Tag Archives: Self-defense

Waiting, As Always, For The Facts

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An argument over a fender-bender in Saint Paul last May 1 led to a shooting, and a self-defense claim. The case is currently at trial, and both the prosecution and defense are presenting their cases to the public.

I’ve heard speculation on both sides as to whether the defendant – Mr. Trifiletti – has a good self-defense case or not. His attorney presents some of the right talking points in the article above, but it’s a crapshoot.

Only two real points for me, so far:

The Last Resort: It’s as my first permit instructor, Joel Rosenberg, said – using a gun in self-defense sets off an atomic bomb in your life. One can point to a few “best cases” – like the shooter in the Evanovich case, where the case was so absolutely unambiguously strong that even anti-gun extremist Mike Freeman hailed the shooter as a hero, and the good samaritan wasn’t even arrested.

The Trifilletti/Lewis shooting is a lot more normal; ambiguous circumstances, conflicting stories, impossible choices. The shooter is on trial, and guilty or acquitted, this will affect, badly, the rest of his life.

I’ve got some acquaintances in the field who say Trifilletti’s case is going to be a tough one. We shall see.

The Numbers: But even if Trifilletti is convicted, he will be (by my count – it’s possible I’m missing something, although not super likely) the second carry permittee to be convicted of an unjustified homicide in the almost 18 years since the passage of “Shall Issue” carry permitting.

Minnesota’s homicide rate in 2017 was 2 per 100,000. In that same year, Minneapolis’s homicide rate was 10 per 100,000.

There are currently nearly 300,000 carry permits in circulation in MInnesota. That amounts to close to one in ten non-prohibited adult Minnesotans. That number has been steadily over 200,000 for nearly a decade, after taking several years to rise into six digits (the MN House research office predicted a maximum of 90,000 Minnesotans would get permits in 2003). So let’s call it an average of 150,000 a year for 17 years. That’s a total of 2.55 million permit/years.

That amounts – or may amount, if a conviction happens to a murder rate among Minnesota carry permit holders of roughly less than one per million (that’s .07 per 100,000) per year.

Carry permittees are literally 20 times safer than the general public.

Keep that in mind, since the shrieking ninnies in our editorial caste will not.

Toward A More Awesome Union

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Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

I visited a woman in the hospital this weekend.  She had a heart attack and was unresponsive on arrival.  The doctors didn’t know if she would make it.  Here’s a note from her husband (I did their estate plan, back when I was in private practice):

“When you are laying in bed at 2:00 a.m and your mind is running the gerbil wheel of ‘what if she doesn’t wake up,  would she want burial or cremation and what do I do with the ashes, keep them or scatter them, and what funeral home should I hire, and who is going to scan photos for the video but would she even want a memorial, and what are her friends’ phone numbers or maybe invite only family, and can we even have a memorial, what are the Covid rules and oh God, what if she doesn’t wake up?’ . . . it’s not as much fun as you might think.  Spend some time talking to your family so they know the plan.”

Joe Doakes

What Joe said. 

The first requirement of an orderly society is order which must be imposed by an impartial judiciary.  That cannot happen when the judicial system is afraid of violence.

***

Old:

From: Chief Judge
To: All Employees

You may have read or heard that the Court House was locked down today for about 15 min. After a sentencing hearing on a homicide, the families of the defendant and victim engaged in a dispute that was broken up by deputies. Soon after, gun shots occurred on Wabasha and 6th St.  Deputies locked down the courthouse as a result of the gunfire. It is not clear to me if the events were related. 

Based on information I have received, no one was injured and bullet casings were collected. The matter is under investigation. It appears that at no time was our courthouse security compromised. The deputies took swift and appropriate action throughout this disturbing incident.

New:

From: Chief Judge Joe Doakes
To: All Employees

In the past, when the judicial system was subject to violence, we hid and hoped to be killed last.  From now on, when a violent situation arises, all employees shall report to the nearest Arms Locker where the Master at Arms will distribute restraints, gas masks, and weapons, at which time use of deadly force to protect both judicial property and employee lives is authorized.  Employees may stand their ground to do so; the requirement to retreat is suspended.

***

That ought to help. Now, let’s talk about the George Floyd trial, and about Supreme Court nominees.

Joe Doakes

The policies that’d go into effect if Mitch Berg were in charge – suffice to say it’d be more than judicial branch employees.

Once the governor declared “state of emergency” related to the breakdown of public order, the order to retreat would go the way of the Hibbing chopstick factory, and the sign of a weapon in the hands of a violent mob would serve as reasonable threat of death or great bodily harm, and one’s property would be every bit as defensible as lives.

Make me Governor, and this, I promise.

