AMW (America's Most Wanted)

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JamisJockey

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Anyone watch last night?
Feature story was of an Arkansas couple defending themselves with <gasp> a handgun!
I couldn't find anything on the website, so here's the gist.
Cold blooded murderer carjacks a couple, who has a gun hidden between the seats. The husband (driver) calmly works at the guy for awhile, when the guy decides to head back to Oklahoma so he can kill his ex girlfriend. Couple doesn't see an end in sight, as the guy is asking questions like "How much life insurance do you have on your wife?" so the husband tricks the guy into letting them stop so he can use the restroom. When they get out, he uses the .22lr handgun and shoots the guy 4 times, wounding him. The guy tries to shoot back but has a jammed pistol. He pistol whips the couple and steals their vehicle, is later captured.
I was kind of shocked that they would show someone defending themselves on that show, or anything else on TV these days....
 
Rare as they are, some self-defense stories do make the news from time to time. The really amazing thing is the authoritarian idiot, at the end of such a presentation, who always makes the disclaimer that "We in Law Enforcement do not recommend that you fight back if you are a victim...this could have had a far different outcome". Of course it could have had a far different outcome...That's why I shot the SOB.
 
You must have been out sick the day this happened because it was VERY big news both in the mainstream and in conservative circles. Im pretty sure we had a really long thread about it too.
 
I wondered if they had a Taurus since I've seen a 9-shot .22LR by Taurus in the catelogs.
He emptied the thing into the bad guy and hit him 4 times. So he must have missed 5 times. Typical occurence in a stressful situation it seems.
The bad guy had a snubbie, likely a .38Spl. I've heard many times that one should get one of these because they're more reliable than a semi-auto, yet this one jammed (happily, since this was the bad guy).
The doctor, being in a helping profession, and his wife who afterwards stated she was glad her husband hadn't killed their attacker, were likely both more liberal than the average Highroad.org reader, yet to their credit they both fought back.
The doctor could have afforded some cartridge more powerful than the frugal .22LR and concealment wasn't much of an issue since he carried it in his car and in any case it was no smaller than the opponent's .38Spl, so I wonder why he chose that particular piece?
The bad guy got arrested and I hope he will be executed (he murdered another old couple just to use their house as an ambush site against his former girlfriend) and the doctor and his wife survived, so the ending was as good as possible IMHO.
 
I heard some community where the bad guy had victims got together and bought the guy a .357 to replace his .22.
 
Liberal or otherwise, you have to admire the Doc and his wife for keeping their cool in that situation. I couldn't believe the old woman had the nerve to attempt to disarm the yahoo! Pretty gutsy, but maybe not a good decision.

The Doc managed to put 4 out of 9 into the BG. Pretty good shootin' under those conditions.

Too bad none were lethal.
 
Right, the Arkansas man kept the hammer down on an empty chamber, hence it had only 8 rounds in a 9 round gun.

With a hit rate of 50%, that puts him ahead of the national police average by about double (somewhere around 25-30% as I recall).

What I thought was interesting is how the story showed a hugely grave tactical mistake make by the man and his wife. The bad guy went down and then they consoled eachother and unknown to them, the bad guy got up and attacked them. They never verified the bad guy was incapacitated and while it may have been smart not to go near him, they failed to move away from him. My guess is that the succombed to the preconceived notion that people who are shot don't get up, as often happens on TV. Sad because the shot suspect beat them pretty darned well.

How does a revolver jam? That was what was reported on AMW. Anytime a gun malfunctions as described on AMW, it is described as a jam. My guess is that jams including failures to feed, failure to lock back on empty, and obstruction of slide movement to prevent proper cycling of automatics and without the knowledge of how to clear malfunctions quickly, the gun is rendered useless and gets called a jam. Of course, this was a revovler. Maybe it jammed, maybe not. Bad guys are not always known for keeping their guns in the best possible condition, maintaining well, etc. The bad guy's revolver might have been dropped previously and subsequently damaged the hammer such that it would not move, cylinder pin, or been knocked slightly out of battery (cylinder not fully closed). An obstruction could have gotten worked between the cylinder and frame thereby preventing rotation. Plus, there are a variety of other internal mechanical breakages that could occur. The bottom line is that while revolvers rarely actually jam, when they do jam, it is usually fairly serious.

