In Denver, the family of a dead 12-year-old armed robber named Elias Armstrong is upset that the victim defended himself. I think the family of Elias Armstrong should have done a better job of raising him.
Family of 12-year-old shot, killed in stolen vehicle speaks out against vehicle owner
By Rob Low
February 23, 2023
DENVER (KDVR) — The family of Elias Armstrong is furious the man who killed the 12-year-old boy won’t face criminal charges.
The boy was found shot to death in a stolen vehicle in the 2900 block of West 10th Avenue on the night of Sunday, Feb. 5.
The vehicle owner, using a phone app, had tracked his stolen vehicle from the 8300 block of East Northfield Boulevard to the area of West 12th Avenue and Decatur Street, where he shot Elias Armstrong.
The 12-year-old then drove the vehicle a few blocks away, where he died from at least two gunshots.
“I think that if he would have just let the police approach the car and he sat back and waited till they got there, that my son would be alive right now. Since he took the law in his own hands, my son is dead because of him, and nothing is going to happen to him but a pat on the hand,” said an emotional Thomas Armstrong, the father of Elias.
Boy’s family shown video of shooting
The Denver District Attorney’s Office announced last week that the truck owner would not face criminal charges because it determined there wasn’t sufficient evidence to charge the man with a crime.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” said Armstrong, who said the man was rewarded for vigilante justice.
The Armstrong family told the Problem Solvers that prosecutors obtained surveillance video and shared it with them to explain the decision not to charge the vehicle owner.
Thomas Armstrong said the footage shows a single bullet was fired from the back of the truck first, before the truck owner allegedly unloaded 15 shots into the vehicle, as one of the three boys inside the vehicle fired back twice.
“And the video, it showed the man with his hand on his gun, running towards them with a real fast speed … you heard one shot, then you just heard him let off 15 rounds into the car,” Thomas Armstrong said.
“The man, when he first pulled up to the car, he’s seen the little boy this tall is standing by his car, running and jumping into the car. He’s seen it was a little boy before any gunplay,” he added.
Thomas Armstrong said investigators told him there were two others boys with his son, both 16 years old, who were also shot but were able to run away.
Armstrong insisted his son was unarmed and that it was one of the two 16-year-olds who must have fired a gun toward the driver, because he said his son was in the front driver seat with his hands on the steering wheel. The shot, Armstrong said, came from the back seat, where the two 16-year-olds were sitting.
FOX31 has not been able to confirm those details.
Other teens under investigation
A Denver Police spokesperson told FOX31 that because detectives have an ongoing investigation involving juveniles, they would not comment or confirm what the Armstrong family told the Problem Solvers.
“I know the car had insurance on it, you know, there’s insurance on his car, but there’s no insurance on my brother’s life to get him back,” said Alicia Henderson, the 29-year-old sister of Elias Armstrong.
Henderson said the vehicle owner should have listened to Denver 911 dispatchers and waited for police to handle the situation instead of taking matters into his own hands.
“So the fact that this man was running up with the gun, showing them that he was very angry, he was going to shoot at them, in my eyes, they (the boys) were defending themselves,” Henderson said.
She is not just upset with the vehicle owner. She said the two teens who were with Elias have refused to talk with investigators.
“And for you guys to leave him there like that, and not even speak on his behalf, it will eat you up for the rest of your life. You’ll never sleep a day without thinking about that. You know, it’s going to hurt you real bad. And I just pray that you guys come forward, because ultimately your story plays a big part of this,” Henderson said.
Thomas Armstrong said his son had overcome a lot of adversity in life, including a liver transplant when he was just 6 months old.
“Elias’s death, it breaks my heart. I just can’t think about him so much, because there’s no coming back and I can’t replace him, and I just pray that he made it to heaven.”
Vehicle owner’s name has not been released
The vehicle owner has not been identified, and it’s unlikely that he will be since he does not face criminal charges.
That angers the Armstrong family, who say they want to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the man but are being stymied by prosecutors and police who refuse to release the man’s name.
Denver District Attorney Beth McCann released the following statement to FOX31:
“My heart goes out to Elias Armstrong’s family in this time of terrible and overwhelming grief. I met with members of his family last week along with the DPD detective and members of my office to explain why a criminal case could not be brought based on the facts. The DA’s Office can only file charges when guilt can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. In this instance, we cannot file charges because of self-defense issues which were present at the time.”
– Denver District Attorney Beth McCann
Alicia Henderson has created a GoFundMe page to help cover her brother’s funeral expenses.
Visitation is on Friday, Feb. 24 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Pipkin Braswell Chapel Of Peace at 6601 E. Colfax Ave. in Denver.
Video from Houston restaurant: Armed customer kills armed robber
After the shooting, the customer discovered that the robber’s gun was fake. But the customer didn’t know that when he killed the robber. And the robber had pointed his fake gun at customers’ heads. So I’m glad the customer killed the robber. I hope this sends a message to anyone else who is considering committing armed robbery in Texas.
The robber was an idiot to try this in Texas. What did he think was going to happen in Texas? This is not San Francisco or New York City or Chicago, where armed robbery is tolerated and goes unpunished. It’s Texas.
This is the censored version of the video from NBC News. The description says, “On Thursday night, a masked man pointed a gun and demanded money from the patrons inside Ranchito #4 Taqueria. A customer attempted to stop him, pulling out a gun of his own and opening fire, shooting the suspect multiple times. After the robber was killed, the shooter retrieved the stolen cash to return to the other customers when he discovered the gun the suspect used was fake. The question now is whether the shooter will face any legal action for his deadly intervention.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4xNs0HwQ7c
This is the uncensored version of the video. The description says, “Houston Police want to speak this man, but he’s not charged with a crime. HPD says a gunman was robbing people at a taqueria on S. Gessner last night. During the robbery, this man shot and killed the suspect… collected the money, gave it back to the robbery victims, and left.”
Washington Post: Federal agents see chargeable tax, gun-purchase case against Hunter Biden
Federal agents see chargeable tax, gun-purchase case against Hunter Biden
Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump appointee, must decide whether to charge the son of the current president
By Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein
October 6, 2022
Federal agents investigating President Biden’s son Hunter have gathered what they believe is sufficient evidence to charge him with tax crimes and a false statement related to a gun purchase, according to people familiar with the case. The next step is for the U.S. Attorney in Delaware, a Trump administration holdover, to decide on whether to file such charges, these people said.
The investigation into Hunter Biden began in 2018, and became a central focus for then-president Donald Trump during his unsuccessful 2020 reelection effort. Initially, the investigation centered around Hunter Biden’s finances related to overseas business ties and consulting work. Over time, investigators with multiple agencies focused closely on whether he did not report all of his income, and whether he lied on gun purchase paperwork in 2018, according to the people familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case.
Agents determined months ago they had assembled a viable criminal case against the younger Biden. But it is ultimately up to prosecutors at the Justice Department, not agents, to decide whether to file charges in cases where prosecutors believe the evidence is strong enough to lead to a likely conviction at trial.
Given the intense political interest in a criminal probe involving the son of a sitting president, Attorney General Merrick Garland has made clear that the U.S. Attorney in Delaware, David C. Weiss, who was nominated by Trump in late 2017, is supervising the case.
Garland has vowed there will be no political or otherwise improper interference in the Hunter Biden case, and has not moved to push Weiss to make a decision, the people familiar with the matter said. It is not uncommon for Justice Department investigations to take years to finish. Justice Department policy would require any criminal tax charges to be approved by the department’s tax division.
