Category: Self Defense

Not unexpected. They demand the drivers be helpless

Uber suspends driver who shot alleged cop impersonator in Buckhead

An Uber driver who shot a man Sunday in presumed self-defense has been suspended from the ride-share platform while the company investigates.

The man she shot, 21-year-old Tyriq Wiggins-Younger, followed the driver about two miles from a motel on Cheshire Bridge Road to a Target store on Peachtree Road in Buckhead, where Atlanta police said he crashed into her car and she shot him multiple times. No charges are pending against the Uber driver, but Wiggins-Younger is facing several charges, including impersonating an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.

In newly released 911 audio, the Uber driver told authorities she had never seen the man before and thought he was trying to kill her. She is frantic as she stays on the line with emergency dispatchers, screaming when her vehicle is rear-ended several times.

“I’m on Lenox Road,” the woman said as she passed Lenox Square. “They keep following me. I don’t know who this (expletive) is but they keep following me. I’m trying to find a policeman.”

According to police, Wiggins-Younger ran the woman’s Audi A3 off the road and both vehicles crashed on a sidewalk outside Target. The woman can be heard asking the man “who are you?” and “are you a maniac?” as she warns him to stay back. She announces she has a gun and will shoot to kill. She is hysterical.

A single shot rings out, but a male voice continues speaking to the woman.

“You’re not a cop, you crazy (expletive),” the woman said at one point during the 12-minute 911 call, just before a second gunshot is heard.

Police arrived at the Target shortly before 11:45 p.m. and found Wiggins-Younger in the parking deck with three gunshot wounds, one in the back, one in the leg and one in the shoulder. He told officers he was an active member of the LAPD and tried to pull the woman over for a traffic violation. He did not have any identification, and his Chevrolet Cruz was not equipped for lights or sirens, according to a police report.

In addition to the impersonation charge, Wiggins-Younger was arrested on charges of aggravated assault and drug possession. Police found a small plastic bag of suspected cocaine, marijuana and a smoke pipe in his Chevrolet, according to the report.

Atlanta police confirmed Thursday they do not intend to bring charges against the Uber driver, who shot “fearing for her safety” and is considered the victim in this case, according to a department spokesperson. The police investigation remains active.

But carrying a gun while driving for Uber, in violation of the company’s firearms policy, has cost the woman access to the app. No drivers or passengers are allowed to carry guns while using the app.

In metro Atlanta, shootings involving Uber drivers have become commonplace. Earlier this year, a pregnant woman was forced into early labor after College Park police said she was shot by her Uber driver. In 2021, one Uber driver was killed outside a nightclub in Union City, and another was arrested in a separate shooting that killed a passenger at a northeast Atlanta gas station.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Uber said the company has removed app access for the driver in Sunday’s shooting but will re-evaluate her status if she can submit written clearance from law enforcement that she is not being charged.

“The reported details are frightening, and we’re relieved the driver was unharmed,” the spokesperson said. “We’re in touch with the driver as we continue to look into this incident. We’re standing by to assist law enforcement on their investigation.”

Man shot and killed after attempting to enter Lenoir City home

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — One man was found shot and killed Tuesday after a homeowner said he attempted to force his way into the residence, Lenoir City Police said.

Officers responded to West 2nd Avenue around 10:15 p.m. for a report of a disturbance. Upon arrival, officers became aware of another disturbance at a nearby home on the same street where a man reportedly attempted to force his way into the residence.

Lenoir City Police said the owner of the second home shot the man, identified as 20-year-old Michael Owen, multiple times. Owen was pronounced dead at the scene.

The initial disturbance police had responded to was between Owen and people living at the first West 2nd Ave home. Witnesses told police that Owen was acting erratically before the shooting and claimed that he may have been under the influence of an unknown substance.

The body has been sent for an autopsy.

 

Judge Napolitano is too kind. Actually she doesn’t have blinders on. She’s just another wanna-be tyrant who complains about the Constitutional restrictions on goobermint like they all do.

BLUF:
The governor has blinders on. She complains of too much freedom. In New York, there is too little.

Blaming the Constitution

Within hours of the tragic killings of 10 Americans — nine Black and one white — in a Buffalo supermarket by a deranged white racist last week, the governor of New York began calling for infringements upon personal liberty. First, she argued that social media platforms were somehow liable for these killings since they provided a platform from which the killer could reinforce his hatreds and on which he could manifest them.

