What Economists Can’t Tell You About the Costs of Gun Violence
Yerington-area homeowner shoots, kills alleged home intruder
A Yerington[Nevada]-area homeowner shot and killed an alleged home intruder Monday morning.
After receiving a call from the homeowner, Lyon County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded around 11:45 a.m. to Giorgi Lane in Mason Valley, southeast of Yerington.
Detectives are conducting a homicide investigation and the homeowner is cooperating. The deceased man’s name is not being released until next of kin is contacted.
The shooting was an isolated incident and there is no threat to the community, according to the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office. All parties involved have been identified and there are no outstanding suspects.
Well, ‘when seconds count, the police are only minutes away‘, still applies, even for this. For if THE SCHOOL STAFF doesn’t have access to the guns, those minutes until the police arrive – and if they actually decide to actually do anything except stand around making sure their hands are sanitary- simply means more time is wasted and more people get murdered
AR-15s put in all Madison County schools to enhance security in case of active shooter.
MARSHALL – In response to the Texas school shooting that left 19 children dead May 24, the local school system and Sheriff’s Office are rolling out some beefed up security measures in 2022-23, including putting AR-15 rifles in every school.
Madison County Schools and Madison County Sheriff’s Office are collaborating to enhance security in the schools for the upcoming school year after the Uvalde, Texas, tragedy revealed systemic failures and poor decision-making, with responding police disregarding active-shooter trainings, according to a report from the Texas state house.
“Those officers were in that building for so long, and that suspect was able to infiltrate that building and injure and kill so many kids,” Sheriff Buddy Harwood said. “I just want to make sure my deputies are prepared in the event that happens.”
Madison County Schools Superintendent Will Hoffman said MCS administration has been meeting regularly with local law enforcement officials, including Harwood, to discuss the updated safety measures.
Just to point out, as has been pointed out before, each one of these cities is run by a demoncrap administration. If that doesn’t tell you something, nothing will.
Which city has the highest per capita murder rate? Chicago? New York? Not even close.
A new study of cities over 200,000 people shows a surprising list of cities. Here is the top 10.
New Orleans. Louisiana’s very own third-world hell hole. The current city administration seems bent on making New Orleans the most dysfunctional city on the North American continent. Before hurricane Katrina, I enjoyed going to New Orleans for a weekend away. Great food, good culture. Nowadays I wouldn’t go to New Orleans on a bet.
I’ll take ‘Almost Everything’ for $500, Alex
What the News Media Gets Wrong About Guns & Armed Defense
We know that the news media distorts our view of the world. We see it every day in the way the mainstream media selects and edits their stories. I’m sure you see unusual things in the news that I miss. That is because each of us sees this media distortion most clearly in the individual subjects we know best. For the last decade, I’ve studied what our neighbors do with guns. I see where the news media dangerously twists the truth about armed defense. As ordinary citizens, we need to know more about the world than to be simply fed a copy of the police report after a crime. In fact, ordinary citizens keep their families safe every day but the media sells us a different story. Here is what the mainstream media won’t say.
Evil exists. We face real dangers. The world is simply not the way we want it to be. On average, someone in our family will be the victim of a violent crime during our lifetime. Merciless criminals use force to take what they want and the police are not there to stop them. It is not safe to be defenseless, not even at home. To begin, we face about 30 thousand home-invasion robberies a year, and two thirds of sexual assaults begin with a home invasion. Being unable or unwilling to defend the people we love is not a virtue. Those truths sound obvious to me, but they are absent from our contemporary news.
The media wildly over-reported stories where we were victims of violent crime. At the same time, the media horribly under-reported the many stories where we successfully defended ourselves. It is almost as if the news media didn’t want us to know that we faced dangers and saved lives.
BLUF
the gun debate in America is simple to resolve: keep your guns. It’s the smartest and freest choice — smartest because the I.Q.-heavies of 1776 deemed it necessary to maintain a free nation, and freest because freedom was their aim. If you fear guns, the choice is equally simple: don’t own one. You have that choice. However, if you support gun confiscation, you remove that choice from your fellow citizen, leaving him more vulnerable. If your fellow citizen is victimized by a criminal, morally speaking, the policy you supported spilled his blood.
By the way, did you catch the irony? By making hundreds of millions of law-abiding citizens more vulnerable, anti-gun activists embolden criminals to commit more, not less, crime. Talk about a miss.
