Update: FOIA Details on Polar Bear .22 Pistol Defense Failure in Svalbard

 

Image from wikimedia naturepics online, 2010

Detailed, official information has surfaced about the defensive use of a pistol failure involving a .22 pistol and polar bear in the Svalbard archipelago of Norway.

One of the three documented cases where a pistol was fired to defend from a bear, and failed, was the sad tale of crew passengers from the tour/expedition ship Origo, in the summer of 1995.  The event, as related in a travel guide, was documented on AmmoLand. There were several other sources which corroborated the event; the details were from the travel guide.

As part of ongoing research to discover documented cases where pistols were fired in defense against bears, AmmoLand was filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for polar bear incidents for this correspondent.

The released data contained a redacted, English translation of the narrative of the official Svalbard report on the Origo incident.

The official version is far more detailed, and considerably more believable than the skeleton version in the travel guide book. They overlap closely; the details in the official version explain a great deal which seemed almost farcical in the travel guide version.

Travel Guide version Kiepertoyo Hinlopen Strait, August, 1995

Another five people of the crew set out separately with only a .22 pistol and a flare gun. After an hour’s march, the second party were met by a bear, 75m away and openly aggressive. The bear was distracted neither by warning shot nor flare and attacked one of the party. As he did so, he was shot, from a range of only 15m and turned against the man who had fired at him. This man tossed the gun to the first, who shot again. The process was repeated, with first one man being attacked and then the other. By the time the pistol was emptied and a knife drawn, one man was dead and another badly injured. The survivors retreated to the ship.

(snip)

On examination, three shots to the head were discovered, none of them piercing the cranium.

The victim had three years experience with the Origo,
with many bear observations, and there were sufficient weapons on board to equip everybody.

The official version offers depth, and details render the story credible. The idea of tossing a pistol back and forth, from some distance, while being attacked by a polar bear, seemed bizarre; yet people are known to do bizarre things under stress.

The official version shows both complacency and  heroic action. If only the shooter had a little more experience with pistols and knew a little more about bear anatomy!

The official version was received as a translation from Norwegian to English, with redacted names. It has been edited to make it more readable, with false names inserted to aid in understanding the action.

First, to set the stage, and make some corrections. The ship was the Origo. In 1995, on August 31, a party went ashore sight seeing.

The shore party started with 13 people and had a high powered rifle as well as the .22 pistol. They split into two groups. One group of eight contained the Captain and the high powered rifle.

The five who were attacked by the bear were not all staff; there were two tourists, who will be referred to as Sue and Joan.

There were three crew. The tour leader had a .22 pistol, a radio, and a flare gun; other crew members had signal pen flares.  The crew leader will be referred to as Harold.   The other two crew members will be called Bill and Olaf.

The Official version from Governor of Svalbard records

Harold did not answer his radio when the captain of
the ship, who was guiding the other group, called him up to tell him not
to go far.

After 1-2km they saw bear tracks in the snow. Joan and
some others had seen the tracks already from the boat. Joan asked Harold if his pistol was enough against a bear.  Harold said he
trusted it.

Right after they saw the tracks, they saw the bear. It was big but
skinny, according to Olaf. It was at about 75m, standing still and
looking at them.

People in the other group then heard 2 shots and called Harold on the radio. He informs them there is a bear.

The first shot was from the flare gun and the bear didn't react at
once.

He stood still for a while, then started loping towards them.

Harold fired 2 more shots from the flare gun (crackers) but the bear only came closer. At the last cracker shot from the flare gun, the bear was about 20-30m away.

Harold then grabbed his .22 pistol and fired 2 shots at the bear. When the bear was 10-15m away it accelerated to full charge and hit Harold, knocking him down. As he went down, he threw the pistol toward Olaf.

Bill had run off at the first sign of the bear.

Sue and Joan had been watching. When Harold was attacked, they ran.

The bear was now lying on top of Harold and biting his neck. Olaf ran to the pistol, and retrieved it.

Olaf fired four shots at the bear's head from three to four feet away. Some of the shots hit the bear. Blood showed on the white bear's head. The bear then attacked Olaf, who threw himself down on the ground on his belly and put his hands over his head to protect it.

The bear bit his arm, neck and almost bit off his left ear. The pistol fell to the ground.

Harold was now back on his feet and the bear switched attention to him.

Olaf knew Harold had a knife and shouted at him to use it, but Harold was unable to draw it.

The bear bit Harold in the neck and threw him in the air a few times.

Olaf found the pistol.

Harold, earlier, had yelled that there were 7 or 8 rounds in it.  Olaf fired one more shot at the bears head, but the bear did not react.

Olaf realized he was severely injured. Harold appeared to be dead. Olaf had nothing left to fight with. He retreated toward the boat.

Two members of the other group, one armed with a rifle, met the retreating survivors.  They were informed a polar bear took Harold.

Olaf was taken to the ship for treatment; two crew attempted a rescue mission for Harold.

They see the very bloody bear at 55 yards. The rifle man is afraid to shoot because the bear is walking among rocks, and he might miss.

He fires four shots from a flare gun instead.  The bear walks slowly away. The follow the bear, in visual contact. The bear slowly walks past Harold's body, and disappears.  Harold is clearly dead. They turn over the body and put a jacket over it.

Later, police track the bear and kill it.

End of official version

Analysis

After the first two pistol shots, at about 50 feet, Harold, the owner of the pistol, never fired it again. The two shots may have hit the head or elsewhere on the bear. They may have missed.

It appears the bear broke into a flat out charge just as or after the first two shots were fired, from about 40 to 50 feet. The bear was already moving. The time to cover the distance was probably less than a second.

No mention was made of any other wounds from a .22, than the three head wounds.

