An Open Rant at Those Who Would Repeal the Second Amendment

[boutons_deux]

The Second Amendment Is Not Absolute

We impose restrictions on all sorts of cons utional rights. The right to bear arms is no different.

Whatever the source, you likely have been told that regulating guns in virtually any way violates the Second Amendment.

I therefore offer today this quick cons utional refresher course: It does not.

Cons utional rights are not absolute. They never have been and, practically, never can be. In our cons utional democracy, we have always recognized that we can, and must, have our cons utional cake and regulate it too.

Take, for example, our freedom of speech. It is one of the most clearly stated and robustly protected rights in the Cons ution, yet it is also subject to numerous restrictions. Our speech might not be protected if it falsely damages someone’s reputation, aids and abets a crime, contains a threat of violence, reveals a trade or military secret, harasses, plagiarizes, inflicts severe emotional distress, is deemed to be obscene, incites violence, or leaks classified information, to name a few. The United States Supreme Court further allows restrictions on when, where, and howwe can express ourselves even when the message itself is protected. In some cases we control who may speak, such as limitations we may cons utionally impose on the speech of students, prisoners, and government employees.

When determining what regulations on speech are acceptable, the Supreme Court carefully weighs the significant value of protecting the freedom of expression against the countervailing public interests. Thus you certainly have a right to protest, but not in a public park without a permit. You have a right to exclaim your beliefs, but not with a sound truck at night in a residential neighborhood. You have a right to express yourself through art, but not with a can of spray paint on someone else’s car. Child pornography is indisputably a type of speech, yet the Supreme Court gives it no cons utional protection, zero, because the court believes that the harm it inflicts on the abused children far outweighs any expressive value.

The same is true of our freedom to exercise our religions. The court has held (in an opinion authored by Justice Antonin Scalia) that as long as a government regulation applies to everyone equally and does not target a particular religious group, many general laws that infringe on religious practices are nonetheless cons utional. Thus, if your religion involves the use of a banned hallucinogen like peyote, as was the situation in the Supreme Court case involving members of the Native American Church, your cons utionally protected right to freely exercise your religious beliefs takes a back seat to the state’s interest in uniform drug laws.

The Second Amendment, of course, is no exception. In the 2008 case of District of Columbia v. er, the Supreme Court told us that we have a cons utional right to possess firearms for self-defense, at least within our homes. But the opinion never suggested that this right was unconditional or immune from all regulation. In fact, Justice Scalia, writing for the majority, said just the opposite. In er, he specifically said that “the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.”

Protecting the right to keep and bear arms is not the same as forbidding all regulations on that right.

We can protect that right and still require background checks, permits, and training. We can still regulate when, where, and what kinds of guns are allowed. In some cases, we can regulate who can obtain guns, imposing restrictions on, for instance, felons, the mentally ill, and known terrorists. We can ban firearms such as military-style assault weapons that (like child pornography) plainly cause far more harm than they add in value.

We can require those who are negligent with their weapons (as we do those who are negligent with their words in defamation cases) to be held liable for the harm they inflict on others. We can do all of these things; we just don’t. There might be policy reasons to debate the pros and cons of specific regulations, but there’s no reason to assume that there is a cons utional problem.

And you don’t need to take my word for it. Let’s take another listen to Justice Scalia in er, shall we? The Second Amendment, he stated, does not protect “the right of citizens to carry arms for any sort of confrontation, just as we do not read the First Amendment to protect the right of citizens to speak for any purpose.” He further noted that nothing in the court’s decision “should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2015/12/second_amendment_allows_for_gun_control.html

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Gun Industry Executives Say Mass Shootings Are Good for Business

Behind closed doors, speaking with investors and Wall Street analysts, the gun industry views mass shootings as an opportunity to make lots of money.

Ordinary people are despairing about the frequency of tragic events like the murderous rampage in San Bernardino on Wednesday, or the Planned Parenthood massacre last week. And the cycle of mass killing, media frenzy, and political stalemate starts anew each time.
But meanwhile, gun sales continue to break records, a fact that has not gone ignored by financial analysts.

The Intercept reviewed investor transcripts for gun companies, ammunition manufacturers, and sporting stores, and found many instances of industry executives discussing mass shooting incidents and the resulting political dynamics as lucrative.

Here’s how it works. Following a mass shooting, there is talk of gun control, which the National Rifle Association and other gun advocates attack as an assault on the Second Amendment. Notably, gun and ammunition manufacturers often donate, either directly or as a portion of each sale, to the NRA. The fear of losing gun rights leads to panic buying, which brings greater profits to gun retailers, gun companies and their investors.

