NM: Three Gun Turn-in Events on November 4 , Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Espanola

Long guns turned in by individual at Dallas event October 2023

 

New Mexico state police have announced a trio of gun turn in events, know by the Orwellian propaganda term "buy back" to be held on Saturday, November 4, 2023, from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Espanola. Police state gift cards will be given out for any firearm, working or not, with a very generous amount of $300 for rifles, shotguns, or "assault weapons", and a more pedestrian amount of $200 for handguns.  This correspondent has contacted the NM State Police, but has not been given information about how much money is allocated for these events at the time of this writing.

Events managed by police for individuals to turn in guns for gift cards have become popular again, as 1.6 trillion dollars pushed into the political environment has to be spent in some way. From New Mexico state police press release on Facebook:

New Mexico State Police Coordinate Gun Buy Back to Promote Gun Safety and Reduce Gun Violence

 

Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Espanola NM –

On Saturday, November 4, 2023, the New Mexico State Police are coordinating a Gun Buyback Event in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Espanola. 

 

The events will take place on November 4, 2023, from 8:00 a.m. through 2:00 p.m. at the following locations:

 

Albuquerque, at Expo New Mexico at 300 San Pedro Gate 6 (south of Lomas), Las Cruces, at the Sportsman’s Warehouse at 2230 N. Telshor Blvd. Espanola, at Robert “Gordy” Vigil Regional Sportsplex at 2000 Industrial Park Rd. 

 

People may anonymously hand in unwanted guns and firearms and receive Visa and/or American Express gift cards in return. No questions will be asked about who owns the guns or where they came from. Buybacks are intended
to prevent unwanted or unneeded weapons from causing harm or being used
to commit acts of violence.

 

Buyback Event details: $200.00 Visa and/or American Express gift card for handguns, $300.00 Visa and/or American Express gift card for rifles, shotguns, and assault weapons. Firearms may be functional or non-functional.

 

“This is a proactive measure to prevent tragedies involving guns. We want to help remove unwanted guns from our communities and reduce the risk of deadly accidents, homicides, and suicides” said Troy Weisler, Chief of the New Mexico State Police.

If this correspondent were a few hundred miles closer to this event, a number of older and inexpensive long guns would be made ready to be turned in. Magazines, scopes, and other accessories would be removed. Many long guns can be purchased for less than $200, and older long guns with problems may be worth less than $200. In the last few years, this correspondent has purchased a number of firearms for about $100.  Unfortunately, this is a gamble. The gamble being: will the gift cards run out before a person is able to turn in the guns for the money? In Dallas, on October 23, the gift cards ran out in an hour, and only about the first 10 vehicles in line received any gift cards. The first vehicle turning in shotguns had about 100 of them.  In Dallas, the government was offering $200 per long gun. In New Mexico, the government will be offering $300. If the government runs out of gift cards, as is likely, there will be many people in line, who were determined to get rid of some guns.

This is the when private buyers make great deals. In Dallas, a mint Colt SP-1 (pre-ban AR15) was purchased for $400. It may be worth $2,000 to $3,000 on the collector market.

The New Mexico Democratic Party government of Lujan Grisham is not known for its common sense or fiscal responsibility.  $300 is more than many long guns retail for new:

 

Image from Walmart 20 September shows 5 long guns under $200 and slots for two more.

If the gift cards last long enough, they will empty the gun stores of new and old guns with prices less than $200. If the gift cards are unlimited, this program could bankrupt the State of New Mexico!

 ©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

AZ: Suspect Shot during Attempted Break-in

Officers went to a neighborhood on Campus Drive, near Southern Avenue and Rural Road after a 911 call around 5:40 a.m. When officers arrived they found a man shot inside a home he doesn’t live in, police say. He was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. There are no reports of anyone else hurt.

 

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Judge Benitez Schools Historian Saul Cornell on playing fast and loose with the Facts

Federal District Judge Roger Benitez

Progressive historians have used their position to justify unfettered governmen power for decades. Professor Saul Cornell has long taken the position the Second Amendment does not mean what it says. As an example of his rhetoric, he claims government policies encouraging gun ownership as proof of the legitimacy of government authority to ban guns. Laws and regulations encouraging people to exercise their right to arms are not a persuasive argument to show they had the authority to ban exercise of the right.  From Professor Saul Cornell:

Without government direction there would have been no body of Minutemen
to muster on the town greens at Lexington and Concord. If the Founders
had imbibed the strong gun rights ideology that drives today’s gun
debate we would all be drinking tea and singing, “God save our gracious
Queen.”

Professor Cornell conveniently ignores the fact the (British) Governments attempt at disarming American colonists (including the militias) at Lexington and Concord directly led to the Revolutionary war and the forming of the United States.

Professor Cornell submitted his thoughts in an amicus brief to Judge Benitez in the Miller v Becerra case. Judge Benitez did his job and objectively considered what Professor Cornell wrote. He found many factual errors. Judge Benitez found professor Cornell claimed, at the time of the Fourteenth Amendment, Americans were:

"apprehensive about 'the proliferation of especially dangerous weapons and the societal harms they caused'. In support he cites McDonald. McDonald says no such thing"

Benitez finds professor Cornell claims regulating firearms and gunpower was at the very core of police power. Cornell cites three cases. The problem is they are about storing gunpowder safely as a fire hazard, and say almost nothing about firearms. Professor Cornell cites a case about the potential to regulate a militia, and discounts a case striking down a concealed carry law. Cornell routinely ignores cases which extol the American right to keep and bear arms. Judge Benitez closes his case on professor Cornell with this statement:

The antebellum court decisions upon which professor Cornell rests, do not say what he contends they say. Perhaps he is to be forgiven because he is a historian rather than a member of the bar, but his opinions are not persuasive and are entitled to no weight.

Judge Benitez comments on Professor Cornell's arguments can be found in the Miller v Becerra opinion, pages 58 - 62.

Professor Cornell has often been cited by those who desire unfettered government power, and wish for a disarmed American population. In Miller v Becerra, where professor Cornell has a chance to have a major impact, we see his arguments are based on mischaracterizations, bordering on, if not direct, falsehoods. They remind this correspondent of the Michael Bellesiles case. If one agree with the Orwellian concept that political policy should drive the way history is viewed, a person could sympathize with professor Cornell. He has so little, verging on nothing, to work with to justify his preferred policies. It is easy to see why Judge Benitez reaches this conclusion:

his opinions are not persuasive and are entitled to no weight.

Second Amendment activists may wish to remember this evisceration of Professor Cornell's arguments. These are the best arguments Professor Cornell has, within the bounds of the Consitution.

 ©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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GA: Gunfight, Construction Worker Shoot Suspect who Fired at Him

Preliminary Information: On 10/28/23, around 12:25pm, officers responded to an aggravated assault at the location of 1218 Epworth St. Upon arrival, officers located a juvenile male with a gunshot wound to the leg. He was alert, conscious and breathing and transported to the hospital in stable condition. (in police custody) Preliminary investigation indicates the victim, who is an adult male, was working construction on a house when he observed the juvenile male suspect breaking into his utility vehicle. The juvenile suspect brandished a firearm and fired at the victim. The victim, who was also armed, returned fire, striking the juvenile suspect in the leg. Officers on scene placed the juvenile in custody with charges pending. The investigation continues. 

 

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Dissent in Duncan v. Bonta Reveals Insider Shenanigans at the Ninth Circuit on Second Amendment

 

 

 

On September 28, an en banc panel from from the Ninth Circuit grabbed control of the Duncan v. Bonta Magazine ban case, in a stunning departure from the usual order of the court. It may, or may not have violated the rules of the court. Several of the judges on the panel were not happy. Four judges of the eleven judge panel dissented. Of particular interest was the dissent of Judge VanDyke, J. The honorable Judge VanDyke revealed a history of internal shenanigans when the en banc panel first took the case. Judge VanDyke aired some of the Ninth Circuit's dirty laundry. The strong, ideological opposition to the Second Amendment has been clear in the Ninth Circuit from the beginning.

