Interesting story here.
What the Feds are charging this guy under is the “prohibited possessor” part of the Gun Control Act of 1968.
I wonder if they could make the charges stick for every gun he was recorded handling and every round of ammunition he fired.
Vet your instructors!
Don’t be afraid to go on SOCNET.com to find out if they are the real deal if they claim some sort of militry heroics.
PROTIP: The term “Quiet Professional” exists for a reason.
Valor thieves are getting more polished nowadays
Fake “war stories” come in drips and drabs
Over time they’ve heard the “quiet professional” term and incorporate it into their act.
Forged DD-214‘s and forged letters of reference are more common now.
Historically most interpersonal fraudsters stayed as “pen and paper” operations but they are now getting more savvy in using computers to further their crimes.
You will likely need to make a FOIA request to verify that they are who they say they are.
Information can be found at http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/foia-info.html
The more subtle and polished valor thieves will claim membership in units such as Marine Force Recon, USAF Para Rescue, US Army Green Berets, since it is somewhat tougher to definitively determine if someone was in those units as opposed to whether or not they were a US Navy SEAL
Fraudsters never quit the game while they are ahead.
The bogus medals and bogus accomplishments get bigger and bigger over time.
The clip above from the movie “The Grifters” illustrates the psychology of it well.
Trust your instincts and trust the instincts of your friends.
If something doesn’t seem right, then it is not right.
From http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/conman-thousands-claiming-navy-seal-21409354
Phony Navy SEAL faces felony gun charges related to military-training program
Published January 05, 2014
FoxNews.com
A convicted felon is reportedly facing gun charges in Nevada after setting up a military-style training school and a security firm on the strength of a long-running and widely disseminated lie that he was a decorated Navy SEAL.
ABC News reports A.J. Dicken, 57, parlayed such lies into nearly a million dollars in financial backing from unsuspecting investors, as well as untallied sums allegedly swindled from the people who went to his Carson City school.
“He can be very charming, very engaging,” Dr. Brian Romaneschi, one of Dicken’s principal investors, told ABC News after learning the truth. “He presents a face that kind of draws you in.”
Carol Roberts, a real Navy veteran who attended Dicken’s school, and also worked for his ill-fated firm, said: “He wouldn’t tell these outrageous stories just right off the bat. He would drop little bits of things that are plausible. And he would tailor that plausibility story to each person, knowing what they knew.”
According to ABC News, Dicken told people for years he was not only a retired Navy SEAL and ex-CIA employee – but a two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient who fired the fateful bullet that killed Osama Bin Laden.
He reportedly donned the SEAL insignia on his clothes, enjoyed showing off his service awards, carried bogus military discharge papers and proudly exhibited a commendation he said he once received from Col. Oliver North. The station reports his pretensions to grandiosity even included lies about having worked secret missions in Vietnam – and collaborated on the assassination of Pablo Escobar.
On the strength of his self-defense school’s success, Dicken reportedly set up Global Resources and Logistics – and even won a $500 million-or-so contract with a United Nations-connected organization.
But ABC News reports Dicken’s web of lies unwound quickly during the nascent firm’s first mission to Burundi.
“By the second day, we realized that . . . none of the major players there in Burundi . . . knew who we were, what we were doing there,” GRL employee Mike Reynolds told the news agency. “I mean, the stuff he was coming up with is just — it was insane . . . the whole situation there was dangerous.”
Roberts – who quit her job to work marketing for Dicken’s new venture — suspected something was amiss when the supposedly steely Dicken grew panicked after the electricity in their Burundi hotel went off.
“He freaked out, picked up his phone . . . runs into the other room talking to the CIA to have them reposition his satellite so he can make sure that the rebels aren’t coming to get him,” Roberts told ABC News. “He says, ‘alpha, bravo, niner, niner, six, two, the fishing is good in Catalina.’”
