If you carry don’t provoke

In several of the self-defense classes I have taken the instructors have told the class that if you carry a gun you will be held to a higher standard of behavior than those who do not carry. And specifically, do not pick a physical fight you are nearly certain you are going to win.*

We now have a real life example playing out of why this can cause you (and the gun rights movement in general) serious problems.

Remember the University of Washington incident involving a speech by former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos (see also my blog post here) on January 20th of this year? The couple who were involved in the shooting are now in trouble because there is evidence they went to the event with, shall we say, “a poor attitude”:

Assault charges filed Monday against a Ravenna couple in connection with the shooting of a protester outside a speech by former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos on Jan. 20 allege they went to the University of Washington campus that night looking for trouble.

Marc and Elizabeth Hokoana had armed themselves — him with pepper-spray and her with a Glock semi-automatic handgun in a holster under her coat — and went to the protest intending to goad demonstrators they knew would be there, King County prosecutors allege. Some witnesses said Marc Hokoana appeared to be intoxicated.

According to the charges, the day before Yiannopoulos was scheduled to talk at Kane Hall, Marc Hokoana had messaged a friend on Facebook, stating, “I can’t wait for tomorrow. I’m going to the milo event and if the snowflakes get out off hand I’m going to wade through their ranks and start cracking skulls.”

His friend asked him if he was “going to carry.”

Hokoana responded, “Nah, I’m going full melee,” but then wrote “Lily … is,” referring to his wife, Elizabeth.

I’m sure Elizabeth Hokoana didn’t help her case when she was interviewed by the police.

H/T to Julie S. for bringing this new information to my attention. She is also a personal friend of Josh Dukes who was shot by Ms. Hokoana.


* I would generalize this to don’t pick physical fights, but there may be some people who have an issue with that and that discussion is beyond the scope of this post.

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7 thoughts on “If you carry don’t provoke

  1. When I was a defense attorney and the Plaintiff’s attorneys blew off deadlines, submitted half-done or non-existent documents for discovery, and generally filed when they wanted to file, we referred to the Code of Civil Procedure as the Code of Civil Procedure for Defendants. As the proponents of liberty and personal responsibility, we are of course held to a higher standard. A quick comparison of the Occupy —- Street demonstrators and the Tea Party demonstrators shows which are the adults in the relationship.
    In fact I’ll go so far as to say that generally the Republicans are the adults in the room compared to the Democrats, that is, the Free S*** Army.

    These two people should be judged as individuals just as the man who shot at the Republican Congressional baseball practice, but due to the defect of mind, to the Free S*** Army, they represent every conservative person, just as to the Fascists in Europe 80 years ago, every Jew represented every fantasy stereotype they had and therefore must pay. One for all, you know.

    • This is an expression of the hate engendered by the Democrats against the American political process.

  2. Avoidance is and should be the first choice for mechanism of self defense, including keeping your cool and just not going to areas you’re likely to get into altercations if you can at all help it…. Even a good shoot invites police and prosecutors, lawyers and judges into your life who will not make it better.

    • There are, perhaps special, cases where avoidance can be argued to be the wrong choice. Defense of your home and land for example. Do you just let predators take it from you without a fight? Sometimes the government which is supposed to protect you and your property is actually one of the criminal predators and you can’t depend upon them for protection (I just finishing The Coming of the Third Reich and the lessons are still very clear in my mind).

      • Agreed. I was talking more in the public sphere rather than defense of home and property. Avoidance doesn’t really apply when the barbarians are assaulting the kings castle :p

      • Also the private peace-keeping forces at the Bundy ranch; they prevented violence via a display of arms. It could be argued that they prevented a massacre, even.

        Looking to “crack some skulls” is a whole other deal though.

    • An important aspect of avoidance to avoid jurisdictions run by Democrats.

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