The shooting death of Tom Pfaeffle, described in the Seattle Times as “a respected sound engineer from Black Diamond,” the other night in Twisp could have aftershocks of the political nature for Washington gun owners.
Already, in the reader feedback column of the Times, one person identified as “conlux” has written, “Let your Congressman know how you really feel…and join the movement to ban guns.”
Published reports say Pfaeffle – owner and operator of a recording studio in Black Diamond called “the Tank” – were in Twisp for a birthday party. At about 10:40 p.m. they went back to their room at the Blue Spruce Motel but mistakenly went to the wrong room. When Pfaeffle tried his key in the door, a man in the room opened fire, shooting through the door and also sending one round through a wall and into an adjacent room, nearly hitting a 70-year-old man.
Twisp police responded and took the shooter into custody. He is expected to be charged with second-degree murder and second-degree assault.
In my book, Washington State Gun Rights and Responsibilities, there’s a Q&A section at the end of Chapter 5 on the use of force. It explains that when you are in a motel room, is traditionally considered a temporary place of abode; that is, it’s your “residence” for the time of your stay. You have a right to be there. If attacked, you can defend yourself as if you were in your own home.
But the key word here is “attacked.” It’s not a crime to make a mistake about your motel room, and simply fumbling with a room key outside of a door is not the kind of thing that should draw gunfire from inside the room.
Later in that Q&A, there is a specific question about shooting someone through a door, and it is duly noted that “You’re on shaky ground.”
Responsible gun owners take great pains to be careful with their firearms, especially their defensive sidearms. For every hundred or so people who never have an accident, there appears to be at least one bonehead who isn’t so careful. Witness the report in Monday’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer about the twit who was riding in a car on I-5 and could not resist showing his gun to the driver. In the process, our armed passenger plugged himself in the leg.
On the other hand, I attended an “open carry” gathering in Seatac the other day, and there were a couple of dozen people gathered peacefully at an apartment complex for a barbecue and social. Almost everyone was visibly packing a gun. There were prizes for kids, many of the neighbors dropped by for hamburgers and hot dogs, and everyone seemed to have a good time until one of the apartment complex residents called the police, insisting that all the people with firearms were “scaring everybody.”
That is a lie. I was there.
According to various accounts, when the police showed up, one officer apparently explained to the complaining woman that open carry is legal in Washington. Good for him.
Gun prohibitionists are looking for any excuse to attack gun rights. A fool fatally shooting someone through the door of a motel room, an idiot shooting himself in the leg in a moving vehicle; we all get painted with a broad brush.
Alas, nobody pays any attention to groups like the folks who gathered at the Seatac apartment complex on July 18. These are the good guys and gals who harm nobody. They merely wish to exercise their constitutional rights and to be left alone.
These residents are trying to send a message that may be lost on some people until they consider the grisly double-stabbing that occurred early Sunday morning in South Park. One woman is dead and the other is in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center, and the suspect is still at large.
Police have scheduled a public meeting Monday evening at the South Park Community Center at 7 p.m. They’ll want people to call in with tips and help round up the killer.
But how likely is it that they will advise residents to arm themselves to defend against such an attack?
I also want to take this opportunity to welcome Chicago Gun Rights Examiner Don Gwinn. His newest article can be linked below.
Visit with other Gun Rights Examiners:
For more info: Washington State Gun Rights and Responsibilities. America Fights Back: Armed Self-Defense in a Violent Age.
Comments
In light of the shooting at Alki a week ago, some members of our group got out to enjoy the day at Alki Beach open carry and concealed carry. No issues no cops either. Was nice to hear the lady at Spuds say she wishes that all people would carry. The more we exorcise our right the general public may become accepting of the right we do have.
It is unfortnate but reality that because "we the people".. choose to legally (and responsibly) exercise our Constitutional rights... will always be under the liberal microscope and thus every negative action that occurs by brainless untrained idiots will be immediately turned into and equal and opposite reaction for the benefit of promoting the leftist causes.
It is clearly evident that these idiots were never (properly) trained in the real meaning of "gun control"... unfortuneately for the rest of us "you can't fix stupid".... just look at the liberals for solid proof of that.
Thank you for mentioning our Seatac meet, and thank you for attending.
Also, I want to once again send kudos to the Seatac Police and KCSO for their handling of the one person who insisted we were "scaring everyone" while approximately 20 people were using the adjacent pool, including mostly young children.
