Burglary ends with suspect shot in Camden County

CAMDENTON, Mo. — The Camden County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) is investigating a burglary that ended in a shooting that has left one dead.

According to a press release for CCSO, deputies were called to a Camdenton residence on North Highway 7 at around 3 a.m. on Oct. 2 for a burglary in progress.

The 911 caller told dispatchers that they had shot one of the burglars, while another drove off in an unknown make and model, dark-colored vehicle, according to the release. First responders provided medical care to the suspect, who died at the scene.

“They also told us that one of the subjects was able to escape,” Camden County Sgt. Scott Hines said. “They got into a dark-colored vehicle, no make no model and drove off. By the time our deputies got there, the subject was deceased.”

In Missouri under the castle doctrine, it is legal for an individual to use deadly force to defend themselves against an intruder.

“Essentially, what the castle doctrine says, is that if you’re in fear for your life, you do have the right to protect yourself,” said Hines. “And I’ll let the attorneys get into the weeds on that. But that’s the long and the short of it and in this situation, I think that we’re going to find it.”

“We’re [a] community here, we all know one another in this community. We have each other’s back,” Garcia said. “It’s not really much of a situation where, ‘oh, did you hear this happened?’ Just like I said it’s very unexpected when something like that happens.”

Authorities are still searching for the second suspect.

CCSO says deputies and detectives are working at the scene to investigate, and does not believe there is an active threat to the public.

The supposed quietude of a good mans allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside…Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them… — Thomas Paine

Latest ‘Ghost Gun’ Claims Have Tons of Problems

Ages ago, I owned an AK-47 clone. I built it from a kit I purchased along with a less than 80 percent receiver I bought, then took it to a build party with some friends and got a great gun out of the deal as well as a fun day.

This was long before so-called ghost guns were the scourge of the world. No one had even heard the term and a few years later, when we did, we laughed at it and for good reason.

Now, though, the term is everywhere. What’s more, rules got put in place–without Congress, it should be noted–to supposedly stem the tide.

And it seems that we’re getting some mixed signals on the efficacy of those restrictions.

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BLUF
Over the last 4 years, the Biden-Harris admin has steadily transformed FEMA — the agency responsible for responding to natural disasters like Hurricane Helene — into an illegal alien resettlement agency that emphasizes DEI over public safety.

Biden-Kamala Regime Burns $1 BILLION in FEMA Funds to Resettle Illegal Immigrants — FEMA Now Lacks Resources for Disaster Response!

As Hurricane Helene tears through the eastern seaboard, leaving devastation in its wake, the mismanagement of FEMA under the Biden-Harris regime is hitting home with deadly consequences.

The storm’s ferocious winds and torrential rains have claimed at least 190 lives, left millions without power, and trapped countless families in floodwaters across North Carolina and beyond. Entire communities have been cut off from vital resources, with citizens scrambling for help.

Yet, in the face of this national disaster, the Biden-Harris administration’s FEMA appears woefully unprepared.

Why? Because over the past two years, they have funneled more than $1 billion in taxpayer dollars away from American disaster relief efforts — and into the pockets of illegal immigrants.

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There have been only three servicemembers assigned to 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment- Delta that have been awarded the nation’s highest honor for heroism in combat action, while serving in the unit. These Sergeants were the first two, awarded posthumously seven months after they were killed in action.

Oppressors Beware

23 May 1994

Medal Of Honor

Citation

Master Sergeant Ivan Gordon, United States Army, distinguished himself by actions above and beyond the call of duty on 3 October 1993, while serving as Sniper Team Leader, United States Army Special Operations Command with Task Force Ranger in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Master Sergeant Gordon’s sniper team provided precision fires from the lead helicopter during an assault and at two helicopter crash sites, while subjected to intense automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenade fires. When Master Sergeant Gordon learned that ground forces were not immediately available to secure the second crash site, he and another sniper unhesitatingly volunteered to be inserted to protect the four critically wounded personnel, despite being well aware of the growing number of enemy personnel closing in on the site.

After his third request to be inserted, Master Sergeant Gordon received permission to perform his volunteer mission. When debris and enemy ground fires at the site caused them to abort the first attempt, Master Sergeant Gordon was inserted one hundred meters south of the crash site. Equipped with only his sniper rifle and a pistol, Master Sergeant Gordon and his fellow sniper, while under intense small arms fire from the enemy, fought their way through a dense maze of shanties and shacks to reach the critically injured crew members.

