Learning from Erik Scott’s Death

I received quite a lot of reaction from my previous column telling the story of West Point graduate and veteran Erik Scott, who was gunned down in front of a Las Vegas area Costco store in 2010.  Much of the response leads me to believe that I did not make my point as clearly as I had hoped.  My objective in that column was not so much to bring attention to a tragedy that happened 2 years ago, but to highlight how irrational fear of firearms can cause very dangerous situations for those of us who carry guns for personal protection.  Anyone who ever carries a gun needs to be aware of the threat represented by bigots and hoplophobes. 

Likewise, anyone who might encounter someone carrying either openly or concealed – which is virtually everyone who ever leaves their home –  needs to be aware that there are lawfully armed citizens all around.  With 49 of the 50 states having some provision for lawful concealed carry, and over 40 states having provisions for lawful open carry, there are now several million people in this country who might be lawfully carrying a gun on any given day – not to mention the thousands of off-duty and plainclothes police.  That means the odds of your seeing an accidentally exposed concealed firearm, or someone carrying openly, are pretty high in most states. 

Continue reading Erik Scott →

No justice for Erik Scott – gunned down for legally carrying a gun.

           Erik Scott was a West Point graduate with an MBA from Duke.  He served honorably in the Army and establish a lucrative career in real estate and as a sales rep for a medical device company.  He was 38 years old when he was gunned down in the portico of a Las Vegas area Costco store by officers from the Las Vegas Metro Police Department.  While it was 7 bullets from the only people we’re supposed to trust with guns that snuffed out Erik Scott’s life, what really killed him was an irrational fear of firearms – hoplophobia.

Scott and his girlfriend were shopping in the Costco when he was challenged by a store manager after Scott’s lawfully carried handgun was spotted as he squatted down to examine some merchandise.  He argued briefly with the manager about the store’s “No Guns” policy after identifying himself as a lawful Nevada concealed weapons permit holder.  Witnesses said Scott did raise his voice in obvious frustration over the policy, but that it didn’t seem like a big deal.  They saw nothing particularly threatening about the incident or the clean-cut, good looking young man.   The store manager seemed satisfied by Scott’s reassurances and was OK with him finishing his shopping.  But another store employee was already on the line with police, reporting an armed “Green Beret” acting erratically in the store.

Continue reading Hoplophobia Kills →

Taxpayer-Funded Anti-Rights Lobbyists

Cities around the country have created staff positions for professional lobbyists whose primary function is to drum up support for anti-gun legislation, ordinances, and regulations.  Part of these lobbyists salaries are being paid by grants from do-gooder foundations like the Joyce Foundation, but the balance of salaries, benefits, and support costs are being borne by you the taxpayer.

An associate of mine in Florida named Sean Caranna was doing some research for his grassroots rights organization, Florida Carry, Inc., when he came across something on the agenda of the Orlando City Council that he immediately recognized as a serious problem.  The item was for the renewal of a contract for a city employee.  That’s mundane enough, but the job title of this particular employee was “Mayors Against Illegal Guns Regional Coordinator,” and the job description is to “play an integral role in the coordination and planning of gun crime prevention and illegal gun-related initiatives, events, and media opportunities in the city and in the region”  (The full council agenda and detailed information can be found on the City of Orlando website).

Continue reading Anit-Rights Lobbyists →

Eric Holder’s Contemptible Behavior

Representative Darrel Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is publicly circulating a briefing paper and draft Contempt of Congress resolution against Attorney General Eric Holder over the Department of Justice’s stonewalling in the investigation into the gunwalking scandal known as Operation Fast & Furious.   True to form, Holder is shrugging off the threat and calling foul.  A lawyer for DOJ sent a letter in which he said the department “strongly disputes” the assertion that they have not been cooperating with Congress.  He pointed out that the DOJ has provided over 7,600 pages of documents to congressional investigators so far and allowed numerous department officials to testify.  He then cites Bush and Reagan administration arguments against releasing information about ongoing investigations to congress, and about releasing information about how members of the department planned for dealing with a congressional investigation.  He concluded by saying that it looks like Issa is more interested in political gamesmanship than working toward a mutually satisfactory agreement.