After digging, Roberts reportedly contacted retired SEAL Senior Chief Don Shipley, who not only runs a SEAL-style training camp in Virginia, but routinely unmasks SEAL imposters. “I verify, on average, at least 20 fraudulent SEAL claims every day,” he told ABC News. “A.J. has a mental problem, and I go after the worst of the worst.”
Dicken now reportedly faces gun charges in Nevada on the strength of videos from his Carson City school like this one found on YouTube, showing him firing assault weapons. As a convicted felon, he is not permitted to own a gun.
But Roberts is hoping authorities will file additional charges.
“My payback is going to be my satisfaction,” she told ABC News. “I would like to see Dicken . . . arrested and brought to justice. . . . He’s a coward and a liar. That’s all he has been, and that’s all he ever will be.”
Category: Uncategorized
The Knoxville Horror
Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Lessons from this case:
Conclusions
As Delta Force veteran Paul Howe put it, ”Never put yourself at the mercy of people who have none. “
As soon as you are moved from one location by an assailant to another, your odds of survival drop significantly.
Develop a fighting mindset.
It is far better to fight and die than to be taken captive and tortured to death.
Craig Douglas (aka SouthNarc) was correct in stating that parking lots are where most criminal assaults occur.
Maintain your situational awareness
Channon Christian and Chris Newsom were initially accosted while sitting in their car in the parking lot.
This is known as “task fixation”.
Always carry a weapon and be ready to use it without hesitation.
Small fixed-blade knives secured around the front and/or rear waistline can be very helpful.
Think “NECK NECK EYES EYES, NECK, REPEAT”
Carry a means of escape with you.
Cold Steel makes small knives that suit this purpose well.
A long strand of kevlar fiber can cut a variety of restraints.
Small plastic Handcuff keys are also a good thing to keep on your person.
Train yourself to break free of restraints.
Cloth, duct tape, and rope are some of the most commonly used improvised restraints
Practice with small knives and edges found in your immediate environment.
Be careful not to cut yourself.
Check out Mike Janich’s Forever Armed DVD and train yourself to recognize environmental weapons and objects that can be improvised as weapons.
Train yourself to sense distraction in others.
This is an important skill to learn if you find yourself behind the reactionary gap.
From http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/may/19/horror-of-christiannewsom-killings-in-focus/?print=1
Horror of Christian/Newsom killings in focus: What happened on Chipman Street?
By Jamie Satterfield
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Six years and seven trials later, one question remains — what happened on Chipman Street?
In one of Knoxville’s most horrific crimes, Channon Christian, 21, and boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23, were carjacked, kidnapped, raped and slain in January 2007. Five suspects were identified. One was tried federally as an accessory. Four others were tried in Knox County Criminal Court.
A drug scandal involving the judge in those state court proceedings would upend the convictions against two of those suspects. New trials were held, the most recent of which occurred last week.
Through it all, details of the horrors this young couple suffered have eked out. But with each suspect pointing the finger of blame at the other and jurors limited by law in what they are allowed to know, the real story of what happened when the couple were taken hostage and ultimately slain has proved just as elusive as the court cases convoluted.
The News Sentinel has covered this case since its beginning. With the aid of interviews, trial coverage and transcripts of each defendant’s statement to authorities, the newspaper can now offer up a snapshot of not only what happened to these two innocents but exactly who did what to them.
Setting the stage
Chipman Street resident Lemaricus Davidson was broke and angry. His girlfriend, Daphne Sutton, had left him. He had no car and no way to earn money.
“Selling dope, that’s what I do,” Davidson would later tell law enforcement.
Law enforcers knew, however, that Davidson was not simply a drug dealer. He was on parole for carjacking and, in the days leading up to the abduction of Christian and Newsom, was suspected in a series of robberies.
In the days before the couple’s abduction, Davidson’s brother Letalvis Cobbins came to Knoxville from Kentucky to stay with him. He brought along friend George Thomas and girlfriend Vanessa Coleman.
