Self Defense – Page 39

Why Is Concealed Carry So Important In Modern America?

Concealed carry, or the practice of carrying a concealed firearm on one’s person, is a contentious topic in modern society. Some argue that it is necessary for personal protection, while others believe that it only serves to increase the likelihood of gun violence. However, there are many reasons why concealed carry is important and can be a valuable tool for self-defense.

First and foremost, concealed carry can provide a means of self-defense for law-abiding citizens. The world can be a dangerous place, and individuals who carry a concealed firearm have the ability to defend themselves if they are ever confronted with a dangerous situation. This is especially important for those who live in areas with high rates of crime or who work in professions that put them at risk, although trouble can and is found in even the safest of places.

In addition, concealed carry can act as a deterrent to criminals. The knowledge that a potential victim may be carrying a concealed firearm can dissuade criminals from attempting to commit crimes in the first place. This can help to create a safer environment for everyone, as criminals are less likely to engage in criminal activity when they know that there is a possibility that their intended victim may be armed.

Concealed carry can also be beneficial in situations where law enforcement response times may be slow. In an emergency situation, every second counts, and individuals who are carrying a concealed firearm can act as first responders to protect themselves and those around them. This can be especially important in rural areas, where law enforcement may be several miles away and response times may be longer.

Moreover, concealed carry is an important tool for protecting one’s home and family. A firearm is one of the most effective means of self-defense against an intruder, and having a firearm readily available can help to ensure the safety of one’s loved ones.

Finally, concealed carry is a constitutionally protected right in the United States. The Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the right of citizens to keep and bear arms, and this right extends to the carrying of concealed firearms. The ability to exercise this right is important for many Americans, who feel that it is their duty to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.

Of course, with the right to carry a concealed firearm comes the responsibility to use it wisely and safely. It is important for those who carry a concealed firearm to receive proper training and to understand the laws surrounding the use of deadly force. Additionally, individuals who carry a concealed firearm must be prepared to face the consequences of their actions if they ever do use their firearm in self-defense.

In conclusion, concealed carry is an important tool for self-defense and can provide a means of protection for law-abiding citizens. It can act as a deterrent to criminals, serve as a first response in emergency situations, protect one’s home and family, and is a constitutionally protected right. While carrying a concealed firearm is a serious responsibility, it can be a valuable tool in creating a safer environment for everyone.

One person dead in shooting during attempted robbery, Chattanooga

A person is dead after a shooting during an attempted robbery on Saturday night in Chattanooga, according to police.

Officers were called at 8:58 p.m. and found a person dead from apparent gunshot wounds in the 100 block of West 41st Street, a news release states.

The man who reported the shooting told police that he responded in self-defense when the shooting victim was robbing him.

An investigation is ongoing.

Home intruder shot dead in Northeast Austin

A Northeast Austin homeowner shot and killed a suspected intruder during an attempted break-in early Tuesday morning.

According to the Austin Police Department, at around 5:31 a.m., officers responded to a call in the 7600 block of Bethune Avenue, where a female resident reported a man attempting to break into her home through the door and a window. The caller then stated that the male suspect had entered the home, followed by the sound of gunshots.

Upon arrival at the scene, the APD officers and EMS medics found the male suspect dead. APD says the preliminary investigation indicates that the suspect was shot by one of the residents in self-defense.

There is no indication that the residents knew the male suspect. He was later identified as 61-year-old Samuel Wolf. While further details about other occupants of the home have not been released, the police confirmed the residence is a duplex with side A and side B.

The investigation is ongoing, and the APD is urging anyone with information to call the homicide tip line at 512-472-TIPS. No charges are expected to be filed against the resident who shot the suspect at this time.

Prof. Yamane misunderstands one part of self defense law in Missouri when he states: “From where I stand, shooting someone through the locked glass of your front door.…does not rise to the reasonableness standard required by self-defense law.” Well, under Missouri revised statutes 563.031
2. A person shall not use deadly force upon another person under the circumstances specified in subsection 1 of this section unless:
(2) Such force is used against a person who unlawfully enters, remains after unlawfully entering, or attempts to unlawfully enter a dwelling, residence, or vehicle lawfully occupied by such person;
In effect you can do exactly that to stop someone who’s trying to get in to where you are. That’s what a lot of people fail to take in account; each state’s laws on use of force may be very similar, but they are not all the same.

