The two recent emails from John Farnam below are well worth reading.
-Gary
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10 Aug 12

Church shootings? Nothing new:

On Sunday, 30 June 1985, a deadly shooting rampage took place at the First Chinese Baptist Church, located in the Chinatown District of Los Angeles,CA.

A disgruntled, former member of the church, armed with a handgun (1911) and several spare magazines, showed up just minutes before the morning worship service was about to begin. He walked up the aisle and immediately murdered the church’s senior deacon, an assistant pastor, and one parishioner. Two victims were dead at the scene. The third died that evening at a nearby hospital. All shots were to the head at contact distance or nearly so.

There were 350 other worshipers seated in the sanctuary that Sunday morning, among whom was an off-duty Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy, Donald Leverence, who was attending with several friends.

The perpetrator, Dang Bong Jow, described by church officials who knew him personally as ’emotionally disturbed,’ was then shot and killed by the heroic deputy, who, using his service pistol, stood up in his pew and fatally wounded Jow.

Jow was DRT. Leverence was unhurt.

Jow had abruptly left the Church several years before, after being divorced. His estranged wife and their children continued to attend. There was some speculation that Jow was looking for her, but she was not in the sanctuary at the time.

There was also speculation that Jow would have continued firing at worshipers until he ran out of ammunition, had not our dauntless deputy gunned him down. Or, Jow may have planned on committing suicide in front of the congregation. Of course, we’ll never know. In any event, the Deputy cut short his rampage!

As is the case with more recent violent incidents in churches, the only thing that stops rampaging murderers, now called “active-shooters” (when using guns, not sure what they’re called when using knives, bludgeons, machetes, et al), is good men and women, who carry guns on a regular basis, who happen to be there, and who are willing and prepared to defend the innocent.

Nothing else- not all the conspicuously-placed signs, interminable ordinances, endless CCTV cameras (connected to monitors that no one watches), and maudlin speeches by mayors and assorted other politicians we can muster, seems to deter active murderers in the slightest.

Imagine that!

“Our most persistent delusion is that evil is curable through legislation”
TB Reed
/John (John S. Farnam)

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11 Aug 12

Insane? This from a friend in the medical system:

“Milos Forman’s 1975 feature film, ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ starring Jack Nicholson, based on Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel of the same title, made a clever and passionate case against in-patient care for the chronically mentally-ill.

That side of the argument eventually prevailed!

Mass murders of the innocent are nothing new, as pointed-out in your last Quip, but they are more frequent today than forty years ago, and the reason has nothing to do with guns!

Nearly every wanton murderer currently in the headlines is insane, practically by definition. After the fact, it invariably comes out that everyone around them, particularly immediate family, knew full well they were insane. But, there was little anyone could do.

Here’s why:

Forty years ago, this society collectively decided that in-patient care for the chronically mentally ill was not cool, an attitude reflected in the above-noted film. Thus, mental hospitals, and what used to be called ‘insane asylums,’ were, one by one, shut down. Residents who could conceivably be treated as out-patients (and many who couldn’t!) were unceremoniously jettisoned into the street to fend for themselves. The cynical euphemism was ‘main-streaming.’ Many, probably most, joined the ranks of the ‘homeless,’ as families, in many cases, wanted nothing to do with them. Some did rejoin their families, but subsequently received little in the way of professional care and treatment.

‘Neighborhood clinics’ that were supposed to assist them, for the most part, never materialized.

Most among the chronically mentally-ill never commit violent crimes, but among them there are a few extremely dangerous lunatics, and they are at large in our society. They used to be called ‘criminally insane,’ although we’re not allowed to use that term any more. And, there is no mechanism in place for even monitoring them.

In fact, it has been said that the Cook County Jail in Chicago, and the LA County Jail in CA, are in direct competition for the dubious title of ‘world’s largest insane asylum!’

So, as a society, we’re currently suffering from this forty-year-old mistake. We do need mental hospitals after all, as does every civilization! The chronically mentally-ill will be with us, in one form or another, no matter what we do, or don’t do. There needs to be places where their families can send them for treatment. The only other choice, in many cases, is to abandon them, and that is currently the fate of many.

Pretending they are not there has not worked out well, as we see!”

Comment: At the risk of repeating myself, as a taxpayer I don’t like paying for mental hospitals, any more than I like paying for jails and prisons. However, as we’re learned, and continue to painfully re-learn, it is ultimately money well spent!