Gun Distributors

“The gun business was very much accelerated based on what happened after the election and then the tragedy that happened at Sandy Hook,” Ed Stack, the chief executive of ’s Sporting Goods, a leading gun and ammunition retailer, said in September 2014 at the Goldman Sachs Global Retailing Conference. Stack noted that the industry saw “panic buying” when customers “thought there were going to be some very meaningful changes in our gun” laws. The new sales “didn’t bring hunters in” but rather “brought shooters into the industry,” he added.

In 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and 6 adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Last year, Tommy Millner, the chief executive of Cabela’s, a retailer that sells guns, boasted at an investor conference in Nebraska that his company made a “conscious decision” to stock additional weapons merchandise before the 2012 election, hoping Obama’s reelection would result in increased sales. After the election, the Newtown mass shooting happened, and “the business went vertical … I meant it just went crazy,” Millner said, according to a transcript of the event. Describing the “tailwinds of profitability,” Millner noted Cabela’s “didn’t blink as others did to stop selling AR-15 platform guns,” and so his company “got a lot of new customers.” The AR-15 is a high-powered assault rifle based on the military’s M-16 model but without the full automatic capacity,

Steven Miller, the chief executive of Big 5 Sporting Goods, another gun retailer, was asked by investor analysts in 2013 to describe the state of the market during a conference call that year. The “real surge” in firearm sales, Miller said, “took place following the tragedy in Sandy Hook.”

Gun and Ammunition Manufacturers

Smith & Wesson chief executive James Debney, speaking to the Roth Capital Partners conference in 2013, explained that “the tragedy in Newtown and the legislative landscape” resulted in sales that were “significantly up.” The “fear and uncertainty that there might be increased gun control,” Debney said, “drove many new people to buy firearms for the first time.

“You can see after a tragedy, there’s also a lot of buying,” Jeff Buchanan, the chief financial officer of Smith & Wesson, told investors at the RBC Capital Markets conference in September of this year. Buchanan noted that the political landscape of 2016 is uncertain, but that fear of gun control could be on the horizon.

Michael Fifer, the chief executive of Sturm Ruger, one of the largest gunmakers in America, discussed the role of politics in gun sales during a conference call with investors in 2013. “If you look back at historical patterns back in late ’08, early ’09, you saw a huge e in accessory sales which then tapered off, and then we saw it again with the really tragic events at Sandy Hook that started again as soon as the politicians started talking about restricting legal gun use,” Fifer said.

Wall Street Analysts

Market analysts, including consultants who often hold executives accountable to investors, have been keen to ask gun companies about how they are able to respond to surging sales following mass shootings.

Gautam Khanna, an analyst with Cowen & Co., an investment banking and market research firm, interviewed Mark DeYoung, then the chief executive of ATK, an ammunition manufacturer, at the Cowen Aerospace conference in 2013. Khanna asked DeYoung if he would make pricing decisions based in part by the “Newtown shooting tragedy.”

DeYoung responded that “obviously we are all shocked” by “what happened in Newtown and what happened in Aurora, Colorado, and what happened in Tucson, Arizona, with Gabby Giffords.” But, he added, the company will continue to “respond to market pressures,” including increases in demand. On a separate conference call that year, DeYoung noted that certain “ es” in demand have driven sales.

James Holmes killed 12 people and injured more than 70 others after opening fire in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater in 2012.
In 2011, Jim Barrett, a financial analyst, asked Ruger’s Fifer during a call with investors if the “recent shooting incident in Tucson” — referring to the shooting that year of Rep. Gabby Giffords — “has stirred gun owners and prospective gun owners to go visit the stores?”
Bob Sales, another analyst, asked Fifer how his company was preparing for future gun sales, given that “a combination of the election in 2012 and the Sandy Hook incident … spurred a massive binge of gun buying.”

On a conference call with investors, Millner, the chief executive of Cabela’s, fielded a question about the Aurora mass shooting from an analyst with Imperial Capital, who asked him if the incident had “any impact on your business.” Millner responded, “I would say that the trends that you read about in the press, we are experiencing at least thus far since the incident.”

The business rhetoric around mass shootings “doesn’t surprise me at all,” says Ladd Everitt, the director of communications of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Everitt noted that the National Rifle Association, which is funded by gun manufacturers, often uses similar language following mass shootings.

