FL: Armed Woman Confronts Man Attempting Break-in

Palm Bay police were dispatched to the 1500 block of Hayworth Circle NW in reference to someone trying to break into the home.

The homeowner said she was lying in bed when her daughter came running into her room to advise someone was outside her window, the report said.

With a gun in hand, the homeowner walked around the home checking windows. Once she was in the back of the house, she opened the blinds and saw Krzak trying to open the window. She pointed the gun at Krzak and told him to get off her property, according to the report.
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Interest in Guns Spikes After Mass Shootings

The increased calls for gun control may be prompting more Michigan residents to purchase firearms and learn how to use them.

It’s a cycle that’s played out several times: After a high-profile mass shooting, there’s an outcry by some for legislation they say would make it more difficult for bad actors to purchase guns — and then firearm sales spike.

Since Feb. 14, when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz allegedly killed 17 people inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, many pundits, politicians and students have demanded tougher restrictions on firearms.

The gun control debate rekindled after a May 18 shooting that left eight students and two teachers dead in Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas.

While it’s impossible to determine why more people are buying guns and signing up for training, statistics show there has been an increase in sales and concealed pistol licenses issued since the Parkland shooting, while firearms trainers say more people are joining their classes.

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FL: Dogs Escape, Attack Goats, Get Shot, Killed

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Caleb Lowman says he was forced to use his shotgun on his neighbor's three dogs when they escaped their cage and began attacking his goats.

“When I came out, I had the shotgun with me with the hopes it wouldn’t have to be used,” Lowman said.

Lowman says this isn't the first time the dogs have gotten out and been aggressive. On last Monday, the dogs got out of their fence and attacked the goats in his yard. Photos show the goats suffered bite marks up and down their neck and legs.
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Tragic, More NC: Wife Killed by Suspects Bullet, Wounded Suspect in Hospital

Police identified the slain woman as 34-year-old Pamela Crumpton Hooks. The couple’s children were home at the time of the shooting, police said, but they declined to say how many children were there or their ages.

“What we know is that we have a guy who is in the hospital, who went to the residence with at least one other person to commit a robbery,” said Capt. Nathaniel Davis of the Greensboro Police Department. “At some point the homeowner attempted to protect his family and retrieved his own gun.”

As the husband and the suspects shot at one another, one of the suspects’ bullets struck Hooks inside her house at 716 Hidden Lakes Court in Browns Summit, Davis said.

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AL: Gunfight, Car Burglary Suspect and Victim Trade Shots

She says she asked him what he was doing. “I told him to stop. He didn’t respond. He kept running. That’s when I fired the two shots,” said Graves.


Graves missed and the man took off running. She followed in her truck and said she chased him approximately ten miles.


At one point he stopped, got out, and fired a couple of shots in her direction.
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Gun Shops: We're not all Dick's. We Sell AR15s

As the media onslaught to push severe restrictions on gun ownership and sales continues, the gun culture is fighting back. When Dick's Sporting Goods stopped the sale of modern sport and utility rifles, especially AR-15s, a Houston area gun store and range proclaimed its independence and support for Second Amendment rights. From chron.com:

Boyert Shooting Center, a combination gun range and store with two locations in the Houston area, is having a little fun with Dick's Sporting Goods' new AR-15 policy.

In the wake of the deadly school shooting in Florida, Dick's Sporting Goods announced it would no longer sell assault-style rifles or high-capacity magazines in its stores and will require that any gun buyer be at least 21.

At the Boyert website, Boyert posted a notice of a gun sale.  From Boyert.com on 10 May, 2018:

In honor of Springfield Armory cutting off DICK’S from selling their products due to DICK’S hiring of anti-2nd Amendment Lobbyists, we will be featuring a Springfield Armory “DONE WITH DICK’S” Blowout Sale this weekend at both of our locations.

In South Carolina, a pawn shop that sells guns, does silk printing, and sells and installs audio equipment for cars, expressed a clever jab at Dick's.

According to a local news outlet, the banner got people talking.
From wmbrnews.com:

“It wasn’t nothing negative or trying to promote violence or anything,” Stamper said of the decision to put up the banner, which came just days before the tragic shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas that left 10 dead.

According to Stamper, a majority of people support the sign and don’t view it as offensive. He said supporters are calling from states like Texas, Missouri, Florida and Colorado.

“It’s about 99 percent support,” Stamper said. “Our phone’s ringing off the hook.”

Crossroads Pawn & Audio took the time to thank customers and the public for their support on the issue. From facebook:

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody for their support. But with the tremendous outpouring of positive reinforcement comes those who dont have the same views. We respect everyone's personal opinion.

