Within roughly the same timeframe as the Newtown Atrocity, a criminal armed with a crowbar broke into the home of a young mother who was there alone with her nine-year-old twins. When she and the kids had retreated as far as they could and the intruder still kept coming, she opened fire with a .38 caliber revolver.
When her gun went empty, five of the six shots had struck the intruder. Whether it’s drunkenness, drugs, or desperation, some violent criminals can be harder than others. In this case, the intruder was still up and running. The smart and courageous young mom bluffed him at the point of her now-empty six-shooter, telling him in essence that she would finish him off if he kept attacking.
The bluff worked. He fled, running out of steam later, though he is still alive to face criminal charges.
Anyone who is not blind from rabid anti-gun sentiment can see that this would not have ended well for the mom OR her young twins if the suspect had been just a little tougher and more resolved…or if he’d had an accomplice.
American Rifleman, the monthly magazine of the National Rifle Association, carries a regular column titled The Armed Citizen. It documents cases of good people using guns to protect themselves and other innocents from bad people. This continuing feature has run for decades, so old that one of my grandfather’s self-defense incidents is in its archives.
The Armed Citizen section in the current issue of the Rifleman, warrants our interest. Bear in mind that a real life self-defense shooting is not a “Dirty Harry” cinematic fantasy in which every shot fired will both strike, and instantly blow away, a bad guy. Real life is more like a zombie movie: if the first bullet doesn’t short-circuit the central nervous system, you have to keep shooting until the skeletal support structure no longer holds him (and his weapon) up where he can hurt you and yours, or until his cardiovascular system has run out of oxygenated blood for his brain. The latter mechanism’s effect can often be better measured in minutes than in moments.
Traditionally limited to a single page, the Armed Citizens column in the February 2013 issue contains seven incidents “torn from the headlines” as the dramatists like to say, all documented by the local news media where the incidents took place.
In EACH of those incidents, only ONE of the intended victims was armed and capable of fighting back.
A mere two of those seven documented incidents were “one on one” confrontations. In each the Good Guys were actually Good Gals: A 35-year-old woman in New Mexico and Jill Stucker, 64, of Florida had to deal with only a single attacker apiece.
Three of the people saved by their guns were up against two-to-one odds: An unidentified farmer in West Virginia, store owner Roger Webster of Maryland, and an 83-year-old lady with a “walker” in Tennessee.
And two of the seven documented cases – A 35-year-old woman in the New Orleans area and a Pennsylvania man – were each up against a gang of at least FOUR home invaders.
In a world where the Good People With Guns often have to deliver several hits to neutralize even one Bad Person With Deadly Weapons, and in which there is often more than one attacker, anyone applying logical thinking can only end up shouting one three-word mantra:
DO THE MATH!!
I think the crickets are waiting for your answer Masad.
Instead of rehashing the same old rhetoric, people need to formulate a solid plan about what we/you are actually going to do about this situation.
A law needs to be proposed to require all semi-auto rifles to be accompanied by magazines of at least 20 rounds for those refiles requiring a bi-pod, and 30 round magazines for all semi-auto rifles that do not require a bi-pod.
Mr. Ayoob, thanks for speaking truth and reason. As mentioned by others earlier, please do a television interview. You are the best representative gun owners as a whole have.
List of Proposed California Gun Control Measures — 500 Round Max, No Grandfathering, No Detachable Mags, Mandatory License
A press conference just wrapped up in California where the Democrats (who have an overwhelming majority in the state) unveiled their latest gun control agenda. And since the Democratic majority is so strong, these aren’t proposals — it’s a preview of things to come. According to one person who was watching the press conference, the following new restrictions on personal liberties will be coming to the most “liberal” state in the union . . .
Thanks to Reddit:
■Possession of hollow point bullets and similar assault bullets a felony.
■Must register and report ammo purchases. Only purchase max 500 rounds.
■10 round magazine limit
■ALL magazines must be fixed to the gun (can not be removed without the use of a tool)
■100% prohibition of all magazines greater than 10 rounds. All previous grandfathered magazines become illegal. Felony if you keep one.
■Changing definition of shotgun revolving cylinder — Basically only single shot shotguns will remain legal.
■Bullet Buttons will become illegal — All AR and AK style rifles that are currently equipped with them will be designated Assault Weapons. Felony to possess.
