NM: Girl Shoots Mountain Lion in Self Defense (details)

Photographs supplied by Valerie Caldwell.

Alyssa Caldwell and her father had been hunting all day.   The weather had been nasty; cloudy skies with snow and rain alternating.   They had seen a few elk, much too far away to take a shot.   They left their makeshift blind to see if they could spot another elk before the end of the day.   It was the middle of the afternoon.

At 12, Alyssa was already an experienced huntress.   She had started shooting at 5, and had a new rifle, a stainless Howa 1500, as her elk gun.  They had only gone a few hundred yards when her father remembered that he had left the shooting sticks back at the blind.  He told Alyssa to wait while he went back to retrieve them.  It sounds like the start of a horror movie.   A young blond girl, left alone in the wilderness by circumstance, the weather cloudy and rainy and cold, darkness only a couple of hours away.

Less than a minute later, she saw it.  A cat.  A big cat, stalking her, only a car length away.   The cat crouched, ready to spring.   Alyssa shouldered the rifle and fired point blank.  It was too close to use the scope.  She worked the bolt, ready to fire again.   One shot from the 30-06 had been enough.  The 165 grain Accubond Nosler projectile had skinned the cheek, hitting the lion facing her at the junction of neck and shoulder, traveling the length of its body, killing it instantly.  From Alyssa:

"I saw him first," Alyssa said.  "I didn't hear him or see him until he was really close.  I didn't know exactly what it was but I knew it wasn't a bobcat.  I raised my gun when he crouched down.

Mountain lion attacks have been on the rise in recent decades, as lion populations have grown and hunting has been curtailed.  There is only one documented case of a 12 year-old girl shooting a lion in self defense, and that is Alyssa.  It happened on October 19th of this year, 2014.

The lion appears to have been in classic predatory mode, stalking the smaller prey in the opportune moment that the larger animal had left the young unprotected.  The big cat did not know how deadly an armed human girl could be.

Joshua Caldwell returned to Alyssa at the shot, thinking his daughter had downed an elk.    The mountain lion demanded immediate action, so they returned to their family to report it.  The shooting sticks remained behind.

It took a day for the New Mexico officials to reach the remote hunting spot on San Antonio Mountain.  It is a rugged area north of Albuquerque near the Colorado border.  Once there, the officials investigated and ruled the shooting a case of self defense.   They took the cat and left the family to continue their hunt.

24 hours were enough for Alyssa to recover from her close call with the lion and continue her elk hunt.  Two days later, Alyssa shot a trophy bull elk at 375 yards, using the bipod on her rifle to steady her aim.

The whole Caldwell family, Alyssa, her mother Valerie, her father Joshua, and her younger brother Padon were all on the hunt with her.   It took all of them another 24 hours to pack out the elk to the closest point that could be reached with their jeep.  Valerie shot her own elk a couple of years ago on her anniversary, but Alyssa is the first to take a trophy bull.

A number of young hunters have shot elk, even trophy bulls.   But only one is known to have had to shoot a mountain lion on the way to harvesting their elk.  Alyssa has earned her place in hunting history.

Valerie Caldwell said that she has learned from the incident.  Before this, they would explore the mountain in the summer, unarmed, looking for antlers.   Now she will pack her personal defensive sidearm with her, a Springfield XD compact .45.

Since the elk hunt, Alyssa has used her rifle to harvest a whitetail buck.  I suspect that this will be a rifle that she will keep.  Even older rifles with ordinary steel and wooden stocks have lasted a hundred and fifty years.  Stainless steel and composite stocks will last even longer.

Alyssa's rifle.  The bipod is a Caldwell, no relation.  The scope is a Nikon Monarch.

Alyssa's story should give pause to the disarmists who say that no one should be allowed to own a gun before they are 18.   Foreign enemies of the United States will note that in America, 12-year-old girls have the skills and equipment to kill lions at 5 meters and elk at nearly 400 with equal aplomb.

 Definition of  disarmist 


©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

The Caldwell family is from Odessa, Texas.  The hunt occurred in New Mexico. 

Advise for Mountain Lion Attacks:

 

If the Mountain Lion is more than 100 yards away, avoid rapid movements and loud, excited talk.  Stay in groups and continue to observe the Mountain Lion.  If the Mountain Lion is between 50 and 100 yards away, has ears up, and is following your movement, keep your eye on the animal and again, stay in groups.  Stand on high ground and begin looking for rocks, sticks, or other weapons.  If the animal sits or begins grooming itself, it’s a sign that the animal is not predatory and you should follow and mimic his actions (while keeping the animal in your peripheral vision).  If the Mountain Lion is less than 50 yards away, prepare to defend yourself.

OH:Home Invader Shot in Boardman

An apparent home invasion erupted into gunfire Saturday evening in Boardman.

The incident occurred around 5:15 p.m. at 61 Terrace Drive. The Boardman Police Department said a group of four people showed up at the home, believed to be looking for something.

Officers said one of the suspects, Keemoni Harris, 22, of Campbell, and the homeowner, James Truman Sr., exchanged gunfire, firing about five shots. Truman wasn't hit, but officials said Harris went to the hospital with three non-life threatening gun shot wounds.

more here

IN:Carjacking Suspect Facing Attempted Murder Charge

WHITLEY COUNTY, Ind. (www.incnow.tv) --- A driver is shot during an attempted carjacking.

