Sunday, April 22, 2007
Something's Rotten in Dubai: The Ports Deal, The President's Bro, Homeland Non-Security & ICE
Neil Bush with Datamatrix of Dubai's CEO Ali Al-Kamali
The problems occurred in the Savings and Loan industry as they relate to theft because the industry was deregulated under the Reagan/Bush administration and restrictions were eased on the industry so much that abuse and misuse of funds became easy, rampant, and went unchecked.
The Bush Conservative Republicans and the Bush Dynasty learned a very valuable lesson in today's world. "Run up unfathomable debt" then call it mismanagement and a mistake and have everyone else pay your way back to liquidity and wealth. They learned that while the eldest Bush was in office as Vice President and syphoned funds from the FDIC to pay off Neal Bush's debt to society.
THAT STRATEGY has now pervaded the way Americans think about housing and primarily the American Dream. In other words, 'push the limits' in unison and eventually government will be required to 'bailout' business and in turn we will all be better off for it.
Yesterday on Conservative Talk Radio, I heard an anchor state, "It has been my focus and advice to tell people that if they are running into trouble with their lender they should approach them and work out arrangements. Well, I received a call from someone who took that advice and found out there was nothing that could be done by the lender in regard to the home loan because the financing was attached by a stockholder somewhere.
I understand that is an issue, but, there is good news in that FANNIE MAE and other lenders that handle incredible numbers of mortages are moving before the government for a program that would facilitate such mortgages to receive relief from stockholder financed loans. In other words such lenders would have to remortgage those loans in order to profit from them."
This is nothing but exploiting the public by the proponents of a political strategy that serves as a driving force to constituencies seeking to exploit government and business 'in masse.' It has to stop. The learning curve to the reality of Neal Bush's profiteering from gross mismanagement of established financial institutions has lead to a demoralized America and An American Dream that has turned into a nightmare. It needs to end.
Economist: Local trend not entirely unexpected
By Michael Rappaport, Staff Writer
By Michael Rappaport, Staff Writer
California was hit hard by rising foreclosure numbers in March, although the higher rates weren't all that out of line with historical standards.
That's the word from RealtyTrac's U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which showed six California metropolitan areas - including San Bernardino-Riverside - among the 10 highest in the country. Nationally, foreclosures were up 7 percent from the month before, although California was up 36percent and trailed only Nevada and Colorado for the highest rate of foreclosures.
Up 148 percent from last year
Subprime loans blamed
Subprime loans blamed
The number of default notices sent to California homeowners last quarter increased to its highest level in almost ten years, the result of flat appreciation, slow sales, and post teaser-rate mortgage resets, according to figures compiled by DataQuick Information Systems, a La Jolla-based real estate information service.
Lending institutions filed 46,760 “Notices of Default” (NoDs) during the January-to-March period. That was up by 23.1 percent from a revised 37,994 for the previous quarter, and up 148 percent from 18,856 for first-quarter 2006, according to DataQuick.
Lending institutions filed 46,760 “Notices of Default” (NoDs) during the January-to-March period. That was up by 23.1 percent from a revised 37,994 for the previous quarter, and up 148 percent from 18,856 for first-quarter 2006, according to DataQuick.
Writer12:25 PM PDT, April 16, 2007
The number of Californians losing their homes to foreclosure rose in the first three months of the year to the highest level in a decade, a real estate information service said today, providing grim evidence that the shake-out in real estate is nowhere near over.
Foreclosures totaled 11,033, up 802% from the placid levels of early 2006, according to DataQuick Information Services in La Jolla. Foreclosures peaked at 15,418 in third-quarter 1996, at the tail end of the last big slowdown in the state. They bottomed out at 637 in the second quarter of 2005, as the most recent boom was cresting.
Tens of thousands of homeowners are being warned that they too are at risk. Notices of default, sent by lenders after about five months of missed payments, reached 46,760 in the first quarter, DataQuick said.
This is systematic abuse of consumers to form a political constituency of NEED, reliant on political clout in order to continue their march of economic exploitation at any cost. It's called corruption. It needs to stop and not be further facilitated by 'bad business decisions.' The industry of Conservative Talk Radio and Conservative Cable News is as corrupt as the day is long. It needs to end. They are draconian for the purpose of power. Their constituencies mean nothing to them unless they 'toe the party line.'
It was my hope to deliver a more comprehensive view of gun control which encompasses many dimensions. It can lead to enjoyable gun ownership and responsible gun owernership so long as the corruption can be cleaned up and enforcement of existing and potentially new laws are unheld. Good luck to all. My deepest sympathies for the tragedies at Virginia Tech. I wish I could roll back time and stop it all. We must win this debate and not by arming society but by uniting in efforts to stop this insanity.
