SedonaEye.com J. Rick Normand, Investigative and Financial Columnist
Once again headlines are questioning the role of gun control in American society. At the request of SedonaEye.com columnist J. Rick Normand, let’s go back three and a half years ago:
Sedona AZ – The farce and the fallacy of gun control laws? The reality of the problem is that it’s not an epidemic, it’s a pandemic!
A recent study recited in the Journal of Patient Safety, by John T. James, PhD, says that between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year who go to the hospital for care suffer some type of preventable harm that contributes to their death. That would make medical errors the third-leading cause of death in America, behind heart disease, which is the first, and cancer, which is second.
The Centers for Disease Control report that ethical drug overdoses were the cause of 38,329 deaths in 2010 which contributes to the above mentioned scourge.
Yet none of these facts are daily front page news. These reports don’t sell newspapers, broadcasts, and talk shows. The media would have to describe these findings as an “epidemic” to do that.
Of 33,636 deaths from firearms counted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2013, some 62% or 21,175 were suicides, 11,208 were murders, 748 were motive undetermined, and 505 were accidents.
In light of all this, the Obama administration is still seemingly hellbent on going after stricter gun control, notwithstanding that research from the Pew Research Center, the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all reveal that gun violence in the United States is actually on the decline, and is at its lowest since the 1960s. But this is not upsetting headline-worthy news, is it?
To reiterate, gun crime – despite an exponential increase in privately owned firearms over the same period – has steadily declined for about 20 years, except for high profile shootings in gun-free zones which is headline worthy.
Yes, gun crime is a problem that needs attention and prevention, but it is not an epidemic.
Nevertheless, on December 5, 2015, for the first time since 1920, the New York Times published an op-ed on its front page.
The editorial, entitled “End the Gun Epidemic,” takes aim at what is perceived by the New York Times’ editorial board as a lack of federal government enforced gun control across our country.
In the piece, the Times’ editorial board writes: “It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency.”
The editorial board’s piece then dispatches U.S. politicians who offer their thoughts and prayers for victims of gun violence, “…and then, callously and without fear of consequence, reject the most basic restrictions on weapons of mass killing.”
Yet, the Times concedes a point often underscored by gun-control opponents...that tougher gun laws won’t stop “determined killers” from acquiring weapons. And that statement cannot be contested thus rendering the remainder of the Times’ article null and void. What you are about to read will show you why.
Looking to place blame, California Governor Jerry Brown said Arizona and Nevada gun laws provide a “back door” for terrorists. Despite Brown’s remarks, the weapons used in the San Bernardino massacre were purchased from gun dealers in San Diego and Corona within the past three years, a federal official, who can’t comment publicly, told USA Today. Arizona had nothing to do with the mass killings in California.
While nearly 40 states have relaxed gun rules in the last two decades, California has enacted more than 50 major gun bills since 1994. The “pro gun control” Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence based in San Francisco, naturally, gave California’s laws an “A-” in 2014, the highest grade given to any state. Guns & Ammo Magazine, with a “pro-gun rights” stance, ranked the state fourth worst in the country for gun ownership.
Prior to the San Bernardino mass shooting, California had seen seven public shootings since 2006 that claimed four or more lives (not counting those the police believe were gang related) according to USA TODAY’s “Behind the Bloodshed” tracker. Maybe this is why Governor Brown was looking for somewhere else to place blame!
Writer Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post has concluded that Marco Rubio’s claim that gun control wouldn’t have prevented the mass shootings that have occurred in “last few months or years” is, indeed, accurate.
Rubio’s statement stands up to scrutiny…at least for the recent past, as Kessler framed it. “Notably, three of the mass shootings took place in California, which already has strong gun laws including a ban on certain weapons and high-capacity magazines,” Kessler wrote.
And yet, states like New York, on their own, cannot block sales of guns to those who are on the Department of Homeland Security’s “U.S. Terror Watch List” because it is restricted by the Feds. So, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer and Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, in the last couple of weeks, have announced a push to prevent known or suspected terrorists from purchasing guns in New York State. Efforts of Schumer and Cuomo come on the heels of federal failed efforts to close terror gaps. The problem is for the naive Messers Schumer and Cuomo that terrorists and gang-bangers don’t buy guns from the retail trade, they buy or earn them from the worldwide black market cartels of drug and gun runners! However Schumer’s and Cuomo’s efforts will make you feel good, won’t they?
Nevertheless, Schumer and Cuomo are asking the federal government to officially add the U.S. Terror Watch List to the criteria it uses for federal background checks in New York State. This would, purportedly, prevent known or suspected terrorists from legally purchasing guns and would cross-check the terror watch list with a National Instant Criminal Background Check System request. Why then, I ask, has the Obama Administration been so uncooperative? Why has there been no use of the President’s vaunted Executive Order tendency relative to this critical issue?
Moving on, Eugene Volokh, a professor of Constitutional law at UCLA and writer for “The Volokh Conspiracy,” a legal blog hosted by the Washington Post, points out that [gun] violence has dropped nationwide even though most states have loosened gun control laws and California is widely known to have the strictest laws in the nation. But those strict gun control laws haven’t reduced the rate of gun related deaths in California at all. The percentage of homicide victims killed by firearms has remained steady in California since 1990, according to the California Attorney General’s Homicide Report.
