April 2007 – Page 11 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Apparently I’m a Suicide Risk

A gun in the home leads to higher suicide rates. According to The Harvard School of Public Health:

“Removing all firearms from one’s home is one of the most effective and straightforward steps that household decision-makers can take to reduce the risk of suicide,” Miller said.

“Removing firearms may be especially effective in reducing the risk of suicide among adolescents and other potentially impulsive members of their home,” Miller added.

So this is a new article. But I’m pretty sure this study came out a while ago. The question is, then, why is the media rehashing it now?

While just 5 percent of all suicide attempts involve a gun, the person succeeds in killing himself or herself 90 percent of the time.

People use drugs to attempt suicide in 75 percent of cases, but actually die less than 3 percent of the time, the researchers said, citing other surveys.

What about success rates for slitting wrists, jumping, or throwing oneself in front of a train? It would seem to be that if someone were hell bent on suicide, there are many substitutes. By this logic, we should tear down the Golden Gate Bridge, which is the number one location in the world for people jumping to their doom. I’ve always wondered whether people who use drugs aren’t really all that serious about getting the job done.

Don Imus

Because everyone else has this headline, I figured I should too.Â The fact is, I’ve never listened to the guy.Â Â I really don’t care about what he said, or whether he apologized, or whether he gets fired.Â But apologizing for racist comments to Al Sharpton seems like apologizing to a Kennedy for drunk driving.

Someone Want To Explain…

to this blogger why gun control won’t help Philadelphia? Be polite and respectful, please. I would point out that ending the war on drugs would do more to fix the cities problems than starting a war on guns, which will just give the criminals another black market product to kill each other over, but what do I know?

Some Interesting PA Case Law

Things are kind of slow right now, so I thought I’d drag an old bit of Pennsylvania case law out in Oritz vs. Commonwealth. The money quote:

Because the ownership of firearms is constitutionally protected, its regulation is a matter of statewide concern. The constitution does not provide that the right to bear arms shall not be questioned in any part of the commonwealth, except Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, where it may be abridged at will, but that it shall not be questioned in any part of the commonwealth. Thus, regulation of firearms is a matter of concern in all of Pennsylvania, not merely in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the General Assembly, not city councils, is the proper forum for the imposition of such regulation.

For the foregoing reasons, the order of Commonwealth Court is affirmed.

And with that, the courts threw Philadelphia and Pittsburgh’s assault weapons bans off the books, and upheld statewide preemption.

Wishful Thinking?

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, it’s high noon in the battle over gun control.

(midday Friday)The effort comes at a time when the number of slayings in Philadelphia is edging painfully upward – 105 at last count, the majority of them at the point of a gun. At least 15 bills are back in the pipeline; Gov. Rendell has turned up the volume on his pleas for stronger gun-control measures, and Democrats now control the state House. All this comes at a time when a new poll suggests a majority of Pennsylvanians are willing to accept handgun-sale limits.

Because we can see how well one-gun-per-month in Virginia, and strict handgun regulations in Maryland reduced violence in Washington DC.

Rep. Dan Surra (D., Elk) said that while he sympathized with residents living in high-crime areas, he could not support any gun-restriction bill because in certain quarters of his district, a hunting stronghold in the north-central part of the state, guns are a single-issue item at the polls.

“They will vote you out on this,” Surra said.

Why yes, we will.

“The feeling out here is that proposals that deal with firearms in general are inched toward the precipice, and once you start eroding Second Amendment rights, it’s a cascading effect,” Surra said.

“Guns are part of our culture, too. The difference is we don’t shoot each other,” said Surra, who recalls teaching students to build guns in shop class.

Man.Â I wish he taught my shop class.Â All I got to make was a damned stool.

And although Evans is determined to get the one-handgun-a-month bill to the floor this year, Caltagirone, the new chairman of the Judiciary Committee, does not think he can deliver it. “I don’t have the votes at this point in time,” Caltagirone said, adding that he hopes to work on a compromise that could pass.

Compromise?Â I don’t see where there’s room to compromise on “shall not be questioned” you loser.

Pennsylvania “is a priority state for us,” said Peter Hamm, communications director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence, which teamed with other gun-control groups to form the coalition Pennsylvanians Against Trafficking Handguns in 2005. “We believe there is enough political ability in the legislature to enact change.”

Let them have one-gun-a-month, they won’t go home happy.Â It’s important to fight this.Â There are already laws on the books for tracking multiple handgun sales both at the state and federal level. Â The only reason they want this is to open the door to further restrictions on guns in the commonwealth.

But can we carry a gun without a license?

Apparently the Keystone State has the 24th highest tax burden at 10.8 percent of income on average.Â The highest?Â Vermont, with a tax burden of 14.1 percent.Â I guess there are some advantages to not having a graduated income tax.Â Apparently New York, Maine, Ohio and Rhode Island are pretty tax crazy too.

Sam Katz Blog

Sam Katz, who has run for mayor on the Republican ticket back as far as I can remember, has a blog, apparently.Â He’s offering advise to the current Mayoral candidates.Â At least the Philadelphia media is calling it a blog.Â Â This looks more like a column to me.Â I think the media is a bit challenged on what a blog is.

Slow Blogging

Got in late last night, so didn’t get anything going up for today.Â At work today I have a vendor in to upgrade a software product, and will be busy babysitting that process in addition to other things.Â Will be more busy with blogging once I get home.

Libertarian Disconnects

One thing I notice in talking to libertarian minded people, is there always seems to be one or two issues that make you stray from the puritanical conformity of the movement.Â For me the intellectual caveat I had with libertarians is the inability of libertarian philosophy and thought to deal with the issue of tragedy of the commons.Â I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten older, while I still adhere to libertarian principles, I generally accept many elements of the dogma just aren’t practical for a functioning society.

Someone Call Al Gore

It’s April, I’ve been hanging around in DC all weekend, and I’m really pissed off I didn’t bring my winter coat.Â We went into DC to catch the last weekend of the cherry blossom festival.Â I didn’t come dressed appropriately for close to freezing temperatures and high wind, so we decided to head over to the National Mall and go to the Smithsonian.Â Unfortunately, everyone else who was visiting DC that weekend I think decided the same thing, and the lines were unforgiving.Â Â There were the people at The Mall participating in the rally for the 50 Million Pound Challenge, but lacking similar insulative qualities of this demographic, we decided taking the Metro back to the car was probably the best idea.

That put us back earlier than we intentioned, so Bitter baked some sweets to fill in the time.Â Yum!Â After that it was on to dinner with my evil twin. Â The real Sebastian (I’m the fake Sebastian) seems like a pretty cool guy.Â But I have to say, he’s not like the other progressives I know.Â I think I would have called him “Pro Gun Left-Libertarian”, but I’m from Philadelphia, where progressive probably has some different connotations, and Republicans tend not to think too highly of George W. Bush or the current direction of the party.

Tomorrow Bitter is making her taco ring, which I do so love.Â After the NRA convention next week, I really need to start exercising andÂ getting my weight down.