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

Category: Guns

  • WWP vs Gun Talk

    Several of you have sent us links to the dust-up about Wounded Warrior Project not partnering with Gun Talk for donations to their worthy cause. For those of you might not have heard of it yet, the folks at Gun Talk offered a walk on their program to WWP and Leslie Coleman of WWP declined the offer. the response read;

    WWP does not co-brand, create cause marketing campaigns or receive a percentage or a portion of proceeds from companies in which the product or message is sexual, political or religious in nature, or from alcohol or firearms companies.

    Our position regarding firearms and alcohol is in response to the struggles that many injured service members face with substance abuse and suicide and the roles those items often play in those issues.

    While I may disagree with Coleman on the instances of firearm-related suicides among the troops (many of the suicides are accomplished with motor vehicles, would WWP not take the same offer from General Motors?), but the way I see it, WWP does a lot of good for the troops and at least their hearts are in the right place, although in error. They haven’t spent their money on campaigning for gun control, they have no influence on gun control policy. I think that the good they do outweighs their misbegotten policy.

    I’m sorry if I’m not the rabid pro-gun stereotypical nutjob on this that won’t allow deviation from “guns for everyone” policy, but I like to think I’m pragmatic, at least in this regard. Wounded Warrior project hasn’t been harping on gun control or advocating for taking guns from the troops, they just have a policy, like everyone else.

    I’ve been kicked off of jury duty because I’m an NRA member. The judges in those cases thought I would be biased and rule in favor of the defendant because I’d think that everyone should have guns. But I don’t, and the NRA doesn’t think, criminals should have guns and someone carrying a handgun in the streets of DC is a criminal since they’re in violation of gun laws that I don’t agree with. What does that have to do with this? Like I said, I’m pragmatic and practical when it comes to guns.

    You’re free to disagree with me, like some of you always do, without me going Michael Yon on you. But, honestly, I don’t see the big deal of WWP having a policy against associating themselves with an issue that’s clearly outside their lane.

  • Friday feel good story

    Today’s feel good story comes from the Chronicle-Telegram in northern Ohio and it’s about a burglar by the name of Jeffrey Carson who had apparently robbed the home of Jack Dillon the other night and left a window unlatched so he could make a return visit and finish cleaning out the family. Unfortunately for him, Dillon noticed the unlocked window and was waiting for Carson’s return, sleeping on his couch with a handgun nearby;

    The Dillons told police that they were awakened by the sound of Carson in their living room, and when Jack Dillon called out to him, Carson lunged at him. Jack then shot at Carson.

    Evans said Carson died because of his gunshot wounds. Carson was lying on the Dillons’ couch, according to a 911 tape, and had stopped breathing but later began coughing before rescue crews arrived.

    Eichenlaub has not released any new details of the case.

    Carson had a criminal record, including theft and drug convictions, and had pending cases through Lorain County Common Pleas Court.

    Carson’s sister, Bobbi Knicely, told The Chronicle-Telegram in an earlier interview that she did not believe that Carson broke into the Dillon’s home and that the couple knew Carson, as he was staying down the street from them.

    Dillon plugged Carson five times, apparently finding a way to avoid some of the problems we’ve read about in the past when the burglars survived their encounter with lead injections.

  • Sunday feel good story

    12-year-old Kendra St. Claire was in her family’s home while he mother, Debra, was at work. Suddenly someone started banging on the door and Kendra heard glass shatter. She called her mother, who told the teen to get Debra’s 40 caliber handgun, go to her mother’s closet and call 9-1-1.

    The 911 tapes tell the story as it unfolded.

    Kendra: “I’m at my house. I’m in my closet. And I ran away from (inaudible) someone’s trying to get into my house and I do not know who they are.” Dispatcher: “Ok I have a deputy en route, I want you to stay on the phone with me. Ok?” Kendra: “Ok. Please. I think they are in the house.”

    Kendra had taken shelter in a closet, clutching her mother’s .40 caliber glock gun while she listened to the intruder make his way around her home.

    Kendra: “Please help me. Please.” Dispatcher: “Alright, alright. I understand. Do you still have your mom’s gun there?” Kendra: “Yes I do. I have it in my hand.”

    Her fear intensified to sheer terror, when she saw the knob of the closet door beginning to turn.

    At that point, that for the first time in her life, Kendra fired a gun.

    Police said the bullet traveled straight through the closet door and struck 32-year-old Stacey Jones in the shoulder, scaring him out of the house.

    Poor, misguided Stacey was found later by the police a few blocks away. They took him to the hospital and he’s awaiting trial and bond has been set at a $1/4 mil.

    Excellent shooting, Kendra. Thanks to Tman for the link.

  • Border agent murdered, another injured

    The Washington Times reports that two border agents were shot, one mortally, while they were on a horseback patrol in Arizona today. A third agent was unharmed;

    The wounded agent was airlifted to a hospital after being shot in the ankle and buttocks, the Border Patrol said. He is in surgery and expected to recover, McCubbin said.

    Authorities have not identified the agents who were assigned to the Naco station, about 100 miles southeast of Tucson.

