Solving mass shooter issue -don’t regulate guns; regulate bullets

Gun control will do nothing. The horse is out of the barn. Americans own 50% of all civilian owned guns in the world. We need strict bullet control at least as serious as with driver’s licenses. Licenses of several levels like level one for limited # bullets for a 22. To own high capacity clips or clips for guns with more than one bullet at a time must have advanced level bullet certificates for mental health and from police every two years. To own high caliber bullets or clips with more than a few bullets you would have to have training similar to an officer. Licensees would also have to keep records of their bullets like pharmacists do with narcotics. How many they have, who they give or sell them to, how they were used (target practice, etc).

Louisiana has concealed carry everywhere and more guns per capita than almost any state. Where were the armed citizens here? They clearly could not react quick enough. They likely wouldn’t have been fast enough, accurate enough, and trained enough to counter panic in an active shooter situation.

Armed civilians do more harm than good. Studies have shown that practicing with a stationary target under calm conditions does not prepare you to duck, be aware of your surroundings and avoid tunnel vision of fight or flight situation where you fail to recognize innocent and shoot wildly, and without constant intense training, you do not have muscle memory to overcome the shakiness from stress hormones and fight or flight signals from nervous system removing blood from periphery and giving it to large muscles and center mass plus brain, as well as have the quickness and accuracy needed in a rapidly evolving active shooter situation with innocents running everywhere including in front of your gun. Armed civilians everhywhere will cause more death and injury, not less.

With guns, the only thing needed is a permanent ID embedded in some high tech way so that they can be traced more easily.

More bullets = more death.  Less mental health care = more death.  Remember 1/3 of 30,000 gun deaths in U.S. every year are suicides and 11% of population has mental health issues. You should be required to lock up bullets and loaded guns.

How & why is Darren Wilson guilty of manslaughter in killing Michael Brown?

UPDATE: 12-9-14 DOJ autopsy by  Air Force pathologists agrees with Shelton that some wounds may be re-entry wounds that hit chest after first going through forearm or  first going through forehead to cheek & out jaw (Shelton said maybe upper arm altho she did not examine body and only read autopsy reports) .  This suggests that R arm was up when shot.

Ask yourself: What is excessive force and when should deadly force be used?  If deadly force should not have been used or if it should have been used and then was used excessively, then Wilson is guilty. Also ask yourself what questions should Wilson answer about his behavior. Were they even asked? Finally, how do you interpret the autopsy reports. What do they mean.

The trajectories of the last two bullets show convincingly that Brown was already down when Wilson administered these coup de grace shots. Yet the grand jury was never told in detail about the bullet trajectories and what they indicate. (read further)

Forensic pathology can be a powerful tool. My teacher, Dr. Sandra Conradi, of the Medical University of South Carolina, former President of the American Academy of Forensic Pathologists, once proved a man innocent by self-defense of murder by lining up the trajectories of shot gun pellet wounds of the deceased with metal rods that proved the deceased was standing in a position of a man that was holding a gun. This affirmed the statement of the accused that he only fired because the dead man was holding a rifle and shooting at him.

A grand jury is not to determine innocence or guilt, yet that is how prosecutor McCullough used the St. Louis grand jury. That is prosecutorial misconduct. His father was murdered by an offender when he was a cop and many of his relatives are cops. He was biased and should have recused himself and recommended that a special prosecutor be appointed.

The role of the grand jury is only to determine probable cause. The grand jury is a one-sided presentation of evidence supposedly against the defendant and is meant as a rubber stamp for approving hearsay and allegations, not to determine innocence or guilt.  Only one side is presented and that is the  side determined by the state’s attorney. If the state’s attorney wants an indictment, he gets it almost universally. If, like with McCullough, he does not want an indictment, then he won’t get one because he can selectively manipulate the presentation of evidence and enhance rather than diminish confirmatory bias. Thus, even the fictional Mickey Mouse or a ham sandwich can be indicted. The grand jury system is fundamentally flawed and should be reworked by Congress and by constitutional amendment.

Please note that it is almost  unheard of for the prosecutor to call the defendant as a witness at the grand jury, especially to call him for the main purpose of demonizing the victim. This is gross abuse of prosecutorial discretion as the victim can not defend his reputation and is a slick manipulation of the tools of psychology to  bias the jury against the victim. For a detailed explanation how the prosecutor who is skilled can manipulate a jury read here.

