[UPDATE]:
Some information about the victim: a newly-naturalized U.S. citizen, native of Iraq. She was wearing a hijab, as were the other women with her.
Has me wondering if this was accidental after all. Which makes the “guns everywhere” law all the more odious: racist assholes can pick off their victims and no one can do a damn thing about it until it’s too late.
———————————————
Georgia’s “guns everywhere” law went into effect less than two months ago and in the tourist town of Helen, a tragic gun accident resulted in the death of a visitor from Texas:
A Texas woman died late Saturday after she was struck by a stray gunshot in the town of Helen in North Georgia.
Police said the bullet came from a small-caliber handgun carried by a 53-year-old man from Jasper, Ga. The gun accidentally discharged, and the bullet traveled across Helen’s tourist-laden Main Street and struck the woman in the side.
Bystanders attempted to administer first aid, police said, but authorities pronounced the woman dead at the scene.
The shooting took place outside the Old Heidelberg restaurant and bar, one of many Bavarian-themed businesses in Helen, a town of about 500 residents in White County, 90 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. The town’s main route, Ga. 75, is often crowded with visitors, many of them motorcyclists attracted by the area’s twisting mountainous roads.
[…]
The shooting occurred less than two months after a new law took effect in Georgia that greatly extended gun owners’ rights to carry weapons in public places. Bars are among the locations covered by House Bill 60.
The shooter was Glenn Patrick Lampien, who has since been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Apparently the bullet first shot Lampien in the hand, before traveling across the street to hit the still-unidentified woman.
On Twitter, an Open Carry Georgia dweeb said HB60 wasn’t to blame because Lampien’s gun fired “on a public street.” Meanwhile, from the AJC story, the gun loons are rushing to defend the law:
In an online forum sponsored by GeorgiaPacking.org, a gun-rights advocacy group, one commenter said Sunday: “Of course, HB 60 will be blamed.”
Yes, that’s because people carrying guns don’t magically teleport themselves from restaurants to bars to churches to wherever they’re going. They must travel the public streets. And accidents happen. You morons.
If Glenn Patrick Lampien wasn’t legally allowed to carry his gun with him everywhere, a tourist from Texas would still be alive, enjoying the Bavarian-themed town of Helen, Georgia.
I am not going to Georgia. Ever. For anything.
Southern Beale 
Helen has been a go-to place for many years for me to take out-of-town visitors. I don’t know how many times I’ve had a meal or a cold one at the Old Heidelberg.
No more. Not until this horrible law is repealed.
This “horrible law” isn’t going anywhere. Better get used to it.
They were selling racist knicknacks in the bigass knicknack emporium down the street from Old Heidelberg about five years ago when I was there. Also had a long chat with a resident of Polish descent who was frustrated with the racism there and the mistreatment of her son in school because he doesn’t go to the same church with the other children.
Totally different vibe at the AT trailhead, very diverse, Atlanta people.
Helen tube riding was fun but never again. Horrible place.
Guns do not accidentally go off. They go off when the trigger is depressed. Unless the man was standing right next to the woman with his hand on the trigger (assuming most people who carry carry with the barrel down) I don’t see how this could be anything but a case of negligent discharge. There are no accidental discharges, which is why responsible people adhere to the four rules of gun safety. The carrier of the defensive tool violated at least one of them for this to happen.
In regards to gun control, statists like yourself (the proprietor of this blog) and the state you worship:
Collectivists believe they have the right to steal money from everyone at gunpoint to fund their enforcers to force their will upon everyone else. They believe that if 51% of the VOTING population (not the entire population since most don’t vote) agrees, that makes it morally acceptable to violently force their will on others. If you do not agree with their new laws, then their enforcers will beat you into submission, cage or kill you. This is how every law, regulation or policy is enforced. If politicians scribble a new gun control “law” that says I have to register my firearm with them and I do not, what happens to me? They send me a letter. Next a meaner letter, then men with guns show up at my door. Should I resist, these men will beat, cage or kill me. If I survive they will put me in their state courts and steal more money, life and liberty from me in an unfair trial. Unfair because the judge and prosecutor are both working for the state in this supposed unbiased court (2 against my sole defender).
Those who want to take your guns away never want to disarm their enforcers. People who believe in politics don’t enforce their own edicts themselves instead they hire enforcers that we all must pay for or die. Through the magic of voting and political ritual it’s all morally acceptable. Afterall, morality does not apply to the state and it’s enforcers.
