VCDL update 3-1-18 part 1

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  • swinokur

    In a State of Bliss
    Patriot Picket
    Apr 15, 2009
    55,394
    Westminster USA
    VCDL update 3-1-18 (5 parts)

    Sorry so long it had to be broken into parts for the forum software.
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    Not yet a Virginia Citizens Defense League member? Join VCDL at: https://vcdl.org/join
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    VCDL's calendar: http://www.vcdl.org/meetings
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    Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html
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    VA-ALERT archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/727/=now
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    Thanks to Bryan Dunn and Brandy Polinowski for compiling this update!

    1. Dick's calling for gun control, Walmart and Dick's raising age to purchase a firearm
    2. Can I be sued? - Good Samaritan Laws - Virginia
     

    swinokur

    In a State of Bliss
    Patriot Picket
    Apr 15, 2009
    55,394
    Westminster USA
    Part II

    .
    **************************************************
    6. Sources: Fl school shooting suspect likely acquired rifle legally
    **************************************************

    Thanks to member Rick Evans for sharing this:


    https://tinyurl.com/y8zjxpyg

    or

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-govern...t-nikolas-cruz-likely-acquired-rifle-legally/


    Sources: Florida School Shooting Suspect Nikolas Cruz Likely Acquired Rifle Legally
    By AWR Hawkins, February 15, 2018

    The day after the heinous attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, law enforcement officials indicated that alleged gunman Nikolas Cruz purchased his rifle legally.

    This means Cruz passed a background check to acquire the firearm.

    PIX 11 reports that Cruz purchased the gun "about a year ago." Law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press that the purchase was made at a Broward County, Florida, gun store.

    USA Today reports that Cruz had "no criminal record" and, therefore, nothing to prevent him from passing a background check to acquire the gun.

    This means Cruz joins a long list of mass public attackers who acquired their guns via background checks. Therefore, despite the left's non-stop calls for more background checks, almost every mass public attacker of recent memory acquired his or her guns by passing one.

    Here is a list of just some of the attackers who acquired their firearms by complying with background check requirements:

    - Texas church attacker (November 5, 2017)
    - Las Vegas attacker (October 1, 2017)
    - the Alexandria attacker (June 14, 2017))
    - Orlando attacker (June 12, 2016)
    - the UCLA gunman (June 1, 2016))
    - the San Bernardino attackers (December 2, 2015)
    - the Colorado Springs attacker (October 31, 2015)
    - the Umpqua Community College attacker (October 1, 2015)
    - Alison Parker's attacker (August 26, 2015)
    - the Lafayette movie theater attacker (July 23, 2015)
    - the Chattanooga attacker (July 16, 2015)
    - the alleged Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal attacker (Jun 17, 2015)
    - the Muhammad Carton Contest attackers (May 3, 2014)
    - the Las Vegas cop killers (June 9, 2015)
    - the Santa Barbara attacker (May 23, 2014)
    - the Fort Hood attacker (April 2, 2014)
    - the Arapahoe High School attacker (December 13, 2013)
    - the D.C. Navy Yard attacker (September 16, 2013)
    - the Aurora movie theater attacker (July 20, 2012)
    - Gabby Giffords' attacker (January 8, 2011)
    - the Fort Hood attacker (November 5, 2009)
    - the Virginia Tech attacker (April 16, 2007), and many others.

    As the above list shows, background checks have proven impotent to stop determined attackers.


    **************************************************
    7. So, what do we do now?
    **************************************************

    http://tinyurl.com/ycd63r9h

    or

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/27184/so-what-hell-do-we-do-now-ben-shapiro


    So, What The Hell Do We Do Now?
    By Ben Shapiro, February 15, 2018

    In the aftermath of another horrible and heartbreaking mass shooting at an American school, the same political game took place that always takes place. That game breaks down into three stages: before the facts come in, once the facts are in, and the actual political debate.

    Before The Facts Come In.

    Before the facts come in, proponents of gun control point at foreign countries and the lack of mass shootings in those countries and suggest that Congress ought to do something — anything, really — to make it more difficult for evil people to obtain guns. They do not specify what that something is. But it must be a law, and it must restrict law-abiding citizens' access to guns. Furthermore, any Congressperson who opposes such unspecified laws is the tool of the "gun industry."

    Meanwhile, those who oppose gun control urge caution until we know the facts; often they offer thoughts and prayers. Proponents of gun control then mock those thoughts and prayers in order to imply that gun control opponents don't care about dead children, and merely want to avoid responsibility by throwing the problem at God.

    The Facts Come In.

    As the facts come in, proponents of gun control maintain their staunch advocacy for their position, but are often forced to acknowledge that their preferred measures wouldn't have done anything to stop the shootings at issue. That doesn't stop them from clubbing about the ears gun control opponents, who maintain that gun control measures must be tailored toward stopping actual events.

    Meanwhile, opponents of gun control usually suggest two measures: mental health screening that would take dangerous people off the streets and into treatment, and security in schools. These are rejected out of hand by gun control proponents, who say they don't want those who are mentally ill avoiding treatment in order to avoid the consequences of such treatment, and add that placing security in schools would somehow "militarize" the school environment.

    The Political Debate.

    Congress usually proposes some measure of gun control. That measure of gun control is usually far more unpopular in specifics than it was in theory; it usually restricts rights most Americans care about, and fails to properly target the underlying problem at issue. Such measures almost universally fail. When they do pass, they show little evidence of impact on mass shootings.

    So, where does all of this leave us?

    Here's what we know. The shooter used an AR-15, the most common rifle in the United States. The shooter was on the radar of school authorities, and he was reportedly in frequent contact with the police; he was reported to the FBI as well, but follow-up was apparently insufficient. People warned authorities about him, and they didn't do anything or couldn't do anything. That's probably the best place to start looking for answers.

    The shooter's gun was obtained legally. He had never been arrested; it's difficult to think of a way to prevent the sale of a gun to a person with a clean record without a mass gun ban or confiscation. He also had a gas mask and grenades — and it's unclear where he obtained the grenades. We could look at stronger prosecution of straw buyers, as Jim Geraghty of National Review suggests, but that wouldn't have helped in this case.

    So, where do we go from here? Obviously, I think that we ought to consider security in schools as a first step — I went to a Jewish high school in Los Angeles that received bomb threats at least twice a year; the building next door was scoped out by mass shooter Buford Furrow, but he left thanks to security there. It's not too much to ask that we place armed security at our schools, as Israel does.

    But this much is clear: snap Twitter excoriations focused on casting aspersions at the character of our political opposition tears our country apart right when we need to come together in comfort. We have an unfortunate tendency to roll our eyes when people say they're waiting for the facts, whether we're discussing mass shootings or terrorist attacks; I've done it, too. But waiting for facts is the responsible thing to do. And as the facts come in, perhaps better solutions will make themselves clearer.


