Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Michigan Man uses Pistol to Defend against Six Foot Alligator

Derrick Fells with Alligator he Shot on his Property

Image from Tuscola Sheriff's Department

On Saturday, 20 July, 2019, Derrick Fells was trapping minnows on his 17 acre property in Tuscola, County, Michigan. Fells was carrying a pistol. He heard a hissing sound, and thought it might be from a possum. Instead of a possum, there was a six foot long alligator sunning itself next to the Sucker Creek canal on his property.

The Alligator came toward him, and he shot it. He immediately called 911.  From nbc25news.com:
Fells has about 17 and a half acres in Tuscola County's Dayton Township and on Saturday, ended up stumbling upon an alligator while catching minnows on his property.

"There was a 6-foot alligator sunbathing and when I spooked the alligator, it turned on me to come toward me. I pulled my pistol out and I shot it. That paralyzed him and then I immediately called 911,” Fells stated.
Defense against animal attack is seldom mentioned in the debate about Second Amendment rights. It is hard to consider a more legitimate case than a person defending themself from an animal on their own property.

The alligator had escaped from a neighbor who was in the habit of rescuing exotic animals The neighbor has two other alligators, an emu, and rattlesnakes on their property.

Derrick Fells was concerned about what might have happened if it had been a child instead of him who had stumbled on the alligator.  The swing set in the upper left hand corner of the picture indicates it was a valid concern. A loose alligator would not survive a Michigan winter. But winter is months away in July.

The case reminds me of the incident in Zanesville, Ohio, in 2011. In that case, the animal rescue person released 50 predators before committing suicide. Deputies had to shoot them for public safety. One deputy shot a wolf, a bear, and a lion, all in the same night. Many of the released animals were full grown tigers. Tigers and lions are prolific breeders in captivity.

Shooting an alligator in Michigan, in self defense, is little short of meeting up with Bigfoot on the probability scale. While defending against an exotic animal attack is unlikely, people use firearms to defend against animals regularly. In urban areas, defense against dog attack is the most common case.

In rural areas, residents use firearms to defend themselves and their property from multiple threats. The most common are raids on gardens, crops, and livestock by everything from bears to gophers and deer. Feral dogs are a common problem.

People who live in urban areas often have no knowledge about the necessity of defense against these threats. Too many find Fido to be a burden when moving or with a change of circumstance. They find it easier to abandon their dog in the countryside instead of delivering it to the local pound or animal shelter. The rural resident is left to clean up the mess of a starving animal trying to fend for itself. The irresponsible animal owner is able to imaging a farmer adopting a pet instead of one having to shoot a starving feral.

It isn't fun to put down someone's former pet turned feral. But someone has to be responsible and do it.

Farmers cannot take in every abandoned animal. They would quickly be eaten out of house and home. Animals can always breed faster than enough food can be grown to support them.

Alligators are not cute and fuzzy. We do not think of them as furry humans. They are not common as pets.

That is the reason a man shooting an alligator in Michigan is news, while a farmer shooting a feral dog in the same state, is not.

©2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch 

NC: Domestic Defense, Father-in-law Shoots, Wounds, Son-in-law



While at her parent's house, her husband showed up, kicked open the front door and demanded to see her, deputies said. The homeowner, the man's father-in-law, fired a warning shot to scare him away.

The man advanced towards his father-in-law, who in turn, fired several shots into his torso. The two reportedly struggled over the handgun which eventually fell to the floor. Deputies said the man and his father-in-law continued to fight until the man's mother-in-law picked up the gun and fired a shot toward him.
More Here

WA: Attempted Home Invasion, Gunfight, 4 Wounded



"Several individuals arrived in a car around 6:30 this morning and attempted to enter a house, and someone inside the house started shooting, and the individuals fired some rounds into the house," Keene said. "We think this might have been an attempted home invasion."
More Here

OK: Gunfight, Four Injured in Home Invasion

Haskell police say four people are in the hospital after a shooting Tuesday morning near Chickasaw Avenue and Hickory Street.

More Here



"Several individuals arrived in a car around 6:30 this morning and attempted to enter a house, and someone inside the house started shooting, and the individuals fired some rounds into the house," Keene said. "We think this might have been an attempted home invasion."

Same Incident, Later Story Here

FL: Burglary Suspect Shot, Killed



An Escambia County homeowner shot and killed a burglary suspect a little after midnight Tuesday, authorities have confirmed.

The incident occurred in the 7600 block of Lawton Street, said Escambia County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Melony Peterson.
More Here

CT: Victim of Gunshot Accident Charged, Gun Taken



As he was walking out of his bedroom loading his Rock Island Armory, 1911 .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol, the gun accidentally fired, striking him in his left index and middle finger, he told police.

Belske was taken to Stamford Hospital with what police said appeared to be superficial wounds. Shawinsky said there was no mention in the report of anyone else in the apartment.
More Here

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

SC: Bodycam Video Contradicts Sheriff's Account of Deputy Shooting Homeowner



Body camera video footage of a deputy shooting and injuring a Simpsonville homeowner in June contradicts the agency's original account of the events leading up to the incident.

The video, captured by the Greenville County deputy involved in the shooting and released Monday morning, shows the deputy shot the man through the window of his house. Initially, the Sheriff's Office said the man was shot after he opened the door and pointed his gun at the deputy. In the video, the man never opened his door.
More Here

TN: Domestic Defense, Man Shoots Intruder who Assaulted Woman



MCMINN COUNTY, Tenn. — An Athens man is dead after victims claim he was attempting to invade a residence with several people inside and fired a shot at another person, according to the McMinn County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Joe Guy said McMinn County deputies were dispatched to a residence on County Road 114 around 1:30 a.m. Sunday to a report of shots fired.
More Here

GA: Husband Shoots 78-Year-Old man to Protect Wife



Sumter County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Co. Eric Bryant told the Times-Recorder the incident occurred at 6:38 p.m. Sunday at 250 Edgewood Drive, in the Dixie Hills subdivision. He said Ritch McCutchen, 78, of Cordele attempted to enter the residence of Bill and Vicki Brewer to “take Vicki away with him.” Bryant said McCutchen was “infatuated” with the woman. He had recently been released from Crisp County Jail on a charge of aggravated stalking.
More Here

Monday, July 29, 2019

Shooting at Garlic Festival a Gun Free Zone, but Many Police Present

The Garlic Festival is south of San Jose and San Francisco, North of Salinas and East of Monterey Bay. The police response was very quick. It appears the killer was shot less than a minute after he started killing.

At least three people were killed and 15 other people injured in a shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Northern California, authorities said Sunday night. A suspect was also shot and killed.

"It's sort of a nightmare you hope you never have to live in reality," Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee said at a news conference.

Smithee said the suspect appeared to be shooting "somewhat randomly," and that investigators had no information on a possible motive. He said that police believed a second person may have been involved but that they didn't know in what way.

More Here

NC: Woman Shoots Man who had Axe, Charged Her



HIGH POINT, N.C. -- A woman shot and killed a man who she says had repeatedly assaulted and charged at her with an ax, according to a High Point Police Department news release.

Saturday at around 4:10 a.m., police were dispatched to 400 Hickory Lane after being told in a call a shooting had just happened.
More Here

TX: Security Guard Wounds 1 Holds 3 for Police



The armed security guard told police that he heard a woman screaming from the parking lot of the La Estancia Apartment Complex building, so he went to see what was going on.

When the guard arrived, the woman told him that she was robbed at gunpoint by three men, and pointed him in the direction that they fled.

Houston police told ABC13 Eyewitness News that the guard followed the men to an area off US-59 and Chimney Rock. Moments later, the guard and the men exchanged gunfire.

More Here

NH: Homeowner in Rochester Holds Intruder at Gunpoint



Once Cameron realized that man was trying to break into his home and steal his kids' bikes, he pulled his gun.