It appears Olaf had never fired the pistol before. He had no idea how many cartridges it held before Harold yelled out the information.

Olaf may not have fired any pistol before the polar bear attack.

While it seems difficult to miss a bear's brain from 4 feet away, he may not have known where the brain was located in the polar bear's head. Stress makes everything more difficult.

The brain is about the size of a pint jar. It sits inside a head of about 2.5 gallon volume. Firing an unfamiliar pistol, at a possibly moving head of a bear at close range, Olaf managed to completely miss at least two of five shots. It is likely none of the other three shots which hit the head, hit in direct line with the bears brain. If they had, they likely would have killed it. One of the problems with a soft lead .22 bullet, is they can be deflected by heavy bone, especially it they strike at an angle less than about 30 degrees from the bone's surface. If they strike a bear's cranium at close to 90 degrees, they are likely to penetrate it.

A .22 can kill large animals, such as polar bears, quickly, but there is little room for error.  No one recommends a .22 for self defense against bears if there is a more powerful choice.

As it was, the four .22 shots fired by Olaf seem to have got the bear's attention. When the bear was hit, he stopped mauling Harold and turned on Olaf.

We do not know if he was hit with the last shot fired, as Olaf had been seriously wounded by that time.

The bear was probably very hungry. This was a predatory attack.

©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

TX: 17-Year-Old Shoots at 3 Armed, Masked, Home Invaders, Killing Two

HARRIS COUNTY – Two suspects are dead after a 17-year-old teen shot them during an attempted home invasion in east Harris County Friday night, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said it happened in the 16000 block of 1st Street near the East Freeway at around 10:40 p.m. in the Channelview area.

Gonzalez said in his tweet that three armed men wearing masks “attempted to make force entry” into the home where a woman, two teen boys, and a 12-year-old boy were inside.

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Polar Bear attack, FOIA Incident 30, 1983 Panarctic Oils, Canada

Image from wikimedia naturepics online, 2010

Far above the Arctic Circle, on December 18, 1983, a man was attacked by a sow polar bear and her cub, without provocation, on King Christian Island.  Colleagues were able stop the bears from killing and eating the victim. A colleague drove off the bear using a front end loader, in spite of repeated attempts by the sow to retake possession of the wounded man.  The arrival of a pickup truck with an armed passenger resulted in the sow being wounded and both bears driven off. The man survived.

The incident was revealed in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) response obtained by AmmoLand from the Department of the Interior.

Because the names of the people involved have been redacted, pseudonyms have been used to make the account more readable. Panarctic Oils was conducting exploration of arctic resources in 1983. One of their bases was on King Christian Island in the Canadian arctic.

FOIA, Incident 30, Panarctic Oils Limited, King Christian Island December 18, 1983, Canadian arctic.

Psuedonyms:

Dave, victim of bear attack.

Joe, Dave's partner who ran for help, notified the other players, and obtained the gun which was available on site.

Bill is the front end loader operator, and Eric is the pick-up truck driver.

From the FOIA, as reported by bear researchers, with psuedonyms added and lightly edited for clarity.

It was dark outside. At 12:45 a.m. Dave and Joe went to dump the garbage and pump water. Joe was getting ready to pump water when Dave came walking around the corner with a polar bear right behind him. Joe started running to camp and looked back to see Dave fall. The bear had swatted him across his buttocks causing him to fall down. Once down, the bear grabbed him by his arms and proceeded to drag him for 300 m. Dave struggled the whole time and this probably increased the severity of his injuries as the bear hung onto his arms to drag him.

From the time that the bear began dragging Dave away to when Bill found him, no one but Dave knew what was happening. Dave mentioned at the time that at one point the cub came and grabbed one arm and started to pull. The mother at that point dropped Dave and went after the cub and chased it away. Dave's comments at the time were that the bear was not so vicious when he stopped fighting.

Joe woke up the radio operator and got the gun. He went outside and fired 3 shots in the air. Joe returned to the radio room and contacted Bill and Eric. They were together about 1/2 km from camp. Bill was on on the loader and Eric in the pickup. Eric drove back as quickly as possible and picked up Joe. They were limited in their area of search by the amount of snow.  Bill on the loader had more manouverability and Joe directed him to the general area where he thought the bear may have headed.

Bill started looking and about 10 meters past the dock saw the bear but could not see Dave. As he got closer, he could see the bear was lying on top of Dave, sort of hiding him. Bill could see Dave's feet and he drove up and hit the bear with his forks (on the front end loader) to get the bear off. He thought Dave was dead and to prevent the bear from attacking further, he drove the loader over Dave's body (between the wheels). The bear backed off about 3 meters and then he (Bill) saw Dave move his hand and told Dave to get under the loader. When the bear saw Dave move, it charged Dave again but just as the bear got close, Bill dropped the forks onto the bear, hitting it and causing it to move off about 7 meters. The bear then charged the loader from another angle and Bill not being able to move, honked the horn. As the bear backed off, Dave crawled out from under the machine and up into the loader.

Bill believes that the equipment and noise scared and confused the bear. This contributed to distracting her and helped to keep Dave alive until he was rescued.

 Meanwhile, Joe, in the pickup heard from Bill that he had found Dave and the bear. Joe and Eric turned the pickup to face the area and saw the bear running away. Joe got out of the truck and shot at the bear from 30 meters. The bear was wounded but managed to get away.

The next morning two Inuit were brought in from Resolute with the RCMP. They tracked the bear and found her about 8 km from camp. Joe's shot had taken her bottom jaw off and she was dying. The Inuit shot and killed her about 10 a.m.

In the confusion of the evening before, the bear's cub was left behind. It was shot by the cat skinner (not identified) when he saw it heading back into the camp area.

