Correction: MN Travelers Weren't Attacked At Rail Station By Group Of Somali Immigrants As Previously Reported

Image by Benjamin Nelan from Pixabay

5/23/2019 Correction:

According to Snopes, the incident reported below wasn’t quite what was described by our report.

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What’s True

On 17 May 2019, University of Minnesota police officers cited two juveniles of Somali heritage for misdemeanors associated with brandishing pipes at a train station in the city.

What’s False

According to University of Minnesota police, the incident did not involve a physical attack, did not cause any injuries, and was not racially motivated.

While Snopes is known to have a liberal bias, facts are facts. The point about round capacity stands, and the fact that this sounded so believable is also telling, but we want to get the facts right and if they’re not right, we need to own up to it.

*Orignal Post*

Throughout the nation, state legislatures are looking to restrict the number of rounds your firearm can carry. People who don’t know the first thing about firearms, much less the defensive use of firearms, want to mandate how many rounds your gun can hold at one time. Self-appointed experts, who have at most a few range visits but likely boast far less experience than that, will tell you that you need to practice more. I mean, a revolver should be all you need, right?

Well…not necessarily. Not if you have a group of Somali immigrants looking to harm others.

A mob of eight to 10 males wielding hammers descended upon bystanders at the East Bank Light Rail station on Friday night injuring several, according to recorded police dispatch audio.

The incident was apparently reported to 911 just before 10 p.m. on Friday according to the audio and other social media police scanner reports. A 9:48 p.m. Facebook post on 2nd Precinct Minneapolis Crime Watch page said that University of Minnesota (U of M) police were requesting assistance from Minneapolis police (MPD) and Metro Transit police for “a group of 8-10 males chasing people with hammers” and that some people were injured. A Facebook post a minute later on Minneapolis Scanner page said that the three police departments were responding to “multiple [911] calls” about “10-12 Somali teen males armed with hammers chasing people,” also with “several injuries reported.” Both Facebook pages regularly post summaries of police scanner audio.

A person who claimed on social media to have been at the station when the incident occurred said that the group of males had “hammers and bars,” and that they seemed to be “attacking anyone who looked like they had money or were white.” The witness, who said he isn’t white, said he didn’t want to “[take] on a bunch of dudes with blunt objects,” and that he “hurried an older white lady away” and they walked a few blocks to catch a bus.

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Now, these teen males have been reported to be between the ages of 12 to 15, but they represent a clear threat to the people at that station. A serious one, it seems.

As Elizabeth Vaughn noted over at our sister site RedState, it’s funny that you didn’t hear about this in the media.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this incident is how little media attention it received. The second most remarkable thing is that none of the article titles about this story indicate that these teenagers were Somali.

She’s right on all counts.

The reason, of course, is that this doesn’t advance any agenda the media finds useful. Much of this runs counter to anything journalists want to advance, and since activist journalism is the norm these days, you’re not going to see much written about it.

In truth, though, I’m no different. If this didn’t somehow justify opposition to gun laws, I wouldn’t be writing about it either. The main difference is that this is a single issue website dedicated to protecting and preserving the Second Amendment. I’m not expected to write about news in general.

Had these punks knocked over trash cans and been a less threatening nuisance, I wouldn’t be writing about it at all.

You see, I’m sitting here wondering what would have happened if these thugs had started their rampage on a station platform with even a single armed citizen there. The moment it became clear they were both armed and violent, he or she would have been justified…if Minnesota wasn’t a duty to retreat state, at least.

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Still, if someone used lethal force because they were unable to retreat, there are two possibilities of what would have happened in the immediate aftermath. One, of course, is that the thugs would turn and run.

The other, unfortunately, is that they would swarm the shooter.

Folks, at that point, you want as many rounds as humanly possible. In that regard, it seems Minnesota at least empowers its residents to carry as many rounds in their weapon as they want. This is good. Unfortunately, too many other states feel like you shouldn’t need 15 rounds in your magazines.

At a time like that, you’ll wish you had a thousand round magazine. Assuming you could carry it, of course, though that isn’t likely to enter your mind at the moment.

So far as I know, no gunfight survivor ever complained about having too many rounds available. Since situations like this can and do happen, I damn sure don’t want the state to restrict how many I can have in my weapon.

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