“This just shows the guys in the suits understand this and are utterly cynical about it.

https://theintercept.com/2015/12/03/...oting-wall-st/

2nd Amendment?

It's All About The Benjamins

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Gun Advocates Plan Mock Shooting At University Of Texas In Austin

Gun rights advocates plan to stage a mock shooting on Saturday at the University of Texas at Austin to protest the campus's gun-free zones.

Dozens of demonstrators using cardboard cutouts of firearms and fake blood are expected to pretend to be shooters, victims and armed rescuers. A bullhorn will produce sounds of gunfire, according to the Austin American-Statesman, which first reported on the protest.

Two groups staging the event believe that staff and students would be safer from potential attacks like the kind seen in San Bernardino, California, last week if guns were permitted everywhere at the state's flagship campus.

Before Saturday's fake shooting , armed demonstrators will march through Austin with rifles and pistols.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b009377b238992

Just the usual insanity of less gun fellators.

Do they have a city or police permit for their march? Would the police dare to deny a march permit they way they do to blacks, OWS, etc?

[rmt]

boutons, the 2nd amendment isn't going anywhere - just like the abortion issue.

[boutons_deux]

boutons, the 2nd amendment isn't going anywhere - just like the abortion issue.

neither is "well REGULATED militia" and single-shot muzzle loaders

abortion is legal, with lots of heavy, "undue burden" regulations in the red and slave states.

gun are legal, and they can be heavily regulated. there's no Cons utional prohibition of regulations surrounding Cons utional rights.

[Splits]

Another kid second amendmented... smh

Reno County deputy’s 3-year-old son dies after accidentally shooting self with handgun

BY MATT RIEDL


The 3-year-old son of a Reno County sheriff’s deputy accidentally shot and killed himself with a loaded 40-caliber Glock handgun Friday morning, according to a news release from Sheriff Randy Henderson.


Kaden Nagel, the son of Deputy Andrew Nagel, found the gun at 8:15 a.m. in the apartment his father shares with a roommate, according to the release.


Andrew Nagel woke up to the sound of a gunshot.


The South Hutchinson Police Department and the Reno County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to the residence in the 100 block of East Avenue B, in South Hutchinson.


He and the South Hutchinson Fire Department administered first aid before Emergency Medical Services arrived, according to the release.


The child was pronounced dead at the scene.


The South Hutchinson Police Department and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation are working the case.


“Please keep the Nagels, his law enforcement family and the first responders in your prayers,” Henderson said in the release.


A news release from the South Hutchinson Police Department said all further information about the case will be released by the Reno County District Attorney’s Office.

[boutons_deux]

boutons, the 2nd amendment isn't going anywhere

who said it was? typical rightwingnut gun fellator straw man invented by the NRA/GOA/gun-industry. you simpleton rabble are so easy to rouse, gullible.

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Mock mass shooting in Texas met by counter demonstrators waving sex toys

Guns on one side of the street, counter-protesters making bathroom noises on the other.

About a dozen gun rights activists staged an open carry march and mock mass shooting Saturday near the University of Texas, only to be outnumbered by counter-demonstrators who waved sex toys and tried to drown them out with chants.

The groups Come and Take It Texas and Don'tcomply.com initially wanted to hold their event on campus, but were told by school officials they would be charged with criminal trespassing. The group instead held their march, with several members openly carrying real assault-style rifles, in an area of shops and restaurants next to campus known as "The Drag."

The groups then slipped away from most media and onlookers and regrouped across the street from a campus chapel to "shoot" six people with cardboard guns. Victims were outlined with chalk to show where they fell.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/n...212-story.html

gun fellators!

[DMC]

Another kid second amendmented... smh

Police officers do not rely on the 2nd Amendment. They are commissioned, licensed peace officers. It's illegal to leave a loaded handgun in a place where a child can access it.

So now criminal negligence should be part of the Bill of Rights?

[DMC]

Suffocations and drownings are WAY TOO IN' HIGH. Ban plastic bags and pools!

And large screen TVs. Kids pull them over all the time.

Criminal negligence will always kill children, whether that's not using a safety restraint or letting one run loose in the street. It's all about adult supervision with children, has nothing to do with the 2nd Amendment. Those who use children as an example of how the 2nd Amendment "kills kids" are abusing the 1st Amendment.

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It's illegal to leave a loaded handgun in a place where a child can access it.

for the 10s, if not 100s, kids killed, shot per year, how many those gun owners are imprisoned, fined, even charged?

