7-8 PM CST
Fausta and I discuss Latin America, the drug cartels, Mexico, Elian Gonzalez, Cuba, the young communists and the fact that children there are owned by the state and are not under their parents’ control; gun control, and a number of other things. She also mentioned that she’s doing 15-minute podcasts on news about and from Latin American countries each day on Blog Talk RAdio.
Buddy Greene sings the blues!
The Segment is here.
WHY don’t we hear this on our NEWS?????
Teach the children early to respect guns..
*Shooting in Butte, Montana*Shotgun preteen vs. illegal alien Home Invaders :
Butte, Montana November 5, 2007
Two illegal aliens, Ralphel Resindez, 23, and Enrico Garza, 26, probably believed they would easily overpower home-alone 11 year old Patricia Harrington after her father had left their two-story home.
It seems the two crooks never learned two things: they were in Montana and Patricia had been a clay pigeon shooting champion since she was nine.
Patricia was in her upstairs room when the two men broke through the front door of the house. She quickly ran to her father’s room and grabbed his 12 gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun.
Resindez was the first to get up to the second floor only to be the first to catch a near point blank blast of buckshot from the 11-year-old’s knee crouch aim. He suffered fatal wounds to his abdomen and genitals.
When Garza ran to the foot of the stairs, he took a blast to the left shoulder and staggered out into the street where he bled to death before medical help could arrive.
It was found out later that Resindez was armed with a stolen 45 caliber handgun he took from another home invasion robbery. That victim, 50-year-old David Burien, was not so lucky. He died from stab wounds to the chest.
Ever wonder why good stuff never makes NBC, CBS, PBS, MSNBC, CNN, or ABC news……..an 11-year-old girl, properly trained, defended her home, and herself……against two murderous, illegal immigrants……and she won… she is still alive.
From my dad, through email.
Verified: here, here, here - if anyone can post a link in comments to a news article on this, I would appreciate it, although it would figure if it was scrubbed from the web.
Thanks to my vigilant commenters, it turns out the story is NOT TRUE, but the message is a good one. See Snopes, here. You’ll see two similar stories, but not the one from dad’s email at snopes, without all of the story’s elements in it. But as my comments fail to understand, I don’t care if it’s true or not; the message or ‘moral to the story’ is what is worth while; it reminds me of an Aesop’s fable.
“Good stuff” DOES rarely make the news.
I’ve seen a lot of folks out there trying to say this story is FAKE…from 2006, or 2007. Can’t find much else beyond people posting it in forums, though.
What a great story to remind us just why we cling to our guns and religion; and why we oppose ILLEGALS and giving them AMNESTY.
Hope the McCain campaign is listening.
Some may have forgotten what happened at Waco. But some of us remember. On February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms raided the Branch Davidian compound and demonized David Koresh, quickly militarizing the situation. Innocents, women and children died a horrible death in fire and smoke.
Joe Biden wholeheartedly supported the actions of federal agents in the Waco standoff, and visibly sneered at witnesses at the Senate hearings who questioned and/or criticized the agents’ acts. Biden was a key proponent of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1994, which banned some kinds of semiautomatic rifles, with a sunset provision that allowed these weapons to become legal again ten years later. The law also allocated substantial funds for construction of new prisons, established boot camps for delinquent minors, and brought the death penalty for crimes related to drug dealing, civil-rights related murders, murder of a Federal officer, and acts classified as terrorism.
The Waco fire burned up 86 members at the compound of the Branch Davidians (including 24 children, 17 of whom were younger than age 10), and has kept eight survivors rotting in prison ever since, serving long sentences denounced by the jury that heard the evidence. (Eagle Forums)
Imprisoned
Renos Avraam 31 British 40 years
Brad Branch 35 American 40 years
Jaime Castillo 24 American 40 years
Graeme Craddock 31 Australian 20 years
Livingstone Fagan 35 British 40 years
Paul Fatta 35 American 15 years
Ruth Riddle 31 Canadian 5 years
Kathryn Schroeder 35 American 3 years
Kevin Whitecliff 33 American 40 years
Supposedly, Waco was the inspiration for the OK City Bombing; according to the media and the Clintons, but to me, these are separate events with completely different players. What the OK City bombing did was to perpetuate the notion that began with Ruby Ridge and Waco; that people who believe in God, who entertain conspiracy theories about our government - deserve not only to be watched, but deserve our scorn.
Senate hearings were held with the usual pro government results. Senator’s Orrin Hatch and Joe Biden concluded that the officers that harassed and caused the deaths of these 80 or so Davidians (including women and young children) were not guilty. The supervisors were praised for their service to our country, promoted, given a pay raise, and sent on vacation, while the grieving families of the dead victims were trying to make funeral arrangements.
Guns at Waco: stacked neatly against the wall among burned ruins; not cocked in the charred hands of the dead women and children
The message sent from this 1960’s war protestor, anti American cultured administration was clear: Religious groups, and lawful gun owners, were now put on the endangered species list.(Rick Biesada, Federal Observer)
We saw this fairly recently where hundreds of children were taken from their mothers, because they belonged to a “West Texas polygamy” group - a group the press calls The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
David Koresh, as you may recall, was also accused of child molestation, and so was Warren Jeffs. It’s a case of damage control when they’re reaching for reasons to go in and nuke families, small children and mothers breastfeeding infants. They’d rather have you believe they’ve stockpiled weapons, and have a veritable arsenal at their disposal, but the evidence afterwards shows that was hardly the case.