    **************************************************
    8. Have Department of Education mandate active-shooter protocols
    **************************************************

    Thanks to member T. Stewart III for sharing this:


    https://tinyurl.com/y9j9uvmv

    or

    https://townhall.com/columnists/law...ent-mandate-active-shooter-protocols-n2449726


    President Trump: Have Education Department Mandate Active Shooter Protocols
    By Lawrence Meyers, February 15, 2018

    I'm a small government guy, however, it's sadly apparent that the United States of America is paralyzed with political indecision over something the State of Israel figured out more than 40 years ago: all schools should have mandated security features and active shooter protocols.

    The horrific scene in Parkland, and the upsetting videos broadcast from the school during the shooting, should be the final straw. The kids should not have been hiding and screaming, they should have been in the midst of a pre-determined security protocol.

    President Trump, if the Department of Education can force Americans to deal with the disaster of Common Core, it can certainly issue a federal mandate regarding school security. The time is now.

    My personal manifesto is that government should never get involved in an issue unless an ongoing clear and present danger exists to large numbers of people, and that any regulation or legislation has a sunset provision.

    Here we are.

    In 1974, Israel endured the Ma'alot Massacre in which "Palestinian" terrorists took 115 people hostage at Netiv Meir Elementary School. Twenty-two children and three others were killed and 68 injured. Israel now requires schools with 100 or more students to have a guard posted. The civilian police force handles the entire security system of all schools from kindergarten through college. The Ministry of Education funds shelters and fences, reinforces school buses, and hires and trains guards.

    Guards don't just stand around. They check everyone entering, and engage threats.

    And yeah, they've got guns. The lawful purposes for carrying guns are very clear: protect school personnel and students, create a sense of security, deter the ill-intentioned, and provide self-defense.

    Common sense. Except to the illogical dullards who claim that "adding guns to schools won't fix anything" and are fixated on the NRA and the ridiculous notions that gun laws magically stop criminals and crazy people from obtaining one of the 300 million guns in our country.

    But more to the point, Israel's Police Community & Civil Guard Department have a preventative care program that encourages safe behavior and offers violence protection strategies in normal situations. Yet students are also trained in how to respond to an active shooter situation.

    Ben Goldstein, an American who made aliyah to Israel, and now serves as volunteer security and supporter of IDF soldiers, says America is behind the curve. Nevertheless, he says, it doesn't take much for students and teachers to protect themselves.

    "Barricade, barricade. Are desks movable? Is the teacher's desk movable? Can they barricade inside of 20 seconds? If the shooter gets in, the kids should take whatever they've got and attack. They can't just sit there frozen or they will die. America does earthquake drills, why not active shooter drills? More kids have been killed by shooters than earthquakes."

    Barricading works, says Goldstein. In an active shooter situation, where a gunman is roaming a campus, five minutes is a lifetime, enough time for law enforcement to get to the scene. "In those five minutes, the shooter will have to move from class to class, reload, clear malfunctions, all that stuff takes time. And during gunfire lulls, kids must be taught to do something. Don't freeze.Moving once gets you out of that deer-in-headlights space. Take command of the classroom."

    There is no other way, says Goldstein, and "sometimes children must take matters into their own hands.If the school has no proper security – two guards in case one gets shot, and no active shooter protocol, and no doors to withstand an attack – then the child needs to run as fast as they can AWAY from the shooter."

    Because right now, America is the deer-in-headlights. Gun control debates are a distraction and impractical, and criminals ignore laws anyway. Crazy people are obviously not being dealt with properly – students at Parkland even predicted this would happen.

    The only solution is for America to toughen up. We have a pugilist for a president, and that is long overdue. Now its time for President Trump to fight for our children by wielding government power in the proper manner, to do something that any reasoned American would agree with.

    Instead of handing out participation trophies, let's make our kids into the self-reliant, pro-active defenders of themselves and others.

    Mr. President, the time is now.


    **************************************************
     

    swinokur

    In a State of Bliss
    Patriot Picket
    Apr 15, 2009
    55,394
    Westminster USA
    Part III

    .
    9. DC-area leaders sound off about guns in classrooms
    **************************************************

    Corey Stewart, who is running for the U.S. Senate, is quoted in this article.

    Thanks to member Mark Shinn for sharing this:


    http://tinyurl.com/y9lmge5w

    or

    https://wtop.com/local/2018/02/florida-shooting-reignites-debate-guns-classrooms/


    Should teachers have guns in classroom? DC-area leaders sound off after Fla. shooting
    By John Domen, February 16, 2018

    WASHINGTON — Sitting in her office minutes before leaving for Florida to visit teachers at Parkland High School, National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen-Garcia was moved to tears talking about the actions taken by teachers during the chaotic moments there Wednesday.

    "When we have to, we will put our lives on the lines for our students," Eskelsen-Garcia said. "And some of our colleagues aren't going home."

    Eskelsen-Garcia is the head of America's largest teacher's union, and a former teacher herself. She said the shooting in Florida that killed 17 students and staff members is another moment to question why so many firearms are accessible to so many people.

    And when someone opens fire on students, she said, teachers will give their lives for their students.

    "There's evidence that teachers actually shielded kids with their bodies," Eskelsen-Garcia said. "There are some things you can't rely on a politician to do.

    "The reason for a lot of these kinds of firearms are to kill as many people as possible.... So in the end we know it's up to us that, no matter what happens, it's up to us to protect those students," Eskelsen-Garcia said.

    The union chief vows to try to pressure lawmakers on Capitol Hill to enact stricter gun laws. But some lawmakers are ready to tell her that the laws are already too strict.

    Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart is one of them.

    "I think our children are sitting ducks inside schools," he said. "We've got these mass shootings that are targeting gun-free zones, schools and other areas where they know no one else is going to be shooting back at them."

    Stewart, who is running for a US Senate seat, wants trained teachers to have the option to carry concealed weapons on them during class.

    "If there is an active shooter inside the school, at least there will be somebody [there] who is going to be able to defend themselves and defend the students," he said.

    Stewart's proposal is strictly about giving teachers comfortable with firearms the option to carry them. But Eskelsen-Garcia said that would only lead to more problems.

    "Let's get it straight that more guns in the school is not helpful," she said. "Let's just admit that even just gun accidents happen all the time. More guns in the school is not a solution."

    Eskelsen-Garcia said the recent shootings at a country music concert in Las Vegas and the Christmas party in San Bernadino, California, show that people are vulnerable any place they are gathered.

    "What we want to do is to challenge people who have been so resistant to looking at any kind of change in safety," Eskelsen-Garcia said.

    Stewart, however, believes gun control does not work. "Any attempt to limit the rights of law-abiding citizens to carry guns, all it does is make them sitting ducks."


