(We are posting the following press release from the Violence Policy Center). These are actual pictures of the shooting as it occurred FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, June 11, 2010 CONTACT: Marty Langley, 202-822-8200 x109, mlangley@vpc.org At Least 65 Innocent People Have Been Killed in Recent Mass Shootings Involving Concealed Handgun Permit Holders Washington, DC–Gerardo Regalado, [...]
According to the Palm Beach Post updated on March 1st: A gun instructor accidently shot a student in the foot Saturday during an NRA class to receive certification to carry a concealed weapon, Orlando police said. Robert Frauman Jr., 50, was taken to Florida Hospital after instructor Michael Phillips’ firearm discharged about 11:45 a.m., police [...]
A tragedy in Florida resulted in the death of a 62-year-old man’s fiance the day before their wedding and shows the insanity of America’s gun culture. A “law abiding” gun owner fired his gun all because he heard strange noises in his own house without having any clue what, or whom, he was firing at. [...]
How does the gun lobby and industry say it? Guns don’t kill or injure people… people do? Oh, right. Except when dangerous products (guns) are designed and manufactured without even the most basic consumer product safety standards. Then the whole argument that guns are safe except for the “unsafe people” using them has no merit. [...]
A tragic shooting was reported by AP on Aug. 16th: TAMPA, Fla. (Associated Press) – A dispute over line-cutting at a roadside food stand led to the shooting death of a bystander and the serious injury of another man, Tampa police said. Police arrested two men in the case Friday, Juan Martinez-Morales, 20, and Leeching-Hong [...]
(We are pleased to post the following press release from the Violence Policy Center). 31 Incidents Result in Criminal Charges or Suicide of Concealed Handgun Permit Holder Washington, DC–Concealed handgun permit holders killed at least seven police officers and 44 private citizens in 31 incidents during the period May 2007 through April 2009 according to [...]
According to CNN on May 4th: A man shot and killed his wife and two of their children and then killed himself in central Florida on Sunday night, authorities said. Troy Ryan Bellar, 34, used a high-powered rifle with a scope to shoot his 31-year-old wife, Wendy, when she tried to leave their home, the [...]
An AP brief on Apr. 8th reported: CASSELBERRY, FL: Authorities in Casselberry, Florida say 44-year-old Marie Moore walked up behind her 20 year old son Mitchell Moore and shot him in the head at point blank range– then shot herself. Mitchell Moore died at the scene. His mother died at a hospital. In notes and [...]
The Gun Guys agree with Miami Herald editor Myriam Marquesz’ Feb. 5, 2009 commentary No Need For Assault Weapons on Our Streets Statistics bear the ugly truth. In the years since the ban expired, more assault weapons have been used to kill and maim in South Florida and the nation. One in five homicides in [...]
The NRA believes that Disney World employees should be allowed to keep loaded and hidden handguns on Disney’s own parking lot despite the company’s fervent objections. Disney World maintains, rather sensibly, that only Disney has the right to decide its own safety measures and policy around weapons on company grounds. The NRA should mind its [...]
It happened again, this time in Florida. A person walks into a gun range, rents a gun, and shoots himself dead. One of the least-discussed aspects of gun violence is one that we keep track of on GunGuys: gun ranges becoming a place of choice for people who want to commit suicide. It’s not an [...]
An Orlando, Florida TV station, Local 6 News, reported on April 11th, a chilling crime by an armed man with a long history of arrests. What we want to know is how this man was able to obtain his handgun? ORLANDO, Fla. — A 24-year-old man held a gun to the head of a 15-month-old [...]
Maybe the “Sunshine State†is in a race with Texas to become the most gun friendly – and “gun dangerous” – state in the nation. (As a side note, we want copyright on “gun dangerous.”) Despite the vigorous objections of the Florida Chamber of Commerce and employers throughout the state, the legislature passed a law [...]
An article in the Palm Beach Post on March 25th reported: The suburban West Palm Beach restaurant where a local firefighter was shot and killed by a gunman opened moments ago, welcoming diners with cheerful music and bright renovations. The entire restaurant, from the menu to every tile, is new. “It’s from floor to ceiling,” [...]
Last week, we reported on one of the disturbing high-profile shootings in America. This incident occurred at a Wendy’s in Florida. According to the Associated Press: A gunman dressed in a suit and tie burst into a Wendy’s restaurant at lunchtime Monday, killing one person and himself and injuring five others, officials and witnesses said. [...]
In 2004, Congress let a partial ban on assault weapons lapse after a 10-year period. The law was enacted during the Clinton administration, passing by just a hair in the House of Representatives in 1994. Many gun control advocates thought the law was not strong enough, but perhaps better than nothing. Gun manufacturers were clever [...]