We would also like to clear up any confusion. An AR15 is NOT a combat weapon or a tactical assault rifle. And in no way are the horrific massacres happening to our children and in our schools acceptable. This violence must stop. But it's not the guns killing innocent Americans.

We will continue to take strides to reinforce and advocate for responsible gun ownership. We will also continue to be proud supporters and members of the NRA - National Rifle Association of America. 

Once again, from our Family; we thank you all.

It is hard to demonize a majority of the public when it refuses to be demonized.

The old media no longer have control of what information the public receives.  The public is making their own media, and refuse to be put in a box controlled by a few old ideologues. Ideologues who cling to their power to decide what people read, hear, see, and what to think about it.  Ideologues who do not want other people to own guns.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch 

Followup CO: Firing at Intruder Outside Daughter's Window may Result in Charges

LONGMONT, Colo. -- A Longmont man is facing possible criminal charges after firing his gun Sunday night at a man standing outside his teenage daughter's window.

The man's wife claims her husband was just protecting his family, but police say he might have broken the law.
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MI: Meat Company Owner Shoots Suspect Armed with Box Cutter

Police say the driver was making a delivery in that area, when the he came out from the business and noticed two men attempting to steal meat from the back of his truck.

Police said the driver got into a scuffle with one of the suspects who was armed with a box cotter. The owner of the meat company, who is a CPL holder, fired a fatal shot at the suspect.
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FL: Intruder Shot by Homeowner

OCALA, Fla. (FOX 35 WOFL) - Police are looking into a shooting along Southeast 14th Street this Sunday morning.

They say that an intruder was shot by a homeowner.

The suspect is now being treated at the hospital.
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TX: Clerk Shoots Robbery Suspect

DALLAS - A Dallas convenience store clerk shot a robber early Tuesday morning.

Police said the robber had a bag in his hand and was demanding money from the clerk at a 7-Eleven store on Lake June Road in Pleasant Grove, which is in southeast Dallas.
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MO: Man Calls for Gun, Stops Assault

The video shows a man in his 80’s standing on his front porch when three teenagers approach him and point a gun in his direction.

He calls out to his wife to “bring out the gun,” and the three suspects quickly run off in the direction of Halliday and Compton. The homeowner called St. Louis Police, who told him they would be stepping up patrols in the neighborhood.
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CA: Business Owner Shoots, Leads to Arrest of Suspect

A south Bakersfield business owner fired a single round at a burglar who broke into his establishment Thursday evening, according to sheriff's officials.


A deputy heard the gunshot and found and detained the suspected burglar, 48-year-old Peter Marquez, who had a mask covering his face.


Marquez had broken into a business in the 1800 block of South Chester Avenue shortly after 8 p.m., according to sheriff's officials. The owner was inside and fired a single round at Marquez.
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Lawsuit Filed Against Boulder, Colorado, Ban on Rifles, Magazines

On 15 May, 2018, the Boulder, Colorado city council unanimously passed an ordinance banning the possession of various firearms and accessories.  The ordinance is so new that it has not shown up in the municipal code yet. The ordinance is voluminous and detailed. The brief for the ordinance cites several biased and partisan "studies" to attempt to make the case to pass the ordinance. The ordinance likely violates Colorado's preemption statute and State and Federal Constitutional protections.  The ordinance casts a wide net.

Legal pushback, in the form of a lawsuit, followed shortly after passage, as opponents to the measure had promised. From the denverpost.com:

Radio and TV personality Jon Caldara, the Boulder Rifle Club and Bison Tactical have filed a federal lawsuit claiming the city of Boulder’s new ordinance banning assault weapons and increasing the age of legal gun ownership to 21 violates their constitutional rights.

Bison Tactical, a Boulder-based maker and seller of shooting gear, the rifle club and Caldara, who lives in Boulder, would continue possessing and selling assault weapons if not for the unanimous decision Tuesday to ban the weapons inside city limits.

“The right of self-defense is an unalienable, natural and fundamental right,” says the lawsuit filed Wednesday by Mountain States Legal Foundation attorneys Cody Wisniewski and Sean Smith. “The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution memorializes the right of self-defense.”

The Mountain States Legal Foundation sums up the legal challenges succinctly. From mountainstateslegal.org:

Legal Question:

Whether a municipality can undermine the exercise of fundamental and unalienable rights and ignore the U.S. Constitution and controlling Supreme Court precedent?

