Abdul Haji: I went in to rescue my brother in Westgate

bbc.co.uk ^ | 27 September, 2013 | BBC

[marktwain]

Businessman Abdul Haji and a small group of plain-clothes policemen helped to rescue dozens of people from the Westgate mall. He had gone in search of his brother, armed only with a pistol that his father - a former Kenyan defence minister - had taught him to hunt with as a child. He tells the BBC of his experiences:

I was on the other side of town when I received an SMS from my brother. The message was vague: "I'm stuck at the Westgate. Seems like a terrorist attack. Pray for me."

(snip)

We had left some armed people on the top floor to cover us, and we did the same on the first floor. When we got to the ground, there were just five of us - three plain-clothes police and a gentleman who I established was a civilian.

[marktwain]

The elite can always get permits for carrying weapons. At least this son of a former defense minister has guts.

[rktman]

Roger that. When you run TOWARDS gunfire, you are either really brave or really crazy. LOL! I did notice in a previous article he mentioned his “licensed” gun. Hmmmm. Anything further on the former SAS guy who did a similar thing? Maybe they’ll make a movie about this and tom hankie can star in it and show some empathy for the bad guys again. Or john f’n heinz kerry can offer up some economic opportunity to them.

[Red Badger]

... armed only with a pistol that his father - a former Kenyan defence minister - had taught him to hunt with as a child.

Hunting with a pistol? In AFRICA?..................

[ConservativeMan55]

Wow what a story.

This man had incredible courage.

[marktwain]

“... armed only with a pistol that his father - a former Kenyan defence minister - had taught him to hunt with as a child.

Hunting with a pistol? In AFRICA?..................”

Hey, it is the BBC. They are even worse than the MSM in the U.S. on facts about guns. Later in the article, as caption to a picture, they simply mention that his father taught him how to use his gun.

Self Defense with handguns has been denied as a legitimate use of a firearm for so long in the U.K., that people there can barely conceive of it, and the BBC is well left of center. People do hunt with pistols in Africa, but it is very far from the norm there. Pistols are hard to come by legitimately, and rifles and shotguns make better hunting tools. A person uses a pistol to handicap themselves (like bowhunting) because it is a target of opportunity, or because simply for bragging rights.

[gusty]

Something tells me that this story is BS, Walter Mitty posturing by this guy Haji. Read an earlier story a couple of days ago, and the article stated the make of the handgun Haji used, one I never heard of, and I'm a gun enthusiast. Googled the make, and the only thing that came up was the raygun some character in Star Wars used. Because of this I rule BS.

[Red Badger]

Maybe this pistol you could 'hunt' with..................

[Red Badger]

....and cook it...............

[marktwain]

There are pictures of him in the mall rescuing people, and interviews with unrelated people that he helped out.

[marktwain]

Here is a picture from reuters: Not much detail on the pistol, a midsized semi-auto centerfire. Looks a little like a Smith 39/59 series to me, but I cannot make out enough detail yet.

[Zhang Fei]

the article stated the make of the handgun Haji used, one I never heard of, and I'm a gun enthusiast.

The Wall Street Journal, a quality rag, had a well-respected journo referring to an aircraft carrier as a battleship. The average journo knows even less about guns. It's like asking a woman to take down details about auto parts - what was said is unlikely to bear any relationship to what was written down.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks marktwain.