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Thanks to EM Brandy Polanowski for compiling the update. We are still catching up on some earlier items
1. Sarah Brady has passed on
2. More on privacy bills that affect gun owners
3. Jared Jewelers - taking being anti-gun to a silly level
4. LTE: Individual gun sales are a private matter
5. Fight on guns is being taken to state ballots
6. Gun control advocates gearing up for tough time
7. 2014: The 2nd amendment's triumph
8. 2014: A banner year for the 2nd amendment
9. National View: Shoot down the stupid 2nd amendment
10. Oldie, but goodie. Survivor of the 1991 Kileen TX Lubys shooting massacre [VIDEO]
11. Creator of controversial gun violence PSA defends herself [VIDEO]
12. Why not regulate guns like cars?
13. [DC] Man in trenchcoat stabs 5 at restaurant
14. [MD] Gun owners fear cops target them for traffic stops
15. [TN] Home invader who puts gun to woman's neck is shot and killed
16. Gun smuggling on plane reveals security oversight
17. [FL] Pastor shoots attacker inside church
18. [ID] Quit using our accident to push gun control
19. [TX] Permit holder saves a woman from a beating [VIDEO]
20. [TX] Good samaritan who stopped assault breaks silence [VIDEO]
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1. Sarah Brady has passed on
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The Brady Campaign announced yesterday that Sarah Brady has died. Sarah had been in bad health for several years now. Jim Brady died last year.
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2. More on privacy bills that affect gun owners
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Article by Ken Cuccinelli.
Thanks to member Matt Fox for the link:
http://www.richmond.com/opinion/their-o ... 5d3e2.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/oc6dbkx
-
Another article:
http://watchdog.org/209120/governor-cav ... ce-police/
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3. Jared Jewelers - taking being anti-gun to a silly level
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Member Steve Brown was surprised to see an anti-gun message on Jared Jewelry's door in the Short Pump Town Center in Richmond.
The message takes up a good portion of the door, was clearly written by a lawyer:
"No person shall carry, possess, have under the person's control, convey or attempt to convey a firearm, concealed firearm, dangerous ordinance, handgun, or deadly weapon on or onto this land, parking lot or premises."
If they are trying to prevent being robbed again, they have to hope the robber has been to law school so that he understands the sign.
Of course in reality, the sign looks like this to bad guys:
"We have provided a victim-rich defense-free zone for your robbing pleasure! Feel free to rob anyone in or around the store and even in the parking lot!"
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4. LTE: Individual gun sales are a private matter
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Thanks to gun owner Steve Clifford for the link to an LTE he had published in the Fredericksburg Freelance-Star:
From fredericksburg.com: http://tinyurl.com/kbx7kqz
http://www.fredericksburg.com/opinion/l ... d5bda.html
Letter: Individual gun sales are a private matter
by Steven Clifford
December 31, 2014
The FLS’s best argument for closing the gun show “loophole” is that there is no rational argument against it. The problem is, there is a rational argument but not one that can be broken down into a sound bite.
Virginia, like most states, does not register firearms. After the initial purchase from a licensed dealer, individuals are not required to notify the authorities when they sell a gun.
If a gun owner wants to sell a gun to a neighbor, he is free to do so as long as he has no reason to believe the buyer is disqualified from owning one.
Unless he is a licensed gun dealer, that gun is his private property, and any transaction is a private matter and generally not subject to government approval.
This is true whether that transaction happens in a living room, a parking lot or inside a building where licensed dealers are also conducting transactions.
Where a person is standing at the time of the transaction doesn’t change their status as a private individual with privately owned property that they have the right to sell.
Licensed gun dealers are not the same thing. They have an obligation to conduct criminal background checks on all customers at all times. Whether that transaction happens at their storefront, their home or at a gun show, the requirement is the same. Every transaction is cleared by law enforcement, and there is no loophole.
Gun control advocates want individuals to fall under the same category as licensed dealers. They say this would apply only to transactions that take place at a gun show, yet fail to answer the basic question of why requirements of an individual change based upon where he meet his buyers.
The rational argument against closing the “loophole” is that no loophole exists and the proposal presented is de facto gun registration. It requires individuals to behave as if they are fully licensed dealers if the government decides the place where they sell their gun is somehow different from any other piece of private or public property within the commonwealth.
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5. Fight on guns is being taken to state ballots
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Governor McAuliffe, who can't stand it when gun rights are advanced, is quoted in this article. This was just before the session started that vaporized his agenda.
Member Kevin Beam emailed me the link:
From nytimes.com: http://tinyurl.com/lmeveo8
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/03/us/gu ... tates.html
Fight on Guns Is Being Taken to State Ballots
By Jennifer Steinhauer
January 2, 2015
WASHINGTON — The gun control movement, blocked in Congress and facing mounting losses in federal elections, is tweaking its name, refining its goals and using the same-sex marriage movement as a model to take the fight to voters on the state level.
After a victory in November on a Washington State ballot measure that will require broader background checks on gun buyers, groups that promote gun regulations have turned away from Washington and the political races that have been largely futile. Instead, they are turning their attention — and their growing wallets — to other states that allow ballot measures.
An initiative seeking stricter background checks for certain buyers has qualified for the 2016 ballot in Nevada, where such a law was passed last year by the Legislature and then vetoed by the governor. Advocates of gun safety — the term many now use instead of “gun control” — are seeking lines on ballots in Arizona, Maine and Oregon as well.
“I can’t recall ballot initiatives focused on gun policy,” said Daniel Webster, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. “There wasn’t the money.” Colorado and Oregon approved ballot measures on background checks at gun shows after the Columbine school massacre in 1999, but the movement stalled after that.
The National Rifle Association, which raises millions of dollars a year largely from small donors and has one of the most muscular state lobbying apparatuses in the country, is well attuned to its foes’ shift in focus. “We will be wherever they are to challenge them,” said Andrew Arulanandam, the group’s spokesman.
The new focus on ballot initiatives comes after setbacks in Congress and in statehouses. After the 2012 mass shooting of schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn., President Obama’s effort to pass a background-check measure never got out of the Democratic-controlled Senate. Although 10 states have passed major gun control legislation, not only in Connecticut and New York but also as far away as Colorado, more states have loosened gun restrictions.
Candidates who backed gun control mostly lost in the midterm elections, even after groups spent millions on their behalf. The last setback came in December when Martha McSally, a Republican, prevailed in a razor-thin recount over Representative Ron Barber, Democrat of Arizona. Mr. Barber was wounded in the 2011 shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, and lost even though Ms. Giffords’s PAC, Americans for Responsible Solutions, spent more than $2 million in the race.
Gun control groups say that although they are still dwarfed by the N.R.A., they have more money and are involved in more grass-roots activism than ever before. The N.R.A. was even heavily outspent in the Washington State referendum.
The advocacy groups have recast their cause as a public health and safety movement, and are homing in on areas where polling has shown voter support, like expanded background checks and keeping guns out of the hands of people with domestic violence convictions, restraining orders or mental illnesses.
Some of those provisions have gained steam even in heavily Republican-controlled state governments, like those in Louisiana and Wisconsin.
