Harvard: Gun Control is counterproductive

I think Linoge would approve!

The study, which just appeared in Volume 30, Number 2 of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy (pp. 649-694), set out to answer the question in its title: “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide? A Review of International and Some Domestic Evidence.” Contrary to conventional wisdom, and the sniffs of our more sophisticated and generally anti-gun counterparts across the pond, the answer is “no.” And not just no, as in there is no correlation between gun ownership and violent crime, but an emphatic no, showing a negative correlation: as gun ownership increases, murder and suicide decreases.

The PDF is linked below.  Most excellent read!

http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol30_No2_KatesMauseronline.pdf (PDF warning)

A second misconception about the relationship between firearms and violence attributes Europe’s generally low homicide rates to stringent gun control. That attribution cannot be accurate since murder in Europe was at an all‐time low before the gun controls were introduced.13 For instance, virtually the only English gun control during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was the practice that police patrolled without guns.  During this period gun control prevailed far less in England or Europe than in certain American states which nevertheless had—and continue to have—murder rates that were and are comparatively very high.

Oh, this is juicy.

H/T to Joe Huffman for pointing out that this is *NOT* a recent article, but was published on May 5, 2007.

Dr. Joe’s Cure for Everything

This from #GBC:

13:25 <+Tango> FarmDad: your morning sickness link = Dr. Joe’s cure all.
13:25 <+Tango> Sorry.  ‘cure for everything’  http://www.joehuffman.org/JoeSpeak.htm
13:26 -!- FarmDad is now known as FDafk
13:26 -!- Farmmom [~chatzilla@cloak-3F2A59CA.dyn.centurytel.net] has quit [Quit: ChatZilla 0.9.88.2 [Firefox 14.0.1/20120713134347]]

And somehow that didn’t make the /topic

Not suspicious at all

There’s nothing suspicious about a handcuffed left-handed man in the back of a police cruiser shooting himself in the right temple with a gun the police missed while searching him.
Nothing at all.

 

“As protocol he was handcuffed behind his back and double locked, and searched”, said Sergeant Lyle Waterworth, Jonesboro Police.

Somehow minutes later police say  they heard a thumping noised, turned around and found Chavis dead, shot in the head, in the back of the squad car.

Just because my kid’s awesome.

I have no real reason for posting this other than because I want to.

On Saturday we went on the Heber Creeper.  This is my son’s picture my sister-in-law took.  I think I’ll call it “Just chillin!”

gunblog bleg – knife edition

Everybody wants a supercool tactical tanto edge kukri with duratitanium edge with multiple rails for the upcoming holiday.

I want a carving knife.  Just a regular old knife that’ll fit either inside of my pocket OR clip to the outside.

A few years back, I bought a S&W SpecOps knife.  It was ok, but nothing special.  I liked the fact that the handle was metal.  It looked like it was cheap plastic, but definitely wasn’t.  What I hated was that the small hex screwheads were all some screwed up size.  So out of the 3 sets of hex drivers that I had, NOTHING was small enough to tighten them up and they came undone fairly frequently.  I don’t want to spend an extra $20 just to keep my knife usable.  I stopped using it when the outside pieces of the handle were starting to ply away from the core of the handle making the entire thing loose.  Very uncomfortable having a ‘loose’ knife rattling around down there with an assisted open.

So I’m looking for a new knife.  I started carving out a 1911 from a block of wood for my boy.  It’s not turning out too bad using a wood file and a flat chisel…  but the chisel is hard to maneuver and the times I came REALLY close to hacking myself open was scary.  Knives are far easier to manipulate.  I do NOT need it to be some ultra-ninja-tacticool (but rails would be SWEET!).  It just needs to have a GOOD blade that holds an edge and has to be a decent size.  Nothing Crocodile Dundee-esque.  I do not want a fixed blade.  A good, solid buck knife would be nice but the only thing I ever see are the ones that sell for $20 and are mass produced by some little factory in China.

Give me something good!  What are my options?