I am finished with this mess !!!!!
Either we are going to solve tough issues or we are going to give into profiteers. Which is it? "Violent crimes rise after years of falling"
Updated 9/18/2006
11:40 PM ET
By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The nation's murder rate rose 1.8% last year after hitting a two-decade low in 2004, the FBI said Monday in a report that raised questions about whether violent crime rates will continue to head up after years of decline.
The overall rate for violent crimes — murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — rose 1.3% in 2005 but remained far below the high set in 1991, when homicide rates in many cities soared amid a sluggish economy and gang wars. Last year, in fact, the rate for rapes alone fell 2.2% and was the lowest it had been in more than 20 years.
The jump in the overall rate for violent crimes, however, gave ammunition to several police officials who have complained that the U.S. government has allowed anti-crime initiatives to languish as it has focused on anti-terrorism efforts here and abroad.
"This report should serve as a strong wake-up call," said Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske in Seattle, which recorded a 25% increase in gun-related crime last year. "We better realign our focus to the war going on in some of our cities."
Edward Flynn, police commissioner in Springfield, Mass., said local police agencies have yet to recover from the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which led the federal government to redirect tens of millions of dollars in grants away from policing projects and toward homeland security programs.
"Police can't be good homeland security partners if they cannot do their core missions," said Flynn, whose city of 155,000 had 18 homicides last year, double the number from 2000. "People need to see this as a sign for concern."
AS long as I've spent all this time listening to Conservative Talk Radio pollution there is on more thing I want to emphasize about 'The Housing Bubble' and then I'll be done with this mess. After all today is Earth Day. I'd rather languish in that reality than the fact guns pervading society is actually a priority of this administration.
Where the Guns Come from: The Gun Industry and Gun
Philip J. Cook; Jens Ludwig
University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 151, No. 4.
(Apr., 2003),
pp. 1329-1340.
...the 'goal' of this article...is to develop sound information that at least some voters and authorities will find helpful.
AND THERE IN LIES THE RUB. The real challenge of any government, the United Nations, any advocacy group and any peoples is to find the facts and act on them. This may very well be a global issue encompassing casual weapon possession all the way to arming rebels and al Qaeda. The conversation has to go on and has to proceed in a manner that will result in a 'resolve' to control violence of small arms at all levels. What needs to be harnessed is a determination to stop the 'exploitation' of death and the promotion of gun sales when mass killings and high crime numbers are linked to personal possession as a means of personal protection. I don't find it helpful when police are minimized in their importance in resolving issues of domestic violence, which school and work place violence is an extension of. I also don't find it helpful to provide weapons 'out of context' in society that are dangerous to law enforcement as well as citizens.
Philip J. Cook
Crime and Justice, Vol. 14.
(1991), pp. 1-71.
Over 30,000 deaths each year result from gunshot wounds. Two decades of systematic research on weapons and personal violence indicate a pervasive influence of weapon type on the patterns and outcomes of violent encounters. The likelihood that an assault will result in death depends (among other things) on the lethality of the weapon. The evidence that weapon lethality affects the likelihood of death in suicide is somewhat weaker. Assailants' weapon choice depends on a number of factors, including the relative vulnerability of the intended victim and the general availability of firearms. National Crime Survey data indicate that guns are used only about 80,000 times each year in self-defense.
Jeffrey A. Miron
Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 44, No. 2, Part 2,
Guns, Crime, and Safety: A Conference Sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute and the Center for Law, Economics, and Public Policy at Yale Law School.
(Oct., 2001), pp. 615-633.
Violence rates differ dramatically across countries. A widely held view is that these differences reflect differences in gun control and/or gun availability, and certain pieces of evidence appear consistent with this hypothesis. A more detailed examination of this evidence suggests that the role of gun control/availability is not compelling. This more detailed examination, however, does not provide an alternative explanation for cross-country differences in violence. This paper suggests that differences in the enforcement of drug prohibition are an important factor in explaining differences in violence rates across countries. To determine the validity of this hypothesis, the paper examines data on homicide rates, drug prohibition enforcement, and gun control policy for broad range of countries. The results suggest a role for drug prohibition enforcement in explaining cross-country differences in violence, and they provide an alternative explanation for some of the apparent effects of gun control/availability on violence rates.
Jeffrey Fagan; Deanna L. Wilkinson
Crime and Justice, Vol. 24, Youth Violence. (1998),
pp. 105-188.
