Armed Citizens Fight Back, ?Send Message?
Date: Jan 13, 2007 11:31 AM
The New GUN WEEK, January 20, 2007
Page 1

Armed Citizens Fight Back, ?Send Message?
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor

Three home invaders are shot dead in Albuquerque, NM. In
Dallas, TX, a homeowner seriously wounds a stranger who
enters his home and refuses to leave.

In Charlotte, NC, a shot fired by a homeowner during a fight
with a home invader sends the bad guy fleeing.

And in Federal Way, WA, a shotgun blast abruptly ends the
life of a 31-year-old man who crept into a home late in the
morning of Dec. 26, awakening the homeowner who was asleep
in bed.

In the wake of the Albuquerque shootings, police spokeswoman
Trish Hoffman tells The Albuquerque Tribune, ?Hopefully this
is going to send a message to people who are breaking into
homes. They?re engaging in very dangerous behavior, not
only to the people they?re robbing, but to themselves.?

That message seems to be getting delivered at point blank
range, at muzzle velocity speed.

What lies behind this increase in self-defense shootings is
open to speculation. Several states have passed ?Stand Your
Ground? laws in the past two years, and in others. such as
Washington state, the concept that there is ?no duty to
retreat? is part of the legal fabric. Indeed, in the past
eight years in the Evergreen State, the State Supreme Court
has upheld standing one?s ground in two significant
self-defense rulings.

The body count includes people like New Mexican Raymond
Gabaldon, described by The Tribune as a repeat offender who
stole a car before trying to break into a home in southwest
Albuquerque, where his career of crime came to a sudden end.

And then there was Bobby Hardy, a career criminal who got
out of prison in Mississippi in May, only to show up the
night of Oct. 16 at the home of Tommy and Beth Greer (see
related story) in rural Saucier. After a life-or-death
struggle with Tommy, who was slightly wounded, Hardy was
shot several times by Beth. He lived just long enough to
reach a hospital, but Harrison County Sheriff George Payne
is not losing any sleep over Hardy?s demise.

Shooting in self-defense is not a new phenomenon. But it is
being reported more often as just what it is, using lethal
force in a legal way under existing laws to defend one?s
life or the life of another innocent would-be victim, In
some states, notably Colorado, passage of a self-defense
statute that recognizes the ?home-as-castle? concept that
justifies shooting burglars has elicited howls of anguish
from the gun control crowd.

But one would not find that reaction among respondents to
an Internet poll conducted in December by KDFW television
in Dallas, TX. When the station asked ?Do you keep a gun at
home for protection,? more than 80% of the respondents said
they do.

That poll came the same day the station reported on the
shooting of a home invader by a South Dallas home owner.
Dallas police said they had no plans to charge that
unidentified homeowner.

In Washington state, a reporter for KIRO news covering the
story about the Federal Way shooting noted that even though
a person can use lethal force only in cases where there is
an imminent threat, charges in such cases are rare.

All of this attention to self-defense and the law comes at a
time when the US Justice Department reports a spike in
homicides. Murders increased in 2006, with many large
cities reporting upswings of nearly 10%, as in the case of
New York City. There, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is blaming a
flood of illegal guns, and that?s the same thing Police
Department spokesman Paul Browne told Associated Press. By
Christmas Eve, there were 580 homicides in the Big Apple, up
from 539 in 2005.

In Seattle, WA, there were a relatively low 29 homicides by
Christmas, up from the 25 posted in 2005, and the rise can
be blamed entirely on one event, the ?Capitol Hill Massacre?
of March 26 in which a gunman named Kyle Huff murdered six
people at a party before taking his own life with a shotgun.

Oakland, CA, had the biggest surge, reporting a whopping 57%
rise in homicides with 148 reported by Dec. 27, and in
Philadelphia, PA, there had been 403 killings by that date,
the first time in nearly 10 years that the number had topped
400, according to Associated Press (AP).