Statement Against Interest

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“Prog” columnist looks at the statute and the evidence, concludes Kyle Rittenhouse will likely be acquitted.

I don’t disagree – and find that there’s ample grounds for caution for all the rest of us that take the Second Amendment seriously.

I homed in on these two passages:

When [the first “victim”, Joseph] Rosenbaum, who was unarmed, finally cornered Rittenhouse, he grabbed for the teenager’s gun. Multiple shots rang out, and Rosenbaum fell, mortally wounded.

Did Rittenhouse have a reasonable belief under the circumstances that if Rosenbaum got his gun he would suffer death or great bodily harm? Jurors in Wisconsin are instructed that “reasonable” means “what a person of ordinary intelligence and prudence would have believed … under the circumstances that existed at the time.”

And this bit here:

A third victim, Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, of West Allis, Wisconsin, who survived, first held up his hands in a gesture of surrender at a distance of a few feet. In one of his hands, he held a gun. But when he “moved toward” Rittenhouse, prosecutors said, Rittenhouse fired, striking him in the arm.

That final shooting “will be the most serious problem” for Rittenhouse at trial, Kling said. ”The guy did have a gun in his hand. But he wasn’t pointing it at or threatening Rittenhouse.”

My first carry permit instructor, the last Joel Rosenberg, used to put it this way: “You’ll be making a life-or-death decision in a split second, likely under incredible stress, in the dark, with incomplete information. The prosector will have weeks and months in a warm, well-lit building, protected by metal detectors and deputies, to decide whether you were right”.

Another of Joel’s sayings: “Shooting in self-defense is a choice between losing your life, and ruining it”.

Because while there’s a lot of rhetoric about deterring the madness, to say nothing of resisting it, it’s still incredibly risky, and under normal circumstances – and even some garden-variety extraordinary ones – best avoided:

Overwhelmingly I hear from the professionals that their plan for dealing with riots and mayhem is “Don’t be there.” Check the ego. Back away from the social media siren call to “be part of the solution.” Inserting yourself into a riot (AKA “war zone”) where we now know there are armed violent criminals (often felons) who are there with the expressed intent to do extreme violence to someone is, in my view, just foolish.

It’s said that good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement. I sure have found that to be true a lot of times. In flying, we say you have a skill bucket and a luck bucket. You hope to fill your skill bucket before using up everything in the luck bucket.

For your consideration.

Absolute Moral Authority

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Patrick Neville – a survivor of the Columbine Massacre, and a Colorado State Representative – is pushing a bill that’d allow qualified Colorado school staff to carry their legal firearms for self-defense:

“The only thing that is going to stop murderers intent on doing harm is to give good people the legal authority to carry a gun to protect themselves and our children,” Neville said in a statement, according to The Hill.

“More of my friends would still be alive today.”

The bill put forward by Neville, a Republican, would let teachers with concealed weapons permits carry guns at the state’s schools in an attempt to halt future shootings.

Neville introduced the same bill last year, which failed.

“Unfortunately, the current system continues to leave our children as sitting targets for criminals intent on doing harm,” he said.

Big Left, of course, only grants a platform to the right survivors.

But this sort of thing needs to be pushed in front of the public early and often.

Men In England Now A-Bed…

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The tale of the Brits who, despite their government’s best efforts to neuter them, dealt with the terrorist attack in London over the weekend:

Of course, the Brits are lucky it’s a story that’s gone ’round the world; if it were regular street crime, they’d be prosecuted more seriously than the thug.

It’s something to celebrate – and take as a warning. “Progressive” government – in this case, one that strips citizens of their means and right to self-defense, rendering a citizen a subject – is a bigger danger than terrorism.

Another Walmart. Another Shooting.

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And another good guy with a gun saves the day:

From KSWO ABC Channel 7 in Oklahoma: “Multiple witnesses have said the gunman shot two people in a vehicle and a civilian with a gun confronted him, causing the gunman to turn the gun on himself. We are working to confirm that story with Duncan police.“

That’s why this “mass shooting” got no media coverage, naturally. It disturbs the narrative.

Never Bring A Knife To…A Showing

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Creep pulls a knife and a bottle of bear spray on a real estate agent at an open house.