While youth violence has always been a critical part of delinquency, the modern epidemic is marked by high rates of gun violence. Adolescents in cities possess and carry guns on a large scale, guns are often at the scene of youth violence, and guns often are used. Guns play a central role in initiating, sustaining, and elevating the epidemic of youth violence. The demand for guns among youth was fueled by an "ecology of danger," comprising street gangs, expanding drug markets with high intrinsic levels of violence, high rates of adult violence and fatalities, and cultural styles of gun possession and carrying. Guns became symbols of respect, power, identity, and manhood to a generation of youth, in addition to having strategic value for survival. The relationship between guns and youth violence is complex. The effects of guns are mediated by structural factors that increase the youth demand for guns, the available supply, and culture and scripts which teach kids lethal ways to use guns.
Public Opinion about Gun Policies
Tom W. Smith
The Future of Children, Vol. 12, No. 2,
Children, Youth, and Gun Violence.
(Summer - Autumn, 2002),
pp. 154-163.
Children, Youth, and Gun Violence: Analysis and Recommendations
Kathleen Reich; Patti L. Culross; Richard E. Behrman
The Future of Children, Vol. 12, No. 2,
Children, Youth, and Gun Violence.
(Summer - Autumn, 2002),
pp. 4-23.
A legitimate argument regarding gun control and it's fluid existance in the American culture is the availability of guns to minority populations that have turned gun violence into their primary culture. The enforcement of such laws increases the impact on these communities 'creating' a feedback loop that is anti-social and dangerous. When controlling weapons in a society the enforcement has to be equitable across cultural venues, however, considerations in sentencing has to include the fact the gun violence and crime was committed in a community 'entrenched' in the a culture of drugs and drug cultural economy. Where there is poverty in the USA, there is drugs. Where there is drugs, there are guns. We cannot sequester minorities in the USA into 'blocks' of poverty, poor education and violence to enforce laws that will create more of the same culturally. There must accompany all venues, educational directives that are intended to stop the cultural violence and turn children away from crime through understanding of the law, IF, you can get them to attend school.
The Law and Juvenile Justice for People of Color in Elementary and Secondary Schools
Frank Brown; Charles J. Russo; Richard C. HunterSource:
The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 71, No. 3, Juvenile
Children of Color in the United States.
(Summer, 2002), pp. 128-142.
...An alternative solution would be to teach children about the justice system through education on the Constitution. Young people, including children of color, will be inclined to obey thelaw if they understand the laws and their individual relationship to the Constitution, the courts, and the political process.
The Integration Game
Abraham Bell; Gideon Parchomovsky
Columbia Law Review, Vol. 100, No. 8.
(Dec., 2000),
pp. 1965-2029.
Despite studies indicating an increasing preference for integrated housing and legal measures against housing discrimination, housing segregation persists in American society. This Article addresses this seeming paradox by challenging Thomas Schelling's classic tipping model as overly simplistic, and advancing in its stead a three-game model of homeowner preferences. After characterizing the interplay of incentives that distorts homeowner choices in resegregating neighborhoods, the Article draws on techniques that have been developed to neutralize distortionary incentives in the stock market to propose four measures for combatting market incentives leading to resegregation: home-equity insurance, realty sales taxes, institutional subsidies, and growth controls. While these techniques will not completely arrest resegregation, they will enable nonbiased homeowners to achieve their goal of racially integrated housing. In addition to increasing integration, these techniques should create a separating equilibrium in which only racially biased individuals would choose to leave racially changing neighborhoods, thereby revealing their true colors.
Tom W. Smith
The Future of Children, Vol. 12, No. 2,
Children, Youth, and Gun Violence.
(Summer - Autumn, 2002),
pp. 154-163.
Children, Youth, and Gun Violence: Analysis and Recommendations
Kathleen Reich; Patti L. Culross; Richard E. Behrman
The Future of Children, Vol. 12, No. 2,
Children, Youth, and Gun Violence.
(Summer - Autumn, 2002),
pp. 4-23.
A legitimate argument regarding gun control and it's fluid existance in the American culture is the availability of guns to minority populations that have turned gun violence into their primary culture. The enforcement of such laws increases the impact on these communities 'creating' a feedback loop that is anti-social and dangerous. When controlling weapons in a society the enforcement has to be equitable across cultural venues, however, considerations in sentencing has to include the fact the gun violence and crime was committed in a community 'entrenched' in the a culture of drugs and drug cultural economy. Where there is poverty in the USA, there is drugs. Where there is drugs, there are guns. We cannot sequester minorities in the USA into 'blocks' of poverty, poor education and violence to enforce laws that will create more of the same culturally. There must accompany all venues, educational directives that are intended to stop the cultural violence and turn children away from crime through understanding of the law, IF, you can get them to attend school.
