As London descends into anarchy and British citizens are reportedly buying American-made aluminum baseball bats by the bushel, Bellevue’s Alan Gottlieb says the situation shows a need in civilized society for the right to keep and bear arms.
He will probably get no argument from the armed Good Samaritan who intervened in the Skyway shooting over the weekend, and has now come forward to tell what happened, or from Northwest activists who have been watching the Skyway situation unfold here, here, here and here. The shooter in that case made his first court appearance Monday and remains in the King County jail on $500,000 bail.
For the third straight night, London and surrounding communities have been hammered by violence. British authorities have reportedly put 16,000 police on the streets, and here in the Pacific Northwest, Gottlieb, chairman of the Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, said today the mob violence there underscores the value of our Second Amendment.
“One wonders if the thugs now terrorizing British citizens would behave better if they thought their next intended victim might be armed and willing to fight back. How would these rioters fare if citizens were able to defend their homes and businesses?”—Alan Gottlieb
Gottlieb, who co-authored America Fights Back: Armed Self-Defense in a Violent Age with this writer, noted that, “Rather than flee from their homes as is now happening in some London neighborhoods, people should be able to defend what is theirs rather than surrender the streets to a mob.”
The Drudge Report headlined the run on baseball bats, which caught Gottlieb’s eye as he waited to change planes in Chicago Tuesday. Some Brits say the bats are being used by rioters. Others believe they are being purchased for defense against the thugs. Gottlieb was returning from a conference on campus concealed carry, held Monday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Presumably, London citizens are arming up with the only weapons they can get their hands on, since rushing out to the local gun shop to buy a rifle or shotgun is simply out of the question.
One needn’t explain any of this to Jeff Fletcher, the armed citizen who intervened in Saturday night’s Skyway shooting, which this column discussed here and here. He intercepted the shooter in that case, held him at gunpoint and even handcuffed him, using his dad’s cuffs, according to an interview he gave to Northwest Cable News from the parking lot of the Snoqualmie Casino. It turns out Fletcher’s father was a Seattle police officer. It also was reported that Fletcher is a former security guard, so he knows a bit about slapping the bracelets on somebody.
Fletcher said he and his friend watched the fight escalate into gunfire.
While his friend hid in the car, Fletcher, a former security guard, hid near the ATM. He said he noticed the man running towards them, so he pulled out his own legally concealed firearm.
"I told him to drop his weapon, he dropped his weapon," said Fletcher. "I told him to get on the ground, he got on the ground."
Fletcher said he just reacted to the situation, and doesn't really recommend most others do what he did, though he said "to ex-police or ex-army, or somebody who's got sufficient training and who's willing to take on that kind of risk for their loved ones or their community and has the capacity to do it, absolutely."—Northwest Cable News
Video of the initial investigation at the scene clearly shows King County Sheriff’s deputies examining what appears to be a Browning Buck Mark .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol. The suspect in this incident fired 11 rounds, which means he had one chambered and the 10-round magazine was fully loaded. While the other man in that incident may have been armed, deputies have yet to recover a gun.
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