Shot in the Dark

A Good Guy With A Gun

A horrific rampage in Oklahoma, involving a recent convert to Islam beheading one woman and stabbing another, was ended…

…by a citizen with a carry permit. 

More on the show tomorrow, and on SITD on Monday.

UPDATE:  While some media are calling the shooter/hero an “off duty cop” – which implies he was a policeman, with police training, who just happens to also work as a Chief Operating Officer of a food plant, which is enterprising indeed, and maybe even happens in small rural towns in the west – the police report indicates he was in fact a reserve deputy.  Which in most departments means he helps with parades, and doesn’t have permission to carry weapons, or weapons training, any different than a regular citizen.  The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s office may be different – but I’m gonna guess they’re not.

Time will tell.  But experience shows us that time will likely tell us that it was a law-abiding citizen with little special training, but a strong desire to keep himself and his co-workers alive. 

Someone tell Michael Bloomberg.  And Heather Martens.

UPDATE 2:  While the fella was a recent convert to Islam, I’m gonna blame “crazy”, rather than “Moslem”, if that’s OK with y’all.

UPDATE 3:  A check of the Oklahoma County, Oklahoma sheriff’s department website indicates that their reserve deputies do recieve “basic law enforcement training”, without going into detail.  Does this mean they carry firearms, just like regular patrol deputies?  I’ll find out.

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27 responses to “A Good Guy With A Gun”

  1. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    I have yet to hear of this atrocity on the MSM. Thanks for the post Mr. Berg. I guess that’s because it’s just another routine case of random workplace violence.
    Clearly, you don’t need to be a high-profile target to become a victim.

    The potential for such situations have prompted much discussion in carry permit circles as to whether these events should prompt those who carry guns to upgrade their weapon of choice if a smaller, traditional backup firearm is currently utilized.

    Also, might these incidents deflate much of the Astroturf rhetoric of Bloomberg and his minions? Of course the successful utilization of a firearm will not be publicized, but the potential for your kindergartener getting beheaded might prompt even the most ardent soccer mom to consider her/his prevention options.

    While it’s an unfortunate means of showing guns in a good light, these events possibly have that potential. It’s also sad that it could take such barbaric measures to bring people to a conclusion that should need far less persuasion …

  2. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    Just heard it on the radio news. The basic story is the same with the exception of the murderer being shot by “a deputy.”

  3. Scott Hughes Avatar
    Scott Hughes

    I just read that the good guy was the COO of the company, and a reserve deputy. My guess is that’s a volunteer position and that he’s a guy dedicated to his community and others. BRAVO !!

  4. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    What I read: the COO was a *reserve* deputy. In most departments I’m aware of (the Saint Paul Police, the Lackawanna County Sheriff’s Department as portrayed on “The Office”), police reserve service doesn’t come with any weapon-carrying duties.

  5. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    Whether or not he was trained with weapons as a deputy, he was off duty, and hence his action was as a carry permit holder, no?

    And Islam, or nuts….can I say “both”? He was a bit light in the loafers, but he just happened to do the same thing that the chazzerim (khanzeer? in Arabic) with Isis are doing.

    And I appreciate what our friends at Powerline are noting. Was the company trying to give ex-cons a second (tenth?) chance, or had they been intimidated by Eric Holder (D-Leavenworth, I hope) into abandoning background checks for employment?

  6. nerdbert Avatar
    nerdbert

    I’d put the guy more in the “both” when it comes to the Islam/nuts question. The guy had an extensive prison record for drugs as well as assault on police when trying to get away. It would be interesting to see his associates during his prison time since radicalization often happens there.

    The thing with a lot of drug users is that once they hit bottom they need to find something to recover meaning in their life and find some sort of absolution for the jack*sses they’ve been, and religion often fills that void.

  7. Adrian Avatar
    Adrian

    Regardless, many citizens that choose to carry, also choose training…in fact, Minnesota law – at present – requires a level of training to exercise a constitutional right.

