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<![CDATA[gun owner]]>

The most ridiculous “I’m a gun owner, but” ever?

March 6, 2023 by Cam Edwards Leave a Comment

The gun prohibition lobby loves to claim that the vast majority of gun owners support their “reasonable” infringements on an inherent individual right, to the point that they even create their own astroturf groups like “Gun Owners for Safety” and the now-defunct American Hunters and Shooters Association.

The whole point of these outfits is to advance that narrative, and one of the most common tactics is the “I’m a gun owner, but” argument. You’ve seen it countless times. “I’m a gun owner, but I support ‘commonsense measures’ like”:

  • making it a criminal offense to possess commonly-owned firearms and magazines
  • prohibiting lawful concealed carry almost everywhere in public
  • making it more expensive to purchase, possess, and even train with a firearm
  • holding firearms manufacturers liable for the actions of violent criminals

I’m reasonably sure that attorney and columnist Mario Nicolais would be in favor of each and every one of those things, because his own “I’m a gun owner, but” narrative goes much further. Writing at the Colorado Sun, Nicolais says he’s a gun owner, but he wants the state to tell him to turn ’em in.

As I have written, the Colorado Republican Party is dead. While I am sure the ghosts of 2013 recall elections still haunt some Democrats, the fear of the next child dead from a gunshot wound should scare them more. They are not going to lose their majorities in the next decade, if ever. They may even solidify them if they take even more direct action.

That means getting assault-style guns off the streets. It means cracking down hard on handguns. It means going after ghost guns and criminals who resort to violence.

I happen to be a gun owner. But I have also run through a Las Vegas casino afraid of an active shooter, texted with my wife as she hid huddled inside a classroom as a gunman walked outside, and paid attention as an officer married to a high school friend has recovered after being shot in the neck by an assailant.

I would hand over my gun if the legislature took action.

Why wait for the legislature to do something? If Mario Nicolais doesn’t want to own a gun, no one is stopping him from selling it or even melting it down to turn into a garden trowel or something like that.

In fact, if Nicolais is waiting for the Colorado legislature to approve a ban on gun ownership complete with instructions to hand them over to law enforcement before he divests himself of his own gun he’s gonna be twiddling his thumbs for the foreseeable future. Democrats in Colorado didn’t include a ban on possession in their “assault weapons” bill that was quietly introduced last Friday night, though I have no doubt that most of the Democratic lawmakers would love to see that provision become law. The Colorado GOP may be on the endangered species list, but that could easily change if Democrats start demanding that current gun owners hand over their firearms. Moreover, there’s a progressive argument against gun bans; namely that they lead to more arrests and incarceration on non-violent, possessory offenses, particularly among racial minority groups. That argument wouldn’t carry the day with every Democratic lawmaker in Denver, but it would probably sway a few.

Then there’s the “small” fact that the Supreme Court has said in no uncertain terms that a complete prohibition on gun ownership is unconstitutional. Equally as important is the reality that a good number of Coloradans simply wouldn’t comply with Nicolais’ demands, even if legislators managed to enact it into law. He might hand over his own firearm if the legislature “takes action”, but my guess is that he wouldn’t have a lot of company.

The incidents that Nicolais describes are truly terrifying, but by his own testimony none of them actually led to him getting rid of his own gun. Nicolais never explains his decision to keep ahold of his own firearm until the day the State tells him to hand it over; something I honestly find inexplicable. I’ll take him at his word that he is, in fact, a gun owner, but I’m not sure why.