Master Sergeant Gordon immediately pulled the pilot and the other crew members from the aircraft, establishing a perimeter which placed him and his fellow sniper in the most vulnerable position. Master Sergeant Gordon used his long range rifle and side arm to kill an undetermined number of attackers until he depleted his ammunition. Master Sergeant Gordon then went back to the wreckage, recovering some of the crew’s weapons and ammunition.

Despite the fact that he was critically low on ammunition, he provided some of it to the dazed pilot and then radioed for help. Master Sergeant Gordon continued to travel the perimeter, protecting the downed crew.

After his team member was fatally wounded and his own rifle ammunition exhausted, Master Sergeant Gordon returned to the wreckage, recovering a rifle with the last five rounds of ammunition and gave it to the pilot with the words, “good luck.” Then, armed only with his pistol, Master Sergeant Gordon continued to fight until he was fatally wounded. His actions saved the pilot’s life.

Master Sergeant Gordon’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest standards of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit and the United States Army.

Medal Of Honor

Citation

Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart, United States Army, distinguished himself by actions above and beyond the call of duty on 3 October 1993, while serving as a Sniper Team Member, United States Army Special Operations Command with Task Force Ranger in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Sergeant First Class Shughart provided precision sniper fires from the lead helicopter during an assault on a building and at two helicopter crash sites, while subjected to intense automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenade fires. While providing critical suppressive fires at the second crash site, Sergeant First Class Shughart and his team leader learned that ground forces were not immediately available to secure the site. Sergeant First Class Shughart and his team leader unhesitatingly volunteered to be inserted to protect the four critically wounded personnel, despite being well aware of the growing number of enemy personnel closing in on the site.

After their third request to be inserted, Sergeant First Class Shughart and his team leader received permission to perform this volunteer mission. When debris and enemy ground fires at the site caused them to abort the first attempt, Sergeant First Class Shughart and his team leader were inserted one hundred meters south of the crash site.

Equipped with only his sniper rifle and a pistol, Sergeant First Class Shughart and his team leader, while under intense fire from the enemy, fought their way through a dense maze of shanties and shacks to reach the critically injured crew members.

Sergeant First Class Shughart pulled the pilot and the other crew members from the aircraft, establishing a perimeter which placed him and his fellow sniper in the most vulnerable position. Sergeant First Class Shughart used his long range rifle and side arm to kill an undetermined number of attackers while traveling the perimeter, protecting the downed crew.  Sergeant First Class Shughart continued his protective fire until he depleted his ammunition and was fatally wounded. His actions saved the pilot’s life.

Sergeant First Class Shughart’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest standards of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.

The Battle of Mogadishu: Firsthand Accounts from the Men of Task Force Ranger Paperback – Illustrated, July 26, 2005

“No matter how skilled the writer of nonfiction, you are always getting the story secondhand. Here’s a chance to go right to the source. . . . These men were there.”
–MARK BOWDEN (from the Foreword)

It started as a mission to capture a Somali warlord. It turned into a disastrous urban firefight and death-defying rescue operation that shocked the world and rattled a great nation. Now the 1993 battle for Mogadishu, Somalia–the incident that was the basis of the book and film Black Hawk Down–is remembered by the men who fought and survived it. Six of the best in our military recall their brutal experiences and brave contributions in these never-before-published, firstperson accounts.

“Operation Gothic Serpent,” by Matt Eversmann: As a “chalk” leader, Eversmann was part of the first group of Rangers to “fast rope” from the Black Hawk helicopters. It was his chalk that suffered the first casualty of the battle.

“Sua Sponte: Of Their Own Accord,” by Raleigh Cash: Responsible for controlling and directing fire support for the platoon, Cash entered the raging battle in the ground convoy sent to rescue his besieged brothers in arms.

“Through My Eyes,” by Mike Kurth: One of only two African Americans in the battle, Kurth confronted his buddies’ deaths, realizing that “the only people whom I had let get anywhere near me since I was a child were gone.”

“What Was Left Behind,” by John Belman: He roped into the biggest firefight of the battle and considers some of the mistakes that were made, such as using Black Hawk helicopters to provide sniper cover.

“Be Careful What You Wish For,” by Tim Wilkinson: He was one of the Air Force Pararescuemen or PJs–the highly trained specialists for whom “That Others May Live” is no catchphrase but a credo–and sums up his incomprehensible courage as “just holding up my end of the deal on a bad day.”

