Antoinette Tuff: a real hero!

MoonHowler

I think that the word hero is tossed about was too casually and way too often.  We call people ‘heroes’ when they really have done nothing out of the ordinary or heroic.  However, Antoinette Tuff, bookkeeper at Ronald E, McNair Discovery Learning Academy, showed heroism in the face of danger that most people couldn’t imagine.  She showed compassion, strength, and calm demeanor during what could have been a deadly situation.  She saved literally hundreds of lives when a lone gunman toting an AK-47 and 500 rounds of ammo slipped into a locked door at her school.

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abcnews.com:

 The 911 tapes from a frightening standoff and shooting at an Atlanta-area school show how a school employee’s calm demeanor and kind approach helped end the ordeal without any injuries.

Police said Wednesday that school bookkeeper Antoinette Tuff was heroic in how she responded after being taken hostage a day earlier by Michael Brandon Hill, a 20-year-old man with a history of mental health issues. Hill went to the school armed with an AK 47-style rifle and nearly 500 rounds of ammunition, police said.

On a recording of a 911 call released Wednesday, Tuff can be heard relaying messages from Hill to DeKalb County emergency dispatchers before convincing him to surrender. She tells the dispatcher that Hill said he wasn’t there to hurt the children but wanted to talk to an unarmed officer.

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Delusions of Grandeur: The final American revolution

MoonHowler

Well, lock and load there, A-hole.

Washingtonpost.com:

U.S. Park Police and the D.C. police are investigating the authenticity of a video that surfaced Thursday morning that appears to show activist Adam Kokesh loading a shotgun in Freedom Plaza and describing himself as part of the “final American Revolution.”

The police said in a joint statement on Thursday that they are aware of the video posted by Kokesh, which “appears to have been taken in Freedom Plaza.”

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2A trumps 1A?

MoonHowler

Huffingtonpost.com:

A gun rights supporter was hit with a stun gun on Tuesday after he heckled the father of a murdered gun violence victim at an anti-gun violence rally, Concord (N.H.) Patch reported.

John Cantin of Manchester, N.H., spoke at a Mayors Against Illegal Guns event in Concord, N.H., discussing his efforts to persuade Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) to change her April “no” vote on gun background checks, Patch reported. Cantin had dealt personally with gun violence, as his daughter, Melissa Charbonneau, was shot and killed by her husband in 2009, according to the Union Leader and the New Hampshire Department Of Justice.

Cantin’s remarks were interrupted by Daniel Musso of Brentwood, N.H. Musso was later charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and two counts of simple assault, police told the Union Leader. Patch added that Musso was held on $5,000 bond, with an arraignment set for June 19.

This crowd depicts mob mentality at its very worst.  I am amazed that these protesters don’t have more respect for free speech than what is shown here.  For heaven’s sake, the man’s daughter was murdered by her husband in 2009.  Where is the respect?  I am not sure that I want people behaving like this owning guns.

Voting rights issue or school safety?

MoonHowler

December, 2012  at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Strasburg, Virginia.

 Fast forward to yesterday, June 11, 2013:

nvdaily.com:

Christopher Gerrit Johnson found his plans to vote in Tuesday’s primary temporarily stymied at the Strasburg Police Department before authorities agreed he had a right to cast his ballot and allowed him to do so.

Johnson’s initial trouble in voting at Strasburg High School, his designated polling place, stemmed from a “no trespassing” order banning him from Shenandoah County Public Schools property. The order was issued after an incident in mid-December when Johnson entered Sandy Hook Elementary School with a board bearing the words “high powered rifle.”

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Here we go again…another sick bastard shooter

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — A gunman with an assault-style rifle killed at least six people in Santa Monica on Friday before police shot him to death in a gunfight in the Santa Monica College library, authorities said.

Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks told reporters the rampage began at a house in the coastal city before the gunman, dressed all in black, made his way to Santa Monica College.

Seabrooks said he killed two people in the house, which caught fire, two more people as he moved several blocks toward the campus, and then two more on campus.

