August 29, 2012

Mommy Armed with Shotgun Single-Handedly Fights off Would-Be Kidnapper

http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/08/29/2967742/mom-battles-girls-would-be-kidnapper.html

A mother fought off an intruder who tried to abduct her 2-year-old daughter and then used a shotgun to chase the man away Tuesday morning west of Fowler, the Fresno County Sheriff's Office said.

The woman battled furiously against the man after he broke into her home on the 8000 block of South Maple Avenue about 8:39 a.m., sheriff's spokesman Chris Curtice said. The man used a door or window to enter the home.

The man threw the woman to the floor but she continued to fight him as he struck and kicked her. He then grabbed the 2-year-old and tried to get to his car.

The woman then got the shotgun and ordered the man to release her daughter. The suspect dropped the child and then drove south on Maple Avenue.

Talk about a nightmare scenario. You'd think an intruder was just trying to burgle, but they try and take your baby? Unthinkable. Luckily, she was lawfully armed and protected her family.

August 28, 2012

More police that need firearms training: Woman Shot in her pajamas by deputy

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/family-navy-vet-shot-startled-deputy-seeks-answers-193729306.html

Jennifer Orey, 36, was shot Sunday in a surprise encounter with two sheriff's deputies who were searching for a man reportedly in the area wearing a ski mask, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Orey was in her pajamas in her yard around 10:30 p.m. because she heard noises and thought it was her ex-husband, the newspaper reports.
Orey and Deputy Luke Berhalter came in contact and the officer's firearm discharged at point-blank range, her brother James Morgan told local Fox 5  News.
"He fired without warning, saying freeze, or anything. Then just as she saw the black smoke coming out the barrel she turned her body," Morgan said. "The bullet went through her chest and her left nipple, into her shoulder and out her pinkie."
The deputy reportedly told her, "I'm sorry, you startled me," Morgan told the television station.

Talk about ridiculous. The deputy can't even follow the 4 rules of gun safety.

1. Treat every firearm as if it were loaded.
2. Never cover anything with the muzzle that you aren't willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.
4. Know your target and what's behind it.

August 27, 2012

Would tougher gun laws prevent criminals from getting and using firearms in the United States

Privately Owned Firearms
The estimated total number of guns held by civilians in the United States is 270,000,000
http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states

270 Million! That's a lot of guns. I think that horse is already out of the barn.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10shrtbl08.xls

8.775 murders by firearms in 2010 compared with 270 million guns in the United States.

That means that of the total civilian guns in circulation only 0.00325% are ever used to murder another person. That's a little over 3/1000's of 1%. Thats a whole lot of guns doing a whole lot of nothing. If guns are ONLY designed to kill, It sounds like most guns are defective.

Let's touch that up a little there are about 80 million gun owners in the US. That means only 0.01096875% of gun owners murder another human being in the US. A little over a 1/100 of 1%. That is exceedingly small, especially when you consider that the majority of murders are ultra-concentrated in gang riddled urban centers like Chicago, NYC and DC.

What say you?

August 27, 2012

Firearms Prohbitionists think of the Pro-RKBA crowd as their pets

They love us and they want us to be happy, but boy oh boy kitty just can't have those claws.  They know "what's best for us" and they aren't afraid to try and hijack rule-of-law to "de-claw" the lawfully armed populace.

They want to register us and make us have licenses to exist, like dogs. The Gun-Prohibitors want to tax the hell out of every branch of firearms ownership: from guns and ammo, to the ranges we practice at.  They want it to be as difficult as possible to be a legal gun owner, because they love us and know what's best for us.  They don't want us furring up the furniture and if we're not careful they'll make us sleep outside.

  However, these actions are just stop gap measures.  Gun-Prohibitors won't tell you their end game, because even they don't believe it.  They don't want any civilian legal firearms at all.  They want the whole kit-n-kaboodle, but they can't devour it all at once.  They have to take it slice by slice.  Everytime they propose a new firearms law or ban, it's not the endgame for them.  It's another slice.  You need look no further than some of the posters right here on DU.  For the Gun-Prohibtionists, it's just another step in the direction of total prohibition.  When it comes down to brass tacks, there are no moderate firearms prohibitionists.  They say the only people who should have guns are the police, the military and, because we live in reality, the criminals.  Everyone else gets declawed, tagged and "cared for" like a cute little kitty cat.

The Prohibitionists are happy to willfully misinterpret the 2nd Amendment to further their agenda against lawful gun owners.  Thankfully, this issue has already been decided by the USSC, the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right.  MEOOOW!

We saw how well the last US Prohibition worked out with alcohol.  The alcohol NEVER stopped flowing and many people suffered because of the violence the black market brought with it. In fact we're neck deep in another prohibition right now: The Fabled "War On Drugs". The catnip party never ended, it's just got a little more expensive to yowl at the moon.  Unfortunately, It led to the rise of organized crime to the heights of which had never been seen before in the US.  Prohibition isn't the answer.  We already have enough gun laws, enforce them.

