Now let’s look why bad ideas get so much political traction from elected officials. Politician say they want to do the right thing. Unfortunately, what is right for them isn’t necessarily right for us. Politicians frequently say one thing in front of a camera and then do another. Politicians vote for their best interest rather than for ours. Look at the issue of murders in school. Experts told us what to do to protect our children, yet progress is painfully slow. We want our children protected while the politician needs to get credit and kickbacks for the solution. That leaves ours children at risk. We see that time after time.
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
NV: Legally Armed Man Shoots at Car Thief who Pointed Gun at Him
Upon returning to his car, he found another man sitting in the driver’s seat, Gordon said, and the man behind the wheel pulled out a gun. The car owner, whom Gordon said was a licensed concealed carrier, then pulled out his own gun and shot at the man behind the wheel.
The car owner ran away, fell and got a cut to his head, Gordon said. The man behind the wheel took off in the car south on Nellis Boulevard.
More Here
Monday, April 23, 2018
Citizens Push for Right to Self Defense in Ukraine
Ukraine is considering rights of self defense and the legal rights to own weapons.
Since the break up of the United Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR, the former client states of the USSR have been struggling with numerous issues of law, including private property rights and self defense.
Ukraine has little traditional law concerning the ownership of firearms. The law, as such, consists of instructions issued in 1998 by the Interior Ministry. In practice, the Interior Minister can give firearms to whom he wishes. Exactly who is eligible, and who is not, tends to be a matter of personal opinion. From kyivpost.com
That confrontation would be unremarkable were it not for the story of how Pashinsky received the pistol: as an official gift from Interior Minister Arsen Avakov — part of a tradition in which the minister and president award firearms to politicians, military officers, and even influential business people.The system reminds me of "dollar a year" sheriff deputies in many states before federal money and federally mandated standards ended the practice. If the sheriff liked you, or was properly persuaded... you were deputized and could legally carry a gun concealed. Another similarity is with "may issue" states in the United States. Those states grant the power to issue permits to a person in authority, such as in California. In California the issuing authority decides who gets a permit to carry a firearm, and who does not. Many people in California have ties to the issuing authority.
Georgy Uchaikin bristles at the mere existence of this practice. As director of the Ukrainian Association of Gun Owners or UAGO, he advocates for Ukrainians’ legal right to bear arms. To him, “awarded guns” demonstrate the discriminatory nature of his country’s gun policies.
By law, these awards are intended only for military men and women. But interpretation is loose. As a result, Uchaikin estimates Ukrainian authorities have handed out 50,000 weapons to members of the elite since independence in 1991 in a state that is otherwise hostile to gun ownership.
In Ukraine, in a fuzzy way, this applies to the entire nation. I know two poeple who have traveled in Ukraine, one of them extensively. One married a Ukrainian girl, the other's son married a Ukrainian girl. Neither knows the other.
Both said that the presence of organized crime is pervasive and obvious.
Black market guns are easily available. If you need to use a black market gun, the legal consequences can be severe.
The war in Ukraine has increased the desire for personal weapons. Many veterans coming back from the front bring their personal weapons with them. They would rather have a gun and not need it, than need it and not have it, regardless of the legal consequences.
In Ukraine, the Ukrainian Association of Gun Owners (UAGO) is pushing for more gun laws. They want clear laws for the right to own guns and to have them for self defense. The president of UAGO says that in Ukraine, there exists a class of people who are above the law.
In most countries, elites can obtain guns or armed guards if they want them.
It is the common people who are commonly disarmed by the law.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
MO: Armed Man shoots at Aggressive Pit Bulls
Corcoran, 47, said he fired a few shots from his handgun and believes he hit the red dog.
The two dogs took off running in opposite directions in the 300 block of East McGee Street, Corcoran said.
The red dog started coming back to Corcoran, he said, so he fired another round at the dog, which then fled the area.
This was the second time that day the dogs had threatened Corcoran, he said.
More Here
CO: Mother Shoots Estranged Son who Attacked Her
Elbert County deputies took a 23-year-old man into custody Thursday after he allegedly broke into his mother’s home and assaulted her, prompting the woman to shoot her son.
More Here
TX: Domestic Defense, Mother Shoots Son who is Choking Sister
The sister ran upstairs and locked herself in her bedroom to get away from Brown because he has physically assaulted her before, the report states. Brown followed her upstairs, kicked open the door and started punching her. Brown’s mother grabbed her handgun and ran upstairs to find him choking his sister, the report states.