The first part of the dissent explains how the abortion decision in Row v Wade and its followup decisions distorted court procedure and case law. It is used as an example of how poisonous special treatment of a political cause is. The history of the en banc panel by Judge VanDyke shows how opposition to the Second Amendment took priority over everything else. Below is most of the VanDyke dissent concerning the Second amendment.

Cases involving the Second Amendment in our circuit have unfortunately suffered from a like phenomenon. And just as we should no longer distort our rules in abortion cases, we should no longer apply “different rules to different constitutional rights.” Whole Woman’s Health, 136 S. Ct. at 2321 (Thomas, J., dissenting). We should not give Second Amendment cases “special” treatment.

But the current irregularities highlighted by Judge Bumatay’s dissent are not the only way this case continues to demonstrate our court’s enduring bellicosity toward the Second Amendment. The irregularities in this case run much deeper— indeed, all the way back to when this case was first called en banc. This en banc panel was born in illegitimacy, and this case should never have been taken en banc in the first place. After the three-judge panel first issued its opinion in August 2020, one judge on our court requested Rule 5.4(b) notice in three cases (including this one) but then inadvertently missed the deadlines to timely call the cases en banc under our clear rules. That could happen to any judge. But rather than simply accepting the result dictated by our rules, or even deciding as an entire court to waive our rules, we went in a different direction. First, the decision was made by someone—not by the rules, or even the entire court—to allow the respective panels to waive the deadlines on behalf of the entire court. Then, the campaign started: earnest conversations were had, hearts were poured out, tears were shed, and pressure was applied to the panels with mace-like collegiality. And in the end, a discrete collection of judges—again, not the entire court—struck a “compromise,” circumvented our own rules, and allowed the en banc call to move forward. But only in this one case. The agreement was made to call this case but drop the en banc calls in two other cases—including a death penalty case. Priorities.

A lot about this is deeply troubling. First and foremost, we have rules for a reason. We operate under them every day. They should apply equally and consistently, unless and until we change those rules in the normal course. There is no exception for “cases that some of the judges on our court really, really care about.” That would be capricious and erode external and internal confidence in our court. If we lack the temerity to codify a “Second Amendment exception” in our en banc rules, we should have refrained from employing it behind the double veil of “internal court matters” in which only some members of the court participated.

Second, because we have clear, settled, court-wide rules, a discrete group of panel and off-panel judges interested in en banc rehearing shouldn’t have been permitted to circumvent those rules on their own. We have a process for suspending the rules, upon a vote of the entire court.See 9th Cir. General Order 12.11. But no judge tendered a Rule 12.11 request. Instead, this was handled off the books by a handful of judges. Which makes it even worse. This off-books approach allowed the would-be en banc advocates to pressure the panels to be “collegial,” and simultaneously concealed these conversations from the rest of the court. It also delimited the scope of the question to whether we would “bend the rules” and allow some exceptions in three specific cases, which prevented the entire court from considering the weightier question of whether, as an institution, we should be suspending our settled rules for “particularly important cases.” Such agreement—however procured—does not somehow confer legitimacy.

In sum, not only is our court treating this case “special” now, but the process that brought this case en banc in the first place was illegitimate from the start. This demonstrates and perpetuates this court’s anti-Second Amendment posture, rewards the weaponization of (one-sided) collegiality, and damages the internal and external integrity of the court. How are we to uphold the rule of law, and reassure the public we are doing so, when we disregard our own rules and make questionable decisions like this behind closed doors?

The story of the Second Amendment in this circuit has been a consistent tale of our court versus the Supreme Court and the Constitution. That tale continues today, and will continue as long as a number of my colleagues retain the discretion to twist the law and procedure to reach their desired conclusion. As uncomfortable as it is to keep pointing that out, it is important the public keeps being reminded of that fact. 

This correspondent recalls, at the time, thinking the time limit for an en banc hearing had run out. Then the en banc panel happened anyway. Without the inside knowledge of the rules and procedure revealed by Judge VanDyke, the supposition was the Ninth could do what they liked, and they liked to disrespect the Second Amendment. Judge VanDyke reveals a deeper philosophical cancer. The desire of a small group of judges to control the destiny of the nation overrode all precedent and agreed on rules. It is a typical Progressive cancer.  Progressives view the Constitution and the rule of law as obstacles to be "worked around" to get what they want. This is a cancer on the Republic. It collapses power to a oligarchy of the judges. Progressives viewed any limitation on government power as an abomination.

©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

 

 

MO: Armed Victim Stops Attempted Carjack, 1 Suspect shot, Killed

According to an earlier news release, Bibby and Jewett allegedly tried to steal a car at about 12:29 a.m. from the parking lot of HotShots Bar and Grill in the 1200 block of Laclede Station Road. When officers arrived at the scene, they discovered Bibby dead from an apparent gunshot wound.

The victim of the carjacking was located at the scene and in possession of his firearm. He told officers two men wearing ski masks confronted him near his vehicle, and fearing for his safety, he shot one of the suspects.

Jewett fled on foot and was arrested shortly after near Affton, according to the release.

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Success of Homemade Guns at "Buyback" Propaganda Events

 

 
Image from Rock Island Auction: Two of five pump shotguns never had serial numbers

 

Second Amendment activists have scored a victory in the battle to have reality influence the debate over gun culture in the United States.

In the El Paso gun turn-in event in 2023, no "ghost guns" will be accepted.

 

For years, those who want a disarmed population have attempted to demonize homemade firearms as "ghost guns". They have claimed they are an existential threat to the people of the USA and the world. The claim is lack of a serial number somehow makes a gun more dangerous. Serial numbers are easy to remove. Homemade guns have existed since before the Republic was founded. Serial numbers were not required on firearms until 1968. The claim a few more guns which are not "traceable" is somehow a problem, is not credible.

Most guns in the USA are not traceable, whether they have serial numbers or not. The credible reason to require serial numbers on all guns is to enable gun registration, which enables gun confiscation.

If "ghost guns" were a serious threat, "ghost guns" would be a high priority to be accepted at gun turn in "buyback" events. El Paso will not accept "ghost guns" because "ghost guns" at these events show the futility of gun control.  Accepting "ghost guns" quickly transfers the money from the event organizers to Second Amendment activists. The publicity of the "ghost guns" at gun "buybacks" destroys the propaganda effect of the event.

On July 30, 2022, a Second Amendment activist turned in at least 62 3D printed firearms in Houston, Texas. The event organizers paid out thousands of dollars. The publicity was priceless.

On August 22, 2022, a Second Amendment activist executed a well thought out bit of activism in Utica, New York. The far left Attorney General, Letitia James', office paid out over $21,000 dollars for 110 3D printed "ghost guns". From the activist, nom de guerre "Kem":

“I’m sure handing over $21,000 in gift cards to some punk kid after getting a bunch of plastic junk was a rousing success,” laughed Kem. “Gun buybacks are a fantastic way of showing, number one, that your policies don’t work, and, number 2, you’re creating perverse demand. You’re causing people to show up to these events, and, they don’t actually reduce crime whatsoever.”

The AG said 177 "ghost guns were paid for. There must have been more than one "Kem".  Kem and company did their successful activism on August 22, 2022, just two months after the pivotal Supreme Court Second Amendment decision in Bruen.  Before Houston, before Utica, there were several precursors who turned in slam fire shotguns at "buyback" events. These extremely cheap, effective homemade firearms showed the entire concept of "buyback" events as a farce.

The organizers of the El Paso event had to respond. They refused to accept "ghost guns" at their gun turn in.  Exactly what the pronouncement means is unclear. At a recent event in Dallas, police officers put down "no serial number" for guns made before 1968. This correspondent asked if guns made before 1968, without serial numbers, were commonly encountered. The answer was a clear "yes". Guns made before 1968 are a common occurrence. There are millions of guns, legally in circulation, which never had serial numbers, because they were not required.

