NC: Cheap Gun Opportunity Charlotte Turn In (buy back) Today - noon 21 December

Some handguns turned in for $100 at a Phoenix event in May.  Note the nice Ruger and Colt.

Charlotte, North Carolina, will be having a gun turn in event on Friday and Saturday, 20 and 21 December,  2013.  While these events are commonly labeled with the propaganda term "buyback" the guns were never owned by the people attempting to buy them.  The rewards are rather unusual at this event: $25 to $50 for handguns and $100 for shotguns and assault rifles.  They will not accept more than five guns per person, and you must leave as soon as you have received the gift card.  They want the unloaded gun to be in a plastic bag, and any ammunition to be in a separate plastic bag.

The event will be held at New Life Fellowship Church at 1331 Samuel Street, which is in the old Double Oaks Community.   Their telephone number is (704)-377-7030.   They expect to be open until noon on Saturday.

Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2013/10/28/3800776/georgetown-county-holds-gun-buy.html#storylink=cp.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/08/04/2899569/sumter-police-department-offers.html#storylink=cpy

 Private sales are legal in North Carolina, as they are in most states.  Handgun sales are supposed to require approval by the local Sheriff, but it appears that a permit to purchase is valid for five years.

You might want to read about the Phoenix event to see how things were handled there.

Be prepared for a percentage of people who refuse to talk to anyone but police.  All the private buyers that I saw in Phoenix were very polite and let these ideologically driven people turn in their guns for a fraction of what they would be worth on the open market.

Signs are helpful, as are good grooming, cash, and a friendly attitude.  Dale Carnegie's advise for dealing with people works very well.

Across the country, communities, police departments and churches are sponsoring gun turn-ins to get "guns off the street". At many of these events, private buyers are showing up, offering cash for the more valuable guns. These private additions to the public turn-in are effective, no doubt, in getting more guns off the street, because they add to the resources that are available to those who want to get rid of guns for something of value, be it a grocery card or a number of twenty dollar bills.

You can help make the turn-in in your area more effective by standing on the curb with your "Cash for Guns" sign, or at a folding table, willing to offer more than the gift card for firearms that are more valuable. It would be best if numerous private parties were available, as more good guns could then be transferred into responsible hands.

This action serves many useful purposes. It stretches the turn-in budget so that more guns can be taken off the street. It helps keep fearful widows from being defrauded of most of the market value of the gun they are turning in. It prevents valuable assets from being destroyed by bureaucratic inflexibility. It is a win-win-win situation.

It also dispels the pernicious message that guns are bad and should be destroyed.

Local information about the area, and any feedback about the event would be appreciated.

Link to article with numerous examples of private sales at gun turn in events
 
Link to most recent article about private buyers at Detroit event

Link to Phoenix Article: pictures of private buyers

©2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

Orwellian Gun Quote of the Day: Chicago Police Chief McCarthy

Guns Collected by Phoenix PD in May, 2012

Chicago Police Chief McCarthy was recently involved in a bit of agit-prop produced by NBCChicago.  In the video, he makes the following comment:

"We've recovered more than 6,500 guns so far in 2013, and every year for I don't know how long the Chicago Police Department has recovered more guns than any police department in the country,"

This is pure Orwellian newspeak. Almost none of the guns that he is referencing were actually "recovered". Recovered implies that they were returned to their rightful owners. However, very few of the 6,500 guns were returned to their rightful owners. In many cases, they were taken from their rightful owners. Chicago is still in the process of starting to follow the rule of law and honor the the highest law in the land, the U.S. Constitution and the second amendment. The proper terms that Chief McCarthy could have used were: confiscated, impounded, or simply, seized.

But those terms would have made what is happening all too clear. The police are confiscating guns from people. Sometimes, they are justified in doing so, sometimes, they are not. But they are not recovering the guns. To say so is to imply that everything belongs to the state, and that individuals are simply allowed to "borrow" things for a while, until the government "recovers" them.

It is classic Orwellian newspeak.

