Jose Canseco Shoots, Injures His Hand

Jose Canseco, the former baseball player, shot himself in the hand recently. Story here.

He didn't accidentally shoot himself; he negligently shot himself. Firearms do not 'accidentally' discharge unless they are defective and have a mechanical malfunction. 

He failed to observe proper firearm safety procedures and did not unload the weapon. When cleaning a weapon, the first thing one should do is unload the weapon (visually verifying the chamber or cylinder is unloaded) and remove the ammo from the room or immediate area. Hands or body parts (or anything living or of value) should not stray in front of the muzzle. Had Mr. Canseco unloaded his weapon and handled it properly, this would not have happened.

"Gun cleaning" is often a euphemism for improper handling, though we don't know the actual details here. This is why guns must be handled with respect and the safety rules observed at all times by everyone.

Random Sledgehammer Attacks in BC and Henderson

What can only be called a deranged man went on a random crime speed with a sledgehammer that ranged from Boulder City to Henderson. The man attacked 10 people with a hammer in an hour’s time last Friday night. He faces six counts of attempted murder and one count of assault with a deadly weapon.

“...the incident started in Boulder City around 8 p.m. Friday when Robins is accused of attacking a woman in a car with a one-handed sledgehammer in a convenience store parking lot. He then attacked two elderly people in the parking lot of a Boulder City auto parts store, according to Paul.Next, police said Robins ran a driver off the road on U.S. 93 and hit the male driver several times with the hammer. Authorities said after that attack, Robins drove off and ran another driver off the roadway and attacked that driver with the hammer."

Police said Robins then drove into Henderson and cut off a driver at Greenway Road and Horizon Drive. Paul says Robins attacked the driver with the hammer before he got back in his car and drove up Greenway Road to Heather Drive.

At Heather Drive, police said he is accused of cutting in front of an oncoming vehicle. When the driver stopped, police said he attacked the female driver before he got back in his car and drove to Foothill High School and hit a man with the hammer there. He fled as officers arrived.

Next, police said Robins drove to a Taco Bell restaurant on Horizon Drive and blocked a vehicle in the drive-thru lane and attacked that vehicle and driver.

He sped off and pulled into a nearby neighborhood, cut off another vehicle and got out, smashed the car with the hammer. The driver of that vehicle was not injured.”

Read more at Fox 5.

This crook should feel himself lucky that he didn’t run into an armed citizen. The gun is mightier than the sledgehammer. This is more reason to rejoice in the fact that Nevada allows its citizens to carry a loaded gun in their vehicle and also a miracle that no one was killed or seriously injured. Have a gun, carry it, and know how to use it, because you never know when your late night trip for tacos might turn into a confrontation with a psychopath.

He was involved in several road rage incidents in connection to the hammer attacks. From the details in the article, it appears that most of the victims were in their cars when he attacked them.

In a road-rage or any sort of self-defense situation, staying in your vehicle is a good idea. Obviously, the car provides an obstacle for the attacker to break through, sledgehammer or not. Lock the doors, roll up the windows, and get out of there. A prudent driver will always room to escape, if possible. When stopping in traffic, leave enough room from the car in front of you so that you can see the rear tires. Not only does this allow you room to turn your vehicle out and drive off, it provides a cushion of space in front of you if your vehicle was to be rear-ended.

In most fast-food drive-throughs, there is no way to escape except to drive out, and the lane will probably be blocked by other cars whose drivers’ may not be aware of the danger. In a drive through, if you have to get away from danger, abandon your car. Most people will think that since their car is immobilized, that they are cut off from escape. 

UPDATE 10/29/2014

The Review-Journal had more details in the bizarre hammer attacks in Henderson and Boulder City.

He gave this chilling statement: “Sir, I’m sorry but I’m going to kill you; everything will be OK when you’re dead.” 

He even had his wife make a straw purchase of a firearm. "Her only way out was leaving with him, according to the report. Robins took the woman to a gun store where she filled out the paperwork to a buy a firearm for him. Robins could not buy a gun himself because he is a felon, police said."

It is unknown if the firearm was purchased or not. Background checks or not, criminals will attempt to buy guns, they will get them, legally or not, and commit acts of violence, guns or not.

Nevada Carry reminds all Nevadans that a loaded firearm can be carried openly on their person and in their vehicle without a permit.

What is disturbing is the suspect approaching people at a high school, a place where they are disarmed by law, made helpless to defend themselves against a criminal with no respect for the law.

Again, it is fortunate that no one was hurt or killed. 

Donate to Stop Bloomberg's Background Checks!

Donate to fight the Bloomberg background check initiative push. It's going to be a fight of us against Bloomberg's billions, so the money is needed. There is lots of money going towards duping the unwary public in to signing away their rights, one 'common sense' restriction at a time. Fight back! Donate today!

http://nevadansforstategunrights.com/

Please read and handout the attached flier from the Nevadans for State Gun Rights PAC.

Nevada Carry is not affiliated with NSGRPAC or NVFAC.

Infograph: Pulling The Trigger

Credit: Jacob O'Neal Animagraffs.com

Oregon Open Carrier Disarmed by Robbery?

More recent news from Oregon…

So here is what on the surface may be the first documented case of a person open carrying a pistol being robbed of their weapon…by a person probably illegally concealing.

I have my own suspicions that what was told to the police was not the truth, though I cannot support that. I will qualifying my following statements and my own suspicion with the fact that the poor reporting, based on what appears to be simply a police press release, does not give us information to definitively judge what happened. The whole story sounds incredibly sketchy to me, but for the purposes of fostering dialogue, we’ll take it as truth, until evidence can be shown to prove it false.

Article here.