Agent was in – but the victim was out:

The incident took place in Commerce City, Colorado, on August 4. According to a report by 9 News, the man – later identified by authorities as 43-year-old Ernest Robert Chrisman – arrived at the open house at about 11:30 am.
“He asked the right questions,” said Hetzler. “We talked about loans, what he had to qualify for.”
After picking up a brochure, Chrisman asked to see the upstairs. Once he and Hetzler reached the master bedroom, Hetzler said Chrisman took out a knife and a piece of rope that had bear spray dangling from it.
“He said, ‘This is a knife, this is bear spray.’ After he said, ‘This is bear spray,’ he asked me to take off my ring and get into the closet,” said Hetzler.
At this point, Hetzler began to fear for her life.
Hetzler has a concealed carry permit and had her gun with her at the open house. She drew her firearm, preparing to defend herself.
Chrisman responded to her actions by soaking her with bear spray.
“I couldn’t see,” said Hetzler. “My skin was burning, my eyes were on fire, I couldn’t see, so I fired.”
She fired in his direction. Chrisman quickly fled from the home.

Shooting blind is not ideal – but all’s well that ends with a likely rapist and possible murderer in jail.

A Smart, Patient, Cool-Headed Good Guy With A Gun

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North Carolina man kept his head during a gas station robbery.

Literally:

 A concealed carrier at a gas station during a robbery, waited his turn to make a move. While inside the store, two armed robbers came in and put a gun inches away from the armed citizen’s face.
He complied and gave the robbers his belongings. Well, everything except his gun.

And had they left at that point, they both might be alive today.

But they just had to keep going.

As the suspects, identified as 16-year-old Qwanterrius Stafford and 17-year-old Brenna Harris, turned to rob the store clerk, the customer pulled out his concealed weapon and shot the suspects, according to investigators.
Stafford later died at the hospital from his injuries. Harris took off after the incident, injured, but was later caught by police after he sought treatment at a hospital.

It being Charlotte, I suppose there’s a decent chance some reporter will write a scathing report about the shooter, since Mr. Stafford was just about to get his life all turned around…

Why Does Anyone Need An AR15?

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So they don’t run out of bullets before their attacker runs out of attack.

Or attackers, plural:

Marion County sheriff’s officials say a homeowner armed with an AR-15 shot and killed two intruders and was injured himself during a home invasion robbery in Summerfield Wednesday night.
Two other robbery suspects — Robert John Hamilton, 19, of Ocala, and Seth Adam Rodriguez, 22, of Belleview — were detained near the scene, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
Nigel Doyle, 22, of Summerfield, and Keith Jackson Jr., 21, Ocala, were killed. The homeowner, whose name was not released by the Sheriff’s Office, was in stable condition at a hospital Thursday afternoon.

But they were good kids, just about to start school to become missionary medics:

Sgt. Micah Moore found Doyle with a gunshot wound and a shotgun next to him on the ground. Deputies entered the home and found Jackson dead on the dining room floor. Detectives said he was wearing a “Jason” mask on top of his head, gloves on both hands, jeans and a black shirt.

Wait – indicting a criminal for murder when one of their accomplices is killed during their spree?

Why, if the Ramco Attorney office learns about this, law and order might break out.

Sign O The Times

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Back about the time I took my first carry permit training, the late great Joel Rosenberg told the story of the time in the early 2000s, during a spate of attacks on synagogues, when a very “progressive”, DFL-leaning local congregation called him and a few other prominent gun rights activists who are also of the tribe, and asked if they might not mind – privately and discretely, mind you – bringing a little “insurance” to services with them.

Just in case.

To the best of my knowledge, they did.

It was probably 2-3 years ago I interviewed the guys from Archway Defense, who discussed how frequently places of worship of all faiths are targeted, by everyone from mentally disturbed vandals to outright hate-criminals and terrorists. The rate – for Christians and Muslims, but especially Jews, is far out of proportion with their numbers in society.

And for all the smug, self-righteous virtue signaling of some congregations, the record is pretty clear; congregations who at least quietly take self-defense into their own hands and leave temporal forgiveness to God tend to do better when someone decides to stage their final blaze of glory in their “sanctuary“.

And common sense is driving some of those congregants and congregations to ask the questions that need to be asked.

And Minnesota’s Second Amendment community has some answers.

We've been contacted by a number of folks in the past day inquiring about arming parishioners at their church, mosque,…

Posted by Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus on Sunday, April 28, 2019

Remember – if you want to deter a spree killer, the only thing that needs to be publicly recognized as “potentially armed” is your congregation, school or group’s reputation.

How Not To Defend Yourself

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Vincent Nesta Trotter. an eastside Saint Paul homeowner who shot a guy who was alleged to have crashed a stolen car and fled from police, has given us an object lesson on what not to do in a self-defense situation.

Remember – when claiming self-defense, you have to prove you were in reasonable, immediate fear of death or great bodily harm, you tried to disengage, you used only the force you needed to end the lethal threat, and (when outside your home) made a reasonable effort to disengage.

