"JCSO detectives are investigating claims of self-defense during the home-invasion burglary," the Sheriff's Office stated. "An occupant of the home held a valid protection order against the suspect. There have been no arrests, and all parties are cooperating with the investigation."
Monday, November 27, 2023
AZ: Gunfight, Road Rage? Shots exchanged between Vehicles
The man told Mesa police he was shot at by a group people in another vehicle and he returned fire with his own weapon. Police are checking the surrounding area for additional victims and the other involved vehicle has not been located.
Saturday, November 25, 2023
TX: Gunfight, Victim Injured in Home Invasion
CROCKETT, Texas (KTRE) - Police responded to a shooting on Sunday after two suspects broke into a home.
Around 7:34 p.m., 911 dispatchers received multiple calls reporting shots fired in the 700 block of East Runnells Avenue, according to a statement from the Crockett Police Department.
Officers learned there was one gunshot victim who had already been taken to a medical center by personal vehicle. Police said the victim received treatment at the hospital and was later released.
Friday, November 24, 2023
CA v ND Newsome v Noem, Statistics and Disinformation
Newsome image cropped from Wikipedia
A recent invitation by Governor Noem of South Dakota, followed by a response from Governor Newsome of California illustrates how people use numbers to lie with statistics.
The Governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, invited more gun manufacturers and gun owners to come to South Dakota and take up residence. From contracosta.news:
PIERRE, S.D. – Governor Kristi Noem invited California gun manufacturers and law-abiding gun owners to move to South Dakota to escape California’s gun and ammunition tax , which Governor Gavin Newsom signed as the first such tax in the country.
“Why would anyone want to live in a state where your Second Amendment rights are infringed?” said Governor Noem. “South Dakota has been setting the standard as the most Second-Amendment friendly state in the nation for years. Our firearms industry is thriving. Unlike Governor Newsom, South Dakota respects our God-riven rights. So if you are a California gun manufacturer or law-abiding gun owner, we are ready to help you make the move!”
On X, formerly Twitter, Governor Gavin Newsom replied:
South Dakota has a 59% higher gun death rate than California.
California, as of 2020, the last year of available records, had a 33% higher homicide rate than South Dakota.
The two numbers are not contradictory. "Gun deaths" is a propaganda term which lumps together murders, self-defense shootings, suicides, and a small number of fatal accidents, all of which have disparate causes and cures, for the purposes of promoting government restrictions on gun ownership and use.
Legal or illegal gun ownership rates are not correlated to homicide or suicide rates, because other instruments are easily substituted. It only takes a tiny number of firearms in society to supply criminal needs.
Those who push for more restrictions on the ownership and use of firearms focus on homicides or suicides committed with guns. This is a false paradigm. Restrictions on gun access or use do not reduce overall homicides or suicides. People who want to disarm others focus on firearms because they dislike firearms. In this article on Vox, notice the focus on guns, not on homicide or suicide. No mention is made of the positive contributions of guns to society. From Vox:
Does gun control help reduce gun deaths? It's a crucially important question, but even for PhDs, it's a tough one. There's been a mountain of research on the subject, but these dozens of studies conducted over many years and in many different countries reach a broad and sometimes contradictory range of conclusions. It's hard to know what it really tells us, taken together, about whether gun laws can reduce gun violence.
Why does Vox consider "gun deaths" a crucially important question?
Reducing "gun violence" is unimportant if total homicides and/or suicides remain the same or go up.
The study was inconclusive about whether overall homicide or suicide rates were reduced. People who were philosophically aligned with preventing people from accessing and using guns tend to produce studies tied to slightly lower rates of homicides and suicides committed with guns when laws are passed restricting access and use of guns. People philosophically aligned with the freedom of people to access and keep weapons, tend to produce studies tied to slightly higher rates of overall homicides and no change in suicides after laws are passed restricting access and use of guns. The differences are small. The point of view of the observer may skew the results more than what can be measured.
The philosophical difference is: Do people make their own decisions, or does the environment people are in control them? The left inverts the arrow of causation, and believes the trigger pulls the finger. Supporters of the Second Amendment believe people make decisions and should be responsible for them.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
IL: Chicago, Person with Pistol Permit Returns Fire
A man, 27, was shot in the abdomen while driving around 12:50 a.m. on Sunday in the 1900 block of West Congress Parkway, police said. The victim, a concealed carry license holder, fired shots back with his handgun. He was taken to Stroger Hospital in fair condition.
