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No self defense on a bus?

Repeater

Repeater

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Wow, you can get hijacked anywhere these days. Is self defense still legal on commercial buses?

Va. man charged in NC bus hijacking

A Virginia man accused of hijacking a Greyhound bus with 35 passengers on board was not cooperating with authorities Friday, leaving them puzzled as to why he wanted to commandeer the vehicle in North Carolina.

Jose Darwin Flores, 32, of Arlington, is being held without bond on a kidnapping charge, but Warren County Sheriff Johnny Williams said he will face other charges once police complete their investigation.

"He just stood up with a gun and took control of the bus," Williams said.

...

Police received word of a hijacking and started to follow the bus before it stopped. Flores was arrested after being zapped with a stun gun.

Flores does not yet have a lawyer and investigators have been unable to determine a possible motive, Williams said.

"We haven't been able to get that far with him yet," he said.

Flores has a criminal record that includes a drunken driving conviction in 2007 in Alexandria, Va. He was sentenced to 20 days in jail. In August, he was arrested for being drunk in public, said Arlington Police spokeswoman Crystal Nosal, who declined to release any details. Flores was convicted in October and ordered to pay $131 in fines.
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Um, I wonder what his 'legal presence is' -- I'm just asking.

bus-hijacked-nc-suspect-taken-custody

[size=+1]Jose Flores[/size]
 
Repeater

Repeater

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Deadly threat

Wow, guess he was serious:

"We were too scared," said bus passenger Robert Fusco. "We didn't know if he was going to shoot us in the back of the head for getting off the bus."

"He just kept yelling, 'Y'all got a problem?'" said bus passenger Xavier Little. "'Y'all going to do something? I got nine shots, and I'll start killing right from the front'."

A driver passing by saw what was going on and called 911.
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Imagine if just one passenger was carrying. Good thing it wasn't on campus.
 
paramedic70002

paramedic70002

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Not exactly a screen test but it also works well when a belligerent patient decides to unbuckle and stand up in the back of a medic. I just yell "BRAKE" and my problem goes flying by...

http://www.greyhound.com/en/ticketsandtravel/travelingbybus.aspx

On Board Restrictions

For everyone's safety and comfort, Greyhound asks that customers please follow certain restrictions while on board. Federal law does not permit smoking on Greyhound buses. We have a zero tolerance for alcohol, drugs, weapons and unruly behavior.
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OK "please" implies they can't enforce however "zero tolerance" is a bit more restrictive.

Obviously the bus driver should have promptly stopped the bus and insisted the BG get off!
 
Z

Zak Kee

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Its just like the cruise I will be taking this summer. You cannot take weapons on them either... So that one time someone gets a gun on the boat and holds it up, it will probably end badly...
 
TFred

TFred

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Zak Kee said:
Its just like the cruise I will be taking this summer. You cannot take weapons on them either... So that one time someone gets a gun on the boat and holds it up, it will probably end badly...
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Unlikely. Most cruise lines employ security forces heavily manned by Gurkhas. A "mass shooter" type might be able to kill a few folks in a crowded room, but it's not going to go anywhere, or turn into a prolonged incident of any sort.

Have a great cruise! I find cruising out of Baltimore one of the very few reasons to ever travel to the State of Maryland! ;)

TFred
 
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wylde007

wylde007

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TFred said:
A "mass shooter" type might be able to kill a few folks in a crowded room, but it's not going to go anywhere, or turn into a prolonged incident of any sort.
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Are you deliberately disregarding the single most high-profile, high-seas hijacking of all time?

Google: Achille-Lauro.
 
wylde007

wylde007

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TFred said:
Not deliberately, but that was a long time ago (1985), and security for cruise ships has changed by several orders of magnitude since then.
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I have been on a cruise every year since 2004 (except this most immediate past year) and would have to respectfully disagree.

With the exception of the embarkation process, which is only somewhat similar to boarding a plane, getting a weapon aboard a cruise ship would be stupidly easy.
 
paramedic70002

paramedic70002

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In my previous career in private security, I had several opportunities to work on freighters and keep foreigners from literally 'jumping ship' into America. We worked for the shipping companies to keep their employees on the ship. So you could sorta say we were oppressing their freedom. Funny how that works. Anyway...

It was my experience that even ships that came from countries that basically outlawed gun ownership, the Captain had some sort of sidearm to prevent mutiny and keep order. Whether or not this translates to cruise ships, who knows?

And I'm really interested in some more info on these security/gurkha laden cruise ships.
 
TFred

TFred

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paramedic70002 said:
In my previous career in private security, I had several opportunities to work on freighters and keep foreigners from literally 'jumping ship' into America. We worked for the shipping companies to keep their employees on the ship. So you could sorta say we were oppressing their freedom. Funny how that works. Anyway...

It was my experience that even ships that came from countries that basically outlawed gun ownership, the Captain had some sort of sidearm to prevent mutiny and keep order. Whether or not this translates to cruise ships, who knows?

And I'm really interested in some more info on these security/gurkha laden cruise ships.
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There is very little published of course. I read some cruise related message forums, and it does come up there from time to time.

The best source of information would probably be to look for reports on any of the recent attempted piracy incidents in the area near Somalia.

This Google search will bring up a few interesting hits as well.

TFred
 
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