Gun Free Zone

First thing that impressed me all those index fingers indexed for most of the responders… yep there are a couple here and there. Long gun run the gamut:From the Old African staple, the FN FAL to the fresh-from the oven SCAR. Pistols are the same, the venerable Browning Hi Power to the latest Plastic Wonder.

This article in today’s New York Times:
Specifically this part:
Wasn’t the importation of finished rifles killed by Bush Sr.? And even the whole kit importation thing was hobbled somehow with the barrel import prohibition? And truth be told, I have not seen a great amount of sporterized versions of the AK nor the desire to buy them.

Wasn’t the US Government buying Russian weapons for the Iraqi Army?

If anybody can clear this doubt, I’ll appreciate it.

Facebook buddy Jonathan B. contacted me with this case. There is an online petition to commute his 25 year sentence for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon that carries a mandatory 25 year sentence in the State of Florida. We will not discuss here the wisdom of mandatory sentences but what he apparently did right after the shooting when the police arrived. Warning: There is very little in the way of information online so everything said here predicates we are getting a somewhat accurate description.

According to Opposing Views:

On Feb. 6, 2010, Michael Giles, then on active duty with the Air Force, fired one shot from his legal handgun during a brawl that involved between 20 and 40 people. One man, whom the petition describes as “Michael’s attacker” was struck in the leg but not seriously hurt.

The attacker had reportedly been in several altercations earlier that night, was angry and acting erratically. Giles was initially not involved in the mayhem and had been separated from two friends, the only people he knew at the scene.

When the attacker came at him, he fired what was described as a warning shot.

And that is the crux in this case. The moment you lay your hand on your sidearm, you have escalated the situation. As from what I have seen in other cases, Florida is very strict on warning shots and they are seen as evidence of you not really being in fear for your life or fear of grave bodily harm. And if you actually shoot and injure somebody, you will probably be prosecuted for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and sentenced under Florida Statute 775.087 (3):

3. Any person who is convicted of a felony or an attempt to commit a felony listed in sub-subparagraphs (a)1.a.-q., regardless of whether the use of a weapon is an element of the felony, and during the course of the commission of the felony such person discharged a “firearm” or “destructive device” as defined in s. 790.001 and, as the result of the discharge, death or great bodily harm was inflicted upon any person, the convicted person shall be sentenced to a minimum term of imprisonment of not less than 25 years and not more than a term of imprisonment of life in prison.

Again, I am going on this with very little on the way of information and focusing on the keywords warning shot. It could be more out there, but simply there is no information available.

What should we take from this case? Marty Hayes in his booklet What Every Gun Owner Needs to Know About Self-Defense Law makes it clear:

And finally, it is your responsibility (as Gun Owner) to understand the laws regarding use of deadly force in self defense and to be aware of what happens within the legal system when a citizen uses deadly force in self defense.

Download the booklet in the conveniently given link above. Also, do yourself a favor and buy Andrew Branca’s The Law of Self Defense: The Indispensable Guide to the Armed Citizen, 2nd Edition, a great book on the basics and nuances of Self-Defense laws and please, please, go online and print the laws of your local state regarding self-defense and weapons. If there is a book that also covers your state specifically, buy it such as Florida Firearms Law, Use & Ownership 7th Ed. by Jon H. Gutmacher.

I will say this: Your training for Self-Defense situations has to be not only trigger pulling but also book reading. If you don’t, you will find yourself behind bars and that is not a pleasant experience.

The photo was captioned as police officers responding to the terrorist attack at Nairobi’s Westgate Shopping Mall in Kenya. Blog reader Patrick’s eyes were better than mine and noticed that there was an IDPA shooter among the responders:
My IDPA vest with the same patch as the one above:
I checked IDPA’s website for clubs in the area and I found this:

IDPA Kenya
Club #: CL650932
Location: NAIROBI, Nairobi, KENYA
Member Since: Aug 07, 2013

Not the first cop that shoots IDPA and certainly not the last that will do. I do hope he is OK.

PS: Obligatory IPSC/USPA jokes in the comment sections will be…. oh heck. why not?

UPDATE: managed to find a bigger photo and enlarged it to make sure… yup, IDPA patch.

On September 17, The Atlantic Wire decides to go full Six O’Clock News scare-tactics and gives us this piece of hysteria:

There Will Be Another Mass Shooting. This Is What the Data Tells Us About It. The next mass shooting will take place on February 12, 2014, in Spokane, Washington. It will be committed by an emotionally disturbed, 38 year-old white man who will kill seven people and wound six more at a place he used to work using a semi-automatic handgun he purchased legally in the state.

Then they make the adjustment:

That, at least, is what a look at the data on past such shootings might indicate. We’ll say at the outset: Every assertion in the first paragraph is a function of probability, not fact. The next mass shooting — which will happen somewhere, sometime — will almost certainly not be in that place at that time. But a look at the historic data on such killings, compiled and shared by Mother Jones magazine, makes each of those predictions defensible.

But apparently the damage was done as is seen by the piece they had to publish the next day:

Spokane Shouldn’t Be the Only Place Scared of the Next Mass Shooting.
Our apologies. It was not our intention to frighten you. Or, rather, it was not our intention to frighten just you. Despite what we wrote yesterday, there almost certainly will not be a mass killing in your city on February 12 of next year. But anyone with a passing knowledge of the recent history of gun violence in America should know by now that there will be another mass killing, somewhere, and soon. Residents of Spokane need not be any more alarmed at the prospect of being gunned down while shopping or eating at a restaurant or at their school or workplace than any other American. We apologize if you were frightened, but your reaction really raises another question: Why doesn’t the rest of America share your (and our) fears about the statistical certainty of another mass shooting?

