Authorities said the 40-year-old man showed up as his wife and three children (ages 8, 12 and 16) were leaving for school. Witnesses told authorities that the man started physically attacking his wife, who then pulled out a handgun and fired several shots, hitting him multiple times.
"He shows up. We don't know what his intention was," Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. "It quickly escalated."
Authorities said the man was out on bond for another attack on his wife.
He said Yolanda Gaines was booked into the West Baton Rouge Parish Detention Center on two counts of aggravated assault with a firearm. He added Kimberly Williams was booked into WBRPDC on one count of obstruction of justice. A third unidentified suspect is wanted.
According to Hicks, the incident began as an argument in the grocery store between Gaines and two people. He reported the argument later continued in the parking lot. Another person showed up and joined the confrontation, according to Hicks.
Investigators said at some point, Gaines pulled out a gun but one of the other people involved in the argument also drew a weapon and fired in self-defense, injuring the two victims. They added no store employees were injured and the shooter has not been charged.
On 10 August, 2021, the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus filed suit against the State Agricultural Society and Sheriff Bob Fletcher to stop them from violating state law by prohibiting lawful, permitted carry at the State Fair.
Minnesota expressly acknowledges that the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights is an individual right. Minnesota is one of only six states without a state constitutional protection of the right to keep and bear arms. Next year, it is likely Iowa will approve of a strong amendment to protect the right, reducing the number of states without such protection to five.
Minnesota has strong preemption laws forbidding lower levels of government in the state from enacting restrictions on the right to arms. The state legislature has reserved the power to enact firearms legislation/regulation to the state government. From the news release:
As an arm of state government, the Minnesota State Agricultural Society is completely preempted under multiple state statutes from prohibiting the lawful carry of firearms on the state fairgrounds or during the Minnesota State Fair. Specifically, Minnesota law preempts any local regulation of firearms and ammunition that is inconsistent with state law "to the complete exclusion of any order, ordinance, or regulation".
Ramsey County and the Ramsey County Sheriff, Bob Fletcher, are party to this suit due to the Joint Powers Agreement signed between the Society and the County authorizing the Sheriff's office to serve as the primary law enforcement agency for the State Fair.
For years, the Society has purported to prohibit firearms at the State Fair through policies and signing without any legal authorization for their supposed prohibition. The State Agricultural Society does have the ability to enact ordinances, however, those ordinances cannot validly conflict with state or federal law. According to Data Practices Act requests from the Caucus, the Society has not enacted any such ordinances - and if they had, they would be invalid on their face because of Minnesota's preemption statutes.
"The State Agricultural Society, Ramsey County, and Sheriff Fletcher must follow the laws of the State of Minnesota, " said Bryan Strawser, Chair, MN Gun Owners Caucus. "There is simply no legal or constitutional justification for the prohibition on lawful, permitted carry of firearms at the Minnesota State Fair."
"Not only is the Fair breaking the law by attempting to enforce a policy banning firearms this year, but they are also actively denying every law-abiding permit holder the ability to travel safely to and from the fair, " added Rob Doar, Political Director. "Despite millions of visitors every year, the Fair has no record of any person being ejected for carrying a firearm or any issues with the civilian carry of firearms. Their policy is not only illegal, but it's also unnecessary."
Minnesota law requires anyone who carries a handgun or possesses one in a motor vehicle, snowmobile, or boat, in public places, to obtain a permit to carry.
Minnesota carry permit holders are extraordinarily law abiding. As of 2020, there were 358,897 valid carry permits. In 2020, only 36 of those permits were revoked. Permit holders are generally more law abiding than police officers. Permit holders are far more law abiding than the general population, as noted in the Supreme Court Amicus brief filed by 26 State governments.
In the complaint, the plaintiffs state they wish to exercise their rights:
Plaintiffs wish to exercise their fundamental, constitutionally and statutorily protected right to carry loaded, operable handguns on their person, at the annual Minnesota State Fair, for lawful purposes including immediate self-defense. But they cannot because of the laws, regulations, policies, practices, and customs that Defendants have been enforcing and continue to actively enforce today.
