White liberals try again to ban guns in entire state, after killing sprees by 2 black felons. The families of the deceased cops should be called upon to denounce this un-Constitutional attack upon the people, in their names by WA Ceasefire, SPD and the Dems. Many of 'the people' donated to their family funds and obviously support law enforcement.
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http://www.examiner.com/x-4525-Seattle-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m12d2-Accused-cop-killer-had-surprise-stolen-handgun


Maurice Clemmons, the man authorities are convinced fatally shot four Lakewood, WA police officers Sunday morning in a coffee shop in the Parkland area south of Tacoma, evidently left two handguns at the scene of the crime, one of them (as predicted here yesterday) checked out to have been stolen in Seattle.
That was one of many revelations in court documents filed yesterday against acquaintances of the now-deceased cop-killer, who are facing some major criminal troubles of their own.
The fact that a stolen handgun was left at the scene came as no surprise to gun rights advocates who have long known that people like Maurice Clemmons do not buy guns at retail gun stores, or even at gun shows, despite what gun prohibitionists repeatedly assert. (The Los Angeles Times published a particularly offensive editorial about this case, blaming firearms instead of the felon who pulled the trigger.)

There was a 9 mm handgun at the scene and one spent 9 mm casing at the scene. The 9 mm handgun was reported stolen from Seattle and is not associated with any of the deceased officers. – Pierce County Superior Court document

The handgun in question is a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and it had been fired once. It was recovered from the crime scene Sunday morning by detectives, who also found a .38-caliber revolver apparently left by the killer when he fled. It had six empty shell cases in the cylinder. The source of both guns needs to be determined, because Clemmons, a convicted felon out on bail for more recent alleged crimes including rape of a child, could not legally possess firearms. As noted in this space last time, whoever supplied him with those guns needs to be held accountable.
When Clemmons died Tuesday morning in Seattle in a confrontation with a uniformed patrol officer identified by the Seattle Times here, he was carrying a .40-caliber Glock pistol that had been taken from one of the four officers he murdered. It may have been the pistol used by the last officer he killed, Greg Richards, who heroically wrestled Clemmons out through the door – putting at least one bullet into Clemmons’ gut in the process – before being fatally shot in the head. There were two spent .40-caliber cartridge cases at the scene.
Court papers say Officer Tina Griswold was also shot in the head, as was Sgt. Mark Renninger, while Officer Ronnie Owens was shot in the neck. The fact that all four were wearing soft body armor has no bearing, contrary to what the Los Angeles Times intimated in its editorial, as it is clear the shots were intentionally and carefully delivered at almost point blank range. Only Richards had a chance to react. As my colleague, John Longenecker notes here, the L.A. Times is clearly exploiting the Parkland outrage to push its anti-gun agenda.
When Clemmons appeared Tuesday morning at about 2:45 a.m., approaching the Seattle officer's marked patrol car from the left rear, it seems pretty clear that he was most likely preparing to up his score. Fortunately, the cop spotted him approaching, immediately recognized Clemmons from police bulletins, and the fatal confrontation unfolded.
Assistant Seattle Police Chief Jim Pugel’s description of what happened in those few seconds clearly signals that Clemmons was preparing to engage the officer in a gunfight. His movements immediately prior to being shot gave away his intentions. Quoted by the Seattle Times, Pugel told reporters that the suspect “also began to run away counterclockwise around the vehicle.”

He ordered the person to stop. He ordered the person to show his hands. That person would not show his hands, and also began to run away counterclockwise around the vehicle." – Assistant Seattle Police Chief Jim Pugel/Seattle Times

This is a textbook "body language" signal; moving to put distance and a barrier – the car – between himself and the opposition, in this case a lone Seattle police officer on routine patrol. Fortunately for the officer, he fired and took the suspect down. Clemmons died a few feet away after apparently reaching toward his waistband, where any reasonable person – knowing what they knew at the time about the man they were facing – would justifiably believe he was carrying a weapon, and acted accordingly.
There will be a full investigation by detectives, and this shooting, like all other Seattle police shootings, will go before the department’s Firearms Review Board. It will be up to the county executive to call for a full coroner’s inquest, according to the King County Prosecutor’s Office, which may be prudent considering all the finger-pointing now going on in order to place blame on someone for Clemmons’ freedom, and what appears to be a whole handful of balls dropped by both Arkansas and Washington authorities that enabled Clemmons to be on the street.
A few conspiracy theorists have already suggested on newspaper reader feedback blogs that Clemmons was executed; that police never intended to take him alive. Details of events immediately leading up to his death belie that as nonsense. He alone called the play.
A dangerous, recidivist criminal gunned down four police officers just hours after telling acquaintances of his intentions. Some of those acquaintances helped Clemmons in the aftermath and they are now behind bars awaiting charges, and Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist is ready to throw the book at them all.

