Biden on self-defense: Get yourself a shotgun

By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 18 hrs ago

Vice President Joe Biden arrives during the second presidential inauguration of Barack Obama at the U.S. Capitol …Are you looking into buying an assault weapon for protection after a devastating natural disaster (or the coming Zombie Apocalypse) plunges society into deadly anarchy? You’ve got it all wrong, Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday: Get yourself a shotgun.

Biden, doing a Google+ “hangout” to promote President Barack Obama’s proposals for battling gun violence, had been asked whether a new assault weapons ban might infringe on the Second Amendment rights of those who want one “as a last line of defense” to fend off looters after “some terrible natural disaster.”

“Guess what? A shotgun will keep you a lot safer, a double-barreled shotgun, than the assault weapon in somebody’s hands [who] doesn’t know how to use it, even one who does know how to use it,” the outspoken vice president, a shotgun owner himself, replied. “It’s harder to use an assault weapon to hit something than it is a shotgun. You want to keep people away in an earthquake? Buy some shotgun shells.”

With the fate of Obama’s gun violence proposals unclear in the face of stiff opposition from most Republicans and some Democrats, Biden urged supporters of ideas like imposing a new assault weapons ban, limiting ammunition clips to 10 rounds and toughening background checks to pressure their elected representatives. “This town listens when people rise up and speak,” Biden said.

Like Obama before him, the vice president emphasized that he's a firm believer in the Second Amendment—but compared proposed new curbs on assault weapons to keeping fully-equipped F-15 fighter jets off the market.

“You have an individual right to own a weapon both for recreation, for hunting and also for your self-protection,” he said. "But just as you don’t have an individual right to go out and buy an F-15—if you’re a billionaire—with ordnance on it, just like you don’t have the right to buy an M-1 tank, just like you don’t have a right to buy an automatic weapon" you should not be able to get other weapons for which there is "no reasonable societal justification, or constitutional justification."

Biden noted that "it's not about keeping bad guns out of the hands of good people, it's about keeping all guns out of the hands of bad people. There should be rational limits."

One of Biden's questioners asked why, if they're rational, there's the lack of political will to enact them.

Biden paused, then said he would have to watch his words. “Both left and right sometimes take absolutist positions," he said.

The vice president emphasized that the administration was not calling for armed guards in schools, a proposal recently floated by the National Rifle Association. Instead, schools would have the flexibility to hire a uniformed guard, armed or not, if they so desired.

Former Child Bride 'Escapes' FLDS Community With Children

ABC News - Former Child Bride 'Escapes' FLDS Community With Children (ABC News)

Ruby Jessop's children are thrilled to be off of a strictly imposed all-bean diet ordered by jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.

"It's like they cannot get enough food in their bellies. They want to taste and try everything," Jessop's relieved sister Flora Jessop told ABCNews.com.

Until recently, Flora Jessop said she didn't know if she would ever see her sister again.

Ruby Jessop was forced into an arranged marriage with her step-brother when she was 14 years old, according to her sister and the Arizona attorney general.

"Twelve years ago, I got a call from my sister who has 14 years old and had been placed in an arranged marriage," Flora Jessop told ABCNews.com. "She had managed to get away and I gave her a promise that I would do everything I could to keep her safe. Then, before I could get to her and get her help, she disappeared and was taken back into the group."

Jessop, now 26, managed to flee from a radical faction of the Mormon church called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, more commonly known as FLDS, earlier this month. She was then able to gain temporary custody of her six children, who range from 2 to 10 years old.

Watch more on FLDS on "20/20: Breaking Polygamy" Saturday at 10 p.m. ET

Her escape was announced on Tuesday by Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne.

"I have been searching for her for 12 years and she was hidden from us," Flora Jessop said. "Every time I got close to the community, they would pack her in a car and move her into hiding, ensuring that we couldn't get close to her."

"It is unacceptable that anyone would be married against her will and forced to live in a community in which she feels unsafe, " Horne said in a news release. "Ruby Jessop was forced into marriage by FLDS leader Warren Jeffs who compelled her to marry her second-cousin Haven Barlow in 2001. Her exact whereabouts were unknown for years until very recently when she was able to escape the town."

The attorney general's office has not provided details on how Jessop escaped or got temporary custody of her children, but said the escape was aided by $420,000 Horne made available. He said the money went towards more deputies working in Colorado City, an FLDS stronghold. The deputies were "instrumental" in helping Jessop and her children leave safely, Horne said.

