by Robert W. Lee

“… the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Gun-toting Nuns

On July 21st, two Roman Catholic nuns in central Colombia shot and killed a thief who broke into the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Miracles at the El Tobo convent in Tunja, some 80 miles northeast of Bogota. Cloistered nun Eva Maria Silva, and Sister Luz Adelia Barragan, a convent administrator, took turns firing a .38 caliber pistol into the shadows when they heard the intruder. Sister Barragan got off three shots before Sister Silva took the gun and finished emptying the cylinder. Would-be thief Severo Mendez was hit twice, in the hand and head.

Incredibly, the sisters were arrested, charged with murder, and jailed for two days before being released on bail. On August 4th, however, the charges were dropped and the public prosecutor?s office released a statement confirming that “the nuns acted in legitimate self-defense.”

A police spokesman said that the 25 nuns at the sanctuary had begun nighttime patrols early this year after seven previous break-ins, during which chickens and some religious relics were stolen.

Rough-and-Ready Cowboy

Chuck Sheppard is a Hall of Fame rodeo cowboy who in 1946 was rodeo?s top team roper. He is also a founding member of the sport?s first governing body, the Cowboy Turtles Rodeo Association. More than that, he has spent a lifetime punching cattle, having hailed from the K4 Ranch near Prescott, Arizona since the 1950s.

Now 83, one might think that the cowboy?s rough-and-ready days are behind him. Not on your life, as a recent tragic incident demonstrates.

On June 11th, at about 7:00 a.m., Sheppard and his daughter were walking from the main ranch house to the barn when a ranch hand known to co-workers as Javier Garcia suddenly emerged from his bunk house apartment and, for no apparent reason, began stabbing the daughter with a large knife. She suffered wounds about the head, hands, legs, and torso.

When Sheppard intervened to stop the attack, he, too, was stabbed in the head and hands. When Garcia?s knife broke, he scurried back to his apartment.

Others soon arrived on the scene and helped Sheppard and his daughter into two of the apartments. Someone then alerted John Kieckhefer, Sheppard?s son-in-law, who came running with a 20-gauge shotgun. When Garcia emerged from his apartment once again, armed with another knife, Kieckhefer fired low in an attempt to stop, but not kill, the assailant. The shotgun blast missed, and Garcia kept coming, stabbing Kieckhefer in the chest and hands.

Despite his own injuries, Chuck Sheppard rushed to his son-in-law?s side, this time armed with a .357 magnum revolver furnished by the wife of one of the other ranch hands. Sheppard fired once, hitting Garcia, who kept coming. He fired again, but Garcia seemed unfazed. When Sheppard and Kieckhefer retreated to the ranch house, the berserk Garcia attempted to force his way in. Unsuccessful, Garcia then went to the side of the house, where he collapsed and died. An autopsy revealed that he had bled to death from the two gunshot wounds.

All three victims of Garcia?s furious attack survived. On the way to the hospital, Sheppard told a member of the ambulance crew, “You tell them ? I shot that S.O.B., and I?d do it again.” Yavapai County Sheriff Buck Buchanan told the Prescott Daily Courier that he was not surprised by the elderly Sheppard?s courageous response to the attack on his loved ones. “Chuck Sheppard has a reputation as being a downright salt-of-the-earth fellow. He certainly lived up to his reputation today. I just thank the good Lord that it looks like everybody?s going to be all right.”

Everybody, that is, except Javier Garcia.

Thug Thwarted

In the early hours of September 2nd (as reported in the next day?s Kansas City Star), a 22-year-old unidentified intruder broke into a home in southern Kansas City, Kansas, after knocking out most of a dining room window comprised of small panes of leaded glass. The resident, whose name was also withheld by police, was awakened by the clatter. He tried to call 911, but could not see the telephone in the dark. Armed with a handgun, he confronted the intruder in the dining room and, when the man advanced in a threatening manner, fired, striking him twice.

Kansas City Police spokesman Russ Dykstra told reporters that it was apparent that the interloper, though unarmed, was not planning to simply “sit down and watch the morning news. His intent was criminal.” The response of the resident, he stated, “appears to be an appropriate use of a firearm in a home.”

And Not a Shot Was Fired

In late May, auto worker Robert Poole of McDonough, Georgia, recounted for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution an experience he had in 1992 while working as a store manager for a pizza delivery company. Company policy barred firearms on the premises, and instructed employees not to resist robberies, but Poole nevertheless kept a 9mm pistol in the store at night when tallying receipts, preparing bank deposits, etc.

One evening after closing, a uniformed driver for the store knocked at the door and asked if he could use the bathroom. Poole assented, after which the driver sat down at Poole?s desk to chat. Eventually, he began asking for money, and became increasingly agitated when Poole politely turned him down.

The man was larger and stronger than Poole, and earlier in the year a manager at another company store in the area had been robbed and beaten to death by a driver. “As I finished sealing my bags, Gus [a pseudonym] was talking about taking the store money anyway. I grabbed my clipboard with the daily numbers on it, stood up and put my pistol under the clipboard and walked to the time clock to enter the figures.” When “Gus” saw the gun, he yelped, “What?s up with the gun?” Poole recalls: “I calmly replied, ?I keep it in case somebody tries to rob me at the bank when I make the deposit.? Gus tore out of that office, opened the door and was gone.”

Poole is convinced that “if I hadn?t had that pistol that night, Gus would have assaulted me, probably killed me and taken the money.”