Bathtubs, Guns, And Children

Bathtubs, Guns, And Children

This isn't a great combination, of course. A reader told me of a discussion in a law school class involving a question of liability. It was one of those very typical situations:

a crack addicted wife getting a hold of a her husband's gun resulting in the wife's attempted suicide. I responded that I didn't think the husband had a legal duty to secure the gun from his wife and he responded "what about a child?" I said, in an off the cuff way, "a child is is more likely to drown in a bathtub than accidentally by a fire arm."

The professor didn't believe this, so I told the student how to go about finding the data--and went looking for it myself, at the Centers for Disease Control's wonderful website, http://wonder.cdc.gov/mortSQL.html. You can request data on accidental drowning deaths by calendar year and by age (and yes, specific to bathtubs) and accidental firearms deaths of children by calendar year and by age.

In the years 1999-2006, there were 300 drownings in bathtubs for children <1 year, 294 for 1-4 years, 59 for 5-9 years, and 69 for 10-14 years (722 total). By comparison, firearms accidents for those same years and ages, nationwide: 0 deaths <1 year; 7 deaths for 1-4 years: 30 for 5-9 years; 81 for 10-14 years (118 total).

The answer is clear: there need to be mandatory bathtub safety classes before parents are allowed to rent or buy a place with one of those porcelain dealers of death.

More Evidence That Alcohol & Advanced Technologies Don't Mix

More Evidence That Alcohol & Advanced Technologies Don't Mix

You know, advanced technologies like matches. From the November 4, 2009 Harvard Crimson:

A recent Harvard Law School graduate has been accused of setting fire to a New York City chapel that houses the remains of unidentified victims of the 9/11 attacks, leading to public outrage from the victims’ families.

Brian A. Schroeder, who graduated from the Law School last spring, turned himself into the police Monday on arson charges after a fire broke out at the chapel the morning of October 31.

Schroeder—whom The New York Daily News branded as “New York’s newest Public Enemy #1”—was arrested on counts of third degree arson, first degree reckless endangerment, second degree criminal mischief, and third degree burglary, according to the New York Police Department.

Schroeder was reportedly drunk at the time of the incident, and Schroeder’s attorney has claimed to media outlets that his client may have been drugged during a night of partying over Halloween weekend.

I'm sure that Law & Order's scriptwriters are busily churning out a thinly fictionalized version of this incident as we speak!

George Mason Law Review Will Be Publishing This

George Mason Law Review Will Be Publishing This

Clayton E. Cramer, Nicholas James Johnson, George A. Mocsary, "'This Right is Not Allowed by Governments that are Afraid of the People': The Public Meaning of the Second Amendment When the Fourteenth Amendment was Ratified," George Mason Law Review, Vol. 17 (2010).

Some very important law professors and gun rights attorneys had some very, very nice things to say about this on a private mailing list where we conspire in favor of the Second Amendment. While George Mason Law Review isn't one of the top 20 most cited law reviews, it was a bit late in the year to get this into that elite list--and then again, past experience is not necessarily an indicator of future results.

I'm Feeling Loved

I'm Feeling Loved

Thanks to all who have made cash contributions, or offered job pointers. Not a substitute for a regular job, but boy, it helps, and it makes me feel like I am doing something useful.

In addition, several nonprofits, while unable to offer me a full-time job, are discussing things that I can do for them to bring in some money. Again, not a substitute for a regular job, but it makes it easier to limp along until one does come along.

I've made a sufficiently good impression on the deans and assistant deans that have been watching me teach State & Local Government at a local technical school that I have been offered an Introduction to Personal Computers class for the next term--and there's a strong chance that I will teaching a course in programming microprocessors as well. Again, it's not a substitute for a full-time job, but with enough money dripping in from various sources, to quote Gloria Gaynor, "I will survive."

Another Opponent of Concealed Carry Concedes

Another Opponent of Concealed Carry Concedes

I've been very pleased at the number of people--journalists, sheriffs, politicians--who initially opposed "shall-issue" concealed weapon permit laws, and later admitted that they were wrong. Here's another. The October 20, 2009 Springfield, Missouri News-Tribune carried an editorial in which they listed two recent gun self-defense cases:

In the second incident, the assailant was shot by someone who qualifies under the conceal and carry law.

Sheriff Greg White is a proponent of the conceal and carry law, passed by lawmakers in 2003 after Missouri voters rejected a similar law in 1999.

The law requires people to attain a standard of proficiency with weapons before they are permitted to carry a concealed gun. Proponents of the law believe it offers a greater sense of security and decreases crime by prompting felons to consider the consequences of armed confrontation.

We confess to harboring some reservations about the concealed carry law. Our fear was an increase in guns in public would result in more guns being displayed prematurely and/or more accidents.

White said recently: “All the fears over conceal and carry have never manifested.”

We concede the point.

Anecdotal evidence does not suggest an increase in accidents or unprovoked gunplay.

The evidence, however, does show people defending themselves from harm.

The message being sent to felons is don't bring a weapon to a crime unless you're prepared to accept the risk.

Let's hear it for journalists with the honesty to admit that they were wrong.

So The Government Doesn't Even Get The Deal That I Get?

So The Government Doesn't Even Get The Deal That I Get?

Several years ago, I made a serious mistake: I bought $25,000 face value of 7.85% coupon bonds that I thought were Citigroup. They weren't. CIT, in spite of the name, isn't Citigroup. (I fear that my enthusiasm for the yield and bond rating may have overcome my usual caution.)

The Democrat-induced financial disaster threw CIT to the edge of bankruptcy--and now, they are offering bondholders the chance to exchange our very nice, high coupon bonds for bonds that (in my case), are worth about 70% of the face value of the old bonds--and we get a small amount of stock in CIT, as well. It's a disappointing result, but the first time that any bond that I have bought has actually reached such a poor condition.

But now I see that I may come out ahead of the federal government on this deal. David Freddoso tells us:

Black specifically faults Geithner for negotiating an arrangement in which CIT can repay its senior creditors 70 cents on the dollar in bankruptcy, but taxpayers are completely left out in the cold for their investment.

I am at least getting a little stock on this (assuming that the exchange deal goes through).

Never Bring A Knife To A Gunfight

Never Bring A Knife To A Gunfight

And a tire iron isn't much, good, either. From the October 27, 2009 Sarasota Herald-Tribune:

PORT CHARLOTTE - Two men, armed with a knife and a tire iron, reportedly forced their way inside a Port Charlotte home Saturday night, only to find the occupants had guns.

The botched home invasion robbery ended quickly when one of the suspects sustained a nonfatal gunshot wound to the stomach, according to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.

Authorities have arrested one man and intend to charge the other upon his release from a Fort Myers-area hospital in connection to the attempted robbery at the 21000 block of Beaverton Avenue.

The incident occurred around 10 p.m. at the home of Peter L. Gilmore, 69, and his 25-year-old son, James S. McGlone.

Two men, later identified as Keith Sowers, 32, of Punta Gorda, and Port Charlotte resident Joshua Eugene Becerril, 29, wearing stockings over their faces, kicked open the front door, deputies said.

Becerril reportedly held Gilmore at knifepoint. McGlone ran into his father's bedroom, where Gilmore kept several guns, and was chased by Sowers, toting a tire iron.

Sowers allegedly hit McGlone over the head with the tire iron before being shot in the stomach.

Aggression and an impact weapon works fine, until you meet a higher technology.