Dave was brought inside and they administered first aid to him. Joe estimates that from the time that the bear first attacked Dave to when he was brought back into camp was about 12-15 minutes. Dave was medivac'd out and hospitalized for an extended time. His scalp was torn off, however, from the wounds it appears that the bear clawed the skin off rather than chewed it off. Apparently Dave was lying on his stomach and the bear kept trying to roll him over with her paws.

The camp had only been opened two days and the crew had arrived that evening. They backtracked the trail of the female and her yearling. She had been walking along the beach and it appears that as soon as she was downwind from the camp, she made a right angle turn and headed straight for it.

People are made of meat. This appears to be a predatory attack. King Christian Island is a very remote area. It is uninhabited. The bears may have been a bit cautious while "testing" the new prey. From the information provided in the FOIA response, it appears there was only one firearm allowed at the site, almost certainly a limitation imposed by the Canadian government. There was no mention of caliber or gauge of the firearm used.

Resolute is about 200 miles east of King Christian Island.

This correspondent has been unable to find any contemporaneous articles published about the incident. It has all the ingredients for a great  human interest story, a giant predator, preying on humans; the struggle for survival; a hostile, dark, cold environment, heroic actions by the victim's colleagues, man and machine against the predator in a scene similar to that in the movie "Aliens". If any readers find a contemporaneous account, please let us know of it.

The Panarctic Oil company had been fined $150,000 by the Canadian government, for dumping oil residue and garbage, which had no environmental effect, according to the court, in January of 1983.  The corporation was still on probation in December of 1983, so it likely worked with the government to repress news of the polar bear attack. Bear researchers knew of the incident in 1988.

©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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OH: Charges Dropped Against man in West Chester Apartment Shooting

WEST CHESTER, Ohio — Charges were dropped against 33-year-old Courtney Montgomery after a police investigation revealed he may not be the party to blame for a shooting that left a woman wounded in a West Chester apartment on Wednesday.

Montgomery will be freed from police custody after a judge ruled Friday afternoon that all charges against him be dismissed because investigators and prosecutors said they discovered conflicting evidence in the case.

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California Billboards Scare Tactic: Don't Move to Texas

link to twitter 

New billboards have sprouted in San Francisco and Los Angeles, according to several publications including Twitter, Reddit, and the New York Post. From the New York Post:

Mysterious new billboards are warning California residents not to
move to Texas, as record numbers of residents flee the soft-on-crime Golden State for better quality of life in red states.

“The Texas Miracle died in Uvalde. Don’t move to Texas,” the
billboards read, alongside a hooded figure and a crossed-out “Don’t mess with Texas” slogan.

The billboard seems to follow the trend of the dominant media and those who wish the population disarmed, of using a mass murder to scare people into doing what the politicians want.

While mass school murders such as happened in Uvalde Texas, are exceedingly rare, the media attempt to make them appear to be an everyday occurrence.

Those who wish the population disarmed then try to tie the unpopular policy of disarming the public, to safety, as if such a policy would stop mass murder incentivized by the Media.

It is unclear who is paying for the billboards.

It is unclear what the purpose of the billboards are.

According to SFGate, one billboard is on the corner of Folsom and 7th in San Francisco.

Some claim the purpose is to demonize Texas and stop the rampant flow of productive people and assets from California to Texas. Tesla and Oracle are two recent examples.  People who find freedom attractive might decide the bill board sends them a message of freedom.

Others claim the purpose is to keep people who favor gun control from moving to Texas. People who had guns might be deterred from moving to Texas.

Newsweek found a professor who said the billboard was designed by an amateur because of its conflicting messages. From Newsweek:

"This is the lowest of the low. It's bizarre. It's amateurish," he said.  

Cabot added that typically a billboard should be understood by the reader in three seconds. He said the anti-Texas billboards are confusing and people can't understand them quickly.

The billboard was put up by Foxpoint Media, an advertising company out of Chicago.  If the billboards were meant to drive traffic to and awareness of the advertising company, they are doing an excellent job.

Opinion:

This correspondent has seen plenty of billboards with a "made you look!" message designed to sell advertising on the billboards.

Perhaps this is a clever way to bring attention to Foxpoint Media.

Then, again, it appears to be a win-win for both sides in the political debate.

If the bill board deters Leftists from moving to Texas, it both keeps people in California, and prevent people who Second Amendment types wish to stay away from Texas, away from Texas.

The bill board uses a common theme used by those who wish the population disarmed. It seems unlikely Second Amendment supporters put it up.  One of the ways to make advertising effective is to keep it simple and repetitive.

It would be simpler and more effective to put up billboards praising Texas Open Carry, Constitutional Carry, and support for the Second Amendment, and self defense.  

 It would not repeat a common anti-Second Amendment theme.

Those who hate guns would be less likely to move to Texas. The message would not be ambiguous.

©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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OR:Keizer Homeowner Shoots, Kills Intruder

Keizer Police officers responded at about 2:20 a.m. to reports of someone with a gunshot wound at a home on Mayfield Place North.

The homeowner told police he woke to someone inside his house. He then fired a shot at the person, who was pronounced dead.

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Book Review: The Wolves of Alaska A Fact-based Saga, by Jim Rearden

The Wolves of Alaska A Fact-based Saga, by Jim Rearden, 335 pages, published 2002, Pictoral Histories Publishing Company, Missoula, Montana. Prices vary from under $20 new, to under $10 used, or about $3 on Kindle.

The Wolves of Alaska (Wolves) is a comprehensive, deep dive into wolf habits, management, and the politics of such management in Alaska.  It is written in an easy to read format, a "faction", a saga based on fact, with fictionalized names to protect the innocent, and give the guilty no action for a lawfare lawsuit.

It is a fine antidote to the misinformation perpetrated on the world with "Never Cry Wolf" by Farley Mowat.