■All gun owners now must be licensed like drivers.
■All gun owners must carry gun liability insurance
And what did the senators have to say about the pending legislation? From the presser:
“We respect the Second Amendment right of law abiding citizens to have guns for hunting, for sport, for protecting their homes and families. But loopholes in California’s tough gun laws have been exploited long enough,” said Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg. “We can save lives by curbing the proliferation of guns designed to be fired and reloaded rapidly. We can save lives by getting guns and ammunition out of the hands of the wrong people. We can save lives if every gun owner knows how to safely handle those guns. And if we can save lives, we must act to do so.”
So basically California is about to try and implement every single gun control measure that is on the Democrat’s wish list, with the exception of full confiscation. And thanks to the government of California, there’s just about nothing that can be done to stop it short of legal action. Or armed insurrection
New York-Style Gun & Magazine Ban Comes to New Mexico!
Posted on February 6, 2013
Just last month, the New York Legislature enacted an all-out assault on law-abiding gun owners and New Mexico could be poised to follow their lead, unless state Representatives and Senators hear from you TODAY!
House Bill 402, introduced by state Representative Stephen Easley (D-Eldorado), bans the future possession and transport of a so-called “assault weapon” or “large-capacity ammunition-feeding devices.” All such property owned in New Mexico prior to July 1, 2013 would be grandfathered, but the burden of proving ownership prior to that date is placed on the owner. Proving the date of purchase can be almost impossible and serial numbers do not exist on many magazines.
Ownership of the affected firearms and magazines could not be transferred AT ALL. The only means of disposing of them would be through a gun “buyback” or turn-in program to law enforcement — no inheritance, no allowing a friend or relative to take custody of the prohibited property, no selling or transferring the property out-of-state or even to a federally-licensed dealer. Grandfathered owners of the firearms described below would be required to store them in a locked gun safe at all times except when the guns are being transported or used. Transport would only be lawful if the firearm is unloaded, any detachable magazine is removed and the gun is equipped with a triggerlock.
The definition of “assault weapon” in HB 402 is an unmitigated disaster. It doesn’t list specifically-banned models and instead imposes a “one-feature test” for rifles, shotguns and pistols, as well as a catch-all for “a semi-automatic version of an automatic rifle, shotgun or firearm.” A banned feature for both semi-automatic rifles that can accept a detachable magazine and semi-automatic shotguns would be a “secondhand grip” OR a “protruding grip that can be held by the non-trigger hand.” Of course, ALL rifles and shotguns feature some sort of secondary gripping surface, as by definition they are designed or made to be fired from the shoulder and gripped with two hands. So HB 402 could essentially ban ALL semi-automatic rifles that can accept a detachable magazine and ALL semi-automatic shotguns, unless they fit into one of the very narrow exemptions in this bill.
HB 402 also bans ammunition feeding devices with a capacity to accept more than ten rounds of ammunition or that contain more than seven rounds of ammunition. This is just one example of how poorly-drafted this bill is in a rush to follow New York’s lead (where gun control advocates sought to reduce the existing ten round state limit.) Additionally, HB 402 includes prohibitions on items specifically excluded in even the most far-reaching bans we’ve seen to-date: full ten-round magazines routinely used for competition and feeding devices that are curios or relics!
This is one of the worst gun control bills filed in the entire country. It must be stopped, and that can only happen if you make your opposition clear to state lawmakers before this measure gets any traction or momentum.
HB 402 has been referred to the House Consumer & Public Affairs Committee and the House Judiciary Committee. At this time, it has not yet been scheduled for a hearing, but that could happen very soon. Please contact members of the House committees below, your own state lawmakers and Governor Susana Martinez, and urge them to help defeat the worst gun bill ever in New Mexico.
Chris Dorner’s Car Found on Fire Amid Cop Shooting Rampage
The truck owned and driven by suspected cop killer Christopher Dorner during his alleged rampage through the Los Angeles area was found deserted and in flames on the side of Bear Mountain, Calif., this afternoon — with tracks in the snow leading away from the vehicle.
Heavily armed SWAT team members descended onto Bear Mountain from a helicopter manned with snipers today to investigate the fire. The San Bernadino Sheriff’s Department confirmed the car was Dorner’s, but said at a news conference this evening that the tracks did not lead to him.