I’m also completely unpersuaded by his argument that bad guys will stop doing bad things once we ban those big bad guns. A supply-side “solution” to violent crime and mass shootings is going to run headlong into the Constitution and tens of millions of responsible gun owners, for one thing. But we’ve also seen that cities like Chicago and Washington, D.C. historically had much higher crime rates when their handgun bans were in effect than after they were struck down by the courts. Stripping people of their fundamental right to self-defense only empowers the violent predators in our society, as Colorado has already witnessed over the past decade. The growing number of gun control laws imposed by the Democratic majority has done nothing to stem the rising tide of violent crime in the state, particularly in Denver and some of its suburbs. Maybe Nicolais sees that as evidence that Democrats need to go even bigger with their anti-gun efforts, but I’d say it shows that lawmakers are aiming at the wrong target when they focus on responsible gun owners.

My own theory is that Nicolais hasn’t gotten rid of his gun primarily because he wants to be able to make the “I’m a gun owner, but” argument in favor of any and all gun control efforts in Colorado and around the country, but maybe he’ll enlighten us on his bizarre position in his next column. I’m a gun owner, but I’ve honestly never run across a gun owner like Nicolais before; someone who’s ready to give up their gun, but is waiting on the State to ask for it first.

Filed Under: <![CDATA[Colorado]]>, <![CDATA[Gun Control]]>, <![CDATA[gun owner]]>, <![CDATA[Mario Nicolais]]>, <![CDATA[Video]]>, Bearing Arms, News

California homeowner fights back, survives shootout with armed burglars

February 28, 2023 by Cam Edwards Leave a Comment

A Bakersfield man is recovering from his injuries and two suspects are in custody after a burglary was apparently interrupted last week. Authorities say the homeowner was pulling into his driveway around 7 p.m. last Thursday evening, but spotted a strange vehicle already parked there.

Moments later, at least two individuals came running out the front door of the home, one of them armed. According to the homeowner, the armed suspect then opened fire.

The victim, a licensed concealed carry permit holder possessing a gun, returned fire.

Police said during the exchange of gunfire, the victim sustained a non-life-threatening injury.

The suspects were able to drive away in the suspect vehicle.

Bakersfield Police Department detectives responded to the scene and assumed the investigation.

Police said 43-year-old Melvin Carter of Palmdale, was identified as one of the suspects after arriving at a hospital with a gunshot injury sustained during the shoot-out with the victim.

Carter is in serious but stable condition.

Police said pursuant to the investigation, 36-year-old Frederick Minnoy III of Bakersfield was taken into custody for his role in the attempted burglary and shooting. Minnoy was transported and booked into the Kern County Jail for attempted murder, conspiracy, and attempted residential burglary.

Authorities haven’t said if there’s any connection between the two intruders and the armed homeowner or whether this was a random encounter, but at this point it doesn’t look like any charges are expected to be filed against the homeowner in relationship to the the shooting.

Unlike many coastal counties, Kern County (home to Bakersfield) has generally been pretty good about issuing concealed carry licenses, even before the Supreme Court invalidated California’s “may issue” concealed carry statute in the Bruen case. In 2020, for instance, Kern County Sheriff Margaret Mims approved more than 4,500 concealed handgun permits; far above the number of permits issued in population-rich locales like Los Angeles County.

Mims policy has been criticized by anti-gun Democrats over the years, but while politicians like Gavin Newsom complain about Californians gaining access to their Second Amendment rights, the sheriff has long recognized that you shouldn’t have to demonstrate “good cause” or a “justifiable need” to bear arms in self-defense. The fact that average Kern County residents can obtain a concealed carry license hasn’t eradicated the gang violence that has plagued Bakersfield for decades, but at least those folks have the chance to fight back if they become the target of violent criminals.

If Newsom and his fellow gun prohibitionists had their way, this armed citizen would have been unarmed and helpless as intruders opened fire while he was sitting in his car. We might have seen a brief news story about the murder of a Bakersfield man who apparently interrupted a home burglary and lost his life as a result, but I doubt there’d be any headlines about the unarmed man who was able to take out two armed attackers or hold them until police arrived.

