The Real Gun Guys

On 60 Minutes Tonight

It seems that the FBI knowingly used faulty science for over 40 years and never told anyone about it. Hmmm, where else have I heard about faulty science and law enforcement?

…and why again am I supposed to trust the government?

Aside from eyewitness testimony, some of the most believable evidence presented in criminal cases in the United States comes from the FBI crime laboratory in Quantico, Va. Part of its job is to test and analyze everything from ballistics to DNA for state and local prosecutors around the country, introducing scientific credibility to often murky cases.

But a six-month investigation by 60 Minutes and The Washington Post shows that there are hundreds of defendants imprisoned around the country who were convicted with the help of a now discredited forensic tool, and that the FBI never notified them, their lawyers, or the courts, that the their cases may have been affected by faulty testimony.

The science, called bullet lead analysis, was used by the FBI for 40 years in thousands of cases, and some of the people it helped put in jail may be innocent.

More here.

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Where Discretionary CCW Permitting Gets You

FBI reportedly probes gun permits
Suit alleges ex-Sheriff Blanas issued licenses for concealed weapons as political favors.
By Christina Jewett - Bee Staff Writer

The FBI is looking into concealed-gun permits issued by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, according to documents filed in a lawsuit that alleges former Sheriff Lou Blanas issued permits as political favors.

Documents filed Friday in the federal civil rights suit say FBI investigators have requested gun permit documents from the department, which include a permit Blanas issued to Sacramento businessman Edwin G. Gerber. Gerber gave $3,500 to Blanas’ election campaign, election records show, and bought a vacation home with Blanas in Reno in the fall of 2005, according to property records.

The former sheriff signed Gerber’s gun permit a day before leaving office last summer. He issued the approval without following the department’s usual procedure, which calls for a three-person committee to review applications from people asking to carry a loaded gun in public, according to interviews and court documents.

FBI spokesman Steven Dupre declined to say whether an investigation was taking place.

Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness said he could not comment on any possible FBI review.

Law enforcement sources said the FBI did request information from the department’s concealed-weapons permit division. But those sources said they had no knowledge of whether Gerber’s application was included in that request.

Blanas and Gerber did not return repeated calls from The Bee.

State law says sheriffs and police chiefs can award concealed-weapon permits based on “good cause” to people of “good moral character.”

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department sets the bar higher. Applicants typically are interviewed by a deputy and required to take a gun safety class in addition to facing the review panel.

McGinness said the permit approval committee was put in place more than a decade ago to keep the elected sheriff from deciding who gets the permits and giving the appearance of political motivation.

He said the system has worked generally well, but here, as in many counties, it is a “nebulous” endeavor that he’d like to see better organized.

McGinness said Gerber’s application was for an “emergency permit” that should have lasted 90 days — instead of the two years of most permits.

Gerber said in his application that he carried “large sums of cash” and wore expensive jewelry.

The department revoked Gerber’s permit in December — five months after it was issued, McGinniss said.

Attorney John Lavra, who works for a private firm that contracts with the county, represents Blanas and the county in the civil rights suit. He would not comment specifically on Gerber’s permit, saying only that all permits are issued for good reason.

About 250 civilians hold gun-carry permits issued by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, officials said. While it is legal to have a gun in one’s house or business, it is a crime to walk around with a loaded gun without a permit.

The lawsuit, filed in December 2003 when Blanas was sheriff, alleges that Blanas denied David Mehl, a chemical engineer, and Lok T. Lau, a retired FBI agent, equal protection under the law when his office turned down their applications for gun-carry permits.

“It’s about political influence, power and money,” said their attorney Gary Gorski. “Anyone who gives money to the sheriff and applies for a (permit), gets a (permit). There are a lot of people who apply for one and need one but don’t get one.”

Lavra said both men were denied permits for good cause and in accordance with long-standing policy.

“We believe that the undisputed evidence in the case will show that each were denied a (weapon) license based upon legal and legitimate and sound reasons,” Lavra said.