    The last U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot on duty was Brian Terry, who was killed in a shootout with Mexican bandits near the border in December 2010.

    The Naco station was recently named for Brian Terry, who was killed with a weapon that BATFE agents allowed to be sold illegally to Mexican drug cartels in their failed “Fast and Furious” operation.

    Speaking of which, if you haven’t heard, Univision, the Spanish language US TV station has been doing the work that that English speaking networks won’t. They’ve discovered 57 more F&F weapons that were linked to crimes in Mexico. The hyperlink to the story above is to ABC News, but they have yet to broadcast the results of Univision’s investigation.

    Some of the weapons were discovered to have been used in a massacre of Mexican teens at a party. 20 gunmen murdered 14 teens and injured 12 others.

    Univision also reveals that yet another gun-walking scheme went virtually unnoticed in the mainstream media, called “Operation Castaway” in which yet more guns were linked to criminals in Colombia, Honduras and Venezuela. According to ABC, “several of those weapons have already been found at crime scenes and in the hands of local cartels.”

    Of course, we can cure this ill ourselves in November.

  • Friday feel good story

    Sorry, I’ve been on the road to and from Bethesda today, so I’m behind on email and I’m catching up. But Hack Stone sends this short, but grin-generating story about a 50-year-old who turned the tables on some teens in Detroit;

    A 50-year-old man sitting in his car was allegedly approached by four men who brandished a gun and demanded he get out of the car. Before he could get out of the car, shots were fired.

    What they didn’t know is the intended victim had his own gun.

    He opened fire on them, killing one of the young men, a 17-year-old. The other suspects ran from the scene.

    Police say the 50-year-old man, who was uninjured, has a permit to carry the weapon.

    If that doesn’t warm the cockles of your black little hearts today, I don’t know what will.

  • Why Did the Aurora Shooter Choose the Cinemark?

    I’m certain everyone remembers James Holmes, the (alleged) Aurora theater mass-murderer.

    John Lott has an interesting take on just why Holmes may have chosen the Cinemark Theater as his venue for murder. It wasn’t the closest to his house, or the largest one showing “The Dark Knight Rises” that evening.  So why the Cinemark?

    Turns out that the Cinemark was the only theater nearby that – by business policy – banned patrons from bringing licensed concealed firearms into the theater.

    The article is short, but is worth a read. Lott’s argument that gun-free zones are counterproductive and foolish is rather persuasive.

  • Today’s feel good story

    TSO and Mr Wolf both sent a link to the story of Earl Jones, the 92-year-old veteran who was just heading off to bed when he heard a “bang” in his basement. Earl grabbed his .22-caliber rifle and confronted the three men he found on his basement steps;

    Some 15 minutes later, when he heard footsteps moving closer up the stairs, he raised the rifle to his eye. The intruder kicked open the door. Jones fixed his aim on the center of the man’s chest and fired a single shot. The Boone County Sheriff later announced the death of the intruder, Lloyd (Adam) Maxwell, 24, of Richmond, Ky.

    “These people aren’t worth any more to me than a groundhog,” Jones told the Enquirer. “They have our country in havoc. We got so many damned crooked people walking around today.”

    So, Jones laid Maxwell low and Maxwell’s accomplices were rounded up in short order when they tried to make up a story and get Maxwell some medical treatment.

    Maxwell fled the scene with the two other men allegedly involved in the robbery. The two men took their injured friend to a 2001 Chevrolet Impala on Courtney Road and called police. The pair fabricated a story about the man’s injury to try and get Maxwell medical attention, Scheben said.

    Jones told 9 News he got the gun from Walmart for $500. He said this incident should send a message to would-be robbers.

    “I’ve been robbed so much in the past five weeks, I said it’s going to have to be a message to the people. The only way you going to stop this is you [going to] have to leave one laying in the grass. That’s the only way you’re [going to] stop it,” Jones said.

    I think he overpaid for the .22, but there is iron in his words.

  • Another Reason to Be Glad You’re an American

    “An Englishman’s home is his castle.” That principle has a long history – back to Roman times, in fact.  And it was perhaps most clearly expressed by Blackstone in Merry Olde England in his Commentaries on the Laws of England (Book 4, Chapter 16). But it looks like it’s no longer true – at least not in England.

    Seems that a man and his wife were renting a farm house at Melton Mowbray, Leics.  They had been victims of a series of recent break-ins. The last break-in occurred while the man and his wife were at home.

    Confronting the would-be burglars, the man grabbed a lawfully-owned firearm. He apparently fired at the four intruders.  They left.

    His aim was apparently reasonably good.  Two of the four intruders later sought medical treatment for non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. The police arrested all four of them.

    But it seems the man’s marksmanship was his undoing.  The police also arrested the farmer and his wife on “suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.”

    This isn’t the first time in recent years a man has been arrested for defending himself or his family in his own home in the United Kingdom. In fact, on at least two previous occasions the individual defending his home/family has ended up convicted and sentenced to prison.

    Blackstone must be spinning in his grave. I’m certainly glad some of my ancestors valued their freedom and caught a boat heading west.