“No Duty to Retreat”
Florida is the center of a storm. The famous “No Duty to Retreat” law is now the rule of the land there an gun-grabbers are unhappy. The tales of death and doom they prophesied years ago when Florida liberalized their carry laws never happened. Now they are predicting the same doom and gloom. When do they start to realize that their doom is someone else’s right to protect themselves.
Awakened by the sound of breaking glass late Sunday, a 64-year-old widow killed an intruder in her home with a single shot from a .38-caliber pistol, police said.
Judith Kuntz fired from about 10 feet, hitting the intruder in the chest, said Agent Lou Heyn of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. The man, who carried no identification, staggered into the yard, where he collapsed and died. Investigators still aren’t sure who he was, or whether he had a connection to the neighborhood.
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He also had a tattoo of a cross on his right hand, between his index finger and thumb. He also had tattoos of a Harley-Davidson on one arm and of several female names on his other arm, officials said.
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Random break-ins of occupied homes are rare, but they are frequently terrifying, Heyn said.“This just underscores how dangerous those are,” he said.
Dangerous yes, but for the bad guys. I think people would love to live with the doom and gloom that this person is suffering.
One shot. Dang good shooting in my opinion.
SMALL UPDATE
Dead guy identified and he has a history.
Investigators said Preston was living temporarily with a cousin two streets away. He was looking for work, having just arrived from Michigan. Investigators said it should have been obvious that someone was home. They’re still wondering if his intentions were burglary or worse.
“He’s the only one that knows, and he’s deceased,” said a spokesman for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Department.
…………..
Investigators said Preston had a record of property crimes and domestic violence in Michigan.
The linked article also has the 911 recording edited into a video.
June 1st, 2005 at 12:29 pm
those old ladies can shoot
June 1st, 2005 at 12:57 pm
I’m pretty sure Florida didn’t have a duty to retreat in your own home even before the recent law was passed. Something about homes, castles, etc.
June 1st, 2005 at 1:52 pm
Compare and contrast that story to this tragic story of Mrs. Gerda “Gerri” Bissett, an elderly resident of Boston. Her bruised and bloodied body was found last week wrapped in a rug in her home following a late night break-in. Her killer remains a free man today.
Now explain to me why the liberals who run this state would rather see the innocent, and most vulnerable, members of society slaughtered in their own homes, than to of allow them to defend themselves against such animals who would do this.
It sickens me.
And yes, I will continue to flog this horse as well. As long as it takes.
June 1st, 2005 at 3:01 pm
I support the right to use a weapon to defend yourself, but to be fair, all we have here is anecdotes. In how many cases did someone have a gun but it didn’t help them? In how many cases did someone with no gun escape harm? We don’t have those numbers, and without them, we can’t say anything meaningful.
June 1st, 2005 at 3:13 pm
“I support the right to use a weapon to defend yourself, but to be fair, all we have here is anecdotes. In how many cases did someone have a gun but it didn’t help them? In how many cases did someone with no gun escape harm? We don’t have those numbers, and without them, we can’t say anything meaningful.”
there are a lot of numbers.
Lott, Gary Kleck
http://www.guncite.com/gcwhoGK.html
how many states have CCW licenses and what are their crime rates.
which parts of the country have gun control, which are the most viloent.
I personally do not make the arugment guns lessen crime, i make the argument that more guns (for the good guys) does not increase crime, and if they do not increase crime then why ban them.
June 1st, 2005 at 3:57 pm
I should have said we don’t have any good numbers. 🙂 Gun control is one of those issues (like environmentalism) where it’s virtually impossible to get numbers that are relatively free of bias and partisan slant.
June 1st, 2005 at 8:08 pm
If Kleck is biased, it’s in the pro-gun control direction.
June 2nd, 2005 at 12:11 am
Current Florida Law (the new Castle Doctrine Changes start in October) require you guage the “intent” of an intruder in your home before you defend yourself.
Since it is virtually impossible to do so (at least to those of us not blessed with the ability to read minds), what this means is that prosecutors are free to charge you. They won’t in this case becuase the victim is 64-yr-old widow, someone the jury will love. If a 28-yr-old man had killed this guy in his house, he could very well be up on charges, and then sued by the creep’s family.
June 2nd, 2005 at 1:22 am
Xrlq:
How do you figure? Kleck explicitly states that he believes gun control to be ineffective. How is this bias toward gun control?
In any case, I’m inclined to agree with cube that gun ownership doesn’t really have much effect one way or the other.
June 2nd, 2005 at 9:29 am
“Kleck explicitly states that he believes gun control to be ineffective. How is this bias toward gun control?”
How could anyone, unless they are a complete moron, say that gun control is effective. Name one place in the world where greater regulation of firearms has reduced crime. Some of the most violent places in the U.S. have the most gun control. Vermont has the least and has about the lowest crime rate in the country. Now there may be other factors driving crime rates in these different areas, but I think at least it is prima facie evident that easy availability of guns does not cause crime. Gun control cannot and will not work. If Kleck had said otherwise, then that would have been real bias.
June 2nd, 2005 at 11:38 am
Kleck is a dyed in the wool liberal on just about every issue except guns. When he began studying guns and crime, he was a strong supporter of gun control as well. He isn’t anymore, of course, given the results of his own research, but even now he strains logic to conclude that gun control is harmless – despite the fact that his own data strongly suggests otherwise.
June 2nd, 2005 at 3:26 pm
Yosemite:
Dodge City. 🙂
Xrlq:
Coming from you, that almost sounds like a compliment. 🙂
June 2nd, 2005 at 5:34 pm
It’s neither an insult nor a compliment, just a matter-of-fact statement as to where he’s coming from, and why he sticks to the idea that gun control is more benign than his own studies suggest.
June 3rd, 2005 at 7:27 pm
Tom, I hope you’re not one of those people who falls for the dodge city myth.