Radiologist explains the difference between an AR-15 and a handgun.

Courtesy of The Atlantic:  

As I opened the CT scan last week to read the next case, I was baffled. The history simply read “gunshot wound.” I have been a radiologist in one of the busiest trauma centers in the nation for 13 years, and have diagnosed thousands of handgun injuries to the brain, lung, liver, spleen, bowel, and other vital organs. I thought that I knew all that I needed to know about gunshot wounds, but the specific pattern of injury on my computer screen was one that I had seen only once before. 

In a typical handgun injury that I diagnose almost daily, a bullet leaves a laceration through an organ like the liver. To a radiologist, it appears as a linear, thin, grey bullet track through the organ. There may be bleeding and some bullet fragments. 

I was looking at a CT scan of one of the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who had been brought to the trauma center during my call shift. The organ looked like an overripe melon smashed by a sledgehammer, with extensive bleeding. How could a gunshot wound have caused this much damage? 

The reaction in the emergency room was the same. One of the trauma surgeons opened a young victim in the operating room, and found only shreds of the organ that had been hit by a bullet from an AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle which delivers a devastatingly lethal, high-velocity bullet to the victim. There was nothing left to repair, and utterly, devastatingly, nothing that could be done to fix the problem. The injury was fatal.

The doctor goes on to explain that the higher velocity of the Ar-15 bullets allows them to essentially rip through the human body and obliterate internal organs, and even cause enough damage that a victim can bleed out quickly even if no major arteries are damaged. 

In short though both a handgun and an assault rifle are designed to kill human beings, however an AR-15 is designed to ensure the death of its victims even if they receive prompts medical care.

So why in the hell would that weapon be available to individuals NOT entering a war zone?

Preschooler finds gun in glove box, keeps America safe by shooting himself in the side.

Courtesy of TPM:  

A preschool-age child in Troy, Michigan shot himself after finding a gun in the console of his mother’s Ford Mustang, the Detroit Free Press reported on Friday. 

According to the paper, while his mother loaded groceries into her car in a Kroger parking lot, the child found the 9 mm Smith and Wesson and shot himself in the side. The wound was not fatal and the child is out of surgery, Troy Police Captain Robert Redmond told the Free Press. 

Redmond said that it was unclear whether the gun was left in the car by the boy’s mother or her husband, but that “she’s still responsible for the child’s safety.”

It seems that this is just about the best outcome one can expect when the headline contains the word "preschooler" and "gun."

Yes he shot himself, but no he is not dead.

Your good news story of the day.

8 year old girl dies after gun falls to the floor while her mother braids her hair.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A Georgia girl was killed in an apparently accidental shooting that also wounded her mother. 

Marsha Lynch said she was braiding her daughter’s hair when a handgun fell to the floor and fired, striking her in the leg and then shooting her 8-year-old daughter in the head. 

Sharia Lynch died from the gunshot wound before she could be airlifted to an area hospital.

Not a day goes by where some child is not killed by a gun in this country.

And yet every single one of these weapons were undoubtedly purchased because their owners believed that having them would be them and their loved ones safe.

That is the mindset created by the NRA and its supporters, and that is the mindset which needs to be changed before we can take the important steps necessary to protect the lives of our children.

This has gone on fucking long enough, and the time for change is now.

Woman purchases gun in anticipation of violent protests in Ferguson, instead shoots herself in the head.

Courtesy of CNN: 

A woman appears to have accidentally fatally shot herself in the head with a gun bought to prepare for possible Ferguson-related unrest, according to sources briefed on the police investigation. 

The female victim, identified in a police report as Becca Campbell, 26, was a passenger in a car involved in an auto accident. 

Her 33-year-old boyfriend was driving, the sources told CNN. The boyfriend, who wasn't identified, told police that the couple had bought a gun because of fears of unrest related to the pending grand jury decision on the shooting of Michael Brown, the sources said. 

He told investigators that as they drove late Friday night, the victim waved a gun, jokingly saying the couple were ready for Ferguson, the sources said. 

