is a waste of money and a violation of rights.
Consider the news report of the police breaking down the door of a 92 year-old Atlanta woman, who defended her property, and was shot dead.
In the CNN report, the woman's 75 year old niece expresses understandable outrage.
View CNN's airing of a WSB report by Eric Phillips, broadcast on Weds., Nov. 22nd.
Source: Screen capture from CNN "Refusing to Leave" report by Dan Simon on the morning of 9-9-05.
"This is America. Has your neighborhood ever been invaded by state troopers from another state?" "I will leave when I am dead." Ashton O'Dwyer can't understand why he is being forced to leave his dry, intact home in New Orleans. He asks the city: "Treat me with benign neglect." The 9-9-05 report was followed up by Drew Griffin on 9-10-05 with the "Staying Put" report that presented businesses, and Afro-Americans, expressing sentiments similar to O'Dwyer's.
Dr. Michael Baden on the "On the Record" Fox News show, hosted by Greta Van Susteren at about 9:47 PM central time on 9-9-05, stated that there was little danger from the "toxic" water unless people drink it. (Toxic water is the main reason given for the current, post-hurricane, forced evacuations.) Baden claims if the city wants to help people, they would be much more effective if they sprayed the water against mosquitoes.
(Dr. Michael Baden is the Chief Forensic Pathologist of the New York State Police, and was formerly the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City.)
Watch the CNN report: "Refusing to Leave":
Watch the CNN report: "Staying Put":
For more on O'Dwyer, see also:
CHRISTOPHER COOPER. "Old-Line Families Escape Worst of Flood and Plot the Future." THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (September 8, 2005): A1.
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