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12 February, 2012

KY: Boyfriend scares off robber with gun: "A Laurel County woman took matters into her own hands when she fought against an attempted robber who had a gun. "I went and before I got to the door the door opened and this guy come in with a mask on," says Brenda, the homeowner. Brenda says she acted instinctively. "I grabbed him at the top of the mask trying to pull that off. I was grabbing him and kicking him at the same time," remembers Brenda. Her boyfriend by that time was able to spring into action. "He pulled me out of the way and got his gun and told him he better leave and get out of the house," says Brenda. The would-be robber did what he could to cover up his tracks. Police say he wrecked his getaway vehicle, a 4-wheeler, burned his mask and went home, where he was supposed to be on house arrest. Police followed the clues and just a few hours later they arrested Finley Hall."



Illegal gun ordinances are targeted in proposed Pennsylvania law: "On the issue of whether local gun ordinances can be enacted and enforced, as was done in Allentown and dozens of other municipalities across the state, we really do have rogue behavior by authorities. State law, unequivocally, says this: "A municipality shall not enact any ordinance or take any other action dealing with the regulation of the transfer, ownership, or possession of firearms." Outlaws in Allentown and other cities enacted measures that sound reasonable, but are still illegal and probably just a scheme to get a foot in the door so more sinister measures can be slipped by later. At issue are ordinances requiring people to report the loss or theft of firearms. To crack down on such illegal ordinances, House Bill 1523 provides sanctions, in the form of a $5,000 civil penalty and, more significantly, a provision for triple damages involving the cost of litigation when a citizen takes legal action against a municipality for such violations."



11 February, 2012

CA: Gunman shot; bystander killed in shootout: "The gunfight at Fly Cuts & Styles killed two people, but only one of them is a victim in the complaint filed by Sacramento County prosecutors. While Monique Nelson died a hero while shielding her son from flying bullets outside the Stockton Boulevard barbershop, the other person gunned down, Marvion Barksdale, instigated the shooting, according to the District Attorney's Office. "But for Marvion being killed, Marvion would have been a lead defendant in this case, because Marvion is the one who set this chain of events in motion," Deputy District Attorney Scott Triplett said Friday. "Marvion walked up to the barbershop, gun in hand," the prosecutor added."



FL: Clerk shot while chasing off robber: "One look at the Big Star Liquors store surveillance video from January 18th and you can see why Groth is happy to be alive. Groth was working that night when two men tried to rob the store. Marianna Police said Hakhelius Moore, 18 years old, walked inside and immediately pulled out a gun. Groth instantly reacted with his own weapon and the two men exchanged fire. "Whenever I sit there on my computer I always have my gun," said Groth. It ended with the suspect running out of the store and Groth with gun shot wounds to the arm and neck. Groth spent more than two weeks in the hospital. He was released Sunday February 5th and went back home with his parents where a nurse comes by weekly to check on his condition.



TX: Store owner shoots black trespasser: "A northwest Houston food store owner shot and killed a man he said was trying to rob him, but police did not find a gun on the man, investigators said Friday. Houston police said the 49-year-old owner of the New Land Food Store, 822 West Little York, called 911 at 9:30 p.m. Thursday and said a man was trespassing. Investigators said Terrance Hall, 33, was agitated when he entered the store and tried to get into a back room. When he couldn't, he climbed onto an ATM machine, over plexiglass and fell behind the counter, police said. During a confrontation, the store owner, Thom Vu, grabbed a gun and fired several shots, investigators said. "(Hall) sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced deceased," said Brian Evans with HPD Homicide. Police said they did not find a weapon on Hall. Hall's relatives said he had a troubled past and a criminal history, but they know he had no intention of harming Vu."