A spokeswoman for Weiss declined to comment, as did spokespeople for the Justice Department, and the FBI and the IRS, the two primary investigative agencies.
Asked about the case, Chris Clark, a lawyer for Hunter Biden, accused investigators of leaking information. “It is a federal felony for a federal agent to leak information about a Grand Jury investigation such as this one,” Clark said in a written statement. “Any agent you cite as a source in your article apparently has committed such a felony. We expect the Department of Justice will diligently investigate and prosecute such bad actors. As is proper and legally required, we believe the prosecutors in this case are diligently and thoroughly weighing not just evidence provided by agents, but also all the other witnesses in this case, including witnesses for the defense. That is the job of the prosecutors. They should not be pressured, rushed, or criticized for doing their job.”
Any charging decision involving the Biden case is especially fraught because Trump and his allies have made accusations of corruption in Hunter Biden’s business dealings a key line of attack against Democrats, both before and after the 2020 presidential race. At the height of the election campaign, Trump allies revealed that a Delaware computer shop owner had turned over to the FBI a laptop that had apparently belonged to Hunter Biden. Trump and others argued the data on the laptop showed evidence of unethical and possible illegal business deals; Joe Biden and his supporters denounced the efforts as a smear.
In March, The Washington Post reported that two computer security experts had reviewed thousands of the emails purportedly from Hunter Biden’s computer and found they were authentic communications, based on cryptographic signatures from Google and other technology companies. It could not be determined for this article whether the laptop and its contents were useful in the Justice Department investigation.
The Biden probe has proceeded with relatively little fanfare in recent months amid the much larger and more public Justice Department and FBI investigation into whether Trump mishandled classified material at Mar-a-Lago — and a separate federal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump and his allies have sharply criticized federal law enforcement over both those cases.
Questions about the younger Biden’s foreign business ventures have long dogged his father’s political life. Trump and his GOP allies specifically cite as ethical conflicts Hunter Biden’s past work for a Ukrainian gas company while his father was vice president, as well as his China-related business affairs. In a July 2019 phone call, Trump urged Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate both Joe and Hunter Biden — part of a pressure campaign that led to the first of Trump’s two impeachment trials in Congress.
In December 2020 federal agents sought to interview the younger Biden, leading him to publicly acknowledge that he was under investigation. “I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors,” Hunter Biden said in a statement at that time.
Clark, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, said in his statement Thursday that he has “had no contact whatsoever with any federal investigative agent. Therefore, a rendition of the case from such an ‘agent’ is inherently biased, one-sided, and inaccurate. It is regrettable that law enforcement agents appear to be violating the law to prejudice a case against a person who is a target simply because of his family name.”
Republicans have pressed the Biden administration to appoint a special counsel to take over the investigation into the president’s son, arguing the step was needed to ensure public confidence in the probe’s outcome. Under Justice Department regulations, any special counsel would still answer to the attorney general, however. Garland chose not to make such an appointment, instead keeping the case with Weiss, whose previous career as a federal prosecutor stretches back decades and includes violent crime and white-collar cases.
In the early days of the Biden administration, a Justice Department official said removing Weiss as U.S. Attorney as he was overseeing the Hunter Biden case would likely spark significant political backlash.
In April, after White House chief of staff Ron Klain said Biden “is confident that his son didn’t break the law,” Garland was asked at a Senate hearing about how the Justice Department is handling the case.
Weiss “is in charge of that investigation. There will not be interference of any political or improper kind,” Garland answered. “We put the investigation in the hands of a Trump appointee from the previous administration.”
The primary focus of the tax investigation has been whether Hunter Biden did not declare income related to his various business ventures, including overseas. The gun paperwork part of the investigation stems from 2018, a time period in which Hunter Biden, by his own account, was smoking crack cocaine.
In October of that year, Biden purchased a handgun, filling out a federal form in which he allegedly answered “no” to the question whether he was “an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?”
According to a book Hunter Biden later wrote about his struggles with substance abuse, he was using drugs heavily that year.
Prosecutions for false statements on gun-purchase forms are relatively rare, but they do happen. In the fiscal year that Hunter Biden purchased that handgun, Justice Department records show prosecutors received 478 referrals for lying on the forms. Of those, charges were filed in 298 cases, or about 60 percent of the time.
Federal agents refer to such cases as “lying and buying.” Historically, prosecutors have significant discretion to decide which ones are worth federal resources.
“A prosecutor can say they have bigger fish to catch, or they can decide to seek a deal,” said Joseph G. Green, a retired agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “As agents, we would always include as many charges as we could, but it’s ultimately up to the prosecutor to decide which ones they will bring.”
Armed robber from Chicago travels to Florida, and is actually surprised when his would be victim also has a gun. Video and audio at link.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/florida-alleged-robber-armed-gun-003250247.html
Florida alleged robber armed with gun claims ‘I’m from Chicago, bro,’ leaves when clerk displays own weapon
By Louis Casiano
September 26, 2022
A man casually carrying a shotgun and claiming to be from Chicago walked into a Florida convenience store during an attempted robbery but walked out when a clerk displayed his own weapon, authorities said.
Rakim Stephen Tate, 32, made a bad decision that “became a worse decision” when he walked into a convenience store on Sept. 9 with a visible shotgun to his side, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.
He is charged with openly carrying a prohibited weapon and attempted robbery with a firearm.
Tate walked around the store for a few seconds before a clerk out of view from a camera in the store is heard talking to him, according to security footage. The clerk apparently noticed Tate arming himself before he entered the store and went into a back room to arm himself with his personal weapon, authorities said.
“I don’t mean no harm, I’m just not from around here,” Tate is heard saying while holding his weapon. “I got a big (expletive) (expletive) gun, but I’m not from around here is what I’m saying. I’m from Chicago bro.”
Tate is heard asking the employee what kind of weapon he is holding. The employee responds before Tate slowly walks out of the store.
“He then fumbles for words, resorting to meaningless babble about being from Chicago,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “Words seem to fail you when your felony attempt is thwarted by lawful and righteous force.”
Tate was arrested on Sept. 15 in Santa Rose County, authorities said, adding “You’re not in Chicago anymore; you’re under arrest.”
The Benelli shotgun he allegedly used was also recovered, authorities said.
Indiana police say ‘Good Samaritan’ took out mall shooter in 15 seconds, landed 8 of 10 shots
https://www.yahoo.com/news/indiana-police-apos-good-samaritan-143501980.html
Indiana police say ‘Good Samaritan’ took out mall shooter in 15 seconds, landed 8 of 10 shots
By Michael Lee
July 20, 2022
Police say it took Elisjsha Dicken just 15 seconds to neutralize a man who opened fire on shoppers at an Indiana mall — quick action they believe saved countless lives.
“The time lapse between the moment that Jonathan Sapirman exited the restroom and began shooting, and when he was shot by the civilian was only fifteen seconds, not two minutes,” Greenwood Police Chief James Ison said Tuesday in a statement. “The surveillance video shows Sapirman exit the restroom at 5:56:48pm. He was neutralized by Dicken at 5:57:03 pm.”
The statement corrects a previous police timeline in which authorities said the incident lasted two minutes. Police also revealed that a preliminary autopsy report on the gunman showed that he was struck eight times and died of his wounds, meaning Dicken only missed the shooter twice despite engaging the threat from a distance.
Police say the gunman was armed with two rifles, a Glock pistol, and was carrying at least 100 rounds of ammunition with him. Sapirman killed three people before being quickly neutralized by Dicken, who began closing the distance on the shooter as he waved for bystanders to flee behind him.
