Amazing Joe Horn Walkthrough Video

I'll comment on this later today. For now, I am still in awe with just how close the two bad guys were to him.

UPDATE:

Ok, I now have time to comment a bit on this video.

As I said before, the thing that strikes me the most about the whole thing is how close the bad guys were to Mr. Horn. Now I am not going to get into the legality of what he did, he has already been cleared of the charges. Nor am I going to talk about what he could have done differently.

As near as I can tell, this video was taken less than 4 hours after the shooting.

What I am focusing on is his reactions on that video. You are watching the full gambit of emotions run through this man all at the same time. He is visibly shaken. He is still very scared. He is also upset but feels like he was forced to do what he did. He also shows anger, he is downright mad at being forced to shoot.

All of those emotions are textbook examples of how people act in a defensive shooting.

Also, in my opinion he was way too talkative. I have heard that this is very common, that usually the cops have a harder time getting the guy to stop talking than they do getting him to talk. The usual advice is to say something like "I will be glad to cooperate but I need to have my attorney present first." The only problem is that when you are in a super high stress situation like this, you tend to forget things like that.

Hopefully this video will serve as a good lesson on how you might act if faced with a similar situation.

Another thug let free to commit another crime

Saw this one today from FOX News:

NEW YORK — An ex-convict has been sentenced to life in prison for the sadistic, 19-hour rape and torture of a Columbia University graduate student.

Robert Williams was convicted last month in Manhattan of attempted murder, rape, kidnapping and arson.

The victim managed to testify about her agonizing ordeal. Her tormenter scalded her with boiling water and tried to blind her with bleach. She was forced to swallow fistfuls of painkillers and ordered to gouge out her eyes with scissors. The attacker glued her lips shut and gagged her with duct tape before torching her apartment.

The defense had tried unsuccessfully to have Williams declared mentally unfit to stand trial.

But let's look a bit further at his past shall we?

Williams had his first brush with the law in 1990 when he was accused at age 13 of robbing someone in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. At 16, he was arrested on murder charges in University Heights, the Bronx. The dispositions of the cases weren't available because he was charged as a juvenile.

On May 15, 1996, Williams tried to kill a man in Hamilton Heights while attempting to steal his platinum-and-diamond necklace. The victim, now a 41-year-old father of three, was shot in the back, chest and groin, records show.

"He grew up in the streets," the shooting victim told the Daily News. "He never had a job. He dealt some drugs, but robbery was his thing."

Williams was convicted of attempted murder and served eight years in prison, a span marked by a three-month stint in a psychiatric hospital and 28 prison infractions. State records show he threw feces at prison guards and beat up other inmates.

"We're relieved and thrilled that he was caught," said a classmate of the rape victim.

So, we have another life long thug, let free to keep on with his life of crime. Another case where victims could have been spared their fate if only the criminal system had kept this animal locked up and off the streets.

Incident on my college campus

Got this in my campus email over the weekend.

Subject: Serious Incident Report - East Wendover Campus

Please be aware that a male student on the East Wendover Campus, was a victim of an armed robbery, Thursday June 20, 2008, at approximately 8:00 PM. The student reports that the incident occurred in the Men's Restroom in the AEC Building. An investigation is in progress by the Campus Police.

The assailants have been described as three (3) African American males. Their descriptions follow:
Male 1 approximately 19 years old, bald head, carrying semi automatic weapon
Male 2 wore a baseball type cap with NY Yankee logo, dark shirt, knife, teenage?
Male 3 wore a hat, and a shirt with something brown written on it riding an orange
Moped teenage?

GTCC strives for a safe and healthful learning environment. Your help is necessary to support this effort.

Note: Instructors, please read the contents of this message to your students at the beginning of each class period, effective upon receipt through Monday, June 30.

This report is provided in accordance with the requirements of the Crime Awareness and Campus Security ACT of 1990. For further information, contact me at the Jamestown Campus, telephone extension 2425.

Jacqueline Pettiford
Dean, Student Support Services

I was not going to reply to it until I saw today's news regarding the shooting in Phoenix on a community college campus.