Those arguments ring hollow when you consider that Operation Fast & Furious was shut down, and the investigation started, a year and a half ago, and those 7,600 pages represent only about 10% of the documents Issa’s committee has subpoenaed.  The fact that DOJ has repeatedly made false or misleading assertions and then had to back-pedal when their duplicity was exposed, strongly suggests an active intention to cover-up certain aspects of the operation.

Continue reading Holder’s in Contemp →

Wrong turn leads to Mexican prison for Texas truck driver

A Dallas-based truck driver is in prison in Mexico and facing a possible 35-year sentence because he missed his exit and had no way of turning around without crossing the border.  Jabin Bogan was making deliveries in El Paso before heading on to Arizona when he missed his exit and found himself stuck on the highway leading into Mexico.  This is an easy and common mistake to make on the confusing highways of the El Paso area, but it can be a costly one as Bogan has discovered.  Near the border he says he “asked a cop” how to turn around and was told he would have to continue on a couple of miles to an exit.  The details of that part of the story are murky as US authorities say they have no record of a truck driver making such an inquiry of border agents.  They say that had Bogan asked at the US checkpoint they would have stopped traffic to allow him to make a U-turn on the highway.  Instead Bogan crossed the border and was stopped by Mexican authorities who searched the truck and found over a quarter of a million rounds of rifle ammunition. 

Headlines in Mexico and the US announced the largest detection and seizure of illegal ammunition in recent memory and strongly suggested that the shipment was destined for Mexican drug cartels.  That assertion was quickly denied by both Bogan’s boss and the ammunition dealer in Phoenix who had paid $100,000 for the shipment.  Dennis Mekenye, operations manager for Demco Freight, says the truck was equipped with a GPS tracker and when he saw it was in Mexico he called Bogan’s cell phone.  The driver told him about the missed exit and that Mexican authorities were searching the truck.  Shortly thereafter, Bogan was arrested.  The ammunition dealer in Phoenix, Howard Glaser, says he believes Bogan is a victim of confusing signs — just a hard working man who made a simple mistake.  He says the ammunition, 250,000 rounds of military surplus 7.62 NATO and 18,000 rounds of 5.56 NATO, was for commercial sale in the US only and that the suggestion that Bogan was trying to smuggle it into Mexico is ludicrous.  He says Mexican authorities should have recognized that an honest mistake had been made and sent the driver and his cargo back to the US and on to Arizona.  Bogan is now being held in a federal prison in Veracruz where he has been formally charged with smuggling military ammunition.

Continue reading Mexican Standoff →

How Fear Begets Tragedy

Why do tragedies like the death of Trayvon Martin occur?  Because atrocities like the murders of Bob and Nancy Strait occur.

Nancy Strait was 85-years old, mostly blind, and had been caring for her 90-year old husband Bob for over 65 years, when she was brutally raped and murdered.  A suspect named Tyrone Woodfork, who turned 20 a few days after the attack, was quickly arrested.  Police say that Woodfork and up to four accomplices broke into the Strait’s Tulsa, Oklahoma home during the overnight hours of Tuesday, March 13.  They beat Bob, breaking ribs and his jaw, and shot him several times in the face with a BB-Gun.  They also beat and sexually assaulted Nancy.  The couple was not found until the following evening.  Bob survived almost 2 months, but passed away on May 4.  His family says the real cause of death was a broken heart over the loss of his wife.  Nancy succumbed to her injuries the day after the attack.  Police say Woodfork was captured after an alert citizen spotted the Strait’s stolen car. 

The attack on Bob and Nancy Strait is all the more tragic because they were among the last and best of what we have come to refer to as “the greatest generation.”  After surviving the Great Depression, Nancy had left her small town home to go to the big city of Tulsa to work in a factory supporting the war effort.  Bob was serving in the 101^st Airborne Division and participated in the D-Day invasion.  Though he was wounded, he turned down a Purple Heart because he didn’t feel his injuries warranted the citation.  And even though he was eligible for VA medical care and other veterans’ benefits, he never took advantage of them because he felt that he had just done his job and his duty, and didn’t think further compensation was warranted.