“Things that people feel are most doable politically right now are connected to domestic violence,” Mr. Webster said. “There is a lot of uptick on that issue even in red states and states with a lot of guns.” In the past two years, 11 states have passed such legislation.
Closing loopholes on background checks for gun owners is an area Americans support far more than steps like curbs on assault weapons or limits on magazine sizes. A recent Pew survey, for instance, showed that 52 percent of respondents said they believed it was more important to protect gun ownership rights. That figure was up from 29 percent in 2000. Still, in a 2013 poll, Pew found that nearly 75 percent of respondents supported background-check expansions.
Gun control advocates believe that ensuring background checks for the majority of gun buyers is the foundation of all other existing laws. “The reason voters support these laws is the same reason the movement supports these laws,” said Laura Cutilletta, a senior lawyer for the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The same-sex marriage movement has been a model for advocates of new gun restrictions. As with gay marriage, background-check expansions enjoy far broader public support in polls than among elected officials, and they affect state residents immediately.
“The arc of the marriage-equality movement started in the federal government, and got them the Defense of Marriage Act,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control group backed by Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City. “Then they went to the states and showed that if you can get the majority of the public on your side state by state, that will influence the courts and Congress in the end.”
Their efforts have emboldened some governors and lawmakers, largely, but not exclusively, in solidly blue states. What is more, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy of Connecticut and Gov. John W. Hickenlooper of Colorado — both Democrats who pushed through a series of tough gun laws in their states after the Newtown massacre — won re-election. Two Colorado Democrats who strongly supported that state’s gun control package were booted from office in a special election in 2013. But the Democratic Party regained the seats in November.
Last month, Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, which has been the source of many illegally obtained guns in other states, proposed the restoration of the state’s limit on handgun sales to one a month to slow the “iron highway,” a nickname for gunrunning up Interstate 95 to states to the north. He would also seek mandatory background checks on gun sales at firearm shows, and end issuing gun permits to anyone restrained under domestic violence orders of protection.
“I own three guns,” said Mr. McAuliffe, a Democrat. “I love to take my three boys hunting. This is not gun restriction, this is anticrime. I couch it in economic terms.”
The prospects for his gun proposals did not look great out of the gate. The governor “knows refighting the one-gun-a-month battle will not be productive,” Thomas K. Norment Jr., the Republican majority leader of the Virginia legislature, said in a statement.
For gun control groups, money is not the problem it was only recently. Contested ballot-initiative programs cost somewhere between $5 million and $15 million, said Pia Carusone, a senior adviser to Ms. Giffords’s group.
It has raised roughly $30 million for all political activities, including the Washington State initiative, over the past two years. And Mr. Bloomberg has spent millions of dollars on everything from research to political campaigns to the Washington referendum, and is prepared to continue to do so.
Gun rights groups plan to meet them head-on. “The terrain gets a lot harder for him,” Mr. Arulanandam, the N.R.A. spokesman, said of Mr. Bloomberg.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence — along with other advocacy groups — is evaluating which states among the 17 that allow ballot initiatives are the best spots to pick for the next fight; Maine, Arizona and Oregon, should their legislatures not take action, are widely viewed as the three with the most potential for gun control advocates.
In Washington, those who pushed the ballot measure through say they will begin a campaign to get the State Legislature to pass measures to keep guns from those with mental illnesses, children and people with a record of domestic violence. Opponents of gun control, for their part, went to the courts this week to challenge the new background-check requirements.
As with the same-sex marriage movement — as well as efforts by some conservative groups to weaken unions and to make abortions more difficult to obtain — the efforts of both gun rights advocates and advocates for gun restrictions demonstrate a fading faith that legislative remedies are to be found in Congress.
“Whether it’s on guns or immigration or tax reform, clearly Washington is broken,” Mr. Feinblatt said. “You have to influence the federal government at the state.”
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6. Gun control advocates gearing up for tough time
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It's our job to see that they are always gearing up for a hard time.
Member Walter Jackson emailed me this:
From newsmax.com: http://tinyurl.com/nm94uth
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/gun-co ... id/616090/
Gun Control Advocates Gearing Up for Tough Time
By Sandy Fitzgerald
January 2, 2015
Gun control groups are getting ready for the Republican-controlled Congress, which they think will move to expand gun rights while killing strict firearms laws.
Notices are going out from anti-gun groups like the Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC, founded and led by former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, soliciting cash and ideas for standing their ground against Republican lawmakers, reports The Washington Times.
The PAC's email included a link to a survey with more than a dozen questions about ways to make the group's efforts more effective, including ballot initiatives or pushes for state and federal laws.
Another group, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, plans to fight to hold its agenda in Congress, with executive director Josh Horwitz saying he is looking ahead to the next congressional election cycle and a new Congress in 2017.
"We'll probably be playing a little more defense, but I think we're optimistic that we'll be able to tamp down any type of [National Rifle Association] meddling and then be in a better position in 2016 to continue our work," he told The Times. "We're not going to be going away, I can tell you that much."
Horwitz noted that many of the Democrats who lost were from red states and supported gun rights. Now, even though the party is in the congressional minority, the Democrats who are left are more united in opposing gun-rights legislation and will "be able to hopefully stop most of the NRA's agenda."
Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the NRA, said his group is not taking anything for granted and will continue its fight.
"If there is one thing we've learned, it is the gun ban and gun control advocates are extremely well-funded, they are really adept at exploiting tragedy, and nothing, including logic, stops them from pushing their political agenda," he said.
Some groups poured millions into getting gun-control advocates elected, but lost.
Americans for Responsible Solutions fought for Rep. Ron Barber's re-election. The former congressional aide had succeeded Giffords as representative after she was shot during a rally in 2011. Barber was also injured in the incident, and lost his race to GOP challenger Martha McSally in November.
But other groups said they are shifting away from a potentially unfriendly Congress and focusing on state legislative fights instead.
Gun-control advocates also say the confirmation of Surgeon General Vivek Murthy will boost their cause.
The NRA opposed Murthy because he is an advocate for gun-control laws. However, Murthy pledged during his confirmation hearings that he would not use the office as "a bully pulpit for gun control."
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7. 2014: The 2nd amendment's triumph
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Member Walter Jackson emailed me this:
From breitbart.com: http://tinyurl.com/nl9tx8c
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government ... s-triumph/
2014: THE SECOND AMENDMENT’S TRIUMPH
by AWR Hawkins
January 1, 2015
In January 2014, Breitbart News reported that 2013 had been “The Year of the Gun.” Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) didn’t intend it to be that way, but it emerged as the year gun control was defeated.
Now, in January 2015, Breitbart News can report that 2014 emerged as the year states across the country went from defeating gun control to expanding the exercise of gun rights. It was the year in which the Second Amendment triumphed over gun control candidates and proponents in the midterm elections—a year in which some very important court decisions were handed down in support of the right to keep and bear arms.
For starters, on March 12, Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter (R) signed campus carry legislation into law for his state. This law makes Idaho the seventh state in the union to allow concealed carry of handguns on campus for self-defense. Weeks later, Indiana Governor Mike Pence (R) signed legislation making it legal for parents, visitors, and teachers with concealed carry permits to have guns concealed in their cars in Indiana school parking lots.