Stand Your Ground laws do not allow you to ‘shoot first and ask questions later’

Three recent shootings have, understandably, raised concerns about the legality of using lethal force in self-defense. Sixteen-year-old Ralph Yarl was injured after approaching the wrong house in Kansas City while trying to pick up his siblings. Twenty-year-old Kaylin Gillis was killed after a car she was riding in pulled into the wrong driveway in upstate New York. And two teenage cheerleaders were shot in Austin, Texas, after one of them got into the wrong car in a grocery store parking lot.

Gun violence prevention advocacy groups like Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action have used these events to renew criticisms of Stand Your Ground laws for emboldening people “to shoot to kill & claim self-defense.” Everytown even goes so far as to say these laws “give people a license to kill.”

These groups and even scholars studying gun violence refer to Stand Your Ground (SYG) laws as “shoot first” laws, short for “shoot first and ask questions later.” As a gun scholar, gun owner and opponent of gun violence, I fear that equating SYG with the legal right to “shoot first” could unintentionally mislead people into thinking that self-defense laws truly give them a blanket license to kill with impunity.

They do not.

Self-defense laws actually place significant limits on the ability of individuals to use lethal force in self-defense lawfully. Whether people fully understand those limitations is an empirical question, but critics should drop the language of “shoot first” in referring to these laws. Instead, in the interest of public safety, why not educate people on the limited range of behaviors they in fact allow?

First, the shootings of Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis took place at the shooters’ homes, not in public spaces. Therefore, SYG law does not apply to these cases. (Not to mention that New York does not even have a SYG law.) If anything, they would fall under the common-law principle of “castle doctrine,” which allows people to use reasonable force — up to and including lethal force — to protect themselves and their loved ones at home. It allows people to stand their ground in their own “castle.”

SYG laws can be understood as extending castle doctrine into public space. They apply, in the language of Florida’s landmark law, to any individual “who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be.” These are significant limitations in themselves. Someone mistakenly getting into your car and then immediately exiting cannot reasonably be considered an attack, so no lawful acts of self-defense are justified. The shooting in the Austin grocery store parking lot looks much more like an act of criminal assault.

Second, even under SYG, all the other legal requirements for using lethal force in self-defense still apply. In addition to innocence, there is the issue of proportionality: A person only has a right to “meet force with force, including deadly force.” This also highlights that the individual claiming self-defense must establish their reasonableness. The person must convince a prosecutor or a jury that other reasonable people in the same circumstances would similarly believe they were in danger of death or great bodily harm.

From where I stand, shooting someone through the locked glass of your front door or at a car in your driveway does not rise to the reasonableness standard required by self-defense law. These cases are reminiscent of the killings of Renisha McBride in Detroit and Jordan Davis in Jacksonville. Both shooters claimed self-defense but are now incarcerated for murder.

Reasonableness, of course, is determined in the criminal justice system, which is marred by racial inequality. But the flawed application of law and a flawed law are not the same. People of goodwill can disagree about whether Stand Your Ground laws are, on balance, good or bad. But both gun owners and non-owners must understand what self-defense laws actually allow and prohibit — politically charged rhetoric like “shoot first” is harmful.

Stand Your Ground does not allow anyone to “shoot first and ask questions later.” Not within the law, at least. Please stop saying it does.

Marksmanship lessons!

Suspect Shot Seven Times In Botched Home Invasion In Bethlehem

BETHLEHEM, PA – Four suspects were charged with robbery and home invasion in Bethlehem Township early Thursday morning, according to District Attorney Terry Houck.

The suspects were identified as Millito Delgado, 45; Michael Matas, 29; Francis Ferrando, 23; and Anthony Santiago, 29. Delgado, Matas, and Ferrando. They are currently in police custody, while Santiago remains at large.

During the home invasion, which occurred at approximately 4 a.m. in the 2000 block of Willow Park Road, four men broke into the residence where three occupants were present.

In an act of self-defense, one of the occupants shot defendants Matas and Ferrando.

Matas suffered seven gunshot wounds to the back and is currently in critical but stable condition, with an expected recovery. Ferrando suffered a single gunshot wound to the leg.

All four defendants are facing charges of 3 counts of Robbery – Attempt Serious Bodily Injury, 2 counts of Possession of Instrument of a Crime, Burglary, Simple Assault, and related charges.

Authorities have stated that there is no danger to the public at this time, and the investigation is ongoing. The affidavit has been sealed to protect the integrity of the investigation.

District Attorney Houck commended the Bethlehem Township Police Department for their swift response to the situation.

