The incident was recorded. It doesn't seem like there was any doubt as to the defensive nature of this shooting, but when you have a bunch of neighborhood shrews unaccustomed to violence and unprepared to defend themselves, the victim gets the blame....two hooded men robbed an employee of the Soprano's Meat Market at gun point at 2703 Ursulines Avenue. Store owner and brother of the employee, Rick Abraham, says surveillance video captured the entire incident.
"They robbed him, beat him with the gun, threw him on the floor, and demanded the money," he said.
But Abraham says his brother was only carrying $50, and so when the robbers demanded more, his brother pulled out his own gun to defend himself. "What happened wasn't just some gunfight; it was a matter of life and death situation."
Two problems with that. First - if a violent thug threatens your life over $50 and demands more at gunpoint, you're damn well justified in chasing him down and shooting his ass! If you don't, chances are he'll just move on to his next victim of the night. Second - THE VIDEO NEVER SHOWED THE VICTIM CHASING DOWN ANYONE. Apparently the victim did shoot back - with good reason! But that doesn't matter to the Soiled Panty Brigade who are quaking more at the idea a bullet hole in their truck or building from a righteous self dfense case than they are at the idea of a violent robber running around their neighborhood.But on Tuesday night, a handful residents showed up to the First District police station, arguing otherwise. During the New Orleans Neighborhood and Police Anti-Crime Council Meeting (NONPAC), residents argued that the store employee should not have continued to shoot at the robbers, especially if the two men were fleeing the scene.
"What we don't understand is how it's possible that a business owner feels it's the safe and right thing to do to chase a robber down a full city block shooting in a residential neighborhood,” said Kate Parker, President of the Faubourg St. John Neighborhood Association.
This is much akin to telling a rape victim she's to blame for her plight because her skirt is too short. A proprietor trying to make an honest living by working longer hours to EARN a profit is not to blame for the actions of criminal vermin. A business owner shouldn't have to alter his business hours to the thugs' schedules. That's the coward's way out. The hero's way out is to ensure that violent scum doesn't come back to that neighborhood.Many of the residents at Tuesday’s anti-crime meeting say they blame the store's owner for much of the area's illegal activity. They say the meat market stays open later than it should, and accuse the store's owner of attracting customers who contribute to crime.
I do not like that angelina says she likes mccain. mccain is too old to be pres. and should choose dr kervorkian as his vice. he is not a hero at all, and gave up his buddies one day after capture...this is not the kind of man who can lead us. In fact, no man can, and that is why Hillary/cynthia mckinney is my choice for president convention or no, and I will only do what Hillary/cynthia tells me to do from now on, presidency or no!!!I'm emailing a note to Hillary and Cynthia, asking them to please tell this twisted hasbeen to take her fat ass out of the gene pool in as painful a manner as possible.
The small community of Harrold in north Texas is a 30-minute drive from the Wilbarger County Sheriff's Office, leaving students and teachers without protection, said David Thweatt, superintendent of the Harrold Independent School District. The lone campus of the 110-student district sits near a heavily traveled highway, which could make it a target, he argued.
[...]
For employees to carry a pistol, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun; must be authorized to carry by the district; must receive training in crisis management and hostile situations; and must ammunition designed to minimize the risk of ricocheting bullets.
Well, this makes sense to me. In an emergency, it could take police 1/2 hour or longer to arrive at the scene! How many people can one armed thug or two armed, trench coat-wearing sociopaths mow down while the police respond? Since when is leaving people in the middle of nowhere defenseless a common sense policy?
Apparently, it makes sense to SOMEONE! That someone is a toad named Gayle Fallon, and yes, she really does look like a toad. (Thanks to NewsBusters for picking up this story.)There's only one more piece of advice I'd add to Vic's wisdom: LEARN SOME GODDAMN BASIC ECONOMICS!Seeing as I have harshly criticized Obama in the past, I have decided to give some advice to the Obama campaign in the spirit of fairness:
- Lay off the Race Card. It is old, it is tiring, and it is doing massive damage to your credibility. While there will always be those on all side of the political spectrum who will always see race as an issue, the overuse of the Race Card is turning moderate voters away from you.
