A Pirate Talks Guns

Stories Of Defensive Gun Use

John Cello Season 3 Episode 6

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Life is unpredictable, and danger can strike when least expected. Join us as we recount the harrowing tales of individuals who found themselves facing life-or-death situations. From thwarting random attacks to surviving violent encounters, these stories of defensive gun use serve as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the importance of being prepared for the unexpected.


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Today we’re going to talk about a subject that sends the anti-gunners into absolute, foaming-at-the-mouth, meltdowns; responsible gun owners defending themselves against criminals. The gun-grabbers hate us, the Constitution, the country, and all that we believe in. And wounding or killing a criminal hits home with them as that is their target voter demographic. But normal people just keep valuing their own lives more than the bad guys, so along with some commentary we’ll highlight a few real-world defensive gun uses. So let’s get started.

[INTRO]

 This is going to be a bit of a rant, as I, like so many others in the country, are angry about what is happening to America. We’ve become Bizzarro World, where right is wrong, wrong is applauded, and an ill-informed but vocal minority continues to drive the train off the bridge. The most disheartening part is that there doesn’t appear to be a return to normalcy in the immediate future.

 Yes, legal, responsible gun owners defending themselves and others against criminals. The anti-gunners really hate to hear about this, because they work so hard to provide a safe environment for the criminals. Too ill-informed or just too ate up with being liberals to admit that their policies are directly contributing to the crime problem America is now facing, the country is becoming more dangerous by the day. Remember back when we had sufficient amounts of police officers, district attorneys who would prosecute cases, and criminals locked up? 

And do you remember how the progressives not only allowed but encouraged certain factions to act like the vicious, burning, looting, murderers they actually are to discredit the wheels of justice? Remember the riots that the media termed “mostly peaceful protests?” Remember how the progressives made heroes out of felons? Remember how they started the defund the police movement? Remember a Democrat mayor ceding six city blocks of Seattle, an American city,  to vicious, degenerate scum for twenty-four days? Remember, come November, which political party brought this down on us.

 See, killing or injuring and sending to jail a criminal removes a Democrat voter. And with the Biden administration openly importing as many illegal aliens into the country to gerrymander on a scale heretofore unseen in this country, the leftists will do whatever they can to limit our ability to defend ourselves from their voter base. 

Yeah, the self-styled saviors of America who would have us drive electric cars on our way to eat bugs absolutely loathe and despise any efforts real Americans make to defend themselves.  Now, we expect anyone who sits on the left of the aisle to oppose anything that the Constitution guarantees. That’s just what they do. By ignoring rights guaranteed by the Constitution, it makes way for their invented rights, like taxpayer-funded gender change surgery. Opposition from that side is only to be expected.  After all, if they weren’t trying to strip us of our rights, they’d be doing nothing at all while collecting those fat salaries. 

Here in my home state of South Carolina, permitless carry was signed into law March 7th of this year. The Dems, as always and without merit, prophesized a bloodbath. You know, like they have whenever any of the other states went to constitutional carry, and the statistics show otherwise. Kind of like their global warming and Biden getting eighty-one million votes. Fairy tales believed only by the faithful. Democrat Senator Margie Bright Matthews said “why do we want to promote, what we consider to be the second amendment right, why won’t we put restrictions on it, why are we going to allow people to carry more guns and this time without a CWP,”, because, you know, screw the Constitution. Here’s a better question Margie; why don’t we establish term limits so your kind can only cause damage for four years?

 President Biden established a White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention in September, placing Vice President Kamala Harris at its head to push forward with his administration’s gun control priorities. Her having done such a stellar job with the border, I’m sure this office being led by Willie Brown’s ex-girlfriend will have a tremendous impact on crime.

 Let’s talk about some statistics here. And, please take any figure quoted here with a grain of salt. I’ve pulled some from less than reliable sources, others don’t list their sample size or demographic, and I’m sure a lot of the anti-gun sources just make up ridiculous numbers because the true believers will treat it as gospel without fact-checking them. Also, I had to take a statistics course in college. The one take-away I got from it is that you can manipulate figures to prove whatever you want them to prove, so there is that as well.

The New York Post, that paragon of veracity, most American homes have guns. As of November, it’s been reported that 52% of Americans either have a gun or live with someone who has a gun within their household according to an NBC News poll. It’s a trend that’s increasing over time. In 2019, 46% of households had a gun, and 42% in 2013.

 The Daily Signal recently put out a report titled “Self-Defense Stories Debunk Anti-Gun Activists’ Claims”. It states, “Almost every major study has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times annually, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has acknowledged. In 2021, the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the issue concluded that roughly 1.6 million defensive gun uses occur in the United States every year.”

 According to a report on ConservativeChoiceCampiagn.com, high gun ownership not only deters home invasions but also terrorism. “This just makes America safer. Any hostile force dumb enough to try a Hamas-style attack in the United States would be met by an armed populace on almost every street corner,” it states.

The reasons why we’re in the state we’re in as a country are clear to anyone who has an IQ higher than a turnip. So let’s get to how some of the denizens of society were removed.

A lot of these will be out of Chicago, where you currently have a better chance of getting shot than Soldiers did during the Gulf War in Baghdad. Yes, a city with the most draconian gun laws is more dangerous than a Mideast country during an invasion.

On Dec. 15 of 2023, a concealed-carry permit holder and his companion were walking to their vehicle at a Chicago mall when three men surrounded them and began to assault them. According to police, the victim drew his gun and fired multiple shots at the attackers, hitting two of them and ending the assault.