There is a frightening pattern of behavior here.
Randy Weaver holding a picture of his son, Sammy, shot in the back by the feds
Vicki and Sammy Weaver, along with Sammy’s dog that he’d raised from a puppy, died at Ruby Ridge in Idaho in 1993, as the result of same type of sloppy government work. They put pressure on Randy Weaver to become a snitch on the Aryan Nation and when he refused, they quickly ratcheted up this pressure to a frenzied pitch until there were military vehicles and 400 guys in camouflage gear spying on their little cabin in the mountains. While the media reported that they lived in a ‘compound’, they had a little place where the government agents were able to come within 15 feet of the house.
Randy Weaver, holding a picture of his wife who was killed by the Feds while holding her baby
The complaints about people who have religion and own guns, or in some cases, are gun dealers, is that they ’stockpile weapons’. But a gun dealer sells guns, and what one person might fearfullly call a ’stockpile of weapons’, another person would call ‘inventory’ for his business.
Religion and guns are to be feared, apparently - instead of just left alone. Randy Weaver was a decorated soldier who was approached to spy on the Aryan Nation. Because he refused, they set him and his young family up, but the situation spiraled out of control and a young boy, his dog and his mother ended up dead.
What amazes me is the far-out ideology of leftists like Joe Biden; I find it horrifying that someone like Biden is Obama’s veep choice, as if Obama himself isn’t frightening enough.
Rick at the Federal Observer:
[Biden] is a political stooge who’s career almost ended over plagiarism when he ran for the presidency in 1987.
But political stooges are running amock these days, as the plagiarized speeches of Barack Obama from Malcolm X and David Axelrod clients have gone unnoticed.
You have to wonder why Biden wasn’t vocal about the violent deaths of the Branch Davidian women, or the violent murder of Vicki Weaver at Ruby Ridge, shot by the reptilian FBI sniper, Lon Horiuchi, for merely cradling an infant child in her arms. Instead, Biden and Senator Orrin Hatch, covered up these crimes and engaged in homicidal hypocrisy.
I suppose Biden’s greatest moment came as he chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, and presided over the appointment of Uncle Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court over allegations of Thomas’s proclivity for pornographic movies, and placing pubic hairs on the top of soda pop cans, emulating a court jester.
Joe Biden, why would we like to see him as the number two executive of the United States?
He, just like Obama, George Bush, and John McCain, are traitors to the United States Constitution as they discriminate against American citizens.
Biden voted Yes on allowing illegal aliens to participate in social security.
He Voted NO on declaring English the official language of the U.S. Government.
Biden voted Yes on establishing a guest worker program and voted Yes on giving guest workers a path to citizenship.
Joe Biden voted NO on limiting welfare for immigrants.
This guy, like Obama, is anti American… but he is also greedy.This is what brings us to the selection of his vice presidency.
Biden, who had under gone two brain surgery operations, still remembers how to scheme. He wants to insure himself a golden parachute retirement package for all of those years of covering up the dirt that Barack Obama claims that our country is guilty of. the Federal Observer
Federal Observer contributing columnist Rick Biesada hosts Perspectives On Our Heritage - The Angry White Male Hour over Radio Station WJJG 1530 AM, Chicago’s Hometown station, Wednesdays from 4:00 to 5:00 PM Central Time. Rick is co-founder of The Chicago Minuteman Project.
Rick has also written a book called -Angry White Male and The Horse He Rode In On. It can be special ordered through most book stores, or through the publisher at wholesale price off of the Angry White Male web site at www.angry-white-male.com
This is the video I watched. It’s quite long; but it sure is interesting. My heart goes out to to the surviving Weavers and the memories they have to live with.
As a kid, my dad took us out to visit a guy who was a gun dealer who was being stalked by the feds. He was just a gun dealer, with old-fashioned values and a nice wife, and sweet little kids.
And they would get shot at by the FBI as they went from the house to the barn, and they had dogs tied up outside in order to alert them if someone got too close. You know what else I remember? His recounting how at least on one occasion (and perhaps more) -the feds raided his place in the middle of the night to confiscate his records, trying to find a discrepancy in his gun sales receipts in order to nail him.
This stuff is no joke; it’s for real.
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CBS2 reports on the ‘take’ that this year’s ‘turn in your gun’ drive garnered.
CHICAGO (AP) Chicago police say they received about 6,800 firearms during the city’s annual gun turn-in program.
The program is in its fourth year and has brought in a total of more than 11,000 illegal guns, but authorities say more guns were collected during Saturday’s than last year but the number fell short of the goal set by Police Superintentdent Jody Weis (WEES).
Illegal guns? I guess there are no consequences to these criminals, as long as they turn in their weapons and promise they’ll never do it again.
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s office said 6,700 guns were collected last year, and Weis had said this year’s goal was to collect twice as many.
