Tagged: gun control

I will never forget that awful December day. My daughter left to school and I turned on the TV. I stumbled upon something that read “School Shooting.” All I could think was that my little princess was at her school and that this could happen anywhere. As it was getting time to pick her up, I rushed a little more and could not wait to hear her voice and see her smile. As soon as I saw her, I felt an immense sense of relief and peace. Tears kept on coming down my face.

When a mentally ill person entered a Connecticut school and slaughtered children and teachers, it was the last straw for some people. In this ultra liberal, politically correct climate in which we find ourselves today, the immediate outcry was to ban this and ban that. The very thought that teachers should not have the right to defend themselves and their pupils is laughable.

It's been a busy week in Washington, D.C.

As lawmakers react to the Boston Marathon bombings, parts of the Capitol had to be evacuated after suspicious letters addressed to U.S. Senator Roger Wicker and President Barack Obama were intercepted at mail screening facilities.

While dealing with that scare, members of Congress are getting their first look at a proposal for immigration reform put forth by the so-called "Gang of Eight" Senators including Florida's freshman Republican Marco Rubio.

In the mid ‘70s, I had recently left the Army and started working as an emergency physician at a hospital in Huntsville, Alabama. It was a Wednesday, church night, and I was working the evening shift.

A woman in her thirties was brought in with a bullet wound in her leg. She told us that her boy friend had shot her during an argument. The wound didn't look serious; bleeding was minimal. It appeared to have been caused by a 32- or 38-caliber hand gun. I placed her in a room, ordered an X-ray, and sat at the physician desk to write up the chart.

1969.  Seventh grade.  School trip to an amusement park.  While sitting with a friend in a shaded and secluded spot, I was surrounded by 5 or 6 kids who demanded our ride tickets.  When I stood to my 6-foot-2-inch frame and invited them to try and take my tickets, they decided to pick on someone else.

1975.  A high-school football linebacker decided to test the band major in the boys’ locker room.  Football linebacker had a sore nose.  Band major was unscathed.

On June 22, 2004 I was shot point blank with a .45-caliber gun as I entered a subway station in Astoria Queens. The bullet entered my back and rattled around, destroying my hip. It had just enough inertia to come to a stop after puncturing the femoral artery. Nobody was ever prosecuted for my shooting. Meanwhile, I suffered for six years before being diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.

for News Service of Florida  

The panel charged by Gov. Rick Scott with reviewing the state's 'stand your ground' self-defense law did not recommend any major changes to the statute, although it did make suggestions for tweaks by the Legislature in the upcoming session. The basic premise of the law isn't challenged in the final report released Friday. Scott's Task Force on Citizen Safety and Protection included lawmakers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, representatives of minority communities and law enforcement. 

The horrific killing of 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn., revived the debate over gun control in the United States. President Barack Obama outlined his controversial proposal for gun control last Wednesday, including requiring criminal background checks for all gun sales, strengthening the ban on assault weapons, and limiting high-capacity ammunition magazines.

Florida taxpayers are helping subsidize three industries that have been blamed for recent mass shootings: violent movies, bloody video games and high-powered assault weapons.

As New York and other states strengthen their gun control laws in response to the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., the chances of that happening in Florida appear dim.

"Remember, this a Republican-controlled Legislature, and they are very much about trying to honor yhe Constitution and the Second Amendment," says our Tallahassee reporter, Gina Jordan.