In early April, Governor Scott Walker (R) signed bills expanding the exercise of Second Amendment rights by residents of his state. Just weeks after that, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal (D) signed the Safe Carry Protection Act–broadening the exercise of Second Amendment rights in his state by expanding the number of places in which persons with a concealed carry permit can carry a gun for self-defense. In June, Tampa Bay’s 10 News reported that Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) signed legislation expanding that state’s stand your ground law by allowing citizens under attack to fire a warning shot. And in September, the Missouri House and Senate overrode Governor Jay Nixon’s (D) veto to make it possible for teachers to carry firearms for self-defense in Missouri schools. The veto override also legalized the open carry of handguns by residents with a concealed carry permit.
And Guns.com reported that on December 19 Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) signed bills reforming concealed carry regulations in his state and expanding the legal use of silencers.
On top of these and many other state-level expansions of the exercise of Second Amendment rights, pro-Second Amendment candidates crushed gun control candidates in the midterm elections. This not only included the defeat of numerous Senators who voted for Manchin’s gun control in 2013, but also the defeat gun control Representative Ron Barber (D-AZ). Voters in Arizona’s District 2–gun control proponent Gabby Giffords’ former district–chose to replace Barber with pro-Second Amendment Representative-elect Martha McSally (R-AZ-2).
In addition to these things, the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals struck down California’s burdensome “just cause” concealed carry requirement in February. And in November that same court rejected CA Attorney General Kamala Harris’ attempt to the appeal the decision.
On December 18 the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the ban on gun purchases for anyone who has been “adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to a mental institution” violates the Second Amendment. In context , the court found it unconstitutional to strip Second Amendment rights away from persons who may have required inpatient treatment in the past during a particularly trying time in their lives.
These state expansions of the exercise of Second Amendment rights, the pro-gun landslide in the midterm elections, and the prominent pro-gun appeals court decisions all demonstrate one thing–2014 was the year of the Second Amendment’s triumph.
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8. 2014: A banner year for the 2nd amendment
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Governor McAuliffe is mentioned in this article, too.
From thefederalist.com: http://tinyurl.com/oksbb7y
http://thefederalist.com/2015/01/02/201 ... amendment/
2014: A Banner Year For The Second Amendment
In 2014, Americans showed the strongest support for gun rights they have in more than two decades.
By Daniel Payne
January 2, 2015
My colleague Robert Tracinski recently re-instituted the Democratic Party Death Watch, an alert that signifies the donks are “betting everything on the far-left base while driving away their own blue-collar and middle class constituents.” The modern Democratic Party being a clumsy amalgamation of economic buffoons and social justice warriors, a death watch is an appropriate vigil to keep, although I wouldn’t bet against Elizabeth Warren making fiscal insanity and dimwitted neo-Marxist philosophy a mainstream policy platform. It has been done before.
Nevertheless, the Democratic death watch sounds fine with me, and while we’re at it we can celebrate one of the other victories of the past year, a triumph that is not-coincidentally contemporaneous with the imploding prospects of the Democrats: 2014 was a year in which gun control became more of a liability for the Left than an asset.
To be sure, there are still plenty of politicians out there who are interested in restricting and curtailing gun rights: they will always be there, constantly mumbling about background checks and “loopholes” and 30-clip military-style magazine-rifles. Ignore them. In the main, gun control has become a distasteful subject and a losing prospect for many who seek it. Early in December, Pew released a poll showing that, for the first time in more than two decades, a majority of Americans support gun rights over gun control. Across the board these numbers have risen from just a couple of years ago after the Newtown shootings: the share of Democrats who believe in protecting gun rights rose 6 percent, the same as Republicans generally; among “conservative/moderate Democrats” the jump was a startling 12 percent. Urban, suburban, and rural Americans all increased their support of gun rights over gun control; blacks did too, by a whopping 10 percent.
The Signs of Desperation Abound
This isn’t to say that everyone who sides with gun rights believes in no gun regulations at all, only that the gun controllers have suffered a decisive and, frankly, humiliating defeat: for all the fearmongering, all the nasty and deceitful scare tactics that the Left has used over the past few years to convince more Americans to give up their gun rights, a majority of Americans have largely ignored this advice and even turned against it.
And what about that fearmongering? For all its bombast and high-soaring rhetoric, the gun control movement’s efforts over the last year have exposed a campaign that is deeply distressed and perhaps terminally irrelevant: unable for years to achieve their goal of widespread citizen disarmament, the gun-control wing of the Left has grown more desperate and more angry as its influence has waned. Earlier in the fall, the gun control group Moms Demand Action, along with a few liberal senators, mounted a campaign to get openly-carried weapons banned from Kroger. They provided zero evidence that guns openly carried in Kroger were a danger to shoppers; indeed, so flatly pointless was their campaign, they were reduced to counting shootings outside of Kroger by criminals as some sort of mark against weapons openly-carried by law-abiding citizens. Needless to say, Kroger has appropriately ignored this nonsense, preferring to base its business decisions in reality rather than gun-control fever dreams.
Signs of desperation abounded elsewhere. In my home state of Virginia—a state with so deeply-embedded a gun culture, it has a gun fashion named after it—newly-minted Gov. Terry McAuliffe has proposed a set of gun-control measures that are, to say the least, absurd: he wishes to re-enact the one-gun-a-month limit, a law that did nothing to prohibit violent crime in Virginia, he wants to revoke concealed carry permits for people who are behind on their child support payments, and he wants to close the “gun show loophole” in spite of gun shows’ tenuous link to gun violence. Given that these measures would arguably have no effect whatsoever on gun crime, it’s easy to conclude that McAuliffe is, like the rest of the anti-gun movement, desperate to gain at least some ground in the gun control battle. In the face of an indifferent and perhaps even hostile constituency, you can understand why the governor would resort to such pitiable measures.
Gun Control Advocates Become More Loose-Cannon
The list goes on. A recent anti-gun public service announcement was released on YouTube showing a young child stealing his parent’s gun, taking it to school, and handing it over to his teacher: “I don’t feel safe with a gun in my house,” he tells her. The child in the video violated virtually every gun safety measure we teach children: he steals a gun, brings it to a school with nobody’s knowledge, and lays it on the teacher’s desk with the barrel facing toward her. “Our children deserve a safe world,” the PSA announces. Of course they do—which is why responsible gun owners teach children how to be safe around firearms. The gun control movement knows this and is determined to hide it—hence the unserious and comical “public service announcement.”
Earlier this year, Georgia passed a bill that greatly expanded gun carry rights throughout the state; the response was predictable. Cliff Schecter at the Daily Beast announced that Georgia’s new law “flies in the face of all public health statistics, common sense, and modernity.” He provided no evidence whatsoever for these histrionic claims, but then again the gun control movement is not lately interested in facts or empirical evidence. As more and more Americans come to support a robust regime of gun rights in the United States, commentators like Schecter will probably grow more and more shrill, insisting that liberalized gun laws are dangerous and refusing to engage in any actual research.