    **************************************************
    10. Flashback 30 Years: Guns were in schools ... and nothing happened
    **************************************************

    Member Paul Kent shared this not-so-unusual memory with regard to guns in schools in the 50s, 60s, and 70s:

    "I grew up in Birmingham (biggest city) Alabama -- 1973-77. I used to borrow an AR-15 (no guns in my house growing up), purchase 200 rounds of .223, put that in my backpack with my school books, sling the rifle over my shoulder, walk three blocks to the bus stop and stand there with all the cars going their way, get on the bus, ride to high school, get off the bus and go to the geometry teacher's office, deposit the firearm and ammunition, and go to class. After school, I would retrieve the rifle and ammunition, and head to the rifle range. Done there, get back on the bus for the ride back, and walk home. Did that for four years, and never the first problem."

    Thanks to member Bill Busby for sharing this:


    https://tinyurl.com/y7ehah5h

    or

    https://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/flashback-30-years-guns-schools-nothing-happened/


    Flashback 30 Years: Guns Were in Schools ... and Nothing Happened
    By J. Christian Adams, February 15, 2018

    The millennial generation might be surprised to learn that theirs is the first without guns in school. Just 30 years ago, high school kids rode the bus with rifles and shot their guns at high school rifle ranges.

    After another school shooting, it's time to ask: what changed?

    Cross guns off the list of things that changed in thirty years. In 1985, semi-automatic rifles existed, and a semi-automatic rifle was used in Florida. Guns didn't suddenly decide to visit mayhem on schools. Guns can't decide.

    We can also cross the Second Amendment off the list. It existed for over 200 years before this wickedness unfolded. Nothing changed in the Constitution.

    That leaves us with some uncomfortable possibilities remaining. What has changed from thirty years ago when kids could take firearms into school responsibly and today might involve some difficult truths.

    Let's inventory the possibilities.

    What changed? The mainstreaming of nihilism. Cultural decay. Chemicals. The deliberate destruction of moral backstops in the culture. A lost commonality of shared societal pressures to enforce right and wrong. And above all, simple, pure, evil.

    Before you retort that we can't account for the mentally ill, they existed forever.

    Paranoid schizophrenics existed in 1888 and 2018. Mentally ill students weren't showing up in schools with guns even three decades ago.

    So it must be something else.

    Those who have been so busy destroying the moral backstops in our culture won't want to have this conversation. They'll do what they do -- mock the truth.

    There was a time in America, before the Snowflakes, when any adult on the block could reprimand a neighborhood kid who was out of line without fear.

    Even thirty years ago, the culture still had invisible restraints developed over centuries. Those restraints, those leveling commonalities, were the target of a half-century of attack by the freewheeling counterculture that has now become the dominant replacement culture.

    Hollywood made fun of these restraints in films too numerous to list.

    The sixties mantra "don't trust anyone over thirty" has become a billion-dollar industry devoted to the child always being right -- a sometimes deeply medicated brat who disrupts the classroom or escapes what used to be resolved with a paddling.

    Instead of telling the kid to quit kicking the back of the seat, we buy seat guards to protect the seat.

    If you think it's bad now, just wait until the generation whose babysitter is an iPhone is in high school. You can hardly walk around WalMart these days without tripping over a toddler in a trance, staring at a screen.

    The high school kids who shot rifles in school in 1985 were taught right and wrong. They were taught what to do with their rifle in school, and what not to do. If they got out of line, all the other students and the coach would have come down on them hard. There were no safe spaces, and that was a good thing.

    Culture is a powerful force for good. When good behavior is normalized and deviant destructive behavior is ostracized, shamed, and marginalized, you get more good behavior.

    Considering evil in this debate makes some of you uncomfortable, but evil bathes all of these shootings. I am reminded of Justice Antonin Scalia's spectacularly funny and profound interview in 2013 when he toyed with a New Yorker reporter about evil. "You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the Devil!", he chortled.

    Thirty years ago, kids who brought their rifles to the high school shooting range didn't wonder about evil and cultural decay. They simply lived in a time in America when right and wrong was more starkly defined, where expectations about behavior were clear, and wickedness hadn't been normalized.

    The idea that guns caused the carnage we have faced is so intellectually bankrupt that it is isn't worth discussing. Remembering where we were as a nation just 30 years ago makes it even more so. It's time to ask what changed.


    **************************************************
    11. In gun debate, therapy is no substitute for firm discipline
    **************************************************

    Thanks to member Mitchell Fridley for sharing this:

    I wanted to make sure you were aware of one of the best 'common sense' columns I've seen in a while in support of gun rights, and perhaps more importantly in support of focusing the discussion on raising children properly and mental health (verses focusing on controlling guns) as an answer to violence perpetrated by a firearm.

    I first read the column by John Rosemond in the Roanoke Times Monday 05 Feb edition. Especially interesting because he writes a national column on Parenting, and it appeared on page two, just inside the cover, rather than on the editorial page. The column header in the RT read "No, Guns Are Not the Problem." On Mr. Rosemond's website (linked here https://www.rosemond.com/January-2018.html) it is entitled "In Gun Debate, Therapy is No Substitute for Firm Discipline."


    https://tinyurl.com/y7ea6ll8

    or

    https://www.rosemond.com/January-2018.html


    In Gun Debate, Therapy Is No Substitute for Firm Discipline (5th article down on website)
    By John Rosemond, February 5, 2018

    We're a month, more or less, into the new year and America has already suffered two school shootings. As usual, the usual voices are calling for increased restrictions on the buying and selling of guns. But guns are not the problem, a contention I can prove.

    In 1963, at age 15, I packed my bags and went to live with my father in Valdosta, GA, where I attended Valdosta High School. Hunting being a primary feature of male culture at VHS, I quickly acquired the necessary gear including a Stevens double-barreled shotgun. During deer- and duck-hunting seasons, I rose well before the start of school and joined several buddies out in the field. After a couple of hours of shooting (or just sitting in a blind and freezing), we put our guns in the trunks of our cars, drove to school, stripped off our hunting duds (under which were clean school clothes), and went to class.

    Everyone – including the principal, teachers, parents, and kids who didn't hunt – knew that the student parking lot contained a small arsenal. No one ever mentioned it, and believe me, it never occurred to any of us that our gun could be used to even some score or vent some frustration. Lots of males in my generation, especially those who grew up in small towns or rural America, report a similar high school experience.

    No, guns are not the problem. The problem is feelings. I am a member of the last generation of American children whose parents disciplined not only our behavior, but also insisted that we exercise emotional self-control. I am also a member of the first generation of American parents who fell for progressive psychological propaganda to the effect that insisting upon emotional self-control was repressively authoritarian and would prime our kids for future serious mental health problems.

    My graduate school professors stressed the need to help children "get in touch" with their feelings, talk about them, and express them safely. A child's feelings, I learned, contained deep meaning that needed to be divined, discussed, and properly directed. This was the late 1960s and early 1970s. By the 1980s, children were venting their feelings rather freely all right – including toward parents and teachers – and child mental health was tanking.

