Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Existing in New York City: Little Johnny Get Your Gun

Foto by tgw, "Roof Shot #2," New York City, December 2012
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Say Goodbye to: Jimmy McCracklin...Jimmy was born in St. Louis, but after a stretch in the U.S. Navy, he settled in the Bay Area in Richmond, California.  McCracklin became a big factor in the West Coast Blues genre along with T-Bone Walker, Mercy Dee Walton, and Lowell Fulson.  His first big hit was "The Walk."  Jimmy recorded up until 1990 with his band the Blues Blasters.  Jimmy McCracklin, 91, American blues musician.
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Obama (Republican posing as a Democrat) Throws Seniors Under the Bus by Compromising With John Bonehead by Cutting Social Security Payments: Barry Obama breaks yet another campaign promise by compromising with the Republican idiot John Bonehead and agreeing to cut Social Security payments in a backwards-thinking move that means the older one gets, the lower his or her Social Security payments will get.  Only an idiot would agree to such a cruel deal; therefore, Obama and Bonehead both are idiots.  How much you bet Obama does nothing about any gun law reforms either?  How phony was his Newtown crying jag and his phony speeches about that society-gone-wild matter?  The lesser of two evils is proving to be more evil than the other evil.  What a two-faced corporate puppet jerk Obama is proving to be.
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The Right to Bear Arms
Just stop and consider how many killers there are loosed on our streets at any one time.  I grew up in a culture where it was a symbol of your masculine individualism to have a rack of high-powered rifles displayed in the back window of your pick up.  As a young man I grew up in Dallas, Texas, and was there when in 1964 somebody or somebodies blew JFK's head to pieces in some say a deadly crossfire--only the late Arlen Specter (an ex-DA (same as stupid John Kerry, by the way)) came up with the single-shooter theory--no one who was in Dallas that fateful day believed that there was a single shooter.  Ex-CIA stooge, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested as and assassinated as THE single shooter who made a rather miraculous shot that took JFK's life...ex-nutjob-Marine Oswald's shot was so miraculous, JFK's head went backwards on being hit; yet if Lee Harvey made that miraculous shot, he was behind JFK five stories up in the Texas Schoolbook Depository; therefore JFK's head should have fallen forward.

As a kid growing up in West Texas and Dallas, I had a Red Ryder cap pistol and played "cowboys and Indians" and "bad guys/good guys" with the neighborhood kids.  Imaginarily shooting them to kill them.  One year my friend Sonny got a BB gun for X-mas and I ended up shooting Sonny in the ass with it.  Then one year at X-mas my brother who was in the Navy brought me home a wooden mock Navy Springfield training rifle, which I treasured for years, using it often in mock killings. 

During my high school years in West Texas, all of my friends and their families had houses full of guns, both six shooters and hunting rifles of all kinds.  In my family, however, guns weren't allowed.  My dad always taught me that if you own a gun, you are going to have to use it at some time or another, either to kill an animal or to kill a fellow human animal.

My best friend in high school was a gun enthusiast and he and his younger brother and I used to go out into the wilds around my hometown and shoot at jackrabbits, coyotes, foxes, mule deer, and if we were lucky, wildcats.  I learned to shoot a rifle with this guy.  We would go out at night deep into the wild hills and lay out on the fenders of his dad's pick-up truck and one of us would drive and use the military spotlite attached to the driver's side of the truck to spot jackrabbits, pin them in that light's hard beam, while the shooters would be out on the front fenders in the prone position where we'd shoot at these scared animals as we sped along behind them.  I don't ever remember any of us hitting a jackrabbit.  One night while I was on one of the fenders the jackrabbit I was shooting at jumped the spot's beam and headed off into a field.  I followed him with the rifle into the field pot shooting at him, when suddenly a farmhouse's outside spotlites came on...I had been hitting the farmhouse while missing that jackrabbit.

Then when I went in the U.S. Army a part of my training involved learning how to respect an M-14 (and later the M-16) rifle as my constant companion in combat.  I learned how to tear that rifle down, clean it, put it back together, and then out on the firing ranges, I learned how to fire it at various targets from 25 yards on up to 200 yards.  I got pretty good at hitting these targets, which were in the shape of a human being by the way, earning a sharpshooter's medal in the process.  Also in the military, I learned how to fire a submachine gun, a Browning Automatic Rifle, and as a 2nd Lieutenant, I learned how to fire an issued .44 caliber pistol.

The Army especially taught us troopers to be killers.  The first motto you learned in basic training was "Kill or be killed."  I now think of how many killers our military has trained over the existence of this stolen-from-the-Native-Americans nation, a nation stolen due to firearms from muskets down to repeating rifles and now automatic assault rifles and automatic handguns (like the Glocks).  Just think, there are millions of ex-military men still roaming our streets who were trained to kill or be killed and that their weapons were their friends and protectors.