2014, in other words, was a banner year for the Second Amendment, at least if we are to judge it by the collapse of the gun-control movement as a serious voice in political society. Gun rights enthusiasts may point to 2008, the year of D.C. v, Heller, or 2010, the year of McDonald v. Chicago, as the landmark years of the Second Amendment in the twenty-first century. Yet 2014 has, in its own way, provided a more satisfying and visceral rebuke of the gun-control movement: its relevance waning and its influence all but exhausted, the anti-gun crowd is flailing for pertinence in a country increasingly annoyed with and uninterested in its fraudulent message. We should all go into 2015 aware of, and grateful for, the robust state of the Second Amendment in America today. Happy New Year.
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9. National View: Shoot down the stupid 2nd amendment
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And now for something completely different. Clearly Mr. Hastings hasn't read the above stories about just how popular the Second Amendment is right now and how little interest the average person has in gun control.
Member Walter Jackson emailed me this:
From southcoasttoday.com: http://tinyurl.com/lyy9vep
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/ ... 8/NEWS0301
National View: Shoot down the stupid Second Amendment
by Tom H. Hastings
December 27, 2014
What country fetishizes, lionizes, valorizes, idolizes and sacralizes guns as much as does our United States? OK, possibly Mozambique — the only country with an AK47 on its flag — but really, it's long past time to end this obsessive "My Precious" attachment of Americans to instruments of death.
Christmas morning, of the nine top stories from US Reuters, six were about shootings — four new ones and two about the national movement against shootings of citizens by police. This pandemic of sick violence, punctuated by mass killings of children, has gone on far far too long. It is long past time to repeal the stupid Second Amendment.
The fate of the Second Amendment should have been sealed when the US Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that past rulings by their predecessors were wrong, that in fact the amendment that provided for a "well regulated militia" really guaranteed every individual the right to own a gun. Wow. That is an interesting reading of the English language. What the Supremes have done is not only to warp the meaning and make it into twisted law, but to further prohibit states and local governments from declaring their places free of legal guns. The conservative court once again rules against the power of states, a principle that used to be associated with darn liberals who wanted to make sure everyone had the right to vote, for example, even though they weren't properly white enough. Now when a city or state wants to outlaw firearms, too bad. The conservatives took away their powers and rights in favor of Big Brother.
The only logical path, given the clearly decided role of the Second Amendment, is to repeal it. American people are tired of mass shootings and police shootings and family fued shootings and sibling shootings and accidental toddler shootings and teen suicide by gun (highly popular).
We are exhausted by the proliferation of death, of threats, of bloodshed and by the NRA/gun industry moral garbage spewing forth every time someone challenges the ubiquity of guns.
Repeal the Stupid Second Amendment. Surround it, grab it, bring it in the back room, pull down the shades and end it. OK, petition for it, get it on the ballot, and get it done by enough of the U.S. populace, by enough people in enough states, to get it consigned to the dustbin of history. Merry Christmas, people. Peace. [PVC: Actually this opinion piece is what is about to be put in the dustbin of history, Tom.]
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10. Oldie, but goodie. Survivor of the 1991 Kileen TX Lubys shooting massacre [VIDEO]
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EM Dave Vann emailed me this:
As the year draws to an end it might be appropriate to post this video as a reminder to folks. This is from 1991, after she lost both her parents. As we all know, she was responsible for getting State law changed. Her testimony is as relevant today as it was then.
From youtube.com: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sEYGcXSmpQ&sns=em
Dr Susan Gratia-Hupp - Survivor of the 1991 Kileen TX Lubys Shooting Massacre
posted by Kane Lawless
December 22, 2012
Hupp and her parents were having lunch at the Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen in 1991 when the Luby's massacre commenced. The gunman shot 50 people and killed 23, including Hupp's parents. Hupp later expressed regret about deciding to remove her gun from her purse and lock it in her car lest she risk possibly running afoul of the state's concealed weapons laws; during the shootings, she reached for her weapon but then remembered that it was "a hundred feet away in my car." Her father, Al Gratia, tried to rush the gunman and was shot in the chest. As the gunman reloaded, Hupp escaped through a broken window and believed that her mother, Ursula Gratia, was behind her. Actually however, her mother went to her mortally-wounded husband's aid and was then shot in the head.
As a survivor of the Luby's massacre, Hupp testified across the country in support of concealed-handgun laws. She said that if there had been a second chance to prevent the slaughter, she would have violated the Texas law and carried the handgun inside her purse into the restaurant. She testified across the country in support of concealed handgun laws, and was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1996. The law was signed by then-Governor George W. Bush.
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11. Creator of controversial gun violence PSA defends herself [VIDEO]
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Here's something you don't see every day: the woman who created a gun-control PSA late last year came under attack by those on BOTH sides of the issue.
Member Clark Welsh emailed me this:
From vocativ.com: http://tinyurl.com/n5hwjgm
http://www.vocativ.com/culture/society/ ... na-sincic/
Creator of Controversial Gun Violence PSA Defends Herself
A viral video that shows a student turning in his parents' gun at school has roiled both sides of the gun debate, with the right out for blood and the left crying conspiracy. The director responds to her haters below
by Shane Dixon Kavanaugh
December 23, 2014
A Bay Area filmmaker’s attempt to create a dramatic gun control video has so spectacularly backfired that it’s made her a target among gun proponents and opponents alike.
Rejina Sincic released last week what she is calling a public service announcement, which depicts a teenager stealing his parent’s handgun at home and taking it to a teacher at school because the weapon makes him feel unsafe. The video, which is perhaps most offensive for its skulking student lead and overwrought piano music, had by Monday become a digital boogeyman that both sides of the gun debate appear to despise. (UPDATE: Sincic has since taken down her original video and uploaded a new one with the comments thread disabled.)
Conservative blogs and websites gleefully seized upon Sincic’s film, framing it as a reckless piece of liberal propaganda that encourages kids to bring weapons into classrooms. An army of roiled gun people soon flooded Sincic’s YouTube channel and Twitter feed with thousands of vitriolic comments.
Taking turns calling her things like “psychotic,” a “bitch,” “Satan” and a “b*tch,” some of Sincic’s high-minded critics accused her of encouraging children to commit felonies, while others insisted that she’ll be to blame for future school shootings. [PVC: That kind of name calling should be left to the antis. Reason and logic are what we use to win our arguments.]
In an exclusive interview with Vocativ, Sincic says she was caught off guard by the reaction. “I’m not telling kids to commit felonies,” she says. “My message is that kids should not have access to guns in their house. Kids should feel safe and their schools should be safe zones. I made this video for that purpose.”
Despite the relentless attacks, those who share Sincic’s perspective haven’t exactly rushed to her defense. In fact, one of the country’s leading gun control advocacy groups on Tuesday all but threw her under the bus, suggesting that she may have been hired by right-wing activists to stir controversy and anger.
“I smell a rat here,” says Ladd Everitt, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “To me, this reeks of something that’s been planted.”
“It’s shocking how this suddenly went viral on right wing media when no one in our movement is promoting this video,” Everitt says. “I’m actively questioning who this woman is. And I’d like to know who paid for this and why.”
Though she did not disclose a figure, Sincic tells Vocativ she financed the video with her own money because gun control is an issue that she’s passionate about. She wrote and shot the video during the summer and fall, and finally finished editing it this month.
