Knife-Wielding Criminals Meet Gun Owner

Right on the heels of my recent post about self-defense shootings in Kansas I happened upon another incident report, this time in Georgia. Two men attempted to rob a man at knifepoint in a parking lot. Unfortunately for them -- particularly for one of them -- their intended victim had a handgun.

a shopper was getting out of his car when he was attacked and held at knifepoint by two male suspects. ... Investigators say he struggled with the two men and was able to fire a weapon, killing Williams. According to the report, the robbery victim told a deputy "This guy tried to rob me and I shot him."

The man was injured during the struggle, but apparently not seriously. He's alive and un-robbed, thanks to the fact that he had a gun handy. Guns get quite a bit of bad publicity any time some nut goes on a shooting spree. But the fact is that guns are also routinely used in self-defense throughout the country. Many of the incidents garner little attention except for a mention in local news sources. And any day some violent criminal picks the wrong victim and ends up in the morgue is a good day in my book.

And here's a note for any pro-criminal apologists who have foolish sympathy for the poor attacker who supposedly didn't deserve to die for just a mere theft attempt... People like the shooter in this incident, and the apartment residents in the other, don't have the luxury of examining their options and trying to assess the motives of criminals. If someone breaks into your house, or grabs you and tries to put a knife to your throat you have to make an immediate decision under tremendous pressure. You don't know whether the criminal is simply going to take your money and go, or whether he's the type that doesn't want to leave any witnesses to his crime. If he's in your house it's even worse, because if you have a family, they are also at risk. In these situations a gun is a tremendous benefit to self-defense. It gives the weaker, the elderly and the outnumbered at least a fighting chance against a potentially lethal criminal, who may himself be armed with a firearm or other weapon. As I mentioned in the previous post, the fact that criminals in America have to fear being shot by their potential victims is a good thing.

Prime Candidates for Execution

In a town in Georgia four men beat another man to death for absolutely no reason.

It began with a brawl outside a house party. A woman hit a man, and the man refused to strike back, saying he wouldn't hit a girl. Instead, he vowed to attack the next male who walked by, even if that person was a random stranger.

That's when 18-year-old Bobby Tillman happened to approach a group of four partygoers , who swiftly stomped, kicked and punched him to death while dozens of bystanders watched. "He had nothing to do with anything," said Tommy Wheeler of Douglas county sheriff 's department . "They just decided he's the one. And they killed him."

If this story is accurate, the four individuals who did this are human garbage that should be swiftly executed. There is no good reason to permit them to live any longer than the time needed for a trial. If clearly guilty, there is no good reason for lengthy appeals, or any of the other nonsense that makes the death penalty so difficult to carry out. Those who commit such senseless acts of murder should be quickly executed. They won't be of course, but they should be.

NATO Exercise In Georgia

One day after a mutiny at a Georgian military bases -- that Georgia blames on Russia -- NATO is holding a multi-national military exercise in Georgia. Russia is protesting the exercise as a provocation aimed in its direction, and some countries have withdrawn in solidarity with the Kremlin.

Dmitri O. Rogozin, Russia’s envoy to NATO, warned that the exercises in Georgia might “significantly affect the stability of the entire South Caucasus.” 

“How can one insist on these exercises with such stubbornness and persistence?” he said

NATO says the operation is not intended to help Georgia against Russia.

we are certainly not doing that. We — as I said, we are assisting them in building their force. On top of what NATO is doing, our military cooperation division at [NATO headquarters] is doing that [building Georgian forces]. We are — we are engaged with our nations who individually support that as well. It’s a coordinated planning effort, but the intent is certainly not that we as NATO collectively see — see a danger or a threat that Russia could invade Georgia.

Building their force against what threat? Who is the biggest threat to Georgia? Is someone other than Russia threatening them?

I'm not in favor of appeasement, and have no illusions about the Russians. But is Georgia a place where NATO wants to take a stand? The NATO spokesman's ridiculous attempt to pretend otherwise not withstanding, there is no reasonable purpose for holding exercises in Georgia other than bolstering Georgia against Russia. Russia may be paranoid, but there is no way they can see a NATO operation in Georgia as anything other than an action aimed at Russia. Why provoke Russia for no good reason?