A Soldier Fights Back

Retired Army Sgt. Howard Ray is a hero. Just ask the men and women—both comrades and civilians—whom he saved at Fort Hood back in 2009, when Nidal Hasan went on a shooting rampage, killing 13 people and wounding dozens of others.

“I know for a fact that had I had my firearm that day, I would have been the deciding factor that stopped that terrorist ...”

For his efforts to rescue many that fateful day, Sgt. Ray received a medal of commendation. Yet the recent killing of four Marines and a Navy sailor in Chattanooga, Tenn., by a lone-wolf radical Muslim terrorist has prompted Sgt. Ray, recently retired, to speak out about an injustice that continues to cost lives of our military men and women.

“The victims and the survivors of all of the families that are affected are so tired of, ‘I’m sorry,’” Sgt. Ray told me in an exclusive interview just a few weeks after the Chattanooga attacks. “‘I’m sorry’ does not buy you the lives of a brother, a sister, a mother. It doesn’t bring them back. It doesn’t un-wound those that are wounded. It’s just an empty statement.

“The sign on the door with all the bullet holes in it was the biggest sign of truth I’ve ever seen. No guns; gun-free zones simply don’t work. Never have.”

Watching reports of those attacks took Sgt. Ray back six years to when he found himself unarmed in the face of a heavily armed attacker bent on killing as many people as he could as quickly as possible. It’s not a situation he believes any serviceman or servicewoman should ever be put in again.

“The crazy thing about it is that it seemed just like any other day,” he recalled. “[I was] fixing to head back on to post, realizing, ‘Oops, I’ve got my gun on me.’ I ran inside, and I put my gun on top of my dresser.”

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CO: Armed Employee Stops Robbery

LOVELAND, Colo. (CBS4) – Authorities have released an image of a person accused of attempting to rob the Hazy Hippo shop in Loveland.

The man reportedly threatened an employee with a baton on Tuesday. Investigators say the thief took off when the employee pulled out a gun.

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FL: Video Supports Self Defense Claim, Contrary to Early Reports

A story is developing in Florida.  It appears to be another case where the video shows a completely different story from what the police originally reported. Christian Gunter is the motorcyclist.  Note that he is wearing a full face helmet and what appears to be a complete motorcycle outfit, including jacket and pants.  This picture is a screenshot from surveillance video, just after the shooting.  The red car in the upper right is the car that the person who was shot, Roger Atlas, arrived in.  Roger is wearing a green upper garment in the video.

Link to video

Here is the early report from Sarasota County Sheriff facebook.com:

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office arrested a 22-year-old man following a road rage incident that escalated into a shooting around 6:15 p.m., tonight. Christian Gunter, DOB 12/29/92, 4216 Charing Cross Rd., Sarasota, was driving his motorcycle south on US 41 just south of Bee Ridge Road when he was in a confrontation with 59-year-old Roger Atlas, who was driving a red Ford Taurus. The two pulled over and the verbal argument turned physical, prompting Gunter to pull out a handgun and shoot Atlas in the abdomen. Atlas was taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital with non life-threatening injuries. Gunter was arrested and charged with Aggravated Battery with a Firearm. (Mug shot not available at time of post.)

The person shot, Roger Atlas, gave this story.  From wtsp.com:

According to the arrest affidavit, Atlas said he told Gunter his vehicle was having trouble and possible overheating and to mind his own business. When the light turned green, Atlas started driving and Gunter pulled up behind him.

Atlas said Gunter continued to follow him, even after changing lanes multiple times, and followed him into the Sunoco parking lot where Atlas stopped to reportedly get a beverage. Atlas said he approached Gunter about following him, and during the argument, Gunter pulled out a gun and the two started to struggle. During the struggle, the gun went off and shot Atlas in the lower left abdomen.

The video shows a completely different story.  Gunter's motorcycle is parked at the gas pump, facing to the left, when Atlas arrives.  Gunter's motorcycle is facing the correct direction, according to the arrows on the pavement.  Atlas pulls up, against the traffic flow, facing to the right.  He stops, gets out of the vehicle, confronts and attacks Gunter.  Gunter has his helmet on.   Atlas grabs and pulls Gunter down, knocking down Gunter's motorcycle in the process.   It is very difficult to communicate from inside a full motorcycle helmet with the face shield down.

