Michael Davis Narrowly Avoids Gun Battle
Michael Davis, city plan commissioner, blogger, and friend of FB Nation, was almost caught in the crossfire while coming home from a fireworks show on Friday night with his wife. Mike is okay, but he’s “sick of ducking bullets.”
DPD can’t do it all while we sit in the house; we have to take action against these people that are destroying our community. Where do we begin? Is it by dealing with the apartment owners that refuse to hire security so that ongoing problems, as was reported in C’Andrea’s case, don’t fester? Is it by trying to get rid of the gun shows that allow easy access for criminals to acquire assault rifles that only have one purpose? It’s clear that something must be done.
I’m sure the line about gun shows will ruffle some feathers. I’d pay more attention to the general plea in the line that follows.
49 Comments to “Michael Davis Narrowly Avoids Gun Battle”
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What a shock, I’m the first to comment. And though I agree with Zac’s point, the pedantic hoplophile in me is required to report that all gun sales in gun shows require the same federal and criminal background checks as they require at gun stores. The “gun show loophole” is yet another urban myth.
x2 on the gun show urban myth. Federal background check is required at a gun show just like if you purchased the firearm at Academy or WalMart.
Yes, I know. That’s why I highlighted it.
Sorry, Trey, but if you’re purchasing from a “private collection” at a gun show - you pay your cash or make your trade and go on your way. The only requirement for background checks is when purchasing from a licensed (FFL) dealer. I’ve done both. I’ve also bought and sold firearms from other individuals at shows who were there in the same capacity as I was - general customer.
Not that I think any new stupid law should be imposed or would help in any way if it was. I’m just saying.
Eddie Izzard: “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people. But I think the guns HELP, don’t you?”
Damn, thanks to FB today I have two strong candidates for my next band name:
Soft Fart From A Corpse
or
Pedantic Hoplophile
Decision, decisions
You can always use one as an album/song title, Jay.
Tim W., - I should have been more specific about sales between two random customers who meet. But those take place at gun shows and anywhere else in the world two individuals happen to meet. To outlaw those you’d have to basically outlaw anyone selling — or giving — a gun to anyone else.
If he was ducking bullets, I’d bet serious money that the bullets were not fired from an “assault rifle,” whatever that is. He was probably ducking handgun fire. The first step in resolving the problem of violence of any sort is to determine the nature of the violence, not to go off wildly swinging in all directions at all sort of bugaboos like the mythical problem with the mythical assault rifle.
“Root cause” type of solutions rarely work (see Education, Public). What does work is more and better policing in hot spots and long and effective sentences for criminals convicted of gun crimes.
As for me and the Mantooths, we take care of problems like this in the most effective and simple way possible: return fire.
@ Eric — Archie Bunker: “Would you be happier if they wuz pushed outta windows, little girl?”
@ Trey: “you’d have to basically outlaw anyone selling — or giving — a gun to anyone else.”
Yes, that’s a step in the right direction.
Yeah, like Washington DC got control of thier violence by banning guns…….liberals.
Unfortunately for Michael and the rest of Dallas, the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear last month that we can ban neither ****** nor guns in our fair burg.
http://ap.google.com/article/A.....QD91NPL080
I would love to ban ****** from living in Dallas. Think of it: property values would skyrocket but the population would drop by at least 50 percent — probably a lot more.
Banning guns instead of ****** would have another wonderful result: drive by stabbings are usually not effective, but leave that to the ****** to figure out.
@Jay - Thanks. To save space on my Facebook page, I shortened “pedantic hoplophile” to “ped-ophile.”
I think that let’s the world know what I’m all about.
What?
Why is I.D.I.O.T.S. and banned word?
See, I probably shouldn’t have excerpted the part where Mike mentions assault rifles. (Though, if you read the rest of his blog entry, and you should, it is relevant.)
I think, in general, he is agreeing with Wes Mantooth’s ideas–i.e., more and better policing.
So focus up a little bit, folks. We can talk about gun shows all day–and I’m sure you will. But, just a suggestion: why don’t we talk a little more about solutions?
Either that or fire off one-liners. I could go either way.
Crap, I.D.I.O.T.S. is strong too.
Might have to be a double album.
@Trey - Miss you. Mean it.
Johan: use “liberals” next time. It fits just as well.
I have a large collection of guns but the one type of gun I don’t have is an automatic assualt rifle.There isn’t one reason why the public should be able to purchase or own this type of gun.
To get back to the point of guns, so to speak: Remember the double-murders of the Garland music studio guys? The two bad guys were able to use a handgun because they’d gone to a local broker and swapped their AK-47 for a pistol.
They didn’t go to a gun show or Wal-Mart. They went down the street. I hate guns, but, seriously, it’s bad people who are to blame. You can’t cut off their trigger fingers, but you can lock ‘em up. Make misdemeanor gun crimes a felony. Profile gun criminals.