- Find a position and stick to it. Seriously. You’re waffling more than John Kerry and John McCain combined; an astonishing feat in and of itself! You are trying to be everybody’s friend. This tactic does not work in real life, and it especially does not work in politics. Ask George W. Bush how far trying to be everyone’s best friend has gotten him.
- Lose the arrogance. You come across as someone who thinks just a little too highly of himself, and that the election is merely a formality to be observed on your way to the White House. Ask Hillary Clinton how far her sense of inevitability has gotten her. Also, you tend to speak over people and not to people. This gives feeds the impression of your arrogance and it leads people to believe that you are disconnected from mainstream America.
- Learn to speak extemporaneously. Good grief, man! Away from your teleprompter and rehearsed speeches, you gaffe like George W. Bush! Like Bush, when you stutter and stammer, you come across as insincere, unprepared, and/or in way over your head.

Since I'm prone to bouts of impetuousness and stridency, my reply would be the following. Feel free to reprint (with proper attribution, of course) and distribute.Stop Handgun Violence to Unveil Dramatic New Billboard Calling on Congress to Close the Gun Show Loophole that Gives Criminals and Terrorists Easy Access to Guns
(BOSTON) John Rosenthal, Founder and Chairman of Stop Handgun Violence, along with Mayor Thomas Menino; Public Safety Secretary Kevin Burke; Mass. State Police Commander Colonel Mark Delaney and Boston Police Superintendent Bruce Holloway, will hold a Press Conference on Tuesday, August 19 to unveil Boston's newest campaign to reduce gun violence and keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and terrorists.
America's largest billboard, a 252-foot long sign along the Massachusetts Turnpike next to Fenway Park, will be unveiled with a new powerful and provocative call- to-action message to close the "gun show loophole" in federal gun laws that allows terrorists and criminals to purchase firearms at gun shows "no questions asked" without a criminal background check or ID. This new message will be seen by more than 250,000 people every day. The billboard unveiling marks the kick-off of a national public awareness campaign by Stop Handgun Violence to pressure Congress to act on this critical public safety issue.
WHEN: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 10:00 A.M.
WHAT: Stop Handgun Violence - "We Sell Guns!" Mass Pike Billboard Unveiling and Press Conference
WHO: Stop Handgun Violence Chair John Rosenthal; Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; Mass. Public Safety Secretary Kevin Burke; Mass. State Police Commander Colonel Mark Delaney; Boston Police Superintendent Bruce Holloway. Confiscated Guns: Provided by BPD and MA State Police
WHERE: 601 Newbury Street /Art Institute of Boston, Room 320
WHY: Gun sales at gun shows have become a major threat to public safety and national security. An ATF study found that 30% of guns involved in its illegal trafficking investigations were connected to gun shows. One example of the public safety threat is the Columbine High School shooting, where all four guns used in the massacre were bought at gun shows without background checks.
John Gates
Email: john@elevatecom.com
Phone: 617.548.8972
Keith Gainsboro
Email: keith@elevatecom.com
Phone: 857.234.1481
Notice a couple of things here. 1) The charge wasn't terrorism, but shipping firearms to a nonlicensed person. 2) Automatic weapons, explosives, grenades and rocket launchers are not standard gun show fare. Therefore, Boumelhem may have purchased said equipment elsewhere. So is it a terrorist "loophole" if one guy who was apprehended, by the way, was trying to ship arms to Hezbollah and may or may not have made purchases at gun shows?An FBI terrorism task force arrested a Lebanese resident of Detroit allegedly involved in shipping weapons and ammunition to Hezbollah guerrillas. Ali Boumelhem, 35, was apprehended just before departing on a scheduled trip to Lebanon. Authorities say that Boumelhem, a leader in the militant Amal militia and a "sympathizer" of Hezbollah, traveled frequently to gun shows to buy arms and then hid them in cargo crates bound for Lebanon. FBI agents intercepted one cargo container bound for Lebanon which contained a pair of shotguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a radio and a police scanner. In addition, an FBI informant told investigators that he had seen Boumelhem in Beirut unloading shipments of automatic weapons, explosives, grenades and rocket launchers. He faces charges in a U.S. District Court of shipping firearms to a nonlicensed person.
