The Apartment
On the evening of May 15, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, city councilor Matthew Straight and friend Barren Bessette heard loud banging noises coming from an apartment on the third floor of a three-unit apartment building owned by Straight's sister. Bessette is a first-floor tenant: Straight lives in a nearby home.
With Bessette carrying a licensed handgun, the two went to investigate and found a burglary in progress. The apartment door had been forcibly removed and two young intruders were inside. Straight grappled with one of the youths, 18-year-old Michael Gilbert, and suffered a few minor injuries during the tussle. Gilbert eventually broke free and fled, but was apprehended by police two days later.
The other young burglar, Jonathan Duval, 17, brandished a knife in a threatening manner, whereupon Bessette fired two shots. One missed, but the other struck the teen in an upper leg. The wound required treatment at a local hospital, but was not life-threatening.
Gilbert was charged with assault and battery and for breaking and entering in the daytime with intent to commit a felony. He had recently been released from jail. And according to authorities had an extensive record of such crimes. Duval was also charged with breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony, and with several charges related to assault with a dangerous weapon.
According to the May 22 Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise, police believe that the actions of both Bessette and Straight, including the gunshot, were in self-defense.
Viper's Nest
On July 6, two Loveland, Colorado, girls on vacation in Montana climbed a hillside in the Paradise Valley area of Livingston to improve cell phone reception so they could call friends. "We were just going up for a hike, and my dog sniffed out a hole," Izzy Effler, 13, remembers. The curious canine apparently spooked a large rattlesnake, which emerged from the hole and struck at (but did not bite) Izzy. Morgan Beadwell, 12, then stepped on another rattler, but quickly jumped away unharmed. Within moments, other snakes began appearing until the youngsters were surrounded by at least a half-dozen deadly vipers. Utilizing the cell phone, the frightened youngsters called Izzy's father, Brian Effler, for help. Accompanied by a teenage nephew, Mr. Effler grabbed a pellet gun and rushed up the hillside. They shot two snakes, and when two others slithered into holes, the girls scurried through the clearing and down the hillside to safety.
Teamwork
On July 1 at a bank in Eldersburg, Maryland, off-duty Baltimore County police officer Hugh Engle was conducting personal business when a teller noticed that a man wearing a mask and carrying a bag had entered the bank. Alerted by the teller, Engle drew his handgun and identified himself as a police officer, whereupon the bandit, who was apparently unarmed, fled.
Engle gave chase and caught the would-be robber, Albert Collins, in the bank's parking lot. Engle held him at gunpoint until state police (summoned by a passing motorist at Engle's request) arrived. After taking Collins into custody, the troopers followed up a tip that two other suspects had been waiting in a vehicle outside the bank. Their investigation led to Baltimore, where the two men were apprehended.
In addition to the new charges related to his role in the botched July 1 escapade, Collins still faced a late-July sentencing hearing in Howard County for his conviction in an earlier bank robbery there.
Wrong Victim
At around 3 p.m. on June 29, a retired Orange Count}, California, sheriff's deputy (whose name was withheld for his protection) and his wife were in the parking lot of an Anaheim shopping center when an armed man approached. The experienced former lawman, well aware of what was happening, deftly pulled his own gun and fired a shot that struck the armed antagonist in the upper torso. As a brief report by Los Angeles television station KNBC put it that night, "Robbers targeting a man at an Anaheim mall picked the wrong victim Tuesday."
The wounded man did not return fire, and the deputy and his wife were not injured. The man and an accomplice instead jumped into a waiting van driven by a third person and sped away. Police notified area hospitals to be on the lookout for a gunshot victim, and that night Lavan Jackson Jr., suffering from a gunshot wound to the upper torso, was dropped off at a medical center in Gardena. The hospital called police who arrested Jackson as a prime suspect in the foiled robbery before having him transferred to the Orange County Jail medical ward. Jackson is expected to survive. His accomplices, at last report, remain at large.
Stop Sign
At about 4 .m. on June 20, Brian Dean was filling up at a gas station in DeKalb County, Georgia, when he was approached and threatened with a gun by would-be car-jacker Banarrek Von Clayton. Rather than meekly submit, Dean pulled a gun of his own and shot Clayton in the leg.
The wounded man attempted to drive off in Dean's vehicle, but after a few feet crashed into a utility pole. He later died at an Atlanta hospital, though it was unclear if his demise was due to the gunshot or the injuries he sustained in the crash.
The next day's Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that "police did not charge Dean in the shooting."
Hard Lesson
Lisa Hansen lives near the city limits of Spokane, Washington. When she awoke on the morning of July 8, she heard someone rummaging through her house. After the intruder tried, unsuccessfully, to open her locked bedroom door, she grabbed her cell phone and the gun kept under her bed.
Emerging from her bedroom, Hansen confronted the interloper, a 14-year-old youth who lived in the neighborhood and had done yard work for Hansen's landlord. As she held the boy at gunpoint, he claimed that he had entered the house to investigate after seeing a man inside. Miss Hansen didn't believe him, especially since he had her roommate's checkbook in his pocket.
Spokane Count}' sheriff's deputies eventually arrived at the scene after Hansen placed an emergency call. The youth, whom authorities declined to identify due to his age, was charged with residential burglary.
Case Closed
The Shelby Food Mart is located in Louisville. Kentucky. Shortly after store employee Firas Al Kurdi began his shift on October 12. 2002, a man brandishing a knife entered the store and demanded money. The thug, later identified as James Abdul-Shajee, grabbed Al Kurdi and held the knife to his throat. After inflicting a few cuts, Abdul-Shajee made numerous swipes at Al Kurdi's face, nearly severing the beleaguered employee's nose.
Meanwhile, another employee retrieved a handgun kept under the cashier's counter for self-defense, but put it down when Abdul-Shajee, who was still menacing Al Kurdi, ordered him to do so. A struggle then ensued between Al Kurdi and his knife-wielding assailant, during which Al Kurdi managed to grab the gun and shoot his attacker three times. When police arrived minutes later, they found Abdul-Shajee lying in front of the store. He was pronounced dead later that day at a local hospital. Al Kurdi survived, but required extensive plastic surgery for his wounds.
Abdul-Shajee was charged posthumously with first-degree robbery. His extensive criminal record, dating back to 1988, included six convictions for armed robbery, two for wanton endangerment, and one for kidnapping. He had been granted parole in the fall of 2001.
Incredibly, despite persuasive evidence that the store employee had shot Abdul-Shajee in self-defense, in March 2003 a Jefferson County grand jury indicted Al Kurdi on one count of murder. His jury trial commenced on May 4 of this year; with Jefferson County circuit judge Martin McDonald presiding.
Attorneys for the prosecution argued that while Abdul-Shajee had entered the store to rob it, he did not deserve to die. They called a number of eyewitnesses who gave seriously conflicting accounts of what they had supposedly seen. After they rested their case on May 6, Al Kurdi's attorney moved to have Judge McDonald decide the case with a directed verdict from the bench, rather than leave it to the jury. Judge McDonald granted the request, ruling that there simply was not enough credible evidence against Al Kurdi to continue. The judge declared: "If there is a victim in this room right now, it's Mr. [Al] Kurdi. He was viciously assaulted by this animal [Abdul-Shajee] and his actions were completely reasonable under the circumstances." Describing the case as "troubling to me from the get-go," the judge wondered how it "got by the grand jury" in the first place. He contended that it "screams out for justice" and "needs to be dismissed, and that is exactly what I am going to do."
The May 8 Louisville Courier-Journal further quoted Judge McDonald from a subsequent interview as explaining that "the proof was overwhelming that the shop owner was fending for his life. And the perpetrator was not just a robber. This was an attempted murder."
Since the directed verdict cannot be appealed, the case, at last, is closed.
To Catch a Thief
Ernest Galloway, 77, owns the Oak View Auto Service in High Point, North Carolina. At about 11:20 p.m. on December 29, 2003, someone broke into the business and stole some cash and a few snacks. An employee's son later drove by and noticed that the bay doors of the garage were open. He called his father and Galloway.
When the shop owner and employee arrived with police, they discovered the burglar alarm torn down, all but one phone line cut, filing cabinets destroyed, some windows broken, and a few doors smashed. The crowbar used by the intruder was found under a counter.