Ison said that Dicken’s actions were “heroic” and “very tactically sound” despite him having no police or military background.
“Many more people would have died last night if not for a responsible armed citizen who took action within the first two minutes of this shooting,” Ison said.
Guy Relford, an attorney hired to represent Dicken, said he was proud of his client’s actions at the mall.
“I am proud to serve as Eli Dickens’ attorney and spokesperson,” Relford said in a statement. “He is a true American hero who saved countless lives during a horrific event that could have been so much worse if not for Eli’s courage, preparedness and willingness to protect others.”
Police identify armed ‘good Samaritan’ who killed Greenwood mall shooting suspect
Police identify armed ‘good Samaritan’ who killed Greenwood mall shooting suspect
By Dylan Stableford
July 18, 2022
A day after a gunman killed three people at a mall in Greenwood, Ind., officials identified the victims, suspect and armed bystander who fatally shot the gunman before he was able to kill more people.
At a press conference on Monday afternoon, Greenwood Police Chief Jim Ison said Elisjsha Dicken, 22, of Seymour, Ind., was shopping with his girlfriend at the Greenwood Park Mall when shots rang out in the food court on Sunday just before 6 p.m. local time.
“His actions were nothing short of heroic,” Ison said. “Many more people would have died last night had an armed citizen not taken action within two minutes of the shooting.”
The first gunman, identified by police as 20-year-old Jonathan Douglas Sapirman of Greenwood, entered a food court restroom with a backpack at 4:54 p.m. ET. He exited the restroom an hour and two minutes later with a rifle and fired 24 rounds, Ison said, killing 30-year-old Victor Gomez, 56-year-old Pedro Pineda and his 37-year-old wife, Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda.
Two other people, including a 12-year-old, were wounded or grazed by bullets or bullet fragments, Ison said.
Dicken confronted the gunman, who was trying to retreat back into the restroom, Ison said, firing 10 rounds from a handgun he was licensed to carry.
“He engaged the gunman from quite a distance with a handgun,” Ison said, adding that Dicken is “very proficient” and “tactically sound,” despite having no known police or military training.
According to Ison, Dicken told mall security that he had shot the gunman, and waited for police to arrive. He was handcuffed and taken to police headquarters, where he was interviewed. Officers were able to corroborate his story using footage from security cameras, Ison said.
At the scene, police recovered a second rifle, Glock pistol and over 100 rounds of ammunition purchased legally by Sapirman in Greenwood within the past two years, Ison said. They also recovered the gunman’s cellphone, which they believe he dropped in the toilet.
During a subsequent search of the suspect’s rented apartment, a SWAT team found the oven on with a laptop and butane canister inside.
The cellphone and laptop were turned over to the FBI for analysis, Ison said.
Investigators have not been able to establish a motive for the shooting.
Ison said that the 20-year-old suspect had a juvenile record but no criminal history as an adult. Sapirman resigned from his job at a warehouse in May, and family members told police that they believe he was recently served an eviction notice.
Still, according to Ison, the suspect’s relatives were “just as surprised as anyone” and had no indication he was violent or unstable.
‘Good Samaritan’ Takes Down Gunman Who Killed 3 in Mall Food Court
https://www.yahoo.com/news/multiple-victims-reported-several-injured-230456324.html
‘Good Samaritan’ Takes Down Gunman Who Killed 3 in Mall Food Court
By AJ McDougall
July 17, 2022
Four people are dead and several injured after a man with a rifle walked into a food court at Greenwood Park Mall in Indiana and began shooting, local authorities said Sunday evening.
One of the dead is the suspected shooter, according to Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers. The gunman, an adult male, has not been identified. Police said he had been carrying a long rifle and several ammunition magazines.
“This tragedy hits at the core of our community,” the mayor said in a news release. “Please offer your prayers to the victims and our first responders.”
The gunman, according to Myers, was shot “by an armed individual.” The “good Samaritan,” as Greenwood Police Department Chief Jim Ison identified him at a press conference, was a 22-year-old civilian from nearby Bartholomew County.
“The real hero of the day is the citizen that was lawfully carrying a firearm in that food court and was able to stop the shooter almost as soon as he began,” Ison said, according to the Indianapolis Star.
The armed bystander “appears to be cooperating fully” with investigators, Ison added.
Two people were hospitalized following the shooting. One was a 12-year-old girl, who sustained a “minor injury,” the Star reported.
“We are sickened by yet another type of incident like this, in our city, in our country,” Indianapolis Assistant Chief of Police Chris Bailey said.
Authorities responded to the scene in Greenwood, a city of 60,000 just south of Indianapolis, just before 6 p.m. Witnesses told FOX59 that the shooting began after “a group of teenagers started arguing,” according to a tweet from a channel anchor. Others told 13News that they had heard roughly 20 shots being fired inside the mall’s food court.
Olivia Harding said she was at the mall with her mom when they heard four gunshots go off, telling CNN she thought the mall carousel had broken down.
“Next thing you know, you hear about six more shots and you see everybody running,” Harding said, adding that it would be “a very long time” before she’ll set foot in a mall again.
Chris Roy, a 30-year-old assistant manager at the mall’s Vans store, told the Star that he had been working when he saw people sprinting away from the food court. No one in the store heard gunshots, but the panic outside spoke for itself, he said.
“So I jumped over the counter, locked the door, gathered my associates and other managers at the back door,” he told the newspaper, adding that police arrived and escorted them out of the building after 15 tense minutes.
Then, “I called my mom,” he said.
In addition to the heavily armed officers swarming the area outside the mall, a bomb squad had been dispatched to the area to investigate a suspicious package in one of the mall’s bathrooms, according to BNO News.
The backpack was labeled suspicious and confiscated by investigators but later declared harmless, according to the Star.
“I’ve been a police officer most of my life,” Mayor Myers told The New York Times in an interview on Sunday evening. “Still, this is incredibly shocking, to not only me but our entire community.”
No school that lets teachers carry guns has ever had a gun murder during school hours
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3377801
Schools that Allow Teachers to Carry Guns are Extremely Safe: Data on the Rate of Shootings and Accidents in Schools that allow Teachers to Carry
By John R. Lott
April 25, 2019
After the Columbine school shooting 20 years ago, one of the more significant changes in how we protect students has been the advance of legislation that allows teachers to carry guns at schools. There are two obvious questions: Does letting teachers carry create dangers? Might they deter attackers? Twenty states currently allow teachers and staff to carry guns to varying degrees on school property, so we don’t need to guess how the policy would work. There has yet to be a single case of someone being wounded or killed from a shooting, let alone a mass public shooting, between 6 AM and midnight at a school that lets teachers carry guns. Fears of teachers carrying guns in terms of such problems as students obtaining teachers guns have not occurred at all, and there was only one accidental discharge outside of school hours with no one was really harmed. While there have not been any problems at schools with armed teachers, the number of people killed at other schools has increased significantly – doubling between 2001 and 2008 versus 2009 and 2018.
If Joe Biden Cared About Gun Laws, Hunter Biden Would Already Be In Jail
If Joe Biden Cared About Gun Laws, Hunter Biden Would Already Be In Jail
By Tristan Justice
June 3, 2022
Before President Biden lectures Americans about responsible gun ownership, some self-reflection is warranted.
President Joe Biden is on a full-blown crusade to regulate or repeal the Second Amendment out of existence. While Democrats are often not honest about their intentions, this has always been their true agenda. Biden’s son, Hunter, who appeared to purchase a gun illegally in 2018, could be among those hardest hit.
