As an American, we are held hostage to a vocal minority to whom any gun legislation is an anethema. Congress-critters who propose sensible restrictions find themselves pilloried by the NRA and the gun fondlers, who cough up mucho dinero to run someone against them. Any legislation becomes so watered-down as to be useless. Another problem is neither side is willing to compromise........the gun nuts want no restrictions, and the gun-grabbers want no guns.
To top it off, even when a malefactor is apprehended violating existing laws, they are frequently given a slap on the wrist.
However, there has been a distinct change in the gun climate, even in the hotbeds of nuttiness, Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida. Business have put up signs prohibiting "open carry", and juries have seen fit to find guilty shooters, and slap them with solid sentences..........
Denver-based Chipotle now joins other companies – including Starbucks – who have policies asking customers not to bring guns inside stores. The Seattle-based java giant told patrons last year that guns were no longer welcome in its stores. Major chains that ban guns entirely include Costco, CVS Pharmacy, and Chuck E. Cheese’s.
For 20 minutes on a Sunday in December, White and a friend had been waiting for their order in the Little Caesars parking lot at 3463 Fourth St. N. Impatient, he went in and asked about the delay. A cook, he said later, smarted off to him. White didn't like that. He began to yell and shouted an expletive at the employee.
Jock, standing behind White, objected.
Jock told him he had a foul mouth. He said there were women present and asked him to shut up. White declined to shut up, loudly, and shoved his fellow pizza patron.
But Jock, a concealed-weapons permit holder, brought more to the argument than two fists and a sense of propriety. He pulled out a .38 Taurus Ultralight Special Revolver and shot White twice in the side.
Jock's attorney, Nicholas Dorsten, had already made a deal with prosecutors: three years in prison, two years of probation.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/st-petersburg-pizza-parlor-shooter-gets-three-years-in-...
(CNN) -- A Florida judge Friday sentenced Michael Dunn to life in prison without parole for the 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis. Dunn, 47, who is white, was convicted of first-degree murder this month for shooting into an SUV full of African-American teenagers at a Jacksonville, Florida, gas station after an argument over loud music from the teens' vehicle.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/17/justice/michael-dunn-sentencing/
A Texas man convicted of shooting and killing his unarmed neighbor during a dispute over loud music received a 40-year prison sentence on Wednesday.
Raul Rodriguez, 47, faced a minimum of five years and a maximum of life in prison. He claimed he shot schoolteacher Kelly Danaher in self-defense under Texas' version of the "stand your ground" law.
But prosecutors argued Rodriguez provoked the incident by confronting Danaher, 36, and his friends with a handgun and demanding they quiet down at a late-night birthday party in May 2010.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/the-lookout/texas-stand-ground-shooter-headed-prison-210731482.html
And even when it is not intentional, incidents like these happen...........
WESTFIELD, Mass. — An 8-year-old boy died after accidentally shooting himself in the head while firing an Uzi submachine gun under adult supervision at a gun fair. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/27399337/ns/us_news-life/t/boy-accidentally-kills-self-gun-show/#.VIdfBXur...
(CNN) -- A shooting instructor is dead, the victim of a gun-range accident. A 9-year-old girl is surely traumatized. And plenty of people, including many gun enthusiasts, are asking: Why give a child a submachine gun to shoot? http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/26/us/arizona-girl-fatal-shooting-accident/
Now, it may appear that I, as an individual, hate guns and gun owners.........nothing could be further from the truth. I hate mindless adherence to antiquated gun laws. I dislike intensely those who push the open carry envelope. I am appalled by the careless disregard or pure ignorance of gun safety exhibited by far too many individuals. I feel that gun ownership isn't a "god given right" as proclaimed by some individuals, and, just as free speech may be regulated, so should gun ownership.
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