Shot in the Dark

The Good Guy With The Gun

The man who shot the apparently ISIS-affiliated maniac at the Crossroads Mall in Saint Cloud over the weekend has been IDed as Jason Falconer – a carry permit instructor, civilian carry advocate, and part-time officer and former chief of the tiny, tiny police department of tiny, tiny Albany Minnesota.

And if you’re a wanna-be terrorist, Falconer’s just about the last civilian you want to run into when you’re going on your rampage in a “gun free zone”:

USPSA Shooter,  3-Gunner, and NRA-certified firearms instructor Jason Falconer has been identified as the man who shot and killed a 22-year-old Somali immigrant who went on a stabbing rampage inside a St. Cloud, (MN) Mall on Saturday.

The apparent terrorist—who apparently asked victims if they were Muslims before stabbing them—was engaged by Falconer inside the mall.

Emphasis added by me:

Falconer is the president and owner of Tactical Advantage LLC, a shooting range and tactical training facility with a strong focus on arming concealed carriers. He’s also a former chief of the Albany (MN) police department, and he remains a part-time officer.

And is there bias involved? Oh, yes:

But Falconer has consistently been identified in the mainstream mediaonly as as a “former police chief” and  “off-duty police officer.”

Falconer’s side gig?  Ensuring law-abiding citizens are armed, and capable of doing…

…exactly what he did.  I’ve been documenting these sorts of cases as they occur over here (and feel free to submit more of ’em!).

As Glenn Reynolds puts it, we The People need to be a pack, not a herd.

UPDATE: David French notes the obvious; Falconer was not only in the right place at the right time, but he was the right person.  But then, anyone can be:

You can be Jason Falconer. In most communities in this country, you can not only own and carry a weapon for personal defense, you can also receive comprehensive training. You have virtually no control over whether you’re at the right place at the right time, but you do have control over whether you’re the right person.

And as has been noted in the comment section, this incident highlights the need for “Stand your Ground” legislation; a non-cop would have had a “duty to retreat” – to make a reasonable effort to disengage in the face of the attack.

What does “reasonable” mean?  That your efforts to avoid using lethal force are enough to convince the cops, prosecutors and potentially a jury that you did your best to avoid using lethal force.  It’s vague; it’s intended to be vague, concentrating the power of life and death in the hands of prosecutors.

“Stand Your Ground” will be on the agenda this coming legislative session.  It’s doubtful the Senate or Governor will pass it.

So we’re gonna need a new Senate and Governor.

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Mitch Berg

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37 responses to “The Good Guy With The Gun”

  1. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    In response to a prior post, Kel noted one critical factor: Minnesota licensed peace officers – full time or part time, on duty or off – have no duty to retreat. They are authorized to Stand Their Ground and use deadly force to halt violence against others.

    If the shooter had been equally proficient but a permitted carrier instead of a licensed peace officer, he’d have had a duty to flee along with other shoppers. More victims would have been injured.

    True, the knife-wielder “lunged” at the shooter; but only AFTER the shooter initiated a confrontation with him. If a concealed permit holder did the same, he would lose the right to justify the shooting as self-defense.

    Kel is right – this is a perfect example why Minnesotans need Stand Your Ground laws.

  2. Dog Gone Avatar
    Dog Gone

    Good post, well reasoned, well sourced, well presented. I think you made a good case, in spite of my disagreement with you on the conclusion of either you or Falconer, due to the overwhelming evidence against that conclusion.

    Thank God that the attacker did not get a gun. Contrary to Falconer’s notions, a mall would be a terrible place for a shootout, and more, not fewer people would have been harmed or even killed. The better prevention for this kind of violence is keeping guns out of the hands of people intent on or willing to do harm.

    There is a larger issue here however, which is that the heroic save is a right wing fantasy that is false. There is a lot of macho posturing blah blah blah that is disconnected from the objective reality of violence and response.

    When the Wetterling news first came out you wrote about wanting to torture Heinrich, WITHOUT MERCY, stripping skin off of him. Nice fantasy, but I know you and I don’t believe for a minute that you could do that. I wouldn’t but I could; I’ve actually removed skin (or hide) in biopsies, in a variety of ways, with a patient under anesthetic. I don’t get queasy cutting things off or cutting things open. I also don’t enjoy fantasizing about revenge, about intentionally physically harming someone else, nor do I see what you proposed as any form of justice or in any way making the situation better, only worse.

