RETIRER SAVES THE SITUATION

Its better to HAVE a gun and NOT NEED one,
than it is to NEED a gun and NOT HAVE one.





David

Crap! I was hoping some guy in the recaping business got a stranded motorist safely on his way. Or maybe a good tire joke. There hasn't been a good joke in the tire industry since the Firestone 500.

The other day, in Houston, a man ran into another car. He immediately sped away. The victim followed, trying to get the man's license plate number. The man that was running told police he then felt threatened. Since he had a license to carry a concealed hand gun, he felt compelled to manouver his car behind the pursuing car and open fire. His bullets killed a nine year old girl. He was just expressing his gun rights. Oddly, the apparently liberal court charged him with murder. Go figure.

We will all be better off with a man like that gone.

Unless Texas has radically different laws to the rest of the world, murder wont stick because he had no intent to kill the girl. Reckless indifference is the only possible link with murder and that should result in manslaughter charges. He could be charged with manslaughter, attempted murder, dangerous discharge of a firearm, dangerous use of a motor vehicle, causing public alarm...the words vary but it is surprising how similar the western courts are as far as result is concerned. Can you let me know if it is indeed murder ? I appreciate any effort you might make.

Yeah, manslaughter is a more likely conviction.

dave, you missed an important point in the article.

he fired four shots at point blank range, and everyone ran away.

like every other gun toting yahoo in Nashville, he shoots like my gramma.

this causes some problems for the audience.

U r assuming that he MISSED!

He ended the threat.

well, nobody got carted away.

mebbe he shoulda had a grenade, huh?

The TV reporter said the charge was murder, but reporters are notoriously inaccurate. I will try to keep up with the story.

Commonly, thay survive for a few minutes, or longer.



I 'm not much of a grenadier. Lemme check with the NGA.





David

hey dave...

when defending yourself from muggers and the lot, do you shoot to kill?

and why?


(and this is not so important as to demand a red or large print answer...)

A Houston man charged Thursday with killing a Texas Southern University police officer's teenage daughter after a hit-and-run accident said he had “done a terrible thing” when Houston police confronted him at his home, investigators said.

Richard Calderon, 24, of the 5200 block of Heatherbloom, then handed over his 9 mm handgun to homicide investigators, court documents show. He was charged with felony murder, accused of shooting at a car and striking 13-year-old Alexis Wiley, the daughter of TSU police officer Sonya Randle.

The Johnston Middle School seventh-grader was pronounced dead at 10:15 a.m. Thursday at Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center from a severe gunshot wound to the head.

Calderon is accused of crashing into Randle's car Wednesday night and speeding away, then opening fire when Randle caught up with him, Houston police said.

By charging Calderon with felony murder, prosecutors don't have to prove that he intended to kill the girl. The charge accuses him of intentionally and knowingly shooting at the mother's and daughter's car, a felony offense by itself, and committing an act dangerous to human life by shooting Wiley.

Calderon has no criminal history. His bail is $50,000. Randle, 40, declined to comment when contacted by the Chronicle on Thursday.

Houston homicide investigators said Calderon, who is licensed to carry a concealed handgun, alleged he was acting in self-defense, but his story does not match accounts provided by witnesses.

“He's very knowledgeable about gun laws and about when he can and can't use his weapon,” said Sgt. Brian Harris of the Houston Police Department Homicide Division. “There are no indications this was self-defense.”

The confrontation began when Calderon's 1998 Cadillac struck Randle's Nissan Altima Wednesday night and kept going. Randle told police she sped up to the Cadillac and wrote down its license plate number. She then passed the Cadillac, police said.

Randle's daughter then told her the man in the Cadillac was chasing them, the criminal complaint shows.

The shooting happened at 8:20 p.m. when the two cars reached the 3900 block of Westhampton. One of the bullets went through the back windshield of Randle's Altima and hit her daughter in the head. Police believe the girl was turned around in her seat, looking out the back window and talking to her mother as Calderon chased them, Harris said.

Officers arrived to see the wounded teen lying in the street before an ambulance rushed her to the hospital. Randle gave Houston police the license plate number.

A Houston police officer went to the home on Heatherbloom, the address where the Cadillac is registered, and was greeted by Calderon's father, Roberto Calderon, who said he knew why the officer was there and that his son had “done something terrible,” the complaint shows.

Richard Calderon came to the door and said he had done “a terrible thing,” the report shows. He admitted firing the 9 mm handgun that he gave the officers and to shooting at Randle's vehicle, the complaint states.

‘Something shiny'
Calderon told homicide investigators he thought he saw “something shiny” in the hand of the front-seat passenger and said that passenger had leaned out the car window, the complaint shows. He said he fired twice at Randle's car, then went home and covered his Cadillac with a tarp, court records show. He was arrested at his home at 2 p.m.

One witness told police no one leaned out of the window of Randle's car. She said the man in the Cadillac was chasing Randle and her daughter before she saw gunshots coming from the Cadillac. The Cadillac's driver then backed up his car and drove away.

“(Calderon) says because his car is quote-unquote ‘so fancy,' he's been a target of things before, so he was jumping to conclusions,” Harris said. “Because of his car, he thought perhaps they were attacking him because they wanted his car or his rims.

“Pursuing is not acting in self-defense. He was able to clearly articulate there was no imminent threat to him " whatever threat he perceived had already passed. His story doesn't match the 10 other witnesses that we have " and that's the problem,” he said.

“In any case, you have two families' lives that are destroyed.”

Students at Johnston Middle School grieved the loss of Wiley, and friends set up memorial groups in tribute to her on Facebook. Wiley played cello in the school orchestra and played softball and volleyball, fellow classmates said.

peggy.ohare@chron

He will be held responsible for his wanton, unprovoked crime.

The death penalty is appropriate.

My first instinct would have been to drive the car out of the cul-de-sac.

The car can be a weapon too, but there is no reason to directly CONFRONT an attacker when getting away is an option.

What's the big deal with a teenager shot, a child or two or a hundred here or there. Surely these deaths mean nothing when compared with the rights of gun owners.

I wonder where those four shots went.

RETIRER SAVES THE SITUATION

Retiree Paul Campbell was

Now, Dave, which was he, an "er" or an "ee"?

The most important thing is to end the threat.
If he is charging at u, then u need to break his charge.
Its not enuf to kill him. U need to KEEP HIM OFF OF U.
For instance, in the 1960s some police NYPD chased a bum
into an alley. He turned on them, broke a bottle and charged one of them,
who emptied out his .38 revolver into the chest of the charging bum,
who perished from his wounds, but not b4 he jammed the broken bottle
into the throat of the officer who failed to keep him off of him, inflicting fatal injury.
The moral of the story is:
a .38 does not have enuf stopping power to save your life.
I suggest a .44 special (not magnum) with hollowpointed slugs
to optimize energy dump into the target.

Additionally, u shoud be cognizant of the possibility
that if the predator survives his wounds, he might sue u.
Historically, not all criminals have been honest in their testimony.
He might tell lies about u in court to enhance the prospect of a financial recovery,
so that if he did not get u the first time, then he uses a jury to get u
(possibly loaded with guys like him, or sympathetic thereto).
Even if u win, your lawyer will charge u more than u 'd have lost from the robbery.







I don 't do that as much as I used to b4 the HELLER case.





David

U need to make your decisions
during the emergency itself, subject to its speed and ambient distractions.