Participants received prepaid $100 debit cards for real weapons and $10 cards for BB guns, air guns and replica guns.
So the criminals get $100 debit cards for real guns, even if they are illegal.
Enough people came out that organizers ran out of the $100 prepaid cards. Organizers said those participants would receive rain checks for the money.
Information from: Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com
Better luck next year! And make sure you steal enough money from the taxpayers so you can keep those debit cards flowing to the gangbangers who turn in the illegal weapons that aren’t fashionable anymore.
We’ll never know how many illegal firearms there are out there…it’s just frightening that they have this drive for people to turn in their weapons as if Chicago is the Emerald City or something. Face it; there are dangerous neighborhoods, dangerous people, and people who don’t pay attention to the law that have guns.
Knowing that, would I rather have a weapon…or not have a weapon?
Bottom line: I’d rather have a weapon so I can have the chance of saving myself or my loved ones.
Come to think of it…we haven’t been to the shooting range in a while.
Do you remember when B. Hussein Obama talked about all those people in the Midwest, you’ve got to have compassion for them because they’re clinging to their guns and their Bibles or religion or some such rot.
The BBC got a hold of an interesting backlash to that story. “US Car Dealer in Gun Offer” - which I’m calling “the Obama effect”.
Just like Code Pink’s harassing military recruiting which backfired when recruiting went up, an enterprising capitalist car dealership decided to give out free guns with the purchase of a new vehicle. It was a choice of either a free pistol or a gas card, and all but two people opted for the gun.
A car dealership in the United States is offering a free handgun with every vehicle sold.
Max Motors in Butler, Missouri, says sales have quadrupled since the start of the offer.
You gotta love those Americans; they have a sense of humor about themselves.
Customers can choose between a gun or a $250 (£125) gas card, but most so far have chosen the gun.
Owner Mark Muller said: “We’re just damn glad to live in a free country where you can have a gun if you want to.”
The dealership sells new and old vehicles, including General Motors and Ford cars and trucks, and its logo shows a cowboy holding a pistol.
It has sold more than 30 cars and trucks in the past three days, an increase which the owners put down to their promotional offer.
Or maybe it’s something other than a sense of humor; maybe there’s a little “security” in toting a firearm for protection. I’ll bet that they don’t have a lot of crime in that THAR area, nyuck, nyuck.
Now this is where it starts to get funny:
Inspiration from Obama
Mr Muller said that every buyer so far “except one guy from Canada and one old guy” chose the gun, rather than the gas card.
He recommends a Kel-Tec .380 pistol, which he describes as “a nice little handgun that fits in your pocket”.
He added that the promotion was inspired by recent comments from one of the Democratic nominees for the presidential election, saying: “We did it because of Barack Obama.”
“He said all those people in the Midwest, you’ve got to have compassion for them because they’re clinging to their guns and their Bibles. I found that quite offensive. We all go to church on Sunday and we all carry guns.”
The website advertisement for the offer, which continues until the end of the month, mentions that an approved background check on gun ownership is required.
You’re damned straight. Considering Obama’s stand on gun control, this is particularly amusing. Like I said before - the media is trying to make you a racist bigot if you don’t vote for Obama. But race has nothing to do with it - it’s his Obamunism, not to mention his associates and endorsers (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here , here, here, here–the list is long. Or just go to the Obama section. and see this - Obama’s anti-gun record.)
The list of things not to like about the guy as our president is longer than your arm.
Notice the cat running behind the police officer who is facing the camera. I find this really disturbing!!!
This cat was shot and killed in Roscoe Village, on the North side of Chicago, after officers unloaded a reported sum total of 8 shots into it. Some reports I have read said it was 3 feet long, and 150 pounds, which is ridiculous.
This thing surely looks longer than 3 feet long to me.
NBC5’s Alex Perez reported that the police cornered the animal against a fence, and then the animal tried to attack them. Police said the cougar was 5 feet tall and weighed approximately 150 pounds.
“It doesn’t look like it’s a very thin cat,” said Mark Rosenthal of Cook County Animal Care and Control. “It looks like it’s got good flesh on it — it was eating well.”
I love cougars; they’re magnificent. But I’d rather look at one in the zoo or in a lovely coffee table book or on the discovery channel than face one when I’m walking my dog when I’m unarmed. They’re known as puma or mountain lions, their range in the wild is 150 miles or so. But I’m a realist; people should know what to do when faced with one; and that is - don’t run, lock eyes with them and don’t act like prey. Grab a stick or a weapon of some type and make yourself look really big. They can jump 15 feet, and they are really quick, so you can’t outrun them. As opposed to a bear attack - where you’re supposed to ‘play dead’, when confronted with a cougar, you’re supposed to make a lot of noise and put up a fight.
And never turn your back on them.
The typical idiots came out of the woodwork complaining that the cops killed this cat, but the thing attacked them; which they will do when cornered. Animal rights activists wanted to know why it wasn’t tranquilized and why wasn’t animal control involved? Part of the reason why it wasn’t tranquilized is - it takes a good 20 minutes for a tranquilizer to work on an animal of this size. The other is - if the cops had not killed it, it surely would have mauled them. It’s simple common sense; although it doesn’t help the city of Chicago with its love of gun control.