Good move in Georgia: "State Rep. Jason Spencer introduced legislation that will allow residents to carry a concealed firearm without first having to get a permit from the government. Rep. Spencer told Georgia Gun Owners that, “Law-abiding citizens should not have to be fingerprinted and cataloged like common criminals just to be able to defend themselves, their family and their property.” Indeed, violent thugs will not show up at the police station or sheriff’s office to apply for a permit. Yet, law-abiding gun owners are forced to apply for a permit, pay fees that can total more than $100, submit fingerprints, and then wait for approval. All that to exercise what is supposed to be a fundamental, individual right."



10 February, 2012

TX: Mother chases off home invaders with gun: "Investigators have made an arrest in a home invasion near Lake Houston, thanks in part to fingerprints left at the crime scene. The home invasion happened Wednesday, on Yonder Way in the Commons subdivision. According to Harris County deputy constables, a mother and her 10-year-old son were home by themselves when two robbers broke in. The woman put her son in a closet and grabbed her gun, shooting at – but missing – one of the suspects. On Thursday, deputies said they caught one of those suspects, Bradley Wayne Turner. They believe the other suspect is Turner’s brother, Dennis."



FL: Shooter high on testosterone gets shot: "No criminal charges will be filed against the Martin County Fire Rescue lieutenant who fatally shot his brother-in-law in a family confrontation last month at a Palm City home, according to reports released Thursday from the Martin County Sheriff's Office. Investigative reports provide more details to the Jan. 8 incident where Vernon "Sonny" Chason fatally shot his sister-in-law, Pamela Richardson, 49, as he attempted to shoot his estranged wife, Anna Chason, 55. John Richardson, 54, Pamela's husband, fatally shot Vernon Chason, while being critically shot himself. Anna Chason and the Richardsons were at the home with four others getting Anna Chason's belongings when Vernon Chason arrived and later started shooting. "The facts show that he (Vernon Chason) shot Pamela Richardson at a fairly close range and was shooting at his wife and Lt. Richardson," Denton said. "I think Lt. Richardson protected several others from getting shot."



9 February, 2012

CO: Home Intruder Shot, Killed: "Denver police say a home intruder was shot and killed and a resident was wounded as the two men struggled over a gun early Wednesday. Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said a man was awakened about 2:20 a.m. by an intruder in his home at 3469 W. Ninth Ave. As the resident and the intruder struggled over the gun, several shoots were fired striking both men, Jackson said. It wasn't clear who owned the gun. The intruder died at the scene, Jackson said. The resident, who was wounded in his lower torso and leg, was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. It appeared the two men knew one other and might even be related, Jackson said. But investigators have not had an opportunity to talk with the wounded resident"



SC: Wife shoots husband in butt after he beat son: "Deputies said they were called to an Inman residence Tuesday night after a domestic dispute led to the wife shooting her husband in self-defense. Spartanburg County deputies said they were called to the County Estates Road residence about 8:24 p.m. where they found Robert Fowler, 43, lying and screaming on the ground with a gunshot wound to the buttocks and his wife holding the gun. Deputies said they determined that Fowler got into a fight with his son, pushing him and beating him in the face, and his wife tried to separate them before shooting him. Investigators said she would not be charged because she shot Fowler in self-defense. Fowler was taken to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center for non-life-threatening injuries before he was transported to the detention center, according to deputies. He was charged with criminal domestic violence first offense and second-degree assault and battery."



MI: Detroit self-defense killings skyrocket: "Justifiable homicide in the city shot up 79 percent in 2011 from the previous year, as citizens in the long-suffering city armed themselves and took matters into their own hands. The local rate of self-defense killings now stands 2,200 percent above the national average. Residents, unable to rely on a dwindling police force to keep them safe, are fighting back against the criminal scourge on their own. And they’re offering no apologies."



8 February, 2012

The rationale behind Gunwalker

Operation Fast and Furious was specifically conceived so that “walked” guns would be recovered at crime scenes in Mexico. Their serial numbers would be provided to the ATF by Mexican authorities for tracing. Regardless of motive, the entire operation was premised on weapons being recovered at crime scenes in Mexico, and law enforcement agencies are well aware that criminals primarily abandon weapons only after they’ve been used in serious felony crimes such as murder or attempted murder.

