“When the order came, Mr. Salvia, 50, got in his car and drove to the street,” nytimes.com reports. “He headed past a pair of tow truck yards and a scrap metal yard to a ramshackle home by an overgrown chain-link fence marking the avenue’s end. There, before he could make his delivery, an armed robber emerged and fired a single shot that struck Mr. Salvia in the head. Police officers found Mr. Salvia’s body slumped on the ground by the back of the car about 8:45 p.m., the contents of his food bags strewn across the Impala’s trunk and on the pavement around him.” Normally, we’d put this under “It Should Have Been a Defensive Gun Use.” But this case is so egregious that . . .
We have to take a page out of the antis’ playbook. After all, if you can blame “easy access to guns” for “gun violence,” why not blame New York City’s de facto concealed carry gun ban for the death of an innocent food delivery man? In this case, in particular, it’s easy to connect the dots. In fact, the Old Gray Lady does just that in the story’s lead:
For Richard Salvia, it was a new job: carting Chinese food around northern Staten Island in his Chevrolet Impala. For the restaurant he worked for, it was a relatively new spot for deliveries — a dead-end street of scattered homes that had, in the past, been deemed too dangerous for regular visits.
The area had a reputation among police officers, too, who had made drug arrests on the street, Grandview Avenue, and in the surrounding area. It was, in short, not a pleasant part of the borough’s north shore to be taking $60 worth of piping-hot food to on a Tuesday night.
I’m not sure if the food was “piping hot” when Mr. Salvia entered the ‘hood. But it’s absolutely clear that he knew he faced a clear and present danger. I’m equally sure that he knew about New York City’s prohibition against armed self-defense. A subject that doesn’t appear anywhere in the Times’ article. In fact, the paper downplays the danger to the delivery drivers even as they highlight it.
The killing was the first in the Mariners Harbor neighborhood and surrounding precincts this year. And though deliverymen are regular targets of violent robberies across New York City for the cash they carry, it appeared to be the first in at least a decade in which a food deliveryman had been killed in the city.
Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said at a news conference on Wednesday that the killing did not fit any patterns of food-delivery robbery in the area. But he added, “It is an occurrence that is oftentimes reported.”
In other words, there are a lot of food delivery robberies in the area (including one where thugs beat the victim, sending him to the hospital) but this is the first one where the driver was shot. So . . . that’s OK? Meanwhile, the disarmed working class populace of New York City – the people in the firing line – cope, balancing risk with reward – without being able to reduce their risk by exercising their gun rights.
A Crown Palace worker who declined to give her full name said she took the order Mr. Salvia was delivering when he was killed. Shortly before 8 p.m., a man called and placed a big order that cost between $50 and $60, she said. He ordered sesame chicken, soups, egg rolls and more.
The worker said she had spoken with Mr. Salvia a few times. The restaurant’s current owners have run the Crown Palace for about two years, she said, and had made a key delivery change. She said that the previous owners had refused to make deliveries to Grandview Avenue, believing it was too dangerous, but that the current owners’ policy was to leave each delivery up to the discretion of the driver.
The woman who identified herself as the manager said she taught her employees to flee any situation in which they did not feel safe.
Memo to New Yorkers: one day you will get back your gun rights. One day you will be able to stand your ground.
I live in PA but work every day in this God-forsaken city. It pains me greatly to disarm each morning and ride the filthy train to Mordor. I am diminished to carrying two folding knives and a kubotan. New York is a self-defense disaster area.
Filthy peasant! If you cannot afford to pay for a armed body guard, then you are not worth protecting anyways…. And if you dare kill a armed attacker, you will be directly harming our most reliable voting base and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Excellent.
You’re still a criminal in the eyes of the City. Folding knives and kubotans are both illegal to carry in NYC. The only NYC-legal folding knife I know of is an Opinel, which is useless for self-defense. These laws are idiotic, as these items are no more dangerous than fixed blade knives (legal to carry concealed with a blade under 4″) or pens.
You need to read the penal code, and more importantly search the web and read the police forums to find out how the law is officially interpreted and enforced. Folding knives with a locking mechanism that activates as the knife is opened, such as every common pocketknife and every folding knife suitable for defensive use, are interpreted to fall under the prohibition on gravity knives. It is a gross injustice. Knife Rights has been fighting the good fight on this issue, but it’s been a Sisyphean endeavor so far.
