KS: This Woman is a Nightmare for Gun Haters

Ashley Mundy is the gun haters worse nightmare.  She is a woman whose father encouraged her to obtain a concealed carry license.  She used her personal defensive handgun to defend herself and her child.  She shot a neighbor high on meth who had broken into her house and was disabling her security system.  He had a machete.

Any woman who sees this news interview is likely to identify with this single mother who felt compelled to defend her child.  You can see the emotional connection being made with the interviewer.  You can feel the sincerity and intensity of Ashley's experience and communication. From wibw.com:

TOPEKA, Kan (WIBW)--- Ashley Mundy says the night of Oct. 08, 2015 started out like any other night. She says she fell asleep in her bed with her then four-year-old son Braedyn, but later, woke up to the sound of glass breaking. Mundy says she got up, grabbed her 9 millimeter handgun and found her neighbor, Bruce Jolly, disarming her security system. That's when she decided to shoot.
"I was there alone with my child; My dad encouraged me to get a conceal and carry, and I just felt that was the thing to do at that moment,” said Mundy.

Link to video   (The pistol appears to be a SigSauer P290)

The emotional message of Ashley being encouraged to have a gun by her father is a powerful one that crosses cultural lines.  I recall an intense conversation I had with a Muslim woman on her way back to Bangladesh.  She was smart and well educated, with a PhD.  As we traded life experiences, I asked about firearms in Bangladesh.  She said that they had them but they were illegal because no one trusted the police.  Her father had taught her how to shoot an illegal revolver.

These emotional and sincere connections are a tremendous threat to the false narrative that gun haters have worked to create.  Ashley is a woman and mother who protected herself and her child from a drug addled neighbor with a machete.  Her father encouraged her to protect herself. Her community supported her after the fact and applauded her decision and effectiveness.

Ashley closes the deal with the last comments she makes in the interview:

Mundy says she has learned a lot from her encounter with Jolly and hopes others do too.

"You don't have to have a conceal and carry to have a gun in your home, and why wouldn't you want to protect yourself? Why wouldn't you want the same weapons or defense like the people that could be coming to your home in these situations?” said Mundy.

There are many women who have not thought much about armed self defense. This video will connect with them at a deep, emotional, level.

Help them find a chance to see it.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

Followup KS:Woman who Shot Burglar Can't Understand Why People do not Arm Themselves

"I think when something like this happens, you think the worst,” said Mundy. “I worry about Braedyn every day and with that situation I can't imagine what he could have witnessed.”

Mundy says she has learned a lot from her encounter with Jolly and hopes others do too.

 "You don't have to have a conceal and carry to have a gun in your home, and why wouldn't you want to protect yourself? Why wouldn't you want the same weapons or defense like the people that could be coming to your home in these situations?” said Mundy.

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SC: Homeowner Shoots at Burglar who Attempted Looting

The homeowner waited for the prowler at the top of the stairs while he made his way into the home.

“He came across my dining room and to the foot of my stairway. I had a revolver and fired at him twice,” Hough said.

He added he could see the man with just enough light from what seemed like a nightlight the intruder was holding. He didn't have to come down the stairs because the two shots were enough to send the man running.

“I missed obviously, but I think I scared him,” Hough said as he pointed to the bullet holes. “This one probably was my first one because a revolver, a gun will recoil and go up. So I would say that's the first one and that's the second one.”
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FL: Armed Citizen Shoots Armed Robber

PLANTATION, FLA. (WSVN) - An attempted armed robbery in Plantation ended with one suspect fatally shot and another fleeing the scene, Tuesday night.

Three people who were sitting at the park were approached by two male subjects, at approximately 9:29 p.m., at the Plantation Multi-Cultural Park, located at 460 N.W. 43rd Ave. Police said that was when the subjects tried to have a conversation with them before attempting to rob the three victims at gunpoint. Police said that if one of the victims didn’t have a license to carry a weapon, the outcome would have been a very different one.

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TX: Man Disarms, Shoots, Kills Armed Robbery Suspect

The man refused, and a physical altercation began, according to police.

During the struggle, the man got the robber's gun away from him and shot him in the stomach in self-defense, police said.

The 22-year-old attempted robber died at the scene, police said.
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GA: Man Shoots at 4 Burglary Suspects, Wounds 1

The man “got out of his vehicle and began shooting at the four individuals coming out of his house,” the report stated. The man told police he heard one of the suspects yell “S---!” as he opened fire.