©2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.   Link to Gun Watch

CA:Father Shoots Son

SOUTH WHITTIER - Authorities said a man shot his 26-year-old son in the torso in self-defense after his offspring allegedly lunged at him with a knife Wednesday night.

The father was trying to stop a fight between his son and the son’s girlfriend.

Sheriff’s Lt. Cynthia McDaniel said the son, Stephen Turner Jr, was in stable condition Tuesday at a hospital.

More Here

WI:Is placing a gun in a coat pocket "Negligent Operation"?

There is an interesting case in Wisconsin where a Concealed Carry Weapon license (CCW) holder has been charged with "negligent operation or handling of a dangerous weapon".  From jsonlin:

According to the criminal complaint, Marvin W. Jackson, 34, was shopping in the Burlington Coat Factory at 3700 Durand Ave. After he took of his jacket and laid it on a rack while he tried on another, his female companion picked up Jackson's jacket and laid it over her arm because he had forgotten it on a rack earlier.

But as she did, Jacson's silver .38 caliber two-shot derringer fell out, hit the ground and fired a shot that pierced three sweatshirts before lodging in the metal display rack. The couple quickly left the store.

There are some important points to note.  First, Marvin Jackson has a valid CCW license.    From jsonline:

Jackson is a valid concealed carry permit holder. The Racine woman was questioned and released by Racine police.

Second, Jackson was not handling or operating the derringer when the negligent discharge occurred.   His companion picked up the coat that had the pistol in the pocket, shifted its position, the pistol fell out and discharged upon hitting the floor.   There was some minor property damage, but no one was injured.   To claim that Jackson was negligently handling or operating the derringer, you have to make the logical leap that the act of negligent handling or operation was placing the derringer in the coat pocket, or perhaps, allowing anyone else to pick up the coat.  Here is the actual Wisconsin statute:

941.20  Endangering safety by use of dangerous weapon.
(1) Whoever does any of the following is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor:
(a) Endangers another's safety by the negligent operation or handling of a dangerous weapon;

There is an obvious cautionary lesson here, but I think it has more to do with the choice of a pistol rather than placing one in a pocket. The derringer that will fire when dropped is an obsolete design. We have many better ones available today. On the other hand, not everyone can afford to buy the most modern weapons. Firearms Instructor on opencarry.org makes some cogent observations on the wording of the law:

a) Endangers another's safety by the negligent operation or handling of a dangerous weapon

One could argue that here was no handling or operation of the weapon.

He didn't handle it nor did he operate it.

I think it is a stretch to say by taking off his coat he was operating or handling it.

Clearly, there is a case for civil damages. Three hoodies were holed. I think that Jackson, or his companion, or both should pay for the hoodies and for any necessary repair to the display rack. Perhaps some civil fine would be in order. When a Milwaukee police Sargent had an accidental discharge, in which his hand was on the pistol (almost certainly on the trigger), he only had to pay a $1,000 fine, even though there was a minor injury associated with that negligent discharge. From jsonline, a year ago:

Edwards was in line at Auntie Anne's pretzel shop on Nov. 2 when he reached into his back pocket for his wallet. As he did, his duty issue .40-caliber Smith & Wesson slid out of his waistband and down his pants. As he reached for the weapon, it went off, blowing a hole through his pants. The gun was not in a holster and did not have a safety, the complaint says.

A woman standing nearby heard a loud bang and felt a stinging sensation on her leg, where she suffered a welt, the complaint says.

 So, if someone else picks up your firearm and drops it, you are to be charged with negligently handling and operation of a firearm?

There is almost no case here.  The logical contortions that the prosecution has to go through, to prove "negligent handling" are two and three times removed. It pushes the definition of "handling" to extremes that essentially changes the meaning of "handling and operation" to storage.   It is not a far step from this to charge gun owners with negligence if their gun is stolen and used in a crime.    Jackson's attorney  makes the obvious case:

Jackson's lawyer argued his client is not to blame.

