Dobbs blames immigration activists.

Police remind folks that the shot apparently “did not come close to” Dobbs wife, that it was hunting season at the time, and that they wouldn’t “classify it [the gunfire incident] as very unusual” since hunter complaints go up during that time of year.

We report, you decide.

First, Dobbs’ take via FOX News:

A gunshot was fired at the New Jersey home of CNN’s Lou Dobbs after a series of threatening phone calls earlier this month, the host told listeners on his nationally syndicated radio show.

Dobbs, a fervent proponent of U.S. border enforcement, told listeners of “The Lou Dobbs Show” on Monday that the incident is part of an ongoing assault against anyone who opposes amnesty or leniency toward illegal immigrants.

“They’ve created an atmosphere and they’ve been unrelenting in their propaganda,” Dobbs said in reference to pro-immigration groups like the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the National Council of La Raza and America’s Voice. “Three weeks ago this morning, a shot was fired at my house where I live. My wife was standing out and that followed weeks and weeks of threatening phone calls.”….

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Now, the New Jersey State Police, via Huffington Post:

…Interviews with the New Jersey State Police yielded a rather different assessment of the events described by Dobbs. In a phone interview conducted yesterday, Sgt. Stephen Jones, a NJ State Police spokesperson, chuckled out loud after he heard about Dobbs’ account of the gunfire incident. Jones commented that he “wouldn’t classify it [the gunfire incident] as very unusual.” He also confirmed that there are hunters in the area, and stated that, “at this time of year hunter [shooting] complaints go up.”…

…Another New Jersey State Police spokesperson, Sgt. Julian Castellanos, noted that “it’s a wide open area and there are hunters in the area.” Castellanos explained that the bullet had hit the house in vicinity of the attic; it “hit the vinyl siding and fell to the ground” without penetrating the vinyl, he said.

While Lou Dobbs’ wife, Debi Lee Segura, was standing outside the house at the time of the gunfire, the bullet did not come close to her; it “struck at the apex of the house, near the roof,” and thus considerably higher than a standing person, Jones observed….

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By the way, The Dobbs family lives in New Jersey, a state with some of the strongest gun laws in America, with the nation’s sixth lowest gun death rate.

Across the border in Pennsylvania, the gun death rate is twice as high.

OK, maybe not.

But remember, it isn’t “paranoia” if they’re really after you.

…The real agenda of these folks at the UN, and in London, Tokyo, Brasilia, and the other capitals around the world of nations pushing the US to “come on board,” is not international regulation, but limiting the freedom we enjoy within the United States to keep and bear arms….

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The UN is coming!  ARRRRRRGH!!

On a related gun crazy note, a resurgent militia movement in Kentucky is taking target practice at UN-style blue helmets.

You know, in case they invade the Papa John’s corporate campus.  (That’s the UN’s real “real agenda”….)

With any luck, this incarnation of the Kentucky militia won’t have leaders who commit weapons violations and intimidate witnesses.

From the Louisville Courier-Journal:

Bob Resnick didn’t believe all the right-wing militia conspiracy theories — the FEMA internment camps or the government coffins stockpiled for the day the feds declare martial law and rounds up dissenters. But they made him wonder.

Then America’s economy collapsed and the nation elected Barack Obama, and the resulting chatter about socialist incursion, rampant gun control and a government takeover of health care made him fear where the nation was heading. So the 43-year-old disabled Louisvillian searched the Internet for local militia groups who seemed to echo his misgivings.

A few weeks later, on a rainy October afternoon, Resnick drove into a gun range in a secluded Bullitt County hollow to join 15 fatigue-clad members of the Ohio Valley Freedom Fighters, a Louisville-based militia that was holding a training session on assault weapons.

Surrounded by the pop of gunshots, Resnick squinted into the sight of his black semi-automatic rifle, blasting a hole in one of two U.N.-blue helmets the group was using for target practice — a symbol of global tyranny to militia groups — and left as the group’s newest member.

“The way everything’s going nowadays, if the economy tanks and they do declare martial law, and they do like California with all the riots and stuff, I’d like to know I’ve got a group I can be with so I’m not on my own,” he said.

After nearly a decade of decline, militia groups are seeing a resurgence in Kentucky and across the nation, fueled partly — according to militia leaders and watchdog groups — by the bad economy and President Obama’s election. The Freedom Fighters have seen their membership triple since summer to more than 100, according to Col. Kevin Terrell, a Louisville-area contractor who leads the group….

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As is often the case after major shootings, initial reports of events tend to be called into question or corrected by new discoveries reported in the following days.

Yesterday’s shooting at a North Hollywood synagogue seems to be falling into the same pattern.

In today’s LA Times:

…The victims, Maor Ben-Nissan, 37, and Allen Lasry, believed to be in his 40s, were taken to hospitals, where they were listed in good condition.

Detectives were working with them to understand what happened, Moore said. They do not believe the motive was robbery, according to LAPD sources, who spoke to The Times on the condition they not be named because the investigation is continuing.

Rabbi Amran Gabay described both men as regulars at the temple. He said one works in home improvement and the other in tile sales. The rabbi said he knew of no reason why either would be targeted, adding: “They’re regular people.”

A 17-year-old who was detained for questioning shortly after the shooting was released hours later, and police backed away from initial claims that the attack was motivated by religious hate.