And if, heaven forfend, you are in a shooting that you believe fits those criteria (and in Minnesota, it had better)? My first carry permit instructor, the late Joel Rosenberg, drilled it into his students’ heads; when talking to the police, say only:

I want to talk to a lawyer. I don’t consent to a search.

That – and pointing out evidence and witnesses who attest the fact that you met those four criteria above – are all you say.

You do that so evidence that you violated at least three of those four criteria doesn’t wind up in front of the entire jury pool in the local media. As it seems to have done for Mr. Trotter:

The complaint says Trotter followed police instructions and put the gun on the ground, telling officers, “I pull up and he’s by my door.” The complaint states he also said, “I told him don’t move, he moves, and I let 3 or 4 rounds go. I see blood, so I think I hit him. I tried to hit him. I carry a 45.”
Officers identified the man who was shot as the suspect in the auto theft incident, and believed that he had fled police not long ago. He denied that, but told police that he was walking through the yard at Trotter’s address when a man pulled up in a vehicle and began yelling. He told police he heard shots and got on the ground. He said he was walking away and the man yelled, “Don’t turn around,” then started shooting.

And as if that’s not bad enough:

Surveillance footage shows the shooting victim walk up onto Trotter’s porch and sit down, never attempting to get inside the home. When Trotter’s vehicle pulls up five minutes later, the video shows the victim walk down the porch steps and take about two steps toward Trotter. His hands are visible and away from his body.
The video then shows the man walking away from Trotter, “looking back over his left shoulder as he retreated,” the complaint states, and then Trotter advancing and a muzzle flash from the gun.
Trotter continues to advance with his gun in a “high ready position” while saying something.
“It is clear from the video that (the victim) was retreating away from Trotter as Trotter fired his handgun,” the complaint says.

I’m no lawyer (dear God, thanks) and Mr. Trotter is innocent until proven guilty.

But to the casual observer, it’d seem that Mr. Trotter was not in immediate threat of death or any kind of harm – the guy was walking away and seemed (according to the media report) to show no signs of being armed. He made no effort to retreat – quite the opposite.

We don’t know how the trial (or plea-bargaining) is going to go, but the moral of the story is this: if you’re going to carry a firearm for self-defense, learn the law. And figure out if it’s something you’ve got the temperament to do.

Five Good Guys, Two With Guns

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The FBI designated 27 “active shooter” situations in 2018. 10 of them, they called “Mass Shootings”.

So keep that in mind as you look over the stats from the FBI’s annual report on active shooter situations.

“The FBI has designated 27 shootings in 2018 as active shooter incidents.”
“10 of those 27 met our definition of a mass shooting”

Now, remember – in most states that allow civilian carry of firearms, maybe 2% of the population has a permit to carry; in permitless (“Constitutional”) carry states, I’d suspect the total carrying might be higher, but I’m going to also suspect the subsets of people willing to undergo the hassle and responsibility of carrying and the subset willing to go through the hassle and red tape of getting a permit are pretty close).

That’s about one person in fifty. Maybe more in some places; I’d imagine a pretty fair share of people in rural Wyoming, Kansas or even Minnesota might have a firearm on nor near their person much of the time. Definitely less in other places – California, Illinois, or any school, federal office or posted business.

Keep that in mind with this next set of stats:

In 5/27 incidents, citizens confronted the shooter. 3 of those 5 were unarmed and were successful in ending the shooting.
In 2 of those 5, armed citizens possessing firearms permits exchanged gunfire with the shooter.
In one of those incidents, armed citizens shot and killed the shooter (oklahoma)

So 2% of the population might have a firearm – but they were able to intervene in about 6% of active shooter situations last year – successfully in both cases:

It’s also worth noting that the other three episodes involving civilians included a wounded teacher subduing shooters. He was in an environment where 0% of the population could be legally armed. Salute.

16/27 happened in a business, 5/27 happened at schools (4 HS, 1 middle school)

It’s worth noting that nine of the episodes at businesses occurred in places where the public had access -including both episodes where armed civilians intervened. That’s 22% – not that percentages carry that much weight with numbers this small.

The other seven occurred in non-public parts of businesses; it’s not stated in the report how many were posted or otherwise no-go for law-abiding civilians

As to conclusions?

I stress – this next bit was written by the FBI. Not the Gun Owners Caucus. Emphasis added:

“As in past years, citizens were faced with split-second, life-and-death decisions. In 2018, citizens risked their lives to safely and successfully end the shootings in five of the 27 active shooter incidents. They saved many lives. Given this reality, it is vital that citizens be afforded training so they understand the risks they face and the options they have available when active shooter incidents are unfolding”

Since we’re assessing risk – all of the deadliest episodes – the Stoneman Douglas and Santa Fe NM schools and the Sutherland Springs Texas school shootings – took place in “gun free” zones where 0% of the people can lawfully be armed.

