Category: Self Defense

It’s nice when the crims do part of the job for you, and even provide the gun.

Home invasion suspect shot accomplice before he was killed by homeowner’s son

KATY, Texas (KTRK) — A home invasion suspect was shot and killed inside a Katy home overnight, and deputies believe he accidently shot his own accomplice before his death.

Just before 11:30 p.m. Thursday, deputies with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office responded to a home invasion in the 3200 block of Windmoor Drive. There were three people inside the home at the time — a mother and her two adult sons. Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said two men dressed in body armor kicked the front door down.

The victims told investigators that the suspects were pounding on the door, identifying themselves as Houston police officers. ABC13’s Charly Edsitty spoke to the adult sons, who said they were trying to fall asleep when they heard someone yelling that they were with HPD. That’s when the sons got up to see what was happening.

Gonzalez said for unknown reasons, when the suspects got inside, they began shooting immediately. When the adult sons confronted them, one of the suspects began firing toward them. That’s when Gonzalez said the suspect may have inadvertently shot his own accomplice.

The wounded man dropped his pistol as he tried to flee, Gonzalez said.

One of the sons said he grabbed the pistol off the floor and started firing, fatally shooting the suspect that initially began shooting at them.

The suspect who was inadvertently shot ran out of the house and took off with a getaway driver in a dark-colored car, Gonzalez said.

Deputies were carefully surveying the home for evidence.

“There are some firearms. There’s ballistic evidence inside the house,” Sidney Miller with HCSO said.

Investigators said they do not think the home invasion was random and believe the home was targeted. They’re working to determine what the motive was.

The search for the two suspects who fled the scene is ongoing.

1 DEAD, 1 CRITICALLY INJURED IN SOUTH SHORE SHOOTING INVOLVING CCL HOLDER DURING ATTEMPTED ROBBERY

CHICAGO (WLS) — One person was killed and another was very critically injured in a shooting during an attempted robbery at a South Shore grocery store, which involved a concealed carry license holder.

Chicago police said the incident happened around 6:20 p.m. in the 2600-block of East 73rd Street.

According to CPD, a man walked into the store and pulled out a gun to start a robbery. A Good Samaritan who CPD said has valid FOID and CCL cards also pulled out a gun and shot the would-be robber.

The would-be robber fired back and struck a third person, the employee who he targeted to rob, police said.

The would-be robber was pronounced dead at the scene. The 64-year-old man who was shot by the offender was taken to University of Chicago Hospital in critical condition. The CCL holder was not injured.

“My grandchildren were upstairs and are terrified…so was I,” said neighbor and witness Stephen Galin.

Police said three guns have been recovered from the scene. An investigation is ongoing.

Neighbors wake to news of deadly shooting by off-duty border patrol agent

SAN ANTONIO – A deadly shooting by an off-duty U. S. Border Patrol agent early Friday morning has left people at one West Side apartment complex a bit rattled.

San Antonio police say the agent told officers it happened after he interrupted a car burglary at the complex, located near Ingram Road and Highway 151, around 2 a.m.

The agent told police he caught that man and three others breaking into a vehicle and confronted them. He said one man pointed a handgun at him, while someone else shot at him. The agent said he pulled his own weapon, hitting the man in his left armpit.

Police say the burglary suspects then carried the wounded man to a car and drove off. Investigators later learned he had been dropped off at a hospital, where he died.

Back at the apartment complex, Brian Malott and his wife were trying to make sense of the gunfire that woke them up. “She jumped up and went to the window. I said, ‘Babe, hit the ground. Go! Get down!’,” he said.

A few minutes later, Malott said he heard his neighbor, the border patrol agent, calling to him from outside. “He told me, he said ‘Neighbor, someone was in your truck. Come out quick.’ So I came out. He had already, he got one of them,” Malott said.

As it turned out, Malott’s pickup is the vehicle the suspects had targeted. He says they took a gun from the center console in his truck. He believes it is the same weapon the man pointed at the agent just before he was shot.

“The gun was laying here in a pool of blood,” he said, pointing to a wet spot on the ground.

Others, meanwhile, slept through the entire commotion, but woke later to the news. Matthew Rios said he was surprised by the shooting, but not by the car break-ins.