“This is what I believe in and I have the right to do so,” she says. “If some people don’t agree with me, that’s fine. I just hope they won’t do anything crazy.”
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12. Why not regulate guns like cars?
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I, too, love it when an anti throws out the old idea of regulating guns like we do cars. I will add that the laws regulating cars have not stopped drunk drivers killing people or criminals from escaping in them after committing a violent crime.
Member James Durso emailed me this:
From washingtonpost.com: http://tinyurl.com/ns9tevw
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volo ... like-cars/
Why not regulate guns like cars?
By Eugene Volokh
December 23, 2014
A commenter on a recent thread asked — seemingly from a pro-gun-control perspective — “Why can’t guns be treated like cars, regulated and available, only to those who demonstrate competence and compliance with laws?” That is a perfect excuse for me to reprise my analysis of the guns-cars analogy.
Cars are basically regulated as follows (I rely below on California law, but to my knowledge the rules are similar throughout the country):
(1) No federal licensing or registration of car owners.
(2) Any person may use a car on his own private property without any license or registration. See, e.g., California Vehicle Code §§ 360, 12500 (driver’s license required for driving on “highways,” defined as places that are “publicly maintained and open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel”); California Vehicle Code § 4000 (same as to registration).
(3) Any adult — and in most states, 16- and 17-year-olds, as well — may get a license to use a car in public places by passing a fairly simple test that virtually everyone can pass.
(4) You can lose your license for proved misuse of the car, but not for most other misconduct; and even if you lose your driver’s license, you can usually regain it some time later.
(5) Your license from one state is good throughout the country.
This is pretty much how many gun rights advocates would like to see guns regulated, and is in fact pretty close to the dominant model in the over 40 states that now allow pretty much any law-abiding adult to get a license to carry a concealed weapon: No need to register or get a license to have a gun at home, and a simple, routine test through which any law-abiding citizen can get a state license to carry a gun in public. And even if we require a test for all possession of a gun, at home or in public — again, something that’s not required for cars — that would still mean that pretty much any law-abiding adult (or 16- or 17-year-old) would be able to easily get a license to carry a gun. That would provide more functional gun rights in the remaining non-shall-issue states (including, for instance, New York) than is provided under current gun regulations.
Now I suspect that many gun control advocates would in reality prefer a much more onerous system of regulations for guns than for cars. Of course, one can certainly argue that guns should be regulated more heavily than cars; thoughtful gun control advocates do indeed do this. But then one should candidly admit that one is demanding specially burdensome regulation for guns — and not claim to be merely asking “why can’t guns be treated like cars?”
Incidentally, I don’t claim any great originality on these points: Others have made them before me, see, e.g., David Kopel’s “Taking It to the Streets,” Reason, Nov. 1999. But some things are worth repeating.
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13. [DC] Man in trenchcoat stabs 5 at restaurant
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Another mass attack without a gun. The real problem was that since good guys aren't allowed to carry guns in DC, this attack stood a better chance of succeeding in DC that it would in VA.
Member Mark Shinn emailed me this:
Fro washingtonpost.com: http://tinyurl.com/l88jfhe
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/cri ... story.html
Man in trenchcoat stabs 5 at McFadden’s restaurant in Northwest D.C.
By Hamil Harris and Spencer S. Hsu
December 27, 2014
Five people were stabbed early Saturday inside a popular Northwest Washington restaurant and bar near George Washington University, and a man wearing a tan trench coat was being sought, police said.
At least two of the victims were seriously injured, but all are expected to survive the attack, which took place about 12:30 a.m. inside McFadden’s Restaurant and Saloon at 2401 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, said Officer Hugh Carew, a D.C. police spokesman.
Police issued a lookout for a black man of medium height, wearing a trench coat, plaid shirt and black or blue jeans.
The assailant eluded a police search and was last seen heading east on Pennsylvania Avenue, GWU police said in a campus safety alert issued about 2:30 a.m.
McFadden’s, a popular nightspot whose Web site calls it “DC’s Best Party Bar,” was closed during its regular lunch and dinner hours Saturday. As night fell, the only commotion came from a local television news crew.
McFadden’s owner, John Sullivan, did not immediately respond to a message left through an attorney who represented him in a D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration matter last year.
Patrick Kennedy, chairman 0f the Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) for the Foggy Bottom/West End area that includes McFadden’s, said he hoped that the stabbings were an isolated incident because the bar caters to college students.
Asher Corson, a 2009 GWU graduate who lives near the restaurant, said it “can be a rowdy place, but it was not a violent place.” Corson is a member of the area’s ANC.
Other violent acts were reported in the city Friday night and Saturday.
They included a shooting about 11:40 p.m. Friday and another Saturday afternoon in the 1500 block of Kenilworth Avenue NE. It appeared that neither caused life-threatening wounds.
“We try to cultivate a safe environment, and generally, it is a safe neighborhood,” said Kennedy, who graduated from GWU in May. “I have never felt threatened walking down the street. We have a lot of seniors in this community.”
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14. [MD] Gun owners fear cops target them for traffic stops
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When Governor McAuliffe vetoed Senator Stuart's SB 948, he intentionally left Virginia gun owners open to the abuse described in this article.
EM Bob Marcellus emailed me this:
From washingtontimes.com: http://tinyurl.com/ljynv25
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... -for-traf/
Gun owners fear Maryland cops target them for traffic stops
By Kelly Riddell - The Washington Times
December 30, 2014
A year ago this New Year’s Eve, John Filippidis of Florida was driving south with his family on Interstate 95 when the Maryland Transportation Authority Police pulled over his black Ford Expedition and proceeded to raid it while his twins, wife and daughter looked on — separated in the back seats of different police cruisers.
The officers were searching for Mr. Filippidis‘ Florida-licensed, palm-size Kel-Tec .38 semi-automatic handgun, which he left at home locked in his safe. (Maryland does not recognize handgun permits issued by other states.)
When the search turned up nothing, Mr. Filippidis, 51, was allowed to go and was issued only a speeding warning.
The incident gained national attention. Mr. Filippidis went on multiple radio programs and described in detail how scared and outraged he and his family were. He wondered: How did the police know he was licensed for concealed carry, and what right did they have to search through his personal items on the side of the busy interstate filled with holiday travelers on that 10-degree day?
“My wife’s hysterical, shaking and crying,” Mr. Filippidis recalled in an interview with The Washington Times. “I don’t have a criminal record. I own a business. I’m a family man, and I tried to explain that to [the officer]. But he had a bad attitude, didn’t want to hear my story. He just wanted to find that gun and take me away from my family. That was his goal, but he couldn’t do it, because I didn’t have a gun, like I told him.”
Mr. Filippidis‘ case earned the support of Second Amendment advocates and subsequent apologies from the MDTA. But an internal police review concluded his stop and search were lawful and did not violate police protocols.
Those findings, however, have not satisfied other out-of-state gun owners, who worry that they, too, have been targeted for minor traffic stops in Maryland because they have concealed weapons permits. Their stories are accumulating.