“This was first-rate work by the Bethlehem Township Police Department. I want to thank Chief Gregory Gottschall and his officers for their immediate response and attention to detail in this case. Although there is still much to do, I am confident no stone will be unturned in our effort to apprehend the fourth male,” he said.

Man shot another on Barnett Street in self-defense

The Kern County Sheriff’s Office released more information Wednesday about a shooting death on Barnett Street last week.

Deputies were called to investigate vandalism in the 2100 block of Barnett Street and found a man suffering from a gunshot wound, KCSO reported Wednesday.

An investigation showed a man forced his way into a house on Barnett Street and another man shot him to defend the homeowner, KCSO said. A gun was recovered, and no one has been arrested.

The victim hasn’t been identified.

ICYMI CDC Study Findings Show Americans with Guns Very Effective at Stopping Crime

Washington, DC – Remember that time a report from 2013 commissioned by President Barack Obama, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that the use of firearms for self-defense was and is a significant crime deterrent?

The report, titled “Priorities For Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence,” * notes that most firearm incidents do not result in a fatality and that violent crimes, including homicides, have declined in the past five years. It also highlights that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year.

The 2013 report expressed uncertainty about gun control measures, stating that there is no evidence that passage of right-to-carry laws decrease or increase violent crimes and that proposed “gun turn-in programs are ineffective.” Instead, the CDC report proposes gun safety technologies such as “external locking devices and biometric systems” to reduce firearm-related deaths.

Commenting at the time, John Frazer, from the National Rifle Association, had this to say;

“I thought it was very telling that this report focused so heavily on . . . futuristic technology that’s not been brought to the market in any kind of reliable form that consumers have any interest in,” said John Frazer, director of research and information at the National Rifle Association (NRA).”

“These “smart gun” technologies are “designed to prevent misuse, to prevent either accidents or crimes committed with stolen guns,” Frazer noted. “Obviously it wouldn’t have any effect on crimes committed with a gun purchased by the criminal. It obviously wouldn’t have any effect on suicides by people who bought the guns themselves.” However, “it could have a huge burden on self-defense rights of law-abiding people if they’re forced to use an unproven technology.”

The CDC’s findings that guns are an effective and often used crime deterrent and that most firearm incidents are not fatal could affect the future of gun violence research.

However, there has been criticism of the study from some quarters, with concerns expressed that the research may be used to promote gun control.

“The anti-gun researchers out there who want to study and promote gun control are perfectly free to get funded to do that by [New York] Mayor Bloomberg or by any number of other organizations or foundations,” said Frazer. “It depends on who’s doing the research. I would be very concerned that a lot of the follow-up research that might come from this agenda would be more of what we’ve seen from the anti-gun public health establishment in the past.”

The report establishes guidelines meant only for future “taxpayer-funded research,” Frazer said. At the time, the Annie E. Casey Foundation issued a statement reaffirming its support for the study, which “is in keeping with our work to collaborate with public agencies, nonprofit organizations, policymakers, and community leaders to make a positive impact on the lives of kids, families, and communities.” Other supporters of the CDC study include The California Endowment, The Joyce Foundation, on whose Board of Directors Obama served for eight years prior to his Senate run, and Kaiser Permanente, which contributed over half a million dollars to his presidential campaigns.

The report highlights that the majority of firearm deaths are from suicide, not homicide.

African American males are most affected by firearm-related violence, with “32 per 100,000” deaths. Risk factors and predictors of violence include income inequality, “diminished economic opportunities . . . high levels of family disruption” and “low levels of community participation.”

This review of the CDC study underscores the importance of firearms for self-defense and as a crime deterrent. It recommends gun safety technologies as a means of reducing firearm-related deaths, rather than gun control measures. Despite the findings in his report, we can most certainly count on the biased MSM to only promote gun control as a solution to the out-of-control crime in 2023.

*Source “Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence”

‘Our Schools Will No Longer Be Soft Targets’: Tiny Rural Ohio Town Lets Staff Arm Themselves

An Ohio school district centered in a tiny town of 560 people has responded to recent school shootings by permitting its teachers to be armed.

River Valley Local School District in Caledonia, which has roughly 2,000 students from around the area, citing a law signed by Governor Mike DeWine in June 2022, said it will allow staff members in its high school, middle school, Heritage, and Liberty elementary schools to arm themselves.

“Our schools will no longer be soft targets and unprotected,” Superintendent Adam Wickham told The Marion Star. “Most active-shooter events occur in areas of ‘gun-free zones’ or with minimal safety measures in place. We want to ensure our schools will not be soft targets.”

