Big Dogs House

Seems About Right to Me

Aug 14, 2009 Political

Looking over stories in the New York Times ( on the basis that it is a good thing to know your enemy), I came across a story that absolutely warmed the cockles of my heart. I understand why not everyone would feel as I do, but this is truly a tale about morality.

They strode into the restaurant supply store in Harlem shortly after 3 p.m. on Thursday, four young men intent on robbery, one with a Glock 9-millimeter pistol, the police said. The place may have looked like an easy mark, a high-cash business with an owner in his 70s, known as a gentle, soft-spoken man.

But Charles Augusto Jr., the 72-year-old proprietor of the Kaplan Brothers Blue Flame Corporation, at 523 West 125th Street, near Amsterdam Avenue, had been robbed several times before, despite the fact that his shop is around the corner from the 26th Precinct station house on West 126th Street.

There were no customers in the store, only Mr. Augusto and two employees, a man and a woman. The police said the invaders announced a holdup, approached the two employees and tried to place plastic handcuffs on them. The male employee, a 35-year-old known in the community as J. B., struggled with the gunman, who then hit him on the head with the pistol.

nytimes.com

Yeah- that’s right, another robbery in New York- go figure, right? Four punks, who felt as if this Mr. Augusto  Jr. should just hand over his hard- earned money to them, were in for a shock-

Watching it happen, Mr. Augusto, whom neighborhood friends call Gus, rose from a chair 20 to 30 feet away and took out a loaded Winchester 12-gauge pump-action shotgun with a pistol-grip handle. The police said he bought it after a robbery 30 years ago.

Mr. Augusto, who has never been in trouble with the law, fired three blasts in rapid succession, the police said, although Vernon McKenzie, working at an Internet company next door, heard only two booms, loud enough to send him rushing to a window, where he heard someone shout: “You’re dead! You’re dead!”

The first shot took down the gunman at the front. He died almost immediately, according to the police, who said he was 29 and had been arrested for gun possession in Queens last year and was the nephew of a police officer.

Mr. Augusto’s other two blasts hit all three accomplices, who stumbled out the door, bleeding.

nytimes.com

Oooh- Snap! that’s a big error on the part of the robbers- and they got what they deserved- I know that this is traumatic for this older man, because it is traumatic to shoot anyone, even if they had it coming.

There was no way that Mr. Augusto could have known if these robbers would leave them alive after the robbery, and he did exactly the right thing, since, as I have pointed out before, the Police are a reactive force, generally brought in after the fact. They solve crimes, but in reality, rarely prevent them, although they surely would love to.

The reaction of the relatives of these robbers was striking-

Outside the emergency room entrance of the hospital, at 113th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, relatives and friends of the dead and wounded men screamed and wailed in anguish as word of what had happened spread.

“No! No!” a woman cried. “They said he just died!”

Another crying woman, surrounded by family members, heard one of her relatives had been shot trying to rob a store.

“Oh my God!” she wailed. “Why would they want to rob a store?” She started to scream: “Damn! Why? Why would he go to a family store? He got money!” She slumped against the wall and began to pray.

Later, a man ran into the emergency room and came out screaming, “Oh, God!” He held his head in his hands and sat at the curb, apparently devastated.

A youth about 16, crying and pacing at the emergency room entrance, slammed his fist into a yellow pole.

nytimes.com

Where were these people in providing a moral compass to guide these young mens’ behavior? It clearly wasn’t an economic thing, judging from the comments of the relatives, so why? The only answer I can come up with is weak morals. A person cannot be led by the nose if he or she has the moral clarity to resist. These young men did not, and now two are dead, and two are in the hospital, and the short story line is, “That’s Justice.”

Unfortunately, this occurred in New York, so Mr. Augusto does not get off with a medal, but with a citation-

Paul J. Browne, chief spokesman for the Police Department, said that Mr. Augusto had not been arrested or charged. He was being treated like a witness and was still being questioned early Friday at the station house. It was unclear if the shotgun was registered, but Mr. Browne said, “There is a lower threshold for owning a shotgun in the city, a permit as opposed to a license.”

A law enforcement official said that the district attorney was considering a possible misdemeanor weapons charge against Mr. Augusto, indicating that he did not have a permit for the shotgun.

nytimes.com

No good deed goes unpunished, as they say, especially in New York. This man not only thwarted a robbery (a crime in itself), but possibly saved not only his own life, but those of his employees. For that, he should be given a medal.

