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The Guardian reports that the woman who was accidentally shot dead by her two-year-old son in an Idaho Walmart is described by those who knew her as a gun lover, a motivated academic and a successful nuclear research scientist who worked for Battelle’s Idaho National Laboratory and wrote several papers there including one on using glass ceramic to store nuclear waste (PDF). Rutledge was raised in north-east Idaho and always excelled at school, former high school classmate Kathleen Phelps said, recalling her as “extremely smart. … valedictorian of our class, very motivated and the smartest person I know. … Getting good grades was always very important to her.”
Veronica Rutledge and her husband loved everything about guns. They practiced at shooting ranges. They hunted. And both of them, relatives and friends say, had permits to carry concealed firearms. “They are painting Veronica as irresponsible, and that is not the case,” says Terry Rutledge, her husband’s father. “… I brought my son up around guns, and he has extensive experience shooting it. And Veronica had had hand gun classes; they’re both licensed to carry, and this wasn’t just some purse she had thrown her gun into.” Many locals don't discern anything odd with a 29-year-old woman carrying a loaded gun into a Wal-Mart during the holiday season. “It’s pretty common around here,” says Stu Miller. “A lot of people carry loaded guns.” More than 85,000 people, 7 percent of Idaho's population, are licensed to carry concealed weapons (PDF), “In Idaho, we don’t have to worry about a lot of crime and things like that,” says Sheri Sandow. “And to see someone with a gun isn’t bizarre. [Veronica] wasn’t carrying a gun because she felt unsafe. She was carrying a gun because she was raised around guns. This was just a horrible accident.”
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 03 2015, @02:04AM
I had a more detailed reply, but soylentnews doesn't like my browser so I lost it.
OK, basics: I'm a farmer. Not a hunter (except by occasional coincidental encounter with varmints, which is more in the nature of pest control), not a cop, not a criminal (at least not as far as I
know) and definitely not a soldier.
The US government seems to think that being a farmer is a lot more dangerous than being a police officer, and they get that opinion from occupational hazard figures. I guess the people who
feed you just don't rate the kind of consideration which blue uniforms do.
The fact is that I also have to deal with two-legged nasties. Some of them see me pulling in money for my products at a farmers' market and want to rip me off. Some of them want to plant pot on
my land without my permission, or the permission of relevant authorities. Some just plain want to rip me off in the countryside because the drugs told them to do it. Yes, there is a meth problem,
and yes, Virginia, it is a problem.
So call me a coward. You don't do what I do, you don't deal with the risks I have. The simple fact is it's a good day when a sheriff's deputy is within half an hour, and most calls don't even
take less than four hours to have someone show up.
In fact, I know a few cops from various departments (state troopers, deputies, city cops) and they're all pretty happy with me carrying, and they know darned well that I have used my gun for
targets and real killing. And they're OK with it.
They also know that a visible large calibre handgun in a holster makes a big difference in the tenor of negotiations when some thugs show up. And they like it that way. It's a better day for them
when I can give them a description of the twitchy-eyed squirrely folks who were showing too much interest in my house, than shipping me off in a body bag and doing paperwork.
The only lesson I get from the story, regardless of your prejudices and strawman positions, is that a holster is more appropriate than a purse. Well, yeah. I carry my guns in holsters.
But you sound like a smart guy, I'm sure you knew all this.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 03 2015, @04:29AM
This is representative of the rural vs. urban divide that is most telling on the gun rights issue, but also flairs up for many other issues including taxation, health care, public education, and mass transit. Look at any red vs. blue county map of the USA after a Presidential election, you can pick out the big cities just from the colors on the map (which is mostly red BTW).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 03 2015, @06:30AM
Actually, the part you think is red is an extremely pale pink because it is so sparsely populated. [wordpress.com]
Another representation of your "mostly" claim.
http://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Finnigan-chart-5.png [thefederalist.com]
Many of those states would be more accurately described as purple (split down the middle).
http://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Finnigan-chart-11-1024x748.png [thefederalist.com]
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 03 2015, @07:32AM
I understand now.
There are more people in cities so they get to decide how us country folks get to run our business.
They don't understand the destruction caused by, for example, wolves, or the real human, animal and financial cost born, so they tell us how it will be with wolves.
And bears.
And cougars.
Because they have more votes.
They don't understand what hog farrowing crates are for, but they know they don't like them.
They don't understand what chickens like or don't like, or what the link between chicken happiness and productivity is, so they get to tell us how they want their chickens raised.
Because they have more votes.
Thank you, master gewg_, sir. You've cleared that right up for us. We'll get back to putting food on your plate right after we've thrown away our guns and trucks, because guns are evil and trucks destroy the environment.
Yup, that same environment on which our livelihood, and the functioning of our farms depends.
Progressives had it right all along. Who knew?