Operation Fast and Furious was conceived knowing that Mexican nationals would be sacrificed in significant numbers if the tracing operation had any chance of working.

Operation Fast and Furious allowed more than 2,000 weapons to “walk,” indicating that those in charge of the operation were willing to let thousands of Mexican nationals die in an effort to identify the ringleaders of a cartel’s weapon acquisition team.

The Department of Justice claims that they did this so that they could trace the weapons to higher-ups in the cartels and take down entire gun-smuggling networks. Decent people can disagree on many aspects of crime fighting and the amount of risk we should be willing to absorb to fight crime, but we should all agree that no criminal network is worth sacrificing the lives of hundreds or thousands of victims. Yet that is precisely the way Operation Fast and Furious was designed to work.

The first question is obvious, and yet remains unasked by the media and unanswered by the Obama administration and Department of Justice:

"Who conceived this radical departure from normal law enforcement practices? Who conceived an operation that depended upon the deaths of hundreds or thousands of Mexican nationals for its success?"

But as disturbing as the conception of the plot was, it was merely an idea, if one that most would agree is objectively evil in design. It should have died stillborn on the proverbial drawing board. Somehow, this idea was not just allowed, but someone with significant political and operational clout within the Justice Department was able to shepherd this high-risk and inarguably lethal program from idea through planning and budgeting into execution. This strongly suggests high-level sponsorship within the Department of Justice. This demands answers to a second question:

"Which Department of Justice officials saw that Operation Fast and Furious was dependent on hundreds or thousands of firearms being given to the cartels and recovered at the scenes of crimes, knew that the crimes in question were likely to be murders of Mexican nationals or U.S. citizens along the Mexican border where the cartels operate, and approved the operation anyway?"

We know that Operation Fast and Furious depended entirely upon hundred or thousands of walked weapons being recovered at crime scenes so that weapons could be traced, and that those crime scenes would almost certainly be murders. We know that such a high-risk, low-reward program could not have been conceived or approved at a local level, and that it must have had high-level sponsorship within Justice. It is reasonable to make the assumption, unless proven otherwise, that such approval could only come from the level of a deputy attorney general or higher.

More here




CA: Jury believes man's self-defense claim in double shooting: "A Foster City man who shot and wounded two other men during an argument over noise has been found not guilty of two counts of attempted murder in San Mateo County Superior Court. Jesse David Wilson, 41, was also found not guilty of two lesser charges of attempted voluntary manslaughter. He was arrested on July 9, 2010, hours after he shot Steve Dimond and Anthony Cook outside his ground-floor unit at the Beach Cove Apartments. During the two-week trial, Wilson testified that he had acted in self-defense that night, and that he had gone outside with a .38-caliber handgun because he heard a woman scream and what sounded like a fight. When the boating party saw that Wilson had a gun, they rushed him to try to disarm him, according to Locke. Wilson fired the gun twice during the fight that followed. Both men survived, and testified that Wilson had shot them before they started to punch him and beat him to the ground. Wilson suffered a broken orbital bone and multiple cuts and bruises."



7 February, 2012

TX: teen not guilty of slaying pedophile father in self-defense: "When the 12-year-old girl's father walked in on her as she bathed, it was the first time she had ever stood up to his repeated sexual assaults and said, "No!" Mark Nelson, 38, backed out - with a warning. "You're going to regret this," he said. "You're going to be sorry." It was an ominous threat jurors heard about during the girl's four-week trial in a Harris County courtroom. She sat in the chilly tub and waited for him to go bed, adding hot water to stay warm. When she was sure he was asleep, she crept up to his bed, reached for the gun between the mattress and the box springs and shot him in the back of the head. During long hours of testimony, some from experts who interviewed the girl, the jury heard about outcries of repeated sexual abuse. They also heard about her father's history of violence, including choking incidents with two other women and the girl."