Police said the mother then shot him in the chest.
More Here
Sunday, April 22, 2018
Legally Armed People Have a Murder Rate similar to Japan
Michigan Concealed Pistol License holders have an extremely low Murder rate.
Japan has a very low murder rate. Japan is also a very law abiding culture.
The United States, as a whole, has a much higher murder rate than Japan. Within the United States there is a law abiding culture that has a murder rate as low as Japan's. That culture consists of gun owners who carry guns legally.
In Michigan, the State Police are tasked with compiling crimes committed by people who have the Michigan Concealed Pistol License (CPL). The State Police Reports are available from 2003 to early 2017. The state police reports list convictions of people for murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide, as well as a multitude of other offenses. From 2003 to 2017, there are 14 years of reports listing criminal convictions.
Criminal homicides are the most reliable crime statistics to track, and the most important for comparisons with other societies. While there are significant differences in definitions, reporting, and recording of crimes from nation to nation, criminal homicides are more reliable than other crime statistics.
In the 14 years of Michigan annual police reports, there are 17 criminal homicide convictions recorded by the Michigan State Police (MSP), for people who had CPLs.
The number of active CPLs in Michigan for each year of the 14 annual reports was a little more difficult to find. The annual reports run from October 1 to September 30 of the following year. I found numbers in each annual report period, except for the period of October 1, 2014 to September 30 of 2015. For that period I interpolated from the March, 2014 number of 430,000 to the November, 2015 number of 488,000, to obtain 459,000. The numbers for the other years used were within the period for each report. Over the fourteen year span, a variation of a few months does not make much difference.
When looking at criminal homicide rates, the standard is to look at the number of homicides per 100,000 of the population per year. The total number of CPL - years came to 3,953,944. Over the 14 year period, individual CPLs had been active for a total of 3,953,944 years. There were 17 criminal homicide convictions of CPL holders in that period, averaging .43 criminal homicides per 100,000 CPL holders per year.
The entire Michigan population, over the same period, had an average of 6.2 criminal homicides per 100,000 people, or more than 14 times as many. Over the same period 2003-2016, the Japanese criminal homicide rate was .42 per 100,000 population.
Michigan Concealed Pistol Licenses are fairly easy to obtain. The same background check is used for the CPL as is used for ordinary people to buy from federally licensed dealers in the United States. The people with Concealed Pistol Licenses are not only able to own firearms, but to legally carry them concealed and loaded with them nearly everywhere. Yet, their criminal homicide rate is as low as the highly regulated Japanese.
International comparisons are always tricky. Many countries do not keep good statistics. Some countries actively ignore some murders to make their statistics look better. Others do not have the infrastructure to report and record crimes. Countries have different definitions of what a criminal homicide is.
In cases such as Michigan, the numbers of homicides among Concealed Pistol License holders is so tiny that it can vary enormously with just a few crimes. Fourteen years gives us a better picture, but it is still a small sample. There are five years with no convictions, five years with one conviction, two years with two convictions and two years with four convictions. The convictions do not mean the CPL holder used the CPL in the crime. They mean there was a criminal homicide conviction for someone with a CPL.
While not as well documented as the Michigan CPL, the Wisconsin CCW permit holders have a similar low rate of criminal homicides. When I calculated the number in 2016, the criminal homicide rate for CCW permit holders in Wisconsin was .19 per 100,000. Wisconsin CCW permits are easier and cheaper to obtain than Michigan CPLs.
If, as those who wish a disarmed population claim, the mere presence of firearms makes criminal homicide more likely, how is it that those who not only own handguns, but can carry them loaded most places, most of the time, have a homicide rate as low as the Japanese?
The law abiding American gun culture is as responsible and law abiding as Japanese culture.
Japanese culture is much more homogeneous than American culture. American culture has a wide diversity. Some subgroups, like American legal gun carriers, are very law abiding and responsible. Other American sub-groups are not. American culture is closer to an amalgam of world culture.
The world average intentional homicide rate was about 6.2 per 100,000 in 2012, very close to the average Michigan homicide rate over 2003 to 2016. The U.S. criminal homicide rate for the same year was 4.7. There are differences between "intentional homicide rate" and "criminal homicide rate", but the numbers show the U.S. to be on the low side of the average world rate.
If someone tells you that legal American gun owners are not murderers until they are, tell them that Japanese, without guns, are as likely to murder as legal American gun owners.