Horne emphasized the need for more funding at a news conference, saying that the current funds will run out in six months.

"Ruby is one of thousands that have been trapped and abused and held under the regime of Warren Jeffs and she is just so happy to be out and her children are excited and able to go to a school for the first time," Flora Jessop said. "To watch them play with toys and learn to become children has just been amazing."

Ruby Jessop and her children are staying with her sister until they find a place to live. Her attorney has advised her not to speak publicly while the custody of her children is temporary, though her sister says she is doing well.

Jessop's husband Haven Barlow could not immediately be reached for comment. Barlow was in his early 20s when he and Ruby Jessop married.

Flora Jessop claims that after her sister was able to get away, the FLDS would not give her her children and that the Colorado City Marshal's Office, which she calls Warren Jeffs' personal "security force," did "everything they could to block her getting access to her children."

Blake Hamilton, an attorney for the Marshal's Office, vehemently denies the claims.

Escape From Polygamy

"That is absolutely not true," Hamilton told ABCNews.com. "I don't know exactly what she's alleging here, but the Marshal's Office has not gotten in the way of people wanting to leave the community or of obstructing any type of justice being carried out as far as people getting their children."

He says the officers are all trained and certified peace officers and that he had no knowledge of Ruby Jessop ever approaching the Marshal's Office for help securing her children.

Horne has been asking for community support on a bill that would authorize Mohave County Sheriff's Deputies to police Colorado City instead of the Marshal's Office "who are under the control of the dominant church," he said.

"That is one thing that would benefit the community more than any other thing that could happen because it effectively will take away the control and power base that FLDS uses to control the women and children," Flora Jessop said.

Horne said the Marshal's Office is not against extra police protection in the city, but they do take issue with the idea of being de-certified and replaced.

In June, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint against the Colorado City government and the local Marshal's Office alleging civil rights violations.

The complaint alleged the Colorado City Marshal's Office "routinely uses its enforcement authority to enforce the edicts and will of the FLDS; fails to protect non-FLDS individuals from victimization by FLDS individuals; refuses to cooperate with other law enforcement agencies' investigations of FLDS individuals; selectively enforces laws against non-FLDS; and uses its authority to facilitate unlawful evictions of non-FLDS, among other unlawful conduct."

Jeff Matura, a lawyer for Colorado City, denied the allegations made in the lawsuit.

"We'll have our day in court," Matura told the Associated Press in June. He said the town utilities don't discriminate against anyone. "There's not a question on the application that says, 'What's your religion?'"

Flora Jessop left the "complete and utter suffering" of the FLDS community in 1986 and wants to help others who wish to break free from the controlling community. For now, she says she is enjoying catching up on lost years with her sister.

Britain's economy shrinks anew, flirts with "triple dip"

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's economy shrank more than expected at the end of 2012 with a North Sea oil production slump, lowerfactory output and a hangover from London Olympics pushing it perilously close to a "triple-dip" recession.

The country's gross domestic product fell 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday, a sharper fall than the 0.1 percent decline forecast by analysts.

The news is a blow for Britain's Conservative-led government, which a day earlier defended its austerity program against criticism from the International Monetary Fund. It needs solid growth to meet its budget targets, keep a triple-A debt rating and bolster its chances of winning a 2015 election.

Sterling fell to its lowest in 13-1/2 months against the euro and hit a five-month low against the dollar in response to the data. The euro was also buoyed by a stronger-than-expected German Ifo sentiment survey.

"This is a very disappointing outturn," said Philip Shaw, economist at Investec in London. "Clearly now the talk will focus on whether we are in a triple dip recession. Certainly the news is unwanted."

Britain's economy is now 3.3 percent smaller than its peak in Q1 2008, having recovered only about half the output lost during the financial crisis - a worse performance than most other major economies.

The country slipped back into recession in the last three months of 2011, and only emerged from it in the third quarter of 2012, after a boost from the London Olympics.

After a bout of inclement snowy weather in January - which is likely to have hit spending and output - the risk is that the economy will continue to shrink in the first three months of this year, technically pushing it into a rare and unwelcome "triple dip" recession.

Britain's biggest department store group, John Lewis , said earlier on Friday that snow was responsible for its sales growth stalling in the latest week.

POLITICALLY INCENDIARY

In economic terms, the picture remains one of stagnation over the past year. But politically, the latest dip in national output is more incendiary.