“It’s definitely been a problem here,” Rios said. He said a relative who also lives in the complex had her vehicle burglarized several times recently.

Rios said just Thursday morning, he discovered his car had been stolen.

“Walked up to the parking space and there’s glass all over the floor and then the car was gone,” he said. While the break-ins may not have been unexpected for Rios, he says the deadly outcome did come as a bit of a shock.

 

Phoenix police investigate Circle K shooting; store clerk claims self-defense

Phoenix police are investigating a shooting that occurred early Thursday morning at a Circle K near 35th Avenue and Greenway.

Officers responded to the area just before 2:00 a.m. after receiving calls about a shooting, Phoenix police spokesperson Sgt. Melissa Soliz said in a statement.

When police arrived, they found a man with a gunshot wound.

According to the statement, preliminary information indicates that the man who was shot and the store’s clerk got in some form of fight that ended in the clerk firing a gun at the man.

Soliz said the unidentified store clerk was interviewed by Phoenix police and claimed the shooting was in self-defense.

The gunshot victim, who is unidentified, was transported to the hospital with serious injuries where Soliz says he is now recovering.

More Reasons Anti-Gun Policymakers Are Wrong About Armed Self-Defense

Despite the June U.S. Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which clearly affirmed the right of lawful Americans to carry a firearm for self-defense outside the home, many state and local politicians continue to try to pass more-restrictive laws on firearms carry.

As this was being written, the New Jersey legislature was pushing for a ban on guns in so-called “sensitive places,” while in Longmont, Colo., city councilors were considering similar restrictions.

Unfortunately for the citizens in those jurisdictions, these policymakers ignore the fact that guns are used in self-defense well over a million times each year; in fact, four separate instances of armed self-defense in the last week of October show just how wrong-thinking these gun-ban advocates are.

On Halloween night in Spring, Texas, a woman was moving her car into her driveway when two men—one with a handgun, the other with a rifle—allegedly approached her from behind, then forced her back into her home at gunpoint.

According to a report from local media, the woman’s roommate, who was inside the home, heard her screaming and emerged, armed with a handgun to confront the intruders. During the confrontation, he appears to have shot one of the alleged criminals in the abdomen.

Fortunately, neither the woman nor her roommate were hurt. At last report, police were still looking for both of the suspects that entered the home, as well as another suspect that drove them away.

Just two days earlier, an Alabama woman proved that a loaded firearm is much more effective protection than filing a protective order. In the 1:15 a.m. break-in in Hatchechubbee, Ala., the victim shot her estranged husband once in the abdomen.

According to reports, the woman had previously filed an order of protection against the intruder, but it had expired the week before. She was in the process of having the order reinstated when the break-in occurred.

That same day, in Ferguson, Mo., a man who was attacked by alleged carjackers shot one of the three men, who he said was holding a gun, and who he claimed had reached for his car door handle.

Later that morning, a man in a nearby neighborhood looked out of the window of his home and saw what he thought was a body in his backyard, according to a report. Police believe the dead man—who was dressed in a black hoodie, black sweatpants and black tennis shoes—was likely one of the attempted carjackers.

Lastly, in Edinburg, Texas, on Oct. 25, a woman likely feared for her life when someone broke into her house through the garage and tried to get into her bedroom. According to media reports, the woman warned the man that she had called the police and that she was armed.

The man apparently didn’t believe her and, unwisely, continued his attempt to break into the bedroom. That’s when the woman shot him through the bedroom door, ending the attack.

Investigators later found the suspect in a nearby open field with a gunshot wound to the arm. He was arrested and was being held at the Hidalgo County Jail with a $750,000 bond. The woman was shaken up, but unharmed.

The next time a cynical anti-gun politician tells you normal citizens never successfully use firearms for self-defense, just tell them to read the NRA’s Armed Citizen column.

Police: Man armed with large landscaping rock fatally shot by homeowner in Fairfax Co.

OAKTON, Va. — Officers are investigating a fatal shooting that occurred outside a Fairfax County home Wednesday evening.

Around 6 p.m., officers responded to a report of a shooting at a home in the 11400 block of Waples Mill Road in Oakton, Virginia.

