Hakim Dumas Used 'Illegal Firearm' to Thwart Kidnappers, Police Say
Authorities say a Slidell, Louisiana man who shot two men attempting to kidnap his son on Thursday used an “illegal firearm.”
Apparently, 40-year-old Hakim Dumas’ defense of his home using a firearm was unlawful because he is a convicted felon.
Dumas and his girlfriend had a verbal altercation early Thursday morning that resulted in her going to a family member’s residence, CBS affiliate WWL reported.
The couple’s son remained with Dumas at his home after the woman left.
According to a release issued by the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, 24-year-old Billy Porche and an unnamed man showed up to Dumas’ home two hours later and brandished a weapon with the intention of taking the sleeping child.
Dumas pulled out his gun and fired – wounding Porche and killing the other man.
“At this time all parties are involved are in custody, and there is no danger to the public,” a statement from the sheriff’s office said.
Neither of the alleged intruders was authorized to take the child, WWL reported.
Dumas was booked on felony charges of possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated number or mark.
Porche has been arrested and charged with aggravated attempted kidnapping of a child. He has also been charged with second-degree murder, for the death of the man shot and killed by Dumas.
Dumas is not being charged for homicide because he acted in self defense, authorities said.
Should felons have their Second Amendment rights restored?
Some gun rights advocates have argued in favor of felons – especially non-violent ones- being able to legally possess firearms once their sentences have been completed.
“Having paid their debt, felons should be able to rejoin civil society as full members in good standing,” opined columnist A. Barton Hinkle in a 2016 editorial for the Richmond-Times Dispatch.
And a 2017 Florida bill aimed to make it easier for the state’s felons to have their gun rights restored.
Critics, meanwhile, argue that the Second Amendment right does not apply to convicted felons.
Criminologist Don Kates, writing in the New York Post in 2008, made the case that the Second Amendment was intended to protect “a right of self-defense for ‘good’ people only.”
“The amendment guarantees a ‘right of the people to keep and bear arms’ – and the Founding Fathers did not think ‘the people’ included criminals. Under the law as they knew it, felons were ‘civilly dead’: They had no legal rights whatever. All their property (including guns) was forfeit,” Kates wrote.
Authorities say a Slidell, Louisiana man who shot two men attempting to kidnap his son on Thursday used an “illegal firearm.”
Apparently, 40-year-old Hakim Dumas’ defense of his home using a firearm was unlawful because he is a convicted felon.
Dumas and his girlfriend had a verbal altercation early Thursday morning that resulted in her going to a family member’s residence, CBS affiliate WWL reported.
The couple’s son remained with Dumas at his home after the woman left.
According to a release issued by the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, 24-year-old Billy Porche and an unnamed man showed up to Dumas’ home two hours later and brandished a weapon with the intention of taking the sleeping child.
Dumas pulled out his gun and fired – wounding Porche and killing the other man.
“At this time all parties are involved are in custody, and there is no danger to the public,” a statement from the sheriff’s office said.
Neither of the alleged intruders was authorized to take the child, WWL reported.
Dumas was booked on felony charges of possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated number or mark.
Porche has been arrested and charged with aggravated attempted kidnapping of a child. He has also been charged with second-degree murder, for the death of the man shot and killed by Dumas.
Dumas is not being charged for homicide because he acted in self defense, authorities said.
Should felons have their Second Amendment rights restored?
Some gun rights advocates have argued in favor of felons – especially non-violent ones- being able to legally possess firearms once their sentences have been completed.
“Having paid their debt, felons should be able to rejoin civil society as full members in good standing,” opined columnist A. Barton Hinkle in a 2016 editorial for the Richmond-Times Dispatch.
And a 2017 Florida bill aimed to make it easier for the state’s felons to have their gun rights restored.
Critics, meanwhile, argue that the Second Amendment right does not apply to convicted felons.
Criminologist Don Kates, writing in the New York Post in 2008, made the case that the Second Amendment was intended to protect “a right of self-defense for ‘good’ people only.”
“The amendment guarantees a ‘right of the people to keep and bear arms’ – and the Founding Fathers did not think ‘the people’ included criminals. Under the law as they knew it, felons were ‘civilly dead’: They had no legal rights whatever. All their property (including guns) was forfeit,” Kates wrote.