Intruder killed at Arkansas apartment: "Fayetteville police say that a man crawled through a window at the Green Apartments, and was confronted by the homeowner who was armed with a handgun. The homeowner asked him to leave and he did, but a few minutes later the intruder went back through the same window and the homeowner shot him. Police say the intruder lived in the same apartment complex and was possibly trying to get into the wrong apartment. "Well if it was a case of self-defense then yes, he would have a right to shoot him, but I think to shoot somebody you know, I think it'd have to be a necessary means," said one neighbor. Police have not yet released the name of the victim or suspect."



6 February, 2012

Super Bowl ad: NYC Mayor Bloomberg markets gun control

With little political capital to lose and millions of his own cash to spend, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is determined to check the role of guns in American society.

A 30-second Super Bowl ad featuring Mr. Bloomberg on a couch with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino will go a long way toward cementing Bloomberg as the king of gun control as the billionaire turns from attacking transfats and smoking to cracking down on illicit sales of firearms, too many of which he says end up in the hands of violent criminals.

“Mike Bloomberg is the only major political figure for whom gun control is a front-burner cause right now,” says University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds.

Since 9/11 and the 2004 sun-setting of the assault weapons ban, courts, legislatures and public opinion have bit-by-bit turned toward the expansion of the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms. That trend has been exacerbated by the Obama presidency, a sense of economic insecurity, and lingering worries about the decline of Western civilization and American ideals like individual liberty, says Brian Anse Patrick, a communications professor at the University of Toledo.

The boom in the number of Americans who have concealed carry permits, for example, hasn't come in the nation's rural, gun friendly reaches, but in cities, exurbs, and suburbs, where women often make up a significant portion of permit-seekers, Mr. Patrick says.

It's in part that spread of gun culture into major cities that inspired Bloomberg to join with Mayor Menino to launch Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), which has hired private investigators to reveal how easily weapons move through gun shows in places like Arizona and Tennessee and end up as illegal guns in cities like New York and Boston.

Given the fact that three-termer Bloomberg can't by law run for mayor again, and that he has a $19 billion personal fortune, his emergence as a major gun control advocate has a lot to do with his independence. Democrats, including President Obama, have largely laid off proposing new gun restrictions in order to stave off attacks on conservative Blue Dog Democrats supported by gun lobbies like the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Given the power of national and state gun rights organizations to confront politicians who attempt to restrict Second Amendment rights, Bloomberg's anti-gun stance would make a presidential run, which he has considered, difficult.

Whether Bloomberg can make a dent in how Americans perceive the role of the gun in society is also still very much a question, though his Super Bowl ad certainly raises the stakes. The ad will show in the local New York and Boston markets, largely liberal enclaves where laws and authorities still do more to discourage gun ownership than encourage it.

More here




TX: Poker game shootout kills 1, injures 3: "An argument during a poker game in north Harris County ended in a shootout early today, leaving one man dead and three more hurt, KRTK reports. The incident began in a house on Varnell near Northington when a disruptive poker player was asked to leave. According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, there was a gathering of people at the home while a poker game was going on. Witnesses told them the suspect started causing a problem, so several people asked him to leave and shoved him down the driveway. The suspect then went to his car, got a gun, came back and opened fire. Investigators said the gunman shot indiscriminately into the crowd of people, striking three men. The fight escalated when another person got his own pistol and started shooting back, officers said. The suspect got in an SUV and drove away. Deputies arrested him at a nearby gas station on Mount Houston at U.S. 59. He had been hit and is in critical condition, KTRK reports."



5 February, 2012

Good neighbor holds up thief: "I saw this guy step out of the house with a sack of stuff on his back like Santa Claus," Foster said. "I got my pistol out," Foster said matter-of-factly. Seeing the burglar cut across his own yard was too much. He pulled a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and attracted the intruder's undivided attention. "I threw down on him and said 'Don't move,' " Foster said. The man, identified by police as 23-year-old Jason Carver, complied. Easily the best decision he made in a day marked by one really bad one. Foster knew that if he went back inside to get his phone, the man lying face down in the yard would get up and run away. So he started yelling for help, and someone called 911. Carver was charged with one count of felony breaking and entering. He was still in the Forsyth County Jail on Friday afternoon, and it's not his first rodeo. Among other items, he has prior convictions for felony burglary, larceny and robbery with a dangerous weapon.