I think it was a good thing they did when this large cat was roaming in a heavily populated area…but even though there have only been two sightings of mountain lions in the Illinois area since the 1860’s - it doesn’t mean they aren’t here.
Coyotes have expanded their range, too.
See some fascinating videos and more on the Illinois cougar sightings at Illinois Cougar Watch.
This is from a possible Cougar sighting in Findley, Illinois.
At Cougar Watch, they call this small collection of photographs inconclusive. But when you see them in succession, it’s readily apparent that this is a mountain lion, who is curious; and is even taking a moment to look inside the window to find out what is going on in there. The last photo shows the cougar in the darkness, and then his image fades and what is left is eyes glowing in the dark. The pictures were taken when there was a slight dusting of snow on the ground. Still, it’s chilling when you think that someone would open that door to let a dog or cat outside…a waiting fast food meal for a cougar of this size.
Cougars are tan in color, although when they’re born, they have leopard-like spots. This video shows what a cougar looks like, and how it moves.
The reason why hunters are not safe in a tree stand.
Video by Jason Guerrettaz near Farina, IL on November 17, 2007. The cat was about 280 yards from him when he took it. This is an excellent video, and there is no doubt that it is a cougar.
From this page at Illinois Cougar Watch.
After reading all of this, and having heard the reports of cougar sightings for the last several weeks, I’m thinking it would be a good idea to have a firearm handy.
Charlton Heston, Epic Film Star and Voice of N.R.A., Dies at 83
He was also a hunk. He made over 100 films over his acting career which spread out over 60+ years.
Heston was a Former President of the NRA, and will be missed. He went to New Trier High School in Wilmette…here in Illinois. He received a scholarship to Northwestern University from the Winnetka Community Theatre, where he practiced his craft of acting in theatre productions.
He served seven times as president of the Screen Actors Guild, was chairman of the American Film Institute and the winner of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
I will always remember him for his portrayal of Moses in the movie, “the Ten Commandments”.
Michelle Malkin and Captain Ed have moving tributes to Charlton Heston.
ISRA URGENT ALERT – YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION REQUIRED
The Cook County Board, Illinois (Chicago and surrounding area) are up to their old tricks again.
In order to justify passage of gun control ordinances designed to close all gun shops and ban and confiscate most guns owned by citizens of the county, the Cook County Board is conducting a telephone poll where callers can vote for or against the gun control ordinances.
Like everything else in Cook County, this poll is probably rigged. So, it’s very important that I ask you to please do the following:
1. Call 1-312 -603-6400 and select Option #1 when prompted. At the next prompt, select Option #1 again. Then, when prompted to vote on the gun control ordinance, press #2. Update: Listen to the prompts for changes.
2. You should also forward this alert on to all your gun owning friends and have them vote too.
3. You should also post this alert to any and all Internet bulletin boards or blogs to which you belong.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A RESIDENT OF COOK COUNTY TO VOTE!
Let’s beat them at their own game! And, save our guns.
Please call from your landline and your cell phone numbers and pass this on to others. These politicians are taking away every freedom they can get away with. Taking away the ability for a law abiding citizen to defend himself will embolden criminals even more.
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Chet Brokaw at the AP via the Rapid City Journal:
Law-abiding people should be allowed to carry and possess guns on the campuses of South Dakota’s public universities, a state House committee recommended Wednesday.
The State Affairs Committee voted unanimously to pass HB1261, which would guarantee people the right to carry or possess firearms on college campuses. The schools also would be prevented from expelling students or firing employees for having a gun on campus.
Sounds great. Are people coming to their senses or is this just an aberration?s
Kat takes issue with the courts on gun control.
That is, the legal position of the US is that DC Circuit was wrong, a complete ban on handguns is NOT per se unconstitutional, it all depends on how good a reason DC can prove for it.
From the original article here
the DoJ REJECTS the DC Circuit position that an absolute, flat, ban on handguns violates the Second Amendment, and contends that it might just be justified, it all depends on the evidence.
There was a saying during my years in DC that the GOP operated on two principles: screw your friends and appease your enemies. Yup.
It isn’t justified - the Second Amendment is a right - and an important one - that’s why it’s all the way up there at #2.
Kat’s conclusion to her short post on gun rights, though, had my eyes bugging out, but laughing:
Piss off, you two-faced, lying bastards! Don’t forget: the Second Amendment is a sword that the people will use if the government takes away too many of our God-given rights. Which is, I suppose, why you want to take it away…
[throws hands up in disgust, spits on the Republican party, and stalks away]
She’s right…I don’t know how many times I’ve felt like this over numerous issues - not just this one; the main one is hand holding terrorists and firing experts on sharia in favor of ’softening’ our anti-terror rhetoric.
Given a monthly average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theatre of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,867 deaths. That gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.
The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000 persons for the same period.
That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. Capital than you are in Iraq
Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington
Someone else has concluded the same thing.
Naturally the media coverage would be biased in the direction of gun control… and against people being able to defend themselves. Read the article, It’s by John Lott.
also, see the post here on his blog. john notes on a separate post that google search results don’t bring up anything that would indicate that these shootings are occurring in ‘gun-free zones’. he asks “why?”, but i think that’s merely a rhetorical question.