If you want to carry pepper spray, you must purchase it from a pharmacy or gun shop that will register you and hold onto your registration card. If you do not do that, you’ll may be charged with a crime if you use an unregistered pepper spray canister in a defensive incident. It’s happened before: they demand to know where you purchased the spray, and then go to the store to demand your registration card. You must buy from a business that follows the rules or you will be liable. I’ve been to several businesses, and I plan to scout out more, but the only place I know that definitely follows procedure is John Jovino Gun Shop. They totally suck, have horrible service, don’t understand their product, and they price a little keychain of Sabre Red at $25, which sells for about $7 anywhere else in America.
I feel exactly the way you do about the city. Do what I’m doing and get the heck out of there to a place that won’t throw you in jail for exercising your human, natural, civil, and God-given rights.
I’m a commercial refrigeration technician and I asked my employer if I could carry concealed. My employer stated it is against company policy and if I ever felt unsafe going to a late night call that I should turn around and drive away basically flee the scene. I currently carry concealed all the time. I’d rather lose my job and be alive then have kept my job following company policy and dead
Kudos! You are doing the right thing. Keep doing it. I do the same much farther south. All my family does, all my neighbors do. Keep on keeping on.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Was faced with a similar situation a few years ago. Talking it over with GF, and the question was asked, “Well, what happens if they catch you carrying?”
“I get fired.”
“Well, weren’t you looking for a job when you found this one??”
I seriously doubt Nazi Yorkers will ever get their rights back. Have you been to Long Island lately? The people there are slavish when it comes to this stuff, and there are millions of foreigners who are used to being slaves.
Sad to say it, but there’s a racial element at work here too. Chinese food delivery workers have been targeted a lot in NY, with the assumption most of the Asian workers are passive or won’t resist. I’m waiting for the first story of a delivery man who’s had enough and finally shoots one of these cowards in self- defense.
That very same day the cowards friends and family will be in the streets holding vigils, crying about how good a person he was and claiming it was the racist NRA that got him killed not the fact that the lowlife tried to rob someone.
A lot of great posts here.
Thanks for this particular post. It’s so obvious right?
Great post. And Jesse-Al Sharpton-Jackson will be on the way.
Hmm… they should learn from the Koreans in LA
Guys, we need to stop using the term “gun control” because the term implies that it controls guns. Clearly it does nothing to stop criminals from murdering people with illegal guns.
“Gun control” should instead be called “citizen disarmament” because that’s exactly what it does – prevent law abiding citizens from legally owning arms to defend themselves.
TTAG, from now on please use “citizen disarmament” instead of the politically-loaded term “gun control.”
“law abiding citizen disarmament” because some bleeding hearts will call the criminals citizens as well.
They already are. Here is some Moms Demand Action propaganda:
http://truthaboutguns-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Screen-Shot-2014-03-21-at-5.19.13-PM.png
Notice how they called law abiding people with Georgia licenses “gun offenders”?
Yup. Notice the narrative is changing- if you disagree, you are a bad-
a gun offender.
Deliberate lies like the one told by Watts- inferring the Ft Hood shooter used “an illegal gun”- when he was clearly unstable- ie it was the PERSON, not the inanimate object at fault.
Or Brady’s campaign to “Out-Shout” the gun lobby, as if it were those who believe in 2A rights to self defense who were responsible for the shooting,
rather than a clearly unstable individual.
Yes, these are despicable statements on their face, but the fact is too many people who have no experience with firearms, or dont think deeply are going to be affected, when bad things happen to good people, and they most likely to be captured by propaganda, with an easy fix….JUST BAN GUNS.
Fight them with facts, delivered with a moral narrative and passion.
Its not about the gun. We stand up for individual liberty and the right to self defense. Its our bedrock foundation provided by our founders, who drew upon their own direct experience with top-down government tyrrany. We hold these rights to be self-evident, and God-given to all free men and women.
Apply the law, and enforcement of the law, to law breakers. Hold individuals responsible for their actions, and dont blame the inanimate object, whether thats a car driven by a drunk, a vote bought by a corrupt politician, or a gun used by a criminal.
By disarming the law abiding, you are not only infringing on our god-given and Constitutional rights, you are making you and your family more AT RISK, to criminals, who ignore the law.
Personally, I think the term “gun control” makes people more sympathetic to our cause. Remember, the anti-‘s are trying to change it to “gun safety” because they don’t like the connotation of “gun control”. Imagine if those who advocate censorship were using the term “free speech control”. How do you think that would play?
If your company refuses to allow you to carry, ask them to supply you with a document stating that they will assume all legal, civil and financial liability resulting from their self-defense prohibition.
