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ICHH – The Kind I Hate

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Normally TMW does these posts, she hasn’t been as active about it lately though.  Also when we do them it focuses on people’s belief that it can’t happen here.  Usually someone says a variant of the following, “I never thought it could happen here.”

Well this one close enough to home for some of us that it should drive the point home.

Everything that has just occurred took place, not in minutes, but seconds.  From the initial observation of the man… to his strange question… to the attack… and finally to the assailant running off took a total of maybe less than ten, not more than fifteen seconds.  The sheriff’s department was called… the young gal… all of sixteen… was taken to the hospital for treatment… and the assailant was caught… found lying on the ground under another camper not far away… apparently under the influence of drugs.

Go read Dann’s post, seriously, it is a prime example of how quickly the world can change, and no place is safe.  This particular incident occurred at a County Fair, with her parents close by and a friend sitting next to her.

Many of us exercise risk management and the thing is, like firearms, “Is Life, Is not Safe.”  Everything in life has risk, some things are lower risk that others.  Ultimately though your number can be called.  It may be an unlikely event, but it very well could be called out.  It can happen without warning and without cause.  It can happen there, it can happen here.  It can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

I carry a gun, among other tools because I won’t get a warning if my number is going to be called.  I could very well only have seconds to identify my number is up and to react.

Quote of the Day–King Fergus(7/8/2012)

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Princess or not. Learning to fight is essential!

King Fergus – Brave

[The wife and I went to see Brave last night.  Fergus and I would get along quite well.  I was glad to see Disney break the traditional mold for their princesses.  The line above combined with the following absolutely made me fall in love with this movie:

But I thought princesses shouldn’t have weapons? – Princess Mérida

Which in context was down right awesome and hilarious!  But you’ll have to go see it.  It’s definitely worth it, you’re either laughing, going “look at them, they’re so cute”, or going where did that damn dust come from.

Seriously I don’t know what some of these critics are smoking.  My suspicion is they prefer pop culture for their girls instead of geek culture… and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, let me educate you in graphical form.

pop-vs-geek1

Yeah, that about sums it up. –B]

Just Use Your Phone and Call 911

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There’s only one problem with that.  It doesn’t always work.

For two days, residents in the City of Manassas, Manassas Park, Vienna and Fairfax and Prince William counties were told to call alternate phone numbers, send emails or drive to their nearest police or fire station if they had an emergency.

Tell me, where does one get the alternate numbers when one is knee-deep in to crap.  This is why you can’t depend on 911, you cannot depend on your cell phone.  Heck with yesterdays incident if I had wanted to I could have started self extraction.  It would have taken considerably longer and would have been much more difficult, it would have been possible.  If it had been the other truck I would have self extracted, as doing it with a winch makes life considerably easier.

911 though is not a sure thing in the even of an emergency.  Even when it is working there are oddities that can go wrong.  For instance Cellular skip does happen and you can actually end up calling into a 911 center well beyond your current location.  This is one of the reasons they ask for your location first and foremost.  If you’re in Kansas and you got into Whitman County Washington’s dispatch, they’re not going to be able to help you much.  As a FYI, yes that has happened.

Since 911 has problems why use it at all?  Well because when it does work, it’s an effective way to call in the cavalry.  If it wasn’t for 911, I would have to keep track of all the different numbers for the different services myself.  Not an easy task, especially while traveling.  My point here though is to not plan on it being your sole solution to a problem.  Don’t plan on 911 working correctly when you actually need it because Murphy is bound to show himself.  By all means call for the cavalry but realize it may fail, it may take longer than expected, and most importantly it is going to take time for the cavalry to arrive.  Assess your situation, make sure things are under control and then call for the cavalry.

You are on your own and you may end up being on your own for longer than expected.  Know that you’re call for the cavalry may not exactly work out as planned, your methods may not work, and you may be on your own for longer than you thought.  Remember they have no duty to respond.