The Law and Juvenile Justice for People of Color in Elementary and Secondary Schools
Frank Brown; Charles J. Russo; Richard C. HunterSource:
The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 71, No. 3, Juvenile
Children of Color in the United States.
(Summer, 2002), pp. 128-142.
...An alternative solution would be to teach children about the justice system through education on the Constitution. Young people, including children of color, will be inclined to obey thelaw if they understand the laws and their individual relationship to the Constitution, the courts, and the political process.
The Integration Game
Abraham Bell; Gideon Parchomovsky
Columbia Law Review, Vol. 100, No. 8.
(Dec., 2000),
pp. 1965-2029.
Despite studies indicating an increasing preference for integrated housing and legal measures against housing discrimination, housing segregation persists in American society. This Article addresses this seeming paradox by challenging Thomas Schelling's classic tipping model as overly simplistic, and advancing in its stead a three-game model of homeowner preferences. After characterizing the interplay of incentives that distorts homeowner choices in resegregating neighborhoods, the Article draws on techniques that have been developed to neutralize distortionary incentives in the stock market to propose four measures for combatting market incentives leading to resegregation: home-equity insurance, realty sales taxes, institutional subsidies, and growth controls. While these techniques will not completely arrest resegregation, they will enable nonbiased homeowners to achieve their goal of racially integrated housing. In addition to increasing integration, these techniques should create a separating equilibrium in which only racially biased individuals would choose to leave racially changing neighborhoods, thereby revealing their true colors.
Canada, the USA Neighbor to the North is also seeking to restrict guns and the violence they cause.
Police Report the NASA Shooting was a Work Related Grudge
Sean Connolly
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Police investigators in Houston say a NASA contract employee was settling a work-related grudge when he killed a co-worker on Friday and took a hostage before shooting himself.
On March 16, 60-year-old William Phillips, a NASA contract worker, received a negative performance review from his superiors.
Police say Phillips purchased a Smith and Wesson special revolver the next day and brought the gun with him on Friday.
Phillips shot his superior twice, then left the room, returned and shot the man two more times -- killing him.
A NASA spokesperson says security procedures are under review.
Naples firefighters packed heat while at work
On-duty personnel also bought, sold and appraised weapons at fire stations
For hundreds of firefighters in Collier County, the fire station is their “office.”
...But according to the testimony of a former lieutenant from the City of Naples fire department, he, and a number of other firefighters, including several other lieutenants and at least one chief, were buying, selling and appraising guns at work for years while on city time. The former lieutenant also testified that at one point he brought a 12-gauge shotgun to work and sold it to another firefighter....
Workplace firearms is NOT a right. An employer has a right to restrict weapons, BUT, they have to enforce it, including dismissal without warning of people carrying weapons with them 'on property.'
I want to look at some academic references.
Sean Connolly
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Police investigators in Houston say a NASA contract employee was settling a work-related grudge when he killed a co-worker on Friday and took a hostage before shooting himself.
On March 16, 60-year-old William Phillips, a NASA contract worker, received a negative performance review from his superiors.
Police say Phillips purchased a Smith and Wesson special revolver the next day and brought the gun with him on Friday.
Phillips shot his superior twice, then left the room, returned and shot the man two more times -- killing him.
A NASA spokesperson says security procedures are under review.
Naples firefighters packed heat while at work
On-duty personnel also bought, sold and appraised weapons at fire stations
For hundreds of firefighters in Collier County, the fire station is their “office.”
...But according to the testimony of a former lieutenant from the City of Naples fire department, he, and a number of other firefighters, including several other lieutenants and at least one chief, were buying, selling and appraising guns at work for years while on city time. The former lieutenant also testified that at one point he brought a 12-gauge shotgun to work and sold it to another firefighter....
Workplace firearms is NOT a right. An employer has a right to restrict weapons, BUT, they have to enforce it, including dismissal without warning of people carrying weapons with them 'on property.'
I want to look at some academic references.
Editorial: Fear behind America's love of guns
The left-wing American movie-maker Michael Moore may not be to every taste, but his study of the Colorado school massacre eight years ago was a powerful indictment of the forces that have infested so many American households with firearms. The movie is resonating now in the coverage of yet another student massacre, this time with many more victims at a Virginia university.
It was not confirmed that the young gunman who died with 32 others at Virginia Tech had acquired his weapon as easily as the two teenagers at Columbine High School, but there is not much doubt that he did. Nothing has been done since the Columbine massacre to make it harder for disturbed young people to find a gun and write a chapter for themselves in America's inglorious record of campus slaughter.
