So anti-rights activist Jason “Baldr” Kilgore has a post up on a killing in a gun shop:
The gun crowd is always saying, “If only the victim had had a gun, they could have defended themselves.” After all, according to the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre in his unhinged call to arm all schools, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
But that philosophy certainly didn’t help Frank Petro, owner of Frank’s Gun Shop & Taxidermy, in Saltsburg, PA, just outside of Philadelphia. His business also features a “double tap shooting range” as advertised on his webpage, which features a news feed from the NRA-ILA and an NRA-approved training program (“Tuesday is Ladies Night”). Here’s his Facebook page for his business.
What could be safer? Not only was this not a “no gun zone” that the pro-gun folks are always saying are so unsafe, but it was literally FULL of guns within easy reach — and approved by the NRA!
Unfortunately for Mr. Petro, all those guns couldn’t save him. In fact, it was one of his OWN GUNS, taken from a display case, that killed him, in his gun shop.
You see, Mr. Petro had an ongoing conflict with a man named Jack Edmundson Jr., who had extorted a large amount of money from Mr. Petro.
Edmundson confronted Petro in the gun shop, took a loaded handgun from a display case, and shot Petro twice. Edmundson then started trying to set the store on fire, when Petro revived and attacked Edmundson, shooting and injuring him, before Edmundson delivered the lethal shooting to Petro.
Now of course the killer was shot in the process, but Jason ignores that, because he ignores ANY story where a lawful gun owner shoots a criminal. In this case the lawful gun owner dies, and Jason celebrates.
You’ll note that the anti-rights people were all talking about the shooting at the Colorado school…until it turned out the shooter was stopped by an armed resource officer, then that was the last we heard about it.
Meanwhile in America the Detroit Chief of Police is talking about the violent crime problem:
Detroit’s police chief has a solution to help drive down crime in one of the nation’s most dangerous cities: arm more citizens.
James Craig made the comments at a police press conference Thursday, when he announced a 7 percent drop in violent crime in 2013, The Detroit News reported. Although urban police typically favor gun control, Craig said his views evolved after working in Los Angeles and Maine, where concealed weapons permits are more easily obtained.
“I changed my orientation real quick,” Craig said. “Maine is one of the safest places in America. Clearly, suspects knew that good Americans were armed.”
Thursday’s comments echo statements Craig has made in the past, including those he made last month, when he said responsible citizens who carry concealed pistol licenses “translates into crime reduction.”
As I read that I went “Oh I know that guy!” but I don’t know him well as he became Chief of Portland Maine the year after I left Portland. I just naturally assumed that since he was from LA, and the last Police Chief (who was from Chicago) was VERY anti-gun despite Maine being a very pro-gun and pro-carry state. Still I’m glad to see him doing this.
Of course, Police Chiefs generally kowtow to the Politicians they serve under, in this case he’s backed by science.
Using data for the period 1980 to 2009 and controlling for state and year fixed effects, the results of the present study suggest that states with restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons had higher gun-related murder rates than other states. It was also found that assault weapons bans did not significantly affect murder rates at the state level. These results suggest that restrictive concealed weapons laws may cause an increase in gun-related murders at the state level. The results of this study are consistent with some prior research in this area, most notably Lott and Mustard
Anti-rights activists are anti-safety, anti-science, and anti-freedom.
