Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The DGU Gunowners Dream About

The title of this post is meant quite literally.  Once, I think it was, Robert Farago posted about dreams, which naturally must be a part of every gun owners subconscious life.

This DGU story doesn't quite qualify for the super duper category, for that you have to disarm the criminal and kill him with his own gun.  But this one is pretty dramatic, just the kind our gun-loving friends must fantasize about.

A 19-year-old man is dead after he fired a semiautomatic pistol at a boxed-in motorist who then shot him back, Seminole County deputies said Saturday. 

The driver, whose name was not immediately revealed, told authorities that he was heading home about 2:15 a.m. Saturday near Old Lake Mary Road and Egrets Landing when he saw two cars following him. Sheriff's Lt. James Clark said the driver tried to turn around, but was boxed in by the vehicles. 

A man later identified as Desmond Willis got out of one of the cars and began firing a semiautomatic pistol at the motorist in what the Sheriff's Office called an attempted robbery. The driver had a gun and returned fire, Clark said.
What's your opinion? Is that a clean DGU? Do you think the investigators determined so quickly that there was no connection between the men? Did the shooter have to provide a Florida gun license of any kind and explain his whereabouts at 2:00 a.m.?  Do you think they checked to see that he himself was not a prohibited person?

Of course if the source information in Florida is anything like that in Colorado, this hero could have been Jack the Ripper in disguise.

Please leave a comment.

6 comments:

  1. I don't think it's good when people have guns. Especially when they're driving. People get pissed off. It should definitely be illegal to carry when you're driving. I fantasize about throwing a rock on the paint of some dick smoker who runs a stop sign rather than actually stopping and allowing me, as a pedestrian, to proceed first.

    Somebody tell him that he's not walking, please.

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  2. People should get pissed off when a criminal shoots at them.

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  3. I think "clean" defensive gun use is as rare as hen's teeth. There's always some kind of wrinkle to the story. For example, most home invasions involve drugs, one way or the other. Even in those cases where an entirely innocent person defends themselves with a gun, you have to ask if the situation could have been avoided, or if some other defensive action might have been taken.

    Life is messy. People make mistakes. People with guns make mistakes. Good people with legal guns and bad people with illegal guns. Shit happens.

    But let's not lose sight of the fact that MOST people with legal guns are not involved in a DGU, ever. And some who are---who represent a fraction of the total [legal] gun carrying population---are entirely blameless, and would have been killed or seriously injured if not for their ability to defend themselves with a firearm. As is their right under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

    Anecdotes are gripping stuff. But they are not the stuff of sound social policy. One way or the other.

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  4. So many people think they're John F'in Wayne....

    Thank Goodness I rarely travel to flyover country.

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  5. Personally, i'm not concerned about whether he had a license or why he was out at 2:00 am. Self-defense doesn't have a curfew, nor does it need a license. If someone is trying to kill him, he has the right to defend himself.

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  6. Thanks Robert for that synopsis. What you left out though is all the harm that happens as a result of gun availability. It's not like owning a gun which will probably never be needed has no down side. The rare, hens-teeth possibility of ever needing the gun needs to be weighed against the liability of doing so, keeping in mind meanwhile that the millions of gun owners are not like you. They're not all seriously conscientious and responsible folks. They're just regular people who are much more likely to make mistakes and allow their guns to be misused.

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