OR: Drug-seeking home invader shot: "Police on Friday acknowledged that drugs may have been the target of two men who reportedly burst into a southeast Eugene home on Thursday in what authorities describe as a home-invasion robbery attempt gone wrong. One of the alleged intruders — a man whose name has not yet been released by police — was fatally shot by a 27-year-old man who lives at the house in the 3300 block of Stoney Ridge Road. Meanwhile, a second suspect in the incident is behind bars. He is identified as Darrin George Dubouch, 39, of Coburg. Dubouch allegedly ran from the house after the shooting occurred. He was arrested a short time later, after a Springfield police dog found him hiding in a wooded area less than one-quarter mile from the home, authorities said."





Alabama gun battle: " A birthday celebration at Eddins Estates apartment complex on Ken Sealy Drive turned volatile when two men entered the home, demanded money, and opened fire. "When I came home there was, like, blood stains all over my building, like on the gorund. You could tell where something just happened," says Trent Gray, a resident of Eddins Estates. When Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Deputies arrived they found four victims in the apartment and another in a seperate unit. The sixth gunshot victim is one of the suspects. He was injured when a guest at the party returned fire. The suspect was seen being dropped off at DCH by a private car. The suspect that was shot underwent emergency surgery and is currently listed in stable condition. "It's a difficult investigation. We've got victims in the hospital [and] a number of witness that scattered throughout the complex," says Tuscaloosa Sheriff Ted Sexton. Tuscaloosa Police arrested another suspect, 23-year old Donald Deshun Wynn [above], at a relative's house in Cottondale."



4 February, 2012

Cato Paper Shows How Guns Thwart Crimes and Save Lives

In a new Cato Institute paper, Clayton Cramer and David Burnett review the controversy over how often Americans use guns in self-defense each year. Estimates range from about 100,000 to more than 2 million, and the surveys used to generate the numbers are subject to weaknesses that plausibly lead to undercounting or exaggeration.

Cramer and Burnett's contribution, an analysis of defensive gun uses reported in the press during an eight-year period, does not resolve this issue. As they emphasize, the vast majority of defensive gun uses seem to be encounters where brandishing a weapon suffices to interrupt or prevent a crime. When no shots are fired and no one is injured or killed, the incident may not even be reported to the police, let alone be deemed newsworthy. Still, Cramer and Burnett's analysis, based on a randomly drawn sample of nearly 5,000 incidents, sheds light on the details of cases that are considered interesting enough to report in a newspaper.

The most common situation, accounting for 1,227 of 4,669 incidents, was a "home invasion," where intruders try to force their way into a home they know to be occupied. Burglaries were also common, accounting for 488 incidents. In 285 cases, the defender had a concealed carry permit, and most of those incidents occurred in public. There were very few cases where a permit holder became involved in an avoidable dispute that turned deadly because he had a gun—a scenario that figures prominently in arguments against nondiscretionary permit laws.

Also contrary to the warnings of gun controllers, victims in this sample were rarely disarmed by their attackers; the reverse happened more than 20 times as often. Criminals took away defenders' guns in 11 out of 4,669 incidents, and the defender ended up dead despite being armed in 36 incidents, less than 1 percent of the time. Cramer and Burnett describe many specific cases (mapped by Cato here) in which a gun prevented robbery, rape, serious injury, or death, illustrating their general point that policy makers need to take these benefits into account instead of focusing exclusively on criminal uses.

Cramer and Burnett note that journalists often seem irrationally hostile to the very idea of armed self-defense, as reflected in a 2009 Miami New Times story:

"It was pouring rain just after 1 p.m. Monday, July 20, when a man burst into a Honduran grocery store on NW 36th Street in Miami. A shirt was wrapped around his face as he gripped a black semiautomatic handgun. Twenty-year-old Charles Bell shoved the pistol into the face of a manager behind the counter. Then he demanded the contents of the cash register and cartons of cigarettes in a plastic bag. Next he began herding customers to the back of the small market."