The dead killers of Columbine and Virginia Tech join the student who climbed an observation tower at the University of Texas in 1966 and killed 15 people, the Chinese student denied an academic honour who opened fire in two buildings on the University of Iowa campus 16 years ago, killing five employees, the University of Arizona nursing student and Gulf War veteran who shot three instructors in 2002, the graduate student at Virginia's Appalachian School of Law who killed the dean, a professor and a student, and several more.
When guns are used at places of learning it is particularly tragic. Education should be the antithesis of violence. Schools and universities exist to encourage civilised expression and impart the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in reasoned argument. They are the last places families should have reason to fear for their children's safety.
Yet so many of those families in the United States seem to have firearms at home, and not for sport. The guns that feature in campus shootings are not generally hunting rifles and the like, they are handguns and even semi-automatic assault rifles. They are for killing people, nothing else, or as their owners would say, for self-defence.
The movie Bowling for Columbine was an insight into the fears of Americans, or white Americans anyway. Its conclusion was that white Americans are instilled with a fear of black crime that is out of all proportion to its incidence. They keep their doors locked at all times when they are at home and fear to enter a predominantly black area of town. They receive a constant diet of crime, mostly black, on television news programmes and live in terror of it.
If they notice that whites are rarely the victims of black crime, they probably put it down to having a gun in their homes. It is a tragedy of American life that the weapons they believe they need for protection so often become instruments of death for their loved ones. Their children's classmates may come from well-to-do homes where handguns and ammunition, easily purchased over the counter in the US, may be kept unlocked and readily available.
The latest youthful massacre has taken the largest toll. It would be a consolation to believe that this time, at long last, Americans may rethink their constitutional right to bear arms, but it seems unlikely. The National Rifle Association will argue as always that people, not guns, are the problem, and that a disarmed population cannot be "free". But the gun lobby is only as powerful as most Americans want it to be. They cannot be convinced that fear is their worst enemy. Fear is the only reason they continue to harbour the weapons of their own destruction.
It was not confirmed that the young gunman who died with 32 others at Virginia Tech had acquired his weapon as easily as the two teenagers at Columbine High School, but there is not much doubt that he did. Nothing has been done since the Columbine massacre to make it harder for disturbed young people to find a gun and write a chapter for themselves in America's inglorious record of campus slaughter.
The dead killers of Columbine and Virginia Tech join the student who climbed an observation tower at the University of Texas in 1966 and killed 15 people, the Chinese student denied an academic honour who opened fire in two buildings on the University of Iowa campus 16 years ago, killing five employees, the University of Arizona nursing student and Gulf War veteran who shot three instructors in 2002, the graduate student at Virginia's Appalachian School of Law who killed the dean, a professor and a student, and several more.
When guns are used at places of learning it is particularly tragic. Education should be the antithesis of violence. Schools and universities exist to encourage civilised expression and impart the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in reasoned argument. They are the last places families should have reason to fear for their children's safety.
Yet so many of those families in the United States seem to have firearms at home, and not for sport. The guns that feature in campus shootings are not generally hunting rifles and the like, they are handguns and even semi-automatic assault rifles. They are for killing people, nothing else, or as their owners would say, for self-defence.
The movie Bowling for Columbine was an insight into the fears of Americans, or white Americans anyway. Its conclusion was that white Americans are instilled with a fear of black crime that is out of all proportion to its incidence. They keep their doors locked at all times when they are at home and fear to enter a predominantly black area of town. They receive a constant diet of crime, mostly black, on television news programmes and live in terror of it.
If they notice that whites are rarely the victims of black crime, they probably put it down to having a gun in their homes. It is a tragedy of American life that the weapons they believe they need for protection so often become instruments of death for their loved ones. Their children's classmates may come from well-to-do homes where handguns and ammunition, easily purchased over the counter in the US, may be kept unlocked and readily available.
The latest youthful massacre has taken the largest toll. It would be a consolation to believe that this time, at long last, Americans may rethink their constitutional right to bear arms, but it seems unlikely. The National Rifle Association will argue as always that people, not guns, are the problem, and that a disarmed population cannot be "free". But the gun lobby is only as powerful as most Americans want it to be. They cannot be convinced that fear is their worst enemy. Fear is the only reason they continue to harbour the weapons of their own destruction.
Cell Phone Stun Gun - Don't get burned in more than one way. It can result in lawsuits.
Again, with 'weapons' of this nature, be sure you know how to use it and protect yourself from it's potential. Any weapon carried on one's person is a serious and legal issue all by itself. Don't forget you have to be able to afford it as well.