Reardon was a legendary Alaska professor, guide, author, writer, scientist and civic minded volunteer.

He had a lifetime of experience, 46 years, in Alaska when Wolves was finished, about 1996. It would be six more years before it was published, in 2002.

Wolves relies on the best research, real world experience and information gleaned from several lifetimes in Alaska, dealing with wolves. Rearden had already written several books and interviewed people with a lifetime of study of wolves. While wolves are the most important characters in the book, a host of real and composite characters, made from the real lives of men and women, come to life in the pages of the book.

A favorite is Frank Glaser. Reardon devoted an entire book to Frank, several years earlier. Frank was a legendary hunter and trapper in Alaska.

Rearden was an early, perhaps the, main proponent of ending the bounty on wolves which had been with the state for most of the time since Alaska was purchased from Russia. The state eliminated the bounty in 1970.

Reading the book, you may be surprised to find somewhere between 20 and 40 percent of a wolf population has to die each year to maintain a stable population level.

You will find that wolves and bears are responsible for about 85% of the mortality in ungulate (caribou, deer, sheep, and moose and muskox) populations in Alaska. Hunters only account for 2-7 percent. Most of the mortality is in young animals.

Wolves has an abundance of facts  you can rely on. In addition, it is a good read. It kept my attention and interest. At times, it is a page turner.  It is an interesting way to both tell a story and deliver hard facts to an interested population. The facts would do a textbook proud. The presentation reads like a good novel.

If you like a good read, and want to know the facts about wolves, especially in Alaska, read Wolves.

Wolves goes to considerable length to explain the dynamic where misinformed urban dwellers, particularly professional women without children, become emotionally attached to a romantic image of wolves promoted by radical environmental and animal rights groups. Not so coincidentally, such an emotion attachment is financially rewarding to the groups promoting the false image of wolves.

One  complaint: when Wolves was written, the myth of the "harmless" wolf had yet to be broken. The book was published in 2002, three years before Kenton Carniegie was killed by healthy wild wolves in 2005, or Candice Berner in Alaska in 2010.

Now we know: healthy wolves often kill people under the right conditions. Those conditions do not exist where people commonly carry modern firearms, and are allowed to shoot wolves which become too bold.

©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

OK: Domestic Defense? Man in Oklahoma City Shoots Intruder

Oklahoma City Police responded to the scene of a burglary on Tuesday morning.

Police say a man and woman were inside their apartment on Cherry Hill Ln. in Oklahoma City when they heard someone trying to remove the AC unit from their window. When the pair went to look, they saw a black male coming in through their apartment through the window.

The man inside the apartment told police that he had shot the intruder in the chin.

According to the police report, the intruder allegedly used to be in a romantic relationship with the woman who lived in the apartment.

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OK: Man Shoots, Kills Burglary Suspect at 2:00 a.m.

An Oklahoma man shot and killed a suspected burglar who broke into his Tulsa home in the early hours of Sunday morning, according to local reports.

The homeowner told police that he opened fire as a man was entering his home at Brandy Chase Condominiums around 2:00 a.m., according to FOX23 News.

The alleged burglar was found dead by police at the bottom of a staircase with a gunshot wound.

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Federal District Court issues Temporary Restraining Order against "assualt weapon, magazine ban"

A United States District  Court for the District of Colorado has issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the Town of Superior to prevent enforcement of their recent "assault weapon" and magazine ban, based on the Supreme Court ruling in NYSR&PA v. Bruen.  This appears to be the first of many pending cases likely to knock down laws which infringe on the exercise of Second Amendment rights, under the Bruen decision. 

The lawsuit was filed on July 7, 2022. The TRO was issued on July 22, 2022.

Superior, Colorado is a town of about 13 thousand located on highway 36 between Denver and Boulder, Colorado. The outskirts of Boulder are about three miles northwest, beyond the outskirts of Superior.   Superior appears to be a trendy, up scale bedroom community serving Boulder and Denver. The average home price is said to be $570k.

Judge Moore was appointed by President Obama in 2013, unanimously. The judge took the challenge by the Plaintiffs (the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, National Association for Gun Rights and Charles Bradly Walker)  to apply to three provisions of the ordinance enacted by the Town of Superior, sections 10-9-40, 10-9-240 and 10-9-260.  From the Court TRO:

In its effort to rule on the Motion, the Court has faced two significant challenges. It is not entirely clear to the Court, based on Plaintiffs’ Motion, which precise provisions of the Amended Code they wish to challenge. The Court also notes, however, that the Amended Code is not, itself, a model of clarity. Nevertheless, based on the Motion, it appears to the Court that Plaintiffs primarily challenge three of the Amended Code’s provisions—section 10-9-40, section 10-9-240, and section 10-9-260.

The ordinance contains a laundry list of leftist talking points and dubious statistical arguments put forward by opponents of the Second Amendment. They are, essentially, policy balancing arguments ruled inapplicable to the Second Amendment by the Constitution, specifically in the Bruen decision.  Bruen states the policy balancing arguments were decided by the people at the time the Second Amendment was adopted. Judge Moore, instead, uses the historical and cultural approach demanded by Bruen. From the TRO:

The Court is sympathetic to the Town’s stated reasoning. However, the Court is unaware of historical precedent that would permit a governmental entity to entirely ban a type of weapon that is commonly used by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, whether in an individual’s home or in public. 

