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Defensive use of guns can prevent crimes, save liv
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Bearing arms
Defensive use of guns can prevent crimes, save lives
BY GORDON HICKEY AND MICHAEL MARTZ
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS May 05, 2002
RELATED
STOPPING A KILLER: Law students went after gunman.
When a gunman went berserk in a Southwest Virginia law school and killed three people, he was finally stopped by a fellow student who threatened to shoot him.
It was one of thousands of instances across the United States in the past year in which a person used a gun in defense.
Some, as in Grundy, make the news. Others, though, are never reported. They do not show up in statistics kept by law enforcement because no crime occurred, and they do not make the newspapers because often the newspapers don't know about them.
The illegal use of guns is re- sponsible for much crime and misery in this country. For example, firearms are used in two-thirds of slayings and in a large number of robberies and assaults. But the legal use of guns at times has prevented crimes and saved lives.
Surveys of defensive gun use come up with numbers that vary widely. Estimates range from about 65,000 to 3.6 million such uses a year, depending on who is conducting the survey. A 1992 Florida State University telephone survey, which has been rebutted by a number of organizations, found up to 2.5 million defensive gun uses each year.
But what is a defensive gun use?
Some say that simply revealing that they have a gun in a holster is a defensive gun use. Others count shooting vicious dogs. Others would include, obviously, actually shooting or pointing the gun at someone.
The student at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy aimed at the gunman in January and, without firing, made him drop his weapon.
The owners of a jewelry store killed two gunmen who had left a trail of robberies from here to the Deep South several years ago.
A South Richmond store owner shot and killed a gunman in January who had just robbed and severely beaten him.
A Beaverdam store owner stopped a robbery three years ago by drawing his .45-caliber on an armed young man.
Two vacationers getting set for a boat trip down the Intracoastal Waterway in 1994 forced robbers off their boat by threatening them with a gun.
In almost every case, the legal use of the gun has left the user shaken and angry. Firing a gun at another person, even in self-defense, can be as traumatic as it is heroic. The shooters, almost always, were reluctant to shoot, and when they did, they were angry at being forced to do it.
But they were all grateful they were able to defend themselves.
. . .
The most visible defensive shootings are by police.
In the past, a Richmond police officer might not have felt free to admit any traumatic effects from shooting someone in the line of duty. Few would willingly talk to a psychologist or psychiatrist about a shooting.
Now, city police don't have a choice, because Dr. Jon H. Moss will be at the scene before they leave.
"I help people deal with normal reactions to an abnormal event," said Moss, a private psychologist who works under contract with police, fire and ambulance workers in Richmond, sheriff's deputies in Hanover County and police in Ashland.
While some officers walk away from a shooting without emotional aftershocks, most struggle with the consequences of pulling the trigger on another human being, he said.
"It's not a day in the park. It has an impact on their lives," Moss said.
Some police officers will be angry at the person they shot for putting them in that position. Some will feel frightened. Some will get sick to their stomachs. Some will feel remorse. Some will question whether they have violated a basic tenet of their religious faith by killing someone.
"Everything being completely legal, justifiable and defensible, it still eats at you inside," said Hanover Sheriff Stuart V. Cook, who spent 25 years on Richmond's police force before moving to the county 12 years ago. "You never feel good about it."
And some just don't get over it. Moss knows of three Richmond police officers who eventually left the force and the profession after shooting someone in the line of duty. "Their lives changed," he said.
Capt. Mark K. Segal was 29 when, in a span of a few seconds, his view of life and police work changed. He had been a Richmond police officer for six years but never had used his gun against another person.
He was working as a detective on Sept. 13, 1989, when a robber took a motel clerk hostage in South Richmond and forced her to drive him south on Interstate 95. Segal and another officer caught up with them near Willis Road in Chesterfield County and forced them off the road.
Instead of running, the robber put his gun to the clerk's head and threatened to kill her. Segal had his gun trained on the man's chest, waiting for him to loosen his grip on the woman. The man turned his weapon on Segal, who fired three times through the windshield. The man tried to pull the woman back to him and Segal fired three more times, hitting him twice. The man, 20-year-old Darryl L. Webb, survived and went to prison.
"It's amazing how those few seconds will have an impact for the rest of my life," said Segal, who now is in charge of records and technology for the police force.
