Gun v Gun

Target says no to Guns and Diapers

Target interim CEO John Mulligan said in a statement published by Target’s in-house online magazine on Wednesday. “But starting today we will also respectfully request that guests not bring firearms to Target – even in communities where it is permitted by law.”

TPM

Open Carry Texas says it’s not a ban but a request which they will honor (until some radical faction ups the ante…)

“Open Carry Texas regrets Target’s decision to ‘respectfully request that guests not bring firearms to Target,'” Open Carry Texas, the group most associated with the fight over guns in chain stores, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday. “While this is not a ban on legally possessed firearms in its stores, we will continue to honor our months long policy of not taking long arms into Target stores or any other business.”

This is a distinction without a difference.

TPM

In a Georgia convenience store two guys with guns showed what happens when armed belligerence is the norm.

“Essentially, it involved one customer with a gun on his hip when a second customer entered with a gun on his hip,” Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress said.

According to the Daily Times, the first man, Ronald Williams, approached the second man in the store and demanded to see his identification and firearms license. Williams also pulled his gun from his holster, without pointing it at the second man. The second man responded by saying that he was not obligated to show any permits or identification — then he paid for his purchase, left the store, and called the police.

TPM

When May I Shoot A Student?

Greg Hampikian, a professor at Boise State, asks the most obvious question in the world, though never asked by those fantasists of a New Gun Order:  When May I Shoot a Student?:

BOISE, Idaho — TO the chief counsel of the Idaho State Legislature:

In light of the bill permitting guns on our state’s college and university campuses, which is likely to be approved by the state House of Representatives in the coming days, I have a matter of practical concern that I hope you can help with: When may I shoot a student?

… I assume that if a student shoots first, I am allowed to empty my clip; but given the velocity of firearms, and my aging reflexes, I’d like to be proactive. For example, if I am working out a long equation on the board and several students try to correct me using their laser sights, am I allowed to fire a warning shot?

The problem is that those who need to prodded into thinking about the question will no doubt miss the irony of the Q&A.

Aha! Fewer Checks on Gun Buyers, More Deaths By Guns

The 2007 repeal of a Missouri law that required background checks and licenses for all handgun owners  appears to be associated with a significant increase in murders there, a new study finds.

What the study found

The law’s repeal was correlated with a 23 percent spike in firearm homicide rates, or an additional 55 to 63 murders annually from 2008 to 2012, according to the study conducted by researchers with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research and to be published in the Journal of Urban Health.

WaPo

Shot Dead for Texting in a Movie

Yep, you read it right.

An argument over texting during a screening of Lone Survivor ended in a fatal shooting at a movie theater in Tampa, Florida today.

A couple was texting during the film, which led to an argument with a man sitting behind them. Witnesses say the argument escalated until the suspect pulled out a firearm and shot the texting man and his wife. The husband died from his gunshot wound and the wife’s wounds are reportedly non-fatal.

AND, it turns out that the shooter is a retired police officer. (Who is planning to use Florida’s notorious Stand Your Ground law…)(

If only a GOOD guy with a gun could have anticipated the BAD guy drawing a gun, and in the dark, taken him out — which in NRA fantasies would have been a cinch….