On another post, he indicates that US Today ran a poll asking if the 2nd Amendment gives us the ‘right to bear arms’. Of course, most people - unless they’re absolutely clueless (and there are a few of them in those results [about 1449 out of 72,475]) - understand that yes, that’s what the 2nd Amendment that the media ignores, guarantees us. It’s the 2nd Amendment, after all, one of the top guarantees in our government documents.
These are the results after I took the test:
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By MARK SHERMAN - Associated Press Writer - Sunday November 11, 2007
Supreme Court may hear case challenging Second Amendment, and whether Americans have the right to buy handguns pretty much from friggin’ vending machines.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court justices have track records that make predicting their rulings on many topics more than a mere guess. Then there is the issue of the Second Amendment and guns, about which the court has said virtually nothing in nearly 70 years.
“That the death penalty, for murder in the commission of armed robbery, each year saves the lives of scores, if not hundreds of victims of such crimes cannot reasonably be doubted by any judge who has had substantial experience at the trial court level with the handling of such persons.” — The Honorable B. Rey Shauer, Justice of the Supreme Court of California1
The death penalty simply deters criminals and makes law abiding citizens safer in our communities. Sharp’s research numbers might be a little bit off because that study was done in 1997. But Lott’s numbers from his 2007 book, Freedomnomics, taken from studies than span his career, simply mirror the same conclusions. You just can’t hold back universal truths.
The debate on ‘capital punishment’ today is dominated by the people standing in parking lots holding candlelight vigils for criminals sitting on death row. These are the loud fraudulent voices of the of the protestors who belong to anti-death penalty movement. While media rush in to cover their protests, there is a story that they’ve missed.
The culture of lies and deceit so dominates that movement that many of the falsehoods are now wrongly accepted as fact, by both advocates and opponents of capital punishment. We can see other examples of the intellectual dishonesty that pervade the leftist ideology on issues such as Global Warming, Abortion, Taxes, Capitalism, Welfare, etc.
The information presented at the following links demonstrate some of the facts involving the death penalty in America. Even if you are just remotely aware of the public debate on the subject, you will note that every category contradicts the well-worn frauds presented by the anti-death penalty movement. The anti-death penalty movement specializes in the abolition of truth.2
A. THE RISK OF EXECUTING THE INNOCENT
B. THE INCAPACITATION AND THE DETERRENT EFFECTS
C. RACE, SENTENCING AND THE DEATH PENALTY
D. THE COST OF LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE VS THE DEATH PENALTY
E. DEATH PENALTY PROCEDURES
F. CHRISTIANITY AND THE DEATH PENALTY
Death penalty opponents equate execution with murder under the wildly inaccurate misconception that if two acts end with the same result, those two acts are morally equivalent. This is a morally untenable position. Is the legal taking of property to satisfy a debt the same as auto theft? Both result in loss of property. Is killing a terrorist in civilian’s clothing the same as strapping on a bomb vest and killing innocent civilians in an airport? Both result in the death. Are kidnapping and imprisonment or incarceration ordered by a judge the same? Both involve imprisonment against one’s will. Is killing in self defense the same as capital murder? Both end in taking human life. Are rape and making love the same? Both may result in sexual intercourse. One can see how moral relativism gets the relativists into a bind if the supporting premises are scrutinized; the supporting premises are false, resulting in a ‘bad’ ‘invalid’ argument.
Opponents’ flawed logic and moral confusion mirror their “factual” arguments. Some equate the American death penalty with the Nazi holocaust. Opponents see no moral distinction between the slaughter of 12 million totally innocent men, women and children and the just execution of society’s worst human rights violators: serial criminals, murderers, sexual deviants, pedophiles and rapists.
| Reduced Murder Rate | No Discernible Effect on Murder Rate | Increased Murder Rate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referenced Publications | Erlich and Liu, Journal of Law and Economics, 1999. | Katz, Levitt, and Shustorovich, American Law and Economics Review, 2003. | None |
| Lott, More Guns, Less Crime. University of Chicago Press, 2000. | Berk, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 2005. | None | |
| Cloninger and Marchesini, Applied Economics, 2001. | Narayan and Smyth, Applied Economics, 2006. | None | |
| Dezhbakhsh, Rubin, and Shepherd, American Law and Economics Review, 2003. | None | None | |
| Mocan and Gittings, Journal of Law and Economics, 2003. | None | None | |
| Shepherd, Journal of Legal Studies, 2004. | None | None | |
| Zimmerman, Journal of Applied Economics, 2004. | None | None | |
| Liu, Eastern Economic Journal, forthcoming. | None | None |
Reference Lott, J. (2007) Freedomnomics, p. 136.3 He also includes a few studies that are non refereed, but I think you get the point.
| Life without parole | Cost | Death penalty | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. $34,200/year4 for 50 years5, at a 2%6 annual cost increase, plus $75,0007 for trial & appeals |
=$3.01 million | $60,000/year (4) for 6 years8, at a 2% (6) annual cost increase, plus $1.5 million (7) for trial & appeals |
=$1.88 million |
| 2. Same, except 3% (6) | =$4.04 million | Same, except 3% (6) | =$1.89 million |
| 3. Same, except 4% (6) | =$5.53 million | Same, except 4% (6) | =$1.91 million |
Death penalty up-front costs are higher than LWOP, but as time passes, equivalent LWOP cases are much more expensive - from $1.2 to $3.6 million - than death penalty cases. Opponents ludicrously claim that the death penalty costs, over time, 3-10 times more than LWOP.