What’s a Gun Got to Do with It?
A May 2022 The Hill article entitled Here Is A List of 27 School Shootings That Have Taken Place This Year underscores the fear many have regarding gun ownership. But why is protecting one’s person, family, property, etc. in the face of evil threatening and not prudent? After all, isn’t peace most ensured when strength is most projected — or, as Reagan put it, “peace [comes] through strength”? In other words, doesn’t common sense inform us that criminals exploit vulnerability?
The arguments for gun control are familiar to most. The anti-gun stance is that no guns means no mass shootings at schools less violent crime generally. In support of this position, the figure of fewer deaths by guns in nations where guns have been banned is often cited, while violent deaths by other means are typically ignored. Alternatively, the pro-gun position draws attention to 1) declining violent crimes in America for nearly three decades (Antifa/BLM riots, state D.A. criminal leniency, federal prison purges, etc. are altering this trend); 2) armed citizens for criminal deterrence; and 3) on-the-scene armed citizens preventing crime and apprehending criminals before police arrive. Think of the recent Indiana mall “good Samaritan.” In this article, we’ll explore the anti-gun side.
Fast forward to 1:39 in the vid.
Portland mayor admits homicides have increased 200% over last year
One of the bitter ironies in the gun control debate is playing out right now in Oregon, where years of progressive policies have led to a huge spike in shootings and homicides and gun control activists have successfully used that staggering rise in violent crime to put a voter referendum on the ballot this year promising increased public safety at the expense of the right of self-defense; outlawing the sale, transfer, and possession (in most circumstances) of “large capacity” magazines, imposing a new “permit-to-purchase” requirement on all firearms, and creating a state-run database of all permit holders.
Legal gun owners aren’t the drivers of Portland’s crime spike, but that’s not stopping these anti-gun advocates from blaming them for the actions of criminals, even though most folks might point to the city’s opposition to policing as a bigger factor in the increasing dangerousness of Portland’s streets.
It was just a little more than two years ago, after all, when Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced he was disbanding the police department’s gun violence reduction team, and in the months afterwards violent crime and shootings soared across the city. A little more than a year later Wheeler reversed course and launched a new Focused Intervention Team with the same mission, only to find a lack of volunteers within the Portland Police Bureau eager to sign up for the job. After months of struggles the FIT unit hit the streets in January of this year, but so far it hasn’t had much of an impact. As Wheeler acknowledged during a recent interview with public radio program Here & Now, homicides in the city are up a staggering 200% over the past year, and are double the national average.
“We engaged an organization to do a study, and what they concluded for the city of Portland is that more than half of the shootings involved group or gang activity. There’s a very small population of people, about 200 people in our city driving the vast majority of gun violence in Portland. And black teen and adult men continue to be disproportionately impacted by shootings and homicides. They represent nearly 47% of suspects and victims in these shootings, but they only make up 6% of the city’s population.”
If a tiny fraction of Portland’s 650,000 or so residents are driving the “vast majority” of violent crime in the city, it makes even less sense to impose new gun control restrictions on millions of law-abiding Oregonians, but Wheeler is also insistent that an increase in gun sales is to blame for the violence in his city.
“The ‘why’ of it is an increase in purchasing of firearms, disinvestment in communities that are struggling even more than ever under the impacts of COVID, and tensions are really high and people are settling their disputes with firearms. We had one shooting earlier this year where three adults settled a fight that they had during lunch at a really nice restaurant in a nice part of the city with gunfire.”
If the “vast majority” of gun violence is stemming from about 200 people across the city, then it shouldn’t matter how many people lawfully purchased firearms over the past couple of years, but Wheeler is largely following the Democratic playbook in targeting guns and not the trigger-pullers. I say largely because Wheeler told Here & Now that with his latest proclamation of a state of emergency over “gun violence,” the city does indeed want to focus on “those who we know are directly impacted by gun violence,” but only through “non-law enforcement interventions.”
While Wheeler and other Portland progressives are loathe to use police against the most violent and prolific offenders in the city, they’re fully on board with creating new non-violent, possessory crimes out of our right to keep and bear arms… crimes that will be policed not by community activists but by law enforcement officers.