The case has been filed in the District Court for the State of Minnesota. It will be litigated in the coming months.
©2021 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
Investigators said Javier Garcia, 28, was trying to rob the convenience store on Colley Avenue in Ghent when a worker shot him. Garcia died at the hospital.
The break-in happened just after midnight Monday at a home on Marshall Street near N. Flores Street.
Police said a man tried to break into a home through the back door. That's when the homeowner grabbed his gun and fired off a shot at the suspect.
The suspect wasn't hit, but the homeowner's dog got loose and bit the suspect on the ankle. The suspect was taken to the hospital in stable condition. He'll be facing attempted burglary charges.
On 11 August, 2021, the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board held a meeting which had, as one part of the agenda, the setting of a quota for the number of wolves to be harvested in the November 2021 hunt. The board took testimony from over 50 people. The meeting took over six hours.
Link to youtube of Wisconsin Natural Resources Board Meeting on 11 August, 2021.
At about 5:43:00 Board member Greg Kazmierski gave the number of wolves killed in previous years, which he read from a "green sheet" presented by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to the Board. The numbers were for the three hunts which were held in 2012, 2013, and 2014, before the wolf hunts were stopped by lawsuit.
There were 224 wolves killed in 2012, 358 in 2013, and 207 in 2014.
The wolf population before the hunts were started was reported at 809. After the hunts, the wolf numbers was reported at 866. In spite of 789 wolves being taken over three years, the overall wolf numbers increased. In 2013, the DNR stated the goal was to put "downward pressure on the wolf population". According to wisn.com:
The state's wolf management plan, developed in 1999, calls for a population of 350 wolves. MacFarland said that plan will be updated in 2014.
An article year later, in the 2014 jsonline, showed the policy of the department was to reduce the wolf population, and the goal was a population of 350 wolves.
With state management restored, the DNR announced its desire to reduce the wolf population to a "biologically and socially acceptable level."
The 1999 Wisconsin wolf management plan established a wolf population goal of 350 animals.
The three hunts from 2012 to 2014, in spite of 789 wolves being killed, had not reduced the wolf population. Natural increase had been more than the 789 killed.
In 2013 and 2014, when the wolf population was well below what it is in 2021, the DNR goal was to reduce the wolf population.
After midwest wolves were finally delisted from the endangered species list, seven years after a lawsuit put them back on the list, 218 wolves were harvested. The DNR had set a goal of harvesting 200 wolves.
The actual harvest was only 9% over the desired number. Many outlets claimed it was almost double the desired number. The discrepancy comes because there are treaty obligations with the tribes in Wisconsin. The treaty has been interpreted to allow the tribes to take about 40% of the hunting quota.
This would not be a problem, if the tribes actually harvested wolves. The tribal council decided to play politics instead. They take the quota permits, then do not issue any permits to tribal hunters. Thus, the tribes, which have no responsibility to manage wolf numbers, attempt to prevent the State from managing them. From wsau.com:
Peter David with Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission gave some perspective from the tribes. “I think from a cultural role there’s a feeling that it’s really not actually our place to decide what’s suitable for wolves or not. Wolves are quite capable of making that decision on their own,” said David.
The non-tribal permits were 119. Because of the near perfect conditions for the hunt in February of 2021, 218 wolves were harvested before the hunt was stopped. Many outlets claim 99 wolves were over harvested. In fact, the original goal was to harvest 200 wolves. The harvest was only 18 wolves over the goal.
Even 218 wolves did not move the total toward the stated goal of a population of 350 wolves.
In the 2021 meeting, the DNR stated 350 wolves was never the population goal.
The current DNR claimed 350 wolves was the lowest acceptable limit for the wolf population. There was a clear dispute among the board members over what the goal was. There is no dispute the DNR, in 2013 and 2014, wanted the wolf population to be less than 800. In the latest measured numbers, the population was estimated to be much higher than 800. From mountaindailynews.com:
According to the DNR’s modeling, the state’s packs had 1,136 wolves before the hunt. The agency estimates the population could range from 944 to 1,377 wolves across their range. Data collected from wolf survey and monitoring efforts from November through Feb. 21 indicates the population was stabilizing before the abbreviated wolf season.
