I wrote this back in June of 2017, imagining how a tragedy could be exploited to put Nevada under harsh gun control. I stopped writing, intending to pick it up at some point. Then October 1, 2017 happened and what I had been imagining actually happened (to a degree) in the 2019 legislative session. This has not been published before. What follows is fiction. It is easy to see how it all began now, though the roots of the disaster stretch so far back as to seemingly appear unrelated. The actual incident occurred on the afternoon of June 20, 2020 as the sidewalks of the Las Vegas Strip were filled with pedestrians, many who were attending the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) music festival. Few of the ravers dressed in various costumes noticed the white Ford van stop on Las Vegas Boulevard. A taxicab honked as the driver calmly exited the van and walked around to the rear and opened the back door. A RTC bus captured what followed on his dash cam. Twenty-one people were killed and 17 more injured when Ronny Royce Dukes fired 79 rounds from his AK-47 style Century Arms C39 rifle. The steel core armor piercing rounds penetrated through several bodies and injuring others. Local media, police, and politicians ignored what happened next. As the crowd scattered in a panic, Uber driver Alfonso Barclay exited his car and approached the curb in front of Planet Hollywood and Bally’s, using the stopped cars as cover. Many of the vehicles were trying to push their way through traffic, causing not a few collisions, making it difficult for Barclay to approach. Dukes was absorbed in shooting the fleeing crowd and never noticed Barclay’s approach. In less than a second, three .45 caliber rounds ended Dukes’ live and shooting spree. Nearly four minutes after the shooting began, the first Metro officers arrived on scene, having run against the stampede and dodging traffic on Flamingo, from where they rested in the shade next to Drai’s. Barclay called 911 and identified himself from the Linq parking lot, where detectives picked him up for an interview at the Convention Center Area station. The political reaction was immediate. Las Vegas mayor Ray George immediately blamed Assembly Republicans for failing to pass “common sense” gun reform. Republicans had blocked several anti-gun bills in the previous years’ legislative session, including a 10+ round magazine ban and an “assault weapons” ban. Two Republican cross-over votes did allow a private gun sale ban to go into effect that required all guns be transferred through a licensed dealer and a “gun violence” restraining order law. George stated that if Dukes had to change his magazines more often or if he had a manual action weapon instead of a semi-automatic, more people would be alive. George did not mention Barclay’s fortuitous immediate response that ended Dukes’ attack slightly more than a minute after it started. Police officers were still three minutes away and approaching down-range from Dukes. What local media glossed over and national media simply ignored was that Barclay was an open carrier. The black resident of North Las Vegas couldn’t afford the classes and fees to obtain a concealed firearms permit and openly carried. Despite almost immediately being released with praise from police, he was [this is where I stopped writing]. While Metro and the BLM aren't saying it, the usual, lazy, stupid, and inconsiderate trash shooters are shooting in the Red Rock park area and too close to houses. Big surprise. With reduced traffic and the closure of the county's public shooting range, dumb people are doing dumb stuff. Of course, if you read this post, you probably already know this. The people who really need this message are ones who will never read this post, see the message from the cops, or give two craps. They aren't members of the gun community; they're just people that own guns (and are the bane of the rest of our existence). Now this is a reminder that old regulations are still in effect; no new shooting regulations have been put in place. (I tried to joke about it for April Fools' Day, but reality got ahead of me). Clark County Clark County Code (12.04.230) prohibits discharge of firearms (except for self-defense) off of established target ranges. 2019 update. Discharge is prohibited within:
See 2019 updates. Lovell Canyon is now off-limits per county code. On the 2019 map, the newly prohibited areas are in light yellow. All cities in Clark County (Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City, and Mesquite prohibit target shooting off of established ranges). See that map? Anything that is in color is off-limits to target shooting. And I've heard plenty of shots on the BLM land north of Las Vegas Wash. Don't shoot there. It may have been legal years ago when your daddy was a boy, but it ain't now. Lots of off-roaders over there who could get shot while you're busy being stupid. So if you need a reminder, shoot where it's legal and shoot safely. Unsafe shooting and leaving trash around gets places closed. The only way to get a place closed faster is by starting a brush fire. So please, don't be stupid or inconsiderate. Non-compliance makes people nervous. Other than a few sentences stating that non-compliance may be necessary or how various examples of registration of ‘assault weapons’ in Connecticut or New York failed, the very topic is taboo. But why should discussion of using the Second Amendment