“As a rural community, response times can often be minutes away in the event of an active shooter,” he continued. “The use of armed staff in our buildings can potentially save lives by providing a more immediate response to the threat. Recent school shootings such as in Nashville, Uvalde (Texas), and Parkland (Florida) clearly show that the quicker the response time, the more likely you are to potentially save lives.”

Wickham noted that the River Valley Local Schools policy has more stringent training than state requirements.

The bill DeWine signed, House Bill 99, states that it “allows the previous practice of permitting school boards to choose to arm specific staff members and mandates reasonable training requirements for those individuals.”

“Some have expressed questions about the training and selection process,” Wickham acknowledged. “The vast majority of parents have expressed appreciation for the proactive approach in protecting their children. That is really a main reason for adopting the use of armed staff. While we understand not everyone will support this program, every safety measure we take at River Valley, including the use of armed staff, is put in place to try and ensure our staff and students can go home safely to their families and loved ones, each and every day.”

“The River Valley Board had previously approved the use of armed staff for the 2020-21 school year,” Wickham said. “At that time the use of armed staff for the 2020-21 school year was confidential as protected by Ohio law, as part of the district’s safety plan. School districts had to suspend the use of armed staff with the Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling in the summer of 2021. Once HB 99 was passed, training details were released by the state in December of 2022, I recommended to the board resuming this program and the board approved the use of armed staff at the Jan. 12, 2023, meeting.”

Observation O’ The Day
Neighbors say this really is a quiet neighborhood…they say crime is practically unheard of, and they are stunned there was a deadly shooting.

Smyrna homeowner shoots and kills man breaking into his home

SMYRNA, Ga. – Smyrna police say a homeowner shot and killed a man who was breaking into his house Sunday evening.

First responders raced to the home near the corner of Lochlomand Lane and Highland Drive. Detectives immediately went to work. Police tape was visible along a dirt path which leads to the backyard of the house.

Police have not released the name of the homeowner or the man who was shot and killed.

Neighbors are stunned.

“That’s very terrifying to hear in this type of neighborhood,” said Paige Nowacki, who lives nearby.

Neighbors say this really is a quiet neighborhood. Just a couple of miles from Truist Park, they say this is the kind of place where everybody waves to each other. They say crime is practically unheard of, and they are stunned there was a deadly shooting.

“People protecting their houses. It happens more times than not. I’m glad the homeowners are okay and protected themselves. Still, it’s terrifying,” said Nowacki.

“There’s going to be a million arguments on why it’s a good or bad thing or surprising or not,” said another neighbor, Dakota Jarrad.

Jarrad moved into the neighborhood last year. He says he works with firearms and is trained to know how to use them to protect himself.

“You get it for a sense of protection, but you don’t want to use it,” said Jarrad.

Police say the investigation is still underway. At this time, no charges have been filed against the homeowner.

Man shoots, kills intruder in Ohio home

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A man who reportedly was trespassing in a home Saturday was shot and killed by the homeowner.

WBNS Channel 10 reports the shooting occurred at about 6 p.m. in the Southern Orchards neighborhood of Columbus. Officers were called to the home for reports of a trespasser.

By the time officers arrived, the homeowner had shot and killed the intruder, police tell WCMH Channel 4. The accused trespasser, whose identity has not been released, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The homeowner has not been charged but the incident will be reviewed by the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office, WBNS reports.

Robbery suspect who was shot by witness at Chase ATM was wanted for murder

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A stranger stepped in to help a man he witnessed being pistol-whipped by a suspected robber in southwest Houston Saturday night, according to police.

On Sunday, ABC13 learned that the suspect was wanted for murder out of Louisiana.

Investigators said the stranger saw the robbery as it was happening at a Chase Bank in the 10400 block of Westheimer Road.

A man pulled into the bank to withdraw money from the ATM when the armed suspect came around the corner and ordered him to hand over money, according to police.

Detectives said the victim reportedly began to comply until the suspect began to pistol-whip him.

That’s when police say someone driving by saw the crime happening and pulled out a gun to defend the victim.

The man shot the suspect in the leg and foot after several shots were fired. The suspect was taken to the hospital in stable condition, according to Houston police.

Investigators interviewed the victim and passersby, who were not harmed.

According to ABC13’s Safety Tracker, in the zip code where the incident happened, 77042, there have been at least 103 robberies in the area in the last year.

Guns and Control: A Nonpartisan Guide to Understanding Mass Public Shootings, Gun Accidents, Crime, Public Carry, Suicides, Defensive Use, and More

A Nonpartisan guide that arms both sides of the gun control debate.