A man was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a news release.

Police claim that the homeowner then went back inside his house and got a firearm. At some point, the man reportedly got inside the home with an object that appeared to be a large landscaping rock. The homeowner then fired his gun and shot the man. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Detectives are still working to identify the man shot. Preliminary evidence suggests the homeowner and man did not know each other.

Police say the homeowner was taken to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries following the shooting.

The homeowner’s two children, wife and another adult were inside the home during this incident. Police said no one else was hurt.

Detectives are investigating this case as a self-defense fatal shooting.

“Hopefully, when we can positively identify this individual we can maybe start putting some puzzle pieces together,” said Second Lieutenant James Curry with the Fairfax County Police. “Again, preliminarily, we don’t have any reason to believe there was any connection between the homeowner and this man,” Curry said.

Police say they did receive a call for a strange man in the neighborhood earlier in the day Wednesday, but when officers arrived they did not see him. They are still trying to determine if it was the same man who was shot.

Police explained that they are interviewing neighbors and hope to review security video from the neighborhood that may show what happened.

Stay with WUSA9 for further updates.

Suspected intruder shot, killed while trying to crawl through home window,

A 29-year-old man was killed when police say he was shot while trying to break into a west Birmingham [Alabama] home.

The burglary call went out at 12:45 a.m. Tuesday at a house on Avenue O.

The homeowner told police the intruder was trying to crawl through the window of her house. She grabbed her gun and fired a couple of shots, striking the burglary suspect once in the chest.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the homeowner knew the man.

Authorities said the wounded man then ran a block to the Chevron on Bessemer Road where he collapsed at the front door of the store. A store worker called Birmingham 911 at 12:46 p.m.

West Precinct officers arrived at the store and provided aid to the man until paramedics arrived. He was then transported to UAB Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 2:11 a.m.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office said the man’s name is being withheld pending notification of his family. The investigation is ongoing.

The man is Birmingham’s 126th homicide this year. Of those, seven have been ruled justifiable and therefore aren’t deemed criminal.

In all of Jefferson County, there have been 170 homicides, including the 126 in Birmingham.

Gun Control vs. Gun Rights: The State of Play

Two trends that are reflected in recent state and federal gun legislation. One trend stems from the New York State Rifle and Pistol Ass’n Inc. v Bruen ruling in June, the other from the New York’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act passed in response to Bruen.

Bruen’s Domino Effect

In Bruen, the U.S. Supreme Court found that New York State’s concealed carry law was unconstitutional because it required “proper cause” for an individual to obtain a concealed carry permit. As a result, a new precedent was set for Second Amendment legislation, with many states’ gun control laws now challenged. The National Association for Gun Rights has sued several states and cities to end their assault weapons bans, including the Illinois cities of Highland Park and Naperville along with the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Hawaii. The Connecticut Citizens Defense League, along with two former Connecticut corrections officers and a firearms instructor, have also filed a lawsuit against the Connecticut assault weapons ban. In Colorado, a judge recently blocked an assault weapons ban following a lawsuit filed by the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. Bruen was also cited by a judge in West Virginia who abolished a federal law requiring firearms to have serial numbers, and by a judge in Texas who ruled that citizens under criminal indictment retain the right to bear arms.

New York’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act’s Domino Effect

However, Bruen’s no-tolerance stance did not deter Governor Kathy Hochul in her push for more gun control legislation. In July, Hochul signed the Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA). This legislation makes it illegal to carry a gun in public places such as churches, schools, subways, and Times Square. It also makes issuing concealed carry permits dependent on completion of hours of training, along with the review of every applicant’s social media activity from the past three years. Gun rights advocates immediately won a temporary restraining order against New York’s new law, but a federal appeals court lifted the restraining order a few weeks ago.

California bill similar to New York’s CCIA failed to pass the legislature by one vote. In early October, New Jersey unveiled its version, which includes stipulations such as disqualifying conceal carry applicants who have past restraining orders or other “character of temperament concerns,” (similar to the CCIA’s “good moral character” requirement which has been accused of having racist roots) and requirements for permit holders to carry insurance to protect against accidental discharge.