Collectivists use guns to take guns from people who haven’t harmed anyone else. They and their enforcers are initiating force and thus they are the aggressors. Owning property is not an aggressive act or crime and harms no one. The idea that a central authority should swoop in and commit aggression against people who haven’t harmed anyone is reprehensible, illogical, immoral and stupid because that same central authority can be used against the collectivist as well.
When collectivists talk about gun control they are really talking about charges. The collectivist claims to care for the, yet these new gun laws will be used to put the poor in cages. Who gets caught with “illegal” firearms? Often it is poor black people and poor white people but mostly poor black people. These people who committed no crime and hurt no one will be caged and possibly never see their family again or die a terrible death in prison. Maybe they had a previous felonious drug conviction and were unable to buy a gun for self defense but desperately needed once since many of these inner city neighborhoods have been so destroyed by the drug war they are more dangers than warzones in Iraq and Afghanistan(see Chiraq).
All gun control collectivists and their politicians are doing is creating MORE criminals when before there were none. Having a gun when you are not “supposed to” is not a crime because no victim was created by owning property, even if that property is “illegal”. This is just another way to put people in prison for victimless crimes, see the drug war.
More men than women are raped in America, because of prisons. America imprisons more of it’s slave population than North Korea, Russia and China.
I just read a story of a poor black woman who lived in Pennsylvania but had her gun permit in new jersey, she neglected to get her Pennsylvania permit and was caught with the firearm by law enforcers. The state attorney has no problem charging her with 11 years in prison. That is what gun control looks like in the real world, not on paper. She harmed no one. What about the guy who had an “illegal” silencer at the shooting range and got 5 years in prison? Everyone will have to pay at gunpoint to feed him daily, his medical care, etc, yet he harmed no one and commited no crime.
Homicides by firearms…well that statistic is probably mostly gang bangers killing other gang bangers or people committing suicide. Collectivists gun grabbers love to mix in those two statistics to muddy the water, they’ve been exposed before for it. Statistics don’t matter, humans have a natural right to defend their life and property. Statistics are most commonly used by aggressors to justify their aggression, see pretty much any law.
All forms of government, especially democracy are immoral, indefensible and illogical. The only just form of government is self government(anarchy). No one has a higher claim to your body than you, the state claims authority over your body. If you do not have the ability to opt-out then you are a slave. States are never created by consent, they are a criminal gang that acquires territory by force and then create elaborate rituals and patriotic state worship to convince the slaves their rule is legitimate and that we wouldn’t survive without them.
Private companies can replace the state and do everything we think we need them for and do so voluntarily without pointing guns at people to fund themselves(see Detroit threat management for a working security service that can replace the police). They will do a much better job because they would have to compete for our money instead of taking it by force. Since the state funds itself at gunpoint, it doesn’t have to earn money and it monopolizes it’s “services” in order to prevent competition. Because the money is not earned, the state does not receive market signals with regard to the “services” they provide. This is why people end up getting “services” they never wanted that are inefficient and crappy.
No private business would be able to stay in business providing the quality of “service” that states provide. The fact that they cannot go bankrupt (at least not yet) is why they still exist, printing money will eventually bankrupt them as the currency dies. They are not immune from the laws of economics.
There is no such thing as an accidental discharge. Guns do not go off by themselves. The carrier of this defensive tool negligently discharged the firearm by pulling the trigger by accident. Assuming the gun was holstered by being pointed at the ground, I don’t see how he could have shot anyone, the shot should have gone straight into the dirt. This implies he has the gun out of the holster.
The state kills more people than any other force on this planet and has murdered hundreds of millions in the past century). It’s called democide. Collectivists who advocate for using the state to steal guns from people do not want to disarm the murderous state they worship. The American state killed 1,000,000+ people in Iraq, why are collectivists not screaming to disarm the military?
Private crime pales in comparison to state crime. You are 8 times more likely to be killed by a cop than a terrorist and cops have killed scores more people than died on 9/11 since 9/11. Police are immune from the crimes they commit against people
(they have legal(state created) immunity). Only when the public is on edge of Rodney-king type riots will they actually put a cop in jail. Cops routinely get away with killing innocent people everyday in America. The police investigate themselves when they do something wrong, gee that’s not a conflict of interest. If there are good cops, they should arrest the bad cops, but they never do.