Then, she argued that hate speech and incendiary speech should be prosecuted. Finally, she attacked the U.S. Supreme Court, which is about to rule on a challenge to New York’s restrictive concealed carry laws. She said twice that “New York is ready for you.” It is unclear just what she meant, but the implication was that she’d find a way around whatever the court rules.

She uttered a bitter constitutional mouthful.

From the writings and mental history of the gunman, we know that he was and is deeply disturbed. Police brought him to a mental hospital after he made threats at school, and his hatreds were posted on dark websites. Nevertheless, New York gun laws — among the strictest in the country — did not stop him from lawfully purchasing a rifle and the ammunition with which to use it.

The gun control crowd, personified by the governor, makes critical errors in its arguments and shows material misunderstandings of fundamental liberties.

Its critical error is a mistaken belief that someone willing to commit mass murder will somehow comply with gun regulations. It doesn’t matter to the killer what the gun laws are; he will find a way to attempt to kill. What matters is a set of laws with which law-abiding folks do comply, the effect of which is to neuter their ability to defend themselves.

This column has steadfastly maintained that the only language mass murderers respect is their own — violence. Only violence against them, or its serious imminent threat, will stop them.

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Gun Owners Need to Think Like Supply Chain Managers Before the Next Ammo Shortage.

During the two years that COVID-19 has altered American life, we have seen shortages of goods ranging from toilet paper and N95 masks to semiconductors and new cars. The supply chain disruptions that fueled those shortages often followed a general pattern.

  • Unexpected demand caused booming sales for a given product.
  • Retailers and manufacturers depleted their inventories of that product.
  • Supply chain bottlenecks such as temporary Covid-related factory closures or delayed shipments prevented firms from replenishing their inventories, leading to stockouts, rationing, and higher prices.
  • With their resources and options limited, manufacturers and retailers streamlined their offerings, focusing on their most popular products while abandoning niche items.

While gun and ammunition supply chains are unique in some ways, they have experienced many of the same problems and trends seen in other industries during the pandemic.

Below, we examine how gun and ammo supply chains performed in the face of massive demand and outline supply chain principles that will help gun owners prepare for future shortages.

Firearm Supply Chains

Guns

When uncertainty looms, demand for guns surges. Anxiety over election outcomes, civil unrest, and increasing crime rates all fuel demand spikes. In fact, the connection between gun prices and the federal election cycle is strong and predictable enough to be classified as an economic law. But the COVID-19 pandemic raised the bar considerably.

Many gun buyers seem worried that the exponential spread of COVID-19 will lead to a season of hard-to-find essentials — of illness-related disruptions in the grocery supply chain — with angry have-nots out to steal from the haves.

From the Washington Post . . .

Speaking to the Charlotte Observer, a North Carolina [firearms retailer] said, “Our new motto is, ‘Dedicated to helping you protect your toilet paper.’”

The coronavirus, supply chain disruptions, social unrest, federal economic stimulus, and a lockdown-fueled spike in durable goods spending caused unprecedented demand for guns. FBI mandatory background check records dating back to 1998 show that 2020 and 2021 saw eight of the ten busiest days for background checks and nine of the ten busiest weeks. More than 5 million Americans became first-time gun owners between January 2020 and April 2021.

While some supply chains would have buckled under such pressure — particularly during a global pandemic — the American firearms supply chain performed fairly well. Prices rose, but that was inevitable given record demand. And though some retailers experienced stockouts of popular models, they were often able to offer satisfactory alternatives from various domestic and foreign manufacturers. The robust secondary market for used guns acted as a final backstop for buyers.

Ammunition

While consumers were able to buy guns without too much hassle, finding ammunition proved far more difficult. This is a classic example of how fluctuations can be magnified through a supply chain.

Changes in firearm demand cause even larger changes in ammunition sales. Firearms are durable goods that can be passed down for generations if correctly maintained. And though ammunition has a long shelf life if properly stored, a marksman may go through hundreds of rounds with a single gun during a visit to the range, so each gun sale causes demand for many more bullets.

As new and longtime gun owners reacted to the pandemic’s uncertainty by stocking up on hundreds or thousands of rounds — and media reports about bare gun store shelves fanned the flames — ammunition manufacturers could not meet the demand.

Several factors contributed to the ammunition shortage. For example, while there are dozens of American ammo manufacturers, only four produced primers when the pandemic began. With domestic primer production capacity stretched to its limits and a primer shortage serving as a bottleneck to ammo production, some manufacturers began the lengthy process of sourcing and importing European and Asian-manufactured primers.

