This Just Doesn’t Seem Right 1
From the Wilmington News Urinal. Follow the link for more details:
Gregg N. Lynch, of the 100 block of Murphy Road, was released on $20,500 unsecured bail Wednesday after being charged with felony aggravated menacing, possession of a firearm during a felony, carrying a concealed deadly weapon and disorderly conduct.
The three men involved in the fight were not immediately charged, Cpl. Jeff Whitmarsh of the Delaware State Police said.
“It’s still an active case under investigation,” Whitmarsh said Thursday.
It all started at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in the parking lot outside Dick’s Sporting Goods in the Brandywine Town Center, where the occupants of two cars each claimed the others cut them off.
The three occupants — two teenage boys and a 27-year-old man — stopped and got into an argument that turned physical.
Shoppers called state police.
Before troopers could arrive, Lynch pulled up in a pickup, brandished a Glock 9 mm pistol and ordered the trio to “get to the ground,” police said in court records.
(snip)
“I have every right to have a gun,” Lynch replied, according to the records. “I don’t have to show you anything.”
Troopers who arrested Lynch said he didn’t have that right because his life was not in danger.
(Of course, this means that, if you have gun, you are forbidden to come to the aid of someone who needs your aid–ed.)
Troopers said they found the unloaded Glock, an unloaded 9 mm Baretta pistol and a loaded .22-caliber revolver during a search of his truck.
(snip)
Whitmarsh said Lynch’s brandishing of a gun implied he was going to use deadly force.
“If he’s threatening someone to comply or face deadly force, then he himself has to be threatened with serious bodily injury or death, or be in fear that someone else will face seriously bodily injury or death,” he said.
Lynch never claimed that he was making a citizen’s arrest and made no mention of holding the men at bay until police arrived, Whitmarsh said.
I’m not a big fan of guns. They are dirty, messy, and noisy, and, in the wrong hands, usually result in bad things happening.
I also think that persons who carry guns around with them are generally pretty much asking for trouble.
But, in this case, the gun user ended a confrontation that could have resulted in someone’s getting hurt.
End result. No one got hurt.
And the guy who ended the confrontation gets arrested.
Mr. Lynch may be a crackpot of some sort. I don’t know. He may have broken a law here. But, based on the contents of the news story, he seems to have acted on the side of justice, if not on the side of law.
But, as we know, the law and justice are seldom related.
As far as I am concerned, the district attorney (or whatever they call that position here in Delaware) should drop these charges and find something with which to charge the road rage guys.
January 21, 2008 at 7:03 am
I normally dislike receiving a jury duty notice in the mail. But I would look forward to the next one if I could sit on the jury hearing this case.