Fred Hits a Homer at NRA Convention

Courtesy Jim Geraghty's Campaign Spot blog, we have a very favorable report on Fred's appearance today.

Two questions from the Q&A session will sort of give the picture:

"Some believe that the Second Amendment has different meanings in different places, and that the gun rights of citizens in, say, New York City and Chicago can restricted more than the gun rights of those in Tennessee and Montana. Do you agree?"

Thompson responds with a deep, rumbling, slow, "Noooope." Then he follows with absolute catnip for gun owners: "It's never seemed to me to be coincidental that the places that have the highest crime rates tend to be the places that have the most restrictions on gun ownership in America."

And:

Will he appoint an Attorney General who shares his opinion of the Second Amendment. "Yes." More applause. "I think we're winning on the interpretation of the Second Amendment. I have a complicated position on this: The Constitution means what it says." He gets another standing ovation.

I think Fred has found his footing and is gonna be tough to beat from this point forward.

Update: Courtesy Fred08.com, here's a clip of parts of his speech, including the two quotes above.

I don't know that I'd call his "nope" slow, as Geraghty does, but it is certainly definitive.

Dead Right There

This news is sort of old, but I just heard the story on Neal Boortz. This is another in a string of recent stories I've read on blogs and news sites chronicling would be thugs getting their come-uppance when they decided to mess with the wrong person - namely, a vet, and in this case, a Marine.

Police: Former Marine Shoots 2 Subway Robbery Suspects

PLANTATION, Fla. -- A retired United States Marine disrupted a robbery in progress when he shot two men who attempted to rob a Subway sandwich shop, fatally wounding one of them, police said.

I went in search of the original article in the Sun-Sentinel but the link was dead. I did find most of the original article posted on Cassy Fiano's blog

John Lovell had just finished dinner at about 11: 15 p.m. Wednesday when, Plantation police say, two men armed with guns rushed inside a Subway shop and demanded cash. After robbing the store, the men turned to Lovell. They wanted his money, police said.

But like his attackers, Lovell was armed.

The retired military man opened fire, shooting dead Donicio Arrindell, 22, of North Lauderdale, and critically injuring Fredrick Gadson, 21, of Fort Lauderdale.

Lovell, 71, of Plantation, has a valid concealed weapons permit and is not expected to be charged in the shooting, said police spokesman Detective Robert Rettig. Gadson, however, faces multiple felony charges that could include murder, he said. Under Florida law, anyone who commits a felony such as armed robbery resulting in a death can be held accountable for the capital offense.

[...]

According to a police statement, Arrindell ordered Lovell to hand over his wallet. He intentionally dropped it on the floor and refused to pick it up, saying he was afraid. That's when Arrindell ordered him into the women's restroom.

"The victim believed he would be executed and when he noticed [Arrindell] distracted ... reached behind his back, removed his loaded .45 caliber handgun from his holster and fired seven rounds," the statement said.

Arrindell was struck twice — once in the head and once in the stomach — and collapsed. Officers found him face down, wearing sunglasses and a bandanna, with a gun near his left hand. Gadson was hit in the chest and ran from the store. Police dogs found him in the hedges of a nearby office building and bank.

Sebastian Shakespeare, 23, of Lauderhill, was going to buy a sandwich at the Subway at 1949 N. Pine Island Road when he saw Lovell, gun in hand, standing over Arrindell. A former employee, Shakespeare worked the night shift and often worried about getting robbed.

He said Lovell did a good deed. "A civilian was a hero."

[...]

A good citizen, hero for the day, right? Well, not to everyone -

But Gadson's grandmother, Rosa Jones, said: "He ain't no hero. He is a murderer and God will serve justice."

She and her husband, Ivory Jones, pastor of a Fort Lauderdale church, sat on their front porch in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday wondering how a man could shoot two people and not go to jail.

They said their grandson sometimes hung with the wrong crowd but never got into legal trouble. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, he has no arrest record. They said Gadson, who never finished high school, got tired of low-wage jobs and was pursuing his GED.

[...]

You see don't you? It's not the young boy's fault they did an armed robbery, then selected the wrong guy to try to rob. It's society's fault and Lovell is a meany.

In other articles I found, Lovell had piloted Marine One for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

At Topix, I found a string of comments commending Lovell for his action, well, with the exception of one commenter - sickoftheknowitallpeople:

We dont know the whole story....Just what we read. Lord knows how they sensationalize everything. He knew if he killed them that he wouldnt be charged. He could have shot them in the legs, let the cops take them to jail where they would have to pay for their actions. But hey...it's better to just kill them. Two young black men...who cares huh!!!!

As if shooting someone in the leg will keep them from shooting back.

Good thing Florida is a state that allows it's citizen's to arm themselves to protect their life and property.

Semper Fi, Mr. Lovell!

VTech, Leftists, and Laws

Sorry for the slow posting, been going through some personal issues. However, things are getting back to what passes for normal, so I'm baaaaaack! (Hey, where you running off to?)

Anyway, I was posting in the comments section of my favorite "big" blog, Wizbang, and a lefty crystallized my thoughts on leftists and laws. (Here's the thread in question if you wanna read the whole thing.)

Lefties seem to be under the delusion that laws, in and of themselves, prevent crime. BZZZZZT! Wrong! Laws spell out what "crime" is and defines the punishments for various crimes. It's the punishments, not the laws themselves, that deter crime--to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the punishment, of course.

The proof is easy to see. If the leftist view was correct, all we'd have to do is ban crime, and thousands of criminals would turn to a life of honest work. Everyone who thinks that will happen, stand on your head.

So, just passing a law that says "this is illegal" doesn't work. The law has to have teeth... the punishment has to be something a person fears, and the chances of them getting caught and punished also has to be pretty good, or else it won't work.

This explains why more laws won't stop someone like the VTech shooter. He was clearly planning on ending his rampage with his own death, so no punishment in this world would have deterred him. More laws wouldn't have mattered a whit to him.

And that's why the calls for more gun control won't help.

Fred on VTech and Gun Control

Once again, Fred sounds more like a candidate than an actor:

Whenever I've seen one of those "Gun-free Zone" signs, especially outside of a school filled with our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, I've always wondered exactly who these signs are directed at. Obviously, they don't mean much to the sort of man who murdered 32 people just a few days ago.

Read the whole thing.

Thoughts on VTech Shooting

Since Monday, I've been doing a lot of thinking about the shootings at VTech. Herewith, I state at least one of them.

First and foremost, all the victims and their families have my sympathies, and are in my prayers.

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! The following ruminations may appear cold, callous, brutal, and harsh. If you can't handle that, do not read any further. PROCEED BEYOND THIS POINT AT YOUR OWN RISK! You've been warned. Whining to me now will get you nowhere.

With that said, here's the brutal part: College is supposed to be a time of learning, and that this was a lesson that life isn't all peaches and cream, regardless of how much the lefty utopianists want to make it so. Evil exists, no matter how much certain people wish to deny it, and bad things do happen to good people. Learning to deal with such incidents is, regrettably, but undeniably, a part of life.

If the students at VTech are lucky, they'll have teachers who will explain this to them, and help them understand that government can't eradicate evil, nor can "visualizing world peace" change the nature of people. Unfortunately, given that VTech decided to go with the "feel good" position of banning guns on campus, I sort of doubt that the students will be that fortunate.

By the way, that gun ban was sure a deterrent to the shooter, wasn't it?