The pre-1968 guns are no more or less dangerous than similar guns with serial numbers. The presence or lack of a serial number does not make a gun more or less dangerous.

Second Amendment activists turned the tables on the silly fraud of gun "buyback" events. Paying people more than guns are worth is a propaganda effort. Paying people less than guns are worth is a cheat. The propaganda effect is neutralized and reversed by activists such as Kem and others. The organizers of the El Paso event have been force to recognize the reality.

Effective guns can be easily and cheaply made at home. Serial numbers do not prevent criminals from obtaining firearms.

Private buyers at these events have a similar effect to those turning in homemade guns. The events are street theater designed to convey the message "Guns are bad. Turn them in." Private buyers send a different message: "Guns are valuable. We pay cash."

The recent flurry of gun "buyback" events is fueled by cheap government money, part of the trillions of dollars created by the Biden administration.  By creating monetary inflation, the money is driving up the cost of food, fuel, and housing. A few Second Amendment activists are obtaining some good guns at low cost as a side effect.

©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

FL: Attempted Home Invasion, 1 Killed, 1 Wounded, Third Arrested

PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — The Pasco County Sheriff's Office said one person is dead and another injured after a shooting Friday afternoon in Port Richey.

According to the sheriff's office, three suspects were attempting to break into a home in the Hickory Hill Dr. area just after 2 p.m. when a person inside the home shot at the suspects trying to break in.

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Slaughterhouse Silencers

A close friend told this correspondent of a high school field trip about 1975. The trip was to a slaughterhouse in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  There he encountered a Maxim Silencer attached to .22 single shot pistol. The Maxim and pistol were displayed on the wall. The display said the silenced pistol had been used to slaughter over two million cattle before it was retired, presumably when a captive bolt system was substituted.

Research revealed Sioux Falls was close to where my friend went to school. It has a huge slaughterhouse industry, started in 1909. The number of animals processed there each year numbers in the millions. By 1949, 800 cattle were being processed there each day. According to a source online, it takes about two minutes to move an animal on the processing line. If we limit a day to eight hours, there would be 240 cattle processed in a day. If we limit the days used in a year to 200, there would be 48,000 cattle processed in a year, and it would take 42 years to process 2 million cattle. The plant was started in 1909, the same year the Maxim Silencer became available. There was time enough for the Maxim system to be used for 2 million head.

As a practical matter, the plant operates 24/7 in shifts, 365 days a year, so there was enough time to process millions of head on several different lines, including time used for regular maintenance.

Another friend, Don Cowling, was involved in research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which included retrieving cattle organs and blood from freshly killed animals. He reported the use of a .22 single shot in the slaughterhouse in the 1960's. That .22 did not have a Maxim Silencer.

In 2002, Al Paulson, in Smallarmsreview.com, reported the use of a single shot .22 pistol with a Maxim Silencer in a Texas slaughter house from 1909 to 2000, in 2002. He calculated the number of cattle processed with the combination to be over 700,000 during the 91 year period. He wrote the combination was in excellent condition, although the finish had worn off the silencer. He tested the silencer, a Maxim Model 1909. It reduced the sound signature by 33 decibels, a good performance for a modern model. The Texas Maxim had an appropriate IRS number, showing it had been registered as required by the National Firearms Act.

In a 2011 Small Arms Review followup article, Mark White revealed more information about the Texas slaughterhouse Maxim and pistol. The pistol appears to have been a converted Quackenbush Bicycle rifle, threaded for the Maxim.

 

Paulson said the barrel length was just under seven inches. The Maxim models were sealed units. Flushing them with hot soapy water, draining, drying, then oiling them was the recommended maintenance. From the article:

Highly corrosive materials in the priming and propellant gas required that a Maxim silencer be removed and boiled in soapy water after each and every use. It then had to be drained, dried and re-oiled to prevent destructive corrosion. Most of the early Maxim silencers have been ruined over the years because they lacked this high level of care.

Hot water and soap are not difficult to find in a slaughterhouse. After 1934, a Maxim setup became 20 times as valuable. To obtain one after 1934 required a $200 tax stamp. Many items which existed before the National Firearms Act was passed were grandfathered in during a 60 day grace period, without paying the tax.  Maxim stopped manufacture of the 1909 model by 1930, if not earlier, so a replacement might have been difficult to find. Maxim silencers kept animals coming up the line from becoming agitated. They protected workers hearing. They were an effective industrial tool for decades of American history.

My friend thought the Maxim in Souix Falls was mounted on a Stevens single shot, with a break open action, as shown in the Maxim ad.

Both Quackenbush and Stevens designs are simple and rugged. They do not spew brass in an industrial area. Two minutes is plenty of time to load a single shot pistol. The designers of the firearms and Hiram Percy Maxim, designer of the silencer, (son of the designer of the Maxim machine gun), built robust machines which performed well for hundreds of thousands to millions of operations over several decades.

©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

 

 

TX: Disarm, 18-Year-Old with 4 Felony Warrants Shot in Dispute over Parking

HPD patrol officers responded to a shooting call outside a convenience store at the above address and were advised the victim and a male suspect, later identified as Peoples, got into an altercation while parking their vehicles.  Peoples pulled out a gun and struck the victim in the face with it.  During an ensuing struggle, the victim managed to fire the weapon and strike Peoples more than once.  Peoples went to a hospital with gunshot wounds prior to officers’ arrival.

Officers learned Peoples was in stable condition at the hospital.  He was found to have four open felony warrants.  The Harris County District Attorney’s Office was consulted and Peoples was charged for his role in the shooting incident.  Peoples was treated for his wounds and transported to the Harris County Jail.

 

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Dallas Gun Turn-in Event "buyback" Resounding Success for Gun Sellers, Private Buyers

 

In 2023, Dallas Councilman Jesse Moreno decided to use $20,000 dollars of discretionary funds to hold a gun turn-in event at a Dallas park. The event evolved over time. It was held at  Samuell Grand in The Cove parking lot. The event became a rousing success for those selling guns and for private purchasers. It was a frustrating experience for most of those attempting to turn in guns for gift cards.

According to a police source at the event, people started getting in line very early. One pickup, with about a hundred shotguns to turn in, was in line by 7 a.m. The event was scheduled to start at 9 a.m. This correspondent arrived at 8:23 a.m. There was a line of about 20 vehicles extending East down Samuel Blvd, with the near lane separated from traffic by traffic cones. To their credit, the event organizers did not start accepting turn-ins until about 9:01 a.m.  The turn-in of a long gun recieved gift cards worth $200. The pickup with the shotguns was the second vehicle in line. The first vehicle seemed to be associated with the event in some way, and did not appear to have a firearm to turn in.

 

 

The first firearms to be turned in were nice, Turkish made over-under shotguns. Many of these shotguns were turned in at the event. The number is uncertain, estimated at 50. They were a mix of gauges, with some missing chokes. They seemed to be new.

The police were unwilling to have all the event money go to the first person in line with 100 shotguns. They set the pick-up truck with the shotguns aside as they were processing the firearms, and started to process others in line as well. This violated the "first come first served" rule of the event, but was accepted.

Vehicle number six or seven held 18 long guns, most in poor shape, with a couple of new, inexpensive .22 rifles.  One of the guns being turned in was a British Snider .577, with Arabic symbols stamped on the barrel. It was missing the ramrod. The owner knew ammunition was difficult to find, so he turned it in for $200, along with the 17 other long guns. This correspondent was tempted to offer him $200 for this bit of history, but did not. It was a well worn bit of history.

Most vehicles had more than one firearm. The estimate was they ran out of gift cards before 10 vehicles were processed, at about 115 firearms.  There were some handguns turned in for $100 each. The cards ran out about 9 a.m. At that point there were about 30 vehicles in line.