Whether a municipality can ignore its state constitution and state law by infringing upon and criminalizing an individual’s unalienable and natural right to self-defense, and the right to keep and bear arms?

The lawsuit filing is available on line. Obvious arguments against the ordinance under the Second Amendment are listed.  Here are a few in the filing.
From Caldera V. City of Boulder:

87. The Second Amendment protects firearms in “common use, ”which “could contribute to the common defense.” United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174, 178 – 179 (1939).

88. Detachable magazines are an integral part of “Arms,” and thus, are protected by the Second Amendment.

89. Detachable magazines are typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, such as self-defense.

I was surprised I did not find a reference to Caetano V. Massachusetts in the lawsuit. Caetano is a unanimous Supreme Court decision declaring all bearable arms in common use are protected by the Second Amendment. The rifles and magazines affected by ordinance 8245 are far more common than the stun guns Caetano was concerned with.

Ordinance 8245 shows an interesting set of exemptions. It exempts members of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) from the ordinance. To become a member of the ROTC, a university student need only sign up for a class.  Army, Navy, and Air Force ROTC programs are all available at Boulder, Colorado.  From proposed ordinance 8245: (edited to show proposed ordinance without stike-throughs and underlines)

5-8-25. – Exemptions from Chapter. 

Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to forbid any officer of the
United States including but not limited to federal agents and United States Marshals, any sheriffs, constables and their deputies; any regular or ex-officio police officer; any other peace officers; or members of the United States Armed Forces, Colorado National Guard or Reserve Officer Training Corps from purchasing, having in their possession, displaying, concealing or discharging such weapons.

Colorado is in the jurisdiction of Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Tenth Circuit has not ruled on the Constitutionality of a ban on semi-automatic "assault weapons" (variously defined) or or magazines with a capacity of over a certain number of rounds. Such bans have been upheld in the Second Circuit, the Fourth Circuit, and the Seventh Circuit, under very dubious reasoning. The Circuit Courts are attempting to rewrite the Heller case in order to write semi-auto firearms as not protected by the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court has refused to review those cases. Some have claimed the court is looking for a clear split in the Circuits in order to accept a case.

That might happen in the Tenth Circuit. I consider it unlikely. The Boulder ordinance is likely to be found in violation of the State preemption law, thus rendering the Second Amendment challenge mute. From findlaw.com:
Colorado Revised Statutes Title 29 Government Local § 29-117-103

A local government may not enact an ordinance, regulation, or other law that prohibits the sale, purchase, or possession of a firearm that a person may lawfully sell, purchase, or possess under state or federal law.  Any such ordinance, regulation, or other law enacted by a local government prior to March 18, 2003, is void and unenforceable.

The Boulder ordinance is believed to be impotent by all sides. Its passage is political virtue signaling.  It will accomplish nothing but entangle the city in a lawsuit the citizens may not pay for. Deep pockets outside the City have already offered to aid its attempts to disarm its citizens. From the dailycamera.com:

City Attorney Tom Carr said Boulder has received offers of gratis help from "outside law firms" that will reduce the impact of both cost and time to city staff.

In any case, Boulder is a wealthy city. They can afford such extravagances.

It would be ironic if the Tenth circuit struck down the ordinance on Second Amendment grounds, creating a Circuit split, to take the case to the United States Supreme Court.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch 

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FL: Armed Man hold Burglary Suspect for Police

GIFFORD — A man who said his home had been broken into used his video surveillance system and a handgun to find and apprehend the accused burglar Sunday.

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KY: Domestic Defense, Uncle Shoots Nephew who Attempted Break-in

KSP spokesperson Master Trooper Jody Sims said the two had been having problems for a couple of days and Henrickson was allegedly trying to get inside of Fugate’s residence to confront him. Sims said Fugate shot through the door, striking his nephew in the leg.
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TX: Legal Gun Carrier Shoots at Man who Assaulted, Killed Woman at School

As the woman was leaving the property, the man got into his Ford Focus and ran her over several times, authorities said. A witness with a concealed handgun license began firing at the driver and his car to get him to stop and blew out one of the man's tires.

Jose Sandoval, who lives behind the property, spoke to the woman just minutes before he witnessed her death.
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Book Review: 4 Seconds to Impact (The Skyrocketing Attacks by Predators on Humans)

By Bruce Buckshot Hemming, 2017, 320 pages, paperback.

Over the last three decades, attacks by large predators against humans have been skyrocketing in North America. It is not just a matter of reporting. Attacks by bears, mountain lions, wolves, and coyotes, have become expected, where they used to be rare or denied altogether.

Full disclosure: Hemming cites some of my work in the book.