When asked by police why he started shooting, the homeowner said “he was afraid for his life,” according to the report, and said he’d fired about a dozen times.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article109158597.html#storylink=cpy

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GA: Motorcycle Club Member Shoots Man in Self Defense

A Snellville man was arrested Tuesday on assault charges just days after he was shot in Arcade by a Steel Horsemen Motorcycle Club member who fired at the suspect in self defense, authorities said.


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IN: Man fires at fleeing Suspect

The suspect — who was described in vague terms by the victim — fled out of the front door after being confronted.

The man fired one shot as the suspect fled in a get-away car. No one was injured.
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Followup GA: Veteran Shot Teen Burglar

One of the suspects was wounded but they both ran out of the house toward Hanson Street. Oglesby says the man who lives here grew up with her son. In fact, he’s former military and lives alone.

She said this is not the first time teens have targeted his home and doesn’t blame him for taking action and defending himself.

“He was in his right," she said. "You hate to have to stoop to that, but that’s what it is.”
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Video of Homemade Sub Machine Guns in Australia

Link to video


While this video is from 2013, it is a graphic illustration of the results of what happens when extreme gun restrictions are imposed, as they have been in Australia. When it is expensive to import guns, criminals resort to making their own. The guns in the video are of a simple design and are easily made. Homemade sub machine guns are commonly found in Brazil and Israel, and are turning up in Canada.  In 2015, Australian police estimated 10 percent of the guns they seized were homemade.

In 2009, copies of the MAC machine pistol were confiscated. The MAC is a little more sophisticated than the guns in the video, but is well within the capability of any metal working hobbiest. The underground manufacturer admitted that he made as many as 100 for the black market before a sting operation caught him.  The MAC homemade guns included a homemade silencer and two magazines.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

AK: Bear Attack, Defense with Pistol from Sept, 1985

Rare case, bear mauls hunter after pistol shots

"He ran directly into the grizzly," his wife said. "He shot him twice."

She said the bear was on its hind legs, but the shots did not knock it down. The animal bit one of Moore's legs, breaking the bone, and tossed him six or eight feet.

The animal then put Moore's head in his mouth and mauled his face.

Moore somehow managed to free himself and stuck his pistol in the bear's mouth, firing again, and the bear retreated. Moore's companions heard the gunfire and said at first they thought he had shot a moose. The bear was gone when they found Moore.


More Here

It was a .357.  The third shot killed the bear.

AZ: Two more Bear attack Defenses in Aug, 2016, One with a Pistol

On August 7, former search-and-rescue captain Don Kluting shot a sow with a .44 revolver after it charged him and a hiking partner in Nakwasina Sound — the first time this lifetime resident and outdoorsman had shot a bear in self-defense.

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Where are the Bear Attack Pistol Failures?

Todd Orr Relied on Bear Spray instead of the Pistol he had with him

While discussing the effectiveness of pistols to defend against bear attacks, a consistent theme is the claim that pistols are not effective, are difficult to use, and that many more people who use handguns are badly mauled than use pistols successfully. I tried to recall an incident where someone used a pistol in defense against a bear, where it did not work.  I could not remember one, so I posted this request in response to the claim. From freerepublic.com:

“Actually, there are legions of people who have been badly mauled after using a handgun on a bear. Even some of the vaunted magnums.”

OK, give us a few examples. As you claim “legions”, it should not be too hard.

I never received a response.  I believe the claim was made in good faith.  There has been an enormous amount of propaganda, fantasy, and electrons sprayed out there to spread the claim.  There does not seem to be much substance to it.

I engaged in an Internet search for instances where use of a pistol in defense against bears did not work.  I found one discredited urban legend about someone finding six .38 bullets in a bear skull.   I was not successful in finding instances of failure.  That does not mean there has never been a failure.  Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.  But it indicates that failures of a pistol defense against bears are rare.

 In contrast, there have been a number of successful uses of pistols as a defense against bear attacks in the last few years.  Here are nine from the last three years.

AZ: Bow Hunter Uses Handgun to Stop Unprovoked Bear Attack In Sept, 2016

PAYSON, AZ - Authorities found two bear cubs after an archery deer hunter fatally shot an adult female bear with a handgun when it charged him in the Payson area.


AK: Successful Bear Attack Defense with .44 Magnum (Aug 7, 2016)

“We immediately found ourselves in a confrontation,” Kluting said. “She ended up turning around and for a split second we thought she would leave – but then she turned back and came at us full charge.”

Kluting fired off a warning shot into the creek. At that point the sow was 15 yards away.