People who were ideologically motivated continued to turn in guns after it was announced the gift cards had run out. The total number of guns turned in was not announced. This correspondent estimated the total at 125 to 150 total guns turned in. Most were turned in because they could not be sold. A source at the event indicated the nice shotguns could not be sold because of a defect, physical or legal. Other guns, such as the beat up Snider, were not in high demand. Some nice firearms were turned in for ideological reasons. This Browing Hi-Power (without magazine) was turned in. The police officer told the person turning it in it was worth much more than the $100 offered. She did not care.

 

Private buyers were working the line well before the event started. There were about a dozen before the event closed. One successful private buyer ended up with eight guns before the cards ran out, and another four guns after the gift cards were exhausted.

Here is one of he firearms he obtained:

It is a Colt, pre-ban collector grade AR15. No magazine was included.

Based on the number of private buyers and their success, about 70-100 firearms were purchased as people waited, after the cards ran out, and when people showed up late for the turn in. Highlights of the private purchases are expected to be published in  a later article.

©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

CA: Hammer to a Gun Fight in a Gun Store

A man who reportedly tried to rob a Livermore gun store while armed with a hammer was shot and killed by the shop's owner Sunday afternoon.

At about 2:30 p.m., Livermore police officers were called to East Bay Firearms on First Street, where they found a 28-year-old Redwood City man who had been shot at least one time and soon died at the scene.

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TX: Cheap Gun Opportunity El Paso 28 October 2023

El Paso Texas has organized a cheap gun opportunity for Saturday, October 28, 2023. The event is expected to be memorable because of the amount of money available and the short time allotted to expend the funds. From KVIA.com:

County commissioners unanimously voted to use $300,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funds to establish the new program.

With the funds they will purchase gift cards to give to those who voluntarily turn in guns at their events.

The flurry of gun turn-in events (called buybacks, in Orwellian word choice), is fueled by the 1.3 trillion dollar boondoggle of the "American Rescue Plan". The destructive politics which are causing food, fuel and housing prices to skyrocket is being used for these propaganda projects.  The "American Rescue Plan" is a direct cause of inflation.

Of the $300,000.00 allotted, $120,000 or 40%, will be used for advertising of the event, and staff, according to KVIA.  Local media and those who will be paid overtime for the event will benefit. This is the first of possibly three or four events planned for El Paso. From the experience of this correspondent in Phoenix, and the recent history of a similar project in Houston, there will be significant opportunities for private buyers to purchase excellent firearms at low prices. The event will be held at Ascarte Park in El Paso. Ironically, the park is right on the border with Mexico. There are significant barriers at this border area. TX-375 loop, a chunk of President Trump's border barrier, and the Rio Grande river separate the park from Mexico. Trump's border barrier transitions to a much less formidable fence at the West end of the park. Map of Ascarte Park in El Paso

In Houston, it is reported some police attempted to hassle private buyers without effect. Private purchasers are perfectly legal in Texas and most states. Many private purchasers declare they have concealed carry permits, to show they are have been vetted. There are 25 states which allow people with permits to purchase firearms without going through the National Instant background Check System (NICS) to various degrees. In the October 21 event in Dallas, the police were professional and co-operative. 

El Paso has not had an event such as this for over 20 years. There will be an accumulation of people who have inherited firearms, who know little or nothing about them, and who want to get rid of them with a minimum of hassle. This is the genesis for excellent deals for private purchasers. The park is public property. It is difficult to see how private purchasers could be legally excluded from a public event. As these events are organized to have people bring the firearms in a vehicle, most successful private buyers walk the line of vehicles, and ask people if they are interested in accepting cash for guns.

In this correspondent's experience, there are three groups of people who turn in firearms at these events: inheritance,  economic, and ideological. There is always some overlap in these groups. Those who have inherited the firearms see little value in them, and simply want to eliminate the hassle of owning a firearm they do not wish to deal with. These are the best prospects. The economic group has an idea of what the firearms are worth, and expect to obtain more than market value. The ideological group wants the firearms they are bringing to be destroyed. Ideologicals are impervious to offers to purchase. At an event in Tucson, Arizona, a person insisted on having an original Colt Python destroyed, in spite of being offered thousands of dollars for the revolver.

If you intend to be a private purchaser, make a sign so people can easily see your intent. You may wish to have a small cart to help contain and carry your purchases. These events do not pay for ammunition. Consider asking about ammunition. You may obtain ammunition for very reasonable prices. 

©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

Great background on the upsurge in gun "buyback" programs.

NC: Man Shot, Killed, while Breaking into Home

According to police, Contestable, age 34, was attempting to break into the home along Abercrombie Road when he was confronted by one of the homeowners, who is a legal gun owner. The homeowner gave repeated verbal warnings before shooting Contestable who had broken several panes of glass on the door while attempting to gain entry.

Based on the results of the preliminary investigation, no charges have been filed against the homeowner.

 

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PA: Domestic Defense, Gunfight among Relatives

Investigators say an argument ensued between David Feliciano, 56, and a 25-year-old man, over family matters.

Troopers say when the argument escalated Feliciano who was holding a revolver, fired at least one round into the air, then pointed the gun at the man, who then retrieved his firearm, which he legally owns, and fired one round striking Feliciano in the arm.

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OH: Suspect Shot, Killed inside Smoke Shop

DELHI TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A 16-year-old has been identified as the person shot and killed Friday at a smoke shop in Delhi Township, the Hamilton County Coroner's Office said.

Delhi Police Chief Jeff Braun said police were called to the VIP Smoke Shop on Delhi Road at around 1 a.m.

"While responding, an update was provided that an employee of the business shot an intruder who broke into the business," says a press release from Delhi police. 

 

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IL: Domestic Defense? Woman Shoots Man

CHICAGO - A woman fatally shot a knife-wielding man early Sunday in Morgan Park on the Far South Side.

The shooting happened around 12:45 a.m. when a 41-year-old man who the woman knew approached her with a knife inside her home in the 11500 block of South Vincennes Avenue, Chicago police said.

The woman then pulled out a gun and shot the man four times in his torso, police said.

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VA: Couple Shoot Teen Intruder

PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, Va. -- A homeowner shot a teenager who broke into his Prince George home Friday afternoon, police say.

Just before 4 p.m. Friday, police responded to a home for a burglary call on Songbird Lane in Prince George County.

A preliminary investigation revealed that the homeowners, a husband and wife, discovered someone inside their home, which led to the shooting of the teenager. 

 

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MS: Domestic Defense, Father Shoots Son who Assaulted Father and Mother

The sheriff’s department said, according to reports, 42-year-old Jeffery Boler was shot once in the shoulder by his father during a domestic assault.

During JCSD Sgt. J.D. Carter’s investigation, it was learned that Boler was believed to be intoxicated and assaulted his father, Douglas, 72, and his mother, Amanda, 70.

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WA: Homeowner uses Gunfire to Drive off Three Invaders who Impersonated Police

Security video shows three masked men carrying guns shout "Seattle Police" while each trying to kick in the door.

The homeowner grabbed a gun and fired multiple shots through the door at the intruders.

 

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SC: Gunfight, Vicim Killed, Aggressor Killed by Guard

Investigators said two men were arguing outside of the club when one of them pulled out a gun and shot the other.

A security guard working at the club then shot and killed the other man, police spokesman Harve Jacobs said.

One of the men was pronounced dead at the scene. The other was taken to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.

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Four More Bears Shot with .22 Rimfire

Image by Troy Nemitz, with permission.

Many people underestimate the .22 Long Rifle (LR) cartridge. It is the most common cartridge in the world. It is capable of killing men and large animals. Three years ago, this correspondent documented 20 incidents where .22 rimfire was used to kill all three types of bears in North America. Black bears are the most common, followed by grizzly/brown bears, and occasionally, polar bears. Since the 2020 article, four more incidents have been found were bears were shot and killed, or so badly wounded they were euthanized as an act of mercy. Of the four bears in this update, one was a grizzly/brown bear, the other three were black bears. The events are listed in sequence.

