The incident occurred Monday in South Los Angeles as kids were heading home from school, and authorities have not given out any information except that it was a homicide.

The teenager was walking away when a guy sucker-punched him, and the group piled on as soon as he fell.

Yesterday, multiple kids jumped a teenager in Los Angeles, and the kid who got attacked fatally shot one of the attackers.

The incident occurred Monday in South Los Angeles as kids were heading home from school, and authorities have not given out any information except that it… pic.twitter.com/jMvErb52QS

— LetsTalkDefensiveGunUse (@LetsTalkDGU) April 16, 2024

You can hear three shots, and if you look at individual frames, you can see that the kid who got attacked had a gun.

If this was an adult and they did not initiate the attack, it would most likely be justified, resulting in charges not being filed.

Since this kid was under 18 and illegally had a firearm, where do they go from here?

One-on-one fights are no longer the norm for settling disputes. This is where “disparity of force” comes into the equation, and it MIGHT be justification for using deadly force to stop the attack. I used the word might because every scenario is unique.

Unconfirmed information puts the deceased and the shooter under 18. Remember, initial reports are sometimes inaccurate.

On Sunday, pro-Palestinian demonstrators vandalized the Los Angeles National Cemetery, which is a burial site for over 80,000 veterans of World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and other conflicts.

The vandalism occurred as hundreds of protesters gathered outside the US Federal Building in West Los Angeles. The entrance to the cemetery was spray painted, with the words “Free Gaza” and “intifada” spray-painted on the sign.

? VIDEO OF PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS DEFACING U.S. MILITARY CEMETERY

85,000 American soldiers from 19th, 20th, and 21st century wars are buried at Los Angeles National Cemetery.

Reminder: the pro-Israel side loves America ?? pic.twitter.com/ZFWUgzXIab

— Sia Kordestani (@SiaKordestani) January 7, 2024

Prosecutors went after criminals under these statutes last year in Los Angeles for less blatant acts.

Multiple times last year, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass spoke out against hate crimes and, in October, said, “The vile act of hate that took place this morning has no place in our city.”

On a previous incident, Rep. Ted Lieu, D “The anti-Semitic acts and vandalism in Westwood are despicable. There is no `context’ in which anti-Semitism is acceptable. It is vile, repugnant, and abhorrent,” Lieu wrote on X. “I urge law enforcement to investigate and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.”

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon posted a statement on Facebook in June saying, “The vandalism that occurred in the Westwood area yesterday is yet another harmful act that is causing fear and anger for so many in our community, myself included.”

Defacing a national cemetery is a hate crime, and there is a long list of charges authorities can file.

• Cal. 594.3 Felony vandalism with enhancement (422.7): Felony vandalism with a hate crime enhancement – It is a felony in California to vandalize a cemetery.

(b) Any person who knowingly commits any act of vandalism to a Church….. or cemetery, which is shown to have been a hate crime and to have been committed for the purpose of intimidating and deterring persons from freely exercising their religious beliefs, is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision

• California Penal Code 182: Conspiracy to commit a crime
• PC 11412: Religious Terrorism (Felony)

If the city or the state doesn’t want to, how about:

• Federal 18 US Code 247: Damage to religious property. Subsection C says if it affects foreign commerce, and that’s exactly what they are trying to do.

18 US Code 247: Damage to religious property;

(1) intentionally defaces, damages, or destroys any religious real property, because of the religious character of that property, or attempts to do so;

(b) The circumstances referred to in subsection (a) are that the offense is in or affects interstate or foreign commerce.

Protestors defaced the Lincoln Memorial last year, among other places. When criminals know there are no repercussions, things escalate.

What happened to those incidents caused by protesters? Once again, they got away with it, and now it’s escalated to a national cemetery.

Why is it that the overwhelming majority of people say to arrest them all, but nobody’s getting arrested?

I recommend emailing the people in charge and speaking out on their social media like X and Facebook. It’s called showing up for the “ratio” and is effective. It’s time we took the game to them with a professional and business-like approach.

In a twist of events, the man who defended himself as he was entering his home in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago has had his concealed carry license “revoked.” Fox News reports that the sheriff’s department contacted him yesterday and said it was because he yelled at the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers when they were investigating the incident three days later.

Two men had jumped a fence and pointed a gun at Vince Ricci when he was entering his house, and a gunfight broke out. Ricci fired eight shots at the man who attacked him, and now that they synced both video views up, it appears his attacker was firing at him as he was running away. His five-month-old daughter and nanny were inside the home during the event.