Shortly after 7 a.m. Sunday morning, officers were called out to the intersection of SR 5 and Old Trail in Whitley County. The shooting victim was holding the shooter, 17 year old Dakota Kimbler at gunpoint.

more here

The victim disarmed the attacker and held him for police

MO:Restaurant Manager Takes Gun Away from Armed Robber

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Police are looking for three men who robbed the Church’s Chicken fast food restaurant at 55th and Prospect Sunday evening.

The men, who police estimate are between 18 and 27 years of age, walked into the restaurant at about 6:20 p.m. They pulled out a black .38 revolver and demanded money.

Instead, the manager went for the gun and took it from the gunman. At that point, the suspects ran away.

In October, the same Church’s restaurant was robbed by a man with a samurai sword.Click here for that story.

Surveillance video show what happened Sunday night:

more and video here

Ohio gas station clerks fatally shoot robber

CINCINNATI (AP) - Authorities in southwest Ohio say two gas station workers pulled guns and fatally shot an armed robber.

The Cincinnati Enquirer (http://cin.ci/Vu93Up ) reports it happened early Monday at a Sunoco station north of the city.

The workers, who haven't been identified, said the robber came in at around 12:30 a.m., pointed a gun at them and demanded money.

more here

OK:Owasso homeowner shoots and kills intruder

OWASSO, Okla. — An investigation is underway after an Owasso homeowner shoots and kills a man that Owasso Police say was breaking into his home.

Owasso Police responded to a shots fired at 4:41 P.M. Sunday. Officers discovered that a homeowner had shot a man who was apparently trying to break into his house.

Investigators discovered that the deceased, 38-year-old Edward Templeton, and the homeowner were acquaintances and had been involved in a verbal and physical altercation prior to the shooting incident.

more here

Gutfeld Rips Costas With Story About Guns Saving Lives

GREG GUTFELD: Now this tale not only shows how guns save lives, but it also kills the stereotype, Bob, that libs love to propagate that gun owners are clumsy yokels who collect guns the way sports broadcasters collect toupees.

Not so, the homeowner handled the situation with compassion, keeping the guy from endangering them and others. Any decent gun owner would say that's how it's done. But this is a logic that escapes people like Bob Costas, who glide among secure skyscrapers, never worrying about trivialities like home invasions. Commentators need no guns when the bodyguard is already packing. If only we all could be on TV with our shiny eyes and thoughtful grins, we wouldn't need guns, just opinions about them.

A Constitutional Right to Loaded, Unlocked Guns in the Home

Americans have the right to keep loaded, unlocked guns in their homes. This constitutionally protected right was reinforced by the Supreme Court in the D.C v. Heller decision, and in turn applied to the states in the McDonald decision.

Here are the quotes from the Heller decision:

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., PETITIONERS v. DICK ANTHONY HELLER

Here is the first half of paragraph 4 of part IV:

“We must also address the District’s requirement (as applied to respondent’s handgun) that firearms in the home be rendered and kept inoperable at all times. This makes it impossible for citizens to use them for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and is hence unconstitutional.”

Here is the summation paragraph:

In sum, we hold that the District’s ban on handgun possession in the home violates the Second Amendment , as does its prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense. Assuming that Heller is not disqualified from the exercise of Second Amendment rights, the District must permit him to register his handgun and must issue him a license to carry it in the home.

This part of the Heller decision has not received the attention that it deserves. It effectively renders the current excuses given for infringing on the Second Amendment as a means of crime control, moot, dead, and buried. The modern fabric of misinformation designed to disarm the American people rests on a foundation that the purpose of the disarmament is to reduce crime. The vast majority of criminals obtain their firearms through theft, primarily by burglary. The guns are then distributed through the criminal distribution network, already robust from the drug war and street gangs.

The theory behind modern gun control is that if you make guns unavailable to most citizens, the criminal source of guns will dry up and you will have less guns used in crime.

Logically this theory fails on many other points, which I will not treat in this essay because of space limitation, but I will mention a few that each deserve articles of their own. These are, weapons substitution, home made guns, underground manufacturers, illegal importation, vast existing stockpiles, and the minimal number of firearms required for crime.

What the ruling in Heller does, is make it impossible to reduce the availability of guns to criminals by reducing the supply from citizens, because it accepts and recognizes the most basic and elemental of all natural rights, the right to life and by corollary, the right to self defense.

We now have a situation where the Supreme Court has ruled that the citizens have a constitutionally protected right to keep the 300 million plus existing firearms in their homes, loaded, unlocked, and ready for use in defense of self and others.

While this will undoubtedly assist in further reducing the crime rate, it also insures that criminals will have illegitimate access to the existing stock of firearms. These guns now are assured of being kept in the home... not in government armories as some anti-rights zealots have suggested. The citizens are assured of the right to keep them loaded, so ammunition will be available, not locked up separately as anti-freedom leaders have insisted. They cannot be required to be locked in mandatory safes as a means of keeping them out of criminal hands, because having them available for self defense is now a clearly recognized and constitutionally protected right.

Therefore, it is futile to attempt to restrict criminals access to firearms by restricting the citizens access to firearms. Citizens access to firearms is guaranteed by the supreme law of the land, and crime rates continue to fall.

I do not expect this elemental logic to convert many anti-freedom zealots. Their visceral hatred of an armed citizenry was never really about disarming criminals in the first place. However, there are many people who have simply accepted the anti-freedom propaganda without much thought. They may find this argument persuasive.