This event was with a .22 caliber pistol. It is included in the AmmoLand series on defensive against bears with handguns. The event happened in the summer of  1962 in  Montana. The incident was recounted by Allan Schallenberger, who was Chuck Jonkel's partner the next year.

The grizzly charged and Chuck stood still waiting for his helper to shoot. He looked around and the helper was running off with the shotgun. Chuck turned to run and tripped over a tree root and fell to the ground. The 500-pound male grizzly ran up to Chuck and stood up on his hind legs over him with the trap on a front paw. Chuck pulled out his .22 revolver and fired all nine shots in it. Some missed, some glanced off the grizzly’s skull and one went into an eye socket, killing the bear.

The next event concerns a Florida couple who endured the attention of a persistent black bear. The bear kept attempting to enter their home. Juanita Brown used a .22 rifle to good effect on October 1, 2006. She fired 10 shots and the 332 lb bear collapsed within six feet of the sliding glass door it had been pressing against. From emeraldcoast.com, October 26, 2006:

“Mrs. Brown then grabbed a 22-caliber rifle from the corner to the right side of the sliding glass door, the bear turned away from the door quartering to the right, she cracked the door open and started firing at the bear,” wrote Wood in his report.The woman then closed the door and ran to the bedroom to help her husband. The two later called the sheriff’s office. 

Wood noted in his report that there was a smudge on the sliding glass door 17 inches down from the top, indicating where the bear had been standing on its hind legs, and multiple smudges on the lower two feet of the door apparently made by the bear. It was determined by the officers that Juanita Brown fired 10 times at the bear and hit it six times. Three wounds were on the right side of the spine, from the front shoulder along the neck, and the other three were on the left side of the head and neck, at the jaw and ear and about five inches below the ear.

The third addition also happened in Florida, on June 24, 2020. The Shooter was trying to scare away the bear with a "warning shot". The warning shot from the .22 broke the bears spine. From clockorlando.com: June 24, 2020, Daytona Beach, Florida

Castellano grabbed his .22 caliber rifle and fired what was meant to be a warning shot but accidentally struck the bear, according to the report.

Records show the bear collapsed to the ground, unable to stand, and dragged itself into the wood line.

Officers said they went into the woods with an FWC biologist and found the bear but determined that its back was broken and it wouldn’t be able to recover, so it was euthanized.

The .22 caliber bullet was found lodged inside the bear’s lungs, according to the affidavit. A single shell casing was found on Castellano’s porch.

The last addition is a black bear which was shot in South Carolina, as it was attempting to get into a chicken coop. After being shot with a .22, the bear climbed a tree, was tranquilized, fell out of the tree and was put down. From dillonheraldonline.com:  June 16, 2023

 According to reports, the bear was trying to get into a chicken coop and the resident told officials that he felt he had no choice but to shoot the bear.

 After being shot with a .22, the bear climbed a tree. The S.C. Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) was called to tranquilize and remove the bear.

Due to being shot and injuries sustained from the 35 ft. fall from the tree, the bear had to be put down.

It is common for bears to be shot with bird shot to sting them as a harassment technique. If the bear is too close, birdshot can be fatal.  In northern Wisconsin, a taxidermist says all big bears he works on have a collection of birdshot and even .22 bullets in them. If the bear has enough fat to prevent a .22 from penetrating the body cavity because of the angle of the shot, if the bullet is stopped by  heavy bone, or if the bullet lodges in muscle, the wound is often survivable. If a .22 bullet penetrates the abdominal or thoracic cavities, death is common.  It may take from several seconds to several days.  Central nervous system hits to the brain or upper spine tend to cause near instantaneous death. With a .22, central nervous system hits have to be at a good angle, hitting the right spot, or they can "glance off" or miss the brain or upper spine.

A single .22 LR bullet is equivalent to a #1 buckshot, with better penetration.

 

©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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OH: Domestic Defense, Man, struck with an Axe, Shoots Attacker

BELMONT COUNTY, OH — The Bellaire Police Department is investigating a domestic incident that sent three people to the hospital on Monday morning. Police were notified of shots fired in the area of 41st Street and Noble Street. When police arrived, they found a male had been struck with an axe, and had then shot the attacker in self defense.

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FL: Domestic Defense, Father Attacks his Wife, Son intervenes, Shoots Father

This morning at approximately 12:47 a.m., the Baker County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center received a call that a disturbance was in progress on Doyle Williams Road in Sanderson. While deputies were en route to the residence, a second call was made to BCSO with the caller stating that a person had been shot at the same residence. Deputies arrived and discovered a white male subject had been shot and began to render aid. BCSO Detectives responded to the scene to investigate the circumstances of the shooting. Detectives learned that there was a physical domestic disturbance at the residence between a husband and his wife. The wife was allegedly being physically battered by her husband. An adult son, who also lives at the residence, intervened to protect his mother. That led to the father and son having a physical altercation in the front yard. Mother and son stated that the husband/father got into a vehicle and attempted to run them over. The son, who had retrieved a firearm, fired into the moving vehicle, striking his father, and critically injuring him. The father was air lifted to UF Health in Jacksonville. The FDLE Crime Scene Unit responded to process the crime scene. Lt. Mancini has discussed the case with Assistant State Attorney Ralph Yazdiya and no arrests have been made at this time. We will continue the investigation, review the crime scene evidence, and collaborate with the state attorney to determine the course of action. This is an on-going investigation, and no names will be released at this time.

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What the Attack on Israel Portends for Magazine and "Assault Weapon" bans in the USA

The horrific and highly successful raids on unarmed Israelis near the border of Gaza show how useful and effective militias can be against lightly armed and armored raiding forces.

Local militias are an innate response to existential threats. They are well fitted to the nature of man.

When men lived in small communities, every man was expected to aid in defense of the community against outside forces, which amounted to everyone outside the tribe or nation. A militia is simply local men working together to protect against the threat of others who want to kill, rape, loot and destroy. Militias can band together to form armies, but they need more training to work effectively as a larger force. When armies are successful at destroying a tribe's or nation's enemies, people can be lulled into believing militias are not necessary or useful.

In the history of the United States, militias were primarily needed to defend against raids by Indian tribes/other nations.  A militia does not guarantee success. Militias give a community a chance to defend themselves. With no defensive force, a community is vulnerable to raids of whoever finds them to be an inviting target. There are many times when raiders can be defeated by a lightly armed force with relatively low levels of organization and training. Armed citizens can be a greater deterrent than police. The United States has an excellent core of people with military and reserve experience to draw on for leadership.

The primary advantage of a militia is it is always there. It is reasonably ready to respond quickly. A militia can slow down an attack and defend against a threat until a larger force can relieve it.  Police are not equipped or manned to deal with organized raids.  There is roughly 1 police per several hundred citizens.

There is an enormous difference between being armed, with some organization, some communication, and some training, to being unarmed with no organization, communication or training.

The gap between some and none is very large.

The Hamas raiders did not show high levels of organization or training. They were lightly armed. They did not need more, because their targets were mostly unarmed with no communications or organization. The surprise attack was exceptionally effective because it was very good at the thing raiders depend on most: surprise!

The attacks on Western Civilization, Christianity, and the United States have become more and more effective, and celebrated at the highest level of government. The threats of raids in the United States has become higher and higher. Potential raiders are becoming more emboldened as police are denigrated and demoralized. Modern communications allow for flash organization through social media.

The Israeli victims were almost entirely unarmed. This was the policy of the Israeli government, which has embraced strict gun restrictions on private citizens since 1949. The enormous death toll at the "Peace Festival" shows how a few armed men can kill large numbers of unarmed victims. The examples of the Bataclan Concert Hall massacre in France and the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Florida show how vulnerable mass gatherings of unarmed people are. The Israeli death toll shows how vulnerable unarmed communities are.

Very few communities in the United States are as unarmed as the Israeli communities were. In the United States there are at least twenty-five million AR15 type semi-automatic firearms, and hundreds of millions of standard 30 round magazines for them. AR15 type firearms are magnificent militia weapons, as noted by the Honorable Judge Benitez in his landmark opinion in Miller v. Beccara.