A Good Son With A Gun

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Florida man kills who robbers who were holding his mother at gunpoint:

The 911 call from the victim revealed that he was asleep at the time of the break-in and was woken up by the intruders, who he said were holding his mother at gunpoint. 
“They were trying to wake me up,” he said in the call. “They had my mom at gunpoint I couldn’t stop it.”
The victim told the 911 operator that the men had arrived to his home in their own vehicle. He said he shot both of them, killing the driver, Smalls, and injuring Lynn who tried to leave on foot.

Both robbers were reportedly just about to turn their lives around.

A Conservative Is A Liberal That’s Been Mugged

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It’s not just an aphorism!

DC/Baltimore area liberal political comic lives it out:

Tim Young was heading to one of D.C.’s newest hotspots—The Wharf—when his life changed.
He was walking down a well-lit section of M Street at about 7:45 p.m. Wednesday when two men approached him—one of them had a gun.
“Terrified. You know, when I talk to people about this… you’re scared. There’s no man card involved. I was defenseless,” explained Young, who’s a political comedian and host of ‘No Things Considered’ at the D.C. Examiner. The men ran off with his cell phone.


Now, he said he absolutely plans to apply for a concealed carry permit in D.C., but it won’t be easy. The District is one of the toughest places in the country to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
“When you’re in an instance where there’s a gun is pointed at you and your life is being threatened for your property and no one’s going to help—and now I know that no one’s going to help—I want to feel more secure. I want to feel safe, and I have something to defend myself with,” he said.
When asked how the situation would have went differently if he had a gun, Young told Bruce Johnson on ‘Off Script’ that he probably would have pulled it out to defend himself.
He addressed people who are against conceal carry permits by saying they’ve probably never been in his position.
“I think a lot of those people who are opposed to having a conceal carry permit and being able to own a weapon have never had one pointed directly at them when they have nothing on them,” Young said.

Welcome to the party, Tim.

Bring some friends.

“Why Does A Civilian Need A 30 Round Magazine?”

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The serious answer – so the good guy doesn’t run out of bullets before the bad guy runs out of attack.

Homeowner in Houston repels a violent, armed home invasion…

…by five men with “big guns”:

One man was left dead in front of the house, at least one wounded man took off on foot and the others left in an SUV, police said.
The car crashed into a pole nearby at Harrisburg Boulevard, where a man was found dead inside, according to police. Police say another person in the car fled, collapsed down the street on Capitol Street and later died. 
The fourth and fifth suspects were also injured and taken to a hospital, police said.
Outside the house, homicide investigators are combing through the crime scene where it appears there was a shootout; several dozen shell casings have been found. 

No word yet on charges for the defender. Fingers crossed.

Tom Knighton at Bearing Arms notes:

No, five bad guys coming to your house may not be a common thing, but we can’t pretend it hasn’t happened. Not now.
Now, let’s imagine how someone in a situation like this would fair under a 10-round magazine limit. Oh, they could change magazines in theory, but with that much lead flying around? More rounds in the weapon at the start is always a better place to be.
Of course, if a 10-round limit is bad, imagine what they’d go through if they were stuck with Oregon’s proposed 5-round limit. This man would’ve never had enough ammo on his person to have survived this one.

Hey, just surrender and hope that your attackers don’t cut you into long thin strips…

Advice

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I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it at least once a month until “Protect” MInnesota finally gets laughed out of polite company in this state: the local gun grab group and its arious leaders – the “Reverend” Nancy Nord Bence today, Rep. Heather Martens before her – have never, not once, made a single statement about guns, gun owners, gun laws, gun crime, gun history or the use of firearms that is simultaneously

  • Original
  • Substantial
  • True.

You get plenty of statements where one might be the case, and a few with two out of three. But never, not once, have they made or will they hit all three.

Ever.

This meme from last week is different, in that it doesn’t even get one out of three completely correct.

They’re fantasizing:

So let’s make sure the stage is set: you’re in a mass shooting, and the shooting is underway.    “Several people have already been shot”, although the writer doesn’t see fit to mention that you could be one of them very, very shortly, here.

The writer doesn’t know much about exposition.

They know less, naturally, about gun laws: when they write “you pull out your gun and rush off to be a hero”, they apparently think Taken is a documentary. For better or worse, it’s bad legal (and, likely, tactical) form to go rushing to the sound of the guns.

Shooters know this.

The “Reverend” Nancy Nord Bence apparently does not.

Of the four resolutions they list?

