This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Guns

  • Thursday feel good story

    Chief Tango sends us a link to the story which unfolded in Warrenton, Oregon when a woman’s estranged husband broke into her house where she lived with her three kids. The ex- was armed, and unfortunately for him, so was she;

    Police say the suspect walked into the upstairs apartment armed with a gun, prompting the family to barricade themselves in a back bedroom and call 911.

    For several tense minutes, police say the victims, a 43-year-old woman and three teenagers, stayed on the line with 911 dispatchers while they waited for help to arrive.

    […]

    As officers surrounded the home and assumed their tactical positions, neighbors say they were told to take cover.

    […]

    But before police could make their way into the home, the intruder busted down the door and that’s when police say one of the victims shot the suspect.

    After hearing gunfire, police ran inside and tried to revive the suspect, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

    Even when the police are right outside your house, you might still need a gun. According to the Daily Astorian, the dead fella, Bruce Ross Rogers, 39, has been arrested for domestic violence in the recent past;

    He was arrested in April by Clatsop County Sheriff’s deputies following an incident on Lyngstad Heights Lane in Astoria. A woman called 911 around 3:30 p.m. to report her boyfriend had attacked her and was refusing to leave. Rogers was arrested around 7 p.m., charged with fourth-degree assault, coercion, second-degree criminal mischief, interfering with making a police report and strangulation. He was booked into the Clatsop County Jail.

  • Police chief threatens to arrest Kokesh & Co.

    DSC_0108

    The other day, we talked about IVAW’s Adam Kokesh and his plan to march on DC with a mob who will, reportedly cross the bridge from Virginia into the District of Columbia with loaded weapons to protest the District’s gun laws. Yeah, it’s a bad idea…really bad. But the District’s police chief, Kathy Lanier has promised that she will lock them up says the Washington Times;

    On Tuesday, Chief Lanier said the police department has not been in contact with Mr. Kokesh or other organizers but supported coordination between the group and law enforcement in order to educate protesters about the laws they would be breaking and the punishment they could face.

    “We’ll make sure that they understand that if they want to pass through the District of Columbia with firearms, as long as they’re in compliance with the firearms laws for transportation of firearms through the District, we’re all for it. But passing into the District of Columbia with loaded firearms is a violation of the law, and we’ll have to treat it as such,” she said.

    According to the Washington Post, 2500 people have signed up on Kokesh’s Facebook page for the march, but Kokesh’s minions are notoriously bold until they have to put their feet on the ground. A “Vets for Ron Paul” march he organized a few years back had thousands of people promise to show up but he had barely 400 make it to DC.

    As I predicted in the initial post, the DC police plan to meet the armed protesters at the bridge from Arlington Cemetery in the district. Another flaw in Kokesh’s plan, since they plan to begin their march at Arlington National Cemetery, I’m pretty sure that since it’s federal property, the Park Police at Arlington aren’t going to let them open carry guns there either.

    As you can imagine, since we’re the largest repository of Kokesh documentation on the internet, we’ve been a pretty popular destination since the story hit the national press. Adam introduces me as his stalker, but I’ve always known him to be a publicity hound. He even emails links to stuff that he wants us to talk about, but I get email from Jesse MacBeth, too, so, I’m kinda like the idiot-whisperer. I’m pretty sure my readership is smarter than to make a pointless statement like Kokesh is trying to do.

    As I’ve said before, Kokesh has been arrested countless times in DC and each time he’s walked away for those arrests without a record, but this time, I’m pretty sure the District will punish the shit out of him and anyone with him simply because they’re carrying loaded weapons. The district charges a $5000 fine for anyone improperly armed in the district. You can also be imprisoned for five years, so they ain’t goofin’. And I don’t think this plan is going to end up good for anyone, even those of us who aren’t going to be there.

  • Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that gun-related homicides have declined

    Oops. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that gun-related homicides have declined 39% from 1993 to 2011. The report offers no reasons for the steep decline, but most certainly will have some effect on the gun debate – like fixing things that aren’t broken.

    For both fatal and nonfatal firearm victimizations, the majority of the decline occurred during the 10-year period from 1993 to 2002. The number of firearm homicides declined from 1993 to 1999, rose through 2006 and then declined through 2011. Nonfatal firearm violence declined from 1993 through 2004 before fluctuating in the mid- to late 2000s.

    In 2011, about 70 percent of all homicides and eight percent of all nonfatal violent victimizations (rape, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault) were committed with a firearm, mainly a handgun. A handgun was used in about 7 in 10 firearm homicides and about 9 in 10 nonfatal firearm violent crimes in 2011. In the same year, about 26 percent of robberies and 31 percent of aggravated assaults involved a firearm, such as handguns, shotguns or rifles.

    In 2007-11, about one percent of victims in all nonfatal violent crimes reported using a firearm to defend themselves during the incident. A small number of property crime victims also used a firearm in self-defense—about 0.1 percent of all property victimizations.

    The majority of nonfatal firearm violence occurred in or around the victim’s home (42 percent) or in an open area, on the street, or while on public transportation (23 percent). Less than one percent of all nonfatal firearm violence occurred in schools.

    From 1993 to 2010, males, blacks and persons ages 18 to 24 were most likely to be victims of firearm-related homicide. In 2011, the rate of nonfatal firearm violent for males (1.9 per 1,000) was not significantly different than the rate for females (1.6 per 1,000). Non-Hispanic blacks (2.8 per 1,000) and Hispanics (2.2 per 1,000) had higher rates of nonfatal firearm violence than non-Hispanic whites (1.4 per 1,000). Persons ages 18 to 24 had the highest rates of nonfatal firearm violence (5.2 per 1,000).