Due to the broken windows and damaged doors, Galloway decided to guard the store overnight. First, however, he went home to fetch his .22-caliber rifle, since he thought that there was a remote chance the thief might return.
After police left, Galloway turned off the lights and settled into a front-office chair. He recalled for the January 12 Greensboro News-Record, "I was completely relaxed," figuring that the chance of the thief returning "was 1 in 100." But around 4 a.m., Galloway heard a glass door slide open and saw the silhouette of the returning thief.
Galloway shined a flashlight on the intruder's face and ordered him to raise his hands and not move. At first the man, later identified as Terry Wayne Combs, complied with the shop owner's command. But then Combs lowered his hands and began moving toward Galloway. Galloway told the News-Record, "When I was sitting in the dark, before the guy showed up, I would have said I would have shot him. When I was facing him, looking at him, it was totally different. I couldn't bring myself to shoot." Instead, he fired a warning shot into the floor.
Combs stopped, backed up momentarily, then lunged for the rifle. During the struggle for control of the weapon, the two combatants knocked over tables and chairs as they wrestled to the floor. Eventually, Galloway regained control of the gun and followed as the intruder scurried into a back office. As Galloway dialed 911 on the working phone, however, Combs rushed at him again. Understandably fearing for his life, Galloway fired a second shot that struck Combs in the torso. "He went down on his hands and knees and got right back up," the elderly businessman told the News-Record. "Shooting [him] was a last resort. There was nothing else for me to do. I didn't try to kill him, I just tried to stop him."
As summarized by the News-Record, Combs "clambered out a window and ran across the street with Galloway in pursuit." When police arrived, the wounded thug "was still trying to struggle to his feet and run as officers were forcing him to the ground." Following treatment for his wound at a local hospital, Combs was taken to the High Point jail. Galloway suffered a few cuts and scrapes on his elbows and hands, but was otherwise unharmed.
Combs was charged with two counts of felony breaking and entering and one count of felony larceny. His prior criminal record, spanning two decades, includes convictions for breaking and entering, larceny, forgery and possession of stolen goods. During a May 11 court appearance, he pleaded guilty to all three counts, which were consolidated under a plea bargain agreement that resulted in a sentence of 10 to 12 months in prison.
Ernest Galloway, reflecting on his decision to shoot Combs, told the News-Record: "It's a terrible, tough thing to do," but "I felt like I had been pretty much forced to do what I did. When I was on the floor, fighting for the rifle, getting exhausted, I was thinking, maybe I should have shot him [initially, instead of firing a warning shot]. When it was all over, I'm glad I didn't."
Son Protects Mom
A mother and her son are the co-owners of a convenience store in Colton, California. They were both working in the store on the morning of May 24 when three men wearing hoods entered the business. One jumped over the counter, pointed a handgun at the mother, and demanded that she empty the cash register. Her son, however, pulled a handgun from underneath the register and opened fire, killing one of the bandits and wounding the other two.
One of the wounded thugs was apprehended and taken to a hospital. The other eventually showed up at a local medical center for treatment and was also arrested. They were tentatively identified as Jerry Giles and Dewon Franklin. Police believe that a fourth suspect, possibly the driver of the getaway car, may also have been involved.
The store owners' names were not released, but the Colton police told the May 25 Riverside Press-Enterprise that the son's quick action had "basically thwarted the robbery" while "protecting his mother and his store." The Press-Enterprise further reported that, according to police, "the owner will not be arrested or charged with any wrongdoing."
Toy Gun vs. Real Gun
Abdrab Ashishi of West Chester, Ohio, was working at his Shop Rite convenience store in Avondale on the evening of May 27 when a man wearing a ski mask and black leather gloves entered the store. The masked man, David Billups, was also carrying what appeared to be a real handgun. Ashishi quickly reached for his own weapon, shot Billups five times, and then called 911. Billups was pronounced dead at the scene. Only then was it learned that the gun he had wielded was a toy.
Billups had a lengthy criminal record that included convictions for aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and kidnapping. Until late April of this year, he had been staying at a halfway house as a condition of his early release from a 50-year prison term.
On June 1, the Hamilton county prosecutor announced that no charges would be filed against Ashishi, since he had clearly acted in self-defense. The prosecutor confirmed that the store owner's statement to police jibed with the evidence, asserting: "A guy comes in dressed head to toe in black and carrying what appears to be a real gun, I think you can assume he's not there collecting for the Red Cross."
Brothers Busted
At about 12:45 p.m. on April 27, a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, heard a living room window shatter, then saw an arm reach through the opening. Two brothers, later identified as Ronald and Rudy Freese, were attempting to break into the residence.
The homeowner, whose name was not released, grabbed a handgun and opened fire. At least one shot struck and mortally wounded Ronald Freese, who was later pronounced dead at the Maricopa County Medical Center. The April 12 Arizona Republic reported that "Freese had dozens of major and minor infractions over several stints in prison on charges ranging from escape to trafficking in stolen property."
Rudy Freese was not injured. In the wake of the gunfire, he ran to his nearby home, but later drove back to the crime scene. Police were still there conducting an investigation, and, when they discovered that Freese was in the car, they arrested him in connection with the attempted burglary. Conceivably, under Arizona law, he also faced a possible first-degree murder charge for participating in a crime that resulted in a death.
Treacherous Trio
In the late afternoon of May 26, Richard Frazier received a visit by a female acquaintance, Angel Raymer, at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. Raymer left shortly before 6 p.m. and walked to a car where two men, Thurman Dillon and Jason Lynn, were waiting. A few minutes later, all three of them walked to a side door of Frazier's home and broke in. They fought with Frazier, demanded money, and took his wallet and other items.
During the scuffle, Frazier managed to break free and retrieve a handgun kept in the house for protection. He exchanged shots with the three assailants, who promptly fled. No one was hit during the brief shootout.
Frazier got a good look at the getaway car. so was able to give police a detailed description. Three days later, officers of the Metro Nashville Police Department spotted the vehicle parked outside a house. They waited for the suspects — all three of whom were inside — to emerge from the home, then arrested them without incident. The suspects were jailed on aggravated robbery charges.
Mom-and-Pop Store Saved
On January 22, television station KYW in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, reported that "a North Philadelphia store owner has shot and killed a man he says shot a store employee during an armed robbery attempt." According to police, "the suspect walked into the B&S grocery store ... pulled out a gun, and demanded money." The gunman then "fired one shot, wounding a shop employee," whereupon "the owner of the mom-and-pop store pulled out his own gun and fired one shot, hitting the gunman in the head." The wounded employee and the would-be robber were taken to the same hospital, where the employee "was listed in stable condition with a hip wound" and the gunman "was pronounced dead on arrival."
Concluding its account of the incident, KYW noted that "no charges are expected to be filed against the store owner."
Homeowner Chases Thief
On December 9, 2003, Mr. and Mrs. Jorge Portillo, their two daughters, and a few other family members (including Mr. Portillo's father) gathered together at the Portillo home in west Phoenix, Arizona, to hang Christmas lights. Shortly after finishing, Jorge Portillo remembered that he had left the garage door open. When he went to close it, he saw a man run from the garage, throw something into a pickup truck, and drive off. The stolen item was a drill Portillo had borrowed to assist with hanging the lights.
Portillo ran back to the house. As his wife locked their children in a bedroom and her sister called 911, he grabbed both a gun and the keys to his father's truck. Portillo and his father then jumped into the truck and began searching for the thief. Portillo told the December 11 Arizona Republic that he wanted to stop the suspect because he thought police might not otherwise be able to track him down.
Initially, the Portillos failed to spot the getaway vehicle, and when Mrs. Portillo called to say that police had arrived at the residence, they abandoned the search and headed back home. On the way, however, they noticed the elusive pickup at an intersection. Portillo yelled for the driver, Justin Russey, to pull over. Instead, Russey tried to ram the Portillos' truck. Then Portillo saw that Russey was pointing a gun out a window, so the homeowner fired a number of shots, at least one of which struck Russey. Russey's pickup went out of control, rolled on its side, and slid into a fence. Russey died at the scene.
The pickup had been stolen. It contained, in addition to the pilfered drill, loot from another burglary and the gun which Russey had pointed at the Portillos. The dead man's criminal record included a string of arrests since 1999 for such offenses as shoplifting, burglary, theft, forgery and drug possession.