None of the three had jobs, money or vehicles. Cobbins and Thomas were homeless. Coleman had a salt-of-the-earth family to turn to for help but chose not to.
Davidson grew increasingly angry over what he viewed as the freeloading of his brother and his guests. He turned that anger on Sutton. She left him on Jan. 5, 2007.
A day later, Davidson had concocted a plan to solve all his woes. He, with help from Cobbins and a buddy, Eric Boyd, would carjack someone. Cobbins insisted that he wasn’t happy with the idea.
“Me and my brother got to arguing because he said he was going to do some crazy (expletive),” Cobbins said in an interview with law enforcement. “He like, man, I’m fixing to go carjack somebody, man, try and get me some money.”
Savaging the victims
Christian and Newsom disappeared Jan. 6, 2007, from the Washington Ridge apartment complex where Christian’s best friend lived.
Hours later, Newsom’s body was found alongside railroad tracks near Chipman Street in East Knoxville. He had been raped with an object and then shot three times. The final shot was delivered execution style.
He had been gagged with a sock stuffed in his mouth. His ankles were bound with his own belt. His hands were secured behind his back. His face was wrapped in a bandanna. His head was covered with a sweatshirt tied around his neck with shoestrings.
Forensic evidence showed that he had been raped in the final hours of his life. He was forced to walk barefoot to the railroad tracks that ran parallel to Chipman Street and shot in the neck and back. As Newsom lay paralyzed on the ground, the muzzle of a .22-caliber gun was placed against his covered head and fired. His body would later be wrapped up in a comforter, doused in gasoline and set afire.
Christian, meanwhile, was tied up inside the Chipman Street house of Davidson, a stranger to her. She was repeatedly raped orally, vaginally and rectally. At some point, she was savagely attacked in her genital region, either kicked or beaten with an object.
She suffered two blows to the head and was dragged into the carpeted living room of Davidson’s Chipman Street home. Bleach was sprayed down her throat, an apparent effort to destroy DNA evidence.
She was hogtied with strips of fabric from a bedding set. Still alive, her body was encased in black garbage bags and her head wrapped in a white plastic grocery bag. Christian was then stuffed inside a trash can and left to die, slowly suffocating.
Sneaking a preview
Suspect Boyd has long denied any role in the couple’s abduction. With no forensic proof tying him to the crimes, authorities were left to prosecute him for hiding out Davidson after the slayings. He is serving an 18-year federal prison sentence as a result.
But his statement to authorities provides striking details of the carjacking — details he insisted came from Davidson, not his own memory.
Christian was angry with Newsom because he had tarried in picking her up for the birthday party of a friend. As she sat in the front seat of her Toyota 4-Runner parked outside, Newsom sought to set things right, hugging and kissing her as he stood just outside the driver’s side door.
The couple never saw Boyd cruise into the parking lot at Washington Ridge with passengers Davidson and Cobbins. An armed Boyd and Davidson jumped from the car, leaving Cobbins behind. At that point, the pair intended only to rob Christian and Newsom of the SUV. But as they approached the couple, guns drawn, headlights from another vehicle spooked them. They pushed the couple into the SUV.
Testimony has shown that Christian and Newsom were bound in the SUV with whatever cords the assailants could find. Newsom was forced facedown in the vehicle. A bound Christian was dumped onto his back.
With Davidson behind the wheel of Christian’s SUV and Cobbins trailing behind in a car Boyd had borrowed from his cousin, the crew headed back to Davidson’s Chipman Street home.
There was no doubt then that the couple would die.
“Two white people, white kids, this (expletive) fixing to get crazy, man, you know what I mean?” Cobbins said.
Davidson and his cohorts are black, the victims white. Racial differences have never been suggested as a motivator for what authorities view as a random carjacking.
Spilling the beans
Back at Davidson’s Chipman Street house with their bound and blindfolded victims in tow, an argument broke out among Davidson, Boyd, Cobbins, Thomas and Coleman. Thomas and Davidson barely knew each other and neither liked the other.
