Kyle Kashuv: Forgotten Voice from Marjory Stoneman Douglas

19 thoughts on “Kyle Kashuv: Forgotten Voice from Marjory Stoneman Douglas”

1. Wow. Seems to me, one of the very first “warning signs” of the potential for harm would be the young people (mostly boys) who are fascinated by guns early on, enjoy shooting and feel more comfortable with one than without. THAT’S who I’d keep an eye on. Early intervention and prevention, Rep. Rutherford? Sports, music, academics, volunteering – how about stuff like that for hobbies for middle & high school kids! None of these shooters has just “acted out” with no previous familiarity with, or access to firearms.

   Reply

   1. Molon Labe……Your words reek of a Liberal. You people are going to wake up a sleeping giant. You will not enjoy his company once he is fully awoken (that is ‘woke’ for you black folks).

      Reply

   2. Neither did they act out with Paternal influence….oops, you libs said men are as necessary as bikes for fish.
      Neither did they act out without prescription drugs…..another panacea that you lefties pushed on America.

      Young men who learn about guns, enjoy guns and use them responsibly-as YOU described in your colloquy- are NOT the ones doing the shooting.
      Or knifing.
      Or bombing.

      Feminism and liberalism created the killers, nothing else. Nothing.

      Reply

   3. School shootings by girls in America:

      October 2, 1953 Chicago, Illinois

      14-year-old Bernice Turner killed 14-year-old Pasquale Coletta inside the science classroom at Kelly High School.

      The shooting was later ruled to be accidental.

      March 30, 1960 Alice, Texas

      14-year-old Donna Dvorak, brought a target pistol to Dubose Junior High School, and fatally shot 15-year-old Bobby Whitford, in their 9th-grade science class.

      Dvorak believed Whitford posed a threat to one of her girlfriends.

      January 30, 1968 Miami, Florida

      16-year-old Blanche Ward killed fellow student, 16-year-old Linda Lipscomb, at Miami Jackson High School.

      According to Ward, she was threatened with a razor by Lipscomb during an argument over a fountain pen, and in the ensuing struggle the gun went off.

      October 17, 1978 Lanett, Alabama

      13-year-old Robin Robinson, was paddled by Lanett Junior High School principal, Lewis Hoggs, after having a disagreement with another student.

      Robinson left the school, and returned with a .22-caliber handgun and shot Hoggs, grazing the top of his head.

      Robinson was arrested two hours later about two blocks from the school, and later charged in juvenile court.

      January 29, 1979 San Diego, California

      Cleveland Elementary School shooting: 16-year-old Brenda Spencer opened fire on Grover Cleveland Elementary School from her home across the street, killing two adults and wounding nine people.

      November 27, 1985 Spanaway, Washington

      14-year-old Heather Smith, killed 15-year-old Gordon Pickett, who was her ex-boyfriend, and 14-year-old Christopher Ricco, in the gymnasium at Spanaway Junior High School.

      She later took her own life.

      September 18, 1991 Crosby, Texas

      17-year-old Arthur Jermel Jack, was killed by 15-year-old LaKeeta Cadoree, in the cafeteria at Crosby High School.

      September 17, 1996 State College, Pennsylvania

      19-year-old Jillian Robbins, killed one student and injured two outside Pennsylvania State University’s HUB–Robeson Center.

      January 8, 1999 Carrollton, Georgia

      15-year-old Andrea Garrett was found dead, and 17-year-old Jeff Miller seriously wounded in the girls’ restroom at Central Carrollton County High School, after a suicide pact because Garrett’s mother had previously forbidden her to see Miller.

      School shootings by honor students in America:

      December 30, 1974 Olean, New York

      During a two-and-a-half-hour siege, 18-year-old honor student, Anthony Barbaro, the best on his rifle team, killed three adults in and around his high school and wounded eleven other persons.

      He shot from the windows out at the street and neighborhood.

      The school was closed for the Christmas holiday.

      May 18, 1978 Austin, Texas

      13-year-old John Daniel Christian, son of Lyndon B. Johnson’s former press secretary George Christian, killed his English teacher, 29-year-old Wilbur Grayson, with his father’s rifle in front of approximately thirty classmates at Murchison Junior High School.

      Christian was arrested and charged but not prosecuted; he was committed to a mental hospital where he was treated for a period and released.

