Matthew Charles Blek
21 Years Old
August 29, 1972 to June 29, 1994
Matthew Blek, of Mission Viejo, California, was a talented athlete, musician and scholar who enjoyed hiking and the outdoors, playing the guitar and violin, and was majoring in honors physics and math.
Most of all, Matthew was a warm and caring person who had a bright and promising future - a future cut short by senseless gun violence.
In June of 1994, Matthew Blek was working at a summer job in New York City, with plans to return to California in the fall for his senior year of college. One evening as he and a girlfriend were walking home from a date, they were confronted by three armed teenagers. Although he offered no resistance, Matthew was shot and killed. The youths were murdered Matthew were armed with Saturday Night Specials - cheap and easily obtained handguns, many of which are made in the very place Matthew called home: Orange County, California.
Joseph Lee was convicted of murder and sentenced to nine years to life. The two other teens pleaded guilty to manslaughter (Man-one) and were sentenced to 3 and 1/2 to 10 years in prison.
Lets see... Matthew was in New York, a state that already strict requirements for gun ownership. In order to be able to purchase a gun, you would have to get a permit from the state, which could take close to a year. Why isn't New York safe for law-abiding citizens with all of the gun control hoops law-abiding citizens have to go through to exercise the right guarranteed by the Second Amendment?
What if Matthew Blek was taught proper gun handling when he was young, and had a valid CCW permit from the state of New York when he was confronted by the 3 hoodlums with guns? Sure, its still 3 to 1 odds, but I bet a liberal CCW issuance policy would have encouraged these 3 pondscums to do something else.
And this in the gun-control utopia of NYC as you point out.
One evening as he and a girlfriend were walking home from a date,
It wouldn't have been 3:1 odds had she also been armed and prepared. And there's a fair chance that the creeps attacking the pair would have been utterly demoralized at the reality of both their victims offering effective resistance- that's been the case in two such situations that happened to come my way.
I suppose the unarmed Blek not only got himself killed, but also his date, since the killers had nothing to lose to finishing off the witness to Blek's murder. It certainly sounds like they died like a couple of sheep, bleating for their lives.
-archy-/-
Mike