We are a nation of killers.  We love killing.  We love blazing weapons and shoot outs and drive bys and assassinations and massacres.  Also, there are hundreds of thousands of us who are hunters, which after all is the killing of living animals.  We kill deer, we kill raccoons, we kill squirrels, we kill rabbits, we kill bears, we kill wolves we kill birds (ducks, geese, pheasants, quail), etc.  Hunters (killers) usually have more than one high-powered rifle among their arsenals.  Hunters (mostly males) proudly teach their children (including some daughters, like Adam Lanza's mother) how to use firearms and hunt at a very early age.

Also, in terms of us being killers, just think of how many beeves, chickens, porkers, and lambs we kill every day of the week in order to fulfill our carnivorous desires. 

We are currently mourning the deaths of those 27 kids and teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, while our military's drone fleet is killing men, women, and children (including babies) almost every day of the year in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and the Sudan.  [Isn't it ironic that Connecticut is home for the Colt folks (Hartford) (And Smith and Wesson is just across the Connecticut border in Springfield, Massachusetts).  Newtown, ironically, is home of one of the largest handgun and rifle associations.]

Even after Newtown, our stupid and greedy politicians are trying to justify continuing to allow automatic military weapons to be sold to whomever.  These fools are still justifying the 2nd Amendment as guaranteeing even the mentally ill and meanly psychotic the right to buy arms for self-protection (like the Stand-Your-Ground killer down in Florida).  Some of the more Yahoo fools in Congress are suggesting we should arm out teachers...one nutjob even suggesting we arm our kids.  Can you imagine the wild shooting sprees that would happen in these schools if a bunch of paranoid teachers and smart-ass kids were packing heat?

New York City's little asshole mayor is now jumping on the gun-control bandwagon.  When asked by Charlie "the Bore" Rose why he was so fervent for gun-control, this hypocrite mayor replied because he had been to so many NYPD cops's funerals, not revealing that the NYPD cops (possessors of assault rifles) had shot more innocent citizens than any gun-toting citizens had shot them.  Besides, I defy Hiz Horrible Honor to show me any NYPD cop who was shot by a citizen packing an automatic assault rifle like the one used by poor ole crazed Adam Lanza in the Newtown massacre.  But, hey, it's getting our little billionaire mayor publicity and taking attention away from his egalitarian ways when it comes to turning New York City and especially Manhattan into a billionaires' playground and real estate boondoggle and his backing charter schools, etc.      

Hidden from our view is the fact that nearly everyone of our most successful gun-toting shooters were on antipsychotic drugs.  Adam Lanza, for instance, was on the controversial drug Fanapt.