He carries it all the time, and while he's never before had to use it for protection, he says this is exactly why he has it.

"Because you never know who is going to do you harm," Cameron said. "I was at the zoo yesterday with my children. It was a great day, we had fun, and then there was a situation."

More Here

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Media Contagion Effect: 19-year-Old Arrested in England

Picture of Glock and Ammo Introduced in Court
A young man in the United Kingdom has been arrested, tried and convicted of attempting to possess a pistol and ammunition with the intent of endangering life. In June of 2018, he purchased a Glock 17 and five rounds of ammunition on the dark web. The cost was £300 in bitcoin. The papers in the UK say the pistol and ammunition were intercepted at the Newark Airport in New Jersey.  That is probably true.  Many of these sort of actions are preceded by a "sting". I would not be surprised if the firearm and ammunition were ordered in a sting operation. From the dailymail.co.uk:
A teenager who saw Anders Breivik and those behind the Columbine High School massacre as his 'poster boys' was today convicted of attempting to possess a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.

Kyle Davies, 19, ordered a Glock 17 handgun and five rounds of ammunition from an online gun dealer on the dark web after developing a 'deep and persistent' interest in mass shootings during his A-Levels.

The order purchased by Bitcoin was intercepted by Homeland Security at Newark Airport in New York, with police arresting Davies at his home in Gloucester after delivering a dummy package to him.

A jury at Gloucester Crown Court unanimously convicted Davies of attempting to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life and attempting to possess five rounds of ammunition with intent to endanger life.
The investigation by the police in Glouchester, England, found numerous handwritten notes and digtal devices with trails to more than 100 web pages involving weapons and explosives. It found Kyle Davies, 19, was inspired by the young men who planned and executed the Columbine mass murder, as well as the mass killer in Norway. While Davies never received the pistol or ammunition, the evidence that he was inspired by mass murderers was sufficient to convict him of attempted crimes.

It is clear the media coverage of mass murder, especially when committed with firearms, is the dominant factor here. A paper submitted to the American Psychological Association (APA) indicated that such rampage murders might be cut in half if media would adopt policies to reduce the copycat effect, or, as some have started calling it, media contagion.
“Unfortunately, we find that a cross-cutting trait among many profiles of mass shooters is desire for fame,” she said. This quest for fame among mass shooters skyrocketed since the mid-1990s “in correspondence to the emergence of widespread 24-hour news coverage on cable news programs, and the rise of the internet during the same period.”
 Semi-automatic firearms have been in existence in the United States for over 110 years. There has been widespread availability of military semi-automatics with magazine capacity of 15-30 rounds for at least 70 years. Yet rampage shootings have only increased significantly in the last 30 years.

The theory that media promote rampage shootings far more than gun ownership does, fits the observable facts better than the theory that gun ownership is responsible. The police say the pistol and ammunition were tested and actually worked. From dailymail.co.uk :
 The court heard the handgun, magazine and five rounds of ammunition the teenager had ordered were all tested and found to be viable.
We are not told if the young man's digital devices were tested and found to actually work, as well.

Politicians are far more dependent on the media to stay in power than they are dependent on gun owners, especially in countries with low numbers of gun owners.

It is not surprising politicians would deflect blame from media contagion to gun owners.

©2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

AZ: In Surprise, Arizona, Homeowner Shoots, Kills Aggressive Intruder



The man then got a gun from his car and told Sagasta to stop and to leave his property.

When Sagasta did not stop his aggressive approach, the man reportedly fired at him multiple times.

Sagasta was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
More Here

FL: Gunfight in Auto Shop, Mechanic Killed, Three Brothers Wounded



Jemar Devonte Reid, 20, was arrested after he was allegedly involved in a shooting at Dwayne’s Body Shop, located on the 2400 block of Southwest 31st Avenue, Tuesday night that left his brother and a mechanic dead.

According to officials, Reid and his siblings Kamar and Davieon Reid got into a confrontation with a mechanic before a shooting ensued.

The three brothers were all shot and drove to a nearby Broward Sheriff’s Office Substation to seek medical assistance.
More Here

GA: Gunfight, Store owner Responds to Shots Fired



No one was injured at the scene. It was not immediately clear if the gunman was injured in the exchange of gunfire.

Police said the dangerous robber got away with an unknown amount of cash.
More Here

OH: Gunfight, six people, 1 Dead, 2 Wounded



The 24-year-old man told Cleveland police officers that he was in the studio early Thursday when roughly five males came into the building with guns. He got into a shootout with them, police said.

Investigators did not offer a motive for the shootout.The group of males left the building and drove in a gray Ford Escape, which they crashed into a pole at the intersection of East 18th Street and Prospect Avenue.More Here

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Breakthrough: How to make Cheap Rifled Barrels at Home with Electro Chemical Machining



I have long suggested practical homemade guns of the future will only use 3D printing as part of the process. They will be hybrid designs using the strengths of 3D printing and simple metal components to produce practical firearms in the home or in small, unregulated shops.

A prominent experimenter of homemade and small shop technology for crafting usable guns, Ivan the Troll (Internet screen name) claims to have made a breakthrough in home manufacture of rifled barrels. Ivan is part of, and often the spokesperson for, the Deterrence Dispensed project. (Ivan says Jeffrod did similar work a few years ago)

Rifling a barrel has been done for hundreds of years in small shops. It has been done by individuals over the entire period. It is not hard to do in mild steel. But it takes time, effort, a little skill and some homemade tooling that also takes some effort and skill to produce.  Most current homemade and small shop guns either use mass manufactured barrels (there are hundreds of millions in existence) or use a barrel without rifling.

In the United States, rifled barrels make a legal difference. If the barrel is rifled, a gun meant to be shot one handed is officially a pistol. If it is smooth bored and meant to be shot one handed, and over 26 inches long overall, it is a firearm. If it is smooth bored and was originally manufactured to be fired from the shoulder, is less than 26 inches long, or has a barrel that is less than 18 inches long, it is classified as a short barreled shotgun, and requires an application, interminable months or year long waits for permission to manufacture, and a $200 tax stamp. Short barreled shotguns have been exempted from protection under the Second Amendment, by the courts. While the law is antiquated and of dubious value, it is still the law.

If you wish to legally experiment with making your own pistols, they need to have a rifled bore or the National Firearms Act (NFA) paperwork and tax stamp, in order to comply with United States law. An alternative is to make muzzleloading guns, which do not require a U.S. tax stamp or a rifled barrel, because they are excluded from the NFA.

3D printed guns, when made of plastic, do not have effective rifling. The rifling printed in plastic barrels is to meet legal requirements, not to stabilize a bullet.  Obtaining a mass manufactured rifled barrel in the United States is easy.  They are legally for sale through the mail or over the counter and do not require any license or background check.

Some reasons to make your own rifled barrel are; for experimental purposes, proof of concept, pride in craftsmanship, or political reasons. What Ivan the Troll has done fulfills all those purposes. One character in the expletive in the following quote was altered.  From project ButWhatAbout:
On a quest to make a gun using zero legally defined gun parts with EU laws as a benchmark, Project ButWhatAbout is a 21st-century realization of the Luty SMG. Using modern manufacturing methods like 3D-printing and ECM, the efforts of Project ButWhatAbout have culminated in what is now known as the FGC-9 (F*ck Gun Control). Currently being developed by members of Deterrence Dispensed, the FGC-9 is a 9x19mm firearm based on the Shuty AP-9 by FOSSCAD contributor “derwood”. The FGC-9 uses Glock magazines, and unlike the AP-9 which uses a store-bought Glock barrel, the FGC-9 uses a homemade ECM barrel.
Ivan the troll has produced and tested a 9mm barrel, using commercially available thick-walled steel tube. He bored the tube to the desired dimension for a 9mm cartridge. He rifled it and chambered it. He pioneered doing those things with homemade Electro Chemical Machining (ECM) apparatus. The apparatus parts cost less than $100. The apparatus is simple to assemble from commonly available products and is easily understood. Machining the bore, rifling and chamber took about two hours. The material cost was a few dollars.