    Mass school shootings began occurring around the same time and are now taking place, on average, weekly. As I said, guns are the means but the problem is what I term emotional entitlement syndrome – the narcissistic belief that certain feelings are all the excuse one requires to justify anti-social and/or self-destructive behavior.

    To widespread emotional entitlement one can add the effects of encouraging high self-esteem (which is associated, we now know, with low respect for the rights and property of others) and the demonization of shame, the primary purpose of conscience. A calamity was sure to ensue, and it has. It includes not only school shootings, but the widespread use of social media as a platform for acting out personal soap operas (i.e., emotional dramas), a dramatic rise in child and teen depression and suicide, cutting, epidemic bullying, and millions of children on psychiatric medications that may cause more problems than they solve (if they solve any).

    The great irony in all of this is that psychology, the very profession that manufactured the propaganda that is fueling this calamity, is the very profession to which schools and parents turn whenever it rears its ugly little head.

    And so, around and around we go and will continue to go until we figure out that therapy is no substitute for firm discipline.
     

    swinokur

    In a State of Bliss
    Patriot Picket
    Apr 15, 2009
    55,394
    Westminster USA
    Part III

    .
    **************************************************
    12. Background checks are not the answer to gun violence
    **************************************************

    http://tinyurl.com/y8ywppvt

    or

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/12/opinion/politics/background-checks-gun-violence.html


    Background Checks Are Not the Answer to Gun Violence
    By John R. Lott Jr., February 12, 2018

    With each mass shooting, calls rise from gun control advocates for tighter rules on firearms. The go-to policy prescription involves background checks. But a measure passed by the House and being considered in the Senate to expand the National Instant Criminal Background Check System would not only fail to fix major flaws in the system but would also probably introduce new ones.

    Lawmakers from both parties acknowledge that errors in the background check system let felons obtain guns, as we saw when a deranged man, Devin Kelley, killed 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Tex., in November. The killer, while in the Air Force, had been convicted of domestic violence in 2012, involuntarily committed to a mental health care center and given a bad conduct discharge. Yet the Air Force failed to follow policies to ensure that his conviction was reported to federal law enforcement, which allowed the killer to pass the check. The military has failed to report other such cases.

    The background check measures before Congress aim to improve enforcement of existing law and increase such reporting by imposing financial penalties on government officials whose agencies fail to provide required information. That's a good goal, but any proposal should also fix another major problem with the background check system: false positives that stop law-abiding people from getting weapons that they might need to protect themselves and their families.

    The background check system confuses the names of law-abiding individuals with those of criminals, resulting in thousands of "false positives" every year. Relying on phonetically similar names along with birth dates just doesn't allow for much accuracy.

    Ronnie Coleman, a Virginia resident, was not allowed to buy a gun in 2012 because another person from his hometown in Texas who had a felony conviction also had a name and birth date "close enough" to his to cause a denial. Mr. Coleman was advised to get a unique transaction number from the background system to prevent this confusion in the future, adding another bureaucratic step to the process.

    Between 2006 to 2010, the last period for which more comprehensive annual data on the denial of firearm applications by the background check system are available, there were 377,283 denials. But the federal government prosecuted only 460 of those cases, leading to 209 convictions, mostly on charges of providing false information. There was a similarly small number of state prosecutions resulting from the gun purchase denials.

    Why didn't more of those denials lead to perjury prosecutions? According to my analysis, the reason is simple: a high percentage of cases are dropped because the applicant was wrongly denied clearance to buy a gun.

    Many of those people are trying to buy guns to protect themselves. "This incredibly high rate of false positives imposes a real burden on the most vulnerable people," said Reagan Dunn, the first national coordinator for Project Safe Neighborhoods, a Justice Department program started in 2001 to ensure gun laws are enforced.

    The system also does a poor job of accounting for people who have had their rights to buy a firearm taken away and then restored. In the 1990s, Frank Wise of Jacksonville Beach, Fla., was convicted of check fraud after his employer went bankrupt. When his paycheck bounced, two checks he sent to his mortgage company also bounced. Nearly 20 years later, Mr. Wise was able to get his record cleared, but that information wasn't entered into the background check system for three years. Getting this fixed cost him $3,600 in legal fees.

    Even more people would face such problems if background checks were made "universal," meaning to include the private sale or transfer of firearms, which are exempt from checks in most states. Many people consider this a common-sense policy, but there would be a cost: Background checks involve fees that drive up the price of guns in private sales and make it harder for poor people to defend themselves.

    To get some idea of what background checks add to the price of a weapon, look at the fees for checks on private transfers in states that already impose checks. In New York City and Washington, those fees cost at least $125 for private gun sales.

    If people believe that background checks reduce crime and benefit everyone, everyone should pay for it, out of general government revenue. Pushing background checks on private transfers as proposed during the hearing disarms many law-abiding poor people.

    So what should be done when the background check system fails to stop mass killers from attacking? One answer is to have more civilians carry permitted concealed handguns. Those law-abiding gun owners can help protect places where there are no police. In 2013, PoliceOne, a news and resource site for active and retired law enforcement officers, released a survey finding that over 91 percent of the more than 15,000 "verified law enforcement professionals" who responded supported concealed carry.

    We do need to fix the background check system. But let's really fix it. Let's make sure that rare cases like Devin Kelley can't slip through the cracks, but let's also make sure that the government stops preventing millions of law-abiding citizens from buying guns for protection. Adding more names without fixing these problems will only disarm law-abiding Americans.


    **************************************************
    13. No, there haven't been 18 school shootings in 2018
    **************************************************

    Thanks to member Clayton Vieg for sharing this:

    From a surprising source – the Washington Post published some interesting information debunking some of Everytown's claims that there have been 18 school shootings so far this year.


    https://tinyurl.com/ycmke3zu

    or

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...1d91fcec3fe_story.html?utm_term=.5cd02b31c848


    No, there haven't been 18 school shootings in 2018. That number is flat wrong.
    By John Woodrow Cox and Steven Rich, February 15, 2018

    The stunning number swept across the Internet within minutes of the news Wednesday that, yet again, another young man with another semiautomatic rifle had rampaged through a school, this time at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in South Florida.

    The figure originated with Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit group, co-founded by Michael Bloomberg, that works to prevent gun violence and is most famous for its running tally of school shootings.

    "This," the organization tweeted at 4:22 p.m. Wednesday, "is the 18th school shooting in the U.S. in 2018."

    A tweet by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) including the claim had been liked more than 45,000 times by Thursday evening, and one from political analyst Jeff Greenfield had cracked 126,000. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted it, too, as did performers Cher and Alexander William and actors Misha Collins and Albert Brooks. News organizations — including MSNBC, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, Time, MSN, the BBC, the New York Daily News and HuffPost — also used the number in their coverage. By Wednesday night, the top suggested search after typing "18" into Google was "18 school shootings in 2018."

    It is a horrifying statistic. And it is wrong.