After the store's manger shot and killed the robber, police deemed it a justifiable homicide. The headline on the article: "South Florida Store Clerks Go Vigilante."

Source





NC: Building owner who called 911 to report hearing voices outside his building on Nov. 5 and then shot two intruders, killing one of them, will not be charged, authorities said: "Steve Joseph Whitley, 58, of North Wilkesboro, acted in self-defense, said District Attorney Tom Horner. He and Sheriff Chris Shew discussed the case most recently on Thursday. Whitley shot and killed David Cynor, 23, who lived in the Mulberry community, and wounded Sara Seagraves, 22, of North Wilkesboro. On the afternoon of Nov. 4, a Friday, Whitley found that someone had broken into the building, Wilkes County Sheriff's Major David Carson said. When Whitley couldn't get the building secured before nightfall, he decided to stay there overnight. Cynor and Seagraves entered through a door that had not been secured because of the previous breaking and entering, and Whitley shot both with a small-caliber handgun, Carson said. Seagraves was charged Friday with misdemeanor breaking and entering, and first-degree trespassing. She is scheduled to appear April 18 in Wilkes County District Court."


OR: Two burglars shot at, one killed: "Officers say the resident called 9-1-1 Thursday afternoon and reported that two men were forcing their way into his home. The caller was able to obtain a handgun and shoot one of the intruders, killing him. The other intruder ran from the scene and was caught a half hour later with the help of a Springfield K-9. As for the shooter, whose mother told KEZI Thursday night, was just trying to protect himself. Investigators are still trying to figure out if this really was a case of self-defense. The suspect in custody does have a prior criminal background. He was arrested Thursday afternoon on burglary and robbery charges."



3 February, 2012

OH: 8th Circuit overturns conviction of a man who shot an intruder: "When the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals threw out the conviction of Carl Kozlosky and ordered a new trial, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason appealed the decision. The Ohio Supreme Court's decision Wednesday returns the case to Common Pleas Court. Kozlosky was sentenced last year to 18 years to life in prison for the shooting death of Andre Coleman on Sept. 20, 2009. Coleman broke into Kozlosky's house and began beating up Valerie McNaughton, who was Coleman's girlfriend. Kozlosky testified at trial that he thought Coleman was reaching for a gun -- which investigators never found -- when he emptied his .38-caliber revolver into Coleman. Coleman, who had previously been convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 1997, had been on an all-night crack binge, according to court testimony, when he broke down the back door of Kozlosky's Cherokee Avenue home to get money or drugs from McNaughton."



CA: Taco truck owner, robbery suspect wounded in shootout: "Despite bleeding from three gunshot wounds, a co-owner of an East Oakland taco truck was able to return fire and twice hit the robbery suspect accused of shooting him early Thursday, police said. The suspect, Sean Ward Morris, 19, of Oakland, his brother Antoine Ward Morris, 18, and a 17-year-old Antioch boy whose name was not released were detained a short time later when they drove to a hospital and were subsequently arrested. The 32-year-old taco truck co-owner was in stable condition at a hospital. All are expected to recover from their wounds. Officer Phong Tran said the co-owner was in the parking lot area cleaning up when he was approached by Sean Ward Morris, who was armed with a pistol, and the 17-year-old. Ward Morris told the co-owner "to be cool and give me what you got," police said. The owner, who had been carrying a gun because of previous robberies, started running away and was shot twice in the back and once in the leg, Tran said. The owner took cover behind a car, pulled his own pistol and returned fire, hitting the older Ward Morris in the upper body and leg, police said."



