California massacre update, correction
The killer who opened fire with an AK-style semiautomatic rifle at that Garlic festival in Gilroy, California killed himself after officers shot him multiple times, officials said, correcting previous police accounts that the officers fired the fatal shot. Three police officers responded in less than a minute and fired multiple rounds and hit the perpetrator multiple times, and he collapsed but was able to then shoot himself in the head. Keep in mind that many massacrists take their own lives at the first sign of armed resistance. In other words, it usually stops when a good guy with a gun responds.
Parkland update
The former student who later shot up Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, was deemed such a threat in school that he was searched every morning for weapons, after an earlier decision to bar him from taking a backpack to campus after he talked of suicide and wrote “kill” in a notebook.
Dayton massacre
Reports indicate that police shot down the Dayton massacrist in 30 seconds or less from the time he started shooting. Some would say you can’t defend against that, since he still killed nine and wounded dozens, even with that on-the-spot police response.
Wait. Look at the second hand on your clock. Now watch it click off 30 seconds while in your mind imagining fatal gunfire at the rate of 1 or 2 shots per second. Go the full 30 seconds doing that. Literally do that. Now imagine if you were a potential victim, say, 13 seconds in. Now tell me having a gun wouldn’t help?
The killer was well-known to his schoolmates and friends as a mental case long before this event.
El Paso update
The killer who opened fire in an El Paso, TX, Walmart, killing 22 people, was “red flagged” by his mother due to her concerns about his owning a rifle weeks before the massacre. The warning didn’t work — police didn’t follow up.
Local response
In the wake of last weekend’s multiple massacres, we have reports of local law enforcement chiefs wringing their hands about not having enough officers to cover all the gathering places for all the people all the time. It’s a very simple calculation. I guess they need to go back to remedial math class.
National response
“Republicans” are now proposing gun control in Congress. Just like the congresscritters proposed car control after the car attack at a political rally in Charlottesville, VA, and that knife ban after the recent knife massacre in Southern CA. Oh, wait, they didn’t do that. Vote ’em out.
Less than 24 hours after last week’s massacres, the Brady Bunch was using the tragedies to shill for more funds.
“Some have asked, ‘who needs 100 rounds?’
If 6 brave, trained, and alert police officers with professionally maintained weapons fired 58 rounds to subdue the Dayton shooter, I’d say my wife deserves at least that many chances to protect herself and my kids when I’m not home.”
— US Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)(@RepThomasMassie) August 7, 2019
Gun Free Zones
John Lott gets space in The Washington Times.
Active Killer Response Advice Compendium, by Greg Ellifritz
LOTS of good info here. Put down your fakebook and read it.
Mental illness
The National Alliance on Mental Illness says that, “One in 5 adults experiences a mental health condition every year. One in 17 lives with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. In addition to a person’s directly experiencing a mental illness, family, friends and communities are also affected.”
A Harvard University study, “Mind and Mood-the Prevalence and Treatment of Mental Illness Today” says, “The first large survey of mental illness and its treatment in the United States since the early 1990s shows that almost half of adult Americans at some time, and nearly a quarter in any given year, have had a psychiatric disorder. More of them are getting treatment today than in the early 1990s, but the treatment is still usually delayed and inadequate.”
That doesn’t mean all those folks are dangerous. The Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center says it’s not accurate to label mental illness as the primary motivation for violence, and their research says grievances — personal, domestic or workplace-related ones — were the triggers in 52% of cases in 2018. Only 19% were attributed to mental health issues. But the second largest cited statistical trigger (22%) was “Unknown.”
Mass Shootings and Mass Media
“In this case I default to the position that no person should ever be denied their right to self-defense and if they can, along the way, save the lives of others, it’s immoral for us to try to stop them.”
Action item
Send message to your Republican Senators to kill no due process “Red Flag” total gun confiscation bill.
NRA
It turns out that NRA Board member Marion Hammer, one of LaPierre’s staunchest defenders, seems to be mostly worried that other Board members’ requests for an independent audit of the NRA’s finances is a threat to her quarter million dollar annual payment for “consulting and lobbying services.” According to the NRA Secretary’s report, she was paid $270,000 in 2018, in addition to the $110,000 she was paid by the Unified Sportsmen of Florida to serve as their executive director. The Board is responsible for overseeing and directing NRA’s finances.
Nothing wrong at NRA? Prove it.
We have learned that NRA EVP Wayne LaPierre tried to get NRA to buy him a $6 million, 9-bath mansion, complete with cars, golf cart and access to a golf course in the gated community. The New York attorney general’s office is investigating.
David Dell’Aquila, the NRA major donor who has been leading a grassroots effort to oust EVP and CEO Wayne LaPierre and other senior NRA officers, has filed a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit in US District Court in Nashville against LaPierre, the NRA and the NRA Foundation, accusing them of fraud in the solicitation of donations.
Enemies
Gun-banning US Sen. Bernie Sanders (D/I/who knows? – VT), a self-described democratic socialist, says any new gun laws that come in the wake of the recent spate of mass shootings should be accepted by the “99.9% of gun owners [who] would never in a million, billion years think of doing these horrible things.”
If 99.9% of people would never do such things, why disarm them? Why indeed.
We’re used to the Hollyweird leftist twits yelling at us to disarm while themselves being protected by guns, but did you know Universal Pictures’ new gory movie “The Hunt” is about “liberal elites” kidnapping “deplorables” from red states and killing them for sport? Go ahead — Make my day.
MS CCW Permits
It now takes hours to renew a Mississippi CCW license at the Dept. of Public Safety Headquarters in Jackson, which only does this two days a week. If anyone has insight into better times at other locations, please let us know.
An interesting thing happened while I was there. While standing in the crowd waiting for my number to be called, a lady who was also waiting to be served asked what I was doing there. I said waiting for them to call my number. She said, “Oh, I thought you were providing security.”
I wonder, what does it say about the reputation of the Mississippi DPS when the public thinks that a little old arthritic gray retired man in street clothes is DPS’ “security?”
Ayoob on summer carry
Farnam on ammunition performance
http://defense-training.com/2019/ammunition-terminal-performance/
The Only Ones
Magee, Mississippi Police Detective Christopher Matthew Gipson, the brother of State Agriculture Commissioner and gun rights champion Andy Gipson, “accidentally” shot himself in the leg at an Oxford bar around midnight July 30 and was charged by Oxford PD with an unidentified misdemeanor. Gipson was in Oxford for police training at the time, though I doubt that was occurring at that bar at midnight.
YOYO
Call 911… and wait.
USFWS nomination
President Donald J. Trump has nominated Aurelia Skipwith as the director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (Dept. of Interior).
I believe that a woman has the right to choose…
…her method of self defense.
Products
We are saddened to learn that Ruger has discontinued its excellent 77/22 & 77/17 rifles in rimfire calibers except for the .17 WSM.
