TeddyR

TeddyR's Journal

April 29, 2016

80-year-old woman shoots and kills young intruder after he stabs her husband

A man from Gold Bar, Wash. — a town of about 2,000 — broke into the woman’s home around 8:30 p.m. Thursday while she was enjoying an evening with her husband, 75, and son, 45. According to a Komo News report, police said the man broke in through the back door. After hearing a noise, the woman walked into the back room, where the 25-year-old intruder stood, wielding a large knife.

Her husband was on the ground.

The intruder had stabbed her husband in the abdomen, felling but not killing him. Before calling 911, the woman took matters into her own hands, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office. She snuck in the back bedroom, presumably unnoticed, where she grabbed a gun she hides there.

She returned to the main room, took aim and fired several shots into the intruder, killing him.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/04/29/80-year-woman-shoots-and-kills-young-intruder-after-he-stabs-her-husband/

April 18, 2016

"Hillary Clinton is totally beatable in a general election. Just not by Donald Trump or Ted Cruz."

Take two minutes to flip through the new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll and you are left with two very clear takeaways:

1. Hillary Clinton is deeply vulnerable in a general election.

2. Donald Trump and, to a lesser extent, Ted Cruz, are the exact wrong candidates to take advantage of Clinton's weaknesses.

Start with this: Just one in three (32 percent) of general election voters see Clinton in a positive light while 56 percent regard her negatively. That's Clinton's worst score since NBC-WSJ started asking about Clinton's image in early 2001.

And, the NBC-WSJ numbers are far from an outlier. Her numbers -- particularly when it comes to the number of people who view her as "honest" and "trustworthy" have long been in net negative territory -- and the ongoing questions surrounding her private email server while serving as Secretary of State doesn't help matters. The simple fact is that Clinton is totally known by the general electorate and somewhere between mildly and strongly disliked by a majority of them.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/04/18/hillary-clinton-is-totally-beatable-in-a-general-election-just-not-by-donald-trump-or-ted-cruz/?hpid=hp_special-topic-chain_hillary-fix-1210pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Hillary's favorability ratings have been consistently low for at least the past year, yet she is somehow the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination. Dems should be thankful that if she is the nominee she'll likely face an equally (if not more) unpopular candidate.

April 14, 2016

Across the country, school districts are quietly arming teachers for the next shooting

While gun violence in the U.S. has significantly declined since the 1990s, mass public shootings are on the rise, and schools are now viewed as vulnerable targets. One of the deadliest in history claimed 28 lives, including 20 children, after Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012.

Last October, a gunman fatally shot nine people at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore.

These incidents, and every school shooting in between, have sent mourning parents and distraught education officials on a search for effective preventative measures.

One that has long been bandied about, and now being tested in schools countrywide, is allowing teachers to bring guns to school.

The Kingsburg Joint Union High School District in Kingsburg, Ca., is the latest district to pass such a measure. At a school board meeting on Monday, the Fresno Bee reported, members unanimously approved a policy that allows district employees to carry a concealed firearm within school bounds.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/04/14/across-the-country-school-districts-are-quietly-arming-teachers-for-the-next-shooting/?hpid=hp_no-name_morning-mix-story-c%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Seems like a good idea to me. If we aren't going to make schools more difficult for those who shouldn't be there to enter then this will provide some protection.

April 13, 2016

Clinton’s dismal approval ratings prompt Dem fears

Clinton is now viewed unfavorably by 55 percent of the electorate, according to the HuffPost Pollster average, which tracks findings from 42 different polling outfits. Only 40.2 percent of people view her favorably, according to that average.

***

“The No. 1 reason that her favorability is so bad is that you have large numbers of Americans who say they don’t trust her,” he said. “I could make it sound more complicated than that, but that’s really what it is. Voters see her as the ultimate politician, who will do or say anything to get elected.”

The historic comparisons are stark. At this point in the 2008 presidential cycle, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was seen favorably by 62 percent of voters and unfavorably by just 33 percent. Even in February 2012, the closest comparable point in his re-election campaign, he had a net positive favorability rating in the Gallup poll of 2 percentage points, compared to Clinton’s current net rating of minus 11.

The story goes on to note that the only saving grace for Clinton is that the Republicans chose this year to have a meltdown and it looks like they'll nominate either Cruz or Trump, two truly awful candidates. Hills would have lost to a Republican who was more palatable to the general population.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/276078-clintons-dismal-approval-ratings-prompt-dem-fears

March 22, 2016

Supreme Court zaps Massachusetts stun-gun opinion

Today, in Caetano v. Massachusetts, the Supreme Court vacated a decision by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts that had concluded that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms does not apply to stun guns. The Court’s per curiam opinion scolded the Massachusetts court for its failure to apply the proper legal tests under D.C. v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago, and quite rightly so. The court did not reach the ultimate question of whether stun guns constitute “arms” for Second Amendment purposes, however, instead vacating and remanding the state court opinion.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/03/21/supreme-court-zaps-massachusetts-stun-gun-opinion/

This is an interesting opinion that is ultimately about the Second Amendment and not just limited to stun guns. First, note that it is per curiam, and presumably unanimous. That means Breyer, et al joined in. This decision reinforces both the viability of Heller and the right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense. It also disposes of any argument that the Second Amendment only applies to arms that were in existence at the time the Second Amendment was enacted.

