Some of the frequent annoyances to me in any debate is the mad sprint to take sides, adopted by the demand that one aspect is fully within the incorrect whereas the opposite is with out reproach. The reality, most of the time, is that each side are proper and incorrect. Generally, nevertheless, they’re each flat out silly. Welcome to Seattle, the place a scarcity of IQ just lately led to a person in a wheelchair pulling a toy gun on a petulantly derranged leftist who promptly shot him within the chest. You could have heard about this on the information or learn the peanut gallery’s response to the incident on social media, however I’m going to interrupt it down for you myself by making enjoyable of each side and laying out a transparent lesson plan by which to keep away from ever turning into one in all these idiots.
Let me first introduce you to Gregory Timm, 32, whose Trump Derangement Syndrome satisfied him to plow his car right into a Florida Trump voter registration drive again in 2020. After narrowly lacking his meant targets, he flipped off volunteers and drove away, solely to be arrested later as he instructed the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Workplace that “somebody needed to take a stand.” His dad and mom should be so proud. After solely 60 days in jail, Timm has resurfaced 5 years later because the self-appointed arbiter of stolen valor.
The incident came about on July 31 on the Alaskan Manner boardwalk in downtown Seattle. Timm was seen confronting 68-year-old Harold Powell, a Navy veteran whose service led to 1991 when he says a drunk driver struck him. The now wheelchair-bound Powell spends his days enjoying music for donations, and from all accounts, looks as if a fairly nice particular person who’s a daily entertainer on Seattle’s waterfront. So why the ruckus?
Apparently, Timm disapproved of the Navy Veteran’s illustration of himself because the veteran that he’s, forgetting an ever-important childhood lesson in minding your personal rattling enterprise. Demanding to see some type of ID from Powell, Timm in the end snatched away a veteran patch from him, once more failing at life by ignoring classes on holding your palms to your self and never taking that which doesn’t belong to you. Right here’s the place issues go sideways.
Powell then drew a knife large enough to earn Crocodile Dundee’s approval. Had he stopped there, holding the knife in a defensive posture, I wouldn’t have thought something of it. The person is in a wheelchair and has already been technically assaulted by a deranged lunatic. However that’s not how the confrontation ended. In a video posted to X, you may clearly see that Timm had created some house between the 2 earlier than Powell used his wheelchair to cost the person whereas holding up the sizable blade. This causes Timm to retreat backwards, simply creating further house by which he might keep away from being stabbed or lower.
Powell’s response to this was to begin reaching into what could have been a bag. It isn’t simple to see as his again is to the digicam. Moments later, as Powell appears to be drawing one thing, Timm could be seen releasing one in all his backpack’s shoulder straps, swinging it round to the entrance of his physique earlier than opening a compartment and reaching inside. It’s quickly clear what spooked Timm, as we see Powell elevate what seems to be to be a firearm. It’s at that second when Timm, who’s backing away, pulls his personal gun and fires a single shot into Powell’s chest from what seems to be to be roughly ten to fifteen toes.
Powell was rushed to the hospital in severe however steady situation and has since been launched, as he continues his restoration at house with a GoFundMe account tipping simply over $10,000 as I write this. The truth that Powell lived is the one good takeaway from an in any other case ghastly show of poor judgment on the a part of each males.
You see, though I could look like the kind of conservative who would throw my assist behind the jolly likes of our usually good-natured veteran, my loyalty actually lies with frequent sense, and within the case of firearms, security, common sense, and accountability. For not minding his enterprise and what quantities to assault and petty theft, Timm reveals what his document already tells us about him: that he’s an abject degenerate.
The issues with Powell’s response, nevertheless, begin to stack up when he fees with the massive knife as Timm appears to be talking with a bystander roughly six to eight toes away. Whereas I’m unsure if Powell would have taken a swipe with the blade, I can see how he might have felt considerably demoralized as Timm was simply in a position to retreat additional again and out of the attain of his wheelchair. Nonetheless, there was nothing defensive in any respect about Powell’s lunge. It was purely an offensive gesture.
Having created distance between the 2 once more, Powell reaches for the good equalizer, which turned out to be an airsoft gun. Why on the earth would he pull an airsoft gun? It will probably’t be in self-defense, contemplating Timm was backing away, and it was Powell who was armed and advancing towards the confrontation. The one cheap rationalization is that he was making an attempt to make use of the gun to intimidate Timm, both out of anger or in an try to retrieve his patch. Neither of those situations justifies the brandishing of a firearm, or on this case, a toy gun, which might get you shot by an actual one fairly shortly.
That’s precisely what occurred right here. Whereas I’d moderately urinate on an electrical fence than defend Timm on this scenario, there are a number of components to contemplate right here. First, he had no obligation to imagine the authentic-looking gun was a toy. Second, he had no obligation to imagine that Powell, who charged him with the knife moments earlier than, wouldn’t pull the set off. Lastly, Washington is a “no responsibility to retreat” state, that means there isn’t any authorized requirement to retreat earlier than utilizing self-defense. I’d additionally like so as to add that turning your again to an armed particular person is a good way to get shot within the again, except you may keep a pace of not less than 1400 toes per second for a distance.
I’ll be sincere with you. It is a scenario that’s far too simple to keep away from, and many of the classes on what might have prevented this shameful fiasco within the first place are taught to us across the age of 5. Keep in your lane, preserve your palms to your self, and don’t take different individuals’s issues. However the consequence of this case displays a end result of stupidity that escalated issues to probably lethal penalties. Gun house owners, and particularly those that carry in public, should be overtly accountable residents, conscious of conduct that may incite battle and extra vulnerable to de-escalation than in any other case.
Moreover, firearms are usually not for intimidating individuals. They don’t seem to be for saving face, expressing anger, or retrieving property. Firearms are life-saving instruments, meant for use as a final line of protection when going through imminent hazard. It is usually inadvisable, as we’ve seen on this unhappy show, to attract down on anybody utilizing a toy gun, since you by no means know in the event that they’ll pull out an actual one. If all’s properly that ends properly, then all stinks to excessive heaven right here, as we have now one man shot within the chest, one other being held on $750,000 bail and going through first-degree assault class A felony fees, and the web clammoring to select sides with out realizing that everybody sucks right here.