My response is as follows:

Sadly the incident talked about below is just one more in a long list of incidents that continue to happen at gun free zones. Here in NC, state law and school policy has ensured that we students will be unarmed and unable to fight back if confronted by attackers that care nothing for laws and policies.

The fact that it was illegal to carry a gun onto the campus obviously meant nothing to the people that were already intent on committing the much more serious crime of robbery. So that means that the only people following the laws are the ones that are not criminals and are not prone to committing crimes.

The fact of the matter is, persons who choose to legally carry guns as a means of defense are almost never involved in crimes. They tend to be the most law abiding citizens in society. Because of this, it makes no sense to have laws prohibiting them from possessing a means to defend themselves from those that are criminally minded and willing to hurt other people.

Virginia Tech, Columbine, The Utah mall, Northern Illinois University, and dozens of other places have all been scenes of rampages that left countless victims unarmed and defenseless. While there is no guarantee that an armed, law abiding gun owner could have prevented any of those incidents, at least those people might have had a fighting chance. Instead, state law and school policy ensures that all victims inside these places will be unarmed and completely defenseless. When faced with a situation like that, those poor souls are given only two options, run or hide.

As a father, my concern when I come to campus is my safety. I wish to make it home safely to my children. Sadly the State of North Carolina and the school feel that a policy banning guns on campus will somehow make me safer when nothing could be further from the truth. As a law abiding citizen I urge you and this institution to join me in petitioning the legislature of NC to change the laws so that people are not left to become victims any longer.

Lawfully and respectfully yours,

Chris

GTCC Student,
NRA Certified Instructor,
Law abiding gun owner,
Proud father
And responsible citizen.

I am now going to see what the response, if any may be.

Victim called an attacker.

This one from FOX News:

A bottle of hydrochloric acid was stolen from the back of a pool supplies van and thrown on a pregnant woman and her partner in a horrific attack in an Adelaide suburb today.

Witnesses said the woman, 19, and her partner, 28, had walked from the Centrelink office in Oaklands Park and became involved in an argument with a third person - a male described as aged 16 or 17 - at about 1.50pm.

It is understood the six-months pregnant woman and/or her partner started throwing blocks of concrete at the other male, Adelaide Now reported.

He retaliated by stealing a bottle of hydrochloric acid from the back of the van, which was parked in the same street. The driver of the van, who was also leaving the Centrelink office, happened to recognize the male who was having concrete thrown at him and offered to help drive him from the scene.

"But before I knew it, the acid was taken from the van," the driver, who did not wish to be named, said.

"How much acid the woman had poured on her I'm not sure, it all happened so quickly."

The woman and her partner, from Sturt, were taken by ambulance to Flinders Medical Centre suffering from acid burns.

The woman had burns to her right arm.

Their immediate condition is not known but the injuries are not life-threatening, police said.

A 13-year-old witness described the man who fled from the scene as wearing black shorts and running through the car park of the nearby Bunnings store.

"I could hear all of this screaming and yelling coming from the car park and then people were running everywhere to help this woman," he said.

"There was a lot of panic and before I knew it there were two police cars and two ambulances." The offender, who is known to the victims, has not yet been caught.

Ok, now as horrible as it must have been for a pregnant woman to have acid thrown on her. She and her "partner" were throwing concrete blocks at the person that threw the acid. I cannot fathom how the teenager that did this is being called the attacker and this girl and her "partner" are being called victims.

Lets take a look at this a bit:

• Argument between two parties. Check
• One party escalates the confrontation and starts using deadly force. Check
• The other party retaliates with deadly force. Check

Sounds like a clear case of self defense to me. In fact, in most places that value freedom (most of the US), the person that had concrete blocks thrown at him would have been 100% justified in drawing a pistol and shooting both of his attackers dead on the spot.

The only thing that I can see that could make the person getting attacked by two people that were hurling deadly objects at him would be if he was a willing participant in the confrontation or if he had thrown the acid at them after they had stopped being a threat to him. Perhaps there is more to this story, but as it is written (and I have checked both the Australian news and the news from the town it happened in, this seems like a case of self defense to me.