Given Oregon’s leftward tilt, IP17 stands a very good chance of passing, though the odds of it being struck down by the courts are also strong. Regardless of what happens with the gun control initiative, however, Portland’s murder problem is going to remain in place as long as anti-gun politicians like Ted Wheeler recognize the problem is being driven by a relative handful of violent and prolific offenders but choose to target law-abiding gun owners and their Second Amendment rights instead.
Israel kills second senior Islamic Jihad commander in the Gaza Strip amid war worries
The Israeli military killed a second senior Islamic Jihad commander in the southern part of the Gaza Strip late Saturday, the day after the military killed another senior militant commander in the north, the Israeli government said Sunday.
On Saturday, Israeli authorities announced the death of Khaled Mansour, who led the Iran-backed militant group’s operations, a day after a coordinated airstrike took out Tayseer Jabari, the senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad Commanding Officer of the terrorist group’s Northern Gaza Division.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid called Saturday’s strike “an extraordinary achievement” that was conducted as a joint operation by its military and intelligence agencies.
The strike is the latest in a recent escalation of violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip, which has left 29 dead. The attacks were preceded by hundreds of rockets that have been launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel, officials said.
Lapid said his military would continue to launch strikes “in a pinpoint and responsible way in order to reduce to a minimum the harm to noncombatants.”
“The operation will continue as long as necessary,” he added.
A strike on Friday also took out the head of the anti-tank guided missile array and several terrorist squads as they were preparing attacks against Israel, the IDF said.
Palestinian officials said the airstrike left at least 15 people dead, including a senior militant leader and a 5-year-old girl.
A joint statement from Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz said its goal was to eliminate the “threat against the citizens of Israel and the civilians living adjacent to the Gaza Strip, as well as the targeting of terrorists and their sponsors.”
“The Israeli government will not allow terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip to set the agenda in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip and threaten the citizens of the State of Israel,” said Lapid. “Anyone who tries to harm Israel should know: we will find you.”
Rocket fire from Gaza into Israel continued as of Sunday morning.
GARY WOMAN SHOOTS BURGLAR FRIDAY MORNING
On Friday, August 5, 2022 at approximately 5:10 AM, Gary Police Officers were dispatched to a residence in the 200 block of Roosevelt Street for a burglary in progress, according to Lt. Dawn Westerfield of the Gary Police.
An unknown male was attempting to make entry to the 56-year-old female’s residence, police said. While officers were enroute they were updated that the suspect had made entry into the residence by breaking out the window.
The female resident told dispatch she had discharged her firearm but was unsure if she had struck the male. Officers arrived on scene and located the male in the front of the residence with apparent gunshot wounds.
The 36-year-old male was later declared deceased by the Lake County Coroner Officers. The identity of the burglar was released by The Lake County Coroners Office as Jarrell Mitchell, 36, of Gary. The incident will go through a full investigation by the Lake County Metro Homicide Unit.
Grand jury declines to indict homeowner in deadly Shelby County shooting
SIDNEY — No charges will be filed against a homeowner in a deadly shooting in Shelby County this week.
A grand jury voted 8-1 against indicting the homeowner on charges, according to Shelby County Prosecutor Tim Sell.
Shelby County Sheriff James Frye previously told News Center 7 he expected the panel to dismiss the case because of Ohio’s new “Stand Your Ground” law that took effect in April 2021.
House Bill 38 repealed the law, which removed a person’s legal duty to attempt to retreat or walk away before firing their gun in public. The law has been updated to keep the “castle doctrine,” which says a person does not have to retreat in their home or vehicle before firing their gun.
News Center 7, by way of an information request, obtained doorbell video footage of James Rayl, 22, seconds before he is hit by gunfire when he appears to force his way into the home in the 2900 block of North Kuther Road on July 31.
In the video, Rayl pounds on the door after he is asked to leave.
In the 911 audio recording of the incident, also obtained by News Center 7 by way of an information request, a woman, who described Rayl as her ex-boyfriend, said, “He’s trying the door dad . . . dad . . dad. Is he trying to kill me?”
County sheriff’s investigators said it is at that moment, Rayl broke the front door and began to go inside. He’s hit immediately by three gunshots.
In the same 911 call, the woman is heard to say, ” Dad there’s nothing you could have done. You saved my life.”
A neighbor checked on the wounded Rayl — when the woman inside refused a dispatcher’s request to do so — and said he didn’t see Rayl enter the home.
“If he entered the house, why did he shoot through the door?” the neighbor, Jeff Hereford, asked McDermott.
