That’s funny right there.
Just one more thing
Sorry, I know I said I was done, but I have one more question for the media on the New Life Church shooter.
Why does it matter that he was home-schooled? You seem so intent on brining it up, every single article I’ve seen that referenced that little shithead also mentioned that he was home-schooled.
Admittedly, it’s largely a rhetorical question, because I already know the answer. Home-schooling is “bad”, because it doesn’t fall within the guidelines of “proper” education by the powers. Therefore, if someone shoots up a church/school/library and he was home-schooled, it’s like bonus day for the media. Not only do they get to rant and rave about assault weapons, but they can also decry the evils of parents teaching their children as the parents see fit. If the kid also played violent video games, it’s triple bonus day.
New Life Church shooting: Final thoughts
I’m going to talk about this just a little more, and then wrap up the topic.
The first thing I want to address is that the death of the shooter at New Life has been ruled a suicide by the county coroner. The reason I want to talk about this is because it does provide an “out” for the anti-gun people to say that “armed citizens didn’t do anything, he would have just killed himself”, and attempt to somehow invalidate the heroism of Ms. Assam. I can definitively say that such statements are bullshit. Even the coroner’s report notes that Ms. Assam’s shots were what put him on the ground to begin with.
“It should be noted that he was struck multiple times by the security officer, which put him down. He then fired a single round killing himself,” the statement said.
She definitively stopped his rampage. This scenario is (somewhat) common, you can see another example of it in the infamous North Hollywood shootout. A shooter, determined to not be captured, is hit repeatedly by the good guys and severely wounded, realizes that the jig is up and takes the coward’s way out. Had Ms. Assam not been on the scene, there is no doubt in my mind that this little miscreant would have continued shooting until he was down to his last bullet.
The other thing I want to address (and just briefly) is tactics. One of things that came out of the story is that before she engaged the shooter, Ms. Assam made use of available concealment to obscure her position until she had a clear shot. It’s a tactically sound decision, especially when outranged and outclassed in terms of firepower. Handgun vs. Rifle is a bad situation to be in, but by negating the range advantage through use of concealment, Ms. Assam was able to make up for most of the technological disadvantages.
The other thing that her use of concealment did was it swung the momentum in her favor. I have little doubt that the shooter was not expecting to meet armed resistance, and even less doubt that he wasn’t expecting it to pop out from behind cover and start taking chunks out of him.
Now, I don’t advocate that for everyone. In fact, if I were in church and I heard shots coming from the vestibule, you can be sure that my wife and I would be moving towards the exit in the opposite direction of the vestibule pretty much as fast as our legs could carry us. Same with the mall shootings – my responsibility is to my family first; even if I’m alone. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again here: the best way I can “win” any gunfight is not get it one in the first place.
Five year old kills bear
“I whistled at him and he stopped and I said ‘Shoot Tre.’ I said, ‘Tre, you missed the bear.’ He said, ‘Paw-paw, I squeezed the trigger and I didn’t close my eyes. I killed him.'”
I would venture that this five year old has a better understanding of sight picture and trigger control than a lot of adults do.
Of course, this story is going to rouse the usual rabble – both the anti-gun camp (you gave a gun to a five year old?!?!?!) and the bunny huggers (that poor bear!!!) but I think it’s just fantastic. That kid will have a story that he’ll remember for the rest of his life – the time he killed a 450 pound bear when he was five years old.
(Note: edit made because I love typos)
Typical Behavior
It didn’t take long for the media to start showing their bias after the New Life Church shooting. From Newsbusters and another source, I find this clip from Morning Joe on MSNBC. I wouldn’t say it’s shocking, or surprising, but I was taken aback by how absolutely rude Mika Brzezinski was to her fellow hosts. You can view the entire video at this link, and if you’re like me you’ll probably be surprised at how rude and condescending Mika acts.
The transcript itself is pretty interesting.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Saved hundreds of lives!
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Yes, she did.
SCARBOROUGH: Hundreds!
BRZEZINSKI: Alright. Police say it appears that shot only wounded Murray, that she only wounded him, and then he possibly took his own life.
SCARBOROUGH: One person with a gun can make a big difference.
BRZEZINSKI: Oh gosh, no! No, no, no.
SCARBOROUGH: Know what I mean? Know what I mean, Willie [Geist]?WILLIE GEIST: They were quick to point that out yesterday.
BRZEZINSKI: No, no, no, no, no. Camera stays here.
SCARBOROUGH: One person with a gun in the right place can make a big difference.
GEIST: For good and for bad.
SCARBOROUGH: For good and for bad.
BRZEZINSKI: You know, that is the most inane statement I have ever heard.