“Lemaricus told (Thomas) that he was gonna need him to do something so he could trust him,” Coleman told law enforcers.
The suspects admit that they curried Christian’s cooperation by promising her she would be let go if she went along with their demands. She even called home — at gunpoint — to create a false alibi to buy the suspects time in their murderous plans.
None of the suspects concede involvement in Newsom’s death. But trial testimony, statements and forensic evidence suggest that Davidson, Cobbins, Boyd and Thomas forced Newsom into the rear cargo compartment of the SUV, leaving Coleman behind with Christian.
It’s not clear if Newsom was raped before leaving Chipman Street. Boyd, who had male pornography cached on his phone, has long been suspected but never charged with raping Newsom.
Forensic proof and suspect statements indicate that Davidson forced Thomas to fire the first shot at Newsom, striking him in the neck. As he fell forward, another shot struck him in the back and then Davidson delivered the kill shot to his head.
Once back at Chipman Street, Boyd left. Davidson and Thomas stripped off their bloody clothes to be washed. At some point, the pair gathered up a comforter and a gas can and left, presumably to burn Newsom’s body.
Meanwhile, Cobbins went into his brother’s bedroom, where Christian was tied up.
“I was pissed off,” Coleman said in a statement.
Cobbins would later tell a jury that he promised Christian she would go free if she agreed to oral sex. Forensic proof showed that Christian was orally raped with such force a membrane in her mouth severed.
DNA evidence shows that Davidson raped Christian both vaginally and rectally.
But it is Coleman who authorities suspect delivered brutal blows to Christian’s vaginal region, the force of which caused a massive pooling of blood.
At some point, Christian was dragged into the living room, bleach sprayed in her throat.
“She looked terrified,” Cobbins told law enforcers.
“They made me go in the back bedroom,” Coleman recalled. “When I come back into the kitchen, I seen them tying her up in the fetal position.”
Fingerprint evidence shows that it was Davidson and Cobbins who wrapped Christian in trash bags. She was then stuffed alive inside a trash can in the kitchen of the Chipman Street house.
Fight not over
With Thomas convicted for a second time on Friday and a jury delivering up a sentence of life with the possibility of parole, the case finally seems over, save a few rote hearings and appeals.
But Christian’s father, Gary Christian, said Friday that his fight is not over.
“The business at hand is done,” he said of the trials. “The work has just changed. We’ve got some laws that will go up to get some things changed in this horrible excuse for a justice system. It’s all for the criminals and nothing for the victims.”
Teen Dies Stopping Suicide Bomber at School in Pakistan
Map showing the location of Hangu District (highlighted in red) within the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
(CNN) – A 14-year-old boy is being hailed as a hero in Pakistan for tackling a suicide bomber — dying at the main gate of his school and saving schoolmates gathered for their morning assembly.
Ninth-grader Aitazaz Hassan Bangash was on his way to the Ibrahimzai School on Monday in the Hangu district of northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when the bomber, dressed in a school uniform, asked him where the school was, the teen’s cousin told CNN.
Aitazaz and his cousin, Musadiq Ali Bangash, became suspicious, Musadiq said.
“The other students backed off, but Aitazaz challenged the bomber and tried to catch him. During the scuffle, the bomber panicked and detonated his bomb,” he said.
Rajab Ali, who also witnessed the bombing, told CNN that he saw Aitazaz throw a large stone at a boy trying to enter the school. The blast happened when Aitazaz grabbed him, he said.
Aitazaz and the bomber died at the scene. Witnesses say the blast injured two other people.
Iftikhar Ahmed, a Hangu district police officer, confirmed the details of the attack to CNN.
Hangu is a troubled district bordering Pakistan’s tribal areas. It is rife with sectarian violence, with attacks against Shia and Sunni Muslims.
“It was a great sacrifice to save the lives of hundreds of both Shia and Sunni students, who were in morning assembly,” Musadiq said.
