For the past three decades, the American Academy of Pediatrics—some 62,000 members strong—has been an outspoken voice on the issue of gun control, a position that has landed it on the NRA’s (admittedly very long) list of enemies. In 1992, the AAP issued its first policy statement supporting a handgun and assault weapons ban, making it the first public health organization to do so, and it has long recommended that doctors talk about gun safety with parents. Since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012, the AAP has stepped up attempts to educate parents about gun safety around children.

But as the fight over gun rights grows ever more virulent at the national level, the AAP and individual doctors have quietly begun to take a softer stance on the issue, turning their focus to peddling realistic policies rather than clinging to a hard-and-fast no-guns line.

On a recent Sunday in April, 70 doctors and scientists associated with the AAP filed into a convention center in Vancouver to discuss firearm injury prevention. Presenters clicked through PowerPoint slides highlighting topics such as risk factors for gun injuries, popular gun-safety myths, and stats on suicide and homicide due to guns in the home. “The issue of guns really follows directly from all the concerns we have about injuries in general. This is one kind of injury that endangers the health and life of kids,” said Dr. Robert Sege, a Boston Medical Center pediatrician, who gave a presentation on how to talk about guns with parents.

The AAP’s outgoing president, Thomas McInerny—who made the Sandy Hook massacre a call to action for gun safety during his one-year post—sat in the audience. While the AAP has been advocating for an end to gun violence for some 30 years now, the shooting in Newtown shocked the nation and galvanized the AAP’s doctors to redouble their efforts in support of new gun-control measures. Newtown pediatrician Laura Nowacki lost eight of her patients in the massacre at Sandy Hook. “I’ve never spoken to the media until all of this happened. But I really believe I have to stand up. I have to use my voice,” she told the AAP News in June.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/15/pediatricians-take-on-the-nra-over-gun-safety.html

CHARLOTTE COUNTY - A concealed weapons permit holder has been arrested after he allegedly brandished a gun at an Englewood bar.

Deputies were called at 1 a.m. Saturday to Calico Jack's, 1950 Beach Road, after patrons reported that a man displayed a gun and pointed it at someone, according to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.

Rock Lavoie, 53, was arrested Monday when deputies spotted a man matching the suspect description walking down Beach Road. A loaded . 45 caliber handgun was found inside Lavoie's fanny pack, deputies reported.

A video of the incident shows Lavoie allegedly holding the gun and then pointing it at a man, who took the firearm and laid it on the bar, according to the Sheriff's Office.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20140506/ARTICLE/140509787

Just this past Friday, I explained how I like to extend certain subject matter into open-ended series, if for no other reason than so often, the same stuff comes up again and again. Said another way, shit doesn’t just happen; it happens over, and over, and over.

Nowhere is that more true than in the sphere of American gun nuttery, and it’s no mystery why. In fact, I consider it a guiding principle of human nature, as basic to understanding the behavior we see around us as knowing that those who abuse drugs often have addictive personalities, or that fat people have a tendency to eat more than slim people do.

As simple as I can make it, this guiding principle would read: Not only do stupid people do stupid things, they never learn to stop doing them.

As this principle relates to gun nuts, how many times do we have to hear of some guy showing his piece off to friends with the assurance, “Don’t worry... it’s not loaded,” seconds before he puts a slug through his ceiling—if he’s lucky—or his wife’s head (if he’s not)?

http://www.boiseweekly.com/Cobweb/archives/2014/05/12/mr-copes-cave-the-stupid-things-that-gun-nuts-do

Last month, Oregon resident Wes Knodel hosted a show at the Tacoma Dome that did not require background checks for anyone buying a firearm from a private seller. The show was held just minutes from another gun show, hosted by Washington Arms Collectors, which requires a state background check before all gun purchases.

The City Council voted May 6 to close the so-called “gun show loophole,” at least on property owned or managed by the city.

Since then, the Tacoma City Council members say they have heard almost all positive feedback on their decision.

That changed Tuesday night when two men said they disagreed with the council’s action — and Arlington resident Jacob Kukuk said he planned to sue the city to reverse the decision.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/05/16/3198713/can-council-require-background.html

A new web series for young people produced by the National Rifle Association is being widely panned by critics as a phony and out-of-touch attempt at messaging. And for good reason -- the NRA's Noir is really about the same themes the NRA has been ranting on for decades, that the NRA is the only group that can stand up for persecuted gun owners and save America in the face of machinations by anti-gun elites.

Recently launched on the NRA's new "Freestyle" network, Noir promises to report on "the latest on firearms, fashion, pop culture and other hot topics." The show is hosted by NRA News commentator Colion Noir -- best known for his bizarre claim Martin Luther King Jr. was a gun proponent -- along with co-host Amy Robbins and is sponsored by gun manufacturer Mossberg.

Early reviews of Noir report that it reeks of inauthenticity. Indeed the 16-minute premiere episode is rife with product placements and lame pop culture and sports references, all awkwardly interspersed between features on high-powered, expensive-looking firearms.

In one cringe-worthy moment, Noir complains that the cardboard box his $5,000 rifle came in looks like "a Build-A-Bear beginning set of a homeless guy's apartment." During a glowing review of a compact Smith & Wesson handgun, Noir analogizes the pistol to Denver Nuggets guard Nate Robinson: "Sure he is small and unimposing, but the moment you drop your guard he will tear your ass up." There is also an obligatory twerking reference.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/05/16/how-the-nra-is-repackaging-its-angry-paranoid-m/199356

Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy turned over 10 guns to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Friday, and he appears to have been preparing for the zombie apocalypse.