OK: Gunfight: Two Killed, Three Injured as Armed Teens Refuse to Leave Party
Adam Ballance, a 40-year-old resident of the home, told the boys, "You aren't the only one with guns here," and retrieved his AR15.
The argument moved to the front yard, where Tyrell Junior, 16, pointed his gun at Ballance. Ballance then shot at Junior. Junior and Michael Thomas, 15, allegedly returned gunfire.
Ballance was shot in the head, chest, and elbow and died from his injuries. Junior was also hit multiple times and died from his injuries.
After Ballance fell, one of his sons picked up his AR and shot at Thomas.
Thomas allegedly ran from the scene but realized he left his cell phone. He returned and he and Ballance's son shot at each other again, according to court documents.
Thomas was shot in the arm and Ballance's son was shot in the leg. Thomas ran again but officers found him not far from the home.
An 18-year-old inside the house during the gunfire was also struck and at last check is in critical condition.
Thursday, November 23, 2023
TX: Gunfight, Suspect and Victim both Wounded
Security guards reported that a group of men had tried to get into a club but were denied entry, police say. As they were walking back to their pickup truck, the suspect reportedly walked up from Rankin and tried to rob them, police say.
Police say the suspect and one of the men in the group both shot at each other. The suspect and one of the men in the group were struck by the gunfire.
SC: Car v Gun, Security Guard shoots, Wounds 15-Year-Old
He said the car then accelerated forward, hitting the guard, causing him to land on the hood. The guard says he then fired a shot into the windshield. The driver made a sharp turn, throwing him off.
The vehicle traveled out of the lot and into the middle of Elm Street between 4th and 5th Avenue South. All three occupants got out and ran.
A 15-year-old suspect was located in a nearby alley with a gunshot wound. He was taken to Vanderbilt Pediatrics and is expected to recover.
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
DC Court of Appeals: Lawful Self Defense Includes Time to Responsibly Disarm
The rule of law and due process applies to everyone, even people with long criminal histories. Even people who have bad reputations in dangerous, gang infested, drug dealing dystopias. In 2016, Saeve Evans was involved in a gunfight. A 16-year-old girl was killed. Saeve Evans legal defense was self defense.
Saeve Evans has had many interactions with DC police. There was the D.C. kidnapping and murder case. Saeve has prior felony convictions. The video says Saeve has "more bodies than I have toes".
Here is a youtubevideo about one of the recent incidents Saeve Evans was involved in. Saeve must have been released pending the appeal of the 2016 case, because the video incident happened on August 1, 2023.
Saeve Evans is still a citizen of the United States. He is protected by the Constitution.
On November 25, 2016, Saeve Evans was in a gunfight during which a 16-year-old girl was killed. During the gunfight, he was briefly caught on surveillance video with a gun in his hand. The defense argued Saeve Evans had fired the mini-Uzi in self-defense. Evans is a convicted felon who had been shot multiple times before this incident. Evans was about 30-years-old at the time. Saeve Evans surrendered to police on November 29. Evans demanded a jury trial. The jury found Evans not guilty of everything but the illegal possession of a gun.
DC law allows even violent felons to use guns for self defense, as an exception to their more general ban on possessing guns. The video shows Evans had the pistol in his possession for at least three seconds after the gunfight was over. The police were not able to prove Evans had the pistol in his possession before he could legitimately use self defense. The people on the other side of the gunfight were never identified. The judge ruled the three seconds were long enough to convict Evans of illegal gun possession.
Evans was convicted. Evans appealed to the DC Court of appeals. The opinion was rendered on November 16 of 2023. It was a split decision on basic self-defense rights. From courthousenews.com:
DEAHL, Associate Judge: The otherwise illegal possession of a firearm may be justified, so as not to be criminal, if the weapon is held in lawful self-defense. This case presents the question of when precisely that legal justification ends—whether it is the instant a person realizes the threat has subsided or if it instead extends to a period allowing the person to reasonably relinquish the weapon. The trial court instructed the jury, as the government now maintains, that the justification ends the moment the person appreciates that the threat animating the right to self-defense has subsided, so that they must effectively drop the gun in that instant or otherwise lose their justification defense. In appealing his conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm, Saeve Evans counters that the justification defense logically extends to a short period after the person realizes the threat has subsided, so that they have a reasonable opportunity to promptly dispossess themselves of the weapon. We agree with Evans and reverse his conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm.