Aitazaz is survived by his father, Mujaad Ali Bangash, a laborer; his elder brother, Mustajab Hassan Bangash, a student in Pakistan; and three sisters.
Local residents such as Nawaz Khan are calling for Aitazaz to receive a posthumous award for his bravery. “He saved the lives of hundreds of students. He deserves more recognition than Malala Yousafzai,” he said.
Pakistanis are comparing him to Malala, the schoolgirl shot by the Taliban in October 2012 for promoting education for all boys and girls.
Pakistanis on social media are praising Aitazaz’s bravery, with people on Twitter asking everyone to use hastags #onemillionaitzazs or simply #aitzaz and calling for his heroism to be recognized with an award.
Armed Citizen in TX Stops Shooting Spree and Saves Cop by Making 50 Yard Shoot with a Pistol
Reblogged from Give Me Liberty:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g1n8cmwhIY&w;=605&h;=371]
This is from Guns Save Lives.
The title of this post says it best.
This is a pretty amazing story. An armed private citizen assisted a police officer who was pinned down by the gunfire of a madman who had just killed 3 people and could have killed many more. Amazingly the concerned citizen, Vic Stacy, did so by taking a shot of 50+ yards using only a pistol.
Read more… 214 more words
Awesome defensive gun use (DGU) recap!
The vast majority of gunfights do happen within 21 feet or less but it is good to be able to hit out a bit further if necessary.
The Easiest Way to Speed up Your Laptop is?
Add RAM chips!
Find out the make (brand) and model number of your laptop.
Look around the keyboard and on the bottom of the laptop, you should see the make and model number of the laptop.
Go to www.crucial.com and enter your laptop’s make and model number.
Notate the recommended upgrade.
Buy the chips and perform the installation.
Some things to watch out for…
Be aware of the modules your laptop needs and the maximum amount of RAM that the motherboard can support.
Most laptops purchased new in the last 3 years tend to max out at 8 Gigabytes of RAM.
Most laptops purchased new in the last 3 years use RAM modules PC3-10600 or PC3-12800.
Article how i got shot?
This was written by a friend of mine who was shot in a negligent discharge. I strongly recommend you check out his blog rationalgun.blogspot.com
From http://pistol-training.com/articles/how-i-got-shot
How I Got Shot
(editor’s note: slightly graphic pictures follow; proceed at your own risk)
by “Littlelebowski” of the great Rational Gun blog
This story is used with the author’s permission
The following pictures depict the aftermath of a gun shot wound inflicted by a .45ACP 230 grn. hollow point projectile, fired at a distance of less than two feet from a 4” barreled Kimber Pro Carry 1911.
The victim is a healthy, robust, adult male, thirty-three years old, and an eight year veteran of the United States Marine Corps.
The injury was inflicted while the victim was in the front seat of his Jeep Cherokee, driving two passengers whom he described as co-workers to the firing range. From the driver’s seat, the victim described hearing a muffled ‘pop’ and accompanying spontaneous loss of use of his right arm. He described a total loss of digital mobility, and a sensation as if his arm were a “Tentacle or over cooked noodle just limply hanging there, totally useless and unresponsive.”*
Apparently, one of the passengers had taken the Kimber pistol from the range bag while sitting behind the victim. Outside the victim’s field of view, the passenger had inserted a loaded magazine, and cycled the action with his index finger resting on the trigger, discharging the weapon.
The projectile caused a ‘through and through’ injury, shattering the bones in the elbow, and exiting the front of the arm, where it grazed the victims rib before terminating in the dash board of the vehicle.
The small wound that appears to be a stab wound is actually the exit path of the projectile, having passed through the front of the victims arm.
The victim described himself as shocked but lucid, with the pain setting in rapidly over the first five minutes, and no possible use of the injured arm. He was able to safely stop the vehicle, exit, and enter the passenger side with assistance, allowing his passenger to drive him to the hospital. Once in the passenger seat, he described the bleeding as minimal, in consideration of the injury, but the effects of shock left him sweating and groaning, biting his uninjured arm to steady himself.