Dorner, a former Los Angeles police officer and Navy reservist, is believed to have killed one police officer and injured two others early this morning in Riverside, Calif. He is also accused of killing two civilians on Sunday after releasing a scathing “manifesto” alleging grievances committed by the police department while he worked for it and warning of coming violence toward cops.
Read More About Chris Dorner’s Allegations Against the LAPD
Heavily armed officers spent much of Thursday searching for signs of Dorner, investigating multiple false leads into his whereabouts and broadcasting his license plate and vehicle description across the California Highway System.
Around 12:45 p.m. PT, police responded to Bear Mountain, where two fires were reported, and set up a staging area in the parking lot of a ski resort. They did not immediately investigate the fires, but sent a small team of heavily armed officers up in the helicopter to descend down the mountain toward the fire.
The officers, carrying machine guns and searching the mountain for any sign of Dorner, eventually made it to the vehicle and identified it as belonging to Dorner. They have not yet found Dorner.
Today, CNN’s Anderson Cooper said Dorner had sent him a package at his New York office that arrived on Feb. 1, though Cooper said he never knew about the package until today. It contained a DVD of court testimony, with a Post-It note signed by Dorner claiming, “I never lied! Here is my vindication.”
It also contained a keepsake coin bearing the name of former Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton that came wrapped in duct tape, Cooper said. The duct tape bore the note, “Thanks, but no thanks Will Bratton.”
Bratton told Cooper on his program, “Anderson Cooper 360,” that he believed he gave Dorner the coin as he was headed overseas for the Navy, Bratton’s practice when officers got deployed abroad. Though a picture has surfaced of Bratton, in uniform, and Dorner, in fatigues, shaking hands, Bratton told Cooper he didn’t recall Dorner or the meeting.
PHOTOS: Former LAPD Officer Suspected in Shootings
Police officers across Southern California were on the defensive today, scaling back their public exposure, no longer responding to “barking-dog calls” and donning tactical gear outdoors.
Police departments have stationed officers in tactical gear outside police departments, stopped answering low-level calls and pulled motorcycle patrols off the road in order to protect officers who might be targets of Dorner’s alleged rampage.
“We’ve made certain modifications of our deployments, our deviations today, and I want to leave it at that, and also to our responses,” said Chief Sergio Diaz of the police department in Riverside, Calif., where the officers were shot. “We are concentrating on calls for service that are of a high priority, threats to public safety, we’re not going to go on barking dog calls today.”
Sgt. Rudy Lopez of the Los Angeles Police Department said Dorner is “believed to be armed and extremely dangerous.”
Early Thursday morning, before they believe he shot at any police officers, Dorner allegedly went to a yacht club near San Diego, where police say he attempted to steal a boat and flee to Mexico.
He aborted the attempted theft when the boat’s propeller became entangled in a rope, law enforcement officials said. It was then that he is believed to have headed to Riverside, where he allegedly shot two police officers.
“He pointed a handgun at the victim [at the yacht club] and demanded the boat,” said Lt. David Rohowits of the San Diego Police Department.
Police say the rifle marksman shot at four officers in two incidents overnight, hitting three of them: one in Corona, Calif., and the two in Riverside, Calif.
Lopez said two LAPD officers were in Corona on special detail to check on one of the individuals named in Dorner’s manifesto and encountered Dorner. Dorner allegedly grazed one of them but missed the other.
“[This is an] extremely tense situation,” Lopez said. “We call this a manhunt. We approach it cautiously because of the propensity of what has already happened.”
After Dorner allegedly shot at LAPD officers in Corona, he fled and encountered two Riverside police officers stopped at a red light in their police car. Dorner used a rifle to shoot through their windshield, killing one officer and injuring the other, police said.
The deceased officer was a 34-year-old, 11-year veteran of the police department. The injured officer, age 27, was expected to make a full recovery.
Diaz said that the names of the officers were being withheld to protect their families, who might be targeted by Dorner if the names were released.
“They were on routine patrol stopped at a stop light when they were ambushed,” Lt. Guy Toussant of the Riverside Police Department said.
In the manifesto Dorner published online, he threatened at least 12 people by name, along with their families.
“Your lack of ethics and conspiring to wrong a just individual are over. Suppressing the truth will leave to deadly consequences for you and your family,” Dorner wrote in his manifesto.