[rmt]

I'd guess that more kids are killed from not being strapped in a car seat than by handgun. You'd be surprised at how many caring, "responsible" parents can't take the crying and take kids out of car seats. My cousin (a newly graduated doctor) died from not having her seat belt on. Her boyfriend who had his on came out of the accident with a few scratches.

[boutons_deux]

I'd guess that more kids are killed from not being strapped in a car seat than by handgun. You'd be surprised at how many caring, "responsible" parents can't take the crying and take kids out of car seats. My cousin (a newly graduated doctor) died from not having her seat belt on. Her boyfriend who had his on came out of the accident with a few scratches.

yep, so don't punish gun owners who allow their guns into the hands of kids and others. It's all relative, and perversely interpreted 2nd Amendment trumps all other rights, law, regulations, for profit.

[DMC]

for the 10s, if not 100s, kids killed, shot per year, how many those gun owners are imprisoned, fined, even charged?

That's a different issue than the 2nd Amendment aka red herring <((((((><

[DMC]

yep, so don't punish gun owners who allow their guns into the hands of kids and others. It's all relative, and perversely interpreted 2nd Amendment trumps all other rights, law, regulations, for profit.

<((((((><

[mingus]

boutons, the 2nd amendment isn't going anywhere - just like the abortion issue.

It's not about taking away the 2nd Amendment. It's about making its application more sensible, so that people who shouldn't be handling guns can't get them as easily & legaly.

I think people should be required to pass a battery of tests in order to purchase a gun, basically proving they're not re ed, mentally ill or have a criminal history. I also think there should be an age requirement, just like there's an age requirement for getting a driver's license. I don't give a whether your kid understands gun safety more than if he/she understands road safety.

To me this just common sense stuff. It's far from a cure, but it's not intended to be because it's only part of a patchwork on how to deal with gun violence.

[boutons_deux]

That's a different issue than the 2nd Amendment aka red herring <((((((><

nothing as fishy red as NRA/gun industry/gun fellators ignoring "militia" except perversely interpreting it as the FFs encouraging the citizens to armed insurrection against the govt they were trying to form. That interpretation suits secessionist slave states continuing war with Feds, revenooers

[DMC]

nothing as fishy red as NRA/gun industry/gun fellators ignoring "militia" except perversely interpreting it as the FFs encouraging the citizens to armed insurrection against the govt they were trying to form. That interpretation suits secessionist slave states continuing war with Feds, revenooers

<((((((><

By now you've gotten your limit of red herring.

[boutons_deux]

the biggest red herring, straw man is that any gun control equals repealing the 2nd Amendment.

[Splits]

Police officers do not rely on the 2nd Amendment. They are commissioned, licensed peace officers. It's illegal to leave a loaded handgun in a place where a child can access it.

So now criminal negligence should be part of the Bill of Rights?

Wasn't the officers gun. Wonder if his friend will be charged? Probably so since the dead kid's father is law enforcement.

[Splits]

Those who use children as an example of how the 2nd Amendment "kills kids" are abusing the 1st Amendment.

good one. Going to have to remember that one.

[Splits]

They Were Killed by a Gun: Faces of the Child Victims

by TRACY CONNOR, JON SCHUPPE and POLLY DEFRANK

The massacre of 20 first-graders at a Newtown, Connecticut, school three years ago outraged the nation and spurred calls for new legislation, but it did nothing to slow the firearm deaths of young Americans. Each year, hundreds of kids under 12 are shot and killed, either by accident or on purpose.
NBC News looked at cases in which children under 12 have been killed by guns since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary and counted 554 deaths.

The victims are black and white, Asian and Latino. They live in cities, suburbs and rural areas. They die in hunting mishaps, get caught in street crossfire, are targeted by murderers and intentionally or unintentionally shoot themselves. The cir stances and blame vary. The only thing that ties them together is the cause of death: gunshot wound.
Here are some of their stories:

Ja'Quail Mansaw

They called him "Smoothie."
Every day, Ja'Quail Mansaw woke up with a smile. His mother didn't even know his teeth were coming in because he so rarely cried.
"He was a very happy child," Balethia Washington said. "He was crawling and he was trying to talk. His words were 'Dada' and 'no.'"
His milestones ended there. Smoothie was just 7 months old when a spray of bullets came crashing into his family's Kansas City, Kansas, home on Jan. 4.
Ja'Quail Mansaw was killed Jan. 4 in a drive-by shooting in Kansas City. Courtesy of Balethia Washington
"We just started throwing kids on the floor," said Washington, who has five other children. "When I picked up Ja'Quail to protect him, I think that's when it happened. I fell on the ground on my side and I noticed he was bleeding."
The bullet went through the baby's back and into his leg. At the hospital, "they brought him back three or four times" before he died, his mother said.
Nearly a year after he was laid to rest in a tiny white casket, the drive-by shooting remains unsolved, though Washington suspects her son was caught in the crossfire of a drug dispute in her high-crime neighborhood.
Since the shooting, Washington had to leave her house and lost her bullet-pocked car. Her surviving kids are traumatized, she said.
"The other day, my 3-year-old was crying. I asked her what was the matter. She said, 'I just miss my baby brother. I just want to go get him.'"

Nathaniel Hitt

Not long after Henry Bartle, 18, bought a shotgun at the Mohawk Sport Shop in Rome, New York, he used it to bag a deer. About a month later, he killed a turkey with it. And just a day after that, he accidentally shot his girlfriend's baby.
Seven-month-old Nathaniel Hitt was sitting in his walker while Bartle cleaned the Mossberg 500 12-gauge pump shotgun and installed a pistol grip on Nov. 28. He laid the weapon across his lap, leaned forward and went to get up, he told police.
"The gun just went off," Bartle said. "There was blood everywhere."
Photo of Nathaniel W. Hitt. Family
Nathaniel was killed instantly.
"My baby's gone," his hysterical mother, Selena Hitt, 19, kept saying, according to a witness.
The investigation determined that before the tragedy, Hitt, Bartle and a friend had been smoking marijuana, and Bartle admitted he had not put the safety on the shotgun, which he legally possessed. He was charged last month with criminally negligent homicide, which carries up to four years in prison.
Selena Hitt's estranged father, Gary Muntz, said that while he is a supporter of gun rights, "My feeling is this kid should not have had a gun. Guns can't fall into the hands of irresponsible kids."
He had not seen Nathaniel in four months because of a falling-out with his daughter but remembered him as a newborn.
"He was a sweet little baby and didn't deserve to die the way he did," he said.
Makayla Dyer

It was a spat over a puppy.
Eight-year-old Makayla Dyer was playing with friends outside her White Pine, Tennessee, mobile home when an 11-year-old neighbor perched at his window asked to see her new pet. The third-grader laughed and said no and the boy, according to police, got his grandfather's 12-gauge shotgun and pulled the trigger.
In an instant, one young life was snuffed out and another was changed forever.
MaKayla Dyer via WBIR
Makayla, nicknamed BooBah by her family, had big brown eyes, a shy smile and lots of friends in her neighborhood. "Makayla was a good friend and she was sweet and she loved to play with me," one of them wrote in a condolence book. "RIP makayla i will love you forever and always."
The boy, whose name is not being released because of his age, was held in juvenile detention on a first-degree murder charge. The facility's superintendent told reporters that he'd never had such a young murder defendant come through — and that the child's attorney asked that he be allowed to keep a teddy bear in his cell.
No decision has been made on whether to charge the boy as an adult for the Oct. 3 shooting. His family says he shouldn't even be locked up, that he didn't fire the shot that killed Makayla. They claim that he was simply showing his grandpa's weapons to a friend, who accidentally fired it.
"He said, 'Why am I going to jail when I didn't even do this?'" his grandmother, Dianna Houchins, said at a press conference last month.
Cylie and Caden McCullum

The call came in shortly after midnight — a woman reporting that her sister was distraught, had a gun and was threatening to kill herself and her two small children. Police searched through the night for Mic e McCullum and her kids, 3-year-old Cylie and 5-year-old Caden, before sending out a public alert in the morning.
Just an hour later, they learned that McCullum — who had recently lost her job, according to neighbors — had carried out her threat. The bodies of all three were found in her car parked in a remote area in east New Orleans; each had been shot once with her .40-caliber pistol, which she legally owned, police said.
Caden, left, and Cylie McCullum via WDSU
The program for the siblings' funeral service described them as inseparable.
"Caden was fearless, inspiring and although small in stature, his will and determination was that of a giant," it said. "The angel named Cylie … wherever Caden was Cylie wanted to be. She loved her 'brudda' unconditionally. Without thought, he was her world and she was his."
Police never released details about what drove McCullum, described by neighbors and relatives as a devoted mother, to the depths of despair. The funeral program echoed the question.
"These two angels were called way too soon," it said. "We don't know why and we cannot rationalize it."
Olivia Stoffel