"It was not Mr. Jackson that was handling the weapon. It was actually Miss *** that was handling the weapon," attorney Helmi Hamad said.

I would argue that Miss *** was handling the coat, and not the pistol.  It will be interesting to see if the prosecutor extends the same deal to a black man with an inexpensive gun as it did to a police officer with a service pistol, who was more clearly at fault.  

Now, as for leaving the scene, did Marvin Jackson and his companion act responsibly?    Maybe, maybe not.  Firearms Instructor at opencarry makes a plausible case:

 As the police might over react to this a man with a gun call shot being fired and you might end up on the wrong end of police pointing guns at you. Who could be trigger happy, one could very well get killed for a unintentional discharge. It could very well be smart to leave.

One would not want to be gun down like the Costco shopper.

Jackson and his companion turned themselves in when it became clear that there was a police investigation.

 I suspect that Marvin Jackson will end up paying a fine.   The judge required Jackson to "not possess any firearms" as a condition of bail.  That suggests that the judge has some negative bias against the ownership of firearms.  Of course, the trial judge may not be the same judge that set bail.   To bad Marvin Jackson did not spend some of the money that he will have to use for his defense to obtain a more modern firearm to start with.   When I read of cases such as this, I think:  "There but for the grace of God, go I."   No one is perfect.  Stuff happens.  The fact that such incidents are exceedingly rare is a tribute to the responsibility of the vast majority of gun owners.

©2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

NH:Man Pulls Gun On Would-Be Carjacker

NASHUA, N.H. (CBS) —- Paul Jensen was sitting in the driver’s seat of his Ford Taurus in a hospital parking lot in Nashua when police say James Paul suddenly opened up the passenger door.

“As he started to get in, I didn’t have time to think about it, I just reacted, by the time he got in my car, I had my weapon out and pointed at his head,” said Jensen from his home in Nashua today.

More Here

FL:Defensive Display and (warning shot) Bill Supported by Public Defenders, Opposed by Prosecutor

Arizona passed a defensive display law in 2009.  Now Florida is considering a very similar law, "Threat of Force to Stop Attackers", HB89.   The bill applies the same protections to the threat of deadly force as the current law provides for the use of deadly force.  The Arizona law was prompted by a case in which  the victim was going into the court house for the trial (he was accused of aggravated assault) when the prosecutor let the defense know that they had a third 911 call that showed that the victim was telling the truth.  Both the victim and the aggressors had called 911.  Then the case was dropped, but the aggressors were never prosecuted.

Bill Cervone, the Florida State Attorney (prosecutor) quoted below, is being disingenuous to a surprising degree.  It is not juries who decide the vast majority of cases.  It is prosecutors like him.   They have enormous power to pick and chose which cases are prosecuted, and to offer and promote the plea bargains that they make, with the ability to threaten to prosecute or not prosecute other people (often related), take away children, and confiscate property.   The threats may not always be credible to a trained attorney, but often, there is no attorney involved.  That is the way the system currently works.  A law that protects innocent defendants takes away some of that power, and the State Attorney seems to find that a threat.   To claim that  "juries are the place we test anyones particular stake or claim in a case"  is a fabrication for the vast majority of cases.  From wcjb.com:

GAINESVILLE - A warning shots bill is gaining traction, backed by the NRA and now the Florida Public Defender Association.

The bill would make it legal to fire a warning shot or show someone you have a gun if you feel threatened.

(snip)

State Attorney Bill Cervone, 8th Judicial Circuit: "it's my opinion that juries are the place we test anyones particular stake or claim in a case."

 This case shows how the justice system works in practice.   Someone is arrested and charged with a crime.  The prosecutor decides how the case should be disposed, taking into consideration the political aspects of the case.  The prosecutor makes the deal so appealing, considering the enormous risk and cost of defending oneself in a jury trial, that the vast majority take the plea deal rather than take the risk of a jury trial on a charge with potential felony convictions and years in prison.    That is the power that the prosecutors do not want to give up by allowing a defensive display law in Florida.