Why do police in Central Florida need to start carrying machine guns? On September 29th, we came across this news update from a Florida television station: “Anti-Crime Unit To Carry Submachine Guns On Central Fla. Streets.†As GunGuys has noted before, law enforcement officials are being outgunned by highly lethal firearms developed and marketed extensively [...]
Yesterday, we reported on an important new list of gun violence prevention recommendations from the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). According to the “Miami Herald,†among them was “an effective ban of assault weapons, arguing that it helps keep police officers safe by reducing the ‘firepower available to criminals.’” The issue is quite [...]
Johnathan Schuppe of the New Jersey Star-Ledger has published a really in-depth piece about how firearms get from states with loose gun laws, like Pennsylvania and Florida, to states with much stronger gun laws like New Jersey and New York. Firearms owned by criminals aren’t made in super secret black market factories hidden in the [...]
Finally today, here’s a couple more insights on the latest news from Florida that we posted yesterday. After gun laws there have been loosened further than ever, both by the NRA and a legislature content to support lobbyists over their constituents, gun violence is up a whopping 42%. While the Governor tries to confuse with [...]
Murders are up in Florida yet again. And while they’ve been busy passing all sorts of loose gun laws, including License to Murder and laws that allow criminals to obtain all the weapons they need, gun violence is jumping right up, too. Murders and other violent crimes rose at a “disconcerting” rate in Florida last [...]
More on thefts at gun stores from Florida– Orange County’s Commissioner is pushing for stronger gun laws in a state where the legislature shrieks at the idea. Orange County Commissioner Mildred Fernandez is pushing for a local ordinance to require gun dealers and pawnshops to “secure firearms in a safe area after business hours,” which [...]
License to Murder has, unfortunately, already passed in Florida. The law, which just opens up all kinds of loopholes, is meant to give anyone who opens fire in “self-defense” protection against prosecution, but the idea of “self-defense” used in the law is so broad that almost anyone who starts shooting even when clueless and threatened [...]
We’ve said before that criminals get their illegal guns from legal gun dealers, but usually we mean via unsavory gun dealers or via straw purchases, in which someone who can buy a gun does so for someone who can’t. But there’s another way criminals can get their guns from legal gun dealers– and that’s by [...]
Well after all the bad news from Viriginia this week, we have to say that we are thrilled to finally, finally bring you some good news: The NRA has been punted out of the Florida legislature yet again. On that heinous guns at work bill, Marion Hammer has been sent running with her tail between [...]
A Florida newspaper reports on a brand new group standing up to fight the NRA’s guns at work law down there– Floridians Against Workplace Violence are going to set out to show the public, via a few different forms of media, that the NRA is wrong for trying to put even more firearms into a [...]
From our friend Arthur Hayhoe in Florida comes this editorial about guns at work– the NRA is trying to push more and more firearms into employee parking lots down there, even though the violence we’re already seeing there (like that deadly Michigan workplace shooting earlier this week) clearly tells us they don’t belong. Most everyone [...]
Here’s a pair of editorials decrying the NRA’s Guns at Work law. They’re trying to press this law on both Florida and Georgia, but our country’s workplaces already see too much violence. Trying to change the laws just to bar employers from keeping their employees safe is asking for trouble. First, from the Macon Telegraph. [...]
The New York Times has spoken up about the guns at work bill being pushed forward (foolishly) by the NRA in Florida, and they pretty much say what we do: allowing firearms at work puts workers in danger. The National Rifle Association is back at work harder than ever in a dozen states. But so [...]
Just when the NRA needed some kind of ally in the fight down in Florida, they got a really, really unexpected one. Apparently the AFL-CIO has decided to throw in with the NRA on Guns at Work. The issue was whether employees have the right to keep guns in their cars at work, and the [...]
Despite heavy opposition from business owners and citizens’ advocates alike, the NRA has somehow passed guns at work through a Senate committee in Florida. They’ve had to water it down a bit since last year– apparently, the NRA is steadfast on “Second Amendment rights”… unless they need to pass legislation. A bill that would prohibit [...]
We’ve said it before, and we’re sure it’ll be said again– no one is really certain why the NRA is pushing their guns at work bill again. It was a big loser in quite a few states last legislative session, and this year isn’t looking any better. Not that we’re complaining– the bill itself is [...]
Last year, the NRA met its match in Florida– they tried to push their “guns at work” bill on the state, but employers there stepped in and lobbied the legislature to straight out turn the NRA down. But apparently the NRA didn’t learn their lesson, and they’re planning on bringing the same legislation this year. [...]
