Good guys with guns 09-16-09

Oops, Wrong House: Hours earlier, someone had broken into John Pontolillo's house and taken two laptops and a video-game console. Now it was past midnight, and he heard noises coming from the garage out back. The Johns Hopkins University undergraduate didn't run. He didn't call the police. He grabbed his samurai sword. With the 3- to 5-foot-long, razor-sharp weapon in hand, police say, Pontolillo crept toward the noise. He noticed a side door in the garage had been pried open. When a man inside lunged at him, police say, the confrontation was fatal. "He was backed up against a corner and either out of fear or out of panic, he just struck the sword with force," said Baltimore Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. "It was probably with fear for his life." Pontolillo, who rents the house in the 300 block of E. University Parkway in the Oakenshawe neighborhood, struck the intruder no more than twice, police say, nearly severing his left hand and inflicting what police termed a "spear laceration." The intruder, Donald D. Rice of Baltimore, a 49-year-old repeat offender who had been released from jail only Saturday, died at the bloody scene…

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-md.samurai16sep16,0,114199.story
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/16/samurai-sword-slays-suspected-burglar/
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Oops, Wrong Campsite: A camper who shot and killed a 25-year-old Olympia man last month during a bizarre late-night encounter along a remote bank on Wynooche Lake will not face charges. The Grays Harbor Prosecutor's Office announced Tuesday it will not seek charges against the shooter, Gary Bowers, 38, of Port Orchard, in the death of Westin Wolff during the tragic Aug. 29 camping trip. Prosecutor Stew Menefee said all the evidence indicates Bowers fired the fatal shot only after Wolff ignored several warning shots and attacked him with a machete. "We found that the evidence would support it was a justifiable homicide committed in self-defense," Menefee said this morning… (I do not teach warning shots. Among issues to consider is that handguns do not consistently stop people with a single shot and warning shots may waste ammunition that could be needed momentarily. If use of deadly force is not justified, a warning shot is not likely to be justified either.)

http://www.thedailyworld.com/articles/2009/09/09/local_news/doc4aa7e7fc64c67512107056.txt
http://www.examiner.com/x-18149-SelfDefense-Examiner~y2009m9d16-Armed-father-saves-himself-and-his-family-from-a-machetewielding-attacker

09-16-09

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From GOA: Earlier today, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) offered an amendment to the 2010 Transportation-Housing & Urban Development Appropriations bill. Sen. Wicker's amendment will allow law-abiding gun owners to safely and legally transport firearms when they travel on Amtrak.  A nearly identical amendment, also offered by Sen. Wicker, passed the Senate in April by a vote of 63-35. Current Amtrak regulations prohibit firearms in both checked and carry-on baggage.  Sportsmen who wish to use an Amtrak train for a hunting trip, therefore, cannot include a shotgun even in their checked luggage. Likewise, travelers who have a permit to carry a concealed firearm cannot include a self-defense firearm in their checked luggage, even if they are allowed to carry in both the states of origin and destination. But if such travelers were to take the trip by air, they could check a gun onto the aircraft by simply declaring the firearm and transporting it in a prescribed manner… Please urge your Senators to vote for the Wicker amendment to protect the rights of gun owners.  This vote could occur as early as Wednesday afternoon… (The second link will generate an e-mail to your senators.)

http://gunowners.org/a091509.htm
http://capwiz.com/gunowners/issues/alert/?alertid=14033691&PROCESS=Take+Action
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The "Gun Safety" Scam: Gun Safety Legislation what is it? Does it really make us safer? Maybe Gun Safety Legislation is some new bunch of gun bills, state or federal, that we never heard of that will forever put to rest the debate about the second amendment? WRONG!! Gun Safety Legislation is a sneaky new tactic by the gun banning politicians and Brady loving gun banners to take the buzz word "Gun Control" and replace it with the seemingly wholesome word play "Gun Safety Legislation" Gun Safety Legislation is often seen paired up with other gun control politician's safe words like, "illegal guns." "curbing gun violence," "sensible measures" or even "common sense." Who would not be in favor of Common Sense Gun Safety Legislation. We gun owners must be irresponsible assholes or worse yet, gun toting psychopaths, if we cannot be for Gun Safety Legislation… (I believe it was during a 2002 Congressional primary that I heard a Tucson Democrat prattling about legislating gun safety. That was what prompted me to include in my signature block, "Firearm safety – It's a matter for education, not legislation."