It was a warm spring evening in Menasha, Wisconsin, and the Stoffel family was out for a walk with the dog on a pedestrian bridge on a recreational trail. Suddenly, there was a loud bang.
Within moments, the family was in the middle of a rare kind of crime. Army veteran Sergio Valencia del Toro, angry after a fight with his girlfriend, had just fatally shot a stranger, police said. And now he turned his gun on the Stoffels.
Jon, the dad, was mortally wounded, along with 11-year-old Olivia. "May God forgive you," he told the gunman, according to an investigative report.
The mom, Erin, was shot three times but survived and managed to get Olivia's siblings, Ezra and Selah, to safety while del Toro shot himself dead.
Olivia and Jonathan Stoffel WMTV
When police looked into the shooter's background they found a dangerous scenario: He had a long history of psychiatric problems and suicide threats, a drinking problem — and a big arsenal. He brought a Taurus revolver, a .9mm semiautomatic pistol and extra ammunition to the Trestle Trail Bridge that evening; he had eight more guns at home, all legally bought because he had no criminal record.
An obituary for the victims focused on their life, not their violent death. Olivia was in the drama club. She made bracelets to raise funds for the Fox Valley Jail Ministry and dreamed of being an author when she grew up. Her father, a Sunday school teacher, had baptized her and taken her on a mission trip to Honduras.
Hank Bollen

The pictures of Hank Bollen on his mother's Facebook page pay tribute to his love of the outdoors. There's a photo of him catching a frog, another holding two fishing poles and yet another that shows him in hunting gear straddling a dead deer.
Hank Bollen, 9 Lewis Funeral Home via NBC12
So it's not surprising that when the 9-year-old had a day off from school on Feb. 17, 2014, he took his youth .22 rifle and went out to look for squirrels in the woods of Arkansas, near his home in Magnolia. When he didn't come home, sheriff's deputies were summoned to look for him and a police helicopter found the fourth-grader's body the next morning.
Police did not release specifics, saying only that it appeared to be a hunting accident. Hank's mom, who did not return calls for comment, has written about "faulty" youth rifles on her Facebook page.
"I miss my son!!!!" she wrote. "I hope what I've been doing will help others. I don't want anyone to have to go through this. It can be prevented. What I would do to hold Hank right now."
Payton Benson

What she wanted most in the world was to start school, but a bullet that ripped through her Omaha, Nebraska, home on Jan. 15, 2014, ensured that dream would never come true.
Payton Benson, 5, loved makeup, fancy dresses and Barbie dolls. She spoke in a voice so soft it sounded like she was whispering, and followed her mother around the house all day with a smile on her face.
A photo of five-year-old Payton Benson is displayed at her funeral. WOWT
She was eating breakfast with her mom when gang members opened fire on rivals on the street with a semiautomatic rifle and handguns, according to police. The bullets missed their targets, but two from the rifle came flying into Payton's house, and one of them killed her.
Five of the gang members eventually went to prison on charges ranging from murder to weapons possession.
Payton's mother, Tabatha Manning, marked what would have been her daughter's sixth birthday by calling for an end to gun violence.
But it may have been Payton's brother Latrell who said it best. At a press conference soon after his sister's death, the grade-schooler pleaded: "This is not fair people are dying — not fair at all."
Samuel Epps

An argument over doing chores sent 11-year-old Samuel Epps running into his parents' bedroom on Sept. 3, 2014. A shot rang out and his father forced his way into the room to find the boy on the floor with a fatal wound to his head.
Samuel Epps, 11, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. via Facebook
Police said the youngster had gotten his hands on a 9mm pistol that belonged to his father, an Arizona State University police officer. Arizona does not have a child access prevention law that holds adults liable if a child uses a gun.
While a fund-raising site for the family referred to the tragedy in the rural San Tan Valley, southeast of Phoenix, as an accident, the Maricopa County Medical Examiner listed the manner of death as suicide, though police said it not appear the boy had any history of depression or mental illness.
In an obituary, his family said he was "proud member" of the Mormon Church who played the cello in the orchestra at his charter school. "He loved his legos, super hero movies, and his music," it said.
Jacob Hambaugh

