Crime – Page 4 – Shall Not Be Questioned

How’s that SAFE Act Working Out for Ya?

Murder in New York City is up 20%. Now, it’s quite possible to argue this is a side-effect of electing a socialist mayor who picks fights with the NYPD, but it’s quite certain in this case that gun control isn’t helping, a fact that New York State Rifle and Pistol Association has been pointing out.

Unfortunately, I don’t think any of the supports of the bill care that it’s ineffective. They knew that when they passed it. All the politicians care about is that after Sandy Hook and Webster, something had to be done, and SAFE was something, so therefore it had to be done. This is the most powerful force in politics, and when it’s set in motion, bad results are nearly always guaranteed. Now crime is up 20% in New York, and the usual suspects will be clamoring for something to be done. God help us on what that something is going to be.

Not the Brightest Gun Shop Burglars

Today has had a bit of excitement in Bucks County. One of the local gun shops was the location of a “standoff” between police and two men from Philadelphia who were attempting to break in.

After stealing a vehicle, the suspects entered through the roof and figured they would go through the ventilation system. They managed to remove at least a sheep mount from the store before the cops managed to get them out of the building.

These ever-so-brilliant suspects realized that they would be caught, so they figured they would call 911 and claim they found a dead body somewhere else in town and the police who were already set up outside and trying to get them out would just leave and let them walk away. That just got them another criminal charge out here in Bucks County.

According to reports, they tried to claim that they just randomly broke into that building because they were homeless. Sure. Stealing a truck, driving to a gun shop, getting at least some product out of the building, but it was just because you wanted to get warm? Oh, and there just happened to be drugs on them, too. Yeah, no jury here will buy that sh*t.

However, it turns out that neither one of these geniuses likely knows what it’s like facing a jury. Sure, they both have arrest records from Philadelphia, but the vast majority of their charges were nolle prossed.

One of the suspects appears to have quite the history with guns, as he was arrested for illegally carrying firearms at 15. He has a record that’s 4 pages long filled with many charges involving theft, burglary, and assault. Yet, this is the same city filled with people demanding more gun control. It’s clear that they aren’t making do with the laws they have, and now a suburban gun shop and neighboring stores are paying for those decisions not to prosecute.

Real AR-15 or Replica?

See this local news story about a robbery that happened in North Philadelphia today:

There’s some speculation in the comments that it’s a replica, because the carry handle looks off. I agree it looks larger and differently shaped than any real AR-15 carry handle I’ve seen, so I’m open to the idea that it’s a replica. But that could also be a lensing effect on the camera making it look bigger than it really is. Other than that, it looks like the real deal to me, but I agree that carry handle and sight is off. What do you think?

Though, I do have to say, with that one handed grip, I don’t know how he thinks he could fight off a grab. That’s practically begging for a bolder store clerk to rip that AR right out of his hands. I don’t know if I’d have the guts to do it, but it’s certainly doable.

Spree Killing in Philly Suburbs

Some of you might have been following this storyÂ of a spree killer loose in the ‘burbs, killing his family members. One dead in Lower Salford, two in Lansdale, and several in Souderton. Apparently it was all his ex-wife and her family that he was targeting. Last report I heard was that he was barricaded inside his home, though I don’t know if they really know that. I don’t tend to follow these kinds of stories in real time, because everything the media reports almost invariably turns out to be wrong.

UPDATE: Well, I guess it’s time to crack the AR out of the safe: “Manhunt For Deadly Shooting Spree Suspect Hits Bucks County“

The Best Article on the Yeadon Doctor Shooting

Many of you have probably read the story that broke yesterday evening about the doctor who saved his life and is credited with saving numerous others by pulling out his own legally carried firearm and shooting a mental patient who had just shot his caseworker and tried to shoot the doctor. But I have to say for a case that’s still unfolding today, the Daily News has probably the best story I’ve seen on the situation and people involved.

They highlight that the shooter was known as a threat to himself and others, having been involuntarily committed by his local police department two times in the last 5 years and has a known criminal history of firearm and drug offenses. It will be interesting to see if he stole the firearm he used given that he does have a history that includes robbing a bank, according to their research.

They tracked down neighbors at his last known address and none of them were remotely shocked. They said he was clearly deeply troubled, and a friend of an ex-girlfriend of the shooter even said that the guy was a heavy, heavy drug user and claimed he got violent with the girlfriend and kicked her in the stomach while she was known to be pregnant.

In other words, this is a violent, drug addicted mentally ill person who, while in “care,” was allowed to roam the streets and continue committing crimes up until he murdered a woman who was trying to help him in cold blood and tried to take out the doctor, too. The police chief stated that he believes the shooter would not have stopped with the people in the room, and he credits the doctor with keeping the tragedy from turning into a mass shooting.

The shooter was clearly prohibited from possessing firearms, and Pennsylvania already has mandatory background checks on private sales of handguns. You’d think this would make it clear to the other side that the problem lies with our mental health and legal systems. But, no, they still blame the gun even though one in the hands of a lawful owner helped save lives.