    Of course the natural line of though for many of the willfully uninfomed (Rick Nolan?) is that permit holders are mindless chest-beaters for which carrying a firearm makes them more manly…regardless how many under or unreported times a good guy with a gun save a life or lives.

  8. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Mr. Vaughan exhibited the kind of ‘gun control’ that most citizens would support.
    http://heavy.com/news/2014/09/mark-vaughan-alton-nolen-colleen-hufford-hero-moore-sheriff-vaughan-foods-coo-president/

  9. Powhatan Mingo Avatar
    Powhatan Mingo

    The writer at heavy.com (Paul Farrel) thinks that it is very important for you to know that Vaughan is a boss and Nolan is a worker. Farrel does not believe that the “fast facts” you need to know include Nolan’s recent felony conviction (2011) for assaulting a police officer.

  10. mnbubba Avatar
    mnbubba

    In a somewhat related note, check this out:

    http://gotnews.com/muslim-arrested-ferguson-threatened-behead-critics-like-bitch/

    When you get there, scroll down a bit….

  11. nerdbert Avatar
    nerdbert

    As I suspected, his conversion to Islam occurred in prison. That’s a recipe for trouble, I’m afraid, given the nature of the fellow converts there. http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/breaking-beheading-suspect-alton-nolenjahkeem-yisrael-fired-after-argument-over-stoning-women

  12. kel Avatar
    kel

    if this had happened in Dakota Co the Hon J Backstrom would be looking for a reason to file charges against Mark Vaughan.

  13. Powhatan Mingo Avatar
    Powhatan Mingo

    A lot of inmates, disproportionately Black inmates, convert to Islam in prison. Perhaps the conversion of Keith Ellison can tell us Islam — a religion that endorses slavery — has a powerful appeal to Black Americans:

    “I was studying for a calculus test with a friend of mine from Libya when he said he had to leave and go to Jum’ah and I asked, ‘What’s that?’ He thought I should come and see for myself. I was curious, so I went with him and I saw all these shoes out in the hallway in the student center at Wayne State and men and women were sitting in there on sheets and there was a speaker talking about things that were interesting to me. I was working on anti-apartheid activities at the time and I was active on racial justice and fairness issues, so I liked what the speaker was saying. I went back the week after that and started reading more on the Qur’an and started reading other books on Islam.”

    It would be interesting to know what the speaker was saying about these issues that was not said by the priests Ellison encountered in his youth (Ellison was raised Catholic).

    http://www.ebony.com/wellness-empowerment/the-spiritual-life-from-catholic-to-muslim-congressman-keith-ellison-speaks-405#axzz3ETnFil5N

  14. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    PM:
    News you can trust. ;^)
    http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2014/09/26/oklahoma-beheading-have-our-prisons-become-jihad-factories/

  15. Powhatan Mingo Avatar
    Powhatan Mingo

    As opposed to “heavy.com”, Emery?
    All media outlets should be viewed with a great deal of skepticism, especially those that claim to be objective. Journalism is current and recent history, history is language and narrative, language and narrative are creations of the human mind (unless you are religious). There is no such thing as objectivity, Objects are not subjects, they are incapable of bestowing meaning on anything.
    Scary, isn’t it?

  16. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    Received the local paper from my parents this week. In Buffalo City Wisconson (near Winona Minnesota) 2 men broke into a woman’s house and attempted to rape her. She had a hand gun in the house and used it to fight off her attackers. Will try to find an online link to this story.

  17. jpmn Avatar
    jpmn

    Since he was a convert in prison, was he Nation of Islam? Sunni or Shiite?

    Like it or not Islam has been at war with all others since Mo lived.

  18. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    PM:
    I attempted to shine a light on Mr. Vaughan’s exemplarily business and law enforcement credentials. The specifics of which were mostly absent from MBerg’s post.

