Son’s 2nd shot kills intruder

Pascagoula, Mississippi:

A woman, awakened by the sound of someone removing the screen from her bedroom window, got out of her bed at 1 a.m. Friday, walked to her son’s room and quietly woke him.

“She said, ‘Snigg get up,’” the son said in an interview later Friday morning.

A man was trying to enter the apartment, but the son nicknamed “Snigg” took two shots and the perp turned and took off.

Javorous Darnell Tims, 20, ran about 80 feet from the window, fell to the sidewalk and died of a single gunshot wound, police said Friday.

The first shot apparently hit the wall.

The intruder apparently had lived nearby previously.

Tina Clarke, [apartment maintenance man] Dustin’s wife, holding a baby outside the office laundry, said it is kind of scary having a shooting at 1 a.m., but she said they’d moved from a nearby apartment where crime was worse.

This was “a shooting at 1 a.m.”? Um, wasn’t it a “home invasion at 1 a.m.”? That’s scary.

The Huntress Club: Duck Hunting Sorority in the Swamp

They call themselves the Swamp Witches, a half-dozen women pledged to return twice a year to the Ward Lake Hunting Club, a privately owned 6,500-acre conservation parcel here in the floodplain of the Mississippi Delta.

Not a bad story for the NYT.

Those watching things closely may have noticed a trend:

• Gun sales jump (Utah)
• Area gun sales spike (Alabama)
• Gun sales rise in Ohio, stay flat in Ross County (Ohio)
• Gun sales shoot up after Election Day (Colorado)
• Gun sales up, supplies down (Texas)
• S.D. gun shops see rise in sales (South Dakota)
• Gun, ammo sales increase in Churchill, Lyon counties (Nevada)
• Local gun sales increase since election (Arkansas)
• Gun sales shoot way up (Maine)
• Hawaii gun sales shooting up
• Fear Fuels Gun Sales Locally (West Virginia)
• Gun Sales Are Up Since Obama Election (Kentucky)
• Fear of ban increases gun sales (Mississippi)
• Finger on safety as gun sales shoot upward (Idaho)
• Gun sales rise as owners fear stricter controls (North Carolina)
• Gun Sales Boom Ahead of Obama Presidency (Tennessee)
• Gun Sales Booming Since Presidential Election (Nebraska)
• Gun sales, permits climb following election (North Dakota)
• Gun Sales Rise As Buyers Anticipate Political Change (Washington)
• Gun Sales Shoot Upward in Springfield (Missouri)
• Madison gun sales soar (Virginia)
• Some stores see surge in gun sales (Pennsylvania)
• Firearm sales surge following election (Wisconsin)

These are all from the past two or three days and aren’t simply re-runs of AP items in different papers. All of these have considerable, if not exclusively, local content. I could easily have included many, many more.

No doubt, the media coverage is feeding the flames a bit. As is the fact that hunting seasons are kicking off or underway in most states right now. But the trend is unmistakable.

It doesn’t seem to be localized to the bitter, clingy parts of the nation. Or to the red states.

Dan Rather investigates “Castle Doctrine” in Jackson

Mississippi:

The retired CBS news anchor is investigating the Castle Doctrine for the TV network HDNet…

“We inform people, we educate people, we illuminate controversial subjects,” Rather said.

Whatever.

Clerk shoots robbery suspect to death

Jackson, Mississippi:

Jackson police say they won’t charge a gas station clerk in the shooting death of a robbery suspect.

Police spokesman Lt. Jeffery Scott says a man wearing a clown mask and carrying a gun entered the gas station just after 9 p.m. Sunday.

The clerk chased the fleeing clown/suspect and shot him.

Three guys looking to cool off:

Investigator Christy Carona said the three men broke into the storage home of Jack Busby on the 200 block of Cleveland Street and attempted to take two air-conditioning units.

She said Busby found the men and held them at gunpoint until police arrived. Busby later shot King in the lower back after he attempted to flee the scene.

Something that comes up fairly often in discussions involving defensive gun use is “but is your wallet/television/air conditioner really worth shooting someone over?“.

Though not 100% totally without merit, this question comes close. If someone were to rob me on the street, I wouldn’t really know if all they wanted was my wallet, or if things would continue to spiral out of my control from there.

When it’s a home invasion scenario, though, the question is totally 100% without merit. If someone comes uninvited into my home, my personal safe zone and the safe zone of my family, I don’t care if all they want is my television or my air conditioner. I’m not going to shoot them because they want to steal my property, I’m going to shoot them because they violated my ‘do not cross’ line.

And, believe me, I will do everything I can legally do to get myself into a position to shoot them. Unless they directly threaten my safety or, even worse, the safety of my family. Then I won’t spend any time making sure it’s legal that I shoot them.

Why doesn’t anyone ever ask the potential criminal “but is taking someone else’s wallet/television/air conditioner really worth getting shot over?” Instead, we have a criminal that intentionally breaks into someone’s home with intent to steal their property and/or harm the occupants and a homeowner that is often regarded as “dangerous” somehow because he defended his own life and property from the wrongdoer.

Governor Barbour Signs Shooting Range Protection Bill

NRA-ILA:

On Monday, April 1, 2008, Governor Haley Barbour (R) signed House Bill 346. Sponsored by State Representative Warner McBride (D-10) and State Senator Walter Michel (R-25), this measure will ensure that Mississippi’s shooting ranges will be protected from local noise and zoning ordinances aimed at shutting them down. It will also guard against lawsuits filed by newcomers who acquire property near an existing range, as long as there has not been a substantial change in the nature of activities at the range (i.e., hours of operation, number of people using the range, or the types of firearms shot at the facility.)

It’s like the folks who buy cheap land next to a thirty-year-old airport, build a house, and then sue because planes keep flying real low near their property.

Jackson Store Clerk Shoots Man Attempting Robbery

After closing up for the night, a store clerk in Mississippi is confronted by a man in a hood who was armed with a gun. The clerk pulled his own gun and fired three times. The man in the hood fled, and police are trying to determine if a man being treated for gunshot wounds at a medical center is the same guy.

“I hope it doesn’t happen again but I will be prepared again if it does.”

That’s the key. No one wants to have to pull their gun. But needing to pull a gun when you don’t have one is a situation you don’t ever want to be in. Via CGDB.