Followup FL: William Kahle, 31, Dies from Gunshot Wound

Baima, 52, told police he checked around his Cleveland Street home and came face-to-face with Kahle in the garage he shares with a roommate. He would not say how many gunshots he fired from his 9mm Beretta semiautomatic pistol.

Kahle had "a lengthy criminal history," according to police.
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KY: Domestic Defense, Boyfreind Shoots Ex Attempting Break in

WKYT's Victor Puente talked to Custard's ex-wife, Jacki Hess. Hess told WKYT that she and her boyfriend were in the home when Custard tried to break in. Hess said they told Custard to stop before her boyfriend fired a shot at him. Hess said when Custard did not stop, her boyfriend fired more shots and Custard died in her backyard.
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OH: Domestic Defense, Armed Woman Stops Man Choking Girlfriend

Dale LaFountaine, Jr. had dropped off his girlfriend to visit her friend at the house, police said. About 45 minutes later, Mr. LaFountaine kicked open the door and tried to drag the girlfriend away against her will, police said.

The woman's friend, Jennifer Farborther, retrieved a handgun and ordered Mr. LaFountaine at gunpoint to leave, according to police. When Mr. LaFountaine began choking Mr. Farborther, she fired one shot, police said.

Mr. LaFountaine later arrived at Mercy Health St. Charles Hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound to his calf.

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AZ: Teen Theives Assault Armed Man, get Shot

Police say the teens were then confronted by a man in the parking lot who asked them to leave the stolen items.

The teens then dropped the items and reportedly started to hit the man.

Police say the man was armed during the assault and fired his weapon, hitting both of the teens.
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Rob Morse: Not a Gunfighter, but a Defender- the changing face of gun culture

I didn’t notice as gun-culture changed. We are immersed in our culture and I was too close to realize what happened. A recent news story brought the change into sharp focus. Gun culture is wrapped in myth and fantasy. It always has been. Gun-culture changed from being a fantasy gunfighter to a realistic defender. We see that reality today.

When I grew up, gun culture was a rancher carrying a gun on his hip when he was at work. It was the cop on the street. I saw both. The myth of the gun culture was something else entirely. When I grew up, the myth was the wild west gunfighter. The myth was also the image of Chicago gangland criminals at war with the cops. That is what we saw in the movies. As a child, I saw many more gunshots on TV than were ever fired by gangsters on the street. Those myths weren’t real, but they left a real impression.

More Here   Excellent work by Rob Morse

Followup IL: No Charges for Concealed Carry License Holder who Fatally Shot Suspect

Chicago police have released a concealed carry license holder who told authorities he fatally shot a would-be robber near a South Side Target store earlier this week.
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Honolulu Police Back off Order for Medical Marijuana Users to Turn in Guns

On 28 November, 2017, the Honolulu Star Advertiser wrote that the Honolulu Police Department had been sending letters to people that were both registered gun owners and registered medical marijuana users. The letters ordered the medical marijuana users to turn in their guns. From the staradvertiser.com: 

The Honolulu Police Department has told legal marijuana users who own guns that they must turn in their weapons within 30 days.

In a letter to about 30 medical marijuana card holders on Oahu, the police said “you have 30 days upon receipt of this letter to voluntarily surrender your firearms.” Police have been sending the letters since at least January.

The United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive issued a letter in 2011 finding that medical marijuana users may not legally possess firearms or ammunition under federal law. The Supreme Court has ruled that states are not required to use their resources to enforce Federal law. It is not clear if Hawaii law prohibits medical marijuana users form possessing firearms or ammunition. Hawaii law requires that a person who applies for a firearms permit must include a release to the police of your medical history. Doctors are required to release any mental health information that is pertinent.

The use of medical databases to confiscate firearms has been controversial. The Honolulu Police have retracted their confiscation letter in order to study the issue. From civilbeat.org: 

The department said that it won’t ask medical marijuana patients to give up their guns while it consults with other government agencies and reviews recent court rulings.

“This is a new area of concern for cities across the country, and we in Honolulu want to develop a policy that’s legally sound and serves our community,” said new Police Chief Susan Ballard in the release. “Formulating the policy will take time, but we want to do it right.”

Carl Bergquist from Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, an organization that advocates for the legalization of marijuana, said Tuesday he wonders why the agency is going to continue denying gun permits to medical cannabis license holders.

“The denial in the first place doesn’t seem to be based on any particular sound policy reasoning,” Bergquist said.

The Honolulu police are currently refusing to grant permits for the possession of guns to those who are medical marijuana users.

Hawaii is one of the few states that require all new firearms in the state to be registered with the police.  You have to apply to the police to purchase a handgun. If you are approved, the permit to purchase is good for 10 days. Permits to purchase long guns are good for a year. Long guns owned before July 1, 1994 are grandfathered and need not be registered. Any firearms transfers in the state since 1994 are required to go through the registration process.

Hawaii is in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has upheld most infringements on the Second Amendment.

©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

Followup NC: No Charges for Woman who Shot DeShawn Tatem

CONCORD, N.C. -- The Cabarrus County District Attorney's Office will not be pursuing charges against the female business owner who shot and killed a man at her pet spa back in November.

The DA Roxann Vaneekhoven, said the business owner Sarah Shoe shot at a man, later identified as DeShawn Tatem, for forcefully and unlawfully entering her business while her boyfriend and two young grandchildren were inside.

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KY: Armed Woman at Home Shoots Woman Attempting Break-In

Officials say a woman in her 40s was home alone when a woman in her 20s came banging on her door, eventually breaking through a window.

Police say the homeowner fired a shot at the intruder.
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Followup AK: No Prosecution in Clift-Landon Shooting

The Anchorage District Attorney's Office has decided not to prosecute the owner of a Spenard business who shot one of his customers last month.

The owner of Determine Design, Daniel Clift, said he acted in self-defense when he fired his handgun Nov. 15, shooting Shelton Landon once in the torso.

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ID: Armed Woman Defends Home, Son, with Gun

Police say Zumr got into the home, located on the 200 block of East 47th Street, at about 9 a.m. The resident was inside with her young son at the time.
The woman confronted Zumr with a gun, and he ran away, police say. She called 911, and was able to provide officers with a description of the intruder.

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CO: Common Sense Prevails: No Charges for Rep Who Forgot Gun was in Carry-on

In a show of common sense, no charges were filed against State Representative Lori Saine, R-Firestone.  Lori had forgotten that her personal, legal, self-defense firearm was in her carry-on luggage. From thedenverchannel.com:

DENVER — The Boulder County District Attorney has decided not to press charges against Colorado State Rep. Lori Saine, R-Firestone, who was arrested December 5 after carrying a loaded gun through security at Denver International Airport.

In a statement released Thursday, Boulder District Attorney Stanley Garnett's office said a criminal case against Saine could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and charges “are not appropriate.” She was facing a possible class 6 felony charge.

 This type of incident happens thousands of times a year. In 2015, the number was 2,653 firearms discovered in carry- on bags. In 2016, 3,391 firearms were discovered the same way.. The number is increasing every year. I expect the 2017 numbers to be higher yet.  Denver is in the top 10 airports for discoveries of legal firearm owners who are inadvertently caught up in TSA security apparatus. There were 98 of these incidents in Denver in 2016.

The U.S.A. has over 16 million people with firearm carry permits, about 6.5% of the adult population.  With so many people legally carrying firearms, it is inevitable that a few will be distracted at a critical time, get rushed in packing a bag, or otherwise make an innocent mistake that leads to a problem such as Representative Saine encountered at the Denver airport.

Most of these situations are handled with common sense, such as the Boulder County District Attorney demonstrated.

Legal gun owners caught up in TSA security apparatus, should not be subject t o the same penalties as terrorists and assorted criminals.

Being pulled off a flight, losing the cost of the ticket, missing your appointments and family events, and going through the criminal justice system, are more than enough punishment for an innocent mistake. 

The job of a prosecutor is to seek justice, not to win cases and prosecutions.

This incident serves as a warning to all gun owners in the United States, and particularly to the millions who routinely carry firearms.

When traveling by air, be extremely cautious about your luggage. Search your carry-on twice to make sure it does not contain so much as a single round of .22 ammunition.

A number of years ago, I found that I had traveled hundreds of miles by air with a box of .22 shells in my brief case. It was a wake-up call.  TSA never discovered the box of ammunition, but they could have. It would have ruined my day.

Do not make that kind of mistake. It is much easier to do than you imagine.  The vast majority of people are careful and avoid problems. There are about a hundred million gun owners in the United States.  3,391 were found with a gun in their carry-on last year.  It is a tiny percentage. The numbers are rising as are the number of gun owners and people who regularly carry.  Carry a gun enough, and fly often enough, and it can happen.  Check your bags twice. When you are tempted to rush, slow down.

©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

Delaware Supreme Court Upholds Right to Bear Arms

The Supreme Court of the State of Delaware has upheld the right to keep and bear arms provision of the State Constitution, which was enacted in 1987, passing through two separately elected legislatures.

The case was a challenge to the state ban on the possession of weapons in state parks and forest.  In Bridgevile Rifle & Pistol Club v. Small, the court ruled that a ban on the possession and carry of guns, enacted by unelected bureaucrats, was unconstitutional under the Delaware Constitutions Article I, Section 20. From delaware.gov:

This appeal concerns guns and, as such, has attracted numerous amici curiae raising politically fraught questions concerning gun rights.1 However, at its core, this case raises straightforward questions of Delaware constitutional and administrative law. We are asked whether unelected officials from the State’s parks and forest departments, whose power is expressly limited, can ban (except for a narrow exception for hunting) the possession of guns in state parks and forests in contravention of Delawareans’ rights under the State’s constitution. Clearly they cannot. They lack such authority because they may not pass unconstitutional laws, and the regulations completely eviscerate a core right to keep and bear arms for defense of self and family outside the home--a right this Court has already recognized. As such, the regulations are unconstitutional on their face. Thus, we REVERSE for these reasons and those that follow.

Here is Article I, Section 20 of the Delaware Constitution. The meaning is clear:

“A person has the right to keep and bear arms for the defense of self, family, home and State, and for hunting and recreational use.”

It is interesting to see the logical pretzels the dissent turns in attempting to keep the ban in place. They amount to a number of assertions of Progressive dogma.

Essentially they are:

• There are no pre-existing natural rights to arms.
•  
• The State never explicitly granted a right to arms in its Constitution, early on, so any legislative acts done before the right was added are grandfathered in.
•  
• The legislature never really intended Section 20 to mean what it says.
•  
• England restricted the right to arms in some times and places, so we can do so as well.
•  
• The Second Amendment never applied to the States until recently, so any reasoning based on Heller and McDonald does not apply.
•  
• Nobody challenged the law before, so it must be Constitutional

The dissent drones on for dozens of pages. But it all comes down to the same old Progressive doctrines: the state can do what it wants, and guns are bad.

It is sad that two of five Delaware Supreme Court Justices are willing to ignore the clear words of Delaware's constitution to obtain a result they want. But it is basic Progressive practice and dogma.

It is heartening that three of the five Justices upheld the clear meaning of Article I, Section 20.

Only six states do not have some provision in their state constitutions that protect the right to keep and bear arms. Those states are California, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York.

California, Maryland, New Jersey and New York are, arguably,  the four states that most egregiously infringe on the exercise of Second Amendment rights.
State constitutions provide another layer of protection for the right to keep and bear arms.  States, in a federal system, serve as part of the checks and balances that limit government power in the United States.

©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

MO: Homeowner Shoots Intruder inside his Home

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- Police were called to the 3400 block of S. Appleton Ave., Thursday afternoon after a homeowner called to report he had shot an intruder in his home.

The suspect was taken to the hospital with injuries not considered serious. It happened shortly after noon Thursday at a home near Winner Rd., and Sterling Ave.

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England: Fatal Shooting Justified Self Defense, Go to Jail for Unregistered Shotgun

Gregory had applied to register the shotgun, but was refused. Self defense is not considered a valid reason to own a gun in England. Gregory had been attacked previously, robbed and tied up.

A 72-year-old man who shot dead a burglar he caught breaking into his caravan in the middle of the night was today jailed for illegally owning the shotgun without a licence.

Reuben Gregory told police who arrived in woodland near Heathrow airport and found Wayne Digby's body that he 'was the one that did it, mate'.

The pensioner was initially arrested on suspicion of murder but later released and told he would not be prosecuted for the death of Digby, 48.

Digby was caught trying to remove the door from his caravan and armed with a meat-tendering hammer and a makeshift Molotov cocktail fire bomb.

Later Mr Gregory was charged with possessing a firearm without a certificate - an offence he admitted in court last September.

He was today jailed for 10 months, with the final half of his sentence to be served on licence, Judge Paul Dugale said.

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TN: Gunfight, Victim and Suspect both Wounded in Cell Phone Store Robbery Attempt

Investigators say one person was hit and taken to the hospital in non-critical condition. One of the suspects was also shot and was taken to the hospital by a private vehicle. He was last listed in critical condition.
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A look into Nancy Pelosi's False Assumptions about Guns

Nancy Pelosi is ignorant about the state of gun laws. It is not surprising. Many people base their decisions about guns and laws on ignorance. It is possible that she is lying. I suspect ignorance. Most Progressive decisions about guns are made from false assumptions about reality. Once those assumptions have been internalized, there is no need for further thought or learning about guns and gun laws. Those decisions have already been made. The assumptions are obvious in the following statement from Nancy Pelosi. From njherald.com:

"Far from making Americans safer, this deadly, extreme Republican bill would make it legal for more dangerous and untrained people to carry loaded, hidden guns in more public places and would inexplicably try to make the weakest and most dangerous state concealed-carry laws the law of the land in all 50 states," she said.

The assumption is that more guns in public places make those places more dangerous. She does not need evidence to support her assumption. It is an assumption, an article of faith, something that is intuitively obvious to her.

Readers will recognize it from a hundred comments about guns and gun laws from those who fear guns and want more gun laws. The assumption is, simply, more guns, more danger. Reality is far more nuanced and subtle. More guns do not mean more danger. More guns can mean less danger.

A fairer reading of this assumption could be: If you know nothing about guns, more guns will seem to mean more danger. The more you know about guns, the less dangerous they will seem.

Former Speaker of the House Pelosi goes on to say the proposed law would invite concealed weapons into schools, churches, bars and public lands.

If the concealed-carry bill is approved by the House and Senate and signed into law, key state and local laws protecting against gun violence could be overridden, Pelosi said, "inviting concealed weapons into schools, churches, bars and public lands."

Guns do not have volition. Inviting a gun into a bar results in no action. The gun will simply stay where it has been left until someone moves it to another place.

Attributing volition to inanimate objects is an old animist belief that Western Society overcame hundreds of years ago. Nothing in the bill changes where guns may legally be possessed. That is left up to state law, which is not changed. If Arizona forbids the open carry of guns in bars, the bill does not change that.

People who can legally possess and carry guns have shown themselves to be much less dangerous than people in society as a whole.  Some studies have shown that more guns make areas less dangerous. Other studies have shown more guns do not make a difference. No credible study shows that more legal guns in public areas make those areas more dangerous.

Most will notice that Nancy Pelosi ignores the Constitution, the Second Amendment, and the rule of law. Progressives do not believe in the Constitution, the Second Amendment and the rule of law. They believe in the power of government. Constitutional arguments mean little to them, because they believe the Constitution is almost meaningless. They express this by saying the Constitution is a "living document" or that it has to be interpreted for today's society. Those words simply mean the Constitution only means what they want it to mean when they want to use it for their purposes.

Nancy Pelosi cannot afford to become educated about guns and gun laws. To do so would be dangerous to her position in the Democrat Party. She might not be able to lie as convincingly as she can speak from ignorance.

©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

AZ: Fugitive invades Home, is Shot in Hand, Flees

YUMA, Ariz. - A 38-year-old man was shot during a home invasion on Augusta Drive Wednesday afternoon. 

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OK: Clerk Disarms Robbery Suspect, Holds Him for Police

They say Ezell Brown, 48, entered the store, pointed a gun at the clerk and said he he'd kill him if he didn't give Brown the money.

The clerk did what he was told. The clerk, Gary Adams, then grabbed the gun and a baseball bat and chased the robber outside, where Adams held him until police arrived.

"I circled, back tracked around him and kept him this way here, and he kept telling me, 'I've got a gun,'" Adams said. "I said, 'if you pull the gun, I'm gonna shoot you with the gun that I have of yours."
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IL: Target Parking Lot, Armed Victim Shoots, Kills Robbery Suspect

Police are still on the scene and questioning witnesses. According to early reports, the would-be robbery victim had a concealed carry permit, and fired shots during the robbery attempt. The robber was struck multiple times and transferred to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
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