March 15, 2016

Man sentenced for teen’s murder at the ‘cut’ near Woodbridge High School

Kawain Tyrell Smalls, 21, of Woodbridge, pleaded guilty in November to first-degree murder for the Nov. 10, 2014 shooting death of 16-year-old Brenden Wilson.

At an emotional sentencing hearing Monday, Prince William Circuit Court Judge Steven S. Smith sentenced Smalls to 75 years in prison, with 25 years suspended, plus three years of probation.
***
Conway asked the judge to sentence Smalls to life in prison, with all but 50 years suspended, citing his lengthy criminal record and the seriousness of the crime. Smalls had several prior convictions, including convictions for violent crimes and firearms offenses. He was out on bond, and on house arrest with an ankle bracelet monitoring device at the time of Wilson’s murder Conway said.

http://www.insidenova.com/headlines/man-sentenced-for-teen-s-murder-at-the-cut-near/article_332faaea-ea5e-11e5-b7bc-ab4a715b29e0.html

I see a lot of comments about the fact that we need stricter gun controls laws and that will help cut down on gun violence. The problem is the criminals determined to commit crimes and who aren't going to worry about whether they should or should not have a firearm. Here we have a guy who was on bond for prior violent offenses and yet still used a firearm to shoot someone 6 times in the back and once in the head. He wasn't deterred by the existing gun laws that barred him from owning a firearm. And he only received a 50 year sentence for taking the life of another in a robbery/shooting when he already had existing violent crime convictions, which to me it too lenient a sentence.

March 14, 2016

Concealed weapon owner shoots hatchet-wielding attacker in Washinton 7-Eleven

A masked man burst into a 7-Eleven near Seattle early Sunday morning, swinging a hatchet and slicing the store clerk.

Before the masked man could seriously hurt anyone, however, a customer who had been drinking his morning coffee pulled out a concealed weapon and fatally shot the attacker.

Authorities did not name the attacker or the customer, but they did hail the concealed weapon owner as a hero.

“This could have been disastrous,” King County Sheriff Sgt. Cindi West told KIRO 7. “Had this guy not shot, who knows what would have happened. We might have a dead clerk right now, and instead we have a dead bad guy.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/03/14/concealed-weapon-owner-shoots-hatchet-wielding-attacker-in-wash-7-eleven/?hpid=hp_no-name_morning-mix-story-b-duplicate%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Another example of the fact that guns save lives when used properly. Thankfully we have the Second Amendment.

March 9, 2016

Son kills his mother’s attacker in Virginia’s Spotsylvania County, police say

A 37-year-old Spotsylvania County man who was attacking his girlfriend was shot and killed by the girlfriend’s son, the county sheriff’s office said.

They said John Conroy, Jr., was killed in a house on Towles Mill Road after an argument escalated and he began physically attacking her in her son’s presence, the sheriff’s office said.

In a statement, the office said the son, who is not related to Conroy, tried to intervene. Based on initial information, the statement said, the son, who is a juvenile, got a gun that had been in the room, and fired several shots. Conroy was hit at least twice, the sheriff’s office said. The son’s age was not given.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/son-kills-mothers-attacker-in-virginias-spotsylvania-county-police-say/2016/03/08/f45d9600-e59a-11e5-a6f3-21ccdbc5f74e_story.html

March 8, 2016

Two Potential Losses for Second Amendment Advocates

Two cases that are of interest to those who advocate for the individual right to keep and bear arms are kicking around in my neck of the woods. The first involves the District of Columbia's law that requires a concealed carry applicant to show "good reason" for needing to carry. A federal district court judge ruled yesterday that DC could continue to enforce the law while a lawsuit challenging the law's constitutionality was pending. The plaintiffs immediately appealed to the DC Circuit Court. Story here - https://www.channelone.com/news_post/judge-sides-with-dc-in-ongoing-lawsuit-over-gun-law/

And late last week the Fourth Circuit agreed to an en banc rehearing of a panel decision from a month or so ago that held Maryland's "assault weapon" ban should be reviewed under a "strict scrutiny" standard, the most demanding level of judicial review. Other federal courts have applied a less demanding standard of review and have upheld similar laws. Since the court accepted en banc review I expect it to hold that a less demanding standard applies. Store here - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/assault-weapons-maryland_us_56d9ed4ce4b0000de4048c82

March 7, 2016

NY Times Editorial re PLCAA

The Times had an editorial a few days ago attacking the PLCAA and arguing in favor of the lawsuit filed by family members of the Sandy Hook victims against Remington. Although this one wasn't completely inaccurate, the Times referred to the weapon used as capable of "rapid burst" fire, which means the Times staff is either being intentionally misleading or isn't doing the research necessary to understand the topic on which they opine.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/03/05/opinion/the-right-to-sue-the-gun-industry.html?_r=0&referer=https://www.google.com/

Profile Information

Name: Sean
Gender: Male
Hometown: Asheville NC
Home country: USA
Current location: Arlington VA
Member since: Sat Jun 27, 2015, 02:01 PM
Number of posts: 2,493

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