American Defense Enterprises

Story here.

summary: man and woman, white truck, high powered rifle.  Shot at an employee (intimidation?) at 640am; were able to steal accessories/scopes, but, no guns.  Were finally arrested on the 10 freeway when one of the truck’s tires went flat.

Last Thursday (Aug 5 2010), we got a new supreme court justice confirmed.

Her history suggests that she does not support 2nd amendment issues as individual rights nor recognize a right to self-defense…

NRA-ILA announcement here.

As reported on CNET…

It turns out that all the TSA has been keeping all those naked pictures it has been taking of passengers.  You know…. the fancy body scanners that look under your cloths to check for weapons penis/breast size.  Nope… no possibility of abuse with this one.

Thanks to  FourthAmendmentBlog for the reference to Reedy v Evanson.

“While working as a cashier at a convenience store,
nineteen-year-old Sara R. Reedy was sexually assaulted and
robbed at gunpoint by a serial sex offender. She reported the
crime to the police within minutes, subjected herself to a rape kit
examination, and gave detailed and consistent statements to law
enforcement officers and hospital staff. However, Detective
Frank Evanson of the Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania Police
Department, the lead investigator assigned to Reedy’s case,
believed that Reedy had fabricated the incident to cover up her
own theft of cash from the convenience store. Approximately
three months later, Evanson also became the lead investigator on
another sexual attack that was substantially similar to the assault
on Reedy and that Evanson knew was suspected to be the work
of a serial rapist. Six months after the assault on Reedy,
Evanson filed a criminal complaint against her, charging her
with falsely reporting a crime, theft, and receipt of stolen
property. Reedy spent five days in jail. The charges against her
were dropped only when the serial rapist was captured and
confessed to assaulting her, to committing the theft, and to
committing the other sexual assault investigated by Evanson.”

To make things more comfortable for the girl — she consented to a blood draw (it is required to exclude her dna from the rape kit) and the officer went ahead and got the blood tested for drugs  (it was positive – diazepam and marijuana).  Violation of expectation of privacy?  Great way to kick a rape victim in the face? Legal without a warrant?

Thankfully the courts ruled that the cop was a dumb-ass (legal term) and removed his “qualified-immunity” protection.  Im looking forward to Evenson (personally) and  Cranberry PA making this girl very very rich.

Ok…  This really isn’t a story about gun control on its face.  Back on the 22nd of July a man was shot dead on a shooting range in Pennsylvania and some of his expensive rifles were missing from the scene (thetruthaboutguns.com).

Obvious issues worth considering here about being alert, etc.  But, this alone didn’t grab my attention enough to post.  It was fun to conjecture about the possible suspects…  gangs, felons looking for guns, some other scofflaw with a lack of disregard for life looking for an easy couple of G’s.  Heck, the victim was a personal injury lawyer, perhaps a disgruntled client?  Ostensibly, one might even imagine using these possibilities as rationals for increasing gun control..

Well we do not have to hypothesize about the nature of the assailants any more as they were just arrested and charged with the crime:  Two GUARDS Arrested in Pennsylvania Gun Range Shooting Death.  Yup; by current best guess, it looks like our lack of disregard for life thieves were PA state prison guards.  So much for gun control.

Overall a tragic incident, but, it reminds us of an important lesson.  No matter how much we can trust our government and our police as a group — it is still a group made of individuals that have the same failings as the rest of us.

Guy and Gal in San Diego are pulled out of a car and a robbery is attempted by 4 people.

The guy is able to fight off the attackers using a folding knife (story at NBC).  In the process he does enough damage to send the assailants to the hospital.  I imagine the identification line up is easier when you are looking for the stab wounds :-p.

P.S.  Remember, the unfortunate statistics about resisting a robbery.  Resisting with a gun is the least likely to end with the victim getting injured.  Then, _no resistance_.  Then resisting with a weapon…  Of course, in this case, it looks like the guy was injured but had considerably less injuries than if he hadn’t had the knife…

(Reuters) – New orders for long-lasting manufactured goods fell unexpectedly for a second straight month in June, posting the largest drop since August in a sign economic recovery cooled in the second quarter.

Schwarzenegger declares California fiscal emergency

But some trends are positive…  Home sales fell less than expected….

We’ve now had two “recoveries” that ended up not panning out.  I am genuinely concerned at this point…..

From Texas CHL Forum

Heller Kitty T-Shirts!

Could this be considered a sniper cat?

I am really not sure why Bloomingdale’s is carrying this product…

Giuseppe Zanotti “Bullet” Thong Sandals

Starbuck’s says its (open carry) legal and they are not going to take a corporate anti-gun position.  For the record, I was a Coffee Bean guy (I like one of their ice blendeds a little better).  I am now a Starbuck’s guy — besides, they have cute bears and yummy egg salad sammiches.

Here is Starbuck’s statement, issued today:

Mar 03, 2010
Starbucks Position on Open Carry Gun Laws

SEATTLE, March 03, 2010 – We recognize that there is significant and genuine passion surrounding the issue of open carry weapons laws. Advocacy groups from both sides of this issue have chosen to use Starbucks as a way to draw attention to their positions.

While we deeply respect the views of all our customers, Starbucks long-standing approach to this issue remains unchanged. We comply with local laws and statutes in all the communities we serve. In this case, 43 of the 50 U.S. states have open carry weapon laws. Where these laws don’t exist, we comply with laws that prohibit the open carrying of weapons. The political, policy and legal debates around these issues belong in the legislatures and courts, not in our stores.

At the same time, we have a security protocol for any threatening situation that might occur in our stores. Partners are trained to call law enforcement as situations arise. We will continuously review our procedures to ensure the highest safety guidelines are in place and we will continue to work closely with law enforcement.

We have examined this issue through the lens of partner (employee) and customer safety. Were we to adopt a policy different from local laws allowing open carry, we would be forced to require our partners to ask law abiding customers to leave our stores, putting our partners in an unfair and potentially unsafe position.

As the public debate continues, we are asking all interested parties to refrain from putting Starbucks or our partners into the middle of this divisive issue. As a company, we are extremely sensitive to the issue of gun violence in our society. Our Starbucks family knows all too well the dangers that exist when guns are used irresponsibly and illegally. Without minimizing this unfortunate reality, we believe that supporting local laws is the right way for us to ensure a safe environment for both partners and customers.