Ranger Kilted Heathen went home?

[Southern_Brit]

Ranger Terry, that's where the difference is, you have a country based on 'freedom'...where everyone can bear arms (kind of??) and it is a case of looking after yourself and your family (which I do see the point)...but to me it is a quick fix solution or one that has so many reprecussions - i.e so many violent crimes, accidents, incidents etc...

I have friends and family that live in the US, my cousin lived in Florida for 8 years and saw several gun related incidents and his neighbours house was robbed by two guys with guns... he said he just felt that anyone could pull a gun out. To me the fact that you can't have them in the UK keeps the needless death and violence down.

Our problem and I've mentioned that cities are like warzones at night is drink and drugs... the city centres at pub / club closing times is shocking.
It is fighting (not weapons) and the Police have their work cut out but I'd take that over gun problems.

[keepsmilin]

With all due respect, I'll keep my 38 Revolver, just in case someone tries to carjack me while in my car, bash my head against the steering wheel and then kill me in the crash when they speed in front of a cement truck..

BTW - my children would probably be in the backseat...

-KS

[Spartan]

With all due respect, I'll keep my 38 Revolver, just in case someone tries to carjack me while in my car, bash my head against the steering wheel and then kill me in the crash when they speed in front of a cement truck..

BTW - my children would probably be in the backseat...

-KS

I just read that story = http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/ ... rjack.html

I think you can put in 'packing@packing.org' as a username if asked to register and 'packing' as the password.

Kimberly Boyd owned a truck rental company in Acworth, a Cobb County community where the Appalachian Mountains yield to the granite Piedmont.

Boyd's business is in a strip mall, with a Big Lots, a Waffle House and several other businesses — one of the last places you might notice someone lurking.

But Brian O'Neil Clark, a 25-year-old felon who had been released from prison three months earlier, was there.

That morning, Boyd left her home in Paulding County before 8 a.m. She dropped her 5-year-old son, Connor, at school and drove to her office. Police believe she was abducted by Clark in the parking lot.

At 9:25 that morning, Boyd used her ATM card to withdraw money outside a Wachovia bank about 5 miles away.

"We speculate that she went to that area hoping someone would see her and become suspicious," said Kevin Flynn, a homicide lieutenant with the Cobb County Police Department. "This indicates she was cool-headed and doing everything she could to survive because there were other banks closer to where she was abducted."

Roberts first saw Boyd and Clark about 1 1/2 miles south of the bank. Clark hit Boyd with his fist and a gun as the two struggled along Cobb Parkway, just past a bridge over Allatoona Reservoir.

At some point, Clark shot Boyd.

He then shoved her into the back seat of the SUV and sped away. As Boyd's SUV careened down Cobb Parkway, Roberts gave chase.

Then came the crash.

At Lake Acworth Drive, about a half-mile from where Roberts saw Boyd and Clark fighting, a cement truck moving northbound on Cobb Parkway crashed into the SUV as Clark tried to make a sharp left turn off the highway.

The accident's impact killed Boyd.

Clark emerged from the crumpled SUV and started running toward a gas station.

As Roberts approached, Clark raised his gun.

That's when Porter heard the shots from outside her office at Atlanta Tile Specialists.

Clark fell in a heap, dead.

Boyd, still inside her SUV, was already gone.

At the Cobb County 911 center, the call boards lit up "like a Christmas tree," Flynn said.

The first caller told an operator there had been a bad accident and someone had been shot.

Family came first

Kimberly Boyd put her children and her husband above everything else, including her business.

She used to take Connor and her 2-year-old daughter, Chloe, to work with her so she could spend time with them throughout the day.

"There were toys all over the floor of her store," said Janeice Confer, who manages a truck rental franchise nearby. "She was a very devoted mother."

She spent two years at the University of Georgia in the mid-1990s. Mike Boyd, eight years her senior, went to college in Tennessee.

"The only thing I ever heard those two argue about was Georgia-Tennessee," Henderson, a friend of the Boyds', said with a chuckle. "Kim would call me for stats —'Quick, how many points did Georgia score off Tennessee last year?' "

The couple recently got custody of Mike's 13-year-old son, Nathan, from a previous marriage, and Kimberly told her friends she didn't think she could raise all three children while running a business.

So she was looking for someone to buy her out.

But Monday, she had a customer coming in at 8:30 a.m. She had to make sure the truck was ready to be picked up.

Chloe had a cold, so Mike stayed home.

Kids first, work second.

"It was a family that had everything together," said Scott Cannon, who coached Nathan's baseball team in Woodstock.

The day after his mother was abducted and killed, Connor went to his room and drew a picture. He asked his dad if his mother would ever see it.

"Yes," Michael Boyd told his son.

"She'll love the picture, and she'll be with you forever."

The drawing was in Kimberly's casket Friday when she was buried.