Realistically, the battle to prevent mass tragedies with legislation may be futile, Volokh said.
“Let’s look at somebody who is a would-be mass shooter. This person has essentially decided to have the defining event of his life, and possibly the concluding event of his life, be mass murder,” Volokh said. “This is somebody who is very motivated to commit the crime, and again, we know he is motivated because he’s willing to give up his life to do that.”
So, let’s examine the real reasons the Feds can’t seem to halt the mass shootings that now dominate media headlines. The root of the problem has little to do with retail gun shops, background checks, published terrorist lists, kids with legal guns, and gun show loopholes. Those are assertions for consumption by the gullible public!
Below, I will describe to you how the incomprehensibly massive and complex transnational black market in illegal weapons works: It’s not an epidemic (geographically limited to a single area or country), it’s a pandemic (spreading world-wide)! But first, we must begin with the two following proven premises: First, there’s no way to separate the merger of the international drug cartels from international gun-running. They work hand-in-hand. And, secondly, the vast majority of small arms on the black market were produced and traded legally before being diverted into an illicit network.
METHODOLOGY for CIRCUMVENTING OFFICIAL REGULATION aka The Black Market:
Sourcing Arms Inventories, Manufacturers, Wholesaling Networks
The Shadow Economy of the Trans-National, Allied, Inter-Operable Crime Syndicate Organizations is comprised of illegal drug cartels and dealers, covert contraband smuggling operators, covert gun-running cartels, covert international money laundering banks, and gun-barter brokers for non-cash trades for other commodities, such as mined gemstones, who use bogus private nominee agreements and proxy statements in their trade documentation. There are professional pirates and human traffickers as well (immigration coyotes, human slave traders, child sex slave traders, prostitution rings and sea born pirates) who now work together with drug cartels and gun-runners across borders with the help of aircraft transport and shipping companies who bribe corrupt government officials in third world countries for seemingly legitimate operating licenses (AOCs) and import-export documentation. Within all contraband, there are usually included military grade weapons. It’s a great recession-proof high cash-flow business.
Drug cartels have merged drug sales and distribution into covert gun running operations with common street gangs in almost every mid-sized and large city of America and the western world.
Islamic jihadist organizations have entered into joint ventures with crime/cartel syndicates to distribute overseas stolen, captured, illegally traded and purchased, as well as, hijacked and pirated weapons, derived from pirates and contraband smugglers who engage heavily in trafficking of captured and stolen military-grade weapons from current and past conflict zones. More wars generate more black market weapons!
3D Printer manufacture of guns and ammunition and the advent of gun design software have made it even more challenging for gun control supporters to corral the rise of homemade arsenals, as a recent YouTube video uploaded to the “Taofledermaus” channel in the last few days demonstrates. And people have already started to download patterns (software) for their future firearms. According to a 2015 January report, more than 150,000 patterns were downloaded immediately following a pro-gun control speech by President Obama. No, these bullets are not even close to commercial or military grade yet, but the speed at which technology progresses will assure that quality untracked 3D manufacture of high grade guns and ammunition isn’t far off.
Distributing Arms Inventories, Retail
The illicit drug trade (and its black market weapons partners) is the largest, most profitable and best cash-flowing business on Earth, and accounts for more than 8%-9% of world trade today. Illegal product(s) cartels simply cannot function without cross-border banking services from the largest of international banks including money laundering, equipment financing, currency conversion, as well as, jury-rigged export-import documentation and investment banking facilities. There is a consensus among U.S. Congressional Investigators, former bankers and international banking experts that U.S. and European banks launder between $500 billion and $1 trillion of dirty money each year, half of which is laundered by U.S. banks alone. Bank of America, Western Union, JP Morgan/Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo (through its Wachovia Bank acquisition) are among the institutions allegedly involved in the drug trade. Meanwhile, Britain’s giant HSBC has admitted its laundering role, and evaded criminal prosecution by paying a fine of almost $2 billion. In fact, all these banks evade criminal prosecution by paying large fines without admitting guilt which is a permissible legal tactic in the United States. The drug cartels, gun-runners, smugglers, contraband traffickers, etc. cannot exist without banking partners…the same banks who serve in your local Chamber of Commerce.
Professional straw buyers for non-qualifying buyers who work different state retail stores (who report most brokered sales to police as stolen weapons so that when they’re tied to a future crime there will be no associated liability for the straw man). These people operate a huge cottage industry.
Drug Cartels have merged drug sales and distribution into covert gun running operations with common street gangs. Every under aged “gangsta” knows how to buy or earn, through drug sales or a contract killing, a firearm and ammunition without ever entering a retail gun store.
Every millennial in the U.S. and western world who is unemployed, disillusioned, lonely, highly indebted, and sees no future, who has a hand-held communications device and understands ever app that runs on it as well as all social media communications, is already being targeted by the drug/gun-running cartels through exceedingly sophisticated social media online marketing. You older progressives just don’t get it…your political leaders, laws, and law enforcement are doomed to be in control of nothing that these cartels don’t want controlled…but they do want you to help them with gun control laws which drive more customers to them!
Sales made by legally licensed but corrupt at-home commercial gun dealers, without retail store facilities, are proliferating.
Gangs are now so sophisticated that they have central weapons vaults for temporary loan of “gang community guns” to young gangstas who haven’t earned ownership of a weapon. They also hire college MBAs for their financial management needs.