Check out this list:
1.  Huntsville, Alabama – February 5, 2010: 15-year-old Hammad Memon shot and killed another Discover Middle School student Todd Brown.  Memon had a history for being treated for ADHD and depression.  He was taking the antidepressant Zoloft and “other drugs for the conditions.” He had been seeing a psychiatrist and psychologist.
2. Kauhajoki, Finland – September 23, 2008: 22-year-old culinary student Matti Saari shot and killed 9 students and a teacher, and wounded another student, before killing himself.  Saari was taking an SSRI and a benzodiazapine. He was also seeing a psychologist.
3. Dekalb, Illinois – February 14, 2008: 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak shot and killed five people and wounded 21 others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking Prozac, Xanax and Ambien. Toxicology results showed that he still had trace amount of Xanax in his system. He had been seeing a psychiatrist.
4. Jokela, Finland – November 7, 2007: 18-year-old Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen had been taking antidepressants before he killed eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School in southern Finland, then committed suicide.
5. Cleveland, Ohio – October 10, 2007: 14-year-old Asa Coon stormed through his school with a gun in each hand, shooting and wounding four before taking his own life. Court records show Coon had been placed on the antidepressant Trazodone.
6. Red Lake, Minnesota – March 2005: 16-year-old Jeff Weise, on Prozac, shot and killed his grandparents, then went to his school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation where he shot dead 7 students and a teacher, and wounded 7 before killing himself.
7. Greenbush, New York – February 2004: 16-year-old Jon Romano strolled into his high school in east Greenbush and opened fire with a shotgun. Special education teacher Michael Bennett was hit in the leg. Romano had been taking “medication for depression”. He had previously seen a psychiatrist.
8. Wahluke, Washington – April 10, 2001: Sixteen-year-old Cory Baadsgaard took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates and a teacher hostage. He had been taking the antidepressant Effexor.
9. El Cajon, California – March 22, 2001: 18-year-old Jason Hoffman, on the antidepressants Celexa and Effexor, opened fire on his classmates, wounding three students and two teachers at Granite Hills High School. He had been seeing a psychiatrist before the shooting.
10. Williamsport, Pennsylvania – March 7, 2001: 14-year-old Elizabeth Bush was taking the antidepressant Prozac when she shot at fellow students, wounding one.
11. Conyers, Georgia – May 20, 1999: 15-year-old T.J. Solomon was being treated with the stimulant Ritalin when he opened fire on and wounded six of his classmates.
12. Columbine, Colorado – April 20, 1999: 18-year-old Eric Harris and his accomplice, Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 26 others before killing themselves. Harris was on the antidepressant Luvox.  Klebold’s medical records remain sealed. Both shooters had been in anger-management classes and had undergone counseling.  Harris had been seeing a psychiatrist before the shooting.
13. Notus, Idaho – April 16, 1999: 15-year-old Shawn Cooper fired two shotgun rounds in his school, narrowly missing students. He was taking a prescribed SSRI antidepressant and Ritalin.
14. Springfield, Oregon – May 21, 1998: 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his parents and then proceeded to school where he opened fire on students in the cafeteria, killing two and wounding 25. Kinkel had been taking the antidepressant Prozac. Kinkel had been attending “anger control classes” and was under the care of a psychologist.
10 additional recent murders and murder-suicides, resulting in 47 dead and 21 wounded:
  1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – March 8, 2012: 30-year-old John Shick, former patient of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and former student at nearby Duquesne University, shot and killed one and injured six inside UPMC’s Western Psychiatrist Institute. Nine antidepressants were identified among the drugs police found in Shick’s apartment.
  2. Seal Beach, California – October 12, 2011: Scott DeKraai, a harbor tugboat worker, entered the hair salon where his ex-wife worked, killing her and seven others and injuring one. At DeKraai’s initial hearing, his attorney indicated to the judge that DeKraai was prescribed the antidepressant Trazodone and the “mood stabilizer” Topamax.
  3. Lakeland, Florida – May 3, 2009: Toxicology test results showed that 34-year-old Troy Bellar was on Tegretol, a drug prescribed for “bi-polar disorder,” when he shot and killed his wife and two of his three children in their home before killing himself.
  4. Granberry Crossing, Alabama – April 26, 2009: 53-year-old Fred B. Davis shot and killed a police officer and wounded a sheriff’s deputy who had responded to a call that Davis had threatened a neighbor with a gun. Prescription drug bottles found at the scene showed that Davis was prescribed the antipsychotic drug Geodon.
  5. Middletown, Maryland – April 17, 2009: Christopher Wood shot and killed his wife, three small children and himself inside their home. Toxicology test results verified that Wood had been taking the antidepressants Cymbalta and Paxil and the anti-anxiety drugs BuSpar and Xanax.
  6. Concord, California – January 11, 2009: Jason Montes, 33, shot and killed his wife and then himself at home. Montes had earlier begun taking the antidepressant Prozac for depression related to his impending divorce and a recent bankruptcy.
  7. Little Rock, Arkansas – August 14, 2008: Less than 48 hours after Timothy Johnson shot and killed Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney, the Little Rock Police declared they were investigating shooter’s use of the antidepressant Effexor, which was found in Johnson’s house.  A Little Rock city police report later stated that Johnson “was on an anti-depressant and that the drug may have played a part in his ‘irrational and violent behavior.’”
  8. Omaha, Nebraska – December 5, 2007: 19-year-old Robert Hawkins killed eight people and wounded five before committing suicide in an Omaha mall. Autopsy results confirmed he was under the influence of the “anti-anxiety” drug Valium.
  9. North Meridian, Florida – July 8, 2003: Doug Williams killed five and wounded nine of his fellow Lockheed Martin employees before killing himself. Williams was reported as having been taking two antidepressants, Zoloft and Celexa, for depression after a failed marriage.
  10. Wakefield, Massachusetts – December 26, 2000: 42-year-old computer technician Michael McDermott had been taking three antidepressants when he hunted down employees in the accounting and human resources offices where he worked, killing seven.
From: http://www.cchrint.org/2012/07/20/the-aurora-colorado-tragedy-another-senseless-shooting-another-psychotropic-drug/

Of course, big Pharmas make billions of dollars off these antipsychotic drugs every year and since most of our politicians and our president are trapped inside the wallets of these big Pharmas they're not about to go against the side of their bread on which these mad scientists are applying the thick butters.

What do you bet no gun-control measures are going to be passed by this Yahoo Congress?

thegrowlingwolf  
for The Daily Growler

1 comment:

Marybeth said...

Fascinating info in your link.