Attempted “Gun Death” with a Pocket Knife

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Normally I kick these over to Weer’d for his “Gun Death” files.  This one though wasn’t successful but it shows how pointless prohibition and laws are at actually stopping stupid behavior.

The Nez Perce County Sheriff’s Office is still on the lookout for a Lewiston man who allegedly stabbed a man in the chest on Saturday.

Unsurprisingly though the roots of this incident come back to something all too common.  Something we regularly see or hear about when it comes to “Gun Deaths”.

"I can’t say that a couple of drunks got into a big fight and somebody got stabbed, because we’re not really sure," said Madison. "We know that it was present, we know it was consumed, we just don’t know how much."

So we have alcohol being a factor, witness claim one was quite intoxicated but the other was sober and hadn’t been drinking.  No matter how hard you try, no matter how many laws you pass, you will not stop people from doing stupid things and exercising poor judgment.

You can ban and outlaw “X” but people will either resort to other means, or obtain the items outside the law.  All it actually serves to do is prevent those who do exercise good judgment and those who would use the tool properly from using “X”.

Outlawing concealed carry doesn’t stop those who exercise bad judgment from carrying.  Just the same, outlawing firearms doesn’t actually stop people from doing stupid things.  What it does do is stop those who do not exercise bad judgment from being able to carry an effective tool for self-defense.  Banning knives stops people who carry them for their utility, it doesn’t stop someone from using it in poor judgment or in violation of the law to commit assault or murder.  Someone who is willing to commit murder gives no extra thought to the legalities of the tools.

The War on Nouns is doomed to failure.  The war on Alcohol failed miserably and proved that prohibition of any kind was impossible to enforce.  Prohibitions on any noun never benefit the law abiding, quite far from it.  The enforcement of the prohibition as well as the actions of the criminal enterprises place the law abiding in the middle.  The reasonable and law abiding suffer from these choices and it provides no actual benefit to their situation or safety.  In the end, the side effects of the cure end up being considerably worse than the disease.

Another Incident with Wild Animals

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Wild animals are making the rounds as of late.  It started off with a man attacked by a bear, then another one got into get in a pissing contest with a Bison.  Then information came out about a coyote problem in Seattle.  Now we have an incident involving some of our tree-dwelling cousins.

 The chimpanzees dragged the man for more than a mile, under a fence and into their enclosure at Jane Goodall Institute Chimp Eden near Nelspruit, The Telegraph newspaper reported.

Armed escorts were required for the paramedics who went to treat and rescue the victim.  But they’re just smaller animals that couldn’t possibly be a danger to humans right?

“These chimpanzees have six times the strength of a human being so you have to respect them and we certainly do,” he said.

So if you still think that wild animals, no matter their size, don’t present a threat or danger to humans, remember that’s your choice and opinion.  Facts state that humans are not on the top of the food chain by PFM.  They are there because of their tools and without them they are nothing but walking meat popsicle. If you choose to go into the wild unarmed, or even around suburbia, that is your choice and you can live with the consequences of your choice.  You have no right to force your moral choices though on anyone else.

Quote of the Day – The Redneck Engineer(06/27/2012)

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Now, for those who tell themselves, “Oh, that could never happen to me. I live in a GOOD neighborhood!’ or “That sort of thing doesn’t happen around here!”, let me tell you about my neighborhood. Most of my neighbors are retirees, many are veterans. Everybody is fairly close-knit, we all look out for each other. This is not a “poor” neighborhood, and while not quite a “rich” neighborhood, crime is all but non-existent here. Defense situations can (and do) happen to almost anyone, anywhere.

The Redneck Engineer – Defensive mindsets can prevent defensive shootings.
June 27th, 2012

[First let me say, go read the whole thing.  Seriously, click over there and read it.  It is every man’s worst nightmare come to pass.  This nightmare had a happy ending though in that not even a shot was fired.  Even if it had turned south, it was obvious who had the deck stacked in their favor.