As we approach the 2022 midterm elections, Biden once again amped up calls to Congress to pass an assault weapons ban, Stacey Abrams vowed to roll back Georgia’s permitless firearms carry law, and candidates like Illinois senator Tammy Duckworth and Connecticut governor Ned Lamont support assault weapons bans. Politicians such as Governor Lamont have also recently referred to the overwhelming public support of gun control.

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Does Gun Control Save Lives or Cost Lives?

The world is violent. Lots of people think that we should pass more laws to make the world safer and less violent. It sounds obvious that we could reduce the number of criminals who use weapons by passing more gun-control laws. We’re not the first ones to think of that. We have thousands of gun-control regulations on the books already. I’ve been looking at the subject of gun-control and personal safety for a decade. I think gun-control laws put us at risk. The reasons are complex and not necessarily obvious.

Let’s be clear what is not under discussion here. We’re not talking about rights. Some people say they have a right to “be safe”. Some people say they have a right to “self-defense”. What you have a right to do may not have anything to do with how laws actually work in practice. Let’s look at what we already know.

We know that criminals commit violent crimes with a firearm about 510 times a day. That data is from 2019. That is the last year where the FBI has data from all 50 states.

Isn’t it obvious that we need more laws to stop those criminals? Shouldn’t we pass another law even if it only stopped a single crime? Isn’t that the least we should do?

I like that you obey the law and you think other people obey the law too. The problem of violent crime is more complex. There is more violent crime, much more than I’ve mentioned so far.  There are also lots of gun-control laws. Last, and certainly not least, honest citizens stop a lot of violent crimes because the intended victim had a gun of their own. Each of those factors has a vital influence on what gun-control laws can actually accomplish.

While it is true that criminals use guns to commit crimes, criminals also commit crimes without using a gun. In fact, that’s closer to the rule than the exception. Only one-out-of six violent criminals used a firearm (15 percent). That means that taking guns from every criminal would still leave us with a lot of non-gun crime. The remaining five-out-of-six violent criminals would still commit their acts of violence. And that assumes the currently-armed criminal will suddenly become peaceful if we took away his gun. That isn’t very realistic. Taking the gun away from a violent criminal doesn’t turn him into a nice person who obeys the law.

But we have to do something. We can’t just let armed criminals hurt people. Why shouldn’t we pass more laws?

Those are good questions, but what makes you think we haven’t “done something” already? We have over 23-thousand firearms regulations on the books today. And anti-gun politicians pass more gun-control laws every week. We should certainly be safe by now if ink-on-paper was all it took to stop crime. We’ve tried that approach tens-of-thousands of times.

OK, maybe those gun-control laws didn’t work.  We just need to write ones that will.

Let’s think this through a little more before we propose more laws. Life is more complex than what we see on the news. Bad guys are not the only ones who use guns. Good guys use guns too, a lot. Honest citizens legally use their firearms between 1.6 and 2.5-million times a year to stop violent crime or to prevent great bodily injury. That is over 4,500-times-a-day that honest citizens use a gun to save lives in the United States. Four-out-of-ten households have a gun today. One-out-of-a-dozen citizens are legally carrying a concealed firearm in public every day.

That is hard to believe. Why don’t I know that? How do I know you’re telling me the truth if the news didn’t show those stories?

Those are good questions. Those are brilliant questions. The answer will take more than a minute.

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Columbus city claims that since it’s a ‘home rule’ city, that the Ohio legislature is blocked from passing certain laws affecting city goobermint.

Court Injunction Temporarily Blocking Expanded Self-Defense Ohio Gun Law

A court injunction is now temporarily blocking part of Ohio’s expanded self-defense gun law. A Franklin County judge has granted the preliminary action, limiting House Bill 228, which was originally passed in 2018.

The injunction stems from a lawsuit filed by the City of Columbus, blocking a section of the law that partially prohibits Ohio cities from passing local gun control ordinances.

Other portions of the law that eliminate some duties to retreat before legally using a firearm in self-defense are still in place

Prosecutors cite self defense, won’t charge man in fatal shooting this week in St. Paul

Prosecutors said Friday that the man arrested in connection with a homicide early this week made a strong claim of self-defense and will not be charged.