The injuries to the two criminals were non-lethal, and one was later charged with battery. Following an investigation, authorities decided not to charge the armed citizen, who was just saving himself and his companion from the thugs.

Illinois only started allowing its citizens to receive concealed carry permits in 2013. You have to jump through hoops to get one, and issuance isn’t a sure thing.

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On Jan. 30, 2024 an 80-year-old Chicago man used his legally owned handgun to save his life when two home intruders burst into his house. According to media reports, the victim was sitting in his recliner while recovering from a recent prostate surgery when the duo forced their way into the home and knocked him to the ground.

 The octogenarian was able to get to his pistol and shoot both intruders. One, a 13-time felon, was struck in the chest and remains hospitalized. He faces charges of home invasion causing bodily injury, aggravated battery of a victim over the age of 60 and aggravated battery causing great bodily harm. While a judge ordered him held in lieu of $500,000 bond, he is being held without bail on a warrant from the Illinois Department of Corrections, which is reviewing his parole status.

Just a week earlier, a Chicago concealed-carry permit holder used his firearm to protect himself from an armed robber on a train. According to media reports, the robber, who has been arrested 32 times in the last 10 years, pulled a gun, approached the victim on the train and tried to rob him.

Fortunately, the victim was carrying a concealed firearm and knew how to use it. He fired several shots, hitting the would-be robber in the leg, who was arrested a short time later. Since the armed citizen was an off-duty security guard, he won’t be facing charges for bringing a concealed firearm on the train.

Dec. 27, Chicago, Illinois: A concealed carry permit holder returned fire at four would-be carjackers who shot at him and his female passenger—a co-worker whom he’d just picked up after she experienced a flat tire on the way to work. The suspects fled. Both victims sustained gunshot wounds but were released from the hospital that same day. The woman’s family credited her armed co-worker with saving her life.

 This next one is from The Vermont Daily Chronicle, and is my personal favorite.

A Georgia, Vermont resident was interrupted late on Tuesday night as three home intruders tried to break through a locked door. Like many homes in Vermont, the resident inside was a gun owner.

 The break-in attempt did not go as planned when the owner, Gordon Richard Sr., 75, used a muzzleloading rifle to shoot one of the three men, causing the other two to flee. He then secured himself inside the home and called the police.

 It’s fortunate that the two who weren’t shot fled, as the reload time with a muzzleloading rifle can be timed with a calendar. I can only imagine the cloud of smoke produced in this shooting.

 Cocoa, Florida: When a man began violently assaulting his ex-girlfriend in a parking lot near a youth football practice, a coach attempted to intervene. The man—a convicted felon—grabbed a revolver from his car and shot at the coach, who had his own gun and returned fire until the man fled. Police are still searching for the suspect. The coach sustained a minor graze wound but wasn’t seriously injured.

 Salem, Indiana: Police say that a man drove his car through the lawn at a home belonging to his ex-girlfriend’s parents, assaulted her father, pinned him to the ground, and pointed a gun at his head. The victim’s wife saw the altercation, came outside with her own gun, and fatally shot her husband’s assailant. The assailant had a lengthy criminal history, but it’s unclear why he targeted the couple.

 The common theme in most of these cases is the offender having a criminal record. Because, see, according to Webster, a criminal is 1. one who has committed a crime, and 2. a person who has been convicted of a crime. Criminals don’t obey laws. And if criminals aren’t prosecuted for their crimes, there is absolutely no repercussions for their actions. Yet every time there is a shooting the anti-gunners beat their breasts and demand new gun laws be put into effect. Yes, the same progressives who want to defund the police, eliminate bonds, lower sentences for crimes, and be very selective about which crimes are prosecuted demand more gun laws.

 This level of potato in the judicial system is tough to reconcile, as new laws only impact responsible, law-abiding gun owners, not criminals. The last I checked, most of the acts that have spawned new gun laws were already illegal, covered by other statutes. But the progressives would have us believe that new laws are necessary to prevent gun violence. The same progressives want courts to take into consideration race, economic status, and a myriad amount of other factors that, in reality, have absolutely nothing to do with the case at hand.

 If you look at a statue of Lady Justice, you’ll see she is holding a scale in one hand, a sword in the other, and wears a blindfold. The scales balance the weight of the evidence presented by the concerned parties and the sword represents authority. But the blindfold is what is most important. Lady Justice is blindfolded because she isn’t meant to see race, social standing, or anything that would sway her from applying the same even-handed weighing of evidence in the case. 

 This is important because if the justice system is swayed by outside factors, the entire system becomes invalid. If justice isn’t meted out equally to everyone the system is fatally flawed. Outcries on social networks, riots, threatening judges, and other acts of outrage, either genuine or orchestrated, should have no bearing on the weighing of evidence and sentencing of the convicted.

 If we’re to survive as the democratic republic the founding fathers intended it to be we need to return to the law-abiding society we once were. We need to enforce the laws currently on the books fairly and evenly. We need to rein in the federal agencies like the Department of Justice and the FBI, and hold them accountable to their oaths of office. If we fail to do this, we’re doomed as a country.

Well, so much for the doom and gloom. As always, if you liked what you heard here, consider letting a like-minded friend know about us. We’re listed on all the podcast directories, or you can listen to us on our website.

Our next scheduled class will be a South Carolina Concealed Weapons Permit class on Saturday, April 20th at the SkipJ range in Anderson. Until next time, shoot safe.

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