Given the history of the increase in wolves in Wisconsin, Greg Kazmierski, a board member recommended a quota of 504 wolves to accommodate the tribes treaty rights and to harvest enough wolves to move the population back toward the 350 goal. He stated to do otherwise would be to abdicate the board's responsibility to follow the management plan.
A DNR attorney said such a move might not be defensible in court.
The Wisconsin Conservation Congress recommended a quota of 300 wolves. The DNR recommended a quota of 130 wolves to be "conservative" to "stabilize" the existing population, at about a thousand wolves. After several votes, the board agreed on a compromise quota number of 300 wolves.
It appeared this is another conflict between people who have to live with wolves and people who mostly live in urban areas who do not want to see any wolves killed. These conflicts did not exist when most people in urban areas had rural roots. The problem is exacerbated because the federal government insists on managing state affairs.
These conflicts did not exist when the federal government was kept within the limits of the Constitution.
It is easy to want a high wolf population when you do not have to live with the wolves.
©2021 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
HOUSTON - A homeowner was
woken up to the sound of two men reportedly stealing catalytic
converters from their car in northwest Houston overnight Saturday.
Police say around 3:30 a.m. a caller told them she and her husband woke to two men stealing the catalytic converters outside their home in the 5800 block of Spruce Forest. Initially, the suspects fled but the caller told police they returned about 15 minutes later.
This time, however, the caller said her husband found the same suspects and shot one of them.
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A 23-year-old man who was threatened at gunpoint disarmed a woman and shot her in the chest early Friday morning (Aug. 13), according to New Orleans police.
The incident occurred Friday at 2:07 a.m. in the 100 block of Carondelet Street in the Central Business District. The NOPD did not disclose the woman’s condition, nor immediately respond to a request for more information on the incident. It was unclear from the initial police account of the event whether the man and woman knew each other before the shooting.
RICHMOND, Va. -- A man robbed in Richmond pulled out a gun and shot his assailants, Crime Insider sources told Jon Burkett.
One of the men died as a result of the shooting, the other was taken to the hospital.
WEBSTER GROVES, Mo. (KMOV.com) – A Webster Groves homeowner killed an alleged intruder overnight.
According to police, a homeowner in the 1400 block of Grant confronted a man who entered a rear door of his home just before 3 a.m. The homeowner was armed with a shotgun and reportedly shot the intruder when he did not comply with verbal commands to exit the residence.
"I would have done the same," neighbor Greg O'Brien said. He woke up to the incident. "That's the first thing I did when I heard my dogs go crazy, I grabbed my handgun."
On 12 November, 2018, at about 8:34 pm, Basel Soukaneh was driving in Waterbury, Connecticut. He was not familiar with the area, and was attempting to find a house he was considering purchasing. The GPS on his cellphone had frozen. The cell phone was on a holder on the dash, so he pulled over to adjust it. Shortly after he pulled over, with the engine running, an officer knocked on his window and demanded his license. The interior lights on the vehicle were turned on.
According to the complaint, Soukaneh rolled down his window and said "Hi" the the officer. The officer yelled "Your drivers license!". Soukaneh then took the drivers license and his pistol permit from the visor of his vehicle and gave them to the officer, while telling the officer he had a pistol in the car.
The officer opened the door, grabbed Soukaneh, and attempted to force him from the vehicle. Soukaneh had his seat belt on, but was pulled half out of the car before he was able to turn off the ignition and release the seat belt.
Soukaneh suffers from two herniated discs, so this action caused significant pain.
The officer handcuffed Soukaneh and placed him in the back of the police car, in an awkward and painful position. The officer searched Soukaneh's pokets and took $320 and a flash drive, which contained pictures of his deceased father.
The officer or other officers (other officers had arrived) then searched Soukaneh's car passenger compartment and trunk. The incident is claimed to have lasted longer than 30 minutes. Eventually Soukaneh was given a traffic citation and released.