I was rather apalled by the female victim's comments about her husband. Keep in mind, her husband is a medical doctor. She was 'proud' of him for not killing the suspect. Apparently she is clueless that firing 8 shots at the guy was not the act of a man to try to not kill another. Sure, maybe he was trying to 'stop' the bad guy, but he fired until empty and the shots were torso shots. The doctor had no control over whether or not his shots would result in the death of the bad guy or not. They were not warning shots and the doctor did not shoot the bad guy in the hands, harms, feet, or legs. He wasn't NOT trying to kill.
 
I wonder if he missed or the gun misfired? If it misfired and is a Taurus, he may have one that has a weak mainspring.
 
The BG's gun may have not even been a revolver, thats just what they showed on TV. I've noticed this before in other 'recreations', where gun types aren't accurately portrayed for the described situation.
As far as the wife, she's a twit. Her husband didn't intentionally not kill the guy, and she doesn't realized that only the gun's malfunction saved her life. If her hubby had fired a fatal shot, the BG would have never had a chance to try and hurt them. Luck of the draw that he wasn't able to....
 
well, if they showed normal people effortlessly whacking the bad guy with their own, legal handguns, it would make the show boring for lack of fright factror. Who would worry about animals like that on the street if all law abiding folks were packin heat?
 
they used a prop revolver for the bg's gun on amw. but he really had a lorcin 380 he stole from a house he broke into. and it wasn't jammed the firing pin was broken. saddlebum
 
btw, the towns people of depew okla and the nra both gave the doctor new guns. a 38 snub & a l frame smith 357. saddlebum
 
I saw it and was amazed that John Walsh didn't pontificate at the end about how dangerous it is and how foolish of the Dr. to try and defend himself, and how you should let the police handle it.

I always had the impression that he was a 'law and order liberal'. Maybe he's coming around.
 
I watched that with my wife.

My comments when it was over were "Honey, that is why I carry a .45 and you carry a .40." A larger caliber could have saved us a lot of tax dollars.

I'm thankful that the good doctor had a gun along for the ride. I believe his wife is probably subconsciously trying to deal with the fact that her loving husband was willing to take a life to save his own and hers. That is a heavy thing to accept for many people who go through life oblivious to the dangers. that's ok though. She was on TV and rationalizing the event.

What is not OK is not removing the perp's weapon, and then getting a safe distance between you.

I think that Walsh did not pontificate on the matter simply because he agreed with the doctor's actions. He could not voice support because of the network liberals. He could remain neutral and let viewers draw their own conclusions.

FWIW, I've seen revolvers jam, each time after being dropped on the hammer. One was a Ruger, one a Smith. Both required gunsmithing to fix. This scumbag had been living in the bush for several months. His revolver could not have been well maintained by the time the incident occured.
 
Okay, so I wasn't up on the information and will have to change my story. Bad guys are not known for stealing and then properly maintaining good guns. I looked at some listings for Lorcins. Here is a new one listed for $68 on gunsamerica http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976396593.htm

I'm not sure $68 worth of marbles would be better for a weapon based on how much quality the gun seems to have.
 
I'm thankful that the good doctor had a gun along for the ride. I believe his wife is probably subconsciously trying to deal with the fact that her loving husband was willing to take a life to save his own and hers. That is a heavy thing to accept for many people who go through life oblivious to the dangers. that's ok though. She was on TV and rationalizing the event.
Click to expand...

Well said. I'm glad for the sake of both of them that he was not a stereotypical gun-hating MD. Of course we can't exactly expect 'ER' to accuratly portray the political attitudes of MD's from Arkansas can we?

I'm inclined to give non-celebrity types the benefit of the doubt regarding what they say when a tv camera is pointed at them too, I think most regular people probably bobble it pretty good when put on camera. I'm sure I would.
 
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