On Thursday night, the president went on a nearly 20-minute tirade on the need to ban “assault weapons,” whatever that means.
“Why in God’s name should an ordinary citizen be able to purchase an assault weapon that holds 30-round magazines that let mass shooters fire hundreds of bullets in a matter of minutes,” Biden said, ranting on the graves of the 19 children and their two teachers gunned down by a madman in Uvalde, Texas last week.
“We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” demanded the president. “And if we can’t ban assault weapons, then we should raise the age to purchase them from 18 to 21. Strengthen the background checks, enact safe storage laws and ‘red flag’ laws. Repeal the immunity that protects gun manufacturers from liability.”
For starters, suing gun manufacturers for the way their firearms are used is akin to suing the Ford Motor Company because a black suspect motivated by anti-white racism allegedly plowed through a Wisconsin Christmas parade, brutally killing at least six with Ford Escape SUV. In stark contrast to his immediate visits to Buffalo and Uvalde following mass tragedies, Biden made no trip to console the families of Waukesha, Wisconsin, nor did he demand Congress take on the car lobby.
Biden summarized his demands in a tweet calling on lawmakers to pass new gun bans and repeal immunity laws for firearm manufacturers that don’t exist.
An easy giveaway that Democrats aren’t ever actually serious about solving the underlying issues whenever tragedy strikes with firearm, Federalist Senior Editor David Harsanyi points out, are that the laws they routinely propose never would have prevented the carnage in the first place.
Details aside, President Biden doesn’t have room to speak on gun control until his son faces, at minimum, a substantive criminal investigation into his answers on a background check when purchasing a firearm in 2018.
When asked by the Firearms Transaction Record (Form 4473) whether he is an “unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance,” Hunter Biden answered, “no.”
While it’s unclear whether Hunter was an active user at the time, it’s far from inconceivable following repeated rehab visits in 2003, 2010, and 2014 for treatment with highly addictive substances. In 2014, Hunter was discharged from the Navy for cocaine use, and according to the New Yorker, went on another cocaine binge in 2016.
Three years later, the president’s son abandoned his laptop at a Delaware repair shop. It possessed graphic footage of the first son appearing to smoke crack cocaine during sexual encounters. In 2018, the same year Hunter purchased the revolver apparently found abandoned in the garbage by Secret Service, the younger Biden was suspected of smoking crack in a D.C. strip club.
Lying on a Form 4473 to purchase a firearm is a felony offense that can carry up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Before Biden goes on lecturing Americans about responsible gun ownership and threatening to regulate ownership out of existence, some self-reflection is warranted.
Washington State Lawmaker Who Is A Convicted Felon Drafts “Racial Equity” Bill To Lower Sentencing For Drive-By Shooters
Washington State Lawmaker Who Is A Convicted Felon Drafts “Racial Equity” Bill To Lower Sentencing For Drive-By Shooters
Because only a certain race commits drive by shootings?
By Gregory Hoyt
December 24, 2021
OLYMPIA, WA – A convicted felon turned lawyer who later turned into a state legislator in Washington state recently drafted a bill that would lower sentencing for murderers who committed their crime via doing a drive-by shooting. And per the language of the bill, this is meant to promote “racial equity.”
According to the Washington State Legislature online portal, House Bill 1692 was pre-filed on December 23rd, poising it to be considered during the 2022 legislative session. Said bill is sponsored by Democrat Representatives David Hackney and, most notably, 44-year-old Tarra Simmons, who’d previously been sentenced to 30 months in prison in 2011 for drug and theft convictions.
After Simmons served her time in prison, she attended law school, worked at an NPO for a couple of years, and then ran and got elected to the state legislature back in 2020. Rep. Simmons is unsurprisingly an advocate for criminal justice reform, specifically the soft-on-crime version of said activism.
And that soft-on-crime approach really shows itself with her sponsored bill, HB 1692.
https://twitter.com/BrandiKruse/status/1474472288716165120
According to the opening of the bill text, the proposed legislation aims to reduce the sentencing for murderers who killed their victim(s) during a drive-by shooting, claiming that doing so would help promote “racial equity.”
“AN ACT Relating to promoting racial equity in the criminal legal system by eliminating drive-by shooting as a basis for elevating murder in the first degree to aggravated murder in the first degree,” the bill states, “amending RCW 10.95.020 and 10.95.020; creating a new section; providing an effective date; and providing an expiration date.”
It’s frankly unclear how Rep. Simmons arrived at the notion that lowering the sentence of murderers committed via drive-by shootings would somehow promote “racial equity,” that is, unless she’s tacitly implying that certain racial demographics are more prone to committing drive-by shootings.
But the rationale for treating drive-by shootings that result in death as an aggravated murder makes perfect sense, as there are no shortage of reports where drive-by shootings frequently result in innocent/unaffiliated parties being killed.
The difference between the sentencing guidelines for first-degree murder and aggravated first-degree murder are significant, as a first-degree murder conviction carries a “maximum of life without the possibility of parole,” meaning the murderer can obtain a more lenient sentence. Whereas with aggravated first-degree murder, it is a mandatory life sentence without parole.
State Sen. Kimberly Lightford recounts harrowing carjacking details: ‘I begged them not to shoot us’ [Democrat says she’s glad her husband had a legal gun with him at the time]
https://abc7chicago.com/il-state-senator-kimberly-lightford-carjacked-broadview-carjacking/11376398/
State Sen. Kimberly Lightford recounts harrowing carjacking details: ‘I begged them not to shoot us’
By Craig Wall
December 23, 2021
BROADVIEW, Ill. (WLS) — Illinois State Senator Kimberly Lightford is recounting the harrowing details of being carjacked in west suburban Broadview this week with her husband, Erin McKennie.
The incident happened Tuesday night around 9:45 p.m. in the 2000-block of South 20th Avenue.
Police said three men driving a Durango took a black Mercedez Benz SUV that belonged to Lightford. The state senate majority leader said she was dropping off a friend at the time.
Lightford, who said she feared for her life, described it like a scene out of a movie.
“Three guys just hopped out with guns and they demanded that we get out of the car and they put my husband on the ground,” said Lightford. “They had me over on the other side. I begged them not to shoot us and I begged them not to shoot my husband and not to shoot me.”
Lightford had a gun pointed at her and feared she was going to die.
“After we got the guns off of us my husband told me to run,” Lightford recounted.
As she ran, gunfire erupted, her husband exchanging shots with the carjackers.
“I thought for sure they were gonna shoot me down,” Lightford said. “It was a lot of shots being fired. I think they were shooting at my husband and me and luckily enough my husband is concealed and carry and he was able to protect us.”
No was injured in the shooting, according to police.
The suspects took off in both the senator’s car and in the Durango, police said.
The incident has not deterred her from taking part in a Christmas giveaway in Hillside. She attended Christmas in Proviso Thursday morning. It’s a massive community giving effort that is blessing hundreds of kids with holiday presents.
Lightford is providing specific Christmas gifts for 59 kids in the community who are being raised by their grandparents.
In the loaner Mercedes SUV were some of the gifts Lightford had bought for the event. She went out shopping again Wednesday night to replace them.
Despite the trauma of two nights ago, Lightford called the event it therapeutic.
“For me as a little girl, Christmas has always just brought so much joy and happiness,” said Lightford. ” And I love giving back to other children so my entire time shopping was identifying specific requests from kids instead of just giving them anything, I wanted to give them what they actually asked for on their wish list.”
82-year-old Merdise Lee attended the giveaway with her five-year-old great grandson RJ. She said she had no idea about the carjacking.