The best friend for anyone wanting self empowerment is a cell phone, pepper spray and/or if instructed correctly a stun gun.
As with any action by an individual there are always potential for liability when protecting oneself, including lawsuits by criminals damaged by stun guns and MACE. Mace can cause blindness and is why it has been banned in most states. The "W"rongful use of a gun in a 'stated' self defense issue doesn't always turn out the way the gun owner expects either. I refer to Bernard Goetz.
So, while the NRA, through the assistance of Tom Ridge wants to arm every person in America they aren't handing out personal liability policies along with their 'paid promotion.'
..."What we do know is that this was a deeply troubled young man -- and there were many warning signs," Bush said. "Our society continues to wrestle with the question of how to handle individuals whose mental health problems can make them a danger to themselves and to others."...
This is typical of the focus of Conservative Talkie anything.
From Anderson Cooper 360:
COOPER (voice-over): Today, we learned Seung-Hui Cho fired as many as many as 225 rounds of ammunition Monday morning. Law enforcement sources tell us he emptied at least 17 ammunition clips. And another source says most of his victims, survivors and dead, were shot at least three times. Also today, the first and only known connection between Cho and one of his targets. According to "The New York Times," classmates of Ross Alameddine said he sat next to Cho in an English class and tried on several occasions to reach out to him. As for the university's handling of the mentally ill student and its response to the shooting, Virginia's governor is appointing former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to lead the investigation.
What followed was a flowery inauguration of Tom Ridge as the Gun Related Violence King. However, I thought Tom Ridge was a Bush appointee to his commission. I thought the Virginia Governor had a separate commission that will no doubt highlight the reality of the lawsuit by Virginia Tech to prohit weapons on campus. The Bush/Tom Ridge commission never was stated to be bipartisan and will return with slanted statistics from societies already corrupted with laws that have never been enforced. From the beginning, in realizing the affiliation of Bush and Cheney to their cronies at the NRA, I don't believe anything they say and have no faith in any of their conclusions.
This is about Gun Regulation and why the laws that are passed at the insistance of the people of this country and nearly every state are never enforced. The killer was an established mentally unstable individual, yet, through either complete negligence and the need to 'turn profits' through illegal sales, the weapons found their way into the hands of people LEGISLATED not to have them.
Gun Control is a Woman's Issue
33 shot dead at Virginia Tech University (US)
A gunman shot and killed 32 people at the Virginia Tech university (US) on 16 April. He then committed suicide by shooting himself. A further 29 people are reported to have been injured in the attack.
At least 263 children and 235 adults have been killed since 1996 in school shootings around the world. In the US, at least 110 people have died in school shootings since 1996, and 164 have been injured.
Click here to read the statement from New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, a US member of IANSA.
There is no information yet on how the shooter obtained his weapon, or what type of gun it was. But according to the Brady Campaign, assault weapons can be legally purchased within Virginia state, and there is no waiting period for buying a gun, so that depressed or suicidal people can obtain a gun immediately. There is no requirement for guns to be registered, and while details of sales from gun shops are kept by the police, this is not required when a firearm is sold at a gun show.
In many ways, gun violence and resultant regulation is a woman's issue in ways that are evident to all cultures. This is a reporting of agency to promote the regulation of guns and dedicated to the reduction of gun violence and crime.
A gunman shot and killed 32 people at the Virginia Tech university (US) on 16 April. He then committed suicide by shooting himself. A further 29 people are reported to have been injured in the attack.
At least 263 children and 235 adults have been killed since 1996 in school shootings around the world. In the US, at least 110 people have died in school shootings since 1996, and 164 have been injured.
Click here to read the statement from New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, a US member of IANSA.
There is no information yet on how the shooter obtained his weapon, or what type of gun it was. But according to the Brady Campaign, assault weapons can be legally purchased within Virginia state, and there is no waiting period for buying a gun, so that depressed or suicidal people can obtain a gun immediately. There is no requirement for guns to be registered, and while details of sales from gun shops are kept by the police, this is not required when a firearm is sold at a gun show.
In many ways, gun violence and resultant regulation is a woman's issue in ways that are evident to all cultures. This is a reporting of agency to promote the regulation of guns and dedicated to the reduction of gun violence and crime.
The Bible according to the National Rifle Association
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
The National Rifle Association along with George Walker Bush, Dick Cheney and the Neocons would like to RE-ESTABLISH the presence of the 'spirit' of the 2nd Amendment all over again.
When the 2nd Amendment was written the militia of the USA government WAS THE PEOPLE.