John Tonnesen IV of Lake Worth, Florida, was pulled over and arrested after a search of his work truck — by the same officer who stopped Mr. Filippidis — turned up his .45-caliber Ruger, licensed in the state of Florida. He doesn’t believe the stop was coincidental.
“It was unloaded and stuffed into a bag far from me,” Mr. Tonnesen told The Times. “There’s scanners in Maryland that scan every tag, and Florida is one of their target vehicles. They’ll find whatever reason they can to pull you over.”
MDTA denies it targets out-of-state gun owners and noted the review of Mr. Fillipides earlier traffic stop concluded the officers did nothing wrong.
“The MDTA Police conducted a review of the traffic stop and have concluded that the stop and subsequent search of the vehicle were justified,” spokesman Jonathan Green wrote in an emailed statement. “The investigation did not reveal any violations of law or agency policy.”
The officer who stopped both gun owners is “assigned to the I-95 corridor where there is a large volume of out of state travelers,” Mr. Green said.
Baltimore-based criminal defense lawyer Paul Kramer says these type of stops and searches happen far too often in Maryland and are a waste of taxpayer money. Mr. Kramer represented a Pennsylvania security officer who was pulled over in the state for speeding. The Maryland officer asked Mr. Kramer’s client whether he had a gun in the car, and once the man acknowledged he did, the officer arrested him for having the gun and the cartridge in the same locked container — not separated, as per Maryland law.
“You think that Maryland would honor legitimate people with guns rather than charging people who are legitimately carrying but doing it incorrectly,” said Mr. Kramer, who was former deputy U.S. attorney for Maryland. “I would think that the police would want to take the time to go after those people who don’t have a legitimate right to have a gun rather than locking up people who have a valid license.
“An otherwise law-abiding citizen can get arrested here. It’s just a waste of officer time and resources. The police should let those people go,” he said.
Maryland is one of the toughest gun control states in the nation and passed the Maryland Firearm Safety Act of 2013, which, among its provisions, bans 45 assault weapons and limits gun magazines to 10 rounds. Maryland also has strict laws governing the transportation of guns and issues concealed carry only on a “need-based” determination. Maryland does not recognize any out-of-state carry licenses.
Gun rights advocates are trying to pressure Gov.-elect Larry Hogan, a Republican, to get involved in a legal effort by a coalition of gun owners and gun rights groups to invalidate the law. Twenty-one states have filed briefs with the court supporting the challenge. In a news conference in November after winning the election, however, Mr. Hogan said he would leave it to the courts to decide.
That’s not stopping advocates like Mr. Tonnesen, 50, from pleading to Mr. Hogan to investigate whether Maryland is targeting out-of-state concealed-carry holders.
On his way up north to visit family for the holidays this year, Mr. Tonnesen left his weapon behind but came armed with a letter addressed to Mr. Hogan instead, detailing his arrest last year and questioning why Maryland is using its limited resources to target out-of-staters.
“I got six months probation before adjudication on my record, and I didn’t do anything wrong,” Mr. Tonnesen said. “My father gave me my first rifle when I was eight. I have respect for guns and know how to use them. A terrible injustice happened to me, and it’s a phenomenal waste of the state’s resources that the governor should be aware [of].”
Mr. Hogan’s office confirmed receipt of the letter but declined further comment on it.
As governor, Mr. Hogan will “uphold both the U.S. Constitution and the laws of Maryland; he will not overturn existing Maryland law and will work across party lines to reduce gun violence,” Hogan spokeswoman Erin Montgomery told The Times.
Academics say Mr. Hogan is likely to stay far away from gun control issues as he begins his tenure as a rare Republican elected official in a mostly blue state.
“Of course, some conservatives would love to see Maryland’s gun control law changed, but Hogan recognizes the political reality that Maryland is a liberal state — and if he wants to accomplish anything economically, he’s going to have to stay away from the social issues,” said David Lublin, a professor of political science at American University who runs a blog, Seventh State, dedicated to Maryland politics. “Gun control is popular in the state, and, although I don’t see him strengthening it, a sort of vagueness suits him well on the issue.”
Mr. Hogan ran in the blue state on his strengths as a businessman — someone who understood working-class families and the consequences of increased taxes.
With Democrats holding nine of the state’s 10 seats in Congress, having large majorities in both state houses, and with the attorney general and state comptroller both being Democrats, if Mr. Hogan wants to generate good will to pass through some of his economic changes, he will have to stay away from gun control, which the majority of the state favors, Mr. Lublin said.
According to a 2013 poll conducted by Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies Inc., which surveyed more than 800 of the state’s registered voters, 58 percent said they support the gun control law enacted under Gov. Martin O’Malley.
As for the MDTA, officials maintain only people who are committing traffic violations are pulled over, not those who have out-of-state concealed carry licenses.
“It is important to note that no gun-permitting information is programmed into any License Plate Reader units accessible to MDTA Police,” Mr. Green said.
In Mr. Filippidis‘ case, he was pulled over because he was going 72 mph in a 55 mph zone and was tailgating the officer, Mr. Green said.
“The officer observed the concealed carry gun permit while the driver was searching for his driver’s license and vehicle registration in his wallet,” Mr. Green said.
“After personally observing the gun permit, the officer asked the driver to step from the vehicle and inquired about the location of the weapon,” Mr. Green said. “The driver denied that there was a weapon in the vehicle.
“The officer returned to the vehicle to ask the occupant of the front passenger seat about the location of the gun. The occupant of the front passenger seat indicated that the gun was possibly in the glove box or the console of the vehicle and reached for the glove box before being advised by the officer to stop.”
“The officer who stopped Mr. Filippidis smelled the odor of marijuana in the vehicle on his initial approach of the vehicle,” Mr. Green said. “Based on the conflicting stories regarding the location of the gun, the observations made while the vehicle was being stopped and the suspected odor of marijuana, the officer had probable cause to search the vehicle for possible controlled dangerous substances (CDS) and the weapon.”
Mr. Filippidis vehemently denies there was any smell of marijuana in his car, and he didn’t know that was the excuse used to justify the search of his SUV. He did say he may have been going a little over the speed limit, and his wife was confused about the whereabouts of his gun.
“If they smelled pot, why didn’t they arrest me for pot?” Mr. Filippidis said. “This whole thing just doesn’t add up. Smoking in front of my kids driving home from Christmas with the family? Come on. We walked away from the entire incident without even a ticket — for anything.”
As for Mr. Tonnesen, a search of his vehicle was justified after the same officer felt threatened and that Mr. Tonnesen was hiding something as both of his hands weren’t readily visible. He was also pulled over for speeding.
“They have kids shooting each other in the face up there in Maryland,” Mr. Tonnesen said. “And yet here I am cooperating with the officer, because I know his job is hard, and I respect that. Yet I’m thrown in Baltimore County Jail. It’s just crazy.”
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15. [TN] Home invader who puts gun to woman's neck is shot and killed
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Guns Save Lives.
Member Clayton Rhoades emailed me this:
From breitbart.com: http://tinyurl.com/ltqjc5m
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government ... nd-killed/
HOME INVADER WHO PUTS GUN TO WOMAN’S NECK GETS SHOT AND KILLED
by AWR Hawkins
December 27, 2014
On December 23, a home invader burst through a door in Memphis, Tennessee, and put a gun to a woman’s neck. He was then shot multiple times and killed.