Gunter manages to extricate himself from Atlas' grasp, and is backing away to the right as Atlas is following him.  As Atlas continues to follow him,  Gunter shoots Atlas.  

Watch the video for yourself.  It does not have great resolution.  Gunter's attorney says that this is a clear case of Florida's "Stand Your Ground" defense. 
From the heraldtribune.com:

"If you look at the video, it clearly shows the alleged victim was the aggressor, and that my client was defending himself, in a public place where he had a right to be, with no duty to retreat, and that he was attacked unprovoked," Young said. "This is a 'Stand Your Ground' case and we look forward to proving it in court."

There are several things about this case worth considering.  Gunter did not tell his side of the story, at least not immediately.  He followed the legal advise to not to talk to the police.  He was arrested, and has spent several nights in jail.  As of last report, he has not been granted bail.   In the early accounts Gunter was made out to be someone who escalated a road rage incident into a shooting.   The video negates much of the early reporting, but it cannot erase it.  Given the video, it is hard to understand the arrest and lack of bond. 

But the police did not have Gunter's side of the story, and likely did not have the video at the time of arrest.  In addition, Gunter made some after the fact errors.  You can see in the video that he goes out and uprights his motorcycle.  He should have left it in place, to show the police what happened.  Gunter exposed himself to a possible attack by Atlas, who entered the red car after being shot.  Gunter should not have assumed that Atlas was no longer a threat. 

It would have been a good idea to get the license plate number of the car from a distance.  It is not clear if Gunter waited at the station for the police to arrive.  Atlas drove away before the police arrived.

Gunter has a concealed carry permit, and is reported to be a member of a  local firearms group.   From a comment at the Herald Tribune article:

Christian just happens to belong to a firearm group on facebook that I belong to as well. The proof is in the pudding. You see him at the pump, you see the man jump out of his car and rush at Christian, you see Christian TRY to retreat as the victim keeps perusing the altercation, and then Christian drew his firearm and did the same exact thing I would have. This is a textbook stand your ground case. Christains lawyer will have a field day in court with this case. He should be a free man as of this moment.

Florida law says that the police are to determine if the "Stand Your Ground" law applies before arrest and charging occur. 

From Gunter's attorney:

"If there's a confrontation and someone gets shot or hurt, the winner goes to jail. It doesn't matter about provocation. They're going to jail," said Bradenton attorney Charles M. Britt III, who says he has handled 50 "stand your ground" cases. "The statute says that before law enforcement can make an arrest, they have to determine that 'stand your ground' doesn't apply. It's right there in the statute, but I've never once seen them do it. They always arrest first and let the system sort it out. Since 2005 when it was written into the statute, I've never seen them do it, not once."

But the Florida courts and prosecutors have negated the legislature's intent.  From the nraila.org:

SB-344 Burden of Proof restores the Stand Your Ground law to the original intent of the Legislature by putting the burden of proof BACK ON THE STATE where it belongs.
   
Through court action, prosecutors and courts have reversed the self-defense law that gives immunity from arrest, detaining in custody, charging and prosecuting until and unless an investigation reveals there is probable cause to believe the act was not lawful self-defense.  They created a special "Stand Your Ground" that forces the victim to prove innocence rather than the state prove guilt.  This bill stops that.

 HB 169, currently in process in Florida, would give a defendant the right to recover legal fees, if a judge rules that the Stand Your Ground immunity applies.  This might apply to Gunter in the future, as the law would be retroactive.

The case is quite similar to the Gabriel Mobley case, where the entire action was captured on video, but the Miami-Dade judge refused to grant Mobley immunity.   Mobley was eventually granted immunity by the appeals court, and the immunity was upheld by the Florida Supreme Court.

Given the video, It seems unlikely a jury will find Gunter guilty of aggravated assault.  Protective motorcycle gear may offer some protection, but it also limits mobility and vision.   But Gunter will rack up considerable legal fees in the process.  That is what the Florida law was meant to stop.