On Friday, Gorski filed documents claiming Blanas’ attorneys have been withholding evidence in the federal case.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kimberly Mueller ruled Monday that Gorski and Blanas’ attorneys should try to work out their disagreement before an Aug. 22 hearing about the evidence.

In the paperwork filed Friday, Gorski says a Sheriff’s Department clerk told him during a sworn deposition that the FBI was investigating gun-carry permits. That includes Gerber’s hand-scrawled application, Gorski said.

The application contains only a brief explanation for why Gerber was seeking to carry a loaded gun: “Carry large sums of cash $4,000-$5,000. Wear $45,000 watch & rings — expensive jewelry.”

On the cover sheet, the word “approved” is checked, and the comments line says simply: “Approved by Sheriff Blanas,” with his signature.

McGinness said Gerber’s permit was revoked in December when officials noted that the 90-day period had passed and that Gerber had not provided proof of completing a gun safety class.

On Dec. 19, Gerber sent a letter to the department stating that when he applied for the permit, he told Blanas he had been assaulted three times in Sacramento restaurants and bars, increasing his need for protection. Gerber had not included that information in his application or filed police reports, McGinness said.

In May — five months after the department had pulled Gerber’s permit — Blanas called and suggested the new sheriff revoke the permit because the threat against Gerber no longer existed, McGinness said.

Gorski said hundreds of applicants with more compelling needs to carry a gun have been rejected over the years. His filings allege that six major Blanas contributors were issued weapon permits, as well as several business associates of Blanas and his wife.

According to campaign finance filings, Gerber’s company, Energetic Paint & Drywall Inc., gave $1,500 to Blanas in August 2003, part of a $3,500 contribution during the election cycle.

Two years later, Gerber, Blanas and his wife, Nanette Blanas, took out a $518,000 loan together for a house worth $647,000 in Reno, records from the Washoe County assessor and recorder show.

Elections records show that Gerber made two $5,000 contributions to McGinness in August 2006. McGinness returned both, records show.

“That was money I didn’t need, so I gave it back,” he said.

McGinness said he has assigned new captains and chiefs to the permit-review panel. He said he plans to change the system, making it computer-based and standardized. He said he will have veto power over permits awarded from now on.

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NEW FINDINGS FROM FBI ABOUT COP ATTACKERS & THEIR WEAPONS

From “Force Science News“

(Of particular interest is the parts that discuss criminals attitude to gun laws and where they get their guns! -Yuri)

NEW FINDINGS FROM FBI ABOUT COP ATTACKERS & THEIR WEAPONS

New findings on how offenders train with, carry and deploy the weapons they use to attack police officers have emerged in a just-published, 5-year study by the FBI.

Among other things, the data reveal that most would-be cop killers:

–show signs of being armed that officers miss;

–have more experience using deadly force in “street combat” than their intended victims;

–practice with firearms more often and shoot more accurately;

–have no hesitation whatsoever about pulling the trigger. “If you hesitate,” one told the study’s researchers, “you’re dead. You have the instinct or you don’t. If you don’t, you’re in trouble on the street….”

These and other weapons-related findings comprise one chapter in a 180-page research summary called “Violent Encounters: A Study of Felonious Assaults on Our Nation’s Law Enforcement Officers.” The study is the third in a series of long investigations into fatal and nonfatal attacks on POs by the FBI team of Dr. Anthony Pinizzotto, clinical forensic psychologist, and Ed Davis, criminal investigative instructor, both with the Bureau’s Behavioral Science Unit, and Charles Miller III, coordinator of the LEOs Killed and Assaulted program.

“Violent Encounters” also reports in detail on the personal characteristics of attacked officers and their assaulters, the role of perception in life-threatening confrontations, the myths of memory that can hamper OIS investigations, the suicide-by-cop phenomenon, current training issues, and other matters relevant to officer survival. (Force Science News and our strategic partner PoliceOne.com will be reporting on more findings from this landmark study in future transmissions.)