According to WREG, 22-year-old Nico Carlisle and another suspect knocked on a door on the “2300 block of Devoy” around 6 p.m. When a woman went to the door, the two suspects forced their way into the house, and Carlisle put a gun to the woman’s neck.
At that point, the homeowner emerged–gun in hand–and shot Carlisle multiple times. Police arrived, found Carlisle “laying at the front door,” and pronounced him dead at the scene. The second suspect escaped and has yet to be identified.
A neighbor who witnessed the events unfold said he saw “some boys go over there next door, you know, trying to get up in their house.” He walked to his own door for a clearer view, and “that’s when [he] heard some shots.”
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16. Gun smuggling on plane reveals security oversight
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We had a similar incident here in Virginia some years ago when a UPS driver was stealing guns and putting them into the blackmarket. In fact it was the acts of that one individual that pushed Virginia to pass "One Handgun a Month" back then.
Member Wales Watkins emailed me this:
From nytimes.com: https://tinyurl.com/llvpfot
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/30/busin ... sight.html
Gun Smuggling on Plane Reveals Security Oversight
By Joe Sharkey
December 29, 2014
CRITICS who have long complained that airport security measures are mostly “security theater” have given a recent aviation gun-smuggling drama poor reviews.
The authorities say that on Dec. 10, while 1.7 million other passengers were being routinely screened for weapons at security checkpoints in airports around the country, a man carrying a backpack containing 16 firearms with ammunition flew aboard a Delta Air Lines passenger jet to Kennedy International Airport in New York from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The suspect was arrested in New York that day after a monthslong investigation into gun smuggling to New York from Atlanta.
“What we have in this case is an egregious breach of security down in that airport” in Atlanta, the Brooklyn district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, said at a news conference last week to announce extensive charges. At the center of the case is a former Delta Air Lines worker charged with smuggling 153 firearms, including an AK-47 assault weapon, on 17 Delta flights between Atlanta and New York from May 8 to Dec. 10.
After passing through the regular airport security checkpoints, the suspect received the guns from an accomplice, a Delta baggage handler who had easy access to secure areas of the airport and was able to carry firearms into the terminal, Mr. Thompson said.
“My jaw dropped on this one,” said Anthony C. Roman, a security consultant. “It strips away the security facade that’s been in place since 2002 and painfully exposes the major deficiencies that many security professionals have been trying to bring to the forefront since 9/11,” he said. He and others have been concerned that workers with access to secure airport areas are not as closely screened as passengers are at the checkpoints.
Mr. Thompson said that on Dec. 10, the former Delta worker, Mark Q. Henry, 45, of Brooklyn, received many guns at the Atlanta airport from a Delta Air Lines baggage handler, Eugene Harvey, 31, of College Park, Ga. He said that Mr. Harvey took the guns to the secure area of the terminal and transferred them to Mr. Henry in a prearranged meeting in a men’s room. Because Mr. Henry had already passed through the Transportation Security Administration passenger checkpoint, he was able to stash the guns in his backpack and carry them onto Delta Flight 2352 that morning, the district attorney said.
The authorities arrested Mr. Henry and seized the guns after he arrived in New York. He, Mr. Harvey and three people who are accused of being accomplices face multiple charges. Lawyers for Mr. Henry and for Mr. Harvey could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Thompson had harsh words for the breakdown in airport terminal security. “The problem with that airport in Atlanta is that the employees don’t have to go through screening” that would ensure that firearms are not brought into secure areas, he said.
But there is a subplot. In a long investigation, New York detectives initially assumed that the guns bought in Georgia were arriving in Brooklyn the usual way. “We thought they were doing the Iron Pipeline, driving I-95,” said Lupe Todd, a spokeswoman for the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.
After all, no one assumes that smugglers are bold enough to carry guns through an airport, on multiple occasions, rather than transport them north by car or truck. “Were they really stupid, or were they stupid-smart enough to figure out there was a loophole at the airport and use it to their advantage” and ensure speedy delivery? Ms. Todd asked.
The authorities had the suspect under surveillance for many months. Delta, aware of the investigation, notified law enforcement in New York whenever Mr. Henry was traveling on a Delta flight, Ms. Todd said. But detectives assumed that the suspect was flying between Atlanta and New York only after arranging the purchases in Georgia, while the guns were being driven north.
Obvious questions arise. Mr. Thompson described “a long-term investigation” by his office and the New York Police Department during which Mr. Henry took 17 flights “with guns on him” over seven months. So when did the authorities suspect that the guns were being transported on Delta flights? And to what extent were the Transportation Security Administration and Delta Air Lines aware of this?
“Once he left the airport, as part of our investigation, we started to follow him because we knew he was on that flight,” Mr. Thompson said at the news conference.
After the arrest was made this month, prosecutors in the district attorney’s office and New York police detectives laboriously reviewed hours of airport surveillance video in Atlanta and identified segments showing Mr. Henry carrying his backpack onto the Delta flight, Ms. Todd said. Then the penny dropped. “It was bugging them that these guns were getting onto the streets so fast. Then, lo and behold, it was like, ‘Oh my God, they’re carrying them on planes; they’re not driving them,’ ” she said.
“This office had absolutely no knowledge that guns were being transported by plane until the Dec. 10 arrest,” she added.
Representatives for Delta and the Atlanta airport declined to discuss the details of the investigation with me. A spokesman for the T.S.A., David Castelveter, confirmed that the agency “has been part of the investigation,” but declined to elaborate. “T.S.A. takes the potential for insider threats at airports very seriously,” and continually does threat assessments and airport criminal checks for all airline employees, Mr. Castelveter said.
A statement by Delta said, “Delta is cooperating with authorities in this investigation. We take seriously any activity that fails to uphold our strict commitment to the safety and security of our customers and employees.”
Reese McCranie, a spokesman for the Atlanta airport, said that the airport had “cooperated fully with the F.B.I., the T.S.A. and other agencies during the course of this investigation.” He said that airport employees had to pass criminal background checks and were subject to “continuous vetting and random inspections.” He added, “In light of these recent events, we are reviewing our security plan and will make the appropriate changes to prevent future incidents of this nature.”
In this case, the motive appears to be smuggling guns from Georgia for illegal resale in Brooklyn. No connections to terrorism are apparent. Still, as Mr. Thompson said, “this scheme really exposes a threat in terms of terrorism” by showing how porous airport security can be. Suspects “repeatedly evaded airport security with bags of firearms” on at least five occasions just this year, said Sally Quillian Yates, the United States attorney in Atlanta.
Mr. Roman, the security consultant, agreed about the potential threat underscored by this case. “To be able to put 153 weapons, including combat weapons, onto a passenger airline on repeated flights is the highest security breach that you can suffer,” he said.
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17. [FL] Pastor shoots attacker inside church
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Armed church leaders is getting to be more common. I've certainly fielded quite a few calls from church leaders asking about carrying in church.
