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Fighting back: Lessons from the Un-Armed Victims
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Fighting back: Lessons from the Un-Armed Victims
By Robert A. Waters
Published 05. 7. 02 at 19:09 Sierra Time
The anti-gunners tell you to give your local robber the money. Don't fight back, they say. Your life isn't worth the few dollars he's going to take from you.
Yeah, right!
Our nation's graveyards are littered with victims who followed that advice.
A recent case brought the subject to mind. In St. Petersburg, Florida, store clerk Mounir Saghraoui was shotgunned as he lay helpless on the floor.
On April 21, 2002, at 11:45 p.m., two masked gunmen burst into the Haines Corner Beverage Depot. One held a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, the other a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun. They ordered the two clerks on duty to lie on their stomachs. Then they took $ 803.00 from the till. Before leaving, the assailant holding the shotgun placed it point-blank against Saghraoui's body and pulled the trigger.
The blast tore away the clerk's femoral artory. He would have bled to death had neighbors not heard the shot and rushed to his aid. They wrapped the wound until paramedics arrived. Even so, Saghraoui was in critical condition at a local hospital.
According to Pinellas County Sheriff's Department spokesman Paul Martin, the clerks did everything the robbers demanded.
In some cases, though, bandits don't have it so easy.
For instance, a ski-masked robber tried to hold up the Family Market in nearby Dade City, Florida. Manuel Abed was having none of it. He pulled a handgun and fired at the man. Abed missed, but the thug fled empty-handed.
In Ward, Arkansas, a masked bandit wasn't so lucky. On the evening of January 19, 2000, Shane Edward Williams entered Buddy's Food and Fuel. He pointed a gun at the clerk and demanded money. Pam Sowell, moonlighting from her teaching job, pulled her own Ruger semiautomatic .40-caliber handgun and drilled him with one shot to the heart. Williams died at the scene. When police identified the thug, many were surprised to discover that he was a star football player on the local high school team. He too had been moonlighting for nearly a year--as a robber.
When Larry Spencer Burchfield tried to rob Sam and Jerry's Market in Knoxville, he got shot for his trouble. The career criminal and drug addict entered the store holding a tire iron. He pushed a female clerk out of the way and tried to open the cash drawer. The clerk grabbed a .38-caliber pistol and shot him in the chest. Burchfield managed to flee the store but was quickly captured.
And so it goes. Manchester, New Hampshire store owner Robert Baroody placed a warning shot above the head of a robber, sending the thug running. In Jacksonville, Florida, Warren "Boo" Grant was gunned down by a clerk as he attempted to rob a convenience store. In Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a robber punched store owner Andres Rivera in the face--an employee then grabbed a pistol causing the robber to flee. In Tampa, the owner of an auto repair shop shot and killed a gunman who had ordered him to "give it up."
It reminds me of a time not long ago when the prevailing wisdom was that women should submit to rapists. Whatever you do, they were told, don't fight back. The fallacy of that advice became abundantly clear as woman after woman was abducted, raped, and murdered by men who had no fear of the consequences. Now, women are told to do everything in their power to get away, even if it means fighting back.
Mounir Saghraoui did what the anti-gunners tell store clerks to do. He let the robbers have the money. He was non-threatening. He obeyed their orders and lay compliant on the floor. He still got shot.
The prevailing wisdom isn't always right, particularly when there's a political agenda behind it.
Robert A. Waters is the author of "The Best Defense: True Stories of Intended Victims Who Defended Themselves with a Firearm." His second book, "Guns Save Lives: True Stories of American Defending Themselves with Firearms," will be published in May.
http://www.sierratimes.com/02/05/08/ar-waters.htm
c 2002 SierraTimes.com (unless otherwise noted)
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Robert A. Waters
Published 05. 7. 02 at 19:09 Sierra Time
The anti-gunners tell you to give your local robber the money. Don't fight back, they say. Your life isn't worth the few dollars he's going to take from you.
Yeah, right!
Our nation's graveyards are littered with victims who followed that advice.
A recent case brought the subject to mind. In St. Petersburg, Florida, store clerk Mounir Saghraoui was shotgunned as he lay helpless on the floor.
On April 21, 2002, at 11:45 p.m., two masked gunmen burst into the Haines Corner Beverage Depot. One held a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, the other a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun. They ordered the two clerks on duty to lie on their stomachs. Then they took $ 803.00 from the till. Before leaving, the assailant holding the shotgun placed it point-blank against Saghraoui's body and pulled the trigger.
The blast tore away the clerk's femoral artory. He would have bled to death had neighbors not heard the shot and rushed to his aid. They wrapped the wound until paramedics arrived. Even so, Saghraoui was in critical condition at a local hospital.
According to Pinellas County Sheriff's Department spokesman Paul Martin, the clerks did everything the robbers demanded.
In some cases, though, bandits don't have it so easy.
For instance, a ski-masked robber tried to hold up the Family Market in nearby Dade City, Florida. Manuel Abed was having none of it. He pulled a handgun and fired at the man. Abed missed, but the thug fled empty-handed.
In Ward, Arkansas, a masked bandit wasn't so lucky. On the evening of January 19, 2000, Shane Edward Williams entered Buddy's Food and Fuel. He pointed a gun at the clerk and demanded money. Pam Sowell, moonlighting from her teaching job, pulled her own Ruger semiautomatic .40-caliber handgun and drilled him with one shot to the heart. Williams died at the scene. When police identified the thug, many were surprised to discover that he was a star football player on the local high school team. He too had been moonlighting for nearly a year--as a robber.
When Larry Spencer Burchfield tried to rob Sam and Jerry's Market in Knoxville, he got shot for his trouble. The career criminal and drug addict entered the store holding a tire iron. He pushed a female clerk out of the way and tried to open the cash drawer. The clerk grabbed a .38-caliber pistol and shot him in the chest. Burchfield managed to flee the store but was quickly captured.
And so it goes. Manchester, New Hampshire store owner Robert Baroody placed a warning shot above the head of a robber, sending the thug running. In Jacksonville, Florida, Warren "Boo" Grant was gunned down by a clerk as he attempted to rob a convenience store. In Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a robber punched store owner Andres Rivera in the face--an employee then grabbed a pistol causing the robber to flee. In Tampa, the owner of an auto repair shop shot and killed a gunman who had ordered him to "give it up."
It reminds me of a time not long ago when the prevailing wisdom was that women should submit to rapists. Whatever you do, they were told, don't fight back. The fallacy of that advice became abundantly clear as woman after woman was abducted, raped, and murdered by men who had no fear of the consequences. Now, women are told to do everything in their power to get away, even if it means fighting back.
Mounir Saghraoui did what the anti-gunners tell store clerks to do. He let the robbers have the money. He was non-threatening. He obeyed their orders and lay compliant on the floor. He still got shot.
The prevailing wisdom isn't always right, particularly when there's a political agenda behind it.
Robert A. Waters is the author of "The Best Defense: True Stories of Intended Victims Who Defended Themselves with a Firearm." His second book, "Guns Save Lives: True Stories of American Defending Themselves with Firearms," will be published in May.
http://www.sierratimes.com/02/05/08/ar-waters.htm
c 2002 SierraTimes.com (unless otherwise noted)
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878