Posted on 08/06/2004 10:20:39 AM PDT by neverdem
It happened in Australia last week. The robber waylaid Karen Brown in the carpark outside a Sydney hotel. Brown, a 42-year-old security guard, had just picked up a deposit bag containing the hotel take, something between $30,000 and $50,000. She was dressed in civilian clothes.
The robber was wearing brass knuckles. Lifting Brown by the hair, he punched her repeatedly in the head and bashed her to the ground, fracturing her skull, an eye socket, her nose and left hand, and leaving her possibly brain damaged.
Then the robber, a 25-year-old ex-con named William Aquilina, dragged Brown across the asphalt toward his stolen getaway car, dropping her like a rag doll when she finally released the deposit bag. Aquilina then got into the car.
Blood pouring into her eyes, Brown somehow managed to stand up, remove her concealed handgun and take aim at the driver's seat.
And yes, she shot Aquilina dead where he sat.
I FOUND THIS story in the online edition of the Sun Herald, billed as Australia's biggest-selling daily newspaper, while researching a letter claiming robberies Down Under had soared since strict gun controls were introduced.
The letter painted a scary picture of government disarming law-abiding citizens and thus giving free rein to violent criminals. But it turned out the stats were outdated, unreliable and the issue, according to the morning editor at the Sun Herald, was dead except for "a few pissed-off farmers."
That, of course, was a media-type talking and I would probably have gotten a similar response from her counterparts in Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal. Maybe even Winnipeg.
In reality, Australia does have a "statistical problem" with rising violent crime. So does Britain -- and both countries took unprecedented steps a few years back to not only regulate firearms, but to confiscate them. Australians spent at least half a billion dollars to collect and destroy hundreds of thousands of legally owned guns, and the result? No decrease in violent crime, armed robberies up by 166%.
These disturbing trends have given a new weapon to the North American gun lobby, which also points to a dramatic drop in violent crime in the U.S. during the same period, as state after state -- 20 in the past two decades -- relaxed the rules for carrying concealed handguns for personal protection.
The connection between stripping citizens of the right to bear arms and the likelihood of their becoming victims of crime is "really hard to tease out" of available data, says Gary Mauser, a professor of business at B.C.'s Simon Fraser University.
"The advocates on both sides tend to cherry-pick their numbers," says Mauser, who wrote a paper last year for the Fraser Institute on the "failed experiment" of gun control in Commonwealth countries.
But, he adds, the relaxed gun ownership laws and parallel decline in violent crime in the U.S. is "the most reasonable link" yet to firearm possession and personal safety.
Mauser is a harsh critic of Canada's firearm registry. Instead of registering hunters and target shooters, he says, the government should build a database of violent criminals and an instant check system that would ensure they could not legally obtain firearms.
"Focus on the guys who are a threat instead of the guys who are not a threat."
THAT MAKES PERFECT sense to me, but to those who wish we also enjoyed the freedom to "pack heat" for personal protection, all I can say is look at the case of poor Karen Brown.
A trained security guard, when she was attacked she didn't have time to use her gun to defend herself. Had she tried drawing it while Aquilina was beating her, he might have forced it from her and used it, on her or someone else.
But there's more.
Speaking to the Sun Herald almost a week after the shooting, Brown was still shaking and crying -- not so much because of the injuries, which also included severe concussion and a floating bone fragment lodged behind her eyeball. No, she was devastated by having taken Aquilina's life, expressing sympathy for the family and deep remorse for the shooting.
Brown's exclusive interview was headlined Why I killed the robber, but it's clear from the story that she didn't know why she shot him.
She said she feared for her life while she was being beaten, but by the time she "looked up through a bloody haze" to fire, "I did not know where I was or exactly what had happened to me."
But she had the gun, and her job was to protect the money, so she killed the robber.
"It has completely wrecked her life," said her sister, Katrina. "She has never hurt anybody or anything before and it's completely crushed her."
And there's even more. Aquilina, it turns out, was the grandson of a retired policeman, Frank Rasmussen, who is now pushing for Brown to be charged.
"He was murdered," Rasmussen said. "That woman should have torn into that hotel as soon as she alleges she was hit and she should have asked for help. Instead, she advanced on my grandson and shot him in cold blood. She's just a bitch. Sorry."
Brown likely won't be prosecuted because she was, after all, doing her job. But had she been a mere citizen with a legal permit to carry a concealed weapon, she might have been charged, tried and convicted of manslaughter, since Aquilina apparently did not pose a threat to her when she killed him.
So it sounds good -- this idea of citizens going around all armed and civil. Especially if the knowledge of that fact deters criminals from attacking people.
But it isn't that simple. Just ask Karen Brown.
I'm sure Frank was a popular guy on the police force.
sorry - if someone whupped me that badly, I'd have reason to doubt that I would survive. In that case, I would kill the person who had done that to me, irrespective of whether or not he continued to pose a threat. It is called justice.
ping
"He was murdered," Rasmussen said. "That woman should have torn into that hotel as soon as she alleges she was hit and she should have asked for help. Instead, she advanced on my grandson and shot him in cold blood. She's just a bitch. Sorry."
Someone should give Mr. Rasmussen a beating identical to the one his grandson inflicted on Ms. Brown.
Maybe he'd change his mind. Maybe he wouldn't.
But someone should toss him a beating anyway. He is, as the Aussies say, gagging for it.
The amount of traumatic brain injury apparently described in the story should be enough to prevent indictment, and failing that, enough to be acquitted at trial.
Sorry Frank, your grandson was a scumbag and reaped what he sowed.
Agreed. Also, had "Billy the ex-con" gotten away with the robbery, what do you suppose the chances are of him giving up this lucrative career? Miss Brown should be considering how she saved the next potential victim as well. That should help with the guilt.
It's called the survival instict.
It's also why self defense is an unalienable right in America.
I can see her remorse at taking a life, but where is this woman's common sense to tell her that he brought it on himself?
instict = instinct
Thanks for posting this
I know one retired policeman who needs to be beat within an inch of death, and I'll volunteer to give the beating. About half way through we can ask him if he would like to shot me. Any bets on what his answer would be?
Rasmussen is a brain dead asshole, and I'm not sorry.
he wasn't murdered, he got what he deserved
No one has ever said that concealed handguns could stop all crime. So if the author is arguing that concealed guns can't stop all crime, he's just demolishing a straw man. The advocates of concealed carry merely say that, on balance, these laws reduced pain & suffering among good people by sowing FUD among violent criminals.
I'm sorry the experience was so traumatic for the security guard. Hopefully time will help soften bad feelings. I'm glad she's still alive -- and I'm glad the perp won't be hurting anyone else.
Your "grandson" was a dirtbag who was rewarded with a dirt nap, pal.
This is the exception covering when you may shoot a fleeing criminal. She done good, and has nothing to regret.
Aussie's should only hire very large male bodybuilders as security officiers since they might be able defend themselves without firearms. Looks like all the female and smaller male guards will be out of work soon since they are easy pickings.
"Son, I'm not the one that killed you. I just carried the bullet for a while." -Mallory, "The Message", Firefly
What an a**hole rasmussen is...His grandson was a violent and evil punk...brass knucles continuously beating this women to get some money..how was she supposed to "run into the hotel" Frankly I think the granddad ought to do whatever time the grandson would have gotten since he ( as a former cop no less) seems to think that the kid was fine doing what he did...GIVE ME A BREAK
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