Even convicted felons with long histories of interactions with the police have the right to defend themselves from those with homicidal intent. The DC jury was unclear how long would be acceptable for Evans to hold onto a firearm he had just used to defend his life. The judge in DC said no time at all. Two of three judges on the DC circuit said some time must be allowed for the defendant to reasonably disarm. In this hard case, two judges on the three judge panel came down in favor of self defense.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
SC: Domestic Defense, Father Shoots Son who Attacked Him
Authorities learned that the father and son got into a fight, according to deputies.
Deputies say the son had knocked his father to the ground and began choking him. According to deputies, the son also had a knife in his hand during the time.
The father was able to grab a pistol and fired a shot into his son's stomach, deputies say.
According to deputies, investigators were not able to speak to the son since the incident happened due to his injuries and being under heavy sedation at the hospital.
TX: Domestic Defense? Woman Shoots Man who Kidnapped Her
BORGER, Texas (KVII) — A police chase ended when the victim shot the man who took her hostage.
Around 3:40 p.m. Friday, Borger police responded to a "disturbance" in the 1200 block of Indiana Street.
Before they arrived, the 911 caller said the suspect and victim had left the scene and that the female was possibly being held against her will.
Media Headlines lie About Rahimi Second Amendment Case
The Rahimi case oral arguments have been heard by the Supreme Court. It was bumped to the head of the line by the Biden administration. At its core, the case is not about domestic violence. It is about whether fundamental rights, enumerated in the Bill of Rights, can be nullified by a judge in a civil hearing with almost no due process. No jury trial, no right to a lawyer, no criminal conviction. From the Fifth Circuit decision on the case:
Perhaps most importantly, the Government’s proffered interpretation lacks any true limiting principle. Under the Government’s reading, Congress could remove “unordinary” or “irresponsible” or “non-law abiding” people—however expediently defined—from the scope of the Second Amendment. Could speeders be stripped of their right to keep and bear arms? Political nonconformists? People who do not recycle or drive an electric vehicle? One easily gets the point: Neither Heller nor Bruen countenances such a malleable scope of the Second Amendment’s protections; to the contrary, the Supreme Court has made clear that “the Second Amendment right is exercised individually and belongs to all Americans,” Heller,554 U.S. at 581.Rahimi, while hardly a model citizen,is nonetheless part of the political community entitled to the Second Amendment’s guarantees, all other things equal.
The dominant media headlines ignore the crux of the case. In headline after headline, they claim the case is whether people who commit domestic violence can be disarmed. Nothing in the case challenges the power of the government to disarm people who are convicted of domestic violence. Rahimi was never convicted of domestic violence. Here are some of the gaslighting headlines:
From the BBC US & Canada:
Should domestic abusers have guns? US Supreme Court will decide in United States v Rahimi
From cbsnews.com:
From USA Today:
Supreme Court poised to support law banning domestic abusers from owning guns
From Time.com:
Supreme Court to Decide Whether Some Domestic Abusers Can Have Guns
From abcnews.go.com:
Supreme Court reviews federal ban on guns for domestic abusers
From the New York Times:
Supreme Court Seems Likely to Uphold Law Disarming Domestic Abusers
From National Public Radio:
Supreme Court to decide if gun bans for domestic abusers are constitutional
The above seven news outlets are some of the most influential major news outlets for the United States and the planet. Their headlines uniformly misstate the Rahimi case in a major way. They all indicate the case is about whether domestic abusers can be disarmed. The case is not about disarming domestic abusers. No one is challenging the federal law which calls for those convicted of domestic abuse to lose the ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
This law has nothing to do with those convicted of domestic violence. In the body of most of the articles, the law being challenged is clarified: the question is whether those accused of domestic violence, who are the subject of a court issued restraining order, can have their ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights taken away from them by a single judge without an adversarial hearing, without the right to a lawyer, without the right to a jury trial.
This is not allowed for the rest of the Bill of Rights. The Rahimi case is a good illustration of why this law is redundant and unconstitutional. Rahimi is accused of multiple felonies. He could easily have been arrested, held without bail, and prosecuted for domestic violence, and aggravated assault, public endangerment, and others felonies. He is accused of committing many of the felonies while he was under the domestic violence restraining order. He was not arrested for the felonies which he is accused of. He was arrested for possessing a firearm while under a restraining order.
A great many people get their news from headlines, and never read the articles.
The law in question is a powerful example of how to undermine the Constitution and the rule of law. Undermining the Constitution and the rule of law is what the dominant media are cheering for in this case. If your Second Amendment rights can be taken away with a mere accusation, by a judge who faces no consequences for his actions, the entire Bill of Rights is at risk.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
WA: Domestic Defense; Woman Shoots, Kills Ex as he Breaks in
ISSAQUAH, Wash. — Investigators say a man was breaking into his ex-girlfriend's house Friday morning when she shot and killed him.