CA: Teen thieves chased off by employee with gun: "The incident happened just before 11 p.m. Wednesday night at GMC General Auto Repair in Lost Hills. An employee, identified as Mario Soto, said he was working inside the business when he noticed three male juveniles outside in the parking lot. He said two of them tried to steal a car dolly so he grabbed a gun and went to confront the kids. When he tried to detain them he said he was stabbed in the neck. Soto said he then fired three shots but did not hit the teens. The suspects got away leaving the car dolly behind. Soto is recovering at Kern Medical Center"



2 February, 2012

FL: Black sportsman arrested in attempted armed robbery: "Fort Lauderdale police report that at 6:20 p.m., two masked, armed men approached Oleg Flyaster in an alleyway behind the Gold Buyers business at 5130 N. Federal Highway, demanding his wallet and pointing a gun at his face. Flyaster reached into his back waistband, produced a handgun and quickly began shooting toward the suspects. Flyaster told police the suspects did not return fire as they fled on foot. Witnesses saw them remove their ski masks and throwing the locaded .45-caliber handgun into some brush. Police quickly found suspect Marvin Broadway, 23, of Fort Lauderdale. Broadway had been shot in the shoulder. He was taken to Broward General Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries and released to the jail. Soon after, police stopped a vehicle and found suspect Carlton Lowe, 22, also of Fort Lauderdale. Police found Broadway’s gun and his ski mask near the robbery scene."



CA: Elderly ex-Army marksman shoots burglar: "An elderly man from Baldwin Hills took matters into his own hands when two suspected burglars were at his bedroom window Tuesday night. "I was in bed and heard the noise - boom, boom - then I came to see what it was," said 87-year-old Jack Goodwin. "It was two guys busting the window out coming in." Fearing for his life, Goodwin grabbed his 9mm handgun and shot at the suspects, wounding at least one of them. Goodwin was an Army marksman in World War II. Goodwin said he immediately called police after firing at the suspects. Police said one of the burglary suspects was wounded by the gunshots. They said he is in the hospital in critical condition. The second suspect fled the scene. They do not know if he was wounded as well. Police announced Wednesday night that Goodwin was acting in self-defense and was not expected to be charged with any crime."



KY: Employee of pharmacy pulls gun on would-be robber: "Two men have been charged in connection with the attempted robbery of a pharmacy, Lexington police said Wednesday night. The attempt was foiled when an employee pulled a handgun. John E. McGarvey and Steven E. Corman, both 47, were each charged with two counts of first-degree robbery, police Lt. Chris Van Brackel said. A man entered the pharmacy, displayed a knife and demanded pills. At that point, an employee pulled a handgun and a shot or shots were fired. VanBrackel said no one was hurt. The man was seen getting into a red Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS that was later found by police. Both men were lodged in the Fayette County Detention Center."



1 February, 2012

Darrell Issa threatens Eric Holder with contempt

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) threatened Tuesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress if the Justice Department did not provide certain documents in response to the committee’s subpoena.

In a letter to Holder, Issa wrote that “this committee will have no alternative but to move forward with proceedings to hold you in contempt of Congress” if Holder and the DOJ didn’t produce documents they demanded relating to the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal. Holder has until Thursday, Feb. 9. to comply, according to Issa.

Issa accused the Justice Department of trying to “obstruct our investigation and deceive the public” by withholding documents.

“Your actions lead us to conclude that the department is actively engaged in a cover-up,” he said in a four-page letter.

The California Republican pointed to a document that the DOJ released last Friday, which indicated that Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer had promoted gun-walking to Mexico on the same day that Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote to Congress denying that the DOJ had allowed guns to walk.

“It is inconceivable that the Department just became aware of this highly damaging document,” writes Issa, pointing out that the Oversight Committee had originally issued a subpoena on Oct. 12, 2011.

Issa outlines certain documents which the DOJ has which has not been provided to the Oversight Committee, and demands their release to the committee by Feb. 9 at 5 p.m.

“The department has worked with the committee over the last year providing numerous witnesses for interviews, officials for testimony at hearings and thousands of pages of documents and we will continue to do so,” a DOJ official told POLITICO in response to the letter.