This case may give impetus to SB-344 and HB 169 in this years Florida legislative session.

 ©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.     Link to Gun Watch

PA: Armed Man Stops Carjacking of Women and Children

“She was yelling, ‘My kids are in the car, my kids are in the car,’” said DeLuca, who witnessed what was happening as she was attempting to get herself together.

Sharma said the suspect then dragged the woman to the ground, but that she got back in the car, wrestling for control.

What happened next was both terrifying and heroic.

The vehicle lurched across Route 11, coming to the stop at the base of a gas pump at the Quick and EZ, DeLuca said.

Sharma said Ragukus, who had pulled in to purchase cigarettes, got out of the car, pulled a gun and said, “I have a license to carry this gun, don’t move.”

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MT: 9mm Pistol Effective Against Charging Moose

The man was backing down the trail when his feet caught on some cottonwood branches or roots. As he was falling backwards, he drew his 9mm pistol.

“He told me he didn’t remember discharging the pistol,” Berg said. “He shot a whole bunch of times. One shot hit it in the front of the neck, piercing its jugular and esophagus. The moose started to turn and he was still squeezing off shots. He hit it in the side.”

The moose walked off and died about 100 feet away.

The couple called and reported the encounter.

After he looked at the moose tracks and found the empty brass shell casings, Berg said he determined the man had acted in self-defense.

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CA: Melissa Hayes-Spencer not Charged in Domestic Shooting

San Diego — A 30-year-old U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer who fatally shot her boyfriend has not been charged and was released from jail Wednesday night as the case remains under review.

Melissa Hayes-Spencer told police she shot 30-year-old Rayshaun Cole in self defense as he was hitting her Saturday morning in their Chula Vista apartment.

She was arrested and booked into jail on a charge of murder. Her arraignment, expected to take place Wednesday, did not occur because the case "remains under investigation and review," a spokesman for the District Attorney's Office said.

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CO: Armed Homeowner holds Intruder for Police

Officers were called around 1:30 a.m. on a report of a homeowner holding a man at gunpoint in his garage. The homeowner told officers he’d left the garage door open for approximately 15 minutes, then found a man he didn’t know inside. Wilson was wearing gloves and was carrying a flashlight. When asked by the homeowner what he was doing there, Wilson replied he was “looking for a phone to use,” the affidavit said.
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Followup FL: No Charges in shooting of Andrew Grzych

The Monroe County State Attorney’s Office cited Florida’s Stand Your Ground law in its finding that a Big Pine Key man who shot and killed a home intruder last month was within his legal rights to do so. 

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MI: Domestic Shooting may be Self Defense

BELDING, Mich. (WOOD) — A Belding woman shot and killed the man she lived with Wednesday morning, but authorities say they’re not certain her actions constitute a crime.

Eric Harrington, 35, died at the scene following the 5 a.m. shooting at the home in the 1400 block of Oakwood Street in Belding. Police say the woman who shot him remained on scene and has cooperated in their investigation.
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OH: Toledo Homeowner wins Gunfight with Robber

Terrance Reid, 21, arrived home from his job as a welder at about 4 a.m. when police say he was approached in the front yard by Antonio Hadley, 40, of Toledo, just outside the house, WTVG Channel 13 reports.

According to the Toledo Blade, Reid told police that Hadley had a handgun.

Reid, who has a concealed-carry permit, pulled out a handgun and fired several shots at Hadley, who ran away, police say. Reid then called 911.

"He was a little quicker on the draw and he shot the suspect," Toledo Police Lt. Joe Heffernan tells WTVG.

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TX: Armed Man Stops Car Burglary, Shoots Suspect

An Angleton hotel guest shot and wounded an Angleton man he said was attempting to burglarize his SUV in the hotel parking lot, police say.

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TX: Car Burglary Suspect shot, blood trail found

SAN ANTONIO – Police are investigating after an alleged car burglary suspect was shot at in the parking lot of a South Side gas station Tuesday.

