By Dean Weingarten
Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- The dramatic video in the link below shows how flimsy many modern doors are. Notice that the locks held, and that the attacker kicked his way in. He did *not* use the machete to hack his way in. It was not needed. The event pictured occurred on February 22, 2014 in Pocatello, Idaho. The trial has just been concluded.
Notice how quickly the break-in occurs. Ten seconds from the first kick on the screen, to entering the apartment. The door barely gave enough delay to take cover and make the decision to shoot. The Supreme Court should be shown this video when they decide to hear the San Francisco case where the Ninth Circuit ruled that it was Constitutional for the city to require guns to be locked up if they were not carried on the body. From prweb.com:
The Firearms Policy Coalition and 12 other state and national civil rights organizations filed a brief in the United States Supreme Court today for a lawsuit challenging a San Francisco gun control ordinance.
According to the plaintiffs’ petition for review, the city’s law “requires all residents who keep handguns in their homes for self-defense to stow them away in a lock box or disable them with a trigger lock whenever they are not physically carrying them on their persons.”
A locked up gun could well have created a deadly delay in this instance.
In this case, the pistol was used to good effect. From abc7.com:
“If he hadn’t been shot at that time, then we would be looking at a murder case, not an attempted murder case,” Cvengros told ABC affiliate KIFI-TV.
Thomas survived the shooting and was charged with several counts of aggravated assault and attempted murder. Thomas’ attorneys argued he suffered from both PTSD and frontal-lobe damage to his brain. They say Thomas wasn’t aware of what he was doing until after he was shot.
A judge found him guilty last Thursday.
The attacker, Twain Thomas was 54 years old, and seems fit, in the video. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The defender, James Cvengros says that he initially set up the video to document the commotion that was happening uopstairs. From kpvi.com:
“Having the film footage was originally just to document everything upstairs, but the noises that were originally happening, so when I set the camera down it was kind of like a thought of just in case,” says James Cvengros.
On the video you can hear the shouts getting louder and closer. James checks the door as he is holding a gun in his hand.Then James locks and dead bolts the door. A few minutes later Thomas began breaking it down. James was screaming at him to stop, but he doesn’t and that’s when James began shooting at him.“Three shots in the chest and torso. Two in the stomach and one in the chest. He didn’t go down,” says James Cvengros.
Machetes make excellent agricultural and general purpose tools. They also make decent weapons. This video is clear evidence of the utility of firearms for self defense. It also shows the utility of video evidence for legal defense in the investigation that follows. James Cvengros states that the video footage helped to clear him.
James Cvengros wants to remind people that no matter whether you are for or against guns, it’s everyone’s responsibility to protect themselves and having the video footage helped clear him during the investigation.
Twain Thomas admitted to the police that he intended to kill James Cevengros and his girlfriend.
c2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch
About Dean Weingarten;
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
Admitted to attempted murder and got 15 years? Way to go justice system. He’ll do 51% of his sentence and be out on parole to kill someone for real next time. Pathetic.