Lots and lots of gun news this week. Also, later today Vanderbilt University’s Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions will release the results of its opinion poll on gun control. Look for it.
• December 11, 2013:
Lost and Found in Marshall County: Sometime in the past month someone stole a .38 caliber revolver from a home. Don’t know why it took them so long to notice it was gone! Meanwhile, last month a man picking up trash along a fence line found a plastic bag containing a .22 caliber handgun with the model number removed.
• December 10, 2013:
1- A Murfreesboro woman was removing her shotgun from the closet so she could sleep with it nearby when she accidentally fired it into the floor of her apartment. Fortunately her apartment floor is made of concrete, not wood, so the bullet didn’t travel into the apartment below.
2- Two security officers at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Knoxville were fired after apparently accidentally firing off a machine gun inside a vehicle. The incident apparently happened in July and the firings happened in October. The union is disputing the firings. The deets:
The machine gun apparently was not properly housed in its locked rack inside the vehicle, where it normally resides when the vehicle is in use. That was part of the configuration considered unsafe, and the gun reportedly discharged when the security officer moved it out of the rack and placed it on its side next to the rack.
Apparently the two guards, who have remained unnamed, received minor injuries in the incident.
• December 9, 2013:
A woman in Brighton says she accidentally shot her husband to death after hearing an intruder and grabbing the family shotgun:
At approximately 5:30 a.m. Sunday, Brewer woke up from sleeping with her husband in their home on Tenn. 14 South and believed she heard an intruder. Authorities said Brewer got a shotgun from the couple’s gun case, loaded and cocked the weapon, then proceeded to look out of the front and back of the home but did not see anyone.
Authorities said Brewer then went to wake her husband, 37-year-old William “Stan” Brewer Jr. and placed the weapon on the bed, pointing the barrel of the gun at his head. The TBI said when Brewer leaned over to awaken her husband, her hand was on the weapon and the shotgun discharged, shooting and killing him.
Brewer has been arrested and the shooting is under investigation.
• December 8, 2013:
1- A man in Maryville was shot in the leg by a juvenile playing with a gun.
2- Ralph Van Brocklin, the mayor of Johnson City, has boldly gone where few in East Tennessee dare to go: taking on the gun loons in our state legislature:
Van Brocklin hopes Johnson City never changes its ordinance banning handguns in city-owned parks.
“The more that you have guns in the possession of people in the public, greater is the chance that at some point somebody’s going to get angry and they’re going to pull a gun out and somebody’s going to get hurt,” Van Brocklin said. “I’m not in favor of this proliferation of guns in the public. There’s definitely a group of people locally who would like to see us go ahead and allow a more expansive availability of carrying a weapon. The state legislature has gone too far in allowing that and to what degree I can continue to restrict (guns in parks) within my own municipality, I will.”
Good for you, Mayor Van Brocklin. This is especially important because East Tennessee has a big problem with accidental shootings and irresponsible gun behavior.
• December 5, 2013:
• Just your typical domestic dispute: A woman threatens to leave her husband, husband comes home from work and tries to stop her with his gun. In this case, the couple are Indian, and the woman had booked a flight to India:
Singh then slapped his wife on the face, and she slapped him back, prompting him to take a pistol from behind his back in his waistband and rack a round in the chamber. He pointed the gun in the air and said, “I will blow your brains out,” according to the complaint.
Mrs. Singh replied that he did not have the guts to do that and walked upstairs to call a neighbor to ask if she could go to the neighbor’s house. She then left and went next door.
Police arrived and could see through a window that Singh was inside the house with a handgun in his waistband. Sgt. Sam Reed called Singh and convinced to him to come outside and surrender.
According to a report, police seized five handguns, a rifle and a pellet gun from the house, as well 1,750 rounds of various types of ammunition.
Singh is a family medicine doctor. I wonder: is he a citizen? Is he allowed to own these guns? Does he have a carry permit? It used to be that non-citizens could buy firearms if they had a green card, but I don’t know if that’s still true.
• December 6, 2013:
TSA report: a stun gun was found in luggage at the Memphis airport.
• December 4, 2013:
1- A personal gun collection numbering in excess of 600 firearms belonging to a Shelbyville man who died earlier this year was auctioned over the weekend. I get that some of these guns have historical value but I still don’t understand who needs to keep an arsenal of weapons numbering in the hundreds.
2- Thieves stole $15,000 worth of guns, ammo and cash from an Elizabethton gun shop while the owners were at church. From the story it appears the couple operated the shop out of their home, something which I don’t think is all that unusual in rural areas. Curious what that does to one’s homeowner’s insurance rates, though.
3- A Manchester woman tried to murder her husband outside a law firm by shooting him on the sidewalk. The couple were about to be divorced.
4- The Bristol City Council repealed the town’s ban on guns in city parks:
Mayor Michelle Dolan, who voted for the measure, said government should be less intrusive on personal rights.
Pretty sure that viewpoint doesn’t extend to gays, Muslims, women seeking abortion, etc. Same as it ever was.