Basel Soukaneh filed suit for violation of Constitutional rights under color of law in United States District Court, District of Connecticut on 25 July, 2019.
Officer David Andrzejewski responded, though his attorney, that he was covered by qualified immunity because the plaintiff was in possession of a pistol, which made him objectively dangerous. The officer claimed qualified immunity applied simply because the pistol was there.
On 6 August, 2021, The United States District Court, District of Connecticut found possession of a firearms permit and a firearm was not probable cause for arrest and search of a vehicle, and was not sufficient cause for a Terry stop detention and search.
On this record, no reasonable officer could conclude that Plaintiff posed a meaningful threat of being “armed and dangerous” simply because he disclosed that he had a pistol and a license to possess it.Knowles, 525 U.S. at 118 (emphasis added). Any contrary holding would make it practically impossible for the lawful owner of a firearm to maintain a Fourth Amendment right to privacy in his or her automobile. See supra 9-10. The Court therefore denies summary judgment on the search of the vehicle and declines to immunize the office.
A consistent body of law is building. Mere possession of arms is not a justification to stop and/or search a person. The courts have been clear. When a legal activity is commonly practiced in a community, mere exercise of the legal activity is not justification to stop, or arrest, or search people who are exercising that activity.
While it may not be germane to the case, it is amusing to note the brief put forward in defense of Officer Andrzejewski misspelled the plaintiff's name.
Soukaneh, was misspelled as Soukarieh. It is unusual to see misspelled words or names in federal court cases.
The finding that Officer David Andrzejewski does not have qualified immunity in this case means a settlement is likely.
Because the case can go forward, discovery can be required. Evidence such as body camera video, radio logs, telephone logs and officer time sheets are likely to be demanded from the department. These things could establish a clear, undisputed, time line for the stop, arrest, and search.
Several other officers may be implicated.
In such situations, Police departments are often willing to settle for a few hundred thousand dollars of taxpayer money rather than submit to discovery.
©2021 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
It all started just before 10 p.m. Wednesday night when a driver was traveling at high speed and crashed into a parked car - and then for some reason she got out of the car and started firing.
The owner of the vehicle that was hit, a man in his 50's, and two others came out to see what happened. That's when the female driver got out of the car and opened fire, hitting all three people.
A neighbor came out to help, and ended up shooting the driver of the car, a woman in her late 20's or early 30's. She died at the scene.
The court records say a witness reported that the incident started as Redd “was beating on” his girlfriend and their parents were called to the scene.
The narrative says her mother and his mother arrived at the house but were at first unable to get inside.
“(The witness) said Darnell was holding the door shut while he was still fighting with (his girlfriend),” the narrative says. “Darnell moved away from the door during the incident and Sharise entered the residence with a gun in her hand. (The witness) said Sharise and Darnell were pointing their guns at each other and Darnell fired three shots...”
FLORENCE, S.C. (WBTW) — Police charged a Florence County woman with attempted murder Saturday after she shot another woman during a fight at a bar and was later shot by an armed security guard, according to police.
The ex-boyfriend then opened an iron gate at the front of the home and charged at the father, KSAT reported. The father, who was armed, told the ex-boyfriend to leave before firing a shot, striking him.
Officers arrived to find the ex-boyfriend on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene, KABB reported.
The father was detained by police. He told investigators he had felt threatened and had the gun to protect himself. He has not been charged.
The same person who invented the muffler for the automobile invented them for guns. Hiram Maxim, the inventor, called them "Silencers". An obvious reason they were not invented earlier is the inside of a gun muffler is more complex than a gun barrel. Early silencer designs were made of mild steel, making them subject to corrosion. A silencer for a gun using black powder, would require a significant effort to clean after each use.
Smokeless/non-corrosive gunpowder did not become common until about 1900. At that point, gun mufflers became more practical. Increasing prosperity in society, brought about by technical innovation and the use of fossil fuels, made target shooting more economical for more people.