http://www.ammoland.com/2009/09/15/gun-safety-legislation/
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And Nobody Got Shot!: Over the weekend, hundreds of gatherings occurred across America to protest taxes, government spending, and Obamacare, and nobody got shot. Statistically, out of a random group of 100 Americans, one will be carrying a concealed weapon.  In most states, many more could be legally carrying weapons openly.  Since these crowds were largely conservative in their political bent, I would bet the percentage lawfully carrying guns was skewed higher since this is the same demographic that favor second amendment rights. If that is so, in a Georgia or Texas event with 10,000 exuberant protesters, there would be at least 100 people with guns, probably 200 or more. The anti-gun crowd just knows that folks who carry guns are spoiling for a fight, and that the guns themselves carry an evil spirit that will eventually make the carrier into a murderer. And yet, there was no gun violence.  The truth that the Brady Center to Prevent Handgun Violence won't accept is that those of us who legally carry arms are not seeking to use them on anybody.  We will react to a violent attack, but we won't instigate one.  Yet another proof occurred Sunday. (I served my apprenticeship as a firearms instructor with a big-name school, where, at the end of each course, normally out of earshot of the students, the director and subordinate instructors would toast, " and nobody got shot!" I came to view this as contemptuous of the students and an indication of lack of confidence in the safety instruction the school provided. In this case, I think the expression is appropriate.)

http://www.examiner.com/x-2944-Denver-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m9d14-Nobody-got-shot-at-the-tea-party-demonstrations-Sunday?cid=exrss-Denver-Gun-Rights-Examiner
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Sunstein Conceded Incorporation of the Second Amendment: …To be sure, in 2007 Professor Sunstein gave a fascinating lecture in which he criticized the Parker v. District of Columbia (2007) decision by the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia striking down DC's handgun ban and long gun trigger lock requirement.  Parker was later affirmed in 2008 by the US Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller. And during his lecture Sunstein did make some provocative allegations against the gun rights movement, particularly his comment at time hack 38:30 that the movement lacks "moral appeal."  But I don't think Professor Sunstein is a completely disingenuous and somehow "untrustworthy."  Not only does Sunstein note at time hack 37:20 that gun control advocates' claim that gun control contributes to public safety "appears not to be sufficiently supported in social science," but more importantly, at the end of his lecture, he states at time hack 57:47: "And here's a point for the Second Amendment advocates, a concession for them, something on which I think they are correct.  If the Second Amendment does create an individual right, rather than a collective right or a civic right, then incorporation does follow." ..

http://www.examiner.com/x-2782-DC-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m9d15-Obama-official-says-Second-Amendment-applies-to-states
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Is Bloomberg Padding The Books?: With each passing day since Walton Hills, OH Mayor Marlene Anielski notified Buckeye Firearms Association of her decision to resign from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun control front group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), it appears the ripple that began with her resignation has the potential to grow into a tsunami. Last week, Madiera Beach, FL Mayor Patricia Shontz notified Buckeye Firearms Association of her decision to resign from MAIG, and on the same day Brunswick,OH Mayor Dale Strasser notified the National Rifle Association that he too wanted to have his name taken off the groups' list of members. News that a still another mayor resigned from the group last week is raising questions of how many of these mayors got on Bloomberg's list in the first place… Nearly fifty mayors have resigned from this gun control front group. After the removal of Mayors Anielski and Strasser, the MAIG website still lists forty-eight Ohio mayors as members. While some, such as Mayors Donald Plusquellic (Akron), Mark Mallory (Cincinnati), Frank Jackson (Cleveland), and Mike Coleman (Columbus) are known to be avowed anti-self-defense politicians, there are many others who, like Anielski and Strasser, have likely been misled by Bloomberg into believing the group shares their values, or who may have been put on the list against their will…