Then, in a very public place and on national TV, beat the living snot out of the stinking piles of brainless muck. Oops, channeled my inner trog…..I meant give them a fair trial and lock them up until they can’t see to aim.
Sell all the guns you want, but there’s a 5-day waiting period on bullets, and you can only buy one at at a time.
There. Now can we go drink?
No surprises here; It always becomes a shooting match about guns. I likened it on another blog to the ‘everything’s black or white’ rage debate over banning pit bulls; i.e. Pit bulls are good/ it’s the owners who are bad. OR: Pit Bulls Should Be Banned. It’s never about the child that was killed by a particular pit bull. With every horrible tragedy; it’s always about dogs.
All my life after the Kennedy assassination, it’s been a pro-gun/anti-gun shout out shoot out. And lost in the shuffle are the larger points about how many kids have been killed this year ‘accidentally’ in gang warfare and random drive by shootings in Dallas, particularly in central Oak Cliff per Davis’ turf. But no matter what we are writing about or reading, it always becomes about guns being our protection or our enemy even though the story everyone is responding to is about the death of the innocent. Year after year. Decade after decade.
Once upon a time it was not like this. But it has been for a very long time.
You people should move to NYC, where its safe.
Rawlins, Zac, yes, there’s nothing more boring or off the point than a protracted gun debate.
But at the same time, every discussion of these tragedies has the same tired solution floated like an air biscuit. What’s the other side to do, cede the ground? Don’t answer, it will only drag this out.
Meanwhile, no more one-liners. We now return you to a serious discussion on C-SPAN 8, the Ocho.
@Zach - Yes, safe, unless you’re a black man holding a wallet.
They made drugs illegal and now, I believe, they’re virtually impossible to acquire. So yes, our government should ban guns. Want a gun, do ya, criminal? Well, looks like you’re plum out of luck — they just happen to be illegal!
You people need to have greater faith in the government’s ability/duty to shape human behavior.
Thousands of people have taken action - they’ve moved to the suburbs.
Daniel states: “They made drugs illegal and now, I believe, they’re virtually impossible to acquire. So yes, our government should ban guns. Want a gun, do ya, criminal? Well, looks like you’re plum out of luck — they just happen to be illegal!
You people need to have greater faith in the government’s ability/duty to shape human behavior.”
I can’t tell, but I hope you’re being sarcastic. If not, I thought that was why the Founding Fathers felt the need for the Second Ammendment. They didn’t want the governement to have that role.
If you are being sarcastic, well played!
monkey god said, “I have a large collection of guns but the one type of gun I don’t have is an automatic assualt rifle. There isn’t one reason why the public should be able to purchase or own this type of gun.”
Good, since nobody can buy or sell “automatic” assault rifles legally - at gun shows or anywhere else. Automatic means that when you pull the trigger once, more than one bullet will be fired. Except for some ‘grandfathered’ weapons in private collections, civilians can not buy, sell or own automatic weapons. Semi-automatic weapons - meaning that only one bullet is fired per trigger pull, but that the gun uses an automated system to load, cock, and fire the next round with the next trigger pull - are completely legal and have many uses from self-defense to hunting. If a rifle or handgun is “black” (so sorry JWP) and “looks like a military weapon,” that does not make it functionally different than a Remington 1100 autoloading shotgun or various automatic rifles with wood stocks and fancy engraving designed to be hunting rifles.
So, like monkey god, I don’t own an AR-15, but my Marlin Model 60 .22 holds fifteen rounds and fires one per pull of the trigger as fast as I can pull it. It has many uses, fun being the primary goal, and there is no possible excuse to ban it - though it is functionally the same as so-called assault rifles. There are many paper targets and aluminum cans in grave danger…
And Trey, I’ve got to say it - some of those people with booths at gun shows don’t have to run background checks because they aren’t dealers. Neither are they just customers. It is a situation that is easily misconstrued - though I agree that two people can meet at any time or place and buy, sell and trade weapons.
Tim, duly noted.
But on the other point, buying and owning a fully automatic rifle or carbine is absolutely legal. You simply have to pay a federal transfer tax and pass a federal background check. Nothing to it.
Hmm, I have been gravely misinformed, then. I apologize then for spreading that ignorance…
If you are sick of ducking bullets then just stop ducking.
Remember guns don’t kill people, men with little bitty weenies do.
Trey, not sure exactly, but I believe that to own full auto firearms, you must have a Federal Class III firearms license, and it’s very restrictive. Normal people that haven’t been through the licensing process may not own or possess a full auto firearm. I may be butchering the actual title or might be wrong. If so, my apologies.
It has been unlawful since 1934 (The National Firearms Act) for civilians to own machine guns without special permission from the U.S. Treasury Department. Machine guns are subject to a $200 tax every time their ownership changes from one federally registered owner to another, and each new weapon is subject to a manufacturing tax when it is made, and it must be registered with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) in its National Firearms Registry.