Hiram Maxim invented the gun muffler in 1902. It was moderately popular. President Theodore Roosevelt owned several and found them useful for target shooting and pest control.
The Progressive regime of Franklin Delano Roosevelt was able to make the interstate transportation and marketing of silencers prohibitively expensive in 1934. There was no clear reason to do so in the legislative record. Placing prohibitive taxes on machine guns, silencers and short barreled rifles and shotguns was the booby prize in 1934. The main aim of the proponents of the law had been to require registration and licensing of all pistols.
How states banned silencers is less clear. There was no upwelling of public sentiment to ban silencers. It appears there was a top-down push, perhaps to protect the federal law from challenges. Texas passed its ban on silencers in 1973. Iowa banned silencers in 1983. Wisconsin law banning silencers was hidden in a budget bill in 1991.
There has been push back. Some states which banned silencers have allowed possession under federal law. Some states have removed their state bans altogether. Texas recently repealed their silencer ban and replaced it with an anti-commandeering law favoring silencers.
Silencers are legal to own in 42 of the 50 states.
The American Suppressor Association keeps track of state legislation.
ATF has a good compendium of firearm laws by state.
States with outright bans on gun mufflers/silencers/suppressors are: California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Hawaii, Delaware and Rhode Island. They account for 8.11% of the land area of the United States. There are ongoing efforts in those states to allow for silencer ownership under federal law.
If Texas, whose silencer reform law goes into effect on 1 September, 2021, is included, there are 22 states who do not regulate silencers under state law. They cover 39.5% of the land area of the United States.
The states which offer significant opportunities to repeal bans on the safety devices are those which have ceded sovereignty over silencer regulation to the federal government. There are 20 of them.
They are Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa,
Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri,
Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, and
Wisconsin. They cover 52.5% of the land area of the United States.
Nine of those states are Constitutional Carry states. Several others are somewhat supportive of the Second Amendment. Those states seem ripe for legislation to repeal their state bans on gun mufflers/silencers/suppressors.
The ban on gun safety devices never made any sense.
The records show they are seldom used in crime. Millions have suffered significant hearing loss because of the medical blunder of the FDR administration.
Repeal of state bans accomplishes several things. It sends a message the federal ban is foolish and counterproductive. It removes a potential barrier if the federal law is reformed. It reaffirms state legislatures' support of the Second Amendment. It limits the possibilities for states to prosecute people for possession of safety equipment.
There are only a few federal prosecutions for illegal silencer possession each year. It appears the number is about 30 a year. If people make their own gun mufflers, and state prohibitions are repealed, the danger of federal prosecution becomes vanishingly small, unless the person actively seeks to become a test case, or brags about flouting the federal law on social media.
As with prohibition, when the public ignores the law, there is a good chance to repeal it. The ban on the gun mufflers, also known as silencers/suppressors, is ripe for public scorn.
This correspondent recommends Second Amendment supporters use the ATF Form 1 to obtain the legal permission to make their own gun muffler. Massive compliance is another way to attack the travesty of the federal ban.
©2021 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
Two off-duty Lawrence officers were outside the bar and confronted the person who then fired shots. One of the officers returned fire injuring that person. The shooter was taken to the hospital where they are critical.
The officers are now on leave while the incident is investigated — which is standard protocol.
The suspect in the car was hit and fired back before he drove off. He drove the car to the WingHouse on Parkway Center Court and called 911. He was hospitalized and is expected to recover, officials said.
As Mack was walking backwards away from the men who had approached him, one of them stated that he was going to rob Mack. Then one of the alleged attempted robbers pulled out a gun and threatened Mack.
Mack who was also armed with a gun, began shooting at the man who had pulled out a gun. The man ran back to his car and attempted to drive away when he crashed into the retaining wall at around 10:54 p.m., according to the DeKalb Police Department.
Upon officers’ arrival, they found a vehicle that crashed into a concrete retaining wall. The driver of the vehicle was found to have been shot. Officers performed life saving measures until the DeKalb Fire Department arrived on scene. The driver was taken to Northwestern Kishwaukee Community Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
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