November 6, 2017 6:30 AM
Monday Morning Reads — November 6
Happy Monday, everyone! Congratulations to GeorgiaPol contributor George Chidi for getting hitched over the weekend.
News by the Numbers
- 26 people – were killed in a mass shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, a small town located 30 miles southeast of San Antonio. The death toll is expected to rise as more information comes out.
- $250 an hour – Georgia officials agreed to shell out $250 an hour to former Governor Roy Barnes for his defense of Secretary of State Brian Kemp. Attorney General Carr was forced to withdraw from the case after Kemp blamed another party in the suit, Kennesaw State, for the error — blame that Kemp has since pointed elsewhere.
- 14 percent – that’s the percentage Sprint’s shares have fallen since September amid talks of a merger with T-Mobile. Those talks officially ended last weekend when SoftBank Group Corp and Deutsche Telekom AG couldn’t resolve how to share control of a combined Sprint/T-Mobile.
- 5 fractured ribs – Senator Rand Paul was attacked by his neighbor leaving him with fractured ribs and cuts around his mouth. A prolonged absence could complicate matters in the Senate. With only 52 votes and a patched-together majority, Trump’s agenda could be threatened.
- 11 minutes – President Trump’s Twitter account was taken offline by a rogue employee on his last day at Twitter. All jokes aside, this raises a huge security question in an age where major policy shifts are announced via Twitter rather than traditional media outlets. What if an employee can send a tweet from POTUS’ account saying they’ve launched a nuke?
- 104 schools – are classified as low performers in Georgia according to the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. 41 of those are in metro Atlanta. They could be targeted for “turnaround” plans mandated by the state.
- $6 million – The Red Cross uncovered millions of dollars in fraud relating to the Ebola outbreak that ravaged West Africa in 2014 to 2016. As if people need another reason to never donate to the Red Cross. (That last link was written by a former professor of mine and is, quite frankly, incredible)
About Author
Will Kremer
Will is an active member of the Georgia Republican grassroots. He previously served as Chairman of the Georgia Association of College Republicans, 2nd Vice Chairman of the 7th District Republican Party, and Treasurer of the Forsyth County Republican Party. Promise Land = Forsyth County.
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Congratulations George.
22 people were killed by police in the United States last week.
https://chamblee54.wordpress.com/2017/11/05/killed-by-police-november-5/
Is your implication that the shootings were “bad” and the fault of the officers involved?
Renewed call for gun control. To be expected. There needs to be a relaxing of restrictions. More folks carrying less people ballsy enough to attempt to do stuff like this. I carry every day. .22 Mag. Light, 30 round mag. Nice equalizer!
I’m going to rise to your bait on this one. I know your normal echo chambers always come out with these mantras that you spew, (If babies had guns there would be no more abortions, etc. ). More guns is your answer to these mass shootings? We already have more guns in circulation than we have people, even counting the children. A relaxation of carrying restrictions? How can it possibly be further relaxed in Georgia? The only requirements are a warm body and no previous convictions for a violent or drug offense. I must admit on this one though that I would much rather see a gun in the hand of a pothead over that of a drunk but banning the mixing of alcohol and gun toting would probably eliminate half of the licenses to tote.
Georgia’s law doesn’t even allow a database to be shared of who is licensed to carry. While we hear of these cases like this one where someone was able to intervene and keep the loss of life down to a little over 2 dozen we don’t get to track how many licensed toters are the initial perpetrators. For example this article http://www.ajc.com/news/local/jury-finds-cop-killer-guilty-but-mentally-ill/6wG6XADLofr4APfZYO9SHN/ doesn’t even mention that the cop killer in question had a concealed carry license. The echo chambers are quick to tout the success stories for guns everywhere but never cite the dark side.
I freely admit that I don’t have the answers. The genie is already out of the bottle, on quantity of guns in circulation, on the capacity for ammo in modern weapons and therefore the quantity of potential victims, on concealed carry permits to practically anyone with a heartbeat. I do know that it is ludicrous to suggest that all we need is more of the same.
No bait, Will. If more people could carry these events would happen less often. Common sense to me.
I think you missed the point Noway. What regulations could be relaxed? There are essentially no regulations already. With very few exceptions pretty much anyone who wants to carry, can. We may be at the limit of how many people want to carry. The only thing that will get more people to want to carry is even higher crime.
Ok. Fair enough. Regs to be relaxed? Lower pistol age to 18 is one! Carrying in churches would certainly helped in this instance….