"Stagnation is going to be the theme for the next couple of quarters or so. This obviously brings Osborne's strategy into sharp relief and also the (Bank of England) strategy of maintaining or not sanctioning further monetary policy action," said Rob Wood at Berenberg Bank. "The Bank of England were forecasting a return to some growth in Q1 and that is likely to be disappointed."

Finance minister George Osborne stuck fast to his austerity plan on Thursday, rejecting suggestions from the International Monetary Fund's chief economist that he should consider slowing his deficit reduction plan.

Prime Minister David Cameron this week staked his political future on offering a referendum on Britain's place in the European Union. But it is Osborne's gamble that austerity will deliver strong growth before a 2015 election that will be crucial in determining his Conservative party's chance of winning.

After the figures were released, the Treasury conceded that Britain still faced a "very difficult economic situation".

"While the economy is healing, it is still a difficult road," it said in a statement.

Britain's chief central banker Mervyn King expects no more than a "gentle recovery" this year, while this week the IMF cut its 2013 forecast for British economic growth to 1.0 percent from 1.1 percent predicted in October.

However, economists and business groups warn that even such lackluster growth could be derailed by a hit to firms' and consumers' confidence from talk of a triple-dip recession.

That prospect will add to pressure on the ruling coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to loosen its deficit-cutting drive and bolster the economy as George Osborne prepares his 2013 budget, due in March.

The biggest driver for the fourth-quarter fall in GDP was a 10.2 percent drop in mining and quarrying output, the biggest since records began in 1997, driven by disruption from extended maintenance affecting North Sea oil and gas fields.

This knocked 0.18 percent off GDP, while slightly smaller amounts of damage were done by falls in factory output and in the 'government and other services' category, where the Olympics had boosted sports and recreation services in the third quarter.

Friday's figures showed output in the service sector -- which makes up more than three quarters of GDP -- was flat in the fourth quarter. Industrial output was 1.8 percent lower.

(Reporting by David Milliken and Olesya Dmitracova, writing by Mike Peacock. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)

Article: Instant View: UK Q4 GDP falls more than expected

Article: UK finance minister says poor GDP will not deter policy drive

Murder in Pakistan sparks anger at country's elite

FILE - In this Friday, Jan. 18, 2013, file photo, Pakistani women mourn the death of her family member, during a funeral in Karachi, Pakistan. Over 2,000 people were murdered in Pakistan's largest city last year, but the shooting death of 20-year-old Shahzeb Khan in one of Karachi's most upscale neighborhoods sparked an unusual outcry and highlighted a growing trend of citizens using social media to hold the country's rich and powerful to account. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan, File)

FILE - In this Friday, April 27, 2012, file photo, Officers of Pakistani law enforcing agency escort an alleged criminal during a crackdown operation against criminals in Karachi's town of Lyari, Pakistan. Over 2,000 people were murdered in Pakistan's largest city last year, but the shooting death of 20-year-old Shahzeb Khan in one of Karachi's most upscale neighborhoods sparked an unusual outcry and highlighted a growing trend of citizens using social media to hold the country's rich and powerful to account. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil, File)

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — More than 2,000 people were murdered in Pakistan's largest city last year, but the shooting death of 20-year-old Shahzeb Khan in one of Karachi's most upscale neighborhoods sparked an unusual outcry and highlighted a growing trend of citizens using social media to hold the country's rich and powerful to account.

Khan was allegedly gunned down by a pair of young men from two of the wealthiest families in Karachi, a chaotic metropolis of 18 million people on Pakistan's southern coast. The late night shooting at the end of December occurred after Khan, a university student, had an argument with one of the alleged shooters' servants.

Khan's family would likely have had little chance of getting justice in the past, even though his father is a mid-ranking police officer. Pakistan's police and judges are notoriously corrupt and are often swayed by pressure from the country's elite. The same is true for the main media outlets, which often take their business interests and political biases into account when choosing to run a story.

Those underlying dynamics have not changed. But Pakistanis lining the corridors of power and their offspring, who are often bred with an extreme sense of entitlement, are now faced with a growing cadre of citizens who have had enough. Those citizens, many of whom are middle or upper middle class, are attempting to fight back with the help of the Internet, an activist Supreme Court and prominent political figures seeking to harness their anger.

"What we are seeing is somewhat of a democratization of power," said Cyril Almeida, a political analyst and columnist for Pakistan's Dawn newspaper. "Public naming and shaming is now more possible."