      March 2, 1987 De Kalb, Missouri

      After constant teasing about his weight, 12-year-old honors student Nathan Ferris killed a 13-year-old classmate, Timothy Perrin, after he bullied him, then turned the gun on himself.

      School shooting by school principals in America:

      February 2, 1960 Hartford City, Indiana

      44-year-old school principal Leonard Redden killed teachers Harriett Robson and Minnie McFerren inside their classrooms at William Reed School.

      Redden then fled to a wooded area where he killed himself.

      School shootings by mothers in America:

      October 24, 1984 Celina, Ohio

      45-year-old Shirley Shindeldecker, killed school bus driver 54-year-old Gene Green, as he stopped to pick up the son of Shindeldecker’s estranged husband.

      After serving nineteen months of her sentence, Shindeldecker was found innocent by reason of insanity, and released.

      May 20, 1988 Winnetka, Illinois

      30-year-old Laurie Dann, killed 8-year-old Nick Corwin, inside Hubbard Woods School.

      Five additional students were wounded.

      Dann later committed suicide after taking hostages in a nearby home.

      School shootings by grandmothers in America:

      April 26, 1978 Dallas, Texas

      38-year-old Woodrow Porter, a janitor at Paul Dunbar Elementary School, was killed by the 56-year-old grandmother of an 8-year-old who was allegedly spanked by Porter earlier.

      School shootings by former town marshals in America:

      May 16, 1986 Cokeville, Wyoming

      Cokeville Elementary School hostage crisis: 43-year-old former town marshal David Young, and his 47-year-old wife, Doris Young, took 136 children and eighteen adults hostage at Cokeville Elementary School.

      Reply

2. I grew up around guns and the people who used them in WWII to defend this country from the evil of fascism.

   There were guns in the house from the time I was young.

   We did not fondle them, nor did we play with them, because we were taught by parents actually functioning as parents. as opposed to those who just drop a litter and move on, leaving them to fend for themselves, that guns are not toys.

   I was taught gun safety at the age of ten as a Boy Scout.

   I was hunting small game on my own as a boy.

   I never shot up anything, nor had an inclination to.

   And I’m 72 now.

   So there is a whole lot of bull**** being peddled here with this “warning signs” crap.

   I would say the real warning signs aren’t a fascination with guns, but a fascination with violence and doing harm.

   A warning sign would be the violent video games these children play, and the malicious comments they make about each other on Snapchat, which parents apparently can’t monitor, and Facebook, and TWITTER.

   And yes, the psych drugs that are being forced on these young people by an out-of-control society.

   Speaking of that, there is a young woman up here in my community who is being driven to suicide by drugs being forced on her by that out-of-control society, where a medical doctor can simply write an order to the police to bring this young woman back into psychiatric custody to force drugs on her whenever he pleases.

   That just happened yesterday, where the state police showed up with an arrest order for this young woman because she left a group home where the drugs were being forced on her.

   This monstrous conduct began when she was in school, and the Child Protective Services up here were the facilitators.

   The girl was a good student and promising athlete, and all of a sudden, she wouldn’t go to school.

   Enter Child Protective Services and the drugs.

   She was taken into custody and forced on drugs that make her suicidal.

   She is refusing to take the drugs, knowing they make her suicidal, which now has the police involved, on the side of the doctor making her take these drugs.

   Refusing to take psych drugs has essentially made her into a fugitive from the law, as she spends her life in hiding, afraid of the police.

   Her life has been ruined, not by her, but by the psych drugs being forced on her by a doctor who is using her as a drug experiment.

   And here, we are worried about guns.

   How stupid.

   But oh so modern-day America it isn’t funny.

   Reply

3. Kyle was “aggressively questioned by school administrators and local law enforcement after posting on social media that he fired an assault weapon at a gun range with his dad.”

   “Junior Kyle Kashuv said he was brought in for questioning Monday by a school security officer and a Broward County deputy in what he says was an attempt to intimidate him.”

   “After first being questioned by a school security officer, a Broward County deputy entered the room and sat behind the teen, Kashuv said. The deputy began asking Kashuv who the rifle belonged to and who he went shooting with. Kashuv said he asked if he could record the interview and was told that he couldn’t. The teen said he felt like the deputy was trying to get him to incriminate his father.”

   https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/parkland-kid-draws-fire-for-shooting-ar-15-at-gun-range/2018/04/24/48ceb954-482b-11e8-8082-105a446d19b8_story.html?utm_term=.4569f6f5b065

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   1. No reflection on you whatsoever, David Cowan, and no disrespect intended, but all this talk about “assault weapons” sounds so absolutely stupid.