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Florida Open Carry Bill Passes Committee

Florida CS/SB 300 has passed the Senate Criminal Justice committee, 3 to 2.  Florida is one of only five states where the open carry of modern handguns is routinely banned in public places.  Texas passed a licensed open carry bill on 13 June of 2015.  It will go into effect in January.  The gun law reform bill that passed the Senate committee still has quite a ways to go.  It would reform several aspects of the current law that have been shown to have deleterious effects over the last few years.  Here is a summation of the bill.  From flsenate.gov:

Weapons and Firearms; Providing for construction of statutes that implicate the right to bear arms or engage in self-defense; specifying that a law enforcement officer may arrest a person for the unlicensed carrying of a concealed weapon only upon probable cause that such a violation is being committed; providing that a person licensed to carry a concealed firearm or weapon may also openly carry such firearm or weapon as long as such person is in compliance with specified provisions; providing that a person or entity who infringes on specified rights of an individual may be subject to liability under specified provisions, etc.

The Orlando Sentinel noted that all the gun reform bills are moving in the legislature.  Maybe 2015, with an election coming next year, will show significant progress on gun reform legislation.   From orlandosentinel.com:

All of the bills are moving swiftly through the committee process ahead of the Legislature’s regular session, which begins in January.

Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith spoke in favor of the open-carry bill, saying he’d rather know who in a crowd is carrying a gun.

“Some people don’t like guns, I’m OK with that,’’ Smith said. “Get a can of wasp spray if it works for you.”

Democrats were the only legislators who voted against the bill in committee. From the miamiherald.typepad.com:

“It intimidates people and it makes for a less-friendly downtown shopping environment and it’s not the kind of world I want to live in,” said Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth.

"..it’s not the kind of world I want to live in,” seems to be a common talking point among Democrats.   Others have noted that leftists in general, are angry about reality.  When you consider that the open carry bill being considered in Florida is one of the milder types of legal open carry already in effect in 44 states, soon to be 45 with Texas, you have to wonder how disarmists such as Sen. Clemens, manage to travel about the country. 

Perhaps they are simply fearful, angry, and negative most of the time.  This view is supported by the wordk of the well known Australian academic, John Jay Ray.   Ray studied the psychology of political leftists.  From The Root Causes of Political Leftism:

The first remaining thing to say about them is that Leftism is emotional.  The second is to say that the emotion is negative and the third thing to say is that the negative emotion (usually anger/hate/rage) is directed at the world about the Leftist, at the status quo if you like.  The Leftist is nothing if he is not a critic, though usually a very poorly-informed critic.  And the criticisms tend to be both pervasive and deeply felt.

Definition of disarmist

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.     Link to Gun Watch

Update: paragraph added from John Jay Ray research.

Chicago Sun Times States Propaganda Reason for Gun Turn In (buy back) Event

I have repeatedly written that the primary purpose of gun turn in events has been political theater designed to teach the lesson that guns are bad and should be turned in to the police.  A number of academics have done studies that show that gun turn in programs are ineffective in decreasing crime.  Even the "progressive" economics author of "Freakonomics" says that they are counter-productive for actually decreasing crime.   From the "Freakonomics" web site:

When it comes to gun buybacks, both the theory and the data could not be clearer in showing that they don’t work. The only guns that get turned in are ones that people put little value on anyway. There is no impact on crime. On the positive side, the “cash for clunkers” program is more attractive than the gun buyback program because, as long as they are being driven, old cars pollute, whereas old guns just sit there.

This is from 2009.   It is not particularly unusual; academic studies are in agreement that gun "buybacks" do not reduce crime, and that police resources used for them could be better spent elsewhere.

The disarmist author of the opinion piece in the Chicago Sun-Times admits that  gun turn in events, called in Orwellian terms "buy backs" (you cannot buy back something that you never owned), do not reduce crime.  Then he gives the real reason for the event.  Remember that the event is paid for with tax dollars.   From chicago,suntimes.com:

Voluntary gun buyback programs, such as Chicago’s, have been criticized as ineffective. The police tend to recover old, malfunctioning firearms or weapons from people who didn’t want them and were unlikely ever to use them. And the number of guns collected is just a drop in the bucket compared with the numbers of guns out there. A handful of studies have not found a direct correlation between gun buyback programs and reduced rates of gun crimes.