The slogan of the Gun Facts Project is “We are neither pro-gun nor anti-gun. We are pro-math and anti-BS.” From project creator Guy Smith comes Guns and Control: A Nonpartisan Guide to Mass Public Shootings, Gun Accidents, Crime, Public Carry, Suicides, Defensive Use, and More.

No matter what side of the aisle one is on, people are baffled by gun control. This book is designed to be a guide to thoughtful discussion; it arms readers with facts and the logic behind conflicting arguments and leaves emotional rhetoric to the pundits and focuses on the thorny issues of the debate.
Guns and Control will:

• Guide readers step-wise through each of the major gun control topics: mass public shootings, assault weapons, street crime, suicide, private carry, defensive gun use, gun availability, and more.
• Help readers gain the broad perspective and the full set of important, true facts, just in time for the 2020 Presidential Election.
• Arm readers against some of the more egregious misinformation.
• Support readers in formulating their own conclusions.

Guns and Control will grant high-level perspectives—for example, that mass public shootings are a global phenomenon, occurring in nearly all developed nations—and explore details to understand the causes, and thus possible cures, of gun violence-related problems. Was the push for de-institutionalization in mental health management a contributing factor to the rise in mass public shootings? Guns and Control will help readers find answers to such questions. What the public lacks is a clear, unbiased, broad perspective on the realities of guns, explained in simple, straightforward, and entertaining ways. Guns and Control will demystify these misunderstood aspects of who uses and misuses guns.

The number of women with a concealed weapons license is on the rise

One firearms instructor attributes this increase to a rise in crime and a general feeling of discontent with the economy.

Two years ago, a pregnant Florida woman, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, gunned down one of two home invaders who had broken into her Tampa home.

The woman, who had a concealed weapons license, said the men were pistol whipping her husband when she grabbed her legally possessed firearm and fired one round.

The woman, who requested her identity be withheld, is one of the 2.5 million people who have a concealed weapons license in Florida, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. As of Feb. 28, one-third of the license holders were women.

Gun safety experts in Gainesville and neighboring communities say they have noticed a significant increase in the last four months in the number of women who wish to obtain a concealed weapons license.

Katelyn Perndoj is a 23-year-old bartender at Miller’s Ale House. She said she wants to make a living, but more importantly, she wants to stay safe.

Woman in a pink blouse and jeans leaning against a gun case — Katelyn Perndoj, a 23-year-old server at Miller’s Ale House, is seen here at Harry Beckwith Guns & Range where she will soon take the concealed weapons license course.

“I’m pretty small, so if someone wanted to snatch me it wouldn’t be hard,” she said. “I could try and fight as much as I wanted to, but I just don’t want to be put in a situation where I don’t have a fighting chance.”

Perndoj said she has registered to take the concealed weapons course at Harry Beckwith Guns & Range in late April. The course is all she will need to obtain her concealed weapons license.

“I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it,” she said. “It’s a peace of mind kinda thing.”

During the course, which is five hours long, the instructor goes over the laws, the best ways to conceal carry and how to shoot.

“We want you shooting well enough that we can trust you with a handgun at anytime, anywhere,” said Henry Keys, a 24-year-old self-defense and firearms instructor at Harry Beckwith Guns & Range in Micanopy.

Keys said he considers women the fastest-growing demographic in the gun world.

“When I first started working at Harry Beckwith in early 2022, the courses I taught were 7% or 8% women,” he said. “Now, women make up well over 25%.”

He attributes this increase to a rise in crime and a general feeling of discontent with the economy.

Chart shows 71 percent of Florida concealed weapons holders are men, and 29 percent are female

Keys said roughly 75% of the women who register to take the course are 20-29 and African American or Asian. These women cite self-defense as their reason for wanting to own a gun, and the majority know little about firearms.

“They just feel that they are in danger,” he said. “It is important to me that I am able to help them.”

Hunter Thomas, a 23-year-old gun salesman at Bass Pro Shops, agrees.

“I welcome any woman of any race, age or ethnicity to practice their Second Amendment rights,” he said.

Although Bass Pro Shops no longer offers a concealed weapons course, Thomas said he believes the number of women becoming gun owners and acquiring a concealed weapons license has multiplied since he started working for the company two years ago.

“Even as someone with a liberal political perspective, I think that since guns are so widely spread, it’s better for any law-abiding citizen to have a gun,” he said.

