NPR Story on Gun Violence

[jr_roosa]

NPR story on gun violence. I think keeping up on what is out in the media is important.

http://www.npr.org/2013/03/18/173812393/among-thousands-of-gun-deaths-only-one-charles-foster-jr

Interesting and pretty fact based. Discussed that 2/3 of gun deaths are suicides, that long guns don't contribute much, and even had a prosecutor say that focusing on background checks won't change much since most guns used in homicides are stolen and obtained illegally. "They aren't going to gun shows to buy these."

They did have a guy who is pretty negative on ARs.

I have been impressed with the improved quality of gun writing in the liberal leaning press. I think that they are paying attention to details more than they used to. The anti gun sentiment is still strongly expressed but they seem to be bringing their A game to gun stories.

J.

 

[akv3g4n]

I heard this story on Monday. I was really surprised that overall it was pretty unbiased. The best quotes in the story were from the prosecutor that they interviewed.

Just about every homicide Moore has handled, with the exception of child deaths, has involved a firearm, she says.

"I don't know what will stop the gun violence. Because most of the cases that I see, the perpetrators are not using guns that they lawfully bought or lawfully own," she says. "It's a gun that's been stolen. For example, if there's a burglary and in the course of that burglary the homeowner's firearms are stolen, nine times out of 10 that stolen firearm is going to be the same weapon that has either shot somebody or killed someone. We see it all the time."

Expanding background checks or other proposals the federal government is weighing, Moore says, are unlikely to fix the problem. "From what I see, if they want to get 'em, they're gonna get 'em. They're stolen, they're traded for drugs. They don't go to gun shows and buy 'em."

 

[sidheshooter]

The thing about NPR, and an earlier story on PBS, is that they have to make an effort to interview some experts, and research the stories. Over the length of enough time passing, facts will eventually tend to out. I think that's what we are starting to see happen.

 

[barnbwt]

I wouldn't go so far as to call it unbiased. There is still an unhealthy fascination with the gun instead of the real problem (shady clubs at midnight), as they ask "why, why, why? How do we stem this bloody tide?". Capped off by a medical examiner saying he'd give up the he uses to protect himself in his dangerous line of work if the government said so as to "be part of the solution, not the problem"

Just a few days ago they had a piece about Wyoming's high suicide rate, and how high gun ownership exacerbated the problem. This hours after I heard Blomberg had set his sights on that state next (lots of city immigrants into that state of late; just like Colorado).

Much less crass propaganda than they usually pump out (a welcome change that I do appreciate) but there is still a definite agenda. They merely didn't answer their rhetorical "why?" question in the article, so it seems less confrontational and more balanced--it isn't. The paragraph about legal gunnies not being a problem; 'bout time they mention that after the beating we've taken for years now

*did anyone else know S&W made 20ga shotguns? Learn sumthin' new everyday

TCB

 

[jr_roosa]

*did anyone else know S&W made 20ga shotguns? Learn sumthin' new everyday

I was actually going to cite that as a blatant error, but I googled it first.

I learned something new about guns from NPR today.

I agree it's totally an agenda, but they are really putting effort into it.

J.

 

[yokel]

NPR and their ilk are well aware that there is little sense in expanding background checks.

Don't you understand that it's just part of a series forming successive stages?

They will repeatedly and strenuously deny it, but in their estimation what we need to significantly enhance public safety is domestic disarmament, collecting and destroying guns from their civilian populations.

 

[Schutzen]

I do feel great remorse for his family, but maybe it is time to wake up and smell the roses. Does anyone think the military, in this case the US Army, placed this club on the "Off Limits" List because they did not like the owners? No, this club and all others placed on the "Off Limits" Lists are placed there because they have a history of dangerous, illegal activity. If you play with fire, expect to get burned. Some can play every day for several years, but others like this young man get burned their first time.
This may be an example of a rather unbiased story, but it is a much better example of why one should not make poor choices.

 

[kwguy]

They are trying to sound reasonable, because they know that strident emotional non-sense turns people off eventually. It's almost like a double edged sword, when they say "most of the guns are stolen, not legally purchased", etc. Next, they say, "well, how do you fix THAT problem?". So now you pass a law to lock up your weapons, and register them, right? "There, THAT should fix the problem." No? Oh, well then, "we have to make all gun ownership illegal"...

Slippery slope...

 

[greenmtnguy]

*did anyone else know S&W made 20ga shotguns? Learn sumthin' new everyday

My father gave one to my brother for a Christmas present, about 32 years ago - it is a nice, no-frills grouse/rabbit gun.

 

[beatledog7]

Can anyone explain why there is no outcry to curtail "knife violence" or "blunt object violence"? This fascination with what people use to kill each other rather than why they kill each other is beyond silly.