Mourners were asked to honor Jacob Hambaugh by wearing the color red. Just 9 months old, his favorite thing was the "Sesame Street" character Elmo.
On Oct. 22, 2014, he was crawling in the kitchen of his family's Kokomo, Indiana, home when his father decided to clean his .38 caliber handgun. A round had inadvertently been left in the weapon, and when the dad, John Hambaugh, tried to remove the slide, it discharged. The shot went through the father's leg and into the baby's head.
Nine-month-old Jacob Hambaugh died two days after an accidental shooting. Family photo via WTHR
Jacob died two days later.
The elder Hambaugh, whose Facebook page was full of gun-rights posts before the tragedy, did not face any charges. And a Change.org pe ion started by his sister-in-law noted that meant that that he could continue to own and purchase firearms.
"This is wrong, and I want to change it," read the pe ion, which called for the passage of Jacob's Law for Responsible Gun Ownership.
"What happened to Jacob was avoidable," it continued. "We will never get to see Jacob grow up. We will never watch him have a first day at school, drive a car, graduate, get married, or have children of his own, all because of someone's carelessness.
"I am not trying to punish anyone. I am trying to prevent another family's heartache."
Antonio Smith Jr.

Even in a city hardened by gun violence, the shooting death of Antonio Smith shocked the conscience. He was just 9 years old, an honor-roll student and had no ties to the gangs that took his life.
On the afternoon of October 30, 2014, Antonio, nicknamed "Fat Baby" by his family, rushed out of his family's South Side Chicago house in a temper because he was told he couldn't have any cake.
Hours later, he was found dead in a backyard; he had been shot six times. Police said gang members hunting for their rivals thought Antonio yelled a warning to the targets and purposefully gunned him down.
A photo of Antonio Smith. NBC Chicago
"I love my city but the city took something from me I love even more," his father, Antonio Sr. said. "Chicago hurt me today."
Four men were eventually charged with his murder and are awaiting trial. And a .380-caliber pistol recovered from a sewer near the crime scene was traced to two other shootingsearlier in the year, one of them fatal.
Determined that the fourth-grader's death not be in vain, a group of community activists formed a nonprofit, Antonio's Response, on the anniversary of his murder. It aims to assist families of innocent youngsters killed by guns.
"These are our neighborhoods and our lives," the group's mission statement says. "We have children who represent Antonio; we all are Antonio."
Alton and Ashton Perry

The day was supposed to be a celebration. Feb. 26, 2013, was Alton Perry's second birthday, and his mother arranged for him and his 6-month-old brother, Ashton, to leave early from daycare in North Stonington, Connecticut.
"I wanted him to come home and play with his new toys and have a good day," Brenda Perry told local NBC affiliate WVIT.
Perry's mother, Debra Denison, offered to pick them up. She suffered from mental illness and had a contentious relationship with Perry, but things had improved in recent months. So Perry, 24, called ahead to make sure Denison was on the daycare's pickup list.
Alton and Ashton Perry Courtesy of Connecticut State Police
Denison left with the boys at 2:30 p.m. When they failed to show up for the birthday party, Perry called police. Hours later, an Amber Alert went out. At 9:30 p.m., someone reported seeing a car parked near Lake of Isles. Three people were inside, and they looked hurt.
Police arrived, and found Denison, 47, and her grandsons dead of gunshot wounds, victims of a murder-suicide. Near the bodies was her husband's revolver.
Denison , who'd reportedly attempted suicide many times before, left a notesaying Perry and her husband didn't deserve to have the children, police said.
Aaron Vu

Aaron Vu liked to entertain the clients at his parents' Miami nail salon. The 10-year-old boy danced for them, played his recorder, let them pinch his cheeks.
"Very playful, very nice," a friend told local affiliate WTVJ.
On the night of Nov. 22, 2013, Aaron was inside the salon when two robbers burst in, demanding cash and valuables. On their way out, they opened fire, hitting Aaron and his father, Hai Vu, 41. The boy died; the father survived.
Aaron Vu Courtesy of Miami-Dade Police Department
"We hope my son's death will not be in vain, that something will come out of this in the future that will greatly reduce senseless acts of violence in our community," Hai Vu said from Jackson Memorial Hospital.
"The question I ask every night since I'm in the hospital is, why? Why? Why did this have to happen? Why couldn't it just have been me? They killed an innocent child."
Police arrested 19-year-old Anthawn Ragan Jr. for firing the deadly shots. He remains in jail and is expected to go to trial in February 2016.