Jorge Portillo believes that he had no choice but to defend himself and his father after seeing Russey's gun. "My life was threatened at the time. I had to protect myself and my dad," he told the Republic. "I wasn't going to wait for him to shoot first."
Following their investigation, Phoenix police concluded that the shooting was justified, and that no charges would be filed against Portillo.
"Just Our Womenfolk"
At around 9 p.m. on February 6, Rancho Cordova, California, resident Carolyn Lisle and his three friends were watching television in the living room of Lisle's home. When they heard strange noises near her sliding glass door, a male guest went to investigate. Lisle, however, hurried to a back room and retrieved one of her two .357-caliber handguns.
It turned out that an intruder, William Kriske, was trying to enter through the sliding door. When Kriske shattered the glass and entered the room, the male guest and the other two female friends fled, but Lisle stood her ground. She emptied her gun at Kriske, who crashed through a window to escape. None of the bullets struck him.
Kriske then went lo Lisle's garage, where he began tearing things up before breaking through a garage window and again moving toward the house. In the meantime, Lisle had fetched her other gun, and as Kriske approached the front door she opened fire a second time, this lime wounding him in an arm.
Scurrying across the street, the injured man attempted to hot-wire a motorcycle, but the bike's owners chased him away (having heard the earlier gunfire, They were also armed and on the way lo assist Lisle). According to Lisle, as Kriske fled, one of the owners yelled, "And that's just our womenfolk."
Kriske ran another block or two before a California Highway Patrol officer stopped and arrested him. Following treatment for his injuries, he was charged with suspicion of burglary and resisting arrest.
A spokesman for the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office told reporters that Lisle, whose guns were duly registered as required by state law, would not face any criminal charges. California law allows persons to use deadly force when they reasonably believe that intruders pose a threat to their lives.
Lisle, a retired state employee who once worked as a corrections officer, believes that "you need protection in this day and age," but admitted that she had not visited a shooting range for some time. "After last night," she told the Sacramento Bee. "I might go once in a while."
Clerk Thwarts Robbery
Shortly before 2 p.m. on November 14. 2003, two armed men entered Compadres Market in Gait, California, and announced a robbery. But before clerk Jose Antonio Gutierrez could comply with their demands, one of the thugs shot him in the back. Though seriously injured, Gutierrez managed to pull a gun of his own and return fire, killing one of the thugs. The dead man was eventually identified as Pedro Montes.
Montes' accomplice fled on foot and escaped. No money was taken and none of the customers in the store at the time were injured. Gutierrez was airlifted to a medical center in Sacramento, but was sent home a few days later with the bullet still lodged near his spine after physicians concluded it would be too risky to remove it.
Gait police Lt. Ken Erickson told reporters that it was apparent from the store's security videotape that Gutierrez (who had a permit to keep a handgun in the market) fired his weapon in self-defense and would not face any criminal charges. Erickson also noted that Monies' accomplice could be charged with murder if and when captured, since "it doesn't matter who shot those rounds. Each individual [suspect] is responsible for what happened."
A mother and her son are the co-owners of a convenience store in Colton, California. They were both working in the store on the morning of May 24 when three men wearing hoods entered the business. One jumped over the counter, pointed a handgun at the mother, and demanded that she empty the cash register. Her son, however, pulled a handgun from underneath the reg-ister and opened fire, killing one of the bandits and wounding the other two.
One of the wounded thugs was apprehended and taken to a hospital. The other eventually showed up at a local medical center for treatment and was also arrested. They were tentatively identified as Jerry Giles and Dewon Franklin. Police believe that a fourth suspect, possibly the driver of the getaway car, may also have been involved.
The store owners' names were not released, but the Colton police told the May 25 Riverside Press-Enterprise that the son's quick action had "basically thwarted the robbery" while "protecting his mother and his store." The Press-Enterprise further reported that, according to police, "the owner will not be arrested or charged with any wrongdoing."
Toy Gun vs. Real Gun
Abdrab Ashishi of West Chester, Ohio, was working at his Shop Rite convenience store in Avondale on the evening of May 27 when a man wearing a ski mask and black leather gloves entered the store. The masked man, David Billups, was also carrying what appeared to be a real handgun. Ashishi quickly reached for his own weapon, shot Billups five times, and then called 911. Billups was pronounced dead at the scene. Only then was it learned that the gun he had wielded was a toy.
Billups had a lengthy criminal record that included convictions for aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and kidnapping. Until late April of this year, he had been staying at a halfway house as a condition of his early release from a 50-year prison term.
On June 1, the Hamilton county prosecutor announced that no charges would be filed against Ashishi, since he had clearly acted in self-defense. The prosecutor confirmed that the store owner's statement to police jibed with the evidence, asserting: "A guy comes in dressed head to toe in black and carrying what appears to be a real gun, I think you can assume he's no: there collecting for the Red Cross." At about 12:45 p.m. on April 27, a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, heard a living room window shatter, then saw an arm reach through the opening. Two brothers, later identified as Ronald and Rudy Freese, were attempting to break into the residence.
The homeowner, whose name was not released, grabbed a handgun and opened fire. At least one shot struck and mortally wounded Ronald Freese, who was later pronounced dead at the Maricopa County Medical Center. The April 12 Arizona Republic reported that "Freese had dozens of major and minor infractions over several stints in prison on charges ranging from escape to trafficking in stolen property."
Rudy Freese was not injured. In the wake of the gunfire, he ran to his nearby home, but later drove back to the crime scene. Police were still there conducting an investigation, and, when they discovered that Freese was in the car, they arrested him in connection with the attempted burglary. Conceivably, under Arizona law, he also faced a possible first-degree murder charge for participating in a crime that resulted in a death.
Following a Burglar's Trail
Shortly after 3 a.m. on April 27, David Moore arrived at his home in Shreveport, Louisiana, to find a burglar rummaging through his belongings. It appeared to Moore that the thief, later identified as Ronald Reeder, was primarily interested in electronic equipment and guns.
Grabbing a handgun kept in the arm of a chair, the homeowner fired a single shot that struck Reeder in the leg. Reeder fled, but a police officer later followed the trail of his blood to the back yard of a nearby house and arrested the suspect. Reeder, who was taken to LSU Hospital for treatment of his wound, faced a charge of aggravated burglary because, when apprehended, he possessed a gun he had stolen from the Moore residence.
Later that day, Shreveport television station KTBS reported that the police "said they would not file charges against the homeowner, concluding the shooting was justified."
And Not a Shot Was Fired
Shortly before 3 a.m. on May 9, two men armed with a handgun and wooden clubs kicked in the front door of a home in Monongalia County. West Virginia. The intruders. Jonathan Lowe and Robert Thrasher, then broke into a locked bedroom and demanded money from the two unidentified residents who had taken refuge there. Robert Lewis, another resident in the home at the time, heard the commotion and grabbed his shotgun. Lewis confronted Lowe and Thrasher, and held them at bay until police arrived to take them into custody. No shots were fired and nobody was injured.
Lowe and Thrasher were both charged with armed robbery and released on $18,000 bond the next day pending a preliminary hearing on the case.
Hard Lesson
In early May, after multiple attempted burglaries of his mobile home in Cross, South Carolina, Jerron Richburg was understandably concerned for the safety of his wife, their child and himself. On May 2, for instance, someone sought to gain entry to the residence, leaving pry marks on the dead bolted front and back doors.
Since the culprit(s) seemed to strike only when the family cars were gone, Richburg decided to set a trap. On the morning of May 12, he left for work as usual, but had his wife take him back home, after which his wife and child left the area. With no vehicles in the yard, it appeared that nobody was home.
At around noon, Richburg heard a noise. A 16-year-old youth had used a file and a screwdriver to pry open a door and enter the residence. Armed with a shotgun, Richburg went to investigate.
When Richburg saw the intruder coming toward him in a hallway, he fired a blast that struck the youth in the left leg. After calling 911 to report the incident and request emergency assistance for the injured teen, Richburg waited in the front yard for the ambulance to arrive while a neighbor, a law enforcement officer, went inside and applied pressure to the youth's wound to reduce the bleeding.
The teen, whose name was not released by authorities due to his age, underwent surgery later in the day. His leg had to be amputated. In early August, he was indicted on a charge of second-degree burglary, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Investigators suspected that he was also responsible for the earlier break-in attempts at the Richburg home.
