Thomas McCary (courtesy foxnews.com)

“Thomas McCary [above] was arguing with a woman around 8 p.m. Sunday night,” foxnews.com reports. “When the woman’s brother, Patrick Ewing, approached, McCary pulled out a .38-caliber handgun and fired three shots at him. Ewing didn’t get hit, but he did get his own gun and returned fire, wounding McCary in the leg. Ewing had a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Injured, McCary went into his house . . .” At that point it’s safe to say that many people would consider themselves relatively safe. Wounded attacker skulks off. Call the cops, keep a wary eye out, but generally let your guard down. It’s a natural tendency . . .


Once perceived danger lessens, your body will begin to come down off its adrenaline high. There might even be a rush of exaltation: I survived! A sense of euphoria. Or, alternatively, shakes, crying and shock. But the thing is, no matter what your mind and body are doing after a defensive gun use (DGU), it ain’t over ’til it’s over . . .

Injured, McCary went into his house to get a second gun and, holding a weapon in each hand, he fired three shots in the direction of the woman, Jeaneta Walker, her 1-year-old son and a third man.

Ewing fired at McCary again to try to distract him as the victims fled indoors. McCary squeezed off a few more rounds, hitting no one, before withdrawing into his apartment.

I’m not so sure about that Ewing’s ballistic response was intended as a “distraction.” If it was, that’s not good. You fire a gun to stop the threat. Best way to do that: shoot the bad guy. While I would’t completely rule out the option of creating “suppressive fire,” shooting bullets that fly God-knows-where to distract the bad guy shouldn’t be an armed American’s go-to strategy, in the same sense that “warning shots” are a really bad idea.

More importantly, Ewing should have instructed McCary’s intended victims to seek cover and concealment after the initial attack, when McCary went back into his house. All of them should have got out of the open while waiting for the cops. Generally speaking, when the boys in blue arrive, you can begin to relax – after they realize you’re not the bad guy. [NB: if at all possible, do NOT be holding a gun when the cops show up.]

Bottom line: don’t let your guard down until you are 100 percent sure that you’re safe from a secondary attack. To that end, remember that you are under no legal obligation to remain at a crime scene. Leave immediately if it seems dangerous and call the cops as and when it’s safe to do so (tell them your location).

Cops or no cops, as always, you are responsible for your own safety, and, perhaps, the safety of other innocent life. From start to finish. And beyond.

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30 COMMENTS

  1. No sir, officer. I wasn’t firing warning or distraction shots. I’m just a lousy shot. Note the bifocals.

  2. the woman’s brother, Patrick Ewing

    It seems like this Patrick Ewing couldn’t shoot any better than the original.

  3. Well I’m a Bulls fan so a bad shot was OK with me(he he). What is the point of this other than ghetto BS? Like homie with his 2 kids playing “shoot me”?

  4. Wonder why the idiot who decided to dual wield like he was some kind of a video game character not arrested?

    God the gun-nuts are total idiots.

    Who were fully lawfully qualified when they bought their guns to get C W Permits are a danger to their own families. READ ON. White women who live with these guys are 1,000s of times more likely to be killed by these men than they are to be killed by any “Bad Guy” on the streets or in ANY Place of Business. THAT IS SIMPLE HISTORICAL MATH FACT. EVEN CHILDREN who live with these same White Men are more likely to be shot and killed by their fathers than by ANYONE ANYWHERE THEY GO. THOSE ARE COLD HARD FACTS.

    The Nuts can talk about the 2nd all they want to, but the most dangerous people to people in the South are guys with Legal Weapons on our streets. THOSE ARE FACTS. The ranting and ravings of gun nuts can not change FACTS.

    We need to stop put in Controls to stop the Mass Killings. But, that does nothing to change the FACT that “LEGAL GUN-NUTS KILL 100s of times more people than all the mass killings IN ANY YEAR YOU WISH TO NAME.

    • Wily_Lunchmeat,

      You want to talk about facts? Let’s start with the FACT that criminal gangs are responsible for as much as 90% of ALL violent crimes. (That includes murder — even murders where the attacker used a firearm for the murder weapon.) Look it up if you don’t believe me.

      Since criminals used a firearm to murder about 8,000 people last year according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reports, that means that criminal gangs were responsible for about 90% of those which equates to 7,200 of those murders. Thus, firearms owners with no previous criminal record or activity could be responsible for, at most, about 800 murders with firearms last year.

      • Moving right along, there were over 1 million violent crimes reported to law enforcement agencies in the latest year where data is available. And there were more than 12,000 murders (using all manner of weapons).

        If firearms owners with no previous record or criminal activity could have murdered at most 800 victims in the last year that data was available, how in the world are 800 victims 1000s of times more than the 12,000 total murder victims or the more than 1 million violent crime victims?

        As it turns out Wily_Lunchmeat, you are utterly and totally full of sh!t.