As one commenter on the story noted, the hopeless and un-winnable war on drugs puts a whole lot of people in prison and causes a whole lot of people to seek a way to even the score in situations (e.g., Person A stole Person B's crack) where calling the police and filing an insurance claim is not an option.

Here's a suggestion: Remove marijuana from the federal controlled substances list. Let states decide whether they want to allow it, and let them tax the crap out of it. Then release all the people doing time for marijuana crimes, and use their old cells to keep a violent criminals incarcerated. The best way to keep a gun out of the hands of a confirmed violent criminal is to keep that criminal where he can't steal a gun.

Once we see how well that works, the tide will shift. People will wonder why we ever thought smoking dope should be a federal crime. Instead of thinking up new ways to punish the law-abiding, legislators will focus on which controlled substance to legalize next.

 

[sidheshooter]

The best way to keep a gun out of the hands of a confirmed violent criminal is to keep that criminal where he can't steal a gun.

Even after all these years, I've never heard the concept put quite like that.

Excellent.

 

[beatledog7]

No reason to make it complex when it's simple.

 

[Oklacoyotekiller]

I have a smith 12ga. Love that shotgun.

 

[Risky]

Can anyone explain why there is no outcry to curtail "knife violence" or "blunt object violence"? This fascination with what people use to kill each other rather than why they kill each other is beyond silly.

There is; in England. Read for yourself:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4581871.stm

We're just not there, yet, ourselves... It's all part of the push for civil disarmament and a governmental monopoly on force and violence.

 

[LiveLife]

The thing about NPR ... is that they have to make an effort to interview some experts, and research the stories. Over the length of enough time passing, facts will eventually tend to out. I think that's what we are starting to see happen.

Then you have this NPR interview with a Korean shop owner who organized other shop owners and they protected themselves and their stores during the LA riot when police decided not to provide protection - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=698855

... Kee Whan Ha. At the time of the riots, he organized members of his community to protect their stores ... he and fellow stores owners assembled with weapons to protect their properties. Mr. Ha still lives in Los Angeles and owns the Hannam chain store, which includes a supermarket in the heart of L.A.'s Koreatown.

HA: Yes. It's very painful. Also, one of our security guard was killed. So it's a human loss, some property damage, but fortunately, our business was unharmed ... I assembled my people, all the store owners, people who has a big rifle or the hunting rifle, everything ... our next door ... electric part [store] ... the riot people came inside, and they steal everything. They put the gasoline, then they put the fire, so whole building's on fire.

MARTIN: ... Why did you feel you had to defend your store yourself? ... why you didn't feel the authorities would do their job.

HA: I don't see any police patrol car whatsoever. That's a wide-open area, so it is like Wild West in old days, like there's nothing there. We are the only one left, so we have to do our own ... The riot people took the next building, put it on fire. Then these people want to come to our store. Then we are shooting each other.

MARTIN: Sure. You were trying to create a - sort of a protective barrier, and you did succeed in saving your store ... How are things now?

HA: I think it's much better there. We have a lot of relationship with the African-American community, as well as the Latino community. Also, we have a lot of connection to the police department.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=8688370#post8688370

When the Los Angeles Police Department made the decision to retreat from the riots’ flashpoint of Florence and Normandy, the emboldened street gangs took advantage of the chaos by looting and burning the Korean owned stores in South Central Los Angeles. Many shop owners, who had not been able to flee South Central when the violence erupted, were stranded in the stores.

“We frantically called the police but nobody picked up. When they did they simply told us that there was nothing they could do about it,” recalls one of the victims. While the Los Angeles media was busy reporting the burning and looting of the stores, the Korean American media, particularly Radio Korea, which had switched to an emergency broadcast, were reporting about the family members who were still stranded.

The next day, the street gangs targeted the neighboring Koreatown, approximately 2 miles north of South Los Angeles. As the police, which had retreated from South Central the day before, began urging the Korean American shop owners in Koreatown to evacuate Koreatown because they had no intention of protecting it, Korean American shop owners armed themselves to protect the businesses from the looters. “Had they not done so,” recalls Professor Leo Estrada of UCLA in the film, “the entire town would have burned down like South Central the day before.” Estrada was a member of the Christopher Commission who at the time chose to drive through Koreatown in a patrol car made available to the commission members.

 

[mrvco]

The thing about NPR is that you typically know what you're getting... the perspective of an unbiased gentrified white urbanite.

And yes, I was VERY careful where I placed the word "unbiased" in that statement.

 

[BigG]

NPR is something I stopped listening to twenty or so years ago. once I figured out it was funded by Congress I knew it was dumocrat propaganda.

 

[Jimbo2032]

Originally Posted by beatledog7
The best way to keep a gun out of the hands of a confirmed violent criminal is to keep that criminal where he can't steal a gun.

Even after all these years, I've never heard the concept put quite like that.

Excellent.

I know of a good place to keep confirmed violent criminals, in the ground.