It would be different if the current law mandated a maximum $1,000 fine or 30 days in jail.   That would be bad enough, potentially leading to loss of job and enormous stress for an act in which no one was actually harmed.   But that is not the case.   In Florida the risk is much, much greater, a felony conviction and a *mandatory* 10 or 20 years in jail.   The threat of those sorts of punishments are what gives the prosecutors their enormous power.   There is no accountability for prosecutors, except for the almost never exercised possibility of losing the next election.  Prosecutors have as near complete immunity for their actions as the law allows. 

The only controversial part of the proposed bill is that which allows for "warning shots".    The House Judiciary Chairman explains the reason for the "warning shot" inclusion in an article from the sunshinestatenews.

"I'm very hesitant to change anything in 10-20-Life," Baxley said. "Except that I've run into this more than once, where constituents have gotten into this narrow space where they were trying truly to avoid a conflict by a warning shot, and instead wound up charged and having to plead to a felony of lesser degree to avoid a prison sentence because they just were afraid to face a jury."

The current dogma among self defense instructors is that warning shots are a bad idea.   I have taught that policy myself for over 15 years.   I have also read and heard of numerous instances of where "warning shots" seem to have worked, and a few where they have gone spectacularly bad.  I still think they are generally a bad idea, but every policy has exceptions, including the blanket ban on "warning shots".   I do not believe that a person who was involved in a defensive situation, who fired a shot where no one was harmed, deserves to be threatened with a mandatory 10 years in jail to provide incentive for them to plead guilty to a lower charge.

We ran into the same situation of prosecutors defending their turf in Arizona in 2009.  Their concerns have been shown to be completely unwarranted.  Here is Marion Hammer explaining the necessity for the Florida "Threat of Force to Stop Attackers" bill:

10-20-Life was never intended to be used against citizens who, in an act of self-defense, threatened the use of force to stop an attacker.

It was never intended to be used on citizens who, in fear for their own safety, threaten to use force to stop an attack.

Yet that’s how some prosecutors are using it. Depending on the seriousness of the threat, they’ll try to put you in prison for 10 years or 20 years for threatening to use deadly force to protect your own life or the lives of your loved ones.

So the message from those prosecutors seems to be, if you actually use force in self defense — the law protects you But threaten to use force in self-defense, and they’re going to put you in prison for 10-20 years.

That is the cold hard reality of how some prosecutors are treating law-abiding people who never would have been in the system if they had not been attacked and in fear for their own safety. 

There are people sitting in prison today who should not be there – but they are because prosecutors abused their discretion and violated the intent of 10-20-Life. This bill will stop that. Please support it. 

There you have it.  The purpose of the bill is to reign in abusive prosecutors.  It is not hard to understand that prosecutors want to hang onto their nearly unlimited power.


©2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

OH:Update on Cleveland Shooting by Pistolwhipped Homeowner

Officials say Robert L. Brown, 20, died near the Rudyard Road home where he and another man beat and pistol-whipped resident Everton Mosby, 24.

Mosby shot Brown and cohort Willie R. Riley, 27, about 2:30 a.m. The suspects approached Mosby in his driveway and forced him inside the home, police said.

More Here

CA:Constitutional Challenge to Handgun Roster goes Forward

Yesterday, oral arguments were held for our Second Amendment challenge to California handgun “roster” laws (that limit access to Constitutionally-protected handguns by law-abiding people) before United States District Court Judge Kimberly J. Mueller on cross motions for summary judgment. The lawsuit, Ivan Peña et. al v. Stephen Lindley (Wilfredo Cid was previously named as defendant), was filed by The Calguns Foundation, Second Amendment Foundation, and a number of individual plaintiffs in April 2009, during the period that Nordyke v. King incorporated the Second Amendment through the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

(snip)