“On Friendship and Firefights,” by Dan Schilling: As a combat controller, he was one of the original planners for the deployment of SOF forces to Mogadishu in the spring of 1993. During the battle, he survived the initial assault and carnage of the vehicle convoys only to return to the city to rescue his two closest friends, becoming, literally, “Last Out.”

With America’s withdrawal from Somalia an oft-cited incitement to Osama bin Laden, it is imperative to revisit this seminal military mission and learn its lessons from the men who were there and, amazingly, are still here.

October 3, 2024

1990 – Tag der Deutschen Einheit. The German Democratic Republic is abolished and becomes part of the Federal Republic of Germany

1993 – An American attempt to capture a warlord in Mogadishu fails, resulting in 18 US soldiers being killed, and 1 taken prisoner.

 

Terror royalty: Nasrallah’s son-in-law killed in airstrike on Damascus, days after brother – report

Hassan Jafar Qassir’s reported assassination is another severe blow to Hezbollah as its leadership has been slowly picked off in Israeli operations.

Hassan Nasrallah’s son-in-law, Hassan Jafar Qassir, may have been killed in airstrikes in the Mezzeh neighborhood in Damascus on Wednesday, according to early reports published by Sky News Arabic.

Hassan is the brother of Muhammad Jafar Qassir, who was killed in a strike in Beirut on Wednesday during the Iranian attack on Israel.

Hassan’s assassination is another severe blow to Hezbollah as its leadership has been slowly picked off in Israeli operations.

Qassir brothers 

The Qassir brothers have been deeply involved in terrorism since at least the 1982 Lebanon War, when on November 11, Ahmad Qassir drove his car into an Israeli base in Tyre, detonating the explosives onboard. This marked the first suicide bombing in Lebanese history.

Ahmad was guided by one of Hezbollah’s founding figures, Imad Mughniya, who was mysteriously assassinated in Damascus in 2008.

His death is commemorated every year with “Martyr Day,” in which Hezbollah celebrates suicide bombing.

Ahmad’s attack still required the religious seal of approval in the form of a fatwa from one of Shia Islam’s highest-ranked clerics, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Terror royalty

With the fatwa secured, the Qassir family swiftly became terror royalty, with Ahmad being termed the “first martyr.”

His brothers, Muhammed and Hassan, both rose in the ranks of the nascent Hezbollah.

Muhammed became a leading figure in the deliveries of Iranian weapons from Syria, and Hassan married Hassan Nasrallah’s daughter, cementing their connection to Hezbollah and Iran.

Muhammed became such a notorious figure the US offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his death or capture.

In 2018, the US Treasury Department designated him a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, meaning “among other consequences, all property and interests in property of Qassir that are subject to US jurisdiction are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with Qassir.”

According to the sanctions, he helped oversee several front companies that funneled money into Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in particular through the sale of oil and other untraceable products.

Marion Hammer Resigns From NRA Board, Talks to AmmoLand News

Marion Hammer, the first female president of the National Rifle Association and veteran gun rights lobbyist in Florida as head of the Unified Sportsmen of Florida (USF), has resigned from the NRA Board of Directors, ending a 42-year tenure as one of the organization’s most powerful voices.

First elected to the board in 1982, Hammer rose through the ranks and served as NRA President for two terms, from 1995 to 1998. She stepped into the role upon the death of then-President Tom Washington, who had suffered a heart attack while hunting deer in Michigan. Standing barely 5 feet tall, Hammer earned a reputation for being a tough and effective proponent of the Second Amendment and the NRA.

In a telephone chat with AmmoLand News, she confirmed that NRA halted grants to maintain USF, so the organization effectively no longer exists.

Hammer, now 85 and with a slightly frail voice, acknowledges what was in an email to an unidentified confidant and which has been published on the website NRAinDanger. In that message, Hammer recalled she had been encouraged to run for the BOD in 1981 by the late Harlon B. Carter. She contacted then-NRA Secretary Warren Cheek, telling him she would run only if nominated by the Nominating Committee, not by petition.

In that message, she also wrote, “The NRA today is both a disappointment and an embarrassment.”

Her resignation is from the board only. She remains a member of the Executive Council, and the only thing she says has changed is that she no longer has a vote as an NRA director, but she still has “a voice.”

“I haven’t been able to go to board meetings for quite a while,” Hammer said. “I made room for somebody who can vote.”