[Splits]

Sebastian Swartz

It wasn't very difficult for Sebastian Swartz to find his father's gun.
The Glock 9mm pistol was in plain view in his parents' bedroom in Decatur, Ohio, on Feb. 18, 2013, according to police.
Sebastian's father, an Army veteran who neighbors said had been injured in Afghanistan, was at work. His mother was in another room when Sebastian began fooling with the weapon, police told local NBC affiliate WXIX.
Sebastian Swartz WLWT
An older sister tried to take it from him. Then the gun went off.
"One of the kids yelled, 'My brother's been shot'," an off-duty firefighter at the scene told the station. "I didn't see anybody at the time. Then the mother came out carrying the young child."
Sebastian, hit in the head, was flown to Cincinnati Children's Hospital, where he lingered a week before his parents took him off life support.
Sebastian's parents, Chris and Shanna Swartz, were charged with felony child endangerment. The father pleaded guilty and served two years' probation and is no longer allowed to own a gun. The case against the mother was dismissed. The sister who handled the gun just before it went off ended up facing charges in juvenile court. The result of that case was unclear.
"Obviously, you need to secure your firearms inside your residence when you have small children running around," a police detective told NBC affiliate WLWT.
Tiana Ricks

Tiana Ricks's father brought her to a Saturday night house party in Moreno Valley, California, to celebrate a cousin headed off to college. At one point, Tiana, 6, told her dad she was thirsty. He walked her to the open garage, where a crowd had gathered.
Just then, two men charged up the driveway from the street, KNBC reported. One of them started firing a gun.
Tiana Ricks via KNBC
The father, Tyrell Ricks, was hit in the pelvis. In the chaos, Tiana, who'd been holding his leg, kept asking if he was OK, a relative told the station.
She didn't seem to realize that she'd also been shot.
Hit in the back, she died three hours later, just after midnight on Sept. 8, 2013.
Her grieving 24-year-old father said he couldn't understand why someone would have opened fire on them. Though police suspected the attack was gang-related, Tyrell Ricks said he'd just moved to California from Indiana and had no beefs or ties with local gangs.
"I could care less about my well-being," Tyrell Ricks told KNBC. "I loved her so much, and now she's gone."
A member of the Moreno Valley-based Edgemont Criminals gang, Keandre Narkie Johnson, was arrested for her murder, and remains in jail. He could face the death penalty.


Londyn Samuels

Londyn Samuels was just learning to walk. On Aug. 29, 2013, a baby-sitter scooped the 1-year-old into her arms as they walked home from a New Orleans park. A gunman approached from behind and shot the 18-year-old in the back. The bullet tore through her body and hit Londyn in the chest.
The young woman, who survived, called the child's father in anguish. "She said, 'Kee, we got shot — me and Londyn,'" the dad, Keion Reed, 20, told NBC News.
Police have not said what they think motivated the shooter.
Londyn Samuels, 1, was struck by a bullet fired into her 18-year-old nanny's back Friday in New Orleans.Courtesy of Keion Reed
Londyn's mother was working at a nonprofit cafe dedicated to anti-violence when the shooting happened. Choking back sobs at a news conference, Andrea Samuels said she cried every time she looked at her daughter's picture.
"I'm hurt," Samuels, 22, said, "because that was my baby."
Reed recalled Londyn trying to make him smile when he was down. And he seethed at her killer, later named by police as 19-year-old Darnell Ramee.
"My daughter didn't do anything to him," Reed said. "Why did she have to die?"
Ramee remains in jail on charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder. If convicted, he faces life in prison

[DMC]

Yay, more emotive bovine level stupidity and red herrings.

[FromWayDowntown]

It's not about taking away the 2nd Amendment. It's about making its application more sensible, so that people who shouldn't be handling guns can't get them as easily & legaly.

I think people should be required to pass a battery of tests in order to purchase a gun, basically proving they're not re ed, mentally ill or have a criminal history. I also think there should be an age requirement, just like there's an age requirement for getting a driver's license. I don't give a whether your kid understands gun safety more than if he/she understands road safety.

To me this just common sense stuff. It's far from a cure, but it's not intended to be because it's only part of a patchwork on how to deal with gun violence.

It's a sensible way to square the right to bear arms with the need to ensure that sensible safety precautions are in place.

I don't think any reasonable person actually thinks the Second Amendment should be abolished. But it does seem like the more obvious it becomes that some limitations should be appropriate, the more rancorous the cry becomes to make it, essentially, limitless.