When Wilson called out to Brown to get on the sidewalk, if he meant to follow that up with a jaywalking ticket or arrest for the shoplifting, then he should have gotten out of his car.  He apparently did not connect the shoplifting with Brown, or he would have called for back-up, simply followed Brown with his car and then with help of colleagues arrested Brown.

Instead it is apparent, that he simply used his car to intimidate Brown by backing up so that he was next to Brown and Johnson. Then the testimony varies. Some believe Wilson grabbed Brown through the window and then Brown slapped Wilson with an open palm which enraged Wilson who pulled his gun and threatened to shoot Brown if he did not comply. Others say Brown slammed against door and beat Wilson viciously with his fists, to the point that Wilson said he  feared for his life and pulled his gun. Pictures of red-cheeked Wilson comport with a slap and not a punch with a fist. The stories then further vary with some stating Brown was grabbing Wilson’s gun to shoot him, but others stating he was just grabbing the barrel of the gun to push it away from pointing at Brown. Unfortunately, the gun was wiped clean so that fingerprints could not be lifted from it to determine where Brown’s hand may have touched it. We only know it was shot in the car and a bullet hit Brown’s hand.

The state’s attorney did not ask Brown why he did not simply move his car to get away from Brown instead of pulling his gun. He did not ask Wilson why he didn’t just follow Brown in his car and call for back-up. Did he ask him if at that point he connected Brown with the shoplifting and if he did so, why he did not await back-up?  The slight redness of Wilson’s cheeks and no documented injuries were not used by the state’s attorney to question the veracity of his story that he was viciously beaten to within an inch of his life by Brown forcing Wilson to pull his gun and shoot.  The grand jury by then was so biased by the one-sided presentation from McCullough and the demonizing of Brown that they didn’t question these obvious inconsistencies making Wilson a clear liar to the grand jury. We cannot believe anything Wilson said due to the fact that his story that he feared for his life after such minimal redness to his cheeks and likely deep injury to his pride does not match his “injuries”.

It is because McCullough failed to ask these questions that the bias is so crystal clear.

Then when the forensic autopsy evidence was presented, no one emphasized that at 15 ft away Wilson admitted he let out a volley of shots with at least two of these chest shots in a downward trajectory proving that Brown was already falling down at 15 feet away from Wilson.

No pathologist bothered to state that the back to front forearm wound may line up with the front to back upper arm wound on Brown proving that his right arm was in the air with his hand at shoulder level when he was shot at 15 ft away.

No pathologist bothered to then state that Brown was not just falling down, but nearly on the ground when the last two shots were fired and Brown was 8-10 feet away from Wilson. Wilson admitted that he “sited . . . [Brown’s] head . . .” and fired and the trajectory of the last two shots was (A) through the forehead down through the cheek and out the jaw proving top of head down towards toes trajectory and (B) through top of head with towards toes trajectory.

As Wilson and Brown were the same height, 6′ 4″, this  means that Brown was either on his knees falling down or nearly completely having fallen down, when Wilson made the final head shot in a coup de grace manner.

There is no way Wilson saw Brown’s face at the last two shots as the trajectories prove Brown was looking down, not at Wilson. So how could Wilson say Brown looked like a mad demon or whatever if he couldn’t see his face? Wilson was looking at the top of Brown’s head when  he fired the last two shots at 8-10 ft away. It is unlikely that a Brown was “charging” at Wilson without looking at him.

Have someone make a computer animation of how Wilson could shoot Brown with a downward trajectory as explained in the autopsy notes that does not suggest excessive force and/or intentional coup de grace.  Just try! The pathologist could have passed a straight rod through the wounds and taken pictures to show the trajectories more clearly. He Could have even positioned the body for the last four shots and the arm shots to prove what I am stating about what the body position  was likely to have been when Brown was hit. I hate to suggest this, but I would even like to see the body of Brown exhumed and this done so that my allegations can be proven.

The U.S. Attorney should investigate this case for prosecutorial misconduct, civil rights violations, and perjury by Wilson. The Gov. should look into how a  new grand jury can be convened with a special prosecutor. Congress should call hearings about  court, judicial, prosecutorial, and police corruption and misuse of grand juries. The people must rise up unite not under racism but under judicial reform and fight the system until it is reformed.