In the video, Ricci says, “My situation is unique because it happened at my front door, all on camera. But this happens time and time again all over the country … People sweep it under the rug because it doesn’t behoove their political agenda. The fact is, evil will always exist,”

Some additional facts have come out since the shooting:

• Someone had broken into his home in June.
• A few months before that, someone broke his car into
• Criminals driving a Dodge Charger have been targeting other homes in the area.
• Someone broke into his neighbor’s house the night before his attack.

That would seem to be more than enough reason to justify carrying a gun for protection. Getting a CCW license in Los Angeles takes months and isn’t a simple process. It is called a Concealed Carry Weapon (CCW) in California, and you even have to prove you have “good moral character.”

‘After successfully defending my home and my family and my five-month-old child, California has now decided to suspend my Second Amendment [rights].’

The NRA said, “His decisive actions to protect his wife and daughter embody the core principles that NRA members fight for every day,” said NRA spokesperson Billy McLaughlin. “It’s reprehensible that California is shredding his Second Amendment rights after he defended his family. Gov. [Gavin] Newsom and [Los Angeles County District Attorney George] Gascon’s pro-criminal policies have transformed Los Angeles and the wider state into what resembles a war zone. The NRA stands with Vince and every responsible gun owner in California, firmly committed to defending their rights to protect their families and communities.”

They took his right to carry away, but the criminals who attacked him are still roaming the streets. Thankfully, he has video evidence to show he acted in self-defense.

Now, for me, as a certified firearms and CCW instructor in California, I am all for people using their Second Amendment right to bear arms and protect themselves. However, this is a prime example of what NOT to do as a concealed carry permit holder.

While this video appears to be of a man protecting his family from armed robbers, let’s pick it apart from a California legal perspective.

• As a CCW permit holder, your goal is to stop the threat. It is NOT to chase it down and keep shooting at what WAS the threat. The way it appears in this video, he stopped the threat when he threw a cup of hot tea at the robbers, and they ran off.
• To avoid any serious legal, financial, emotional, familial, or societal ramifications, good CCW training includes knowing how to make a decision other than shooting.

The way I see it in this video, the robbers were running away. The homeowner could’ve run into his house, locked the door, and instructed his wife or nanny to call 911 while remaining vigilant in the house until the police arrived.

A prosecutor could potentially see the shots fired not as a self-defense move, but rather as four negligent discharges. Once the threat ended and the robbers ran away, the homeowner could’ve made a different decision other than chasing after them and shooting.

What if he had hit a neighbor or car driving by?

On the flip side, the homeowner’s response could meet the requirements of a reasonable and rational fear of great bodily harm or death to him and his immediate family (per CA PC 198). Also, AOJ (ability, opportunity, and jeopardy) appears to have been satisfied.

In a confrontation that happened last year in Antioch, California, the district attorney Diana Becton said: “In the eyes of the law, Mr. Williams’ actions ceased to be self-defense when Mr. Williams pursued Mr. Jackson and the other suspect with a firearm — and continued to pursue Mr. Jackson after he shot him.”

“The legal distinction is clear: when your property and life are being threatened, an individual is legally justified in using deadly force in self-defense,” Becton said. “However, once the threat of harm has dissipated, the victim of a property crime cannot then use deadly force to reclaim stolen property.”

California Castle Doctrine

You can legally use force to protect your home. However, in this case, where the attacker targeted him outside of his home, I lean toward the threat ending when he threw the tea at his assailant.

There are many complexities of the California Castle Doctrine. PC 198.5 says, “Any person using force intended or likely to cause death or great bodily injury within his or her residence shall be presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily injury to self, family, or a member of the household when that force is used against another person, not a member of the family or household, who unlawfully and forcibly enters or has unlawfully and forcibly entered the residence and the person using the force knew or had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry occurred.”

The robbers never entered the house, so the Castle Doctrine technically does not apply if the intruder is not inside or trying to enter the residence.

The homeowner’s attorney could argue the latter part of “trying to enter the residence” in his defense if he needs one.

California Stand Your Ground Law

The stand-your-ground law is a defense he might use for someone who uses force inside or outside the home. However, this law has its own nuances and specific parameters.

CAL CRIM 505, “A defendant is not required to retreat. He or she is entitled to stand his or her ground and defend himself or herself and, if reasonably necessary, to pursue an assailant until the danger of (death/great bodily injury) has passed. This is so even if safety could have been achieved by retreating.”

The danger of death or great bodily injury probably passed when the attackers ran off.

As a firearms instructor, I understand his reaction to protect his family. Still, I also see the homeowner’s negligence and lack of trigger control. Shooting all over the place runs the risk of hitting an innocent bystander.

I am certainly not giving the intruders a break here. They still approached the homeowner at gunpoint. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in court, especially considering that this occurred in the very gun-unfriendly State of California and the more liberal County of Los Angeles.