Secret online gun-running and Internet weapons-trafficking syndicates are proliferating. All they need is a private Tor Browser Bundle and a skilled hacker.
Stolen guns derived from ordinary street crime, burglaries, home invasions, mini-storage locker thefts, etc., are bought by the crime syndicates. Continuously stealing guns is an organized cash-flow business for the unemployed these days since there’s always an available illicit buyer/reseller.
Foreign unregulated gun and ammunition manufacturers, of which there are over a thousand manufacturing in more than a 100 countries, use illegal crime/cartel syndicate’s distribution systems in the U.S. just as if they were straight-up import/export businesses.
Unreported gun and ammunition sales between private parties happen every day. There’s no way for police to know about these transactions.
Provided to the illegal guns black market are U.S. Government unaccountable mass firearms distribution, such as Obama’s botched Fast & Furious operation and an unaccounted for 15,000 National Park Service assault weapons, not to mention provision of weapons to friendly jihadists and middle east government militaries that surrender in battle and leave U.S. provided weapons behind for capture and sale.
Many governments, including the U.S. Government, and that of the U.K, France, Germany, Belgium and Israel, not to mention China and Russia and several Balkan countries, enter into the gray-market trade, in which arms sold legally can end up on the black market.
“This involves weapons that originate from a legal government transfer,” a Conflict Awareness Project official said, “but when they arm proxy forces to carry out their national security agendas, they may use illicit channels or black market arms brokers to carry out the deal.” Virtually all international illegal arms brokers work the world’s conflict zones.
COMMONLY DISCUSSED CAUSES OF MASS GUN VIOLENCE:
Desensitized Gamers playing/viewing endless online war games, DVDs, television shows and movies glamorizing war; these guys are targeted for recruiting into the military.
Emergence of Religious, Political and Polarized Lifestyle Cult Groups:
ISIS and al-Qaeda are sophisticated brainwashers and seducers. Internet advertisement is horrendously popular for terrorist recruiters. Charismatic Imams use fiery anti-American sermons at mosques to attract young men. These potential recruits are “in-betweeners”: in between jobs, in between relationships, in between their family homes and their own marriages, in between schools or, in general, in between young adulthood and adulthood. The key psycho-dynamic patterns in homegrown terrorists are:
- Ambivalence toward or disappointment in early parental figures, often resulting in father hunger or longing
- Ambivalence about vocation, marriage, and intimacy
- Being an “in-betweener” with prolonged adolescent identity searching
- Ambivalence toward authority, fear of authority and hate of authority, yet longing for effective authority.
The recruitment of homegrown terrorists involves the charismatic exploitation of “in-betweener” life situations by radical Imams as cult figures. Terror cults and their recruiters use well-recognized mind control, thought-reform techniques, and social group atmospheres to accomplish their ends vis-a-vis the Internet.
Death of the Nuclear Family and Golden Rule in favor of promotion of self-esteem (“it’s all about me” attitude), Political Correctness, Failure of State Welfarism, Multiculturalism and Religious Diversity, as well as, emergence of unfathomable cost of a business or entrepreneurial education.
Emergence of electronic non-face-to-face communications which reduces moral compunction!
Utter rewriting of history to promote current political and social belief-systems.
Replacement of a loving and merciful God with a politically correct God.
Complete collapse of morality, in general, since the “Love Generation” of the 60s.
Complete failure of a manufacturing based economy resulting in sustained high unemployment.
Loss of faith in the objectivity and truthfulness of the news media.
Promotion of military conquest and settlement of international disputes by economic coercion and subterfuge.
Complete divergence from original Constitutional Law reflecting our Founding Fathers principles.
Acceptance of a new moral construct, i.e. avoidance of responsibility for one’s acts while attempting to find a social cause for every immoral transgression or micro-aggression:
“…[E]very free individual must protect themselves against the evil will of the man, the mob and the state.”
Tiffany Madison
GUNS ARE NOT THE ISSUE. WE ARE.”
Aaron B. Powell, Guns
***********************
1. The Conflict Awareness Project (CAP) is an international non-profit organization dedicated to investigating, documenting, and bringing to justice major arms traffickers, war profiteering networks, and transnational criminal operations that fuel war and conflict around the world. See http://conflictawareness.org
2. “The Tangled Web of Illicit Arms Trafficking by Rachel Stohl.” See http://conflictawareness.org/
3. “The Making of a Homegrown Terrorist” by Peter A. Olsson, MD http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/trauma-and-violence/making-homegrown-terrorist?GUID=21A28F6B-4D09-45C1-8017-E51A24CF1790&rememberme=1&ts=10122015
4. “3D Printed Bullets-Latest Gun Control Nightmare” http://www.inquisitr.com/676556/3d-printed-bullets-latest-gun-control-nightmare/
5. Table 10. Number of deaths from 113 selected causes, Enterocolitis due to Clostridium difficile, drug-induced causes, alcohol-induced causes, and injury by firearms, by age: United States, 2013…Centers for Disease Control
6. Death by Prescription, by Deborah King, The Huffingon POST 09/23/2013
7. Doctors Are the Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S. by Joseph Mercola, D.O.
8. [Search domain www.wsws.org] wsws.org/en/articles/2011/05/mexi-m20.html
9. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/avinash-tharoor/banks-cartel-money-laundering_b_4619464.html
10. Banks Financing Mexico Drug Gangs Admitted in Wells Fargo Deal http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-06-29/banks-financing-mexico-s-drug-cartels-admitted-in-wells-fargo-s-u-s-deal
11. US Bank Money Laundering – Enormous By Any Measure by James Petras, Professor of Sociology, Binghamton University
Read www.SedonaEye.com for daily news and interactive views!