At least it would be in a country that allowed self defense.

Walk away

More than just a song by Chicago apparently. From Gunpundit:

Apparently the mayor of London is asking his subjects to ignore crime and not get involved.

Boris Johnson urged people to walk away if they see a crime committed rather than risk their own lives.

Yet another fabulous reason why I can no longer call Britain 'great'.

Scumbag was let go, went back to what he did best

Ok, so this has been on the news a good bit lately. Basically, last year 12 year old Brooke Bennett vanished. The prime suspect, her uncle, has been arrested and charged with her kidnapping. Her body was found a week after her disappearance. Sad, tragic, and utterly reprehensible.

The primary problem, the person being charged with her kidnapping is a twice convicted sex offender who will most likely be charged with her murder once the lab results get back.

So why was this man walking free?

According to FOX News:

In 2004, with Kearney's recommendation, Judge Amy Davenport ruled that Jacques' probation end in 2006, as long as no violations occurred and despite strong objections from prosecutors.

"According to Mr. Jacques' probation officer, he is a 'probation success story,"' Davenport wrote in her order. "He is married and has a child. He and his wife own a home in which they reside. He has been very successful in his employment and is now in a position which entails significant responsibility."

But wait, it gets worse. Brooke was not the only one he was victimizing. According to the Boston Herald:

On June 29, before he was charged in Bennett’s disappearance, Jacques, 42, was charged with aggravated sexual assault in an unrelated case that police learned about while investigating the Bennett matter.

Investigators said he molested a girl over a five-year period, beginning when she was 9.

If true, that would mean he was molesting the girl at the time of the probation hearing.

A peek at his past according to the local Vermont news:

Jacques is a registered sex offender. He was arrested and convicted of kidnapping and sexual assault in 1993. State records show he completed a sex offender treatment program before he was released from state supervision in 2006.

From FOX News:

According to a police affidavit, in the 1992 case Jacques abducted the high school senior after she left a Barre bar, handcuffed her, put a rope around her neck and cloth in her mouth and forced her to engage in sex acts. He told her he had killed a girl in Arizona seven years earlier and at one point held a knife to the woman's throat, the affidavit said.

Davenport agreed with the state's assessment of the brutality involved, but disagreed with the state that he should spend another eight years on probation.

So I now ask, why was this man allowed to be free? Ever!

Since the Supreme Court recently ruled that the death penalty was not applicable in child rape cases, the next best option is life in prison. If this animal had been sentenced to a life term and kept in prison, he would have been unable to victimize at least 2 more people. If I were related to these girls, I would sue the state, the judge, the parole board, the sex offender program, and anyone else involved in his release. I would also make it my life's work to ensure that these kinds of animals weren't let out of prison, not just early, but ever.

Another new category

The other thing that has become more and more apparent to me lately is the growing implementation of the huge nanny state in England. Thus, I have created a new category of posts called "The former 'Great' Britain."

I simply cannot consider the country of Britain to be 'Great' any more.

A slight change of pace

Ok, well I feel kinda weird about just copying and pasting articles from all of the other gun bloggers... So, I am going to start a change of pace... One of the things that I am starting to see more and more of are high profile cases where criminals that should have never been let out of jail are released and go on to commit horrific crimes. Growing up in Central Florida, I was quite inundated by the news coverage of the Jessica Lunsford murder.

What struck me the most about the whole thing is that the vile act was committed by someone that should have never been walking the streets in the first place.

Lately I have seen another flood of these similar stories. From the animals that killed the Philly cop last month to the guy that killed the Charlotte cop a few weeks ago, there seems to be a severe epidemic of people walking the streets and committing horrendous crimes even though they have extensive criminal records that should have resulted in them never being allowed to be free.

I have long said of the gun laws in this nation, if a person is so dangerous that we as a society cannot trust them with a gun, then they should not be allowed to walk free. So, in light of this, I am going to start posting about these tragic events as they happen.