12-30-2009 Tampa Tribune and WFLA Newschannel 8

I read another story in the newspaper about the gang shooting in Brandon. This is the same story from yesterday with new information about the victims but little about the nuts with the guns. The shooting happened right across the street from a church, so much for loving your neighbor.

While reading about this story I then heard on the morning news about a shooting in Lakeland. This happened at about 4 in the morning while Jonas Ward stood at his front door.

12-29-2009 TV News

I got up this morning and scanned the newspaper while having coffee. I did not see any stories of shootings. I thought that the nuts were taking another day off. but I had the TV on in the background and heard of a story from Brandon about shots being heard around midnight and three bodies being found. After looking up the story online I see that the ages of the victims are 22, 22, 21. Close to the ages of my kids. I can't imagine loosing my children like that.
The story suggests that it was gang related. So the nuts were probably the same age. How could they have guns?
Doesn't anyone check ID or would this infringe on their rights to kill?

12-27-2009 Tampa Tribune

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Another nut with a gun manages to get himself shot dead by police.
It began with an argument that John "Smokey" Johnson decided to end with a gun. After shooting his friend Smokey was confronted by police to discuss the situation. Smokey told the police that we was not going beck to prison. I guess the great system we have was not able to keep a gun out of the hands of this felon.

12-26-2009 Tampa Tribune

The paper today has two stories of nuts with guns. Both are follow-up stories of past events.
The first is about the nut Maj. Nidal Hasan the soldier from Fort Hood Texas who crazy and killed 13 people. This was someone who was trained to work around guns and still he used them in the wrong way. Here is a quote from the Wikipedia article about this nut.
"According to National Public Radio (NPR), officials at Walter Reed Medical Center repeatedly expressed concern about Hasan's behavior during the entire six years he was there; Hasan's supervisors gave him poor evaluations and warned him that he was doing substandard work. In the spring of 2008 (and on later occasions) several key officials met to discuss what to do about Hasan. Attendees of these meetings reportedly included the Walter Reed chief of psychiatry, the chairman of the USUHS Psychiatry Department, two assistant chairs of the USUHS Psychiatry Department (one of whom was the director of Hasan's psychiatry fellowship), another psychiatrist, and the director of the Walter Reed psychiatric residency program. According to NPR, fellow students and faculty were strongly troubled by Hasan's behavior, which they described as "disconnected," "aloof," "paranoid," "belligerent," and "schizoid."[49]"
Humm, kinda makes you think.
The second article is about the gunman nut that was shot by police the day before Christmas. The nut with the gun was Richard Darnel Longstreet and he had been arrested 8 times since 1996 and yet still had a handgun at the time police stopped and shot him.

12-25-2009 Tampa Tribune

Well I see this morning that the Christmas truce is over. In the newspaper this morning there were 3 stories of nuts with guns. One got himself killed and the other two were arrested.
In one story from Clearwater 3 nuts used guns to break into someones home and rob them. The police have arrested one.
in the last story I found in todays news paper a nut took three people hostage because his truck was going to be repossessed. This nut also had a criminal history.
I'm not sure how any of these guns promoted safety and freedom for anyone involved in the stories.

12-24-2009

There were no stories of people shooting each other in the newspaper today, and I haven't heard any stories on the TV or radio. I'm hoping that the spirit of the season carries on through out the year, but I'm not holding my breath.

12-23-2009 Tampa Tribune

Page 14 Necessity Defense. Scott Roeder used a gun to murder George Tiller. Roeder has been repeatedly in trouble with the law for violent acts. Yet he was still able to get a gun and kill a man. After his arrest he was said to have possible schizophrenia. Thats just great, a nut with a gun. Does no one think that there should have been some checks into his background?

07-09-09 Just so you know

07-09-09
Originally uploaded by blisschan

If it were not for the Blue H signs I don't think I would have made it.

Today I received a phone call from Carolyn Sterger about 8:15am stating that my wife had been shot. At first I could not understand what she was saying, it just did not make any sense.

Then after the initial shock wore off Carolyn told me that the paramedics were there and that she was talking and that they were going to the hospital. But she did not know when they would be going. I told her that I was coming there to the Clarion Hotel to be with my wife. On the way there Carolyn called me on my cell phone and told me that the ambulance was taking Jan to Tampa General Hospital.

When I arrived at the hospital I asked for Jan Bliss. At first I was told that someone by that name was there but I could not go back and see her. The nurse on duty told me she would go back and tell Jan I was there. While she was gone another nurse told me that Jan was not there and they would like me to wait in one of the private waiting rooms and he took me there.

At this time I was told that I could not have any information on my wife because she was a gunshot victim and that all information was confidential.

I felt like a suspect.

Once Jan arrived she began asking for me and I was brought back to see her. There was a change in the attitude of the staff toward me and I no longer felt like a suspect.
I found Jan on a stretcher in the trauma ward surrounded by what looked like 15 to 20 doctors and nurses. My heart sank and I felt weak to the knees. I ran up to Jan and the crowd parted to let me through. I held her hand and kissed her to see if she was okay. She looked at me.

There was what looked like gallons of blood on the stretcher next to her left thigh. I did not say anything to her about that the nurses seemed to have things under control.

I was then brought a chair to sit in; I must have looked as bad as I felt. I sat while the nurses finished what they were doing. Then a police Officer came in with the hospital chaplain who was checking on Jan and I to see if there was anything that we needed. Jan asked for water and she went off the find that for her. At this time Officer Jacobs introduced herself and asked Jan to tell her about what happened.

Jan explained about going to the bathroom and hearing a loud noise. Standing up and seeing blood everywhere.

I felt a little woozy at this time, this is a story I never expected to hear.

Some time about 11 or noon Jan was moved to another room down the hall.
At about 12:30pm Officer Jacobs called to say that someone named Debi had confessed to the shooting, that the pistol had fallen out of her pants and gone off when it hit the floor. She then asked if Debi could call us, at this time I reluctantly said ok.

Later the nurse came in and began getting Jan ready to be released. Jan said she would need something to wear because her pants were all bloody and her underwear had been cut off during her examination. The nurse got her a pair of paper surgical pants.

At this time her gunshot wound was still uncovered and bleeding. I suggested that it should be covered and the nurse was surprised that it had not already been dressed. So she got the proper gauze, tape and other dressings and attended to Jan’s gunshot wound. After that Jan slipped into the blue paper pants and sat down to put her shoes on. This was painful because till now she had been lying down. When she stood up a few minutes later to get into the wheelchair to be discharged I noticed a large puddle of blood on the chair. In just a few moments Jan had soaked through all the dressings and the pants and bleed all over the chair. We had to start all over re-dressing the wound and getting new pants.

The hospital released us at about 3pm.

12-22-2009 Tampa Tribune

Today in the morning newspaper there were 2 stories that popped out about guns.
One was about the police officer in Washington DC that pulled a gun at a snowball fight. Do you think that was an over reaction? Wow. I would think that if you carry a gun, a device that is intended to stop someone in their tracks that you would also have as part of your training the ability to quickly and accurately assess a situation and determine what level of force is required.
The second story is about the State of Florida's Department of Children and Families dropping a question of gun ownership from the forms used by officials in placing children with foster parents. It was Marion Hammer a Tallahassee lobbyist and former president of the National Rifle Association that pointed out that families were being offended by the question.
Why is the NRA so intent on hiding behind a wall of secrecy?