In my 50 years of handling firearms, I have had one negligent discharge (ND). I am ashamed to admit that I have found that if you handle firearms long enough, that will happen. Luckily for me, of the four rules governing firearm safety, I was fortunate enough to be following rule number two. I had the firearm pointed in a safe direction, away from anything I was not willing to destroy. I didn’t injure anyone, and that day taught me a lesson I have never forgotten, even after 30 years.

There are FOUR basic rules for handling any Firearm:

• Treat EVERY FIREARM AS IF IT WAS LOADED.
• Always point your Firearm in a SAFE DIRECTION, meaning away from others and at nothing you are not willing to DESTROY.
• KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER AND OUTSIDE THE TRIGGER GUARD.
• Know what your TARGET is and what is beyond your TARGET.

I just left Albuquerque, New Mexico, a few weeks after Alec Baldwin’s story broke concerning a tragic incident that most certainly should have been avoided. Ironically, I was in Albuquerque for a National Rifle Association (NRA) training course, getting my handgun and rifle instructor certifications. Like many of you, I read the various news accounts of what had happened. I was shocked. How could three people handle a firearm, and no one checked to see if it was loaded or if it was loaded with what? This, of course, was a movie production using real firearms. So, blanks or non-firing rounds could have been in this handgun, yet no one verified what was there. Certainly, a live round (real ammunition) should not have been in the handgun at all!

How to Become an Armorer For Films

After reading the various news accounts and watching all the YouTube police interviews, I researched the whole situation myself. What shocked me the most was the qualifications, or, I should say, the lack of qualifications, to become an “Armorer” on a movie set. There are none! In short, you intern for another armorer. Then, when that armorer feels you have learned enough, you go to the State of California to get an Entertainment Firearms Permit BOF 051 Entertainment Firearms Permit Application. Then apply to the Prop Master Union; now you are an armorer!

I kid you not; that is the complete process!

I suppose the State of California also took note of the Baldwin incident and wanted to ensure that nothing like the “Rust” incident would happen again. I found two yet differing California State Bills concerning the use of firearms on an entertainment set. They are SB 831 and SB 829, which, as far as I can figure out, are not laws. They are both still proposed state bills.

SB 831 requires a person(s) with OSHA training to always be on the set during the production and verify the firearms and ammunition.

SB 829 requires a State Fire Marshal to be on set with firearms and ammunition. I mean, no disrespect to either OSHA or State Fire Marshals, but what training do they have to make them qualified to handle firearms?

Does that make any sense to anyone reading this, because it sure doesn’t to me!

For over twenty years, selling or buying high-capacity magazines has been illegal in California. Voters in 2016 supported Proposition 63, which prohibited the ownership of such magazines. Proposition 63 has been the catalyst for many court cases.

U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez wrote in his decision, “Removable firearm magazines of all sizes are necessary components of semiautomatic firearms. Therefore, magazines come within the text of the constitutional declaration that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Because millions of removable firearm magazines able to hold between 10 and 30 rounds are commonly owned by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, including self-defense, and because they are reasonably related to service in the militia, the magazines are presumptively within the protection of the Second Amendment. There is no American history or tradition of regulating firearms based on the number of rounds they can shoot, or of regulating the amount of ammunition that can be kept and carried.”

SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb said, “The decision affects Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s defense against a lawsuit challenging a similar ban in his state, which is also in the Ninth Circuit, as well as bans in other states. Ultimately, we expect this issue will have to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.”

To give California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office time to request a stay, Benitez postponed enforcement of his injunction for ten days.

After an incredible day of meetings and a brilliant panel at TikTok HQ in Los Angeles, I went for a walk along the boardwalk to enjoy the sunset and unwind. After just 5 minutes, an aggressive individual confronted me, shouting for no apparent reason. Instinctively, I tried to avoid him, but unfortunately, out of the blue, he rushed at me and punched me very hard in the face.

It was an enormous shock. There was lots of blood, a broken tooth, significant swelling, and a deep cut on my lip. Some people walking by kindly looked after me while I regained my composure, and then the police came to arrest the individual.

Unfortunately, even though the perpetrator was still there, it turns out there was very little the police could do to make a difference. They could only arrest him and send him to prison for one night. After that, he would most likely return to do the same to others. It’s an unfortunate virtuous cycle, and the current system is not set up to improve it.

So, the moral of the story, and the reason I am sharing this, is to tell people to be extra safe by keeping their distance if approached by anyone who may appear aggressive, even in a very public setting.

With crime rates increasing across cities worldwide and with the dilemma all of us and the police face, what do you think needs to change to discourage crimes like this?

By Edward East

Ed is the founder of Billion Dollar Boy