Commenting on the broad-based study, Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Research Center at Minnesota State University-Mankato, called it “very challenging and insightful–important work that only a handful of gifted and experienced researchers could accomplish.”

From a pool of more than 800 incidents, the researchers selected 40, involving 43 offenders (13 of them admitted gangbangers-drug traffickers) and 50 officers, for in-depth exploration. They visited crime scenes and extensively interviewed surviving officers and attackers alike, most of the latter in prison.

Here are highlights of what they learned about weapon selection, familiarity, transport and use by criminals attempting to murder cops, a small portion of the overall research:

WEAPON CHOICE.

Predominately handguns were used in the assaults on officers and all but one were obtained illegally, usually in street transactions or in thefts. In contrast to media myth, none of the firearms in the study was obtained from gun shows. What was available “was the overriding factor in weapon choice,” the report says. Only 1 offender hand-picked a particular gun “because he felt it would do the most damage to a human being.”

Researcher Davis, in a presentation and discussion for the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, noted that none of the attackers interviewed was “hindered by any law–federal, state or local–that has ever been established to prevent gun ownership. They just laughed at gun laws.”

FAMILIARITY.

Several of the offenders began regularly to carry weapons when they were 9 to 12 years old, although the average age was 17 when they first started packing “most of the time.” Gang members especially started young.

Nearly 40% of the offenders had some type of formal firearms training, primarily from the military. More than 80% “regularly practiced with handguns, averaging 23 practice sessions a year,” the study reports, usually in informal settings like trash dumps, rural woods, back yards and “street corners in known drug-trafficking areas.”

One spoke of being motivated to improve his gun skills by his belief that officers “go to the range two, three times a week [and] practice arms so they can hit anything.”

In reality, victim officers in the study averaged just 14 hours of sidearm training and 2.5 qualifications per year. Only 6 of the 50 officers reported practicing regularly with handguns apart from what their department required, and that was mostly in competitive shooting. Overall, the offenders practiced more often than the officers they assaulted, and this “may have helped increase [their] marksmanship skills,” the study says.

The offender quoted above about his practice motivation, for example, fired 12 rounds at an officer, striking him 3 times. The officer fired 7 rounds, all misses.

More than 40% of the offenders had been involved in actual shooting confrontations before they feloniously assaulted an officer. Ten of these “street combat veterans,” all from “inner-city, drug-trafficking environments,” had taken part in 5 or more “criminal firefight experiences” in their lifetime.

One reported that he was 14 when he was first shot on the street, “about 18 before a cop shot me.” Another said getting shot was a pivotal experience “because I made up my mind no one was gonna shoot me again.”

Again in contrast, only 8 of the 50 LEO victims had participated in a prior shooting; 1 had been involved in 2 previously, another in 3. Seven of the 8 had killed offenders.

CONCEALMENT.

The offenders said they most often hid guns on their person in the front waistband, with the groin area and the small of the back nearly tied for second place. Some occasionally gave their weapons to another person to carry, “most often a female companion.” None regularly used a holster, and about 40% at least sometimes carried a backup weapon.

In motor vehicles, they most often kept their firearm readily available on their person, or, less often, under the seat. In residences, most stashed their weapon under a pillow, on a nightstand, under the mattress–somewhere within immediate reach while in bed.

Almost all carried when on the move and strong majorities did so when socializing, committing crimes or being at home. About one-third brought weapons with them to work. Interestingly, the offenders in this study more commonly admitted having guns under all these circumstances than did offenders interviewed in the researchers’ earlier 2 surveys, conducted in the 1980s and ’90s.

According to Davis, “Male offenders said time and time again that female officers tend to search them more thoroughly than male officers. In prison, most of the offenders were more afraid to carry contraband or weapons when a female CO was on duty.”