    A few months ago I was watching a BBC documentary on -no pun intended – the growth industry in cosmetic surgery,of penile enlargement, both length and girth. I find watching surgery well performed to be intellectually gratifying; the miracle of being able to take something living apart and then put it back together again, corrected and improved and healthy, while controlling pain and enabling healing is very powerful stuff. The documentary was very thoughtful and sensitive in profiling why men would do this, considering it was both painful and expensive. The Beeb then showed the actual surgical procedure, including the cutting of the ligament on the pubic bone that provides the angle of an erection; there is a trade off in being able to lengthen with angle of erection. Watching the whole thing, which involved expanding both girth and length, (injecting fat obtained by liposuction is used for girth) was intriguing from the point of view of bleeding, given the vascularization of the body part involved, and the necessity of preserving nerve function.

    And I remember thinking as I watched this lengthy surgical segment of the documentary that YOU wouldn’t AND COULDN’T make it through watching this, much less find it enjoyable and worthwhile.

    Perhaps more significant is that authoritarianism is defined, at least in part, as involving punishment and coercion of those who do not conform to a narrow set of criteria. (It’s also the singe most reliable indicator of a Trump supporter.) While being liberal is most reliably defined by people being able and willing to operate outside their usual comfort zones.

    I think that goes a long way towards explaining why I’m comfortable taking risks – for example walking around unarmed in Ramala or Hebron in the Middle East, where people openly hate Americans, or a riot in Athens, trusting my ability for accurate risk assessment and trusting my wits to save my rear end if necessary. While in contrast, you and the other gun huggers indulge in heroic but false fantasies of shooting bad guys, and need to have the means to do so to be happy, but won’t ever actually do anything remotely like what Falconer did. You and other conservatives live for heroic fantasy; I’m more interested in adventurous reality.

    I’d also push back on the ISIS BS. First reporting on tragedies like St. Cloud typically get a lot of information wrong.

    So far it looks as if only one victim has said the attacker said anything about Islam; all other victims have noted the attacker was running, sprinting like he was in a race, which is inconsistent and contradicts asking each victim if they believed in Islam or Allah. Since eye witnesses (including victims) are notoriously unreliable and inconsistent with each other, and since the cc video shows that the attacker was indeed running very fast from the start of the attack to the fatal confrontation with Falconer, (who was described in at least one account as displaying a badge before shooting).

    So far there is zero evidence of the attacker having self-radicalized, much less having been radicalized by ISIS. Rather the fact that he was wearing the security guard uniform of his previous employer puts this more likely in the category of disgruntled former employee or maybe someone trying to commit suicide by cop.
    Unlike for example the Orlando night club shooting, where the shooter had for years tried to intimidate people by falsely claiming he was a radical Islamist, before becoming one, there doesn’t appear – so far – to be anything like that here. I’m keeping an open mind until there is credible evidence one way or the other that this guy was acting on political or religious motives.

    Had this been one of your white right wingnut Christian extremists, shooting people, with more casualties, you’d be arguing all over the place that he was not representative of the right, or that he must be tragically mentally ill, rather than own that extremist right beliefs are toxic and dangerous. So I’m protesting the double standard here that you apply to black immigrant Muslims compared to more advantaged white conservatives.

  3. jdege Avatar
    jdege

    Duty to retreat isn’t absolute, it’s relative to circumstances, and only when practicial.

    If by retreating, you would leave others in harms way, duty to retreat does not apply.

  4. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    If by retreating, you would leave others in harms way, duty to retreat does not apply.

    Depending, of course, on the prosecutor.

  5. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    I’ve always heard that, jdedge, but I haven’t found any Minnesota statute or case that says it. Can you help me out?

    In contrast to your analysis, the opinion of the Minnesota Court of Appeals in State v. Willis, A11-1973, included troubling language, found at http://mn.gov/law-library-stat/archive/ctapun/1211/opa111973-112612.pdf

    The court said: “Appellant argues, however, that a duty to retreat in defense of another is incompatible because if appellant retreated, the other person would be left to defend himself. Appellant likens his claim to that of an individual who has no duty to retreat when preventing the commission of a crime in a dwelling. See State v. Glowacki, 630 N.W.2d 392, 402 (Minn. 2001) (“There is no duty to retreat from one’s own home when acting in self-defense in the home, regardless of whether the aggressor is a co-resident.”). But one does not have a duty to retreat from one’s dwelling because the law presumes that is the safest place to be—in one’s own home. See id. at 401. The district court properly instructed the jury that appellant had a duty to retreat before defending another, because the self-defense and defense-of-another legal justifications parallel each other.”

    Maybe I’m missing something, but that sounds as if the Court of Appeals interprets Minnesota law to require me to retreat instead of stepping to defend you. It sounds as if Minnesota is not a “Stand Your Ground” state, it’s not even a “Must Run Away” state, it’s a “Leave Them To Die” state.