Where crimes of people with carry permits are documented, that population has extremely low crime rates. Crime rates as low as the populations of those countries with the lowest crime rates in the world.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
OK: Gunshot Stops Attack by Dog Pack
Michelle Slaughter had just left from visiting with her sister and brother-in-law around 4 p.m Thursday, when she was attacked by a group of dogs on her way home.
"Its heartbreaking emotions," Moss said. "I mean, I can't believe it happened to her."
Otis Arnold was on his way home from work, and stopped to help right after one of the dogs, a Belgian Milnois, was shot and killed by a neighbor who had stepped in.
"She was screaming that she thought the dogs were trying to tear her arm off," Arnold said.
It was only after the gunshot that the other four dogs, all German Shepherds, ran off.
"One of them had a 4x4, and they were trying to fight the dogs, and it still wasn't keeping them off." Arnold said.
More Here
Followup LA: Grand Jury rules Tacorey Banks Shooting Justified
The Caddo Parish grand jury said no criminal charges should be filed against a Shreveport businessman who fatally shot one of three teenagers he caught breaking into his car last fall. One of the three had a gun, police said.
Louisiana law allows residents to use force to protect themselves or their property. The amount of force must be "reasonable and necessary."
More Here
LA: Waffle House Customer Shoots at Armed Robbers
Just before 10:15 p.m., the scene repeated itself at the Waffle House in the 2900 block of Elysian Fields, when two men entered with handguns, the second report states. One of them jumped over the restaurant counter and demanded money and cell phones, but as they left with the money, a customer in the restaurant shot at them, the report states.
Shortly afterward, a man identified as 19-year-old Ernest Scott showed up at a hospital for treatment in a private vehicle, and police initially called him as a “person of interest” in the robbery. Later Friday afternoon, however, NOPD spokesman Gary Scheets issued a correction stating, “There is no person named Ernest Scott under investigation in relation to this incident.”
More Here
Saturday, April 21, 2018
Cheap Gun Opportunity in Crawfordsville Indiana, 28 April, 2018
The event will be held at the Crawfordsville Police Department from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Crawfordsville is about 40 miles northwest of Indianapolis. From journalreview.com:
Residents can turn in semi-automatic rifles, bump stocks or large-capacity clips in an upcoming program sponsored by a local church.No permit is required to purchase guns in Indiana.
Wabash Avenue Presbyterian invites owners to take the weapons and accessories to the Crawfordsville Police Department from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 28. All items turned in will be melted down at Nucor Steel.
Owners will receive a $100 gift card from Kroger or County Market for guns and a $25 gift card for accessories.
Gift cards of $100 will be given for each "assault style" gun turned in. $25 will be given for accessories such as bump stocks and "high capacity magazines". This is a generous offer for magazines. I suspect the gift cards to run out very quickly. If you have some old magazines, you might want to turn them in and order excellent new standard capacity magazines for going rates of $9-$15 each. I do not expect many "assault style" firearms to be turned in, but alert Second Amendment supporters might intercept an SKS or a someone turning in an AR15 type rifle they inherited from their brother or husband. At one "buyback" event, one woman was going to turn in her boyfriend's AR15, but took cash for it instead.
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 store card or a number of twenty dollar bills. Resources will be limited.
You can help make the turn-in in Indiana 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.
At least one commenter sees the event as an opportunity. From foxnews.com comments:
I'm waiting for something like this in my area. I still have an old .22 revolver that broke in the late 60's (Saturday night special). In 1967, I paid about $17 for it. It's kind of pretty but the frame was made of "pot metal". I'm guessing that some of these do-gooders would pay the same price for it as an operable weapon. It would give me money to go out and buy a new gun. This would be a win-win. The anti-gun people would feel good and so would I.
While the articles about the event say the offer is for "guns", in the video, the couple make clear it is only for "assault weapons". Do not take an old revolver and expect to get $100 for it. Many people bringing revolvers, hunting rifles, shotguns worth far more than $100 may be surprised to learn that their guns do not qualify. It could be an opportunity for private purchasers.
Academics have long written about the ineffectiveness of these events. Only a few places are still having them. In Washington state, public disarmament activists asked politicians to stop them because they were making the disarmists look bad. 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.Having private purchasers show up at these events is cheap activism for Second Amendment supporters. It shows that guns are valued assets for many people in the community.