The Court moved on to ask both sides to assume that intermediate scrutiny applied and explore the constitutional violation. Counsel for Peña reminded the Court that the test need not be scrutiny-based since it was not in D.C. v. Heller. The Court continued to explore scrutiny with both sides and was particularly interested in California’s microstamping requirement – she wanted to know if the violation was only temporary. Of course, even a temporary violation of a fundamental right remains nothing less than a violation of the Constitution. In testing California’s theory, California argued that even under intermediate scrutiny, the State could give everyone a handgun and mandate it is the only gun you could use for self-defense in the home….and that would be enough. The Court seemed troubled by the logical extension of California’s argument that only one handgun was enough to allow the full and unencumbered exercise of Second Amendment rights. Peña counsel made it clear that the Constitutional analysis the State wanted to implement would logically allow them to restrict all handguns by caliber to only .22lr, or even to ban all handguns and only allow Tasers — an argument the District of Columbia made and lost on in Heller.

(snip)

 We expect we’ll see an opinion on the cross motions in the next 90 to 180 days.

More Here

MN:Armed Construction Worker Stops Man With Crowbar

The permit-to-carry holder mentioned that the responding police officer had positive things to say about armed citizens  “love the CCW guys.”  This is a trend that I have noticed among many officers on the street.  Once they become a little familiar with armed citizens, they are very supportive.

Faced with the crowbar wielding intruder who then took a step toward Paulson, a large man himself at over 6 feet tall and 240 pounds, he said he could only imagine what the intentions may be of the intruder whose height “towered over” him, and whom Paulson described as having dilated pupils and acting “like he didn’t know what he was doing.”

Instinctively, Paulson – who has a permit-to-carry a firearm and describes himself as a “lifestyle” carrier who has a gun on him “every moment” that he’s awake – reached for and drew his concealed firearm and pointed it at the crowbar wielding intruder.

According to Paulson, the suspect then turned and fled dropping the crowbar on the way out of the house. Paulson watched the suspect flee to a parked passenger car about a half a block away where he got into the driver’s side of the vehicle, but Paulson said couldn’t tell if he got into the driver’s seat or the back seat of the vehicle as it sped away.

More Here

How it goes

MN:Permit Holder Stops two Violent Crimes

 A northeast Minneapolis man interrupted an armed and bloody robbery at a corner market in his neighborhood, saying he sent the two suspects fleeing when he drew his handgun from his holster and had it “at the ready.”

(snip)

 Store owner Mohamed S. Ahmed, 41, had the “back of his skull split open pretty good” from being pistol-whipped by one of the suspects, said Matt Dosser, who came upon the unfolding crime scene and cared for Ahmed until police arrived.

 (snip)

Dosser said he “came close” one other time to using his sidearm since the law was born. About eight years ago, while getting lunch for his tree-removal crew in north Minneapolis, he saw two men stomping on another man.

“ ‘I’ll shoot you if you don’t stop kicking that guy!’ ” he recalled yelling. The kicking stopped, he said.

More Here

Dave Workman:Troubling, deceptive dialogue on ‘gun violence’

Dave notes that assisted suicide is legal in the state of Washington.  Apparantly it is acceptable to commit suicide, as long as you let the State decide if it is appropriate or not.

Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large is out today with an assessment of last Thursday’s Town Hall Seattle gathering in which “a judge and several doctors/researchers affiliated with Seattle Children’s, the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center talked about protecting children from gun violence of all kinds,” but noticeably absent were any firearms experts.

Such discussion panel omissions are troubling to Second Amendment activists who might be willing to chat about violent crime, firearm safety and education, but have justifiable concerns that they will filibustered and/or demonized. The Town Hall Seattle event occurred almost simultaneously with a vigil for victims of "gun violence" at Washington National Cathedral on December 12, 2013 in Washington, DC.

Large, quoting pediatrician Dr. Fred Rivara, reported that since the Sandy Hook attack, “30,000 people have died of gun violence in the United States, 2,700 of them children.”

This quickly brought criticism from gun rights activists, who are responding to that assertion, that more of those deaths are suicides than homicides – as one might be led to believe when presented with a lump sum figure – and also that many of these “children” may be young gang thugs engaged in activities that carry a high risk of getting shot.