The list of 10 guns, as posted by Bill Voth of Black and Blue Review, includes a number of shotguns and hunting rifles.

But the first item on the list, the Tavor SAR .223 (pictured), doesn’t look like something you take deer hunting (unless you really hate deer).

Hardy’s accuser in his domestic violence arrest said he threw her into a bed containing 25 to 30 guns, so this list is obviously only a third of that amount.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/16/greg-hardy-turns-over-10-guns-to-cops-after-arrest/

Conservative media are touting a video from the right-wing Media Research Center purporting to show that vendors at gun shows always refuse to sell firearms to felons and other disqualified persons and that legislation to expand the background check system is unnecessary. But according to prior undercover reports, when private sellers at gun shows were not aware they were on camera, a substantial portion agreed to sell guns to people they believed could not legally possess them.

Vendors who have a Federal Firearms License are required to perform background checks on their customers, but so-called private sellers who say they are not "engaged in the business" of selling firearms have no such requirement at gun shows in 33 states. This discrepancy has been termed the "gun show loophole" and is the reason narco-terrorists, illegal gun traffickers and other dangerous individuals seek out unregulated sales at gun shows. The most infamous use of the loophole is the 1999 Columbine High School massacre where all four guns involved were passed through a local gun show by private sellers.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has estimated between 25 and 50 percent of vendors at gun shows sell without a background check. Adding sales over the Internet and through newspaper classified adverts, a substantial proportion of firearms are transferred without a background check in the United States. Federal legislation to expand the background check system to cover private sales failed in the Senate last year.

For an April 7 video report, MRCTV's Dan Joseph brought a camera crew to The Nation's Gun Show in Chantilly, Virginia to "dispel some of the myths that some people may have about gun shows." Joseph conducted on-camera interviews with several vendors who all said that they would not sell firearms to prohibited persons, with many describing how the background check process would weed out such individuals.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/05/13/conservative-media-give-cover-for-illegal-sales/199288

Reports that the handgun used by Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev originated in Maine should come as no surprise given guns are routinely trafficked from states with weak gun laws to states with stronger gun laws like Massachusetts. Meanwhile, attempts to create a federal law to crack down on gun trafficking have been stifled by the National Rifle Association.

Following the April 15, 2013, bombings that left three dead and hundreds wounded, the Tsarnaev brothers attempted to elude a massive police manhunt. On the evening of April 18 a Ruger handgun was used by the brothers to kill MIT police officer Sean Collier. Hours later the pistol was used again in a firefight that left MBTA officer Richard Donohue seriously wounded. On May 12, Los Angeles Times federal law enforcement and terrorism reporter Richard Serrano reported that the firearm was purchased at a Maine gun store, and "passed" to a well-known Portland, ME gang leader, before being obtained by Tsarnaev.

Massachusetts has the sixth strongest gun laws in the United States and also has the second lowest gun death rate, according to rankings by The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. When guns are used in crimes in Massachusetts, they are most often trafficked from other states (although the National Rifle Association's official state affiliate has denied this regularly occurs).

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was able to determine the origin of 999 Massachusetts crime guns in 2012; 453 came from in-state while 546 were trafficked from other states. Maine accounted for the second largest number of out of state gun traces after New Hampshire. The top six crime gun importers to Massachusetts -- New Hampshire, Maine, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina -- all received a D or worse grade in the Brady Campaign/LCPGV gun law ranking. Overall the rankings found a correlation between weak gun laws and the exporting of crime guns into states with strong gun laws.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/05/14/interstate-gun-trafficking-the-nra-and-the-bost/199303

It was a long week in Atlanta, so I headed to a dirty unkempt bar to start “taking a bit of the edge off.” Now, I’m getting ready to have my first of many drinks when my periphery catches a scene so confusing, it makes me think I should just drive home and lay off the bourbon for a while. Playing on the TV is an overview of a bill recently passed by Georgia’s legislature that will take effect starting in July.

The law, labeled by liberals as the “Guns Everywhere Law” and by conservatives as the “Safe Carry Protection Act,” allows licensed gun owners to take their weapons into bars and churches. It also even lets people pack heat inside government buildings, schools, and some areas of airports.

I have to admit that I panicked a little bit: how was no one else finding the scene of a fellow dipsomaniac packing a Smith & Wesson at a bar– AT A BAR – strange?!

After signing the bill into law, Georgia’s governor, Nathan Deal (R), stated that, “Our state has some of the best protections for gun owners in the United States. And today we strengthen those rights protected by our nation’s most revered founding document.” The NRA called it, “the most comprehensive pro-gun reform legislation introduced in recent history.”

http://www.article-3.com/the-guns-everywhere-law-keeps-us-safe-nowhere-913902

An 11-year-old Oklahoma boy came home to his grandmother's Tulsa apartment with a bad progress report from his school. He gave his grandmother the report and while she sat reading, authorities say he went to her room, grabbed a .22-caliber gun, before returning and shooting her in the back of the head.

"All I saw was a big bang of a flash and heard it, and I knew I was shot in the back of my head," the grandmother, Annie Mougell-Walker told local station KOTV, after being treated at a local hospital.

While Mougell-Walker, 42, was able to return home the same day of the shooting Monday wearing a neck brace, the bullet remained logged in her head, the New York Daily News reports.

Her grandchild was arrested and charged with shooting with intent to kill, police told the Daily News.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/05/_11_year_old_shoots_grandmother_after_getting_in_trouble_in_school.html