Although the shooter was first described as being black, a police source later said detectives were not certain of the suspect’s race.

“This investigation is wide open,” said Capt. Sharyn Buck, who oversees the LAPD’s North Hollywood Division.

Several law enforcement sources told The Times that investigators were looking at whether the shooting was related to a business or personal dispute. The sources said detectives believe that one of the victims was the target and that the second victim may have been shot because he witnessed the attack….

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By Doug Pennington
Assistant Director, Communications

Freakonomics co-author Steven Levitt posted a request on his New York Times blog, asking readers to offer ideas for reducing “teen shootings” in President Obama’s adopted hometown of Chicago.

Some 300 public school students have been shot since September 2008.  Over 40 Chicago kids have been killed since January 1.

Levitt writes:

…But how do we reduce the violence? The political reality is that any strategy has to reduce violence quickly. While early intervention into the lives of young children might lower future violence, more is needed in this setting. Shootings need to be reduced now….

…Thus, I turn to you, the blog readers. Assuming that you had access to some resources, what approach would you take to try to address this problem? Dare to be creative. Most of the obvious things have already been tried and largely failed. We desperately need fresh ideas.

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Levitt’s call comes in the wake of the vicious murder of Chicago Public School student Derrion Albert who, contrary to the shooting trend, was killed with wood planks.  His murder was filmed on a camera phone, and the video made national news.

After that high-profile incident, President Obama sent his Attorney General and Education Secretary to Chicago to talk about a problem they vaguely called “youth violence.”

Both cabinet officials gave speeches.  Whether out of political fear or something else, neither could bring himself to utter the word “gun.”

Bearing this in mind, a couple of points are worth making in offering an answer to Levitt’s call.

First, the wheel may not need to be totally re-invented. The University of Chicago Crime Lab has already begun working to produce “fresh ideas” and practical solutions to the problem of Chicago school kids shooting each other.  People in a position to make policy may want to begin there, and then work their way outward.

Second, the “political reality” is that there are no quick-fix solutions that will reduce shootings right “now.”  They don’t exist.  The only solution to Chicago kids shooting each other is the comprehensive kind, requiring a long-term, focused approach, an investment of resources into that approach, and the courage of politicians to protect their community – and their country – from gun lobbyists who are worried more about their special interests than they are keeping guns out of the hands of illegal traffickers, felons and children.

Third, separating kids from guns has to be part of this approach.  There is no alternative.  With 300 Chicago school children shot since last September, it is an essential part.  There isn’t an epidemic of kids killing each other with wooden boards in Chicago.  You want to know why?  Because guns are much better at killing people and Chicago’s kids have easy access to them.

(By way of comparison, according to national FBI statistics, 37 school-age kids between the ages of 5 and 19 were killed with blunt objects in 2008.  With a firearm? 1,531.  England and Wales, on the other hand, have about 60 gun murders total in a given year.)

Finally, Chicago can’t do it alone.  The city needs national help. Gun advocates take pleasure in pointing to the so-called “failure” of Chicago’s gun laws.  Those same advocates cower from the uncomfortable fact that Chicago is within a 5-hour drive from some of the weakest gun law states in America: Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.

None of these states scored more than 25 points out of 100 on our most recent State scorecard.  Even Illinois fails to break 30 points.  How is a city that wants strict gun regulations supposed to hold back a tide of illegal firearms all by itself, as they wash over its border from these weak jurisdictions?  It can’t.

Chicago needs meaningful help from Congress and the White House who, in turn, need to tackle the illegal gun market – and the gun lobby that enables it – head-on.

Without a strong national gun violence prevention safety net, city ordinances alone, while still useful to local law enforcement, can’t be expected to carry the whole burden of keeping guns out of the hands of children and teens.

Steven Levitt writes that in Chicago, “most of the obvious things have already been tried and largely failed” and that “shootings need to be reduced now” with “fresh ideas.”

Have they really been “tried”?  Or have national politicians just given them lip service, leading many observers to just throw up their hands?

Levitt’s urgency for the quick fix is well taken.  But as in the more prosaic need to lose weight, everybody wants that magic weight loss pill rather than be told to exercise more and eat less.

Magic wands are for Harry Potter.

In the real world, only hard work, adequate resources, a laser-beam focus on proximate and remote causes, a sustained commitment over the long haul, and the courage to fight special interests who stand in the way of saving children’s lives will lead to permanent solutions to complex social problems.

The epidemic of Chicago school kids shooting and killing each other by the dozen is one such problem.

__

Doug Pennington
Assistant Director, Communications

Via AP:

…Damien Young was sentenced Monday after earlier pleading guilty to sneaking the gun onto a US Airways flight from Philadelphia to Phoenix.

Young was helped by his roommate, an airline employee who authorities say switched bags with Young at the gate to bypass security.

Authorities say Young was moving to Arizona and thought it would be easier to smuggle the gun than to follow proper notification procedures. Young had a permit for the weapon, which was registered to him….

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But wait, that can’t be possible.

His attorney said Young had a concealed carry permit:

…Young’s attorney said yesterday that the gun was registered to Young, that he had a valid Pennsylvania permit to carry it and did not have a prior criminal record….

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Young may not have had a “prior criminal record” before, but he’s sure got one now.

Obviously his permit was defective….