      • Also fact,
        a conservative estimate of firearms ownership puts the number at about two hundred and fifty MILLION (250,000,000) firearms legally owned. The 2013 statistics for death by firearm is roughly eleven thousand (11,000) according to the Center for Disease Control.

        Which means that a private, legally owned, firearm is quite literally several million times more likely to be used for nothing or for positive uses such as providing food or entertainment as opposed to being used for harm.

        Not that the rights of hundreds of millions of law abiding citizens, who have never done and never intend to do harm, mean much when anti-rights types get on their bandwagon.

    • “Wonder why the idiot who decided to dual wield like he was some kind of a video game character not arrested?

      God the gun-nuts are total idiots.”

      Umm, he was arrested and is being held without bond? Simple reading comprehension, even for a total idiot. 🙂

      • Do you even have to ask? After reading lunchmeat’s grasp of grammar with such gems as…
        “Wonder why the idiot who decided to dual wield like he was some kind of a video game character not arrested?” and “We need to stop put in Controls to stop the Mass Killings.” I’m fairly sure he tests pretty low in reading and comprehension.

      • In begrudging fairness to Wily, the fact that he WAS arrested is absent from TTAG’s article. You have to click over to the news site linked at the beginning for that info. However since we have the perps name it is safe and logical to assume he was arrested. If you want to talk about poor reading comprehension check out some of the comments on that article. One person pointed out that Ewing managed to wound McCary and asked if he would have retreated if Ewing hadn’t shot him and got two replies. One said that McCary shot first and he needed to learn to read, as though the order of firing directly affected who got wounded. The second pointed out that McCary retreated to get a second gun like he would have done so regardless of whether or not someone shot back.

    • So, I want to make sure I have your argument down. Guy with legally owned gun and legal carry permit is attacked with a gun. Guy with legal gun and permit shoots back, hitting intended target and stopping potential homicide. Attacker leaves, retrieves another gun (probably both illegally obtained/possessed), and attempts to kill innocent people a second time. Once again, guy with legally owned gun and legal carry permit shoots back and stops possible triple homicide… and from this narrative you conclude that the man with the legally owned gun and the legal carry permit is somehow a ‘raving, dangerous gun-nut’.

      What color is the sky on your planet?

      • I, too found the racial specifics of the comment suspect. Maybe there should be an investigation. I have Indian heritage (diluted to a comedic degree), but am I actually white?

    • Hi Wily,

      Thank you for your reasoned contribution to this contentious subject.

      I just donated $10.00 to the Calguns Foundation in your honor.

      Confirmation # 374XX.

      Respectfully,

      cigardog

    • “Wonder why the idiot who decided to dual wield like he was some kind of a video game character not arrested?”

      He was arrested. It said it right there in the article!!!

      “Who were fully lawfully qualified when they bought their guns to get C W Permits are a danger to their own families. READ ON. White women who live with these guys are 1,000s of times more likely to be killed by these men than they are to be killed by any “Bad Guy” on the streets or in ANY Place of Business. THAT IS SIMPLE HISTORICAL MATH FACT. EVEN CHILDREN who live with these same White Men are more likely to be shot and killed by their fathers than by ANYONE ANYWHERE THEY GO. THOSE ARE COLD HARD FACTS.”

      Read that to yourself aloud. You sound insane.

      “The Nuts can talk about the 2nd all they want to, but the most dangerous people to people in the South are guys with Legal Weapons on our streets. THOSE ARE FACTS. The ranting and ravings of gun nuts can not change FACTS.”

      Wrong. Contrary to myth and misrepresentation, most murders are not committed by previously law-abiding citizens either going berserk, or because a gun was handy during a moment of uncontrollable rage: suddenly “blow-away” their spouse, friend, neighbor, acquaintance, or all four.

      Studies conducted at both the local and national level indicate the overwhelming majority of murders are committed by people with previous criminal records. Even a significant percentage of homicide victims themselves have criminal records.

      • Actually, he’s right in that ranting and raving – by anybody – can’t change facts.

        Unfortunately for him, he’s the one who needs them changed.

      • Wily_Lunchmeat has taken his meds and a new personality has emerged. Hence the change of name in the post. Otherwise it’s the same rant. Almost a copy-and-paste of the previous one.

    • In an unrelated matter, I just put a deposit down on a K&M M17 bullpup. I think I’m going to name it “Little Willy.” It will live in the closet next to Hillary (my AK).

  5. The meme, legal gun owners are killers, from willy plays with his lunch meat is showing up on multiple Pro Gun sites. Seems to have been added to Bloomberg’s minions playbook. I am however disappointed he didn’t go finish it with the always classic gun making up for small penis reference.

    • Probably because he’s hunched over squinting trying to unwrap his own lunchmeat. It’s so predictable the childish knee-jerk reaction from the anti-gun folks so obsessed with their own bodily functions: no wonder Shannon craves Dirk Diggler all the time.

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