Victim

Carry A Phone

If you carry a gun, then also carry a phone.  Why?  To take photos? Maybe. To call 911? Bingo!

Criminals will often call 911 first and say YOU pulled your gun first and they had to pull a knife to defend themself.

Let’s suppose you are going about your day outside your home. You are approached by a bad guy who suddenly pulls a knife and demands money from you. You draw your concealed carry handgun and aim it at the bad guy. Not expecting the victim to fight back, he panics and flees at the sight of your gun without you ever firing a shot. You wipe your brow and exclaim “Whew!” But is that the end of it? In many cases, no. Bad guys want the element of surprise on their side and get pissed off when the tables are turned.

Those bad guys who know the game, call the police and tell the police they were just minding their business when YOU suddenly pulled a gun on them. So, the police show up and question you. Then you tell them your side of the story. When they ask you “why didn’t you call the police”, you respond with “well, he didn’t actually attack me, so no crime was actually committed”. Bullshit!

Even if you are in an area with no cell service, always call 911, because your phone’s call log will let authorities know you attempted to call 911.

The bad guy instigating the events by pulling a knife IS ACTUALLY committing a crime, such as attempted murder, aggravated assault or the like. So, by not calling the police first, you flip the tables in the bad guy’s favor, because HE CALLED THE POLICE FIRST. You can be arrested instead of the bad guy. The charges can be something along the lines of brandishing (if your state has a brandishing law) terroristic threats, or aggravated assault.

So, if you carry a gun, also carry a cell phone. Should an incident similar to this happen, IMMEDIATELY CALL THE POLICE. By you calling first, you become the complainant. The 911 call will be logged with a date, time and location (nearest cell tower). In these kinds of incidences, there are two types of people. Either you are the victim or you are the suspect. By calling 911 first, you automatically become the victim, because you will be on record as being able to present your side of the story first.

But what if you are in an area with no cell towers nearby and your call cannot go through? Should you hold off attempting to call 911? Absolutely not. Call anyway. Your phone’s call log will indicate, with a date and time stamp that you attempted to call 911. Now if the bad guy calls after that time and date stamp, you give your defense attorney something to work with.

It should be automatic when you grab your personal items before walking out the door: Keys? Check. Wallet? Check. Handgun? Check. Cell phone? Check. If you carry your handgun, ALWAYS carry your cell phone.

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The Truth About “Aggravated Assault”

In the past, attackers were usually charged with Murder if the victim died, or Attempted Murder if they survived. For whatever reason, the practice of charging attackers with either of these felonies has largely been abandoned. In fact, the FBI Uniform Crime Report no longer even has an entry for Attempted Murder. Now, if the victim dies, the charge is Murder, but if they survive it is Aggravated Assault.

Aggravated Assault simply means the victim survived an attack in which the attacker tried to kill the victim but was inept. The FBI definition of Aggravated Assault is “an unlawful attack involving a weapon or other means likely to cause death or great bodily injury”. In other words, an attacker tried to kill you, but you survived.

The murder rate in the U.S. is about 15,000 murders each year. One can conclude from that low number relative to the U.S. population of about 330 million that the odds of needing a gun are very low. This is until you take into consideration the 1,000,000 Aggravated Assaults! So that is 1 million ATTEMPTS to unlawfully kill a victim.

So why is the murder rate relatively low? It’s certainly not for the lack of trying? It’s because of modern trauma care. Modern trauma care in big cities is phenomenal. The VAST majority of people shot, stabbed or bludgeoned by criminals don’t die from their injuries. So the charges are not Murder, but Aggravated Assaults.

But the bottom line for the reclassification of surviving from Attempted Murder to Aggravated Assault is that the victim survives, but may be maimed, blind, lose a limb, be paralyzed, require multiple corrective surgeries, lose the ability to work, and other tragic consequences. But since they did not die, the crime is treated as a lesser crime than Attempted Murder.

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