    And, oh, about that gun show loophole the gun grabbers are trying to close;

    In 2004 (the most recent year of data available), among state prison inmates who possessed a gun at the time of the offense, fewer than two percent bought their firearm at a flea market or gun show. About 10 percent of state prison inmates said they purchased it from a retail store or pawnshop, 37 percent obtained it from family or friends, and another 40 percent obtained it from an illegal source.

    So, we’re going to penalize legitimate gun owners for a miniscule number of gun sales. We’re going to fix problems which barely exist while hamstringing only the people who don’t participate in illegal gun transfers.

  • NRA’s Life of Duty; Frontlines Special Report: Boston

    The folks at the NRA send us a link to their report on the Boston marathon bombing;

    NRA Life of Duty presented by Brownells, Inc. and FNH USAhave teamed to bring you a special report straight from the Frontlines of the Boston Marathon. For those present, it was the most horrific experience of their lives. But one group of men had experienced this sort of thing before, half a world away. It was these men who were seen rushing towards the sound of the blast, putting themselves at risk for the benefit of savings lives.

    They also send the latest video from their commentator, Colion Noir;

    In “Coloring the Issue” Colion Noir challenges many of his critics to focus on his message, not his skin color. Tune in every Monday for a new episode.

    (more…)

  • Tuesday feel good story

    Chief Tango sends us links to the story about a Lubbock, TX homeowner who heard his dogs barking in his yard and went to investigate when he encountered an intruder forcing his way into the house.

    Police say a suspect, whose name has not been released, forced his way into the home through the front door. The homeowner heard what was happening and confronted the suspect, asking him repeatedly to leave the house. Ultimately, the homeowner shot the intruder in the torso with a hand gun after he refused to leave.

    The suspect was taken to UMC where he remains in stable condition.

    KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

    From another link;

    Police say the two residents heard their dog barking in the back yard. When the homeowner got up to see what it was, he saw a man trying to get in. The suspect forced his way inside; investigators say this is when the homeowner shot him and held him until police arrived.

  • Kokesh to march on DC again

    Folks have been sending me links all day about Adam Kokesh’s plan to march on DC with loaded guns from Virginia on July 4th. He’s hoping to assemble a thousand of his followers – in fact, he says he won’t march if he doesn’t get at least a thousand. From Salon;

    Whether Kokesh actually goes through with his plan remains to be seen — he says he won’t do it unless 1,000 join him — but the protest may strike a chord with gun fanatics, who stage “open carry” protests across the country to fight gun control laws. There was one in Washington in 2010, but those rallying inside District lines did not actually carry weapons.

    Personally, I don’t see it happening. Yeah, I know, Kokesh has walked away from every one of his arrests in DC in the past, but that was until he marched into DC with a loaded gun. People take gun laws a little more seriously than they take laws against littering, trespassing and putting up posters in Federal Parks. Kokesh should know that since he was barred from reenlistment in the Marines Reserve for smuggling an Iraqi pistol back to the US.

    But I see the Virginia State Police and the Metro PD blocking the bridge so Kokesh isn’t allowed to break the law, but I also think it’s hard for Kokesh to assemble 1000 supporters with guns from his hippie band. he invited 15,000 people to his march on his Facebook page and 600 have promised to attend, but then his last project, Veterans for Ron Paul March on the White House promised thousands and had 400 actually attend, according to his own numbers.

    While I appreciate the spirit of the march, i don’t in anyway support it. When we fall into the stereotype of the outraged gun nut, we don’t do anything for our gun rights in the view of the public – and that’s where we win battles for gun rights, in the court of public opinion. There have been a couple of stunts recently by well-meaning, but ill-advised friends which make gun owners, in general, look bad. This is another one.

    But, then I didn’t get an invitation to the March from Kokesh, so it probably won’t surprise or offend him that I don’t support him this time either.

  • Cruz challenges Bite Me to debate

    Politico reports some of the best blogging news I’ve heard since the 2012 vice presidential debate between Paul Ryan and Joe Bite Me. Senator Ted Cruz who almost made Dianne Feinstein cry during their discussion of gun control, has challenged Joe Bite Me to a “discussion” on reducing crime (i.e. gun control);

    Cruz indicated that he doesn’t regard Biden as a formidable opponent, noting that Biden’s home defense advice — firing a shotgun twice into the air — “is very useful, if it so happens that you’re being attacked by a flock of geese.”

    The Washington Post quotes Cruz;

    “If Vice President Biden really believes the facts are on his side and this is not an exercise in political power, I would think he would welcome the opportunity to talk about the sources of violent crime and how we can do everything we can to stop it,” Cruz said.

    It is supposed to be a discuss, right? That’s what they told us before they started preaching to us and telling us to sit down and shut up.

    The video of Cruz’ challenge from CBS;
    (more…)

  • Music store owner assaulted with club, shoots criminal

    UpNorth sends us the news from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that music store owner Alfred Armen and his wife were assaulted in their business by a man with a club;

    The man stayed in the store for two or three minutes, went outside to his car, and came back in with some type of wooden club, Chief Mackey said.

    He attacked Sylvia Armen, clubbing her on the head, and Mr. Armen came to her defense, the chief said.

    The man then attacked him with the club, and Mr. Armen pulled a revolver and shot him dead, Chief Mackey said.

    The most important part of the story is;

    The Allegheny County medical examiner’s office removed the body from the store about 4 p.m.