For the Gun Forum Chest Beaters and Vittorio Secret Tactical Models that love to self-proclaim how they are going to win a gun fight, here is a double reality check.

First Reality Check: Jay Rodney Lewis.

Jay Rodney Lewis was forced to use his gun to defend himself from two individuals that attacked him. He was arrested and a bail set at $ 225.000. That is almost a quarter of a million dollars which he didn’t have (and many of us do not) so he spent 112 days in jail.

Mr. Lewis was evicted from his apartment, but to add insult to injury the eviction noticed posted in the apartment’s door read “clear and present danger to the health or safety of the other tenants.” And also that he was involved in “an assault with a weapon within 1,000 feet of the property described above.”

Eventually all his property was taken outside the apartment and left in the curb where it promptly disappeared. He could not take action against the proceedings since he was in jail and no notification was sent to him by the apartment complex lawyers. They did send notifications to his address of record that was the apartment. The kicker is that they knew he was arrested.

The jury acquitted Mr. Lewis of any wrongdoing. The clincher was the recording of the 911 call that Mr. Lewis made prior of being attacked and it captured not only the moments before the attack but the shooting itself and the immediate aftermath.

The question I ask is: Why did the prosecutor even decided to take this case to trial? The jury only took a couple of hours to come up with the acquittal. Iowa does not have a strong Caste Doctrine and it does not have a Stand Your Ground Law. That should be the solution, right? Not quite.

Second reality Check: Carlos Rodriguez.

In 2009, Mr. Rodriguez was attacked outside a club by a mob. He was also forced to use a gun to defend himself. His defense attorney states that “He had been beaten, he was bleeding from his mouth, nose and head. He was blocked in. His truck could not pull out. He has no criminal record.” When he was arrested, Mr. Rodriguez’s daughter was three weeks old and he probably saw her grow up during visitation at jail.

At his Trial, Castle Doctrine/Stand Your ground was used by his lawyer. It worked and he was set free 3 years after the incident had occurred. That is three lost years for righteously defending yourself in a State with a established Stand Your Ground law.

Who is going to give Mr. Rodriguez his three years back? Or the times he did not get to spend with his daughter? Or erase the tonnage of crap he surely had to endure in jail? Monetary expenses? I bet he owes whatever wages he can make for the next decade. His lawyer’s office address is in Biscayne Boulevard which is just about the most expensive real state in Miami.

Afterword: I want to thank Larry of Last Refuge of a Scoundrel for pointing me towards Mr. Lewis’ case. Do me a favor and check his blog posting where he provides the links if you feel like giving a couple of bucks or anything to help Mr. Lewis get back on his feet.

Not feeling like doing any writing. I’ll be back tomorrow with a take on the Ohio school shooting and the stupidity that still reigns about Gun Free Zones.

In the meantime, a funny:

I am cursed. There is no 2 ways to say it. I have somehow pissed off the gods of local shooting (minor deities) and they have decided that I will not do good at my local IDPA matches.

At the match today, as usual not too fast, but damn it I was being accurate and not one single penalty of any kind. No-Shoots dancing all over the place in swingers ? Keep dancing, you ain’t getting hit. Trick covers? I’ll twist like a Cirque du Solei performer, but no SO will call cover on me. I was on fire! Then, on the third stage, I got a squib that I did not hear or feel. The worst case scenario. I was lucky enough that the bullet moved just far enough that even though it allowed the case to eject, it placed the gun out of battery and I could shoot no more.

I didn’t even caught that the gun was out of battery. I just automatically went to failure drills (Tap, Rack, Bang & changing mags) till a buddy screamed loud enough that I had a squib and my gun was disabled. I unloaded and cleared my gun while the Safety Officer asked me if I was calling a DNF (Did not Finish). I asked him to let me check the gun first to make sure what was wrong before I made any decision.  After quickly taking the gun apart, we all saw the bullet lodged in the barrel. As usual among Gun people, several shooters jumped and announced that they had rods & mallets and whatever I might need to get the bullet out. I realized that having to go uprange with a disassembled gun in my hands was not smart so I holstered the frame and placed the slide, barrel and recoil spring in my vest pocket. In retrospect I should have gone uprange with a safe and assembled weapon first and then do the taking apart, but feces happen.

The ammo I use is my personal reloads. It is loaded hot trying to replicate the defensive ammo I carry everyday. I use a Lee Single Stage so I am very careful and constantly do visual checks. The buddies removed the bullet and we noticed a clump of what appeared to be half burned propellant on the base of the bullet. The only thing I can imagine is that something fell in the case after throwing the charge and right before placing the bullet aqnd it gunked the burning.  I have no idea how many thousands of rounds I have reloaded without any problem and this is a first for me. Oh well, no damage to the gun so I am happy.

Next I decided to go to the Safe Table (No ammo manipulation allowed!) to re-assemble my gun and get back to shooting. I stick my left hand in the vest pocket and in one powerful grab take all the parts in there: The slide, the recoil spring… and a motherbleeping partially used magazine that I had in the gun when the malfunction occurred.

DQ.

Now, should I take two chickens for the sacrifice or do I just go ahead with a full size turkey to be on the safe side?

Apparently some people are too ornery to understand the advantages of peace and submission.

Two ships with armed security make pirate re-asses their intentions.

The award goes to Cedrick Mitchell for barging into a motel room where he promptly lost his weapon to one of the residents and got a face full of pepper spray for his effort. Mr. Mitchel left in pain but demonstrating his uncanny predisposition for outright idiocy, he returned to the room to buy back his gun.

You can read the whole hilarious story here. Thank God for dumb criminals.

LawDog says his piece about Smoke und Blunder.

Pissing LawDog off is never a good life choice.

UPDATE: Smoke and Blunder apparently doubles down on stupid.