    I’d really love to see the Minnesota statutes or cases proving I’m wrong. Would you mind providing citations to them?

  6. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    In carry permit training, both times, I was warned that duty to retreat is a total minefield, full of murky case law and utterly dependent on the discretion of prosecutors.

    My takeaway? When in doubt, retreat unless they’re coming for me. They go for someone else not extremely near me? Sucks to be them. I’ll tell their next of kin I did the best the law would let me do, and if Mark Dayton hadn’t vetoed the bipartisan Stand Your Ground law, their loved one might be alive.

    Or would, if I owned or carried a gun, which of course I do not, because they’re scary.

  7. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    To add to this…..the “part time officer” thing, I really don’t have a problem with him being ID’d as such, but as you allude to, its really irrelevant. The current Avon chief noted that Falconer isn’t even scheduled for any duties for the next 2 months. His qualifications are his personal protection business and training.

  8. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    One might infer that the duty to retreat can also depend on whether jurors would vote to convict a man “guilty” of shooting a criminal who threatened another person’s life. In the cities, perhaps yes. Out in the sticks, less likely.

  9. jdege Avatar
    jdege

    It’s been some years since I looked at the case law, but I recorded what I found here:

    http://training.gun-nuttery.com/mncases.php

    What I noticed is how many times the appeals court went one way and the supreme court the other.

    Even if you are eventually found innocent, the process could be long, painful, and expensive.

  10. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    Very helpful, JD – I’ll get reading. Thanks!

  11. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    DG,

    I’ll respond to more later, as time permits.

    But this bit here needs a smackdown:

    Had this been one of your white right wingnut Christian extremists, shooting people, with more casualties, you’d be arguing all over the place that he was not representative of the right, or that he must be tragically mentally ill,

    Which “white right wingnut Christian?” You keep referring to them – but other than the little jagoff in Charleston and the guy shot up the abattoir in Colorado Springs, you have to dig a long way to find any. In a nation of 320 million – of which over 80% profess to some kind of Christian faith or another – you’re going to find some loonies.

    Here’s the thing; you continue to labor under the delusion that I think this reflects on all Muslims. I’ve said or implied no such thing. I have more background with Islam in my left three fingers than you or Pen do rolled together. To continue to imply that I am tarring all Muslims is utterly dishonest, and you’d do well to stop it.

    On the other hand, you continue with the conspiracy-theory-level fiction that American Christians are the source of all real terror – up to and including organized terrorism. When asked to substantiate it with anything beyond a link from “Think” “Progress”, you…

    …never respond.

    Which is why I keep moderating your comments, in the hope that perhaps you might…educate everyone. Yeah. That’s it.

    More, later – if everyone else has left anything.

  12. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Doggy,

    Out of curiosity, were you brought up in a home where religion was important? You seem to be anti-Christian to the point of displaying hatred.

    Of course, that may be your strict adherence to the doctrine of the left wing, which you display with every one of your posts.

    It really must be really gratifying to be an elitist and narcissistic ideologue, huh?

  13. kel Avatar
    kel

    DG,
    Seriously, get some professional help! You’ve got an Alex Forrest problem that’s getting progressively worse, go see someone!

  14. Scott Hughes Avatar
    Scott Hughes

    DG, you’re really, really…..I mean REALLY ILL……..I’d suggest seppuku, I don’t see another way out for your troubled mind!! Do the right thing and get it done. We’ll send dead flowers.

  15. Scott Hughes Avatar
    Scott Hughes

    DG wrote:” So I’m protesting the double standard here that you apply to black immigrant Muslims compared to more advantaged white conservatives.”

    You have me thinking I’ll just run away and see how it may sort out for you when the bad guy cuts your throat and calls out “Allah Akbar”. I can’t be involved in those affairs because there might be a STANDARD to give me more concern.

  16. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    DG,

    I apply no such standard to black Muslim immigrants. You are making it up.

    You are either delusional, or lying.

  17. kel Avatar
    kel

    DG sneered: ” one of your white right wingnut Christian extremists,”

    proving once again that DG is the single most racist most religiously intolerant progressive to post on this site.

    DG is an always reliable voice of ignorance and intolerance.

    btw DG your ignorance is definitely on parade when you say “I’d also push back on the ISIS BS. “ and MPR says: “The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is now leading the investigation into the mass stabbing Saturday at a St. Cloud mall.”
    http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/09/20/federal-officials-to-lead-st-cloud-mall-stabbing-investigation
    who should we believe, you who are reliably wrong 9 of 10 times at the post or that right wing white supremacist house organ MPR?

