The Armed Citizen Report: Texas 1980

Armed citizens use their legally owned firearms to stop crimes every day.  Sometimes it's a property crime and sometimes it's a direct threat to life and limb.  No matter what the crime, an armed citizen is a criminal's worst nightmare.  That's especially true in Texas.

A young Carrolton, Tex., mother was awakened by early morning pounding on her apartment door. As she answered the door, a youth kicked it open and began choking and beating her. A neighbor, hearing her screams, responded to find the attacker starting after the woman's four-year-old child. He held the intruder at shotgun point for police. Officers identified the youth as a previously arrested suspect in a gang rape who had been released pending a hearing in that case. (The Daily Times, Carrolton, TX, 08/6/80)

A young Bayton, Tex., mother awoke to find a man clad only in a baseball cap and socks exposing himself to her 7-year-old daughter. Grabbing her handgun and daughter, the woman fled to the living room, the intruder pursuing. The mother then turned and shot him three times. Police later apprehended the twice-convicted child molester nearby. (The Houston Post, Houston, TX 08/22/80)

After repeated burglaries at his Pleasant Grove, Tex., used goods store, owner Ernest Graf and his 15-year-old son started sleeping in the office. Awakened by noises on the roof, Graf armed himself with his shotgun and waited. When the would-be burglar was half way down a rope he had secured to the skylight, Graf switched on the lights and held him at bay while his son called police. The intruder, it turned out, was wanted for three Dallas-area murders.  (The Times Herald, Dallas, TX 07/01/80)

Startled by a noise at the front door of her apartment, a Lubbock, Tex., woman got a pistol and investigated. As she entered the living room, she was attacked by a knife-wielding intruder who stabbed her in the shoulder. When the housewife started shooting, the assailant fled, apparently uninjured.  (The Avalanche-Journal, Lubbock, TX, 2/15/80)

When Tod McCray failed to answer a knock at the back door of his Beaumont, Tex., home around mid-morning, four youths opened the unlocked door and walked inside. Hearing the commotion, McCray armed himself with a shotgun, captured three of the young prowlers, and held them at bay until police arrived. Police found the fourth intruder hiding under a bed.  (The Enterprise, Beaumont, TX, 01/17/80)

Awakened by the cries of her 6-year-old daughter, a Baytown, Tex., woman spied a male intruder hiding beside her bed. The woman grabbed a pistol she kept under her pillow, took the child in her arms, and ran into the next room. When the intruder followed, she shot him. The wounded man fled, but police found him hiding in some nearby bushes and wearing only a pair of socks.  (The Chronicle, Houston, TX 04/01/80)

When 89-year-old Fred Green saw a man leaving one of his vacant San Antonio, Tex., rental houses, he called police, found his pistol, and confronted the intruder, who started toward him in a threatening manner. When his warnings to halt were ignored, Green fired a shot near the would-be burglar's legs and thus persuaded him to wait peaceably until police arrived. (The Daily News, Amarillo, TX 04/01/80)

Texans understand that we all need to stand up and assert our right to keep and bear arms or face losing it. Help protect your rights by joining the NRA. The NRA fights to keep your right to keep and bear arms intact.

Congressman Ciro Rodriguez Needs To Go

Maybe it's just me but I think that any Congressman who starts yelling at constituents who call him out on his lies needs to be tossed out of office. Ciro Rodriguez is one of those Democrat Congressmen that needs to be given his walking papers. At a town hall meeting in his home district Democrat Congressman Rodriguez lost control, while being video taped, and became verbally aggressive toward a woman (off camera) that called him out on his party-line lies by using the correct information from the Congressional Budget Office. I find it interesting that Congressmen that decide to bully the public never do it to people like me, they do it to young students like Congressman Bob Etheridge of North Carolina did or to a woman correcting the liar that's supposed to represent her. See the video at Happily American: Congressman Ciro Rodriguez Needs To Go

Criminal Mastermind Killed By Intended Victim

Today in San Antonio, Texas a criminal decided to end his life by robbing someone. Maybe he should have read my Public Service Message To Criminals and saved his own life. Oh well, if he was that smart he might have had a real job...maybe even an honest career...I hear the President needs people and he's not all that picky.

Anyway, this criminal mastermind shows up on the northside of San Antonio and walks around the parking lot of a strip mall with a bandana around his face, a cap on his head, and wearing gloves. A worker from one of the stores goes out and tells braniac to leave but he doesn't. Instead, he decides he needs some oxycontin and cash from the pharmacy. He goes in and hands a note to the pharmacist demanding the drugs and cash.

Now, instead of giving the cash and drugs to the moron in front of him the pharmacist who also owns the pharmacy points his own gun at the wanna-be Dillinger. You know what the criminal did then? He says to the pharmacist "let's get it on".

Police found him dead in the pharmacy with a cocked revolver. No charges are likely to be pressed against the pharmacist. In the words of Police Chief Bill McManus, "He has a right by state law to use deadly force in a situation like this."

What Janeane Garofalo Thinks Of Tea Party Participants

If you've been watching the TV series "24" then you've seen Janeane Garofalo as the computer geek at the FBI's headquarters. In real life she's a New Jersey born far left liberal who makes her living in comedy and acting in movies like "Mystery Men" and "The Truth About Cats and Dogs". Apparently her hobby is bashing other U.S. citizens who don't agree with her far left ideals.

