Gun control and suicide rates.
In the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, in 1997 Australia implemented a gun buyback program that reduced the stock of firearms by around one-fifth, and nearly halving the number of gun-owning households. Leigh and Neill (2010) find that the buyback led to a drop in the firearm suicide rates of almost 80%, or about 200 lives per annum (with no significant effect on non-firearm death rates). This translates into an annual benefit of $500M, or $800 000 per weapon destroyed. However, Baker & McPhedran (2006) have previosuly concluded that there was no impact on homicides.
Second chances in research
He was drummed out of academe after a controversy over his book about guns in America. Now the historian aims for a second chance. [via A&L daily] The moral I take away from this story is: always use spreadsheets to analyse probate inventories (possibly several, combined into a simple database). But I'm also curious -- I didn't follow this much at the time (it seemed like a hackjob, though this article implies that criticism can from a variety of places), but has anyone reproduced his probate research (or done similar) on gun-holding in the early US?
Oakland: Riot Worries, Out-of-Town Agitators, and Sonic Cannons
Oakland, California, is bracing for a possible repeat of the 2009 riot [previously] once a verdict in the trial of former BART cop Johannes Mehserle for the 2009 shooting of Oscar Grant [previously] comes in. The early morning New Year's Day shooting was captured on multiple camphones (viewer discretion advised) and uploaded immediately to the web. Many downtown businesses (especially on 17th Street, which was hit hard in the 2009 riots) are boarding up their windows in anticipation. Many have pictures of Oscar hung in their windows like lamb's blood. Meanwhile, the City is urging calm, and local Oaktown activists are warning Oakland youth "Don't get pimped!" by out-of-town agitators (who made up ~75% of the 2009 arrests). Protest leader Evan Shamar, whose lack of organization in 2009 many blame for allowing the peaceful protest to spiral out of control, is organizing another protest. He's also not returning calls from the OPD trying to coordinate to keep things peaceful. Oaklanders are making videos to spread the message "Violence is not justice". There's already an Oaklandriots Twitter stream. And some are wondering, in the age of paramilitary policing, is the OPD itching to bring out its new sonic cannon? As of July 7, they say they've decided not to use it.
teenager opening fire on two West Memphis police
"At this point, his 16-year-old son Joseph Kane comes out shooting with an AK-47." A dashcam video from a police SUV shows a teenager opening fire on two West Memphis police officers before taking off in a van with his father. Subsequent helicopter footage reveals a third occupant of the van escaping unharmed. The Game and Fish Officer who rammed his truck into the van most likely saved the lives of two wounded officers. Full Text. "With Busby and Wren under fire and wounded, Arkansas Game and Fish officer Michael K. Neal rammed his pickup into the Kanes' minivan. The assailants then turned their attention and their weapons on Neal. One of them sprayed the front of his truck and windshield with bullets from an AK-47, Game and Fish Col. Mike Knoedl said, prompting Neal to return fire, a step that was fundamental in "ending this shooting spree and attack on law enforcement." .."All you have to do is look at that picture," the governor said, referring to an image of Neal's bullet-riddled truck that was projected on a screen in the commission's auditorium. "That's the fire he was taking." Neal, a father of three and the son of a coroner, was on duty in Lee County when he heard the radio traffic. He talked to his sergeant, then warned his wife that he was joining the cavalry two counties over. Neal said fighting fires in Brinkley, patrolling the roads of Monroe County as a part-time deputy and cracking down on deer poachers and night hunters for the past three years had helped prepare him for what he did that day. The expert marksman did exactly what he was taught to do in such a situation - fire through the windshield from the inside of his truck. "My training kicked in, and I went into action," he said.