How stupid was the whole thing? Even the members of the Cult Coalition to Stop Gun Rights Violence let them have it:

The initial Facebook post:
And the following is a collage of some of the responses from their own loyal followers as CSGV bans any Gun Owner or Pro-Second Amendment advocate who dares to land on their page:
One quick note: Apparently both The Atlantic Wire and Mother Jones (who started rolling this ball of crap) forgot to add in the data of statistical possibilities that the shooter will also be a democrat or with Democratic Party tendencies, voted or liked President Obama and is chugging antidepressants or other prescription mind-altering/controlling drugs.

Stay away from Liberals with a hazy look in their eyes while driving a Prius with a OBAMA 2012 sticker in their bumper. You’ll never know when they will snap.

PS: Will the NAACP, Rev; Sharpton and company will protest the racial overtone of the article?

Mumbai Part Deux. A dedicated group of individuals with no regard for their final outcome, decide to inflict as much death as possible on unsuspected victims in an enclosed space.
Can we expect something like that here in the US? Probably. In a mall near you? It depends.

New York Rep. Peter King, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on ABC’s “This Week” that al-Shabab is “one of the only Al Qaeda affiliates which actually has actively recruited here in the United States.”
He called the Saturday mall attack a “well coordinated, well planned massacre.”

          Via Fox News.

The answer to the question if it will happen in the US would be: Probably. It is not like these idiots have not thought about it or wanted to do it. For all we know they tried and failed somehow without the public finding out about it. But they only have to be successful once.

Will it happen in a mall or other location near you? We should go back to the definition of terrorism:

ter·ror·ism
noun \ˈter-ər-ˌi-zəm\

: the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal.

Depending on where you live, a terrorist attack will have a greater or lesser impact. One thing for sure is that they will try to obtain as much attention as possible as their actions create both death and havoc: Death as immediate and havoc as people not directly affected are thrown off their normalcy and routine. Now, the more people find out about a particular act of terrorism, the better. It is a psychological epidemic that requires a carrier and that would be the Media.

I know some writers of thrillers have toyed with the idea of terrorists attacking in a Middle America town, I just simply don’t see it. It is too far away from established media outlets, requires too much preparation & logistics and the return in victims and shock value might be too low. However, an attack on a big mall in the middle of Los Angeles, Washington D.D., New York or even Atlanta would guarantee not only a high body count but instantaneously and international media coverage that would spread the fear faster than an attack in a mall from Bowling Green, KY.

So you may want to prepare for an attack on a big mall or any other place where people concentrate, with limited entries and exits in a major urban area with an important Media hub. And in view of another attack this past week that has garnered less attention but higher body count, churches are not to be ignored as targets but probably moved to the top of the list, maybe second place. And yes, suicide bombers are also an option to be considered.

I bet the question you wanna see answered is:  Will Concealed Carry Laws or Gun Culture on a particular state/city affect the decision to attack? Truth be told, I don’t think so as it does not matter seeing that the top three juicy targets are gun free zones for all intents and purposes. Atlanta may not be considered because it does not have the world cachet that NY, LA and DC have but also one person in sixteen in the state of Georgia carry a concealed weapon. And even though is pretty stupid to meet a rifle with a handgun, I would offer that terrorists would rather be not shot at before they finish what they came to do. If a couple of people with concealed carry manage to pop Saleem and Jameel thus creating a wider exit for people to exit and reducing the number of victims, the boss back at Camel Station One in Somalia or whatever he is stationed may not like it.

Anyway and overall, the chances that you will be directly affected by a terrorist attack is very small. The chances of all of us being affected by government overreaction to a terrorist attack within the US is high as they will want us to keep us safe by TSAing the crap out of our lives. And that can be more dangerous as some Somali idiot with an AK-47; at least we can shoot that bastard.

The president, in a somber but defiant tone, suggested that Washington and the rest of the country has lost its resolve to end the level of gun violence that sets the United States apart from other countries.

via Obama honors shooting victims, urges Americans to help stop gun violence | Fox News.

What set us apart from other countries is that our government does not have what is called “a monopoly on killing.” Most of the governments in the world keep the absolute authority to issue death under a legal cover created by themselves. Even in cases of plain self-defense, a citizen has to prove beyond doubt to a government-appointed official that the killing was necessary and even then, that official can indict the citizen for not retreating enough or no reason at all. Or the government can initiate on its own an action that involves death or grave bodily action if the citizen has broken a law imposed by the same government. And of course, any government has the absolute authority to start a war. Although we elect the people in the government and expect them to behave according to a moral code, the temptation of absolute power can be too much to resist and the Monopoly on Death too good not to use.

No matter how much can you parse it, no government in the world can eliminate violence. And if the government is the only one allowed to inflict violence, soon enough somebody in the spheres of power that thinks it is a grandiose tool to effect social change, restrain opposition and keep things peaceful and within the lines they think is the utopic way of living.

But when there is no “monopoly on killing.” When the intended targets not only can respond in kind but can do it overwhelmingly, it keeps those in power not only in a temporary basis but lawfully and respectful of the rights of the People… for the most part.

The Second Amendment is the “monopoly buster.” It helps remind both government and enemies of our society (but I repeat myself) that certain actions may have dire consequences. We repeat this from quote Robert Heinlein because it is true: “An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.” It is Emily Post write large with the auspices of Samuel Colt, John Browning and Eugene Stoner.

The message we keep giving you is simple: Go after the true causes of the violence and just leave us alone. Our guns are not responsible in any way for your continual political failures on keeping violence under some shade of control.