We “love” guns in NM. We have lots of guns in NM. Lots of injuries and death by guns. Lots of violence and fear due to guns. More guns. More guns! More guns!!! There is nothing we can do about gun violence except buy a guy and celebrate your freedom. 

NM’s love affair with guns – ABQJournal Online

By Colleen Heild / Journal Investigative Reporter

Monday, January 18th, 2016 at 12:05am

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico loves its guns.

Nearly 50 percent of New Mexicans have a gun in the home, according to a 2013 survey by public health researchers from Columbia University and Boston University. The national gun ownership rate was 29 percent.

As for ownership of federally registered firearms, such as machine guns, short-barreled shotguns and short-barreled rifles, New Mexico ranked fourth per capita in the United States in 2013, according to Bloomberg News. …

And it is one of the most dangerous states in the country for gun violence, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The state in 2014 had the eighth highest rate of firearms deaths in the United States, considering suicide, homicide and accidental deaths caused by guns. That ranking was up from ninth place a year earlier.

Over the past five years, the number of visits to New Mexico emergency rooms for firearm injuries increased 65 percent, according to New Mexico Department of Health.

High violence rates

Federal data shows New Mexico’s overall firearm injury death rate is more than 1.5 times the U.S. rate. Moreover, the state was deemed the second most dangerous in the country by USA Today, based on violent crimes committed per 100,000 people. …

Department of Health data shows that nearly 70 percent of firearms injury deaths in New Mexico from 2009 to 2013 were due to self-inflicted gunshots. About 27 percent died from intentional injury or homicide. Less than 1 percent of firearm deaths were accidental.

Meanwhile, New Mexico emergency department visits involving firearm injuries increased dramatically from 2010 to 2014.

The largest increase involved firearm injuries caused by assaults, which increased by about 53 percent, said Dr. Tierney Murphy with the state DOH. Accidental or unintentional firearm visits increased by 34 percent, and self-inflicted firearm injuries jumped 20 percent over the five-year period.

“When you look at the emergency department visits for firearm related injuries, it primarily affects males,” Murphy said, noting that 86 percent of the visits involved male patients. “The highest rate was among young males (age) 15 to 24.”

NM’s love affair with guns – ABQJournal Online

Report: NM fourth-most dangerous state in the U.S. | The NM Political Report

New Mexico is once again the fourth-most dangerous state in the country, at least according to the latest yearly survey of violent crime by 24/7 Wall Street.

The annual survey from the financial news website is based mainly from violent crime rates from the FBI 2014 Uniform Crime Report, which is the most comprehensive look at crime in the nation. …

New Mexico’s violent crime rate ranked at 597.4 incidents for every 100,000 residents. That’s more than one-and-a-half times the national rate of 366 incidents per every 100,000 people.

The report notes that immigrants and Hispanics will feel the brunt of the crimes more than other groups because of high poverty rates in those communities and the link between poverty and crime. New Mexico is home to the second-highest poverty rate in the nation.

Aggravated assault is the most frequent violent crime in New Mexico, according to the report, which happened to an average of 422 of every 100,000 people.

New Mexico has the second-highest rate of incidents in the country with 3,542 such incidents for every 100,000 people.

New Mexico previously ranked fourth and second on the same survey from 2013 and 2012, respectively. The financial news website also ranked New Mexico high on another unflattering list—as the worst-run state in the U.S.

Report: NM fourth-most dangerous state in the U.S. | The NM Political Report

A bunch of armed white thugs have taken over public land — stolen that land from you and me. They wave their weapons at anyone who dares to approach our public land. As they fester in their rathole, they draw more and more sick whackos to their pit. This is Amerikkka. You’ll only take Amerikkka from their cold dead hands.

It is a stark reminder of “white privilege” (white power?) that armed white terrorists get away with something we all know would be over if they were non-white. A white guy with a gun can steal from everyone but a black kid with a hoodie would be dead.

Happy Martin Luther King Day. He was killed by an armed white lunatic just like these pompous self-important thugs. As was JFK and others. Peace.

(I’m still waiting for the NRA, one responsible gun owner, or a single Mormon to condemn these criminals.)

Have I missed the NRA’s condemnation of the armed thugs in Oregon? Has a single “responsible gun owner” called this “irresponsible”? Has one pro-gun person said publicly it is wrong to use guns to steal and threaten fellow citizens?

The NRA’s silence is support. They’ll gladly do business with terrorists, with anyone who’ll buy guns and bullets and scare other people into the same. Worse, these braying jackasses and tin-pot revolutionaries are the poster children of the NRA: bold white men holding an oppressive government at bay with guns and more guns. Defenders of the Constitution, though they are only interested in a dozen words therein. Proof that the only law we need is a “good guy with a gun.” Heroes of the NRA? If you haven’t burned your NRA card yet, you’re a co-conspirator in sedition.

I’ve heard it is the duty of peace-loving Muslims to condemn each act of violence linked to Islam. Where are the Mormons on this? Where’s Harry Reid, gun-loving Mormon, on this? These dangerous lunatics believe god is guiding them and protecting them. (Fools don’t realize the reviled Federal government is protecting them. But their grasp of reality is stretched.)

The armed turds in Oregon aren’t heroes. They are bullies, pompous, and self-righteous. They are Confederates and will share the same fate.