The shooting happened at 10:25 a.m. at an apartment complex near 2900 NW Steelrake Place in Issaquah.
PA: Car Wash Employees Shoot at Speeding Car
Police said there was an argument between a 56-year-old man and employees that turned into a fistfight outside of the business.
Soon after the physical altercation, authorities said the man sped away in his vehicle and struck an employee.
Two employees, who have licenses to carry, pulled out their firearms and shot at the vehicle, hitting the man in the arm.
Monday, November 20, 2023
Book Review: Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America by Gary Kleck, 1991
Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America by Gary Kleck, 1991, 511 pages, published by Aldine De Gruter, New York. Softcover published by Routledge in 2017. Copies of Point Blank are available at ABEbooks and at Amazon.com. Used hardcover copies are the least expensive at about $13.
This correspondent has had Point Blank on my reference shelf for about three decades. It is a valuable resource for all people interested in firearms statistics and legislation. Gary Kleck's book has large amounts of data which is difficult to find with an Internet search. The book was published when the Internet was in its infancy. He has tables listing firearms manufacture, imports and exports from 1946 to 1987. Those tables are one of many hard to find sources of information which are in the book.
Dr. Kleck recieved the Michael Hindelang award, for Outstanding Book, from the American Society of Criminology in 1993, shortly after Point Blank was published. He is one of the most respected professors studying criminology in the United States. Kleck is a self described liberal. He changed his opinions about what legal restrictions on gun use would be effective because of his academic research.
Here is an example of the objective writing in Point Blank, page 14:
Proponents argue that these weapons are only useful for committing crimes, and sometimes even imply they are never used for any legitimate purposes. (Fields 1979; Shields 1981). Because the guns have no legitimate purposes, it is argued, there can be no valid objection to outlawing them.
The logical problem with this position is that whatever technical attributes guns have that make them suitable for committing crimes necessarily also make them useful for a variety of lawful applications. This issue is discussed at length in Chapter 3.
Point Blank is in three parts. The first part details gun control issues, and details information about who owns guns in the United States and how many guns there are in the United States. This may be the most dated portion of the book, but is valuable for historical reasons.
The second part of the book explains what effect guns have in the United States. This includes Dr. Kleck's research on the number of times guns are used for self defense in the United States.
The third part of the book deals with types of policies which are in effect to regulate guns, and what effect those policies might be having. Kleck is skeptical of most regulations.
Dr. Kleck is not a Second Amendment advocate. Dr. Kleck advocates universal background checks. He does not consider the implications for the Second Amendment.
I would like to see Dr. Kleck produce an updated version of Point Blank. It has been over three decades since the data was collected for Point Blank. The FBI has changed their online data access. The FBI website makes specific data much harder to find than it was just four years ago. Part of this is the elimination of the FBI Uniform Crime Reports. It is good to have a hard copy of the data easily available. Online data can easily be changed or eliminated with a few keystrokes.
Dr. Kleck is now the David J. Bordua Professor/Professor Emeritus at the College of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Florida State University.
FL: Homeowner Fatally Shoots Intruder
A Port Orange homeowner fatally shot an intruder trying to force their way into a residence early Thursday morning, according to police.
Port Orange Police stated officers responded at 12:05 a.m. Thursday to the 5900 block of Pelham Drive in reference to a burglary to an occupied dwelling, the release stated.
ID: Homeowner Confronts Intruder at Gunpoint; Intruder Refuses to Leave
A Boise man tried to rob a home early Thursday morning, only to be thwarted by an armed homeowner who told him to leave before the would-be burglar barricaded himself in the house, according to police. Surveillance video captured a 22-year-old man walking up to a home in the 6000 block of West Cassia Street, opening the door and going inside after 2 a.m. Thursday, a Boise Police Department news release said. The owner of the home confronted him at gunpoint and ordered him to leave, according to police, but the intruder refused and fled to the house’s furnace room, barricading himself inside.