To Readers at The Eye:
A majority of Americans oppose banning assault weapons for the first time in more than 20 years of ABC News/Washington Post polls, with the public expressing vast doubt that the authorities can prevent “lone wolf” terrorist attacks and a substantial sense that armed citizens can help.
Just 45 percent in this national survey favor an assault weapons ban, down 11 percentage points from an ABC/Post poll in 2013 and down from a peak of 80 percent in 1994. Fifty-three percent oppose such a ban, the most on record.
Meanwhile, A bill pre-filed in the Virginia House for the 2016 legislative session would prohibit state cooperation with the enforcement of any future federal laws, regulations, or executive orders relating to firearms, ammunition or firearms components, effectively nullifying any such acts in practice within the state.The bill reads:
Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, no agency or political subdivision of the Commonwealth, as those terms are defined in § 8.01-385, or any employee or agent thereof acting in his official capacity, shall knowingly aid any employee or entity of the federal government of the United States (i) in any investigation, prosecution, detention, or arrest or participate in any search or seizure relating to any criminal, civil, or administrative restrictions on firearms, firearm magazines, ammunition, or components thereof based on any federal statute enacted or any executive order or regulation issued on or after December 1, 2015, or (ii) in the conduct of, or the enforcement of any requirement for, any background check related to any intrastate sale, loan, gift, or other transfer of a firearm between citizens of the Commonwealth who do not possess a federal firearms license under 18 U.S.C. § 923.
JRN
Thanks J. Rick for another hard hitting, right on, well researched article!
Spot on and I’d just add that “11,208 were murders” for sure but 5,639 of those murders are committed by illegal aliens. Thus, if the borders were shut down except to citizens and absolutely “safe” and “legal” travelers, the U.S. murder rate would drop to 2.1 per 100,000. That would place the U.S. in the top one -third of the safest nations.
Wow
Sounds like the Virgina governement is full of Tea Party people PAYED OFF by the NRA or any other group they can get money from under the guise of Liberty.
As in true Tea Party fashion are paronoid of the Ferderal Government and speak of people’s rights but are really concerned with thier own political self interest..
JRN. Your little Tea Party group are a minority in the republican party as seen by the polling of Donald Trump…
Didn’t Wells Fargo & BofA put armed security in lobbies & said it was because of protesters?? Don’t know what Chase did in town? Anybody else know? What about the other banks in town? Where are the savings & loans?
Banks Financing Mexico Drug Gangs Admitted in Wells Fargo Deal http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-06-29/banks-financing-mexico-s-drug-cartels-admitted-in-wells-fargo-s-u-s-deal
West Sedona Redneck,
Ferderal and Virginia Governement? I think some reader said once before that there’s no one in the Tea Party dumber than you which is the true reason that you secretly envy Sedona Eye’s writers so much.
@ I see through you
Yea yea..
The letters on my I pad are kinda small thus hard to read…but I appreciate the spelling lesson.
Thought this was about guns? @west Sedona put down the bottle and rabid hate. Understand FACTS!! I’m not a fan of guns, sacrificing a life for us might have to be us. You’ll want to be prepared. You’ll want more than a prickly pear margarita to do it.
@denise
I am understanding facts….
Are you?
Gene,
The Brookings Institute has just released a study showing there’s a disturbing difference between how African-Americans and whites are killed by firearms. Among whites, 77 percent of gun deaths are SUICIDES. But among black Americans, 82 percent of gun deaths are HOMICIDES. Gun-control advocates never seem to mention how this fact distorts national statistics about gun violence involving guns legally purchased in gun stores.
Check out the story at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-21/presenting-stunning-difference-how-blacks-and-whites-are-killed-guns
@J. Rick
All across Germany, a country with some of the most stringent gun-control laws in Europe, facing an influx of more than one million asylum seekers from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, the masses are rushing to arm themselves. The scramble to acquire weapons comes amid a migrant-driven surge in violent crimes including rape, robberies and aggravated assaults in cities and towns throughout the country. I wonder if now they’re going to finally appreciate our 2nd Amendment instead of vilifying it?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/health/in-missouri-fewer-gun-restrictions-and-more-gun-killings.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0
In Missouri, Fewer Gun Restrictions and More Gun Killings
Federal death data released this month for 2014 showed a continuation of the trend, he said. Before the repeal, from 1999 to 2006, Missouri’s gun homicide rate was 13.8 percent higher than the national rate. From 2008 to 2014, it was 47 percent higher. (The new data also showed that the national death rate from guns was equal to that from motor vehicle crashes for the first time since the government began systematically tracking it.)
@steve Segner,
At the link you give in the 5th paragraph under the picture, you should have read the article more carefully and tried to put two and two together, Steve, ESPECIALLY IN LIGHT OF MY ARTICLE.