Update (6-18-12):  I drove out to Smith & Edwards and took a peak at their knives and when I saw it, I had to get it!  The sheathe sucks on it, so that will be replaced by a local leatherworker.  The blade is THICK and the entire knife has a great heft to it.  It whittles just fine, but with the blade being wider than most others, some tasks are more difficult.  It cuts up dinner just fine, flora or fauna.  My F-i-L cooked up a pork butt in his new smoker, so we ate pretty good and the knife hacked through it without using hardly any force.  Of course, I can expect that coming off of the factory floor so we’ll have to see how it handles in the real world over time.

The sheathe that comes with it doesn’t hold the knife in tight so if you shake it, the knife freely moves within.  That’s not good!  I’ll get one made that secures halfway down the blade and fights TIGHT around the belt so it doesn’t move at all.  The goal is to wear it as part of my EDC set and that’ll let that happen just fine.  Right now, no matter which shirt I wear, it hangs down about 1/2″ below the edge of the shirt.

I’ll also be picking up the Folding Hunter later on.  One for work, one for play!  The employer’s not a fan of ‘weapons’.  Mine’s only a weapon if you’re made of pork, beef, or wood grain.

“Oh, I trust all ex-military with guns!”

The other day, I was leaving the parking garage going into work and the rent-a-cops for the complex stopped me and chatted it up.  He’s former military and was in the Army.  He picked me out because I have USMC vet plates on the Blazer.  Nice enough fellow who obviously gets very bored on the job since all he does is sits in a Geo Metro driving around between 2 parking garages.

The odd thing about these rent-a-cops is that their employers actually ask that they carry guns.  I believe they’re Glock 17s, but they could be some other model.  I only remember that they’re 9mm.  I say this is odd because the complex used to be a mall and now it’s an entertainment center type of place.  There are a handful of buildings that house things like a pizza joint, 5 Guys Burgers, a few sit-down restaurants, a coffee place, movie theatre, arcade, bowling alley, indoor skydiving, Gold’s Gym, etc etc…  My office just happens to sit in the same complex.

So this morning, he was walking in the same direction I am so tell him that I think it’s odd that they carry since most security companies DO NOT ask their rent-a-cops to carry and in fact prohibit it, especially with them pretty much being mall cops.  He said it’s because of McVeigh that they all do.  Interesting…  I can see how someone carrying a gun would have stopped McVeigh.  I like that they carry, but it’s still trying to use a screwdriver to serve up ice cream.  It’s good to have the screwdriver, but you’re not going to stop any bombers with it.

I said that I think it’s awesome that they carry!  There’s been more than one assault in the parking garages over the years (but it’s much better than it was).  I told him that I carry as well.  “Oh, I trust all ex-military with guns.”  I just said “Why ex-military?  I trust everybody with guns until they can prove otherwise.”

I got a very disapproving look from the guy.  You can go screw yourself, buddy.

The problem with Open Carry

I’ve noticed that the problem with open carry…  are the anti-open carry crowd.

What’s interesting, and rather quite telling, is that the only reason that open carry is in the media and being argued about…  is that the anti-open carry crowd are the ones bringing it up or trying to teach lessons to the OCers.

I think the latest boutstarted with a loudmouthed jackass bashing everybody who OCs with one huge blanket statement.  His beef was over the folks in Cali who OC’ed shotguns and then claimed that the only reason that Cali banned OC was because of them.  No, they just reminded Cali that it was legal.  Can’t have that.  If not them, then someone else.  You can’t fight the laws until you fall victim to them.

The ONLY public backlash that might arguably not have happened was the Michigan library incident with the fellow OCing a shotgun.  I say arguably because the guy OCing had no choice.  If he was going to carry an implement with which to defend himself, it was going to be a shotgun due to the guy’s age.  It was not legally permissible for him to carry a handgun to begin with.

I’ve only seen 1 story that told of a guy having his open carry gun stolen by a criminal.  The other stories were of pro-gun people teaching a lesson.

If you want to OC, then OC.  If you don’t, then don’t, but shut your suck instead of bashing those that do.  The benefits that the Open Carry movement have provided have been 100 fold over the few negative instances about Open Carry.