Lt. Jimmy Williams has been with the Clay County Sheriff’s Office for 23 years. He encourages women to obtain a concealed weapons license and learn the basics of using a firearm.

“Women need something to equalize their self-defense mechanism,” he said. “Men are typically larger and almost always stronger. I have three daughters and three granddaughters. I don’t ever want any of them, or any woman, to be in a dangerous situation with no way out.”

Close-up of guns in a gun case — Smith and Wesson handguns for sale at the Bass Pro Shops in Gainesville.

An estimated 736 million women in the world, almost 1 in 3, have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence, according to USA Facts. Seventeen percent of murder victims in the United States were killed by an intimate partner. Women account for two-thirds of these victims.

Dany Castro went from fearing guns to considering himself a “gun fanatic” in less than two years.

Castro moved from her childhood home in Tampa to her first apartment in Gainesville when she was admitted to the University of Florida in fall of 2020. After one year of constantly feeling unsafe, the 21-year-old sophomore said she decided to apply for her concealed weapons license.

“Before I left for college, I was completely unfamiliar with guns,” she said. “I didn’t grow up in a family with guns. My family didn’t hunt. I knew absolutely nothing about them. Being on my own made me realize how weak and vulnerable I was.”

Boxes of ammunition on a shelf — Handgun ammo for sale at the Bass Pro Shops in Gainesville. The top shelf is 9 mm ammo and the bottom shelf is .40-caliber S and W ammo

Castro said obtaining her license has given her a greater respect for firearms. Although she said she prays she never has to use one, she is grateful for the option.

Harley Yost, a 24-year-old University of Florida alumni, said she does not believe a gun would make her feel safe.

“I would opt for a less life-threatening deterrent,” she said. “I’m not saying no women should own a gun, but I don’t think it is your best option.”

Keys said he believes the number of women wanting to obtain a concealed weapons license will continue to grow if more restrictions are created.

“The more restrictions, the more demand,” he said. “Every time there is a new restriction put in place, gun sales and license sales skyrocket. In the circle we are in right now, nobody wants to be the last person with the gun.”

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3 suspects shot when customer opened fire during robbery at SE Houston gas station

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A shopper at a southeast Houston convenience store opened fire when four masked robbers stormed inside, sending three suspects to the hospital.

Houston police said at least one of the robbery suspects was armed.

HPD officers were called to a Circle K convenience store at a Valero gas station located at 8040 South Loop East at 7:55 p.m. Thursday.

According to Asst. Chief Ernest Garcia, four suspects in masks entered the store and started robbing customers at gunpoint.

That’s when an armed customer pulled out their weapon and shot at the suspects, Garcia said. Three of the robbery suspects were shot.

One bystander was also hurt, though it was unclear if he was shot by one of the suspects or the customer, HPD said.

All four suspects ran out of the store and to a car outside, where a fifth suspect was waiting, investigators said.

Meanwhile, the bystander was taken to the hospital via ambulance in stable condition.

The suspects left the scene and drove to a nearby hospital. One suspect who was shot is in critical condition, and the other two are stable, Garcia said.

In total, four suspects are in custody and one is still wanted, according to HPD.

Garcia said investigators believe the suspects are young males — possibly juveniles — though their exact ages are unknown.

Thinking About Absolute vs. Relative Risk of Negative Outcomes with Firearms

Lately, I have been working on the chapter of my book on American gun culture that explores negative outcomes with firearms.

Although I differ from most scholars studying guns by beginning not with gun deviance but with the normality of guns and gun owners, I do take negative outcomes seriously.

Trying to get a better understanding of how the United States compares to other countries in the world in terms of negative outcomes with firearms, I recently stumbled upon the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and its cross-national Global Burden of Disease (GBD) database (more about IHME GBD at the end).

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Almost Gun-Control Fails and Almost Armed Defense Saves Lives

Gun-control advocates will tell you that the 23-thousand firearms regulations we have today aren’t nearly enough. Those laws are simply a good start. In contrast, advocates of armed defense will tell you that the right to bear arms is horribly infringed. Both are telling the truth about what they want, but they can’t both be right. In fact the results are shockingly different. Imperfect gun-control fails time after time and imperfect armed defense stops millions of violent crimes each year. The truth is obvious if we’re willing to look.

There were over 278-thousand cases of criminals using guns during the commission of a violent crime in 2019. That is the last year for which the FBI provided complete statistics. We also had 61 mass murders with a firearm in 2021. All of these crimes were committed by a criminal who should not have had a gun. Criminals have firearms not because there are too few laws but because criminals ignore the laws we already have. Our flood of gun-control laws failed to stop violent criminals.

