Tag Archives | gun culture

Dad Receives Visit from Authorities After Posting Pic of Son with .22 Rifle on Facebook

By on March 21, 2013 in News 0

Picture: Shawn Moore (C)

New Jersey resident Shawn Moore received a visit from authorities after posting a picture on Facebook of his eleven year-old son Josh holding a .22 rifle that had been given to him as a birthday present. I live in the Deep South, and being given a rifle or shotgun by your father is a common rite of passage in some families. I never had one as a kid, but most of my friends did, and I was the odd man out. In those families, the firearm was traditionally held by parents for safe-keeping and only brought out to use for target shooting or hunting under adult supervision. The South is still largely rural, and how to keep and maintain firearms is considered an essential skill for most boys – and some daughters.

I don’t know what life in New Jersey is like. I know that down here there’d be much outrage from political officials and private citizens alike if something like this happened.… Read the rest

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Survivalist Commune Run By Gun Company Planned In Idaho Forest

By on February 11, 2013 in News 33

A rival to Glenn Beck’s planned community? Yahoo! News reports on the Citadel, which sounds like living inside a Medieval Times theme park but with machine guns:

A group of survivalists wants to build a giant walled fortress in the woods of the Idaho Panhandle, where residents would be required to own weapons and stand ready to defend the compound if society collapses. The proposal is called the Citadel and has created a buzz in this remote logging town 70 miles southeast of Spokane, Wash.

“There is no leader,” [explains] Christian Kerodin, a convicted felon who is a promoter of the project. “There is a significant group of equals involved … each bringing their own professional skills and life experiences to the group.” Applicants for the community must pay a $208 fee, and the official website claims several hundred people already have applied.

The compound would include houses, schools, a hotel and a firearms factory and museum.

… Read the rest

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Illinois High School To Stage ‘Active Shooter Drills’ With Simulated Gunfire

By on February 5, 2013 in News 10

At the intersection of paranoia and random violence lies high school. CBS Chicago reports:

A school shooting drill planned on Wednesday in Chicago’s northwestern suburbs has many parents upset.

According to a letter from Cary-Grove High School principal Jay Sargeant, there will be a code red drill at the school that will include somebody shooting blanks from a gun in the hallway “in an effort to provide our teachers and students some familiarity with the sound of gunfire.”

During the drill, teachers will keep students in their rooms, lock their doors, and draw their curtains. Police will sweep the building, while someone will fire blanks from a starter pistol.

School spokesman Jeff Puma said parents who have contacted the school are evenly split for and against the drill. Parent Sharon Miller said the drill is absurd, [while] Dina Coutre said, “Nowadays it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

… Read the rest

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Sandy Hook Shooter Adam Lanza’s Mother Was A Paranoid Survivalist

By on December 21, 2012 in News 59

Via the Independent, when preparation for civilization’s breakdown becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy:

The mother of Adam Lanza, the gunman who killed 20 children and six adults in one of America’s worst ever school massacres, was a “survivalist” preparing for economic and social collapse, it has emerged.

Nancy Lanza was a so-called ‘prepper’, part of the survivalist movement which urges individuals to prepare for the breakdown of society by training with weapons and hoarding food and other supplies. Mrs Lanza is thought to have trained her sons to shoot, taking them to local ranges.

Friends and family have portrayed Mrs. Lanza as a paranoid [individual] who believed the world was on the brink of violent collapse. “She prepared for the worst,” her sister-in-law Marsha Lanza told the Chicago Sun-Times, saying Nancy repeatedly talked about her preparations for the economic and social meltdown.

… Read the rest

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Sales Of Assault Weapons Skyrocket Following Sandy Hook Shooting

By on December 19, 2012 in News 11

It turns out that a school massacre is better than any advertising that money can buy. The Hartford Courant reports:

Some gun retailers this week are reporting a spike in store traffic, in excess of the usual holiday rush, in the aftermath of the Newtown murders. Since Friday’s shooting, customers have crammed parking lots and thinned out inventories.

Doug Odishoo, owner of Delta Arsenal in Meriden, said, “As soon as this shooting happened on Friday, I almost sold out of everything. Saturday I couldn’t keep up with it.” He said people walked into his shop, looking at the AR-style guns and saying, “I better get one before I can’t.”

Resurrected talks of gun control, some shop owners said, are pumping up the market for rifles, especially AR, or assault rifles, like the Bushmaster’s civilian version of the military’s AR-15 that Adam Lanza used on Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

In Worcester, Mass., at Pullman Arms, co-owner Alicia Merritt called the jump in business “dramatic.” She said she did $30,000 in business on Monday — up from a usual Monday of about $2,000.

… Read the rest

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Semiautomatic Weapon Manufacturer Bushmaster’s ‘Man Card’ Campaign

By on December 18, 2012 in News 19

Via Buzzfeed, a fascinating just-deleted social media-based marketing campaign from Bushmaster, maker of Adam Lanza’s gun of choice. The Man Card campaign is centered around panic over potential loss of masculinity, with the ability to publicly revoke others’ “man cards,” and the promise that use of a Bushmaster assault rifle will provide the reinstatement of one’s man status:

The company that produces the semiautomatic rifle used in the Newtown, CT, shootings is currently running an online campaign based around virtual cards that “prove” the bearer’s manliness. One specifically talks about how unmanly it is to be afraid of elementary-school kids.

… Read the rest

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