I think this last chart pretty much says it all, also from Lott’s 2007 book, Freedomnomics p. 1359:
Note: the left hand side is blurred from the scan. It reads: Murder rate per 100,000 people and Execution Rate per 1,000 Murders.
Leftist argument cannot stand up to empirical evidence. That is something that reading Horowitz has taught me, and studies like these have punctuated.
Gun control advocates predicted that when the federal assault-weapons ban expired in 2004, gun crimes would explode. Sarah Brady warned that the expiration of the ban would “arm our kids with Uzis and AK-46’s” and “fill our streets with weapons.”10 Legislation Conceived in Darkness Senator Charles Schumer labeled banned guns “weapons of choice for terrorists.”11
But according to FBI stats, during 2004, the murder rate nationwide fell by 3%, the first drop since 2000, with firearm deaths dropping 4.4%. Even more remarkable, the monthly murder rate FELL after the assault weapons ban expired. And not only did it fall, it plummeted 14% from August through December.12 The murder rate in the states with their own bans declined by a smaller amount than the forty-three states without those laws. An average drop of 2% in states with bans compared to 3.4% in states without them. It is readily apparent that the assault weapons ban did nothing whatsoever to deter crime.1314
One of the USA’s largest death rows is in Texas, with 442 inmates, of which 229, or 52%, have been on death row over 6 years - 44, or 10%, have been on for over 15 years, 8 for over 20 years. 60 inmates, nationwide, have been on death row over 18 years. (as of 12/96).
NOTE - 10/19/00 - We received a post which located a flaw within our cost evaluation. The reader stated that we should “present value” all the costs of both a life sentence and the death penalty and that, if we do so, a life sentence is cheaper than a death sentence. Using the numbers in our analysis, such is a good point.
It should be noted that we were intentionally generous in minimizing life costs within our analysis. Please review we have not included
1)the recent studies on geriatric care at about $70,000/year/prisoner in today’s dollars , or
2) the recent explosion of Hepatitis C and AIDS within the prison system, or
3) the cost savings to jurisdictions based on plea bargains to maximum life sentences, which can only occur due solely to the presence of the death penalty. Such should accrue as a cost benefit of the death penalty, and
4) none of the above have been included in our cost analysis. All of which either increase the cost of a life sentence or accrue as a cost credit to the death penalty, and
5) And we have been extremely generous to the anti death penalty position with our numbers to begin with. I suspect that an average life without parole sentence costs closer to $150,000-$300,000, for all pre-trial, trial and appeals, as opposed to the $75,000 used in our study.
Those omissions should not be considered a balancing, because accuracy is paramount. There is no cost study which fully evaluates all of those issues. We hope to update the data at some point with a more thorough review.[back]
In case you didn’t notice it, the Virginia Tech shootings compelled journalists across the country to beat once again on the reasons why we need gun control. They keep reading from that tired old script, even when it doesn’t stand up to empirical evidence. But we know that most of the leftists screeds don’t! In this op-ed, sent to me by the Culture and Media Institute, David Niedrauer discusses not only the bias, but the fallacies in the argument for gun control, presenting the facts and research that support the brilliance our forefathers demonstrated when they wrote the right to bear arms as the 2nd Amendment to our Constitution. The right to bear arms, as you can see in this op-ed, is one of those ‘universal truths’ that simply doesn’t change over time, because human nature remains the same.
Bob Knight, the Director of the Cultural Media Institute will be discussing this on Gordon Liddy’s radio show today at noon.
ABC’s World News Tonight blasts away at middle American gun culture with a few rounds of shoddy science and emotional manipulation.
By David Niedrauer
On July 8, ABC’s World News Sunday used a Philadelphia gun control controversy as fodder for a hit piece on America’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
Anchor Dan Harris used moving images of gun victims, resounding gunshots, bad science and selective quotes to make an emotional pitch for gun control, while giving gun rights defenders a terse, hostile hearing.
A group of Philadelphia city council members recently decided to sue the state over Pennsylvania’s allegedly lax gun laws, which they fault for their city’s high murder rate. In effect, the city council members are laying Philadelphia’s high crime rate at the feet of “rural lawmakers” from other parts of Pennsylvania who oppose strict limits on firearms.
Although studies show that only 21 percent of guns used in crimes in the U.S. are obtained legally, ABC News uncritically swallowed the city council’s line, along with the hook and sinker. “That’s why,” Harris quoted city council members, “they have the highest murder rate of the nation’s big cities.” The newscast followed up this helpful comment by showing a poster featuring assorted firearms and the number 213, the total number of homicides that occurred in Philadelphia between January 1 and July 8, 2007. ABC failed to report how many of these were gun-related, and the Philadelphia Police Department repeatedly stonewalled when CMI requested this information.