Ivan built a firing fixture to test the barrel. He says he fired over 30 rounds through the barrel with no visible wear, nor does he expect unreasonable or exceptionally fast wear. The steel tube was chosen, in part, for its strength. The ECM process works well with hard, tough materials, as long as they conduct electricity.

The purpose of a rifled barrel is to stabilize projectiles for accuracy. Ivan says he achieved 3 inch groups at 25 yards, using his test fixture and commercial ammunition. An ordinary Glock pistol will often achieve 2.5 inch groups at 25 yards. It is practical accuracy, better than most people can shoot a pistol.

Once the ECM tooling is made, there is almost no wear, as there is no physical contact between the tooling and the work piece. The steel tube used to produce the barrel is cut to the desired length with traditional methods. After cutting, making additional barrels will consist of a simple setup, and turning on a couple of switches. The three steps take about two hours, according to Ivan. Most of the time is waiting for a process to be completed, and switching out tools. The time spent waiting can be used in reading, watching a video, or other pursuits. A timer could be used to stop the process instead of watching a clock.

The tooling Ivan used for the ECM  was partly produced with a 3D printer. Looking at his video, it does not seem necessary to have a 3D printer to make effective tooling. It could be done with simple hand tools, with a similar time expenditure. ECM tools have almost no wear. Hundreds of barrels could be produced with one tool, perhaps thousands.

I suspect, with experimentation, the three steps could be combined into one, using one tool that would produce a chambered, rifled bore, from a suitable metal tube, in about an hour.  The tools themselves could be mass produced, and sold cheaply. There is no law against this; such a law would be similar to outlawing drill bits or chamber reamers.

The barrel produced by Ivan is 4.5 inches long. Producing bores five times as long might present challenges with tool rigidity and placement. I suspect 9 mm bores to 10 inches could be produced with little effort.

Bores of .22 caliber would present challenges if over 10 inches long, in my opinion.

All that Ivan the Troll has done with ECM could be done, and has been done, with conventional tools and tooling.  It is easier to purchase a manufactured barrel than to make one yourself.

The exercise shows a person does not need exceptional skill or training to make their own rifled barrels at home. No machine shop is required. Little room is needed.  The process does not produce excessive noise. The process is virtually untraceable and unregulated.

Ivan has shown, as they say, you cannot stop the signal.


©2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch 


























VA: Customer Shoots Robbery Suspects Armed with Replicas



The gunfire didn’t come from the robbers. Police confirmed a customer who legally had a gun confronted the suspects. He killed one suspect and injured another.

One of the witnesses said the customer who shot the two was heard saying, “No one points a gun at me and gets away with it.”

Another customer wanted to get the weapon out of the would-be robber’s hands.

More Here

WA: Man Threatened by Suspected Car Burglar Shoots Same



The homeowner told KOMO News that he thought the man he shot had a firearm.

“I came out, saw the guys, and literally caught them red-handed,” he told the station. “The guy turned around and he had what appeared to be a pistol in his hand, and he hid behind the vehicle and I just took cover beyond the 4-Runner and had to put him down because he was coming right at me.”

According to the sheriff’s office, a handgun was recovered at the scene from the wounded suspect. Detectives said the weapon was stolen during a car prowl in the City of Kent five days ago, according to statement from the sheriff’s office.

More Here

Followup OK: District Attorney to Determine if Shooting was Justified


Ward said the resident was outside and aware of the police presence in the area and "felt threatened" when two people jumped his fence and ran across his yard toward him.

He shot a one of them, the juvenile, in the abdomen.

The third suspect, later identified as Jaylen Cooper, the older brother of the boy who was shot, surrendered to an officer shortly afterward, Ward said.
More Here

Friday, July 26, 2019

PA: Surveillance Video Shows Attack, Defensive Shooting, in Walmart




On Friday, 5 July, 2019, two young women attacked a third woman, Rojanai Alston, in a Walmart store in North Versailles, Pennsylvania.  It was about 9:30 p.m.  A an unknown man accompaning Alston  intervened, and tried to separate the two women attacking the victim from her.

Rojanai had a concealed carry permit, and a handgun, in her purse. As she is resisting the attackers, she manages to pull the pistol from the purse. The young man dives for cover, and the two attackers flee as she fires five shots. It is shown in the video below.


 

Video at link

Then Rojanai, in the heat of the moment, made what may be a significant legal error. She followed one of the attackers for a short distance. It appears one of the attackers is coming back. She fires two more shots. Those shots have landed her in trouble. They connected with her initial attacker. From pennlive.com:
"She was cold-cocked in the head, not once, not twice, but at least three times, and then they attempted to drag her to the ground. And if she didn't have a firearm on her to disperse her two assailants, I don't know if my client would even be alive right now," Haber said.

Despite this, Alston was held for trial on a charge of aggravated assault, WTAE reports, adding:

Alston initially fired five shots. But seconds later, when the woman who threw the first punch comes back in Alston’s direction, Alston fired two more times, shooting that woman in a finger and an upper thigh. All of the women were interviewed by police.
 The  Allegheny County District Attorney has said the first five shots were justified, but the last two were not. Rojanai's attorney disagrees. Rojanai has been charged with aggravated assault.  This case will likely be decided by a jury trial. It will be expensive in time, money and emotional stress.

This is an illustration of how difficult it is to exert calm judgment during and immediately after being attacked. We do not know exactly what was going through Rojanai's mind when she followed her attacker.  Video of that area is not very clear in the clip that has been released. Was her attacker coming back to renew the attack when she fired the last two shots?  Was that a reasonable assumption on her part?

It is easy to say that Rojanai should have not followed her attacker. Those judgments are simple to make from the safety of a computer screen, when we are not in an adrenaline charged fight or flight mode.

The legal standard is, when the threat has stopped, the justification for deadly force no longer exists.
Was the threat stopped when the two attackers fled? Was the threat re-initiated a few seconds later?

The attackers showed no weapons other than hands and feet that I could see in the video.

The conventional wisdom is, once they started to  flee, let them go.

This case shows the wisdom of believing each bullet fired has a lawyer attached to it.

Whatever the jury decides, Rojanai will be paying a price, from large to extremely heavy.

©2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch 




CA: Gunfight, Police Arrest Suspect on Attempted Murder Charge



About 11:30 p.m. Sunday, police responded to the 1000 block of 6th Street after receiving a call about gunshots and broken glass. A male victim inside the residence later told police that Pallas shot into the home and broke several windows. The victim told police he shot back at Pallas in self-defense, police said.

Another resident of the home told police that Pallas said she was at the home to kill the first resident.
More Here

TN: Burglary Suspect Captured at Gunpoint in Oneida

Only the title mentions the suspect was held at gunpoint.

An alleged burglary attempt at an Dean Hill residence in Oneida ended in the arrest of a Winfield woman, after the was cornered inside the home she allegedly broke into by the son of the home's owner.

More Here

CA: Home Invasion Suspect Cody Faunce Killed, Homeowner Wounded



They determined that the man was killed after a home-invasion robbery attempt. Deputies said the suspect tried to enter the home from the back and a struggle ensued between the suspect and the two homeowners. A female homeowner grabbed a firearm and fired several shots, striking the suspect and the other male homeowner.

The suspect has been identified as Cody Faunce, 33, of Oroville. The investigation is ongoing, and no arrests have been made at this time.
More Here

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Constitutional Carry Works in Arizona: Armed 19-Year-Old Shoots, Kills, Carjacker




On 17 July, at bout 1:30 a.m. in South Phoenix, Arizona, there was an attempted carjacking. The suspects may have thought the selected victim would be an easy target, because he was a teenager. It did not turn out that way. In Arizona, there is respect for the Second Amendment. Eighteen, Nineteen, and Twenty-year-old citizens are not prohibited from carrying guns or from carrying them in vehicles. The perpetrators in this attempted crime made a poor choice in the victim selection process. For the knife-man, it was a life ending one. From 12news.com:
Around 1:30 a.m., police were called to the Circle K convenience store at Baseline Road and 24th Street.

