Monday, June 30, 2008

What Justice Scalia had in mind

Excerpts from a crime story at chattanoogan.com:

The woman said she was driving on E. 17th Street when Beard came riding up on a bicycle and pulled a gold handgun on her. When she refused to get out of the car, he began hitting her in the head with the gun.

He then pulled her out and drove off with her gold 2001 Toyota Corolla.

Police found the woman semi-conscious with severe head injuries. She had to have eight stitches in her head and 10 stitches in her leg, where she was also hit.

Police located Beard at 4724 Tomahawk Dr. and arrested him as he walked out of the residence. He told officers the stolen car was being driven "by one of my goons."

Officers located the vehicle a couple of blocks away on Bella Vista Drive. Blood was found inside the vehicle, and the woman's purse was also inside.

Beard said he threw the gun out of the window while driving through Highland Park. ….
When setting bail for Beard:
…..General Sessions Court Judge Bob Moon said Friday that crime in Chattanooga "has become so rampant that it is no longer possible for the police department to protect our citizens."

He told [the] woman who had been pulled from her car and beaten in the head that she or her mother needed to "purchase a weapon, obtain a gun permit and learn to protect yourself." The woman moved back in with her mother after the May 4 incident on E. 17th Street.

Judge Moon said, "The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that all citizens have a right to purchase a weapon to defend themselves, their families and their homes - unless there is some disqualification that prevents them from owning a weapon." ….
What Judge Moon said reflects an important aspect of what Justice Scalia had in mind when he wrote the Heller decision: The founders wanted innocent citizens to have the means to protect themselves from criminals and others who’d take away their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The entire chattanoogan.com story’s here.

Hat tip: Instapundit.com

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of an incident in Washington, D.C. back in the '70's. Criminals invaded the home of two unarmed women. While one was being brutalized and raped, the other managed to get to a phone and called for police help. A metropolitan police squad car was dispatched to the residence but the two officers knocked, and receiving no answer, departed. Meanwhile the second woman was brutalized and raped and the first woman managed to call police. Same result, cops showed up, looked around, and left. Later, the women managed to escape and call police from a neighbor's home. Later, when the two women attempted to sue the city for failure to perform their duties, the court ruled that police are not required to provide protection to any individual citizen--only society at large. This type of bureaucratic hide-and-seek is why the crime rate in the nation's capital is so extraordinarily high. It is truly said "when citizens are disarmed, the only ones who remain armed are the criminals." I think any honest person understands that criminals don't obey any laws anyway, so why would any rational person expect them to obey a gun law? Oh, I almost forgot, we're not talking about honest or rational people here, we're talking about Leftwing buffoons like those four brain-dead associate justices.
Tarheel Hawkeye

BillyB said...

I suspect that the good judge was trying to belittle the Supreme Courts decision.

The general public should not HAVE to be packing heat. Protecting the citizenry is the first duty of government. The judge's statement that the police are powerless to protect the public is an indictment on what this country has become.

Though it is indeed a right to keep and bear arms, it should never be a requirement.

Anonymous said...

Off Topic:
Dueling Headlines
----------------
Clark Marks the Seventh Democrat
to Go After McCain's Wartime Service---
National Review Online, by Jim Geraghty

Obama: I will never
question others' patriotism---
Associated Press, by Jennifer Loven
------------------------
Obama-“Let me make this perfectly clear, I said 'I'..."

Anonymous said...

Shhhhhh, keep this under wraps…
He obviously isn’t one of the
‘Gang of 8888888’
---------------------
Gary Kleck, a researcher at Florida State University's College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, estimates there are more than 1 million incidents each year in which firearms are used to prevent an actual or threatened criminal attack.

Anonymous said...

To BillyB via JnC -

A verse in Psalm 146 is applicable here: Put not your trust in princes or in mortal man who can give no help. So, don't look to the government (the prince)and don't look to the police (mortal man); if you can, look to God, but don't depend on miracles (because He may be otherwise occupied). Instead, exercise your right to be free and do so (if you can) by keeping and bearing arms.

Jack in Silver Spring