Manufacturing and shipping disruptions also interrupted the flow of foreign-made ammunition into the country. And while imports of Russian ammo helped mitigate the shortage early on, the Biden administration restricted those imports in September 2021 as part of its sanctions against Russia for the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin.

While the shortage affected all types of ammunition, eventually popular calibers like 9mm handgun bullets and .223 rifle cartridges were easier to find than some of their more obscure counterparts.

This reduction in product variety (so-called “SKU reduction”) is a typical coping mechanism for stressed supply chains. Managers allocate scarce production capacity to their most popular offerings. You have probably noticed this in your local grocery store: while your favorite brands are still on the shelf, fewer sizes or flavors are available.

The shortage was amplified by ammunition manufacturers’ reluctance to invest too heavily in new productive capacity to meet record demand that will eventually wane. Firms in other industries made similar calculations during the pandemic, but few industries have experienced the severe “boom or bust” cycles ammo companies have seen in recent decades.

Executives who saw massive demand during Barack Obama’s presidency give way to a four-year long “Trump slump” know full well that this too shall pass.

Additionally, it is not too conspiratorial to fault big business collusion for the shortage. Two entities — Olin Corporation and Vista Outdoor — own most major American ammunition companies, so it was fairly easy to unify the industry in choosing “market stability” (and high prices) over new and risky investment in production capacity.

Supply Chain Principles for Gun Owners

The pandemic has dramatically raised public awareness that supply chains exist and can be disrupted. While that was not news to longtime gun enthusiasts who have experienced previous ammunition shortages, we will highlight a few core principles of supply chain management that should help all gun owners weather the next shortage, whenever it may come.

  • Flexibility – When the pandemic began, companies who were able to quickly adjust their manufacturing, sourcing, product development, and shipping plans fared much better than their inflexible competitors. During an ammunition shortage, those who own guns of various calibers and those who have firearms with interchangeable barrels that can accept multiple kinds of ammunition are much better positioned than those who rely on a single type of ammo.
  • Demand Forecasting – Retailers and manufacturers plan their yearly operations using demand data from recent years (though that historical data had little value during what will hopefully be a once-in-a-century pandemic). Once the current shortage ends, recent history suggests that demand will go up when a Democrat is president and down when a Republican is in office. Given ammunition’s long shelf life, it makes sense to stock up when low demand drives down prices.
  • Inventory Management – Just-in-time inventory management is a thing of beauty when it works well, as it generally did during the three decades preceding the pandemic. But recent supply chain disruptions have led some firms to take more of a just-in-case inventory approach that involves holding more safety stock. Gun owners may be wise to follow this trend as well, and keep a bit of extra ammo on hand just-in-case.
  • Procurement Diversity – The pandemic has shown companies the dangers of relying on one region, country, or factory to provide key inputs. Similarly, the ammunition shortage shows that it is important for gun owners to build relationships with fellow enthusiasts and multiple shop owners whom they can rely upon when the next shortage hits.

A final principle for gun owners is to adopt a strategy of total quality management—of pursuing excellence at each stage of the supply chain, from gun and ammunition purchase to firearm cleaning and maintenance after a day at the range.

In the end, the purpose of the firearms supply chain is “rounds on target.” This requires excellence in marksmanship, which in turn requires excellence in training and equipment. Higher-order competence in “delivery” cannot exist without competence in the earlier stages of the supply chain: procurement, and inventory management.

Andrew Balthrop is a research assistant at the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business. Ron Gordon is a Supply Chain Communications Specialist at the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business. Doug Voss is a Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management at the University of Central Arkansas. 

Well, if a man did the same in the same situation, I’d say there would be an excellent case for claiming self defense too. Yeah, do call 911, but always remember – and as seen in this situation – when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

Woman shoots man allegedly impersonating officer, claims self-defense

ATLANTA, Ga. (CBS46) – Atlanta police are investigating after a man was shot several times by a woman claiming she was being followed.

It happened on Sunday around 11:35 p.m. along Peachtree Road NE. According to investigators, the woman, who was driving for a ride-share company had dropped off a passenger near Cheshire Bridge Road when a man, later identified as 21-year-old Tyriq Qwadere Wiggins-Younger, attempted to use his vehicle to block her from leaving the area.