On August 21, Berkeley County Deputy Solicitor Blair Jennings announced that Richburg would not face any charges in the incident, since he had acted in self-defense.
Bear Scare
Bear sightings in western Massachusetts have become increasingly common in recent years. According to state wildlife officials, black bears alone now number at least 2,500 in the region, so it is hardly a surprise that confrontations between humans and bears have also increased. In early August, for instance, a 300-pound male black bear meandered onto the property of Mrs. and Mrs. Alien Jurkowski in Palmer, then reached through a window of their farmhouse and took a swipe at one of their three Chihuahuas. The dog was not injured, and the bear eventually lumbered off, but according to Al Jurkowski it returned every day or two for a week as if stalking the couple and their pets.
At around 8 p.m. on August 15. the Jurkowski's were watching television when they heard a loud bang coming from the front porch. The bear was back again Jurkowski told his wife to call 911. As reported by the August 18 “Boston Herald" Palmer police arrived minutes later and chased the bear into the woods with flashlights and sirens," then "told the Jurkowskis” not to worry; the bear would probably be too scared to return."
At around 9 p.m., however, Mr. Jurkowski saw the animal heading once again for the farmhouse doorway, which was protected by only a flimsy screen. Mrs. Jurkowski went to a bedroom and locked herself in as her husband grabbed a shotgun and confronted the bear. "He was 5 feet away when I fired my first shot," Mr. Jurkowski told the Herald. "I shot three more times and then my gun jammed. He gave a humongous roar, and I ran into the house." The bear, mortally wounded, retreated about 50 feet, then laid down and died.
Mr. Jurkowski told the August 17 Springfield Republican that he felt bad about having to kill it, but feared that it had returned to harm the Chihuahuas, his wife or himself. "The thing was right in my face.... I'm not a vengeful person, but I had to do something."
The Republican further reported that Palmer "Police Chief Robert P. Frvdryk and Environmental Police Lt. John S. Pajak both said Jurkowski was justified in shooting the bear because it was a threat."
Fighting Words
On December 12, 2003, Freddie Johnson was trying to break up a fight in a Macon,. Georgia, neighborhood when the altercation spilled into the front yard of Marshal Lee Wright's home. When W right came out and told the men to leave. Johnson pushed him in the face and told him to mind his own business. When Johnson also threatened to harm the homeowner, and shoot into his house, Wright went inside, grabbed a shotgun, and returned to again order the trespassers to leave. Undeterred, Johnson approached Wright in a menacing manner and dared him to shoot. Wright fired a single blast, mortally wounding Johnson, who died at the scene.
According to the Bibb County Sheriff's Office, Johnson's criminal record included at least 21 arrests, mostly on drug charges. After the shooting, police found five pieces of crack cocaine in his car. They did not, however, find a weapon on the dead man, but Wright said he had believed Johnson was armed, and had fired to defend his home and family.
Prosecutors disagreed. Contending that it was a case of vigilante justice, they charged Wright with murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
During Wright's recent trial, witnesses called by his attorney testified about the extensive criminal activity in the neighborhood and vouched for the homeowner's reputation as a "hard-working, middle-class American." On the other hand, as assistant district attorney Eugene Felton Jr. acknowledged, many of those who testified for the prosecution had themselves been convicted of prior illegal activity.
On August 13, the Bibb County jury deliberated for about six hours before finding Wright not guilty on all charges.
Family Feud
On July 13. John Anderson of Tulsa. Oklahoma, was confronted on his front porch by his 21 -year-old son Steve, and Carl Billetdoux. Steve's 56-year-old roommate.
Arming himself with a shotgun, John Anderson told them to leave. Instead. Billetdoux went to a truck, retrieved his own gun, and returned. He pointed the firearm at the father, who fired first, striking Billetdoux in the chest.
Steve Anderson took his wounded friend to a local hospital, where Billetdoux was pronounced dead. Two weeks later, following an investigation of the incident, prosecutors announced that no charges would be filed against the elder Anderson. They described it as "a classic case of self-defense."
Disarmament Controversy
On September 18, in the wake of increasing congressional support for legislation seeking repeal of many of the District of Columbia's draconian domestic disarmament statutes, the notoriously anti-gun Washington Post editorialized against the move, claiming that it would amount to a virtual "human hunting license."
Somewhat ironically, that day the Post also published a letter indicating why such legislation is needed. District resident Tony Snesko described what happened one day when, shortly after midnight, he and his wife were awakened by pounding at their front door. He said, "When I went to the window, I saw a large man trying to kick down our door. I warned him to stop, but he started swearing, insisting that I give him money. He then started kicking the door again."
Mr. Snesko called 911, but was put on hold. "I waited for about 30 seconds," he said, "and then realized that the man at my front door probably would be inside before the 911 operator answered. Despite the D.C. gun laws, I have a gun for just such a situation."
Retrieving the gun from his closet, he "went to the window and pointed it at the man. I warned him that I would shoot if he came through my door. He stopped kicking and ran away."
"It is absurd," Snesko contends, "for Washington to outlaw guns [since] it guarantees that only outlaws will have guns." Citizens should, he rightly believes, be allowed to protect themselves. He added, "[A]s a homicide detective once told me when I confessed to keeping a gun, 'I would rather be judged by 12 of my peers than carried out by six of my friends.'"
On September 29, the House handily (250 to 171) approved H.R. 3193, which would, among other things, repeal the district's registration requirement for possessing firearms; eliminate criminal penalties for possessing unregistered firearms; scrap the requirement that, under certain conditions, firearms must be kept locked up, disassembled, or with triggers locked (i.e., rendered virtually useless for self-defense); and amend federal law to eliminate criminal penalties for carrying a pistol (loaded or unloaded) in one's home, place of business, or on one's land. The Senate is not expected to consider its version of the legislation before the end of the congressional term.
Bungled Robbery
Shortly after 11 p.m. on June 19, a car pulled up to an International House of Pancakes in south Kansas City, Kansas. One of two male occupants went inside the restaurant, pulled a gun on the manager, then emptied the cash register. Before the bandit could flee, however, he was confronted by a security guard who was also armed.
The guard and the suspect, Gary Dameron, began scuffling. During the brawl, Dameron was shot in the upper chest. When police arrived, they found Dameron lying wounded on the floor near the cash register. He later died at an area hospital.
Realizing that the robbery had gone awry, his accomplice fled and was not apprehended.
According to court records, Dameron's previous criminal history included convictions for first-degree robbery and armed criminal action.
Clear Cut Case
Michael Moore of Fremont, Michigan, owns D&M Produce in Egelston Township. On September 19, he was working in his office shortly after 1:15 a.m. when he heard a doorknob jiggle.
Armed with a loaded pellet gun and dressed in camouflage clothing and dark boots, 17-year-old Scott Lamb had gained entry to the building by removing some metal siding. He jumped over a counter and grabbed some money from change jars. Moore grabbed a shotgun and ordered him to freeze. When Lamb refused, the store owner fired a single blast of birdshot that struck the youth in a shoulder.
Moore called 911. He then used a blanket to cover the wounded teen and tried to comfort him until authorities arrived. Lamb was taken to a local hospital in critical condition, but recovered. On October 5, following his release, he was charged with breaking and entering a building and possession of burglary tools, both felonies that carry potential 10-year prison sentences.
The September 30 Muskegon Chronicle reported that Muskegon County Prosecutor Tony Tague concluded that no charges would be filed against the businessman. There was, Tague asserted, no question about what happened, since the investigation revealed that "both the suspect and the store owner gave the exact same description of what occurred inside the store."
Domestic Duel
Chad Hill and girlfriend Ashley New had been dating about four months when, on June 14, New arrived badly beaten at a hospital in Missoula, Montana. She was suffering from several facial fractures, a concussion, two black eyes, and sundry scrapes and bruises.
Ashley New claimed that she did not know who had assaulted her, but the investigating police officer became suspicious of Hill because it appeared that New had been choked and punched from the front. The officer tried to follow-up, but was not successful.
On the morning of June 20, New and Hill were in the apartment when Hill became angry and, according to a subsequent affidavit supporting a warrant for his arrest, bellowed that he "was going to break the other side of her face." He began kicking and striking New and dragging her around by her hair.