The shooter sees you and shoots first: you mean, they do what the shooter will likely get around to doing, anyway, given that they’re a spree killer?

Do they really think the would-be “hero” is any worse off under this scenario?

Another good samaritan shoots you by mistake: That’s right – two good guys with guns, both seeing an active shooter, shoot the wrong person. It could happen, in the same sense that Nancy Nord Bence could make a coherent point. Again – given that one is likely going to get killed by the active shooter – which they seem to keep forgetting – I’m hard-pressed to see how the “heroes” are any worse off than if neither was armed.

Police see you “running around” and shoot you anyway: If the “hero” is “running around”, they’re doing it wrong.

You, the hero, shoot an innocent bystander: It could in theory happen. And if it does, the would-be hero would be in deep trouble, if the spree killer in the room doesn’t kill him first.

Thing is, you can look long and hard and never find an example of this happening, because good guys with guns tend overwhelmingly to do the right thing.  

Indeed, except for the cops shooting the “Hero” (it’s happened), neither I nor, let’s be honest, the “Reverend” Nord Bence can think of any examples of any of those happening – certainly nowhere near as many as the heroes who’ve ended mass shootings.

Apparently the “Reverend” Nord Bence thinks it’s better to die quietly.

Why does the “Reverend” hate innocent victims?

May You Get Your Wish, Dumb*ss

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Big Left – and its wholly owned subsidiary, Big Gun Control – is actively working to “other” the law-abiding gun owner – to make the law-abiding practice of a legal act something not done in “polite company”, or at least that company as practiced by the part of our society that considers infanticide acceptable and self-defense gauche.

One Michael Schrader of suburban Detroit throws his two ignorant cents into the mix with this op-ed. about an open-carrying Michigander at a Detroit-area McDonalds.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I were shopping in Fort Gratiot, and we decided to stop at the Fort Gratiot McDonald’s to have some lunch, as we have done many times before. We pulled in a parking space, turned off the car, and then spotted something that caused us to decide to go somewhere else.
In the few seconds it took for me to restart the car, we saw several customers hurriedly rush out of the restaurant with panicked looks on their faces.
What was it that we spotted? A man carrying a gun into the restaurant.
Because Michigan is an open carry state, it is quite legal for someone to walk into a busy McDonald’s with a firearm. Why do it? Because it is your right?

There are some legitimate questions of tactics and manners to be asked – but then, one asks why Michael Schrader would ask the questions. Because it is his right…er, wait.

Anyway – yes, he started trite. That merely cleanses the palate for the invincible ignorance:

Given that there were Canadians in that restaurant, and they don’t have the same gun culture that we have, how do you think that made them feel?

By this “logic”, people with happy marriages should shut up about it, unless someone in an unhappy marriage is listening.

I can’t speak for the Canadians, but I can speak for myself — seeing someone other than a police officer walking around with a firearm does not make me feel safe; quite the opposite.

And Mr. Schrader is entitled to his feelings – but they’re wrong. Carry permittees in the US are 1/6 as likely to harm the wrong person, per capita, than the police. That’s about 1/36 as often as the general public – and I”m gonna guess it’s even steeper in Detroit.

We next go from ignorant to stupid:

Suppose that I am armed, too. Should I fire preemptively at the other person with the gun just in case that person is a “bad guy,” and take the chance of killing a “good guy,” or should I hold my fire and take the chance that the other person will not be a “bad guy” or be a “good guy” and think I am a “bad guy” and fire at me first?

Tell you what, Mr. Schrader: ask the next shooter you see who’s carrying, but who is not any sort of threat to you in any actual way. Phrase the question at the top of your lungs, if you prefer.

See who the police haul in.

I speak for myself, and I am confident I speak for many others — I don’t need armed vigilantes protecting me from criminals.

To borrow an idea from my friend Rob Doar – whether I carry concealed or openly (if I even owned guns, which I don’t, because they terrify me), I’m not protecting you. I’m protecting me and mine. If heaven forfend I ever am forced to defend me and mine from an immediate lethal threat, and so cause your smug life to be spared, trust me – it’ll be the least of my concerns.

Overcomplicated

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James C. Moore is identified as a “lifelong Texan”.

That, and an op-ed that tries to poo-pooh the notion that a good guy with a gun actually does anything useful in extremis – would seem to be the only reasons he wound up getting his “op-ed” posted on CNN.com. It’s entitled “Texas shooting isn’t as simple as it seems“.

To which one might reply “Thanks, Captain Obvious, your promotion to Major is pending”. Just about any human endeavor, especially those around the edges of insanity, evil and depravity, is an inexact study.

