Making sense of it All

Every now and then, one of our political hacks actually spouts out something eloquent.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) SC, made a compelling speech before the House Judiciary Committee meeting regarding gun control.

The question is....is anyone listening to those words?

A Sign of the Times

Being from a family of native northerners (yea, one of those blue states), and many of us having already migrated south, it was only natural that when my Mother retired from her state job, she would move south to Florida. You know, the Sunshine State. The place where my Brother likes to lovingly refer to as "the place where old people go to die."

Having lost my Dad a few years back, Mom's independence is evident. Everything is paid for and she gets her pension. She does what she wants when she wants. She wants for nothing and that is as it should be when you retire. I admire her tenacity because after 5 kids, an ailing husband, and some very tough times, she still has her attitude and swagger. While on in years, my Mother still walks with such determination and a look on her face that could knock you on your ass if you gazed too long. A look we all remember from back in the day when she would use your full name or talk between clenched teeth. Now, on those rare occasions when she does those things, we take a step back and cringe, as those childhood flashbacks run through our memory circuits.

We all worry about our Mother. Independence and strong will aside, she is elderly and a prime target for scum, maggots, thieves, rapists, whatever else you  want to call today's violent offenders. She does have a soft heart, but I'd like to think that she is smart and savvy enough that she will not be conned by some smooth talking, snake oil salesman. However, violence is something no one can predict or often times, adequately prepare for. 

But I digress...

While I myself do not live in Florida, I live in a state that recognizes the Stand Your Ground Rule and the Castle Doctrine. In fact, ours was patterned off of Florida's since they were the first state to enact such legislation. In 1996, they started this wave of concealed carry reform.

We live in a world where violence is perpetrated wantonly and many of these thugs have no conscious, taking lives with impunity. Senior citizens are now empowering themselves, obtaining their permits or at least getting handguns for their homes or having them in their cars. I see them all the time at the gun store and gun range.
They ask for advice and information on the gun laws and what they should purchase. Many more are getting their permits to carry concealed.

A prime example of senior citizens fighting back is when that elderly man shot 3 armed robbers at an internet cafe in Florida. He went to town on their asses! He had a carry permit and he had a concealed handgun he whipped out during the commission of a felony. He fought back, defending the lives of many others in that cafe and thwarting a robbery. While he popped a cap in their ass on the way out the door, which he probably shouldn't have considering the threat was leaving, I can't see any jury in Florida convicting him. The jury would be full of gray haired compatriots who would all want to buy him a drink and pat him on the back.

While my Mother thinks all of her children are overly protective and paranoid, we have all seen the reality of life, more so me, and we all worry about her safety. While she doesn't have a permit and stubbornly refuses to do so, she has a revolver in her home and on rare occasions, has it in her car.  No, she doesn't have to jump through hoops or have permission from the state government to have it in either place, nor does she have any kind of 'registration' process for guns she may keep in her home for self defense. That is her Constitutional right.
I also provided Mom with a simple to use can of pepper spray that fits neatly in her purse or on her key ring. That too, is not illegal in Florida. Illegal as hell on an airplane, but not illegal in Florida.

Mom recently took her car in for service. At the dealership the sales person asked her if she had any weapons in the car. She smiled, and said, "No, not there." According to my Mother, she saw the salesman was carrying a gun under his suit coat. He told her that they have to ask now because they had 2 customers who had left their guns in their cars. One of the forgetful gun owners was a law enforcement officer. Another elderly gentlemen had a .45 in his center console and they had to call both to come retrieve their weapons before they did any work on their vehicles.

Hell-oooo folks! Whatever happened to responsible gun ownership? Don't we get enough flak from the liberal left who think banning guns is the solution to all the violence? 

But you've got to ask yourself one question, and it's not, "Do you feel lucky, punk?" Although....
No, the question you should ask yourself is, "Do you want to be a victim or do you want to be a survivor?"
And I am by no means condoning vigilantism. I am, however suggesting that no one should have to stand by and cower in fear because thugs don't care! They take what they want by any means necessary. Get a gun and learn how to use it. It's unfortunate, but it's a sign of the times. We live in a violent world.