The woman fled and Wiggins-Younger pursued her in his own vehicle forcing her to crash near Peachtree Road. Police say Wiggins-Younger then approached the woman who shot him claiming that she feared for her safety.

Atlanta police tell CBS46 Wiggins-Younger claimed to be an off-duty officer attempting to make a traffic stop. He now faces charges of Aggravated Assault, Impersonating a Police Officer, Possession of Cocaine, Possession of Marijuana and Possession of Drug Related Objects.

At this time the rideshare driver is not facing any charges, police say.

“We’re still trying to determine if this was self defense, or what actually took place. In this case we do believe that the person in the dark-colored vehicle (the woman) was scared and just trying to get away from this person,” Atlanta Police Public Information Officer, Karlo Peek said.

Police said if you ever find yourself in a situation, where you believe you are being followed, call 911 right away.

Man Kills Armed Intruder in Shootout at Lauderhill Home

An intruder who climbed through the window of a home in Lauderhill was shot and killed during an exchange of gunfire with a man inside the home, Lauderhill Police said.

The incident happened just after 11:00 p.m. Sunday in the 5900 block of Northwest 23rd Street.

A preliminary investigation showed that a man and woman were inside the home when an intruder climbed through a window and brandished a firearm, Lauderhill Police officials said.

The intruder and the man inside the home exchanged gunfire and the intruder was shot, police said.

The intruder was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officials said their investigation began with a strange 911 call.

“It appears that somebody from inside the residence dialed 911 and hung up the phone, that automatically goes to the dispatch centers and an officer was dispatched to that location just to make sure everything was okay,” Lauderhill Police spokesman Michael Santiago said.

The identities of the intruder and the man and woman inside the home have not been released, but police said the intruder and the other man knew each other.

Police said all parties involved are cooperating with the investigation.

Homeowner kills 2 intruders, holds 2 more at gunpoint for police

AUBURN, Ind. (WANE) — An Auburn homeowner shot two suspected armed intruders dead and held two more at gunpoint early Sunday.

It was just before 6 a.m. when four people reportedly broke into a home at 1650 S.R. 8, near the Walmart Distribution Center on Auburn’s far west side.

Indiana State Police said investigators believe the four burglars entered the home and were confronted the homeowner, who produced his own firearm and fired at the suspects.

Two were shot dead by the homeowner and the other two were held at gunpoint until the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department and the Auburn Police Department arrived, according to Indiana State Police.

Tabitha L. Johnson, 42, and Shaun T. Kruse, 42, both from Fort Wayne, were taken into custody. ISP said they will face charges of felony murder and burglary, a level two felony.

The two people killed were identified as Rameica Lasharon Moore, 36, of Fort Wayne, and Dylan Scott Morefield, 22, of Churubusco. Autopsies for both are pending with the Northeast Indiana Forensic Center.

At this time, the homeowner faces no charges.

71-year-old man shoots suspected burglar in North Linden

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — A 71-year-old man shot a suspect that was breaking into his garage early Saturday, police say.

At 3:14 a.m. the Columbus Division of Police was called to the 1100 Block of Carolyn Ave after a shooting.

The victim said he woke up to someone breaking into his garage and went to confront the suspect with a gun.

According to police, there was a struggle and the victim’s gun “accidentally went off,” striking the suspect in the upper chest.

The suspect was transported to Riverside Hospital in critical condition, but according to police, the suspect is expected to recover from the injuries.

Here’s a TTP ( Tactic, Technique, and Procedure) that I’ll pass along.

The time honored ‘Mozambique Drill’ – 2 to the Chest/1 to the Head – as the ‘go to‘ failure drill has been obsolete in Close Quarters Combat training for quite a few years.
While it is still in the bag of tricks, the new discipline is – 2 the Chest, then go ‘downstairs’ to the pelvic region if those didn’t work.

In these days where actual body armor is more and more prevalent, and in the case of the murderer in Buffalo also adding in a helmet; going for a head shot that will ‘seal the deal’, requires more accuracy than smiting someone hip and thigh.
And while yes, blowing someone’s brains out of their skull will stop things and that right now, there’s lots of major body weight bearing bones, nerves and large blood vessels in a much larger and easier to hit area that extends from just below the navel down to the groin that will stop someone in their tracks too.
And just to reinforce the point, outside of full ‘Rattle Battle’ military armor systems, most body armor stops at that point, just below the navel.