(Edited fer bad grammers)

The Greatest Generation

The family and I are heading out to my wife’s mother’s cabin.  I stopped into the grocery store to pick up some bacon and some corn on the way home from work.  While I was there, I saw a familiar hat.  The Veteran hat.  You know the one…  it’s almost always black (sometime’s Navy blue for the squids) with yellow writing.  All it said was US Marine Corps on it.  The guy wearing it looked to be about 80 years old and he was picking between a few packages of chicken breasts.

Me: Thank you for serving, when did you serve?

Him: Thank you.  World War 2.

Me: REALLY!? (the fanboyism was really really showing, then)

Him: Yep!

Me: Where were you for it?

Him: I was on Iwo Jima.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was better than meeting one of my favorite celebrities!  I couldn’t even carry on more of a conversation with him, he had me squeeing.  He got a grin, a big Semper Fi and I told him good day.  I just met one of the greatest people on Earth, today.  I just wish I’d had the presence of mind to ask him for his contact information so I can ask him for his stories.

Tales of the Terminal

Tonight, I read a post over at Borepatch’s that linked to a new blog that I’m adding to my RSS feed.  Six is a fellow that lost his mother in a roundabout way to cancer.  Cancer beat her mentally before it could beat her physically.  Instead of posting something depressing on his blog, I’ll put it here so he has the OPTION of reading it.  It’s something I don’t recall ever putting in writing in the past.  So, here goes…

Six, I truly know what you’re going through (and a little about what she was going through).

My mother died when I was 9.  It was emphazema, but she also had lung cancer.  It was a race and Emphazema won out.  Shortness of breath that only got worse.  A machine chugging away at night extracting oxygen from water for her to breathe.  Eventually, she collapsed and I was the one to run next door to call 911.  My parents weren’t the most check-balancing folks out there, so luxuries like a PHONE weren’t always available.  I don’t remember a lot about the hospital but hanging out in the waiting room with my siblings.  I met a lot of family in that time.  I didn’t understand it at the time, but they all flew in because they knew it was the end.  At one point, someone, I don’t remember who, walked me in to the bed where my mom was.  She was surrounded by her siblings and they walked me up to hold her hand.  She squeezed my hand, but never opened her eyes.  I would find out later, that was the end.  I was momma’s boy, no doubt about that.  heh…  there’s a first.  I’m crying while I write this.  I’ve never done that before…  Anyhow, late that night, while I was at home, I think it was my older brother woke me up to tell me that she’d died.  March 22, 1988.  She was 45 years old.

Through excellent parenting choices by my remaining parent, I went back into foster homes that August.  I say BACK because I was when I was 5 and 6 years old already.  When I was in high school, I was on foster home 12 or so.  This couple were my parents, now.  They didn’t care if I took on their last name.  They just said I would be welcome there as a foster child if that’s what I wanted.  No strings attached.  I moved in my sophomore year of high school, so about 15 years old.  When I was about 22, my foster mother got lung cancer.  They found it while I was in the Marines.  I found out she had it when I got home on terminal leave.

Cancer is an ugly, ugly disease.  Hers was terminal as well.  Towards the end, the chemo had her hair and the pain had her consciousness for the most part.  At the end, it was so bad that the morphine had to be administered through the skin as a cream.  I think it was something stronger, but I don’t remember.  You had to wear thick thick rubber gloves so you didn’t touch it.  It would get rubbed on her feet and it was the only way you could give her relief from the pain.  When it was really really bad enough, the moaning could be heard through the floor to the second floor of the house.  Her toes curled so tightly, almost like they were atrophied because she was in that much pain.  Her legs would also curl up because of the pain.  She wanted to curl to the fetal position, but she wasn’t strong enough to do so anymore.  This went on for months.  She died with the family in the house.  Hospice was nearby and what a wonderful service they provide…  She was able to be in the ‘comfort’ of her own home at the end.  She died about September 22nd, 2011 or thereabouts.  We never even told her about 9/11 because of what we thought it would do to her.