More here at Seattle Gun Rights Examiner

Texas Turn In Shows Effective Private Purchasers (buyback)

A recent gun turn in event at a church in Dallas shows how effective private purchasers can be in neutralizing the "guns are bad"  meme.   From the story:

“Now there’s 15 less chances there’s a tragedy, and we’re glad for that,” said the Rev. Bruce Buchanan, an associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Dallas, which has The Stewpot ministry.

This is the usual theme of gun turn in programs.  Guns are bad and should be destroyed.   However, as is happening all over the country, in the vast majority of states where private sales are not infringed on by law, there were private purchasers who brought the opposite message to the attention of readers.

As the church worked to buy guns so they could be destroyed, members of the Come and Take It Texas gun-rights group tried to buy firearms at the same site — so they could be put back into circulation.

The group said it bought four or five guns in its effort to supply firearms to the Safe Mother program, geared toward training women in need to use handguns for self-defense.

Not only are private purchasers attending these events, but they are getting organized.   Come and Take It has held a number of high profile events in Texas.

I find the reference to arming poor mothers for self defense to be particularly effective.   While not a direct reference to the Armed Citizens Project, it seems to share the same goal: arm citizens, reduce crime.

Those who wish to disarm the citizenry realize that this sort of event is a net loser for them.   From a seattlepi.com article, this email came to light in a freedom of information act request.  SAF recently received $38,000 because of the cities withholding of the information.

“I wish you guys would … have talked to us/CeaseFire about this before moving forward,” Fascitelli said in an email to King County Executive Dow Constantine and a Mayor’s Office staffer. “The overwhelming research shows that buybacks generally don’t work well and are a waste of resources and are mocked by the NRA.

This does not stop the anti-freedom activists from holding turn in events in states where private sales are infringed on, such as the one in California that netted an an STG-44.   It is another reason to oppose the road to registration that anti-freedom activists describe as "universal background checks".


©2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/12/17/5426356/north-texas-gun-buyback-netted.html?storylink=addthis#.UrE2ununpU0.email#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/12/17/5426356/north-texas-gun-buyback-netted.html?storylink=addthis#.UrE2ununpU0.email#storylink=cpy

OH:Pistol-whipped Homeowner Kills one, Wounds one

Another armed homeowner reduces the future crime rate.

During the confrontation, the homeowner was able to obtain his personal weapon and fired at both suspects, hitting both.

EMS pronounced one of the suspect dead at the scene. Police arrested a second suspect a short distance away with a gunshot wound to the knee.

GA:Homeowner Receives Alarm Call, Returns, Shoots one of Three Intruders

The armed homeowner, notified by the alarm, proved effective.

The homeowner, who has not been identified, received a call while on the way home that the alarm at his residence had been activated. When he got to the house, he walked around the back of the residence and saw three people standing inside, DeKalb police Capt. Stephen Fore said.

“He called 911 from a cell phone as he observed people inside the home,” Fore said. “As he was on the phone with 911, the three suspects exited the rear of his home and ran toward him.”

That is when the homeowner pulled out his gun and shot one of the suspects, police said. The remaining two suspects fled on foot.


More Here

Seattle Witheld Documents, Pays $38,000 to SAF

 Gun Watch posted about the Seattle turn in.

The city of Seattle will pay $38,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the Second Amendment Foundation over failure to release public records relating to Mayor Mike McGinn’s January gun buyback.
 
The settlement was signed today by Carl Marquardt, legal counsel to mayor Mike McGinn, and includes an apology for the mayor’s office’s failure to release records about the controversial buyback program that netted about 700 guns but also provoked criticism from public health and gun-rights advocates that it wouldn’t reduce gun violence.

 More Here

MILLER: Federal court refuses Alan Gura’s request for a decision on D.C. gun carry rights ban

It has been over four years since the case was filed.  I wrote about it here.

Americans who live in the nation’s capital are the only ones who are not allowed to carry a gun outside the home under any circumstances, and the justice system refuses to help.