  18. Bento Guzman Avatar
    Bento Guzman

    People on the Left are insane. They read and believe articles like this:
    http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/06/18/white_extremist_murders_killed_at_least_60_in_u_s_since_1995.html
    I have quibbles with the article, to say the least. Eric Rudolph is neither a Christian nor a white supremacist. The writer has an obsession with something called “The Christian Identity Movement”. I’ve never met a church going Christian who has heard of it. Let’s say the number in the headline is accurate, sixty people in twenty years is 3 people per year. Not Bad for a country with 300 million people in it.
    For ideological reasons people on the Left decided long ago that people who belong to certain groups are not moral free agents. McVeigh? Evil. Roeder? Evil. Nadal Hassan? Driven mad by the plight of Palestinians. Omar Mateen? He got picked on at work. Or his father radicalized him.
    What ever happened to Mateen’s wife, anyhow? You know, the immigrant who did not seem to be ‘fiercely patriotic’? The one who knew all about Mateen’s plan to murder innocents and did nothing?

  19. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    I’d also push back on the ISIS BS

    So how’s that “the Chelsea and Jersey Bombs matched the MO of white Christian anti-abortionists” theory of yours panning out for you?

  20. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    “The Christian Identity Movement”. I’ve never met a church going Christian who has heard of it.

    Christian Identity isn’t a church, and it isn’t about religion , faith or the afterlife. It’s a political and social movement, an extremely loosely-affiliated group of white supremacists who believe in the supremacy of western/Christian social tradition (and a fair amount of mythology).

    And after 35 years, it’s really more a category than it is a cohesive movement on its own. If the SPLC didn’t exist, I suspect the term would have disappeared by about 2000.

  21. kel Avatar
    kel

    Bosshoss429 said: “Out of curiosity, were you brought up in a home where religion was important? You seem to be anti-Christian to the point of displaying hatred. “

    Back about 3 years ago before she completely disallowed any contrary comments on her site DG posted an anti-Catholic screed that rivaled anything the KKK produced during their heyday in the early 20th Century, in fact it could have been written by them it was that virulent. One of her “permitted commenters” took her to task for the naked unreasoning hatred of her post and two things happened, 1) she sanitized her post, and 2) deleted the comments referring to it. I did not foresee her purging her site like that or I would have captured the post for future reference. DG is a rabid bigot of the first order. After that point she pretty much stopped permitting anything but complementary posts on her site. As you can imagine there are very few of those, hence the nearly complete lack of comments on her site. DG fears even mild contradiction and runs from outright opposition or criticism, which explains much of why she doesn’t engage here, that, and knowing that she’s hopelessly overmatched in any debate.

  22. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Thanks, kel.

    I guess I missed that hate speech.

    DG is seriously messed up. Perhaps it’s self loathing, an inferiority complex or she was abused as a child, but, whatever it is, as both you and Scott have pointed out, she needs professional help.

    Maybe we can have an intervention.

  23. Deplorable Swiftee Avatar
    Deplorable Swiftee

    “I’ve actually removed skin (or hide) in biopsies, in a variety of ways, with a patient under anesthetic.”

    Hold it.

    Removed hide in A VARIETY OF WAYS? WTF??

    Is dog woman a DVM, or is she out there cutting up live animals with her Dr. Mengele play time set?

    Is she experimenting with anesthetics too? “Let’s try Draino this time”

    I’m serious here Mitch. If that psycho isn’t a trained vet, you really have a duty to step in. Holy shit.

  24. kel Avatar
    kel

    I don’t want to be there for the intervention, I’ve seen a picture of DG:
    https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/a94444cf-c4c9-4678-a15c-f2aad448b045_1.216c468e07a5e34cce8bc186d214a900.jpeg?odnHeight=450&odnWidth=450&odnBg=FFFFFF

  25. Deplorable Swiftee Avatar
    Deplorable Swiftee

    And if she’s not a DVM, what lab accepts skin samples from do it yourself surgeons? How does one come to possess controlled substances without a license?

    FACTCHECK go time here, Mitch.

  26. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    DG has some background some branch of veterinary science, as I recall from a few decades back.

  27. Deplorable Swiftee Avatar
    Deplorable Swiftee

    If she is out there cutting live animals and administering Class III controlled substances (with the exception of Bactine, all anesthetics fall into that category), the only legit background is a DVM license that has a DEA # to prescribe and administer anesthetics.