The Court also notes that the Town’s justifications are somewhat undermined by the other subsections of this very provision. Specifically, subsection (b)(1) provides that “[a]ny person holding a valid federal firearms license from possession of any firearm authorized pursuant to such license” will not be subject to the prohibition of 10-9-40. The following subsection, (b)(2) likewise exempts any “firearm for which the U.S. Government has issued a stamp or permit pursuant to the National Firearms Act.” The National Firearms Act, referenced in the latter subsection, provides for permitting such firearms as short-barreled shotguns and rifles, machineguns, and silencers. Each of those weapons is arguably even more deadly than the semi-automatic weapons that the Town of Superior seeks to ban, yet these provisions would permit individuals to possess, sell, or otherwise transfer them.

In section 10-90-240, the town requires certificate for possession of already owned weapons, and restrictions on the carry and use of such weapons. The Court issued a TRO against this provision as well: 

 As previously discussed, the Court concludes that the Second Amendment encompasses the conduct addressed by this provision. And, also as previously discussed, the Court is unaware of a historical precedent that would permit the Town of Superior to impose such a regulation that would, in reality, eventually ban all assault weapons. Therefore, despite the Town of Superior’s substantial and legitimate concerns, the Court concludes that Plaintiffs are likely to prevail on the merits of their claim as to this provision.

The Court refused to issue a TRO against the part of the ordinance which prohibits the open carry of firearms.  In part, the court reasoned the bearing of arms is not banned if the person has a concealed carry  permit.  The court did not address the problems with banning open carry of arms which are difficult to conceal, such as rifles and shotguns, nor did it discuss the large number of places where the town bans any carry of firearms.

There are several provisions of the Town of Superior ordinance which were not addressed in the TRO filed against the town. They may be addressed when the case goes to appeal or trial. The items listed below were not specifically addressed in the lawsuit. They may be included in later filings.

- The carry of firearms at "demonstrations" is prohibited.  A demonstration is defined as one or more persons whose conduct is intended to draw a crowd of onlookers . This appears to directly violate First Amendment rights, as open carry is symbolic, strong, protected, political speech. 

- Waiting period: The town imposes a 10 day waiting period for the transfer of firearms.

- Ban on homemade firearms, unless a serial number is on record with a Federal Firearms License holder. Section 10-9-290  includes this noxious bit eliminating the right to make firearms without government records:

 No person shall possess any firearms that has not been identified with a serial number by a federal licensee. 

There are exceptions for firearms made before 1968, but none for homemade firearms.

This TRO is a good start to rescinding the multitudes of laws infringing on Second Amendment rights which are enforced in scattered jurisdictions covered by the United States Constitution. 

©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

CA: Followup, Charges against William Bradley Dropped in Self Defense Case after Five Years

An 84-year-old Novato man who shot his stepson has been cleared of criminal charges, ending nearly five years of litigation.

The Marin County District Attorney’s Office dismissed its case against William Thomas Bradley, founder of the contracting company W. Bradley Electric, as it was about to head to trial.

The prosecution withdrew the case because Bradley’s legal team showed that the shooting was in self-defense, said Douglas Horngrad, an attorney for Bradley. Horngrad said Bradley never should have been charged.

“Bill Bradley was innocent,” he said. “Bill has been an upstanding member of this community for his whole life. With this dismissal, Bill gets his good name back.”

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Cheap Gun Opportunity or Upgrade Possibility? "Buyback" in Toledo, September 10, 2022

Back half of slamfire shotguns turned in for money at a gun "buyback"

On Saturday, September 10, 2022, the city of Toledo, Ohio, will be holding a gun "buyback" event. The Owellian term "buyback" is used, even though the guns being turned in were never owned by the government before.

The event is scheduled for four hours and will give out BP gasoline cards in various denomination in exchange for guns: From wtol.com:

The city of Toledo is holding a gun buyback event on Saturday, Sept. 10, at the Frederick Douglass Center in central Toledo.

The event, which will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., will accept any gun in exchange for gas gift cards, 'no questions asked.' No ID is required to surrender a weapon.

At the Toledo government web site, there are a few specifics about the event: From toledo.oh.gov: 

Location: Frederick Douglass Center, 1001 Indiana Ave.

Date: Saturday, September 10

Time: 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Receive a gas gift card for every firearm turned in, no questions asked. Gift card quantities are limited and subject to availability. Functioning and nonfunctioning firearms will be accepted at the event. All firearms must be unloaded.

$100 Handguns

$200 Shotguns and rifles

$250 Automatic

$0    Ammunition 

At 13abc.com, the announcement mentioned "residency". There is no indication how residency would be determined, as this is a "no questions asked" turn in event. From 13abc.com:  

According to the City, the firearms can be either functioning or nonfunctioning but they must be unloaded when turned in to law enforcement. There are also no limits on the number of firearms that a resident can drop off.

The city website does not say anything about a residency requirement.  It is likely an error of an editor at 13abc. 

What the police may do is not clear. 

Ohio is a Constitutional carry/permitless carry state. The law went into effect on June 22, 2022, less than two months ago. A conversation with a Toledo police Sergeant Mack, revealed the police intend to prevent people  from "loitering" on the parking lot of Frederic Douglas Center. People who have a firearm or firearms to turn in will be able to enter in a vehicle or on foot. 

A police officer will inspect the firearm(s) and accompany the person inside the center, where they will receive the appropriate gift cards.

The incentives for rifles/shotguns are generous. Many rifles and shotguns can be purchased new for less than $200.  Ammoland recently had a daily deal for pump shotguns at $124.99. 

The offer almost seems created for slamfire shotguns which can be made for about $15-$30 worth of materials, at home, in an hour or two. There are many places on the Internet which show how to make these simple and effective shotguns, which have been used all over the world, even during warfare in WWII in the Philippines. 

How much money will be available for gift cards is uncertain.  The number listed for information revealed a pleasant woman who said they did not have any more information. She directed me to the police and the Prosecutor's office. 

The police were helpful with details about the operation, but did not know anything about funding.