Hereford said he doesn’t agree with his neighbors or the incident report on the shooting, claiming he saw everything as well as Rayl on the ground.
Another neighbor, Denesa Goings, told McDermott she believed the woman’s father had every right to fire a weapon.
California Had the Most Active Shooter Incidents in 2021: FBI
In a report issued by the FBI, California ranked first for the most active shooter incidents in 2021. The state has been in the top spot in three of the past five years.
According to the study, a total of 61 active shooter incidents occurred across 30 states last year with 103 people killed and 140 wounded. This is up from 40 incidents and 38 killed in 2020.
California had 6 incidents that claimed the lives of 19 people with 9 wounded. Texas and Georgia each had 5.
California, which has some of the strictest gun laws, saw 0.015 shootings per 100,000 people. Texas, which has very unrestrictive state gun laws, had nearly the same at 0.0167 per 100,000 people. Georgia had 0.045 per 100,000 people.
Criminal attorney Arash Hashemi told NTD, a sister outlet of The Epoch Times, that in his opinion there’s no easy answer to how gun laws should be handled.
“We need both sides to sit down and listen to what’s going on. I know one side says we need to ban guns, one side said there would be no regulation. But there needs to be a meeting of the minds in the middle,” Hashemi said.
California is moving ahead to implement more gun restrictions. The new state Senate Bill 918, which is currently on its way through the legislature, would ban the carrying of guns in most public areas, regardless of whether someone has a carry license or not.
However Hashemi suggested a slightly different approach. He said the Second Amendment can’t be violated, but he thinks certain people should be restricted from owning a firearm.
“I think California needs to implement these background checks but at the same time make sure they don’t infringe on people’s rights to bear arms,” Hashemi said.
He said vetting gun buyers for red flags like mental illness or psychiatric medication is important.
He added that the importance of the Second Amendment is to give the civilians of the United States a check on the government.
The greatest number of casualties and injuries at an active shooter incident in 2021 was 15, at both a FedEx center in Indiana and a Kroger grocery store in Tennessee.
June had the most with 12, and December had the least with 1.
The FBI defines an active shooter as one or more people engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area. The 2021 report is limited to these incidents and does not include other gun-related situations like self-defense, drug violence, or gang violence.
Law-abiding gun owners will not harm you. But criminals will
There have been innumerable debates on gun ownership. These discussions generally address two critical factors: gun violence in inner cities and mass shootings. As a result, some Americans have called for the removal of certain weapons, such as the AR-15, from civilian ownership, and the limitation of magazines to 10 rounds as a means to combat these two problems. While I understand the desire to act quickly, we should not act in a way that makes villains of law-abiding gun owners who only wish to protect themselves and their families while simultaneously giving criminals the upper hand in their pursuit of destruction.
Can good, responsible citizens with firearms actually make a difference in life-threatening situations? A recent incident in Indianapolis demonstrates that, with training, a responsible gun owner can respond swiftly, safely and responsibly to save lives. A 22-year-old saved a significant number of lives when he eliminated a shooter who murdered three people and injured three more in an Indiana mall; the situation likely would have been much worse. Since 2021, there have been a total of 22 confirmed incidents of concealed carry permit holders employing deadly force to stop criminals in life-threatening situations. This number sounds insignificant in a vacuum; however, it is critical to consider that most shootings do not occur in places where firearm carry is permitted — for obvious reasons — thus there is generally no armed person available to stop a shooter.
As a gun owner with a license to carry a concealed handgun, I am fully aware that the use of force is an action of last resort. Firearm carriers are trained to avoid risky situations and make every attempt to deescalate whenever feasible. Nonetheless, taking a life is only appropriate if your own life is in imminent danger. I hope that I will never be in such a life-or-death scenario, but it is comforting to know that I can safeguard my life and the lives of others if necessary. After all, no sane individual goes about his or her day craving blood; rather, people carry to secure their own safety. Responsible individuals can use a weapon to prevent mass shootings and other types of deadly violence.
However, the villainization of law-abiding gun owners has prompted many Americans to distrust firearms and gun owners in general. This has occurred at the hands of government actors and gun control lobbyists who twist the facts to make people believe that guns are both dangerous and unnecessary in life-threatening situations. They make gun owners out to seem like fringe conspiracy theorists who have a deep distrust for authority.