Cancer is the most vile of diseases.  I very literally watched my mother die from it twice.  Granted, they were two different people, but the effect remains the same.

Six, I like your take on it and how you’re dealing with it personally.  You are not doing trying to second guess her too much and I think that is wise.  After seeing what I’ve seen with this disease, I hope I would behave exactly as you hope you’d behave…  but I haven’t seen the world through the eyes of one of them.

God speed, sir.  I wish we’d met (virtually) under better circumstances.

Memorial Day 2012 part the last

Today was a successful Memorial Day, mostly.  It started out with me being woken up by a customer.  I had a choice if I was going to pick up the phone or not since it’s WEEKEND support and not HOLIDAY support, but I did anyway.  Hey, it’s a guaranteed $50 on my next paycheck!

Anyhow, while working on that customer’s issue (moved an encrypted filesystem mount, but didn’t move the keys with it), my wife came in with breakfast consisting of breakfast burritos (homemade) and a big glass of milk.  Damn, I love that woman!  So after that happened, we sat down and watched some tube together (which isn’t a tube anymore…  one of those terms that’s just around still) until about 11.  Then the kid and I ran down to one of the local cemeteries for one of the Memorial Day shows.

Fantastic music!

When that was done, we got home, I put him down for a nap, then I chilled for a bit.  By chilled, I mean I washed a ton of dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and cleaned up outside where I still had a bunch of crap from cleaning up the garden.  The previous homeowners didn’t use it for anything so it was in REALLY rough shape.  However, now it’s a pretty likeable garden again!

You can see the CLEAN part off on the left.  The really green part of the garden…  are WEEDS.  Almost entirely blindweed and a second, as yet undetermined weed covering it.  They WERE covering the entire garden.  I’ve since cleaned out most of those remaining weeds as well.  Probably about 5-6 hours of work, but worth it.  Once they’re pulled out, the entire garden will be manageable.  If you look to the back of the picture, 2 rows to the right of the bucket, you’ll see larger plants.  Those are our potatoes and they’re doing amazing.  There are weeds around them still, but that’s it.  The rest have been cleaned out since that picture was taken.

The wife and I had invited some friends over for dinner, so we got the kid up, changed, dressed, and ready.  When they got here, we finished out the day eating some T-Bones, corn, and potato salad.  We sat around talking while the kids (my boy and his girl who is not yet a year old) played in the kiddie pool.  No pics of his kid because hey, it’s HIS kid!

I filled up the pool earlier in the morning.  One huge difference between Ohio and Utah is that Utah has very cold water in comparison.  Even the faucet water is MUCH much colder!  By the time we were eating (about 5-6 hours), the water temperature in the kiddie pool raised to a respectable room temperature level!

My kid learned that if he walked over to the driveway and squatted down in his swim diaper after being in the pool, he could ‘paint’ with the water on the concrete.

Time to head out, but I figure this is worth mentioning.  I saved it for last, even though it was just after the bagpipe show.  We went and found a WWII vet’s gravestone.

George E Heindel
S SGT, US ARMY
WORLD WAR II
FEB 8 1922 – JUN 29 1995

No, we don’t have any idea who the fellow was.  All that matter was that he stepped forward when his nation called.

Hand salute!

Yes, it took some prompting, but since he saw quite a few salutes already, he only had to be shown once!  Here he is showing his respects to SSgt Heindel.

One thing that I noticed as we were leaving the cemetery today is that I saw a TON of WWII headstones almost all dated post-2000.  Our WWII and Korea vets are dying at an alarming rate.  That’s what happens with old age, I suppose.  There are fewer and fewer veterans around from that era, folks.  They’re called “The Greatest Generati0n” and if you asked, most people couldn’t tell you why.  Find a WWII vet (or any vet for that matter) and ask them their stories!  There’s a lot to learn from them if we just ask the right questions.  Learn from them so you can properly remember them when it’s too late to learn any more.

Thank you to every person that’s served and an even bigger THANK YOU to every person that served and can no longer read this.  Your sacrifices are the reason I was able to enjoy today with my son and wife.