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

Category: Guns

  • Wednesday feel good story

    Chief Tango sends us our feel good story for today when an Alabama homeowner took up arms against an intruder and the good guy walks away. Too many good quotes in this article to leave much out;

    “Your home is your castle, you can only retreat so far as your home,” [Assistant Chief Jamie Smith] said.

    “I’m sure at the time he felt he was in danger so he took what action he thought he needed to take at the time to protect himself… You can back away from anything but home is as far backwards as you can go. At what point do you leave your house to let them have it?

    “If that’s even a question, and in my mind, it wouldn’t be,” he said.

    Investigators said the homeowner fired just one shot with his shotgun, and Smith said he is sure this will be viewed as a victory for people in the pro-gun crowd.

    “Things like this probably happen everyday and fortunately it doesn’t happen everyday in our county or neighborhood. I’m a supporter of the second amendment and you do what you’ve got to do and you use what tools are necessary,” Smith said.

    From another link;

    The unidentified homeowner and another man were in the home Tuesday night checking the property when a third man allegedly broke into the home.

    The homeowner shot the intruder once in the abdominal area. The man was later pronounced dead at the scene when medics arrived on scene.

    Smith said the homeowner called 911 seeking assistance and waited outside for police to arrive.

    Smith said officers found the victim in the home’s basement.

  • Should Due Process Really Be Optional for the Second Amendment?

    Something IMO noteworthy happened the other day in Granola State, AKA the People’s Republic of Kalifornia.  It’s actually been happening there for some time.

    The police went to a person’s home and confiscated their firearms.

    California requires registration of certain types of firearms.  It thus also maintains a database of registered firearms – close to one million of them at present.

    Periodically, they also cross-reference this database against those recently convicted of felonies, and against those involuntarily committed to mental institutions.

    In theory, there’s no issue.  The Constitution’s 10th Amendment clearly places barring felons from firearms possession or ownership within the scope of state authority; Federal law likewise says felons cannot lawfully possess firearms.  Their original criminal trial provided the due process required under the 5th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution for that to be permissible.

    And those who’ve been involuntarily committed “clearly” shouldn’t have access to firearms.  Allowing that would be absurd – right?

    And yet . . . .

    Well, let’s tale a good look at that second part.  Because I for one find certain facts regarding and implications raised by one recent case occurring in California disturbing as hell.

    And since Jonn lets me post here, you’re gonna hear about my concerns – whether you want to or not.  If you keep reading, that is.  (smile)

    (more…)

  • Marine stops stalker from beating woman

    Charlie Blackmore was driving home from work the other morning in Milwaukee when he spotted a man beating and kicking a woman on the street, according to WITI. The former Marine had a weapon and a permit to carry it, so he pulled over and confronted the larger fellow;

    “I said ‘stop’ and he starts coming towards me and that`s when I drew on him. He started getting closer and I said ‘get down on the ground,’” Blackmore said.

    Blackmore held his gun on the suspect and called West Allis police. He says several times while waiting for police to arrive, the attacker moved toward him.

    “I mean I’ve already made it up in mind that if he came at me I was going to have to take him down and I told him that. I warned him multiple times not to come towards me because he was a big guy and I wasn’t playing around and he didn’t seem like he was playing around,” Blackmore said.

    Blackmore says police eventually showed up and had to force the suspect to the ground. They then asked to see Blackmore’s concealed carry permit.

    “I put my hands up turned around and said ‘you can grab it out of my wallet.’ Checked my permit, gave me my wallet back, and then interviewed me for their paperwork,” Blackmore said.

    The article says that police don’t recommend that people do that, but they appreciated it. I’m sure the battered woman appreciated it, too. Blackmore said that the man, an ex-boyfriend, had been stalking her and then attacked her on her way to work. Until a good guy with a gun showed up.

  • Tuesday feel good story; when “everything you got” is in .38 caliber

    Chief Tango sends us a link to Tampa Bay Online which tells the story of 81-year-old James Stevens who noticed he was being followed by a Kia the other night. Everyone knows that Kia drivers are never up to any good – well, that’s been my experience anyway.

    Stevens, 81, wasn’t going to lead the man to his home, so he pulled over in a field. When the Kia also stopped, Stevens got his .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver and got out of his truck, according to Marion County Sheriff’s Office reports.

    Stevens told investigators that the driver of the Kia — later identified as Lonnie Lorenza Hollingsworth Jr., 28 — got out of the vehicle, approached him and demanded “everything you got,” reports state.

    “I didn’t want to shoot him, but I had to. I shot him,” Stevens told deputies.