for its intended purpose, armed resistance against tyranny, be a forbidden subject? Take a look at what non-compliance means. In most cases, this is far beyond selling a handgun to a buddy without getting a blue card. In the last-resort sense of the word, non-compliance means you are committing a felony, and one that the police and courts would consider to be heinous. You might as well be a drug dealer as the owner of a semi-auto M4 clone. In this sense, non-compliance means carrying concealed illegally, something thousands of otherwise law-abiding Californians do now, it means burying your guns in the back yard, it means lying to the police or ATF when they ask what happened to that Springfield you bought from Camo Joe’s Gun Shop back in 2014. Non-compliance eventually means killing cops; that is a verboten thought to most Americans. It’s hard today to see the boys in blue or your local deputy as a fascist. If you’ve got good, patriotic cops know, you’ll probably have them in the future. The danger is that they might be replaced by someone who will trample rights when Officer Friendly won’t. While hundreds of thousands of German soldiers were just fighting for their lives, there was the SS. The SS was composed of the true believers in National Socialism. Whatever their personal motivation, they would eagerly kill, rob, and rape the untermenschen and later claim only to have been “just following orders.” Your editor worked with a diehard liberal, anti-gun cop. I have no doubt in my mind that he would be a perfect supervisor for a gun collection team, fully believing in his mission that civilians don’t need guns. He would have the SWAT team assault a house and kill the gun owner if need be, then chalk it all up to “for the greater good.” Never once would the thought cross his mind, that in a world gone mad, that Let’s look at what we face. America is on the brink of a civil war and there won’t be two sides like the last one. Our country will fragment geographically, politically, racially, and economically. As the political and economic tensions are strained to the breaking point, something will give. Will it be the election, a new economic collapse of unprecedented magnitude, or a natural disaster? One thing is for certain: chaos will result, the police will be overwhelmed, and politicians will enact totalitarian measures to attempt to curb the violence and silence the dissents. This is an interesting case (see LVRJ article). On Sunday night, 4/5 around 6 PM, an LVMPD helicopter saw a motorcycle "acting very suspicious" in a parking lot near Sahara and Decatur. The drive then fled the area and crashed near Bonanza. The rider fled into a nearby condo complex. The armed citizen, who holds a concealed firearm permit, was outside to see why the helicopter was overhead. At this point, the suspect ran into the armed citizen. The armed citizen told the suspect to stop, but the suspect fled, so the citizen followed, intending to call police. At some point, the motorcyclist turned around, brandished a knife, and turned back towards the armed citizen, at which point the citizen fired two rounds in self-defense. The citizen also retrieved a first aid kid and started to administer first aid before officers and medics took over. The suspect died at the scene. One of the interesting factors here is that the citizen got a first aid kit (we don't know what kind) and began first aid. Kind of hard to argue something like the Zimmerman case when the innocent shooter tries to save the life of the wounded (and dead/dying) suspect. This also was probably captured on video from the air. It will be interesting to see if Metro releases video footage from the helicopter when the DA's investigation is complete. It's always important to note that you are not the police and shouldn't try to detain or follow someone who is running from the police. Sure, it worked out this time, but it doesn't always. However, this is as near a perfect defensive gun use there is if, if you can have one at all. This will be the last post in the informal tracking time of how long it takes LVMPD to get a concealed firearm permit out to you. With the coronavirus crisis, the shutdown of fingerprinting, and the rush to get permits, the 120 day deadline will be met for the next year or two (unless the online application thing is a miracle worker). Having been a "first responder" (oh how that term makes me gag), I appreciate my delivery men and women more than cops, firefighters, and paramedics more than anyone else. A second runner up is the garbage man. When Amazon, FedEx, or UPS comes to the door, they never have a warrant for me (not that I've had a warrant). They always bring something I want and do it with speed that the Post Office can't seem to manage. And unless they farm the final mile out to USPS, the package arrives at my door instead of jammed in the mailbox. These guys haul heavy shit directly to my door. Ammo, furniture, you name it. It keeps coming and they keep delivering. A lot of them go out of their way to hide stuff, like the time they put my doormat on a 2ft tall box. Thanks for trying. They come out in the rain and heat 6 or 7 days a week. They'll work late around the holidays to make sure my packages arrive in time. They do more for me than any government agency has since I worked for one. These delivery guys are a vital institution, even more so during the coronavirus panic. They're my new heroes. This