Link to article with numerous examples of private sales at gun turn in events
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
AK: Armed 80-Year-Old Shoots Attacking Pit Bull
"Now there’s three of them lying on the ground. I ran out my back porch to my car and I grabbed my pistol and ran out my garage. The girls’ father is there by now and he’s beating on the dog’s head when he could, but this dog was so fast," Woods said. "I started shouting, ‘Let him go, get away from him. Back up, I’m going to kill him.’"
Woods waited until everyone was away from the pit bull and then fired downward so that the bullet would go into the ground. He shot the pit bull in the head. It dropped the rat terrier but remained standing, so Woods shot it a second time.
More Here
SC: Armed Woman Confronts Aggressive Man at her Car, Shoots Him
Officers said the female confronted the male suspect at her car and she says he advanced towards her. At that time, the woman produced a handgun and fired one round, striking the suspect in the leg, police say.
The suspect was transported to Trident Hospital for treatment.
More Here
IN: Armed Customer Shoots, Kills Robbery Suspect at Ocampo Auto Sales
GARY — One man is dead and another is
on the run after a customer at an auto dealership shot and killed a
robbery suspect in self-defense, police said.
The
customer and an employee were outside of Ocampo Auto Sales, a used car
lot at 401 W. Ridge Road, when two men approached them, according to
Gary police.
More Here
Friday, April 20, 2018
Woman Calls Police Over Man Wearing Pro-Gun T-Shirt At Park
A woman called the police to complain about a man's pro-gun t-shirt.
Benbrook, TX – A Texas father’s afternoon visit to a local park prompted a police response, after a woman alleged that the man’s pro-gun Warrior 12 shirt was making other parents uncomfortable, police said.
Troy Johnston and his two daughters, ages four and six, stopped at Castle Park on March 30, so the children could enjoy the park’s swings and maze, he told Blue Lives Matter.
Johnston said he was openly carrying his handgun in a holster on his hip, and was also sporting a Warrior 12 shirt emblazoned with the words, “I’LL CONTROL MY GUNS, YOU CONTROL YOUR KIDS” across the back.
The shirt also featured an image of an AR-15 rifle.
“I figured I might get some comments or looks,” Johnston said. “[But] I was legally exercising my First and Second Amendment rights.”
Approximately 30 minutes after the kids began playing, a man approached him with his wife and daughter in tow, Johnston said.
He said the man told him that a woman was “fuming” over the message on Johnston’s shirt, as well as the fact that he was armed.
“I thanked him for letting me know, and continued playing with my kids,” Johnson said.
More Here
AP: Gun Clubs Teach Patience. Discipline. Responsibility.
Dahlonega, Ga. – Their classmates took to the streets to protest gun violence and to implore adults to restrict guns, seeming to forecast a generational shift in attitudes toward the Second Amendment. But at high school and college gun ranges around the country, these teens and young adults gather to practice shooting and talk about the positive influence firearms have had on their lives.Shooting is a lifetime sport the practitioners find accessible into old age. The interesting thing about the AP article is that it mentions the many positive aspects of the shooting sports.
What do they say they learn? Patience. Discipline. Responsibility.
“I’ve never gone out onto a range and not learned something new,” said Lydia Odlin, a 21-year-old member of the Georgia Southern University rifle team.
There are an estimated 5,000 teams at high schools and universities around the country, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and their popularity hasn’t waned despite criticism after it emerged that the gunman who killed 14 students and three staff members at a Florida high school had been a member of the JROTC rifle team. The youths who are involved, coaches and parents say there’s an enormous difference between someone bent on violence and school gun clubs that focus on safety and teach skills that make navigating life’s hardships easier.
The Associated Press has been actively hostile to the Second Amendment for decades. As the Internet and talk radio highlightec that hostility, the organization has been become a little more even handed. I applaud the decision at AP to allow a positive view of the shooting sports into their content.
Rifle teams used to be something governments all over the world supported. The reason was obvious. Armies with troops that could shoot accurately had an advantage on the battlefield. In England, a personal friend told me of bicycling all over his area, .22 target rifle on the handlebars. Nobody blinked.
President Theodore Roosevelt thought children should be encouraged to learn to shoot. From goodreads.com:
"We should encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes, as well as in the military services by every means in our power. Thus, and not otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving peace in the world..."It may not be a coincidence that support for school shooting teams declined in the nuclear age. The control of nuclear weapons seemed to diminish the necessity for a nation of riflemen. We have learned differently. Experience in wars from Korea to Afghanistan have validated the need for the rifleman on the field of combat.
Times change. Technology changes. Perhaps, in the future, riflemen may become obsolete. It has not happened yet.