      What is anybody “assaulting” with a semi-automatic weapon?

      When Kyle posted on social media that he fired an assault weapon at a gun range with his dad, which is no longer a very intelligent thing to do in this country, with all the hysteria raging, what exact weapon was he talking about?

      And what made that weapon an “assault weapon?”

      That is what I would like to know, and still don’t – what in the hell is an “assault weapon?”

      Take the Miami Herald article “Deputies took cover during Parkland massacre, cop says — and one knew where shooter was” by Nicholas Nehamas on 24 April 2018, for example:

      MIAMI – Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies were taking cover behind cars and a tree as they responded to the worst school shooting in Florida history – and one of them thought he knew where the shooter was, according to an officer report released Tuesday by Coral Springs Police Department.

      But the BSO deputies didn’t immediately attempt to track down shooter Nikolas Cruz or aid the wounded, according to the report by Coral Springs officer Bryan Wilkins, which recounts his actions at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.

      Wilkins wrote that he arrived at Stoneman Douglas within minutes of an active shooter alert.

      BSO was already there.

      “I saw approximately four Broward County Sheriff’s Office vehicles parked … with their personnel taking up exterior positions behind their vehicles,” Wilkins wrote in the report.

      “I drove up just west of the campus building 1200, exited my vehicle, grabbed my AR-15 rifle and donned on my tactical/medical gear.”

      end quotes

      Now, there is a police officer going into an “assault type” situation, in that he was going after an active shooter armed with, we are told, an AR-15 “assault weapon,” and yet, he is calling his AR-15, likely a full automatic version, simply an AR-15 rifle.

      So what was the difference between his AR-15 rifle and the shooter’s AR-15 “assault weapon?”

      They are both nothing more than a hollow metal tube bored out to 5.56 mm.

      And then we have this from a New York Post article entitled “Cuomo slams gun control proposals as ‘incremental at best’” by Kirstan Conley on March 1, 2018, to wit:

      The governor slammed Sen. Marco Rubio for saying New York’s Safe Act allows people to modify an automatic weapon by removing a piece of “plastic” to make the outlawed firearm legal.

      “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Cuomo said.

      “Assault weapons are banned.”

      “If you change the assault weapon so it’s no longer an assault weapon then it’s a different story but assault weapons are banned.”

      end quotes

      Now what in hell is that political gibberish supposed to mean?

      How do you change an assault weapon so it’s no longer an assault weapon?

      By taking off a piece of plastic?

      Okay.

      Which piece of plastic?

      Which piece of plastic is it that makes something into an assault weapon?

      This is how stupid this whole debate has become, and people like this Kyle Kashuv don’t do anybody any favors by talking as if there were in fact some specific rifle that wasn’t really a rifle, but an “assault weapon,” instead.

      I’ve probably been on more actual combat assaults than Kyle has, and the real assault weapons were 105 howitzers, .50-caliber machine guns, M-60 machine guns, 2.75 inch rockets, and mini-guns, not the M-16, which was a defensive weapon.

      Are any of those what Kyle was firing with his dad at the range?

      And that brings us back in time a bit to the shooting of Charles Vacca, who on August 25, 2014, was accidentally shot and killed while instructing a nine-year-old girl in how to shoot an Uzi.

      Now, is an Uzi an assault weapon?

      Getting back to that shooting, the accident occurred at the Arizona Last Stop gun range also known as “Bullets and Burgers” in White Hills, Arizona, where Vacca had worked for about eighteen months.

      According to county law officials the shooting is being viewed as an industrial accident.

      So, is the Uzi then a piece of industrial equipment?

      According to Wikipedia, the handy reference, it was legal for Arizona Last Stop to own the fully automatic Uzi because it was manufactured and purchased prior to the passage of the Firearm Owners Protection Act in 1986 and added to the NFA machine gun registry where all fully automatic civilian owned firearms are registered.

      The girl reportedly said the Uzi was “too much” for her after she fired the weapon and was unable to control the muzzle rise, causing the barrel to be directed at Vacca.

