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Last year on this day Matthew Allen Toste, a peaceful man, walked through a City of Santa Rosa, California owned garage, unarmed, heading to Club Seven with his girlfriend, female cousin, and her husband.  He was unarmed as it’s illegal for regular law abiding citizens to carry concealed firearms in California for their own protection.

The group was confronted by five gang members, who harassed and made sexually provocative comments towards Matthew Toste’s girlfriend and his female cousin.  One of the gang member’s grabbed his female cousin’s ass (sexual assault) and Matthew stepped in to protect her from harassment.  During the altercation Matthew was punched by one of the gang member and he punched the gang member back knocking him to the floor.  One of the other gang members pulled out a semi-automatic pistol and shot Matthew twice in the chest.  He died almost instantly.

Paul Whiterock, 26, and Joseph Lopez Jr., 18, were arrested immediately following the shooting, but were released within two days due to lack of evidence.

Matthew died and he was the single parent of a five year old son who is now without a father. 

Gun control laws prevent law abiding citizens like Matthew Toste from protecting themselves.  Its a felony to carried a concealed weapon in California.  These gun control laws stopped Matthew from carrying a gun, but they didn’t stop these gang members (Paul Whiterock) from carrying weapons.  These types of laws keep guns out of regular citizen’s hands and make it so that the criminals are the only ones carrying firearms.  This gives the criminal element an unfair advantage over the rest of society who abides by the law.

Everyone should have the right to carry firearms or other weapons for protection.  It’s a constitutional right which is being violated by local and state laws.

Firearms and other weapons will continue to be prevalent among the Sonoma County gang elements, how else will all these scrawny 160 lb twenty something guys be tough without weapons or numbers?  They rely on guns to intimidate and to make themselves feel safe and secure.  Without guns they would be very vulnerable to retaliation and would not be very effective in what they do.  If everyone had the right to carry firearms (with a permit) then these gang members would have to be more careful because they would never know who fight back when they started with someone. 

I also blame Club Seven in Santa Rosa for this tradgedy.  They lowered their standard by playing Ghetto Music and hiring Go-Go Dancers for their bars to attract a bottom of the barrel gangster wannabe crowd that would typically be turned away from Carlos Santana’s Cantina, Tex Wasabi’s, Upper Fourth, Latitudes, or The Last Day Saloon.  Nabi Baitsaeed and Gianni Messmer really scraped from the bottom after the trendy crowd that once frequented his club started going other places.  It started as a high-end nightclub but has since been dragged into the ghetto.   This club has generated over 520 police calls in the past year alone.  There have been numerous fights and assaults, some of which involve weapons.  Two bouncers from the club, Kenneth D. Hubbell, 29, and John Allen Graham, 39, even followed and jumped a club patron in the parking garage after a minor misunderstanding outside the club.  They are both facing felony assault charges.  I really hope that the city takes the steps necessary to shut down this place.

Valerie Bryce has a different solution, “Resist violence.” Saying that in Matthew Toste’s situation, men should “put down the testosterone” and not protect their women, puts the blame on the victim and not the criminal who pulled the trigger.

What would have happened to those women if Toste had simply walked away and left them to their fate? I doubt these guys would have been content with copping a few feels and then leaving. By giving his life, protecting the women he loved, Toste showed that despite being out numbered and confronted with danger he has the courage to protect his loved ones.  If all men had that much courage, women would be a lot safer today.

I wonder how Valerie would feel if she went out with her husband, was harassed by a group of men in front of him, and then watched him simply just walk away from the situation and leave her to these men because he was too much of coward to protect her.  I bet she would feel totally violated and not have the same respect for him.  Her husband would feel ashamed of his decision of walking away.  Matthew made the right decision in protecting his cousin, he did no wrong.  He may have lost his life, but he never lost his pride.