“She ran through that without even flinching,” he said.

So Kluting aimed in the middle of the brown blur, now about 3 yards away.

“I barely had time to get the hammer back for another shot before she reached me,” he said.

She collapsed in the river about 5 feet – two steps – away from them.

On 29 July, 2016, about 4 p.m. Kim Woodman used a 10 mm in an effective defense

Kim had a Glock model 20 10 mm pistol with him.  He was able to stop the attack by shooting the bear as it charged at him.  While backing away from the charging bear, Kim tripped and fell backward.  He instinctively attempted to fend off the bear with his foot, while he concentrated on firing the shots that saved his life.  The last shot was just short of contact.  It probably hit the bear in the chest, but also took off the tip of one of Kim's toes.

AK: Guide Kills Attacking Grizzly with 9mm

In the last week in July, 2016, Phil Shoemaker had use a 9mm pistol to kill a grizzly that was threatening his clients and himself.  It worked.


ID: Bear Attack on Sleeping Man Stopped with a .45 Pistol (Oct 2015)

Steven Vouch reached for his gun when he realized he was being attacked, but it wasn't there.  That is when his friend shot the bear with a .45.  Vouch is on the left in the Cowboy hat.

AK: Details on Charging Kodiak stopped with a .44 Mag Revolver (July 2015)

The bear was roughly 9 feet tall and started its charge at about 20 yards away. The man shot the bear by the time it moved half that distance, Svoboda said.
"It all happened in really tight quarters," he said. "He shot at it five times before it finally stopped and then once it was on the ground, it was still moving. So he shot it one more time and then it died."

MA:Handgun Defense against Black Bear (Nov 2014)

 WEST SPRINGFIELD - A Sikes Avenue man shot and killed a black bear with single pistol-shot to the head Friday night after it started to go after his small dog, police said. 

Glacier National Park: Bear first sprayed, then shot with a .357 (July 2014)

 Murphy first sprayed bear spray at the bear when it was 15 to 25 feet away, firing one shot from his .357 revolver when the bear had approached to within 7-10 feet.  The bear was charging uphill at the time.     He only fired one round at the bear, which fell back and stopped moving when shot.   Many have suggested that he should have continued firing, but it is hard to argue with success.

AK: .45 vs 9-Foot Brown Bear (July, 2014)

Many people claim that handguns are useless for protection against bears.   Numerous examples have shown that this is a false notion.   Handguns may not be ideal as defensive weapons for bears, but they can be effective.  In a defensive situation, you have to use what is available.   In this case, a homeowner in Alaska used a .45 against a brown bear that was trying to get into his house on July 7th of this year.  He and his son were in the home.   He had scared off the animal with some warning shots just three hours before.

I could have missed some instances of bear defenses with a handgun.  Several instances of bear defenses do not identify the firearm used.

I contacted Dave Smith, prominent author and bear attack expert. Dave was not able to recall an incident where a pistol defense against bears had failed. We talked about the study Efficacy of Firearms for Bear Deterrence in Alaska.
 

In that study, the authors report they included 37 instances of a handgun being present when a bear attacked a human.  The instances were collected over a period from 1883 to 2009.  They recorded 6 failures to stop the attack out of the 37 instances.  That would be an 84% success rate.

Dave Smith said that data from the voluminous Defense of Life and Property reports in Alaska were part of what was searched for the 269 incidents used in the study.  There were over a thousand DLP reports from 1986 to 1996, with over 100 reports a year being added at that time.

Unfortunately, exactly what criteria was used to include some reports and exclude others was not stated in the paper.  Dave Smith told me that attempts to obtain the data set used for the Efficacy paper have been rebuffed. A red flag against the validity of a study is when the authors will not release their data.  It appears that Todd Orr's case (top picture), where he chose bear spray instead of his pistol, would have been counted as a pistol failure.  The pistol was there when he was attacked, and he did not successfully use it to stop the attack.

Where are the instances of pistol defense failures against bears?  According to the mythology, there should be numerous instances available.

Please help us find these cases.

Update: 

MT: Father Uses .44 Magnum to Shoot Grizzly Bear off Son (Oct. 2017)

Dave had closed to within six feet of Rory and the bear. Not wanting to hit Rory, hoping to get the bear to release his son, he shot the bear in the hip.

It worked. The bear dropped Rory and spun toward him. His next round was meant for the bear's shoulder. The situation was dynamic. The 240 grain slug went through the bears neck.

With the bear coming at him, the bear's mouth was within two feet of his .44 Taurus when he fired the last shot. The bullet went alongside the bear's head, into its neck, penetrating the chest cavity.

WY: .45 Super Stops Grizzly Bear Charge (Oct. 2017)

The hunters jumped up and separated. The bear momentarily halted. Kelley fired a warning shot from his .45 Super. The bear moved away a little, behind some fire killed trees and brush, then came in again, fast. Kelly fired again, and the bear went down, rolled down slope and came to a halt, motionless.

AZ .44 Mag used to stop bear attack Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona · Page 39 - Newspapers.com (July 1996)

Jul 28, 1996 - 4 The 16-year-old counselor, Anna - Knochel, was in critical ... away the 340-pound male bear by shooting it twice with a .44 Magnum pistol.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

Why Political Gun Control Fails: A "Progressive" gets it Half-Right

Gary Younge has written a book about young people shot during one day in November of 2013.  After the failure of President Obama's push for more infringements on the Second Amendment, he decided to pick one day at random, determine the details of each young shooting victim, and put a human face on them.  It must have seemed like a good idea, a way to mix activism and to make a buck while pushing the gun-hater agenda.

The problem became that Younge is honest enough to tell the truth of what he found, as much as he could, given his false assumptions about the nature of reality.

He found that the gun hater movement is based on lies.  Younge does a bit of truth-stretching himself.  He calls 18 and 19 year old adults "children".  He has to do this to get the numbers that the gun haters use in their propaganda.  The vast majority of "children" killed with guns are young males from 15 to 25, nearly all of which are victims of gang violence. Most are involved in the gangs themselves.

He found that parents in the ghettos where these killing occurred do not think that "gun control" is the answer to the problem.  From thenation.com:

Which brings us to the second thing that struck me while talking to these families about the 10 young deaths of November 23: When I posed an open-ended question to the victims’ parents about why they thought these tragedies kept happening, not a single one mentioned guns. When I asked a more leading question about what they specifically thought of guns, they would always be more forthcoming. Almost all of them saw the ubiquity of guns as a problem. But it did not necessarily follow that they saw getting rid of guns as a viable solution.

As is usual with today's "progressives", Gary blames the killings on the guns, not the people who are shooting them.  He uses the old "developed nation" scam to claim that it is the presence of guns that cause the killings.  That scam depends on the reader never checking out the facts about international comparisons.  It is all about selection bias.  If you cherry pick what you call "developed" you can make any case you want.  The truth is that other nations have many more or less homicides than the United States, per capita, and many more or less suicides per capita than the United States.  The number of guns has little influence on those numbers.  If you look at individual nations before and after gun controls were implemented, there is little change, except murder rates tend to rise slightly after controls are imposed.

But Gary did not have to investigate international comparisons for this book, so he is just spouting "progressive" dogma.

As a leftist, it is not surprising that Gary puts forward the usual excuse of racism for the high level of criminality in the communities where violence is concentrated. But any community where the rule of law is not trusted will tend toward high levels of violence.  The same result is found all over the world, in communities of people in Africa, South America, Europe, and Asia. When there is no reliable rule of law, people revert to tribalism. In the U.S., the tribes or proto-tribes, are gangs. The commonality is the lack of an effective rule of law, not a common color.  The cure is to build trust for the rule of law.

If the high crime rates in black urban areas are going to be reduced, people in those areas must come to understand that the rule of law is real and will be enforced in their neighborhood.  It is precisely what has worked in the approach pushed by David Kennedy from Harvard.

Pushing the idea that black people cannot rely on the rule of law creates the conditions that multiply crimes and criminality in black neighborhoods. Pushing the meme that racism is the cause instead of the lack of the rule of law makes matters worse by creating distrust and an unwillingness to cooperate with the authorities.  We are seeing that problem playing out with the Ferguson effect, all across the country.

The tone of the article in The Nation is refreshingly pessimistic.  Gary does not have any solution to the intractable problem he found.

The facts are against the imposition of gun control in the United States.  People do not blame the actions of criminals on the guns that they use.  People who do not live in ghettos do not see the ghetto problems as their problems.  People who do not face a high risk of murder do not see a need for infringements on the Second Amendment. People who face a high risk of murder find the idea of being armed a reasonable response.

I am not going to buy Gary's book, at least not now.  Maybe in a few months, off the remainder table.  I already know the reality far better than Gary, because I have studied the issue for decades.  But "progressives" who have some honesty in their soul, if they check out the facts, may realize the narrative they have been sold is false.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

WA: Sheriff was in Mall during Mass Killing, Did not have Gun

The sheriff says he will continue to travel unarmed when off-duty!

"The expectation people have on police officers in these situations is that they're immediately going to solve the situation and not having the ability to do that is certainly frustrating," Brown said in an interview with KOMO News.

Brown was without a gun.

"When I realized the clerk was moving through, I reached for my hip and realized the situation I was in."

More Here

Most Floridians Favor Armed Teachers and Staff in Schools

Sean Caranna the GRPC 2016

When I was at the Gun Rights Policy conference in Florida earlier this month, one of the presentations was about  the FASTER (Faculty / Administrator Safety Training & Emergency Response) program in Ohio.  The FASTER program has been and continues to be a tremendous success story. Staff and teachers love it, embrace it, and recommend it to others. 

 A survey done by the University of South Florida found that there was likely to be a favorable response if such a program were offered in Florida. From sunshinestatenews.com:

Most Floridians say they support trained staff carrying firearms on school campuses, according to a new survey released Tuesday.

The 2016 University of South Florida Sunshine State Survey found more than half of adult Floridians (56 percent) are in favor of allowing trained staff to carry firearms at schools.

Forty percent of Floridians say they are opposed to allowing firearms in schools, with 29 percent saying they are strongly opposed to the idea.

“Stronger supporters are males, working-age residents, whites, those living in affluent households, college graduates, and residents of the Orlando and North Florida areas,” the USF release said. Residents of the Orlando and North Florida areas are more likely to favor the idea.

Opposition comes from females, older Floridians, African-Americans, lower-income households, those with less formal education and residents of the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area.

Sean Caranna of Florida Carry is working to bring the FASTER program to Florida.

Jim Irvine's experience in Ohio is that those 11 percent that "oppose" trained staff carrying firearms will switch to "favor" once they understand the program.  It is likely that even a few "strongly opposed" will switch.

Most of the opposition is based on fear and ignorance.

Florida Carry has significant experience in lobbying the legislature in Florida.  That may be the place to start. A bill to authorize programs such as FASTER in Florida schools came close to making through the legislature last year, but was killed in the Senate, along with the open carry bill.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

Rigging the Election Part III - DNC Schemes to Bully Women at Trump Rally

Aaron Black, the deputy rapid response director for the DNC is caught on camera bragging about his involvement with the Chicago Trump protest that turned violent in March. In this video he schemes about getting men to bully women at a Trump rally, saying "That is what I'm going to do. That is the hit."

 The media networks are blackballing this video, so Eric O'Keefe has asked for help distributing it. That is why we have posted this link to it on Gun Watch.  It the video embed above does not work, try the link below.

Link to Video Part III (DNC Schemes to Bully Women at Trump Rally)

Link to video part II  (Voter Fraud) 

Link to Video  part I (Dirty Tricks)  

Dean Weingarten

MT: Bear Spray Failure or Bear Spray Success?

Another grizzly bear attack in Montana.  A man was mauled. It sounds like he sprayed the bear with pepper spray while being mauled, but that is a bit unclear.
From kbzk.com:

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks reports a man suffered bites to the head, shoulder and wrist after being attacked by a grizzly bear north of Whitefish on Sunday.

(snip)

He was able to use pepper spray against the bear during the attack, which caused the bear to flee back toward the direction from where it charged.

It is possible that the dogs were part of the trigger for the attack.  The cubs, the deer carcass and the dogs all are associated with bear attacks.

Is this a bear spray failure or a bear spray success?  Ending in the hospital does not seem like much of a success to me, but it is better than being killed.

It is impossible to know if a firearm could have stopped the attack before he was injured, or if a firearm would have been as effective in stopping the attack after it was initiated.

There is no objective study that shows that bear spray is as or more effective than firearms for defense against bears.

 ©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch 

AL; Armed Victim fires at Intruder

The victim told officers she left her residence to briefly run an errand. When she returned home, she entered the front door and noticed a man fleeing out the back door of her residence. The armed victim followed the intruder outside and fired one shot at him as he fled the scene.

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OH: 25-year-old wins Gunfight with 2 17-year-olds

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Two 17-year-old boys are facing felony charges related to an armed robbery that ended in one of the teens being shot Sunday in the city's Collinwood neighborhood.

The teens arranged to buy a man's Xbox but instead forced him to hand over the video game system and his car keys. The teens fired several shots at the man, who returned fire and shot one teen in the shoulder, police said.
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