# Positive Gun News of the Day **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 22, 2015, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490 "2015-10-22T22:57:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2015, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/1 "2015-10-22T22:57:05Z")
Negative gun news gets quite a bit of attention in media and on this board. There’s a whole thread in the Pit that is over 6,200 posts and counting. This is a thread to bring up another aspect of gun ownership - positive news. I post it in this forum instead of in the Pit since it really is not any kind of statistical analysis, just mindless data points to share. Hopefully people can add their own positive news items relating to firearms. I’ll start with two items: Brian Fletcher receives a pardon after being arrested for possessing a firearm while doing disaster relief work in NJ. [An article talking about the original incident](http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2015/07/armed_north_carolina_man_in_nj_for_disaster_relief.html): > [@](#): > > A North Carolina man doing emergency, storm-related utility repairs in Mercer County last month is facing possible prison time after volunteering to a police officer in Hamilton that he had a handgun in his vehicle. [And the pardon itself.](http://c0.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/Signed%20Pardon_Brian%20Fletcher.pdf) Christie [issued](http://c5.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/Signed%20Pardon_Elizabeth%20Griffith.pdf)2 [other pardons](http://c8.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/Signed%20Pardon_Todd%20Doering.pdf)that day as well for similar silly violations. In other news,[a would be robber was shot and killed](http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20151010/PC16/151019902) as he attempted to rob a Waffle House: > [@](#): > > The Waffle House crew was busily going about its typical early-morning ritual — smothering and scrambling breakfast, clanking through the dirty dishes — when a robber jolted them out of their routine. > > A customer decided he was having none of that and opened fire in the North Charleston eatery, thwarting the holdup Saturday by fatally shooting the suspect. > > The young man who tried to rob the restaurant was rushed to Medical University Hospital, but he later died, police spokeswoman Angela Johnson said. > > The intervening customer, who has not been identified, had a permit to carry a pistol, authorities said. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/2 "2015-10-23T00:06:48Z")
Hmm, I wonder if someone is trying to shore up his presidential run? Did the customer have a “Bad Mother Fucker” wallet (but skipped the religious experience in the morning)? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/3 "2015-10-23T00:29:56Z")
I’m glad he got pardoned but it is weirdly ignorant to think it was OK to carry a gun across state borders without worry. The North East is “notoriously liberal” and anti-gun after all. Seems like maybe gun owners should take at least as tough a test as car drivers need to get a license and this type of stuff could be covered in it. Not exact rules for 50 states but that guns laws are at a state level and you should check before bringing loaded guns to other states. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/4 "2015-10-23T03:20:42Z")
[Homeowner shoots and kills 2 possible intruders in SE Albuquerque](http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s3899788.shtml#.Vil5fvlVhBd) > [@](#): > > A homeowner shot and killed two people Monday just before 10 p.m. near Gibson and Washington SE. > > … > > “I heard somebody go in the house and I thought it was the cops, but after that, I heard the three shots and I dove on the ground because I didn’t know…” Duran said. > He and his wife, Geraldine, were among the first to check on their neighbor immediately after the shooting. > “We just heard the gunshots and we…got curious because we heard somebody crying. So I climbed up on the stairs to look over the fence to see who was crying, if they needed some help.” > The Durans said that a woman at the house and the homeowner were both in tears. > “There was a gentleman standing at the doorway and I said, ‘are you guys ok?’” Duran said. “And he said, ‘I had to shoot them…I didn’t want to shoot them, but they were breaking down my door…so I shot them,’ and he was crying.” ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/5 "2015-10-23T03:39:16Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > …while doing disaster relief work in NJ. That is both misleading and wrong. There was no life-threatening disaster, just storm-related outages. He wasn’t a good Samaritan volunteering his own time to alleviate human suffering. He was hired to do rather routine repairs, that’s all.:rolleyes: I don’t know what New Jersey law calls for in a case like this, but on the surface, I agree that arresting and jailing him was unnecessarily harsh, and if justice were to be served, he’d get some sort of recompense for it. But there’s no reason to falsely win more sympathy for him, especially when he was naive and/or stupid in not knowing the law. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/6 "2015-10-23T03:39:50Z")
