Monday Morning Catch-Up: Gun Free Zones and Sitting Ducks

John Fund, NRO: The Facts about Mass Shootings:

Mass shootings are no more common than they have been in past decades, despite the impression given by the media.

In fact, the high point for mass killings in the U.S. was 1929, according to criminologist Grant Duwe of the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

Incidents of mass murder in the U.S. declined from 42 in the 1990s to 26 in the first decade of this century.

The chances of being killed in a mass shooting are about what they are for being struck by lightning.

Until the Newtown horror, the three worst K–12 school shootings ever had taken place in either Britain or Germany.

***

Economists John Lott and William Landes conducted a groundbreaking study in 1999, and found that a common theme of mass shootings is that they occur in places where guns are banned and killers know everyone will be unarmed, such as shopping malls and schools.

I spoke with Lott after the Newtown shooting, and he confirmed that nothing has changed to alter his findings. He noted that the Aurora shooter, who killed twelve people earlier this year, had a choice of seven movie theaters that were showing the Batman movie he was obsessed with. All were within a 20-minute drive of his home. The Cinemark Theater the killer ultimately chose wasn’t the closest, but it was the only one that posted signs saying it banned concealed handguns carried by law-abiding individuals. All of the other theaters allowed the approximately 4 percent of Colorado adults who have a concealed-handgun permit to enter with their weapons.

“Disarming law-abiding citizens leaves them as sitting ducks,” Lott told me. “A couple hundred people were in the Cinemark Theater when the killer arrived. There is an extremely high probability that one or more of them would have had a legal concealed handgun with him if they had not been banned.”

Lott offers a final damning statistic: “With just one single exception, the attack on congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson in 2011, every public shooting since at least 1950 in the U.S. in which more than three people have been killed has taken place where citizens are not allowed to carry guns.”

***

…shortly after the Cinemark attack in Colorado, the manager of the nearby Northfield Theaters changed its policy and began banning concealed handguns.

*Facepalm*

The Blaze: Associated Press Story: Believe It or Not Mass Killings Are Not on the Rise, They Are on the Decline:

• While the perception in the wake of this year’s mass shootings has been that such acts are on the rise, the Associated Press found that it’s actually the exact opposite when you look at the data on a macro level.
• “There is no pattern, there is no increase,” says criminologist James Allen Fox of Boston’s Northeastern University.
• He adds that the random mass shootings that get the most media attention are the rarest.
• While mass shootings rose between the 1960s and the 1990s, they actually dropped in the 2000s. And mass killings actually reached their peak in 1929, Grant Duwe, a criminologist with the Minnesota Department of Corrections who has written a history of mass murders in America, says.
• Chances of being killed in a mass shooting, he says, are probably no greater than being struck by lightning.

The surest way I can think of that would reverse this trend would be for us to enact stricter gun control laws.

KGW.com: Clackamas man, armed, confronts mall shooter:

“As I was going down to pull, I saw someone in the back of the Charlotte move, and I knew if I fired and missed, I could hit them,” he said.

Meli took cover inside a nearby store.  He never pulled the trigger.  He stands by that decision.

“I’m not beating myself up cause I didn’t shoot him,” said Meli.  “I know after he saw me, I think the last shot he fired was the one he used on himself.”

The Anarchist Soccer Mom: Thinking the Unthinkable:

I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.

A few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and then himself after I asked him to return his overdue library books. His 7 and 9 year old siblings knew the safety plan—they ran to the car and locked the doors before I even asked them to. I managed to get the knife from Michael, then methodically collected all the sharp objects in the house into a single Tupperware container that now travels with me. Through it all, he continued to scream insults at me and threaten to kill or hurt me.

That conflict ended with three burly police officers and a paramedic wrestling my son onto a gurney for an expensive ambulance ride to the local emergency room. The mental hospital didn’t have any beds that day, and Michael calmed down nicely in the ER, so they sent us home with a prescription for Zyprexa and a follow-up visit with a local pediatric psychiatrist.

We still don’t know what’s wrong with Michael. Autism spectrum, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant or Intermittent Explosive Disorder have all been tossed around at various meetings with probation officers and social workers and counselors and teachers and school administrators. He’s been on a slew of antipsychotic and mood altering pharmaceuticals, a Russian novel of behavioral plans. Nothing seems to work.

At the start of seventh grade, Michael was accepted to an accelerated program for highly gifted math and science students. His IQ is off the charts. When he’s in a good mood, he will gladly bend your ear on subjects ranging from Greek mythology to the differences between Einsteinian and Newtonian physics to Doctor Who. He’s in a good mood most of the time. But when he’s not, watch out. And it’s impossible to predict what will set him off.

Keep reading at the link… I have a child who is slowly dying of an incurable and fatal disease. But I’m constantly reminded that there are some parents who are dealing with even worse things. How awful it must be to know that you’re the parent of a child who may be capable of perpetrating a crime as heinous as the Newtown school massacre.

Michelle Malkin: 6 simple things parents can do in the wake of massacres without government:

1. Teach our kids about the acts of heroes in times of crisis.

Tell them about Newtown teacher Vicki Soto’s self-sacrifice and bravery. Tell them about Clackamas mall shopper Nick Meli, a concealed carry permit-holder whose quick action may have prevented additional deaths. Tell them about Family Research Council security guard Leo Johnson, who protected workers from a crazed gunman. Tell them about the heroic men in the Aurora movie theater who gave their lives taking bullets for their loved ones. Tell them about armed Holocaust Museum security guard Stephen Tyrone Johns, who died fighting back against the museum’s nutball attacker. Tell them about armed private citizen Jeanne Assam, who gunned down the New Life Church attacker in Colorado Springs and saved untold lives.