Investigators say a 19-year-old man was sitting in his car at a gas pump with the driver's side door open when a woman reportedly came up to him to cause a distraction.

He then noticed the suspect coming toward him from the back of the car holding a knife.

According to the police, the suspect demanded the 19-year-old's car.

At that point, the victim got out his handgun and fired shots at the carjacker. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The target was more alert and better armed than the suspects suspected. He reminded me of the time a slim woman, openly carrying, shot and killed a man who pressed a gun to her neck a few miles away, at about one in the morning of 1 August, 2016. 

The other suspect, 28-Year-Old Viviana Aldrete, has been arrested and charged with 1st degree felony murder and armed robbery. Felony murder is when an accomplice is knowingly involved in a crime with significant, foreseeable risk of death or severe injury. The accomplice can be charged with murder if their associate dies as a result of the attempted crime. Carjacking is one of those crimes.

The situation is under investigation. It does not appear the defender will be charged with any crime. He has not given any interviews, nor has his identity been released by police.

This is a safety precaution. Even long term criminals have relatives and friends. Retaliatory attacks are always possible.

In several states, this young man would not have been legally able to carry a gun for self defense. His Second Amendment right to bear arms would have been infringed in New York, New Jersey, Hawaii, as well as California, and several others.

In Arizona, the Arizona Citizen's Defense League  (AZCDL) worked long and hard to restore Second Amendment rights in the state. Reform of the open carry law and of statutes regulating car carry worked in this defender's favor.

It was not too long ago that carjackings were much more common.  The number of carjackings has fallen, as the number of people who legally carry guns has risen. Most violent crime is down, with increasing legal gun carry, so it is difficult to determine precise cause and effect relationships. The academic literature shows more legal carry of guns is associated with lower crime rates, for the most part. A few studies show an increase in some specific crimes over some time periods.

In this case, the potential carjacker will not be attempting any more crimes.

One career criminal can commit dozens of crimes a year before they are caught.

©2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch 




WA: Man Wounded in Gunfight with Intruders



According to Tenino Police Department Chief Robert Swain, the victim called 911, saying individuals had broken into his house and shots were fired. The man was shot in the thigh area. He returned fire on the assailants, and told authorities he may have shot one of the intruders.
More Here

Followup AR: Gunfight, Police Believe Intruder was Shot when Man Killed in Home


Authorities believe one of the intruders responsible for a deadly home-invasion robbery last month in Hot Springs was also shot during the crime.

Officers found the body of Kenneth Kelly Jr., 23, on June 13 after responding to the 200 block of Portland Street, according to a news release by the Hot Springs Police Department. Authorities said Kelly was shot in his home during an apparent robbery by two male assailants.

Investigators found blood at the scene that didn’t match the victim’s, suggesting that one of the intruders had also been shot, said Hot Springs Police Department Detective Scott Lampinen.
More Here

NH: Police Investigate Self Defense Shooting in Manchester



MANCHESTER — Authorities have released the name of the person shot and killed in the alley of a North End neighborhood and said self-defense could be a reason for the shooting.


Manchester resident Jason Barry, 42, was named in a statement issued by Manchester police and homicide prosecutors. Barry died from a single gunshot wound to the head.
More Here

AL: Resident Shoots Intruder in House



Officials say they were called to the 27000-block of Nick Davis Road around midnight Monday. According to officials, the residents were woken by an unknown man rummaging through their house.

Officials say that during a scuffle, one of the residents shot the intruder.
More Here

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Defense of Property in Northern Wisconsin: From Porcupines

Porcupine damage to garage door frame, and its solution
He woke in the early morning hours, well before sunrise. What was that noise? It sounded like a mouse, chewing on something. Then he realized the noise was not from inside the house. It was from outside the house. He grabbed a rifle, the ubiquitous Ruger 10-22. Prior experience had shown him a .357 magnum was too much gun. Putting on hearing protection in the middle of the night is inconvenient, not to mention waking the entire family. Fortunately, the family dog was kenneled at night. His doggy talents were unsuited to the task required.

The pest was revealed by an LED flashlight from WalMart. It slowly waddled into the garage as he approached. Tossing a couple of expended lead bullets, set aside for re-casting, ahead of it, turned its path back outside. There was no need to exacerbate the damage by firing a round inside. Once on the grass, a .22 Long Rifle to the back of the head dispatched the beast efficiently and instantly.
Porcupines are destructive pests in North American forests. They are one of the largest rodents in North America. Their teeth are continually growing, so they must continually chew to keep their tooth length in reasonable limits.

While their chewing on and eating bark during winter months is said to add little nutrition to their diet, the practice does enormous damage to trees.  My brother recently harvested mature trees from some of the family land. A number of those trees were planted by our parents.



Many of the trees had been damaged by porcupines. The pests significantly reduced the return on the slow growing crop.

Porcupines not only damage trees in the forest. They love to chew on plywood and pressed board. While my brother and I were expanding and refurbishing the family hunting cabin, the damage by  porcupines mounted to hundreds of dollars in material, and dozens of hours of labor.

Hoplophobes seldom consider how valuable the gun is as a tool of rural residents. Porcupines are a pest of the North Woods. Rattlesnakes are a danger, when they take up residence under the front step in the desert. I have used personal firearms to dispatch both.

A rural resident does not have the luxury of calling "animal control" to manage his pests. It would be an impractically expensive and time wasting system. Few, if any, rural governments could afford, or county boards vote for, such a frivolous expenditure of tax dollars.

When most people either grew up on a farm, or had relatives there, the push to disarm them never got off the ground. It was only after a majority had left the land to live in cities for a generation, that restrictions on gun ownership made headway in the United States or in Australia.

Those who wish us disarmed claim they don't intend to take guns from farmers and hunters. Tell that to the farmers and hunters in Australia and New Zealand, who find many of their family heirlooms now banned by law.

When I interviewed an Australian Member of Parliament about the passage of the extreme 1997 law, he specifically remembered the inclusion of .22 rifles, and shotguns. There was no consideration of farmers. The legislators saw no downside. The big effort was to get it passed while emotions were high, before any debate was allowed by the media. Air guns, crossbows, and slingshots were included "to cover as much as possible, with this legislation, realizing the momentum would never be greater".

The most important change, he said, was to move from the expectation an Australian had a right to a gun, to the presumption they did not.

I do not see that happening in the United States.


©2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch 



NM: Wounded Home Invasion Suspect, Isaac Andujo, Appears in Court



Isaac Andujo is charged with felony residential burglary following the incident Friday. Police said neighbors heard screaming and three gunshots ringing from the home off of Indian School and Tramway around 5:30 a.m. and then called the police.

According to the criminal complaint, Andujo broke through a window in the back of the house using a spray can. Police said while he continued to try to get into the home, the homeowner shot Andujo in the hip and continued pointing the gun at him until Albuquerque police got on scene.
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CA: Robbery Suspect Shot, Killed in Vehicle on South Normandie


Cervantes said the man was fatally shot while trying to commit a robbery, and the person he was trying to rob was also inside the vehicle. It's unclear whether the suspected robber was trying to steal the vehicle or rob the man.

