Scars Linger After Acts of Self-Defense (Semi-Barf Alert)

New York Times ^ | August 21, 2009 | KAREEM FAHIM

[nickcarraway]

An electronics store owner who shot and killed two robbers in a gunfight regretted none of it but his scars. A pet store owner who did the same and briefly became a neighborhood hero closed his shop, moved on to other work and tried to forget.

A jeweler spent the rest of his life wishing he had never chased after two men who robbed his Brooklyn store. He told his family that he meant only to wound them when he pulled the trigger. Insurance, he lamented, would have covered the theft.

For as long as there have been stickup men, there have been shopkeepers who fought back. Shooting the robbers was in some ways the simplest part, requiring only the reflexes of a survivor, and a gun — though more than a few store owners have been prosecuted for using unlicensed firearms.

The real pain came in the weeks and years that followed. The proprietors replayed the violence that had marched into their cramped bodegas, restaurants or jewelry stores, cursing the career criminals or desperate men who had threatened their livelihoods — their lives, even — and their sanity.

The deep regret such violence can create was hinted at last week when the owner of a restaurant supply store in Harlem killed two robbers with a pump-action shotgun. The owner, Charles Augusto Jr., expressed sympathy for the families of the dead men, and said he wished they had just left his store.

His emotions echoed those of Peter Giron, the co-owner of a South Bronx dry cleaning establishment who shot and killed a 17-year-old gunman in 1978. Mr. Giron collapsed and had to be sedated after the 17-year-old’s father visited his store and politely asked about the shooting.

[nickcarraway]

Youssouf Drame, at his store in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where he shot and killed two men who tried to rob him in November 2008. Mr. Drame showed his stomach, where surgeons removed bullets that lodged in his body during the gunfight.

It's a somewhat disingenuous context for the case of Mr. Augusto. The robbers started to duct tape on of the employees. Sometimes, these aren't just robberies they duct tape everyone and execute them. When they started to restrain his employee, Mr. Augusto had the decision to shoot, or to take his chance that they would execute everyone, and it would be too late to defend himself.

Also, Mr. Augusto said he wished he didn't have to do it, but he made it clear he didn't regret his actions, given the circumstances.

[Nathan Zachary]

What a load of garbage.

[paul51]

No one should like the idea of shooting someone. Balance that against having yourself or one of your employees shot or finding out later the robber you let walk because your insurance covered your loss killed a child during the next robbery.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Good for Mr. Drame

[Oldexpat]

A friend shot a young N.Vietnamese soldier in a straight up fight with his 45. He felt bad about it later..he was just a kid..with pictures of his family in his wallet.
You just gotta do what you gotta do.

[BigCinBigD]

“The deep regret such violence can create”

Stupid Yankee sheep. Here in Texas such expenditure of felon trash is celebrated like it's Christmas morning.

[runninglips]

The society we live in has worked so hard to make us feel guilty for surviving, that it makes it rare for people to defend themselves, and much more likely to regret what they have done. IOW, we have raised a nation of wimps, that repress their righteous indignation. The only man in the article that adamantly did not regret his decision was from another country. Most likely schooled in the idea that evil exists, and you have to stand up against it or cease to be a man.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Drame said “I didn’t come to America to die”

[Squantos]

Fahim is an idiot to try an make someone out to be guilty for surviving an attack by fighting back in self defense.

Doom on this presstitute an his agenda driven propaganda.

Fight criminal trash or be a dead socialist liberal democrat victim.

[SuperLuminal]

Big Crock of B.S. Alert!

[TASMANIANRED]

Guess you don’t get to regret your scars from the grave.

[familyop]

Massad Ayoob also wrote a piece about the legalistic aftermaths of home defense situations. He claimed that using reloads would make such self-defense cases more difficult in courts. I disagree, and no such case has been cited, yet. If using certain cartridges could damage a self-defense case, those would be the uber, explosive police cartridges that are implied in advertisements as being unconditional killers (Talons and the like).

[wjcsux]

Stupid Yankee sheep. Here in Texas such expenditure of felon trash is celebrated like it's Christmas morning.
Well said.

[sheik yerbouty]

That’s why a knockdown capable round without the bells and whistles wouldb be best. I prefer a 45ACP..

[familyop]

"That’s why a knockdown capable round without the bells and whistles wouldb be best. I prefer a 45ACP.."

Agreed.