Unsurprisingly, this could not be further from the truth. Gun owners are your neighbors, your friends and your family members. The firearms community is comprised of people you care about, and they are neither monsters nor evil; they are ordinary citizens concerned with their safety and the use of the fundamental right to defend themselves. No one should be at danger of having their rights and liberty infringed upon by criminals intent on causing bodily harm. Restrictive gun laws merely place criminals who flout the law in control.
When I recall growing up in rural South Carolina during a very difficult period in our nation’s history, I recognize that it was firearms that enabled Black people in the South to fend off the Ku Klux Klan. I consider today’s single moms and women who, in most cases, would be powerless against an assailant but could have the ability to protect themselves with a firearm. It goes without saying that members of the LGBTQ community have the right to keep and bear arms, and they most certainly ought to have the right to defend themselves if they find themselves a potential victim of a transphobic or homophobic attack. I consider the hatred of Asian people and atrocities committed against our Jewish brothers and sisters; they absolutely deserve to use deadly force against assailants who seek to harm them for their immutable characteristics. This privilege is available to all law-abiding Americans, regardless of color, religion, orientation or any other classification.
Criminals and those seeking to commit mass violence do not care if you are armed or not; they will find other ways to harm you. This has been the case since the beginning of human history. However, the question is how to strike a balance between protecting the rights of law-abiding citizens and keeping us safe from criminals. Maintaining access to weapons for law-abiding citizens is essential, and a balance must be struck between laws that screen out criminals and laws that make it difficult for law-abiding people to acquire and possess firearms.
You may not like firearms, and you may not want to possess one, but if you ever find yourself in a situation similar to the victims in that Indianapolis mall, you will wish there was a good Samaritan with a gun who could mean the difference between survival or death.
A press release Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney in charge of the federal prosecutor’s office in Massachusetts, Rachael S. Rollins announced the rollout of an “End Hate Now” telephone hotline (emphasis added):
The “End Hate Now” hotline [1-83-END-H8-NOW] is dedicated for reporting hate-based incidents or potential criminal activity. Massachusetts residents and visitors are encouraged to call the hotline to report concerning or troubling incidents of hate, potential hate crimes, or concerns regarding individuals believed to be espousing the hate-filled views or actions we learn of far too often in the wake of mass shootings and/or acts of hate-based violent extremism. Callers are encouraged to leave their contact information but may remain anonymous….
Hate crimes are illegal acts committed based on a victim’s perceived or actual race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. Beliefs are not hate crimes. Distasteful ideologies, advocacy of political or social positions, use of discriminatory rhetoric, or the general philosophic embrace of biased or hate-filled beliefs are not crimes. Under federal law, investigations may not be based solely on an individual’s beliefs or their protected First Amendment activity.
“With the uptick in horrific mass-shootings and unimaginable acts of racially motivated violent extremism we have seen across our country, people are scared. In Massachusetts, we have recently seen multiple incidents of groups espousing deeply offensive and hurtful ideologies displayed on our streets. A recent act of hateful vandalism at the future PRYDE senior housing facility in Hyde Park threatened burning and death against the LGBTQ+ community. Enough is enough. My office is offering our residents and visitors a new outlet for bringing these critical and concerning issues seeped in bigotry and hatred to the attention of law enforcement,” said U.S. Attorney Rollins. “I am asking people – when you see hate, call this number and let us know. If you have serious concerns about a loved one, a friend, or even an acquaintance, call this number and let us know….” …
“Protecting Massachusetts residents from violence and hate is the top priority of my administration,” stated U.S. Attorney Rollins. “In Massachusetts, we have a long history of standing up to hate and intolerance. Today, we continue that honored tradition. By establishing this 1-83-END-H8-NOW hotline and a Civil Rights and Human Trafficking Unit, my office is fully equipped and dedicated to fighting hate-fueled criminal activity across our Commonwealth.”
A sound means for a prosecutor’s office to investigate potential violent crimes or vandalism? (Though saying, for instance, “killing [police officers / Jews / my ex-wife] is completely morally justified” is constitutionally protected speech, if such a killing had actually happened nearby, prosecutors might reasonably want to look into whether the speaker actually acted on his beliefs and didn’t just express them.) A tool that, if indeed effectively publicized, would chill public expression even of constitutionally protected speech by people who have no plans for crime? Both? Neither? I’d love to hear what people think about this.