    Everytown has long inflated its total by including incidents of gunfire that are not really school shootings. Take, for example, what it counted as the year's first: On the afternoon of Jan. 3, a 31-year-old man who had parked outside a Michigan elementary school called police to say he was armed and suicidal. Several hours later, he killed himself. The school, however, had been closed for seven months. There were no teachers. There were no students.

    Also listed on the organization's site is an incident from Jan. 20, when at 1 a.m. a man was shot at a sorority event on the campus of Wake Forest University. A week later, as a basketball game was being played at a Michigan high school, someone fired several rounds from a gun in the parking lot. No one was injured, and it was past 8 p.m., well after classes had ended for the day, but Everytown still labeled it a school shooting.

    Everytown explains on its website that it defines a school shooting as "any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds."

    Sarah Tofte, Everytown's research director, calls the definition "crystal clear," noting that "every time a gun is discharged on school grounds it shatters the sense of safety" for students, parents and the community.

    She said she and her colleagues work to reiterate those parameters in their public messaging. But the organization's tweets and Facebook posts seldom include that nuance. Just once in 2018, on Feb. 2, has the organization clearly explained its definition on Twitter. And Everytown rarely pushes its jarring totals on social media immediately after the more questionable shootings, as it does with those that are high-profile and undeniable, such as the Florida massacre or one from last month in Kentucky that left two students dead and at least 18 people injured.

    After The Washington Post published this report, Everytown removed the Jan. 3 suicide outside the closed Michigan school.

    The figures matter because gun-control activists use them as evidence in their fight for bans on assault weapons, stricter background checks and other legislation. Gun rights groups seize on the faults in the data to undermine those arguments and, similarly, present skewed figures of their own.

    Gun violence is a crisis in the United States, especially for children, and a huge number — one that needs no exaggeration — have been affected by school shootings. An ongoing Washington Post analysis has found that more than 150,000 students attending at least 170 primary or secondary schools have experienced a shooting on campus since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. That figure, which comes from a review of online archives, state and federal enrollment figures and news stories, is a conservative calculation and does not include dozens of suicides, accidents and after-school assaults that have also exposed youths to gunfire.

    Just five of Everytown's 18 school shootings listed for 2018 happened during school hours and resulted in any physical injury. Three others appeared to be intentional shootings but did not hurt anyone. Two more involved guns — one carried by a school police officer and the other by a licensed peace officer who ran a college club — that were unintentionally fired and, again, led to no injuries. At least seven of Everytown's 18 shootings took place outside normal school hours.

    Shootings of any kind, of course, can be traumatic, regardless of whether they cause physical harm.

    A month ago, for example, a group of college students were at a meeting of a criminal-justice club in Texas when a student accidentally fired a real gun, rather than a training weapon. The bullet went through a wall, then a window. Though no one was hurt, it left the student distraught.

    Is that a school shooting, though? Yes, Everytown says.

    "Since 2013," the organization says on its website, "there have been nearly 300 school shootings in America — an average of about one a week."

    But since Everytown began its tracking, it has included these examples — in August 2013, a man shot on a Tennessee high school's property at 2 a.m.; in December 2014, a man shot in his car late one night and discovered the next day in a Pennsylvania elementary school's parking lot; in August 2015, a man who climbed atop the roof of an empty Texas school on a Sunday morning and fired sporadically; in January 2016, a man in an Indiana high school parking lot whose gun accidentally went off in his glove box, before any students had arrived on campus; in December 2017, two teens in Washington state who shot up a high school just before midnight on New Year's Eve, when the building was otherwise empty.

    In 2015, The Post's Fact Checker awarded the group's figures — invoked by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) — four Pinocchios for misleading methodology.

    Another database, the Gun Violence Archive, defines school shootings in much narrower terms, considering only those that take place during school hours or extracurricular activities.

    Yet many journalists rely on Everytown's data. Post media critic Erik Wemple included the 18 figure in a column Wednesday night, and Michael Barbaro, host of the New York Times' podcast "The Daily," used the number to punctuate the end of his Thursday show.

    Much like trying to define a mass shooting, deciding what is and is not a school shooting can be difficult. Some obviously fit the common-sense definition: Last month, a teen in Texas opened fire in a school cafeteria, injuring a 15-year-old girl.

    Others that Everytown includes on its list, though, are trickier to categorize.

    About 6 p.m. Jan. 10, a bullet probably fired from off campus hit the window of a building at a college in Southern California. No one was hurt, but students could still have been frightened. Classes were canceled, rooms were locked down and police searched campus for the gunman, who was never found.

    On Feb. 5, a police officer was sitting on a bench in a Minnesota school gym when a third-grader accidentally pulled the trigger of his holstered pistol, firing a round into the floor. None of the four students in the gym were injured, but, again, the incident was probably scary.

    What is not in dispute is gun violence's pervasiveness and its devastating impact on children. A recent study of World Health Organization data published in the American Journal of Medicine that found that, among high-income nations, 91 percent of children younger than 15 who were killed by bullets lived in the United States.

    And the trends are only growing more dire.

    On average, two dozen children are shot every day in the United States, and in 2016 more youths were killed by gunfire — 1,637 — than during any previous year this millennium
     

    swinokur

    In a State of Bliss
    Patriot Picket
    Apr 15, 2009
    55,394
    Westminster USA
    Part IV

    .
    **************************************************
    14. 5 terrible things the media communicates
    **************************************************

    http://tinyurl.com/ybxym3rn

    or

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/5-things-terrible-media-communicates-every-potential-school-shooter/


    5 Terrible Things the Media Communicates to Every Potential School Shooter
    By David Forsmark, February 15, 2018

    In the coming days, we will hear a familiar profile about the Broward County school shooter. (No, I will not name him, for the reason below.) He was mentally deficient. He was a loner. He expressed violent tendencies. And likely, if the pattern holds, he was prescribed some kind of drugs to control his behavior.

    But there is also a media behavioral profile for these situations, and it is perfectly matched to the desires of a deranged person who would like to go out in a blaze of glory.

    Here is what the media coverage conveys to every potential shooter out there:

    1. You will be famous
    We will not only know your name, we will know you by all three of your names. We will know how you were brought up, your supposed grievances, and why it is our fault that you did what you did. And every time this happens again, you will be referenced as to how you rank in the pantheon of such atrocities.

    2. The world will come to a stop for you and talk about nothing else for days
    You won't just be famous, you will be the most important person in the world. CNN will even stop fantasizing about Donald Trump being a Russian sleeper agent for a few days and focus solely on you. In fact, the president will have to comment on you, and we will do our best to blame him for you. Congress and state legislatures will hold special hearings and politicians will propose laws and point to your actions as the reason. What else are you ever going to do in your pathetic life that would make you this prominent?

    3. A school is the target that will get you the most attention
    Sure, church shootings get attention, and so do Vegas concert shootings—but all the most famous mass shooters, the ones whose names come immediately to mind? They hit schools.