Khan's saga began around midnight on Dec. 24 when he dropped his sister off at their family's apartment in the upmarket neighborhood of Defense after attending a wedding reception, said his father, Aurangzeb Khan. While she waited for her brother to pick up the apartment keys from their parents, she was harassed by a servant working for one of their neighbors, 22-year-old Nawab Siraj Talpur, son of one of the largest landowners in surrounding Sindh province.

Khan rushed back after his sister called to complain and also argued with the servant, said his father, who tried to resolve the issue with Talpur. The younger Khan slapped the servant in anger, said police. The situation worsened when Shahrukh Jatoi, the teenage son of a wealthy industrialist and landowner, arrived and declared that the younger Khan had dishonored his friend, Talpur, and they would take revenge, said the elder Khan.

The two allegedly opened fire on the younger Khan minutes later as he was driving, causing his car to slam into a tree and flip over, said the head of the police investigation, Niaz Jhoso, citing eyewitnesses. They allegedly fired at him again after the crash, killing him, said the police investigator. The two men have denied the accusations.

"I'm struggling to get the killers punished," said the dead man's father. "What is this law of the jungle that if a rich person commits a crime no one is there to nab him?"

Karachi is a notoriously violent place, but most murders occur in the city's poorest neighborhoods, where gangs affiliated with the main political parties battle over land and extort money from local businesses. Violence in the city's upscale neighborhoods of Defense and Clifton is much rarer, and anger is often directed at the "feudal elite" — a label that originally applied to owners of vast agricultural lands but has come to encompass urban industrialists as well.

"That is where the 'respectable' scum come in, treating citizens like serfs, driving around with guards, drunk, partying, picking up girls and very often raping and dumping them," political analyst Ejaz Haider wrote in a recent column in The Express Tribune newspaper. "These families are influential and killing a human being for them is like swatting a fly. Even if a case is reported, the rich and influential criminals never get punished."

After Khan's death, his father called his wife's brother-in-law, Nabeel Gabool, a member of the National Assembly, who said he had difficulty getting the police to register a case against the accused — an accusation denied by the police.

Activists in Karachi kicked into gear, holding protests to demand justice and using Twitter and Facebook to get their message out. They set up a Facebook page "In memory of Shahzeb Khan" that has over 130,000 likes. Some of the protests were organized by the party of politician Imran Khan, a former cricket star who has railed against the country's feudals. The outcry attracted significant media attention.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court demanded the police arrest the suspected killers in 24 hours, seize their property and freeze their bank accounts. That got the ball rolling, and police have now arrested Jatoi, Talpur, his brother Sajjad Talpur and his servant Mustafa Lashari. Jatoi was nabbed in Dubai, where he had tried to escape.

Social media also played a key role in a case last year involving the son-in-law of Shahbaz Sharif, the chief of Pakistan's largest province, Punjab. The son-in-law, Ali Imran Yousaf, allegedly directed his guards and police to beat a bakery worker who refused to serve his wife because the shop in the eastern city of Lahore was closed, according to court documents.

The incident was recorded on the bakery's security camera, but TV stations refused to broadcast the video for about a week, claiming it was ambiguous, said media officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they did not have permission from their bosses. The video was uploaded to YouTube, where it received considerable attention, forcing stations to run it. Police then registered a case and arrested the accused.

"This was bottom-up pressure," said Almeida, the Dawn columnist. "It was not some news channel or newspaper that broke the story, but pressure from below that forced the mainstream media to acknowledge the events and report them."

But this type of pressure is not always enough. Despite the video evidence, a court acquitted the suspects after the bakery owner and the worker who was beaten recanted their original testimony and said the chief minister's son-in-law and the others were not the ones who performed the beating.

Other cases have been more successful. Last year, the daughter of a feudal family in Sindh was caught on camera slapping a poll worker during a provincial assembly election she was contesting. The tape was aired repeatedly on TV and online.

The Supreme Court took up the case under so-called "suo moto" provisions, which allows it to initiate cases based on "public interest," instead of waiting for cases appealed from lower courts to land in its docket. The court ordered the government to investigate the incident, and the woman was suspended from participating in elections for two years.

It remains to be seen what kind of justice is handed down in the brutal death of Khan in Karachi.

"You want to know when a system has become totally dysfunctional?" wrote Haider, The Express Tribune columnist. "It is when the highest court in the land has to take suo-motu notice of a murder case because the nation is being ruled by criminals."

____

Abbot reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Zaheer Babar in Lahore, Pakistan, and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad contributed to this report.

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