      Vacca is believed to have died from a single shot to the head.

      Writing for National Review Online, Robert B. Young wrote that only one other incident had occurred in which a child killed someone with an automatic weapon, and therefore concluded that “two incidents in six years do not an epidemic make, not even a trend.”

      He also concluded that as gun ownership increased, the frequency of serious gun accidents involving children had decreased, attributing this to “improved education for young people becoming acquainted with firearms”.

      end quotes

      But I am finding this discussion on guns (not with you, David Cowan) to be so ridiculous because of all the hype and hysteria, that it is difficult to be a participant.

      Reply

4. Our problem, David Cowan’s and myself, is that we are trained in the rigors of science, such as they were before Scott Pruitt, anyway, so that words have concrete and specific and agreed on meanings, to prevent chaos and what is known as “Tower of Babel” syndrome where everybody speaks their own language, and words have absolutely no meaning whatsoever, or any meaning under the sun depending on the day of the week, the angle of the sun, and the specific circumstances in which the words are uttered, which takes us out of the realm of science and over into the realm of mealy-mouthed hack politicians like Young Andy Cuomo of corrupt New York State who wouldn’t know an “assault weapon” from his own rectum, and their hack lawyers who can twist and turn words and phrases until they are so fantastic as to defy the imagination, which is what American politics is all about today.

   The play on people’s fears and emotions, because the American people are so easy to manipulate, like putty in the hands of the slick politician like Young Andy, who believes that it is some piece of plastic that makes an ordinary rifle into an “assault weapon.”

   Thus, in the extreme hypothetical case that I were to have an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, which I don’t and wouldn’t, and I stripped off the cheap plastic and replaced it with wood, it would no longer be an “assault weapon,” even though mechanically, nothing else had changed.

   When the discussion gets down to that level of stupidity, and it is stupid from the perspective of an engineer trained in weapons by the U.S. Army, then it is no longer a discussion, just stupid talk after that, because there is no common basis anymore – just undefined, nebulous terms intended to play on people’s fears.

   And there is where we have descended to in this country – rationality out the door, to be replaced by hype, hysteria, raw emotions and outright fear.

   How pathetic when you think about it, but who does, anymore?

   Think about things, I mean, instead of cowering and huddling in fear?

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5. “Assault-anything” is an emotion-laden term used to bias the perspective of an objective individual. It has no real meaning.

   That said, in truth, every semi-automatic gun, rifle, pistol, and shotgun that takes a detachable magazine is an “assault weapon”. Every one of them. Because the “standard capacity” magazine can be swapped out for a “high-capacity” magazine in just seconds.

   There is no logical reason for any semi-automatic gun not to be banned, yet there is a long list of these that are specifically exempted from future legislation.

   And there is no logical reason to restrict the label “assault weapon” to only semi-automatic guns.

   Pump action shotguns are “military-grade” “combat weapons” that are commonly used by the military and police for close-quarters combat. A standard 12 gauge shotgun can spew 185 .24 inch pellets, each capable of killing an adult, in a matter of seconds. Far faster than any AR-15 can spew its .223 bullets. And shotguns have been used in mass killings. In a crowd, every shot is a hit.

   Bolt-action and pump-action rifles are commonly called “deer rifles”, but “sniper rifle” is a more accurate description. A bolt-action rifle was used to kill President Kennedy. A pump action Remington was used to kill Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A bolt action Remington was used to kill a dozen or more people at the Texas Tower. Killed out to ranges of 400 yards, or more. There is no real reason anyone needs a gun with that degree of accuracy or power.

   There are many on these boards who brag that they have “hunting guns” but are calling for the ban of “assault weapons”. Those who are advocating for a ban solely on “assault weapons” are either ignorant or dishonest. There is no other excuse.

   Reply

   1. Carrying forward that logic and looking at the history of “assaults” over the centuries, and the weapons that have been used as “assault weapons,” we have to include slings and stones, spears, javelins, sarissas, crossbows, longbows, pitchforks, etc.

      Consider this from the Warfare History Network:

      Military History

      Ancient Weapons: The Sling

      January 31, 2017

      Although the bow and javelin are more famous ancient weapons, the sling was just as important to the skirmishers of old.

      by Erich B. Anderson

      More than 3,000 years ago, an army of Israelites led by King Saul confronted a force of Philistine invaders in the valley of Elah.