Evil doesn’t call ahead, it doesn’t give advanced notice, and it doesn’t have set boundaries.  While some places may have more frequent incidents no place is exempt from a visit by goblins.  There is a reason I carry a gun, even with how quite it is where I live.   

There is only one person I can absolutely guarantee will always be present when the SHTF.  Myself.  A cop may or not be present, friends may or may not be with me, but one thing is for certain, I am in that situation and the conditions will not magically change.  I have to depend on myself to get out of the situation, just the same ultimately my wife has to be able to depend on herself.  There is no question if danger comes around while I am present, I will be in the middle of that incident.  That however is of no benefit when I am not present.  She must be capable of defending herself from anyone who would wish to do her harm.

I don’t want my wife to have to depend on me.  Far from it actually.  I want my wife to be able to think and act independently so that when the SHTF she knows how to react.  Not only can she react, but I know she’ll be able to have my back without my asking or instruction.

My Spouse has my back - By Oleg Vok

Why would I want that?  See The Redneck Engineer’s story.  He didn’t need to be there and she rocked that situation like a boss. Yeah, it could have been a horrible nightmare, but in the end it had a happy ending.

This however also skips over what he said in his post title, that type of awareness and level headed thinking can mean that there won’t even be a shot fired.  So remember, be careful out there and carry your guns. There’s goblins in them thar hills, remember it.  -B]

h/t Bob S.

Sometimes it’s a 4 Legged Varmint…

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Carry your gun, it isn’t just two-legged varmints that go bump in the night.

The unidentified 30-year-old man was sleeping at 5 a.m. when the black bear attacked him at Ponderosa Campground in the Tonto National Forest just off Arizona 260 about 12 miles northeast of Payson.

The man’s fiance escaped from the tent with her child.  During her escape the bear left and wondered into another campsite.  This time Yogi chose poorly.

The bear went to a nearby campsite, where a camper shot the animal several times with a 9mm handgun, and the bear disappeared.

Certainly not ideal for a bear but I would take that over a sharp stick without a doubt.  Evidently within the area this is the third attack within a month.

This should serve as a strong reminder that we enjoy our place at the top of the food chain not because of strength or agility, but because of our tools.  Firearms are a tool that levels the playing field quite well, especially with regards to an animal that can quite easily kill you without trying.

Also, remember while in bear country use bear boxes or bear bags and remove all foods and things could attract bears.  Also a suggestion, when in bear country where bears might be more prevalent due to wild-fire, don’t use the garbage cans in an actual campsite.  Yogi is more than happy to knock them over to get at the soda bottle tossed inside.  Even if it’s relatively close to your tents.  I speak from experience on that later incident… Thankfully it was just a yearling and a solid “Ya bear Ya. We don’t want you here” scared him off and we didn’t see him again.

Be careful out there and the life you save could just very well be your own, so carry your damn guns!

SSCC #349&#350 – Fayette

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Surveillance video shows the dog looking for his handler. When the dog did not see the deputy, it attacks the worker, biting him in the arm and groin.

The worker dragged the dog into the Walmart where the deputy managed to get the dog off of him.

If that had been your dog or mine, it would be destroyed as a dangerous animal and we would carry personal liability for the action of the animal.  The handler here is at fault as well for not maintaining positive control of his animal.

Interestingly, I wonder what would happen if the the store employee killed the dog.  If you assault a police dog it is considered assaulting a police officer.  The courts when involved with a human officer tend to look down on you defending yourself against a corrupt cop unless there is some serious evidence.  Heck, Indiana for a while even forbade it, stating you can seek redress in the courts.

I suspect you would not end up in jail, but I’m sure that you would still end up in front of a jury.  I can guarantee you this officer is not even going to be suspended, and the dog will continue on duty as normal.

State Sponsored Criminal #349: Jayne Dog

#350: John Doe, Jayne Dog’s Handler

Because when a police K-9 goes berserk in a public place it’s excusable.  When you’re dog bites someone in your yard that shouldn’t be there, they put it down.  If it just looks at a cop they kill it.