The virtues promoted by the shooting sports, self discipline, responsibility, control of mind over body, have always been, and always will be, valuable and worth while.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
AR: Homeowner Investigates Intruder, Shoots, Falls, Shoots Leg
Then, Adams said the unknown person raised their arm and pointed something at him.
Adams said he drew his gun and told the person "he could not help them if they did not respond." The person continued to point something at Adams.
Adams told Chadwick he then fired at the person. However, after the first shot, Adams "fell backward and landed on his back and then fired his firearm two more times and accidentally shot himself in his right leg," the report states.
After the shots were fired, Adams said he heard a vehicle coming from the north on CR 745 and almost came to a stop at the end of his driveway. He said loud music was coming from the vehicle.
More Here
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Iowa Legislature moves Toward Right to Arms Constitutional Amendment
Only six states do not have some sort of right to keep and bear arms amendment or clause in their state Constitution. They are California, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York.
California, Maryland, New Jersey and New York show the lack of a state constitutional protection with their highly restrictive firearms laws.
The two outliers on that list are Iowa and Minnesota. State constitutional protections of the right to bear arms provide protection when the federal Constitution fails to do so. The U.S. Supreme Court has been reluctant to protect Second Amendment rights for a decade. The road to the U.S. Supreme Court is long, difficult, and far from certain. State Supreme courts are more easily accesable, showing the utility of state constitutional protections.
Iowa is in the process of adding constitutional amendment to protect the right to keep and bear arms at the state level. The proposed amendment is as follows: From iowa.gov:
Right to acquire, keep, possess, transport, carry, transfer, and use arms.
SEC. 1A. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The sovereign state of Iowa affirms and recognizes the fundamental right of the people to acquire, keep, possess, transport, carry, transfer, and use arms for all legitimate purposes. Any and all restrictions of this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny.
When voters are presented with a choice of having a state constitutional right to keep and bear arms, amendments pass with large majorities. A mere referendum would be required in California. But Iowa, as with some other states, such as Wisconsin, have more difficult paths to amending their constitution. In Iowa, a constitutional amendment must pass both houses of the legislature. Then an election must take place. Then the measure must pass both houses of the legislature again; then a referundum is sent to the people for approval. The Iowa amendment has now passed the first hurdle. From wcfcourier.com:
The resolution has been approved by the House and Senate. If it is approved by the next General Assembly, it will be on the ballot for ratification by voters in 2020.If the amendment passes the legislature next year, it will pass a referendum. No right to bear arms Constitutional Amendment referendum has been defeated at the polls. Voters have passed similar constitutional amendments in other states with wide margins. Alabama passed a similar amendment in 2014 with 72% of the vote; Missouri had strengthened its Constitution just months before with 61%; Louisiana in 2012 with 74% of the vote; and Kansas in 2010 with 88%.
Smith called the resolution “extreme,” especially because it includes language requiring courts to apply “strict scrutiny” to any restriction on gun rights.
That could open the door for challenges to existing gun laws as well as make it difficult to enact what Smith called “common sense” legislation.
Wisconsin's amendment passed with 74% of the vote in 1998.
The Iowa State Seal says "OUR LIBERTIES WE PRIZE AND OUR RIGHTS WE WILL MAINTAIN". This motto will be put to the test in 2019 and 2020.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch
Oklahoma Legislature Votes to Extend Home, Business Defense Options to Churches
The Oklahoma legislature has overwhelmingly voted to extend the protections homes and businesses have in the laws of defense of self and others to Oklahoma churches. From publicradiotulsa.org:
The Senate voted 42–1 on Thursday for House Bill 2632, which makes places used either part- or full-time for religious services covered by the Oklahoma Self-Defense Act.
The shooting still must be done because of reasonable fear of harm or death or to prevent a violent felony.
"That makes it clear that there has to be some reason that you felt that you were threatened and needed to use that defensive force, or that someone else is threatened and that you needed to use that force," said Sen. Micheal Bergstrom.
On March 6, 2018, the Oklahoma House voted 62 Yes, 21 No, with 16 excused.
On April 12, 2018 the Oklahoma Senate voted 42 Yes, 1 No, with 4 excused.
The bill with now go to Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, who is likely to sign the popular measure. The bill extends what has commonly been known as the "Castle Doctrine" to churches. Here are some paragraphs from the bill. From oklegislature.gov:
The bill with now go to Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, who is likely to sign the popular measure. The bill extends what has commonly been known as the "Castle Doctrine" to churches. Here are some paragraphs from the bill. From oklegislature.gov:
PHYSICAL OR DEADLY FORCE AGAINST INTRUDERAn important consideration in the bill is the awarding of fees to the defender in a failed civil lawsuit.
