2011 – Page 161 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Lots of Commentary on Use of Deadly Force on Unarmed Attackers

Especially in the comments over at Above the Law, many of whom are obviously lawyers. Massad Ayoob has some worthwhile things to say about defense against unarmed opponents. I don’t think it’s a situation you ever want to be in, and is one reason I’ve been convinced of the utility of carrying a defensive spray.

Multiple attackers is a tough situation, however. And it wouldn’t do much good to spray one guy only to get rushed by others. The advantage of spray is you can employ it much much earlier in the confrontation than you can deadly force. It is a step above verbal commands on the force scale. A good strategy would be, early on in the encounter, before it escalates, to spray the most aggressive member of the group and run like hell, while drawing your firearm. If you’re pursued by the remaining meatheads and end up trapped, your use of deadly force is going to look a lot more reasonable to police, prosecutors, and if it goes that far, to a jury.

Ung’s situation is far from good, however. DiDinato’s group was five strong. Ung had two other people with him, including one female. We don’t know yet whether Ung or any of the people in his group were intoxicated. Even if Ung wasn’t, it could complicate his retreat options if the others are. It could complicate his options if any of the members of his party were running their mouths off.

But generally speaking, if you shoot someone who’s unarmed, you can probably expect a trial, unless it was so clear cut (like a group of men surrounding a sixty year old man) that no prosecutor would risk it. Whether or not Ung acted reasonably, or not, will be up to the jury to decide. Once you’re in that situation, in a lot of ways your life is already ruined.

Grassley Fires Back

In response to the giant middle finger from ATF, Grassley present the evidence his office is in possession of. The evidence indicates that ATF has been telling border dealers to proceed with suspected straw sales, and report information on the guns and buyers to ATF. This represented approximately 769 firearms, only 103 of which are now accounted for.

“In addition to these specific weapons, the indictment of Avila and other references approximately 769 firearms. Of those, the indictment refers to the recovery of only about 103 weapons. So, where are the other approximately 666 weapons references in the indictment? Why did the ATF not seize them?”

There is documented evidence that the gun that was used in the murder of CBP Agent Terry is one of the guns ATF lost track of. Grassley also smacked down Holder for stonewalling him:

The Justice Department’s reply asked that Committee staff stop speaking to law enforcement personnel about these matter. However, if not for the bravery and patriotism of law enforcement personnel who were willing to put their careers on the line, this Committee would have been forced to rely on nothing more than rumors in the blogosphere and a Justice Department denial to resolve these allegations. We need more than that. To be an effective check on Executive Branch power, we need cold, hard facts. We sill seek them from whatever source is necessary.

Unfortunately, the Justice Department’s letter suggested that my attempts to seek information about these matters might be politically motivated. I understand the Department needs to “protect … law enforcement personnel … from inappropriate political influence.” However, there is a difference between inappropriate political influence and appropriate holding officials accountable to the American people.

He goes on to note that the family of Agent Terry deserve answers, and encourages Holder to “come clean.” I’ve said before, when our opponents argue there’s not enough funding for ATF, because the evil NRA has seen to it that they are kept underfunded, that the reason ATF is on a short leash is because they have incompetent enforcers of our federal gun laws. I have no doubt there are many fine employees and dedicated workers in the organization. Indeed, the whistleblowers here would be among those, but the agency has suffered under poor leadership for years. That’s not our doing. It’s cultural, and it’s been that way since the moonshine business dried up for them in the 1970s.

Hat Tip to David Codrea’s examiner.com site for the Grassley Document.

Where Are Your Grassroots?

The New Trajectory blog seems rather upset that our side organized to skew the results of his poll. Now imagine instead of just a minor bit of fun like that, it was calls to congressional offices instead? Now you see why we win. Where’s the gun control forums and blogs linking to send their people to counter what we did? There aren’t any, because there are no grassroots behind the gun control movement.

Recklessly Killing More Pennsylvanians

The Pennsylvania State Police are warning that the streets will become more dangerous if a major reform law is passed. For once, it’s not just gun owners being picked on for basic reforms. Today, it’s bar owners. What’s got the panties of law enforcement in a twist? Surely if they are warning that our streets will be flooded with drunks, it’s got to be something dramatic, right? Like making it legal to hand out bottles of tequila instead of mints with the bar tab?

One part of the new bill would mean changes to “happy hour.”

Under current state law, bars and taverns are allowed to reduce their alcohol prices for no more than two hours per day. In the proposed bill, establishments would still be limited to 14 hours of lower prices per week, but would be allowed to divide up the hours in any way.

Bars would be allowed to hold a four-hour “happy hour” for Monday Night Football or for a Sunday afternoon NASCAR race, said state Rep. John Payne (R-Dauphin), the bill’s sponsor.

Oh the humanity! Our children will all be run over by drunks because a bar can offer happy hour specials for 3 hours instead of 2! Yes, the PSP is actually warning lawmakers off of this dangerous new proposal.

These would be the same PSP folks who raided Philadelphia bars & stole gallons of beer from lawful business owners because they didn’t know how to read beer labels.

The bars – which specialized in foreign beers and craft brews – were raided in March and more than 300 bottles of beer and two kegs were confiscated. A subsequent investigation revealed police conducting the raids mistakenly confiscated legal beers because they misunderstood the some of the labels and the state’s list of legal beers contained misspellings and other errors.

I’m not anti-law enforcement, I’m just anti-stupid. When the department staff can’t even read a beer label to figure out if it’s legal or not, I have less than full faith that they have done serious research or have fully documented facts and figures to back up their warnings to lawmakers about a minor alcohol sales reform bill.

Right to Run a Gun Shop

NRA is helping a Florida man sue the City of Largo for preventing him from operating as a Federally Licensed Firearms Dealer from his home. The case is being funded out of the Civil Rights Defense Fund.

It Pleases Me…

… doesn’t Time think that counts for anything? Not that I think the Tiger has changed his stripes, but I enjoy watching our opponents twist.

More on the Ung Trial

From Above the Law, with plenty of links. We now have more information from the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Police Officer Mario DeLuca, who also testified Tuesday, said he and his partner were on “nightclub detail,” parked at Third and Market, when they heard four or five shots.

Within five seconds, DeLuca testified, they arrived on the scene and witnesses were pointing to Ung as the shooter. He pushed Ung against a wall and needed two other officers to help handcuff Ung.

DeLuca said he removed the .38-caliber pistol from Ung’s pocket.

“He was struggling,” DeLuca testified. “He kept saying, ‘I have a permit to carry.’ “

Two other officers in plain clothes or in uniform? It would also seem Ung may not have realized it’s a permit to carry, not a permit to shoot people. If police show up on a scene, and you’re standing over a dead guy with a gun, you can pretty much expect to be cuffed, at the least. We also learned, from other sources, Ung’s gun was a Kel-Tec in .380 caliber. Probably a P-3AT.

Year: 2011