Date: Thu, 2 Mar 1995 20:52:38 -0500 From: alerts@gatekeeper.nra.org (NRA Alerts) To: best-rkba@mainstream.com Subject: Guest Editorial by Dr. Suzanna Gratia, Martha Hayden, Mikey Voorhees and Marion Hammer Guest editorial by Dr. Suzanna Gratia, Martha Hayden, Mikey Voorhees and Marion Hammer. On Oct. 16, 1991, in Killeen, Texas, an armed homicidal maniac methodically killed 22 people and then himself, facing no resistance from the scores of potential victims including Dr. Suzanna Gratia. Dr. Gratia was dining with her parents when the assailant began his shooting spree. She had left her pistol in the car because Texas law prohibits law-abiding citizens the right to carry firearms for personal protection. On numerous occasions during the massacre the killer had his back turned to her, even pausing to reload. Helpless, she could only watch as 22 people, including her parents, were killed. For too long now, law-abiding Americans have been so caught-up in just trying to keep their guns that the option of carrying these guns for personal protection seemed a distant dream. Until now. About a third of the states grant law-abiding citizens the right to carry firearms for personal protection. Most of the states require some type of training and a permit. Vermont, which has one of the lowest crime rates in the nation, requires no permit at all. The critics of the right to carry argue that law-abiding citizens can't be trusted, they are neither intelligent enough to choose for themselves nor responsible enough to avoid shooting a stranger over a minor traffic dispute. But the facts speak for themselves: none of the horror stories have ever materialized in any state that has enacted a fair permit system. Martha Hayden pulled up to the apartment in Dallas in her car. What she didn't know was that she was being followed. As she locked her car and proceeded across the street, an assailant appeared out of nowhere and pulled a gun on her. The attacker robbed her and then pistol-whipped her. He had other plans. She tossed her purse in the yard and as the assailant went to retrieve the purse she ran and hid in the bushes. A neighbor who heard her screams called the police. Ms. Hayden needed 300 stitches. In the states that have trusted their citizens with the right to carry, the statistics are overwhelmingly in favor of the law- abiding. But that shouldn't come as any surprise. The American gun owner has long proven to be extremely responsible. The state of Florida is a good example of how government and citizens can work together to protect civil rights and reduce crime. In 1987, Florida enacted its right to carry legislation. The critics predicted doomsday. Prematurely, Florida was dubbed the "gunshine" state. Now, however, the newspapers and the political detractors have been forced to eat their words. State Senator Ron Silver, who originally opposed the legislation, recently concluded, "I am pleasantly surprised to find out that its working pretty well." Senator Silver shouldn't have been surprised. As John Russi, Director, Florida Division of Licensing pointed out in the same interview, "You need to keep in mind, that most people that obtain [permits] are for legitimate purpose[s] and they're not the people committing crimes. People that commit crimes are crooks and are not going to obtain a concealed weapons license." Between October of 1987 and November of 1994, 266,607 permits were granted. Of those, only 18 or 0.00675% have been revoked because of a firearms infraction. Late one night Marion Hammer, a grandmother living in Florida, was followed into a parking garage by 6 men in a car, shouting obscenities and threatening to rape and assault her. Ms. Hammer possessed a firearms carry permit, and when the would-be assailants cornered her in the garage, she reached in her purse and pulled out her handgun. When she aimed the gun at the vehicle one occupant shouted that the [expletive] has a gun and the driver threw the car into reverse and sped out of the garage. There is no doubt in Ms. Hammer's mind that her right to defend herself with a firearm saved her life. As crime rises and police department resources become stretched to their limit, the need for the right to carry has become critical for many Americans. Not only are police resources inadequate in many parts of the nation, police departments have no duty to provide protection to individuals. In the District of Columbia, three women were raped, beaten, robbed and held captive for fourteen hours -- fourteen hours after the initial phone call to 911 asking for police assistance. The women sued the District of Columbia, but the court ruled in Warren v District of Columbia: "a fundamental principle of American law [is] that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen." Mikey Voorhees was on a family outing, a hunting trip to the Guadalupe Mountains, with her husband and son. One morning while the father and son had left camp to hunt, Mikey thought it would be a good time to practice shooting with a new pistol her husband had bought her. She went into her tent and strapped on the .380 Llama before she finished some morning chores. A short time later a station wagon came up the trail and into camp. Out of the station wagon climbed eight men who were either drunk or on drugs. As the men approached her, they were shouting obscenities and telling her exactly what they planned on doing to her, Mikey stepped from behind the camp stove with her hand on her firearm. The men froze instantly in their tracks and retreated so quickly to the car that the driver started to drive away before they had all gotten back into the car. People who carry firearms for personal protection often find themselves reluctant heroes. On Dec 17, 1991, in Anniston, Alabama, two armed robbers with recently stolen pistols herded 20 employees of a Shoney's restaurant into the walk-in refrigerator. What the armed intruders didn't count on was an armed citizen. Thomas Glen Terry was hiding under a table and when the opportunity presented itself he confronted the assailants, killing one and critically wounding the other. Terry had a permit to carry because the state of Alabama believes, as Thomas Jefferson once said, that "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." -- This information is presented as a service to the Internet community by the NRA/ILA. Many files are available via anonymous ftp from ftp.nra.org, via WWW at http://www.nra.org, via gopher at gopher.nra.org, and via WAIS at wais.nra.org Be sure to subscribe to the NRA mailing lists. Send the word help as the body of a message to listproc@NRA.org Information can also be obtained by connecting to the NRA-ILA GUN-TALK BBS at (703) 934-2121.