    It would appear you take an interest in ‘all things media’. Here is a link to some more fringe thinking.
    http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/01/07/top-ten-reasons-sandy-hook-was-an-elaborate-hoax/

  19. Powhatan Mingo Avatar
    Powhatan Mingo

    By linking to heavy.com, Emery? The writer referred to Vaughan as a deputy Sheriff. He was a volunteer adjunct, required to undergo training and donate 16 hours of time each month. Discovering this required no more than 60 seconds of online ‘research’.
    Here are the five “Things you need to know” about Vaughan, according to heavy.com:
    1. He’s a Corporate Suit
    2. Vaughan Is a Sheriff’s Deputy
    3. He Sold Part of His Company for $18 Million in 2011
    4. Vaughan Foods Was Started By His Parents
    5. Alton Nolen Was His Former Employee

    Knowing that heavy.com got #2 wrong, how much credence should be given to the rest of the list?

  20. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Emery,

    PM stole my thunder, as he often does.

    “Heavy” got the “Sheriff’s Deputy” thing completely wrong. There is a huge difference between an “off-duty cop” and a “reserve deputy”. Exactly what the difference is?

    As I noted yesterday, I checked the Oklahoma County Sheriff Dept. website. They point out that Reserve deputies recieve “basic law enforcement training”. Exactly what is this?

    A look at the application to join the reserves indicates that members supply their own firearms – this surprised me – and if they have carry permits, may carry off duty (like, basically, any citizen with a carry permit).

    I have a call in to the OCSD to see if they receive any firearms training during their “Basic Law Enforcment Training”, which is eight months of a night session or two per week.

    As to the other things we “need to know”, Emery? He’s a “suit?” He sold part of the company his parents started? Why does any of that matter at all, much less “need to know?”

  21. Powhatan Mingo Avatar
    Powhatan Mingo

    JPMN-
    Alten was a loony. He wrote facebook diatribes against America the Sinful becaue America legalized drugs, same sex marriage, and porno.
    Alten lived in Oklahoma.
    The Muslim community in the US is not very large. the Nation of Islam is not the only Muslim group trying to convert black Americans in prison, but they are one of the largest. Nation of Islam teaches racial and religious hatred.
    New, voluntary converts to all religions are typically zealots. I am afraid that even if Alten’s Islamic sponsors/contacts knew that he is a nutball, there exists no mechanism within Islam to say “what you are contemplating is evil, against Islam, and a sin against God”.
    There is in Christianity. The list of zealous Christians committing religious-based murder is pretty short (John Brown is often described as a religious fanatic, but I can find no record of him belonging to any particular church).
    Some non-Musim scholars of Islam (Christians, atheists, and Christian converts from Islam) say that the violent strain within Islam cannot be repudiated because it is an essential teaching. The moderate Muslims who preach peace and tolerance are the people who are outside of the Islamic mainstream.

  22. jpmn Avatar
    jpmn

    PM, in Islam Mohammed is the perfect example of what a Muslim should be.

    If Mohammed did it or said it, it is halal. Any teaching contrary to Mohammed’s is not allowed and is considered apostasy. Islam is violent because Mohammed was violent as were his teachings.

  23. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    “…no mechanism…” Oddly, that’s what we Catholics have been saying about Protestants all along. Now you know why the No True Lutheran fallacy is so annoying.

  24. Powhatan Mingo Avatar
    Powhatan Mingo

    We Lutherans have the Holy Ghost to guide us!
    Better than a Medici :).

  25. jpmn Avatar
    jpmn

    In a strange coincidence a second Oklahoma man has been arrested for Threatening to behead someone.

    What do you suppose the link is?

  26. jpmn Avatar
    jpmn

    Link to second would be beheader story.

    http://www.krmg.com/news/news/local/man-says-he-represents-isis-threatens-cut-co-worke/nhXN4/

  27. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    I am struck by the name the man chose; Ya’keem Yisrael. Quite frankly, I am guessing that second name could get a guy killed in a lot of Muslim areas because of who it refers to. It would suggest as well that the man is Nation of Islam or a splinter group that exists primarily in the U.S.

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