But not nearly as inexact as Mr. Moore would have us think:

But if Wilson is the example of a good guy with a gun who saved the day, what does the other armed parishioner who was killed represent? Will he become proof to gun control advocates that arming the well-intentioned doesn’t work?

Only if the “gun control advocate” is a complete idiot.

This line is the flip side of the Dems’ “If it saves just one life…” canard; “If it doesn’t save every single life, then it’s all a lie!“.

Analyses of the live-streamed video from the church are suggesting that several worshippers were armed and drew guns. One of them appears to have been killed as he reached for his weapon.

In other words, Kinnunan was aiming at the victim, and was getting ready to shoot when the victim started reaching for his gun. It wouldn’t have mattered if the guy was reaching for his kid, his inhaler, his reading glasses, his cell phone or a pack of Certs – he was already in Kinnunan’s sights. Reaching for his gun didn’t save him – but it didn’t kill him, either. Watch the video; the guy had a spit second. It wasn’t enough.

But it was for Wilson.

Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, responded to the incident by citing statistics on Twitter that indicate 3,500 people died in Texas from guns; CDC data shows just over 3,500 such deaths in 2017 and the average is one victim every three hours in the state. Deaths, she pointed out, have increased between 2015 and 2017, the most recent year for which there is CDC data. Watts also pointed out that Texas has been home to four of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern US history.

Getting one’s info from Shannon Watts is its own punishment.

“Gun deaths” includes suicide. There is an epidemic of suicide – but that epidemic crosses all means of commission – tall buildings and bridges, rope, pills, or reading Shannon Watts.

And even the “four deadliest mass shootings” bit is a canard.

  • Sutherland springs was “Gun Free”. It prompted the legislative changes that allowed Jack Wilson to kill Kinnunan.
  • Luby’s Cafeteria happened when Texas was a restrictive “May Issue” state. Nobody in the cafeteria was legally armed. Suzanna Grazia Hupp offered gut-wrenching testimony on the subject.
  • The Michael Whitman shooting at the University of Texas, awful as it was, was largely stopped by…armed citizens returning fire with high-powered rifles to keep Whitman’s head down while the police (and a citizen) closed in to take him out – which would be largely illegal today.

If you get your information from the “Gun Safety” movement, you’re not getting information.

Little has been reported about the suspect at White Settlement other than indications he has an arrest record, which will make some critics wonder how he got a gun. But it is not illegal to sell a gun to a felon in Texas, unless you know he is a felon, which he isn’t likely to tell you since he is a felon and wants a gun.

That’s not just Texas. That’s the law nationwide.

And it’s exactly why “universal” background checks are completely absurd – although I doubt Mr. Moore has thought it through to that point.

If you think that’s absurd, sit down right now and try writing an enforceable law that prevents it. There are sufficient loopholes in firearms regulations and such an abundance of supply of weapons that anyone in America can get a gun, good guy or bad guy.

Right.

And when you make it illegal for good guys to get, carry, or use their firearms, who does that leave?

Inevitably?

It’s depressing that a significant chunk of this country thinks this is “reasoning”.

Lie First, Lie Always: Miss Placed

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Last February, while riding her motorcycle home from work in suburban Tacoma, Washington, Aubrey Bowlin – a 24-year-old woman who weighs in at about 100 pounds, soaking wet – wound up in a fight fight for her life in a road rage incident with a driver considerably larger than her.

First, he tried to ram her with his car; when that didn’t work, and they were stopped in traffic, he jumped out and started beating and choking the young woman.

She had already started to lose consciousness when she remembered her permitted firearm, And shot her attacker. The man, Bruce Jones, died of his injuries.

Prosecutors didn’t press charges – it was clearly self-defense, right out of the gate.

Happy ending, right?

Well, no. Partly, it’s because that thing you’re taught in carry permit training about “using a gun in self-defense is the second worst possible outcome” is exactly correct:

Still, the past six months have not been easy for her. Post-traumatic stress disorder is constantly with Bowlin.

“The physical injuries have healed, but it’s now the emotional ones that are with me, every second of every day,” she said.

Therapy is helpful, but it is the “most expensive thing I’ve seen, to date,” she said. Because of this, her family and friends have set up a GoFundMe page for Bowlin to help with the costs of counseling.

And partly, it’s because gun-control advocates are such incredible, mindless, depraved ghouls.

…an anti-gun website, which puts up photos of people whose lives have been “lost to gun violence,” has put up a photo of this guy that Aubrey shot, Bruce Jones.

The comments on the anti-gun website page about Mr. Jones are pretty scathing; The owners apparently never got the memo from gun-grabber central about never engaging with or recognizing the existence of their opposition.