Cheap Gun Opportunity in San Antonio November 19, 2023
Image courtesy Dean Weingarten, small portion of guns turned in, Phoenix, May, 2013
In San Antonio, Texas, at the Alamodome parking lot, a gun "buyback" is planned from noon to 5 p.m. "Buyback" is an Orwellian term designed to give the impression all guns come from the government. You can not "buy back" what you never owned. A more correct term would be gun turn-in, because the guns are turned in to the police to be destroyed. A flurry of the gun turn-in/"buyback" events have been scheduled recently for Dallas, El Paso, and San Antonio in Texas, and for three cities in New Mexico. Much of the money for these events come from the dollars created by the Biden administration. $100,000 of the funds for the San Antonio event are "rollover funds", funds which were not spent in the last budget. The event in San Antonio is planned to be "semi-anonymous". From ksat.com:
SAN ANTONIO
– A North Side councilman hopes to make a dent in San Antonio’s gun violence through a “voluntary weapons exchange,” where people can trade their guns for H.E.B. gift cards with “no questions asked.”Councilman John Courage is organizing the Nov. 19 event through his District 9 council office, using funds from his district budget and donations.
People can bring as many as 20 unloaded weapons to the Alamodome parking lot that Sunday afternoon and, depending on the condition and type of firearm, receive between $50 and $300 worth of gift cards per weapon.
“Just drive in,” Courage said. “No one’s going to ask your name. No one’s going to ask where you got the weapon. No one’s going to ask where you live. Simple as that.”
The event is semi-anonymous because police will first check to see if the firearm was stolen. If it was stolen, it will be returned to the legitimate owner. The person turning the gun in will be questioned. If not stolen, the police will determine what catagory the firearm belongs in, and will issue appropriate gift cards. Few guns at these events are listed as stolen.
Gift cards will vary from $50 to $300 on the following scale. From Ken5.com:
- Non-functioning/Home-manufactured: $50
- Rifle/Shotgun: $150
- Handgun: $200
- Semi-automatic rifle: $300
So far, $126,000 dollars have been pledged to the event. This correspondent expects police overtime would be paid out of that money. Say 12 officers at 6 hours each, at $100 per hour. Printing 2,600 T-shirts cost about $10,000. Add another $10,000 for "non-profit" "overhead" expenses. It still leaves $100,000 for gift cards. Assume the average gift card for a gun is $150, or about 670 guns. I expect that many to be turned in within about 3-4 hours. The Houston event last year purchased 850 guns in 4 hours. The event will likely run out of gift cards. When they do, this correspondent predicts there will be numerous people in line wanting to get rid of the old .22 rifle, shotgun, military surplus bolt gun or pistol they inherited. Many good deals may turn up for $100.
San Antonio Councilman Courage says, if they prevent one death, it will be worth it. The latest, greatest study on the events show it may cause more than one death. The officers doing the overtime, the T-shirt provider, and the non-profits all have money transferred to them, so they will do just fine.
Councilman Courage acknowledges the crime rate will not be lowered. Ann Helmke, the city's "faith liaison" admits the major purpose of the event is propaganda. She calls it education. From sanantonioreport.com:
The gun exchange and memorial will serve to educate the community while making a statement, said Rev. Ann Helmke, the city’s faith liaison.
“In its basic sense, it’s a protest,” Helmke said. “The memorial is so that the community can see the magnitude of the impact.”
In Texas, private purchases are legal and are not infringed by government requirements. Private buyers who show up at these events send their own message. The message from private buyers is: Guns are Valuable. We pay cash. The message from private buyers neutralizes the Guns are Bad, Turn them in message.
This is the reason gun turn in events are rare in most states. In most states the Second Amendment ability to buy guns, privately, for cash, has not been infringed on. Texas is in the majority with most states. Most gun turn in events happen in states where private purchases are outlawed.
If readers attend the San Antonio event, take lots of pictures, so AmmoLand readers can see what was turned in and what was purchased by private buyers.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
Sunday, November 19, 2023
TX: Assassination Attempt and Return Fire
According to Howard, two men were sitting in a parked vehicle at the complex when another man approached them and fired shots.
One of the men inside the car was hurt, and the other reportedly returned fire, hitting the suspect. Howard said everyone then fled the scene.
The person initially struck was found at a nearby gas station on Maine and Murworth with multiple gunshot wounds and was transported to the hospital in critical condition.
The man accused of starting the altercation crashed out at Kirby and South Braeswood and is expected to survive after suffering a single gunshot wound.
ID: Man Shot During Altercation, later Arrested
Police said the shooting occurred around 6:30 p.m. Monday during an altercation in the pedestrian tunnel between Gonzales and another local man.
After the other man shot Gonzales in the face with a pistol, Gonzales fled the scene, police said. The other man called 911 to report the incident and cooperated with the responding officers, police said.
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