He ducked to get out of the way of the gun and accidentally rear-ended another car. 

He said the accident caused the gun to go off and she was struck by a bullet in the head, the sources said. The victim was rushed to a hospital but died.

That may be one of the dumbest death by handgun stories I have ever read.

Guns in the hands of untrained amateurs does not make anybody safer. But it certainly puts the person with the gun, and everybody around them, at greater risk.

It kind of makes me wonder how many bullets will fly once this Grand Jury decision is released.

Mother accidentally shoots baby during argument with boyfriend. "When Mama says duck baby, you duck."

Courtesy of Channel 5 News:  

Late Sunday night, Murfreeboro police came to a downtown apartment complex after receiving a report of a shot fired. 

They arrived to find a woman inside with a 9mm handgun. 

Police believe she pulled it out during a heated argument with her boyfriend -- the father of her daughter. 

"The two were involved in a verbal and then physical confrontation with the use of deadly force," said Kyle Evans with the Murfreesboro Police Dept. 

Police said the woman fired a single round at her boyfriend and in a bizarre twist the same bullet hit both the child and her father. 

The police incident report showed the bullet hit the boyfriend in the groin then traveled through him and struck their one-year-old child, who was sitting several yards away, in the rear-end. 

I have said it before but it bears repeating.

THIS is how the majority of shootings happen in this country.

It is NOT in defense of property or for self protection.

It is during an altercation, often between people in a relationship, that suddenly turns deadly simply because of the presence of a handgun.

This shooting of a one year old comes to you courtesy of the NRA, the misreading of the 2nd Amendment, and the lax gun laws in this country.

P.S. By the way there is an attempt in the article to suggest that this might have been a case of self defense. However in my experience when a woman shoots her man in the groin, she is upset with him for something else entirely.

Sarah Palin's latest promo for her soon to be cancelled new show seems to feature everything about America that embarrasses most of us.

"There's not just the huntin, and fishing, and snowmachining, and dog sledding, we're going to showcase people places and things that inspire people to get off their...."

Gee I wonder what they left out?

You know I have watched entire John Wayne movies that featured fewer gun than this promo did.

Fanatic nationalism, drunken rednecks, abundant firearms, duck calls, running from cattle, apparently Sarah Palin's version of America is a potpourri of idiotic behaviors, near fatalities, and hillbilly hijinks, all set to music by second rate bands found ducking flying beer bottles on the stages of honky-tonk bars.

Yeehaw, America! It's time to lose s few more of them there brain cells.

Small group of 2nd Amendment protestors, complete with AR 15's slung on their shoulders, hold protest at site where President Kennedy was murdered with a rifle 50 years ago.

Courtesy of Dallas News: 

About a dozen people carrying rifles protested in Dallas Saturday morning at the sight of one of the most infamous gun crimes in United States history. 

The crowd carried AR-15s, old military rifles and one Texas flag with the “Don’t tread on me” slogan at Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 50 years ago . They said they were there to peacefully show that carrying firearms is legal in Texas and that the people who do it aren’t dangerous. 

“We are law abiding citizens exercising our rights,” said Brad McClain, one of the organizers of the event. 

McClain said he understood the significance of the site where they were protesting, but said they mostly picked the location because it was high-profile. 

“It’s visible, it’s historical and the landscape is perfect for photo ops,” he said.

Seriously why don't these assholes just by a t-shirt that reads "I am a douchbag?"

Their lack of sensitivity alone makes me thing they should not have access to weapons. I mean clearly they do not respect the memories of those who died at the hands of gun violence, nor do they consider the feelings of the normal people who have to watch them strut around with their metal penis extenders hanging around their necks in public.

In a completely unrelated story, a two year old girl celebrated her parents 2nd Amendment rights by shooting herself to death with their unsecured handgun:

A two-year-old girl has died after accidentally shooting herself with a handgun she found lying around her home. 

The toddler - named by neighbors as Coco - got hold of the 'unsecured' loaded weapon at the home in North Carolina, police said. 

Hey, it's all about freedom right?