    And the media even makes up scary statistics about schools, like the one they are using now about there being 18 school shootings this year alone. And don't worry that you're getting lumped in with things like suicide in a car in a school parking lot. Nobody remembers those names. It just shows how eager we are to hype anything that has to do with a gun even coming close to a school.

    4. You should use an AR-15; they are the most dangerous and cool
    Despite our rush to blame this all on the NRA, we know you aren't a normal gun owner, collector, sportsman—nor do you know anything, really about guns. (That's okay, neither do we.)

    We know you haven't done the research on velocity, caliber, reloading ease, or any of those pesky details (like I said, neither have we). We'll just highlight whatever gun freaks us out the most, the one we will talk about all the time, and let you take it from there. Just know, it will boost your ratings on our notoriety scale, and maybe buy you an extra day or two of coverage.

    5. No one will shoot back at you at a school—and we'll make damned sure it stays that way!
    Pssssst. Hey, buddy, did you know schools are Gun Free Zones?

    Some gun nuts are trying to change that, but don't worry. We will mock them for the fanatics they are, and make sure that their effort to, say, have a veteran who works in the school have access to a gun, is shot down as the folly that it is.

    We will mock the idea mercilessly—how could more guns mean less violence? Set up a situation for a crossfire?

    I mean, how is that even logical? You might get hurt!

    But don't worry. It won't happen. We got this.


    **************************************************
    15. The gun used in shooting banned in DC, available in VA, MD
    **************************************************

    I wouldn't be surprised to find out that there are at least 200,000 AR-15 rifles in Virginia, not to mention AK-47s and other modern sporting rifles. If those rifles were really a problem, Attorney General Herring, trust me, you would know it.

    Thanks to member Brian Sheaffer for sharing this:

    Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said Thursday, the laws should be changed to ban AR-15's and all assault rifles in the commonwealth.

    "These military style assault weapons, these weapons of war are designed to kill as many people as possible on the battlefield," Herring said. "They do not belong on the streets or in our communities, and the laws that we have are not sufficient to protect people."


    https://tinyurl.com/y7j5ssvy

    or

    http://www.wusa9.com/article/news/l...-banned-in-dc-available-in-va-md/65-519321307


    Assault weapon used in Florida massacre banned in DC, available in VA, MD
    By Eric Flack, February 15, 2018

    Federal law enforcement officials said the gun used by Florida high school shooter Nikolas Cruz to kill 17 and wound 14 others at Parkland High School in Broward County was an AR-15 assault rifle. And you can buy one in Virginia and Maryland, despite steps to ban them.

    Federal law enforcement officials said the gun used by Florida high school shooter Nikolas Cruz to kill 17 and wound 14 others at Parkland High School in Broward County was an AR-15 assault rifle.

    And you can buy one in Virginia and Maryland, despite steps to ban them.

    The AR-15 is semi-automatic, which means the shooter can pull the trigger over and over and keep firing until the magazine runs out of bullets.

    In a 2016 blog post, the NRA called the AR-15 "America's Most Popular" rifle.

    You can't have an AR-15 in Washington, DC because assault weapons are banned. But you can across the Potomac River.

    Virginia law allows gun owners to buy an AR-15 as long as they are 18 or older and pass a three-page federal background check. But that background check will not catch the red flags missed with the Florida shooter, including social media rants and school expulsions.

    Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said Thursday, the laws should be changed to ban AR-15's and all assault rifles in the commonwealth.

    "These military style assault weapons, these weapons of war are designed to kill as many people as possible on the battlefield," Herring said. "They do not belong on the streets or in our communities, and the laws that we have are not sufficient to protect people."

    Those laws, more nuanced In Maryland, where assault-rifles, including the AR-15, were banned in 2013. If you had one before then you could keep it.

    But there's a loophole that has allowed continued sale of a certain type of AR-15 in Maryland. It's called the H-Bar AR-15, which stands for "heavy barrel." Because the "heavy barrel" AR-15 is used for target shooting it's exempt from the ban.

    But gun dealers tell WUSA9 the only difference between those two AR-15's is a single pound of weight. Still, those gun dealers say the assault weapons ban has drastically reduced the stock of AR-15's in Maryland gun stores.


    **************************************************
    16. Will ammunition hoarding resume? If you’re smart you never stopped
    **************************************************

    Thanks to member Walter Jackson for sharing this:


    http://tinyurl.com/yar7q629

    or

    https://www.ammoland.com/2018/02/ammunition-hoarding-resume-never-stop/


    Will Ammunition Hoarding Resume? If you’re Smart You Never Stopped
    By David LaPell, February 4, 2018

    (Ammoland.com)- I recently had a discussion with a gun owner the other day about the availability and cost of particular ammunition that was only a couple of years ago not only very scarce but expensive when you could find it.

    We were talking about if he thought that the availability of conventional ammunition could ever get bad again? He laughed stating that with Donald Trump in office, gun control laws at the federal level were likely to be impossible and that there was plenty of ammo out there. So what was there to worry about and why bother with ammunition hoarding.

    So is ammunition hoarding crisis over? Have we nothing to fear, or are we just lulling ourselves into a false sense of security?

    With the start of a new year, we have new ammunition laws in parts of the country, and if you live in California, that means new bans on ammunition buying. Starting on the first of the year, residents of that state will now have to get their ammunition from a licensed dealer, no more buying ammunition and having it shipped to your place of residence. You will have to hope your dealer has what you need in stock or you will have to pay him for a fee to get ammunition for you.

    This of course is only phase one, phase two of the plan is that starting on January 1st, 2019 there will be a background check to be completed when you buy your ammunition which will include a processing fee, which you can bet will drive up the price of that box of shells for your gun.

    We here in New York are also not immune to this sort of liberal chicanery as Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo put something similar into his landmark Safe Act. We too cannot order ammunition online and have it delivered to our homes anymore. We must be treated like children and have it sent to a dealer to be picked up. Or hope the local gun shop has what we need, and if you live in a rural area where your gun shop is a long drive away, well that’s just too bad, it’s for the good of the people we have been told.

    Governor Cuomo also put in a background check condition with ammunition purchases with the Safe Act, but as of yet that hasn’t been implemented, but not because there was a change of heart, but because so far there has been no successful way to make it work.

    Up until the last year or so, the availability of ammunition in many places was scarce, especially for popular calibers like .22 Long Rifle and .22 Magnum, and the cost, to put it mildly, skyrocketed for a single box of either. Ammunition purchases were rationed, there were stories, some proven true, of big box store employees hiding some for their friends, while many people tried to hunt down what they could just to have on hand. I remember seeing a single fifty round box of Federal .22 Long Rifle ammunition with a price tag of $22 on it. I recall another shop taking five hundred round bricks of .22 LR and the owner splitting them up and putting a hundred rounds in a ziplock bag and asking $15 for each bag. There was a lot of hoarding going on, and there was a lot of price gouging to go with it.