      As the Philistines occupied a mountain on one side of the valley, and the Israelites occupied another on the opposite side, an enormous champion clad from head to foot in bronze, wielding a gigantic spear, emerged from among the front ranks and addressed the Israelites.

      The warrior declared himself as Goliath of Gath and challenged any soldier among them to face him in single combat.

      None of the Israelites was brave enough to fight the mighty Philistine warrior, except for one.

      The challenger was not a soldier, but instead a young shepherd named David.

      At first King Saul refused to let the youth accept the challenge, stating that the boy was too young and inexperienced to defeat such a warrior.

      However, David’s exceptional confidence quickly changed the king’s mind.

      Saul offered David his own armor to wear, yet the shepherd respectfully declined once he realized how greatly the armor hindered his movement.

      Instead, David approached Goliath unarmored, armed simply with a sling in his hand, a sword in its scabbard on his side, and five smooth stones taken from a nearby stream that he kept in a small bag.

      As David got closer to the Philistine, he rushed forward and loaded his sling.

      While still running, he released the missile and struck the giant warrior directly in the forehead, killing him instantly.

      David then beheaded Goliath and brought his head to Jerusalem in triumph.

      Learning from David & Goliath

      The story of David and Goliath is a perfect example of the deadly efficiency of the sling in ancient warfare.

      Although the bow and javelin are much more famous ancient weapons, the sling was just as important to ancient skirmishers.

      Due to the small size of its missiles, making them nearly invisible when released at such high velocities, the sling was particularly hard to defend against.

      This is especially true considering that the blunt trauma caused by the small stones upon impact could damage organs, shatter bones, and cause concussions or kill those struck in the head, even when the victim was armored.

      In the 1st century B.C., the Roman medical writer Celsus stated that sling stones could even penetrate skin and become lodged within a victim’s body.

      The most skilled slingers of the ancient world were even more accurate and had a far greater range than many archers, making them some of the most prized skirmishers available.

      Like the Hebrews, many armies of the ancient world used slingers when conducting sieges because the arching trajectory of sling projectiles meant that they could fly over walls and still strike defenders.

      The armies of the Assyrians also included many slingers within their ranks.

      The Assyrians also used slings effectively in siege warfare.

      In 701 B.C., the Hebrews witnessed the lethality of slingers from the opposite perspective as the Assyrians used the deadly troops to launch missiles over the walls of the Judean city of Lachish while they moved their siege engines into position.

      Reply

6. Paul, now that you have me fired up…

   I have seen posts here and elsewhere suggesting that “No one needs military capable weapons on the streets of America” as justification for banning the AR-15.

   “Need”.

   “Need” is really a deep concept, and it is not given its proper due.

   Who “needs” a gun, and why?

   Is it valid to argue that “military capable weapons” be banned, because no one “needs” them?

   For the sake of debate, let us accept that as truth. “military capable weapons” should be banned, because no one “needs” them.

   It follows, then, that only guns that people “need” will be permitted.

   Why does one “need” a gun?

   Does one “need” a Remington 700 .270 to hunt deer and hogs? No. Because one does not “need” to hunt deer or hogs. In my state of Maryland there is no right to hunt, so no rights are violated by removing the tool “needed” to hunt.

   Does one “need” a Remington 870 12 gauge to hunt ducks and geese? No. Because one does not “need” to hunt ducks and geese.

   Does one “need” any firearm to target shoot, be it skeet or paper targets? No. Because one does not “need” to target shoot.

   Hunting is a sport, frivolous entertainment, and the US Constitution does not acknowledge the right to engage in any sport or entertainment.

   When does one really “need” a firearm?

   The only time one truly “needs” any gun of any type is to prevent or stop an attack. Period. Full stop. End of discussion. And at that time, one “needs” all the firepower available.

   So, let us go back to the fact that no one “needs” a gun to hunt or target shoot. What other objects capable of causing harm can reasonably be banned because no one “needs” them?

   Tobacco. Kills maybe 500,000 a year.
   Alcohol. A major risk factor in suicide, homicide, assaults, rapes, domestic violence, falls, car crashes, drowning, death in fires, and a host of diseases.
   Cars. Kill maybe 32,000 a year. Why would anyone “need” a car capable of exceeding the speed limit?

