crime

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Don’t Bring A Van To A Gun Fight

August 11, 2012 by 6 Comments

Three men in a van rammed the front wall of Guns & Ammo Gunsmith in North Augusta, SC in an attempted burglary. What they didn’t count on was that the owner lived right behind the store and, as befits the owner of a gun store, that he was armed.

When owner Stephen Bayazes came into the store, he found the three men loading guns from his store into their van.

Bayazes grabbed an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and found three men loading guns into a van that had crashed through the side wall of the store.

After hearing the men yell to kill him, Bayazes shot one 30-round magazine of .223-caliber bullets before retreating to his bedroom to reload, he later told officers.

As he left the room, Bayazes saw two men drive away in the van.

Imagine that – the owner defended his life and his business with an AR-15. Moreover, one of the burglars is dead and the other two are in the hospital. Mr. Bayazes fortunately was unharmed. The only mistake that I can see that Mr. Bayazes is that he didn’t bring extra ammo.

The moral of the story is you don’t bring a van to a gun fight.

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What The Hell Is The World Coming To Nowadays

April 23, 2012 by 7 Comments

This is a story that is guaranteed to raise your blood pressure. If you don’t feel angry after reading it then something is wrong with you. I can’t make it any plainer.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a 90 year old man was badly beaten while his 85 year old wife was beaten, raped, and killed by home invaders on March 14th.

Bob Strait of Tulsa, Okla., was hospitalized after a vicious March 14 robbery that killed his wife, 85-year-old Nancy Strait. She was beaten and raped in the attack.

The couple, who met on a blind date on Thanksgiving Day 1946, had been married for 65 years.

Police have one suspect in custody, but they believe as many as four others took part in the home invasion.

Mr. Strait, a WWII veteran, was a member of the 101st Airborne Division and jumped into Normandy on the night of June 5, 1944 as part of the D-Day invasion. After the war, he refused to accept veterans aid as he felt, according to his daughter, that “he was only doing his job, like everyone else.” He even turned down a Purple Heart during the war because he didn’t feel his injuries weren’t severe enough.

While the investigation is ongoing, the family is asking that a task force be formed to find the remaining four perpetrators of this heinous crime.

One of the Strait’s daughters, Lenore Gay, said the investigation is ongoing, but she is unhappy that Tulsa police have mustered nowhere near the resources in her parents’ case as those applied to a nationally reported shooting spree in Tulsa that occurred at around the same time.

Gay is hugely grateful for any financial help on behalf of her family, but has also asked members of the 101st Airborne Division Association to contact Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett and ask that a task force be set up immediately to find the remaining suspects still at large in her parents’ case.

If you want to call Mayor Bartlett, his office phone is (918) 596-2100. He also can be contacted by email through this link.

It is damnable thing when some punk-ass thugs can invade the home of a man who put his life on the line almost 68 years ago for their freedom. That they would rape and murder his wife of 65 years is beyond the pale. I can’t think of a punishment too cruel or unusual for these thugs.

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Both Good And Bad Advice

November 28, 2011 by 2 Comments

According to this story on WHNT, Huntsville, Alabama is seeing a great increase in burglaries. Because of this many people are arming themselves against burglars as well they might. According to the story, Huntsville Police said there were 241 burglaries of homes and businesses during the month of October.

WHNT interviewed the head of the Alabama State Rifle and Pistol Association, James Moses of Huntsville, who generally gave some good advice. For example, he emphasized training and safety saying “both long-time and new gun owners (are urged) to brush up on basic firearm safety skills, and take instruction classes if needed.” He also emphasized that people need to be able to identify their target and make sure it is an intruder – and not a family member – they are preparing to shoot at.

Where I consider his advice a bit suspect is when he said:

If he (a burglar) is in my house and I can get to my gun and get it loaded, I’m not going to give him a chance to hurt me or hurt my wife.

The question I would ask is why his gun is unloaded. Armed burglars and home invaders are not going to give you the time to open up the gun safe, pull out your shotgun, rummage around for a box of shells, and then load it. If you are worried about small children, then take the advice of Kathy Jackson of Cornered Cat fame and keep your pistol on your body. With the rash of home invasions occuring nationwide, that isn’t bad advice for everyone.

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If The Cops Won’t Respond, The Residents Will

November 11, 2010 by

I’ll be honest. There are places around this world that just scare me and that I avoid like the plague. East St. Louis, Illinois is one of those places. When the phrase “urban decay” was first coined, the author had the image of East St. Louis in his or her mind.

However, when enough good people say enough is enough, it is a sign of hope. As the video below describes, one neighborhood in East St. Louis has gotten fed up with the level of crime in their neighborhood and the lack of police response. Rather than to be dependent upon the police for their protection, the residents have started to arm themselves.

Kurt Hoffman, the St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner, looks at the story here.

East St. Louis Mayor Alvin Parks, apparently hoping to be reassuring, tells us that the city “is investigating” the complaints of slow police response (when there is any police response), and assures us that “they have a plan to curb crime in that area.”

Well, Mayor–it seems some residents have a plan, too. Of course, one problem with the residents’ plan is that they are attempting to implement it in Illinois, where armed self-defense in public is utterly prohibited.

This is the same Mayor Parks that said a year ago that people don’t have the right to bear arms except within their homes.

You have the right to bear arms, but you have the right to bear them within your home, not on the streets, not in your cars, not inside stores.

One of the tragedies of the recent elections is that Pat Quinn was elected Governor of Illinois instead of Bill Brady. Quinn, who is anti-gun, has vowed to veto any law that would extend concealed carry to the citizens of the State of Illinois. Brady had said he would have signed such a law. One must wonder if Pat Quinn has enough courage to go alone, unarmed, and without his State Police escort to East St. Louis. I sincerely doubt it. However, I have no illusions that Governor Quinn, like Mayor Parks, will continue to tell these good people that guns are bad and that they should rely upon the police for their protection all the while tut-tutting about the level of crime in East St. Louis.

Frankly, if anything is going to done about crime and violent criminal actors in East St. Louis, it will be at the hands of a resident like Rowena Howard and not due to any efforts by a politician like Alvin Parks or Pat Quinn.

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Don’t Mess with old Korean War Vets

May 27, 2010 by

In Chicago this morning, an 80 year old Korean War vet, his 83 year old wife, and 12 year old great-grandson were awoken by a thug shooting into their bedroom.

But just as the man got off a second round, the homeowner, who had a handgun of his own, fired a single shot, killing the intruder, a police source said.

“He missed, (but) my daddy didn’t,” said the 80-year-old’s son, (name deleted), who lives upstairs in the two-flat in the 600 block of North Sawyer Avenue.

Anthony Nelson, 29, whose street name was Big Ant, had a 13 page rap sheet for drug and weapons convictions.

In a news conference held later in the day, Hizzoner, Mayor Richard Daley refused to say if the homeowner would be charge with violating Chicago’s handgun ban.

The man has been hailed as a hero by his family and neighbors, but Daley cautioned that “guns is not the answer to the problems that we see in a home, in the streets of America. It’s as simple as that.”

Unlike the Mayor, I would say that a gun saved the lives of two elderly people who have been married almost 60 years and their great-grandson. Big Ant was a violent criminal actor who was intent on doing harm to these good people and needed to be stopped. And was.