Finally, one more incident that happened in Florida this weekend. Gun guys like to claim that when there are firearms around, criminals are scared to go. But an incident like this one confirms what we already know to be true: more guns means more gun violence. Criminals don’t stay away from firearms– sometimes, they even [...]
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, who has been pulling the wool off of everyone’s eyes this week on the concealed carry law down there, has posted their last piece, this time about a law that would have hidden everything they’d done this week if they hadn’t gotten to the records first. Not only does the concealed [...]
The Sun-Setinel’s groundbreaking report about concealed carry in Florida has been picked up in an editorial from the New York Times, and they took the words right out of our mouths (and off of our webpage): Concealed carry isn’t doing what the NRA said it would. In fact, it’s doing the opposite– criminals are actually [...]
South Florida’s Sun Sentinel has unleashed a bomb of a story– they’ve gone through concealed weapons records in the state, and found that there’s more holes in the concealed carry permit process than a sieve. All sorts of people who clearly shouldn’t have access to a weapon are easily obtaining permits to get one. Garth [...]
Criminals wander the streets with cheap Kalashnikov AK-47s, locked and loaded. A scene from the streets of war-torn Iraq, or an African town ruled by a warlord? Try the streets of Palm Beach, Florida. A report from the Palm Beach Post describes exactly how these assault rifles, which should be completely illegal to own or [...]
In St. Augustine, Florida, a first-year judge didn’t quite grasp the concept of “leave your gun at home” when coming into the courtroom one day earlier this year. A first-year Bay County judge was ordered to accept mentoring after bringing a loaded gun into his courtroom and announcing he was “locked and loaded.” County Judge [...]
With all the election action, we have to admit we’ve been pretty lax in following one of the NRA’s bigger attacks on American safety: the odious License to Murder law they’ve fought for in Florida and everywhere else. The License to Murder law (also known as “Shoot First” or “Deadly Force”) isn’t (as the NRA [...]
Finally today, it looks like the case of James Behanna and Robert Mears is headed to the courtroom in Florida, and when it’s over, we might have a new look at License to Murder– without one firearm ever being fired. Florida’s new “stand your ground” law could take center stage during next week’s trial of [...]
One of the latest New York Times editorials takes a close look at where the NRA’s power seems to be lately: in state government. The NRA seems to have such a choke hold on legislators that even a relatively progressive state like Minnesota is victimized by a concealed carry law. A couple of weeks ago, [...]
The backlash against License to Murder in Florida continues. This time, the Miami Herald lays out exactly how the NRA’s new law helps criminals out with their legal defenses. The legal defense of Red Rock and Yellow Man, a couple of feuding Liberty City street thugs up on murder charges, has been bolstered by 62 [...]
Finally today, two seperate editorials call out the NRA’s License to Murder law yet again as a crazy, dangerous piece of legislation. -In Eugene, OR, the Register-Guard calls LtM, among other things, “bloodthirsty.” Florida’s groundbreaking “Make My Day” law is catching on since taking effect last October. Fourteen more states have passed similar legislation expanding [...]
Early Monday morning, Orlando, Florida’s criminals got a new round of handguns to play with, thanks to four men and a car. Four men used a car to crash through a steel gate at an Army surplus store in Orlando and steal as many as 25 weapons before fleeing the area early Monday, according to [...]
Bad news from Florida, where cops are saying this summer has become assault rifle season. When masked gunmen in June unleashed a hail of bullets on a van, it underscored a troubling fact: Assault-style rifles have caused significant carnage this year in Miami-Dade County. Three men died that day. A police spokesman described the van [...]
Five carloads of idiots in Orlando, Florida were running around in their cars firing high-powered rifles into the sky. We say “were” because law enforcement down there thankfully pulled off an undercover sting to shut them down for good. An undercover sting in Orlando, Fla., led to the arrest of five carloads of people for [...]
Speaking of License to Murder, here’s a case that makes two things clear about the law in Florida: possessing drugs is illegal, while apparently prostitution and murder are totally fine. A prostitute who told deputies she shot a 72-year-old customer in self-defense will not be prosecuted for the slaying. Prosecutors have dropped a second-degree murder [...]
Here’s yet another editorial, this time from the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, begging the Senate not to approve the two gun laws currently working their way through Congress. The gun lobby usually gets its way with Congress, but we hope lawmakers will just say no to the latest attempt to undo two common-sense gun [...]
The Florida Times-Union has a look at how the License to Murder law is going in Florida. For prosecutors trying to make a case against killers, it’s not good. Last year, Florida’s new “deadly force” law was simply an interesting newspaper story to Doug Freeman. This year, it may have saved him from prison. Freeman, [...]
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