Every violent criminal who used a gun probably broke several gun-control laws during the commission of his crime. To start, these criminals stole a gun or bought it illegally. In addition to the sale, their possession of a gun was also illegal. They broke the law when they transported their firearm from place to place. Likewise, there are laws against criminals possessing or transporting ammunition. Concealing their firearm in public was against the law too.

These criminals don’t bother with background checks and waiting periods.

That is bad enough, but it gets worse. Gun-control laws actually made the job of mass-murderers easier and made their attacks more deadly. These criminals deliberately attacked us in “gun free” zones where honest citizens were disarmed by law.

Violent criminals who commit robbery, rape, assault, murder, or mass murder are also willing to break our firearms laws. These criminals commit many crimes before they are caught by law enforcement. That means violent criminals violate our gun-control laws several million times every year. Can that possibly surprise anyone?

Gun-control failed to stop violent criminals several million times yet gun-control advocates want us to pass more of their failing laws. Insanity is doing the same thing time after time and expecting a different result the next time you try the same old thing. That is why I think gun-control is crazy. I am as repulsed by violent crime and mass-murder as you are, and fortunately, we have options that work.

Owning a gun and using it for defense is common. Over 80-million of us own guns. 41 percent of us live in a household that has firearms. About one-in-a-dozen adults are armed in public. 30-percent of gun owners have used their firearm for defense. Honest citizens use their personal firearms for defense about 2.8-million times every year. That is a lot of armed defense and a wonderful legacy of lives that were saved.

As a conservative estimate, these armed citizens saved about 5-million victims from criminal violence. They save those lives despite the thousands of infringements on honest citizens being armed.

We know a lot about the armed citizens who have their permits to carry a firearm in public. These 20-million citizens are extraordinarily law-abiding and non-violent. They are less likely to break the law than the police. Ordinary gun owners are also less likely than the police to have an accident or shoot the wrong person. When we look at their record in the last few years, these honest gun owners stopped attempted mass-murder about half the time where they were allowed to go armed. That has stopped 104 attempted mass murders in the last seven years. That explains why mass-murderers choose “gun-free” zones.

The future is uncertain but we know some things with confidence. We know that gun-control politicians will offer their same broken solutions. We also know that ordinary citizens will be at the scene of the crime every time. We know that gun-control will fail and that armed citizens will stop violent criminals millions of times a year.

Should more of our neighbors be disarmed victims or armed defenders? That choice is up to us.

In fact, the choice is up to you.

LCSO investigating Easter homicide

BRONSON — The Levy County Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating a homicide that occurred Sunday in Bronson.

According to a news release by LCSO Lt. Scott Tummond, the sheriff’s office 911 Center received a call at approximately 3 p.m. reporting that someone had been shot.

Deputies responded to a duplex located in the town and found 40-year-old James Young Jr. deceased on the floor inside. Tummond said Young suffered a single gun shot wound to the chest.

Tummond said detectives with the LCSO were sent to the scene and it was determined, through investigation, that Young had a previous “domestic relationship” with the female occupant of the duplex.

Young went to the duplex to confront the female and was armed with a handgun when he arrived. Tummond said the two began to struggle, and the woman managed to get her own gun and fired one shot, hitting Young in the chest.

Tummond said the female ran from the residence to a neighbor’s house close by for help.

Detectives are still in the early stages of this investigation. No charges have been filed and this investigation is currently on-going.

This, and let teachers and school staff, who want to, be armed.
Private business will have to decide what each one wants to do.

There is something we can all do about mass shootings

Over the last two weeks, we’ve seen two mass shootings. Much as I’d like to say it, this isn’t unusual. Such horrible events seem to happen in clusters, where we’ll go months with relative quiet, only to see a number of shootings in fairly quick succession.

Such incidents always spark debate. We simply have to find some way to address the problem.

The thing is, we kind of already have a plan, and it’s one that doesn’t require us to trip over ourselves passing new laws.

All it takes is for people to decide to do something. We just stop making these people famous.

Here’s a take from my friend, Brad Polumbo, from a couple of years ago:

What if there was a way we could significantly reduce the number of mass shootings without either side having to sacrifice their policy principles?…

We could meaningfully decrease gun violence if both sides were simply willing to give up their cheap rhetoric. How do I know this? Because according to the American Psychological Association, the individuals who become mass shooters are often directly seeking the media infamy we continue to grant them.