On Monday, a U.S. Court of Appeals issued an order denying a request to force a lower court to rule on Palmer v. District of Columbia, which challenges the city’s outright ban on bearing arms

Alan Gura is the attorney for Washington resident Tom Palmer and the other plaintiffs in the case. He filed a writ of mandamus to the appeals court in October to ask that it force the U.S. District Court to issue an opinion.
The circuit judges wrote that the delay was not “so egregious or unreasonable as to warrant the extraordinary remedy of mandamus at this time.”

They added that, “We are confident that the district court will act on the motions as promptly as its docket permits.”

More Here

I am Pulling for George Zimmerman

I have been observing and writing about the George Zimmerman digital lynching from very early on.   As I monitor and write about self defense stories, I caught an early version of the events in  Sanford, Florida.  The story said that a black teenager had been shot in self defense.  A picture was included.   Reading the story, I concluded that the picture was that of the black teenager that had been shot.  I was wrong.   The picture was of George Zimmerman.

It was an easy mistake to make.   As with a large and increasing number of Americans, George has a mixed race background.  One of his great grandfathers was black, and he has a somewhat dark complexion.   The early story said that George had a concealed carry permit.    That placed the statistics on his side.  People who go to the trouble of obtaining concealed carry weapon (CCW) permits, are extremely law abiding.   They are many times more law abiding than the average population, and commit murder much less often than police officers.  

I was surprised at the institutional  corruption that the old media displayed to demonize George, falsely accuse him of racism, and even to digitally modify images and audio files to convict him in the public mind. 

I was not surprised that a jury came up with a not guilty verdict.   The facts of the case were never in doubt.   That is why the police did not arrest George the night of the shooting or afterward until political pressure was brought to bear.  If you want to read the best synopsis of the case that I have found, I highly recommend this series of articles by Massad Ayoob. 

It appears that white on black crime is so rare, that if you cannot find the examples you need for political purposes, you have to create it where it does not exist.  Those who thrive on stoking the fires of racial animosity have invested heavily in the demonization of George Zimmerman.  He has become a marked man.  I think that George has done remarkable well considering the nasty surprises that an uncaring  reality has flung at him.

Try to put yourself in George Zimmerman's shoes.   Here you have an ordinary  young man...  Well, perhaps somewhat extraordinary in his concern for other people and his attempts to make his neighborhood into a better place.., but no more than in the top two percent of the population in those traits.

He is going about his business, attempting to reduce the nasty crime problem in his neighborhood, when he is attacked by a young black man who presents a serious threat to his life.  Holding off longer than most would under the circumstances, he finally fires a single shot to protect his life.   His attacker dies as a result.   This is very bad, but the alternative was much worse.  His life has changed forever, but he does not yet understand to what extent this is true.

The usual post shooting trauma, from the nightmares, the self doubt, the things that decent people go through when they are forced to take a life in self defense, all happen.  But that is only the beginning.

George cooperates with the police.  The police investigate, as they should, and find that there is no crime to be charged.   The criminal perpetrator, Trayvon Martin, who attacked George, is already dead, so it serves no purpose to charge him with a crime.

Then the political operatives smell an opportunity.  If shopped just right to the old media, this could become a white man killing a black kid.  It is just what the old media needs to gin up black enthusiasm for a failing black president.

So, George is demonized, he receives numerous death threats, the whole force of the establishment comes down on him, the sacrificial goat to maintain the illusion of rampant white racism in America.

Only... George does not cooperate.  He fights back.  He maintains his innocence.  He finds ways to get his story out, in spite of the severe disadvantages placed upon him by the old media and the political establishment.   Not only does he not crumble under the digital lynching that is done to him, he prevails.

But those who push racial animosity do not give up.  His life will never be the same.   Under the intense pressure of the personal attacks, death threats, and media scrutiny, his marriage crumbles.   It happens.   It has happened to a great many.   As part of that process, his wife plays the "domestic violence" card that has become ubiquitous in divorce proceedings.   But George is not a quitter.   He does not accept the false charges.   His wife recants.  The charges are dropped.  George prevails.