He received a gold medal of valor for his conduct. His actions were featured on national television. He was a hero.
But Segal remembers not being able to sleep for days after the shooting. He remembers having flashbacks and an upset stomach. Watching bullets hit another person, fearing what that person might do in a desperate burst of adrenaline - it is not a normal experience being on the other side of the gun.
"It eats you," he said. "It really eats you up."
Segal said the experience also matured him as a person and a policeman. "Over the course of 13 years, really a day doesn't go by that in some way I don't think about that incident or the gravity of what we do.
"It's not that the fun ended, but the seriousness really sank in."
. . .
The Firearms Law Center, a gun-control organization based in California, points out that according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30,708 Americans died from firearms-related injuries in 1998. About 64,000 people were treated in emergency rooms for gunshot wounds.
In Virginia in 2000, firearms were used in 332 slayings, 1,444 aggravated assaults, 45 rapes and 2,938 robberies.
Statistics always seem to bolster both sides of the gun argument.
Gun-control advocates do not argue with the individuals who have used guns for defensive purposes. Instead, they attack the larger concerns.
"Overall, statistics prove time and again that having a gun in the home is more likely to harm you or someone you love," said Laura Langley, assistant director of communication for the Firearms Law Center.
"We wouldn't argue that instances like that don't occur," she said of defensive gun-use cases. But "the negatives definitely outweigh the positives."
That position is rebutted by gun-rights supporters.
But the negatives are so great for 7-Eleven Inc. that the company does not allow its employees to carry weapons. Spokeswoman Margaret Chabris said many studies show that "there's a better chance you'll be safe if there isn't a weapon in the store."
7-Eleven convenience stores never have more than $50 in the register, and after dark that is reduced to $30. They also are brightly lighted, and the cash register is visible from the street. They also have alarms, video cameras and closed-circuit television. The corporate policy is to "turn over what little money there is."
The introduction of a weapon by the store clerk is seen as an escalation of violence.
"Law enforcement agencies advise us that one weapon is one too many," Chabris said.
Contact Gordon Hickey at (804) 649-6449 or ghickey@timesdispatch.com
Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com
If you will blame gun makers for every shooting then blame car maker for every car accident.
Defensive use of guns can prevent crimes, save lives
BY GORDON HICKEY AND MICHAEL MARTZ
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS May 05, 2002
RELATED
STOPPING A KILLER: Law students went after gunman.
When a gunman went berserk in a Southwest Virginia law school and killed three people, he was finally stopped by a fellow student who threatened to shoot him.
It was one of thousands of instances across the United States in the past year in which a person used a gun in defense.
Some, as in Grundy, make the news. Others, though, are never reported. They do not show up in statistics kept by law enforcement because no crime occurred, and they do not make the newspapers because often the newspapers don't know about them.
The illegal use of guns is re- sponsible for much crime and misery in this country. For example, firearms are used in two-thirds of slayings and in a large number of robberies and assaults. But the legal use of guns at times has prevented crimes and saved lives.
Surveys of defensive gun use come up with numbers that vary widely. Estimates range from about 65,000 to 3.6 million such uses a year, depending on who is conducting the survey. A 1992 Florida State University telephone survey, which has been rebutted by a number of organizations, found up to 2.5 million defensive gun uses each year.
But what is a defensive gun use?
Some say that simply revealing that they have a gun in a holster is a defensive gun use. Others count shooting vicious dogs. Others would include, obviously, actually shooting or pointing the gun at someone.
The student at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy aimed at the gunman in January and, without firing, made him drop his weapon.
The owners of a jewelry store killed two gunmen who had left a trail of robberies from here to the Deep South several years ago.
A South Richmond store owner shot and killed a gunman in January who had just robbed and severely beaten him.
A Beaverdam store owner stopped a robbery three years ago by drawing his .45-caliber on an armed young man.
Two vacationers getting set for a boat trip down the Intracoastal Waterway in 1994 forced robbers off their boat by threatening them with a gun.
In almost every case, the legal use of the gun has left the user shaken and angry. Firing a gun at another person, even in self-defense, can be as traumatic as it is heroic. The shooters, almost always, were reluctant to shoot, and when they did, they were angry at being forced to do it.
But they were all grateful they were able to defend themselves.
. . .
The most visible defensive shootings are by police.