Shoplifting is Stupid

Charleston, SC

Ever been stupid enough to shoplift in a gun store or a liquor store? Would be kinda foolish around these parts. SC law states that you can wear a firearm in an open and exposed manner in your home or place of business or if you deal in firearms in the usual or ordinary course of business.

With that in mind, you see someone in the store wearing a firearm, or if you have an inkling that the owner might be armed, THINK before you even consider committing a crime. It's common knowledge in this state that just about every liquor store owner has a gun either in view, or somewhere close at hand.
After all, to 2 easiest places to do a stick up are convenience stores and liquor stores. In most of those blue states, liberals think that people with guns will drink irresponsibly and then start shooting. On the contrary, most gun owners are responsible adults who respect firearms.

On that note.....

Why would you and your co-horts go in to a liquor store and start shoplifting? Even if there's only one person working in the store, you can bet he's got something to defend and protect himself.

In this case, Justin Jones and possibly his thug friends went in to a liquor store and started stealing merchandise. The owner chased them out of the store. It wasn't until one of the robbers got in to their vehicle and tried to run him over that the store owner pulled out his handgun and fired at them.
He is claiming self defense and is within the legal limits of the law.
However, the news story from the local rag does what it usually does, confuses facts and slants the truth. There's actually no objectivity in news reporting anymore....but that's another story for another time.

Read this...

Jones went to jail and the liquor store owner didn't.

The Magic of 911

I know, I've had a recent dry spell and just haven't had the inspiration to put pen to paper - or fingers to keyboard, as it were.

Lately, I have been in a reading mood more than I have been in a writing mood. Today I was perusing my favorite cop blogs and came across an entry from "Officer Smith; Thoughts from behind the Badge." 

"Officer Smith" explained in great detail the reality of the 911 system.

In plain English, it's not some magic number you can call and expect an instantaneous response. The police have no duty to protect you 24/7 and it is unreasonable to expect that the police will be there immediately after you call 911, most especially when you call from a cell phone. Cell phone signals bounce off towers and the call doesn't always route you to the appropriate jurisdiction. Entering map coordinates is a time consuming endeavor when it would have been much quicker to tell the call taker the address of  your emergency, along with several landmarks, mile markers, or the name of the subdivision. GPS coordinates do NOT pinpoint your EXACT location. It only helps first responders get close.

Additionally, screaming at the call takers slows the process down. They need information and they need it fast. Once the call taker gets the type of emergency, location, and a couple of other basic questions, another dispatcher is reading that info and starting the necessary response.
If you think that it takes only minutes for a response time, you are living in a fantasy world, my friends.
There are many mitigating factors that effect the response time. Don't even ask, "how long will it be?" How is the dispatcher supposed to know that?

One final note; if you've read my blog with regularity, you know that I am a firm believer in our 2nd amendment right to keep and bear arms. The criminal element preys on the weakest and easiest targets. Don't make yourself an easy target. Learn your state's gun laws and the laws of self defense. Arm yourself with a gun, pepper spray, taser, even a baseball bat and then learn how to use it.

Read Officer Smith's thoughts on this subject;

http://officersmith.blogspot.com/2012/02/help-police.html

Homeowner shoots burglar

For the last few days, I have been totally captivated by 2 Facebook pages that were opened as a direct result of a homeowner lawfully defending himself in his own home.  Here are the basic facts of the case:

Approximately 0840 hours a homeowner is in his bathroom shaving.  He believes he is home alone when he hears noises upstairs.  He looks out a window to see if a family member had returned home and sees no cars.  He grabs his pistol and confronts a black male suspect coming down the stairs with his long guns and a bag of ammo in his hands.  He fires one shot and reportedly this projectile enters at an angle that is somewhat on the backside of the suspect's head.
The homeowner hears more noises and believes there are more intruders (which later is confirmed as one other person is in the house) so he flees from his home and runs to a neighbor's.  The homeowner calls 911 and relays the information.  Quite naturally, he is upset by the circumstances, but the 911 recording released by this police department clearly notes that the homeowner said that the burglar had his rifles and he shot him.