The responding officers were polite and professional, questioning the residents in the near vicinity before deciding on their course of action. Once decided they gave the woman a short course on the 2nd Amendment and Washington State gun rights.
It was a beautiful thing to witness.
Thanks so much for standing up for our right to pack, Dave. It's a great lesson for parents and children that we, as Americans, have a constitution. I believe I'll organize some of my friends to pack openly at the beach near our house. There are lots of children and Moms there who will appreciate seeing us carrying weapons. I think they will feel secure knowing we are there to protect them if a bad guy approaches. You are an inspiration. You too, Mike! I love that you carried them at Alki where there are so many children to educate! Bet they loved it! Good on ya! God bless America. It is a shame that some irresponsible idiots get their hands on guns and murder people, but that is a small price to pay for our right to pack, wouldn't your agree?
A fool has the right to drive a car, to walk down the street, to eat, to sleep, to have children...et al. We have some minimal defense against the fool in a car, or who walks into the street with out heed, or who has a child that will not be taught to respect the rights of others in what we like to call a civilized human culture.
We can swerve to avoid the car driven recklessly, we have rules of right of way and people in our employ to hopefully detect and lessen the chances of our being hurt or killed by unthinking or irrational drivers or people engaged in any activity that is deemed unsafe. Individual human beings have no defense against what you obliquely touched on here only as a way of getting back to the more sensitive issue here as you see it, which is not a life lost due to the utter insanity of some misguided self protection, but the utterly selfish and ego driven argument for arming ourselves, which argument ultimately fails in the face of this very incident.
Any person that thinks packing a gun makes them safer must be talking about being in a combat zone... otherwise you just make yourself a target of your own stupidity.
I don't care about "Left" or "Right", "Democrat", "Republican", or "Lillipution". What bothers me is that I percieve an erosion of our Civil Rights
under our Federal and State Constitions spanning the last eighty years. We need to make the pendulum swing back. Regarding "Gun Rights" or "Gun Control": All forms of gun control have limited the Peoples Rights to Self-Defense. From banning machine guns (only used by mobsters to commit crimes in the Twenties) to banning switchblades (because some movies made it look like punks always used them to cut up "nice young people"), to nunchaku (a high degree of skill is required to use these - try it some time), to "assault weapons" (cosmetically similar to real assault rifles, but not the same). Every one of these bans has been the result of an ignorant public responding to elitist propaganda.
The Second Amendment (and MOST state constitutions, including Oregon and Washington) GUARANTEE a pre-existing right to self-defense by use of "arms".
Everything from a sharpened pencil to nuclear weapons COULD be included in that definition. The Founders, however, (if you read their writings around the 2nd Amendment) hold that "arms" includes those kinds of weapons that members of the "militia" would bring with them to defend their community, state, nation. The "militia"? Every able-bodied man (and now woman - ERA, you know) in the country is a member, according to the Founders - and Washington's Constitution.
Argument about "reasonable" firearms laws: The Slippery Slope does exist. The British, Australians, and Canadians have all experienced it. Check out this analysis of the British history especially from the last hundred years: www.guncite.com/journals/okslip.html
Note that what is "reasonable" for one generation, is not nearly "reasonable enough" for the next. This was what lost the British all of their rights, including self-defense, free speech, jury trial, and on and on.
Argument about President Obama and his appointees: His statements and voting record while in the Illinois and US Senate show him to be against private firearm ownership. His appointees, especially Holder, Clinton, and Napolitano have twisted facts in their public statements since being appointed. Holder was a player in getting the 1994 Assault Weapon ban through. They WILL come for your guns, when they think they can get away with it.
All Democrats do NOT support the overthrough of the Second Amendment, nor do all Republicans support it.
What has been constant and true, until the 1930s, is that we, the American People have a guaranteed right to the necessary means to self-defense. The first gun control laws were enacted in the southern states during Reconstruction, to prevent freed slaves from having the means to defend themselves from KKK and others. Those laws were struck down at the time by SCOTUS, but since the early 1900s, we have been on the slippery slope.
We, law-abiding gun owners have been the quiet ones, allowing ourselves to be shouted down by elitist do-gooders who call us "Bubba" and "gun crazy", because they are afraid of guns, and of anyone who has one (including, I might add, the police and military).
