Month: May 2010

Tales of Armed Self-Defense

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This one’s in my back yard:

Man arrested, 2 others facing charges in deadly shootout

A 20-year-old man was arrested Wednesday and two others are facing charges in connection with a robbery that led to a deadly shootout Tuesday night at a north-side auto store, police said.

Carlos Peyron is facing charges of first-degree murder, attempted aggravated robbery, attempted armed robbery and kidnapping after he and three other men attempted to rob M&M Customs, which sells and installs car alarms, said Sgt. Fabian Pacheco, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.

One of the suspects, Noah Lopez, 18, was shot to death by an employee during the robbery.

Two other men, Toney Stith, 26, and Anthony Peyron, 19, were wounded in the shootout and will face charges once they are released from the hospital, Pacheco said.

All of the men are gang members, he said.

According to police, four men went into the business, at 3040 N. Stone Ave., and confronted an employee, forcing him into the back office.

The business owner, who was in the office, pulled out a shotgun and fired, wounding Anthony Peyron.

The suspects attempted to flee but encountered a locked door.

Lopez turned to the business owner and shot him in the forearm.

The employee retrieved a handgun from his tool kit and fatally shot Lopez, who turned his gun on the employee.

Lopez was pronounced dead at the scene.

So not only did the boss have a shotgun in his office, one of his employees had a PISTOL in his TOOLBOX. And get this:

Stith was wounded in the lower extremities, while Carlos Peyron was hit in the back of the head with the stock of the shotgun.

The victims held the suspects at gunpoint until police officers arrived two minutes after the shooting was reported.

The newspaper actually properly identified the victims and the perpetrators.

The good guys end up with one wounded (one hopes only superficially), and the bad guys end up with one dead, and the rest wounded and captured.

I used to live very close to where this occurred. It was not unusual to hear multiple gunshots at night, very seldom followed by sirens. I slept with a .357 Magnum on the headboard there.

Armed self-defense works.

THAT’S RACIST

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A while back I wrote Balkanization, a piece about the Tucson Unified School District’s “Raza Studies” program, part of its broader Ethnic Studies program. It was fairly obvious from the coverage that the “Raza Studies” program was another example of Critical Pedagogy in the public school system, and its intent is to radicalize the students involved.

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne decided to do something about it. The program, in his view, encourages students to resent a particular race.

It’s just like the old South, and it’s long past time that we prohibited it.

If you read up on Paolo Friere and Critical Pedagogy as he envisioned it, that’s exactly what it does, regardless of how it’s presented as promoting “critical thinking.”

So Horne lobbied for a bill in the state legislature, and it was recently passed and more recently signed by Governor Jan Brewer.

Of course, this is just more evidence of how racist Arizonans are.

The Tucson Unified School District says that they will have no problem complying with the new law though, while continuing their various Ethnic Studies programs.

I’ll bet.

Well, it’s Better Than 4,000

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Once again our anti-gun opponents drag out scaaaary numbers! to motivate the herd. This time, courtesy of Xrlq via Uncle, we get the latest on the home-front numbers propounded by Momlogic:

Gun Accidents Kill 500 Kids Each Year

Advice every parent needs to hear about firearm safety.

This week, an 8-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his 2-year-old sister in California.

“It’s a tragic case of a sibling who picked up a firearm, thinking it was a toy, pointed it at his sister and discharged one round from the firearm, striking her in the head,” said Vacaville Police Sgt. Charlie Spruill.

But these aren’t freak accidents. More than 500 children die annually from accidental gunshots. Some shoot themselves, while others kill friends or siblings after discovering a gun.

Here are more scary stats: Americans own 200 million firearms, and 35 percent of homes contain at least one gun. Last year, a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more than 1.7 million children live in homes with loaded and unlocked guns.

There’s more, but this is enough.

The part I’ve emphasized in bold? It’s a lie.

It’s a blatant, bold-faced lie.

It’s also not an isolated incident. It’s not even uncommon. For example, I have more than once pointed to a March 2000 Salon article by Jean Hanff Korelitz, What a few good women can do (still available on the site, you’ll note) where she states in no uncertain terms:

And what about the more than 4,000 children who die in gun-related accidents each year? That’s 11 kids a day. And we’re not talking about crimes, or intentional shootings. We’re talking — or not talking enough — about accidents.

Korelitz says it’s 4,000 a year. Ten years later, Momlogic says it’s 500.

Why aren’t we celebrating the eight-fold reduction in accidental gunshot deaths of children?

Because they’re lying to you. Remember, they’re The Other Side.

So what are the real numbers? Well, let’s go back to the first excerpt where Momlogic‘s piece states:

Last year, a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more than 1.7 million children live in homes with loaded and unlocked guns.

Wow. 1.7 million potential accidental gunshot deaths, each and every day. But I repeat this line to illustrate that the writer of the Momlogic piece is aware of the Centers for Disease Control. This might lead one to believe that the author could be aware of the CDC’s WISQARS tools. The Momlogic piece insists that the accidental death toll is 500 children a year. Let’s stipulate that “accident” means “unintentional,” and “children” are legally defined as seventeen years old or less. How many children died of accidental gunshot in 2006 (latest available data)?

One hundred and two. (102!)

That’s a factor of FIVE fewer than the headline states.

Well! What about 2005?

127

2004? 105.

2003? 102.

2002?!? 115.