Apple v. Orange?

In the midst of this controversy comes a report that
anti-gunners will not be able to use against law-abiding
gunowners. More police officers are dying in the line of
duty these days, but the rise in fatalities is largely due
to traffic accidents, not gunshot wounds.

A report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial
Fund issued in December said that there has been a
double-digit spike in law enforcement fatalities. However,
it appears at least part of the problem is because police
officers are not wearing their seat belts. And the reason
for that, said Memorial Fund Chairman Craig W. Floyd, is
because patrol car seat belts often tangle up with an
officer?s gun belt, so cops are opting for access to their
sidearms in deference to buckling up on the road.

Preliminary statistics through Christmas, according to AP;
showed that 73 of the 151 police officers killed in 2006
died in traffic accidents. Forty-seven of those involved
vehicles, but the report acknowledged that it is not clear
how many of those fatal mishaps involved officers who were
not wearing seatbelts.

What is clear, though, is that they are not dying to as
great a degree in gunfights. In 2006, gunshot fatalities
among police officers declined 9%, from 59 in 2005 to 54
last year. However, the number of officers killed in car
crashes jumped 16%.

In the Seattle area, for example, three peace officers died
during the second half of the year. Two of those officers
worked for the Seattle Police Department and both died in
car crashes in which the other driver was a convicted
criminal.

The one fatality involving a shooting was the December death
of King County Deputy Steve Cox at the hands of a known gang
member and recidivist criminal named Raymond 0. Porter.
Earlier that same night, Porter had been involved in the
murder of another man, and the same gun, a .380-caliber
Grendel, was used in both crimes.

Over the past 30 years, the report said, the number of
police officers killed in car crashes has skyrocketed about
40%, while the number of cops killed by gunfire has declined
by about the same percentage.

Who?s Responsible?

While gun control organizations, most notably the Brady
Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, blamed the rise in
violence on laws that have enabled more citizens to arm
themselves, at least some police officials are blaming gangs
and hot-tempered youths who cannot legally carry concealed
handguns. AP quoted New Haven, CT, Police Chief Francisco
Ortiz, who suggested that problems in his city involve
youths who now settle disputes with guns when they used to
use fists.

?They?re all struggling with this thing about respect and
pride,? he stated. ?It?s about respect. It?s about revenge.
It?s about having a reputation. It?s about turf.?

What it isn?t about, contend gun rights leaders Alan
Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, and
Joe Waldron, executive director of the Citizens Committee
for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), is law-abiding
citizens misusing their legally-owned firearms. They say
the Brady Campaign is ?all wet? when it tries to blame
passage of laws that make it possible?albeit in some cases
not that easy?to obtain licenses or permits to carry guns
for personal protection.

If that?s true, Waldron noted, then why are homicide numbers
so low in Seattle, the largest city in a state with the
fourth-highest per capita number of concealed handgun
licenses in the country?

In a recent conversation with Sgt. John Urquhart, spokesman
for the King County, WA, Sheriff?s Department, he
essentially confirmed what New Haven Chief Ortiz stated,
with the additional element of criminals returning to the
streets after having served prison sentences imposed in the
1990s. There has been a surge in gang activity particularly
in southwest King County, according to police sources, as
the people now returning to the streets want to reclaim
their turf and authority.

Taking what police are saying about the surge in homicides,
Gottlieb notes that criminals and juveniles are not legally
able to own, much less carry, firearms of any kind,
specifically defensive handguns. Even if there were a
crackdown tomorrow on legal concealed carry, it would not
result in a correlating downward surge in homicides; gang
bangers would continue killing one another.

Veteran Washington, DC, lobbyist John Snyder, public affairs
director for the CCRKBA, told Gun Week that it appears the
public has ?had enough.?

?It is clear,? he said, ?that decent citizens are relying
more and more on their own ability to defend themselves.
They are not waiting for the police to rescue them.?

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !