So when are we going to ban bats? 2 young women viciously attacked

[RamboLiberal]

They say Viramontes was itching to rob someone last Friday and asked Cruz to drive him to Bucktown.

She allegedly let him out of a white van and waited inside while he searched for someone to assault at 3:30 a.m. The first people he came across were two young women, who police say were "easy targets."

Stacy Jurich and Natasha McShane were out celebrating an internship McShane landed that would allow the exchange student from Northern Ireland to extend her stay in Chicago. Viramontes allegedly attacked the women from behind, striking each of them in the head with a wooden bat, knocking them unconscious and snatching their purses.

Police said that shortly after the attack, surveillance video captured Cruz buying gas with a credit card taken from one of the women. Investigators also were tracking the women's stolen cell phones, which led them Monday afternoon to Cruz's home in the 3100 block of North Springfield Avenue, police said at a news conference Tuesday.

The white van was found outside Cruz's home, a police source said, and a baseball bat was found inside the van. Officers searching the suspects' homes found discarded contents from the women's purses in the garbage, including McShane's passport and State Department-issued ID, police said.

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Residents who live near the scene of the attack -- a neighborhood of half-million-dollar homes and trendy bars -- were taken aback by its ferocity. The beating took place in the 1800 block of North Damen Avenue next to the Churchill public play lot.

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/04/bond-hearing-today-for-couple-accused-in-bucktown-beating.html

Chicago where these young women would've been denied anyway any right to carry a firearm. Guees it's all their fault to have the audicity to think they could be out in the city at 3:30 am celebrating.

As a woman it's these kind of stories that make me furious!

[katandmoon]

1. Unrec for incoherence

[RamboLiberal]

7. Well why don't you explain what is incoherent about my question?

Especially when so many run down to this forum to try to tell us why all guns should be banned. Or denied to people to protect themselves from criminals like this man?

[Oregone]

11. Criminals use guns to protect rights banned like immigrants

Exactly. Rage on.

[proteus_lives]

16. Countered.

Silly, slow moon.

[pnwmom]

2. When bats can kill people from hundreds of yards away. n/t

[RamboLiberal]

8. Most shootings happen at the same distance as the bat

if not closer. It is the rare shooting or murder from a gun except in times of war that happens from hundreds of yards away.

[Oregone]

3. If they had such a "right", Im positive those bats wouldn't of hurt them

Rage on, brotha!

[barbtries]

4. unrec'd for ridiculous analogy

my daughter was killed with a car. other people have been killed with fists. knives. bats. tire irons, hammers, razor blades, ice picks, bricks, on and on.

i like the comment below, "When bats can kill people from hundreds of yards away. n/t"

in this case, they were attacked from behind. the only thing that probably would have happened if they had a gun, is that the dude who attacked would have stolen it.

[RamboLiberal]

5. Most shootings happen at the same distance as the bat

Maybe even closer. I fail to see what is so incoherent about my question when we have some like sharesunited who seem to feel there will be some panacea if we only banned guns.

Attacks like this is why women have been afraid to be out late. Or they get the cute advice to not be alone. Sure didn't help these two young women.

It is attacks like this that made many women like myself to decide to arm ourselves and to get the training to use that gun.

BTW one woman tried to hail a cab to help them - which passed them by. If she could do that she might well have been able to shoot the attacker. I've read stories of gravely injured people still being able to fight back against an attacker if they had the tool to fight with.

As McShane lay unconscious, Jurich said she tried to flag a cab for help but the first one she spotted passed by without stopping. A second cab finally stopped and contacted police.

"I didn't think anything, I just realized I wasn't stopping until I had help," Jurich recalled. "When I think back about it, I just think it is what it is. What happened, happened and we got the help we needed and that's the most important."

Despite her injuries, Jurich was able to provide information to police.

"Even though there were moments where I didn't know if I was going to go into a seizure or not, my ultimate goal was to find that information out to help them find these people and track them down. Anything I could possibly do.


http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/04/bucktown-beating-victim-wants-justice-for-herself-friend.html

[barbtries]

9. nonetheless

by the time she could hail the cab the guy was gone and the damage was done. if they had been armed, their arms would have been gone with him. they were attacked from behind. if they'd been attacked with guns they would have almost certainly stood a worse chance of surviving, which thankfully both of them did survive.

having a gun is your prerogative. it hasn't been taken away from you yet and i don't see it happening at all. my wishing there were no guns won't make them go away, i know that.

[GreenStormCloud]

12. That is why we who carry guns strongly advise practicing situational awareness.

If you walk around oblivious to what is happening around you, a gun will be of little help. But it isn't that difficult to learn to be aware of events around you, even behind you. It is done by simply continously looking around you as you walk. Very easy to do once you get the habit. You can even talk with a friend while you do it. Often criminals will decide not to even attack an aware person.

If there were no guns, then the young and strong would rule over the rest of the population because they would have the physical strength to do so. All other weapons require more strength and skill to use effectively.

[barbtries]

10. "Most shootings happen at the same distance as the bat"

not where i come from (los angeles). most shootings come from a moving car.

[X_Digger]

6. k&r!

Man, some people get defensive when they see what the results of their prohibitionist screeds would be.

[shadowrider]

21. They certainly do

Once they see the bad guys will STILL be bad guys regardless of weapon used. They'll find SOMETHING to kill someone with if no guns were around.

[Travis Coates]

13. No one wants to ban bats

we just want reasonable bat restrictions. One bat a month and no hicap assault bats

[Mother Smuckers]

15. And no bats with the thing that goes up!

:silly:

[shadowrider]

22. Those are already banned

I went to the store to look for one and I simply couldn't find it.

[rrneck]

14. If the guy with the bat

thought he might catch a .45 slug he wouldn't have tried it.

[jazzhound]

17. No wooden bats that can slip past airport security n/t

[MichaelHarris]

18. unrec

for sheer stupidity.

[Euromutt]

20. Well, you *are* the expert in that particular area (n/t)

[Euromutt]

19. This case actually illustrates a point Gary Mauser made

Which is that robberies committed using blades and bludgeons actually result in injury to the victim more frequently than robberies committed using firearms. Firearm-wielding robbers generally feel they can rely on the threat alone of the gun to force compliance from the victim, whereas knife- and bat-wielding robbers often feel they need to "preemptively" inflict violence on the victim(s) to show they mean business and/or forestall possible resistance.

[Callisto32]

23. Does he have data to back that up?

It intuitively seems like it may be correct, but I would like to see some numbers on it; especially since hard data on something like that seems like it may be hard to get.

[Euromutt]

24. I'm trying to find the paper; bear with me. (n/t)

[Callisto32]

25. No rush, I should be studying for finals.

[jazzhound]

26. FWIW, I recall this study as well -- and you are 100% correct. n/t