The enraged Hill then took a handgun from a dresser drawer, placed it on the corner of a bed, and threatened to kill New unless she grabbed the firearm first. She did manage to grab the gun, whereupon Hill went to the kitchen and returned with two knives. He threatened to kill both New and her three-year-old son, twice making moves toward the child's door. When he made a third move toward the door and actually opened it, New fired a shot that struck Hill in the stomach. She then ran to a neighbor's home to call 911. Hill, who was rushed to a local hospital for treatment of his wound, survived.
On June 24, a justice of the peace signed a warrant for Hill's arrest. The charges included aggravated assault (a felony), misdemeanor counts of assault, partner assault, and endangering the welfare of a child. According to the June 26 Missoulian, he also had "a pending case in state District Court, on charges that he beat his previous girlfriend and hurt his mother as she tried to protect her."
When Seconds Count, the Police Are Minutes AwayIn a June 27 editorial at www.BigGovernment.com, Robert Allen Bonelli asked, “Do We Have the Right to Life Without the Right to Self-Defense?” Bonelli highlighted a tragic incident that occurred in Medford, New York, where on Father’s Day, Sunday, June 19, four innocent people were murdered in cold blood during a robbery of a pharmacy. As Bonelli pointed out, gun-control advocates argue that citizens should wait for the police to deal with criminals, but since the robber killed the people within seconds and even with the fastest response time the police would not make it to the scene until minutes later, the victims couldn’t afford to wait for the police. Bonelli places the blame for such a tragedy squarely on the onerous anti-gun legislation in New York State:
The legal environment makes it difficult, if not impossible, to purchase a weapon, train to use it properly or have it available and use it for self defense without first exhausting a checklist of what must be done so that the victim does not end up criminally charged. This is an impossible situation when under attack.... The right to self-defense should not be impaired by government in any way. Robbers and attackers bent on assault would think twice before approaching a home, place of business or a person if they thought that their potential victims would be armed. Recent FBI statistics show that while gun sales were surging from 2008 through 2009, the rate of violent crime fell dramatically. Think about it. Have you ever heard of a gunman shooting up a gun show? … Gun control legislation and other laws restricting the purchase and possession of a weapon of any kind are supposed to prevent those weapons from getting into the hands of criminals. Unfortunately, all these laws are doing is making honest citizens vulnerable to those who have no intention of following any law.... Without the right to self-defense, our guarantee of the right to life is meaningless.
Defense of Property: How Far Can You Go?
A recent shooting in Chicago has stirred up controversy once again over the delicate question of how far you can go with the use of deadly force to defend yourself or your property. A 57-year-old man, Donald Rattanavong, fatally shot an 18-yearold man who, he believed, was trying to break into his car. The District Attorney’s office later charged the 57-year-old man with involuntary manslaughter. In an interview with the Courier News (a Chicago Sun-Times publication) legal experts and criminal defense attorneys cautioned readers against going too far in “counterattacking” criminals outside of the victim’s home. John Paul Carroll started out as a homicide detective with the Chicago Police Department before he eventually became a criminal defense attorney. “The rule of thumb is that you can only use force likely to cause bodily harm if you believe that a person is about to commit a forcible felony on you.... If someone pulls a knife on you, it’s okay to come back at them with a gun.... But if they’re 18 feet away from you with that knife and you shoot them, you might be in trouble.
Were you really in imminent danger? And even if a guy has just shot your mother, if he then starts running away from you, you have no right to shoot him.” The turning point is that the violent force used against the criminal must be used only in the limited circumstances of keeping yourself from being hurt and not to simply to protect property or to get revenge. The bar rises even higher if the incident occurs outdoors. In the present case, Donald Rattanavong saw three or four teenagers trying to break into his car. Rattanavong emerged from his house and fired at the teens fatally hitting one in the head. The charges against Rattanavong are involuntary manslaughter and reckless discharge of a firearm, rather than murder or voluntary manslaughter. Attorney Carroll added, “If it’s just property at stake, let it go.... I don’t care if your car cost $200,000. It’s not worth taking a human life and the law doesn’t think so, either. Don’t shoot. Call 911.”
The Gun Controller’s Dialectic
A July 1 posting at Ammoland.com by Kirby Ferris, the public affairs director of Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership, took aim squarely at the effort by gun controllers to create words to advance their agenda. In a piece entitled “The Insidious Semantics of Gun Control,” Ferris said that advocates of gun control fall into two categories: the liars and the ignorant. “The Liars invent the lies. The Ignorant believe the lies and repeat them.... The main thing that the Liars and the Ignorant share in common is a corruption of the linguistic meaning of firearms related words.
They, because they also control the mainstream media to a huge extent, have been able to actually invent terminology, or in many cases change the everyday meaning of words!” One example he mentions of word smithing is using “gun control” instead of “gun owner registration” or gun taxation or revocable permission. Another example is the creation of the word “assault weapon,” which was a “truly sleazy piece of semantic sedition [that] can be laid right at the feet of Josh Sugarmann, Minister of Propaganda for the Violence Policy Center, and also an apparently compulsive liar. Sugarmann INVENTED the phrase, with the help of the liberal anti-gun mainstream media shills. An ‘assault weapon’ is now any semi automatic rifle greater than .22 caliber....
Sugarmann has truly earned ‘The Joseph Goebells of Gun Control Award.’ He’s one of a kind. A naked, and unashamed, manipulative liar.” Other invented words include “personal arsenal” (which refers to anything over two guns), a “weapons cache” (three or more guns), a “stockpile of ammunition,” (anything over 20 rounds), and “highcapacity magazines” (the same type of magazine used by nearly every cop in America). Hopefully, those who argue for the right to armed self-defense will refuse to play that game and not use the words invented by anti-gun activists. n — Patrick Krey
Sarah Palin, Paul Revere, & Guns
Former Governor of Alaska and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin once again caused a media frenzy — this time over some comments she made in early June on her “One Nation” bus tour. Palin was quoted as retelling the story of Paul Revere with a pro-gun slant. Palin said that Revere “warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free.”
The mainstream media was all too quick to pile on that comment and repeat the narrative of a dumb-woman-inover-her-head they have been trumpeting since Palin first became a national figure in 2008, but it appears that Palin actually might have been right. On Fox News Sunday, Palin insisted that she was right. “Part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there. That, hey, you’re not going to succeed. You’re not going to take American arms.” A 1798 letter written by Paul Revere himself appears to back up Palin’s claim.
After Revere was captured by the British, he warned them “there would be five hundred Americans there in a short time for I had alarmed the Country all the way up.” Brendan McConville, a history professor from Boston University, also supported Palin’s comments. “Basically when Paul Revere was stopped by the British, he did say to them, ‘Look, there is a mobilization going on that you’ll be confronting,’ and the British are aware as they’re marching down the countryside, they hear church bells ringing — she was right about that — and warning shots being fired. That’s accurate.” Other academics jumped to Palin’s defense. Cornell law professor William Jacobson also argued that Palin was indeed correct, and said that it was Palin’s critics who are the ones most in need of a history lesson.
Professor Robert Allison, chair of the history department at Suffolk University, said that Sarah Palin’s interpretation of Revere’s ride has some merit and that while Revere did not personally ring bells himself, he told people along the way to Lexington, and they rang church bells to raise the alert. In a blog post dated June 17 on Forbes. com excerpted below, Bill Flax did an excellent job explaining the important issue forgotten in the mainstream media consumed with gotcha-styled news bytes covering the Palin-Revere comment:
The latest Sarah Palin controversy over Paul Revere distracts from the essential lesson of this pivotal slice of American lore.... It matters greatly though why the British marched and how the Colonists responded. Dissension had been brewing between the colonies and London for some time, but it only cascaded into violent revolution when the British sought to seize the colonial magazine at Concord.
The minutemen understood something lost on most Americans today, that disarming the people is always the necessary precursor to tyranny. When the British disembarked to seize the Colonists’ stores of powder and ammunition, the militia resisted. Americans in 1775 wanted government to leave them be. Many Americans today want the state to care for us.... Sadly, the perception of the very nature of rights has been slowly shifting as America slides into a socialist cesspool. No longer are rights considered protections for our persons and property against government.
Now “rights” have become entitlements dispensed from government. Freedoms to pursue healthcare, housing and sustenance are being transformed into collective obligations that the state offer subsidies.... An armed populace represents the ultimate check and balance preventing federal encroachment. As self reliant individuals, we owe it to our neighbors to remain vigilant in defense of liberty. To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, should the unthinkable occur, private gun ownership ensures it is the blood of tyrants watering the tree of liberty and not the bones of martyrs broken under the boot of oppression. Arm thyself.
