-Caveat Lector-
AMEN, AMEN, AMEN!!!!!!!!
On Sat, 31 Mar 2001 17:43:38 -0400 Yardbird <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> -Caveat Lector-
>
> http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20010330/t000027206.html
>
> Friday, March 30, 2001
>
> ...Others Fear Being Placed at the Mercy of Criminals
>
> By JOHN R. LOTT JR.
>
>
> Hardly a day seems to go by without national news
> coverage of
> yet another shooting. Yet when
> was the last time you heard a story on the national evening
> news
> about a citizen saving a life with a
> gun?
> Few people realize that civilians use guns defensively
> to stop
> about 2 million crimes a year, five
> times more often than guns are used to commit crimes,
> according to
> national surveys.
> Last week, a police officer received national
> attention for
> stopping a school shooting in El Cajon.
> Where was the similar national news coverage when equally
> heroic
> civilians used their guns to stop
> other school shootings, such as the ones in Pearl, Miss.,
> and
> Edinboro, Penn.?
> Some of this lopsided coverage is understandable. An
> innocent
> person's murder is more
> newsworthy than when a victim brandishes a gun and an
> attacker runs
> away with no crime committed.
> Unlike the crimes that are avoided, bad events provide
> emotionally
> gripping pictures. Yet covering
> only the bad events creates the impression that guns only
> cost lives.
> Even the rare local coverage of defensive gun use
> seldom
> involves more than very brief stories.
> Newsworthiness also dictates that these stories are not the
> typical
> examples of self-defense, but the
> rare instances where the attacker is shot. In fact, in 98%
> of the
> cases, simply brandishing a gun is
> sufficient to stop a crime. Research at Florida State
> University
> and at the University of Chicago
> indicates that only one out of 1,000 defensive gun uses
> results in
> the attacker's death.
> Here are some of the 20 defensive gun use stories that
> I found
> reported in their respective local
> media in a single week, March 11-17:
> * Clearwater, Fla.: At 1:05 a.m., a man started
> banging on a
> patio door, briefly left to beat on the
> family's truck, but returned and tore open the patio door.
> At that
> point, after numerous shouts not to
> break into the home, a 16-year-old boy fired a single rifle
> shot,
> wounding the attacker.
> * Columbia, S.C.: As two gas station employees left
> work just
> after midnight, two men attempted
> to rob them. The sheriff told a local television station:
> "Two men
> came out of the bushes, one of the
> men had a shovel handle that had been broken off and began
> to beat
> [the male employee] . . . about
> the head, neck and then the arms." The male employee broke
> away
> long enough to draw a handgun
> from his pocket and wound his attacker, who later died. The
> second
> suspect, turned in by relatives,
> faces armed robbery and possible murder charges.
> * Little Rock, Ark.: By firing one shot with a rifle,
> a
> 19-year-old man defended himself against
> three armed men who were threatening to assault him. One of
> them
> was treated for a flesh wound.
> * Detroit: A mentally disturbed man yelled that the
> president
> was going to have him killed and
> started firing at people in passing cars. A man at the
> scene, who
> had a permit to carry a concealed
> handgun, fired shots that forced the attacker to stop
> shooting and
> run away. The attacker barricaded
> himself in an empty apartment, fired at police and
> ultimately
> committed suicide.
> * West Palm Beach, Fla.: After being beaten during a
> robbery
> at his home just two days earlier, a
> homeowner began carrying a handgun in his pocket. When
> another
> robber attacked him, the
> homeowner shot and wounded his assailant.
> * Grand Junction, Colo.: On his way home from work, a
> contractor picked up three young
> hitchhikers. He fixed them a steak dinner at his house and
> was
> preparing to offer them jobs. Two of
> the men grabbed his kitchen knives and started stabbing him
> in the
> back, head and hands. The
> attackers stopped only when he told them that he could give
> them
> money. Instead of money, the
> contractor grabbed a pistol and shot one of the attackers.
> The
> contractor said, "If I'd had a trigger
> lock, I'd be dead."
> * Columbia Falls, Mont.: An ex-boyfriend is accused of
> entering a woman's home and sexually
> assaulting her. She got away long enough to get her handgun
> and
> hold her attacker at gunpoint until
> police arrived.
> * Salt Lake City: Two robbers began firing their guns
> as soon
> as they entered a pawn shop. The
> owner and his son returned fire. One of the robbers was
> shot in the
> arm; both later were arrested. The
> shop owner's statement said it all: "If we did not have our
> guns,
> we would have had several people
> dead here."
> * Baton Rouge, La.: At 5:45 a.m., a crack addict
> kicked in the
> back door of a house and went in.
> The attacker was fatally shot as he charged toward the
> homeowner.
> What advice would gun control advocates have given
> these
> victims? Should they have behaved
> passively? Unfortunately, by making it difficult for
> law-abiding
> people to get the most effective tool to
> defend themselves, gun control often puts victims' lives in
> jeopardy.
> - - -
>
> John R. Lott Jr. Is a Senior Research Scholar at the Yale
> University Law School and the Author of
> "More Guns, Less Crime" (University of Chicago Press, 2000)
>
>
> Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times
>
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