Member Clayton Rhoades emailed me this:
From breitbart.com: http://tinyurl.com/nksf2mo
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government ... de-church/
PASTOR SHOOTS ATTACKER INSIDE CHURCH
by AWR Hawkins
December 30, 2014
Benjamin Parangan, a maintenance man at Osceola, Florida’s Living Water Fellowship, drew a gun and shot at Pastor Terry Howell on Friday. He missed, and Howell responded by drawing his own gun, shooting and critically wounding the maintenance man.
According to News 13, a meeting was being held to “fire” Parangan when he drew his gun “and fired multiple shots.” Unscathed, Howell drew his own gun “and fired back.” Police said the attack and Howell’s response were witnessed by “several church employees,” all of whom gave the same account of the things that happened.
While the investigation into the incident is going, criminal charges are pending against Parangan. Howell’s actions are being treated as self-defense.
Living Water Fellowship released a statement saying they are fully cooperating with law enforcement in their investigation and “will not be making any public statements” until the investigation is complete.
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18. [ID] Quit using our accident to push gun control
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Member Walter Jackson emailed me this:
From breitbart.com: http://tinyurl.com/obx7fsh
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government ... n-control/
IDAHO TODDLER’S GRANDPA: QUIT USING OUR ACCIDENT TO PUSH GUN CONTROL
by AWR Hawkins
December 31, 2014
The day after an Idaho toddler found a gun in his mother’s purse in a Wal-Mart checkout line and accidentally shot and killed her, the toddler’s grandpa is telling gun control groups to quit grandstanding on the tragedy and quit using the accident to push gun control.
Veronica Rutledge’s father-in-law, Terry Rutledge, described the shooting as “a terrible, terrible accident” and is outraged that gun control groups are treating it as an opportunity.
According to The Washington Post, Rutledge said his daughter-in-law received a concealed carry purse for Christmas—a purse with a special zippered pocket in which you could hide your handgun. He said, “An inquisitive 2-year-old reached into the purse, unzipped the compartment, found the gun and shot his mother in the head.”
He said his son, who gave Rutledge the purse, “is terrible” right now. “He has a two-year old boy right now who doesn’t know where his mom is and he’ll have to explain why she isn’t coming home.”
Rutledge recoiled at the way gun control groups are twisting the incident. “They are painting Veronica as irresponsible,” he said. “I brought my son up around guns, and he has extensive experience shooting… And Veronica had had hand gun classes; they are both licensed to carry, and this wasn’t just some purse she’d thrown her gun into.”
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19. [TX] Permit holder saves a woman from a beating [VIDEO]
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Remember: if you are in a similar position as shown in this video, avoid having your gun out as the police pull up. If you must have your gun out, keep the gun in a safe direction, finger off the trigger, move slowly, and fully comply with all police orders. The police will need to figure out who is the good guy and who is the bad guy. Do NOT ASSUME they know which you are. Also, you may get handcuffed for a little while during the investigation - that is usually an investigative detention and not an arrest. Go along and be patient.
Item #20, below, is also on this event.
From theblaze.com: http://tinyurl.com/pkllgvw
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/12 ... im-a-hero/
Concealed Handgun License Holder Sees a Man Beating a Woman in a Car. Watch His Bold Reaction Caught on Video That Has Others Calling Him a Hero.
by Dave Urbanski
December 27, 2014
A Texas motorist who’s also a concealed handgun license holder told police he saw a man beating a woman in another car on Friday afternoon, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
So he got out of his car when both vehicles had stopped, pointed his gun at the other driver and forced him out of the vehicle until Southlake police arrived, the Star-Telegram reported.
And the scary standoff was captured on video, KTVT-TV reported.
“It was intense not knowing whether bullets were going to start flying from either side of the street,” Mistina Doland told the station, adding that 911 was quickly called.
Doland’s sister Lindsey Bryant was driving with Doland and shot cellphone video of the standoff, KTVT noted. Soon police arrived, and the video shows the man with the concealed handgun license putting down his gun and putting up his hands as the other driver stood by his door.
But soon authorities figured things out, determining that the man who held the gun on the other driver was trying to help — and police arrested MacMichael Nwaiwu, 28, who is now in jail, KTVT said.
Police haven’t released the name of the concealed handgun license holder, but Doland and Bryant said he’s a hero.
“It’s amazing that in this day in age that people are willing to reach out and help,” Doland told the station.
“We need more people like that,” Bryant told KTVT, adding that “I hope more people see this and are willing to go the extra mile for someone who like this woman, didn’t have a voice and couldn’t speak up for herself.”
The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office does not believe the witness with a gun broke any state laws, KTVT noted.
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20. [TX] Good samaritan who stopped assault breaks silence [VIDEO]
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More on the above story (#19).
EM Dave Vann emailed me this:
From cbslocal.com: http://tinyurl.com/ozhzalq
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/12/27/good ... s-silence/
Good Samaritan Who Stopped Assault Breaks Silence
by Stephanie Lucero
December 27, 2014
SOUTHLAKE (CBSDFW.COM) – CBS 11 News has new information about a daring situation that happened in Southlake just yesterday.
Aaron Kreag, a civilian, drew his gun in the middle of Southlake Boulevard.
He says he couldn’t just drive by when he saw a woman being beaten.
“My first gut reaction was oh my God this guy’s going to kill this lady” says Kreag.
Kreag was carrying his gun, a .45 caliber handgun, and says he was prepared to use it.
“I went around the backside of the car, drew my handgun and traffic came to a stop.”
CBS 11 News first showed you the video last night which taken by one of our viewers.
Kreag says he was taking his wife on a date, to the movies, when they saw a man and a woman in the red car.
“This large gentleman just pounding on this lady, closed fist you know multiple times and heavy heavy elbows to the face and neck” says Kreag.
Kreag has a license to carry a concealed handgun and he served in the U.S. Army for eight years. He worked as a private security contractor in Iraq and he’s a firearms instructor.
“I was yelling commands at him to stop assaulting her, stop assaulting her.”
He stopped attacking her and she was screaming, yelling for help and very much hysterical” says Kreag.
The man got out of the car but he was still very angry.
“Then he turned his attention to the fire arm and was saying ‘don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me.’ I said I’m not going to shoot you, just stay still, don’t do anything crazy. The cops will be here any minute.”
Kreag says he could hardly wait for the police to arrive.
“I told him if you relax a little bit, calm down and you stay still, I’ll take my finger off the trigger” says Kreag.
Police ordered Kreag to the ground and handcuffed him. He was released a few minutes later, after Southlake Police spoke to a number of witnesses.
A few minutes later they arrested the man in the red car: 28-year-old Macmichael Nwaiwu.
Kreag doesn’t know the woman’s name but she hugged him when it was all over.
“I stood there and held her for about 30 seconds. She cried on my shoulder and told me thank you. I told her I would pray for her and hoped things got better” he says.
Kreag says he was frightened and he is not a hero.
He hopes the victim will find peace in her life and remain safe.
“It’s my responsibility to protect myself and my family” says Kreag. “If I can help out another person in the process, so be it.”
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VA-ALERT is a project of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc.
(VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization
dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to
Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.
VCDL web page: http://www.vcdl.org [http://www.vcdl.org/]