There need to be more Mr. Augustos.

Tags: firearms, justice, kharma, morality, nra

Strap ‘Em On

Jul 28, 2009 Political

The right to keep and bear arms.
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Seems very simple, doesn’t it? Two sentences, all to the point, no extra words to confuse the meaning- and yet so many people choose to willfully ignore the plain meaning in this simple and basic right that we as Americans are privileged to have.

Simply put, we, as citizens of the United States, have the right to own firearms, both to protect our families and our country. Oh, I know that nowadays if you volunteer to join our armed forces, you are issued government- approved and tested firearms, if for no other reason that ammunition is then interchangeable in a combat situation. That is logical.

But the other part of this right is about protection. True, we have the police, and when the police are on the scene, it is the right thing to allow the police to do their job. However, it is also true that, as good as the police try to be, they are still mainly a reactive force, meaning that in a majority of cases, the police cannot pre-emptively defuse a potential situation. They have to have an actual crime take place before they can do something.

By then, if it is a rape or murder, the damage has already been done. If it is a car jacking, the criminal has already fled with your $30,000 or more car- not a thing that enhances your day, not to mention there is a good possibility that you have been shot or abducted in the car jacking process.

This is why I have a CCL, (concealed carry license)- I carry when I leave home, because I would rather shoot than be shot, and these criminals need to know that there can be consequences for their behavior, and these consequences can be fatal. 

Well, my rights have become a little narrower with the defeat of the  CCL bill that would have allowed people such as myself to carry my firearm from state to state, within the laws of that state. 

Offered as an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill, the legislation would have allowed people to carry concealed firearms across state lines, provided they “have a valid permit or if, under their state of residence” they “are entitled to do so.” It was considered one of the most far-reaching federal efforts ever proposed to expand gun-permitting laws.

“This carefully tailored amendment will ensure that a state’s border is not a limit to an individual’s fundamental right and will allow law-abiding individuals to travel without complication throughout the 48 states that already permit some form of conceal and carry,” Thune said during Wednesday’s sometimes contentious debate.

washingtonpost.com

In an extremely ironic twist, the opponents of this bill cited State’s Rights, a provision of the Constitution that they normally feel more comfortable ignoring, as if State’s Rights were the red- headed stepchild of the United States, as the reason they worked to defeat this bill.

In reality, it was more opposition to the Second Amendment than support of the Tenth that these Liberals were actually working towards. I can, however, see their flawed logic, but the true reality is that there should be uniformity among this part of the Second Amendment, so that people who do interstate commerce, such as truckers, jewelry salesmen, and others can have a consistent level of protection.

It is rather humorous that these Liberal Socialists want to federalize everything except when it suits their agenda to all of a sudden “discover” the Tenth Amendment.

In a rare instance of their trumpeting states’ rights, the liberal Democrats noted that 36 states have specific laws regarding these gun permits. Some bar conceal-carry permits for alcohol abusers and prohibit misdemeanor criminals from carrying weapons.

“The states already have laws. Under the Thune amendment, those laws could be ignored. So if the Thune amendment becomes law, people who are currently prohibited from carrying concealed guns in those 36 states are free to do so. It is absurd that we are considering this,” said Durbin, the majority whip.

washingtonpost.com

Actually, Dick Durbin has it wrong- the people who have been barred from getting licenses in their states would continue to be denied, but those people who have legitimate licenses would be able to have a continuity of legality within these states. This is a good thing. I believe that the people at Virginia Tech, or any other shooting in public,  might have been well served by a citizen who was lawfully carrying a firearm at the time. Perhaps not so many people would have died.

I live by the axiom, “It is better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.” You cannot  realistically ask a criminal to wait until you go buy a firearm in order to make the fight more equal. The criminal is counting on things being unequal, in his favor, so it really is up to you to alter the situation more in your favor. After all, it is your life, and that of your family’s that lies in the balance.

I urge everyone who feels the need, to buy their own firearm, and take lessons in correct handling of that specific weapon (and have anyone who might handle this weapon do the same), then, if you feel the need to get a CCL, do so. I have the suspicion that if everyone were allowed to carry a weapon, perhaps some of the less stupid criminals might not try to rob, rape, or murder so many people if they thought that perhaps they might not survive the attempt.

I know that when I leave my house, I make sure all my rights are with me. You should too.

Tags: 10th amendment, 2nd amendment, firearms, nra, socialist agenda