I’m not the only one to take into consideration that it’s likely to be a lot more sporty out there as the spring and summer roll along to election season, so let’s keep up the level of situational awareness.

San Antonio-area school district will now allow qualified teachers to carry a concealed firearm on campus
Teachers who want to carry will have to complete 40 hours of training

A small school district about 25 miles east of San Antonio will now allow certain qualified teachers and staff members to carry a concealed firearm on campus.

The La Vernia Independent School District Board of Trustees unanimously approved the Guardian Program on Monday.

In addition to already having a license to carry, staff members who want to become guardians must complete 20 hours at a firing range, 20 hours of classroom training, pass annual psychological exams, and take random drug tests, KSAT reports.

About 80% of La Vernia ISD staff supported the Guardian Program in a survey that was taken before the board approved it, according to the local news outlet.

Aside from the Guardian Program, Texas schools can also have one school marshal per 400 students who can carry a firearm.

1 killed, another hurt in alleged carjacking in Alexandria

One person is dead and another is hurt following an alleged carjacking at an Alexandria, Virginia gas station.

It happened just after 3 p.m. Friday on the 2300 block of Richmond Highway just south of Potomac Yard.

When police arrived, they found one male who was dead and another with serious injuries, Alexandria police spokesman Courtney Ballantine said.

“Initial investigation suggests that the incident began as an alleged carjacking involving five individuals,” Ballantine said. He did not say whether the people who were shot were trying to take the vehicle, adding that the investigation is ongoing and all people involved — “from victim to suspect” — are accounted for.

“There is no threat to the public,” Ballantine said.

It was reported earlier that the driver of the vehicle shot two people trying to take the vehicle.

Armed robber on a bike killed by man he was trying to rob in South Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA – Police say a robber is dead after being shot by the man he was trying to rob in South Philadelphia Wednesday night.

A 24-year-old man was smoking a cigarette outside his house on the 2200 block of South 6th Street when a man approached on a bicycle, according to police.

He told police he pulled his gun on the robber as he got off his bike and announced a robbery. Police say he has a valid permit to carry the gun.

One shot was fired, hitting the 30-year-old robber in the head.

The robber also allegedly pulled his gun firing one or two shots, which did not strike the victim.

Police say they found him lying on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound to the head.

Two semi-automatic guns were recovered from the scene, as well as the suspect’s bicycle. The robbery victim reportedly remained on scene after the shooting, and is cooperating with police.

Observation O’ The Day

this gives off the impression that one can simply be knocked down and have the right to shoot to kill.

Uh… yeah. Being knocked to the ground can be a deadly depending on the altercation and the relative size of people. We aren’t animals. We’re not supposed to just be out there knocking other people down.

And, of course, the standard operational:

“Tyrone was a father, a son, a brother, a nephew, an uncle, a cousin, a fiancé and a friend to so many,” they continued. “He had a heart of gold and loved everyone…”

No charges to be filed in Wheeling Island shooting incident

WHEELING — The person who shot and killed Tyrone Thompson on Wheeling Island in March will not face charges in the incident, Ohio County Prosecuting Attorney Scott Smith announced Monday.

That decision left Thompson’s family, in their words, “hurt” and “let down” by the city.

In a Monday evening news release, Smith said the regularly scheduled Ohio County grand jury convened and, after a full presentation of the evidence, did not vote to return any charges against the gunman.

Thompson, 35, of Wheeling, was shot and killed on South Huron Street on Wheeling Island around 7:30 p.m. March 19. The shooter was not arrested immediately following the incident, and Wheeling police did not release the shooter’s name because they had not been arrested.

Wheeling Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger had said the shooter was questioned that night and cooperated with authorities. The shooter had claimed self-defense in the incident, which was one of several possible angles detectives had investigated.

Memorials, vigils and protests followed Thompson’s death. A candlelight vigil was held the Monday after the incident.

On March 25, about 50 of Thompson’s friends and family stood across from the City-County Building in Wheeling in a peaceful protest, holding signs asking for justice for Thompson. Later that day, dozens of those protesters filed into Wheeling City Council chambers during a council budget meeting. Following that meeting, they stayed to ask city leaders why the shooter was questioned and released so quickly.

Smith said Monday that members of the Ohio County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office as well as a representative of the WPD detective division met with Thompson’s family prior to the grand jury proceeding.