Two blocks from my house there is (or possibly was, it’s not clear if they are going to be back in business) a small shop selling scooters (not sure what kind of scooters, it’s a tiny shop that I never noticed). Last Sunday at 8:00 am four guys tried to break in and steal stuff. Unfortunately for them, the owner was there and armed. He shot and killed one of them; the others ran and escaped. No cite because the case is still open and the police aren’t saying anything. But I saw the incident tape when I drove by a little later, and the store is now boarded up. I got the details from our local Nextdoor board, and to some extent it was confirmed last night at our neighborhood police liaison meeting. I completely sympathize with anyone who has to shoot another human being to protect his life, or his family, or even his livelihood. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/7 "2015-10-23T03:59:17Z")
The other day, I shot a soft rubber ball (about the size of a billiard ball) off the top of a beer bottle, without hitting/breaking the bottle, at a range of about 60 yards with my .22 Glenfield. Took two shots at it. Nailed it the second shot. I was shooting clay targets that somebody left up on the hill from the same range, but it started getting too easy. And I never have a shortage of beer bottles. Positive news to me, at least! ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/8 "2015-10-23T06:41:31Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > Negative gun news gets quite a bit of attention in media and on this board. There’s a whole thread in the Pit that is over 6,200 posts and counting. This is a thread to bring up another aspect of gun ownership - positive news. I post it in this forum instead of in the Pit since it really is not any kind of statistical analysis, just mindless data points to share. Hopefully people can add their own positive news items relating to firearms. > > I’ll start with two items: > > Brian Fletcher receives a pardon after being arrested for possessing a firearm while doing disaster relief work in NJ. [An article talking about the original incident](http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2015/07/armed_north_carolina_man_in_nj_for_disaster_relief.html): > > [And the pardon itself.](http://c0.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/Signed%20Pardon_Brian%20Fletcher.pdf) > > Christie [issued](http://c5.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/Signed%20Pardon_Elizabeth%20Griffith.pdf)2 [other pardons](http://c8.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/Signed%20Pardon_Todd%20Doering.pdf)that day as well for similar silly violations. > In other news,[a would be robber was shot and killed](http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20151010/PC16/151019902) as he attempted to rob a Waffle House: One slight problem with your “Good Gun News” - The Would be robber was “armed with a pistol”. In other words - he threatened the **staff with a gun,** whereupon he was shot… So I’d like to know - how is a 19 year old racist having access to a gun, and trying to use said gun to rob a store _good_ news? [ > [@](#): > > According to a NCPD incident report released Monday afternoon, Davis approached the bar area and asked the price of a drink. Employees noticed he had his jacket hood up over his head with the drawstrings pulled tight around his face. They told police he went to sit in a booth and when several of the employees went to the back, he came around the counter armed with a gun and demanded money. ]([Coroner IDs teen killed in botched Waffle House robbery](http://www.abcnews4.com/story/30230664/north-charleston-waffle-house-robbery-thwarted-by-gun-toting-customer)) Seems to me rather like saying, Well damn, he did a pretty good job or rushing me to the hospital after running me down while speeding and driving drunk in a school zone ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/9 "2015-10-23T06:46:13Z")
Racist? A 19 year old can own, just can’t purchase from a FFL. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/10 "2015-10-23T06:58:32Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Racist? > > A 19 year old can own, just can’t purchase from a FFL. Yes - he tweeted a picture with a gun and something about Nigga a few days prior to the robbery attempt ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/11 "2015-10-23T11:30:33Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > One slight problem with your “Good Gun News” - > > The Would be robber was “armed with a pistol”. > In other words - he threatened the **staff with a gun,** whereupon he was shot… > > So I’d like to know - how is a 19 year old racist having access to a gun, and trying to use said gun to rob a store _good_ news? I thought the whole point was that an armed customer that had a permit for it prevented the armed robber from harming anyone else by shooting him. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/12 "2015-10-23T11:46:24Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > So I’d like to know - how is a 19 year old racist having access to a gun, and trying to use said gun to rob a store _good_ news? He won’t be doing it again? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/13 "2015-10-23T13:16:00Z")
Kind of offensive to list the deaths of people as “good news” even if the dead were pricks. I thought gun people were all about, “gosh, I sure hope I never have to use my weapon.” How would we feel about a Positive Abortion Stories thread. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/14 "2015-10-23T13:25:20Z")