To become a registered owner, a complete FBI background investigation is conducted, checking for any criminal history or tendencies toward violence, and an application must be submitted to the BATF including two sets of fingerprints, a recent photo, a sworn affidavit that transfer of the NFA firearm is of “reasonable necessity,” and that sale to and possession of the weapon by the applicant “would be consistent with public safety.” The application form also requires the signature of a chief law enforcement officer with jurisdiction in the applicant’s residence.
Since the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of May 19, 1986, ownership of newly manufactured machine guns has been prohibited to civilians. Machine guns which were manufactured prior to the Act’s passage are regulated under the National Firearms Act, but those manufactured after the ban cannot ordinarily be sold to or owned by civilians.
(Sources: talk.politics.guns FAQ, part 2, “FAQ on National Firearms Act Weapons”, and from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, National Firearms Act FAQ. See also, “The Firearms Owners’ Protection Act: A Historical and Legal Perspective” [Hardy, 1986]) )
Here are some solutions:
Start at home: Have a Mom and a Dad at home and administer discipline. Don’t let the kids buy Grand Theft Auto video games that glorify guns and mayhem. Stay involved with your kids so you can help them avoid hanging out with the wrong crowd.
Public: Report this kind of crap and any other type of criminal behavior every time you see it.
Government: Put more cops in the hood where this type of “keeping it real” (gag - I hate that term) behavior occurs and lock these punks up - not probation, lock their punk ass up. Keep adding cops until Mom and Dad get control of the home front.
Last: See start at home
Or, we can all move to London where even the police don’t have guns. Then we’d be double safe.
Of course, they are wetting themselves over serious knife crime problems.
I think one of their proposed solutions is to switch to chopsticks for all meals, that or the spork.
Here’s an idea. Move the hell outta there. This whole fixing the problem by “policing it ourselves” is nonsense. Will never work because the people committing the crimes have lost any sense of reality and difference between right or wrong. Save yourself first, then attempt to fix the problem, if you care to.
My point exactly Trey,plus some guns sold as semi can easily be converted into automatic.At the least it would put law enforcement on a level playing field if they could attach a long prison sentence to someone caught firing a automatic assault rifle in a criminal act within city limits.
Tim W when you shoot your .22 you aim at what your shooting,pull trigger then aim again.The bad guy or bad sportsman will spray fire in hope of hitting something.Hopefully their gun jams.
The problem isn’t the guns, it’s the people. Guns are prohibited and very hard to sneak into prison, but nobody equates being in prison to living in a safe environment (and if you should live under that delusion, give a listen to yesterday’s report on NPR’s “All Things Considered” about life at San Quentin).
Davis’ ultimate concern isn’t gunfire, it’s public safety in an area where people feel free to act out their criminal impulses without fear of getting caught. As with nearly any behavior, if you increase the risk, you will decrease the demand.
So I’d propose we spend more money on cops in the hood and less money on convention center hotels.
Yes, I was being sarcastic.
Conversion of a semi to full is not easy, and usually ruins the weapon. So says a friend.
Trey
My brother, who knows his way around guns better than I and is a officer in the state of Oklahoma, tells me it’s not hard if you know what your doing.The same says my brother-in-law the federal agent.I shouldn’t believe what they say because their the man.I’ll just keep my shotgun to protect myself.Double 00 buckshot doesn’t miss and it hurts.
And if you ban ownership of firearms you end up with the same situation as they have in England. there they banned firearm ownership, burglaries increased as the criminals knew that no guns existed in the house they were invading.
Now they have an added problem — knifings. yup there is an epidemic of knifings in the country amongst the young.
want to reduce gun crimes then do like we’ve done here in richmond va. Anyone arrested for a crime in which a gun was used (fired or not) is tried under federal gun crime laws which result in a mandatory 5 year prison term with no parole. Gun crimes and the attendant homicides declined dramatically
man, where to start?
for me, it all boils down to R-E-S-P-E-C-T, respect for yourself, respect for others, and respect for the power you have in your hand when holding a gun
i guess i was lucky to have a father that showed me how to assemble, load, fire and clean numerous firearms as a teenager all the while explaining to me the responsibility that came with the tasks
and i’ve always felt that firing a gun in anger in the direction of another person is one of the most cowardly things a man (or woman) can ever do
you got a beef with me? let’s get it on. be a man and see if you can whoop me. just me and you. i’m always ready to throw down
I’d rather take my chances with knives. At least I can outrun those.
Lucky for you, HCL. Not so lucky for a 115-lbs woman or a senior citizen.
Funny, because I AM a woman and that’s almost exactly what I weigh. Why do you think my light weight would make me so slow?
HCS, hmmmm. Are you single?
Might want to get her name correct if your going to hit on her.