   Following this logic, I see the potential of substantially lowering mortality and morbidity in the US.

   Reply

   1. You forgot the psych drugs, David, and the pain pills.

      But what am I talking about here – the youth of America NEED the psych drugs to make them normal so they won’t hurt people or themselves, and the American people NEED the pain meds because of how hard it is to get through life here, so we should leave them off the banned list.

      Just ban the guns of all kinds, and life in America will be great,

      Until somebody needing money for some oxycodone or heroin shows up at your door needing some money for their next fix.

      Reply

   2. And David Cowan, thinking over this matter of “need,” and here, let me say I am NOT a fan of guns, if there were no guns, there would be no food, and we would all starve, plain and simple, because the animal world, those pretty little Bambies, and chipmunks, and squirrels and groundhogs or woodchucks, rats, and especially the crows would eat it all before we could, which is something us “poor” folk who have to raise our own food out in the countryside are well aware of and well-acquainted with, while the “up-scale” folks in their condo complexes and gated communities and beach-front resorts, where food delivery seems guaranteed, are totally clueless.

      How many of the “up-scale” folks who want to disarm everyone in this country have watched a flock of crows come down right after you got done seeding a field with corn seed, to watch them methodically dig up every seed and eat it?

      And how much corn do you get from that field after the crows have eaten the seed?

      That answer is none, and without corn to eat, you starve, and I would suppose that the “upscale” people would say, “GOOD RIDDANCE,” because who gives a damn about the “poor” folks in this country having something to eat.

      They think food just happens, because they are privileged and special, and so, are deserving of food being supplied to them as a matter of privilege.

      But as you know, David Cowan, the world does not work that way.

      Food is guaranteed to no one, and producing it is work for somebody, including the hunters who protect it from the ravages of nature.

      Overnight, a groundhog can eat a garden right to the ground.

      Two years ago, I got no zucchini squash or summer squash because each time I would plant, a groundhog would get in, they can climb, afterall, or dig, and eat the plants right to the ground.

      So there is a NEED for some type of projectile weapon to control those nuisance animals, and yes, I am a nature lover, but not to the point of being emotionally-crippled at the thought of poor cute Bambie gracing somebody’s table as the main meal of the day.

      And here I hear the “upscale” folks in their protected-from-everything-including-reality enclaves telling me to just use poison to deal with them, which is one of the most ridiculous ideas there is, because when you poison an animal, that poison is still I the environment, and affects the whole food chain.

      And yes, there is in fact a “right” to hunt in this country that goes back to literally, pre-history, or the whole human race would have been extinguished by nature long ago,

      Consider this on the subject from the National Conference of State Legislatures’ website, to wit:

      State Constitutional Right to Hunt and Fish – 4/20/2017

      Hunting and Fishing a Constitutional Right?

      Contact Jennifer Schultz

      Twenty-one states guarantee the right to hunt and fish in their constitutions, with twenty of those approved via the voters.

      While Vermont’s language dates back to 1777, the rest of these constitutional provisions—in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming—have passed since 1996.

      Florida and New Hampshire statutorily recognize the right to hunt and fish.

      California and Rhode Island have language in their respective constitutions guaranteeing the right to fish, but not to hunt.

      Advocates also consider Alaska’s constitutional language—“Wherever occurring in their natural state, fish, wildlife, and waters are reserved to the people for common use”—as meeting the test because of its strong case law history.

      Oklahoma’s constitution was amended in 2016 to include the right to engage in ranching and farming.

      end quotes

      In New York state, the state DEC website has this to say on that subject:

      Hunting

      Hunting is among the most popular forms of wildlife recreation in New York State.

      Nearly 700,000 New Yorkers and over 50,000 nonresidents hunt in the Empire State.

      New York offers many exciting opportunities to hunt a large variety of wildlife, including big game, small game, game birds and furbearers.

      See Governor Cuomo’s press release announcing “NY Open for Fishing and Hunting,” a plan to streamline hunting and fishing licenses and reduce license fees to support tourism opportunities and benefit sportsmen and sportswomen throughout the state.

      Reply

7. The nation is caught up in a wave of hysteria, goaded on by wealthy anti-gun advocates and media such as CNN and the Washington Post.

   We are in the midst of a witch hunt, to track down and kill every AR-15, yet no one can really explain why. What is so special about the AR-15?