He entered the library and fired on other people but didn’t hit them, Seabrooks said.Read More

Last words on the NRA weekend blast-a-thon: The Good, the Bad, and the Crazy

MoonHowler

Good guys with guns stop terrorists with guns?  Isn’t the NRA embarrassed to have some of these people speaking at their convention?

 

 

Part 2

Dispute?

Georgia suburb focal point? Try the real issue!

MoonHowler

.38

Much is being made of the Georgia mom who shot a home intruder with a crow bar multiple times with her .38 as a symbol of why America needs a gun in every home.  Using this story as a case in point leaves most of us scratching our heads.  So what?  Good for the lady.  Is the focus because she is ‘the little lady’ or because she had a .38 or because she hit the guy?  I think most people totally support this individual, not because she is a woman but because she successfully protected her family and herself.  This situation has nothing to do with extremism.  A .38 isn’t a military-type weapon and she had the family gun in a gun safe.

What makes this story stand out or unique?  Nothing I can see.  No one is threatening to create a situation where this woman could not have a .38.  I have a .38.  No big deal.  If I have one, it isn’t unique.  To even suggest that any of the gun safety groups would alter the gun rights in the above situation is disingenuous at best.  That isn’t what the national discussion is about.  Most of us support the Georgia mother’s right to not only have this gun in her possession but also her right to use it in this situation.

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NRA Convention, 2013: Stand and Fight

MoonHowler

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NBCbayarea.com:

The National Rifle Association kicked off its annual convention Friday with a warning to its members they are engaged in a “culture war” that stretches beyond gun rights, further ramping up emotions surrounding the gun control debate.

NRA First Vice President James Porter, a Birmingham, Ala., attorney who will assume the organization’s presidency Monday, issued a full-throated challenge to President Barack Obama in the wake of a major victory regarding gun control and called on members to dig in for a long fight that will stretch into the 2014 elections.

Additionally, Porter described the ‘fight’ as a ‘culture war.”

“This is not a battle about gun rights,” Porter said, calling it “a culture war.”

“(You) here in this room are the fighters for freedom. We are the protectors,” said Porter, whose father was NRA president from 1959-1960.

Rob Heagy, a former parole officer from San Francisco, agreed with Porter’s description of a culture war.

“It is a cultural fight on those 10 guarantees,” he said, referring to the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution. “Mr. Obama said he wasn’t going after our guns. As soon as the Connecticut thing happened, he came after our guns.”

That theme carried throughout the day and reached a crescendo in a 3 ½-hour political rally punctuated by fiery speeches from state and national conservative leaders.

Yawn.  Not much has changed.  Much chest thumping and knuckle dragging.

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Beer heir Adolphus Busch IV resigns his lifetime membership in the NRA

MoonHowler


 

Huffingtonpost.com:

WASHINGTON — Adolphus Busch IV, heir to the Busch family brewing fortune, resigned his lifetime membership in the National Rifle Association on Thursday, writing in a letter to NRA President David Keene, “I fail to see how the NRA can disregard the overwhelming will of its members who see background checks as reasonable.”
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Manchin-Toomey fails in the Senate

MoonHowler

 

There isn’t that much to say.  Background checks help cut down on the wrong person getting a gun.  Shame on those senators who voted NO.

So close but so far away.  Patricia Maisch shouted out what many folks felt when the final vote was announced :

One gun control advocate, Patricia Maisch, shouted “Shame on you!” from the  Senate balcony as the vote total was announced. In 2011, Ms. Maisch helped  wrestle a magazine of bullets away from the gunman who shot then-Rep. Gabrielle  Giffords, R-Ariz., and 18 others in Tucson. (post-gazette.comj)

Most Americans support background checks.  To say no to background checks is definitely extremism.  Those who voted no cow-towed to the 7% NRA extremism. 90% of the American people supported this bill. Those who voted no will have a surrprise waiting for them at the polls.

Good people have done the wrong thing.  They caved to the pressure.

Poet Nikki Giovanni reflects on VA Tech–6 years after the Massacre of April 16, 2007

MoonHowler

Nikki Geiovanni saw that something was wrong with Cho almost immediately. If she could tell, why couldn’t the other people tell? Why couldn’t Tech administration? Why didn’t someone step in when Nikki refused to teach him? Why was he allowed to buy a gun?

