October 16, 2:13 PM 12
Clear choice emerging on firearm safety and gun control
Mike McGinn’s position is clear:
“I support Mayor Nickels’ efforts to ban firearms from parks and public places. There is no reason for people to carry guns in our parks, and tragedies like the Folklife shootings cannot be allowed to occur.”
- Mike McGinn, public safety platform, September 14, 2009
Meanwhile, Joe Mallahan no longer supports the gun ban:
Joe Mallahan… signals he won’t continue the ban if he’s elected mayor… “Far too many guns are carried in Seattle today illegally and I think that’s where we really need to focus.”
- Essex Porter, KIRO-TV, October 15, 2009
“Joe Mallahan says, while he supports what the mayor is trying to do, he is not certain if this is the right way to do it.”
- Tonya Mosely, KING-TV, October 15, 2009
“Joe shares concerns about family safety, especially in public parks, and thinks we should look for additional measures to increase safety,” says Mallahan spokesperson Charla Neuman. “He has concerns about whether this is the most pragmatic solution though.”
- Caleb Hannan, Seattle Weekly, October 15, 2009
“Pragmatic solution” seems to be Joe’s code phrase for ignoring public opinion (See Tunnel, deep-bore).
Mike, you failed to recognize self defence is a basic human right. You have lost my vote.
Mallahan’s message about illegally carried guns is the correct one. A well armed populace actually discourages crime. If I wanted Nickels I would have voted for him instead of you in the primary. Now I am reconcidering my actions
“…as Mayor Nickels is aware, the Attorney General’s Office issued an opinion in 2008 which found that state law preempts local authority to adopt firearms regulations, unless specifically authorized by law,” said McKenna’s spokeswoman, Janelle Guthrie
Mayor Nickels’ is wasting taxpayer dollars on a certain lawsuit. Your support of this sop to the anti-gun crowd demonstrates poor fiscal judgment.
http://www.forcescience.org/fsinews/2006/12/new-findings-from-fbi-about-cop-attackers-their-weapons/
“Predominately handguns were used in the assaults on officers and all but one were obtained illegally, usually in street transactions or in thefts. In contrast to media myth, none of the firearms in the study was obtained from gun shows”
“Nearly 40% of the offenders had some type of formal firearms training, primarily from the military. More than 80% “regularly practiced with handguns, averaging 23 practice sessions a year,” the study reports, usually in informal settings like trash dumps, rural woods, back yards and “street corners in known drug-trafficking areas.”
One spoke of being motivated to improve his gun skills by his belief that officers “go to the range two, three times a week [and] practice arms so they can hit anything.”
In reality, victim officers in the study averaged just 14 hours of sidearm training and 2.5 qualifications per year. Only 6 of the 50 officers reported practicing regularly with handguns apart from what their department required, and that was mostly in competitive shooting. Overall, the offenders practiced more often than the officers they assaulted, and this “may have helped increase [their] marksmanship skills,” the study says.”
I am sorry but you lost my vote… I was going to vote for you until I saw your stance on fire arms. I support the right to carry… everywhere. Taking aways someone gun is almost as bad as assuming that they are guilty until proven innocent.
Andrew D. I think you are right people show only cary guns if they know how to use them. Thus, Officers should have to meet standards. It does not always matter how much time is spent at the range but the quality of the instruction.
I thought you had good ideas but apparently you are stupid. Greg Nichols is a buffoon and so are the sheep of Seattle,
Washington is an open carry state (yet you communists collect revenues for concealed pistol because you don’t want guns out in the open) but you communists collect revenues from honest people who undergo background checks, finger prints and criminal checks - then you take our checks and say, Oh by the way even thought you are honest and we have given you a permit to carry we are going to make bullshit laws to permit what we have permitted you to do?
Are you seriously a contender? The Constitution of the state of Washington says the right to bear arms shall not be infringed — not even because criminals don’t follow the little laws you freaks enact.
Law makers are freedom takers, you feed into that guns are bad not people?? people who don’t follow any law you will ever make — there isn’t a gun law ever made that can stop a criminal from taking a gun to a school, park, federal building or anything you idiots believe you are stopping.
You don’t have my vote to even operate the garbage truck let alone for mayor.
You don’t possess the brilliance required for the position and besides you flip flopped on your little tunnel theory - you knew there was an agreement before and now you flip and flop.
There isnt a gun that ever did anything bad and not a criminal will follow any illegal laws you idiots make — Greg Nichols little bullshit ordinances need to be challenged and the city of Seattle sued for being stupid.
You will go nowhere, not even if opera endorses you. I know 1200 people that belong to a gun club that wont be voting for you and your freedom taking - criminals now no where to find undefended citizens.
You people cannot figured out that you can make 10,000 laws but the criminals and gangs arent going to follow any ordinance/law you freaks make — and you claim you are doing good, look at me i made another law that criminals wont follow, look at me i am violating the Washington constitution and the bill of rights amendment II (most people of Washington don’t know there is a constitution or the second amendment is actually of the bill of rights - ignored by Seattle)
You are so smart and the criminals won’t be able to bring in guns to parks now - no wait, only honest citizens who pay 65 dollars and have background checks that Seattle gave concealed permits wont be able to - because criminals do what they want and you illegal ordinance will be violated everyday by criminals – BECAUSE CRIMINALS DON’T OBEY LAWS, SO YOU MAKE THEM TO ONLY LIMIT FREE PEOPLE!!!!
You my friend are a fool and the people who endorse you are as well !!!!!!!!!!!
I hope you lose big enough to concede early and put you out of my agony of listening to you and your crap. You and the idiot lame duck Greg need to be challenged because you are so stupid - but criminals like you. I bet thats one thing you didnt know, that the criminals love people who make useless gun laws for honest people.