When you explain this concept of guns in churches to the US College of Bishops, can I be in the room to watch? ( I’ll need to find some Jesuit popcorn…)
Constitutional Carry, Ellynn. Despite your point, a gun carrying parishioner might have stopped the killing at one, maybe. Make the mentally ill maggot wonder if he’ll get his worthless ass shot before he goes in…
Ellyn, I don’t have any popcorn but I have some fudge from the monastery in Conyers…
I could be amenable to military 18 year olds being able to obtain a carry permit while off duty as most of them have been trained to use weapons if not handguns. As long as Federal law prohibits dealers from selling handguns and their ammo to under 21 however the non-trained will just have to wait until they can legally drink while packing heat. As I’ve stated before, I grew up with guns as just another tool to be used primarily for varmints, though of course with some real hunting mixed in. I personally was not mature enough at 18 to have carried a pistol around daily though. I don’t think I was an exception.
As for church, the state has left that up to the preachers, elders, deacons, priests, rabbi, shaman, witch doctor, what have you, to decide for themselves. This is how it should be. The State should not be able to mandate that they must allow armed congregationalists.
I believe that is already the case Will:
“Must be 21 years of age or can provide proof of Basic Training Completion or Honorable discharge.”
http://www.handgunlaw.us/states/georgia.pdf
Noway, here are the areas we are not allowed to carry. Maybe removing some of these restrictions would be helpful:
In a government building
In a courthouse
In a jail or prison
In a place of worship (unless permitted by owner)
In a state mental health facility
On the premises of a nuclear power facility
I mean really, if it’s OK to carry at colleges or bars or football games, why not at the Capitol? If carrying is a deterrent, why wouldn’t the legislators want that extra protection while they (allegedly) work?
No place to click reply. I hope this works ik. Agree totally, B! Andrew, if I’m one of 50 in the church and armed, even though he does have that AR, when he’s focusing on another area of the church, he can be gotten to. Anyway, we’ll always disagree on this issue.
I’m not challenging the right to carry Noway. The Catholic church would have to sign off on allowing a gun in a sacristy. They might have armed guards on the grounds of the Vatican and other major sites (IE Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem), but not inside the actual spaces of worship. Not to mention, the Holy See as a whole strives to maintain an open door/heart approach even to mentally ill maggots.
But it would be interesting to watch you try to change their minds. Terri and the fudge can join me in the gallery.
Love you, Ellynn!!! Your use of “maggot” made me laugh out loud! I’m a bad influence! 🙂
Why it’s difficult to be sympathetic to struggling Trump supporter rubes in Georgia….
“They are, you see, deeply invested in the myth that [African American] struggles with poverty, mass incarceration, joblessness, and miseducation arise from something African Americans chose or did, while the rest of the country, innocent as the dawn, did nothing to cause or benefit from any of it. They will be angry at the reminder that this is ridiculous.” — Leonard Pitts
Here’s a plug for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. https://www.sendrelief.org/ 100% of all donations go to real disaster relief. This isn’t sending folks with bullhorns to flood areas preaching The Gospel. This is folks feeding people and doing relief work in disaster areas. The administrative overhead for this organization is covered completely by the SBC’s Cooperative Program.
Taking his message Di-rectly to the American People has served him rather well. Cut out that middle man!
Tweeting does have its uses, but without thoughtfulness, it can be an easy way to say stupid things. But my prediction is that Homeland Security is gonna get up on Twitter, and that HS will get warrants for access to Twitter’s cybersecurity/ private info.
Our common-sense President…
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.joe.ie/amp/news/donald-trump-texas-shooting-605608
Your gonna believe what you want to believe. Who’s to say the bad guy couldn’t have gone out for more ammo and come back yo shoot some of the wounded??
Gime us this one tiny attaboy: the guy with the rifle was instrumental in preventing more mayhem by putting two into the worthless piece of sh-t!
I dare say most of America are cheering the hero’s actions!
FYI. Shooter (AKA maggot) was shot three times – leg, lower torso and head. Head was a self-inflicted and believed to be the cause of death.
Drew, if your place of worship were being attacked would you want someone to save the life of you and your fellow parishioners by taking down the attacker with a personal firearm? Please give me to common sense answer of yes. We’ll find something else to fight about tomorrow!
And Drew, thanks for the heads up on Kaiser back in August when I was overseas. Jyst signed up!