Another day of gun violence in the US

Georgia woman saves her baby’s life seconds before being shot to death by her partner:

According to Atlanta’s WSB Radio, Jessica Arrendale’s partner and father of her 6-month-old daughter Cobie attacked her with a baseball bat and then an assault rifle, shooting her through the head.

As she fell, dying, Arrendale reportedly dropped the baby into the bowl of the toilet of the bathroom where she was trapped and covered the infant with her body. Police found the baby alive, but suffering from a head wound some 13 hours later when they stormed the apartment on Sunday.

Arrendale’s mother, Teresa Inniello, told WSB that last Saturday evening, Arrendale and the baby’s father, Antoine Davis, 30, went out to dinner and began to argue. Davis got drunk and when they arrived home, the argument escalated.

The New York Daily News said that Davis, a Marine veteran of the Iraq War, attacked Arrendale with a baseball bat some time around midnight. Forensic investigators believe that she barricaded herself in the bathroom, at which point, Davis got an assault rifle he kept on the premises.

Authorities believe that he kicked in the bathroom door and began firing at Arrendale, who stood there holding their baby.

“He shot her and they (police) don’t know how she was able to twist her body and fall literally in the opposite direction,” Ionniello said to WSB.

“She had pure will,” Ionniello said. “She wanted that baby to live.”

Davis then went into the baby’s room and turned the weapon on himself. He was long dead when police arrived.

“She was the hero,” Ionniello said, “because her last breath was saving the child.”

Baby Cobie had been lying in the water for about 13 hours when police finally burst into the apartment. They had been reluctant to rush the residence for fear that the move would spark Davis to hurt Arrendale or the baby, not realizing that the violence had already occurred.

The couple had a history of domestic violence and Ionniello said she did not know why her daughter stayed with her abuser for as long as she did.

Gun violence alone is horrible enough.  Adding domestic violence to that is just horrifying.  I remember my late roommate Micah telling me that he was completely unprepared for a return to civilian life after serving two tours of duty in Iraq.  He said the military offered no way of easing him back into non-military life.  I have to wonder how this lack of support from the military can affect people.  I know for Micah that he routinely had nightmares, and I think his problems with alcohol might have stemmed from his time in the military.

All that said, there is no excuse for domestic violence. I don’t care what you saw or what you did in the military, taking it out on anyone is absolutely out of the question.  Despite a noticeable decline 20 years ago, domestic violence rates are still alarming.

Yet the dramatic decrease from 1995 through 2004 has largely stalled, with the numbers stabilizing at a level that appalls people in the prevention field. The latest federal figures for “serious” intimate partner violence — sexual assault or aggravated physical assault — showed 360,820 such incidents in 2013, or roughly 1,000 per day.

Of those numbers, women are at greater risk of being killed by their partner than men.

#1 FACT:

Most domestic violence incidents are never reported.

Help change the facts. Speak up, speak out, and make a difference for victims of domestic violence.

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4 year old accidentally shoots aunt in back

A four-year-old playing with a .25 caliber pistol accidentally shot his aunt in the back while sitting in a parked car outside a Tampa store.

The gun had been left in the pocket behind the driver’s seat, and the child returned it to its place after looking at it and shooting his aunt, reports WPTV.com, a local NBC affiliate.

The weapon was left there unsecured and loaded by the child’s uncle, who came running out of the store after he heard the shots fired and then left the scene. Authorities confirm Randall Simmons is the owner of the gun and wanted for felony culpable negligence and felon in possession of a firearm.

The bullet hit the child’s aunt near her spine, and doctors have told her it’s too dangerous to operate and try to take out.

“I’m more concerned about my nephew. I’m scared that he’s going to be traumatized because after all he is a four year old kid you know,” she said.

Yet another example of a gun owner not being responsible with their weapon.  This is not something that should be casually set aside. It should not be sitting in the pocket behind the drivers seat.  When not in use, a gun should not be loaded and should be kept in a safe location away from the reach of children.  Basic gun safety.