In a statement emailed to The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register on Monday night, Thompson’s mother, Elona Lyle, and sister, Tyrisha Thompson, expressed their frustration and disappointment in the grand jury’s decision.

“The only witness to this case was the shooter, Tyrone didn’t get a chance to tell his side of the story,” they wrote. “How does a man walk away from a situation in which he claims to have been fighting for his life and only have a few superficial scratches? How does a 30-second altercation cause an unarmed man to lose his life due to multiple gunshot wounds?

“Tyrone was a father, a son, a brother, a nephew, an uncle, a cousin, a fiance and a friend to so many,” they continued. “He had a heart of gold and loved everyone. Now the family is left to pick up the pieces with no understanding of why or how this is fair. This state should be ashamed, because this gives off the impression that one can simply be knocked down and have the right to shoot to kill.”

Grand jury proceedings are confidential by law.

America increasingly is not just gun country but permitless concealed carry country

Second Amendment advocates scored a string of victories in recent years to expand to 25 states the right to carry a concealed handgun without a permit, or what is known as “constitutional carry.”

The trend is poised to continue and tip the balance to more than half the U.S., with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, pledging to get a constitutional carry law through the Republican-run Legislature.

Gun control activists and some law enforcement view the trend as a threat to public safety because it enables people to carry concealed firearms without background checks or other requirements such as firearms training.

Gun rights advocates say background checks and other safeguards are applied nationwide for handgun purchases.

Except for Vermont, which has never regulated carrying guns, states only recently adopted permitless carry. A wave of Republican-run states began passing constitutional carry laws in 2010 after a concerted lobbying effort by the National Rifle Association.

Iowa, Montana, Texas, Utah and Tennessee adopted constitutional carry laws last year. In 2019, Kentucky, South Dakota and Oklahoma approved permitless concealed carry. From 2010 to 2017, laws went into effect in Arizona, Wyoming, Arkansas, Maine, Kansas, Idaho, Mississippi, West Virginia, North Dakota, New Hampshire and Missouri.

Alaska was early to permitless concealed carry, making it state law in 2003.

The popularity of constitutional carry, Bearing Arms Editor Cam Edwards said, is that the constitutional right to bear arms “shouldn’t require a permission slip.”

He said the success of constitutional carry is a continuation of the right-to-carry movement that began in the mid-1980s.

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If it looks like anything close to a real gun, and it’s used like a real gun, the possessor gets treated like it’s a real gun.

Man shot to death in Phoenix after pulling out airsoft gun

PHOENIX — A man with an airsoft gun was shot to death at a Phoenix gas station early Sunday morning by a man with a real gun.

Police were called out to a shooting near Camelback Road and I-17 around 5 a.m. and found 31-year-old Sergio Cruz with a gunshot wound.

An investigation found that Cruz was in an argument with the shooter over someone they both knew. At that point, police say Cruz pulled out an airsoft gun and pointed it toward the man who then responded by shooting Cruz in the chest with a handgun.

Man shot intruder at home on West Side; suspect later escaped from ambulance
Suspect eventually taken to hospital in stable condition

SAN ANTONIO – A man who broke into a West Side home overnight was shot by the homeowner and later tried to run from officers, according to San Antonio police.

The incident happened just after 1:30 a.m. Sunday near Wilmot and Knoke streets, near North General McMullen.

Police said the man tried to break into the home and the homeowner, a man in his 50s, grabbed a gun and shot the suspect twice.

The suspect ran away but was found by emergency medical services down the road.

He was loaded into the ambulance and was about to receive treatment, but he became angry and escaped from the ambulance, police said.

Police officers were able to capture him again. He had gunshot wounds to his right elbow and right thigh and had cuts from jumping over a barbed-wire fence.

He was taken to University Hospital in stable condition.

The incident is under investigation.

Homeowner shoots and kills naked suspect who tackled wife on lawnmower

LIZELLA, Ga. — Investigators in Georgia say a homeowner shot and killed a naked man who attacked the homeowner’s wife while she was mowing the lawn.

Bibb County Sheriff’s deputies said in a news release that a 67-year-old woman was cutting her grass using a riding mower when a naked man tackled her.

The victim’s husband tried to pull the suspect off her, but was then attacked himself. When the suspect started to attack his wife, the husband got his gun and shot the suspect, WSB reported.
Deputies identified the suspect as 25-year-old Wade McElhenny, but did not offer any motive for the attack or say whether the suspect knew the victims.

