You may have seen headlines about Newtown shooter Adam Lanza’s “arsenal” of weapons. 

Well, I don’t often commend the New York Times, but thanks, guys, for posting the entire list of items seized under a search warrant.
 
For starters, since Adam took his mother’s AR-15 and two pistols to Sandy Hook Elementary, and left his shotgun in the trunk of his Honda, that left little at home to constitute an arsenal, let alone a cache or even a collection.

Second, since this list was compiled by veteran police officers, I’m a little surprised by some of the entries, including:

 -          An Enfield “Albian” rifle in .323 caliber. Since they also recovered boxes of standard .303 British ammunition, the .323 looks like a typo. So does the Albian. Albion Motor Works in Scotland  made .38 revolvers for Enfield, but I’m not
familiar with an Albian rifle.
 -         A Volcanic .22 caliber starter  revolver. This only fires blanks, so is not a firearm.
 -         A Saiga semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun found in his car, along with TWO magazines containing SEVENTY rounds of ammunition. I’ve seen a 20-round drum for the Saiga, but not one that could hold 35 rounds. 

Please take a look at the published list. I’d appreciate any corrections, clarifications, or additions.

 - Dr. Gatling

Well, the second part of the poll pretty much explains the absurdity of the first.
 
Quinnipiac University, a small school in Hamden, Conn., which does a lot of polling, says it found 91 percent of Florida residents polled favor universal background checks for gun purchases.
 
Trouble is, nobody doing the polling ever explains that the universal background check would require a universal database in order to be efficient. If that were known, perhaps the results would be different. 

The poll also found favor in banning so-called assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines.

But imagine the results of a poll that asked, “Would you favor banning semi-automatic rifles
that look like military rifles, but aren’t?”

Or:  “Would you favor banning magazines that automatically load a bullet each time the trigger is pulled? If
so, how many times would the shooter have to pull the trigger before the magazine became of a high enough capacity to be banned?”

But there is a bright light in the polling tunnel. Apparently they don’t measure the passion of the respondent. And this story says that’s why the Democrats way overestimated the national sentiment for gun control.

-  Dr. Gatling


 

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper cited the number of suicides by firearm as he signed new gun  restrictions into law. 

"However many homicides we have each year with handguns,  we have about 20 percent more suicides," he said. "That number drops  significantly when you have universal background checks."

I’m not sure where the governor gets that figure, but it is NOT from the Centers for Disease Control. 
 
The most recent (2012) data from the CDC simply studies the methods used to commit suicide. 
 
"For Americans, suicide  is the 10th leading cause of death. It resulted in 36,909 lives lost in 2009.
The top three methods used in suicides included firearm (51%), suffocation  (24%), and poisoning (17%)," the CDC said.

Now here’s the interesting part. The CDC says deaths from suicide are only part of the  problem. “More people survive suicide attempts than actually die. In 2010, about  465,000 people received medical care for self-inflicted injuries at emergency  departments across the United States,”  the Centers reported.

However, the CDC does  not break down the percentages of which methods attempted were unsuccessful. So
it stands to reason that, for whatever reason, guns may not always be the deadliest  and most efficient method to end it all.

Perhaps Gov. Hickenlooper theorized that conducting a background check on all gun purchases could save lives. Maybe
he also should have looked into background checks for selling rope and prescription drugs.

- Dr. Gatling


 

 
New York Gov. Andy Cuomo, who rushed gun control legislation through his Democrat-controlled statehouse, apparently is backing off his plan to cap the capacity of ammunition magazines.

Among his ideas – including registering all so-called assault weapons while banning their future sale -- Cuomo’s mag limit would have specified a maximum of seven rounds when locked and loaded.

Even possession of a bigger mag would be a crime, so New Yorkers had a year to send their magazines out of state.

Well, the governor may have had a change of heart, or has seen the political and practical impossibility, and is now suggesting that 10 rounds of magazine capacity be  the new Empire State Standard. But shooters could only load seven. Otherwise they would be over the Legal Limit and subject to prosecution.
 
This is brilliant since we all know that terrorists and  sociopathic massacre-killers would adhere to the rule in order to avoid being charged with additional crimes once caught and brought to justice. 
 
Here’s a better idea, Andrew. Don’t mess with the magazines, just put capacity on the honor system. Ten, 15, 20, 30, whatever size magazine. Just load seven and we’re good to go. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Declare victory and withdraw. And keep your mitts off my mags.

Now doesn’t that make you feel safer? Sorry, folks, but as my dad also used to say, “You can’t fix stupid.”

- Dr. Gatling

Well, New York residents today lost the right to possess detachable ammunition magazines holding more than 7 rounds and buy AR-15 or similar semi-automatic rifles that have one feature resembling an assault weapon -- such as a pistol grip. Any such weapon must now be registered with the state.

A court challenge to Governor Cuomo's late-night lawmaking and waiver of the three-day waiting period for bill passage failed in Albany when the judge said he could not rule on the governor's statement of necessity because previous law made it clear that such statements could not be questioned.

“The Court of Appeals has been clear, is clear, that judicial intervention or judicial review of a message of necessity is not
allowed,” said New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas  McNamara.

Thus, state lawmakers are implementing changes that would not pass in Washington. Colorado has a new magazine limit law and a silly statute that, effective July 1, requires all private gun transfers between unrelted parties to be processed by a licensed Federal Firearms Dealer, who must conduct a background check through the FBI NICS system unless the gun recipient has a valid Colorado concealed handgun license. It is then the gun dealer's responsibility to archive the 4473 form completed for the transaction. 

The firearms dealer can charge no more than $10 for the background check and paperwork processing. In the past, dealers have gladly done this in order to sell a gun. But ten bucks is hardly worth the time taken away from sales and customer service to walk an applicant through the process and make the call. Oh, we're hearing that NICS line has been pretty busy of late.


 

 Gov. Cuomo will have to convince a judge that there was a need for speed to  pass New York’s new gun control laws.

 State Supreme Court Judge Gerald Connolly signed an order today directing the  governor  and legislative leaders to show cause that the law should not be enjoined. A March 11 hearing is scheduled in Albany County court.

The Cuomo-backed bill passed January 15 without the required three-day waiting period.

We The People of New York, Inc., comprising more than 1,200 plaintiffs from  58 New York counties filed a constitutional challenge to Cuomo’s “message of  necessity.” 

The governor had said:  “Some weapons are so dangerous, and some  ammunition devices are so lethal, that New York State must act without delay to  prohibit their continued sale and possession in the state in order to protect
its children, first responders and citizens as soon as possible. This bill, if enacted, would do so by immediately banning the ownership, purchase and sale of assault weapons and large capacity ammunition feeding devices.”

But Cuomo had no immediate comment on the judge's order.

 Stay tuned.

 - Dr. Gatling