Judgement Day 2010
Today, June 28, 2010, marks the last day of the 2009-10 session of the Supreme Court of the United States. This day will mark a number of historical events, not only in terms of the cases to be handed down. Getting the "non-law" stuff out of the way: - Martin D. Ginsburg, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's husband, died last night at the age of 78. Justice Ginsburg will not be attending today's proceedings. - Justice John Paul Stevens takes the bench for the last time, as he is retiring this year. Stevens will likely write the Bilski opinion. - In an interesting coincidence, Elena Kagan begins her confirmation hearings, expected to last for at least a few days. Even without those changes, this would be a big day for the court, as it has saved four potentially major opinions for last. These are: - McDonald v. Chicago on the incorporation of the Second Amendment, has already been handed down (opinion). Analysis is presumably to follow, but the gist is that the Second Amendment does apply to the states. - Bilski v. Kappos, which could potentially invalidate the very concept of the "business method" patent. - Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a challenge to parts of Sarbanes-Oxley. - Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, on freedom of association. Feel free to update with links to opinions and analysis as they appear. Here we go...
The (lego) Lee Enfield sniper rifle
The (lego) Lee Enfield sniper rifle (more)
How the Daddy of Jesse Helms Gave Birth to Black Power
In 1936 in the Jim Crow South, Robert F. Williams was an 11-year-old black boy in Monroe, North Carolina, who watched helplessly as Jesse Helms Sr. (father and namesake of the former senator) beat an African-American woman to the ground and "dragged her off to the nearby jailhouse, her dress up over her head, the same way that a cave man would club and drag his sexual prey." Years later, after a stint in the segregated military, Williams returned home to Monroe and worked as an NAACP organizer, where he brought international attention to the Kissing Case, a 1958 incident in which two black boys under the age of 10 were sentenced to a reformatory for kissing a white girl. By then, Williams had also attracted controversy for his advocacy of armed self-defense, a position he outlined in the book Negroes with Guns. But it would all change overnight in 1961, when Williams landed on FBI's Most Wanted list, after being charged with kidnapping a white couple that Williams claimed he was trying to save from an angry black crowd. Williams became a fugitive, accepting asylum in Cuba, where he would broadcast the program Radio Free Dixie. Then, after having a falling out with the American Communist Party, Williams relocated to China, where Chairman Mao himself issued the Statement Supporting the Afro-Americans in Their Just Struggle Against Racial Imperialism at Williams' behest. Then, in 1969, Williams successfully bargained with the Nixon Administration to ensure his safe passage back to America, trading inside knowledge of the Cultural Revolution for amnesty from kidnapping charges, which were later dropped by the state of North Carolina in the 1970s. A Chinese propaganda poster inspired by Robert F. Williams The documentary Negroes with Guns: Robert Williams and Black Power (parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) A letter from Robert F. Williams to Adlai Stevenson at the United Nations So Long Patrick Henry, the pilot episode of the TV show I Spy, which features Ivan Dixon as a fictionalized version of Robert F. Williams and Muhammad Ali
Light Grenades
Photographer/Filmmaker Freddie Wong and friends blow the crap (YoutTube) out of each other with light painting. The making of and more from Freddie at his blog. via David Hobby at Strobist.
Yarchive - Notes from the hinterland.
Yarchive is one man's collection of UseNET posts on the topics of Air Conditioning; Aircraft; Bicycles; Cars; Chemistry; Computers; Electrical, Electronic; Environment; Explosives, Pyrotechnics; Food; Houses; Guns; Jokes; Medicine; Metalworking; Military; Nuclear; Telephones; Physics; Risks; Security; Space mostly from a select group of authors. It has been updated several times since it first appeared here in 2001 and it never fails to sucker me in for hours every time I stumble upon it from a Google Search. My favourites includeSometimes SOP includes parking a truck on a missile silo.Carburetor Oil.Automotive engine pistons turned from wood.Ky Jellycuckooa.Linus Torvalds On Linus TorvaldsBare Metal Programming The formating is old school but then so is UseNET. The complete archives are available as a series of compressed files so no need to wget if you wish a local mirror.
Wild Hearses Couldn't Drag Me Away
Some folks keep them stock, some folks like to customize them, and some folks make them into rolling sculptures. Some are more famous than others. Got a hearse? Drive a hearse? Just like hearses? You'll want to check out this year's HearseCon! Here's the ad.
