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.
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.
North Carolina man kept his head during a gas station robbery.
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…
So they don’t run out of bullets before their attacker runs out of attack.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Details: Last night I was robbed at gunpoint by 2 men in DC by the new @TheWharfDC on the way to get coffee at @dolcezzagelato at 7:45pm.
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) January 18, 2018
They got my phone and tossed me around while people watched from a half block away. Then they ran off.
Thanks to @DCPoliceDept for your help.
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.
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…
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…
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
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?
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Would-be armed robber in Arizona learns you shouldn’t bring a knife to a chair, fist and big stick fight:
I love a happy ending.
An armed citizen, whom police are calling a “Good Samaritan”, ended a shooting spree at a Walmart in Washington state.
If only we cared about our school children as much as we do about our Walmart customers.
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.
A good guy with a gun and a baby, attacked by four thugs, fails to become a tragic statistic:
Four men were at a McDonald’s in Memphis’ Orange Mound neighborhood when they attempted to rob the father, police said. David Chase, who witnessed the attempted robbery from across the street and called 911, told WREG the father fought back.
“They jumped out of the car and they started fighting him and trying to take his wallet and stuff,” Chase told the news station. “He was fighting them. He dropped his baby and started fighting them and the child was just sitting on the concrete.”
Chase said he heard three to four gunshots. The father is believed to have shot at least one of the suspects.
Fingers crossed for the good guy.
A Pennsylvania school is planning to fight active shooters…
“Every classroom has been equipped with a five-gallon bucket of river stone. If an armed intruder attempts to gain entrance into any of our classrooms, they will face a classroom full students armed with rocks and they will be stoned,” said Dr. David Helsel, [Superintendent of the Blue Mountain school district in Pennsylvania – Ed.] testifying to the House Education Committee last week in Harrisburg.
“At one time I just had the idea of river stone, they’re the right size for hands, you can throw them very hard and they will create or cause pain, which can distract,” Helsel told WNEP.
Helsel says teachers, staff, and students were given active shooter training through a program known as ALICE which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate and they routinely hold evacuation drills for active shooter simulations.
But if a teacher decides to lockdown a classroom, there are rocks in a five-gallon bucket kept in every classroom closet that students could throw if shooters get inside.
And the fact is, yes – with active shooters, any resistance is better than none. It’s just crazy enough to…well, maybe be better than useless.
Speaking of better than useless – the district took some more concrete action:
Helsel says the district has no plans to arm teachers, however, Blue Mountain does have a maintenance employee who is trained and certified to work as school security and is armed.
People may laugh – but it makes more sense than any Twin Cities public school is going to.
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
We are told ordinary citizens don’t need guns, we shouldn’t try to defend ourselves, we should leave it to the professionals who have training and experience to do the job safely and correctly.
In other words: “Trust us, we’re from the government and we’re here to help.”
The School Resource Officer who hid outside the school instead of engaging the shooter inside, resigned in disgrace. He’s not the only Deputy who hid and waited. The Coral Springs PD walked past three more cowering deputies to go into the school looking for the shooter. And that’s after years of warnings were ignored. No wonder the sheriff wants to blame Trump and the NRA for this disaster. The officer who resigned may be the only honorable person in that whole department.
And I’m not sure he’s being justly blamed. Think of the TSA screeners at the airport. All federal law enforcement people, supposedly there to protect the public from terrorists. They put on a big show of confiscating a two-inch pen knife and badgering anybody making jokes about bombs, but imagine the Florida shooter had skipped school to show up at the airport. Imagine he had started shooting at people standing in the rope line, or taking off their shoes. How many of those TSA screeners would have charged the gunman? I suspect the answer is “none,” because they’re not warriors, they’re window dressing, and everybody knows it.
Same as the School Resource Officer. He might be a sworn peace officer carrying a pistol but God help him if he shot a kid causing trouble , if he pulled a weapon on one, or even spoke sharply to him. Jesse Jackson would be on the first plane and Gloria Allred would be in the seat right next to him. The school hired the guy to be Officer Friendly. They can’t expect him to suddenly turn into Rambo and they would have been horrified if they thought he might.
The deputy who resigned is a trained professional, all right. But what’s he trained for? Sensitivity to gender issues? Minimizing racial arrest disparities? Reducing truancy? He was great at those jobs. Don’t blame him for failing to do a job he wasn’t hired for, wasn’t temperamentally suited for, that nobody wanted him to do.