That is why they had a right to occupy homes and land to shelter troops, because there were no military bases. Hence, Eminent Domain (click on) , ah, hello?
The sacred cow of the National Rifle Association, affectionately known by Neocons as the NRA is actually based in 'practicality' of 'the day' when an organized military didn't exist except for the militias that citizens formed to defend their homeland.
The National Rifle Association along with George Walker Bush, Dick Cheney and the Neocons would like to RE-ESTABLISH the presence of the 'spirit' of the 2nd Amendment all over again.
When the 2nd Amendment was written the militia of the USA government WAS THE PEOPLE.
That is why they had a right to occupy homes and land to shelter troops, because there were no military bases. Hence, Eminent Domain (click on) , ah, hello?
The sacred cow of the National Rifle Association, affectionately known by Neocons as the NRA is actually based in 'practicality' of 'the day' when an organized military didn't exist except for the militias that citizens formed to defend their homeland.
Brazilians get tough new gun law
Tough new anti-gun legislation comes into force in Brazil on Wednesday, in a bid to curb what the UN says is the world's fourth-highest murder rate.
Under the new rules, anyone carrying a gun without a licence will face a prison sentence.
Permits will be issued only to police, security guards and others in high-risk professions - but they must be at least 25 years old.
Anyone else caught carrying a firearm will face up to four years in prison.
"Those who currently have permits can carry their weapons until midnight, then they turn into pumpkins. After that, they'll be breaking the law if they take their guns out of their houses," a Brazilian justice ministry spokeswoman said on Tuesday, before the law took effect.
The BBC's Steve Kingstone in Sao Paulo says the law is part of a concerted effort by the Brazilian government to reduce the number of people killed in gun-related incidents - nearly 40,000 of them during 2003.
Well, lookey here, another defeat for gun regulation after the people 'learned the hard way.'
Brazilians flatly rejected a plan to ban the commercial sale of firearms and ammunition in a historic national referendum on Sunday. The vote is a victory for Brazil's wealthy gun lobby which opponents say used strategies learned from the National Rifle Association to shift public opinion.
An estimated 122 million citizens took part in the referendum -- the first of its kind in the world -- and preliminary counts showed 64 percent went against the ban while 36 percent backed it. The referendum -- which asked the simple question "Should the commercial sale of guns and ammunition to civilians be prohibited?" -- divided the country, a world leader in gun deaths, into "não" and "sim" camps.
Two months ago, polls showed 60 to 80 percent of Brazilians favored the ban as a way to control the estimated 17 million small arms that are circulating in the country. But as the vote neared, and as both sides of the issue were given free television time, a slick media blitz by the gun lobby appears to have shifted enough voter opinion.
The money that is dumped into advertising to 'beat' the gun regulation is enough to pay an army to stop the illegal transport of weapons into Brazil or to bolster the efforts of law enforcement. Is that what results? Nope. What results are 'scare' tactics to force the public into defending themselves at any cost. In other words, the collective public, as in Israel, are their own militia. Thanks to efforts by the National Rifle Association.
Answer me one question. Does the NRA ever promote 'OTHER' measures of self empowerment like learning martial arts, or arming with 'pepper spray' with lessons on how to best use it or the issue of personal stun guns? Not in your lifetime, kids !
This is the real tragedy of Brazil's gun laws. Unenforceable the innocent are still being the victims.
Kindly note this article was published April 17, 2007. The deaths at Virginia Tech occurred on April 16, 2007. What level of insensitivity rules in the Brazilian press and it's affiliates globally?
Brazil pays for inequality with violence (clickl link above or below on separate entry)
RECIFE: A stone's throw from a pristine beach where foreign tourists sip caipirinhas, relatives wait at a morgue to recover the bodies of nearly two dozen people, the aftermath of a typical weekend of violence in the port city of Recife.
With around 80 homicides a year for every 100,000 people – twice as many as the worst cities in the United States – Recife, in northeastern Brazil, is the bloodiest city in a country that is going through a particularly bloody period.
...In Recife, underpaid and corrupt police officers cause as much violence as they repress, experts say.
"Policemen do bank robberies and kidnappings, either they take a cut or do it themselves," said a former police officer, who asked to remain anonymous. "When someone doesn't pay, they take him out."
Police and crime are so entwined that authorities often couldn't tackle crime if they wanted to.
"Before sending the troops on a mission, I have to check who is on my side," said Romero Lucena de Menezes, security secretary of Pernambuco, the state that includes Recife.