On the street, however, both male and female officers too often regard female subjects “as less of a threat, assuming that they not going to have a gun,” Davis said. In truth, the researchers concluded that more female offenders are armed today than 20 years ago–”not just female gang associates, but female offenders generally.”

SHOOTING STYLE.

Twenty-six of the offenders [about 60%], including all of the street combat veterans, “claimed to be instinctive shooters, pointing and firing the weapon without consciously aligning the sights,” the study says.

“They practice getting the gun out and using it,” Davis explained. “They shoot for effect.” Or as one of the offenders put it: “[W]e’re not working with no marksmanship….We just putting it in your direction, you know….It don’t matter…as long as it’s gonna hit you…if it’s up at your head or your chest, down at your legs, whatever….Once I squeeze and you fall, then…if I want to execute you, then I could go from there.”

HIT RATE.

More often than the officers they attacked, offenders delivered at least some rounds on target in their encounters. Nearly 70% of assailants were successful in that regard with handguns, compared to about 40% of the victim officers, the study found. (Efforts of offenders and officers to get on target were considered successful if any rounds struck, regardless of the number fired.)

Davis speculated that the offenders might have had an advantage because in all but 3 cases they fired first, usually catching the officer by surprise. Indeed, the report points out, “10 of the total victim officers had been wounded [and thus impaired] before they returned gunfire at their attackers.”

MISSED CUES.

Officers would less likely be caught off guard by attackers if they were more observant of indicators of concealed weapons, the study concludes. These particularly include manners of dress, ways of moving and unconscious gestures often related to carrying.

“Officers should look for unnatural protrusions or bulges in the waist, back and crotch areas,” the study says, and watch for “shirts that appear rippled or wavy on one side of the body while the fabric on the other side appears smooth.” In warm weather, multilayered clothing inappropriate to the temperature may be a giveaway. On cold or rainy days, a subject’s jacket hood may not be covering his head because it is being used to conceal a handgun.

Because they eschew holsters, offenders reported frequently touching a concealed gun with hands or arms “to assure themselves that it is still hidden, secure and accessible” and hasn’t shifted. Such gestures are especially noticeable “whenever individuals change body positions, such as standing, sitting or exiting a vehicle.” If they run, they may need to keep a constant grip on a hidden gun to control it.

Just as cops generally blade their body to make their sidearm less accessible, armed criminals “do the same in encounters with LEOs to ensure concealment and easy access.”

An irony, Davis noted, is that officers who are assigned to look for concealed weapons, while working off-duty security at night clubs for instance, are often highly proficient at detecting them. “But then when they go back to the street without that specific assignment, they seem to ‘turn off’ that skill,” and thus are startled–sometimes fatally–when a suspect suddenly produces a weapon and attacks.

MIND-SET.

Thirty-six of the 50 officers in the study had “experienced hazardous situations where they had the legal authority” to use deadly force “but chose not to shoot.” They averaged 4 such prior incidents before the encounters that the researchers investigated. “It appeared clear that none of these officers were willing to use deadly force against an offender if other options were available,” the researchers concluded.

The offenders were of a different mind-set entirely. In fact, Davis said the study team “did not realize how cold blooded the younger generation of offender is. They have been exposed to killing after killing, they fully expect to get killed and they don’t hesitate to shoot anybody, including a police officer. They can go from riding down the street saying what a beautiful day it is to killing in the next instant.”

“Offenders typically displayed no moral or ethical restraints in using firearms,” the report states. “In fact, the street combat veterans survived by developing a shoot-first mentality.

“Officers never can assume that a criminal is unarmed until they have thoroughly searched the person and the surroundings themselves.” Nor, in the interest of personal safety, can officers “let their guards down in any type of law enforcement situation.”

NOTE: For new findings from the FBI researchers about highly dangerous suicide-by-cop confrontations, read the exclusive 2-part report by Force Science Research Center board member Chuck Remsberg at:

http://www.policeone.com//suicide-by-cop/articles/1195055/

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