Joe Doakes
In the seminal essay “A Nation of Cowards” – an essay that may not have created an entire generation of Second Amendment activists, but certainly helped them focus their thinking – Jeffrey Snyder wrote:
Is your life worth protecting? If so, whose responsibility is it to protect it? If you believe that it is the police’s, not only are you wrong — since the courts universally rule that they have no legal obligation to do so — but you face some difficult moral quandaries. How can you rightfully ask another human being to risk his life to protect yours, when you will assume no responsibility yourself? Because that is his job and we pay him to do it? Because your life is of incalculable value, but his is only worth the $30,000 salary we pay him? [In 1993 – Ed.] If you believe it reprehensible to possess the means and will to use lethal force to repel a criminal assault, how can you call upon another to do so for you?
Adults who are kibitzing about the cops – but not calling for school sfaffers to assert their moral right, power and obligation to protect the children in their charge and themselves – are hypocrites.
And yes, I said “moral obligation”:
One who values his life and takes seriously his responsibilities to his family and community will possess and cultivate the means of fighting back, and will retaliate when threatened with death or grievous injury to himself or a loved one. He will never be content to rely solely on others for his safety, or to think he has done all that is possible by being aware of his surroundings and taking measures of avoidance. Let’s not mince words: He will be armed, will be trained in the use of his weapon, and will defend himself when faced with lethal violence.
I think this essay needs to circulate again.
So let’s count it down:
A deeeeeeeply troubled kid with a long, long record of violent outbursts – who, by law, could not be expelled, because school districts need that per diem for having kids in the seats.
Multiple credible reports of a kid who “wanted to shoot up the school”, received by the sheriff’s offie and the FBI. 1: the schools had a problem kid with violent outbursts including assaults and threats. But could not expel him by law.
39 calls to 911 for the kid in a short time.
Statemens about Nik Cruz that just keep coming out of the woodwork.
And to top it off, the cop (the ones who Big Left sayis should have all the guns) sat outside the school, literally in a defensive position, and did nothing as the massacre went on inside.
The armed school resource officer assigned to protect students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School took a defensive position outside the school and did not enter the building while the shooter was killing students and teachers inside with an AR-15 assault-style rifle, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Thursday.
Israel said he suspended School Resource Deputy Scot Peterson on Thursday after seeing a video from the Parkland, Fla., school that showed Peterson outside the school building where the shooter was inside and attacking.
“What I saw was a deputy arrive at the west side of Building 12, take up a position, and never went in,” Israel said.
Sheriff Israel noted what readers of this blog have known for years; that the deputy’s job was to get in there and put shots on target. To shake the killer out of his narcissistic reverie. They’ve known this – and, ostensibly, trained on this – since Columbine.
Not charging toward gunfire is a pretty normal human reaction.
On the other hand, everyone who is getting the victorian vapours over the thought of letting school staff carry guns for self-defense? This is your alternative; lived dependent on the frailty of human nature to defend them from the depravity of human nature.
Why not use one of human nature’s more automatic traits – self-preservation – to our advantage? Especially since repealing “gun free zones” will deter the attacks in the first place?
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Concealed carry permit holder shoots a man dead, to stop him from beating a liquor store employee to death.
I love a story with a happy ending.
Joe Doakes
We’ll see how this shakes out – I don’t think John Choi wants Ramco residents feeling too empowered.
But so far, so good.
It was five years ago yestarday that Jacob Roberts – a loser and delusional narcissist – walked into the Clackamas Mall in Portland Oregon with an AR15, a pistol and a couple hundred rounds of ammunition, apparently intent on giving his pathetic excuse of a life a big finish.
He murdered two Christmas shoppers – Cindy Yuille and Steven Forsythe – and was by all accounts intent on murdering many more; the load of ammo was a dead giveaway.
Then, Nick Meli – an off-duty security guard with a carry permit and a concealed Glock – drew down on Roberts.
The media’s and law enforcement’s accounts vary from this point – a point that the media holds against the notion that Meli is a hero. But by all rational accounts, Roberts saw the gun aimed at him, and did exactly what the FBI, in its study of spree killers after Columbine, said he’d do; delusional narcissists like Roberts (as opposed to terrorists like Omar Matteen) either run away, give up, or kill themselves rather than face the consequences.
Which is what Jacob Roberts did; he retreated into a Gap store and, shortly, shot himself.
The media and Big Gun Control has done its best over the years to bury this story. Meli himself has been very reticent about being in the public eye.
But it’s the position of this blog that Meli was, and is, a hero who saved many lives that day, and kept Clackamas Mall off the list of infamy that Sandy Hook school would join three days later.
Other than different denouements, the episodes had a lot in common; mentally-ill losers who planned to leave this mortal coil in a blaze of demented, twisted “glory”; buildings full of captive victims; and the big one – both were “gun free zones”. Clackamas was posted (but, like the Mall of America, those postings were of dubious legal force, although I don’t plan on being the test case); Sandy Hook, being a school, was “gun free” by federal and state law, backed up by potential felony charges.
Which did those kids a lot of good, didn’t it?
Anyway – a salute.