YOU JUST SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT IS AMAZING KIRO SAYS THAT THERE ARE FAR TOO MANY GUNS CARRIED ILEGALLY - THATS RIGHT, THEY ARE ALREADY CARRYING ILEGALLY AND THERE ARE LAWS AGAINST IT
SO LETS MAKE MORE LAWS AGAINST THE PEOPLE ALREADY NOT FOLLOWING THE CURRENT LAWS - THEN WE SHOULD LOOK BRILLIANT BECAUSE WE DID SOMETHING SO RIDICULOUS??
I carry everyday just like my knife that i might use every three months and the pistol i have carried everywhere and never used - you cant say wait a minute when the moment happens and one of your criminals pulls a gun out - just like the one that did yetserday and grandma pulled out hers and killed the criminal. she probably had that pistol in her purse for 20 years and never use dit.
I dont plan on it but if my family or i and threatened - the police will onby get there to put up the tape and write down the events of how i was killed.
the anti concealed freaks say that they dont want heros out there but if it was there ass on the line i would act even for the freedom takers, i would sacrifice my life to save others but have no doubt i am trained and shoot often but not a hero - unless doing the right thing is a hero.
If you make law no guns - you will have the exact same people carrying ilegally and its astounding you people with such a lofty education and community experience dont grasp that fact - that the same people will carrry and rob illegally and only honest law abiding citezens are limited - you cant escape the above?
That doesnt answer how to take guns away from criminals, but laws against drugs doesnt stop criminals either however, banning guns doesnt fix the people — people are bad not guns,
you already have laws saying i cannot carry concealed without a permit and the city’s revenue.
This gun law scenario is just like the evangelists who believe they heal and their followers beleive as well. The people making laws against guns beleive they are doing something and so do the follwers who support it - but there isnt one of you idiots who can say it has ever prevented 1 criminal from killing robbing or raping people. This much is true.
POLITICIANS BELIVE IF THEY SPONSOR GUN LEGISLATION THEY HAVE DONE GOOD AND CAN USE THAT AS PART OF THEIR PLATFORM FOR CAMPAIGNING - LOOK I HAVE LIMITED HONEST PEOPLE
Mike, you’ve lost my vote. I’m a queer black elder woman, and there’s no way I’m giving up my concealed carry to ANY politician for ANY ideology. If you can stand there and tell me that there is no reason I should carry in a park–when I have been raped in a big city park in the past (Atlanta, GA)–then you are exposing yourself as just another white man demonstrating yourself as privileged and completely outside of what most of us live within: an atmosphere where our lives and safety and dignity can be on the line at any moment. If you don’t trust me with a gun, then I don’t trust you with my vote.
I have had a concealed weapons permit over 40 years and I carry a gun. To follow the no guns in a park rule I would need to lock it in my car so one of the many car prowlers in Seattle could take it and use it on a cop. Don’t think so - If you find me in a park, I will have my gun because its my right in this state.
In the 2 debates I watched Joe lost them both BUT you didn’t win them so like many others (see above) Joe gets my vote.
I don’t see how taking the right for law abiding citizens to protect themselves will have any positive effect on crime. Seriously Michael, you are a moron, and have just lost my support
Just read through these comments for the first time. Keeping guns out of our public places is simple common sense. Glad to see that this time logic and reason won the day. There seems to be a clear pattern with the pro-gun anti-government crowd. They make a lot of noise, but in the end they are a minority of the populace. For my sake and the sake of my kids, I’m glad to see that under McGinn the gun ban has an ever better chance of becoming long term law.
I am writing you as a private citizen although I am a State employee in the service of law enforcement for twenty years.
Your opinion that “The pro-gun Anti-government crowd” is a minority of the population would only be accurate if you were to say “the anti-government” crowd. The vast majority of law abiding gun owners are definitely pro-government, evidenced in the fact that they are law abiding folks, whom you don’t here about because of their lack of committing crimes. In fact, as evidenced by the studies reported by the Institute for Legislative Action, the vast majority of Americans, both gun owners and non-gun owners, over 70 percent support private ownership in the defense of the Second Amendment. So, while the sqeeky wheels of Seattle may have had their way for now, (a law suit has been brought against the city for violating State law in Nichols decission to ban personal carry in city parks), they are by no means the vast majority. Law abiding gun owners are typically normal, everyday people, who have been basically satisfied with life and don’t make much noise about the political plays and drama around them. They just go through life with their noses to the grindstone, working and living quietly in their own worlds.
As evidenced also in places where handgun restrictions have been enacted, Chicago, New York City, and previously Washington DC, the restriction of private carry did nothing more that embolden criminals by giving them the knowledge that most likely their intended victims would not be armed, and thus unable to defend themselves.
Your argument would be that more people carrying guns only increases gun violence won’t hold water. As I’ve said, the law abiding people who do carry firearms are just that. Law abiding. They have no intention or desire to pull their weapon, unless forced to defend themselves or their loved ones.
Professor Gary Kleck of Florida State University conducted an exhaustive study which demonstrated that the defensive use of firearms, that is to stop crime, for clarification, occured 2.5 million times per year. Those are criminal acts prevented.
In the recent rash of violence commited against my brothers and sisters in law enforcement all but one of the criminals who committed acts of violence were previously convicted criminals who, by law, should not have had a gun. The one who may have been able to have a gun is now using an insanity plea to fight his charge, and by law, those found to be mentally unstable are not allowed to own a firearm. So, the screening process failed in his case.
Let’s use the laws we already have to fight crime. There lies our problem. We need to enforce the laws we have.
I’m quite sure I won’t be able to change your views about gun control, but you should at least look at both sides of the coin.
Please ‘Google’ the phrase “Why Switzerland has the lowest crime rate in the world”.
It is a very well made news story that American media doesn’t want you to see.