Like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Good for both home and battle, the AR-15 is the kind of versatile gun that lies at the intersection of the kinds of firearms protected under District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008) and United States v Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939).

Several states are attempting to ban the private ownership of these arms because they are effective militia weapons.

The Atlantic and Pacific oceans are no longer the barriers they were to hordes of barbarians from overseas who want all Americans dead. Hamas and Iran refer to the the United States as the Great Satan. The Biden administration has given them billions of dollars.

Our Southern border has been opened to millions of unvetted young men of military age. Major cities are aiding the formation of hundreds of thousands of criminals who see the US Constitution and the rule of law as illegitimate. The raids we see against local property are not sustainable.  Those who live on easy theft are likely to expand to where there are more victims. To those on the left, the lives and property of the vast majority of Americans does not deserve protection.

Militias are needed to protect against the threats of barbarians, internal and external. The Second Amendment of the Constitution reads:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

For a hundred and thirty years, those words have been impugned and denigrated by Progressives who declared them to be obsolete.

Authoritarian governments do not like militias, which are locally based and controlled. The shrinking of the world by modern communications and transportation is making local militia and the Second Amendment as relevant as ever.

 

©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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CA: Los Angeles Woman Shoots Man attempting to force his way into her Home

A woman shot a man after he allegedly tried to force his way into her Hollywood Hills home Sunday night, claiming he’d been hurt and needed help, police said.

The man, in his 30s, was reportedly trying to push open the back door of a home in the 2800 block of Hollyridge Drive at about 9:30 p.m.

The woman, in her 50s, was trying to hold the door shut as the man claimed he was in fear of his life, said Los Angeles Police Department Officer Norma Eisenman.

 

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IN: Homeowner Shoots, Kills Intruder who Attacked Him

A Kokomo man is dead after police say he was shot after breaking into a house and attacking its owner.

Scott Elliot Jones, 51, died late Sunday night after police say he broke into a home in the 600 block of East Jackson Street and was shot by the homeowner in an apparent act of self defense, according to a press release from the Kokomo Police Department.

 

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Bears, Blades and Blunt Objects

Weingarten with Cold Steel Boar Spear, suitable for dangerous game Spear is 7 feet long

Firearms are not the only tool available to defend against bears. Blades and blunt objects have been effective in a number of recorded cases. Unlike bear spray or firearms, when someone defends against a bear with a blade or a blunt object, it tends to make the news. Traditionally, bears were hunted with spears and dogs. Humans with spears, partnered with dogs, are very difficult for a bear to successfully overcome. Some human and dog casualties result, with dog casualties much more common than human. Spears give humans a necessary stand-off distance to keep them away from a bear's teeth and claws.  Dangerous prey spears usually have a cross piece to keep the prey from reaching the human at the other end.

Two or more humans with spears are nearly as effective as a human and dog pack team.

There have been several cases of humans using hatchets/axes to successfully defend against bears.

Bosnian Shepard uses Axe to kill Attacking Brown Bear in 2013

Romanian Man uses Axe to Kill Bear attacking Wife  in 2018

Canadian woodsman kills black bear with a hatchet in 2019

Several people have successfully defended against attacking bears by using knives. Even relatively small knives are better than bare hands.

In Bear Attacks, the Deadly Truth, page 129, Bob Nickols killed a grizzly bear with a knife, as it badly mauled him. He survived. The bear died.

Larger knives are better.  Tom Tilley gained fame for killing an aggressive black bear with a six inch Buck knife.  It seems likely sharp swords could work well.

Here is a humorous, but likely true account, where a black bear was driven off with a thrown knife. This technique is not recommended.  Here is part of the tale of Florida resident Gary Carroll, a bear and a steak knife.

I take the steak knife by the tip and threw it just like I would expect someone to throw it if they knew how to throw a knife and the knife was a “throwable” knife – neither of which are true.

Miraculously enough, it hit the bear in the face, almost directly on his nose, point first. It stuck him quite deeply on the muzzle. I mean “POING!!!” deep.

This is doubly miraculous since I was aiming rather vaguely at the other end of the bear. Throwing really hard is evidently for one’s aim.

He blatted like I imagine a sheep would sound, jumped in the air, swatted  the knife out, and fled at top speed. He cleared a four-foot chain link fence without slowing down and without touching it at all.

So, I introduce the story to the grandkids as “Did I ever tell you about the time I fought off a 450 pound bear that wanted my BBQ by stabbing it in the FACE with a steak knife?”

Blunt objects have been used effectively.  Bears are routinely driven off with fusillades of rocks. The defenses referred to here are when the bears refused to be driven off. Blunt object defenses at contact range take strength and skill and luck. These recorded lethal blunt object defenses were against black bears.

Bear killed with log:

"I threw about five rocks at the bear to keep him away," Kyle Everhart said.

Realizing his sons could be killed, Everhart grabbed a log and threw it at the bear's head, striking and killing him.

Bear killed with rock:

Logger Jesse Mengler was assessing a rural wooded area near Castlegar in August when he had to put his experience as a baseball pitcher to unexpected use.

He said he had clapped his hands over his head and yelled, but the bear did not stop its charge at him.

"It had one intention and that intention was me," MLaengler told CBC News on Wednesday.

He said his truck was too far away for him to reach and the bear was too fast to outrun.

Mengler said he looked down and saw a rock the size of his hand.

"By this time, it was [10 metres] away. I reached down quick, I grab this rock. ... By this time, he's [three metres] away. [I] reached back and just threw the rock and struck it right between the eyes.

"It was like I shot it. Knocked it right out."

Contact weapons can be used effectively against bears. This correspondent's choice would be a spear. More distance is better. People using spears against bears often survive without injury.

©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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WI: Domestic Defense, Man Shoots Brother-in-law who was choking him

Later, Hanson spoke with investigators. He denied having the gun out prior to his statement about being choked. But another person who was in the kitchen during the incident "stated that Hanson had the gun out to his side when he was yelling" at (the victim) to leave. There was a scuffle and at one point "Hanson stated that he was in a seated position with (the shooting victim) on top of his shoulders/neck area pushing/holding him down, and that he told (the victim) he could not breathe, that he pulled out the gun and pushed it into (the victim) saying he would shoot him i he did not get off," the complaint says. Hanson stated (the victim) did not get off and he shot twice.

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CA: Car burglary Suspect Shot

The caller, identified as 36-year-old Alexander Marquez of Rancho Cucamonga, made the initial call to authorities saying that a man was breaking into a vehicle. 

Marquez then allegedly shot the suspect, identified as Dennis Smith, 24, of Hemet, before deputies arrived on scene.

“Deputies found Smith suffering from a gunshot wound to his lower body and immediately rendered medical attention,” a release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said.

Smith remains hospitalized and his condition is unclear.

 

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Multi-State Coalition of Leftist Attorney Generals Argue for the Power of States to Ban Common Arms

 

A coalition of leftist Attorney Generals for sixteen states and the District of Columbia has filed an amicus brief to the Ninth Circuit appeal by the State of Hawaii, claiming state power to ban common arms is essential.  On August 7, 2023, a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit reached the unsurprising conclusion that knives, particularly the type of pocket knife called a "butterfly knife" or "balisong" were bearable arms. Therefore, they were protected by the Second Amendment of the Constitution, and the State of Hawaii did not have the legal authority to ban them.

On September 20, 2023, the State of Hawaii filed an appeal to Teter v Lopez, claiming the three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit mistakenly applied the law, asking for a new panel or for a hearing en banc. Historically the Ninth Circuit has been hostile to the Second Amendment and has reversed the decision of three judge panels which uphold Second Amendment rights.

On September 22, the plaintiffs, Teter and  Grell were ordered to file a response to the appeal within 21 days.