    Four rounds appeared to have been fired from the six-shot gun, according to evidence photos.

    Lorenza remains in critical condition and Mr. Stevens is fine and charges haven’t been filed against him, as of the printing of the article, so all’s well that ends well.

  • Firearms Sales to State and Local Governments – an Update

    Regular readers of TAH likely have heard that a number of firearms firms have stopped sales to state and local governments that restrict the 2nd Amendment.  Enough firms have declared their intent to do so that the practice has been dubbed the “Firearms Equality Movement”.

    Wilson Combat, a maker of custom pistols, did that on February 28, 2013.  Their statement announcing this policy read, in part:

    “Wilson Combat will no longer provide any products or services to any State Government imposing legislation that infringes on the second amendment rights of its law abiding citizens. This includes any Law Enforcement Department, Law Enforcement Officers, or any State Government Entity or Employee of such an entity. This also applies to any local municipality imposing such infringements.

    . . .

    Wilson Combat will in NO way support the government of these states or their anti-gun agenda that only limits the rights of law-abiding citizens. Wilson Combat will continue to supply any product and/or service they can legally sell in these states to all non-government affiliated citizens.”

    Wilson Combat went on specifically to identify several major jurisdictions with which they will no longer do business:  California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington D.C. and The City of Chicago, Illinois.

    Wilson Combat doing this is relatively minor.  However, the fact that the number of firearms firms making similar declarations  reportedly more than tripled in the period between 22 Feb and 9 March – from 34 to 118 – may well be significant.  Today, the number is 120.

    The full list of companies refusing to do business with some/all government entities in the US that restrict 2nd Amendment rights may be found here (the site requires scripts to be enabled).

    No, the “biggies” aren’t on the list yet.  But if they start losing enough business to the smaller guys . . . .

  • CO Senator Mary Hodge pulls a Feinstein

    Mary Hodge

    According to Twitchy, in the late night hours, the Colorado Senate debated whether veterans and active duty soldiers should be exempted from their impending magazine ban in an amendment by Republican Senator, Kent Lambert. When he introduced the bill, Mary Hodge objected to the amendment because “some of them come back with significant mental health problems”.

    Senator Lambert objected to her generalization.

    LAMBERT: Thank you Mr. Chair. Of course our active duty military people suffer from traumas of war. They have since the Civil war. They’ve gone through battle fatigue. They’ve gone through soldier’s disease, in the Civil War is what they called it.

    But to stereotypically say that we’re just going to have a blanket policy in this state saying that military veterans, who if they have mentally deficient problems or if they have traumatic stress and they’ve been diagnosed they’re not eligible to get weapons anyway. It’s already part of the law.

    It does raise a point: are we doing enough for our veterans? Maybe not, but that’s not part of this bill. But please don’t stereotypically identify military veterans and active duty members as being disqualified for arms ownership simply because they’ve served our country.

    CHAIR; Senator Hodge

    HODGE: Thank you Mr. Chair, and I did not say “all” had mental problems. I said “some.”

    Yeah, but “all” will be effected by the magazine ban because “some”, a very tiny, miniscule number of “some”, have problems. The media has done it’s job, apparently, by poisoning the image of veterans.

    The exchange is at about 13:13 of the video;

  • Saturday feel good story

    In Spokane, Washington, Marshall Balduff was shot dead as he crawled through a doggie door to get at his girlfriend and children in a neighbor’s hoouse;

    Officers said that Balduff crawled through a doggie door to get into the home and was shot in the chest. Blackmore said she was inside the house when her boyfriend tried coming inside the house.

    “He said ‘we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way, either way I’m coming inside and I’m going to get you,’” said Blackmore.

    She said that is when she ran into the living room to hide. Blackmore said that the homeowner fired and shot Balduff as soon as he came inside the house.

    Thanks to UpNorth for the link.

  • Reality Check?

    The elephant in the room is making enough noise to be heard, but nobody seems to be listening.

    As Jonn noted here one Senator is convinced that PTS(D) should preclude many vets from owning guns, but we may have a sitting senator who, in every way, could be pictured along side the very definition of the thing.

    John McCain is a bona fide American Hero. However, the very events that make him a hero would make him suspect in some eyes.  Anyone doubt he could buy any gun he fancied?

    Please set aside his current behaviors because my point concerns a much broader dichotomy.

    The DSM is evolving tool. And there is a rather lengthy history of defining any opposition as mentally ill.

    Calling a Senator or two a “Wacko Bird” is one thing, but where will it end for the rest of us?