Taking Down a Criminal with a Rifle from a Moving Motorcycle

Usually, we have reasons to highlight when cops get something really wrong. Today, I’d just like to highlight a case with an absolutely awesome sheriff’s deputy who really did some good for people today. This video is most of the finale of an incident near Denver that (allegedly) included 4 carjackings/attempted carjackings:

That motorcycle you see fly by on the right around 1:34 with the gun extended as soon as it passes the passenger vehicle and the officer who (off camera) jumped off that bike and chased the suspect, got him to drop his rifle, and then took him down with his bare hands, is the father of one of my dearest college pals – the very woman who actually introduced me to firearms. I’m so happy that he’s okay, and not at all surprised by it. She’s made of awesome, so clearly her parents must be, too.

Gun Show Vendor in Hot Water

It looks like a Pennsylvania gun show vendor may end up facing a reckless endangerment charge after he accidentally shot a customer in the leg. Not surprisingly, the gun show organizer told him to pack up his table and get out.

The vendor is trying to claim that someone else must have loaded the gun while he had his back turned, and then when he picked it up to show the woman the gun in a holster, it went bang and she was injured. There’s so much that sounds wrong here, I’m not going to speculate.

Targeting Gun Ranges to Steal Guns

It seems that two armed robbers decided they needed more guns and robbed people coming out of a local shooting range (Delaware Valley Sports Center) to get them. Unfortunately, they also shot one of the victims as they were fleeing. Police also say that there was a robbery at another area gun shop the night before.

Be careful and extremely observant, shooters in the Philadelphia area. These people have more guns and ammunition, and they are clearly willing to shoot you if they think they can get more guns off of you.

I will say that this makes the private club Sebastian shoots at more appealing because there’s no easy access without having to closely follow a member in and no easy exit.

UC Santa Barbara Shooter Sought out Gun Free Zone

Bob Owens notes that it was in the shooter’s 141 page manifesto that he was fearful of being stopped by someone with a gun. Our opponents have repeatedly told us that these people don’t really care where they commit their acts, and don’t really do that level of planning. These people might be deranged, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of a high degree of planning. As Bob notes, this and many other mass killers may be insane, but they are not crazy. They are capable of keeping themselves together enough to plan, to buy firearms, and in many cases fool therapists and law enforcement as to the extent of their derangement. And yet, the media brings us back to the gun laws. Always the gun laws:

The Second Amendment â€” regardless of your modern-day interpretation of it â€” doesnâ€™t touch on one of gun controlâ€™s biggest problems: how to keep firearms out of the hands of those who shouldnâ€™t have them because of health concerns.

This passage from Mondayâ€™s Los Angeles Times is particularly wise. â€œThe mental health system is imperfect, by design â€” a teeter-totter that weighs patientsâ€™ civil liberties against public safety. Rodger existed in the middle, on the fulcrum, simmering and disturbed, just beyond armâ€™s reach.â€

No… he did not exist in the middle of the fulcrum, because at the very very beginning of the fulcrum, California law prohibits those people from buying or possessing firearms. He would have been forced to seek a firearm on the black market, being unable to buy one legally, and the cops just taken him for observation. It’s amazing how many journalists, who know nothing about the subject on which they are speaking, are busy peddling solutions. Before you can peddle solutions, you need to have a basic understanding of current laws.

Another “Castle Doctrine” Case That Isn’t

If there’s anything that the European media likes to do, it’s make Americans look like violent whack jobs with our crazy gun laws. Such is the case with a German student killed in what the BBC is calling a castle doctrine case:

Mr Kaarma, a 29-year-old firefighter, has told investigators his home had twice been hit by burglars, and he told a hair stylist he had waited up at night to shoot intruders, prosecutors said.

On the night of the shooting, Mr Kaarma and his partner Janelle Pflager left their garage door open, and Ms Pflager left her purse in the garage in order to bait intruders, she told police.

They set up motion sensors and a video monitor, prosecutors said.

When the sensors went off just after midnight and they saw a man on the monitor screen, Mr Kaarma went outside and fired a shotgun into the garage without warning several times.

The law in Montana still requires that you be in reasonable fear of death or grave bodily injury. “Castle doctrine,” simply means that you have no duty to retreat from your home. In most states, there’s either a statutory or common law presumption that someone unlawfully entering your home amounts to that reasonable fear. But setting up in ambush? That looks an awful lot like this case to me. I think prosecutors in this case probably feel the same way, or they wouldn’t have charged him. So this is another incident that really is not a “castle doctrine” case. This is going to hinge on whether or not the homeowner was in reasonable fear of life and limb, which given the circumstances, it seems pretty obvious he was not, and his planning the ambush establishes a very different frame of mind than the one required to claim self-defense.

This is a pretty run-of-the-mill murder case where the defendant is claiming self-defense. It’s baffling to me the media’s reaction. How do they handle self-defense claims in Europe? Do they just give them a “go straight to jail” card if a homeowner shoots an intruder? No trial? Are people not permitted to defend themselves against murder charges in Europe?