California’s gun control laws didn’t prevent these intruders from getting ahold of a gun, and if Newsom and his legislative allies in Sacramento get their way it will be even harder for responsible gun owners to protect themselves from the countless criminals who pay little attention to the gun laws already on the books. Once again the anti-gun politicians in the state are getting it backwards; cracking down on those exercising their fundamental right to self-defense while largely ignoring and excusing repeat and violent offenders.

Filed Under: <![CDATA[armed citizen]]>, <![CDATA[Bakersfield]]>, <![CDATA[California]]>, <![CDATA[defensive gun use]]>, <![CDATA[gun owner]]>, <![CDATA[gun saving lives]]>, <![CDATA[Video]]>, Bearing Arms, News

Armed citizen stops shooting in Phoenix restaurant

February 13, 2023 by Cam Edwards Leave a Comment

A 26-year old man was shot and killed by an armed customer after walking into a Phoenix, Arizona restaurant on Saturday evening and firing several rounds, according to police, though for some reason most of the local media is downplaying or ignoring the defensive gun use, at least in the headlines of their reports on the incident.

KTAR’s headline reads “Man who brought gun to Phoenix restaurant dead after shooting”, leaving out the detail that the first shots fired apparently came from the man who was shot and killed. AZFamily.com, meanwhile, provides even fewer details in their headline, simply announcing that “Man dead after shooting in Phoenix restaurant.” At least the Arizona Republic managed to include the fact that the armed patron says he was acting in self-defense in its headline, and the paper’s report includes a few details about the encounter.

Phoenix officers arrived on the scene around 10 p.m. and found a man, identified as 26-year-old Oscar Luna, with a gunshot wound.

“Phoenix fire took the man to a local hospital where he did not survive his injuries,” Sgt. Brian Bower said. “We had several witnesses and we detained a man.”

Detectives who took over the investigation reported that the man who was killed had entered the restaurant with a gun and fired a number of rounds inside the building.

“The man detained and questioned by police was inside the restaurant during this incident and had shot the individual ending this confrontation,” Bower said.

We don’t know what Luna’s motive was, but were it not for the presence of the armed citizen his attack could easily have resulted in multiple injuries and fatalities. If that had happened, it would have been national news, but because his attack was almost immediately stopped by someone with a gun of their own, this story is barely a blip on local media’s radar, and has been completely unreported by national press outlets, at least as far as I can tell.

It’s also worth noting that restaurants are among the many locations anti-gun activists and politicians are trying to label “sensitive places” where lawful concealed carry is banned; not by the property owner if they choose, but a total prohibition on all restaurants imposed and enforced by the State. Supposedly that edict is meant to make the public safer, but in reality it puts good people at risk. Violent criminals and those with murderous intent aren’t going to be thwarted by a sign alerting concealed carry holders that a particular location is a “gun-free zone”, but responsible gun owners who would otherwise be carrying may very well decide to leave their firearm behind so that they don’t risk a criminal charge for possessing a firearm in a “sensitive place.”

Even in Arizona, which has pretty good gun laws from a Second Amendment perspective, anyone carrying concealed in a restaurant in which alcohol is served must possess a valid carry license despite the state’s permitless carry laws. It’s unclear whether or not this particular restaurant serves alcohol on the premises, and authorities haven’t said whether the armed patron is one of the more than 450,000 Arizonans licensed to carry. We do know, however, that the armed patron wasn’t arrested by police at the scene, and authorities say the findings of their investigation will be presented to the District Attorney in Maricopa County once it’s complete. We’ll be keeping our eyes open for any additional details that might emerge, but at this point all indications are that this was a legitimate act of self-defense and defense of others.

Filed Under: <![CDATA[armed citizen]]>, <![CDATA[Concealed Carry]]>, <![CDATA[defensive gun use]]>, <![CDATA[gun owner]]>, <![CDATA[Guns Saving Lives]]>, <![CDATA[permitless carry]]>, <![CDATA[Phoenix]]>, <![CDATA[Video]]>, Bearing Arms, News

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