On October 2, 2023, the coalition of 14 state Attorney Generals and the District of Columbia filed an amicus brief in support of the appeal. The arguments of the State of Hawaii, the 14 leftist attorney generals, and the District of Columbia are remarkably similar. In sum, they are this:

1. The Heller and Bruen decisions did not clarify that all bearable arms are preemptively covered by the Second Amendment (they carefully do not mention the unanimous Caetano decision, which says the opposite of this).

2. The Heller and Bruen decisions only protect arms which are shown to be in common use for self defense.

3.  Common possession of arms is not the same as common use. The Second Amendment does not protect arms which are commonly possessed, only those arms which are commonly actually used for self defense. The state can claim an arm is unusual and dangerous. It is the burden of the person challenging the law to prove an arm is commonly used for self defense.

The three arguments turn the Heller, Caetano, and Bruen decisions on their head. The three decisions make clear all bearable arms fall under the Second Amendment. Caetano, which was a unanimous decision, clarifies this the best. From Caetano:

The Court has held that “the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding,” District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U. S. 570, 582 (2008), and that this “Second Amendment right is fully applicable to the States,” McDonald v.Chicago, 561 U. S. 742, 750 (2010). In this case, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts upheld a Massachusetts law prohibiting the possession of stun guns after examining “whether a stun gun is the type of weapon contemplated by Congress in 1789 as being protected by the Second Amendment.” 470 Mass. 774, 777, 26 N. E. 3d 688, 691 (2015).

The proper test is to determine if the instrument is a bearable arm. Knives are bearable arms. Therefore they are, "prima facie" (accepted as correct until proven otherwise), protected by the Second Amendment. Once this is established, it is the burden of the state to prove these particular bearable arms are not in common use for lawful purposes. Lawful purposes are not limited merely to self defense, but include all lawful purposes.

The 14 leftist attorney generals and the District of Columbia use the scare tactic of saying a backpack nuclear bomb is a bearable arm, and thus would be presumptively protected by the Second Amendment. It is a correct but misleading statement. Backpack nukes are far from "in common use". They are uncommonly dangerous, as they could wipe out an entire city.  Under Heller, Caetano, and Bruen, they can, and are heavily regulated, so as to make them exceedingly difficult to obtain.

What the State of Hawaii, the 14 leftist attorney generals, and the District of Columbia are attempting to do is salami slice the Second Amendment into a nullity. If they can claim a knife which opens a somewhat different way is "uncommon" and "dangerous" and can force the burden of proof of what is in common use onto the plaintiff, they have erected a serious obstacle to restoring Second Amendment rights. When they claim only actual, documented cases of self defense count as lawful purposes, they create a very difficult bar to overcome. Uses for self defense include deterrent effects. If a person owns an arm for the purpose of self defense, they are using it for self defense. A person does not have to cut or stab someone with a knife in order to use it for self defense.

Analysis:

If the government can claim a particular type of pocket knife is "unusual" and can therefore be banned, without having to prove it is *not* in common use, they can cut the Second Amendment in slices by banning one item, then banning another, eventually banning so many none are left. Perhaps unloaded single-shot shotguns will be allowed, if securely stored in the home. They could only be loaded when under serious threat. Before the Supreme Court decision in Bruen, supporters of unlimited state power were willing to admit items such as semi-automatic rifles and magazines were in common use.

Bruen has clarified the Heller decision so as to prevent states from nullifying the Second Amendment by claiming "safety" or "an important state purpose" in a means/ends test where the state always wins. Opponents of limited government are left with attempting to redefine the words of the Heller, Caetano, and Bruen decisions.

The arguments by the leftist attorney generals are an inventive, if unsupported, way to nullify the Second Amendment.

©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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OK: Domestic Defense? Dees is stabbed, Shoots, Kills, Dee Cook

He said Dee Cook from Carnegie allegedly stabbed Douglas Dees in the leg. Dees, who lived at the address, had a gun and shot Cook who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Dees was transported to the hospital for his leg injury. The sheriff says no arrests have been made at this time the district attorney is expected to make a decision Monday on a charge of homicide or self-defense.

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Cautionary Tale from an Alabama Forest: When in a Gunfight, Don't Hesitate

Adam Simjee and Mikayla Paulus on the day Adam was killed. Image contributed

On August 14, 2022, Adam Simjee and his longtime girlfriend, Mikayla Paulus were on a road trip through wild Alabama country before returning to college. They decided to help a woman who appeared to have had a vehicle breakdown. The woman, Yasmine Hider,was planning to rob them or worse. Adam was a dedicated Second Amendment supporter. He had tucked a concealed pistol in his waistband because he was suspicious of the circumstance. After Adam and Mikayla had been working on the broke-down vehicle for an hour, without success, Hider pulled out a handgun and ordered them to drop their cellphones, empty their pockets, give their bank and cell phone passwords. Then she marched them into the forest. Adam waited for an opportunity to draw his firearm.  In situations such as this, the assailant is often momentarily distracted. From abc3340.com:

"Adam had his gun on him the whole time because he said, 'This is how people get robbed,'" she said, "So I was just waiting on him to use it."

Paulus described what happened next, "Adam pulled out his gun and told her to get on the ground and that's when she started messing around with her gun. It jammed once but they both shot at each other and she was shot a few times and he was shot only once."

 Law and Crime supply a few more details. From Law and Crime:

At one point, HIDER looked away and lowered her guard, Victim #1 pulled his pistol from his waistband and ordered HIDER to drop her weapon. HIDER said, “Are you serious?” She cocked her gun and started firing, and Victim # 1 returned fire simultaneously while falling to the ground. While on the ground, Victim #1 said, “You shot me,” and fired one last time at HIDER. After the shooting stopped, HIDER said, “Why did you shoot? It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

In situations where someone has the drop on you, and is momentarily distracted, there is a limited time for your action to beat their reaction, in the neighborhood of 3/4 of a second. In this case there seems to have been a little more time, as Hider is said to have answered Adam Simjee, and taken some action with her firearm before both started to fire. When someone is threatening your life, it is not a good idea to have a conversation with them. This has been acknowledged in popular movies. In The Good the Bad and the Ugly  Tuco says "When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk."

 Clip from the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:

John Wayne, in The Shootist, says his advantage is he does not hesitate when it is time to shoot, essentially saying: most men hesitate. I don't. Clip from The Shootist: Most men aren't willing.

Adam Simjee showed good tactical awareness by waiting for the right moment. Then he hesitated. Shots were exchanged. He was killed. Most people do not want to take a life. At short range, it is not uncommon for both participants in a gunfight to be hit, or for both participants to be missed. Hesitation can be deadly. Simjee expected compliance. Instead, he received a deadly bullet.

Life is complex. Uncertainty is common.  In the tragic case of the good Samaritan college students in the Alabama forest, hesitation was a deadly mistake.

©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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AZ: Two Armed Robbery Suspects Killed by Armed Victims

On Thursday, Oct. 12, at 11:20 p.m., authorities received several calls reporting a shooting at 3055 North Tyndall Avenue.

Officers responded to the apartment complex and located 26-year-old Daniel Alfredo Cortez-Arguelles and 41-year-old Vicente Apodaca.

Both men died at the scene. 

Officers located and contacted the two men who had called 911.

Detectives learned the two men were in the parking lot near their cars when Cortez-Arguelles and Apodaca approached to two men with their faces concealed and attempted to rob them at gunpoint.

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Why do Handguns Appear more Effective in Stopping Bear Attacks than Rifles and Shotguns?

Man with slung rifle v Jimmy Cox with pistol and dead bear

 

A surprising result of the research done to determine if handguns are effective when used in defense against bears is they appear to be more effective than rifles or shotguns. This is a surprise. Rifles and shotguns tend to be more powerful. They are easier to use accurately at a distance.  When expecting a bear encounter, the preferred firearm is almost always a high powered rifle or a shotgun.

Terms become very important in this discussion. Rifles and shotguns are better tools for hunting bears than most defensive handguns.

Hunting is not the same as defending.