Comments on NRAinDanger were not entirely flattering to Ms. Hammer, reminding readers she was former Executive Vice President Wayne “LaPierre’s most staunch…defender.” However, at least a couple of respondents noted how Hammer “was the tail that wagged the dog for the 2nd Amendment in Florida. And Florida became the tail that wagged the USA to where we now have 29 Constitutional Carry states. What happened in Florida got us to Heller, to McDonald, and to Bruen.”

Another reader responded, “I was on a couple conference calls late 80s early 90s…that she was part of. She truly was a force of nature back then.”

However, others are highly critical, citing, among other things, money she was paid by NRA to lead and operate Unified Sportsmen of Florida.

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Hawkins: The Government Has No Rights, but the People Do
Although Democrat and other leftist politicians will, from time to time, speak of the government’s ‘rights,’ we must never forget the government has no rights. Only the people have rights and the government, on the other hand, has powers.

Moreover, the government’s powers are delegatory rather than original. In other words, the powers possessed by the government are those which the people delegated to it via the framework of the U.S. Constitution, and those powers are neither ambiguous nor infinite.

This is most easily understood if you think about the U.S. Constitution as establishing a compact between the people and the government, a compact best explained by Thomas Jefferson in the 1798 Kentucky Resolutions.

Jefferson wrote:

Resolved, That the several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general Government for special purposes,—delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government…

Jefferson was strongly impacted by John Locke, who had written, “The liberty of man, in society, is to be under no other legislative power, but that established, by consent, in the commonwealth.”

Jefferson and Locke are saying the same thing, just in a slightly different way. The lesson to be drawn is that the people enter into a “compact” (Jefferson) wherein they “consent” (Locke) to certain a degree of legislative power over their persons as they move about in society.

However, the people retain authority because they possess rights.  Thus Madison, in Federalist 46, observed that “ultimate authority…resides in the people alone.”

It is under this authority the people loan or delegate certain powers to the government via the U.S. Constitution and, with that same authority, the people added the Bill of Rights to hedge in certain, inalienable rights as being outside the government’s purview. Among these inalienable rights is the right to keep and bear arms.

As I highlighted last week, the right to keep and bear arms is not something we as Americans possess because of government benevolence, but something with which our Creator endowed us. It is one of the rights specifically enumerated by our Founding Fathers and hedged in by the Second Amendment. Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution is the government given powers to regulate the ability of the American people to be armed.

Regulation of this natural right is not part of the compact; rather, the complete opposite is true: The government is told in plain English that the rights protected by the Second Amendment “shall not be infringed.”

In summation: The people have rights and the government merely possesses powers. The people’s rights are theirs at birth while the government’s powers belong to it only as long, and in such a fashion, as the people decide they should.

Second Amendment Roundup: Textualism and ATF’s Redefinition of “Firearm”
The statutory history of the Gun Control Act cuts in favor of the VanDerStok respondents.

This is my second installment preceding the upcoming October 8 argument in Garland v. VanDerStok, a challenge to the regulatory redefinition of the term “firearm” in the Gun Control Act.  By expanding the statutory definition, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) in its 2022 Final Rule purports to criminalize numerous innocent acts that Congress never made illegal.

Until the new rule, a kit with partially-machined raw material that can be fabricated into a firearm was not considered to have reached a stage that it is a “firearm.”  To prevent Americans from making their own firearms from such material, which has always been and remains lawful, the bugbear term “ghost guns” was recently coined.  In its VanDerStok brief, the government argues that “anyone with basic tools and rudimentary skills” can “assemble a fully functional firearm” from such kits “in as little as twenty minutes.”

As explained in my last post, that is refuted by none other than the former Acting Chief of ATF’s Firearm Technology Branch, Rick Vasquez, who reviewed and approved hundreds of classifications about whether certain items are “firearms.”  As he explained in his amicus brief, fabrication of a firearm from these kits is a complex process requiring skill and special tools beyond the capacity of the average person.

In this post I’ll trace the statutory history of the term “firearm” to gain insight into its meaning.  The Gun Control Act defines “firearm” as “(A) any weapon (including a starter gun) which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive; (B) the frame or receiver of any such weapon….”  18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(3).  An ATF regulation on the books from 1968 to 2022 defined a “frame or receiver” as “that part of a firearm which provides housing for the hammer, bolt or breechblock and firing mechanism,” i.e., the main part of a firearm to which the barrel and stock attach.

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