Deandre L. Buckner, 28, of St. Paul, died shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday off Payne Avenue on the western edge of the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood, police said.

A 20-year-old man was quickly arrested near the shooting scene on suspicion of murder.

However, Ramsey County Attorney’s Office said in a statement late Friday afternoon that “we declined to file charges in this incident due to facts uncovered in the police investigation that strongly support a self-defense and defense-of-others claim by the person who fired the fatal shot.”

The office did not elaborate on the specifics of the claim by the man, whom police identified as the shooter. The Star Tribune is not naming the man, because he’s no longer subject to being charged.

A resident in the 600 block of Preble Street called 911 and said “people with guns were outside,” and shots were fired within 30 seconds, a statement from police said.

An officer nearby heard the gunfire and went to the scene, according to police. The officer found Buckner and called for additional police, the statement continued. Fire Department medics arrived and declared the man dead at the scene.

Another Church in New York files suit

New York Church Challenges State Ban on Firearms in Houses of Worship

New York Church Challenges State Ban on Firearms in Houses of Worship
First Liberty Institute, Clement & Murphy, and Ganguly Brothers challenge law adopted by NY legislature just days after Supreme Court struck down numerous state restrictions on firearms

Rochester, NY—First Liberty Institute and the law firms Clement & Murphy PLLC and Ganguly Brothers PLLC filed a federal lawsuit against the state of New York challenging the state’s prohibition on firearms at houses of worship.  The suit was filed on behalf of His Tabernacle Family Church, a nondenominational Christian church in Horseheads, New York, founded by Pastor Micheal Spencer.

You can read the complaint here.

Erin Murphy, Partner at Clement & Murphy said, “No American should be forced to sacrifice one constitutionally protected freedom to enjoy another.  Houses of worship have a constitutionally protected freedom to decide for themselves whether to allow otherwise legally possessed firearms into their facilities.”

“Singling out houses of worship for total disarmament demonstrates hostility toward religion, leaves them defenseless to rebuff violent attacks, and defies at least two recent Supreme Court rulings against New York.  Religious leaders are no less qualified than secular business owners to determine whether to allow carrying a firearm for self-defense, and New York should end its defiant assault on First and Second Amendment freedoms,” added Jordan Pratt, Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute.

In late 2020, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, chiding New York for singling out religious groups and restricting how they worship in violation of the First Amendment.  And in June 2022, the Court issued its opinion in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, invalidating New York’s unprecedented effort to limit individuals’ ability to carry a firearm outside the home.  Just days later, New York enacted expansive new laws restricting the carrying of firearms outside the home, including a total ban on carrying in houses of worship.  New York now imposes criminal liability on any person who carries a firearm into a place of worship regardless of whether that person possesses a license to carry a firearm under New York law, and regardless of whether the religious community would prefer to authorize congregants to carry a firearm.  Secular business owners, by contrast, are allowed to choose for themselves whether to allow firearms on their premises.

“Those decisions,” the complaint states, “should have taught New York to proceed with extreme caution where First or Second Amendment rights are at stake going forward.  Instead, the state recently doubled down on its rights-denying tendencies—by infringing two fundamental liberties at the same time.  New York now puts houses of worship and religious adherents to an impossible choice:  forfeit your First Amendment right to religious worship or forfeit your Second Amendment right to bear arms for self-defense.”  The complaint adds, “New York’s attempt to force houses of worship and their parishioners to choose between their First Amendment rights and their Second—an outlier policy shared by no other state in the Nation—stands as an act of defiance to the Supreme Court’s recent and emphatic holdings protecting both.”

Partially blind man shoots home intruder in buttocks

FRANKLIN, Ohio (WKRC) – A burglary attempt sent a man first to the hospital and then to jail in Franklin early Wednesday morning.

Police say they were called to a home on Park Avenue at about 3:30 a.m. after a homeowner said he shot at a burglar.

“I got a shot off him. He was coming right towards me,” the victim told 911 dispatchers.

The victim’s nephew tells Local 12 that his uncle is partially blind and had just gotten home from the hospital Tuesday evening.