A call back from the prosecutor's office said they did not know how much money would be available, but it would be from forfiture money, not from tax dollars. They estimated the amount would be between a thousand dollars and one hundred thousand dollars, maybe in the twenty five thousand dollar area. 

If anyone expects to get actual gift cards, they should show up early. Events such as these often run out of gift cards.

There has not been a similar event in Toledo, Ohio, for a while. There are likely to be quite a few old hunting guns, owned by widows or grandchildren who inherited them, and who would like to trade them for a few dollars. It is possible some will be worth much more than $200, and many old and broken singleshot shotguns, will be worth less.

©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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FL: Followup, Jonathan Hobbs found Not Guilty in Shooting of Danny Blackmon , Jr.

An Escambia County jury found a Milton man charged with murder not guilty after he took the stand on the final day of his trial Friday and said the shooting was an act of self defense.

Jonathon Hobbs was charged with first-degree premeditated murder in the Feb. 1, 2021, shooting death of 36-year-old Danny Blackmon Jr.

Hobbs is friends with a woman named Dawn Sluder, and Blackmon was dating Sluder's daughter, Crystal Hassell.

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Madison Gun "buyback" 483 Firearms, including 55 Homemade, 93 air guns, a crossbow pistol

Screen shot from video released by Sheriff's Office

Video and numbers from the gun turn in event organized by the Dane County Sheriff's office in Madison, Wisconsin, on August 13, 2022, have been released. The Orwellian term "buyback" was used, although the guns had never been owned by the police. You cannot "buyback" something you never owned.

There is video released by the Sheriff's Office of the guns turned in, shown at NBC15.com. 

The haphazard and careless display of jumbled long guns makes identification of most problematic.  There appeared to be at least one M1 Carbine, one of the Lee Enfield Service rifles, and, likely, an Springfield 03 or 03A3 service rifle.

Included in the jumble of long guns were a smattering of air guns. There were numerous shotguns and .22 rifles.

As reported by wkow.com:

The Dane County Sheriff's Office shared the following details about the event:

• 266 cars came to the event
• 577 total weapons were surrendered, including:
  • 333 long guns, including rifles, shotguns and 11 assault-style rifles
  • 95 handguns, including revolvers and semi-automatic pistols
  • 93 pellet/BB/paintball guns
  • One crossbow pistol
  • 55 homemade weapons (3D, slam guns)
  • 380 lbs. of miscellaneous ammunition

The Sheriff's Office stated $43,380 in gift cards were handed out.

From the numbers reported by the Sheriff's Office, there were 483 firearms of all types turned in at the event.

Over eleven percent of the firearms turned in were homemade (ghost) guns.

There was no information about how much was handed out for the homemade firearms. The advertising for the event stated $200 would be paid for "ghost guns".

AmmoLand welcomes comments from anyone with personal knowledge of the event. 

There was local opposition to the event. Anthony Hamilton is running for Sheriff to replace Sheriff Barrett this November. From madison.com: 

“This event was virtue signaling and political theater of the absolute worst kind,” Hamilton said, standing in Olin Park in Madison next to two damaged stolen cars that he called “a symbol of the failure of political infection in policing.”

“That money could have been better spent to make a real difference and save lives,” the candidate said. “Nearly all of these guns were handed over by older white women. Not the demographic the sheriff said he was after.”

Sheriff Kalvin Barrett issued a statement in defense of the event. From spectrumnews1.com: 

“We’re very pleased with the results from this effort to interrupt the access to guns in our community,” Sheriff Kalvin Barrett said in a statement. “It’s important to remember that we will never know if we have prevented an injury or death. We can’t measure something that did not happen. But by providing this opportunity for people to safely dispose of their unwanted firearms, we can undoubtedly say that these guns will never be used in a crime, a suicide, a domestic violence incident or an accident.”

Academic studies universally show these events to have no effect on crime or suicide rates.  Proponents often claim their purpose is "to make a statement" or to "do something".

Sheriff Kalvin Barrett made this statement:

"There has been a lot of talk about this being the end all be all for all gun violence. But in reality, its not. It is a piece to the pie of the societal issues that we have. Not only here  in Dane County, but throughout our nation, nationwide."

Dane County Supervisor Rick Rose indicated the message given was the important thing. In a Channel3000.com interview he said:

 "For us, there is the message that we care."

Rose then claimed conversations on the way to and from turning in guns would include:

".. the importance and the metaphor of turning in a gun."

Several sources report media was banned from the event.

The Sheriff claimed the ban was out of a desire to protect the anonymity of participants. 

The decision to ban media appears to have been made after the Sheriff's political opponent, Anthony Hamilton, criticized the event. 

266 vehicles were reported  as showing up for the event. Most participants did not have to leave their vehicle for a deputy to retrieve the guns and ammunition from the cargo area. 

Some private purchasers worked the line, offering more money than the County was. They left when police asked them to leave. 

The ban on media seems to have been effective in minimizing the reports of private purchasers. 

According to a source in the Sheriff's department, other private purchasers worked from the parking lot of a nearby private hotel. This correspondent did not find any media mentioning this.

At about 2:10 in the NBC15 video, it is reported:

The Sheriff said no stolen guns were found. When a reporter asked him if all the guns were registered, he said information was still being gathered and would be shared in the future. 

Not reported:

Very few guns are required to be  "registered" in Wisconsin. It would be difficult to find a "registered" gun in Wisconsin, especially at an anonymous "buyback".

©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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SC: 60+ year old Homeowner shoots Intruder who Broke into Residence

A homeowner in his 60s shot a man who broke into his Adams Run residence after midnight on Sept. 3.

The suspect, Lawrence Butler Jr., of Adams Run, was immediately taken to a hospital for treatment. Charleston County Sheriff’s deputies booked the 37-year-old man into the county jail later that morning on charges of first-degree burglary and cocaine possession, according to spokesman Andrew Knapp.