Background Check Errors Are Common
Gun-rights enthusiast John Lott recently explained that the Brady Law background check process is filled with holes. Lott explained that “the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) … accidentally flags many law-abiding people, stopping those who simply have the same name as a prohibited individual from buying a gun.” Lott also noted that, after reviewing the numbers for 2009, 93 percent of the initial 71,010 denials were found to be okay to purchase a gun. Of the seven percent that went on for a deeper review involving being referred out to other agencies (i.e., FBI, BATF, etc.), over 51 percent resulted in cases where the check wasn’t even completed.
Ultimately, Lott calculated an “initial false positive rate of roughly 94.2%,” and this “still doesn’t mean that the government hasn’t made a mistake on the remaining cases.” Lott calculated another higher error rate, based on those cases where the denied party was actually proven to be unable to purchase a gun in a court of law, of 99.98 percent, which might be higher than the actual rate since an assumption can be made that some banned parties did not pursue their case to trial. Still, with numbers like this (a false-positive rate somewhere between 95 percent and 99 percent), it’s no wonder that, as Lott puts it,
no study by criminologists or economists has found that the Federal Brady Law has reduced national crime rates.
Lott continued on to explain that the delays involved for those who trigger false positives add up. Those unfortunate people have to wait long periods of time for their case to be resolved even though they ultimately do get their gun. With results like this, it’s no wonder that gun-controllers view the NICS as a move in the right direction. It’s a logical step on their path to total civilian disarmament. — Pat rick Krey
Law Enforcement Profiling Gun-rights Supporters?
Ammoland.com reported on June 6 that the Baltimore Police Criminal Intelligence Section issued an “Intelligence Bulletin” warning fellow officers about persons displaying a pro-Second Amendment decal. The decal advertises “Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore” and depicts three individuals shooting firearms, a target, and the state of Maryland. Specifically, the bulletin warned officers in bold red letters that “while the individual who is displaying the symbol may not be armed, the presence of the symbol provides an early warning indicator that you MAY be about to encounter an armed individual.” Critics of this law-enforcement alert were concerned that such a notice might lead officers to profile gun owners and gun-rights supporters. The association featured in the decal contacted the police to ask them about their warning, and James H. Green of the Baltimore City Police Department responded with the following statement:
I have spoken with our Criminal Intelligence Section and the bulletin was created in response to a number of recent inquiries asking about the decal and its meaning and information generally provided to law enforcement about officer safety. All law enforcement agencies attempt to inform our officers or citizens as appropriate when inquiries such as this arise. I certainly disagree with your characterization of “profiling.” Clearly the bulletin is informational and does not remotely suggest a suppression of Constitutional rights. In fact, as you are aware, many law enforcement personnel are members of the NRA or affiliated organizations.
As you are also aware, traffic stops are the single most dangerous encounter for law enforcement. It certainly is practice for law enforcement to ask operators about weapons for safety reasons only. The presence of a decal is NOT justification in itself for a traffic stop. I hope that this addresses your inquiry and clears up any confusion about the bulletin. The response didn’t satisfy the pro-Second Amendment organization, which is in the process of submitting a freedom of information request regarding any similar bulletins warning about people who show support for their constitutionally protected rights.
Self-defense or Execution?
A trial based out of Oklahoma City sparked a national outcry after the defendant was found guilty of first-degree murder stemming from a May 19, 2009 shooting during a robbery in a pharmacy. The defendant was 59-year-old pharmacist Jerome Ersland, who found himself in harm’s way when two men barged into the drugstore hoping to get away with money and drugs to use for sale on the street. The 911 calls from the night of the robbery tell the story of frightened employees being threatened by armed robbers. In one 911 call, Ersland told the operator, “Emergency. People down.... Hurry. One of them crooks got away. I got one. He’s dead.”
After the shooting, the local District Attorney’s office filed charges of first-degree murder against Ersland, and the jury found him guilty and recommended a life sentence. (Formal sentencing is not scheduled until July 11.) The actual details of the incident were disputed between accounts by the pharmacy workers and what the prosecutors said occurred. Ersland contends that the robbers fired at him and both were armed, but the D.A. contends that the only robber who was armed was the one who fled the scene, and that only Ersland fired any shots. The verdict has received national attention owing to the fact that Ersland was the victim of a robbery, and it has stirred a new public debate over the fine line between self-defense and excessive deadly force.
There are numerous supporters of Ersland who say his conviction is a travesty of justice where the system is being used to punish a hero. The most damning evidence against Ersland was a silent security video that the jurors reviewed. The first part of the video shows Ersland shoot one robber in the head and then chase a second robber outside. It was the second part that damaged Ersland in the eyes of the jurors. The video shows Ersland return to the store, retrieve a second gun, and then shoot the fallen robber five more times. That robber was 16-year-old Antwun “Speedy” Parker of Oklahoma City, who died at the scene.
This was the moment where the prosecutors contend Ersland’s actions moved from justified self-defense to a ganglandstyle execution. The prosecutors told jurors that Ersland was wrong to shoot “Speedy” again because the boy was unconscious and not moving on the pharmacy floor. Defense attorneys argued that Ersland, who retired from the U.S. Air Force in 2000 with the rank of lieutenant colonel, courageously defended himself and two female employees with his actions. Supporters set up a website, www.jeromeersland.org, hoping to raise both money and public support for a full pardon. The following was featured on the main page.
Lt. Col. (Dr.) Jerome Ersland is a disabled veteran who retired from the United States Air Force. Jerome joined the military and became a pharmacist because he wanted to serve our Country and help his fellow Americans. Due to inoperable broken back / spinal cord injury Jerome is forced to wear a back brace at all times that severely restricts his movement. In spite of this, Jerome still works full time and continues to serve his community. He belongs to the DAV, the American Legion, the VFW, serves as Vice President of his Church and as an advisor for the Boy Scouts.... Jerome is now bankrupt, having spent his whole retirement and all of his current salary goes to lawyer fees. He pays 100k in bond every year (twice so far) and even though he hasn’t been convicted, he is on house arrest. Jerome wears a GPS ankle tracking device that also cost around $480 a month!
Gun Training for Safety
The Denver Post reported on April 24 that a company started by former Navy SEALs is teaching personal security tactics to individual customers, training that used to be reserved for high-end bodyguards. The company is called BluCore and was launched in 2009 by Eric Frohardt and Sean Haberberger. The Post reports that with “a host of offerings from weapons training, hand-to-hand combat, tactical driving, property security evaluations and self-defense classes, BluCore is enabling people … to defend themselves simply by expecting trouble.”
Co-founder and 10-year Navy SEAL sniper Eric Frohardt told the news that “we originally started to help professional athletes, but we saw the need not just for them but for everyone.” Frohardt also had a lot of advice about using a gun for selfdefense. “Having personally been in a lot of gunfights, you always shoot more ammo than you plan.... A lot of training really goes out the window when you find yourself in a two-way gun range.... It’s better to be moving while you are shooting. That’s saved my life more than once.” BluCore now also has its own high-tech shooting center featuring 12 shooting lanes, a training center, a retail outlet, and classrooms, which will soon offer a series of unorthodox shooting classes designed to attract veteran shooters as well as first-timers.
Gun-control False Flag?
Wikipedia defines “false flag operations” as “covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is flying the flag of a country other than one’s own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and can be used in peace-time.” Such operations have been used by governmental intelligence services throughout the years to support their policy.
As previously reported in this column, some critics of the federal government are openly criticizing covert efforts to arm Mexican outlaws with U.S. weaponry as the latest false-flag operation. Vocal critics and defenders of gun rights claim that this is an intentional effort to mislead the public and advocate for stricter gun control here at home in the United States. When faced with these accusations, leaders of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) feign incompetence and hide behind plausible deniability, but the facts tell a much different story.