Police, with the assistance of a K-9, followed a trail of blood down an alleyway and found Jeffery Carl, 36, hiding in a shed around the corner. That shed is owned by Joe Lewis, who happens to be a friend of Carl’s.

“My reaction was, ‘Damn, somebody shot that boy in the a**,’” said Lewis.

Carl is no stranger to the victim either and told police the victim was an “uncle, pretty much.” He said he broke into the victim’s house when he did because he thought the victim would still be in the hospital.

“He ain’t a dangerous person. He just got issues like all of us do,” said Lewis. Those issues include a history of drug and weapons charges. The victim’s family says that before he was shot, Carl stole guns and music equipment from the victim.

“I’d have never suspected that because he’s never touched nothing here, ever. And we got $1,000 sticks in there. Huge,” said Lewis.

Carl was taken to Atrium Medical Center and then to jail. Carl will be charged with burglary, according to police. Jail records show he also had a warrant for domestic violence.

“I’m hoping he get it right. Hoping he get his life right,” said Lewis.

Carl is locked up on a $50,000 bond.

Armed Defender Faces Four Attackers Outside of a Bar

The District Attorney sure sounds like he doesn’t like what the law required him to do and restricted him from doing. I think if he could have finagled a way, he would have charged the real victim. Poor District Attorney.

Let this DA’s words be an illumination of the fact that a lot of prosecutors do not like the idea that people have the right to defend themselves.

Northwest Body Counts Suggest Time for Change on Gun Control Is Here

It is familiar political ground in the Pacific Northwest, with rising homicide numbers providing strong evidence that gun controls in Washington have been an abject failure.

Seattle has recorded its 52nd homicide, and with two full months remaining in the year, there is no doubt the number will eventually exceed the 53 recorded two years ago. The city, as previously reported, is headquarters to the billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobbying group Alliance for Gun Responsibility. The organization has bankrolled two restrictive gun control initiatives since 2014, making it difficult for law-abiding citizens to exercise their rights while demonstrably not accomplishing the promise of reduced gun-related violence and murder.

Down the road 175 miles, Portland is the tarnished gem of Oregon, with more than 80 slayings so far this year and an outlook for hitting a new record. It is against this backdrop Beaver State anti-gunners hope to pass next week a restrictive gun control measure—Ballot Measure 114—that will require a permit to purchase a firearm and add more restrictions including a training requirement.

At least one county sheriff—Brad Lohrey of Sherman County—told Fox News, “It is impossible for us to do what they’re asking us to do.”

In decades past, Seattle and Portland were known as laid-back growing metropolises, with far left politics and lots of tourist attractions. Nowadays, both cities are experiencing drug and gang epidemics, and crime is spiking because police manpower is down.

There may be change coming, in both states. Oregon appears on track to elect the first Republican governor in a generation. In Washington, there could be changes in the legislature and some changes in congressional representation as well. With changes in people, there will be changes in policy, but it all depends upon a strong turnout of gun owners and conservative voters across both states.

Gun politics is playing out in other regions. The Des Moines Register is editorializing against a proposed state constitutional amendment affirming the right to keep and bear arms. Iowa is one of a handful of states without such an amendment, and gun owners are seeking to change that.

But the newspaper is dead set against protecting the right at the state level, continuing a trend where the media uses the First Amendment to throttle the Second. It excoriates the June Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen for opening the door to both legal challenges and court corrections of infringements on the right to be armed. This suggests anti-gunners still haven’t accepted the explanation in Justice Clarence Thomas’ majority opinion that the Second Amendment must be treated like all other rights.

For decades, gun control proponents have had it their way, with incremental imposition of restrictions on gun owners. Violent crime is increasing, not decreasing. Election Day could change that pattern, with a new Congress and power shifts at the state level, rejection of Oregon’s ballot measure and adoption of Iowa’s proposed amendment. At least, that is the perspective of Second Amendment activists who are hoping for a strong turnout of “gun voters” Nov. 8.