Western New Mexico University Psychologist Jennifer B. Johnston has found in her research that mass shooters tend to be in the midst of rampant depression, social isolation, and pathological narcissism; they are in part driven to such heinous crime by their desire for national attention.

And it is undeniable that the wall-to-wall coverage in the wake of these mass shootings—coverage that is amplified and jacked up by partisan political attacks that instrumentalize the shooters’ names and identities—makes the crime all the more tantalizing for these mass murderers.

“We find that a cross-cutting trait among many profiles of mass shooters is desire for fame in correspondence to the emergence of widespread 24-hour news coverage on cable news programs, and the rise of the internet,” Johnston has said. “If the mass media and social media enthusiasts make a pact to no longer share, reproduce or retweet the names, faces, detailed histories or long-winded statements of killers, we could see a dramatic reduction in mass shootings in one to two years.”

In other words, we just stop making these schmucks famous.

Following both Nashville and Louisville, I’ve seen almost puff-piece-like articles describing the shooters. They give names, where they went to school, positive sentiments about the eventual killers, and everything else one would expect to see in a report on a new celebrity.

Their names get thrown around by the media with reckless abandon.

Even in death, they become celebrities of a sort. As Brad notes above, that’s what they want.

When you reward behavior, you get more of that behavior. From dogs to kids to grown adults, the truth is that if you give someone what they’re seeking when they perform a given action, you’re going to get more of that action. This is basic psychology.

Potential mass shooters see this and remember it. They want to be famous. They want to show the world.

And the media gives them exactly what they want.

No one is saying not to report on the shootings. We can and should cover them as well as details about the killers that might be relevant. We don’t need their names, though.

By letting these tools fall into obscurity, many of these shootings simply wouldn’t happen. The narcissistic need to seek fame would be sought out some other way, some way less fatal to innocent people.

And we don’t need laws to do this. We just need media outlets to stop naming names.

We don’t do it here. However, we often rely on news from places with no such efforts in place, and that bothers me.

We can take a big step with regard to mass shootings if the media would just step up for a change and do the right thing.

Athens man shoots, injures intruder in attempted burglary

An Athens man was shot early Monday after Athens-Clarke police said he burglarized a home and encountered a resident armed with a gun.

The shooting occurred at about 5:50 a.m. on the 1000 block of Tallassee Road in north Athens.

The suspect, James E. Hill, 41, of Broad Street, was treated for an arm wound, then booked into the Athens-Clarke County Jail, where he remained Tuesday without bond.

“I’m glad he’s alive and I didn’t have to be the one to take his life,” the 32-year-old resident said Tuesday when contacted.

The victim said the episode began when his girlfriend’s 16-year-old son went into the living room and saw a stranger sitting in the living room watching TV.

“He alerted us and she let me know somebody was in there. I grabbed my firearm and ran to the door,” he recalled.

The resident said he confronted the intruder, whom he had never seen before.

“He tried to reason with us, saying someone let him in and there were cops outside looking for him, but I knew no one let him in,” the man said.

The resident reported to police that the intruder had something in his hand and he was unsure at the time what it was. The suspect began running and the resident said he started shooting.

“I just wanted to scare him, but I ended up hitting him,” the resident said.

The man’s girlfriend called 911 and when police arrived, they located Hill across the street and took him into custody. Hill was carrying a Roku remote, according to the report.

Police officer Adam Sartain searched the area and collected seven 9mm shell casings. He also collected the resident’s Glock 45 9mm pistol.

Hill was subsequently charged with burglary and he provided a detective with a statement, although what Hill told the officer was not disclosed.

The resident said the intruder entered his house through a door.

“My dad had left for work and left the door unlocked,” he said.

“I never thought this would happen to me,” the resident said about using his gun. “I wanted to protect my family and my home.”

Police investigating fatal intruder shooting at Phoenix home

Phoenix police are investigating a home invasion that resulted in the fatal shooting of the intruder.

According to police, just before 6:30 p.m. Sunday, April 9, officers responded to the area of 7th and Portland streets for reports of a shooting at a home. Upon arrival, officers located a man suffering a gunshot wound in the third-story bedroom of the house. He did not survive.

Police say early information suggests that the man had unlawfully entered the residence, made threats and aggressively approached the homeowner. The homeowner then shot the man before calling police and remained on scene.

Phoenix police spokesperson Sgt. Melissa Soliz said that no arrests have been made as the investigation remained ongoing.

No other information had been released.