This is because Wilson in my book is guilty of manslaughter, as are so many other officers. We must change training of officers and laws so that shooting is the last resort and that it must stop when the person falls or is no longer a threat.

 

Fox News Megyn Kelly tries to smear cop victim Brown with false statement about autopsy

It is really disturbing to me for arrogant hate-mongers like Megyn Kelly to jump to false conclusions based on her layman interpretation of autopsy reports, as she did when she interviewed the Brown family attorney, Mr. Crump on The Kelly File on Fox News a few days ago.

The autopsy of cop shooting victim Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, by Dr. Norfleet, says that he had a wound in his forearm from the back to front. Kelly said (and falsely assumed) based on some statement from another pathologist, Dr. Melinek, that this means he did not have his hands up. This is a false statement. (Note: that the front of the hand is the palm on an anatomic drawing with the arms down at the side of the  body). Also, Dr. Melinek states that she was misquoted in a pathology expert blog here.

Michael Brown could have had his elbow bent and his palm facing his face trying to reflexively protect his face and body from the volley of shots fired at him that seems clearly excessive and perhaps murderous by Officer Wilson.

Every shot is an isolated moment in time.  Each shot does not explain what happened before or after, nor does it explain motivation behind each shot or action.

The autopsy report is also consistent with an innocent person being grabbed by a wildly violent and bullying cop who threatened Brown by pulling out his gun while he had Mr. Brown at his car door, and then Brown with his hand trying to push the gun a way, before getting away from the car.

The witnesses said Brown had his hands up and was 20 feet from the officer’s car when he was hit by a volley of shots, after getting away from the car where the first shot to his hand occurred.

Witnesses said Brown was facing Ofc. Wilson at that point. The two shots to his chest and shot to his upper arm are consistent with that story.

If his right elbow was bent and his palm faced his face then the forearm wound would be “back to front”. It proves nothing about the position of his arms just before being shot by the volley from Ofc. Wilson’s weapon.

The fact that the chest wounds were somewhat  downward and both head wounds were clearly from the top downward means that Brown was either falling down with his head below the level of Ofc. Wilson’s gun or nearly crawling towards Wilson when Brown was shot in the head twice (one bullet at the top of his head downward and one from the forehead down through his face and out his jaw – not straight on backward, but downward).

The pathologist who made statements about the autopsy by Dr. Norfleet, Dr. Judy Melinek, cautioned that her statements were not definitive and that there were many possible explanations for the wound to his hand and arm.

The forearm wound could also have occurred if Brown was running away from Ofc. Wilson and had his arm down at his side, but who runs with their  palms facing forward?  This is unlikely.

The wound to his hand does not prove Brown was trying to grab the gun and shoot Ofc. Wilson.  It could also mean that Ofc. Wilson was trying to shoot unarmed Brown and Brown was trying to save his life by pushing the gun away!

Brown could have had his hands up, but when he started to be shot with the first bullets then turned his palm towards his face as he was falling down on his face.

The autopsy report can only collaborate the reports of witnesses.  I believe a half-dozen witnesses would not all lie about what they saw.

Clearly, the only way Brown could be shot in the very top of his head downward (as a tall man) by an officer, is if  his head was lower than the gun or at the level of the gun, which would have easily occurred as Brown was collapsing from the chest wounds and falling on his face.

Why would the  Ofc. shoot a man twice in the head when he is nearly on the ground after already shooting him five times?  That to me is homicide.

If Brown was committing a crime is not the issue. The degree of force used by Officer Wilson is the issue. Brown was unarmed! Whether Brown was 100 lbs or 300 lbs should also not make too much of a difference if, as the witnesses appear to be saying, Brown was not within arms reach of Wilson, so did not pose an immediate threat to him after he ran away from the police car.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1985 that it is not legal for an officer to use lethal force against a nondangerous suspect running away in the following case where police shot a 15 yr old in the back of the head and killed him, when he was trying to climb over a fence and flee after attempting a buglary: Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985).

Memphis, Tennessee, 1974. Police are looking for a prowler. They spot an unarmed teenager in the back yard. He tries to get away, climbing over a chain-link fence. A policeman shoots the boy in the back of the head.

“The use of deadly force to prevent the escape of all felony suspects, whatever the circumstances, is constitutionally unreasonable. It is not better that all felony suspects die than that they escape. Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so. It is no doubt unfortunate when a suspect who is in sight escapes, but the fact that the police arrive a little late or are a little slower afoot does not always justify killing the suspect. A police officer may not seize an unarmed, nondangerous suspect by shooting him dead.”  Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985).