Gateway Pundit: St. Louis County Police Chief: Arm School Personnel:

St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch says after the shooting last week in Newtown it is time to arm the teachers.
Local KMOX reported:

St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch says it is time to talk about arming civilian school personnel following Friday’s massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, comparing it to arming airline pilots after September 11, 2001.

MRCTV: Sen. Feinstein To Introduce Assault Weapons Ban First Day of New Congress:

Does she have any idea how many law abiding citizens own these guns? Does she know that there were more mass shootings in the ’90’s when assault weapons were banned?

Weasel Zippers: Obama Hints At Using Executive Orders To Crack Down On Guns During Newtown Speech…

And of course, spineless Republicans will barely whimper an objection. I predict a huge spike in assault rifle purchases in the coming weeks.

Karl Ushanka, The American Thinker: Obama’s Stealth Redistribution Strategy:

You may be hearing about the automatic tax increases in the fiscal cliff, plus additional tax increases President Obama is negotiating with Speaker Boehner.  But you won’t hear much about liberalism’s most powerful, and silent, redistribution tool: inflation.

How is inflation redistributive?  While not actually taking from one and giving to another, inflation satisfies the first step of the two-step redistribution process:

Step One: Reduce the wealth of the bourgeoisie. 

Step Two: Increase the wealth of the proletariat. 

The liberals, progressives, communists (or whatever label you’re using these days) never achieve their redistribution goals, as they often fail at or before Step Two.  But for them, this is okay.  In their zero-sum world, a dollar taken from one must have been given to another.  Therefore, the redistribution effort is seen as a success, by them and in hindsight, if only Step One occurred.

We have seen this before.  Lenin triggered inflation to eliminate the Tsarist monetary system, which he planned to replace with centrally-managed rationing.  He increased the money supply twenty-five fold.  Lenin said:

The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstone of taxation and inflation.

Inflation is triggered when either the money supply increases faster than the economy (quantitative easing), or when the supply of goods is reduced (Corn – biofuel demand plus the 2012 drought).  Inflation causes uncertainty about future purchasing power, creates inefficiencies, and stifles productivity. Since the economy is a total of all goods rather than the total of all currency, the real money is not the $3 in your wallet but the gallon of milk in your fridge.

Weasel Zippers: Poll: 61% Think Obama’s Policies Will “Move Country Toward Socialism”…

Via Washington Times:

A Fox News year-end poll finds that a hefty majority of American voters are noting changes in the nation: 61 percent of U.S. voters are concerned that Obama administration policies “will move the country toward socialism”; 89 percent of Republicans and 38 percent of Democrats agree with that.

Another 42 percent of voters overall expect President Obama to be considered a great or good president; 7 percent of Republicans and 77 percent of Democrats agree.

In other words – many Democrats are happy with the slide toward Socialism….

Move America Forward: Care Packages For Our Troops:

You can help make the daily routine of our troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq a little more bearable.

We’ve heard from countless members of the Armed Forces serving in the Middle East that one precious resource in short supply is quality coffee. That’s why Move America Forward wanted to send only the BEST GOURMET Coffee to the troops. And what better to enjoy with a cup of exquisite coffee but with name brand Oreo Cookies?  Also included in MAF care packages are special treats from Jelly Belly jelly beans, part of our Candy Diplomacy Program.

Care Packages Include mostly Coffee, Cookies and Jelly Beans but could include any or all of the following: Finish reading, here.

A bright spot in the news, this morning:

The Washington Post: Nikki Haley to appoint Rep. Tim Scott to Senate:

 South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) will announce Monday that she will appoint Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to the Senate, according to two sources with knowledge of the pick.

Haley is set to announce the pick at noon.

Scott, 47, will replace Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who is leaving the chamber in January to head up the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Seton Motley, PJ Tatler: ‘Make Them Pay Their Fair Share?’ Taxes-Yes, Internet-No:

In the Fiscal Cliff negotiations, we have heard ad nauseum from the Left about making “The Rich” – the 1% (oops, they now mean 2%) – “pay their fair share” of federal income taxes.

When it comes to the nation’s Internet bandwidth-using 1%, however, many on the Left are demanding the 99% pay for the vast majority of the Elite’s extravagance.

 On taxes:

If the ‘Rich’ Are to Pay Their ‘Fair Share,’ They’re Due for a Huge Tax Cut

The wealthiest 1% of the population earns 19% of the income but pays 37% of the income tax. The top 10% of earners pay 68% of the tab.

Bill Gates and I each get one vote – it’s not his fault he earns more money than do I.  I don’t want him punished with a tax increase for his mistake of being successful.

Now, let’s look at who uses what percentages of Internet bandwidth.

Top 1% of Mobile Users Consume Half of World’s Bandwidth, and Gap Is Growing

The world’s congested mobile airwaves are being divided in a lopsided manner, with 1 percent of consumers generating half of all traffic.

The top 10 percent of users, meanwhile, are consuming 90 percent of wireless bandwidth.

“The top 1% of data consumers…account for 20% of the overall consumption.”

Sounds a lot like the taxpayer breakdown.  Only here these people are consuming – not paying.  And here the Left gets decidedly disjointed.

Linked by Michelle Malkin, thanks!