Rather than report the exact figures, ABC introduced viewers to Cashae Rivers, a girl killed in a drive-by shooting last year, and her sobbing aunt. “Riding in the back seat of a car, a bullet ripped through her heart,” announced reporter David Kerley.
Against the background of a concrete floor strewn with dozens of firearms, ABC News strung together hard-hitting quotes from liberals in the city government.
One complained: “The state of Pennsylvania has preempted all of our abilities to deal with gun regulations.”
Another added: “I can no longer continue to sit here and allow the level of violence to continue unabated simply because people don’t feel it’s appropriate to do what I believe is their mandatory duty.”
It’s a battle the city of Philadelphia “may not win,” said ABC reporter Kerley, because “guns and hunting are very important” in the rural areas which many lawmakers represent.
ABC News gave the gun rights side only a token opportunity to respond, quoting Republican State Representative Steve Cappelli: “Any measure we give Philadelphia, any new regulation, any new authority to regulate firearms, will not impact the very element that is terrorizing that city.” ABC News followed this quote with a sound clip of a gun shot. “That argument is being echoed across much of the country, as rural sensibilities continue to rule the gun debate. And cities like Philadelphia prepare for another night, and another shooting death.”
Against the visual backdrop of a huge bin overflowing with guns, Kerley threw out what appeared to be a decisive fact: “In fact, Philadelphia has more murders than New York…But unlike New York, Philadelphia cannot pass its own gun laws.” Kerley neglected to mention that New York City’s rape rate is about half the national average while Philadelphia’s is nearly double. Unless gun control laws also stop rape, Philadelphia’s crime problems cannot be blamed on National Rifle Association-affiliated state legislators.
Peer-reviewed studies belie the anti-gun assumptions of ABC News journalists.
| Reduced Violent Crime | No Discernible Effect on Violent Crime | Increased Violent Crime | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refereed Publications | Lott & Mustard, Journal of Legal Studies, 1997. | Black & Nagin, Journal of Legal Studies, 1998. | None |
| Bartley & Cohen, Economic Inquiry, 1998. | Ludwig, International Review of Law and Economics, 1998. | None | |
| Lott, Journal of Legal Studies, 1998. | Donohue & Levitt, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1999. | None | |
| Bartley, Economic Letters, 1999. | Hood & Neeley, Social Science Quarterly, 2000. | None | |
| Benson & Mast, Journal of Law & Economics, 2001. | Duggan, Journal of Political Economy, 2001. | None | |
| Moody, Journal of Law & Economics, 2001. | Duwe, Kovandzic, Moody, Homicide Studies, 2002. | None | |
| Mustard, Journal of Law & Economics, 2001. | Kovandzic & Marvell, Criminology & Public Policy, 2003. | None | |
| Olsen & Maltz, Journal of Law & Economics, 2001. | Dezhbakhsh & Rubin, International Review of Law & Economics, 2003. | None | |
| Plassman & Tideman, Journal of Law & Economics, 2001. | National Research Council, National Academies Press, 2005. | None | |
| Marvel, Journal of Law & Economics, 2001. | Kovandzic, Marvell & Vieraiis, Homocide Studies, 2005. | None | |
| Lott & Whitley, Journal of Law & Economics, 2001. | None | None | |
| Helland and Tabarrok, Advances in Economic Analysis and Policy, 2004. | None | None | |
| Wilson, National Academies Press, 2005.. | None | None | |
| Lott & Whitley, Economic Inquiry, 2007. | None | None | |
| Lott, University of Chicago Press, 1998 & 2000. | None | None |
Reference Lott, J. (2007) Freedomnomics p. 143-144. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc.. .
Simply comparing the crime rates of cities with different gun laws is not a scientifically valid way to evaluate gun policy, according to the National Academy of Sciences. “It is difficult to gauge the value of [gun control] measures because social and economic factors behind criminal acts are often complex and interwoven, and the efforts are narrow in scope,” concluded a 2004 NAS study. Commissioned by the Clinton administration, the study looked at firearm restrictions around the nation but could not find any that actually reduced crime.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took up the issue in 2003, looking at bans on firearms, restrictions on firearms, waiting periods and licensing, zero tolerance laws in schools, childhood access prevention laws and combinations of all of these. The result? “The Task Force found insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of any of the firearms laws or combinations of laws reviewed on violent outcomes.”
David Niedrauer is an intern at the Culture and Media Institute, a division of the Media Research Center.
Picture courtesy of Breitbart.com See the story there, too.
An 11-year-old Alabama boy used a pistol to kill a wild hog his father says weighed a staggering 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail. Think hams as big as car tires.
It’s a good thing that some kids know how to handle a gun, because that little boy would have been absolutely no match for that thing. They were on a hunting trip, and had plenty of firepower with them in case the boar decided to charge, which they’re known to do, but still, this is an enormous animal!!!
See also the website that’s been set up by the boy’s dad:
Monsterpig dot com
The Legend of Hogzilla The Movie
Apparently there was a case of another big giant boar that wasn’t quite as big as this one, and they’re making a movie about it.