There is, nonetheless, great value in such programs. They are part of a larger effort to reset society’s thinking about guns, to spread the message that we are awash in guns — so many of them illegal — and we must do more to combat gun violence. If buyback programs also directly reduce the number of gun crimes, so much the better.

The bold lettering has been added for emphasis.  The major purpose of gun turn in events is for propaganda.   It does not matter if they actually have an effect on crime.  Brain washing the people is the more important purpose.

It gets better.  The author, who is not named,  libels Second Amendment supporters who dare to use some clever activism to show the event for the sham that it is.

Don’t believe for a second the rhetoric that pro-gun groups, like the rest of us, want to reduce the gun violence that is destroying cities.

With typical disdain for any opinion but their own, the author is not willing to allow that any dissent can be legitimate.    If the author allowed that dissent might be legitimate, he might have to examine his own premises.  That is much to threatening for disarmists, as most of their premises are built on false views of reality.    Gunssavelives will be turning inexpensive and worthless guns for money to educate children in gun safety.

When restrictions on gun ownership and guns sales fail to reduce crime,  disarmists always claim that they did not impose enough restrictions.  In fact, bans on guns do not reduce the murder rate, and never have.  There are numerous studies that show when bans are implemented, the murder rate goes up or the ban has no effect.

We need a ban on using tax dollars to propagandize the electorate.   Using propaganda to "manufacture consent" has been the operating principle of the progressive era for the last century.  It is a subtler form of tyranny.

Freedom of the press was meant to prevent such tyranny, but it faltered when the vast majority of the media came under the dominion of leftist ideologues in the 20th century.  Now, with the repeal of the "fairness doctrine", the rise of the Internet and social media, freedom of the press is returning to the form the founders intended and were familiar with.

It was never believed that the press could be "objective".  It was believed that a wide range of outlets, each with their own agenda and belief structure, would allow adults to form their own opinions about the issues of the day.

We are returning to such a system, and the media cartel hates it with a passion.

 Definition of disarmist

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.     Link to Gun Watch

MI: School Superintendent: We need Guns in Schools

An east Michigan public school official supports the right of licensed gun owners to conceal carry in schools. Current State talks with Clio Community Schools Superintendent Fletcher Spears about guns in schools.

Michigan legislators are debating measures that would enable certain permitted gunowners to carry concealed weapons in gun free zones, including schools. Supporters of Senate bill 442, one of the measures, say shootings in public spaces like schools would be less likely or could be stopped if perpetrators knew responsible gun owners were allowed to have a weapon there.

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Dave Workman: 2nd Circuit Ruling

Yesterday’s ruling by the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding most of the gun control laws passed in New York and Connecticut after the Newtown tragedy may not be getting the rave reviews one might expect because of a couple of key tenets of Circuit Judge Jose A. Cabranes’ decision.

“This much is clear,” Judge Cabranes wrote, “Americans own millions of the firearms that the challenged legislation prohibits.

“The same is true of large‐capacity magazines, as defined by the New York and Connecticut statutes,” he continued on page 24 of the ruling. “Though fewer statistics are available for magazines, those statistics suggest that about 25 million large‐capacity magazines were available in 1995, shortly after the federal assault weapons ban was enacted, and nearly 50 million such magazines—or nearly two large‐capacity magazines for each gun capable of accepting one—were approved for import by 2000.

“Even accepting the most conservative estimates cited by the parties and by amici,” he observed, “the assault weapons and large‐capacity magazines at issue are ‘in common use’ as that term was used in Heller.”

“Common use” is a term used in the 2008 Heller ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that cemented the role of the handgun in self-defense, not to mention its protection under the Second Amendment. It’s an observation from the judge that may seem like a bread crumb right now, but it could have the weight of a wrecking ball somewhere over the legal horizon.

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NY Rifle and Pistol Assoc. Will Appeal 2nd Circuit Ruling

The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association (NYSRPA) wants to appeal a federal court ruling upholding the state's controversial gun law, the SAFE Act. But, there were parts of the law the court found unconstitutional and NYSRPA is claiming it as a small victory.