What has changed since that horrible, snowy day in Blackburg, 6 years ago? What has changed to at least attempt to keep the horrific events of that day from reoccurring? Nothing I am aware of. It’s even easier to buy a gun and mental health services have been cut back both statewise and locally.

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NRA sends warning to senators

MoonHowler

 

from www.newscorpse.com

NBCnews.com:

The National Rifle Association said Wednesday the group is unequivocally opposed to the newly-struck compromise plan to expand background checks — and threatened that it may seek to penalize lawmakers who vote for what it deems “anti-gun” measures by giving them poor grades in their rating system.

The warning to members of Congress came just hours after a compromise on expanding background checks for  gun purchasers was announced, a deal that the NRA itself participated closely in.

“Expanding background checks, at gun shows or elsewhere, will not reduce violent crime or keep our kids safe in their schools,” top NRA lobbyist Chris Cox wrote in a letter sent to senators Wednesday night. “Given the importance of these issues, votes on all anti-gun amendments or proposals will be considered in NRA’s future candidate evaluations.”

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Castle Doctrine Tragedy hits Loudoun Community

MoonHowler

barrel of gun

Washingtonpost:

 

The teenager had been drinking, and his friends drove him to his home in Sterling at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday, law enforcement officials said. But instead of walking into his house on the quiet cul-de-sac, they said, the teen entered a similar-looking red brick home in the same block.

Inside, the startled homeowner confronted the teen, authorities said, before shooting and killing him. The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office described the shooting as a homeowner killing an unknown intruder, although officials released few details about the shooting.

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Senator Feinstein gets a lecture from Ted Cruz

MoonHowler

WARNING: Graphic simulations included regarding the Sandy Hook massacre.


Rachel Maddow reports on how much easier high capacity magazines made the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary.  She takes us step by step though the 5 minutes where 30 people are killed.

 

Ted Cruz has the audacity to speak down to Senator Dianne Feinstein.  Cruz is no stranger to rudeness.

Dianne Feinstein’s bill that includes high capacity magazine restrictions as well as restrictions on certain weapons was voted out of committee by Democrats.  No Republicans voted for her bill.

 

A good day to NOT go to Starbucks

MoonHowler

guns and starbucks

Washingtonpost.com:

Many people who love guns and coffee particularly appreciate Starbucks. In the 12 states with unfettered rights to “open carry” a gun, including Virginia, and the 16 others that are mostly open carry, Starbucks has rebuffed attempts by gun control activists to keep guns out of the national coffee shop chain.

So on Friday, 2-22 (for the Second Amendment), gun rights supporters are holding “Gun Owners Support Starbucks Day,” and will be drinking their joe while openly packing their heat. In Northern Virginia, this is being organized by Ed Levine, who already has an “I Love Guns and Coffee” website (there are two) and mints a guns and coffee challenge coin, seen above. He wants 2-22 to be an annual day of support for Starbucks  by gun owners.

I guess it is a good time to not go to Starbucks.   I don’t like being around strangers carrying weapons.  I know Scout’s argument about being able to assess the environment.  I tend to be more the “you can’t judge a book by its cover” type.  I see no reason to pack heat (unless its your job) in the suburbs of Northern Virginia.

I don’t feel one bit safer seeing someone armed in any store.  In fact, most of the time I leave.  I don’t know that pistol-packing Harry isn’t some crazed nut job who is getting ready to blow my brains out.

Ed Levine of Virginia Defense League is heading up the appreciation day here in Virginia.  He has chosen 2-22 as the official gun owner Starbucks Appreciation Day. 2-22 represents  the 2nd amendment.

Starbucks has taken the position that rather than engage in a political uproar, they will simply follow state law wherever the store is located.  They are probably smart.  They aren’t supporting any political cause, just following state law.  I wonder what home office thinks of the alteration of their logo?  Mr. Levine should not be surprised if he gets a call from corporate lawyers.