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IN: Homeowner Shoot Intruder during attempted Break-in

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Police in Bloomington are investigating the shooting of a man who allegedly tried to break into a home early Thursday morning.

According to police, a man called 911 to report a burglary in progress at his home in the 1700 block of South Pinestone Court. As officers responded, the man said the suspected burglar broke a window to his bedroom and was trying to get inside. The resident said he then shot at the intruder.

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OP/ED: America has a Problem with too many Gun Laws

The United States has far too many gun laws. There are laws about where you buy a gun, who can buy a gun, who can possess a gun, who can carry a gun, what kind of gun can be bought, shot, loaned, carried or given, where a gun may be possessed, purchased, shot or traded, what kind of ammunition can be sold, possessed, made, or shot, and where it can be at what times.

There are laws about how big, small, old, new, where a gun is or was made, and what it is made of.

These laws have proliferated across thousands of polities across the United States as politicians have used the laws to disarm out of favor minorities, political opponents, and worked to create "do something!" laws which play to media driven hysteria.

In the colonies and the early Republic, there were extremely few gun laws. The rare gun laws were almost never enforced, in part because there was little serious mechanism to enforce them. The electorate would not accept any significant attempt to disarm them. Some early laws required people to be armed.

If you wish to understand how few gun laws there were, read the majority and minority opinions in Bruen, the Second Amendment decision from the Supreme Court in 2022. From Bruen p. 4:

Respondents next direct the Court to the history of the Colonies and early Republic, but they identify only three restrictions on public carry from that time. While the Court doubts that just three colonial regulations could suffice to show a tradition of public-carry regulation, even looking at these laws on their own terms, the Court is not convinced that they regulated public carry akin to the New York law at issue. The statutes essentially prohibited bearing arms in a way that spread “fear” or “terror” among the people, including by carrying of “dangerous and unusual weapons.” See 554 U. S., at 627. Whatever the likelihood that handguns were considered “dangerous and unusual” during the colonial period, they are today “the quintessential self-defense weapon.” Id., at 629. Thus, these colonial laws provide no justification for laws restricting the public carry of weapons that are unquestionably in common use today. Pp. 37–42.

The debate in the decision centers around a handful of laws. Thirty years after the ratification of the Second Amendment, a few states passed laws banning concealed carry of weapons if you were not traveling.

In the early to mid-19th century, some States began enacting laws that proscribed the concealed carry of pistols and other small weapons.

There was no regulation of the making of guns, almost none about the selling of guns, and almost none about the carry of guns by citizens.

Guns were essentially unregulated, bought and sold freely, and manufactured by anyone who wished to do so.

The closest thing to gun regulation was the enforcement of patents, which was done by lawsuit brought by the owner of the patent, decades after the Constitution was ratified.

A significant increase of gun laws in the United States came about during and after Reconstruction (1865-1875), where state governments worked hard to create laws to disarm black people and other disfavored minorities.

Growth of gun laws accelerated with the popularity of Progressive philosophy among intellectuals and politicians about 1900.  A  basic concept of Progressivism was and is a disdain for the limits imposed on government by the Constitution. Gun control is in Progressivism's DNA.

In cities, organized crime in conjunction with corrupt city government worked to disarm people to protect their enforcers, such as the Sullivan law in New York, passed by the notorious "Big Tim" Sullivan.

Sullivan knew the gangs would flout the law, but appearances were more important than results. Young toughs took to sewing the pockets of their coats shut, so that cops couldn’t plant firearms on them, and many gangsters stashed their weapons inside their girlfriends’ “bird cages” — wire-mesh fashion contraptions around which women would wind their hair.

Ordinary citizens, on the other hand, were disarmed, which solved another problem: Gangsters had been bitterly complaining to Tammany that their victims sometimes shot back at them.

The number of laws regulating firearms exploded when Progressive ideology came to dominate politics and government, from the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932 to about 1994.

None of these laws have been found to be effective in reducing crime or increasing safety.  The potential effects of these laws are so small as to be nearly impossible to measure, as was determined by a comprehensive Rand Study in 2020.  The reasons for this are found in a video interview of Aaron Brown, an expert on the use of statistics.

In order to make policy changes appear to be effective, proponents of gun laws create studies which are examples of how to lie with statistics.

Any study which claims a law restricting guns reduces murder with guns while not mentioning any changes in the overall murder rate, is lying with statistics. If the murder rate remains the same or goes up, while murder committed with guns goes down, the law has not been effective. Only a substitution effect has happened.

Similarly, when the suicide rate remains the same or goes up, even if suicide with guns is reduced, there has not been any positive effect.

Gun laws have effects. Those effects are mostly negative. 

The results are millions of people whose lives are disrupted, who are convicted of crimes for exercising their Constitutional rights; whose property is stolen under the color of law, and whose ability to defend themselves is severely compromised.

These are serious costs. Those who push to disarm people ignore the costs of their measures.  Those who bear most of the costs are the poor, who are most vulnerable to the machinations of the legal system, and the middle class, who have resources which can be plundered by the government, careers which can be destroyed, and property which can be confiscated.

Because of the multitude of gun laws in the USA, it is easy for a person to run afoul of the law through simple necessity.

In many "bad" neighborhoods, otherwise law abiding people determine that carrying a gun illegally is a lesser danger than the risk of being caught unarmed by the numerous human predators.  Most guns are confiscated from people for 'illegal' carry.

When the Supreme Court decision in Bruen was delivered, public defenders in New York City cheered:

This state of affairs has left some New York Times journalists scratching their heads in surprise. As a recent Times headline put it: "Unlikely Fans of Supreme Court Ruling on Guns: Public Defenders." The accompanying article describes the Black Attorneys of Legal Aid, the Bronx Defenders, and other groups as "unexpected" allies of the gun rights movement.