Documenting police abuse, theft and murder:
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/ daily police state updates
http://zerogov.com/?p=3268 part 1 of excellent study
http://zerogov.com/?p=3291 part 2
http://zerogov.com/?p=3295 part 3
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/ daily police state updates
http://www.copblock.org filming police
http://www.pinac.org filming police
youtube search for “police brutality”
About gun control:
Collectivists believe they have the right to steal money from everyone at gunpoint to fund their enforcers to force their will upon everyone else. They believe that if 51% of the VOTING population (not the entire population since most don’t vote) agrees, that makes it morally acceptable to violently force their will on others. If you do not agree with their new laws, then their enforcers will beat you into submission, cage or kill you. This is how every law, regulation or policy is enforced. If politicians scribble a new gun control “law” that says I have to register my firearm with them and I do not, what happens to me? They send me a letter. Next a meaner letter, then men with guns show up at my door. Should I resist, these men will beat, cage or kill me. If I survive they will put me in their state courts and steal more money, life and liberty from me in an unfair trial. Unfair because the judge and prosecutor are both working for the state in this supposed unbiased court (2 against my sole defender).
Those who want to take your guns away never want to disarm their enforcers. People who believe in politics don’t enforce their own edicts themselves instead they hire enforcers that we all must pay for or die. Through the magic of voting and political ritual it’s all morally acceptable. Afterall, morality does not apply to the state and it’s enforcers.
Collectivists use guns to take guns from people who haven’t harmed anyone else. They and their enforcers are initiating force and thus they are the aggressors. Owning property is not an aggressive act or crime and harms no one. The idea that a central authority should swoop in and commit aggression against people who haven’t harmed anyone is reprehensible, illogical, immoral and stupid because that same central authority can be used against the collectivist as well.
When collectivists talk about gun control they are really talking about charges. The collectivist claims to care for the, yet these new gun laws will be used to put the poor in cages. Who gets caught with “illegal” firearms? Often it is poor black people and poor white people but mostly poor black people. These people who committed no crime and hurt no one will be caged and possibly never see their family again or die a terrible death in prison. Maybe they had a previous felonious drug conviction and were unable to buy a gun for self defense but desperately needed once since many of these inner city neighborhoods have been so destroyed by the drug war they are more dangers than warzones in Iraq and Afghanistan(see Chiraq).
All gun control collectivists and their politicians are doing is creating MORE criminals when before there were none. Having a gun when you are not “supposed to” is not a crime because no victim was created by owning property, even if that property is “illegal”. This is just another way to put people in prison for victimless crimes, see the drug war.
More men than women are raped in America, because of prisons. America imprisons more of it’s slave population than North Korea, Russia and China.
I just read a story of a poor black woman who lived in Pennsylvania but had her gun permit in new jersey, she neglected to get her Pennsylvania permit and was caught with the firearm by law enforcers. The state attorney has no problem charging her with 11 years in prison. That is what gun control looks like in the real world, not on paper. She harmed no one. What about the guy who had an “illegal” silencer at the shooting range and got 5 years in prison? Everyone will have to pay at gunpoint to feed him daily, his medical care, etc, yet he harmed no one and commited no crime.
Homicides by firearms…well that statistic is probably mostly gang bangers killing other gang bangers or people committing suicide. Collectivists gun grabbers love to mix in those two statistics to muddy the water, they’ve been exposed before for it. Statistics don’t matter, humans have a natural right to defend their life and property. Statistics are most commonly used by aggressors to justify their aggression, see pretty much any law.
All forms of government, especially democracy are immoral, indefensible and illogical. The only just form of government is self government(anarchy). No one has a higher claim to your body than you, the state claims authority over your body. If you do not have the ability to opt-out then you are a slave. States are never created by consent, they are a criminal gang that acquires territory by force and then create elaborate rituals and patriotic state worship to convince the slaves their rule is legitimate and that we wouldn’t survive without them.
Private companies can replace the state and do everything we think we need them for and do so voluntarily without pointing guns at people to fund themselves(see Detroit threat management for a working security service that can replace the police). They will do a much better job because they would have to compete for our money instead of taking it by force. Since the state funds itself at gunpoint, it doesn’t have to earn money and it monopolizes it’s “services” in order to prevent competition. Because the money is not earned, the state does not receive market signals with regard to the “services” they provide. This is why people end up getting “services” they never wanted that are inefficient and crappy.
No private business would be able to stay in business providing the quality of “service” that states provide. The fact that they cannot go bankrupt (at least not yet) is why they still exist, printing money will eventually bankrupt them as the currency dies. They are not immune from the laws of economics.
Huh? (x2)
The point about it not having to do with HB60 was that HB60 only added a few places, and carrying guns in Georgia in the place this happened (on a public street) has always been legal and always been done. It’s not new, HB60 didn’t add that. It’s also legal to carry a gun in public streets all 50 states, some licensed some not (and in GA it does require a license).