Then concealed carry anyway. if you don’t know how to hide your weapon discretely, you may have too big of a weapon. Most shots are fired within 10 feet or less so a smaller gun will do. Go to your gun shop and get a small enough weapon for hiding and shooting close range.
Don’t be silly. They already do–it’s called workers’ compensation, and it is the employee’s sole remedy for death or injury on the job, like it or not.
“the previous owners had refused to make deliveries to Grandview Avenue, believing it was too dangerous”
Years ago, in anti-gun anti-carry San Francisco, a City Alderman/woman pushed for a law that made it illegal for restaurants offering pizza delivery to exclude specific neighborhoods or places because they were dangerous. She called the behavior of those restaurants who feared for their employees safety “Discriminatory” or racist against people living in the Housing Projects.
We are living in a time of madness.
I believe you are correct, and it will get worse, before it gets better, particularly in places like NY, NJ, IL, and CA, where the law-breakers are being empowered and emboldened by the law-makers, who disarm the law-abiding.
We are like a nation of alcoholics, who have to hit bottom to wake up to reality. Some dont ever wake up…or hit bottom too hard. Lets help the law-makers out, by voting out “the most-drunk-with-power, who are in denial, before they take us out with them. ”
Thats what we can do, now. Speak up, vote, give money and time to good candidates- the 2012 Senate elections are upon us- we can start there, and your neighborhood needs a trusted neighbor to simply go door to door to get out the vote, for common sense. Give money and time if you can, to the politicians who get it.
Whatever you do, dont stay home and kvetch, because some candidate isnt “perfect”. The enemy of the good enough, is perfect. Step by step we go.
What will you say to your grand-kids, when they ask
“What did you do in the Great War on the Culture” Daddy?
Thanks for your reply.
In Louisiana, we have Conceal and Carry Laws. I can carry everywhere except in bars, schools and college campuses and Churches. I work on a college campus and would like to C & C. However, I not only risk losing my job but being slapped with a heavy fine, charged with a felony and put in jail. I am a woman who believes in the right to OPEN CARRY!
“Open carry” may be your right, but will only attract the criminal element.
You just said, “criminals are drawn to people with guns”. Which is absurd on its face. Please explain how they are attracted to people who are likely to kill them.
I don’t know if it’s possible for a place like NY to seek out their rights. Legal carry hasn’t existed in over 100 years, and DeBlasios election proves the majority have other priorities then legal concealed carry.
The way they culturally see it, self defense isn’t even an option. Crime and violence are considered a numbers game, and if you win the Bad Luck lottery, you’re supposed to take your licks-and potentially die- because only barbarians would harm someone else for any reason.
I was in NY city last week. Cops everywhere. And yet, strangely, I never felt safe.
couldn’t happen to a nicer *#*@hole….
It’s a shame about this , what about this man’s family , he probably had a wife who will never see him again , he probably had kids who will never see him again , maybe even grand kids that won’t ever see him again , he was probably working part time at this job to help make ends meet because these same political idiots that have kept up the ruse that gun control will stop crime from happening , have made working a regular paying job almost impossible , or maybe this guy had to make up for the price hike for Boobamacare , in his regular paycheck . The Northeast part of the nation has been headed down this road for more gun control for some time now , I am not going to apologize but I am from Mississippi , and from the folks I have seen worked with or talked to that are from up north are just a little bit different , it seems they don’t care about their basic civil rights unless they can make money from them , one of the main problems is that unions are entrenched up north and they have been infiltrated by the communists for so long that the members have been indoctrinated so heavily that they do not question anything that unions push them to do . Plus most folks from up north have the attitude of let someone else do it or I don’t want to get involved , but I am not saying that all folks up north are that way but there are so many like this that it is hard to see the forest for the trees . Be prepared and ready . Keep your powder dry .
this hit’s rather close to home for me…. years ago I used to work right next door to the Crown Palace at the Blockbuster video…
If NYC didn’t permit armed self defense when there were over 2000 murders a year, it’s not going to permit it now when there are fewer than 425 murders a year.
NYC. A good to be FROM!
fewer laws and tougher enforcement of them.
I tire of the revolving door on our judicial system….
Guess what, the punk with 4 felony armed robberies 2 murders… one from a home invasion… he isn’t going to magically fucking reform.
put his ass in the hole and put a rock on it.
My guess is this was not this criminal’s first rodeo. It rarely is. The fact is that it is Liberal Democrats who allow these criminals back on the streets to rob, rape and kill innocent law-abiding citizens.
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