McElhenny died from gunshot wounds to the chest, WSB reported.

The woman who was attacked was taken to the hospital, where she was listed as stable. Her husband had minor injuries and was treated at the scene, deputies said.

Clare police investigating home invasion, where homeowner shot and killed alleged intruder

CLARE, Mich. (WJRT) May 5 – The Clare Police Chief is one of the witnesses of a shooting, as an alleged suspect in a home invasion is shot by the homeowner.

It was around six this morning in Clare when a 911 call was made from a homeowner saying someone broke into his house.

The home is attached to a popular business in the city and police say they got to the home in about two minutes.

Clare Police Chief David Saad was just getting to work when the 911 call went out that there was a home invasion in progress on McEwan Street.

McEwan Street runs through the heart of the city of Clare, population of about 3,200

It was six o’clock in the morning when police chief David Saad was just getting to work and was called to this home for a reported break-in.

“My officer and I arrived at the scene, it was six am so I was just coming into service as well as him, when we responded down over here, we received the call, and as we were making entry into the residence that’s when the shots went off,” says Saad.

Saad was in the home and saw the gunshots being fired.

He says the suspect in the home invasion was shot to death. The male homeowner, Saad and the officer were not injured.

The Michigan State Police Crime Lab was on the scene collecting evidence throughout the afternoon. The shooting happened in a home connected to the popular Dairy Phil restaurant.

“A separate residence is in the back, but the individual that owns the Dairy Phil also lives in the back residence,’ he says.

Saad confirms it was the owner of the Daily Phil that shot the man. He did not want to comment on whether the home invasion suspect had a weapon of any kind.

“To my knowledge they are not acquainted to each other,” he says.

He says gun used in the shooting was registered to the homeowner. Saad says its not typical for a home invasion to occur at that time of the day.

“Pretty uncommon around 6 am, most of the time they occur in the middle of the night,” he says.

The chief did not release the name of the man who was shot and he says once their report is done, it will be sent to the prosecutor’s office to review.

While I don’t agree with the premise that possession stats should be publicized, the fact that ‘more guns’ means ‘more safety’ is undeniable.

More guns, more safety

Late in 2008, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, a leading Tennessee newspaper, unleashed a whirlwind of controversy when it decided to publish a database of all state residents with permits to carry handguns. The information was already available through the Tennessee Department of Safety, but the state website wasn’t especially user-friendly.

With the publication of the newspaper database, however, it became easy to search for people with gun-carry permits by name, ZIP code, or city. For a while, the database was the most viewed item on the newspaper’s website, with more than 65,000 page views per day.

Firearms owners and their advocates were furious, as WMC-TV reported at the time:

Some Mid-South gun owners are outraged over a website that lists handgun carry permits, claiming the site gives away too much personal information.

Tom Givens, who runs the Range Master pistol range, said the database, published by the Commercial Appeal, has many of his clients upset.

“First, it’s an invasion of privacy,” Givens said.

Using the database, a visitor to the website can look up the name of anyone who has a permit to carry a hand gun in the state of Tennessee.  Information listed includes the owner’s year of birth, along with his or her city, state, and ZIP code of residence.

Givens said his phone has been ringing off the hook from clients upset about their personal information being so accessible.

“By publishing this database your employers, your co-workers, church members, even relatives that may not know you have a permit, now know that you’ve got one,” he said.

On gun owners’ message boards, complaints abounded. A common concern was that residents with carry permits would be put at particular risk, since the paper’s database enabled any would-be thief looking for a gun to steal to know exactly where to find them. “I’m not happy about it at all,” fumed one resident on the City-Data web forum:

I’m not a criminal — just a law-biding citizen who has a clean background and has undergone background checks in order to exercise my right to protect myself from all the thugs in this world. I could see the database used to “shop” for homeowners to rob who probably have guns in the house. I see no legitimate reason to have this information online other than to demonize permit holders in some way.

The National Rifle Association’s CEO and executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, denounced the Commercial Appeal for engaging in what he called a “hateful, shameful form of public irresponsibility.” Added another NRA official: “What they’ve done is give criminals a lighted pathway to [burglarize] the homes of gun owners.”

But the paper’s editor, Chris Peck, argued that newspapers should be a comprehensive source for community information, and that it was neither illegal nor unethical for the Commercial Appeal to make public records more accessible to the public. In fact, he pointed out in a lengthy column, the Commercial Appeal eliminated street addresses and birth dates from the Department of Safety data it published. That meant that the “posted list of permit holders for concealed weapons has less information about individuals than the phone book, your voter registration form, or the credit card you use to buy dinner at a restaurant.”