Right and the basic point I’m making is MOAR GUNZ=MOAR GUN ACCIDENTS and I don’t give a flying fuck whether it happened in a restaurant, on a street, in a parking garage, at church or wherever. When you pass laws allowing more people to have guns and carry them wherever they go, they you are increasing the statistical likelihood that more people will be accidentally shot, injured, and killed. THAT IS CALLED MATH. The dumbasses claiming this had nothing to do with HB60 are either in deep denial of this basic logic or they are incredibly stupid.
Also who the fuck needs a damn gun with them in Helen, Ga. For fuck’s sake this isn’t downtown Baghdad. Stop watching Fox News and listening to Limbaugh, those are the assholes spreading fear and loathing of your fellow Americans every day.
Sorry, but the facts do not back your assertion. People that are licensed to carry a gun in public are safer than the general public and the police. The commit virtually no crime.
And yes accidents (ND) do happen and many could be prevented if NRA safety classes were taught in every grade in school and local police departments would offer high quality and low cost classes in gun safety and usage based on NRA classes. So, I assume that if you care about safety, they you are an NRA member and have donated above the membership fee.
references:
http://www.beaufortobserver.net/Articles-NEWS-and-COMMENTARY-c-2012-12-22-264494.112112-Texas-study-Concealed-carry-permit-holders-commit-less-than-1-of-the-crimes.html
(FL/TX Study, more CCW less crime)
http://thedaleygator.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/for-gun-control-cultists-math-is-hard/
Police One Poll
http://www.policeone.com/Gun-Legislation-Law-Enforcement/articles/6183787-PoliceOnes-Gun-Control-Survey-11-key-lessons-from-officers-perspectives/
Police One and Open Carry
http://www.policeone.com/Gun-Legislation-Law-Enforcement/articles/7337494-5-best-moments-between-police-and-open-carry-advocates/
Sorry, but the facts do not back your assertion. People that are licensed to carry a gun in public are safer than the general public and the police.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA {gasps} HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA {gasp} HA HA HA
Stop you’re killing me, literally. That is the biggest fucking delusion of all.
I wonder why the author doesn’t write on the gun laws of Chicago and how helpful they are to the murder rate there?
I dunno, maybe because Chicago doesn’t have a fucking WALL around it and most of those guns come from redneck states like Georgia, Alabama, and right here in Tennessee where guns are as easy to obtain as jellybeans. Moron.
Gun control needs to be federalized. This hodgepodge of state and local laws defies common sense and logic.
These stories scare the shit out of me. I’ve survived too damn long to die of a random gunshot wound. Anyway..In Re: Mr. Cruse’s comment. As I read your post and replies you don’t seem to question the law abiding nature of permitted gun carriers but instead assert that more guns equal more accidents. He even stipulates accidents happen. Seems to me it’s almost a statistical certainty but I’m no actuary. Would be interested to know who would pay for the gun safety classes he proposes. Dekalb County H.S. in Smithville can’t even afford Drivers Ed. Of course when they send the permission slip home for me to enroll my daughter I’ll ask when the Black Block Anarchy class will be meeting as well.
What’s scary is the “guns everywhere” bill proposed in Tennessee didn’t even require PERMITS. Your average Joe, without any training whatsoever, could carry wherever, whenever. So the whole argument that “licensed gun owners are the safest, most responsible EVAH,” while not even true, doesn’t even apply to the radical laws so many of the gun loons are wanting (yes, Tennessee Firearms Assn., I’m looking at you).
The want us all scared, armed, and did I mention scared? Lessseee, who does that benefit? Oh yeah. The gun manufacturers. Stupid wingnuts, tools in service to the man, yet again. Always and forever.
I’ve watched you roll that rock up the hill with your coverage of guns heroes du-jour, and now that it’s happened near me, I can’t ignore it.
Just wanted to give you a heads up that in New Haven, CT (the city my dad grew up in, and I next to), there’s a sadly similar story. If only the man celebrating his birthday in his home had a gun to defend himself against that stray bullet.
http://www.wfsb.com/story/26303364/police-seek-shooter-after-new-haven-man-killed-by-stray-bullet
If you are praying people, say one or two or a bazillion for those of us who live in Georgia. It’s enough to make you want to be a hermit.
Um, Ms. SB, did you snag a troll?
A couple, looks like.
Ga. citizens have the right to carry guns anywhere and everywhere. I have the right NOT to go to Ga. with my tourist dollars. KGW