AZ: Robbery fails when cab driver grabs gun, bites suspect: "A cab driver fought back against a man, who attempted to rob him at gunpoint on Friday morning, by biting his ear and taking his gun. Detective David Ramer with the Chandler Police Department said a cab driver pulled into an apartment complex near Dobson and Ocotillo roads around 1 a.m. to drop off his passenger. As the cab came to a stop, the passenger allegedly pulled a gun on the driver and demanded cash. Ramer said the cab driver grabbed the suspect's gun and pulled it down between the front seats, forcing the suspect to lean over the seats closer to the cab driver. With his hands holding the gun down between the seats, the cab driver reportedly bit the suspect's ear. "I almost bit his ear off," said the cab driver, Mwengi Gachii. "I'm okay because I am always suspicious of people like that.” The suspect then fired one shot, striking the driver seat of the vehicle and then responded in turn by biting Gachii, according to the police report. At one point, Gachii says the suspect bit him in the chest. "He was really drunk." After a struggle, the suspect fled from the cab. Gachii ran after the suspect while carrying his gun. After a brief chase, Gachii stopped and called police. Police were able to catch the alleged robber in the complex. The suspect, identified as 29-year-old Matthew Mailhot of Chandler, was taken to a local hospital to be treated for his injuries. Once released from the hospital, Mailhot will be booked into the Maricopa County Jail for armed robbery."


TX: Store Clerk Shoots Robber: "Beaumont police are looking for a man witnesses say has a gunshot wound to the arm after he robbed the Gulf Street Liquor Store in Beaumont. Beaumont Police Officer Crystal Holmes tells KBMT 12 news around 10:30 a.m. Friday patrolmen were called to the 3000 block of Gulf Street in Beaumont where a 9-1-1 caller reported an armed robbery. The store owner told police a man with wearing a black cap, long sleeve black shirt, black baggy jeans and an orange bandanna used a large-caliber handgun in the robbery. As the robber started to leave the clerk grabbed his own handgun and chased the suspect into the parking lot. Police say the clerk told officers the suspect turned and pointed a gun in his direction so he fired a number of shots at the suspect. He said one of the slugs hit the man in the arm. "I ran out to get his license plate," said Farid Ali who owns the Gulf Street Liquor Store in Beaumont. "When he saw me he tried to shoot me and that is when I shot back." Although he and witnesses say the suspect was hit, there was no evidence found at the scene to show that a bullet had actually hit the man. The suspect fled the scene in a green Ford Mustang with a ragtop. At 12:45 p.m. officers found the suspect car in the 5000 block of Landry. Police obtained a search warrant and found the suspects bloody clothing. Police also searched his car where they discovered blood stains and bullet holes on the side of the car. Authorities say they know the suspects identity but they are not going to release his name until they obtain a warrant for his arrest."


Book review: The Great New Orleans Gun Grab: “I recently finished reading The Great New Orleans Gun Grab: Descent Into Anarchy by Gordon Hutchinson and Todd Masson. To give you an idea of how interesting this book is, I finished all 190 pages PLUS the Appendix materials in just under three hours. Both Hutchinson and Masson are professional writers, and they do an excellent job conveying a story that is fascinating, frightening, horrifying, and often, beyond belief. I found myself muttering, numerous times, ‘Certainly this did not happen in the United States.’ Well, it did happen. And every gun owner owes it to himself to at least know the story of Katrina and the complete failure of law enforcement vis-a-vis the law-abiding gun owner.”


New anti-gun strategy: Demonize CCW holders: "Bigotry assumes many forms, hides behind many facades, but always it is the same; the social demonization of entire groups, classes or races of people in an effort to make them appear inferior and detrimental by their very existence. In the wake of a nasty multiple shooting at a Pittsburgh, PA-area fitness club by a not-so-clearly psychotic man identified as George Sodini, America’s gun prohibitionists – led by the Violence Policy Center and Freedom States Alliance – are clamoring for restrictions or repeal of concealed carry statutes. In the case against legally-armed citizens, the VPC has even manufactured an innuendo-riddled “study” to support their prejudices. My colleague, Cleveland Gun Rights Examiner Daniel White, writes about the shooting here. Their hardly subliminal argument appears to be that citizens licensed to carry concealed handguns for personal protection are a threat to the community. This contention is based on six shooting incidents over the past couple of years in which the gunman had, or apparently had, a carry permit. Meanwhile, proponents of public disarmament haven’t said a thing about the estimated five million other citizens who are licensed to carry, and haven’t harmed anybody. There hasn’t been a peep from the gun prohibition lobby about the armed citizen who shot a convenience store robber in Virginia recently, heading off a bloodbath."