Just more willful ignorance

BLUF
The stereotype of gun owners is a lie. The media calls us male-pale-and-stale, and who cares if old white men are disarmed anyway. In fact, gun owners now look like a cross section of the USA. Minority urban women are the fastest growing segment of new gun owners. I think Democrat politicians are afraid that more women and minorities will decide to become gun owners. These new gun owners might enter the culture of armed America and protect themselves.

That fear keeps Democrat politicians up at night.

New Gun Owners are Invisible to the News Media and Democrat Politicians

More people own guns today than ever before. That growth is a continuation of a long term trend that goes back several decades. In addition to that gradual increase, we’ve also seen an extraordinary growth in new gun buyers in the last two years. We had to rewrite who owns guns and why they own them. Today, about four-out-of-ten families have a firearm in their home. Despite the astounding changes in gun ownership, the way some politicians talk about guns and gun owners is out of date. New gun owners are subjected to a crash course in being misperceived and misrepresented by politicians and by the mainstream news media alike.

What is real and what is fantasy?

Sitting President, Joe Biden, echoed old myths about gun owners at a fundraising event in June. He said,

“More people get killed with their own gun in their home trying to stop a burglar than, in fact, any other cause.. Think about that. Because it’s hard to do. It’s a hard thing to do.”

Mayor John Fetterman, the Democrat candidate for the US Senate from Pennsylvania, also felt the need to comment on guns and gun ownership. He said,

“I have seen with my own eyes at the scenes in my community what a military grade round does to the human body.” He said that rifles, particularly modern rifles, should be outlawed.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said,

“This whole concept that a good guy with a gun will stop the bad guys with a gun, it doesn’t hold up. And the data bears this out, so that theory is over.”

Those statements don’t fit what we know. We know a lot about new gun owners because we talked with them. Gun stores asked new gun owners why they wanted a gun so the gun shop employee could direct the customer to the appropriate products. The industry trade group representing firearms manufacturers and distributors collected those answers. The stereotypical gun owner used to be an old white man who bought a gun to go hunting. Several years ago, personal safety replaced hunting as the major reason new gun owners buy a firearm. Today, gun owners are from every demographic group; male and female, rich and poor, urban and rural. Gun owners represent every ethnic and racial group. About one-out-of-four African-American adults own a firearm. It seems strange that the mainstream media and politicians have deliberately ignored that change.

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The New York Times Isn’t Comfortable With the Prospect of Constitutional Carry Enabling More People to Protect Themselves

If my research convinces me of anything,” [John R. Lott Jr.] said, “it’s that you’re going to get the biggest reduction in crime if the people who are most likely victims of violent crime, predominantly poor Blacks, are the ones who are getting the permits.”

In Dallas, there has been a rise in the number of homicides deemed to be justifiable, such as those conducted in self-defense, even as overall shootings have declined from last year’s high levels.

“We’ve had justifiable shootings where potential victims have defended themselves,” said the Dallas police chief, Eddie Garcia. “It cuts both ways.”

Last October in Port Arthur, Texas, a man with a handgun, who had a license, saw two armed robbers at a Church’s Chicken and fired through the drive-through window, fatally striking one of the men and wounding the other. His actions were praised by the local district attorney.

Michael Mata, the president of the local police union in Dallas, said that he and his fellow officers had seen no increase in violent crime tied to the new permitless carry law, though there were “absolutely” more guns on the street.

Sheriff David Soward of Atascosa County, a rural area south of San Antonio, said he had also seen no apparent increase in shootings. “Only a small percentage of people actually take advantage of the law,” he said.

— J. David Goodman in Texas Goes Permitless on Guns, and Police Face an Armed Public

HOUSTON — Tony Earls hung his head before a row of television cameras, staring down, his life upended. Days before, Mr. Earls had pulled out his handgun and opened fire, hoping to strike a man who had just robbed him and his wife at an A.T.M. in Houston.

Instead, he struck Arlene Alvarez, a 9-year-old girl seated in a passing pickup, killing her.

“Is Mr. Earls licensed to carry?” a reporter asked during the February news conference, in which his lawyer spoke for him.

He didn’t need one, the lawyer replied. “Everything about that situation, we believe and contend, was justified under Texas law.” A grand jury later agreed, declining to indict Mr. Earls for any crime.