Suggested plan to stop gun violence in America

SUGGESTED PLAN TO STOP GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA –

TO BE DEBATED AND DISCUSSED BY EXPERTS IN ALL FIELDS

INCLUDING LAW, MILITARY, NRA, HEALTHCARE, MENTAL HEALTH, POLICE, PRISONS  AND JAILS, RELIGIOUS LEADERS, AND PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS ON ALL SIDES OF THE DEBATE IN A TRANSPARENT MANNER!

1. America has 5% of the world population but its citizens own 50% of the privately owned guns the world. Tax ammunition outrageously like we tax cigarettes. Considering outlawing owning more than a few weapons needed by one person to be a member of a militia unless they have extensive mental health examination and background check.
2. Half of gun deaths are suicides.  Triple mental healthcare spending and  vastly improve access to mental healthcare.
3. Vastly increase opportunities for teens and young adults for jobs and after school activities. Idle minds are the devil’s  playground. Re-instate the Civilian Conservation Corps started in the Roosevelt era.
4. Outlaw high capacity ammunition magazines and give deadline to turn them in – do not grandfather them. An untrained person having      to change clips would slow down mass murders.
5. Find better high tech way to ID guns so that if their numbers are filed off they can still be traced.
6. Research and discuss ways of tracking and controlling the sale of ammunition and the sale of more dangerous types of ammunition, with consideration of putting limits on certain types of ammunition or finding ways of tracing the sale and usage of certain types of ammunition that are more deadly or meant for military mass murder situations, rather than hunting.
7. Tax guns at enormous rate with goal of decreasing ratio of guns to number of Americans to half as many within 5 years. Increase availability of voluntary turn in of weapons without consequences.  Destroy weapons turned in and do not resell them.
8. Outlaw semi-automatic rifles and handguns. Have a panel of experts including military and NRA representatives determine this issue. No grandfather clause.  Maybe allow some stored in gun clubs to mentally certified people, who have  undergone careful background check as to mental health as well as had an  interview by a trained psychologist. Do not allow storage of these weapons in a home where everyone is not certified.
9. Massive education effort to teach not to stigmatize  mentally ill and to recognize need for mental healthcare.  Teach that most mentally ill people are  harmless, most gun deaths are NOT caused by the mentally ill, but that serious mass murders may be caused by a few very disturbed people who need  help BEFORE they murder someone.
10. Research and find ways to identify loners and help them integrate into society, as well as find ways to identify when they are falling into psychotic mental illness and becoming dangerous to society like with the shooters in Oregon & at the Colorado theater.
11. Massively increase training requirements for law enforcement officers and prison guards to include training about mental illness and psychology (at least one year of classes and rotation through  mental health facilities as part of code gray teams and counseling teams).  Three months of post high school      training is not adequate to be employed as a jail or prison guard.  This will take a 5-10 year transition as our police forces are so incredibly undertrained. Parole officers should be required even more training. Study how many peace officers were involved in murder with their own guns or whose guns were used for suicide or accidental shootings.
12. Vastly improve our education system in the U.S. to  include domestic violence and pre-marital counseling, financial  responsibility, and child development, as well as mental health issues.  Require students to volunteer to help the elderly, the disabled, or the mentally challenged so they understand that the disabled and mentally  challenged are not automatically dangerous.
13. Close loopholes so that NO gun may be exchanged or sold without check with a national database.
14. Have intense discussion/analysis as to what diagnoses or mental certification should cause inclusion in database as the vast majority of the mentally ill are not dangerous. Forcing all that  have been treated or hospitalized for mental illness into a database would be grossly unfair.
15. Judicial reform to take corruption out of our court system and vastly reform family courts thus lowering the extreme suicide rate among veterans and the population due to false defamation of character and wrongful termination of child custody rights.
16. Do not put all felons in database as most are not  dangerous concerning guns – analyze this more carefully.
17. Make national effort to put in place system to help wrongfully convicted felons overturn their convictions so that the database is not overtaxed by excessive numbers of people who are mentally  stable but wrongfully accused of being mentally ill or have been defamed and wrongfully convicted felons, or non-violent felons.
18. Make higher penalties for storing weapons without trigger locks and other appropriate safety measures.