What about when Ms. Korelitz was decrying the “fact” that we “weren’t talking enough” about the “more than 4,000 children who die in gun-related accidents each year”?

Here’s the available CDC data (you trust the .gov, right?) tabulated from 1990 up through 2006:

2006: 102
2005: 127
2004: 105
2003: 102
2002: 115
2001: 125
2000: 150
1999: 158
1998: 207
1997: 247
1996: 272
1995: 330
1994: 403
1993: 392
1992: 378
1991: 419
1990: 417

Not 4,000. Not 500. Two hundred seventy-two in 1996 (four years before Ms. Korelitz wrote her piece) and 102 in 2006 (four years before the Momlogic piece).

Two questions:

Each and every one of those deaths is a tragedy for the family or families involved. Why aren’t the actual numbers ever enough for our opponents? Why must they inflate them?

And why aren’t we CELEBRATING a four-fold reduction in the accidental gunshot deaths of children over the past twenty years even as well over 60 million new guns have entered circulation during that same period? Remember: supposedly there are 1.7 MILLION households with loaded, unsecured firearms in them that children could be exposed to. I’d say that an annual accidental gunshot death toll of 102 is damned near miraculously small, especially given the fact that 509 children under the age of five died of accidental drowning in 2006 alone.

One more: Why hasn’t Salon or Ms. Korelitz ever published a retraction of her absurd assertion? (Never mind. That last one was rhetorical.)

Woo-Hoo!

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I received an email today from Ted Brown:

Your stock finally came in and I will be glass bedding and doing the final assembly this week. I’ll let you know when it’s done and the final charges. I really like the stock.

It’s a McMillan M3A.

Not much longer now!

Why We’re Winning

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Those of you who’ve been reading TSM for a while are probably familiar with Dr. Brian Anse Patrick, Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Toledo, in Ohio. I read his book The National Rifle Association and the Media: The Motivating Force of Negative Coverage back at the end of 2007, and my überpost The Church of MSM and the New Reformation was the result. Dr. Patrick is good people.

He sent me a galley copy of his latest book, Rise of the Anti-Media: In-forming America’s Concealed Weapon Carry Movement and I’m sorry to admit that it’s taken me a couple (OK, more than a couple) of months to get around to starting it, but I did start it last night. Let me quote from the introduction a particularly pertinent passage related to the title of this post:

Based on my research, it would not be inaccurate to say that “mass” antigun organizations tend to resemble mailing lists, audiences, or abstract statistical aggregations more than true organizations of people in a state of communication regarding one another, that is, a community. Except, of course, for a relatively few true believers at the top, or sprinkled here and there, the mass antigun group is a comparatively top-down affair communication-wise; it is vertical and can be mobilized only on very special occasions, providing some powerful, moneyed sponsor supplies free bus transportation or other incentives.

Case in point, the recent brouhaha over Starbucks not prohibiting open carry in their stores.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership Violence was one of the most outspoken opponents of Starbucks’ “leave us out of it” policy. And by sheer coincidence this evening via Dave Hardy I discovered one of the strongest affirmations of Dr. Patrick’s observation:

(Click to embiggen the screenshot.) Yup. Last updated April 27, all they’ve managed to raise is $20. Will that even buy a Vente half-caf, non-fat whole-milk foam, bone-dry, half-pump mocha, half sugar in the raw, with double cup and no lid?

I guess this IS the America We Really Want to Live In. Watch the embedded April 12 Comedy Central clip. It’s pretty funny.

Now, I must continue my reading. This book promises to be as interesting as his last.

Tucson – Bowling Pin Shoot, Mother’s Day, 5/9

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Yeah, I know, what planning.

Anyway, it’s at the Tucson Rifle Club Sunday morning starting at about 8:00 AM.

Handguns only, .38 Special or larger/more powerful caliber. (No .22 class yet, sorry.)

Course of fire is five (5) standard bowling pins placed on a table approximately 42″ tall, spaced 16″ apart. For “major” calibers (.45 ACP, .357 Magnum, etc.) the pins are placed 12″ from the front edge of a 48″ deep table. For “minor” calibers (.38, 9mm) they are placed 16″ from the BACK edge of the table. Shooter starts from the low-ready position, 25′ from the front edge of the table. At the sound of the buzzer, clear all of the pins OFF the table.

The competition begins with each shooter running five tables, timed. Worst time is thrown out, the remaining four are averaged. That’s your dial-in.

After all the competitors have their dial-ins, it’s bracket-racing time. Two shooters, two tables. The differential between the dial-ins of the two shooters is programmed into the timer. Slower shooter starts on the first beep, faster shooter on the second beep. Whoever clears their table first wins. Best two-out-of three runs decides that matchup. The next pair then steps up.

If you lose two matchups, you’re done for the day. Minimum course of fire, 45 rounds. Whoever is left standing at the end is the winner (of the admiration of the other competitors.)

This means if you’re slow and steady with an iron-sighted wheelgun, you might be able to beat the guy with the 20-shot compensated racegun with reflex optics who can’t miss fast enough to win. He HAS to wait for that second beep.

Entry fee is $10 for the first gun, $5 for each additional gun. One dollar out of each entry goes into a pot. At the end of the match there will be a drawing and one lucky shooter (still in attendance) wins the pot.

I’m going to try to run this match monthly, second Sunday of the month. This one just so happened to fall on Mother’s Day. Dammit. Hope to see you there.