Now, owing to a WikiLeak release of diplomatic cables, details are emerging that paint an even more damning picture of U.S. government policy, policy done out in the open that has had the same deadly effect as the covert one previously criticized in this column. On April 28, Fox News reported that even more heavy-duty armament is making its way into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. According to leaked diplomatic cables, weaponry that is not available at U.S. gun stores is making its way into the hands of the drug cartels via three sources:
“U.S. Defense Department shipments to Latin America, known and tracked by the U.S. State Department as ‘foreign military sales,’ weapons ordered by the Mexican government, tracked by the State Department as ‘direct commercial sales’ and aging, but plentiful arsenals of military weapon stores in Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua.” What is most shocking is not that these guns ended up in the hands of the drug cartels and other violent criminals south of the border, but rather the reaction by high-ranking members of the Obama administration when the bad guys did obtain the guns.
Knowing full well that the source of the weapons was none other than the U.S. government itself, Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and President Barack Obama used it as a pretext to argue for stricter domestic gun-control laws! In a February 2009 speech, President Obama blamed the violence on private U.S. gun dealers. “More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our border,” said the President. Lynn Kartchner, owner of Allsafe Security, a gun shop in Douglas, Arizona, told Fox News, “We in the gun industry knew from day one the allegations that the preponderance of sales came from gun stores like this one was totally not true.... Most of the M16s were sold legally to the Mexican government and disappeared.”
The cold truth of the matter was that many of these weapons were and still are getting to Mexico via the U.S. government, not “mom and pop” gun shops. Fox News explained: “Tens of thousands of firearms and explosives are sold legally through the U.S. State Department to the Mexican government. These weapons are then funneled to the traffickers and cartels by corrupt officials within the Mexico Ministry of Defense and local and state police departments. According to State Department documents, in 2009 Mexico bought nearly $177 million worth of American-made weapons, exceeding sales to Iraq and Afghanistan. That number includes $20 million in semi-and-fully automatic weapons.”
A confidential informant who has worked for federal agencies such as the FBI, ATF, and DEA told Fox News that these “are weapons that have been stockpiled either through U.S. aid programs or currently being shipped there under the guise of military support.... The governments and military in those countries realize that the economy is such that they are far better off to push these weapons north and sell them than they are to keep them in their own arsenals and reserves.”
Demanding Holder Resign
The fallout continues to get greater as more and more information is released regarding the gun-running operations to Latin America by U.S. law enforcement. On Saturday, April 30, the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) CEO, Wayne LaPierre, called for Eric Holder to step down for allowing an operation by the ATF to occur on his watch that involved the sale of guns to Mexican drug cartels. LaPierre said, “Operation Fast and Furious [the code name for the ATF’s covert operation] may have gotten one or perhaps two federal agents killed, and countless other innocent victims have been murdered with the illegal guns that our own government allowed into Mexico all to advance a political agenda.”
New Children’s Book on Open-carry
Michigan-based Brian Jeffs and Nathan Nephew are the gun-enthusiast co-founders of Michigan Open Carry Inc., a gun-rights group that challenges unlawful gun-control laws. Jeffs and Nephew decided that they needed to broaden their message and recently authored a book on the subject of open carry for children. The soft-cover book is published by White Feather Press of Hamilton, near Grand Rapids. The book’s description is as follows:
Come join 13-year-old Brenna Strong along with her mom, Bea, and her dad, Richard, as they spend a typical Saturday running errands and having fun together. What’s not so typical is that Brenna’s parents lawfully open carry handguns for self-defense. The Strongs join a growing number of families that are standing up for their Second Amendment rights by open carrying and bringing gun ownership out of the closet and into the mainstream.
Besides explaining the reasons for gun ownership as well as open carry, the book also includes lessons on safety for children. In a phone interview with the Lansing State Journal, co-author Jeffs explained that the book’s main message is that you “can’t rely on others to protect you. You have a natural right to self-defense. The cops do the best they can, but can’t be there all the time.” My Parents Open Carry can be ordered through www.myparentsopencarry.com
“I Shot a Man in Reno… ”
The Reno Gazette Journal reported on April 7 that a “32-year-old homeowner … shot and killed a 19-year-old man who drove up to his home [in Northwest Reno] and confronted him with a gun while demanding his property.” Local police lieutenant Mohammad Rafaqat told the media that the homeowner had just arrived home when he noticed a dark-colored pickup drive past his house several times. It finally parked with its headlights shut off. The homeowner was immediately suspicious and ran inside his home to write down the license plate. The homeowner also tucked his 9mm gun inside his sweatshirt pocket and approached the truck to determine what was going on. At that moment, a man hopped out of the truck, pointed a firearm at the homeowner, and demanded his property. With no time to lose, the homeowner fired several shots at the man who fled the scene with his accomplices. The would-be robber was later dropped off at a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. The authorities are saying that the shooting appears to be a case of justified self-defense.
Wisconsin Concealed Carry Ban Ruled Unconstitutional
The Wisconsin Radio Network reported on October 14 that a Clark County judge ruled that a state ban on carrying concealed weapons is unconstitutional. The defendant in the case was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, after he admitted he had a knife in his waistband but had never actually threatened anyone. Citing the landmark Supreme Court ruling in McDonald v. City of Chicago, defense attorney William Poss filed a motion to dismiss the case on constitutional grounds. Judge Jon Counsell agreed and granted the motion. Counsell ruled that the law is overly broad and violates both the Second and 14th Amendments of the Constitution. In his decision, Counsell wrote that the law forces citizens to “go unarmed (thus not able to act in self defense), violate the law or carry openly.”
The ruling’s precedence is limited only to Clark County and will likely get appealed to a higher court by the District Attorney’s office. Defense attorney Poss told the news that there’s “a lot of interest in this obviously.... It’s not a left or right type of thing quite frankly. It’s a liberty thing.... Like many of my counterparts, I believe strongly in the Constitution.... As Ronald Reagan once said, ‘It’s not a buffet.’ The Bill of Rights is not a buffet where you can pick and choose, where some people say they want the First Amendment applied to everyone, but somehow they jump over the Second Amendment.” Wisconsin is one of only two states that completely ban carrying concealed weapons. Perhaps this ruling is just the beginning of lower court rulings throughout the nation that will protect the individual right to armed self-defense. Readers of this column can only hope that more judges like the Honorable Jon Counsell take a stand for the Second Amendment.
Flint, Michigan, Felons
The Flint Journal out of Flint, Michigan, reported on August 5 that Sheldon Golden, 54, was standing in the driveway of his home around 11 p.m. when he was approached by a group of five young adults. The gang had a gun in their possession and tried to rob Golden. In response, Golden opened fire and killed one of the suspects and wounded two others. The other suspects ran off before the authorities arrived. Neighbors spoke approvingly of Golden’s actions. Forty-year-old neighbor Melissa Taylor told the news, “He has to do what he has to do to protect himself.... I would have probably done the same thing. I have two kids.” Even a spokesman for a Washington, D.C.-based gun-control advocacy group reluctantly agreed that Golden had a right to protect himself. Peter Hamm, communications director of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told the news through grinding teeth, “We’ve never taken issue with law abiding citizens who have a weapon legally.... They have the right to defend themselves when in danger.” The authorities have charges pending against the two wounded suspects, said assistant Genesee County prosecutor Randall Petrides. Petrides would not address the specifics of the Golden case, but did tell the news, “In general, if a person feels if his life is in danger, he can protect himself.”
Delivering Lead
On Friday, March 11, a Kentucky “Wing Zone delivery driver” pulled up to the curb behind an apartment complex, expecting to deliver pizza to customers within. Unbeknownst to him, four men were waiting behind a nearby dumpster and sprang up as he exited his vehicle. Two of the men cornered the driver, and one was armed. The armed assailant pointed his gun at the hard-working victim and demanded all his cash. The driver, aware that similar robberies of pizza delivery men had occurred in the area, was prepared. He dashed back into his car and retrieved his pistol, which was “legally stored” inside. He fired at the would-be robbers as he tried to make his escape. Everything that occurred is not clear, but authorities suspect the robber fired back — a total of six shell casings were recovered at the scene. The driver escaped from the scene in his car and alerted the police. One of the four conspirators suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and collapsed. The other three fled in fear of their lives. The suspected robber who was shot was taken to a nearby hospital, and his condition was not immediately available.
ATF “Anti-gun Zealot”
When President Obama nominated Andrew Traver, who is currently the Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Chicago Field Division, to be the new Director of the ATF, a firestorm was touched off among gun-rights activists, who described Traver as an “anti-gun zealot.” On the other hand, gun-controllers like the Brady Campaign were enthused when Traver was nominated by President Obama to be the head of the ATF. Those looking to preserve Americans’ God-given right to armed self-defense have much to be concerned about. Dave Kopel of the Colorado-based Independence Institute told the Christian Science Monitor, “This is a demonstration that Obama has … the same attitudes about Second Amendment rights now as he did [when he was an Illinois state Senator], which is quite hostile....