   Nothing, as Paul knows better than I.

   It is rarely used in crime. It is no deadlier than any of the other semi-automatic guns that are specifically exempted from proposed legislation. Many of those exempted guns have also been used in horrific mass shootings, and essentially any repeating firearm can be used to equal effect. But the witch must be killed…

   It is my position that there is no justification for banning any gun. However, if there is justification for banning ANY gun, there is justification for banning EVERY gun.

   I would respect someone who came out and said that they ALL must go, but one rarely hears that.

   Instead we hear hunters and target shooters calling for the banning of AR-15, but not their sporting guns. People such as that are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

   Reply

   1. March 5, 1992 Obetz, Ohio

      Hamilton Middle School: Gordon W. Dye Jr. shot his bully Gregg Johnson in a with a .22-caliber pistol in the school cafeteria.

      Gregg was rushed to Children’s Hospital in Columbus where doctors found the bullet and traced it’s path.

      It had entered between Gregg’s eyes and traveled the nasal sinuses where it shattered bones.

      Its trajectory was parallel to the bottom of the skull and was deflected by part of the skull base.

      This deflection sent the bullet on a downward path, to the adenoids.

      end quotes

      May 14, 1993 Irving, Texas

      17-year-old Max Alexander Martinez, killed 17-year-old Jose Balderas, with a .38 caliber revolver in a hallway in Nimitz High School during a dispute over girls.

      end quotes

      September 29, 1995 Tavares, Florida

      14-year-old student Keith E. Johnson, killed 13-year-old Joey Summerall, at Tavares Middle School with a handgun that he had stolen from his neighbor’s home.

      He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

      end quotes

      February 9, 2004 East Greenbush, New York

      Jon W. Romano in East Greenbush, New York fired two rounds from a shotgun, wounding one teacher.

      He was tackled by the assistant principal and charged with one count of attempted murder.

      end quotes

      September 29, 2006 Cazenovia, Wisconsin

      Weston High School shooting: At around 8 a.m., 15-year-old freshman, Eric Hainstock, entered Weston High School.

      He aimed a 20-gauge shotgun at social studies teacher, Chuck Keller, before it was wrestled from him by school custodian, Dave Thompson.

      Hainstock then shot 49-year-old high school principal, John Alfred Klang, with a .22 caliber revolver.

      Klang died later that afternoon.

      Hainstock was charged and convicted of murder, and is serving a life sentence.

      He will be eligible for parole in 2037.

      end quotes

      February 14, 2008 DeKalb, Illinois

      Northern Illinois University shooting: 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak, shot multiple people with a shotgun in a classroom of Northern Illinois University, killing five and injuring 21, before taking his own life.

      Kazmierczak was not enrolled at the university, but had attended in the years prior to the attack.

      end quotes

      Reply

8. “Now, there is a police officer going into an “assault type” situation, in that he was going after an active shooter armed with, we are told, an AR-15 “assault weapon,” and yet, he is calling his AR-15, likely a full automatic version, simply an AR-15 rifle.

   So what was the difference between his AR-15 rifle and the shooter’s AR-15 “assault weapon?”

   The ones the military have are just called “rifles” (NOT guns!) or by their nomenclature (M16, M4).

   The ones the police have are called “patrol rifles”.

   The ones civilians have are called “assault rifles”.

   Reply

   1. Ah!

      Thanks for that, David!

      That serves to solve the mystery, alright.

      Reply

   2. Damn those assault weapons, they should be banned.

      Look at all the harm they caused here for the truth of that statement:

      Hundred Years’ War

      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

      The English won an emphatic victory at the Battle of Verneuil (17 August 1424).

      At Verneuil, the archers fought to devastating effect against the Franco-Scottish army.

      The effect of the battle was to virtually destroy the Dauphin’s field army and to eliminate the Scots as a significant military force for the rest of the war.

      Reply

9. According to Wikipedia, the small arms of Merrill’s Marauders behind enemy lines in Burma in WWII fighting the Japanese included the .30-06 M1 Garand, the .30-06 M1903A4 sniper rifle, the .30 M1 carbine, the .45 Thompson submachine gun, the .45 M1911 pistol, the .30-06 BAR (M1922 machine rifle version), and the .30 M1919 Browning air-cooled belt-fed machine gun.

   Note the absence of the term “assault weapon.”

   Reply