“It says something about her as a person that no matter what happens, she’s still willing to carry out, you know what she needs to do? And oh my gosh,” Lee said.
Lightford made Christmas for little RJ even more special with a bike that wasn’t even on his wish list. As for herself, she celebrates the gift of being alive.
“I’m happy that my husband and I made it out of that safely and I’m going to enjoy, just enjoy life,” Lightford said.
Police said they have recovered the loaner vehicle, which was abandoned on Chicago’s West Side.
Lightford said she does not believe she was targeted but instead believes it was a random carjacking.
At a Philadelphia pizza shop, a 14-year-old boy saved his mother’s life by shooting a robber who was strangling her
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd0BMT0yEkc
https://6abc.com/philadelphia-shooting-spring-garden-broad-street-robbery-pizza-shop/11318485/
14-year-old son of pizza shop employee shoots would-be robber in Spring Garden
Police say the 33-year-old suspect was found after officers followed a trail of blood to a nearby SEPTA station.
By 6abc Digital Staff and Corey Davis
December 10, 2021
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The 14-year-old son of a Philadelphia pizza shop employee shot an armed robbery suspect who started choking one of his parents, police say.
Police say the series of incidents unfolded around 9:30 p.m. Thursday when three men robbed the CVS pharmacy at North Broad and Spring Garden in the Spring Garden section of the city.
Moments later, police say at least one of those men went a block away to rob the Bold Pizza Shop at 15th and Spring Garden.
Employees say the man forcibly reached over the counter and tried to take cash from the register.
A struggle ensued between an employee and the robbery suspect when the offender started to strangle the victim.
The victim’s 14-year-old son grabbed a handgun from under the counter and shot the offender one time in the face, police said.
“There was money on the floor and there was also some broken glass inside the store, and there was also a large amount of blood,” said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small.
The pizza shop was closed on Friday.
Some people who live nearby said they understand the teen was just trying to protect his parent.
“I think most people would do that in that situation to protect someone they love and they’re being threatened so violently,” said Nina Adams.
“I am very proud and its kind of sad that a 14-year-old had to shoot the suspect, but it was quick thinking and I’m glad they were able to catch the person so fast,” said Raina Harris.
Investigators say they followed a trail of blood down the stairs of a SEPTA subway station at Broad and Spring Garden.
Police say that’s where they found the 33-year-old male suspect.
“From following the trail of blood, we also found some cash in the subway where the suspect was found,” Small said.
The suspect was rushed to an area hospital where he was placed in critical condition.
According to police, surveillance video from the pharmacy matched the description of the injured suspect. Police are still looking for two suspects in connection with that crime.
The man who was shot has not been identified. No other injuries were reported.
LA District Attorney George Gascon fundraises to lower sentence of Jacqueline Avant’s killer
LA District Attorney George Gascon fundraises to lower sentence of Jacqueline Avant’s killer
By Tori Richards
December 7, 2021
Hours after philanthropist Jacqueline Avant was shot to death during a Beverly Hills home invasion robbery, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon distributed a fundraising letter seeking to overturn a law that would keep her killer in prison.
Avant, 81, was the mother-in-law of Netflix’s CEO, and her Dec. 1 murder shocked the entertainment world and beyond. Oprah Winfrey, Magic Johnson, and President Bill Clinton tweeted about their devastation over her death.
Gascon surfaced on that day as well, but rather than decry this violence or the smash-and-grab robberies that have blighted California in recent weeks, he sent a fundraising email asking for money to push through a bill removing extra prison time for using a gun during a crime.
“After a year of record homicides, smash-and-grab robberies and the day of the callous murder of an 81-year-old woman in her own home, George Gascon sent a letter to his supporters asking for money to further his efforts to eliminate our ability to prosecute crime and protect the public,” said prosecutor Eric Siddall, vice president of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys . “Reckless, feckless, crass are some of the more charitable words that come to mind.”
For decades, California voters have overwhelmingly approved the use of “enhancements,” which tack on additional time to prison sentences for violent offenses. Gascon has repeatedly said he wants to do away with enhancements for using a gun, belonging to a gang, and causing great bodily injury.
“We’ve got to reform outdated sentence enhancement policies,” the subject line of Gascon’s email said.
“More than 80 percent of people serving time in California state prisons have had sentence enhancements applied to their time served … sentence enhancements have never been shown to reduce the rate of crime, and excessive sentence enhancements can actually drive up reoffense. And these enhancements have disproportionately impacted sentencing for people of color.”
Gascon then asked for funds to reach a $75,000 goal to get a bill across the finish line.
Kyle Rittenhouse found not guilty on all counts
https://www.yahoo.com/news/kyle-rittenhouse-acquitted-charges-181705780.html
Kyle Rittenhouse found not guilty on all counts
November 19, 2021
A jury on Friday found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all five counts in the 2020 fatal shooting of two men in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The big picture: Defense lawyers argued Rittenhouse acted in self-defense when he shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and injured Gaige Grosskreutz, in Kenosha in August 2020.
The prosecution argued Rittenhouse was the aggressor and provoked the “entire incident” that led to the shooting.
Rittenhouse, who was 17 years old at the time, said he traveled to Kenosha with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle to protect property and provide medical treatment amid volatile protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Rittenhouse initially faced six counts, but the presiding judge dismissed the possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor charge ahead of closing arguments on Monday.
For nearly two weeks, the jury heard testimony from dozens of witnesses and experts. Rittenhouse also testified in his own defense.
Of note: Judge Bruce Schroeder has drawn criticism from some for his manner during the trial, which has seen him clash verbally with the prosecution and occasionally launch into verbose legal explanations, the New York Times reported.
The jury was “overwhelmingly white,” reflecting the majority-white population of Kenosha County, according to the Times.
During the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, prosecutor Thomas Binger pointed a gun at the jury, while simultaneously holding his finger on the trigger
While reporting on the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, Newsweek wrote:
“… Thomas Binger pointed the gun at the jury with his finger on the trigger… “
Associated Press published this photo of it:
And NBC News published this photo of it:
Binger violated all three of the three biggest rules of gun safety:
1) Always assume the gun is loaded.
2) Never point the gun at anyone you don’t intend to shoot.
3) Never put your finger on the trigger until you’re ready to shoot.
This Tweet from Greg Price compares the irresponsible behavior Binger, to the responsible behavior of Rittenhouse, who is clearly following all three of those rules:
https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1460339813945683974
In case Twitter ever deletes that Tweet, here’s an archive of it:
And here’s a screenshot of it that I made:
Judge Dismisses Weapons Charge at Kyle Rittenhouse Murder Trial
Judge Dismisses Weapons Charge at Kyle Rittenhouse Murder Trial
November 15, 2021
The judge at Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial has dismissed a count of possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18.
The charge is only a misdemeanor, but it had appeared to be among the likeliest to net a conviction for prosecutors. There’s no dispute that Rittenhouse was 17 when he carried an AR-style semi-automatic rifle on the streets of Kenosha in August 2020 and used it to kill two men and wound a third.
But the defense argued that Wisconsin’s statute had an exception that could be read to clear Rittenhouse. That exception involves whether or not a rifle or shotgun is short-barreled.
After prosecutors conceded in court Monday that Rittenhouse’s rifle was not short-barreled, Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed the charge.
The ruling came just before attorneys were set to deliver closing arguments Monday.
Rittenhouse, 18, of Antioch, Illinois, faces charges ranging from intentional homicide — punishable by life in prison — to an underage weapons charge that could mean a few months in jail if convicted.