A. The Legislature hereby recognizes that the citizens of the State of Oklahoma have a right to expect absolute safety within their own homes or, places of business or places of worship.
H. The court shall award reasonable attorney fees, court costs, compensation for loss of income, and all expenses incurred by the defendant in defense of any civil action brought by a plaintiff if the court finds that the defendant is immune from prosecution as provided in subsection F of this section.The legislature made sure to prevent the requirement for a government fee or license.
I. The provisions of this section and the provisions of the Oklahoma Self-Defense Act shall not be construed to require any person using a weapon pursuant to the provisions of this section to be licensed in any manner.Merely pointing a weapon at someone under the circumstances described in the bill, is defined as not being a criminal act.
J. A person pointing a weapon at a perpetrator in self-defense or in order to thwart, stop or deter a forcible felony or attempted forcible felony shall not be deemed guilty of committing a criminal act.The rights of property owners were protected in the bill.
K.Nothing contained in the provisions of this section shall prohibit the current property right of a place of worship or any other business or property owner to set its own policy regarding weapons.Extending the rights of people in their homes and business owners to their churches is simply following the First and Second amendment.
In the early colonies, people were commanded to bring guns to church. In "Origins and Development of the Second Amendment", there is a reference to colonial requirements to carry guns in church from the Virginia laws.
All men that are fitting to bear arms, shall bring their pieces to the church...The law dated to 1631. David Hardy found it in the 1823 work by William Henning, "The Statutes at large, being a collection of all the laws of Virginia, Vol. 1 at 127, 173-174."
Churches, which are particularly protected by the "free exercise of religion" clause of the Constitution in the First Amendment, should have at least the same protections that private homes and businesses do.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
Homeowner Shoots two Invaders, 1 Killed, 1 Wounded, Son Wounded
Early Saturday morning, at 4:51 a.m., in Raleigh, NC, a suspected home invasion was met with gunfire by the homeowner. In the gun fight, one home invader was killed, another seriously wounded, and the homeowner's son, 11, was seriously wounded. From abc11.com:
According to Raleigh police, the homeowner fired at two intruders during an armed robbery.Gunfights are dangerous affairs. You may control your shots, but you do not control the shots of your opponent(s). In this case, the responding defender prevailed. He killed one opponent and seriously wounding the other. He was not wounded. The cost was high. His eleven year old son was wounded.
The shooting happened in the 4200 block of Brintons Cottage Street around 4:51 a.m.
Deandre Carney, 19, died from his injuries.
Willie Richardson, 22, was also injured in the shooting.
He is still in the hospital with gunshot wounds but is charged with armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, first-degree burglary, and possession of a firearm by a felon.
The homeowner's 11-year-old son was also injured and is in the hospital with serious injuries.
Defensive firearms instructors recommend that gunfights be avoided if at all possible. Avoidance is the best strategy. Sun Tsu's remark about war applies to personal combat. "It is best to win without fighting". Most defensive uses of firearms are against assailants armed with other weapons. Even when the aggressor has a gun, most criminals back off rather than risk a gunfight.
Sometimes, a defender has no real choice. Sometimes the fight comes to you. Sometimes the cost of avoidance is too high.
We do not know what the cost would have been if the father of the eleven year old boy had not fought. It might have been higher. He or a member of his family might have been killed. Once human predators have been successful, they tend to return.
Deandre Carney paid the ultimate price for his association with Willie Richardson. It appears Richardson was a convicted felon, as he was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon. Two months previously he was arrested for robbery with a dangerous weapon. There are other charges in his history. Photos of Deandre show him flashing a hand signal. Others can interpret what that might mean.
Many countries in the world have more violent crime that the United States. The list includes Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Jamaica, Venezuela, Honduras, South Africa, and many others.
Others, such as Switzerland, England, and Japan, have less.
In Restricting Handguns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out, the point was made that in England, there are many burglaries, and the percentage of home invasions is higher than in the United States. A case was made that burglars avoid robbing an occupied house, because of the risk of getting shot. In Panama, I recall asking how a business owner, who had a considerable scrap yard, stayed in business in an area known for its thieves. I was told: "The thieves learn which houses have guns, very quickly.
Deandre Carney and Willie Richardson are examples of the risks of home invasion. Perhaps others will learn from their example.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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