http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/6878

The National Rifle Association is taking aim at three South Carolina mayors because of a group each of them belongs to. Mayors Bob Coble of Columbia, Joe Riley of Charleston and Joe McElveen of Sumter are being targeted, but McElveen says he's not backing down from NRA pressures. Mayor McElveen spent a lot of time Tuesday answering emails after becoming a target of the NRA for joining the coalition Mayors Against Illegal Guns. "The NRA says they want gun laws enforced and that's one thing this mayors' organization is trying to do," said McElveen. McElveen says he joined the group because of the rise in criminals using guns to commit crimes in cities like his. "Once a gun gets into the hands of somebody who is not supposed to have it and certain people who have committed crimes are prohibited from having guns and once a gun is used in a crime; I think in either one of those instances it becomes an illegal gun and I think it needs to be dealt with," said McElveen. The NRA says they agree with the mayors' group on that point. The disagreement comes with the group opposing a congressional amendment that would allow permitted gun owners from carrying their guns in any state…

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11136822
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Ohio Paper Flip-Flops on Preemption: Last week, upon the occasion of the injury of two Columbus officers by a marijuana-growing suspect who fired on them with a semi-automatic AK-47 rifle, gun ban extremists quickly ran out to dance in the officers' blood. These groups, including the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the Freedom States Alliance, and the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, sought to sell the line that the incident had occurred because the Ohio General Assembly acted in late 2006 (via HB347) to preempt local gun control laws, including so-called "assault weapons" bans in Columbus and Cleveland. Over the weekend, the gun banners' accomplices on the Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial board dutifully took the gun control groups' ball and ran with it, in an editorial entitled "Ohio should get its cities to make and enforce anti-gun laws." In doing so, the newspaper failed to acknowledge that it editorialized in favor of the law on August 7, 2007, or provide any change that would explain its new position, offered now in two subsequent opposition editorials…

http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/6883
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Wisconsin Open-Carry Plot Thickens: How ironic is this? When the police get themselves caught by an informed and armed citizen they immediately claim are being "set up". The two West Allis officers who arrested Brad Krause last year for not breaking the law claimed the same thing. Well your acting unlawfully and being caught at it is not someone else's fault. You cops are setting yourselves up. We know some of you are ignoring the attorney general's advice concerning open carry and the fourth amendment. If 1,000,000 Wisconsin citizens openly carried a gun daily, I'm betting we would see some serious effort in all police departments to train officers about the law and how to interact with these citizens. So, start carrying a gun so we can get over this training hurdle sooner… (Recall that the open-carry movement in Wisconsin is largely a response to a governor who has repeatedly vetoed CCW legislation and has told residents that, if they wish to carry a gun, they can do so openly.)

http://www.examiner.com/x-5103-Wisconsin-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m9d11-Police-are-setting-up-themselves?cid=exrss-Wisconsin-Gun-Rights-Examiner
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Oops, Wrong House: Hours earlier, someone had broken into John Pontolillo's house and taken two laptops and a video-game console. Now it was past midnight, and he heard noises coming from the garage out back. The Johns Hopkins University undergraduate didn't run. He didn't call the police. He grabbed his samurai sword. With the 3- to 5-foot-long, razor-sharp weapon in hand, police say, Pontolillo crept toward the noise. He noticed a side door in the garage had been pried open. When a man inside lunged at him, police say, the confrontation was fatal. "He was backed up against a corner and either out of fear or out of panic, he just struck the sword with force," said Baltimore Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. "It was probably with fear for his life." Pontolillo, who rents the house in the 300 block of E. University Parkway in the Oakenshawe neighborhood, struck the intruder no more than twice, police say, nearly severing his left hand and inflicting what police termed a "spear laceration." The intruder, Donald D. Rice of Baltimore, a 49-year-old repeat offender who had been released from jail only Saturday, died at the bloody scene…