Public interest in closing arguments was evident Monday morning, when more people than usual stood in a line outside Courtroom 209 to get a seat. The first one in line was a man in a red hat and red coat bedecked with silver glitter. Outside, someone erected a cutout of Rittenhouse, and a man stood on a corner waving an upside-down American flag.
Rittenhouse, 17 at the time, traveled the few miles from his home to Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020, as the city was in the throes of damaging protests that erupted after a white police officer’ shot and wounded Jacob Blake, a Black man.
Bystander video captured the critical minutes when Rittenhouse, with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 28.
Rittenhouse is white, as are the three men he shot. The case raised questions about racial justice, vigilantism, the Second Amendment right to bear arms, and white privilege that polarized people far beyond Kenosha.
Rittenhouse has argued self-defense in the shootings, leaving prosecutors with the burden of proving that his fear for his safety and his use of deadly force were unreasonable. Some legal experts watching the trial said the prosecution struggled to do so.
Perhaps in recognition of that, prosecutors asked Judge Bruce Schroeder to let the jury consider several lesser charges if they acquit him on the original counts. Schroeder indicated on Friday that he would allow some of what prosecutors sought when he gave the jury instructions on Monday.
Ana Kasparian ADMITS SHE DID NOT KNOW Kyle Rittenhouse Was The Person Fleeing In The Kenosha Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRPsXhErQA8
Sarah Beth Burwick: “I am highly educated and reasonably perceptive, and it was only today that I learned the Kyle Rittenhouse victims were white. My progressive bubble made this seem like a very different case than it is.”
https://twitter.com/sarahbeth345/status/1458593872557133825
Archive at: https://web.archive.org/web/20211111012846/https://twitter.com/sarahbeth345/status/1458593872557133825
Assistant director on ‘Rust’ set told police he didn’t check all the rounds in the Colt revolver before handing it to Alec Baldwin
https://www.yahoo.com/news/assistant-director-rust-set-told-162608195.html
The assistant director on the “Rust” set told cops that he didn’t check all the rounds in the Colt revolver used by Alec Baldwin.
Assistant director David Halls “advised he should have checked all of them,” according to a new affidavit.
Baldwin fired a gun on the movie set last week, fatally shooting a cinematographer.
The assistant director on the New Mexico set of Alec Baldwin’s “Rust” movie told police that he did not check all the rounds in the barrel of the Colt revolver used in last week’s deadly shooting to make sure they were all dummy bullets, according to a newly filed court document.
Assistant director David Halls told police that when the film’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed “showed him” the firearm, used by Baldwin in the on-set shooting, “before continuing rehearsal, he could only remember seeing three rounds,” according to a new affidavit obtained by Insider that was filed Wednesday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.
Halls “advised he should have checked all of them, but didn’t and couldn’t recall” if Gutierrez-Reed “spun the drum” of the gun, said the affidavit that was included in search warrant documents for a “prop truck” on the movie set.
When authorities with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office asked Halls about the safety protocol on the set in regards to firearms, Halls said, “I check the barrel for obstructions, most of the time there’s no live fire,” according to the affidavit.
Halls said that Gutierrez-Reed “opens the hatch and spins the drum, and I say ‘cold gun’ on set,” the document states.
Halls did not immediately respond to a request from Insider for comment on Wednesday.
Baldwin, who was producing and starring in the Western flick, was rehearsing a scene for the film at Santa Fe’s Bonanza Creek Ranch on October 21 when he fired the gun, fatally shooting the cinematographer and wounding the director, authorities said.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza told reporters during a press conference Wednesday that the gun was a .45 Long Colt revolver fired by Baldwin loaded with a live bullet.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, was shot in the chest and killed, while director Joel Souza was hit in the right shoulder in the incident. Police are still investigating and have not ruled out charges yet.
Authorities said Wednesday that the “lead projectile” was recovered from Souza’s shoulder. Mendoza added it was “apparently the same round” that struck both Hutchins and Souza.
A previously filed affidavit said when Halls handed the gun to Baldwin before the incident, Halls yelled out “cold gun,” indicating that it did not contain any live rounds.
Meanwhile, Gutierrez-Reed told authorities that on the day of the shooting she checked the “dummies” and “ensured they were not ‘hot’ rounds,” according to the affidavit filed Wednesday.
According to the document, when the crew broke for lunch that day, the firearms on set were taken back and “secured inside a safe on the ‘prop truck.'”
“During lunch, [Gutierrez-Reed] stated the ammo was left on a cart on the set, not secured,” the affidavit says.
Gutierrez-Reed told investigators that after lunch, a crewmember, identified as Sarah Zachary, “pulled the firearms out of the safe inside the truck, and handed them to her.”
The armorer told cops that only a few people have access and the combination to the safe, the document says.
“During the course of filming, Hannah advised she handed the gun to Alec Baldwin a couple times, and also handed it to David Halls,” the affidavit said. “When Affiant asked about live ammo on set, Hannah responded no live ammo is ever kept on set.”
Mendoza said Wednesday that police recovered about 500 rounds of ammunition – which includes blanks, dummy rounds, and suspected live rounds – from the “Rust” set as part of their investigation.
“We know there was one live round, as far as we’re concerned, on set,” Mendoza said.
After the shooting occurred inside a church building on the movie set, Halls picked up the gun and took it to Gutierrez-Reed, the new affidavit says.
“Hannah then was told to ‘open’ the gun so he could see what was inside. David advised he could only remember seeing at least four ‘dummy’ casings with the hole on the side, and one without the hole,” according to the document.
Halls “advised this round did not have the ‘cap’ on it and was just the casing,” the document states. “David advised the incident was not a deliberate act.”
‘Rust’ Shooting: Gun That Killed Halyna Hutchins Was Used That Morning for Live-Ammo Target Practice
https://www.thewrap.com/halyna-hutchins-live-ammo-target-practice/
‘Rust’ Shooting: Gun That Killed Halyna Hutchins Was Used That Morning for Live-Ammo Target Practice
Crew members had gone ”plinking“ and returned the gun to the set, an insider tells TheWrap
By Sharon Waxman and Brian Welk
October 25, 2021
The gun that killed “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins last Thursday was used by crew members that morning for live-ammunition target practice, an individual with knowledge of the set told TheWrap.
A number of crew members had taken prop guns from the New Mexico set of the indie Western — including the gun that killed Hutchins — to go “plinking,” a hobby in which people shoot at beer cans with live ammunition to pass the time, the insider said.
The shooting happened just a few hours later, when lead actor and producer Alec Baldwin discharged a revolver after first assistant director David Halls confirmed that it was a “cold gun,” meaning that the gun did not have any live ammunition in it.
Search warrants issued over the weekend by New Mexico authorities said that Halls had grabbed one of three prop guns set up by armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed and yelled “cold gun” as he handed it to lead actor Alec Baldwin, indicating that the gun did not have any live rounds.
Baldwin, who was rehearsing a scene for the film, was “pointing the revolver towards the camera lens” when it hit director Joel Souza and Hutchins, according to the search warrant made public on Sunday. Hutchins grabbed her midsection and then stumbled backwards as she was assisted to the ground, Souza told authorities. Souza, who was also injured when the gun discharged, was released from a local hospital that night.
Asked for comment, the producers of “Rust” referred to a previous statement: “The safety of our cast and crew is the top priority of Rust Productions and everyone associated with the company. Though we were not made aware of any official complaints concerning weapon or prop safety on set, we will be conducting an internal review of our procedures while production is shut down. We will continue to cooperate with the Santa Fe authorities in their investigation and offer mental health services to the cast and crew during this tragic time.”