The National Rifle Association said Wednesday that Barack Obama's campaign is trying to mislead voters about his past support of gun control, calling the Democratic candidate "a poster child of the extremist, elitist gun control movement."So far I'm with you, NRA. I don't see anything that suggests Obama respects gun rights in any way, shape or form.
The group was responding to recent remarks by Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat who supports gun rights and told reporters this week that Obama "ain't ever going to take your gun away." Schweitzer, who has the NRA's support in his re-election bid, added that there is little difference between the Democrat and Republican John McCain.Well, let's see... both know next to nothing about economics. Both love government control. Both have little respect for the Bill of Rights. Both have their tongues firmly implanted up the collective rectums of the illegal alien population in this country. Um... yeah... I'm thinking the Gov is barking up the right tree.
"To somehow suggest (Obama) is supportive of gun owners because he says so when he is in Montana running for president is absurd," the NRA's Chris W. Cox said in a telephone interview from Virginia. "We are going to make sure that anybody that tells Montana gun owners that Barack Obama is not a threat to gun owners is exposed as someone who is not shooting straight."Now, maybe I'm reaching here, but when the Governor of Montana tells his constituents that Obambi "ain't ever going to take your gun away," that tells me he believes there will be mass resistance in Montana to any such effort, not that The Anointed One won't try. Maybe I'm wrong. I've been known to be wrong before, but it's possible.
Now that right there is some funny shit. Deluded and disturbing, but funny nonetheless... I don't care who ya are! (Dave, are you proud of me? Do I sound like a southerner yet?)"The NRA is wrong to suggest we are misleading anybody," said Obama spokesman Caleb Weaver, adding: "Gun owners have nothing to fear from Barack Obama."
Of course, McCain's actual record shows something completely different. Gun Owners of America has given McCain an "F-" rating, which, as far as I know, is unheard of in NRA circles for a Republican candidate. His efforts to kill gun shows (because, you see TERRORISTS are exploiting it!), which he's currently masquerading and parading around as an effort to "standardize" sales procedures, his gun control ads for gun grabber Andrew McKelvey's gun control group Americans for Gun Safety, his love for "lock up your safety" legislation that pushes gun locks on gun owners by forcing manufacturers to include them in the packaging (guess who absorbs the cost of that, John? Or did your mental retardation vis-a-vis economic principles kick in again?) paint a very different picture of McCain, who boasted at CPAC a few months ago how he has a spotless Second Amendment record."I do not believe we should tamper with the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States," he said. A woman shouted that George Washington's troops used muskets, not automatic weapons.
[...]
"I strongly support the Second Amendment and I believe the Second Amendment ought to be preserved _ which means no gun control," McCain said.
I'm all for the free market. I'm one of the biggest capitalists you'll ever meet, and I fully support Mr. Sykes' right to charge whatever he deems necessary for the service only he can provide in that particular location at this time. What pisses me off is the myriad of bureaucratic hoops that have to be navigated, paperwork filed, fees paid, etc. that makes it inconvenient, cumbersome and probably undesirable for too many gun dealers to open up shop in DC, thanks to Mayor Adrian Fenty and his motley herd of statist freaks and their insistence on placing as many obstacles in the way of gun rights as possible. This, of course, gives Mr. Sykes a monopoly on the business in the city, allowing him to charge anything he pleases (since there's a marked lack of competition) and making tools of self defense cost prohibitive for a whole lot of folks in the District.While handguns have been legal in the District for a month, residents are still unable to purchase guns because there are no gun stores in the city. Charles Sykes is the only licensed gun dealer in the city who is willing to facilitate the transfer of handguns from out-of-state dealers into the District. Sykes, who has been transferring handguns for security firms since 1994, is waiting for the ATF to approve his change of address before he can start doing business again.
Sykes tells WTOP he met with ATF inspectors on Tuesday. "They inspected my office," Sykes says. "They say it should be only a few weeks now, then I'll get my license from the District police and I'll be back in business."
Sykes says he will be charging a $125 fee to transfer each handgun. Since Sykes is the only dealer in town, he can charge whatever he wants. $125 might seem like a lot. In my case it's 50 percent of the purchase price for my $250 Smith & Wesson. Sykes says he gets between 1 to 2 calls a day about transferring guns.