Loaded Guns, Many Questions

The Connection Newspapers ^ | March 8 2006 | Mary Kimm and Mary Anne Weber

[ottersnot]

The shooting death of Aaron Brown, 18, of Springfield
in an Alexandria parking lot on Feb. 29 by an Alexandria police officer,
has revived the debate over the use of deadly force by police.
Other local incidents also point to the danger inherent in the presence of a loaded gun.......

........ The evidence, even just the local evidence, has piled up recently: loaded guns are dangerous,
even in the hands of professionals with the best training.

[ottersnot]

This editorial is in response to this article
Link to Second Article
also posted at The Connection Newspapers. Both articles go out of their way to indict the Law Enforcement Officers involved,
while glossing over the activity of the "victims" and advocating gun control or possibly bans, though that is all innuendo.

Just another sickening example of overt liberal bias in the media at the local level.

[King Prout]

which, of the dozens of Alexandrias in the US, is this?

[ottersnot]

Alexandria Virginia.

Important detail you point out there. Thank you.
I know a few LEOs in the area. Lots of gangs and a tough beat from my novice perspective. Good folks with impossible jobs. It pains me to see what they get from the press for their efforts.

Yes, it's a tragedy when a 17 year old dies. Yes, there is more to it than loaded guns being bad.

The effort by the "jurnalists" (sic) to get an amnesty international quotation and the human rights refernces into the story, but no real examination of alternative (or possibly honest) explanations for the shootings really got my attention.

Basically a couple of cases of hack journalism telling only one side of the story to make the overall case of Guns=bad.

In my humble (correct) opinion of course.

[WLR]

The story is just a poorly veiled precursor to a "no loaded guns in homes" campaign. Nothing to do with Peace Officers they are just the vehicle for building the future premise.

Next story will run something like. "While we must allow Peace Officers and insure the best training (another bone) as they exercise the right to carry loaded weapons wouldn't we be much safer if no one else were unless they were actually being put to use. The children are in such danger, suicides by teenagers, blah Baaa Baaa.

Sheeesh sheeple :)

W

[ottersnot]

Yeah, especially in the "loaded gun" editorial.

I rarely read this paper for this reason. We get two or three free papers sent to us or dropped on our doorstep. They all must employ struggling young liberal hacks, intent on changing the world. It's pretty amazing how much local advertising market there is in Northern Virginia.

I just happened to pick it up, and, I just happened to turn to that page. Cosmic.

[Jeff Gordon]

With guns common in many households and in public places, perhaps some standard firearms safety training is also appropriate in schools and at home.

That is good idea. Maybe someone in the area could put this person in touch with her local NRA. I am sure the NRA would jump at the chance of teching gun safety to kids.

[opinionator]

On Thursday, Jan. 27, Del. Jack Reid (R-Henrico County) accidentally fired his .380 handgun in his General Assembly Building office in Richmond, hitting a bullet-proof vest hanging on the back of the office door.

Sounds fishy.

[truemiester]

Stupid people. Sorry. Just stupid to blame Law Enforcement for doing their jobs.

[SpyGuy]

We get two or three free papers sent to us or dropped on our doorstep. They all must employ struggling young liberal hacks, intent on changing the world. It's pretty amazing how much local advertising market there is in Northern Virginia.

While perhaps these "newspapers" come to you at no direct cost on your part, they are certainly not free: there is a source of funding behind them, usually local merchants as you mentioned, but also large corporations. And where do these companies get the money to fund these (and other) media vehicles of Leftist propaganda. From local consumers. Perhaps even you.

Conservative Americans will never win the social, cultural, and political battle for this nation, its Constitution, and our children's freedom if we will not make a conscious, cohesive, and dedicated effort to de-fund the Left by economic boycott of the companies and institutions that support them, intentionally or otherwise.

[opinionator]

Middleton searched Salenieks' house early Monday and found a loaded .50-caliber semiautomatic handgun, a Taser, an assault shotgun and a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun

Wow! What an arsenal. I'm glad they told us the caliber of each weapon. That's really important. And to think, one was even loaded.

[hawkiye]

Well cars are a hell of a lot more dangerous then loaded guns even in the hands of so called professionals. Although I wouldn't call most cops professionals with regards to guns.

[endthematrix]

Gun safety:

Don't Touch. Leave the Area. Tell an Adult

[jamesm51]

No one but the police officer at the scene can make the final judgment call. It is time for the elected officials and the police department to take a serious look at the present policy and what the alternatives are.

How about we just leave it how it is?

[ottersnot]

loaded Cars even.

Of course it's never the car's fault.

[oldenuff2no]

I've been armed with a loaded handgun every day of my life for the last 35 years. I've never had an accident of any kind. It has never fired unless I pulled the trigger on purpose.
Almost everyone I know legally carries with a CCW or are LE and none of them have ever had a problem either.
This is a POS hit on honest gun owners.

[ottersnot]

Totally agree oldenuff.

I've got my paperwork sitting here on the floor next to me for my CCW. Just need to fill it out and make some copies.
I don't handle firearms on a daily basis, but I do on a weekly basis. So far my gun hasn't started shooting itself.

You can tell it's a hit piece by the lack of actual facts and details of the incidents.

[Lazamataz]

Other local incidents also point to the danger inherent in the presence of a loaded gun.......

Unloaded guns have killed more people than anything else.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Of course the kids were drunk and violent, had bolted a restaurant check and tried to run down the officer with their car, but after all "guns be bad"

[Simo Hayha]

They talk about "the danger inherent in the presence of a loaded gun" but I'm trying to figure out why an IHOP has to hire security for their business. Seems to me they missed a chance to enlighten us about another danger.

[Simo Hayha]

Toward the end of the editorial:With guns common in many households and in public places, perhaps some standard firearms safety training is also appropriate in schools and at home. What should a young person do if they encounter a gun at a friend’s house? How do you determine if a gun is loaded? How do you unload it?

http://www.nra.org/Article.aspx?id=1352

Eddie Eagle GunSafe® Program Helps 18 Million Children Avoid Gun Accidents

The Eddie Eagle GunSafe® Program, NRA's groundbreaking gun accident prevention program for children in pre-K through the third grades, has achieved a new milestone, reaching 18 million children in all 50 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Created by past NRA President Marion P. Hammer, in consultation with child psychologists, elementary schoolteachers, and law enforcement officers, the program gives children a simple, effective action to take should they encounter a firearm in an unsupervised situation: "If you see a gun, STOP! Don't Touch. Leave the Area. Tell an Adult."

Funds raised through Friends of NRA, and distributed through The NRA Foundation, enable budget-strapped schools and police departments to teach the program at minimal or no cost. The NRA encourages citizens nationwide to participate in heightening gun accident prevention awareness within their local communities. Schools, law enforcement agencies, civic groups, and others interested in more information about The Eddie Eagle GunSafe® Program should call the Eddie Eagle® Department at (800) 231-0752 or visit the website at www.nrahq.org/safety/eddie.

The two who wrote this editorial should be corrected before they persuade children and parents of children to commit potentially dangerous acts. They would have children try to determine if a discovered gun is loaded or not. And then they continue with this boneheaded maneuver by suggesting children try to unload the gun!

THEY JUST SAID GUNS ARE DANGEROUS!!!!!

Which one is it? Dangerous? Or a potential playtoy that the curious could learn more about by fiddling with it?