But this sort of behavior is nothing new; many of the “children” counted as “victims of gun violence” gang members under the age of 21. It’s still a tragedy, to be sure – as is every life lost to gang violence – and some of the “mass shootings” shown on websites purporting to track mass shootings are self defense shootings with three or more attackers killed or wounded.

A Good Guy With A Gun

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And armed citizen with a legally owned a firearm has shot and killed a wannabe spree killer a restaurant in Oklahoma:

An armed citizen shot and killed a mass shooter at a restaurant in Oklahoma on Thursday after the gunman walked in and opened fire, hitting several people.

“A man walked into the Louie’s restaurant and opened fire with a gun. Two people were shot,” police said, CNN reported. “A bystander with a pistol confronted the shooter outside the restaurant and fatally shot him.”

Oklahoma City Police tweeted: “ALERT: The only confirmed fatality is the suspect. He was apparently shot-to-death by an armed citizen. Three citizens were injured, two of whom were shot. A large number of witnesses are detained. There is no indication of terrorism at this point.”

If episodes like this got anywhere near the saturation coverage that “successful” spree killings did, we wouldn’t have spree killings.

And people like the Reverend Nancy Nord Bence would get booed and heckled off more stages.

A Good Ol’ Gal With A Gun

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A  South Carolina woman kills an escaped inmate who had just kicked down her back door:

The inmate was still in his orange jail jumpsuit and had grabbed a knife sharpening tool from the woman’s kitchen in Pickens as he headed toward her bedroom around 3 a.m. Tuesday, Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark said.

“This was a big guy. If she hadn’t had a weapon there’s no telling what would have happened,” Clark said. “I gave her a big hug. I told her how proud I was of her.”

I’m trying to imagine any Metro area chiefs of police who’d do that.

Bruce McLaughlin Jr., 30, died from a gunshot to the head, Pickens County Coroner Kandy Kelley said.

McLaughlin and a second inmate, Timothy Dill, beat up two guards in an escape they had planned for days, Clark said at a news conference.

I’m not gonna call it a “Happy Ending” – killing someone is the second-worst possible outcome.

But the worst – a dead victim – is far, far worse.

Too bad gun control activists would prefer women like that to shut up and get raped to death.

A Good Guy With A Gun. Maybe Two.

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I’ve been a little slow getting to this story – it’s a few weeks old, and it’s been a busy November so far

One Gregory Bush walked into a Kroger in Louisville, KY, and killed one black man, apparently yelling racial slurs as he did so.

There is some evidence – albeit only in an incredibly badly written alt-media story – that he was confronted by one armed man inside the story, after murdering 69 year old Maurice Stallaard:

The suspect is also reported to have said: “Whites don’t shoot whites.”

Busy left the Kroger, went to the parking lot, and shot Vicki Lee Jones, 67, bebore turning his attention to Dominic Rozier and his family.

Dominic Rozier. Hero.

Rozier, however, was also a carry permittee – and he engaged Bush, forcing him to disengage and flee.    He was caught, and has been indicted on two counts of capital murder, with very likely federal hate crime charges on deck.

The racial angle of this story has gotten all kinds of coverage.   Bush was prohibited from owning firearms legally due to a variety of previous violent violations – so clearly the shooting never happened.  His state of mind is certainly in question.

What is not in question is that two good guys – one white, one black – with legal firearms and the right and will to use them – defended themselves, their families (in both cases, literally, then and there), and their community; they did it judiciously (as almost all citizen in this situations do), and they did it successfully.

The Minnesota Democrat “Farmer” Labor party wants to make that impossible.  Don’t ever forget it.

Another Good Guy With A Gun

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A motorist who shot a man acting erratically and aggressively – with a knife – after a traffic accident in Fridley last fall won’t be charged.  

According to the attorney’s office, Schiffler got out of his vehicle, grabbed a woman and began forcefully groping and kissing her. He also, the attorney’s office said, stabbed at the window of a nearby car with a 4-inch knife.

Another motorist unholstered his gun and told Schiffler to stop. According to the attorney’s office, Schiffler then raised his knife and charged at the man with the gun. The man shot him three times, and Schiffler died from his injuries.

“The evidence demonstrates the shooter had no reasonable ability to further retreat, given the physical surroundings, proximity of other people and the actions of Schiffler,” the attorney’s office said in a press release.

Gun-grabbers might say that’s not the same as “justifiable” homicide.  They’re right.  It’s better.  The cops and the county attorney believe there was no point in taking the case to court; nobody needs to prove it was justified.

I’d say “I love a happy ending” – but of course it’s not a happy ending; even insane and impaired people are human beings, usually with some sort of parents or sibling out there.

But then, so were the people that Mr. Schiffer threatended with a knife.