No other details — including how the gun was fired or who it belonged to — have been released by police.
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OH: Couple wake to Pistol Whipping, Homeowner Shoots, Kills one Invader



A Canton couple told police they awakened to being pistol-whipped and then the homeowner grabbed his own gun and killed one of the would-be burglar.
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Followup IA: Shooting Death of Home Invastion Suspect was Justified

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) – Authorities have said that a Sioux City shooting during a home invasion in April 2019 was a justifiable use of deadly force.
The Woodbury County Attorney’s Office reviewed the April 9,2019 shooting of a home invasion at 1321 4th Street and made the ruling, according to a release from the Sioux City Police Department
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Tuesday, July 23, 2019

New Zealand: Disarmament Advocate Pushes for More than Semi-Autos



As New Zealand gun owners seek to comply with their government's new ban on the ownership of semi-automatic center fire rifles, an advocate for the ban says it is not enough. Nik Green goes so far as to say the attempt to comply with the ban renders the ban pointless. From newshub.com:
Police are looking into whether kits designed to modify AR-15s from semi-automatic to pump-action would allow owners to keep the rifles, which are used in about half of all mass shootings in the US.

Gun Control NZ co-founder Nik Green says allowing the modification kit would render the new laws pointless.

"Any conversion isn't permanent, so you could quite easily switch it back to being a semi-automatic... It doesn't take these dangerous guns off the streets."
Green is being disingenuous. He makes the jump of logic that because conversions can be reversed, it can be done "quit easily". It is an enormous jump.

It is true conversions can be reversed. Any modification can be reversed if enough time, money, and energy are used. A welded barrel can be replaced with a new barrel. A receiver cut into three can be welded back together and machined again. The truth is new, fully automatic guns can be made as easily as many conversions can be reversed.  Blowback sub machine guns are one of the easiest repeaters to make. They are illegally made in small shops and at home all over the world, from Australia, to Canada, to Brazil, to the Philippines to Israel.

If a New Zealand owner of a converted semi-auto can smuggle parts to reverse the conversion, he could smuggle parts to make a full auto sub machine gun at home.  A short barrel would be as easy to smuggle as a gas tube and block.  Homemade sub machine guns are far less complex than a commercial semi-automatic rifle. From tvnz.co.nz:
It comes as a New Zealand importer considers bringing in an AR-15 modification kit, known as the Animus, which can convert the gun from a semi-automatic weapon to pump-action. The AR-15 was the primary weapon system used during the Christchurch mosque attacks.


The converted pump-action AR-15 has a limited capacity and fires slowly, with every bullet pulled into the chamber manually by hand in a similar fashion to a shotgun. It was designed by an American company to comply with their own gun legislation.




Link to video

In Australia, an even stricter and more draconian ban was put into place in a similar, emotional rush by the government and media. Pump action rifles are banned in Australia, as well as semi-autos, so Australians moved to spring assisted straight pull bolt actions.   This innovative company sells them, quite legally, in several Australian states.

These rifles comply with the extreme Australian Bans on Semi-Automatic Rifles
The Christchurch murderer planned his act of political terrorism for years. He could have made a sub machine gun or several of them. In his manifesto, he mentioned other methods he could have used. He chose semi-automatic guns to obtain maximum exposure for his terrorism from the media, and to push New Zealand and American governments toward more draconian gun control measures.

In Japan, a few days ago, a mass murderer killed 33 by arson. In France, another terrorist, with a religious/political motivation, killed 86 with a truck.

It is easy to see why politicians and the media were so eager to ban guns in Australia and New Zealand. They do not own guns themselves, and see no cost to banning them.  Banning guns places the target on gun owners and shifts the debate from immigration, terrorism and the media contagion to gun ownership. Censorship in New Zealand worked to institutionalize that shift. 

Freedom of speech and of the press are incompatible with gun bans. In the Australian state of New South Wales, it is illegal to possess the knowledge needed to make guns with 3D printers. 

New Zealand is, generally, a law abiding country. Following the rules works both ways. Without the emotional and irrational boost of a mass killing to fuel new laws, it seems likely the conversion of semi-autos to pump action rifles will be allowed. 


©2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch 

KS: Domestic Defense? Lawyer Says Son who Shot Mother was Justified



A boy who shot and killed his drunken mom will plead not guilty and argue in juvenile court that he was legally defending himself and his brother, his attorney said.

The boy’s lawyers have filed to dismiss a voluntary manslaughter charge in the June 20, 2018, death of 41-year-old Lisa Trimmell at a mansion near Andover. Her two sons, ages 14 and 12 at the time, were the only other people there.
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IL: Woman Shot While Breaking Car Windows

The 23-year-old was breaking out car windows when someone fired at her in the 12000 block of South LaSalle Street, police said.

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NH: Warning Shot Fired at Intruder, Intruder Flees



ROCHESTER — Mike Thompson awoke around 3 a.m. Monday to the sound of a man having a conversation with his dog.

Moments later, Thompson found himself face to face with a suspected burglar who refused to leave his 18 D’Amours Ave. home, which led Thompson to fire a low warning shot in the direction of the man.

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LA: New Orleans Armed Victim Shoots Carjack Suspect



NEW ORLEANS — One second, a gun is in his face and a man is demanding he give up his car.

The next second, a would-be victim of yet another carjacking in New Orleans takes a chance. He reaches for his own gun, turns and puts two rounds into the attempted robber. Bleeding, the unknown suspect runs off in the night.

That's what New Orleans Police Department officials say happened on Friday around 9:15 p.m. in New Orleans East, at the 7600 block of Forum Boulevard near Paris Road.
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GA: Man Shoots at his own Car as it is Being Stolen



A person then got into the car and began driving away at about 7 p.m. When the owner came out and spotted his car being stolen, he began shooting at the vehicle.

The driver got away, and police are investigating.
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Monday, July 22, 2019

TX:Domestic Defense, Teen Shoots Stepfather who was Assaulting Mother


Deputies say they responded to a shooting call at a home on Tee Time Court in the Newport Community just before 2:30 a.m. Sunday.

According to authorities, the stepfather was assaulting the teen's mother when he reportedly shot him.

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MD: Husband Shoots, Kills Intruder at 1 a.m.



According to Howard County police, around 1 a.m. a man who was not wearing shoes or a shirt began banging on the door to a house in the 14000 block of Carriage Mill Road.

The residents of the home, who are husband and wife, repeatedly shouted at the man to leave.

The man ignored them and tried to gain entry to the home, at which point the husband shot him once, killing him.
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TX: Man Killed in Shooting Identified as William Shem Vincent



A 23-year-old has been identified as the man killed in a shooting in Arlington on Thursday in which the shooter reported the incident to police.

William Shem Vincent, an Arlington resident, died in an apartment of a gunshot wound to the chin, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner. His death was ruled a homicide.

The man who shot him hasn’t been arrested and is cooperating with the investigation, police said.

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Followup PA: Fatal Shooting of Tony Torrellas was Self Defense



The Lancaster County District Attorney’s office said an investigation shows a fatal shooting in April 2019 was done in self-defense and no charges will be filed.

Prosecutors say Tony Torrellas was shot after entering his ex-girlfriend’s house in Lancaster. The woman’s boyfriend shot Torrellas, authorities said.
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Sunday, July 21, 2019

Facebook Backs off Ban on Distribution of 3D Gun Files



In August of 2018, facebook was accused of banning the distribution of computer files associated with the printing of 3D firearms.  From 3dprintingindustry.com:
According to numerous sources, Facebook released a statement saying: “Sharing instructions on how to print firearms using 3D printers is not allowed under our Community Standards,”
This was always an overreach by Facebook. Information on how to make guns has been freely available, off line in printed form, for centuries. The idea that files on how to make 3D printed plastic guns, are somehow verboten, is a direct assault on the distribution of legal information. From another, pragmatic viewpoint, those files have been available on the internet for years.