As for the potential danger to gun owners from burglars looking for weapons to steal, Peck turned that argument on its head:

Think about it for a minute. Many, if not most, households in Memphis possess a firearm. So you don’t really need a list to find a house with a gun.

And, if criminals were checking the permit-to-carry list before picking a target, would they likely choose a house where they know the owner could be carrying a gun, or would they more likely steer away from that house to avoid a possible confrontation?

Neither logic nor common sense is carrying the day on this issue. It’s emotion.

Peck went on to explain why, in his view, there was “a powerful case to be made both for a permitting process to carry concealed weapons and for keeping that permitting process public.” The Commercial Appeal, he insisted, “isn’t anti-gun” but “pro-news and -information.”

I thought it was a good column, though I doubt it changed the minds of LaPierre and the gun owners who were certain the Commercial Appeal’s reasons for publishing the database weren’t benign. I’d guess, too, that they didn’t buy Peck’s contention that, far from endangering them, the database would lead criminals to avoid their homes.

But now we know: He was right.

After Memphis-area gun permit data was published, districts where more residents were licensed to carry saw a decrease in crime.

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Just how many defensive gun uses are there each year?

Gun control will be a hot topic for a very long time. However, one area that doesn’t get discussed nearly enough is the total number of defensive gun uses.

While the media spends a lot of time talking about how many people die from gunshots each and every year–typically conflating suicides with homicides–in an effort to advance a gun control agenda, they ignore the many times law-abiding citizens use firearms defensively every year.

But just how many defensive gun uses are there?

How often are firearms used defensively in the United States? According to the most-recent study, about 1.6 million times annually. Over a lifetime, about a third of gun owners will use a firearm defensively at least once. This recent data is broadly consistent with decades of social-science research.

The first pollster to ask about defensive gun use (DGU) was the Field Poll in California in 1976. Over the subsequent 18 years, polling companies such as Gallup, Hart and Tarrance, as well as scholars and media, conducted their own surveys of DGU. They reported results as low as 764,000 annually (Tarrance, 1994) and as high as 3.6 million (Los Angeles Times, 1994).

In 1993, Florida State University criminology professor Gary Kleck conducted a survey that was much more methodologically sophisticated than all the above polls. Kleck included safeguards designed to weed out respondents who might misdescribe a DGU story. Kleck and his coauthor Marc Gertz found a midpoint estimate of 2.5 million DGUs annually, with a possible range of 2 to 3 million. Their study is described in the Kleck and Gertz article, “Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence and Nature of Self-Defense with a Gun,” in the Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology (1995), which is available on the web, and is further described in Kleck’s 1997 book Targeting Guns. The book and the article also examine all previous surveys.

Oh, but some claim, Kleck’s work has been debunked.

Has it, though?

The same journal issue that published the Kleck & Gertz study also published a response by Marvin Wolfgang. He had long been the most-influential criminologist in the English-speaking world, and he was past president of the American Society of Criminology. Wolfgang wrote: “I am as strong a gun-control advocate as can be found among the criminologists in this country … . I would eliminate all guns from the civilian population and maybe even from the police. I hate guns … .

Nonetheless, the methodological soundness of the current Kleck and Gertz study is clear … . The Kleck and Gertz study impresses me for the caution the authors exercise and the elaborate nuances they examine methodologically. I do not like their conclusions that having a gun can be useful, but I cannot fault their methodology. They have tried earnestly to meet all objections in advance and have done exceedingly well.”

Wolfgang isn’t exactly an NRA supporter.

Of course, most of us have long known these numbers. We knew how many millions of defensive gun uses there are each year. It well outstrips the number of lives claimed by gunshot wounds, that’s for sure.

However, it’s interesting how even the smallest estimates for defensive gun use outstrip those numbers as well. Literally no credible study shows otherwise. Even the more heavily biased studies that put defensive gun uses at 100,000 each year still argue there are twice as many lives saved by guns than taken.

Why is the media ignoring this reality?

We all know why. They can claim they are simply neutral parties in the debate all they want, but they always seem to miss this. Even if they report the studies themselves, they never seem to make it into later stories about guns and gun control.

But the number of gun deaths always does.

Funny how that shakes out, isn’t it?