The shooting was part of what many sheriffs, police leaders and district attorneys in urban areas of Texas say has been an increase in people carrying weapons and in spur-of-the-moment gunfire in the year since the state began allowing most adults 21 or over to carry a handgun without a license.

At the same time, mainly in rural counties, other sheriffs said they had seen little change, and proponents of gun rights said more people lawfully carrying guns could be part of why shootings have declined in some parts of the state.

Far from an outlier, Texas, with its new law, joined what has been an expanding effort to remove nearly all restrictions on carrying handguns. When Alabama’s “permitless carry” law goes into effect in January, half of the states in the nation, from Maine to Arizona, will not require a license to carry a handgun.

The state-by-state legislative push has coincided with a federal judiciary that has increasingly ruled in favor of carrying guns and against state efforts to regulate them.

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Alexandria resident shoots, kills attempted intruder

ALEXANDRIA, La. (WNTZ) – An Alexandria man was shot and killed when he attempted to break into a residence early this morning.

At 6:23 a.m., Alexandria Police Department received a report of a shooting involving a resident in the Chester Street area. Investigation revealed that Deon Dominique Hammond, 26, of Alexandria, banged on the door of a residence and demanded entry. When the resident came out of the house and asked him to leave, he chased the resident, who fired at Hammond, fatally wounding him.

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At this time, APD is considering the shooting to be justified, with no charges filed against the resident.

You can’t make this up, Delaware edition

Delaware sets dates for compensated confiscation of magazines

Earlier this year Delaware Gov. Jay Carney signed several new gun control bills into law, including a ban on so-called “large capacity” magazines. Not only are the sale of new magazines prohibited to most citizens, but most existing owners are required under the new law to either permanently modify them, remove them from the state, destroy them, or hand them over to police.

A few months ago the state announced that a series of “buybacks” would be held in conjunction with the new law taking effect, and this week we learned when and where Delaware gun owners can report to the compensated confiscation events.

Those handing over magazines with a capacity between 18 and 30 rounds can receive $15 per magazine, while those with a magazine capacity of more than 31-rounds are eligible for $25 compensation. The state police will also hand out $80 for every drum magazine that’s turned in, but in order to receive any money all participants must show the police a valid Delaware state ID card or driver’s license.

The Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association, with assistance from the NRA, is suing over the magazine ban in federal court, and DSSA president Jeff Hague says the ban is problematic on multiple levels.

“It’s not going to reduce the number of criminals using firearms in the commission of felonies,” Hague said. “It’s only going to affect law-abiding citizens because criminals aren’t going to turn in something that’s their livelihood to get money. Or if they do, they’re going to turn them in and get some money and then go buy another one.”

… Mitch Denham of the 23,000-member Facebook group Delaware Gun Rights is urging owners of 17-plus-round magazines to store them safely pending the outcome of the looming court challenge.

“When the lawsuits are over then maybe you can talk about what you think is right for you,’’ said Denham, who is exempted from the ban because he has a concealed carry permit.

The fact that concealed carry holders are exempted from the magazine ban doesn’t make any sense from a gun control perspective. After all, even those individuals can have their guns and magazines stolen, and if the goal is to remove these “accessories to war” from society, allowing concealed carry holders to maintain possession of their magazines and purchase additional magazines in the future is, if anything, only going to encourage more people to obtain their concealed carry license.

I think this law was written to pass political, not constitutional muster. In order to assure passage, sponsors attempted to water down the bill to make it palatable to more lawmakers; exempting concealed carry holders, setting the magazine limit at 17-rounds, and making a first violation a fine punishable by $100, for example. Those modifications haven’t mollified gun owners, and I’m curious to see what sort of historical precedents the state will cite to the courts in their attempt to uphold the law, because I’m certainly not aware of any longstanding laws like this at the time the Second or Fourteenth Amendments were ratified.

I’m even more curious to see what kind of turnout the police receive during their first compensated confiscation events, which are scheduled to take place on Wednesday, November 16th. Given that there’s a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the ban and a first offense only amounts to a fine, my guess is that the vast majority of Delaware gun owners are going to hang on to what they have and the state troopers running the “buyback” are going to get more rest and relaxation than “large capacity” magazines.