The article you reference clearly says…”It is difficult TO ISOLATE THE IMPACT OF GUN LAWS IN A SINGLE STATE, given the pervasiveness of interstate trafficking and illegal markets, but a variety of measures, including a marked increase in police seizures of guns bought in-state, *suggest* the changes in Missouri’s laws have had some effect.” The word “suggest,” btw, does not constitute proof. This article, of course, came from the New York Times which is the foremost proponent of gun-control laws even though they never provide the evidence or logic to prove those laws work…which they don’t!
JRN
Rick, said
“never provide the evidence or logic to prove those laws work…which they don’t!”
Seems the story did just that.
Rick, you belong in a small town in Alaska; everyone one at the local bar would think you were brilliant.
The New York Times is too up scale for you, and they don’t publish stories about space ships so of course you don’t read it.
As a side note what if the stats are correct, then it’s OK by you for people to die so anyone can buy a GUN.
Rick, white christens kill more people in America every year then Muslim terrorists,
Think Planned Parenthood or police officers shooting young kids with guns.
Ss
I admire Mr. Normand for ignoring you.
White Christians kill more people in America than Muslim terrorists? Who says such stupid things? Police statistics for Black, White and other races combined serving as officers and involved in shootings DO NOT support your statement. Who believes such stupid things? Planned Parenthood has killed more humans than all wars combined. How’s that fact?
Moron.
K, says
“Planned Parenthood has killed more humans than all wars combined. How’s that fact?” really
Please get you number straight.
W.W. Two the number was 65,000,000 to 85, million killed world wide,
Just to match W.W. two that would be a 65,000,000 abortions or almost every woman in America under 50 years old.
And let not get into words war W.W. One even a bigger number.
As to my comment on Muslims, the numbers say that most people are shot by Christians not Muslims in America.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2013, firearms were used in 84,258 nonfatal injuries (26.65 per 100,000 U.S. citizens) [2] and 11,208 deaths by homicide.
To all readers at The Eye:
Despite the recent ISIS terrorist attacks killing hundreds in the West, on Dec 21, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski, the progressive left’s darling, claims “white men with guns” are “wrecking havoc” on the U.S. Additionally, she claims that claims conservatives and libertarians are the #1 threat to the U.S. I don’t think so. Think about this:
Ft. Hood shooter – Registered Democrat – Muslim
Columbine shooters – Too young to vote but both families were registered Democrats and progressive liberals.
Virginia Tech shooter – Registered Democrat – Wrote hate mail to President Bush and to his staff.
Colorado Theater shooter – Registered Democrat; staff worker on the Obama campaign; Occupy Wall Street participant; progressive liberal.
Connecticut School Shooter – Registered Democrat; hated Christians.
Congresswoman Gabby Giffords’ shooter – Leftist, registered Democrat.
***All of these shooters were progressive Democrats!***
Why is that the media always tells us that conservative NRA-type
gun-owners are the real danger?
Do the Marxist/Utopians have anyone in their queue to rationally debate the matter of the imaginary effectiveness of gun control legislation?
Hey @steve Segner – great news for you! Just learned about a motel in Nogales Mexico that’s looking hard for a buyer. Why not buy it and leave our town and leave us the hell alone with your ill equipped rants/ misspellings and your doing the walnut shell game with your numbers to our detriment and reality.
Since you wrote a letter to the Ed at RRNews regarding the school system and your great fix AND signed that letter that you actually DO live in “Oak Creek Canyon” – could I suggest you stop manipulating everything starting with the Lodging Council and moving on to the (Regional) Chamber of Commerce and then, last but for sure as hell not least – when will YOU stop screwing with your addresses and STOP voting in elections you are not registered to ???
Scarlett
Oak Creek Canyon runs through Sedona get a map.
If my numbers are wrong, show me, you just jump on my spelling, or my home address, but never show us my numbers are wrong.
One more time the numbers
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2013, firearms were used in 84,258 nonfatal injuries (26.65 per 100,000 U.S. citizens) [2] and 11,208 deaths by homicide.
S
@JRN
We’re you get that information Little Rick on Fox News..
What did some tea party/az Liberty puppet write that “talking point” for you..
Your a tool Little Rick
BTW
That little information you posted above about Virgina trying to pass a law about state snd local police not assisting the Federal Government when doing raids consisting of firearm violation is BS
So it’s ok for Virg government to interfere with law enforcement creating division between brotherhood in enforcing laws..
I thought your for smaller government , non meddling in local issues…
@Steve Segner: You are about as creditable as a masked man robbing a train, and your stupidity is exceeded by your arrogance.
Claiming to know “facts” you aren’t even capable of accurately identifying the boundaries of incorporated Sedona. Contrary to the bill of goods your beloved Chamber of Commerce has sold to the obvious and equally as stupid city council and city staff, the areas outside legitimate incorporated Sedona which include both School and Fire Districts are a portion of what is known as “Greater Sedona” and which entire area is NOT under the jurisdiction of Sedona City Council and/or Sedona City Staff.
Based on the ongoing ignorance displayed by those who just don’t get it and yet persist bending the rules, please take time to study the “facts” offered in this descriptive and detailed review of the boundaries which determine Sedona City Limits. https://sedonaeye.com/sedona-city-limits-101-with-eddie-maddock/
After you have familiarized yourself please go to Arizona State Statutes and look up incorporation of cities and town, and particularly take note of purpose and jurisdiction. After you have familiarized yourself with the real world, if such a thing is even possible, only then, Sir, will you even come close to being able to offer anything worthy of reading.
