Long Island man has right to bear arms, but not to fire warning

Making the rounds in the blogosphere is the story of a Long Island man who confronted a group of men who allegedly came onto the man’s property and threatened his family. CBS New York reported the story of a Uniondale man who did everything by the book except for one action—he said he fired 4 warning shots “into the grass.”

CBS said, “George Grier said he had to use his rifle on Sunday night to stop what he thought was going to be an invasion of his Uniondale home by a gang he thought might have been the vicious ‘MS-13.’”

Grier said he only fired those shots after telling his wife to call police and asking the men to leave. He said by the time he fired the warning, 20 other men had “come rushing round the corner.”

The weapon, an AK-47, was legal; CBS said Grier has no record.

Apparently the law in that area permits the use of physical force only to stop physical force. No one else allegedly had a weapon, at least not in sight.

Grier was charged with a D felony reckless endangerment.

Official US government records show convictions for numerous MS-13 members in the area. One murder victim was an innocent 15 year old boy killed on Christmas Eve, 2006, in a case of mistaken identity.

In a news release in April, 2010, the FBI New York office said, “MS-13 is the largest street gang on Long Island. Over the past five years, investigations by the United States Attorney’s Office, ICE, the FBI, and the NYPD have solved multiple murders on Long Island and in New York City, and resulted in felony convictions of more than a dozen MS-13 leaders and 120 MS-13 soldiers.”

Local police said there are at least 2,000 MS-13 members in the county where Grier lives.

MS-13 is shorthand for La Mara Salvatrucha. The Dept. of Justice said in a release the gang is “a violent international street gang comprised primarily of immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, many of whom are in the United States illegally.”

The 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment said MS-13 has between 30,000-50,000 members worldwide with between 8,000-10,000 in the U.S. Drugs and alien smuggling are among their illicit activities.

Urban legends ascribe part of the gang’s name to a street in San Salvador and the number 13 to a gang in Mexico.

Does the presence of approximately 20 men trespassing on private property and threatening the property owner constitute the presence of physical force? Perhaps the district attorney in that area could venture into a neighborhood where gangs operate and call 20 members out. That might give the D.A. insight into what exactly constitutes physical force.

If news accounts are accurate, Grier should never have been charged. He showed great restraint in a situation where others might not have given the intruders on his property the benefit of warning shots. By firing shots into the grass, Grier took great efforts in the face of danger to endanger no one’s life. Grier confronted physical force in the sheer number of intruders threatening him on his private property. (Commentary by Kay B. Day/Sept. 8, 2010)

Comments

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he did what a lot of people out here may not have done because of the archaic gun laws in NYS. He showed extreme restraint in the face of possible harm gathering out there on his front lawn. NY sucks as far as the law abiding gun owner is concerned trying to protect himself and his family from impending danger.