WHEN UNSPEAKABLE VIOLENCE IS ENACTED UPON INNOCENTS, SAY, IN A SCHOOL OR MOVIE THEATRE, AND THE SURVIVORS AND THE FAMILIES OF THE VICTIMS, IN THE THROES OF PAIN AND ANGUISH, WANT TO ASK, “WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?,” “HOW DID
THIS HAPPEN?,” AND “WHAT CAN WE DO TO PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING AGAIN?,” AND ONE OF THE AREAS THEY (STILL WE) FOCUS THEIR SCRUTINY IS THAT OF THE HIGHLY EFFICIENT WEAPONS OF WARFARE THAT ARE CASUALLY AVAILABLE TO US CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES, THEN WE FRIGHTENED GUN OWNERS HAVE THE CHANCE TO BE HUMAN AND SAY, “OKAY, THIS IS A HORRIBLE TRAGEDY. LET’S OPEN UP A CONVERSATION HERE.” INSTEAD, I’M SURMISING, OUT OF FEAR, WE THROW UP OUR DEFENSES AND BEHAVE IN A VERY CONFRONTATIONAL WAY TOWARD SUCH A CONVERSATION , CITING THE SECOND AMENDMENT AS THE ULTIMATE PROTECTION OF OUR RIGHTS, NO MATTER HOW RIDICULOUSLY MURDEROUS THE FIREARM, WHICH, UNFORTUNATELY, MAKES US LOOK LIKE DICKS.
NICK OFFERMAN

If I didn’t find the public voice of gun ownership so bellicose and arrogant and self-serving, I’d feel sorry for people who are so sure they are in constant danger that they must have a gun for comfort. Or for people who are so limited in entertainment options that they must have a gun for fun. Or for people who are so enamored of killing animals, they have to have a gun. Saddest and most frightening are those who believe the only reason they are free is because of guns. I’d feel sorry for them, if I weren’t disgusted and tired of the bullshit.

If you ever wade through the arguments presented by pro-gun commenters, you’ll distill their arguments along these lines:

Any object can be used to hurt or kill someone: screwdriver, hammer, car, gun. Therefore, no rules can apply to a gun that don’t make sense applied to any other object. Do you really want to register screwdrivers? If you do, only criminals will have screwdrivers. (Just to be clear: rules that do apply to potentially deadly objects like cars CANNOT apply to guns.)

No object is mentioned in the Second Amendment other than guns. There is no ambiguity in that amendment: it emphatically states everyone can have any gun. Therefore, guns are the one object we can’t “restrain.” The Second Amendment trumps all others, except for free speech, and you better have a gun when you exercise that. Gun ownership is an inalienable right. (Freedom from violence is not. However, the only way to be free from violence is to own a gun.)

No object can be used for self-defense like a gun. Not a baseball bat, not a knife, not a fist. Therefore, nothing is a better defense than having a gun. Efforts to control gun violence are a literal attack on people and intended to tie them up so the bad guys win. Why do you hate freedom?

Guns are fun. Guns are traditional. Guns build character. Guns do more good than harm. Guns do no harm at all. If you don’t have a gun, you’re not entitled to an opinion (rather, your opinion is wrong).

No one is responsible for accidental death involving a gun. Not the gun owner. Not the guy who made money selling the gun owner the gun (without safety lock / cabinet or training) and the bullets (armor-piercing — it’s his right!). Not the industry that grows fat on blood. Not the politicians they own. Not the rabble they rouse for their endless profit. After all, it could have happened with a can opener. Do you really want to outlaw can openers?

I tell gun owners no one is going to take their gun away. I agree to what I can about data. Then, I ask: what can we do about gun violence. Most answer with more of the above “logic.” Some mention “mental health.” Are you willing to pay a tax on gun-related sales for mental health services?

Diane Dimond sums it up nicely.

Albuquerque Journal | States doing what Congress won’t on gun control laws By Diane Dimond / Crime and Justice

Eighteen states have passed tougher gun buyer background check laws. Nine states have adopted laws to keep guns out of the hands of known domestic abusers. …

Yes, 99.9 percent of all gun owners are responsible citizens, so it raises the question: Where are they on the issue of keeping firearms out of the hands of those who would use them for ill? To blindly accept the NRA’s age-old mantra of “We already have enough laws!” solves nothing. It leaves us powerless against the next mass shooting, the next gang carnage.

It’s easy to pooh-pooh the various suggestions about how to keep guns out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them. Critics of change seem to think that, unless a proposal is 100 percent guaranteed to fix the gun problem in America, we should reject it.

I’ll take constitutionally sound baby steps over years of Washington’s inaction any day.

Albuquerque Journal | States doing what Congress won’t on gun control laws

This gun owner should never be allowed to own a gun again. He should surrender all guns, make apology and restitution to the woman, and be required to make numerous public appearances to warn others about stupid mistakes.

The person who sold this gun should prove that he provided this owner with gun cleaning lessons. If he cannot, he should never own or sell another gun again. We reduce mistakes by motivating people not to make mistakes. Apparently not shooting someone isn’t motivation enough. Hit the fools where it hurts. Zero tolerance.

By Associated Press

Wednesday, January 6th, 2016 at 2:28pm

………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ……….

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Police in Colorado Springs say a woman sitting on a couch in her apartment was shot through a wall after her neighbor accidentally fired his gun while cleaning it.

The woman was taken to the hospital after Tuesday night’s shooting with what police described as a minor injury.

Police say 51-year-old Frank Dawkins accidentally fired his gun and the round went through a wall separating his apartment from his neighbor’s. Dawkins, who called police to report the shooting, was arrested on a count of illegal discharge of a firearm.

Dawkins was not being held in jail Wednesday and a phone number listed for him was not working.