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-md.samurai16sep16,0,114199.story
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/16/samurai-sword-slays-suspected-burglar/
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Oops, Wrong Campsite: A camper who shot and killed a 25-year-old Olympia man last month during a bizarre late-night encounter along a remote bank on Wynooche Lake will not face charges. The Grays Harbor Prosecutor's Office announced Tuesday it will not seek charges against the shooter, Gary Bowers, 38, of Port Orchard, in the death of Westin Wolff during the tragic Aug. 29 camping trip. Prosecutor Stew Menefee said all the evidence indicates Bowers fired the fatal shot only after Wolff ignored several warning shots and attacked him with a machete. "We found that the evidence would support it was a justifiable homicide committed in self-defense," Menefee said this morning… (I do not teach warning shots. Among issues to consider is that handguns do not consistently stop people with a single shot and warning shots may waste ammunition that could be needed momentarily. If use of deadly force is not justified, a warning shot is not likely to be justified either.)

http://www.thedailyworld.com/articles/2009/09/09/local_news/doc4aa7e7fc64c67512107056.txt
http://www.examiner.com/x-18149-SelfDefense-Examiner~y2009m9d16-Armed-father-saves-himself-and-his-family-from-a-machetewielding-attacker
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Swayze Appeared in pro-RKBA Film: Millions of hearts broke Monday with the passing of actor Patrick Swayze, whose performance in Dirty Dancing made those same hearts throb a generation ago and drove the critics wild. But there was another Swayze film that drove the critics nuts in hardly the same way. This film was the John Milius 1984 blockbuster Red Dawn, and at the time it earned rave reviews in the firearms community thanks to a couple of scenes that caused the elite Left nothing but heartburn, and the overall premise that armed private citizens might actually be able to put up a devastating resistance to an organized military (evidently the elites never heard of the Revolutionary War). In the opening scenes, the commander of the invaders – handily portrayed by the late Ron O'Neal – orders one of his men to go to the local sporting goods stores and look for all of the Federal Forms 4473. These are the forms that must be filled out by people purchasing firearms, and they would provide a paper trail to the homes of every citizen in the fictional community of Calumet, CO where privately-owned guns could be found and confiscated…

http://www.examiner.com/x-4525-Seattle-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m9d15-Dirty-Dancing-not-only-Swayze-film-that-left-its-markremember-Red-Dawn
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Tangentially Related: Agents of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are feuding over bomb investigations - racing each other to crime scenes, failing to share information and refusing to train together, according to a draft report obtained by the Associated Press. The report says Justice Department bosses have repeatedly failed to fix the breach. The Justice Department's Inspector General, Glenn Fine, has drafted a preliminary report on the two agencies' repeated squabbles to claim jurisdiction in investigations of explosives incidents across the country - from Times Square in New York City to Arizona and the West Coast. The most recent documented spat came last December when the FBI protested a local prosecutor's request to use the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate a blast that killed a local bomb technician in Woodburn, Ore. FBI and ATF supervisors "tend to deploy their employees to the larger, more sensational explosives incidents, sometimes racing each other to be the first federal agency on the scene and disputing upon arrival which agency should lead the investigation," according to a draft version of the report… (The "E" in "BATFE" is the most recent addition [2002] to an agency that was originally a group of collectors of taxes on alcohol and tobacco. I have no idea if their expertise in explosives is any more reliable than the fabrications they produce as "expertise" in firearm cases.)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/16/report-fbi-atf-agents-still-feuding/

Crimson trace DVD

This video goes over the benefits of laser grips.

Benefits amoung others

1. more easily track someone running
2. more quick and easy on target
3. can aim the gun even when not in your field of vision
4. Training-- see if you are jerking the trigger etc.

Hackathorn is in the video.. So how come we can't use lasergrips in IDPA then?

Get the free DVD here