What really caused Chief Maloney's death
Sunday, May 13, 2012 at 10:23PM Any time there is a violent crime we question what happened and often wonder if anything can be changed to prevent future violence.
Our friends over a Blue Hampshire bring up the death of Chief Maloney in an article found HERE and raise questions about gun rights. They also muddy the water bringing up several other shooting incidences.
On April 12, Police Chief Maloney and four other officers were gunned down in Greenland. The same day, the shooter, Cullen Mutrie, shot his accomplice, Brittany Tibbetts, and then turned the gun on himself in an apparent murder-suicide. Also on April 12, two men were found dead in Dalton. Christopher Smith allegedly shot and killed Joseph Besk and wounded Wayne Ainsworth, then turned the gun on himself. On April 13. a nine year old boy in Hollis died after apparently accidentally shooting himself in the head with a shotgun.
On April 14, one man in Chesterfield who was shot multiple times died, and a second suffered gunshot wounds. On April 17, police found three people dead in the northern New Hampshire town of Lancaster. One, 44-year-old David Collins, was found dead at his home of apparent gunshot wounds. Two other bodies were found nearby in a burning pick-up truck. According to my count, during a six-day period, eight people were shot to death and six were wounded in New Hampshire. That total doesn't include the two bodies found in the pick-up truck since the cause of their death was not revealed.
What caused this spate of violence? Obviously, guns were part of the equation. All these people were killed with guns. According to the Boston Globe (4/23/12), "New Hampshire has among the most lax gun control laws in the country"
In reading what they wrote here you would think that since NH has "among the most lax gun control laws in the country" that we're one of the most dangerous places to live.
While they sensationalize on several crimes, over all facts do not support what Blue Hampshire is claiming.
For starters if you look at gun violence per 100,000 population NH has the lowest rate of gun violence in the country coming in at .43%. Compare that to NY 2.67, MA 1.53% or Illinois 4.59%. All three of those states have far more stringent gun laws and yet they have far more violence then we do. In fact every state in the country has more gun violence then we do, so if anything those "lax gun control laws" are helping, not harming.
What is also interesting to consider is the over all percentage of homicides using guns. Based on 2004 data 30.8% of all homicides were with a gun, 23.1% were knife and 46.2% were "other".
What does that tell you? Fewer then one third of all homicides in NH, which already has the lowest rate in the country, involved guns, which as Blue Hampshire argues are far too easy to attain.
Looking back on the three other states, New York, Massachusetts and Illinois, they were 57.8%, 58.1% and 75.2% respectively.
Given these facts, the assertion made by Blue Hampshire just doesn't hold up and if anything the opposite is true. The fact we do have lax gun laws has made NH a safer place.
I suppose if you wanted to sensationalize to support your argument you could likewise claim that on Sept 9th, 2011 2,996 people died as a direct result of attacks carried out by box cutters by a group of religious extremists. Or on November, 18 1978 918 people were murdered including over 200 children as a result of drinking poisoned cool-aid in a massacre known as the Jamestown massacre also carried out by religious extremists.
Should we ban all region as well as a result of actions of a few bad examples? Whenever Muslim extremists are brought up the left is often quick to point out that not all Muslims are terrorists but yet they use that same broad brush to attack gun owners.
The two largest mass murders ever carried out in this country where the two I mentioned and neither of them involved guns.
In the case of Chief Maloney he was serving a drug related warrant.
I could sit here all night listing one example after another of drug related crimes or cases of otherwise good people who have had their lives ruined because they wanted a little marijuana.
That's the real problem here. History does repeat itself and instead of learning from prohibition we created an even worse criminal underground by outlawing a weed that can be grown anywhere. Drugs are what lead to Chieg Maloney's death.
Are the deaths that keep adding up day after day and the money taken from tax payers used to fight this war on drugs and to imprison people who's only crime was to do something to their own bodies worth it to outlaw a substance that is natural and grows wild and causes similar effects as alcohol worth it?
Drugs, Guns, Maloney in Democrats, Free State, Gun Rights, Legalization
Reader Comments (16)
– C. dog
Locally they went there with a number of officers from various law enforcement agencies, obviously they expected problems. Yet their approach to the house seems more like one for someone they expected to give in willingly, a mixed response from the information available publicly.
Overall it is amazing to me that we openly promote alcohol usage while demonizing weed. Alcohol is the number one GATEWAY DRUG to a life time of problems!
I would be interested to know what the perp's blood alcohol was when this went down!
Work Hard Have Fun!
Bob DeMaura
Or as I liket to put it: alcohol is the gateway drug to ... more alcohol. But, even with all the damage people cause themselves by over-imbibing, we also clearly saw how much damage was wreaked upon the masses when prohibited. Yet our lyin' eyes tell us somethin' different when Mary Jane is in town, or Big Muscle's McGee. Such are the vagaries of culture and that which grows in it.