From my perspective, the only positive news in this entire thread is **Gatopescado’s**. When I saw the thread title, I was trying to think what I would consider positive gun news, and came up with target shooting and successful legal hunting of non-endangered animals. People dying prematurely and violently, even if they were in the process of committing a crime, is not positive, it’s a tragedy. We do not have the death penalty for burglary, and I don’t even think it’s appropriate for armed robbery. People who might have had a chance at being a positive influence in the world are dead. Their families are mourning them. There’s nothing positive about that. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/15 "2015-10-23T13:28:14Z")
[Robbery Attempt At Light Rail Station Backfires When Would-Be Victim Gets The Gun](http://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/09/03/robbery-attempt-at-light-rail-station-backfires-when-would-be-victim-gets-the-gun/) > [@](#): > > Denver police say James Arellano, 21, from Westminster, had a gun and smacked a victim on the head while attempting to rob a man and woman on the C line after first harassing a pair of teenagers. > > Investigators say Arellano was with another young man during the robbery attempt. > > “One of the victims is struck by the suspects … with the gun,” Christine Downs with Denver police said. > > The victims ran from the train at the Auraria West light rail station platform. Police say Arellano fired his gun three times at close range at his victims, but missed and then the victims fought back. > > While the male victim scuffled with Arellano the gun fell to the ground and the female victim shot Arellano. He suffered injuries not considered to be life-threatening. > … > Arellano faces three charges including robbery, felony menacing and possession of a weapon. Robbery suspect shot with his own gun - that he wasn’t legally able to possess. * * * > [@kayaker](#): > > He won’t be doing it again? Bingo. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/16 "2015-10-23T13:33:35Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > That is both misleading and wrong. There was no life-threatening disaster, just storm-related outages. He wasn’t a good Samaritan volunteering his own time to alleviate human suffering. He was hired to do rather routine repairs, that’s all.:rolleyes: If I said he flew in on the back of a unicorn while spreading good will with the Care Bears, that would also be misleading and wrong. But since I didn’t state that there was a life threatening disaster, or that he was volunteering, your assessment isn’t on point. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/17 "2015-10-23T13:53:51Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > We do not have the death penalty for burglary, and I don’t even think it’s appropriate for armed robbery. People who might have had a chance at being a positive influence in the world are dead. Whether we have the death penalty for those crimes or not doesn’t matter. People who want to be a positive influence in the world can start with an easy one: Don’t commit crimes, especially violent crimes, against other people. From there, they can move on to feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and so on. See how that works? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/18 "2015-10-23T14:22:33Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Don’t commit crimes, especially violent crimes, against other people. Is that what you’d tell that vigilante? ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/19 "2015-10-23T14:27:17Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Kind of offensive to list the deaths of people as “good news” even if the dead were pricks. I thought gun people were all about, “gosh, I sure hope I never have to use my weapon.” > > How would we feel about a Positive Abortion Stories thread. For the most part we are “gosh, I sure hope I never have to use my weapon.” But because mass murderers and common criminals are so often used as examples of why I shouldn’t have a firearm, I don’t see any harm in someone giving examples of why I possibly should have one. And while specific examples elude me this AM, there have been several examples of Positive Abortion Stories given here over the years. Not in a dedicated thread, I will admit, but people giving examples of why they made that choice and the benefit they felt it brought. ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490/20 "2015-10-23T15:29:48Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > If I said he flew in on the back of a unicorn while spreading good will with the Care Bears, that would also be misleading and wrong. But since I didn’t state that there was a life threatening disaster, or that he was volunteering, your assessment isn’t on point. Call me crazy, but “disaster relief worker” implies to me someone who works to relieve the suffering of people caused by a disaster. They often selflessly volunteer to do it because there aren’t enough people with the official job description of “disaster relief worker”. I suppose some could infer it to mean a selfish mercenary profiting from the misfortune of others, but to each his own subjective interpretation. Regardless of what it means to anyone, there was no disaster; _ergo_, there was no disaster relief; _ergo_, he wasn’t a disaster relief worker, so why did you refer to him as one? I assume you didn’t see him as a selfish mercenary. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-gun-news-of-the-day/735490.md?page=2)