Your Lockdown of the Day™ today is a twofer, because of the brevity of both incidents. First, Van R. Butler Elementary School in Walton County, Florida was locked down for about 15 minutes today after police were called about gunfire. When officers arrived, they found that a man had shot a rattlesnake that was crawling through a homeowner’s front yard near the school. Police had no comment other than, “…as you can see behind you there, it was a pretty large rattlesnake.” . . .
The second LOTD comes from Winchester, NH, where an elementary school went into lockdown for about 10 minutes after a person with a concealed weapon (not very well concealed, apparently) was reported in front of the school. Police responded and found that it was a man with a permit to carry who was waiting on the sidewalk to accompany his children home from school. The man was reportedly “remorsefully unaware” that the federal Gun-Free Schools Zone Act prohibited possession of a loaded gun, even a properly licensed one, within 1,000 feet of a school. The officer waited with the man until he left with his children, and he was not cited, but was told never to do it again.
Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy announced on Monday that police have recovered more than 2,000 illegal guns in Chicago so far this year. (What defines an “illegal gun” is not specified.) According to a short story in the ChiTrib, Mayor Rahm Emanuel often makes the case that relatively lax Illinois gun laws are much of the problem, and highlights Emanuel’s unsuccessful attempts to get state lawmakers to “strengthen” those laws. Meanwhile, a total of 23 people were shot between 6 p.m. Friday and midnight Sunday in Chicago, four of them fatally. The final sentence of the article is the kicker: “[Chicago] has enacted tougher city gun laws to try to combat crime, though in the past those ordinances have been rarely enforced, and it’s unclear how much good they do.” Quite.
Another reminder to check your bags, people. Three people have been found to have guns in their possession within the past week at Detroit Metropolitan airport, including one employee headed in to work. It’s very easy to get busy and overlook things when you’re packing for a trip, but “Is there a gun in my bag?” should be right up there at the top of the list with “Did I turn off the stove?” and “Did I lock the front door?” Actually, the gun should probably be higher than at least one of those, because an unlocked front door won’t send you to prison.
Jerry Miculek met a guy recently that had footage of Jerry’s very first official speed-shooting demo, back in 1990. You want to know how Jerry is so good today? Because he was this good 24 years ago. While the shooting is good, the quality of the tape is pretty bad. But then, it was probably shot on a video camera that was about the same size as the VCR used to play the tape back. It’s worth it, though, to watch a legend in the making.
That revolver sounds like a machine gun.