Surgery was not started until several hours after the time of injury, and a subsequent transport to a different facility. According to the victims account, any movement or ‘jostling’ of the limb during this time caused excruciating pain.
The photo of the X-ray indicates the extent of the reconstruction necessary. Bone grafts were taken from the right hip to repair the damage, and the expected 80-90% recovery of limb mobility and strength is being described as ‘miraculous.’
The first three major surgeries occurred over two days, requiring four bolts and other pictured hardware. The victim described the pain after the surgery exceeding that of the original wound significantly. The ordeal left him weak, dehydrated, and afflicted with further injuries from catheterization and other improper or rushed care. His recovery is not yet complete, though he has returned to work on restricted duty.
The injury provides us with several lessons:
First, and most importantly, is the tragic result of failing to follow the basic fire arms safety rules. Uncertain of his background or muzzle direction and with finger on the trigger, the shooter managed to inflict a permanent injury through negligence alone.
Second, is the total and instant loss of use of the injured limb. Though the victim described himself as mobile, and lucid, use of the limb in any way was beyond his capability. Had this been a fighting situation, he would not have been able to use his dominant hand for even the most rudimentary of tasks, even though he remained able to “fight” for a few critical moments more.
Third, is the nature of the wound. Much is hypothesized about the effects of different types of munitions from different arms. Here we see an undoing of popular belief, where a hollow cavity projectile expanded, doing devastating damage on impact with bone, but proceeded through the limb, leaving a small exit wound. Though a single injury is not definitive, it does illustrate the falseness of some assumptions about the behavior of bullets. Especially those established by use of flesh simulating media, such as ballistic gelatin, that lack the skeletal structure and tension of living flesh.
Finally, is the lesson of determination. The victim retained control of the situation, and of the vehicle. He acted to gain medical assistance, and did not panic. This saved his limb, and possibly his life. Beyond that, he did not accept the injury as limiting, and fought to regain use of his limb, aiding in his recovery.
The victim remains to this day an avid shooter and proponent of fire arms. He takes pleasure in his continued use, and ownership of the fire arm he was shot with, and wishes most of all that his injury will serve to help educate other shooters on safety, and survival.
Protip Keep Your Cqb Rifle Lightweight
Before you go out and buy the latest wiz bang gizmo for your AR-15, ask yourself “What is the mission?”
Merry Christmas
Christmas is not about the amount of gear we got but the people we spend our time with.
Don’t shoot your eye out!
Safe Storage Securing Your Gun when on the Road
Weapon retention does not just mean holding onto your gun and deploying it quickly in a reactive gunfight. It also means being able to immediately account for and control your weapon at all times.
Here is a scenario to consider:
You are visiting a friend’s house and staying overnight. Your friend has children in the house who may or may have not had any gun safety training. No quick access storage safe is available.
What are your options?
1)Leave the gun in the car
It is one option but the downsides are that you risk the gun being stolen if your car is broken into overnight if you are not using an additional storage safe for the car. Locked cars can be very easily broken into. The gun would also not be available in the event of an emergency when needed.
2)Keep the gun with you
This allows you to have the gun with you in the event of an emergency but you need to take precautions to prevent unauthorized access.
Be sure that the guest room you are staying in has a door that you can lock before you turn in for the night. If you need to use the bathroom at night, you need to lock the door behind you if you leave the gun in the room.
Keep in mind that most home interior locks can be opened from the outside with a bent paperclip. This will allow you to get back into the guest room.
If you choose to take the gun with you to the restroom, DO NOT LOSE SIGHT OF THE GUN. Many United States Secret Service agents have lost their service weapons by leaving it in the bathroom.
Also make sure that your host is cool with you carrying in his or her home. We may not like it but, private homeowners generally have the right to disallow firearms on their property.
Gun Control on Family Guy
Before there was The Walking Dead, there were mutated Stewie Griffins to prove our point!