Our opponents use twists of fact, and outright lies, to sway the public into supporting their agenda. The stated purpose of the Brady Campaign, and others of their ilk, is the total removal of all firearms from the hands of the public. It is in their writings, and in the statements of their officials, since the 1980s. They have used any device of propaganda (tell the same lie often enough and people will accept it as truth) to advance their goals. They were unable to, in one fell swoop, outlaw all guns early on, so their campaign became one of creeping legislation: A small, specific law here, a narrow change to regulation there, and eventually they get what they want. And it all looks "reasonable" at the time!
Our mission is first to educate the public: What does the Second Amendment say, what did the Founders say, what about our state constitutions? What is an assault rifle, versus and "assault weapon"? What does the GAO study on US guns in the Mexican drug war actually say? What are the real statistics from CDC, BATFE, FBI? (Gary Kleck, criminologist, and John R. Lott, economist, have done really good research into the FACTS. Check them out.)
Don't accept the "Bubba" label from the elitists. Ask them about those in Hollywood, and in Congress, who lobby against guns, yet have CCW licenses and go armed, or employ armed bodyguards - Charles Schumer and Rosie O'Donnell for two. Point out the hypocrits. Punch holes in their logic with supportable FACTS that you can quote. When you see a news story about gun use that skews the facts, and makes it look like "the gun crazies are at it again", CALL THEM ON IT! Get in the editors' faces (figuratively). Threaten and carry out libel suits if needed
This all requires that you educate yourself. When you debate in public (including these forums) with anti-gun folks, you must be calm, logical, have your facts in order, and be able to cite valid references. When the only thing they can do is come back at you with "Bubba" and "gun crazy" and "guns kill children every day", ask them to cite their source. And don't let them shout you down!
Second, lobby your elected officials - be the squeaky wheel. Don't let GOA and NRA do it all for you. If YOU call them, they know that it's not "just another NRA lobbying ploy"! If your representative votes against your wishes, vote her out, or impeach him! Make them toe the line, or polish their resumes. That's how the anti-gun lobby achieved their successes over the last 30 years.
Lastly: Be the good example. The worst thing that we can allow to happen is news stories of irresponsible gun owners, especially those with CCW licenses. Each incident, isolated though it might be, hands ammunition to our detractors. Encourage your friends and families to try out firearms, but learn to handle them responsibly. In today's world, the armed citizen must hold to a higher standard of responsibility, even than the police do, or we may lose it all.
Mike Settles
Of Vancouver, Washington
Serving in Iraq
I apologize for the length of my post - I had a lot to say, and 1000 characters at a time is rather limiting.
And to those who dispute what I have put forth here: Cite your sources, show the facts. If you want to call me "Bubba", that's ok - those who know me know the truth, and all of your blathering won't change the facts. It only detracts from any argument that you might make.
Assiduously, religiously, fanatically following the four rules of gun safety eliminates practically all unintentional shootings:
All firearms are always loaded -- for safety purposes we must ALWAYS behave as if this is literally true despite ANY 'knowledge' to the contrary.
Never point your firearm at anything that you are not willing to destroy -- and willing to take responsibility for destroying.
Know your target and what is beyond it.
Keep your finger off the trigger until you are intending to fire at a confirmed target.
Anyone shooting 'through a door' had better have extreme evidence of danger, such as shots coming IN that door, or a serious attempt to break down that door.
You can't legislate against stupid. No amount of training, outreach, et al. is going to have much effect on those who don't have a clue about what is and what is not reasonable.
Remember Richard Peters? The Marysville man who killed his daughter Stormy in November?
Aaron says: "Any person that thinks packing a gun makes them safer must be (a) target of your own stupidity."
A little projection there, Aaron? Are police "targets of their own stupidity?"
I guess that the millions of people who carry guns without causing harm to others don't count, right? Your premise was raised in every state that passed concealed carry laws, prior to passing those laws. Funny thing happened, none of the hysterical claims of the anti-Bill of Rights folks came to pass. The fact is that hundreds of thousands of people are SAFER because they carry a gun, including people who don't carry. If you truly believe that to be false, I suggest you post your home, car and business with "Gun Free Zone" placards. It's hypocritical for you to rely on the fact that criminals don't know who is, and is not, armed, while touting your superiority over those who are armed.
I find it a little surprising that you assume the motel shooter was simply a fool with a legal gun. Isn't it more likely he was a common thug -- the type of person to whom it is a waste of time to appeal to his responsibility or the damage he does to the image of gun owners? Gun owners are already tarred by the action of thugs anyway.
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