isn't to say that cops, hose-draggers, and paramedics aren't valuable parts of society. But the only time I truly needed the former two I didn't really need them. But I do need the guys in brown shorts, purple, or blue shirts and high-viz vests dropping my stuff off. So let's hear praise for the delivery guys! As of Jan. 2, private gun sales were illegal in Nevada. So, according to the data DPS provided us from the March background checks called into Carson City, Nevadans bought over 20,000 guns last month. We can extrapolate the 31st just by looking at the data. Actual denials are roughly one-tenth of a percent, so for our 20k estimate, they are ill-relevant. Also, those with a CCW are exempt from the background check (they just fill out the ATF Form 4473). We literally broke the Point of Contact Firearms Unit with sale requests. You can see the from the data where the jams were and the hiccup they caused in clearances. DPS stepped up to the challenge though and brought more bodies in, which cleared the backlog. I swear people there are on our side. So for future reference, the wheels came off the system at somewhere around 1000 checks per day. March compared to FebruaryDouble the amount of guns sold in a typical month in March. Federal NICS data shows that over 900,000 thousand more guns were sold nationally in March than in February. Last Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security declared the firearms industry essential. All sheriff's agreed to extend expiring CCWs to July 15, 2020. Gov. Sisolak made it illegal to go outside (it's hyperbole, don't get all butt hurt). Metro reversed itself and is now allowing CCW courses to go forward with social distancing. Metro also told us to pound sand when we asked why they made this decision. A guy in Las Vegas intervened in a shooting at an apartment complex, killing the bad guy. 20,000 guns were sold in Nevada in March. Be sure to wear your face covering! Three men were shot in a bizarre incident at a Las Vegas apartment complex the night of Tuesday, March 30. It appears to involve a defensive gun use. According to Metro statements and news articles, it looks like two men got into a physical fight after an argument. A third man, described as a witness, was present. When one of the men involved in the fight drew a gun and shot the other man in the fight. The witness left at some point and came back with a gun. A short gunfight ensued. It is not clear if the witness was injured, but also he did shoot and kill the gunman from the fight. Two men are dead. It appears to be the first shooting victim from the fight and the gunman from the fight. At least two of the men knew each other. Metro is saying in its Twitter statement the witness came out of an apartment, making it sound like he intervened. So the witness who did not save the first victim's life, did stop the shooting. The witness apparently had better aim than the gunman as the gunman died at the scene while the victim from the fight died later at the hospital. A shooting like this brings up some questions. First, it is legal to use engage in defense of a third person as if it were yourself. Should you intervene? I'm guessing that the three knew each other, or at least the witness knew the victim. Intervening in a violent situation is a choice each of us must make. What can we live with? If someone was attacking my friend, I'd defend them too. But a random neighbor? Is it worth the legal and mortal risk to yourself? Even armed good Samaritans get hurt. We recently submitted a public records request to LVMPD to provide documentation on how they justified the decision not to accept any CCW classes after 3/24/2020. In response, LVMPD denied releasing any documentation citing the deliberative process and attorney-client privilege. All they provided was a copy of the governor's order If the point was no longer moot (Metro backed off ban of CCW classes), I'd file suit. State law changed in 2019 specifically because Metro and government agencies play games like this. So with no need for a gun rights lawsuit, there is no need to file a public records lawsuit just to tell us we already know that Metro knows they stepped on themselves. So in short, since Metro will not provide the truth of their decision, I'll set the narrative and let them refute if they will. Sheriff Lombardo and/or his department unilaterally decided to arbitrarily, and likely illegally and unconstitutionally, decided to essentially ban CCW classes based on the governor's social distancing order. They did so probably in good-faith to keep people from spreading the virus or getting sick, but failed to offer any alternatives or properly justify their action. In doing so, they showed a calloused disrespect for the right to bear arms. As the Firearms Coalition began to address the issue of expiring permits, Metro backtracked a few days ago and is allowing CCW classes to go forward with social distancing in place. Expiring permits were extended statewide until 7/15/2020 under the temporary permit authority. In future reforms of public records laws, the government must not be allowed to rely on privilege to deny record requests. It is likely further positive reforms of the public records law will be undertaken in 2021. Our records request with the Attorney General was filed yesterday to see if they've had any correspondence with Metro on the issue. |
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