Anti-slavery activists had long championed the Second Amendment as necessary to freedom for former slaves. It was Frederic Douglas who wrote of three safeguards to liberty:

.. the liberties of the American people were dependent upon the Ballot-box, the Jury-box, and the Cartridge-box, that without these no class of people could live and flourish in this country...

The mass movement to reform gun carry laws by removing requirements for permits is a good start. Half the states have restored what is known as Constitutional or permitless carry.

Guns are not the only arms protected by the Second Amendment. Laws against the carry of knives are being repealed as well, with excellent work done by  Knife Rights, the second front in restoring the Second Amendment.

There is much which remains to be done. Laws restricting magazine size, barrel length, or the legality of gun mufflers (suppressors/silencers), are obvious targets for repeal.

Laws which prohibit armed citizens from going where armed law officers can go should be repealed.

Laws which prohibit non-violent offenders from being armed should be repealed.

Laws which prohibit purchasing firearms across state lines should be repealed.

Laws which require government permission before purchase of a gun should be repealed.

All of these laws are based on a false premise: More guns create more problems.

It is not true. It appeals to those who do not own guns, because it offers something for nothing. They believe they lose nothing, because they do not have guns. In reality, their freedoms are also restricted as the Leviathan of the government restricts the ability of everyone to do anything.

As the numbers and percentages of gun owners in the United States have climbed to the highest numbers ever, the political repercussions are coming.

Over 21 million people have carry permits. By definition, they can and do vote. Gun ownership is extremely difficult to measure in the USA, but appears to be over 100 million.  Increasing percentages of minorities and women are becoming gun owners, year after year.

Thousands of gun laws across the United States have destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives and done untold economic damage. They were passed with lies and false promises. It is time to repeal most of them.

©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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WA: Parkland Woman Shoots two Intruders

A Washington woman shot two burglars who tried to break into her home early Thursday morning, according to police. 

Two males attempted gain entry into the woman’s residence in the 14600 block of 1st Ave S. in Parkland, Washington around 4 a.m., the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said.

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UT: Disarm, Man who Brandished gun, Shot, Charged with Aggravated Assault

CLEARFIELD — Police said self-defense appeared to be the motive for a shooting Wednesday night that left a suspect hospitalized with a gunshot wound.

One man brandished a firearm at a second man and the two fought over control of the gun and the first man was shot, Assistant Police Chief Devin Rogers said Thursday.

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FL: Airgun Fatality, Aggravated by Lack of Care

 

Link to lesson 8  

On May 4, 2022, a corpse was discovered about 7 a.m in Lake County, Florida. Ernie Wayne Wilburn was the man who had died. He had been shot with a .22 caliber air rifle. From Wesh.com:

Detectives identified the man as 44-year-old Ernie Wayne Wilburn.

Lake deputies say there were witnesses inside the home but they could not explain what happened to Wilburn.

Detectives deemed Wilburn's death suspicious.

The police believed the death suspicious. An autopsy was done. The proximate cause of death was a puncture to the left lung through the rib cage. From clickorlando.com: 

When deputies arrived at the house to investigate, they found Wilburn dead on the living room floor, covered with a sheet and with furniture pillows piled on top of it. Deputies said it was clear the body had been moved because of the location of the blood-like stain on the floor.

Deputies also added that when they read the search warrant, Hill asked if it included a particular area of the property. Deputies said it did, and when they searched in that area, they found the Ruger .22 caliber air rifle.

Ernie Wayne Wilburn likely suffered from a collapsed lung, pneumothorax.  This type of wound is often called a "sucking chest wound". First aid for such wounds is taught in the military. Sucking chest wounds are a common bullet wound suffered in combat.

In sucking chest wounds, air enters the chest cavity, taking up space. The lung in the cavity collapses, and has difficulty expanding against the air which now occupies the space it would normally expand into. This makes it very difficult to breathe. As one lung is unable to expand, the other lung has difficulty expanding as well. As the capacity of the lungs to deliver oxygen to the blood drops, lack of oxygen can cause death.  

With modern trama centers, a sucking chest wound, on only one lung, while very dangerous, can be effectively treated and death prevented. 

If treatment had been obtained, the victim would likely have survived. The path from assault to manslaughter probably happened when no aid was given to the victim.  

It does not take much energy to penetrate into the chest cavity of a human, even a human adult male.  Many common air rifles have the capability of doing so.  

This type of death is unusual. In today's society, most victims receive trauma care very quickly.  Air gun fatalities more commonly involve shots to the brain where the skull is thin, or shots to the heart where the heart is near the surface of the body. 

At least one adult black bear was killed in a similar manner last month in Colorado. From kdvr.com: 

 A black bear was found shot to death last year and Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers are still searching for information on the incident. 

A dead 7- or 8-year-old sow was discovered in a Rio Grande River near the Mountain Views at Rivers Edge RV resort south of Creede in Mineral County last fall. Officers determined the animal had been illegally shot and recovered a .22 air rifle pellet from the bear’s chest.

Many people think air rifles are harmless. As illustrated above, ordinary, common air rifles are potentially deadly. The same safety rules used for firearms should be applied. 

Shooters need to know what the gun they are shooting is capable of, so they can use an appropriate backstop, and so they will not believe the gun/ammunition combination is harmless. 

A substantial number of shooters think .22 rimfire ammunition is incapable of causing serious injury to large animals. The opposite is true. A great many large animals are killed with .22 rimfire cartridges every year.

Common .22 air rifles approach the energy levels of the lower powered .22 rimfire cartridges. Both can kill if they hit a human body in a vulnerable place.

©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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