I guess what I'm try to say, unapologeticly: The 2nd Amendment was never about hunting, it's about preventing tyranny and personal protection. Without private firearms ownership the US Constitution is toothless.  We're not your pets, you can't "put us down" and you can't have our guns.  We're all for reasonable laws, but WE ALREADY HAVE THOSE ON THE BOOKS.  Enforcement, not legislation is the answer.  

Gun Control is a red-herring.  Guns don't cause violence, but inequity, mental health, ethnic/racial oppression and the War on Drugs do.

If you still think of us as your pets, well just remember: it's illegal to declaw your cat in some parts of California and.....it's inhumane.

I'm going to go take a cat bath now.

August 25, 2012

NYC: Empire State Shooting: ALL bystanders were shot by police

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/08/just-how-many-bystanders-did-new-york-police-shoot/56187/

Update: The Guardian is reporting that the nine bystanders who were shot (that didn't include the shooter's target) were all shot by police, and that Jeffrey Johnson never fired on police.

The most disturbing detail about Friday's fatal shooting in Midtown Manhattan is the fact that the wounded included bystanders shot by police, and the latest news suggests stray police bullets may account for "most or all" of those wounded. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly confirmed that at least some of the injuries came from stray police bullets as cops opened fire on the gunman who aimed at them, but the police haven't said how many. Rather, that detail comes from the math reporters are doing with the number of rounds police have confirmed were fired.

Fortunately, most of the injuries were minor. As one victim who as hit in the arm told The New York Times: "I guess, you know, stuff happens."

The Times' James Barron and David Halbfinger and William K. Rashbaum introduced the arithmetic reporting: "Some of those injured might have been shot by the two police officers, who fired 16 rounds at the gunman, Jeffrey Johnson 58, said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly — based on the number of people shot and the fact that Mr. Johnson’s gun held only eight rounds." The New York Times Metro twitter account followed up with this accounting: "Johnson had 8 bullets max. Shot 5 at [victim Steve] Ercolino, 2 left in gun, 1 unfired on ground," suggesting that the only ones Johnson fired were at his intended victim -- although that doesn't necessarily mean all of them found their mark.

The killer didn't shoot at police, but the police shot him and 9 other people. The shooter murdered his old boss and didn't fire at anyone else. It sounds like Bloomberg and the other people running NYC hate guns SO much that they don't even want their officers adequately trained.

The NYPD's handguns have triggers on their guns that are OVER 12 pounds to fire. The most important item for accuracy, after proper grip/purchase, is trigger control. It's very hard to control a sub 2 pound gun with a 13 pound trigger. The hoplophobia rampant in NYC has now almost cost 9 people their lives at the hands of New York's Finest.

I am a certified pistol instructor, and I know poor training when I see it. I've taught 70 year olds how to shoot fist sized groups rapid fire at 20 feet. This is without advanced training, just the fundamentals.

Every article I've read on the subject seems to point to a systemic problem within the NYPD with regards to firearms training. NYC has the seventh largest standing army in the world and quite possibly the poorest firearms curriculum as well.

Here's an exerpt from one such article:
http://www.handgunsmag.com/2012/02/16/the-nypd-and-the-kahr-k-9-no-substitute-for-training/

The NYPD is apparently incapable of training its officers to keep their finger off the trigger, so instead of increasing or improving their training (which would cost the department money, as well as be an acknowledgement that the training was the problem), they mandate that the gun companies provide them modified weapons.
 
I don’t dislike Glocks, I love Glocks.  I carry a Glock every day, and am in fact wearing one right now as I write this.  However, Glocks equipped with the 12-lb New York Plus trigger are an abomination. A few years ago at an editorial roundtable, the InterMedia Outdoors staff had a friendly competition involving a Glock with such a trigger.  Everyone involved reported that the pistol was nearly impossible to shoot.  G&A’s Handgun Editor Pat Sweeney (a veteran pistol competitor and Master-Class USPSA shooter) won the contest, but to do so, he used a technique he wouldn’t recommend anyone use—he was pulling the trigger with both his index fingers. A 12-lb trigger on a Glock only makes it harder to shoot fast and accurately, thereby increasing the chances that an officer’s bullet won’t end up where he or she intended.

One of the most important steps in firearms training is trigger control. The NYPD couldn't keep their recruits fingers off the trigger until ready to fire. If they can't follow basic firearms discipline, how can they be trusted to possess firearms in public? My students master the 4 rules of firearms safety within hours, why can't the NYPD do it? The only mass shooting in NYC yesterday was carried out by those hired to protect it.