In July of 2019, that policy was partly reversed. According to The Telegraph in the United Kingdom, facebook is relaxing the ban, in part, because such information is legal in many countries. From thetelegraph.co.uk:
Facebook will allow some users to spread and promote blueprints for 3D printed firearms on its services, potentially opening the door to sales of untraceable "ghost guns".
The social network said it would let "legitimate" gun shops and online vendors offer instructions for printing so-called “downloadable guns” in places where it is legal to do so.
Facebook has a policy that allows legal commerce. The blanket ban on the distribution of computer files on how to use 3D printers to print out guns or gun parts, was in direct opposition to its policy on legal distribution of information. From facebook.com:
Firearm shops and online retailers are allowed to engage in commercial activity involving firearms and ammunition on Facebook (ex: offering a gun for sale) as long as all applicable laws and regulations are followed.
Constructing your own gun has always been legal in the United States. There have been a few laws that nibbled about the edges. There have been kits and gun parts sold for people to construct their own guns for as long as the United States existed.

The ability to make your own gun is logically a part of the Second Amendment. It has existed as long as the United States. There have been a few odd state laws regulating it. Those laws have been passed recently. They have no long term history.

Individual experimentation with guns and ammunition has always been widely accepted. The most famous gun designer of all time, John Moses Browning, needed neither license nor permit to craft his world famous designs. The only license the famous inventor wanted was the license he granted to manufacturers to produce and market his designs.

Browning's designs included many firearms used in combat by the U.S. military, including the 1897 pump shotgun, the Brown Auto-5 semi-auto shotgun, the Browning Automatic Rifle, the Browning 1919 .30 caliber machine gun and the Browning .50 caliber M2 machine gun.

In the late 1930's the federal government required a license for people to manufacture and sell guns commercially. Individuals making their own guns have never needed one.

In the Heller decision, Justice Scalia mentioned the regulation of "commercial sale" of firearms might be Constitutional under the Second Amendment. It was implied: the regulation of private manufacture and sale would not be Constitutional.

Banning of the distribution of files that can be used to help make guns or gun parts with a 3D printer is blatantly unconstitutional under both the First and Second Amendments.

Firearms made with 3D printers do not create any significant risks beyond what has existed as long as guns have existed.  Guns have been made of materials that are not easily detected by metal detectors for as long as there have been guns. Early guns were made of wood or bamboo. Today's plastic materials can be made into guns by using molds and/or ordinary tools and reinforced plastics, without 3D printers.

The ability to make guns as effective and undetectable as those made with 3D printing has existed a long as there have been guns.

What scares the hoplophobes, is not the ability to make these guns. It is the ease with which they and others, uneducated about guns, see how the ability to make guns overturns the premises of strict gun control.

Defense Distributed saw the potential first, and exploited it. Hoplophobes know little to nothing about guns or ammunition. They have first hand knowledge of computers and printers. Show them guns can be made with computers and printers. They instantly see the potential.

Tell them guns can be made with drills, files, hammers and anvils by illiterate tribesman in Pakistan or the Philippines, and they yawn. They relate to computers and printers. A drill and file is something people in the Red States have.

It is not so much 3D guns they fear; it is the clear understanding of the ease of making guns, promoted by the idea of 3D guns, they fear.

This is why they mounted an all out attack on the First Amendment along with the Second Amendment.
The lawsuits filed by numerous anti-First and Second Amendment state AGs are moving forward in Washington State, as is the lawsuit filed by Defense Distributed against New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, in New Jersey.

All of this is rendered pragmatically moot as 3D printed designs proliferate and are easily available on the Internet, Defense Distributed or not.

Attempting to ban smallish computer files that are widely legal, from distribution on the Internet, is a fools errand.

Those who demand a disarmed population don't care. They don't care if they have to create a distopic tyranny to put domestic disarmament in place. They see any limit on government power as immoral.
Free exercise of speech and the press is a direct threat to their vision of an unobtainable utopia.

©2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch






MS: Gunfight, 63-Year-Old Dead, 25-Year-Old Wounded, Suspected of Armed Robbery

After further investigation, police say they believe the hospitalized male is the alleged suspect. He has not been identified yet, but is 25 years old. He is potentially facing charges once he is released.

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TN: Gunfight, Employee hits Woman with Gulf Club, She Pulls Gun



Police reviewed a recording of the incident and discovered that Khawaf was inside and arguing with the woman through the window. He then went outside with a golf club in his hand and hit the woman in the face. Police said the female pulled a gun out and started shooting at the ground in the direction of Khawaf.

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Followup NC: No Charges for Greg Spinella in Shooting Death of James Franklin Stepp III

Newman said HPD conducted a thorough investigation, and the evidence included some video footage, witness statements and results from an autopsy HPD officers were in attendance for. North Carolina is on the side of Spinella in the incident, according to Newman.


″...the law supports what this man did. It is difficult, it is tragic, yes. This is not the way we want people to handle their disputes, but the facts are compelling that this is an act of self-defense, and for that reason I will not be submitting an indictment to the grand jury,” Newman said.


Newman said the case would not win a conviction in court, and that he and HPD were “very much in agreement” about the results of the investigation.
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More on CA: Sammy Davis Self Defense Shooting Death



A 29-year-old resident of Crestline was shot July 11 at Lake Drive and Lake Gregory Drive moments after he began to assault a 27-year-old male victim, according to a media incident report and a press release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff’s Homicide Detectives responded at 24089 Lake Gregory Drive to conduct the investigation. They learned that the decedent, Sammy Lee Davis, and two other men had approached the victim, who recognized one of the men as an associate of a suspect who assaulted the victim in January 2019, an assault that left him hospitalized.

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Saturday, July 20, 2019

Chicago Illinois State Representative works for Concealed Carry Permits in his Community



On 14 July, 2019, there was one of the frequent shootings on Chicago's West Side, in the Austin Neighborhood. A 22-year-old was killed. Bullets also hit State Representative La Shawn Ford's car. Representative Ford (D-Chicago), has been ambivalent about concealed carry in the City. He has been a representative for the past 12 years. He ran for mayor in 2019, but lost the election. In 2011, he was ambivalent about a concealed carry permit bill. He eventually voted present rather than vote against it.

Representative Ford sponsored and passed a bill creating a Violence Prevention Task Force in 2013.

La Shawn Ford is a liberal democrat in Chicago. He favors more tax money going to Chicago from the State of Illinois, and from the Federal government. He thinks there are plenty of police in Chicago, and they should have more controls on what they do.

On the Mancow Show, on WLS, he said he is encouraging people in his neighborhood to obtain concealed carry licenses so they can defend themselves. From wlsam.com:

Ford tells The Mancow Show on WLS-AM 890 that he is encouraging his residents to arm themselves against the violence.

“I think about it all the time,” Ford said of the shootings that plague his community. “That’s why I’m working with a concealed carry instructor and we’re going to go through the neighborhood and we’re going to encourage people to get their concealed carry license because it makes no sense for people not to have the protections that they need.”
John Lott has written that minorities in high crime urban neighborhoods benefit the most from an increase in concealed carry permits. Maybe Representative Ford has read some of John Lott's research. Maybe it is a classic case of a liberal changing their view when confronted with reality.

Welcome to the party, Representative Ford. One of the healthiest things for law abiding black people to do is to obtain a concealed carry permit. It is proof they are no longer considered second class citizens. Free men have the right to arms. It shows the system works, because they were not excluded from being armed because of their skin color.

For many years, black people were kept from exercising their right to arms. An entire class of gun laws were written and enforced to keep them disarmed.

The Civil Rights movement and its red-headed step child, the concealed carry movement changed all that. Black Americans are applying for and obtaining concealed carry permits in greater and greater numbers.

 Illinois was dragged into recognizing the right to arms by federal courts. It was Otis McDonald, a Chicago resident, in the seminal McDonald v. City of Chicago, that incorporated the Second Amendment as applying against state and local governments, as well as the federal government.  Otis McDonald was an black resident of Chicago.

I continually monitor the Internet for reported self defense events. More and more of those cases involve black people who have concealed carry permits. This is not surprising; the highest concentration of violent crime occurs in black populations.