Here's what now plays out -  A high ranking official from this small police department, makes a recorded statement to the news media that outlines the above facts.  He further states that the homeowner will NOT be charged as he was lawfully defending his property from an intruder, as is written under the Castle Doctrine.
In this particular small county, they do NOT have a medical examiner, but just a coroner.  A coroner is an elected official and not a medical doctor.  The coroner pronounces the suspect dead of a gunshot wound.  No criminal matter. Case closed.  No autopsy necessary.  (As a note, if an autopsy was to be conducted, they would have to send the body some 40 miles away to the nearest medical examiner/pathologist and it would cost the county approximately $4000. 00.)  Why bother?  The case is clear cut and obvious.

On a side note, about 10 years ago, the Attorney General for SC, Charlie Condon, declared "open season" on home invaders.  Click on his name and you'll see the press release that stirred up quite a bit of controversy when it was first announced.

In the meantime, 2 other suspects were arrested and both gave statements/confessions of the circumstances and that they were the only 3 people involved.  (One was the getaway driver) These suspects are 18-21 years of age and - surprise - all have criminal records.
The coroner finds that the nearest immediate family member, his Father, is in the Kentucky state penitentiary.  Surprise again.  The father is notified by the coroner.


Nothing here but an open and shut case, right?  You would think, but it seems some liberal moronic relatives from New Jersey come down to find facts, help the family, make arrangements, etc.  An uncle of the deceased suspect starts a Facebook page titled Justice-for-Bobby-L-Gadsden.
You would not believe the unintelligible, moronic, ignorant arguments and comments that were posted on that page.  These people think the Castle Doctrine shouldn't pertain to poor little Bobby and that it's all race related.  Whenever someone clearly and reasonably tried to ask what "justice" they were seeking, the response was usually in the form of a written tirade that made no sense.  In a nutshell, they used every argument imaginable and grasped at straws in their attempt to blame the homeowner.  They did not dispute that their poor baby, Bobby was committing a crime, they just don't think he should have been shot in the back of the head.  They speculate that he was attempting to flee. More rumors, more speculation, more bullshit.  They were demanding an autopsy and were irate that they couldn't view his body.
2 answers were provided :
1.) The coroner really thought it in the family's best interest to release the body directly to the funeral home so that the family would not be exposed to the prettiness of what a bullet to the head can produce.
2.) The coroner can't do the autopsy but would make arrangements for the body to be sent to a medical pathologist of their choosing - but not at the expense of the county.
Apparently, those answers didn't go over well.

It quickly became a white vs. black thing, insults were constantly hurled because of the ghetto language, profanity and outright lies.  Threats were made not only on the page, but people who attempted to make some civilized sense, were receiving threatening messages in their private Facebook mailboxes.  At some point, the uncle came on and did a clean sweep of his page, deleting the comments of many people who's points made some sense and who produced facts to support the law.  These same people found themselves blocked from the page altogether.
The disgusting part is that the Facebook page has over 800 "likes" on it.  Unfortunately, you have to press like to make a comment on it.  As angry as I got at the idiotic ramblings I read on that page, I refused to "like" any part of it.
Rumors swirled that the victim of this crime received death threats and he and his family feared for their safety and have supposedly gone in to seclusion.  A police car is parked out in front of their house 24/7.

Because of all that hateful garbage spewing from the mouths and fingers of the Gadsden Facebook proponents, another page was started.  The administrator of  Truth-About-Bobby-Gadsden set some ground rules;  No racism, no excessively foul language, no threats.  The page was a means of support for the victim and his family, supporting every citizen's 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.

The local news media seemed to have lost interest and the uncle posted a story on ireporter CNN which didn't garner much sympathy.  With all their huff and puff, no high profile blow hard has jumped on their bandwagon. The Justice page eluded to NAACP action, Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton taking up the cause.
The suspect's family can't sue the homeowner, since he is protected from such action under law.  What lawyer in his right mind would want to take up a losing case?

In fact, in the last 12 hours, it has become ominously quiet, save for a few hangers on.
However, one talk radio blogspot has been shamelessly advertising on the Justice Facebook page about tonight's topic of Bobby Gadsden: Homicide or Justified?

I myself don't plan on listening, but if nothing interests you on TV tonight, and you want to see your blood pressure rise, tune in at 8 p.m.