In the past, a Richmond police officer might not have felt free to admit any traumatic effects from shooting someone in the line of duty. Few would willingly talk to a psychologist or psychiatrist about a shooting.
Now, city police don't have a choice, because Dr. Jon H. Moss will be at the scene before they leave.
"I help people deal with normal reactions to an abnormal event," said Moss, a private psychologist who works under contract with police, fire and ambulance workers in Richmond, sheriff's deputies in Hanover County and police in Ashland.
While some officers walk away from a shooting without emotional aftershocks, most struggle with the consequences of pulling the trigger on another human being, he said.
"It's not a day in the park. It has an impact on their lives," Moss said.
Some police officers will be angry at the person they shot for putting them in that position. Some will feel frightened. Some will get sick to their stomachs. Some will feel remorse. Some will question whether they have violated a basic tenet of their religious faith by killing someone.
"Everything being completely legal, justifiable and defensible, it still eats at you inside," said Hanover Sheriff Stuart V. Cook, who spent 25 years on Richmond's police force before moving to the county 12 years ago. "You never feel good about it."
And some just don't get over it. Moss knows of three Richmond police officers who eventually left the force and the profession after shooting someone in the line of duty. "Their lives changed," he said.
Capt. Mark K. Segal was 29 when, in a span of a few seconds, his view of life and police work changed. He had been a Richmond police officer for six years but never had used his gun against another person.
He was working as a detective on Sept. 13, 1989, when a robber took a motel clerk hostage in South Richmond and forced her to drive him south on Interstate 95. Segal and another officer caught up with them near Willis Road in Chesterfield County and forced them off the road.
Instead of running, the robber put his gun to the clerk's head and threatened to kill her. Segal had his gun trained on the man's chest, waiting for him to loosen his grip on the woman. The man turned his weapon on Segal, who fired three times through the windshield. The man tried to pull the woman back to him and Segal fired three more times, hitting him twice. The man, 20-year-old Darryl L. Webb, survived and went to prison.
"It's amazing how those few seconds will have an impact for the rest of my life," said Segal, who now is in charge of records and technology for the police force.
He received a gold medal of valor for his conduct. His actions were featured on national television. He was a hero.
But Segal remembers not being able to sleep for days after the shooting. He remembers having flashbacks and an upset stomach. Watching bullets hit another person, fearing what that person might do in a desperate burst of adrenaline - it is not a normal experience being on the other side of the gun.
"It eats you," he said. "It really eats you up."
Segal said the experience also matured him as a person and a policeman. "Over the course of 13 years, really a day doesn't go by that in some way I don't think about that incident or the gravity of what we do.
"It's not that the fun ended, but the seriousness really sank in."
. . .
The Firearms Law Center, a gun-control organization based in California, points out that according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30,708 Americans died from firearms-related injuries in 1998. About 64,000 people were treated in emergency rooms for gunshot wounds.
In Virginia in 2000, firearms were used in 332 slayings, 1,444 aggravated assaults, 45 rapes and 2,938 robberies.
Statistics always seem to bolster both sides of the gun argument.
Gun-control advocates do not argue with the individuals who have used guns for defensive purposes. Instead, they attack the larger concerns.
"Overall, statistics prove time and again that having a gun in the home is more likely to harm you or someone you love," said Laura Langley, assistant director of communication for the Firearms Law Center.
"We wouldn't argue that instances like that don't occur," she said of defensive gun-use cases. But "the negatives definitely outweigh the positives."
That position is rebutted by gun-rights supporters.
But the negatives are so great for 7-Eleven Inc. that the company does not allow its employees to carry weapons. Spokeswoman Margaret Chabris said many studies show that "there's a better chance you'll be safe if there isn't a weapon in the store."
7-Eleven convenience stores never have more than $50 in the register, and after dark that is reduced to $30. They also are brightly lighted, and the cash register is visible from the street. They also have alarms, video cameras and closed-circuit television. The corporate policy is to "turn over what little money there is."
The introduction of a weapon by the store clerk is seen as an escalation of violence.
"Law enforcement agencies advise us that one weapon is one too many," Chabris said.
Contact Gordon Hickey at (804) 649-6449 or ghickey@timesdispatch.com
Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com
If you will blame gun makers for every shooting then blame car maker for every car accident.