Bring me the Head of Saddam Hussein
"Ben Turnbull is fascinated by the global dominance of American culture, and his works unsettling effects result from re-presenting the toys of our innocent youth in symbolic forms that reveal the shocking truths about war, death and guns in the world?s most powerful country." "Above all they take a satirical look at the lengths that the country?s political elites go to in order to control and manipulate the way we think, from our first days of play to the last time we cast our vote. Turnbull is a passionate critic of the contemporary American political system, and explains why toys are central to his work: 'Force fed on violence, abused by a controlling superpower and blackmailed through patriotism, the public are ultimately as disposable as the toys they once played with'." via Eleven Fine Art I'll never look at Captain America quite the same way again.
REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP FROM DR CLEMENT OKON
Arms dealers affiliated with 22 companies, including one with a former Joint Chief of Staff on its board of directors, have been indicted for soliciting kickbacks on multimillion dollar deals to supply munitions to representatives of a fictitious African government. The 16 indictments unsealed today represent the largest single investigation and prosecution against individuals in the history of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Let's go shooting, and then we can go shopping!
Everything is Terrible presents A Woman's Guide To Firearms, a mildly patronizing introduction to gun lust for the fairer sex.
Strict Liability
A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for "doing his duty". Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday ? after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year. There's already some predictable outrage. English legal bogger Jack of Kent has a slightly more nuanced view: If the facts are indeed as reported, the CPS should not have prosecuted Mr Clarke. The CPS should only prosecute when it is the public interest to do so. (And one should always be skeptical of newspaper reports of any court case). But on the narrow point as to whether that possessing a shotgun - and taking that shotgun through the streets (even if to a police station) - should be unlawful, then I think it should be.
_____ Blue
Coke is Corn. (Among other things.) (Previously.)
Lab coats and safety goggles at the gun show...
Playing Half-Life with a real gun? The magic of drywall, accelerometers, and geeks. (SLYT.) Courtesy of the good people at Waterloo Labs.
Guns and Poses?? Welcome to the Jungle....
The Second Amendment of the Constitution of United States of America gives us all the right to bear arms. It means that as Americans we can keep fire arms without governmental infringement. A few days ago many Americans chose to exercise this right at political Town Hall meetings on health care reform throughout the United States. Some are defending these actions. Others are not. The NRA is remaining quiet.
Women of the highest caliber
Give women guns! Forget chocolate and flowers. Women want guns. There is a history of women with guns. Women with guns will soon be mainstream.
10 KICK-ASS MOVIE PREACHERS
In the name of the Smith and Wesson and Glock.
Pastor Urges His Flock to Bring Guns to Church
As soon as you start saying that it?s not something that Christians do, well, guns are just the foil. The issue now is the Gospel. So in a sense, it does become a crusade. Now the Gospel is at stake. Of the 40 states with right-to-carry laws, 20 allow guns in churches. The National Rifle Association says its membership is up 30 percent since November. And several states have recently passed laws allowing gun owners to carry firearms in more places ? bars, restaurants, cars and parks. ?We have a very active agenda in all 50 states,? said Chris W. Cox, legislative director of the N.R.A., widely considered the country?s most powerful lobby. ?We have right-to-carry laws in over 40 states; 20 years ago, it was in just six.? Public attitudes also seem to be turning more sympathetic to gun owners.
Wait... No Pirate Vs. Ninja?!