August 23, 2012

Harvard Study: Gun Control is counter productive

Nations with stringent anti-gun laws generally have substantially higher murder rates than those that do not. The study found that the nine European nations with the lowest rates of gun ownership (5,000 or fewer guns per 100,000 population) have a combined murder rate three times higher than that of the nine nations with the highest rates of gun ownership (at least 15,000 guns per 100,000 population).
.....
Finally, and as if to prove the bumper sticker correct - that "gun don't kill people, people do" - the study also shows that Russia's murder rate is four times higher than the U.S. and more than 20 times higher than Norway. This, in a country that practically eradicated private gun ownership over the course of decades of totalitarian rule and police state methods of suppression. Needless to say, very few Russian murders involve guns.

The important thing to keep in mind is not the rate of deaths by gun - a statistic that anti-gun advocates are quick to recite - but the overall murder rate, regardless of means. The criminologists explain:

[P]er capita murder overall is only half as frequent in the United States as in several other nations where gun murder is rarer, but murder by strangling, stabbing, or beating is much more frequent. (p. 663 - emphases in original)
http://theacru.org/acru/harvard_study_gun_control_is_counterproductive/

http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol30_No2_KatesMauseronline.pdf

I took some of this info from an excerpt from the ACRU website as quoted. The data speaks for itself.

August 22, 2012

The Real Issues at Hand

I think the real issues that are at the root of recent, and for that matter most violence in general, are threefold:

1. Mental Illness
2. Poverty
3. War on Drugs

Mental illness is self explanatory. Poverty is too. The War on Drugs is a factor because of the riches that it brings to criminals.

I think attempts to lay the blame for violence in the US on firearms is lazy at best and evil at worst. Lazy, in that antis think that if we get rid of all of the firearms that much of the violence in the US will stop or be slowed in some way. Evil, in that they have another agenda that requires a disarmed populace to be successful.

August 18, 2012

Predators are everywhere: She had the will to fight, but no effective tools.

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/08/guilty_plea_entered_in_murder.html

Shunick, a student at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, went missing in the early hours of May 19 after leaving a friend's house on her bicycle. Surveillance videos captured Lavergne following her in a white Chevrolet Z71 pickup truck, changing lanes and turning corners in order to follow her.
Court documents say Lavergne, a registered sex offender, hit Shunick's bike with his truck, throwing her to the ground. Then, Lavergne either forced or persuaded Shunick to get into the vehicle and her damaged bike was loaded into the bed of the truck.
Shunick tried to use her cellphone to call for help but Lavergne, who had a knife and a semiautomatic handgun in his vehicle, threatened to stab her if she continued. Shunick sprayed mace in Lavergne's face and managed to wrestle the knife from Lavergne and stab him several times before he grabbed the knife from her.

This poor girl was taken from her friends and family by a predator of women. Go check your local sheriff's sex offender website, these violent predators are everywhere.

Michaela did not lack the will to fight, she just lacked the proper tools. I firmly believe that given her repeated attempts to take down her captor, she would have walked away from this situation were she to be lawfully armed with a personal firearm.

Mace won't do it, a knife is hard to effectively use, but no matter how small you are or how strong your attacker is a handgun can give you the leverage you need to get to safety. This is why my daughter will lawfully carry a firearm and have the proper training if she chooses to.

August 17, 2012

Woman uses gun to Save family: Alabama

http://www2.alabamas13.com/news/2012/aug/16/woman-forced-shoot-intruder-protect-herself-and-ch-ar-4355974/

WALKER CO. - A Walker County woman was forced to shoot an intruder to protect herself and her children.

It happened Tuesday morning on Sellers Hollow Road in the city of Dora.

Martha Lewis says she immediately called police and woke up her daughters.

Lewis says she gave the intruder several warnings before shooting, but he wouldn't listen.

Sounds like a good shoot. I'm happy she was able to protect her family.

August 15, 2012

The Unfortunate Fate of (Almost) Every Gungeon Thread

1. OP: Straw man / Hasty Generalization / Anecdotal Evidence fallacies presented as absolute indisputable fact. Usually the OP doesn't even converse in the thread, they are just chumming the waters and/or Google dumping.

2. The OP's ideological allies all cluck together in unison: extolling the merits of said fallacy and the evils of the opposition.

3. Said fallacy in OP is debunked for what it is and/or refuted with a cogent argument.

4. OP (rarely) and/or ideologs come back with an appeal to emotion (another logical fallacy).

5. Appeal to emotion is also seen for what it is: a fallacy.

6. Insults/bickering/various personal attacks begin. Numerous sub threads/fights/personal attacks breakout all over the thread. The few honest debaters lose hope and abandon the melee.

7. The thread loses steam and/or is locked.

8. Next OP is posted, and the cycle repeats itself ad infintium.