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The day after being fired, an Alabama man kills his former UPS supervisors and himself

The gunman, who was wearing a brown UPS uniform, had been terminated a day earlier, police said, adding that his motive was not immediately clear.

The shooting occurred shortly before 9:30 a.m. at a large, brick UPS service center atop a hill in the Inglenook section of Birmingham, close to the airport, police said.

Officers found the two victims along with the gunman, who had arrived at the facility in a Honda SUV and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper told reporters.

I’m sympathetic to people being fired, believe me.  But that does not, under any circumstances, justify hurting anyone, let alone killing them.

This country really needs to have a prolonged discussion about the tendency of so many people to resort to violence to achieve their goals, or when they get frustrated.  Especially since all too often, people wind up dead bc this gun is filled with people who love guns.

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Cops shoot NH woman who reaches for her grandchild during a DEA raid

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration executed a search warrant Aug. 27 at the third-floor apartment of Lilian Alonzo as part of an investigation into an oxycodone distribution ring.

Police had confiscated about 1,600 tablets, $58,000 in cash, and an unspecified number of firearms as part of the investigation at other locations in the Manchester area.

Two of Alonzo’s daughters, Johanna Nunez and Jennifer Nunez, were among nine people arrested in those previous raids.

According to an affidavit, Jennifer Nunez told an accomplice June 18 that she stashed her drug proceeds “at mom’s,” and a confidential informant told police he saw $50,000 in cash at Alonzo’s apartment.

Her son told the New Hampshire Union Leader his 10-year-old sister opened the door to Alonzo’s home and federal agents burst into the apartment.

“She went to pick up the baby,” said Daniel Nunez. “They thought she was reaching for something, and they shot her.”

The bullet ripped through her arm and entered her torso, the newspaper reported.

No drugs, weapons, or large amounts of cash were found at Alonzo’s home, Daniel Nunez said.

Three children were present at the time of the shooting in the apartment where Alonzo had lived for about six years – including the 10-year-old girl and a 4-year-old child and 1-year-old baby.

The case had been under investigation for about a year, and Nunez said authorities should have been aware children frequented the apartment.

Two shots were fired when agents barged into the apartment, including one that struck a wall and another that remains inside Alonzo – who needed 30 stitches as a result of her wounds.

The state attorney general is investigating the shooting, which authorities said may have been accidental.

“One of the officers’ weapons discharged,” said Attorney General Joe Foster’s office in a statement, but no other details were offered.

This is what happens when the police go guns a blazin’ without assessing the situation.  And I just know the race of Alonzo’s daughters had nothing to do with the amount of force deployed by the police.

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Shoot first, ask questions later

A Florida  man who reportedly thought he heard and saw an intruder Sunday morning at his Sebring, Florida home opened fire and hit the person, who turned out to be his 60-year-old wife.

According to the police, Eusebio Christian, 47, is cooperating with police inquiries into the matter. Christian’s wife, whose name is being withheld as a possible domestic violence victim, received one shot in her face, but it was not life-threatening, Carr said, according to the News-Sun.

A gun in the home increases your risk of homicide or suicide by firearm:

Those persons with guns in the home were at greater risk than those without guns in the home of dying from a homicide in the home (adjusted odds ratio = 1.9, 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 3.4). They were also at greater risk of dying from a firearm homicide, but risk varied by age and whether the person was living with others at the time of death. The risk of dying from a suicide in the home was greater for males in homes with guns than for males without guns in the home (adjusted odds ratio = 10.4, 95% confidence interval: 5.8, 18.9). Persons with guns in the home were also more likely to have died from suicide committed with a firearm than from one committed by using a different method (adjusted odds ratio = 31.1, 95% confidence interval: 19.5, 49.6). Results show that regardless of storage practice, type of gun, or number of firearms in the home, having a gun in the home was associated with an increased risk of firearm homicide and firearm suicide in the home.

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Another day of gun violence in the US
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