George finds solace in the arms of a physically attractive woman.   She tries to shop her attachment to the old media, who are not willing to pay enough.  George discovers that physical attractiveness does not guarantee a golden character.   George makes a wise decision to break off the relationship.   The woman  tries to play the "domestic violence" card again.  George has learned, and is wiser.  He calls the police himself.   Later, the girlfriend recants in a notarized statement to George's lawyer.   The charges are dropped and George gets his guns back.   George prevails again.

He may well need his guns.   Due to the old media assault, a third of the country think that George is a crazed killer.  The New Black Panthers who posted a reward for George, dead or alive, have never been prosecuted.  Maybe that has something to do with a Department of Justice, run by Eric Holder,

George is just an ordinary guy.   An ordinary guy who is being put through a blast furnace of false accusations, politically motivated charges, and an establishment that wants him in jail, or dead.

I would be proud to have George Zimmerman as my neighbor.   He has shown that he is the kind of man that will not stand by and let injustice happen.  He has shown that he is someone who can keep his head under extraordinary pressure.  In a society where the media had any integrity, he would be lauded as a pillar of the community.

George, keep your head down and your guns at hand.   You are the underdog, the "little guy", but you have prevailed.   I am pulling for you.   Millions are pulling for you.  May the evil (yes, false accusations and manipulating evidence to create hate is *evil*) media organizations have to pay for your future security and welfare.   Stay alive George, stay alive.   Do not give the purveyors of hate the satisfaction of your destruction.  Your survival is a victory for us all.


©2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

WeaponsMan:New attack on Prototyping Technology falls short

We now know what last month’s ATF videos of exploding Liberators were all about.

In a coordinated strike on Americans’ freedom to use 3D printers and coming additive-manufacturing technologies, several governmental branches and Democrat Party organs began a full-court press for new restrictions on synthetic materials and 3D printers:

In the Cabinet: Eric Holder, whose policy of arming the Sinaloa Cartel through the ATF has killed several American and hundreds of Mexican law officers, outlined a new attack on Americans’ rights to build, develop, and modify their own firearms.

In Congress: anti-gun Representative Steve Israel (D-NY) and anti-gun Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) have worked with ATF lobbyists to expand the “undetectable firearm” ban, to include an explicit ban on private anufacture, to include a ban on plastic parts, and to increase ATF authority to regulate 3D printing. The House has passed a bill allegedly without any of Israel’s and Schumer’s additions; they intend to add them in conference committee.

UPDATE: The Senate passed the extension without the Schumer/Israel language.

In the Executive: ATF officials including Director B. Todd Jones, Assistant Director Richard Marianos, and Firearms Technology Branch head Earl Griffith spoke to the press and lobbied Congress for an “emergency” extension of anti-gun legislation. ATF produced an information page online to support these lobbying efforts.  Reading between the lines of that information page:

• ATF is actively looking at 3D printing;
• ATF identifies its inability, under extant statutes, to regulate manufacturing technology as a deficiency;
• ATF is enthusiastic about enforcing 18 USC §922( p).
• ATF considers itself institutionally aligned with one American political party.

More Here at WeaponsMan

NY Post:Gun advocates blast Bloomberg’s ‘arrogance of power’

WASHINGTON – A gun-rights leader Sunday blasted Mayor Bloomberg for planning to spend $25 million in next year’s elections to boost gun control, saying Americans reject his “arrogance of power.”

“I’m not sure the amount of money that billionaire Bloomberg has is going to be effective,” Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

He predicted a repeat of this year’s recall election in Colorado, where Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns spent $350,000 backing two gun-control lawmakers who still got booted from office.

“He outspent the candidates that won in Colorado enormously and he lost,” said Pratt. “So I think the message is, ‘We don’t like the arrogance of power. We don’t like the message that we ought to be disarmed as a way of fighting crime.”
“Mayor Bloomberg’s message is wrong and he’s going to continue to lose,” said Pratt.


More Here