Divemedic

Following is a prank that involves a person dressed in Arab clothing, chanting in Arab, who then throws a book bag at passers by. The point of this so called prank is to scare the intended victims into thinking it is a bomb while filming their reactions, so all can laugh at the fear that they are causing.

Like the idiots who are dressing as murderous clowns to scare others into thinking that they are about to be murdered, they are placing themselves in a very dangerous position. The whole purpose of this exercise is to place people in fear for their lives. After all, if the intended victims are not afraid, there is nothing to video and laugh at.

The problem here is that in Florida,

A person is justified in using or threatening to use deadly force if he or she reasonably believes that using or threatening to use such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony. A person who uses or threatens to use deadly force in accordance with this subsection does not have a duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground if the person using or threatening to use the deadly force is not engaged in a criminal activity and is in a place where he or she has a right to be.

This clearly places a person in the position of being in fear of death or great bodily injury, because THAT IS THE INTENT OF THE PERSONS MAKING VIDEO.  Not only that, but look at the definition of forcible felony:

“Forcible felony” means treason; murder; manslaughter; sexual battery; carjacking; home-invasion robbery; robbery; burglary; arson; kidnapping; aggravated assault; aggravated battery; aggravated stalking; aircraft piracy; unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device or bomb; and any other felony which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual.

This means that a person with a firearm would be legally justified in shooting you. Of course you could claim that the felony was no longer imminent once the “bomb” was thrown, but good luck finding a jury that would convict on that theory.

This just isn’t funny. In fact, it is illegal:

(1) For the purposes of this section, “hoax bomb” means any device or object that by its design, construction, content, or characteristics appears to be, or to contain, or is represented to be or to contain, a destructive device or explosive as defined in this chapter, but is, in fact, an inoperative facsimile or imitation of such a destructive device or explosive, or contains no destructive device or explosive as was represented.
(2) Any person who, without lawful authority, manufactures, possesses, sells, delivers, sends, mails, displays, uses, threatens to use, attempts to use, or conspires to use, or who makes readily accessible to others, a hoax bomb commits a felony of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

My fiance, who I began dating two years ago, is from New York, and was initially mildly antigun, and was definitely anti-concealed carry. Her mother was even more so. Her mother would tell me stories about how one of their friends carried a concealed weapon, and how ridiculous and paranoid it was in this day and age, what with all of the police here to protect us, all the while ignorant of the fact that I was carrying a firearm at the time.

Eventually, they discovered my position on carry. There wan’t too much fuss, because they had already known me for some time, and they knew that I wasn’t prone to paranoia or violence. Two years later, we reached a breakthrough:

Yesterday my fiance and her mother, both from New York and both (formerly) moderately antigun, attended a firearm safety course in preparation for applying for their Florida Concealed Weapons permits. The course was billed as “taught by women, for women, with a focus on women’s issues with firearms.” At $100 a person, it wasn’t the cheapest course, but after looking around, I thought it was the best. All ammo and targets were provided, but there was an extra charge of a dollar for eye and ear protection.

According to them, the class began with a review of how crime affects women, and the laws behind firearms in Florida. Then they reviewed firearm basic terms, function, and safety. One woman began crying out of fear, and the instructors handled it well. After lunch, they went to the range, where they spent four hours firing 3 different semi-automatics and 3 different revolvers. They began with a 22 auto, and also fired .38 revolvers, a .380ACP, and 9mm handguns. My fiance’s favorite of the ones they tried was a brand that I had never heard of before. The instructor told them that they can retake the course once for only $10, if they do so within the next year. I thought it was a good deal.

I paid for the course, and now gun rights have two more people who won’t be voting antigun. It was the best $200 I have ever spent on gun rights. If every shooter did that for just one person, that $100 we each spend would double the number of progun people in the US, and the antigunners would virtually disappear.

As for my fiance, she has already made an appointment at the district office to get her CCW permit.

This is how we win: one shooter, one voter, one range trip at a time.