It's a picture of a teddy bear, with the words "I LOVE YOU MOMMY."

Hailed as a hero

Shawn T. Roberts lives in the sprawling Bentwater subdivision in Paulding County. It's only about a mile from the Boyds' home, but it doesn't appear as if the two had ever met.

Roberts, 31, owns a home theater and burglar alarm company and carried a licensed pistol.

Before he stopped speaking publicly about the incident, he said he had no choice, that had he not acted, more people could have been harmed.

And that's how his actions are being seen, in metro Atlanta and across the country.

Web sites and blogs are filled with postings crediting Roberts for his fast thinking and for trying to save lives.

"This guy probably saved another 25+ victims ..." a poster with the screen name "Taurus" said on a message board at www.packing.org, a Web site for advocates of concealed-carry laws. "Shawn Roberts is a hero in my book."

Police and community leaders seem to agree.

"You drive by a man beating a woman on the side of the road, you have to do something," said Deanne Bonner, president of the Cobb County chapter of the NAACP.

Said Flynn, the homicide lieutenant: "I want to stress that ... we have found no violations of Georgia law. That being said, the district attorney will make the final decision."

Although Roberts knew nothing about Clark's background at the time of the shooting, police seem to think there's a good chance others might have been hurt had Roberts done nothing.

In April 2002, Clark was arrested in Illinois and brought back to Georgia to face child molestation, statutory rape and burglary charges in Cobb County, where he received an 18-month sentence, jail records show.

In May 2004, Clark was charged in Cherokee County for first-degree forgery. He served a year in state prison and was released June 13.

Police also suspect Clark is responsible for a rape, carjacking and robbery in Acworth on Sept. 6.

In that case, police believe Clark beat and raped a woman, then forced her to drive to a nearby bank so he could withdraw money from the bank's ATM.

During that attack, Clark stole a gun from the woman's home, police said.

That gun was finally found Monday — near Clark's body after he was shot.

The one thing I am thankful of is that lunatic citizens of the UK can't bring handguns to soccer matches. You people have no self control and that's why you've got the laws that you have.

[RGR_Dan]

Seeing as how I know/work with several of the people involved in this fiasco I have good news to report. The hero in this incident actually fired a failure drill into the perp. 2 to the chest and one to the head while he was moving and the perp was moving laterally. Witnesses said "he dropped like a sack of potatoes"

In Kennesaw Georgia, (1 mile south of Acworth) there is a city ordinance REQUIRING each home to have a firearm.

[Towedjmpr]

I grew up in Marietta (same area). I rarely saw in "gun related violence". Violence yes, but drunken rednecks are usually smart enough to know that everyone is likely carrying.

[Southern_Brit]

Ranger Spartan,

"We have no self control"

With all due respect, don't talk out of your arse.

Football has or rather had a big hooligan element in the 1970s - 1990... the commercial side of football and the more family orientated fan based has put a stop to this, but this is not a reflection on us all.

It is a working class sport and the follwing of your team is like a religion and fights occur, it was a big big problem, but happened throughout Europe - still does in Italy.

Rugby, cricket and other 'team' games in the UK do not have this at all... not a bit of violence amongst the crowds.



Don't make sweeping acccusations!

[hobbit]

You have 2 million Muslims in Britain. Judging from the condition of London's subways, I'd say they're pretty well armed.

[Southern_Brit]

You have 2 million Muslims in Britain. Judging from the condition of London's subways, I'd say they're pretty well armed.

Ranger Hobbit, what the fuck has that got to do with the debate on guns?

Should we arm our people in the hope it might deter future attacks... think on man!

We'd be shooting every cunt with a backpack... but then there again, most tourists in London are Yanks.... mmmmmm!

[ANGRYCivilian]

Southern_Brit,

Are there any shooting sports? If so, what do people use/how do they own firearms?

[Southern_Brit]

Yeah, we do have gun sports here... pistol and rifle shooting, clay pigeon etc...it's not all bows and arrows!
It is a sore point with the sportsmen... it is very very controlled and licensed, not sure if they can be kept in their homes?

[Southern_Brit]

Trust me, for the NE of England, that's hot!

Just joking... it is normally wet and cold up there, but I can't see those heats contributing to the deaths?!



On the topic of Scotalnd being No1 most violent place in the developed world and England No2... definately, without a doubt!

We have always had a vicious streak throughout our population, mainly a drinking culture over here, everyone goes to the pub and gets smashed and over the last 10 years it has become so commercial, with bars and and clubs offering really cheap drinks and leathal shots and it is a case of get legless...on a Friday /Saturday night every city / town / village is like a warzone - I kid you not

Quaint we are not!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3875585.stm (has video too)

See if you could own a gun there then it wouldnt be a problem.
"an armed society, is a polite society".

Don't look at me mate.