The chairman had previously threatened to hold Holder in contempt of Congress in a December Judiciary Committee hearing, for similar reasons, but this is the first time that Issa has formalized it in a letter.

Holder is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, his sixth appearance before Congress regarding Fast and Furious in the past year.

The Democrats on the Oversight Committee have begun laying the groundwork for their strategy, and released a document Monday highlighting the fact that gun-walking had been used as far back as 2006, and was used in three previous investigations before Fast and Furious.

Under the Fast and Furious program, weapons were allowed to be illegally purchased in hopes of tracking gun traffickers and drug cartel leaders. But the ATF, which operates within the DoJ, lost track of these firearms, and many were allowed to cross into Mexico.

Firearms linked to the operation were later found to have been involved in the December 2010 shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, bringing the operation to public attention.

Source




AZ: Store robber shot by employee: "A man who attempted to rob a Phoenix smoke shop Tuesday night was shot by an employee at the store. Police say the a man tried to rob the 'Smoke 4 Less' smoke shop at the intersection of Cave Creek and Union Hills. The suspect had a gun but so did the worker behind the counter. Phoenix Police spokesman James Holmes said the suspect fled the scene, but ended up at the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The store employee was not injured."


SC: Robber and victim both die in shootout: "A 62-year-old Greer homeowner died as a result of a shootout with a woman who attempted to rob him at gunpoint at his front door, authorities said Tuesday evening. “The investigation revealed that the homeowner answered the door at his residence, and the suspect asked for some money. When the victim refused to give her any money, she pulled a gun and he (then) pulled a gun,” according to a written statement from the Greer Police Department. The Greenville County Coroner's Office identified the homeowner as Douglas J. Burgess Jr. Burgess died as a result of a single gunshot wound to the chest. The suspect, identified as Tamika Yvette Weatherspoon, 34, was transported to Greenville Memorial Hospital, where she died in surgery at 10:32 a.m. Monday. An autopsy revealed she died as a result of a single gunshot wound to an upper leg, Dill said."






Note for non-American readers: Crime reports from America which describe an offender just as a "teen" or "teenager" almost invariably mean a BLACK teenager.


Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.


I am an army man and I am pleased and proud to say that I have worn my country's uniform. Although my service in the Australian army was chiefly noted for its un-notability, I DID join voluntarily in the Vietnam era, I DID reach the rank of Sergeant, and I DID volunteer for a posting in Vietnam. So I think I may be forgiven for saying something that most army men think but which most don't say because they think it is too obvious: The profession of arms is the noblest profession of all because it is the only profession where you offer to lay down your life in performing your duties. Our men fought so that people could say and think what they like but I myself always treat military men with great respect -- respect which in my view is simply their due.


Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)

First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean

It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.


The kneejerk response of the Green/Left to people who challenge them is to say that the challenger is in the pay of "Big Oil", "Big Business", "Big Pharma", "Exxon-Mobil", "The Pioneer Fund" or some other entity that they see, in their childish way, as a boogeyman. So I think it might be useful for me to point out that I have NEVER received one cent from anybody by way of support for what I write. As a retired person, I live entirely on my own investments. I do not work for anybody and I am not beholden to anybody. And I have NO investments in oil companies, mining companies or "Big Pharma"

UPDATE: Despite my (statistical) aversion to mining stocks, I have recently bought a few shares in BHP -- the world's biggest miner, I gather. I run the grave risk of becoming a speaker of famous last words for saying this but I suspect that BHP is now so big as to be largely immune from the risks that plague most mining companies. I also know of no issue affecting BHP where my writings would have any relevance. The Left seem to have a visceral hatred of miners. I have never quite figured out why.


Australia does have considerable restrictions on gun ownership (mostly put in place by a conservative administration as a kneejerk reaction to a mass killing) but the restrictions are not too onerous. My brother is a gun collector and has an impressive collection quite legally. And guess who is the patron of his gun club? It is Kevin Rudd, a former center-Leftist Prime Minister of Australia!


The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."