While reading a news story about police in one town planning to stop people who are not breaking the law, in order to reward their law abiding behavior with coupons and other free goodies, I was appalled. This is another tool that will be used as a police state tool. Let me explain:

An airline passenger gets a note from a therapist saying that a turkey is their support animal, so Delta must give it a seat on the plane without charge.

Yet another way that the Feds are destroying the airline industry. Imagine what they are going to do to health care, more than they already have.

In Arizona, a former cop turned lawmaker wants to make it a crime to record a cop’s activities in public. The law states that

people must be at least 20 feet away while recording “law enforcement activity” or farther if officers decide that’s needed. Recording inside private buildings such as homes would be allowed from “an adjacent room or area” unless an officer objects.

The whole reason why people feel the need to record the cops is that police are the ones abusing their authority. Filming the cops is a way to keep them from doing things like planting drugs on people (click the link to see a cop planting drugs on a suspect.)

This law would allow cops to get away with behavior like this cop in Missouri who threatened to plant evidence and even kill the kid:

Especially since it always seems to go one of two ways: the video shows the cops acting properly, or the video is mysteriously “unavailable for technical reasons.”

The lawmaker in this case claims:

“I’ll never forget how I was distracted by someone being behind me while I was making an arrest,” he says. “He could have pulled out a gun just as easily and shot me. And now you have people everywhere with these video cameras in their phones who are walking up behind cops when they are making an arrest.”

I am willing to bet that the number of cops who are shot by a person with a camera are far less than the number of cops who are caught on film committing crimes.

Honest cops should have nothing to fear from a camera. The police have become a criminal gang with badges.

As a teacher, we are  spending the month training on active shooters. Here a link to an article that we have been asked to read as a part of that training. I want you to read the money quote:

“Never call an unarmed man ‘security’,” Grossman said, “Call him ‘run-like-hell-when-the-man-with-the-gun-shows-up’ but never call an unarmed man security.”

The article talks about having redundant, overlapping layers of security. It talks about how this approach to fires has resulted in a 50 year period in which not one school child has died in a fire. Not one.

One of the points mentioned in the article are:

Armed citizens can help.  Think United 93. Whatever your personal take on gun control, it is all but certain that a killer set on killing is more likely to attack a target where the citizens are unarmed, rather than one where they are likely to encounter an armed citizen response.

Banks have armed guards to protect your money, why don’t we have armed guards to defend our children?

In Florida, if a school decides that they want to hire armed guards, they cannot. It is against the law. If a school wants to allow teachers to be armed, they cannot. It is against the law.
The only option that schools have is an armed police officer on campus. That is NOT defense in depth. It is not redundant.

Yet the schools, and parents, scream that arming teachers would be wrong. They claim that no one should be permitted to have guns around children. They never mention what happens when someone ignores that law, and begins shooting kids.

Now I am not suggesting that we arm ALL teachers, but if just a few teachers, volunteers, were to undergo the training, doesn’t it make sense to arm them?

I became a teacher after I retired from over 20 years as a firefighter and paramedic, where I spent part of my career working with the SWAT team. I spent years as an IDPA competitor, and I am a military veteran. I have carried a concealed weapon for more than 25 years. A permit that has allowed me to carry a weapon into McDonald’s, Disney, public parks, streets and sidewalks. Not once have I used that weapon in a threatening or illegal manner. I have not even had a traffic ticket in more than a decade.

I have spent more than 30 years wearing one uniform or another, defending the people who could not defend themselves, saving lives, and helping others. In that time, I have had dozens of background checks for security clearances, teaching, firefighting, and paramedic licenses, as well as for concealed weapons permits. Again and again over the past three decades, I have proven my character, my devotion, and my trustworthiness.

I would, if necessary, lay down my life in defense of the children that have been placed in my care. Even in Kindergarten. Possibly YOUR children, if you are reading this.
Except the politicians have declared that I am not permitted to do so, because they don’t trust me. So instead, I must sit in the dark, unarmed, unable to protect those children, hiding and waiting for help that may not come, wait with your children to die at the hands of a madman who didn’t obey your laws or your signs.