He’s picked a strong anti-Second Amendment person for an administrative job that has far more influence over the practical exercise of Second Amendment rights than any other job in the country.” Conservative pundit Michelle Malkin wrote that “Traver allied with the progressive Joyce Foundation to lobby for tighter federal restrictions of Second Amendment freedoms. He ... opposes privacy protections for gun owners. He has also compared automatic black-market weapons to legal semiautomatic assault weapons.” Such criticisms have stalled Traver’s nomination and, at the time of this writing, it hasn’t yet come up to a vote by the U.S. Senate.
Operation Gunrunner
On the topic of the ATF, a new controversy has stirred up that might permanently damage the unconstitutional organization if fully exposed. The latest claims involve ATF operations that “allegedly have helped to supply Mexican drug cartels with weapons, as part of a ‘controlled trafficking of arms’ to Mexican authorities.” The allegations come from ATF whistle-blowers who allege the poorly run operation may have resulted in weapons that were used in the murder of federal law-enforcement agents. Now there is pressure mounting among Mexico City lawmakers for an investigation into this U.S. law-enforcement operation that may have allowed hundreds of weapons to flow into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. A ranking Mexican legislator claims that at least 150 Mexicans have been killed or wounded by guns trafficked by smugglers under the watch of U.S. agents in what many are criticizing as an ATF coverup.
A Washington Post article entitled “ATF’s tactics to end gun trafficking face a federal review” reports that a “controversy over tactics … has prompted federal officials to reevaluate an aggressive law enforcement strategy to stop firearms trafficking. The new scrutiny comes after two separate shootings in the past three months in which federal agents were killed and guns recovered by investigators were later traced back to people already under investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.” But were these tactics really about stopping firearms trafficking, or were they instead an attempt to bolster the gun-controllers’ argument that it is U.S. guns being used by Mexican drug cartels? Katie Pvalich, writing for Townhall.com, believes that the plot is only thickening:
It is important to remember that the Obama Administation and the Department of Homeland Security have implied that much of the violence in Mexico is to blame on law abiding gun shop owners who “sell to cartel members” and the Second Amendment, yet continued exposure of Operation Gun Runner shows the government approving the sales reported by shop owners to ATF, giving the green light for weapons to flow freely across the border into dangerous hands, resulting in thousands of innocent deaths in Mexico and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona earlier this year. ATF sat by and watched as known criminals purchased the weapons they needed to carry out lethal operations with no take downs of cartels as a result, all while using law abiding gun shop owners as a cover.”
More and more gun-rights enthusiasts are arguing that these operations are part of a larger overall effort by the federal government to bolster the contention that lax U.S. gun-control laws are behind the increasing violence on the border with Mexico. An April 3 blog post at www.LubbockOnline.com entitled “Did the Obama White House Authorize Gun Smuggling into Mexico?”
observed:
The corruption and criminal activity apparently sanctioned by the Obama White House is staggering. The apparent fact that White House ATF agents have been smuggling guns into Mexico and the Department of Justice and politicians are using thissmuggling as an excuse to place more restrictions on the ability of law abiding citizens to own guns is both appalling and criminal.
X-ray Vision
A February 23 news report from KRQE out of Hobbs, New Mexico, reported that 70-year-old Watson Greene frantically called 911 to report someone breaking into his home. Not content to simply wait until the authorities arrived, Greene grabbed his handgun and pointed it at the back door where he could hear a would-be intruder struggling to enter his home. Greene steadied his weapon on where he envisioned the thug was standing and fired a single shot through the back door. The shot hit the would-be robber, mortally injuring him, and sending the gravely injured criminal fleeing the scene. Paramedics later found him bleeding in a nearby alley, and he eventually died from his injuries. It turned out that the dead suspect had just been arrested two weeks prior to the incident for burglary, and also had prior convictions for aggravated assault and battery dating back four years.
Officer Mike Stone told the media that the Hobbs area had recently experienced “a lot of break-ins … and we’ve had even a few home invasions.... It appears that the residents of the home were probably scared.” Chief Deputy District Attorney Dianna Luce also told the news that if the investigation shows there is sufficient evidence to prove the dead suspect was trying break into Greene’s house, it would give him the right to defend his property and the shooting would likely be ruled as justified.
Double Standard
A January 26 press release from the group GrassRoots GunRights of South Carolina, on www.Ammoland.com, supporters about a new proposed state law. It explained that a proposed bill in South Carolina would “let any elected or appointed public official — that means politicians — to carry a self-defense firearm anywhere in the state.” Why is this newsworthy? It would appear that some politicians have realized that the prohibitive carry restrictions required by the concealed weapon permit laws are unreasonable and detrimental to personal safety.
The annoying part is that they only want to exclude themselves from the requirement, whereas were taxpayers must continue to follow the onerous state regulations necessary to become fully licensed. As Bill Rentiers, executive officer of GrassRoots GunRights of South Carolina, put it, the proposed law “is nothing more than a self serving bill that proves that politicians think their lives are more important than your life or the lives of your family! … [The law] is another example of how politicians seem to forget the fact that they are public servants, not our lords and masters.” Invoking a literary giant, Rentiers told readers that “some politicians think like the pigs from George Orwell’s book Animal Farm where the ruling pigs said ‘All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.’”
This law is not unique, as there is a similar proposal out West. A March 15 Washington Times editorial reported that the California state Senate is considering a similar bill that would “grant legislators permission to carry concealed firearms. The measure highlights the growing rift between the bureaucratic class and taxpayers who don’t have the luxury of exempting themselves from bad laws.... In practice — outside of conservative, rural counties — only celebrities and the well-connected end up obtaining the coveted document. In a state of nearly 37 million, about 40,000 permits were issued in 2007.”
The law currently under consideration would automatically define politicians at the federal, state, and local levels as eligible for a permit. The editorial bemoaned the fact that coddled “lawmakers living in gated communities may think they face heightened risk, but it’s unlikely poor residents in sketchy urban neighborhoods have any less of a need.... The motivation of lawmakers in layering restriction on top of restriction hasn’t been to stop bad guys. Criminals, by definition, don’t abide by the law.
Rather, the primary purpose is to harass gun owners who do try to do what’s right.... Forcing legislators to live under the same crazy laws they expect everyone else to follow may help a few to appreciate the need for true reform.” Defenders of the proposed law would probably be confused by the criticism of this obvious double-standard. Public officials in ivory towers grow out of touch with us “common folk.” That’s partly why they see nothing wrong with exempting themselves from bad laws they create. They live by the motto of “gun control for thee but not for me.” Hopefully these laws will never see the light of day, but at least the proposed legislation reveals the true nature of the gun-controlling political class.
Jewel Heist Goes Bad — for Robbers
WABC out of New York City reported on February 23 that a Bronx jewelry store owner exercised his God-given right to self-defense and averted an attempted robbery of his store. Days after the incident, 49-year-old Anthony Spinelli was still visibly shaken when he was interviewed by the press. “I’m fine and I can’t wait to get home,” Spinelli told the news.
It is a nightmare scenario to most jewelry store owners that most hope they never have to deal with. The two well-dressed suspects, one man and one woman, came into his store in a very casual, everyday manner. Hoping to use the element of surprise to their advantage, they dressed up like a couple shopping for jewelry. Spinelli was showing them selections from the jewel case when one of the suspects held a gun to his head and demanded that he open his safe. Fearing for his life, Spinelli acted on instinct and grabbed his own handgun and immediately opened fire.
The suspects fled from the store with Spinelli behind them. A third man alleged to be involved with the crime was waiting outside as a lookout when the two would-be robbers ran from the store to escape Spinelli’s bullets. Before he could react, the lookout was shot in the leg by Spinelli and later taken into custody. People from the neighborhood hailed Spinelli as a hero for standing up to the would-be robbers. An eyewitness told the news, “Self defense, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, I would do the same thing.” Spinelli’s gun was licensed and he is not expected to be charged.
The man and woman who were violently taken hostage Sunday are crediting God for their survival and telling the press that he should not be thought of as a hero.