On August 6th, 2011, a U.S. Boeing CH-47 Chinook military helicopter was shot down while transporting a quick reaction force attempting to reinforce an engaged unit of Army Rangers in Wardak province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan. With 38 people killed on board, it was the largest single-day loss of life in naval special warfare history and the largest single-day loss of life during the war in Afghanistan.
The events that unfolded that night are commonly referred to as Extortion 17, which is the call sign for the helicopter transporting the special operations personnel. It also became one of the most devastating death tolls of the U.S. Special Operations Forces in modern history…
…On August 6th, 2011, the helicopter was fired upon and shot down by a previously undetected group of Taliban fighters. The group fired 2-3 RPG rounds from a two-story building from a location some 220 meters south of the helicopter. The second round struck one of the three aft rotor blades of the helicopter destroying the aft rotor assembly. The helicopter crashed less than 5 seconds later, killing all 38 people on board. Some 30 seconds later one of the AH-64 Apache helicopters in the area reported: “Fallen Angel”
The crash is referred to as Extortion 17 by the callsign of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter involved in the crash. The crash killed all 38 people on board — including 25 American special operations personnel, five United States Army National Guard and Army Reserve crewmen, seven Afghan commandos, and one Afghan interpreter — as well as a U.S. military working dog. It is considered the worst loss of American lives in a single incident in the Afghanistan campaign, surpassing Operation Red Wings in 2005.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Washington, D.C.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE —August 6, 1945
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of T.N.T. It had more than two thousand times the blast power of the British “Grand Slam” which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare.
The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid many fold. And the end is not yet. With this bomb we have now added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction to supplement the growing power of our armed forces. In their present form these bombs are now in production and even more powerful forms are in development.
It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.
Before 1939, it was the accepted belief of scientists that it was theoretically possible to release atomic energy. But no one knew any practical method of doing it. By 1942, however, we knew that the Germans were working feverishly to find a way to add atomic energy to the other engines of war with which they hoped to enslave the world. But they failed. We may be grateful to Providence that the Germans got the V-1’s and the V-2’s late and in limited quantities and even more grateful that they did not get the atomic bomb at all.
The battle of the laboratories held fateful risks for us as well as the battles of the air, land, and sea, and we have now won the battle of the laboratories as we have won the other battles.
Beginning in 1940, before Pearl Harbor, scientific knowledge useful in war was pooled between the United States and Great Britain, and many priceless helps to our victories have come from that arrangement. Under that general policy the research on the atomic bomb was begun. With American and British scientists working together we entered the race of discovery against the Germans.
The United States had available the large number of scientists of distinction in the many needed areas of knowledge. It had the tremendous industrial and financial resources necessary for the project and they could be devoted to it without undue impairment of other vital war work. In the United States the laboratory work and the production plants, on which a substantial start had already been made, would be out of reach of enemy bombing, while at that time Britain was exposed to constant air attack and was still threatened with the possibility of invasion. For these reasons Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt agreed that it was wise to carry on the project here. We now have two great plants and many lesser works devoted to the production of atomic power. Employment during peak construction numbered 125,000 and over 65,000 individuals are even now engaged in operating the plants. Many have worked there for two and a half years. Few know what they have been producing. They see great quantities of material going in and they see nothing coming out of those plants, for the physical size of the explosive charge is exceedingly small. We have spent two billion dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history—and won.
But the greatest marvel is not the size of the enterprise, its secrecy, nor its cost, but the achievement of scientific brains in putting together infinitely complex pieces of knowledge held by many men in different fields of science into a workable plan. And hardly less marvelous has been the capacity of industry to design, and of labor to operate, the machines and methods to do things never done before so that the brain child of many minds came forth in physical shape and performed as it was supposed to do. Both science and industry worked under the direction of the United States Army, which achieved a unique success in managing so diverse a problem in the advancement of knowledge in an amazingly short time. It is doubtful if such another combination could be got together in the world. What has been done is the greatest achievement of organized science in history. It was done under high pressure and without failure.
We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city. We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no mistake; we shall completely destroy Japan’s power to make war.
It was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction that the ultimatum of July 26 was issued at Potsdam. Their leaders promptly rejected that ultimatum. If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth. Behind this air attack will follow sea and land forces in such numbers and power as they have not yet seen and with the fighting skill of which they are already well aware.
The Secretary of War, who has kept in personal touch with all phases of the project, will immediately make public a statement giving further details.