The details of the tragic shooting death of the 42-year-old cinematographer seemed only to get more disturbing on Monday as eyewitness accounts have raced through the Hollywood guilds and tight-knit indie community.
The new warrants confirmed that several members of the film’s camera crew had walked off the set earlier that day after complaining about housing, payment and working conditions — forcing producers to scramble to find a new crew.
According to the insider, a walkout by crew members from the below-the-line IATSE union would ordinarily trigger a shutdown of the entire production for 24-48 hours. Instead producers chose to hire non-union replacements to continue the shoot.
Reid Russel, whom the warrant identifies as a cameraman who was standing next to Hutchins and Souza as the gun discharged, said that the crew wrote a letter to the production over the disagreements and that after stepping out for five minutes after returning from lunch, the team was already in possession of the firearm preparing for the scene. He was unsure if it had been checked again in that time.
The police investigation is ongoing.
Planes, guns, night-vision goggles: The Taliban’s new U.S.-made war chest
Planes, guns, night-vision goggles: The Taliban’s new U.S.-made war chest
By Idrees Ali, Patricia Zengerle, and Jonathan Landay
August 19, 2021
WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) – About a month ago, Afghanistan’s ministry of defense posted on social media photographs of seven brand new helicopters arriving in Kabul delivered by the United States.
“They’ll continue to see a steady drumbeat of that kind of support, going forward,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters a few days later at the Pentagon.
In a matter of weeks, however, the Taliban had seized most of the country, as well as any weapons and equipment left behind by fleeing Afghan forces.
Video showed the advancing insurgents inspecting long lines of vehicles and opening crates of new firearms, communications gear and even military drones.
“Everything that hasn’t been destroyed is the Taliban’s now,” one U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters.
Current and former U.S. officials say there is concern those weapons could be used to kill civilians, be seized by other militant groups such as Islamic State to attack U.S.-interests in the region, or even potentially be handed over to adversaries including China and Russia.
President Joe Biden’s administration is so concerned about the weapons that it is considering a number of options to pursue.
The officials said launching airstrikes against the larger equipment, such as helicopters, has not been ruled out, but there is concern that would antagonize the Taliban at a time the United States’ main goal is evacuating people.
Another official said that while there are no definitive numbers yet, the current intelligence assessment was that the Taliban are believed to control more than 2,000 armored vehicles, including U.S. Humvees, and up to 40 aircraft potentially including UH-60 Black Hawks, scout attack helicopters, and ScanEagle military drones.
“We have already seen Taliban fighters armed with U.S.-made weapons they seized from the Afghan forces. This poses a significant threat to the United States and our allies,” Representative Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, told Reuters in an email.
‘MORE LIKE TROPHIES’
The speed with which the Taliban swept across Afghanistan is reminiscent of Islamic State militants taking weapons from U.S.-supplied Iraqi forces who offered little resistance in 2014.
Between 2002 and 2017, the United States gave the Afghan military an estimated $28 billion in weaponry, including guns, rockets, night-vision goggles and even small drones for intelligence gathering.
But aircraft like the Blackhawk helicopters have been the most visible sign of U.S. military assistance, and were supposed to be the Afghan military’ biggest advantage over the Taliban.
Between 2003 and 2016 the United States provided Afghan forces with 208 aircraft, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
In the last week, many of those aircraft were most useful for Afghan pilots to escape the Taliban.
One of the U.S. officials said that between 40 and 50 aircraft had been flown to Uzbekistan by Afghan pilots seeking refuge. Even before taking power in Kabul over the weekend, the Taliban had started a campaign of assassinating pilots.
Some planes were in the United States for maintenance and will stay. Those en route to Afghan forces will instead be used by the U.S. military to help in the evacuation from Kabul.
Current and former officials say that while they are concerned about the Taliban having access to the helicopters, the aircraft require frequent maintenance and many are complicated to fly without extensive training.
“Ironically, the fact that our equipment breaks down so often is a life-saver here,” a third official said.
Retired U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, who oversaw U.S. military operations in Afghanistan as head of U.S. Central Command from 2016 to 2019, said most of the high-end hardware captured by the Taliban, including the aircraft, was not equipped with sensitive U.S. technology.
“In some cases, some of these will be more like trophies,” Votel said.
FIGHTING AT NIGHT
There is a more immediate concern about some of the easier- to-use weapons and equipment, such as night-vision goggles.
Since 2003 the United States has provided Afghan forces with at least 600,000 infantry weapons including M16 assault rifles, 162,000 pieces of communication equipment, and 16,000 night-vision goggle devices.
“The ability to operate at night is a real game-changer,” one congressional aide told Reuters.
Votel and others said smalls arms seized by the insurgents such as machine guns, mortars, as well as artillery pieces including howitzers, could give the Taliban an advantage against any resistance that could surface in historic anti-Taliban strongholds such as the Panjshir Valley northeast of Kabul.
U.S. officials said the expectation was that most of the weapons would be used by the Taliban themselves, but it was far too early to tell what they planned to do – including possibly sharing the equipment with rival states such as China.
Andrew Small, a Chinese foreign policy expert at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said the Taliban was likely to grant Beijing access to any U.S. weapons they may now have control over.
One of the U.S. officials said it was not likely China would gain much, because Beijing likely already has access to the weapons and equipment.
The situation, experts say, shows the United States needs a better way to monitor equipment it gives to allies. It could have done much more to ensure those supplies to Afghan forces were closely monitored and inventoried, said Justine Fleischner of UK-based Conflict Armament Research.
“But the time has passed for these efforts to have any impact in Afghanistan,” Fleischner said.
Taliban in Afghan capital Kabul start collecting weapons from civilians
Taliban in Afghan capital Kabul start collecting weapons from civilians
August 16, 2021
KABUL, Aug 16 (Reuters) – Taliban fighters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, started collecting weapons from civilians on Monday because people no longer need them for personal protection, a Taliban official said.
“We understand people kept weapons for personal safety. They can now feel safe. We are not here to harm innocent civilians,” the official told Reuters.
City resident Saad Mohseni, director of the MOBY group media company, said on Twitter that Taliban soldiers had come to his company compound to enquire about the weapons kept by his security team.
Ashli Babbit’s Killer is a Dangerous Incompetent
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/07/ashli-babbits-killer-dangerous-incompetent/
Ashli Babbit’s Killer is a Dangerous Incompetent
By Larry Johnson
July 1, 2021
A picture is worth a thousand words. So these two pictures tell you two thousand words worth of Ashley Babbit’s. He is demonstrably incompetent.
There are four critical rules for handling any firearm, especially a pistol:
Treat every gun as if it is loaded until you inspect it to ensure there is no ammunition in the chamber.
Always point the gun in a safe direction (in other words, do not point the gun at anything or anyone you are not prepared to kill or destroy).
ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire.
Know your target and what is beyond. You do not fire at a target if there is a person or persons behind the target that do not pose a threat.
Look at the big picture. This moron has his finger on the trigger and is pointing his gun at other security personnel. He is violating all of the gun rules listed above. Every single one.
Making matters worse is what he is doing with his left hand. He is carrying something. When you have the finger of your right hand on the trigger and you are simultaneously using your left hand to grasp or hold something you are likely to cause a sympathetic movement with your trigger finger. The man in the blue shirt is damn fortunate that he was not shot in the back by this clown.