This Thursday (4/16) she took her hobby to Keith Olbermann's show on MSNBC. Thankfully, someone was actually watching MSNBC (I didn't know it was still on) and found Garofalo commenting on Wednesday's Tea Parties saying, "Let's be very honest about what this is about," she said. "It's not about bashing Democrats, it's not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston tea party was about, they don’t know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up. That is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks." Of course Keith Olbermann was fine with her characterization of fellow Americans even though she couldn't have been more wrong.

She was clearly wrong but, in the interest of fairness, I do want to point out she was right on one point...it wasn't about bashing Democrats. There were Democrats at the San Antonio Tea Party. As for the rest of her hateful statement it's just plain wrong. It was about taxes and the out of control government spending. Also, I'm very well aware of what the Boston Tea Party was about and if she wants to challenge my historical knowlege - bring it on. It definitely was not about hating a black man in the White House although it was partially about having a Marxist in the White House taking the country farther into debt. And racism? Who was the racist at the San Antonio Tea Party? Just the white people? The large number of hispanics? The blacks who were there? Nothing said at the Tea Party even mentioned race and those in attendance were from all races. Lastly, now that I've looked up the term and know what it means, I can tell you there was no teabagging.

Like other far left liberals she's clearly not interested in facts and neither was her enabler Keith Olbermann. You can do your part by calling out people like Garofalo and Olbermann and making sure the facts become known.

A Public Service Message To Criminals - Stay Away From Texas!

We all know that there are areas of the country that have been hit harder by tough economic times than some other parts of the country. Times like this often find people from harder hit areas moving to better areas in order to find work and support their families - they follow the money. For instance, people in Detroit where unemployment is well into double digit percentages might move to Texas where the recession is less of an issue. Unfortunately, the criminal element also tends to move from hard hit areas - they follow the money.

Here's a warning to the criminal element planning to move to Texas - Don't Do It. Don't move to Texas. In Texas you're very likely to find yourself on the wrong end of a law-abiding citizen's gun. Since it appears you know how to read (you're reading this) you should read the following stories which appeared in Texas news this year:

The Houston Chronicle, Houston, Texas, 03/29/09
Around 6:15 p.m. two armed criminals attempted to rob a cell phone store in Harris County, Texas. When the robbers demanded money from the store owner, the owner drew his handgun, causing the robbers to flee. The store owner chased the men to the parking lot in an attempt to get a description of their vehicle. Before reaching the car, one of the criminals turned and pointed a gun at the store owner. The owner fired at the criminal, striking him. The wounded criminal attempted to run across the street but was hit by a car and died.

The Star Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas 03/04/09
Around 1 a.m. 57 year-old Robert Earl Bardwell illegally entered a home in Weatherford, Texas and began assaulting the homeowner’s 34 year-old son. After ordering Bardwell to leave, the 66 year-old homeowner fired a shot into the ceiling in an attempt to end the assault. When Bardwell refused to leave or cease his attack, the homeowner fired at Bardwell, killing him. The homeowner was not arrested during the incident.

The Tyler Morning Telegraph, Tyler, Texas 02/03/09
Around 9 p.m., a burglar broke into the Tyler, Texas apartment of a 31 year-old woman and her children. The woman rushed her children into her bedroom, grabbed a phone and her gun and called the police. As the woman was on the phone with a dispatcher, the burglar attempted to break down the bedroom door. The woman fired her handgun through the door, causing the criminal to flee. When police arrived, they interviewed a person at the scene who tipped them off to the location of the criminal, who was suffering from a bullet wound to the jaw. Police noted that within the past 30 days there had been five burglaries within the apartment complex. Tyler Police Public Information Officer Don Martin made it known that it was unlikely the woman would face any charges and went on to say, “You have the right to protect yourself and your family.”

NBCDFW, Dallas, Texas 01/22/09
Around 11 a.m., Gabriel Flores broke in the empty Dallas, Texas home of 79 year-old Iva Willis. Soon afterwards, Iva’s son, Charles Bircher, came by the home and noticed that the door had been kicked in. As Bircher looked inside the home, Flores confronted him with a gun he had stolen in the home . Bircher, a right to carry permit holder, drew his gun and fired at Flores, striking him. Flores later died from his wounds at a local hospital. Bircher was unharmed during the incident and was relieved that he had his gun with him, stating “I feel good I had it with me… If I didn’t, he was going to kill me.” Police have not filed charges against Bircher.

Amarillo.com, Amarillo, Texas 01/08/09
Two armed men broke into a home in Amarillo, Texas around 8 a.m. The homeowner hearing the commotion and having been burglarized several times in the preceding months, retrieved his gun. The homeowner fired at the armed intruders, killing one and causing the other to flee. When the police arrived they discovered a second trail of blood, suggesting that the intruder who fled may have been struck during the incident. Local hospitals have been notified to be on the lookout for anyone with a gunshot wound. The police questioned the homeowner but released him shortly afterwards, with Potter-Randall Special Crimes Coordinator Lt. Gary Trupe stating, “We do at this time feel that they were justified in using the force that they used."

WOAI, San Antonio, Texas 01/07/09
An 18-year-old resident of San Antonio, Texas noticed two armed men approaching his family’s home. The resident retrieved his mother’s gun, while the armed criminals kicked in the front door. The resident fired at the armed criminals, striking both. One died at the scene, while the other was taken to a local hospital. The police have recovered the gun the deceased criminal used during the burglary.

The stories here are all true and are just a sample of incidents where Texans defended themselves, their loved ones, and their property - there are more examples but not enough space here. So, if you're a criminal from somewhere else, take some friendly advice and stay in the rat hole you're in. If you come to Texas the only thing you're likely to get is a free funeral with an unmarked grave.