It’s really too bad that this wackjob went crazy, but the University invited it by striking down the conceal and carry law that’s valid in the rest of their state on their campus! He would have been stopped long before all those people were dead.
Virginia Tech is a “Gun Free Zone”, and leftists are all about ‘feelings’, nevermind REALITY. There is a difference between FEELING SAFE and BEING SAFE. You might have an illusion of safety when there’s gun control, up until the moment when you’re under attack - then you’re simply a victim with absolutely no choices and no recourse.
Virginia Tech doesn’t allow its students to carry guns on campus; EVEN WITH CONCEALED CARRY PERMITS. They busted a student last year for carrying a gun on campus, even though he was carrying a completely legal concealed-carry permit.
If someone had a weapon, this wackjob Cho could have been stopped a lot sooner.
With VT’s commie attitude toward weapons they’ve disarmed students with concealed-carry permits; which are completely legal in Virginia.
Larry Hincker, the spokesman for the school, thought the Virginia legislature had done a great thing by disarming lawful gun owners on VT’s campus, saying: “I’m sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly’s actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus.”
What a bunch of bull. Jonathan McGlumphy (a graduate student from VT) wrote about William Morva, who’d killed two people near the VT campus: “Is it not obvious that all students, faculty and staff would have been safer if (concealed handgun permit) holders were not banned from carrying their weapons on campus?”
Isn’t it a shame that Virginia Tech hasn’t learned a thing from its history??? They’re practicing the definition of insanity; doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. McGlumphy also made this important point:
“What the Board of Visitors has effectively done by banning CHP-holding students, faculty and staff from carrying their weapons is creating a “Safe Zone” for criminals who do not care about the rules anyway.”
This flick, which I posted earlier, clearly illustrates why that’s true.
Brought to you by the U.S. Concealed Carry Association Newsletter, here. This is just one reason why Concealed Carry laws are good.
Virginia Tech really should have done more than send an email to students when this nut was on the loose; lives would have been saved.
Then you have Worldnet Daily’s article which talks about how effective the 2nd amendment right to bear arms really is, and that it works as a crime deterrent.
VIRGINIA TECH MASSACRE
25 years murder-free in ‘Gun Town USA’
Crime rate plummeted after law required firearms for residents
In March 1982, 25 years ago, the small town of Kennesaw – responding to a handgun ban in Morton Grove, Ill. – unanimously passed an ordinance requiring each head of household to own and maintain a gun. Since then, despite dire predictions of “Wild West” showdowns and increased violence and accidents, not a single resident has been involved in a fatal shooting – as a victim, attacker or defender.
The crime rate initially plummeted for several years after the passage of the ordinance, with the 2005 per capita crime rate actually significantly lower than it was in 1981, the year before passage of the law.
In that article it’s pointed out that Morton Grove, with its gun ban, hasn’t seen the same successes in deterring crime.
It only makes sense; criminals don’t pay attention to laws, so gun control works in their favor, turning every person they run across in a ‘gun free zone’ into a potential victim.
Luboš Motl, at the Reference Frame, gives us much more information than the MSM on the possible motive for the attack, and the identity of the gunman. He says what is being said is rumor, but it makes perfect sense. MSM puts lies and rumor in print as fact…at least Luboš Motl has the dignity to call things by their real names.
Students and faculty carried out some of the wounded themselves, without waiting for ambulances to arrive.
Malkin points out that the leftists are going to use the shooting as more grist for the anti-gun control mill. The lead editorial for today’s New York Times was posted yesterday:
Yesterday’s mass shooting at Virginia Tech — the worst in American history — is another horrifying reminder that some of the gravest dangers Americans face come from killers at home armed with guns that are frighteningly easy to obtain…
Yeah, just ask any criminal who buys illegal weapons on the street. If you look at the gun control laws, for law abiding citizens, there is an awful lot of red tape you need to cut through to obtain one, which slows down your ability to defend yourself, in my opinion. Most of the time there’s even a waiting period. So…criminals don’t wait, they don’t follow the law, and law abiding citizens need to go through a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo. And who are these laws supposed to protect again? The criminal, or the law abiding citizen?
Common sense has been thrown out the window at the New York Times, but we already knew that when they propped the koran flushing story for months on end. Think about it; you can’t put a square peg in a round hole. It just isn’t possible to flush a book down the toilet.
…Our hearts and the hearts of all Americans go out to the victims and their families. Sympathy was not enough at the time of Columbine, and eight years later it is not enough. What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss.
Love that conclusion. What is needed is stronger controls over the legal weapons that cause this. Well these people throughout history certainly agreed with that assessment:
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The deadliest campus shooting in history took place today At Virginia Tech’s campus; 32 confirmed dead, another 21 injured.
I gather the gunman is dead.
“This teacher comes flying out of Norris, he’s bleeding from his arm or his shoulder … all these students were coming out of Norris trying to take shelter in Randolph [Hall]. All these kids were freaked out,” Harrison said.
The students and faculty were barricading themselves in their classrooms after what one person described as an Asian student wearing a vest opened fire.
The shooter was “wearing a vest covered in clips was just unloading on their door, going from classroom to classroom … they said it never seemed like it was going to stop and there was just blood all over,” Harrison said.