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http://www.examiner.com/x-4525-Seattle-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m12d17-Antigun-WA-lawmakers-launch-new-assault-on-weapons-press-doesnt-help?cid=exrss-Seattle-Gun-Rights-Examiner

As predicted earlier in this column, gun prohibitionists are using the murder of a Seattle police officer, and a couple of other slayings, to launch a new effort to ban the sale of semiautomatic firearms in Washington State, and require current owners to register their firearms.
I forecast this development in a Nov. 3 column that addressed the cowardly slaying of Seattle Officer Timothy Brenton on Halloween as he sat in his patrol car in the Central District with trainee Britt Sweeney, who was able to return fire.
The irony is that Brenton, as I wrote in a Nov. 10 follow-up, was not killed with a rifle that meets the so-called “assault weapon” criteria, except that it just happens to be a semi-auto. However, the Kel-Tec rifle allegedly used in the Brenton murder is a sporting rifle, with a black synthetic stock; an inexpensive alternative to the far more popular AR-15 type rifle owned by millions of Americans, and certain tens of thousands of law-abiding Washington hunters, competitors and recreational target shooters.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Adam Kline (D-37th District), said in a telephone interview Wednesday that “the characteristics of a weapon…make it more lethal.”
And what characteristics are these? If it has a hand guard, a pistol grip, a large magazine and maybe a folding stock, and if it is semiautomatic. Sen. Kline is concerned about the “lethality” of a firearm; design characteristics that would allow someone to fire rapidly into a crowd.

If they're used in the army, used in the war — that's what this ban is about."— Ralph Fascitelli, board president of Washington Ceasefire.

“I define lethality as the ability of a shooter or a weapon that gives the ability to a shooter to kill large numbers of people at a time,” Kline explained.
Brenton was killed instantly, apparently hit multiple times. His partner was grazed. It is not clear how many rounds were fired by the killer, other than “several.” A man identified as Christopher Monfort has been charged with that slaying.
Shift the scene to the Forza coffee shop in Parkland where four Lakewood officers were murdered Nov. 29 in the course of a shooting incident that took perhaps 30 seconds. The man who killed them, convicted felon Maurice Clemmons, used a .38 Special revolver and a stolen 9mm pistol. All six rounds in the revolver were fired – and by the time they were gone, at least three of the four officers were dead, killed by single shots to the head in two cases and one to the neck in the third case – and one round was fired from the 9mm pistol. Both guns were left at the scene and Clemmons made off with Richards’ pistol, a .40-caliber Glock that he was carrying 42 hours later when he was fatally shot by Seattle Police officer Benjamin Kelly on a South Seattle street. Richards also died from a head wound, but not until he was able to shoot Clemmons.
The primary murder weapon in Parkland was the six-shot revolver.
The murder weapon in Seattle was a .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle that does not meet the definition of an “assault weapon” and doesn’t even look like a rifle that might be mistakenly identified as a “military style semiautomatic assault weapon.”
There appears to be something of a media frenzy of late about “assault weapons.” USA today tries to get in on the action with a story illustrated by a remarkably stupid image of a shopping cart filled with handguns, and most of them are revolvers. Why can’t the press get this right? It’s not rocket science. More about this in a minute.
Sen. Kline certainly should know this because in late November, he spent a couple of hours at a gun range in Black Diamond with Brian Judy, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association and State Sen. Pam Roach, the pro-gun Auburn Republican. Kline had the opportunity to fire several semiautomatic rifles, including a Browning BAR hunting rifle chambered in .300 Winchester Magnum (not to be confused with the famous WWII vintage BAR used by our armed forces).


That is the 21st Century modern sporting rifle.” – Steve Sanetti, president, National Shooting Sports Foundation

If Sen. Kline wants to debate “lethality,” he needs to compare the ballistics of a .223 Remington – the cartridge most commonly used in the kind of firearm he wants banned – to the .300 Winchester Magnum, a cartridge commonly used to stop moose, elk and even Alaska coastal brown/grizzly bears.
Yet Sen. Kline, and his anti-gun colleagues, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-36th District) and State Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48th District) – ever notice how all of these anti-gun schemes seem to come from Democrats? – want to ban “military-style semiautomatic assault weapons.” This is essentially because the guns merely look like military rifles. They do not function the same. They are not capable of full-automatic fire, so they are not “designed for military use” as erroneously reported by the Seattle Times.
(As a side note, I explained all of this in detail to a Seattle Times reporter Wednesday for the sake of accuracy when she tried to tackle a difficult subject. She acknowledged that she doesn’t know much about firearms, so I tried to help her out. Instead of using that information to educate Times readers, she used a throw-away observation when quoting me. The Times article was pure boiler plate and Times readers are still pretty much in the dark about what kind of guns Kline and his colleagues want to ban. Very disappointing; Times readers are weighing in here.
UPDATE: It appears after trading e-mail with the reporter, the problem appears to be the handiwork of a copy editor.)
Of course, Ralph Fascitelli, president of Washington CeaseFire, demonstrated his ignorance (again) when he told the Times, “If they’re used in the army, used in the war – that’s what this ban is about.”
Well, what if they’re not used in the army or in the war, Ralph?
Steve Sanetti, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, told me in an interview Wednesday that the AR-type platform has become the sporting rifle among the current generation of hunters and sport shooters. It is the type of rifle they have grown up recognizing in films; it looks like the rifle they used, and got used to, in the military so they are more comfortable with such rifles. They are now being manufactured in a variety of big game calibers by such outfits as Remington, Bushmaster and even Washington State’s own Olympic Arms down in Lacey.
“That is the 21st Century modern sporting rifle,” Sanetti observed.