/John (John S. Farnam)

Now media wants us to take advice on guns from a serial killer? WTF?!?!
-Gary

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/son-sam-david-berkowitz-speaks-daily-news-decries-violence-senseless-prays-victims-notorious-1976-77-killing-spree-article-1.1133269

-edited to add my response to an FB comment on this post in which someone agreed that glorifcation of guns was a problem-

I disagree with the premise that the “glory” of guns is the problem…If we are to advocate the 2nd Amendment, we are necessarily “glorifying” the gun and civilian possession of guns as the ultimate extension of the 2nd Amendment and the freedom the 2nd Amendment is meant to protect. The fact is, our society was formed by armed insurrection and wouldn’t be possible if that single “tool” hadn’t been available to our ancestors.

My issue with the article above is that Berkowitz didn’t commit his crimes because of the glorification of the gun. Berkowitz is exhibiting classic criminal behavior here and the author’s premise is classic liberal drivel. Berkowitz is not accepting responsibility for his own actions and the premise being pushed is that the gun or glorification therein made him do it. At the time of Berkowitz conviction, he said his neighbor’s dog told him do it. So I’m unwilling to accept this logic because it very much in line with the concept that spoons and the “glorification” of food we see with all these “foodie” shows and channels are making people fat.

I’m obviously not saying I like or promote gun violence but, violence is violence in my opinion. The tool used to commit that violence is irrelevant. Violence is either lawful or not. Gang violence is unlawful violence and that violence, regardless of the tool used, must be minimized. But, it is the violence that is glorified. Gangs have always been part of American culture but, for the last twenty-five years, modern gang violence and the “thug life” itself has been glorified in pop culture, movies, and the music industry via “gangsta” rap and advocacy of the “gangsta” lifestyle. Now, life imitates “art” and you have a whole generation of people who think being a drug king-pin or pimp are good things.

Al Pacino’s “Tony Montana” character in the film “Scarface” is an idol to many gangbangers as are many of the Depression Era gangsters like Al Capone. None other than Curtis “50-Cent” Jackson once said as much in an interview and went further by saying the problem lies in the fact these guys always think they’ll get out of “the game” before they die in a hail of bullets or get hauled off to jail for life. Being “young, dumb, and full of ‘you know what,'” they can’t see past their own nose and are only concerned with living in the moment or perhaps the next couple minutes. There is no concern or planning for the future and what’s worse, few place any value on their own life or that of anyone else. Broken families and bad social policies only perpetuate these issues. So if there is one thing we can agree on, it is that fixing families and strengthening of American culture to eschew the “thug life” would be the obvious way of combating this issue.

-Gary

In the real world, bullets launched at living creatures are all charged with the same job.  One way or another, a bullet must penetrate the outer layers and get in deep enough to break load bearing bones, disrupt the central nervous system, and/or cut through the heart, lungs, major blood vessels or other organs.  So to that end, no area of the body makes a better target than a four to six-inch strip down the midline of the body between the head and groin.  This is of course, ideal and things change in the real world such that we aren’t necessarily presented this wondrous landing strip for bullets but, take a moment to think about what lies in this strip of real estate.

If we could see through all the layers, at the center of it all is bundle of nerve fibers known as the spinal cord which happens to smell like “hot dogs” to your truly and is responsible for directing all motor control signals between the brain and the body.  The spinal cord is surrounded and in fact armored by bones and other tissues.  These bones and tissues are the vertebrae and discs that make up the spine or spinal column that resembles a stack of “marshmallows” (vertebrae) with “grapes” (discs) squished between them.  Forming the core of the circulatory system and positioned on either side of the spinal column, lie the large blood vessels or “hoses” that lead to/from the heart and lungs, down the spine past the kidney toward the pelvis where they bifurcate or split before continuing on to the legs.  Regardless of caliber, bullets that penetrate deep enough to hit these “hot dogs and hoses, marshmallows and grapes,” present us the highest probability of incapacitating a threat in the shortest period of time with fewer rounds fired.

So the point lurking here is that what you hit is more important than the caliber with which you hit.  All that matters in terms of caliber is that the bullet be capable of penetrating deep enough to reach these areas.  Modern defensive/duty ammunition in service calibers such as 9x19mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP are all tested using FBI protocols to be sure their bullets can do just that.  Bonded jacketed hollow point ammunition in .40 S&W dominates in the police market largely because such ammunition does offer advantages in continuing to perform as desired after passing through intermediate barriers like auto-glass, sheet metal, and drywall.  Most of us, if we have to defend our own lives, are not likely to have to shoot through a car or the interior walls of a building to do so.  To that end, for most of us, “nine is just fine.”  Shoot the caliber with which you can deliver fast, accurate, and controlled fire to the areas discussed above.  We recommend starting at 9mm but, few people shot with .380 have ever said, “that bullet isn’t big enough.”  Your mileage may vary.

-Gary