Bruce Hemming does an excellent job in summing up the increases in large predator attacks. He offers a commonsense explanation as to why they are happening, why they are under reported, and how they can be minimized.

I received a review copy of the book shortly after I returned from Australia.
I started to read, and could not put it down until I had hastily read through the analysis. It took me four hours.

I was fascinated to learn that one of the major reason there were no "documented" wolf attacks before 1943, is that an early pro-wolf researcher defined a wolf attack as valid, only if the wolf were tested and found to be free of rabies. There is a serious problem with that approach. Testing for rabies only became available in 1943. The definition used in the "research" simply defined any previous wolf attacks out of existence, because they could not have been tested for rabies!

The book supports Hemming's analysis with comprehensive lists of large predator attacks.  Be warned: some of the pictures are gruesome. 4 Seconds to Impact has much more detail on these attacks than is commonly reported. The author went to considerable effort to collect data and interview people who were attacked.

An interesting part of the book is Hemming's analysis of how many attacks are not reported. He gives details of how many missing hikers and hunters could be victims of animal attacks. He explains that many people understand reporting an attack is an invitation to official and unofficial harassment and persecution, especially if the attacking animal was killed.

The book fearlessly avoids political correctness. Hemming offers clear and obvious reasons how and why hunting of large predators can minimize large predator attacks without endangering sustainable predator populations.

Hemming offers data on the effectiveness of both firearms and pepper spray in stopping attacks. He advocates for the use of both systems.

For anyone who is interested in large predator attacks, or for anyone who is considering how to protect themselves from predators, I highly recommend 4 Seconds to Impact.

The book is available at Amazon. $6.99 for Kindle, $18.99 paperback.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included. 

Gun Watch

Encountering a Liberal Second Amendment Supporter in Deep Blue Madison, Wisconsin

I have been busy helping pick up the pieces after the death of a friend of 48 years. For the last few days, I ate breakfast at a McDonalds in Middleton, Wisconsin, part of the far left liberal environs centered around Dane County and Madison, Wisconsin.  My friend had lived most of his life in Madison and Middleton. He was a lifelong Second Amendment supporter, lifetime master pistol shooter, and a mentor.

At the McDonalds, I struck up conversation with a gentleman who I suspected to be a liberal. We had a connection because he was searching for information on friends who had recently died in Australia. I had recently been in Australia and have investigative experience.

I said I was a writer. On the second day, he asked what I wrote. I described Gun Watch. His demeanor softened a little. He described himself as a liberal gun owner.

The third day, he introduced his wife. They both had Wisconsin concealed carry permits. He showed a video of using tannerite to recreationally blow up targets in Northern Wisconsin. He introduced me to another member of his McDonalds breakfast group who was a retired Navy Captain.

Even in deep blue Madison, Wisconsin, there are significant numbers of Second Amendment supporters. Many of them are keeping their heads down because they believe they are surrounded by anti-Second Amendment leftists.

What they do in the polling booth may be different than what they admit to in public.

They may be part of the invisible Trump voters who helped put President Trump over the top in Wisconsin and other mid-west states.

Was my new found acquaintance one of them? It is hard to say. He sounded as though he had an open mind. He is bright. He is informed. Could he have voted against Hillary?

It seems likely to me.

It was obvious to both of us that he did not want his picture associated with this article. I said I expected he did not want his picture taken. He said I was exactly correct. He took mine, instead.

Second Amendment supporters in deep blue areas fear becoming known publicly. Social Justice Warriors often wish them harm. 

These people may support Second Amendment candidates.  Other Second Amendment supporters should encourage them to, at minimum, vote to protect the Bill of Rights.


©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

VA: Man Shoots Armed Robbery Suspect

When he asked for payment before giving Richardson the motorcycle's papers, the juvenile pulled out a gun and demanded the motorcycle.

Billett, who was armed, shot the juvenile in the neck.

Roanoke Fire-EMS took the juvenile to the hospital, where he is being treated for non-life threatening injuries.
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MO: Former Marine Shoots at Thieves

Surveillance cameras show what happened next. Luigi said he grabbed his pistol, ran outside and found one of the thieves standing by the fence.

Luigi said he fired first, but then claims the thief returned fire. The video doesn't clearly show the thief firing back.

"Right there behind the tree. Right when he was standing by the tree is when he fired. He shot real quick and then I shot back at them and he took off," Giovanni explains.

The episode didn't stop there. Later Monday night, Luigi discovered his 8x5 trailer, along with a motorized quad bike, was stolen from his driveway.

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