The 21 year old had purchased the gun earlier in the day. At 2 AM he was on a street corner with his cousin when he was approached by another male who, after asking for a cigarette (a common ruse to get close to someone), brandished his own gun and robbed the young man of his new pistol. Thanks to sound-byte reporting, we don’t have all the details, just a brief blurb about the basics.

Though the reporting is low on facts, there is enough information in the article to lead me to believe this was not an incident of a person open carrying a loaded firearm for self-defense. Comments around the internet lead me to believe this wasn’t exactly a great area of town. Also, nothing good happens after midnight, or so the saying goes.

Rather this reads as a young man, unprepared to use the gun he was carrying, inexperienced with guns, showing it off to his cousin. No mention was made if the weapon was loaded or even holstered. Until more details emerge, or we have regular stories about open carriers getting their guns snatched, I am not going to worry.

Anecdotal evidence has shown that far more potential thieves are deterred by openly carried weapons than any (well, one now) are targeted for open carry.

It is a regular occurrence for police officers to have a suspect grab for the officer’s weapon and use it to kill the officer in a struggle. The police open carry the most (by their very nature) and have a very strong, though oft violated, taboo of assaulting a police officer.

Now, this kid made some mistakes. He let the robber get too close to him. He should have been on alert when some stranger (mom always said, don’t talk to strangers) began talking about his gun. 2 AM on the streets is the wrong place to let your guard down.

Just in general, let alone carrying (at all), you need to be alert and paying attention to your surroundings. Have a retention holster, not some cheap nylon job that can be ripped off your belt. Still, nothing will erase the effect making good choices and being situationally aware would be. Had this kid been more cautious and wary, this may not have happened.

While this may be the first known (or reported) case of an open carrier losing his gun, it’s not ammunition that open carry is out of place, rather it’s an excellent example of what not to do when open carrying.

Ultimately, concealed vs. open carry both have pros and cons and their times and places. It’s an individual choice that needs to be made wisely. Neither method is inherently superior to the other.

Update 10/18/2014: Reports are now stating that the individual's gun was unloaded, as per a county ordinance. So this is starting to sound more and more like a gun stolen from someone showing it off rather than a bona fide self-defense open carrier.

Oregon Shows What a Failure Background Checks Are

The Oregon Firearms Foundation posted this great article.

It's a great article that shows exactly why the program is a failure (2% of all denied persons were arrested) and explains how truly pointless background checks are. It's basically a system to keep the honest honest and deter those criminals too stupid to avoid a gun store. 

Yet here is the best quote and the summation of all background check schemes: "Washington voters are now facing a ballot measure that will expand this failed system to private transfers. Nevada is following their lead.  We will almost certainly face a similar measure here. Make no mistake, background checks are gun registration schemes. Efforts to expand them are being funded by billionaires with armed guards."

Don't sign the worthless universal background check petition going around and don't vote away your rights.

The Arrogance of Michael Bloomberg and Your Gun Rights

Nevadans for Background Checks, aka Everytown for Gun Safety, aka Michael Bloomberg is many things. ‘Nevadans’ are not one. It is the same part of his sick obsession with national gun control. Bloomberg is the man known for spearheading the soda size limitation in New York City, and when he got slapped down, he whined like a child.[1]

Bloomberg and his erstwhile protégé, the head mom against gun violence, Shannon Watts (another wealthy businesswoman), talk about ‘reducing gun violence.’ How? By removing guns from the hands of the law-abiding. Last time I checked, it wasn’t the law abiding that were using guns in gun crimes. Their sole strategy has been to limit the availability of guns, by making it harder to purchase, own, and carry guns. There is no focus on prosecuting criminals, enforcing sentencing laws, psychological screening and prevention programs, or any meaningful steps to actually target people who commit gun violence—criminals.

If these people really sought to reduce gun violence, why are they fighting the NRA? The NRA is dedicated to allowing people to carry guns to protect themselves and gun safety training. Why not a partnership? Why treat the NRA as an enemy when they would make such a great ally?

The answer is control and not gun control. The ultimate endgame is to remove guns, for the most part, from the hands of the American public. Without delving into tinfoil hat territory,  Bloomberg supports President Obama’s push for more gun control. The ultimate goal is (almost) no guns, like the ‘progressive’ paradise of Australia[2] (where funnily enough, free speech is restricted[3] and gang violence is almost out of control[4], and self-defense a non-existent option). Doubt me on control? Look again to Bloomberg’s soda ban.

Bloomberg is an elitist. Money has a funny way of making people think they are important and better than others. I see him in the same light as those who once ruled America; he and his ilk are like George the III of England. Because he has money and because he views himself as enlightened, he feels that his views are correct and he is perfectly justified in forcing his whims upon the public. He clearly has no respect for our own personal freedom of choice.

“I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”[5]

Would you want a man with that kind of ego telling you what you can and cannot buy? How is he an expert on firearms?

No doubt about it, Bloomberg doesn’t care a whit about you. His money and armed, retired police officer bodyguards insulate him from the concerns and fears that us, the hoi polloi, face each day.

The idea is, if they spend enough money, then they can force the low information voters to sign petitions and vote away their rights. One brick at a time the right to keep and bear arms will fall. Bloomberg wants to spend his money to gain control, or at least take away the practical ability to resist the tyranny he would ultimately want to oppose. “You’ve got to work at it piece by piece,” he added. … You’ve got to wear them down until they finally say, ‘Enough.’"[6]

See here to see that ‘Nevadans’ for Background Checks is anything but. Where does this group and Bloomberg get off telling Nevadans what they can and cannot do? We are a proud state, one of the few left that respect individualism and allows adults to be adults. Why would we listen to a man who deigns to think himself on par with God.

Perhaps Mr. Bloomberg should take note: “For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?” Matthew 16:26

Hubris, Mr. Bloomberg, hubris.

Meet the real Michael Bloomberg (unaffiliated site)