The way to prevent criminal violence in black population is to instill the rule of law and a respect for the criminal justice system. When a black person applies for a concealed carry permit, their legal rights are respected and another small brick is placed in the foundational respect for the rule of law.


©2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch 





Followup TX: Malcom Nwadike Charged with Aggravated Robbery

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A 17-year-old high school student shot by the delivery driver he allegedly tried to rob at gunpoint appeared in court, where prosecutors said he pretended to be a customer before he was shot.

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TN: Homeowner Holds Burglary Suspect at gunpoint for Police

By then Beck got his handgun and rushed to the front door. Home surveillance video captured Beck firing a warning shot and yelled for the suspect to get on the ground. Moments later, he approached Kemp who remained on the ground and searched him to make sure he didn't have a weapon.

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AZ: Armed 19-Year-Old Shoots, Kills, Carjacking Suspect



Investigators say a 19-year-old man was sitting in his car at a gas pump with the driver's side door open when a woman reportedly came up to him to cause a distraction.

He then noticed the suspect coming toward him from the back of the car holding a knife.

According to the police, the suspect demanded the 19-year-old's car.

At that point, the victim got out his handgun and fired shots at the carjacker. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
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WA: Woman with Rifle Shoots Man, armed with Pistol who Attempted Break-in



Seattle Police said they were responding to a 911 call from the homeowner who told them she had shot an armed man trying to break into her home.

When officers arrived to the scene they found a 41-year-old man behind the home with a gunshot wound to the shoulder and a handgun on the ground near him, according to Seattle Police.
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OH: Burglary Stopped by Armed Homeowner, Suspect Captured by Police



Richard Winegardner’s German Twp. property has been burglarized four times just since May — but the latest would end differently than all the others.

Winegardner was taking a shower on Wednesday, when he heard a stranger in his house.


He said he immediately grabbed his phone to call 9-1-1 and his gun, which was in a gym bag.
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Friday, July 19, 2019

Col. Townsend Whelen Tells How Hoppe's No. 9 Came to Be



Col. Townsend Whelen was an iconic American rifleman, soldier, experimenter, and leader who lived through the introduction of smokeless powder and bolt action rifles. He wrote voluminously, including several books. He lived a long and useful life, born in 1877, and dying at the end of 1961, at the age of 88 (correction, 84). His works live on today and are considered classics.

While visiting my brother in Northern Wisconsin, I was perusing his collection of Gun Digests. Looking at early Gun Digests reminds me of how much things have changed, how much we have lost and gained in our right to keep and bear arms.

In the 1960 Gun Digest, Col. Whelen, in one of the last articles he wrote, reminisced about the introduction of the Krag rifle and Hoppe's No. 9 powder solvent.

I had never seen the story about Hoppe's before. I have been unable to find it on the Internet. As the small excerpt about Hoppe's is well within fair use standards, I will reproduce it here, for the edification of future generations of shooters. The article recounts Col. Whelen's experience with the Krag rifle from 1900 to 1912. The primers of the time were a stable and reliable mix of Potassium Chlorate, Antimony Sulfide powder, Sulfur powder, and ground glass. The main problem with these primers was they produced a highly corrosive residue that stayed in the bore.  From the 1960 Gun Digest, Col. Townsend Whelen, in the article titled: Days of the Krag:
Further experience showed that it was extremely difficult to really clean the bore. After cleaning it apparently thoroughly, within the next day or two "new" fouling would seemingly appear, and slight rusting had started. Captain Foulke thought this was due to the smokeless powder gasses being driven into the pores of the steel by the great heat and pressure, and that the subsequently "sweated out". He had a friend named Frank Hoppe, who was a chemist, so he and Frank started to concoct, if they could, a suitable cleaning solution. The first formula tried they called "An American Rifleman's Friend." It contained some ammonia, would of itself cause rust of left too long in the bore - it was not very satisfactory. The ninth solution they tried proved fairly satisfactory. If the bore was cleaned with a brass wire-bristle brush dipped in the solution for several successive days after the firing it would remain in good condition. Thus was born the celebrated "Powder Solvent No. 9," which is still used extensively, and with which we are all of us very familiar.
Hoppe's No. 9 dissolves the corrosive salts produced by the corrosive primers. Hot water will also dissolve the salts, but then the water has to be removed or it will also facilitate rust. If the water is hot enough, it will heat the barrel to the point the barrel will dry itself. Use of the proper solvent, such as the No. 9 power solvent, eliminates the requirement to use hot water, along with the inconvenience and mess.

Most members of the Gun Culture can remember the sweet smell of Hoppe's No. 9 Powder Solvent.

Now we know how it came to be, and why.

Hoppe's continues to be used to clean rifles and pistols, even though corrosive primers have been supplanted by non-corrosive primers for decades. Corrosive primers are still found in old military surplus ammunition from WWI and WWII. East Block countries and China used corrosive primers until after the fall of the Soviet Union, and for some period later.

Most ammunition imported into the United States has non-corrosive primers; but there are hundreds of millions, if not billions of rounds of the older corrosive ammunition in stockpiles found everywhere from American closets to military arsenals. The United States military has no corrosive ammunition stockpiled, to my knowledge, but there are many other military organizations around the world who do.

Some of this ammunition invariably makes its way into commercial channels.

There is nothing wrong with corrosive primers. They have demonstrated superb longevity, stability, and consistency.

To preserve bores and accuracy, shooters have to clean their firearms shortly after shooting corrosive ammunition in them. In humid climates, this needs to be done the same day as the shooting.

The solution is Hoppe's No. 9.

©2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch 








Followup CA: Man Shot, Killed, at Deadman Camp Ground Committed Similar Crime 2 Years Ago



Timothy Edward Smith, who deputies say was shot after entering a tent at the campground and getting on top of a woman, was arrested exactly two years ago for an “eerily similar” crime.

In a press release Wednesday, the Sheriff’s department said their investigation revealed Smith was arrested and charged in San Mateo County with indecent exposure, annoying or molesting a child, and attempted kidnapping.
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AL: Armed Neighbor Confronts Burglars, Does not Shoot (Gunshop)

They did make off with tobacco products, the cash register and an undisclosed amount of cash, he said.
The commotion, and sounding of the alarm, summoned a nearby neighbor from his home, who walked into his yard clad in underwear and armed with a handgun, sheriff’s office reports show. When investigators asked him if he thought of shooting at the suspects, he told them they were too far away, the sheriff said.

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AZ: Armed Homeowner Chases Intruder from Home



Underhill told Arizona's Family that he was awakened by one of his dogs when the incident occurred.

Underhill later pulled out his handgun and confronted the man, later identified as Francisco Meza-Beltran, causing him to flee from the home.
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MI: Armed Victim Shoots, Kills Suspect in Muskegon Heights



MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, MI – A man was killed in Muskegon Heights early Saturday, and police say the shooting likely was self-defense.
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AL: Warning Shot, Then Shot to Knee Stops Suspect Holding Knife



Jackson County Chief Deputy Rocky Harnen says two men broke into the shed of a homeowner on County Road 83 in Pisgah.



He says the homeowner fired some warning shot and ordered the two men to get on the ground.

But he says one of them got up again and came at him with a knife.
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Tx: Armed Security Guard Chases Armed Suspect, Fires Warning Shot



Marrero followed Tejada as she drove away and pulled alongside her, motioning for her to stop. Tejada then produced a gun and pointed it at him. Marrero dropped behind Tejada, who then began driving erratically- striking curbs. Marrero followed Tejada to the 5400 block of Chimney Rock where Tejada then attempted to flee on foot with Marrero chasing after her. While fleeing, Tejada pulled a cellphone from her waistband and Marrero, thinking it was a gun, fired one shot from his pistol into the ground. Tejada then surrendered and Marrero detained her until HPD patrol officers arrived.
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Thursday, July 18, 2019

New Zealand Encounter Problems Enforcing Gun Ban without Registration



New Zealand attempted controls on firearms ownership from 1845 to 1885. It was not very effective.  From 1885 to 1912, the arms control law was generally a dead letter. From 1912 to 1945 arms control was again attempted, primarily as a means of preventing revolution. From 1945 to 1965, there was again a peaceful enjoyment of firearms with few controls in New Zealand. There were registration controls on the books, but they proved ineffective. Because of increasing crime rates, from the middle 1960's to 1983, the New Zealand police struggled with the ineffective registration system.  The information was obtained from the 1997 study of its gun control history.