    Please check for us:
    https://vet.hlb.state.mn.us/app/index.html#/LicenseVerification
    https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/

    Would you put your dog to a quacks hands; even one that wasn’t a psycho? If she is out there playing doctor, you have a moral responsibility to turn her in.

  28. Deplorable Swiftee Avatar
    Deplorable Swiftee

    Correction anesthetics are Schedule I substances.

    A Class III license gets you a silencer 😉

  29. Troy Avatar
    Troy

    Did Dog Gone just say:

    “The better prevention for this kind of violence is keeping guns out of the hands of people intent on or willing to do harm.”

    about a “stabbing rampage”?

    Really? In what way?

  30. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    “The better prevention for this kind of violence is keeping guns out of the hands of people intent on or willing to do harm.”

    You mean, exactly what the NRA says, and supports in legislative form nationwide?

  31. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    You can make a case that taking biopsies is OK if you’re a vet tech or vet, but you can’t make the case that it’s sane to compare that with the (correct) desire to inflict torturous pain on those who have done that to innocents. There is something seriously wrong there with Mad Dog.

    And regarding ISIS, the claim of no evidence is just weird. They claimed responsibility, at least one victim caught the (non-Arabic speaking Somali) saying something about Allah….it’s not absolute proof, but if you don’t follow the lead for more than a few hours, you’re an idiot.

  32. Deplorable Swiftee Avatar
    Deplorable Swiftee

    You can make a case that taking biopsies is OK if you’re a vet tech or vet

    A vet tech taking a biopsy under the direct supervision of a vet might be OK. But they certainly do not have the authority to prescribe or possess schedule I drugs. Does dog woman have a veterinary technicians degree, and does she work under the direct supervision of a licensed DVM?

    That’s what I’m asking.

  33. Deplorable Swiftee Avatar
    Deplorable Swiftee

    When the Wetterling news first came out you wrote about wanting to torture Heinrich, WITHOUT MERCY, stripping skin off of him. Nice fantasy, but I know you and I don’t believe for a minute that you could do that. I wouldn’t but I could; I’ve actually removed skin (or hide) in biopsies, in a variety of ways, with a patient under anesthetic. I don’t get queasy cutting things off or cutting things open.

    That is some sick shit, anyway you cut it.

  34. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    Somebody mentions a firearm, DG’s mind jumps straight to penises. That’s got to mean something but I’m afraid to find out what.

  35. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    I’d be uncomfortable associating with someone who fantasized about tearing off strips of skin as DG alleges Mitch did, when Heinrich was caught.

    Except . . . he didn’t. Mitch said: “I’m not happy – but then it’s not about me. And there’s always the hope that he’ll accidentally swerve into General Population and get torn into long, thin strips.”

    I think we know who’s doing the fantasizing around here. And it’s disturbing.

  36. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    It just keeps getting more bizarre. While looking back for the flaying comment Mitch supposedly made, I came across this in a September 7 comment:

    “I’m particularly curious about the caliber and type of revolver; an exchange earlier today with an ATF agent suggests it most likely, given the date of the murder, to be a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson 5 shot, based on what were popular / common at the time. The discussion also included an outline of what would diminish sound from the shot being heard.”

    If the ATF agent already knew what Heinrich said in his confession, why talk about guns available at the time period of the murder? If not, even setting aside the likelihood of federal agents speculating about an active investigation with random strangers, how in HELL could ATF have known the make and model of the weapon?

    Did they already have autopsy results? Was a bullet recovered from the scene? Did it have some markings unique to Smith? Did they already know from researching Forms 4473 that he owned a Smith? How is the timing of the murder possibly relevant? The .38 Special has been around for decades, the Chief’s Special since before I was born, but so has the Colt Detective Special and the Charter Arms Bodyguard nearly as long.

    Maybe I’m just naïve but this sounds a lot more like fantasy than fact. I’d like to see the documentation.

  37. kel Avatar
    kel

    JD,
    you’re right its all a fantasy.

    As is the whole purported exchange between DG and the BATFE agent. As you point out, without knowing ahead of time what weapons the miscreant possessed there is no way a slug is going to tell you make and model, particularly when, in addition to the 80 +/- makes and models of .38 revolvers ever made over a 130 year span, you factor in the 40 odd makes and models of .357 magnums extant at the time, the best you can hope for is an indication of which 7 – 10 mfgrs might have made the weapon but not the model.

    DG has been watching too much police procedural TV and imagining what the conversation would be like if ANY BATFE agent would actually talk to her.

    DG has a Walter Mitty style interior life, if Walter Mitty were Bipolar with a Borderline Personality Disorder.

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