The reason why this is “typical behavior” is because it demonstrates the well document tactic of sticking your fingers in your ears and yelling “LA-LA-LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU” when you’re presented with facts that don’t agree with your predetermined world view. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so sad; especially in this case because the fact is that one person with a gun did make a huge difference, and did save the lives of hundreds of people.
Gun control I can support
Shockingly enough, it comes from California; where the Attorney General of the State got the crazy idea to actually go and enforce the gun laws that were on the books.
The goal of this investigation was to prevent violent crime in California by disarming individuals who were the most likely to use their unlawfully held guns to commit violent crimes. To identify the highest risk cases, analysts from the California Department of Justice created investigative case files on persons who legally acquired firearms in the past, but failed to relinquish the weapons after a violent felony conviction.
Department of Justice agents typically take action when firearm owners should have relinquished weapons after events such as:
• Felony convictions
• Violent or firearms-related misdemeanors
• Domestic violence incidents
• Protective orders, probation conditions, and other court orders
• Involuntary commitments under Welfare and Institutions Code section 5150 or 5250
I’ll probably take some heat for supporting this, but the fact is that I’ve never supported violent felons, domestic abusers, or the mentally incompetent owning firearms. I am pleased that California made the decision to actually remove guns from the hands of people who were forbidden from owning them, instead of going after law abiding citizens to take their guns.
I’m quite surprised that California gave me an opportunity to congratulate them on actual, effective gun control as it should be practiced, by enforcing the existing laws barring violent people from owning guns.
Jeanne Assam is a hero
Ex-cop, ordinary citizen with a concealed carry permit saved the lives of hundreds of people with her courageous actions. Uncle has aggregated the best coverage from the blogs at his place, including what so far been my favorite tidbit of info to come out of this. From the Denver Post:
Larry Bourbonnais, a combat-tested Vietnam veteran, said it was the bravest thing he’s ever seen. (referring to Jeanne Assam’s actions)
Bourbonnais yelled at the gunman to draw his attention, he said.
“First, I called him ‘Coward’ then I called him ‘S—head’ ” Bourbonnais said. “I probably shouldn’t have been saying that in church.”
I think the Almighty will give you a pass on this one.
Hahahaha – awesome
Drunk drivers will face public shaming.
A conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol is something many people try to conceal, even from their families. But now the bleary-eyed, disheveled and generally miserable visages of convicted drunken drivers here, captured in their mug shots, are available to the entire world via a Web site.
Fine with me. I really do hate drunk driving; and as fitting with my values, believe that harsher punishments (and in this case, shame) can serve as an effective deterrent. If you drive while drunk, you’re a douchebag, and deserve to have your dumb ass laughed and pilloried by the masses.
Helping us win
Thirdpower makes an excellent point, when referring to some of the rabid anti-gun comments he’s gotten.
Their profanity laden, hate-filled diatribes do one thing besides waste bandwidth. They make any ‘fence-sitters’, those with no strong opinions on the matter, think “If these people are this incoherent, maybe the other side has a point.” In other words, it encourages them to look at those that our resident venom-spitters are directing their hate towards with a more positive view.
And he really has gotten some truly vile, ugly comments.
For whatever reason, I don’t usually attract that kind of ire in people (unless I’m talking about obese people), which sometimes makes me wonder what I’m doing wrong. 😉
New Life Church shooting
I’m reading up on this shooting at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO. Again, my thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims.
This shooting ended quite differently than the shooting in the mall at Omaha, and for one reason. This time, there was an armed person in place to put an end to the shooter’s rampage. Now, according to various reports, the person who stopped the rampage was a member of New Life’s armed security team, however does not appear to be a paid employee of the church.
Rev. Brady Boyd, senior pastor of New Life Church, said the church had a security plan in place.
“I’m proud of the way our team responded,” he said. “Many, many lives were saved because of the quick action of some committed volunteers at our church.” (emphasis mine)
Colorado state law requires that an armed security guard who is not a member of law enforcement must be in possession of a concealed carry permit. I am currently in the process of determining whether the guard at New Life was an off-duty cop, or a civilian volunteer with a carry permit. Because no media have referred to the guard as an off duty police officer, my hunch is that she is just a regular concerned citizen like us.
I’ll have more on this as I get more information, but as right now the evidence seems to indicate that the rampage at New Life church was stopped by a citizen volunteer with a carry permit.
UPDATE: Directly from the head pastor at New Life Church, the “security guard” who stopped the shooting was an unpaid volunteer, not a police officer, and “used a personal weapon.” The CNN link confirms the information I just received in an email from a source at New Life Church.
So the facts are now that a concerned, armed citizen, acted to in defense of the lives of others and risked her own life by moving rapidly to the shots and engaging the gunman. This woman is truly a hero, and deserves the highest congratulations we can offer.