The lack of training discipline this man exhibits is alarming. And the results of this incompetence was the murder of Ashli Babbit. If a cop on the street in any city in America handled a pistol like this he or she would have their gun taken away and be sent back to training. Making matters worse–he took an innocent life.
Black Oklahoma man faces 1st-degree murder charge after killing white alleged burglar
In my opinion, this black guy doesn’t deserve to have any charges filed against him for killing a burglar. But they are filing charges: first degree murder. What nonsense.
The fact that the burglar had not yet entered the building should not matter. The burglar was trying to break the lock on the door. That’s good enough for me to vote not guilty on the first degree murder charge if I was on the jury. There’s a reason we have jury nullification.
Black Oklahoma man faces 1st-degree murder charge after killing white alleged burglar
By Marquise Francis
June 1, 2021
LaRue Bratcher, a 34-year-old Black Army veteran from Oklahoma, remains behind bars on a charge of first-degree murder more than a year after he shot and killed a white man allegedly trying to break into his marijuana grow business.
With his trial date delayed until later this year, Bratcher’s family and friends and members of the Oklahoma City community are rallying behind him, saying the murder charge is unjust.
“I feel like this was an injustice for the simple fact that if the roles were reversed, if this was a white person inside the facility, he would not be in this situation,” Bratcher’s wife, Vicky Bratcher, told Yahoo News in a video interview.
“Someone broke into his place,” Bratcher’s uncle, Derrick Neighbors, said at a rally last month. “He didn’t go out looking for trouble. He was in his own place of business.”
In 2018 when Oklahoma voters legalized medical marijuana, Bratcher established Premium Smoke LLC, a marijuana grow shop located in Oklahoma City, whose business license expired a year later. Bratcher had planned to renew his license in 2019, his wife said, but learned he would not be allowed to do so until he made nearly $100,000 worth of renovations to the warehouse that housed it, so he held off.
On May 27, 2020, around 1 a.m., Bratcher was at the grow operation warehouse when Daniel Hardwick, a 42-year-old white man, allegedly attempted to break into the business for the second consecutive night. Video from that night reportedly shows Hardwick park his car at the rear of the shop, walk to the business’s door and jostle with the door handle, attempting to gain entry.
“He was trying to break in when the business owner, who was inside the business at the time, apparently opened fire with a handgun, striking and killing the man who was breaking in,” Master Sgt. Gary Knight with the Oklahoma City Police Department told KFOR.
Bratcher called the police shortly after the shooting, and once at the scene, officers called the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority to ensure the business was legal. When they found out that the business’s license had expired, Bratcher was arrested for operating a grow shop illegally, a felony, and was held on $5,000 bond. He was not, however, initially arrested in Hardwick’s death. In addition to arresting Bratcher, authorities also seized 480 marijuana plants worth an estimated $1,500,000.
A day after the arrest, Bratcher was released on bond. But just a week later, the city’s district attorney’s office reviewed the case and upgraded Bratcher’s charges to second-degree murder. One week later, police raided Bratcher’s home, escorting him, his children and his wife to the street, and arrested Bratcher again. Then, after he refused to accept a plea deal late last year, Bratcher’s charges were upgraded to first-degree murder. The family told Yahoo News that it does not understand why.
Individuals convicted of second-degree murder in Oklahoma can expect to serve a minimum of 10 years in prison to a life sentence, which is classified as 45 years in the state of Oklahoma, with eligibility for parole after serving 85 percent of the sentence. The penalties for those convicted of first-degree murder vary but include a life sentence without the possibility of parole, or death.
Despite Oklahoma being a state with a “stand your ground” law, or castle doctrine, those rights do not apply to those who are found to have committed a felony. Prosecutors say that because Bratcher operated his grow business without a license, he was felonious and any self-defense clause is thrown out.
Knight also told Yahoo News that because Hardwick was on the other side of the door, Bratcher had no legal standing to shoot him.
“[Bratcher] shot a burglar who had been working on the doorknob,” Knight said. “To use deadly force you have to determine you or the life of an innocent person is in imminent peril. The guy was on the other side of the door. … This is not ‘stand your ground.’”
Knight added that officers did not arrest Bratcher initially in Hardwick’s death because it’s not their job to determine who was right or wrong. Police are responsible only for gathering all of the information at the scene, Knight said, and “it’s up to the DA to decide from there.”
The Oklahoma County district attorney’s office did not return Yahoo News’ request for comment.
Bratcher’s lawyer, Clay Curtis, believes that even without the “stand your ground” defense, Bratcher acted in a “reasonable” manner.
“The evidence shows Mr. Bratcher acted reasonably under the circumstances,” Curtis told Yahoo News. “I think anyone would be in fear for their life in that circumstance. … This case isn’t about us growing weed in terms of the homicide, it’s about whether people think he acted reasonably under the circumstances.”
Bratcher’s wife, who also served in the U.S. military, believes the courts are making Hardwick out to be the victim and using her husband’s Army training against him.
“We’ve been fighting for this country and at the end of the day, it feels like you come home and it doesn’t mean anything to anybody,” Vicky Bratcher said.
Vicky added that at last year’s bond hearing, prosecutors said her husband was a “threat to the community” because of his previous combat training and expertise with a weapon.
“They used our experience of being a veteran [against us],” she said. “That’s literally a slap in the face.”
A petition in support of Bratcher’s release had received more than 5,800 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon. Dozens of demonstrators marched through downtown Oklahoma City last month in support of Bratcher and protested outside the county jail.
“When you’re in trouble, somebody has to fight for you,” Neighbors, Bratcher’s uncle, said. “This is my family and we’re going to fight for him.”
The trial date for Bratcher has been set for Oct. 11 of this year.
Feeling a mix of emotions, Vicky Bratcher is cautiously optimistic that justice will prevail.
“I feel deflated … my heart is broken,” she said. “This whole year has been very hard. I am still managing the warehouse, taking care of the kids and making sure that everything at home is good for his return. But it’s been hard to know that I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Meanwhile, the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority updated its policy this year to allow cardholders to apply for a new license while still using their expired one until the new one comes in the mail.
SCOTUS rules unanimously against warrantless seizure of guns from someone’s home
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/17/politics/supreme-court-fourth-amendment-case-firearms/index.html
Supreme Court sides with man who said police illegally seized firearms from his home without a warrant
By Ariane de Vogue and Devan Cole
May 17, 2021
Washington (CNN) The Supreme Court on Monday wiped away a lower court decision that held that law enforcement could enter a Rhode Island man’s home and seize his firearms without a warrant after his wife expressed fear that he might harm himself.
A lower court had allowed the search, holding that the decision to take the firearms without a warrant fell within the Fourth Amendment’s “community caretaking exception.”
But Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for a unanimous Supreme Court, held that the lower court’s broad interpretation of the exception “goes beyond anything this Court has recognized.”
While the court has recognized that police officers can perform “many civic tasks in modern society,” there is “not an open-ended license to perform them anywhere,” Thomas wrote.
“The very core of the Fourth Amendment,” Thomas wrote, is the “right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable search and seizure.”
The case involved Edward Caniglia, who in a dispute with his wife in 2015 brought out his gun and put it on the dining room table, asking his wife to shoot him now “to get it over with.”
She declined, and left to spend the night in a hotel. The next morning she could not reach her husband by phone and called the police to ask them to check in on her husband’s welfare. Upon meeting Caniglia, law enforcement believed he posed a risk to himself, and they called a hospital so he could be admitted for psychiatric evaluation. After the ambulance left, they seized his weapons.
Caniglia later sued and said that when police entered his home to seize his weapon they violated the Fourth Amendment because they had no warrant.
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