>
> <http://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/op0106dou.html>;
>
> January 6, 2001
> Victory for self-defense need worry only thugs
>
> By
> KERRY DOUGHERTY
> ? 2001,
> The Virginian-Pilot
>
> Nothing gives liberals a case of the vapors
> like hearing about a law-abiding person
> defending himself with a gun.
>
> Every time one of these stories hits the news,
> gun-control supporters come unhinged. They
> know that their efforts to effectively repeal the
> Second Amendment have been undermined.
>
> So let the liberal hand wringing begin.
>
> On Dec. 22, an 18-year-old Suffolk punk named Neshion N. Claiborne
> went into a Portsmouth ABC store with larceny on his mind and a gun
> in his hand. He forced six customers face-down on the floor while he
> made employees help him empty the cash register.
>
> But this was not Neshion Claiborne’s lucky day.
>
> One of the customers was legally carrying a concealed weapon.
> Prosecutors say the customer decided not to wait to be killed by
> Claiborne, so he fired first. The thug returned fire, and the
> customer then shot to kill.
>
> The customer should be commended for his marksmanship. Only the
> armed robber was hit.
>
> This week, Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney Martin Bullock
> declared the act one of “justifiable homicide” and said he would not
> bring charges against the customer.
>
> Bless you, Mr. Bullock.
>
> But is it any surprise that the editorial page of this newspaper should
> declare that “Worry, not celebration” should be our reaction to
> Bullock’s decision?
>
> I’m not celebrating, but I’m not worried either.
>
> I’ll tell you who ought to worry — violent, gun-toting creeps who
> commit crimes and scare the bejabbers out of ordinary, decent people.
> They need to remember that — thanks to Virginia’s liberal
> concealed-carry laws — any time they decide to pull out a weapon to
> commit a crime they risk being shot.
>
> It doesn’t matter if the ABC customer overreacted, shot Claiborne too
> many times or put some lead in him as he turned tail and headed for the
> door. The customer wasn’t thinking straight; he was terrified. Like
> most crime victims, he’d been staring Death in the face during the
> robbery. Unlike most crime victims, he was armed.
>
> I feel sorry for the family of this 18-year-old gunman. Awful. But no
> sooner had Mr. Bullock made his announcement than Claiborne’s
> family began screaming about a miscarriage of justice.
>
> “He was shot down in cold blood,” railed his aunt.
>
> Hardly. Claiborne would be alive today if he hadn’t been robbing
> people at gunpoint. You do evil stuff like that, you take your chances.
>
> Funny how some people “worry” about law-abiding citizens
> protecting themselves but don’t seem overly worried about law-abiding
> folks getting murdered.
>
> Who was “worried” this week when an unarmed store clerk named
> Riadh Mejri was shot and left to die in a pool of blood in Portsmouth?
> His death was barely newsworthy, aside from being Portsmouth’s first
> murder of the year.
>
> You see, criminals preying on innocent people is simply business as
> usual. Innocent people defending themselves, however, is front-page
> stuff. And “worrisome.”
>
> Spare me.
>
> Frankly, it’s a shame that on Dec. 26 one of the office workers at
> Edgewater Technology in Wakefield, Mass., wasn’t packing heat.
> That’s the day Michael McDermott allegedly went berserk at work and
> began blasting away. Seven unarmed people died in the carnage.
>
> Whoops, I almost forgot. Massachusetts has the toughest gun laws in
> the country. Newsweek says it’s the only state in the nation with
> mandatory gun licensing and registration. Heck, Massachusetts has
> made it difficult for law-abiding folks there to own weapons. Carry
> concealed? Forget about it.
>
> The only people who can take a gun to work in Massachusetts are
> deranged killers.
>
> Day in and day out, thugs prey on the innocent. If, once in a while, a
> brave soul gets up off the floor and aims back at a bad guy, he
> shouldn’t have to worry about going to jail.
>
> This week, in Portsmouth, one man doesn’t.