– C. dog
When I say Alcohol is the #1 GATEWAY DRUG I mean that literally. It is the gateway drug to all the other drugs. It is usually the first drug used by teens, as it is relatively easy to acquire.
If you were to be plopped down anywhere in the USA and told to go buy X amount of any of the currently illegal drugs what would you do first? Personally I'd head to the nearest watering hole ie: bar. In a matter of hours I would have any amount of any drug that you wanted!
In a conversation many years ago with a Massachusetts State Trooper assigned to the drug task force, I was finally able I think, to get him to see the fallacy of law enforcements thought process regarding drugs and where to find them.
My Point - If you want to find the hard drug users (Cocaine, Heroin, Morphine derivatives, Methamphetamine, etc) just go hang out at the local bar. If you want to find the Marijuana users you will have to find a way to get into peoples homes!
Work Hard Have Fun!
Bob DeMaura
– C. dog
– C. dog don't fall for no conservative head fake
I can't answer for the others but reflect back on my writings and one would have to conclude that fairness in drug treatment is recommended.
Let's Prohibit alcohol! Lets subject alcohol to all the same regulations and law enforcement/judicial treatment as marijuana. Simple possession should be fined heavily, and all student loans should be cancelled to anyone caught with alcohol. Work place testing should test for and fire employees that have used alcohol at anytime regardless of weekends holidays or vacations. Selling or manufacturing alcohol should be severely punished with a minimum of mandatory jail time for this activity!
Its coming to the understanding that alcohol is a highly dangerous "Hard Drug"! It is the "Gateway Drug" to all other drug usage. Alcohol causes more harm to our society than all the rest of the drugs combined!
If you can't see to ending marijuana prohibition then lets at least be honest and recognize and deal with alcohol's role in this societal affliction!
Such hypocrites, who chastise marijuana users while using alcohol as a recreational drug!
Work Hard Have Fun!
Bob DeMaura
PS though I hate to say this perhaps it is "Racism" that causes the knee jerk reaction to marijuana. The old image is of Black migrant workers being lazy because they smoked the vile weed!
I certainly don't see legalization as the "first solution" as you put it and I do agree we have far bigger problems in this country but that doesn't make the war on drugs any less justified and the money wasted year after year being spent on incarcerating people for victimless crimes any better spent.
Saying we have bigger problems is the equivalent of saying we should turn our backs on the neighbor beating his wife because another neighbor down the street actually murdered his. Everyone would agree that murder is a far worse crime but it doesn't lessen the other.
As for the racist plot, that part is fact, all one has to do is look at the history of how marijuana and other drugs became illegal in the first place. CA, the first state to outlaw the drug did so in retaliation to Mexicans. A Senator in Texas argued when his state passed a similar law “All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is what makes them crazy.”
Read up a little about Harry J. Anslinger, he's the man most will admit helped create the federal drug laws we still use today. Here are some of the arguments he used to create the laws in the first place:
“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”
“…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”
“Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”
There is no arguing that its history is a very racist one. And today while most of the racism has been forgotten it has become a government industry and those living large off the war on drugs building prisons and selling weapons to combat it don't want to give up the money they milk from the rest of us.
I'd also like to point out for the record, I don't smoke marijuana (or even legal cigarettes for that matter). If it were to become legal tomorrow the only impact it would have on me is less money being taken from me at the point of a gun for unnecessary government.
– C. dog
http://www.nhinsider.com/press-releases/2012/5/22/nh-dhhs-recognizes-recreational-water-illness-and-injury-pre.html
...
"Alcohol Use.
Alcohol use is involved in up to half of adolescent and adult deaths associated with water recreation and about one in five reported boating fatalities. Alcohol influences balance, coordination, and judgment, and its effects are heightened by sun exposure and heat...."
I guess Dave calls that "Wink and a Nod" moments in the value of Alcohol! There are a ton more interesting issues than dealing with the carnage, destruction of families, domestic violence, hate crimes etc. left behind by alcohol use!
Forgot to mention that Alcohol is not only the Gateway Drug to hard core drug use but it is intimately involved as a "Companion" Drug to Cocaine and Methamphetamine users! That is, it is used in conjunction with those two drugs!
Work Hard Have Fun!
Bob DeMaura
However you raise a good point which only helps justify legalization, Obama is now the 2nd president who has openly admitted to smoking pot. Kind of hard to argue an activity should be outlawed when 2 seated presidents have admitted to doing it and voters were ok with it.
After 50 years of known pretty heavy usage of marijuana throughout the USA by millions of users all you can come up with is that there will be consequences and evidently chief among them is a person who smokes pot turns into a flaming liberal progressive and worse perhaps a Socialist!
ROFLMFAO!
Should I assume one of the better consequences of alcohol is people turn conservative when they drink it? How does that work out with College Students overwhelmingly voting for liberals while remaining in an alcohol induced fog for 4 years?
Bob DeMaura
– C. dog, Token Freedom Fighter