Continue reading Tragedy Strikes →

Virginia Tech Mom Speaks Out

Yesterday was the 5^th anniversary of the tragic rampage shooting at Virginia Tech that took the lives of 32, wounded 17 more, and impacted all of us.  In the years since that horrific event there has been much said about the availability of guns, particularly on the campuses of America’s educational institutions.  Among the loudest voices have been some of the family members and victims of the Virginia Tech massacre.  Their personal tragedies and struggles make their feelings on the matter particularly relevant and moving.  Unfortunately, while some of these folks and their views have been embraced by the media and certain special interest groups, others have been muffled and not heard at all.

One voice is that of Holly Adams.  Her daughter, Leslie Sherman, was murdered that day.  Unlike others who have focused on the tools the murderer used that day in the commission of his crime – what they were, how he got them, and what laws might have prevented him from acquiring them, and thus, in their minds, would have prevented the tragedy – Ms. Adams points to the possibility that someone might have been able to stop the murderer before he hurt so many people.  Those Virginia Tech survivors and families who misguidedly call for constraints on the law-abiding as a means of controlling criminals, have been promoted as speaking on behalf of all of the families directly impacted by the tragedy.  That is a misrepresentation that Holly Adams would like to set straight.  On the anniversary of her daughter’s murder she sent a letter to Philip Van Cleave, President of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a grass roots pro-rights organization.  That letter is reprinted below.

Continue reading Virginia Tech Shooting →

Fast & Furious Facts

      In the 16 months since information about the ATF and DOJ program known as Fast & Furious began trickling out, there have been many revelations and much written about the operation, but in spite of formal investigations by the DOJ Office of Inspector General, and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, as well as numerous inquiries by journalists and bloggers,

• ATF encouraged gun dealers to sell large quantities of guns to suspected gun traffickers even though the gun dealers objected and would not have made the sales on their own.
• The “high level cartel member” at the top of the investigation objectives was a 24-year old active smuggler named ???? who was actually caught smuggling ammo into Mexico, but was released after he agreed to provide information about higher level cartel members to ATF.  He continued smuggling guns and never provided any information.
• Two other principle targets of the “investigation” were actually working for the FBI and were shielded from prosecution.  The FBI apparently never told ATF that these men were working for them and were “untouchable.”
• ATF made no attempt to interdict the guns.
• ATF made no attempt to track the guns. Continue reading FFF →

Freaks and Oddballs – You’re One

Just over 200 days away from what will undoubtedly be one of the most important elections in US history, and most of the country still isn’t even paying attention yet.  Of course those of you reading this have been paying attention for years, even decades, but that’s because you’re all freaks and oddballs like me.  At least that’s what the majority thinks of us.  We prefer to think of ourselves as exceptional and concerned – responsible citizens, but they see us as demented political junkies lacking in real life.  Any way you want to define us – those of us who pay attention to politics more than 60 days out from a major election are definitely a minority – about 20%.  While that can be a bit disheartening, it also should be encouraging.  Since 70% of potential voters are in the dark about politics, those of us in the 20% have an opportunity to leverage our knowledge to significantly influence the myopic majority.  We have to understand that most of these people aren’t ignorant because they don’t care, but because they don’t care enough to make it a priority in their daily lives.  They want to vote for the best candidate, they just have been focused on other things and need someone to guide them to that candidate.  You and I can be their guides.

After the election of 2008 I did some simple research into search trends on Google.  What I found was pretty startling.  While there were millions of internet searches for such hot-button issues as “Obama + gun control” and “Obama + abortion,” in the days leading up to Election Day, the day these searches really spiked with the highest number of searches wasn’t the day before the election or two days prior, the most such searches actually occurred on the day after the election.  It seems that people were more interested in finding out what they had done than researching the decision they were about to make.  Nancy Pelosi’s statement that the House should pass ObamaCare to see what was in the bill comes to mind.  I found the search data pretty disturbing, but at least it shows some interest.  We just need to figure out how to activate that curiosity a bit earlier and make sure that the information folks need is readily available in a format they can easily understand.  We also need to be sure that as people find the information they need about presidential candidates that they also learn something about other candidates lower down on the ticket.  Regardless of who wins the White House, if there is not a solid, reliable House and Senate in place to support the good and block the bad, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble.

Continue reading Political Junkies →