Much of the advantage of accuracy at range of rifles and shotguns is eliminated because most defenses against bears occur at very close range. Defensive handguns have been designed with close range defense in mind. They are specifically designed for quick access, and repeated fast shots at close range.

In the study done by Herrero and Smith, Efficacy of Firearms  for Bear Deterrence in Alaska, in 2012, Herrero and Smith found handguns to be marginally more effective than long guns, with long guns at 76% effective and handguns at 84% effective. Herrero and Smith note, because of the small sample, this is not a statistically valid difference. The study includes many instances where a firearm was not fired, for various reasons.

One of the main reasons handguns appear to be more effective is because they are fired more often in defense against bears. Handguns are meant to be carried on the person, usually in a holster. Holsters are ergonomically designed and extensively tested to allow quick access during stress. The same holsters are designed to prevent the firearm from being lost during strenuous activity.

Rifles and shotguns are generally carried in the hands or on a sling. Most hunting slings are not designed for quick access. Many sportsmen carry their rifles and shotguns with an empty chamber. Many agencies require long guns to be carried with an empty chamber. Carrying a long gun on a sling tends to slow the response time by a second and a half to three seconds, if well practiced. Carrying with an empty chamber slows the response time by another three to five seconds, if well practiced. It is not difficult for most people to learn to draw and fire two aimed shots from a holster with a handgun, in under two seconds. If not well practiced, when a firearm is carried with an empty chamber, many try to fire the first shot, only to realize they have an empty chamber. This slows the response many more seconds. This information comes from a retired law enforcement firearms instructor with decades of experience, who did considerable testing. This does not apply to tactical slings, where the delay can be relatively small. Few people carry long guns in tactical slings.

Because rifles and shotguns are more cumbersome than handguns, they are often left some small distance from the person. Rifles are often leaned against a tree, a wall or a tent pole while chores are being done. They may be laid down on the ground, a rock, or on a tent floor. A significant number of times, a person with a handgun will have the handgun on their person while a rifle will be a few feet away. Because a long gun is more commonly left unsupervised, there is more incentive to leave the long gun with an empty chamber.

Once enough power is achieved for bullets to penetrate vitals and break bones, diminishing returns are encountered. The extra power and energy available from a rifle or shotgun may not make much difference. Even relatively low energy bullets hurt a great deal. The entire theory of bear spray is based on the notion of inflicting pain on the bear. If the bear experiences enough pain, it is likely to stop the attack.  Handguns have a larger capacity than most rifles or shotguns, so more shots can, to an extent, make up for lower power individual shots. Several shots from "low power" handguns deliver as much power as a single buckshot load from a shotgun.

Because bear defense usually occurs at very close range, handguns have an advantage. They are easier to hold onto in a deadly fight against a bear where contact occurs. Because of their length, long guns can be more easily knocked away from a person. In confrontations with humans, it is easier to disarm someone who has a long gun than someone who has a handgun, because the length of a long gun gives more leverage.  It is easier to hold onto a handgun with one hand than it is to hold onto a long gun with one hand.

Selection bias of what is considered an attack makes handguns appear to be more effective. 

Handguns, by their nature, tend to be used at very close range. If a long gun is used to deal with a bear at longer range, the bear is likely to be killed without any human injury. Those situations will seldom be classified or reported as a bear attack, or even as an aggressive bear. Bear problems solved at long range with a long gun are seldom recorded as successful defenses. Bear problems solved at short range, where handguns have advantages, are likely to be classified as a aggressive bear defense or a bear attack. In the Herrero and Smith literature, a bear attack is defined as when a bear makes physical contact with a human. Under this definition, all successful defenses against bears, where the bear is killed or driven off before physical contact occurs, are not considered bear attacks.

The two factors, better availability and accessibility to handguns during bear encounters and the selection bias in favor of defenses against bears with handguns are the reasons handguns appear to be more effective than long guns for defense against bears.

If people carried handy, high capacity long guns in tactical slings, with a loaded chamber, ready to deploy in a fraction of a second, as defense against bears, the results might be more effective than the 98% we see with handguns.

©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

LA: Domestic Defense, Ex-Boyfriend Breaks in, is Shot

SHREVEPORT, La. - A man is recovering Wednesday morning after police say he was shot when he broke into into a Highland neighborhood home.

It happened shortly after 1 a.m. in the 200 block of Boulevard Street between Centenary and Gilbert.

Police on the scene told KTBS 3 News that it appears it was a domestic home invasion.

They say an ex-boyfriend who was armed with a knife and a bat briefly got inside. Police say that's when a man in the home shot the intruder in the leg.

More Here

Cheap Gun Opportunity in Dallas on October 21, 2023 $100 per Gun

 

Image from Youtube video from WFAA

The City of Dallas will be holding what they call a "gun buyback" in October. "Buyback" is an Orwellian propaganda term which insinuates all guns belong to the government. An organization cannot "buy back" what it never owned. A more accurate term for these events is a gun turn-in, where people are given an incentive to turn guns in to the police.

Dallas is organizing a gun turn-in to be held on October 21, 2023, at the parking lot of the Samuel Grand Recreation Center. From Dallas Metronews.com: 

Dallas Gun Buyback program set to take place on October 21, 2023 

On Saturday, October 21st, the parking lot of the Samuel Grand Recreation Center, near the Cove—the complex’s aquatic hub—will become a center of civic responsibility from nine a.m. to noon.

The amount of money set aside to reward people for turning in guns is relatively meager: $20,000. Thus, people will be compensated for a maximum of 200 firearms. To qualify, the firearms are supposed to be in working order. KERAnews.org notes there is no limit on the number of firearms which may be turned in, but people will recieve gift cards only as long as they last. The event will be first come, first served. From keranews.org:

The gun buyback event will be held at 9 a.m. on Oct. 21 at Samuel Brand Park. There is no maximum number of firearms a resident can bring, but the event is first come, first serve.

Almost any working gun is worth more than $100 in today's market. With a couple of weeks to prepare, this correspondent would not be surprised to see some homemade slam fire shotguns turned in at the Dallas event. Because Dallas has wisely not organized such a turn in for a number of years, it is likely there are a number of people who have inherited guns, which they are not interested in, and who will see the event as an easy way to dispose of them while obtaining something of value. Sometimes these inherited guns are quite valuable. This correspondent has seen Smith & Wesson revolvers, a Colt Python, AR15 rifles, Winchester Model 97 pump shotguns, and many other valuable items show up at these events. 

The current strategy to keep private purchasers from rescuing the more valuable and collector firearms from being turned into scrap metal is to hold the turn in event in a controlled parking lot. Organizers require the guns to be delivered in a vehicle trunk or area where they cannot be easily accessed by people inside the vehicle. This makes it difficult for private purchasers and potential sellers to make a deal. When a similar event was held in Phoenix, in 2013, it became a "rolling gun show", with private purchaser buying hundreds of guns. Some enterprising private parties stake out locations to allow people bringing guns to the turn in to park and consider alternatives before they enter the parking lot.

The private purchase of firearms has always been a part of the right to keep and bear arms in the United States. Texas has not attempted to infringe on the right of private parties to purchase firearms without government interference. 

In previous gun turn-ins, when there has not been such an event in several years, the event often runs out of 200 reward cards in an hour or less. Because the event is scheduled for three hours on a Saturday morning, people keep showing up with guns they wish to dispose of. Some excellent deals can be made at this point. People don't want to take their firearms home. They don't want to give them up for nothing. 

Ammunition is often turned in at these events, without any compensation. This correspondent picked up 500 rounds of good 12 gauge dove loads at $2 per box of 25 at one such event. 

Those who wish to purchase firearms at such an event should research local laws. It is best to operate with others so video can be made of the event. Sometimes police attempt to intimidate people to keep them from purchasing firearms.

The major thrust of these events is as propaganda, to promote the idea "Guns are bad". Private purchasers send the message: Guns are valuable. We pay cash!. 

Many studies have show these events do not decrease crime or suicides, and may increase crime for a short period.

 

©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch