IN: Couple Confront Intruder, Hold him for Police at Gunpoint

A Kokomo resident sits in jail on a felony burglary charge after police say a husband and wife caught the man in the middle of a home invasion, chased him down and held the suspect at gunpoint until officers arrived.

Marcus Woolever, 27, is being held at the Howard County Jail on a $20,000 bond following the incident, which involved a red pull-behind wagon loaded with goods, ready to be stolen, inside a home in the 1000 block of East Vaile Avenue.
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MI: 79-Year-Old man Fires Shotgun, Shoots Threatening Intruder

BENZIE COUNTY, Mich., (WPBN/WGTU) -- A homeowner armed with a shotgun confronted and shot an intruder in his pole barn Tuesday night.

When the homeowner, a 79-year-old man, heard an intruder in the pole barn around 11:20 at his home in Inland Township he grabbed a shotgun and confronted the man, according to Benzie County Sheriff's Deputies.
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MD: Armed Pharmacist Fired at Fleeing Armed Robbers

A pharmacist at Princess Anne's Karemore Pharmacy foiled a pair of armed robbers Monday afternoon.

Wasim Amir, owner of Karemore, said two men wearing ski masks walked into the pharmacy on Somerset Avenue.

One of the men, who looked to be about 6 feet tall, was carrying what appeared to be an assault-style rifle, Amir said.
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OH: Domestic Defense, Armed Woman Shoots Ex

WHITEHALL - Police are investigating a shooting at a home in Whitehall Wednesday morning that left one man injured.

According to Whitehall Police, 29-year-old Taveon Fadis, of Columbus, reportedly broke into his ex-girlfriend's home in the 4000 block of Beechcreek Road around 2:30 a.m.

According to police, 31-year-old Lamar Collins, who was in the home as well, fired a shot that struck Fadis.
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VA: Black Man with a Gun Saves White Woman during Pit Bull Attack

On 6 August, 2018, Monday afternoon in Suffolk, VA. , a pit bull escaped from its owner. Michaela Clark and Jarret Young, neighbors, attempted to put the dog in a choker collar. The dog attacked Clark, a 20 year old mother.  Young owns a Ruger .45, probably a P345, from the photograph. From wavy.com:

Young, an Army veteran, says he couldn't shoot the dog at first because it was too close to Clark. When she moved her body, he says he found an open shot.

"I took the shot. The dog stopped biting. It froze and fell over," said Young. “I was just trying to make sure she didn’t die because she had a five month old baby in the house. I did what anybody would have did -- shot it.”

Clark escaped with about a dozen bite marks and puncture wounds on her back, arm and hand. She needed stitches and is now in a cast.

The incident is still under investigation. It is unclear if the dog's owner will be cited.

This situation illustrates the racial harmony that exists in many neighborhoods. The young mother, Michaela Clark, is white. The armed defender, Jarett Young, is black.

Young says he just did what anyone else would do. It is the classic line. But not everyone else is on the scene, armed, and capable of decisive action. It probably helped that Jarrett Young is an army veteran.

 The police did not take Jarrett's legally owned Ruger .45. He still had it when the reporter interviewed him for the story.

According to those who claim racism is rampant, this sort of situation is not supposed to happen.

There is another interesting angle to the story. Michaela Clark owns pit bulls herself, and loves them. She says she does not blame the dog.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

IA: Officer says Surge of Self Defense Shootings Unusual

The shooting late Saturday is one of three justified homicides reported in Des Moines' city limits in the last three months.

In July, a burglar was shot and killed at Kraft Imports and Five Star Muffler on the city's south side. In June, Jerry Goff was killed after a domestic dispute at a home in the 600 block of 38th Street.

Parizek said the increase in justified homicides is out of the ordinary.

"Usually when you see these, you see maybe one every couple of years or something like that and the overwhelming majority of justifiable self-defense homicides are police shootings,” he said.
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NC: Disarm? Armed Robber is Shot

Robeson County, N.C. (WPDE) — A man is in the hospital after he was shot Monday night when he tried to rob a couple at their home on McMillan Road in the Pembroke area of Robeson County, according to Robeson County Sheriff Ken Sealey.
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Followup FL: Man who Shot at Deputies Though They were Kidnapping Niece

In a recorded hospital bed interview the night of the shootout, John DeRossett, who 65 at the time, told a police officer he had no idea the men pulling his niece, Mary DeRossett Ellis, from his Cocoa home the night of Aug. 20, 2015, were sheriff’s deputies.

“I didn’t know who they were," DeRossett said. “It could have been the man in the moon, it could have been anyone. Who knows?”
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TX: Cable Repairman Shoots 1 of 2 Armed Robbers

An 18-year-old man was shot late Tuesday while attempting to rob a pair of cable repairmen in north Houston, police said.

The attempted robbery happened just before midnight, said Lt. Larry Crowson of the Houston Police Department. Two cable repairmen were working on a cable box in the Northline neighborhood, near Fulton and Veenstra.
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TX: Armed Man Shoots Car Thieves, Stops Crime Spree, Faces Grand Jury Investigation

A shooting reported Tuesday night near Turtle Creek turned out to be part of a string of crimes that began in Dallas and ended in Highland Park, police say.

Shortly before 8 p.m., a caller reported that he shot a man and woman he saw break into his vehicle in the 4000 block of U.S. Highway 75 and take property. The man, a commissioned security guard, said he fired the shots when the pair drove their truck toward him, Dallas police said.
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Followup PA: No Charges for Pizza Delivery Man who Shot, Killed Robber who Stabbed Him

A pizza delivery man in Beaver Falls who shot and killed a man who stabbed him and attempted to rob him will not be charged, according to a news release issued by police.

Beaver Falls police Chief John Deluca described the Aug. 10 shooting as a “justifiable use of deadly force.”

“Upon confirming all of these facts with the Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier, we do not anticipate filing criminal charges against the victim at this time,” Deluca said in the release.

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MI: Shooting of Robert Morgan likely Self Defense

“He had to do what he had to do,” explains the neighbor across the street. “He said everybody was threatened in the house. Pulled into the front yard and started threatening everybody.”

“It evolved into a physical altercation and that is when the shot was fired,” says Sgt. Joel Roon of the Kent County Sheriff’s Department. “Self-defense is obviously a consideration in this case.”
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Plastic 3D "guns" Confiscated in Australian Raid

On 18 July, 2018, on the Sunshine Coast of Eastern Australia, in the town of Mudjimba, police raided a house and found some 3D printed plastic guns, some printed false identification, and a small amount of drugs. From news.com.au:

"They are all polymer and all they needed was a pin and a spring-type assembly pushed into it to make it work. For all intents and purposes they would look like a gun."

Police allege that three 3D-printed handguns, along with weapon parts, a knuckle duster, false licences and drugs, were found at a house at Mudjimba on Wednesday.

The 3D revolver shown above appears to be a variation of the Imura revolver design, named for the Japanese inventor who was jailed for making a 3D printed revolver that was capable of firing blanks. The Mudjimba revolver does not seem to have any metal in it. This makes it highly unlikely for successful operation. As the police noted, a firing pin and spring would be needed at a minimum. If the officer quoted thinks it would contain the forces of factory ammunition, I would like to see a video of him test firing it.

The single shot designs found at Mudjimba seem unlikely to be capable of firing, as claimed by the police. They appear to be a sort of zip gun design, without any metal, springs, or firing pins. The barrels, made of plastic, are unlikely to hold up to firing a single shot.

Such designs can be made much more capable by using metal tubes for barrel liners, metal springs, and a metal breech plate and firing pin. Such hybrid designs are simple and easy to create, but they are not any easier to construct than simple designs using metal and wood, without 3D printers.

The current media melt down in the United States has misinformed people all over the world. In an article about the Mudjimba case, Sporting Shooter shows how far the misinformation has spread. From sportingshooter.com.au:

Should Australia ban 3D-printed gun plans like the US?

Mr Matthews said that, while there should be a crackdown on printed weapons because “there is nothing stopping someone from getting a print from the States”, he disagrees with the need for regulatory movement against the 3D printing process being used to print other items.

The United States has *not* banned 3D-printed guns. Designs have been freely available on the Internet in the United States for five years. Unlike Australia, individuals in the United States have always had a right to make their own firearms, and have done so for over 200 years.  Only recently have a couple of authoritarian states claimed to have the power to license individuals who desire to make their own guns. Those claims will eventually be challenged in court.

The misconception in the case of 3D printed guns comes from the Cody Wilson/Defense Distributed case, where the State Department claimed the 3D printed designs were covered under the International  Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). The regulations are designed to control the export of defense and military related technologies. It was a losing case, on First Amendment grounds, from the start.

People all over the world have been making effective guns at home for centuries.

Australians lost the legal authority to make their own firearms in 1996.

The person who printed out the designs in Mudjimba has claimed he did not know it was illegal to do so.

In the Australian state of Queensland, which contains Mudjimba, non-firing replicas are not illegal.

In New South Wales, the Australian state to the South of Queensland, a license is required to possess a non-functioning replica. Possessing the computer code to print out a 3D gun is a crime.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

GA: Man Shoots Dog Attacking his Pet

However, the neighbor said the animal ran over and attacked his smaller dog, which was on his porch. The big dog grabbed the little one by the neck and was "slinging it around" and the neighbor kicked it away. When it ran back to get at the smaller dog again, he shot it.
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Followup NC: Robbery Suspect Found Dead

— A man found shot to death in north Raleigh late Saturday might have been wounded in a convenience store robbery that night, police said Monday.

The body of Derrick Malik Wiley, 21, was found in the 4200 block of Waterbury Road, off New Hope Church Road just west of Capital Boulevard.
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ID: Security Guard Shoot, Kills Suspect who had Gun and Wore Motorcycle Helmit.

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Around 1:00 p.m. Saturday, an armed man wearing a motorcycle helmet walked into at the Global Credit Union on East Neider Ave. in Coeur d'Alene.

When he showed the gun, the security guard drew his own weapon and fired at the suspect, hitting him at least once.

The suspect tried to run, but collapsed from his injuries inside the building.
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KY: Man Keeps Committing Crimes... Gets Shot and Killed

On 8 August, 2018 in Lexington, Kentucky, at about 06:30 a.m., Shawn Michael Woods is reported as breaking into multiple apartments in an address near Martin Luther King Dr.  He is said to have broken into one woman's apartment and tried to crawl into bed with her.  A business owner in the area said he had multiple problems with Woods. From wkyt.com:

Lexington police say the shooting happened around 6:45 a.m. Wednesday. The person who shot Woods lived in the apartment complex.

Investigators believe Woods was breaking into multiple apartments throughout the morning after talking to witnesses.

A neighboring business owner told WKYT he had several run-ins with Woods in the last few days.

At first, local reporting was that Woods was the victim, because he had been shot and killed in one of the residences. He is said to have lived at the apartment complex. Police investigated the shooting and determined it was self defense, only a few hours later. The district attorney could make a different finding, but it seems unlikely.  The finding by the police was quick. It was aided by multiple witnesses who corroborated violent criminal behavior before Woods broke into the residence where he was shot and killed.

A business owner, interviewed near the scene, said that he appreciated what the defensive shooter had to do.  He felt sorry for the difficulties the shooter would be going through.

This case illustrates the mathematical problem of people who repeatedly violate the rights of others.

Most people do not want to become involved in violence. But violence only takes one party. Violence can come to people if they want it or not.

Eventually, perpetrators run into someone who fights back. Sometimes, the perpetrator does not survive the encounter. Smart criminals learn and decide not to continue their criminal acts.  Some learn to carefully evaluate victims and choose those who are helpless or unwary. Successful burglars learn to commit crimes when no one is at home.

A lot of crime is committed by people who are intoxicated on drugs or alcohol. Judgment is reduced, actions become less inhibited. Some drugs induce paranoia and/or hallucinations. Many break ins occur when someone on drugs believe they are being pursued and threatened. Victimization studies in the United States indicate about a third of the perpetrators were under the influence. Crime committed by people under the influence can be particularly frightening because the perpetrators do not act rationally.

It does not take a lot of criminals to create a lot of crime.  In Sweden, one percent of the population commits 63% of the violent crime. I have not found similar statistics for the United States. 

Removing a few criminals from society, either by shooting them or putting them in prison, can lower the crime rate significantly.  Fear of arrest, jail, or of being shot can cause criminals to reduce the number of crimes they commit.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

Followup IA: No Charges for Man who Shot, Killed Joshua Wheeler in Self Defense

Police say Wheeler forced his way into the home and began to physically assault the other man. The assault stopped briefly, and then started back up. As that assault continued, the man fired one shot from his lawfully-owned handgun. Wheeler was hit in the abdomen.
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Followup FL: Michael Drejka Arrested in Handicap Parking Shooting of Markeis McGlockton

A witness, indicating that Drejka "appeared confrontational," according to the warrant, told McGlockton about the heated argument outside and said he might want to get involved.

Surveillance video shows the rest. McGlockton left the store, walked up to Drejka and pushed him to the ground. Drejka then pulled out a Glock .40-caliber handgun and shot McGlockton. He told deputies they didn’t speak but he saw McGlockton twitch toward him and was in fear of further attack.

The warrant notes what McGlockton’s family and their lawyers have pointed out to show that Drejka’s fear wasn’t reasonable.
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IN: Two Armed Customers Shoot, Kill, Armed Robbery Suspect

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Police believe two customers shot an armed robber at a GetGo on the northeast side of town this evening.

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