# Stupid Gun news of the day (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 29, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729 "2013-01-29T19:01:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 370
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7381 "2016-10-20T13:58:25Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > It would be nice if someone would collect those stats. The CDC might be a good place to start for the shooting side, but they are prohibited from doing it. No, not they’re not. I think its a bad law but they’re not prohibited from collecting data. They are prohibited from promoting gun control. You’ve been lied to. There is nothing to prevent them from collecting data on who gets shot to death and by who (when we know). > [@](#): > > The defensive gun uses is going to be harder, both for definitional reasons (what is a defensive gun use?) and for reporting reasons. If someone gets shot, it usually (not always) gets reported. But if someone successfully uses their gun defensively, there is not necessarily any reason for them to report. And depending on the definition, you would probably also need to deal with people claiming false episodes (although that would probably be rare). Virtually EVERY study on defensive gun use has concluded that there are a shitload of them. And yet this is not reliable because GUNS!!! These studies are considered reliable in virtually every other area of social science but not here because GUNS!!! But for the sake of argument, how many do YOU think there are? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7382 "2016-10-20T15:09:50Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > No, not they’re not. > > I think its a bad law but they’re not prohibited from collecting data. They are prohibited from promoting gun control. You’ve been lied to. > > There is nothing to prevent them from collecting data on who gets shot to death and by who (when we know). [Well, if by “nothing” you mean constant harassment by the NRA, a series of CDC directors who have been intimidated into avoiding the subject altogether, and a Congress that refuses to appropriate any money for that specific type of research.](http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-gun-research-funding-20160614-snap-story.html) > [@](#): > > Congress then passed a measure drafted by then-Rep. Jay Dickey (R-Ga.) forbidding the CDC to spend funds “to advocate or promote gun control.” (The NRA initially hoped to eradicate the injury center entirely.) > > The Dickey Amendment didn’t technically ban any federally funded gun violence research. The real blow was delivered by a succession of pusillanimous CDC directors, who decided that the safest course bureaucratically was simply to zero out the whole field. > > Remarkably, that approach has continued to the present day: After the Newtown massacre of schoolchildren in 2012, President Obama issued an executive order instructing the CDC to “conduct or sponsor research into the causes of gun violence and the ways to prevent it.” But the agency has refused unless it receives a specific appropriation to cover the research. Congress played its obligatory role in acting as the NRA’s cat’s-paw by repeatedly rejecting bills to provide $10 million for the work. > > “Removing the money from the budget and enacting the Dickey Amendment were the first and second shots across the bow by the NRA,” Rosenberg said. “The third shot is the idea that if you do this research, you’ll be hassled” by the NRA. “The result is that the CDC basically does nothing in gun violence research. If research on cancer were stopped for a single day, there would be a huge protest. But this research has been stopped for 20 years.” ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7383 "2016-10-20T17:28:10Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > [Well, if by “nothing” you mean constant harassment by the NRA, a series of CDC directors who have been intimidated into avoiding the subject altogether, and a Congress that refuses to appropriate any money for that specific type of research.](http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-gun-research-funding-20160614-snap-story.html) Did you read your own cite? The lack of CDC activity in the area isn’t because they are prohibited. They are prohibited from advocating or promoting gun control. There is NOTHING to prevent them from collecting data. In fact they have been doing so all along. I know people at the CDC who were around at the time and they are frankly embarrassed by the series of events that led up to the prohibition. The injection of personal policy preferences by CDC leadership in how they approached gun policy and how it manifested itself in research produced or supported by the CDC was inappropriate extension of personal preferences of CDC leadership. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7384 "2016-10-20T18:06:35Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > It would be nice if someone would collect those stats. The CDC might be a good place to start for the shooting side, but they are prohibited from doing it. Other than being wrong - the CDC is not prohibited from collecting data - did you know the CDC actually does collect data in this area? Shocking I’m sure. [Start here.](http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_us.html) About half way down the page you can click the radio button for “firearms” and look at fatal injuries. If you back up from that page, you can find data on non-fatal injuries, intentional, non intentional, etc. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7385 "2016-10-20T18:41:51Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Did you read your own cite? > > The lack of CDC activity in the area isn’t because they are prohibited. > > They are prohibited from advocating or promoting gun control. > > There is NOTHING to prevent them from collecting data. In fact they have been doing so all along. > > I know people at the CDC who were around at the time and they are frankly embarrassed by the series of events that led up to the prohibition. The injection of personal policy preferences by CDC leadership in how they approached gun policy and how it manifested itself in research produced or supported by the CDC was inappropriate extension of personal preferences of CDC leadership. I agree that it’s inappropriate to insert personal policy preferences into such non-partisan policy recommendations, but the restriction by law on promoting gun control means that the CDC is effectively barred from making recommendations with any connection to regulation of firearms, even if the recommendation is based on sound research and not personal preferences. For example – if a safety feature on guns was found based on solid data to greatly reduce the likelihood of accidental shooting deaths (similar to how seatbelt usage results in fewer traffic deaths), then if I understand it correctly, the CDC could not recommend that such a safety feature be mandated. Considering all the good that the CDC has done beyond just “disease” – (motor vehicles safety comes most notably to mind) – this would seem to me to be well within the CDC’s purview. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7386 "2016-10-20T18:52:08Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Virtually EVERY study on defensive gun use has concluded that there are a shitload of them. And yet this is not reliable because GUNS!!! These studies are considered reliable in virtually every other area of social science but not here because GUNS!!! > > But for the sake of argument, how many do YOU think there are? Virtually EVERY study of alien abductions has concluded there are a shit ton of people getting abducted and anally probed. So what. I could sit here with a gun on my lap every night and claim I’ve successfully defended myself against all sorts of imagined horrors every single night of the year. Weird knock on the door? Hey, nothing happened so I defended myself with my gun! Weird noise in the backyard? Hey, I defended myself! Gun in my pocket? Hey, I didn’t get mugged today! Successful gun defense! Funny, but I’ve had all those things happen (except the alien abduction, darn it) and I don’t own a gun so guess what? Successful non-gun defense! Yay me! ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7387 "2016-10-20T19:02:24Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Did you read your own cite? Did you? Not a single thing you wrote changes the point of the citation. A lack of direct legislative prohibition by Congress doesn’t mean that other roadblocks have not effectively been placed in the way of the CDC even doing the sort of research into gun violence that is, as **iiandyiiii** notes, well within their purview and their mandate. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2016, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7388 "2016-11-05T02:36:15Z")
A heartwarming story about a good guy with a gun. A man saw his jeep being stolen, and rushed out of his house and fired several shots at it as the thieves drove away. He knew he hit it, because he saw the back window shatter. Teach those fuckers to steal my car. What he apparently did not see was that there were other houses on his street. One of his bullets went through the window of a house on the next block, hitting a 61-year-old woman in the head and killing her. No word on the car thieves, but at least the car was found. > **[Bonney Lake woman hit in head by stray bullet identified, dies of wound](https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/crime/article112519922.html)** > > Linda Green, a Bonney Lake woman shot in the head by a stray bullet Thursday night, has died. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2016, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7389 "2016-11-05T10:29:18Z")
Man pulls a gun on teenagers he thought [damaged his Trump sign.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/michael-kubek-trump-sign_us_581cde7ae4b0aac624845080) Police say there is no evidence they damaged the sign. The man has been charged with seven felonies. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2016, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7390 "2016-11-06T01:06:53Z")
_Of course_ it was a Trump sign. I can’t imagine a story like this about a Hillary sign. Am I being unfairly biased in thinking like that? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2016, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7391 "2016-11-07T19:21:20Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I agree that it’s inappropriate to insert personal policy preferences into such non-partisan policy recommendations, but the restriction by law on promoting gun control means that the CDC is effectively barred from making recommendations with any connection to regulation of firearms, even if the recommendation is based on sound research and not personal preferences. For example – if a safety feature on guns was found based on solid data to greatly reduce the likelihood of accidental shooting deaths (similar to how seatbelt usage results in fewer traffic deaths), then if I understand it correctly, the CDC could not recommend that such a safety feature be mandated. Considering all the good that the CDC has done beyond just “disease” – (motor vehicles safety comes most notably to mind) – this would seem to me to be well within the CDC’s purview. I agree that gagging the CDC in ANY way is counterproductive. The series of events that led to the prohibition was already so embarrassing enough for the CDC that the problem was unwinding itself without the need for legislation. I think, left alone, the bias at the CDC would have done more damage to the gun control side of the debate (and the CDC) than the legislation did. The CDC can publish data related to the efficacy of a safety feature. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2016, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7392 "2016-11-07T19:59:23Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Did you? > > Not a single thing you wrote changes the point of the citation. A lack of direct legislative prohibition by Congress doesn’t mean that other roadblocks have not effectively been placed in the way of the CDC even doing the sort of research into gun violence that is, as **iiandyiiii** notes, well within their purview and their mandate. Yes, and those roadblocks were not placed there by congress so you can stop hyper-ventilating now. Those roadblocks are largely self imposed. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2016, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7393 "2016-11-07T20:01:37Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Virtually EVERY study of alien abductions has concluded there are a shit ton of people getting abducted and anally probed. How many of those studies are conducted by the Department of Justice? How many of those studies are published in peer reviewed scientific journals? > [@](#): > > So what. I could sit here with a gun on my lap every night and claim I’ve successfully defended myself against all sorts of imagined horrors every single night of the year. Weird knock on the door? Hey, nothing happened so I defended myself with my gun! Weird noise in the backyard? Hey, I defended myself! Gun in my pocket? Hey, I didn’t get mugged today! Successful gun defense! Are you under the impression that every study is like the Kleck/Gertz study? > [@](#): > > Funny, but I’ve had all those things happen (except the alien abduction, darn it) and I don’t own a gun so guess what? Successful non-gun defense! Yay me! And THAT is why the gun control side is losing the debate. They tilt at caricatures while the gun rights side is generally more serious and well informed ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7394 "2016-11-08T02:55:14Z")
“Our Son Had Rights”- Armed Robber’s Family Angry After A Pizza Hut Employee Shot Their Son: [http://headdownnews.com/news/son-rights-armed-robbers-family-angry-pizza-hut-employee-shot-son/](http://headdownnews.com/news/son-rights-armed-robbers-family-angry-pizza-hut-employee-shot-son/) > [@](#): > > “Why in the hell did this guy have a gun?” questioned Hairston about the employee who shot her son. Umm… to defend himself against _ **armed robbers** _ like your precious son? Incredibly unsporting of him, I know. Why, it’s getting so you can’t just do a little stickup for some quick money anymore… ---
**Author:** ![SigMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7395 "2016-11-08T03:11:49Z")
“Why in the hell did this guy have a gun?” questioned Hairston about the employee who shot her son." Why the hell did your son have a gun? Dumb broad. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2016, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7396 "2016-11-16T23:10:01Z")
There are have quite a few 4 year olds shooting other kids; here is a 2 year old shooting his 1 year old sister: > [@](#): > > Sgt. L’Jean McKneely says the shooting happened Tuesday night while Kinchen and the two children were in a car that was parked at a strip mall. > > Police say the 2-year-old boy picked up a gun that was left in the vehicle, and it accidentally discharged and struck the 1-year-old girl. [http://pix11.com/2016/11/16/mother-arrested-after-2-year-old-son-shoots-1-year-old-daughter/](http://pix11.com/2016/11/16/mother-arrested-after-2-year-old-son-shoots-1-year-old-daughter/) They arrested the mother for cruelty to a juvenile. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7397 "2016-11-17T19:06:13Z")
> **[A ‘Good Samaritan’ saw a deputy being attacked by a Florida man so he fatally...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/16/a-good-samaritan-saw-a-deputy-being-attacked-by-florida-man-so-he-fatally-shot-him/)** > > When the attacker refused to stop beating the deputy, the passerby shot him three times, killing him, Cop is attacked by an unarmed motorist during a stop. Cop is known for de-escalating. Passer-by shoots the assailant and saves cop’s life. Assailant’s family objects to the shooting of their unarmed relative. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7398 "2016-12-12T18:28:22Z")
Someone accidentally fires a gun in the restroom of a Home Depot near St. Louis. From the [Post Dispatch](http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/sunset-hills-police-reviewing-video-from-home-depot-after-employee/article_60f2aebd-2d54-570b-9e0c-b44d42b70db0.html?utm_content=buffer2cee8&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=LEEDCC): > [@](#): > > Sunset Hills police were dispatched to the store, at 10890 Sunset Hills Plaza, at about 11:50 a.m. Sunday for a report of a shooting in the store’s restroom, police said. > > Police said someone dropped the gun, discharging one round. The bullet struck a employee, an adult male, in the leg, said Sgt. Robbie Hagen of the Sunset Hills Police Department. > > \ > > Hagen said the person who dropped the gun left the store and took the gun. > > \ > > Home Depot allows the open carry of firearms in accordance with local laws, Holmes said. Employees are not allowed to carry firearms, he said. So a guy drops his gun in the restroom, it goes off (I keep hearing here on the SDMB that guns don’t just go off when you drop them, but here we are again), he hits some other poor schmoe just trying to use the john, and then he takes off. Responsible gun owner. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7399 "2016-12-12T19:56:56Z")
I have no doubt that a gun was carelessly mishandled in this instance. I have serious doubts that it was dropped and went off is an accurate account of what happened. What you keep hearing here about guns not going off when dropped is true. Modern weapons are designed not to fire when dropped. It is possible that the gun was 50-ish or more years old made before Gun Control Act of 1968 made drop-safety tests mandatory for gun manufacturers. Also note that the victim was shot in the leg. Unlikely for a dropped shot which will be going up rather than sideways. So more likely some idiot managed to squeeze the trigger and then fled the scene rather than sticking around to explain what happened. [Can A Dropped Gun Go Off](https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/can-dropped-gun-go-off-safety-bullet-accidental-discharge-firearm.html) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/7400 "2016-12-13T00:23:03Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Also note that the victim was shot in the leg. Unlikely for a dropped shot which will be going up rather than sideways. Bwaa? Do guns always land on the same side, like buttered toast? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729.md?page=369) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729.md?page=371)