A badge and identification belonging to Dorner have been found in San Diego, according to San Diego Police Sgt. Ray Battrick. Dorner’s LAPD badge and ID were found by someone near the city’s airport and turned in to police overnight, The Associated Press reported.
Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck said today that 40 protective details have been deployed to protect officers and their families.
“We are taking all measures possible to ensure safety of our officers and their families,” he said.
Dorner is also believed to be responsible for the weekend slayings of an assistant women’s college basketball coach, Monica Quan, and her fiance, Keith Lawrence, in what cops believe were acts of revenge against the LAPD, as suggested in his online manifesto.
Lawrence was found slumped behind the wheel of his white Kia in the parking lot of their upscale apartment complex in Irvine, Calif., Sunday and Quan was in the passenger seat.
“A particular interest at this point in the investigation is a multi-page manifesto in which the suspect has implicated himself in the slayings,” Maggard said.
Police said Dorner’s manifesto included threats against members of the LAPD, and so the department is taking extra measures to ensure the safety of officers and their families.
The document, allegedly posted on an Internet message board this week, apparently blames Quan’s father, retired LAPD Capt. Randy Quan, for his firing from the department.
One passage from the manifesto read, “I will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off duty.”
“I never had the opportunity to have a family of my own,” it read. “I’m terminating yours.”
Dorner was with the department from 2005 until 2008, when he was fired for making false statements.
Randy Quan, who became a lawyer in retirement, represented Dorner in front of the Board of Rights, a tribunal that ruled against Dorner at the time of his dismissal, LAPD Capt. William Hayes told The Associated Press Wednesday night.
According to documents from a court of appeals hearing in October 2011, Dorner was fired from the LAPD after he made a complaint against his field-training officer, saying in the course of an arrest she had kicked a suspect who was a schizophrenic with severe dementia.
After an investigation, Dorner was fired for making false statements.
“We have strong cause to believe Dorner is armed and dangerous,” Maggard said.
Donner was also a Navy reservist who’d just finished his military career as a lieutenant on Friday. His only overseas deployment was to a Navy base in Bahrain. He also received a Rifle Marksman Ribbon and Pistol Expert Medal, meaning he received superior scores when he tested at the range.
Police described Dorner as black, 6-feet tall and weighing 270 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes.
Meanwhile, Cal State-Fullerton was mourning the loss of its beloved assistant coach.
“There are really no words to convey the sadness that our program feels, that the young women who have had the privilege of working with such a bright and passionate woman,” head coach Marcia Foster said earlier this week. “I want to especially send out condolences to Randal and Sylvia Quan, and her brother Ryan.”
After college, Quan coached at Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks and has spent the past two years as an assistant coach at Cal State-Fullerton. The university has posted a memorial page on its sports website dedicated to Quan.
Lawrence was a business graduate who recently started working as a public-safety officer at USC.
The plan needs to include a way for mentally ill individuals to self-refer to a psychiatric unit or for loved ones to refer that individual to a psychiatric unit without prejudice to their Second Amendment rights (the inability of the mentally ill to realize they have a brain disorder is termed anosognosia). For example, an active duty warrior or retired/separated veteran shouldn’t have their rights taken away without due process.
Many folks with schizophrenia have lived productive lives with medication, support from peers and loved ones, and continuted therapy. Some have become Nobel Laureates, such as John Nash. Some have earned doctorates and other advanced degrees. Some have become lawyers. Some have even married after years of thinking that their lived could not include commitment to another person.
It is a fact that the mentally ill will live with their condition all their lives. There is no “magic bullet” which will heal a mental illness. For those that have mental illness and their loved ones, the challenge of living with a mental illness is a marathon, not a sprint, and their lives must be lived day to day, with some days better than others.
Sen. Steinberg – Proposals to Reduce Gun Violence video from youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPjkLTtJ8qE
I am citing this article, along with the first part, in an opinion piece called “The Gun Control Movement’s Dangerous Incompetence.” It exposes Dianne Feinstein and Andrew Cuomo as the equivalent of medical quacks whose incompetence can kill innocent people.
I am familiar with Masaad Ayoob from his books on self-defense, and he is a leading authority on this subject.
California: “Possession of hollow point bullets and similar assault bullets a felony.” Does that mean the people in San Fransisco (San Fran-sicko per Michael Savage) want hunters to use jacketed bullets that make deer suffer and bleed to death slowly instead of killing them outright???