His statement will give facts concerning the sites at Oak Ridge near Knoxville, Tennessee, and at Richland near Pasco, Washington, and an installation near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Although the workers at the sites have been making materials to be used in producing the greatest destructive forces in history they have not themselves been in danger beyond that of many other occupations, for the utmost care has been taken of their safety.
The fact that we can release atomic energy ushers in a new era in man’s understanding of nature’s forces. Atomic energy may in the future supplement the power that now comes from coal, oil, and falling water, but at present it cannot be produced on a basis to compete with them commercially. Before that comes there must be a long period of intensive research.
It has never been the habit of the scientists of this country or the policy of this Government to withhold from the world scientific knowledge. Normally, therefore, everything about the work with atomic energy would be made public.
But under present circumstances it is not intended to divulge the technical processes of production or all the military applications, pending further examination of possible methods of protecting us and the rest of the world from the danger of sudden destruction.
I shall recommend that the Congress of the United States consider promptly the establishment of an appropriate commission to control the production and use of atomic power within the United States. I shall give further consideration and make further recommendations to the Congress as to how atomic power can become a powerful and forceful influence towards the maintenance of world peace.
‘He just looked like he was possessed’
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A homeowner who shot a man he says broke into his home spoke exclusively with Action News Jax Thursday.
“He just looked like he was possessed, and he was acting like he was possessed,” William Kerr recalled.
Kerr says the man broke into his house Wednesday morning, threatened him, and stole $400 dollars.
The homeowner was not arrested.
Kerr’s wife was leaving for an appointment when Kerr says he went into his office.
“I got the door open about a foot, and I see this guy standing there. He’s got my rifle… BB rifle – he’s standing there with the rifle like this, the butt facing me, and he’s fixing to clock me … I quick-slammed the door, and I heard him messing with the other door in the room. So, I’m thinking, ‘oh, man, Tina’s out there in the car fixing to go.’ So, I ran through the kitchen, grabbed me a cleaver, and went out the door. By the time I went out the door, he’s already at the mailbox.”
Worried for his neighbors, Kerr says he followed the man down the street.
“I got a next-door neighbor with a little kid; the lady across the street is kind of elderly,” Kerr said.
At that point, the police were there. Kerr recalled pointing them in the man’s direction. Kerr then figured he’d continue down the road to make sure the man wouldn’t hurt anyone, he said.
“There’s a privacy fence in that lot. Well, I drive down a little bit, and I see him, and he’s broken off a piece of this privacy fence …’ Come on out … the police officers are driving up the street, they’ll be here in just a second,’” Kerr recalled saying. “When he gets up – he has this big stick – it’s probably three or four inches around and about three feet long. And he wields the stick, well I jump back … I had my gun, I tried to shoot him in his hands to get the stick out of his hands. About that time a police officer drives down the street, and I wave him down, I’m like, ‘he’s right here!’ And he tried to run, still.”
Another neighbor who saw the man before he entered Kerr’s house also called 911. That neighbor gave Action News Jax a video of the man walking up his dock, naked and muddy. He told Action News Jax he’d given the man a pair of shorts, water, and food before calling 911. But he said the man took off, heading toward Kerr’s house.
“He was jacked up on something. He was dirty as heck,” Kerr said. “The time he tried to ram me in there he was going, ‘wooo! Wooo!’ And even when he was swinging the stick, he was like ‘wooo!’ And his eyes were like golf balls.”
Police questioned Kerr on Wednesday and later released him that evening. Kerr says he claimed self-defense.
Action News Jax Law and Safety Expert Dale Carson talked about whether the homeowner might face charges.
“If you are in imminent fear of death or great bodily harm, you can probably defend yourself and claim self-defense,” Carson said.
Carson says a self-defense argument can be difficult to prove.
“My advice would be, don’t follow people out of your house. Call law enforcement, and allow them to manage it. Because if you get involved there’s a possibility that you could ultimately be charged with manslaughter or even murder,” Carson added.
Kerr says he wishes the man would’ve just asked for help, saying he would’ve gladly given him the $400 dollars that he stole. Kerr says he hopes the man gets the help he needs.
“I hope the best for him. I don’t hope anything bad,” Kerr said. “It was a traumatic situation on both our part.”
On Wednesday, investigators said the man Kerr shot was in surgery. Action News Jax is still working to learn the man’s condition.