Back in 2013, state lawmakers signed off on the SAFE Act. The law bars people from having semi-automatic weapons and from putting more than seven bullets in a gun.

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Adam Winkler's Wishful Thinking on the Fall of the NRA

UCLA's Professor Adam Winkler is an avid promoter of more infringements on the Second Amendment.  He would take issue with that phrasing.  He would call it "more commonsense gun safety regulation".  Winkler is one of the better and clearer thinkers on the disarmist side of the debate.  I disagree with most of his premises, but he thinks strategically.


I was surprised to see him take the view that NRA's influence is going to fall because of demographic changes in the country, as well as because of a potentially lowering crime rate.   In an opinion piece to the Washington Post, he made this argument:

Polls show that whites tend to favor gun rights over gun control by a significant margin (57 percent to 40 percent). Yet whites, who comprise 63 percent of the population today, won't be in the majority for long. Racial minorities are soon to be a majority, and they are the nation's strongest supporters of strict gun laws.

An overwhelming majority of African Americans say that gun control is more important than gun rights (72 percent to 24 percent). While the African American population shows signs of slow growth, other racial minority groups are growing more rapidly - and report even greater support for gun control.

The fastest-growing minority group in America is Latinos. Between 2000 and 2010, the nation's Latino population grew by 43 percent. Hispanics, which make up 17 percent of the population today, are expected to grow to 30 percent of the population in the coming decades.

One of the primary tools in the leftist propaganda arsenal is claiming that history is on their side, and that their eventual victory is pre-ordained. It is strong moral support for the religion of the state. I think that is what Adam is engaged in here.  

He is whistling past the graveyard. He is deluding himself, or at least attempting to delude the common, uninformed leftist.   

The trends he mentions were more favorable for second amendment infringements in the previous 22 years, yet support for protecting the right to have and carry guns has increased nearly 50 percent in that period.  From 1993 to 2015, support for the right to keep and bear arms went from 34% to about 50% in the total population.  

Leftists engage in group think. They believe "group characteristics" are immutable. They are not.    Support for protection of the right to bear arms among black Americans, is only 24 percent at the moment.   In 1993, it was 18%.  That is a 33% increase, and it is likely to keep rising.

From 1993 to 2015, the violent crime rate fell to nearly half of what it had been.

My assumptions about what is happening do not rely on identity politics, but rather on the changes in where people obtain their information.  From at least the middle 1960s, the information flow has been controlled by ideological "progressive" elitists that have pushed for ever more infringements on the Second Amendment.   With the repeal of the "Fairness Doctrine" and the rise of the Internet, that oligopoly on information flow has been fractured.   The "high water mark" for increasingly stringent restrictions on gun ownership and sale was 1993.

The left and the media cartel can no longer set the terms of the debate on what is important about the access to defensive weapons in America.  The information revolution reached those most concerned first.  Most gun owners at the time were white males.  That same information about guns is now reaching women and minorities, both of which have fast growing numbers of gun owners.

The desire to disarm the population is strong among government and media elites.   But the desire for self defense is stronger, innate, and hard to program out of people, unless you have full control of the education system, the media, and the culture.

All of those venues are now being contested by limited government advocates.

The future is up for grabs, and the disarmists are not pre-ordained to win.

Definition of disarmist

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.     Link to Gun Watch

IN: Ft. Wayne Resident wins Gunfight with two Invaders

FWPD spokesperson Michael Joyner said it appeared that two men, both armed, forced their way into the upstairs apartment. He said shots were fired by at least one of those men. However, Joyner said no one in the apartment was harmed.

Joyner said the home invader was shot when one of three adults in the apartment returned fire striking one of the two men, who was found by offices suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
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MI: Armed 23 Year Old wins Gunfight with Three Teens

DETROIT - Another robbery victim fights back after he's targeted at a Detroit bus stop. The 23-year-old had officially become a Concealed Pistol License holder a couple of weeks ago and after what happened Sunday night - it was just in time.

Tremain, who doesn't want to be identified because his family fears retaliation, says his brother had just finished work and was waiting for the bus at Schaefer and West Outer Drive on the west side when three teens confronted him.

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