Blackmarket, in the cyborg world
Blackmarket :: illicit trade in goods or commodities in violation of official regulations; also : a place where such trade is carried on
The link above is to add some humor to the circumstances of which is far to serious an issue to dismiss to a video game. But, like the understanding in this video game, "The price of the various items is controlled by market conditions."
The link above is to add some humor to the circumstances of which is far to serious an issue to dismiss to a video game. But, like the understanding in this video game, "The price of the various items is controlled by market conditions."
The 'real' world of 'underworld' weapons trade is established on supply and demand. It doesn't matter the 'item' so much as the government regulation of it and the discovery by consumers they really don't have to do without so much as just 'pay the price' for illegitimate trade. The Gun Lobby never takes a stand against this undermining aspect of Gun Regulation NOR does it bother to 'lobby' any government to stop the illegal trade. Why? Because those guns are manufactered by someone and it ain't in Uncle George's backyard, okay?
The geography alone of Brazil is most noteworthy to understand why gun regulation doesn't work as well as it should.
In many ways Brazil is a poor comparison to the USA by virtue of geography alone.
By Jane Bussey and Steven Dudley
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)
BOGOTA, Colombia - Chiquita Brands International's recent admission that it paid off a Colombian group on the U.S. terrorist list has spotlighted a practice once hush-hush in Colombia, Washington's closest ally in Latin America.
Several other U.S.-based corporations, including Atlanta-based Coca-Cola and the Alabama-based coal company Drummond Co., face civil lawsuits alleging their Colombian operations worked with the same group to kill several trade unionists.
But the guilty plea by Chiquita, a company with a long and infamous history in Latin America, has focused attention on the payoffs that Colombian and foreign companies make to the illegal armed groups fighting the country's 40-year-old civil war, especially in remote areas where those groups hold sway.
...Many here criticize the president, who won re-election in December, for being an autocrat, building popular militias, nationalizing key sectors of the economy and curtailing freedom of the press....
...and not just physical geography but political and economic geography as well. The entire mess Brazil finds itself is one of blackmarket gun sales facilitated by international gun runners that supply nearly anyone that wants to buy them.
The same is true for Britain. They instituted stringent gun regulations about 2002. For the most part the regulations are 'blamed' for increase in gun violence, but, once again we are looking at blackmarket weapons to a country which some would say is a small country with defensible borders; except for the long standing ability of the Irish Republican Army to gain weapons and explosives for it's civil war with the Brits. I don't consider the circumstances in the USA exactly the same. But let me find a few references to the Brits first.
Slowly, the country is learning the hard way.
LONDON — When I arrived in London, I expected to find a very depressing situation for gun rights, as the formerly robust British right-to-arms is nearing extinction. Yet there are signs that the public is waking up to the failure of gun prohibition.
LONDON — When I arrived in London, I expected to find a very depressing situation for gun rights, as the formerly robust British right-to-arms is nearing extinction. Yet there are signs that the public is waking up to the failure of gun prohibition.
Kindly note the words, 'people are learning the hard way.' When people learn the 'hard way' it serves the community of gun manufacturers whom do absolutely nothing to police themselves except what is required by law.
Kindly remember laws are simply acts of the will of the people of their legislation. To secure a nation from the ravages of gun violence there has to be enforcement of those laws with the funding to back it. Rarely, except in the case of the Brady Bill in the USA, does that take place.
The gun lobby has framed the gun violence debate perversely to its advantage - and done a powerful job of it. It is time for adults to stand up and demand that reality prevail.
Remember this guy? Heston. He's dead now. I would respect the failure of gun control laws IF the laws failed unassisted, but, everytime there is a call for gun control by most societies on Earth, what manifests is a well orchestrated scenario of how people would be far safer if 'good citizens' carried guns and protected themselves.
Huh?
Me?
Carry a gun?
I don't think so.
One of the overwhelming issues that any gun 'instructor' will tell you might be a problem, besides securing them within the home out of reach of children and young people, is the danger of having your weapon, YOUR WEAPON NOW, turned back on you when the assailant overpowers the gun owner in a physical match of wits. It doesn't always work out to the advantage of the gun owner.
Hollywood actor Charlton Heston has attacked the UK's anti-gun laws in a speech to students at Oxford University.
The Oscar-winning actor, and president of the influential National Rifle Association (NRA) in the US, said British anti-gun laws had led to an increase in gun-related crime.
In an address to the Oxford Union, he said the right to carry arms, enshrined in the US Constitution, maintained freedom and actually saved lives.
I am going to look at Brazil closer for awhile and then point to the LACK of issues presented in this ? debate ? by the Conservative media whom wants to control this aspect of society and it's public understanding.
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