    So now we seem to be in a time of ammunition plenty. Even here in New York, I can get as much .22 LR ammo or anything else I want for very cheap prices. You can find .22 Magnum ammunition again when a little more than a year and a half ago, I didn’t see a box of it on a shelf anywhere for over six months. No one is rushing out to line up at the local big box store waiting to see when the truck delivers the ammunition so they can get their three boxes, but we should be very mindful that those times can very quickly come back again.

    To Horde Ammo or Not?

    The truth is, no one should wait until a disaster or when you need it at that moment to go out and buy that ammunition. I also don’t mean you should be panicking and running out and grabbing every box off the shelves either, panic buying is part of what got us into the mess of high prices and no ammunition in the first place, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have something on hand. If you have a .22 Long Rifle, I can’t tell you how much ammunition you should have at all times, but I would indeed have more than a couple of hundred rounds, the same with .22 Magnum. When you go to the gun shop, and you have a few extra dollars in your pocket, grab a box of one or the other while you’re there.

    Paying a few dollars here and now is better than paying three or four times that much if you really need it and there are ten guys after the same box. It is like investing in your IRA, a little at at time pay off big.

    One thing you can be sure of and I hope this isn’t prophetic, if there is another ammunition shortage, another hoarding spree, you can bet it will be worse than the last one. If in only a couple of years we endure another change in power in Washington you can bet the repercussions for gun owners could be disastrous, the same in individual states if power swings one way or another {IE: New Jersey in 2018}. Not to mention localized disasters like hurricanes, flooding, or something man-made could cause people to run to their local gun shops in hopes that they can find something, anything to defend their homes and families. What at one time might have been far-fetched, is now getting more like a probability, eventually, somewhere at some time in this country, there will be another ammunition shortage.

    So to those who say that ammunition right now is plentiful and cheap, that’s true, but that doesn’t mean it will always be the case.

    You make an emergency kit with food and water stored in case of a disaster, you put snow tires on your car when winter comes, and you put smoke detectors in your house in case of a fire, why wouldn’t you at least keep some ammunition aside? You don’t wait until you’re in an emergency before you try to get the means to deal with it. I say ammunition hoarding is a good thing and I plan to keep stocking up.


    **************************************************
    17. A slight setback - ammunition advice
    **************************************************

    I think this advice is probably dependent on the quality of the ammunition you carry. That said, I personally avoid unloading and reloading my semi-automatic handguns unless it is necessary to do so.

    https://tinyurl.com/y7ax28o4

    or

    http://www.corneredcat.com/a-slight-setback/


    A slight setback
    By Kathy Jackson, February 9, 2018

    Came home from a long day, getting ready for bed. Pulled my holstered gun off my belt and locked it into the quick-access bedside safe — yep, still in its holster. Still loaded. It's secure, and also ready to go should I need it.

    I'm not a big fan of unnecessarily unloading and reloading my carry gun.

    Why not? Because I don't want my ammunition to suffer from setback. And because I do not want to risk killing the primer without knowing I've done it.

    As you load a round of ammunition into a semi-automatic gun and then remove it from the chamber without firing, the bullet naturally tends to get pushed back slightly into its case. When this happens, the compressed powder can create much higher pressures inside the chamber than the gun is designed to handle. The result can be a bit ... messy. Also expensive and painful.

    Loading, unloading, and reloading the same round can also cause the primer mix inside the case to get knocked out of place, a problem you won't be able to see by looking. But the missing primer mix means the round simply will not fire when you need it.

    When a self-defense gun fails to fire, the results can be catastrophic for the person who was relying on it to save their life.

    What to do about this? I love this advice from Chuck Haggard of Agile Training and Consulting.
    +++
    "If you simply must unload/reload daily ... I strongly urge you to not re-chamber the same round more than 2-3 times, and to keep track of this to mark the round coming out of the chamber with a Sharpie so that you know how many times it's been chambered. A tic mark on the rim of the case is easy to do, and easy to see."
    +++
    This seems to be an easy solution. Avoid unloading and reloading your gun whenever possible. But when you must, keep track of how many times you've done it. Simple.

    Summing up:

    * Avoid loading, unloading, and reloading the same round multiple times.
    * Keep track of the number of times one round has been through the process by putting a small mark on the side of the case each time it comes out of the chamber.
    * When one round has been loaded and unloaded more than a handful of times, take it to the range and shoot it during practice. Do not continue to load and unload that round for self defense.

    One round of ammunition costs around 50 cents. One new handgun costs around $500. And one life is priceless.

    Stay safe.


    **************************************************
    18. [CA] Neighbor is in trouble for protecting a deceased man's house
    **************************************************

    Granted this took place in California, but it would be just as illegal here.

    In this case the gun owner shot out the tires of a criminal's automobile to prevent the criminal from using the car to flee. Since the gun owner's life was NOT in imminent danger, the law did not protect him from prosecution for discharging his firearm in an area where such discharge was unlawful. Nor did it protect him from prosecution for damaging the automobile. And if one of those bullets had accidentally hit someone, he'd also be prosecuted for malicious wounding or manslaughter.

    And he also fired those cursed warning shots. Another bad idea with no real upside.

    https://tinyurl.com/y8zla55k

    or

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/...is-neighbors-stepped-in-now-theyre-in-trouble


    Burglars tried to rob a deceased man’s house, but his neighbors stepped in — now they’re in trouble
    By Leon Wolf, February 6, 2018

    A California gun owner may be facing criminal charges after he used his weapon to shoot out the tires in the getaway car of some alleged burglars who were trying to rob his deceased neighbor’s home.

    What happened?

    According to KCAL-TV, two men were trying to break into a home in Apple Valley, California which had been unoccupied since its owner passed away. A neighbor, whose name has not been released by the police, noticed something wrong and called 911. Then he went outside and confronted the burglars with a handgun.

    In order to prevent the thieves from getting away, the neighbor shot the tires out on the suspects’ vehicles, and fired some additional warning shots at the ground. Another neighbor heard the gunshots and arrived at the residence armed with a shotgun. Together, the neighbors held the suspects in place until police arrived and arrested both men.

    According to the Victor Valley Sheriff’s Department, the same home had been burglarized in recent months before, and “several thousand dollars” of goods were removed from the home. Police found evidence linking the men who were detained by the neighbors to the previous robbery, as well, and were able to recover “about 75%” of the victim’s stolen property. They additionally found methamphetamines at the suspects’ home. The suspects, who have been identified as Justin Elder and David Turner, have been charged with burglary, possession of stolen goods, possession of drugs, possession of guns with drugs, and possession of drugs for sale.

    What’s next?

    The problem, for the neighbor, is that he may soon face legal problems of his own. The sheriff’s department has submitted a report to the San Bernadino County District Attorney’s Office for “review and consideration of charges for reckless discharge of a firearm at an uninhabited vehicle.”

    Because the neighbor has not been identified by authorities, TheBlaze was not able to reach him for comment.