@steve Segner
Great lame attempt to get your little self out of your true address.
I’m well aware of the fact that Oak Creek runs through Sedona….but what you’ve forgotten is the fact that there is only one Oak Creek Canyon and then there is SEDONA. You don’t live in Sedona pal – YOU live in Oak Creek Canyon! Even the Red Rock News acknowledges that as your correct address.
OMG segner – fold your tent and either just quietly run your business or catch the first shuttle out of town.
I feel no compulsion to provide you with any factual numbers since You can’t even admit where you live. BS steve. Very tired of your shell games….get a life and some factual reality.
@West Sedona Resident,
So the Virginia law is BS? I hate to tell you this, moron, but you had better check out Prop 122 in AZ. We have the same law. It’s derived from the nullification clause of the U.S. Constitution’s Tenth Amendment and the Supreme Court’s anti-commandeering doctrine, both of which, I’m sure, you’ve never heard of. Check out http://www.TenthAmendmentCenter.com. WSR, you are so unfathomably illiterate that I’m embarrassed for you since you’ve repeatedly demonstrated that you can’t think, you can’t write and you can never make your point intelligibly. Obviously, you’re too ashamed to identify yourself for fear of self-humiliation.
JRN
I feel no compulsion to provide you with any factual numbers since You can’t even admit where you live. BS steve. Very tired of your shell games….get a life and some factual reality.
So you will not even use your real name (Sharlett)or tell us you address but you want me to give you my address?
How does that work, I live at 95 portal lane, but you already know that my second home in in the canyon, but what does it matter, you never come up with facts and never will.
I only post they you use numbers that are not true or make statement that are not true
ss
@ Sharlett
Sounds a bit like “the pot calling the kettle black”. You keep on saying that you live in Sedona and not in the VOC and that your real name is Sharlett and are not the individual that West Sedona Resident speaks about being fired from the SFD and yet you refuse to put your last name out there. I’ve called you out there a number of times and you’re quick to skirt the issue also.
@JRN
I looked at you little Tea PartyAz Liberty
Corrupted/sponsored webpages..
Yes even Pariond Tea Party A holes like your self can creat one.and twist the fact
Your a tool JRN… Plain and simple
Yes I stand by my statement your for less government interference not MORE.
Creating laws which interfere with the brotherhood of law enforcement discharging thier duties be it federal or local is wrong…
BTW. Your still a (deleted by editor).
Merry Xmas
@steve everyone knows that is your business and you don’t live there. You can be legally challenged………. just sayin`
Go for it
Ss
@Long Time Resident; I don’t switch subjects nor avoid them – I don’t live in VOC, have NEVER been employed by SFD and at least I use my name while YOU hide behind “Long Time Resident”. Get a grip or a new life or at least use your first name……novel concept for you? I’m calling you out on your crap…
Segner plays with address’s as it pleases him – what a joke! He manipulates for his margins.
We all are about to enter a brand new year of 2016 and could I ask for the ability to work together within a truthful basis vs self anointed and self serving?
There are too many very expensive and important issues our city needs to deal with and on a financially secure basis rather than personal feel goods. When does this LITTLE town start to come together?
If Segner uses his Oak Creek Canyon HOME address in a letter to the RRN – well then, based upon the RRN requirements – it is his true address.
Come on everyone and lets get to a sound financial fix for our Health, Safety and Welfare issues and stop looking at more projects to spend away from those three!
WSR,
You are truly amazing. JRN writes intelligently to make the point that you’re an uneducated imbecile. Then you reply, in uncorrelated detail, in a manner that proves that you really are the imbecile JRN says you are. As a result, no one reading your comments has the slightest idea what it is you’re trying to say. Congratulations.
@westsedonaresident Enough with the propaganda. How about some fact based exchanges?
To All Readers at The Eye,
While I am NOT, and never have been, a member of the NRA, Gun Owner’s Association of America, Oath Keepers, the Tea Party, or any other gun advocacy organization, I am a student of history. Our Founding Fathers were visionaries which explains why gun ownership is the 2nd of the first ten amendments to the Constitution second only to freedom of speech.
Here’s a Gun Control History Lesson…
* In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. This doesn’t include the 30 million that Stalin starved to death in the Ukraine.
* In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
* Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, leaving a populace unable to defend itself against the Gestapo and SS. Eleven million died as a result of nothing but political/ethnic persecution.
* China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 70 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
* Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
* Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. The total dead are said to be 2-3 million
* Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, 1-2 million ‘educated’ people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
* Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control: 106 million at a bare minimum.
* Gun owners in Australia, in just the last few years, were forced by new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by their own government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The first year results:
Australia-wide, homicides went up 3.2 percent
Australia-wide, assaults went up 8.6 percent
Australia-wide, armed robberies went up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)
In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent. Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not, and criminals still possess their guns.
It will never happen here progressives say? It’s already happening in just about all U.S. “gun-free zones.” I’d bet the Aussies thought it wouldn’t happen there either. And, the story is the same in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, France and Germany whose citizens are now clamoring for rescission of their gun control laws. It seems that we’re the only ones that haven’t realized that we’re going in the wrong direction.
JRN
sharlett
Hope this helps: I called the state and yes I get to pick the home I vote from,
So please, find a new comeback when you cannot answer a question the Steve is not a Sedona resident is getting old.
