Saturday, September 19, 2009



NC: No charges after man kills suspected robber: "No charges will be filed against a 76-year-old who shot and killed a 15-year-old robbery suspect last month, prosecutors announced Friday. The statement from Mecklenburg County District Attorney Peter Gilchrist follows his office's review of the Aug. 22 home invasion at the residence of C.L. McClure on Grier Road in northeast Charlotte. According to an interview that day with McClure's son, four teens entered the home while McClure was eating ice cream in his basement hobby shop. The robbers, one armed with a gun, bound him with duct tape and held his wife at gunpoint. They ransacked the house and made off with jewelry and a wallet, police said. After they left, McClure broke free, grabbed his gun, got into his dark green van and guessed the thieves would head toward nearby Ginger Lane, his son said. He ended up in a confrontation and killed Marcus Fluker, one of the teens. The law is clear that shootings can be justified inside someone's home after someone breaks in. But McClure drove after the robbers, plunging the case into a gray area, legal experts have said. Prosecutors said Friday that McClure's actions did not make him the aggressor. "His idea to find the vehicle and try to delay the escape of those who invaded his home did not make him the aggressor nor did that take away his right of self defense," the statement read. "Mr. McClure believed that his life was in danger and fired in self-defense." [This follows up a report here on Aug. 24. One bad guy will never bother anyone else again, however you look at it]


TX: Poker-room robber shot: "The funeral for Barron Glenn Boutte is today in Houston. He's the 24-year-old shot and killed while attempting to rob a Houston underground poker room earlier this month. His shooter is not being publicly identified, though police have determined Boutte's death a matter of self-defense. Club 203, where the fatal shootout occurred, has been indefinitely shut down. A few more details about the thwarted robbery, coming to us now secondhand, as opposed to thirdhand ... Apparently the robbery suspects confronted a player leaving the game in the parking lot, and a scuffle ensued. The first shots were reportedly fired at the door to gain entry, and the robbers continued shooting into the air once inside. They did indeed shoot one patron in the leg when he was slow to get on the ground as ordered. Boutte's armed nemesis and several others were smoking in the break room when the melee went down. One robber supposedly told these players they'd better not be coming out without cash - thinking maybe they were hiding it - and that's when the poker-room hero emerged brandishing his own gun. Boutte was shot at least four times in the abdomen and made it out to the parking lot before falling and dying."


Buying guns can be an ordeal: "If Congress were to pass a law that required voters to get permission, in writing, from government before going to the polls, citizens likely would be up in arms, at least figuratively speaking. For some, figuratively might be the only way they could take up arms against injustice. Since the Brady Firearms Act required prospective gun buyers to pass a National Instant Check System background check before they were allowed to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer, almost 1.8 million people have been denied. … if statistics from 2008 are any indication, an NCIS denial isn’t proof-positive that one is a criminal, a fugitive or anyone else legally barred from owning a firearm.”


Not enough guns: "Larken Rose was recently quoted on a friend’s profile to the effect that 90 million Americans own guns. I find this figure laughable. It is far too low. There are 305 million Americans according to the census bureau-rats. I would not be surprised if they are failing to count many millions, as incompetent as they are at everything they do. But let’s take that as a given. This 90 million figure says that fewer than 30% of the population owns guns. That is completely at variance from my experience. On the contrary, I would say that about 70-80% of the population owns guns, or lives in a home where guns are owned. (Children are counted in the population.) I suspect that the argument that only 29.5% of the population owns guns is meant to suggest it is a weird and deviant and abnormal preference, not common to most people. What I will believe is that 30% of the population admits to owning guns when filthy, lousy, mealy-mouthed, stinking, belching, boozing, raping bureau-rats come around with their nosy questions. Maybe.”

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