    Other neighbors told KCAL that this was the type of neighborhood where people look after each other. One neighbor, identified as Eric Rhinehart, said, “Seems like they might have tried to hop in the car and drive away. He did shoot some shots into the car to prevent the vehicle from leaving, and it didn’t leave.”
     

    swinokur

    In a State of Bliss
    Patriot Picket
    Apr 15, 2009
    55,394
    Westminster USA
    Part V

    .
    **************************************************
    19. [MO] Father saves family and others from an armed robber
    **************************************************

    While we are not police officers, we are allowed to protect ourselves, our families, and other innocent people. When in public, self-defense is complicated because arriving police, or other people in the area, are not necessarily going to be sure if you are the good guy or the criminal. And DO NOT assume that just because you described the bad guy to the 911 operator, that the arriving police will have, or use, that information.

    If there is any way to get that gun out of your hands when you hear the police sirens coming, do so before they arrive and can see you have a gun. Keep your hands up, move slowly, calmly, and deliberately, and comply with all instructions.

    In this case, dropping the gun and keeping his hands up in the air didn't prevent the good guy from being shot in the hip by an officer who shouldn't have had his finger on the trigger.

    Thanks to member Walter Jackson for sharing this:


    http://tinyurl.com/y8u76eqs

    or

    https://freedomoutpost.com/missouri...ngers-armed-robber-cops-show-shoot-hands-air/


    Missouri: Father Saves Wife, Daughter & 30 Strangers From Armed Robber - Cops Show Up & Shoot Him With Hands In The Air
    By Tim Brown, February 6, 2018

    No, this is not Ferguson, Missouri. It's Independence, and it's not a young black man, it's a white husband and father.

    Mike Becker, 31, saved his wife, his daughter and about 30 strangers at a Dollar General from an armed robber on Tuesday.

    Becker's wife called him to inform him that a man with a gun was threatening the patrons.

    Mr. Becker arrived on the scene to discover the armed man beating on the glass doors while the people inside were huddled near the back. He then drew his gun and rushed to put himself between the man and the people inside.

    “The only thing in my mind was my baby and wife,” he said. “There was no way the gunman was getting in that store.”

    The Kansas City Star reports what happened next.
    +++
    When police arrived minutes later, witnesses said, Becker dropped his handgun, raised his hands — and then an officer with a rifle shot him in the hip.

    The gunman Becker confronted was initially concealed from police behind a cooler, said Raymond Watts, 28. The Kansas City man said he was in a vehicle with his two children on 23rd Street near the store.

    “I was figuring, ‘How the hell do they shoot him?’ He never pointed a gun at the cops,” Watts said. “He complied with everything they said ... and then you heard a pop.”

    Gunfire then broke out between police and the gunman, who was wounded, said Watts and his girlfriend, Whitney Thomas of Raytown.

    No officers were injured.
    +++

    Whitney Thomas, also told the Kansas City Star that Becker’s gun was clearly on the ground at the time police opened fire. “His gun was on the ground. He didn’t have it in his hands any longer,” she said.

    “I understand as police you have to put your life on the line ... but to take it into your own judgment to shoot an innocent man when he didn’t fit the description?” Thomas added.

    Some of those that Becker saved were shouting at the police officers that they had shot an innocent man, and Becker's wife, Amber, said that some were mentioning to her daughter that her father was shot and killed.

    Both Becker and the robber were wearing two different color jackets and while Becker is heavier, the gunman was much more slender. Becker complied with the orders to drop his weapon as the other man proceeded to fire at police.

    John Syme, a spokesman with the Independence Police Department, would not say much on Saturday except that police responded to a call of an armed robber and that when they got there both men were armed.

    Sounds to me like we have a trigger happy policeman looking for a reason to shoot his rifle. [PVC: I wouldn't go that far, but someone who had his finger on the trigger, when it shouldn't have been, is more likely.]

    In a followup story, The Star reported:
    +++
    Investigators canvassed the area for surveillance footage from surrounding businesses. An employee at the nearby Church’s Chicken, located across the street from the Dollar General, said police had obtained video from the restaurant.

    Syme said any dashcam footage or business surveillance footage would likely not be released to the public “to preserve the integrity of the investigation.”

    Independence officers are not equipped with body cameras, he added.
    +++

    Well, dashcam footage should really be enough, don't you think?

    Will the truth actually come out in what took place here? Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/0dh3T76LF5c


    **************************************************
    20. [UT] Man stops attack on police officer
    **************************************************

    Helping a police officer in distress is a noble and brave thing to do, but very dangerous if other officers arrive and don't know you are trying to help. If you can safely do so, holster your gun before other responding officers arrive.

    Everything worked out well in this case. Hats off to Derek Meyer for saving that police officer!

    Thanks to member Rafael Pabon for sharing this:


    https://tinyurl.com/y7mjbhjo

    or

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/0...stol-stops-attack-on-utah-police-officer.html


    Man carrying concealed pistol stops attack on Utah police officer
    By Katherine Lam, February 4, 2018

    A Utah police officer who was being attacked on Friday was saved by a passerby with a concealed pistol, officials said.

    The unidentified police officer confronted the attacker, identified as Paul Douglas Anderson, after spotting feet dangling from a donation bin in Springville, FOX13 Salt Lake City reported on Saturday. Anderson got out of the bin, but refused to remove his hands from his pocket.

    The officer ordered Anderson to remove his hands out of his pockets. Anderson eventually took his hands out of his pants’ pockets and began repeatedly punching the officer in the face.

    Derek Meyer told FOX13 he was driving by the area when he spotted the police lights and saw Anderson attacking the cop. Meyer turned around and pulled out his pistol.

    “I carry a gun to protect me and those around me, but primarily I carry a gun to protect my family first and foremost," Meyer, who has a concealed-carry permit, told FOX13. "Outside of that, if I were to use my gun to protect anyone it would be law enforcement or military personnel."

    Meyer aimed the pistol at Anderson and yelled at him to stop attacking the officer. Anderson bolted from the scene as responding officers arrived. The attacker, who was found hiding under a flatbed trailer, was arrested and faces several charges, according to FOX13.

    The officer suffered a fractured eye socket and lacerations around his eye.

    Cpl. Cory Waters of Springville Police told FOX13 Meyer’s quick action helped save the officer’s life.

    “Had he not been in the right place at the right time, who knows what would have happened,” Waters said. “But he definitely stopped the attack from continuing and becoming much worse. He might have even saved either one of their lives. It could have gone really bad, even for the suspect.”

    Meyer said he stepped in because it was in his nature. He added “[I didn’t do it] to get any extra attention or to have people talk about me or anything I did,” he told the news station.

    Meyer added that he’s sharing his story because there aren’t enough “good stories from responsible, gun-owning people.”

    The officer was released from the hospital and is expected to be ok.


    **************************************************
    21. The truth about gun control
     

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