16-101. Qualifications of registrant; definition
A. Every resident of the state is qualified to register to vote if he:
1. Is a citizen of the United States?
2. Will be eighteen years of age or more on or before the date of the regular general election next following his registration.
3. Will have been a resident of the state twenty-nine days next preceding the election, except as provided in section 16-126.
4. Is able to write his name or make his mark, unless prevented from so doing by physical disability.
5. Has not been convicted of treason or a felony, unless restored to civil rights.
6. Has not been adjudicated an incapacitated person as defined in section 14-5101.
B. For purposes of this title, “resident” means an individual who has actual physical presence in this state,( or) for purposes of a political subdivision actual physical presence in the political subdivision, combined with intent to remain. A temporary absence does not result in a loss of residence if the individual has intent to return following his absence. An individual has only one residence for purposes of this title.
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@J. Rick Normand and All Readers at The Eye,
Please see this article about the Swiss, not the Swedes (the majority of northern Europeans now favor FEWER rules on gun ownership):
“Swiss Army Chief Warns Social Unrest, Calls Upon Citizens to Arm Themselves” at this link;
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-30/swiss-army-chief-warns-social-unrest-calls-upon-citizens-arm-themselves
Europeans will protect themselves like the Swiss. Times have changed. Governments are untrustworthy. Global governments are (deleted by editor). United together, united one. No government is worth (deleted by editor).
@All Readers At The Eye:
Progressives method for stopping gun violence is fool proof…just make videos like his and it will all just stop…wishful thinking always works!
See this laughable video:
http://therighttobear.com/everytown-usas-newest-celebrity-filled-psa-hits-a-new-low-in-stupid/
JRN
@All Readers at The Eye:
From Snopes:
HOW TO STOP ISLAMIC TERRORISTS . . . it worked once in our History . . .
Once in US history an episode of Islamic terrorism was very quickly stopped. It happened in the Philippines about 1911, when Gen. John J. Pershing was in command of the garrison. There had been numerous Islamic terrorist attacks, so “Black Jack” told his boys to catch the perps and teach them a lesson.
Forced to dig their own graves, the terrorists were all tied to posts, execution style. The US soldiers then brought in pigs and slaughtered them, rubbing their bullets in the blood and fat. Thus, the terrorists were terrorized; they saw that they would be contaminated with hogs’ blood. This would mean that they could not enter Heaven, even if they died as terrorist martyrs.
All but one was shot, their bodies dumped into the grave, and the hog guts dumped atop the bodies. The lone survivor was allowed to escape back to the terrorist camp and tell his brethren what happened to the others. This brought a stop to terrorism in the Philippines for the next 50 years.
Pointing a gun into the face of Islamic terrorists won’t make them flinch. They welcome the chance to die for Allah. Like Gen. Pershing, we must show them that they won’t get to Muslim heaven (which they believe has an endless supply of virgins) but instead will die with the hated pigs of the devil.
Gun control is out of the question. The new elected female Mexican mayor of a Mex-Tex border town was murdered in front of her family ONE DAY after being sworn into office. Next time you think it’s safe to drive across the border, think again. Mexico is not a safe travel destination. Some friends of ours went & some of their kids have gone & the kids were pulled over by cops & had to pay a bribe. THEY WERE LUCKY. Why would you spend money to fund drug cartels & murder? Spend your $$ at home & do some good by keeping Americans employed.
It is absolutely imperative that we make guns and ammo illegal. That’s how we got everyone to stop doing drugs.
@All Reader at The Eye:
According to a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, sales of the globe’s top 100 arms manufacturers amounted to just over $400 billion in 2014. The United States accounted for 54.4 percent of the world’s arms sales in 2014, followed by the United Kingdom and Russia. Seven out of the world’s top ten largest arms producing companies are American.
JRN
@J. J. – Your nuts as there is no correlation between drugs and guns….go back and check it out! I own and carry and have ammo and do not do drugs…..so where do you place me in your little scenario?
@Sybil, Sedona – you are very correct!
from @steve Segner
B. For purposes of this title, “resident” means an individual who has actual physical presence in this state,( or) for purposes of a political subdivision actual physical presence in the political subdivision, combined with intent to remain. A temporary absence does not result in a loss of residence if the individual has intent to return following his absence. An individual has only one residence for purposes of this title.
ss
So Segner do you mean to tell us that you as an individual only “has only one residence for purposes of this title.” (those are the words you cc’d us with)
And which ONE residence would that be segner?
@Helen C,
Helen, I think J.J. was being facetious!
JRN
Helen C: I hope you understand sarcasm. Drugs are illegal, but the largest banks in the world are laundering BILLIONS of dollars in drug money while the rest of the world wrings their hands over the “War on Drugs.”
Now it is a war on guns.
There is one thing in common with all the mass shootings — and it isn’t guns. ALL of the mass shooters were on some kind of SSRI type guns. Type in “SSRI drugs and mass shootings” into your search engine and you will get a complete list.
Recently a mentally disturbed man used his car to kill a family of tourists by running into them on Cooks Hill. The driver was “depressed” and taking SSRI type drugs. Then there was the “terrorist” who drove into a crowd of people in front of PARIS hotel in Las Vegas. Perhaps she was taking SSRI type drugs as well as she says she doesn’t remember anything. Maybe this is the way the government will take away your right to drive your own personal car with a Google-sponsored self-driving car.