Haven't you always secretly wondered what would happen if a ninja accidentally stumbled into, say, Bill and Ted's time traveling Phone Booth and ended up somewhere around 7th century BC, only to come face-to-face with a feisty Spartan? Have you not pondered what would happen if you locked up an Apache with a Gladiator inside some sort of 21st century battle dome? Are you frustrated because you feel like there's nobody doing proper scientific studies to see what would happen when you pit two historically violent warriors that could have never actually met in real life? Worry no more people - I present to you Spike TV's newest offering - Deadliest Warrior! The show basically goes like this; you take two crazy fighters who, previous to the show, have only been pitted against one another in heated debates between young men in line for the midnight showing of the newest X-Men movie (or really awesome drunk people). The show's 'Host, Simulation Consultant, and Blogger', Max Geiger brings in experts representing each warrior. The experts bring in weapons that are historically accurate which are then tested on a variety of dummies that are stuffed with SCIENCE! The data from said SCIENCE! all goes into a computer simulation based on an unreleased commercial game engine by these guys. Not just the SCIENCE!, which is actually pretty cool (ballistics gel, pig carcasses, high speed photography), but also, as Max aptly put it: "The simulation's inputs include real world scientific data gathered by one of my co-hosts, Geoff Desmoulin, who is getting his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering. Our number crunching is balanced out by Dr. Armand Dorian, an ER doctor who keeps our work firmly grounded in the actual trauma our tests cause." The reviews are in! Variety seems to feel it might be possibly the stupidest show ever, appealing only to the lowest common denominator! Newsarama was a little nicer, pointing out that there are some people on the show trying to make it as scientific as it can possibly be, while also having a great time. Either way, do you care? Don't you want to watch a Viking fight a Samurai? Or a Pirate against a Knight? You can apparently only watch the latest episode on the website, here. Also, looking forward on the Wikipedia, it does look like the show might slip-slide from whatever tenuous grasp they have on ideas for fights as they start doing shows about William Wallace versus Shaka Zulu or finally, the IRA versus the Taliban. I have only one thought. How could they have NOT had a Pirate versus Ninja episode? FAIL!
Twang!
Like crossbows? Like assault rifles? Got some spare AR-15 parts lying around begging to be crossbowed up? Then the PSE TAC 15 crossbow upper is for you! (video). Or how about this Swiss crossbow that can be cocked in 3 seconds? Alternatively build your own, or even build a repeating crossbow!
No end in sight
It's shocking enough that 90 people have been killed in mass shootings in the US in the past 2 years. But it's even more shocking that 44 of those deaths have occurred within the month since March 10, 2009, when Michael McClendon touched off a firestorm of violence that ended with the deaths of 10 people in rural Alabama. This has been a month of grave infamy in the United States. Since the McClendon incident: Lovell Mixton kills 4 Oakland police officers during a traffic stop on March 21 (this event is not without its controversies). Mixton was killed by a SWAT team. Eight days later in Santa Clara, CA, on March 29, Yahoo! engineer Devan Kalathat opened fire on his two children and three other family members before turning the gun on himself. His wife survived with injuries. The same day, across the country in Carthage, NC, embittered husband Robert Stewart created a bloodbath at his estranged wife's place of business, a nursing home, slaying 8 people before being fatally shot by a police officer. Surely everyone has heard of the April 3 tragedy in Binghamton, NY, in which 13 people were brutally murdered by gunfire after suspect Jiverly Wong blocked the back door of the American Civic Association with a car, then entered the building with guns blazing. The suspect is believed to be among the dead, the victim of an apparent suicide. Just a day later, 23-year old Richard Poplawski ambushed 3 Pittsburgh, PA police officers who were responding to a domestic disturbance call to his home, killing them all. Two other officers were wounded during the firefight, in which over 100 rounds were exchanged. The suspect, who was worried about an impending "Obama gun ban", was captured by SWAT teams and remains in custody, the only shooter on the timeline to have survived the horrific tragedies they created. --- As a vicious wave of horrific gun violence sweeps the nation, a shocked populace wonders if this explosion of violence is the result of the global economic malaise-- but why, then, is this a uniquely American phenomenon? Perhaps it's because we have 5% of the world's population, but 35-50% of its citizen-owned firearms.
Shoot Different
Shoot Different. Or, if you prefer, iSnipe.
"10 millimeter explosive tip caseless. Standard light armor piercing round, why? "
UnNerfed - the Nerf dart blaster overclocked to 500 rounds per minute.