The study found that seminal work done by Inspector Colin Greenwood in the first ever academic study of the effect of gun control in England and Wales, published by Cambridge University, was well received in New Zealand in 1982. 

New Zealand abandoned firearms registration for most guns in 1983, after police found that gun registration was expensive to administer and was not helpful in solving crimes.  From wikipedia:
An internal police report in 1982 criticised the proposals, saying there was no evidence that registration of guns helped to solve crimes, and that registration would use time and money better spent on other police work. This policy was adopted by the government in the 1983 Act.
A summation of the 1982 report can be found at rkba.org.

In 1988 Josh Sugarman of the Violence Policy Center advocated pushing for gun control of semi-automatic rifles, as the push for control of handguns had stalled.  Thus Sugarman laid out a basic strategy for demonizing semi-automatic rifles and working to have them banned or restricted. From reason.com:
Josh Sugarmann, founder and executive director of the Violence Policy Center, laid out this strategy of misdirection and obfuscation in a 1988 report on "Assault Weapons and Accessories in America." Sugarmann observed that "the weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons."
The mass media, especially in America and the Anglosphere, has had an especially close connection with the anti-gun lobby since the 1960's. The media brazenly pushed for bans on "Assault Weapons".

The first widely publicized mass killing with AK47 clone was done in Stockton California, in January of 1989. Patrick Purdy Killed 5 school children and wounded 32 others. A spate of mass killings by shooting followed the publicity.

In New Zealand there were four mass killings, although only one involved an AK47 clone.  

The first mass killing was in 1990, the Aramoana massacre in which 13 people were killed in 13-14 November. An AK47 semi-auto clone and some .22 semi-autos were used by a registered gun owner.

A second mass killing occurred on 20 may, 1992 at Paerata, where 6 victims were killed with a double barreled shotgun. The killer held a firearms license.

A change in the 1983 act occurred in 1992. The Aramoana killings were used to promote and justify it. Considerable regulation of semi-automatic rifles was included, mostly based on irrational cosmetic features, such as the strict regulation of rifles that had bayonet lugs, folding stocks, pistol grips, or flash suppressors. 

A third domestic mass killing occurred on 20 June, 1994, using a .22 rimfire semi-automatic rifle. The killer held a firearms license.  

A fourth mass killing of father and four guests occurred at Raurimu on 8 February, 1997, using a single shot shotgun. The killer's license had been revoked.

In 2019, after 29 years without a mass killing involving a "military style" semi-automatic rifle, but including one with a .22 rimfire and one with a single shot shotgun, a political terrorist targeted a militant Islamic Mosque. He murdered 51 people. The far-left government immediately launched an extreme program to ban most centerfire semi-automatics. The law was passed nearly unanimously, with very little dissent shown or allowed.

The murderers manifesto, showing his political reasons for the attack (including radical enviromentalism, desire for more governmental authority, and an philosophical admiration for the Chinese Communist style of government, was banned by the New Zealand censorship authority. The murderer predicted the imposition of harsh gun controls, and stated the gun community in New Zealand deserved it for being insufficiently radical. He stated one of his objectives was to promote harsh gun restrictions in the United states of America. Twitter banned John Lott for tweeting this fact.

The media in the Anglosphere applauded and promoted the New Zealand government actions. While a petition approving of radical legislation gathered 70,000 signatures in a week, a countervailing petition from the New Zealand gun culture was repeatedly taken offline. New Zealand has demonstrated that freedom of speech and the press are necessary to maintain the right to arms. New Zealand does not have a Bill of Rights. 

The legislation was poorly thought out and contained numerous flaws. This is not unexpected,as it was drafted and promoted by people who know very little about firearms and firearms technology.

Opposition to the law started to grow in spite of the push by the media and politicians to pass the restrictive controls before the emotional response died down.The response by the gun culture in New Zealand has been to moderate the legislation. They wish to make it conform to the rule of law, and to centuries old systems of fair treatment. They demand that the confiscated property be paid for at market value.

There is no registration of rifles or shotguns in New Zealand, because the police found, over long experience, that registration was costly and ineffective in solving or stopping crimes. That experience was repeated in Canada, where the Canadian registration system for most long guns was repealed after it proved to be extremely costly and ineffective in solving crimes. New Zealand is facing problems in confiscating guns that are not on a registry.  From inhomelandsecurity.com:
The government, meanwhile, is faced with a sobering set of challenges over how to enforce the new law.
There is no national registry for many of the weapons targeted by the ban, including the AR-15 — a semiautomatic rifle that has been used in mass shootings in the United States and is often at the center of American gun-control debates.
New Zealand is demonstrating exactly what American Second Amendment supporters have stated for many years. It is difficult to have confiscation of guns when the government does not know who has what guns.

A new New Zealand group that is pushing for civilian disarmament, seeks to create a national registry. The group claims to be "non-partisan", although all three members are on the far left. They are Philippa Yasbek, Hera Cook, and Nik Green.

The registry would have an automatic expiration date of three years, presumably to enable a gradual confiscation of guns by slowly making more and more people ineligible to legally possess them.  From the press release by Gun Control NZ:
The organisation will campaign for a mandatory gun register, a ban on semi-automatic weapons, and a shortened registration period for gun owners of 3 years.

Co-founder Nik Green says “Gun ownership imposes risks on all of us, and our current laws still have many loopholes. Gun Control NZ wants effective gun laws that keep the entire community safe.”

“Parliament recently banned most semi-automatic weapons, but until there is full control of these weapons, and a register of all guns, the risk remains of them falling into the wrong hands. Gun Control NZ will give voice to the majority of New Zealanders who want to ensure the next generation inherits a country free from the danger of gun violence,” says co-founder and firearms researcher Hera Cook.
The policy did not work in Australia, where the number of guns owned has increased since their extreme gun laws were imposed in 1997. The only way to have a country free from the danger of gun violence is to have a country without any guns. No country on earth exists in that state.

The proponents of those laws have decried the increase in guns that are not semi-automatic. It is clear that hyper-partisans, such as Professor Philip Alpers of Australia, seek an ever diminishing number of people who own guns.  Alper's partisan illogic shows with his use of the meaningless metric of people killed with guns. It is the total number killed, not the method used, that is important.

The suicide numbers in Australia increased, then dropped to about the same level, after the extreme gun legislation. While over all murders have dropped in half, they also dropped in half in the United States, which enacted legislation to allow millions more to carry guns legally, during the same period. While the private stock of Australian firearms took until 2016 to reach the levels it had in 1996, the United States private stock increased from about 250 million to over 400 million during the same period.

The number of legal guns in private hands has very little to do with the number of illegal guns, homicides, or suicides in a country.  

Will mandatory gun registration of all guns be passed in New Zealand? It seems unlikely. Mandatory gun registration would not have stopped the rare mass murders done with guns in New Zealand. The only significant reason for mandatory registration is to confiscate guns, either piecemeal over a long time period, or en mass, as was recently passed in law in New Zealand.

With the power of the Anglosphere media pushing for mandatory registration of guns, it might pass. But New Zealand has already demonstrated the irrationality of mandatory registration. It does not prevent crime or aid in solving crime. New Zealand has one of the lowest homicide rates in the world.

That may change. Import large numbers of different cultures into New Zealand, and the crime rates are likely to rise, as they have in Sweden, England, France, and Germany.


©2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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