Four high school students picked the wrong guy to allegedly kidnap and rob. Texas border patrol agent Armando Alaniz was was vacationing with his family in Florida and was packing up his car when four teens jumped him and threw him into his car. Gregory McDonald, 19, Dante Askins, 18, and two other teens, 15 and 16, are accused of pistol-whipping the agent, tying him up, robbing him, and then abandoning him at a vacant drug house in Orlando. What is interesting is that an OnStar vehicle security representative called the car after the victim’s wife called police. The agent heard someone screaming for help and notified police.
The agent was confronted at gunpoint in an Orlando hotel parking lot Wednesday night as he was packing up his car. He was forced into the backseat, pistol-whipped, tied-up and robbed of his wallet. His was then held captive for two hours. His harrowing ordeal ended when the carjackers ditched the car at a vacant drug house and fled, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said.
Askins, who is a reputed member of the street gang Death Over Mercy, added to his problem by being picked up Thursday in a stolen car. He was previously charged in a serious offense but avoided prosecution. In 2013, he was charged as an adult at 16 with attempted murder in a drive-by shooting targeting a member of the rival Gorilla gang. His co-defendants received lengthy sentences but the charges against Askins were eventually dropped.
The four face charges of armed kidnapping, carjacking and battery with a firearm. Askins has additional charges of multiple counts of stealing cars, resisting arrest without violence, burglary and possession of burglary tools.
Sheriff Jerry Demings (right) stated that “[t]hese high-school students were playing a dangerous game, and they got caught playing a dangerous game.” That comment struck me as rather odd. Hanging on the back of city buses and running on roof top is a dangerous game. Carjacking, kidnapping, and pistol-whipping people are serious crimes committed by serious felons. The victim was beaten and robbed. I fail to see how the word game would come into play on any level of this crime.
Issac … I have commented a couple of times how “regulated” purchases are in Michigan and that I have no problem with it, and I doubt Karen would either. The system here requires everything you cited at 18 Aug @ 5:27 PM…where the problem lies is the large number of people who would actually remove or diminish the facets of the 2nd Amendment, and those people ask for far more than you apparently do. I. Annie cited by link a map of various states who do not have the “regulation” I do here, and as I commented at the time, a lot of improvement is necessary in those states. It might be noteworthy that the training classes and text materials furnished to everyone here seeking a CPL is published and promoted by none other than the NRA.
“When the 2nd Amendment was written conditions were as they were which is significantly different than they are today, or for the past many years.”
isaac,
That one statement alone should tell anyone paying attention that you have absolutely no idea WHY the 2nd amendment was included in the Bill of Rights. The conditions that warrant the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms are EXACTLY the same as they were before, during and after our founding. There has never been nor will there ever be any cure for the evils of human nature. PERIOD.
Karen
I repeat, for the umpteenth time. It’s not about taking away the 2nd Amendment, your right to be armed. It is about the ‘well regulated’ part of the amendment. These days it’s not well regulated. A woman should be able to carry a gun. To do so she should first be vetted/researched per their rights, mental state, etc. There should be an obligatory education experience. For example, if the mother of the Apergers syndrome kid had been obligated to address the dangers of having an arsenal at home and using guns and shooting in order to bond with her son, then maybe, just maybe a couple dozen kids would still be alive. If the guy who recently shot a half dozen or so innocent people had of been researched just a little more thoroughly and the system had been just a little more serious, then…. Karen you can still have your gun.
Paul
You there in Arizona, armed and a member of the state militia, sounds like exactly how it should be. You are regulated, well I hope. You most likely receive training, education, care, and attention. This sounds more like the 2nd Amendment than those idiots shooting up state and federal parks, picking fights and then when taking a licking shooting the other guy, etc.
issac – we train on the village green every Sunday after church services.
Isaac:
“When the 2nd Amendment was written conditions were as they were which is significantly different than they are today, or for the past many years.”
Do we no longer need to protect ourselves against foreign threats or tyranny? I would refer you to ISIS, Al Qaeda, Mexican drug cartels, and any number of foreign threats, as well as numerous examples of governments who became tyrannical – North Korea, China, Russia . . .
Do you believe that people will stop killing each other if we take away one of the tools to do so? You do understand, don’t you, that just about the only hope that a woman has of preventing a man from killing her is a firearm? Without that leveler, it’s the rule of the club, if the attacker does not care about getting caught. And women will always lose that contest, with the possible exception if she’s a black belt. Who is the most common culprit in a woman’s murder? Her ex-boyfriend or -husband. And there is usually a long line of threats beforehand. Prisons are full of those who cared more about killing these women than getting caught. Any cop can tell you that they typically do not get there in time to actually prevent violence from occurring. She would have to identify the problem (window breaking), get to the phone, call 911, giver her address and situation, wait for the cops to arrive. . . How long is that hallway?
Again, I refer you to the FBI statistics that I’ve listed before in which the vast majority of gun violence is perpetrated by gangs.
If you want to actually be effective against homicide, rather than just the tools used, then break the gangs.
As for accidental shootings, I do support simple security features to protect curious children.
Aridog – Oh no! I’m so very sorry that you lost Dera. She sounds like she was a lovely dog and one of your best friends. It never gets any easier, does it? Hugs.
Isaac:
You may find the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the 2nd Amendment’s militia clause interesting:
http://supremecourtreview.com/default/issue/index/id/16
“The common-law rule inherited from England dictated that the effect of a preamble was only to clarify, and not to restrict the effect of, the operative part of the law.
Furthermore, the Founding Fathers were heavily influenced by English republican views on the relationship between arms and democracy. This theory, espoused by Blackstone and other seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English political theorists, held the citizen’s ability to bear arms and use them to defend his rights to be a crucial component of political independence. An armed population was vital to protect against both foreign threats and the threat of a standing army, which could become an instrument of governmental tyranny. The Federalists, who supported a strong centralized government, and the Antifederalists, who preferred local autonomy, agreed on the importance of the individual right to bear arms. The lack of recorded debate over the Second Amendment underscores this point; what little there is relates to the idea that no religiously scrupulous person should be compelled to bear arms, but never questions that those who desire arms should be allowed to have them.”
These arguments will sound familiar, because this interpretation is the cornerstone of the supporters of the 2nd Amendment.
Ari, We fellow dog lovers know the pain of a loss. I just said a prayer for you and your family.
Steg
I read with interest the article you referenced. I have been down that road many times as have most people who have followed this issue. The semantics and/or grammar of the 2nd Amendment still does not address the critical issue. When the 2nd Amendment was written conditions were as they were which is significantly different than they are today, or for the past many years. The people of the US have altered the Constitution when they have seen fit, typically due to changing or evolving conditions. It follows, therefore, that there is nothing sacred in the 2nd Amendment. The 2nd Amendment may be repealed, altered up or down, or regardless of grammar or semantics interpreted as it is written, differently.
I am of a position that the extreme hands off approach is not the one to take and that it is the approach that has landed the US in this mess. That some would write off the tens of thousands of deaths each year as the cost of some ideal that has little if anything to do with today, is completely irresponsible and portrays a dysfunction that hopefully, someday, Americans will leave behind.
issac – we have added amendments but we have never amended an amendment.
I. Annie … Yes, it was Dera. There was no chance she’d survive another 48 hours…metastasized cancer.
Aridog – so sorry you lost your friend. It is never easy. Best wishes.
So sorry to hear about your loss Aridog. Was it Dera?