I must be crazy.
Today:
Miami International Airport
Lat: 25.78 Lon: -80.32 Elev: 35
Last Update on Jun 12, 5:53 am EDT
Scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 2pm. Partly cloudy, with a high near 92. Heat index values as high as 103. North wind at 7 mph becoming east. Chance of precipitation is 30%
But still I will do some shooting. IDPA Match beckons and I have new shooters coming to the club. If I am not blogging back by Monday, you’ll probably find me in the nearest ER draped in ice and plugged full of fluids.
Good Samaritan in legal limbo?
On June of last year, a masked armed robber went inside a Burger King in Miami and got his ticket to the other side by a customer with a concealed weapons permit. The citizen himself was wounded in the exchange and in a very amazing and possibly spur of the moment emotional outburst, Miami police spokesman Jeff Giordano said that the citizen was a good Samaritan. “There were a lot of people inside the Burger King; he may have saved lives. It was a brave act.” he was quoted. The Good Samaritan was identified the man as 45-year-old John Landers, a photographer by trade and well liked by peers and neighbors. Landers was wounded and had to be taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital to be treated….. and that was the last anybody heard of this issue.
15 months later I find out that Mr. Landers, shot 4 times in the chest, arm and hand, is still recovering from his wounds and he has not been cleared yet of the shooting. His weapon is still in the hands of the police who refuse to return it unless a court order is issued and he still has another year till the DA becomes unable to press charges is any are forthcoming according to them.
I think it was Massad Ayoob said that you don’t win a gun fight, you survive it. This shows the truth of that statement, specially when the legal mongrels decide to make your life miserable by keeping you in legal limbo.
Correction:
I was explained the following:
As to the outcome, Miami PD presented their investigation to the SAO who ruled the homicide justifiable. However since there are accomplice/s, information of sufficient value to warrant an arrest would lead to a felony homicide charge and place the guy in the center of a homicide trial as a star witness. He acted in the manor any of us sympathize with however he is not clear of the legal system. And as (XXX) mentioned, he is still healing from his wounds which, were made with a .380. The civil aspects of this can expose him to jeopardy for I think 2 years (lawyers please correct me if I am mistaken).
He is lawyered up and is properly following the advise to avoid discussing the incident and living a low profile life while trying to get back to normal.
The war against the NRA.
The “No Compromise” bunch keeps ratcheting the noise against the NRA. While most Pro 2A will agree to disagree but will not set fire to each other’s fire hoses, the Gun Owners of America has become the best allied the Obama Administration has against private ownership of firearms since the VPC and the Brady Bunch and so they must be brought out to the light.
Under the helm of Larry Pratt, who some say never leaves home with his personal set of embroidered sheets, and a book of selected dictums from James Buchanan (The Pat Robertson of politics), the GOA fancies itself as the true Second Amendment/No Compromise organization. That they haven’t been able to do anything effective other suck up membership fees out of the gullible commando-wannabees and being used as reference by the Anti Second Amendment crowd is a different tune that should not be mentioned in order to keep the image.
It is my opinion that alongside the now defunct and pro-Obama AHSA, GOA has done more damage to the The Right to Keep and Bear Arms than Sarah Brady and Chuck Schummer combined by trying to split Gun Owners away from the most effective Gun Rights organization there is. That the GOA has consistently batted around zero in his alleged Pro-2A efforts is not mentioned by the organization itself. It is sort like a rogue doctor that badmouths the “Medical Establishment” for not curing 100% of the sick people but has never cured anyone himself and has a tough time operating a band aid.
According to the GOA, they themselves by them lonesome were responsible for the DC v Heller Supreme Court decision but other than introducing an amicus curiae, they had no influence whatsoever in the presentation to the Court. They are also allegedly responsible for the Katrina Bills, although they never showed up in New Orleans or pretty much gave a damn about its gun owners or to recover their confiscated weapons. GOA does have a pattern to claim somebody else’s success (including the NRA’s. Ain’t that sweet?”) as their own.
We know damn well that the NRA is not perfect and that its rating system has now been figured by scum politicos to be gamed in their favor, but it is still a far cry better than a group of wailers that have not contributed one iota in favor of my gun rights and whose leader would not mind at all having my gun rights removed because I happen to have a non-Anglo surname.
Top Shot = Yawn Fest.
You know it is not going to be a good show when you are sipping your morning caffeine intake while watching the DVR play and you fall asleep before the second set of commercials. This is a version of Survivor with guns, and equally boring. About the only saving grace is that the range is in a beautiful country, you have some great practitioners of the Arms and there seems to be a variety of weapons to shoot with all the ammo you want… which came handy for one of the teams.
I do not know any of the shooters personally, but I am sure they are better persons than portrayed. The Survivor-Type format is designed to show the worst in people and I am damn sure none of them are like that. We Are Shooters, we are not whinny little idiots who scheme and plot to kick the “dangerous” one off the island. They should get rid of those stupid team blue versus team red rules and just have everybody against everybody using a bunch of weapons from all ages and let them rip. Whomever wins, gets more points that the others and the one who gets the most points, wins! So frigging simple.
And for the “human” side, get out some good chili, some beers and let them talk after the match is over. Let them jokes, tell stories, get serious, get silly and share experiences. You have done it, I have done it and it is sometimes the best part of a shooting day. Regular people WILL GET IT. That will make for great TV even though it may end up rated TV-M.
And a gun could have altered the equaition.
Headline: 7 Shot, 4 Dead As Gunman Blasts Hialeah Restaurant. A Nutjob goes to a restaurant, has an argument in the parking lot with his girlfriend, shoots her, she dies and then the shooter goes inside the restaurant where he proceeds to shoot six more people. It appears that nobody but the shooter was armed.
The equation keeps coming to the same result: When somebody decides to ignore the law and create havoc with a firearm, it does not matter how many wishful thoughts you may have, how positive your attitude can be or how well you follow those tips for unarmed “self defense”: somebody is bound to get killed.
I will grant you that an armed patron may not have saved the girlfriend or prevented somebody from not getting shot, but being absolutely unarmed did guarantee the shooter a pool of targets for his deranged actions and he took advantage of it.
I want to have the chance to contradict a crazy gunman’s actions. I want to have a chance to make it out alive and that is why I carry.