SSRI type drugs need to be taken off the market, however, they are given to children as young as 3. What 3 year old is depressed? The one that’s ripped from it’s mother, put into pre-school full of toxic vaccinations? oh, probably.
That comment was made to make you think: yeah, making drugs illegal doesn’t stop people from smoking pot, and making guns and ammo illegal won’t stop mass shootings until the problem of SSRI type drugs are addressed.
and that’s where you fit in. Educate yourself and speak up.
Blessings. JJ
@J.J.
Your response to the naive Helen C was superbly written and dead-on target. Thank you!
JRN
@West Sedona Resident, again…
J. Rick mentioned Arizona Prop 122 in a comment above and mentioned to you that it is the law in AZ which you ignorantly failed to understand and respect. I would suggest you read The Arizona Republic this morning at this link, and then apologize to Mr. Normand:
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2016/01/05/arizona-legislation-would-ignore-obama-gun-actions/78304064/
Following this closely. President has made a huge mistake thinking we’re stupid enough to believe his rhetoric about guns. My Democratic gun owning self knows better than to believe a politician will protect me.
@Bob, uptown:
Sheriff Paul Babeu @PaulBabeuAZ
Last night, I asked Obama point-blank what gun crimes would be stopped via his executive actions. He had no answer… https://goo.gl/dJtNjR
9:10 AM – 8 Jan 2016
Since the morning after the event, Babeu continues to wait for an answer, and you and I both know there is no answer. When Obama has no answers he seems to generate a tear in his eye. Obama should have read this article and spared us his act.
This is all factually (and historically) correct and verifiable:
In 732 A.D. the Muslim Army, which was moving on Paris, was defeated and turned back at Tours, France, by Charles Martell.
In 1571 A.D. the Muslim Army/Navy was defeated by the Italians and Austrians as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to attack southern Europe in the Battle of Lepanto.
In 1683 A.D. the Turkish Muslim Army, attacking Eastern Europe, was finally defeated in the Battle of Vienna by German and Polish Christian Armies.
This crap has been going on for 1,400 years and half of the politicians don’t even know it.
If these battles had not been won, we might be speaking Arabic and Christianity could be non-existent; Judaism certainly would not exist.
Reflecting : A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine that America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves. Pause a moment and reflect back.
These events are actual events from history. They really happened! Do you remember?:
47 years since 1968 and this just keeps going on and on.
1. In 1968, Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by a Muslim male.
2. In 1972, at the Munich Olympics, Israeli athletes were kidnapped and massacred by Muslim males.
3. In 1972, a PanAm 747 was hijacked and eventually diverted to Cairo where a fuse was lit on final approach. Shortly after landing it was blown up by Muslim males.
4. In 1973, a PanAm 707 was destroyed in Rome, with 33 people killed, when it was attacked with grenades by Muslim males.
5. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by Muslim males.
6. During the 1980 ‘s a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by Muslim males.
7. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by Muslim males.
8. In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70-year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by Muslim males.
9. In 1985, TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by Muslim males.
10. In 1988, PanAm Flight 103 was bombed by Muslim males.
11. In 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by Muslim males.
12. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim males.
13. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take down the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by Muslim males.
14. In 2002, the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against Muslim males.
15. In 2002, reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded by – you guessed it – a Muslim male. (Plus two other American journalists who were just recently beheaded ).
16. In 2013, the Boston Marathon Bombing resulted in 4 Innocent people, (including a child) being killed and 264 people injured by Muslim males.
No President Obama, I really do see a pattern here to justify profiling! So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people?
So, ask yourself “Just how stupid are we that we accept the “Obama doctrine” of political correctness?”
Obama Says, “Absolutely No Profiling!” They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the Obama’s security detail, 85-year-old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, BUT……..leave Muslim Males alone lest we be guilty of profiling. (The real Obama reason for no profiling is that he supports Islam, period!)
Ask yourself, “Just how stupid are we? “Have the American people completely lost their minds or just their Power of Reason???”
Let’s send this to as many people as we can so that the Gloria Alred’s and other misguided and ignorant attorneys, along with Federal Justices, that want to thwart common sense, feel ashamed of themselves — if they have any such sense.
As the writer of the award winning story ” Forrest Gump ” so aptly put it, “Stupid Is As Stupid Does.”
Each opportunity that you have to send this to a friend or media outlet… Do It!
OR JUST SIT BACK, KEEP GRIPING, AND DO NOTHING.
As OBAMA SAID IN HIS BOOK, “NOTHING SOUNDS SO BEAUTIFUL AS THE MUSLIM EVENING PRAYERS FROM THE TOWER”.
@J. Rick Normand,
OMG, I have inadvertently read some support for your point of view little Ricky.
At least 2,986 people were shot in Chicago in 2015 which has some of the most strict gun control laws in the country. Meanwhile, in Chicago this year already, 120 people were shot In first 10 days of 2016. Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi released a statement blaming most of the violence on “chronic gang conflicts.”
“Every year Chicago Police recover more illegal guns than officers in any other city, and as more and more illegal guns continue to find their way into our neighborhoods.”
See proof here: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-12/meanwhile-chicago-120-people-shot-first-10-days-2016