Posted on 12/26/2011 6:47:08 AM PST by marktwain
Two robberies and a near-death experience convinced Mark Headstrong that he needed to carry a gun. So he started packing a few months ago – a black revolver with a brown handle, small enough to tuck into his front pants pocket.
For the soft-spoken convenience store clerk, the weapon proved its usefulness on the afternoon of Nov. 17, when he was almost robbed a third time. A man walked into the Wrightsville Country Store wearing a dark jacket and a Groucho Marx mask, pointed a loaded single-automatic pistol in Headstrong's face and demanded cash.
Rather than obeying the order, the bespectacled clerk pulled out his revolver and engaged the robber in a standoff. "Drop it," Headstrong recalls saying.
Headstrong said he stepped to the side of the cash register and fired toward the ground as a warning, but the slug hit the robber's leg. As the robber reached for the door, Headstrong fired again. The slug struck the robber's finger, and he fell to the ground and dropped his gun.
"It's not my personality to pull a gun on people," Headstrong said. "This was like an inner feeling, where God was telling me to do something."
Several similar confrontations in recent months makes it seem as if clerks like Headstrong increasingly are embracing deadly force as a means of protection in a city that sees its fair share of armed robberies. Earlier this month, a man who tried to rob the A&J Food Mart on Princess Place Drive was encouraged to leave after an employee trained a handgun on him.
Formerly, a person had to prove that he reasonably believed an intruder intended to kill or physically harm him before using deadly force. But the recent change, which expanded the so-called Castle Doctrine and became effective Dec. 1, grants gun owners the right to open fire if an intruder has entered unlawfully into their home, car or workplace.
The gun debate
The legislation has reignited the debate over Second Amendment rights and whether loosening gun restrictions will bolster or undermine the safety of the public.
It has drawn plaudits from gun rights advocates and state Republican lawmakers. Sen. Thom Goolsby, a legislator from Wilmington who sponsored the bill, called it "probably the strongest law protecting citizens in homes, businesses and cars in the country."
"It is a boon to law-abiding citizens to protect themselves, their family and their property," he said in a video posted to YouTube.
On the other side, the new measures have proponents of stricter gun control sounding alarms that softening the law in such a way will lead to an upswing in needless violence.
One critic pointed to a incident in a Florida town just outside Tampa, in which a jogger put four hollow-point bullets into an 18-year-old who punched him in the face. Authorities in Florida, which adopted a "stand-your-ground" law in 2005, never charged the jogger, according to the St. Petersburg Times.
"That's the type of insanity we're seeing," said Ladd Everitt, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "These are bills that basically expand violence when it is completely unnecessary."
Paul Valone, president of Grass Roots North Carolina, a group that helped craft the legislation and lobbied for its passage, countered such criticisms by saying that the law still contains specific provisions to prevent unreasonable shootings.
He said the doctrine precludes people from using deadly force if they themselves are in the process of committing a felony, for example. Also, a gun owner cannot open fire if the intruder is running away.
"It's not a get-out-of-jail-free card," Valone said. "It's not a make-my-day law."
Training called a safety must
The legislation has also raised concerns among law enforcement officials, many of whom say it is often safer to cooperate with the criminal unless you're in imminent danger.
Ralph Evangelous, Wilmington's chief of police, said he would never tell somebody not to protect his family but emphasized the importance of firearm training.
The chief recalled a case he worked as an officer in California, where a man accidentally discharged a gun and the bullet hit the man's daughter in the head, adding that the new law might lead to more accidental shootings.
"If things are going bad, you have to do what you have to do to protect yourself," he said, but added, "When you arm someone who's never handled a gun before, you are looking for trouble."
Musa Agil, Headstrong's boss and the owner of the Wrightsville Country Store, agrees with Evangelous' assessment. And that is why Agil, who welcomed the recent expansion of the Castle Doctrine, said he is arming all of his employees with pepper spray, tasers and firearms, and paying for them to undergo training in all three.
"What guarantees do we have that this person will take my $50 and leave me alone?" Agil said, referring to instances in which his store has been robbed. "If I have the chance to drop him I have to, because it's either my life or his life."
As for Headstrong, he had no idea that North Carolina revamped its laws and said that never factored into his decision to draw a gun on the robber. The November incident was the third time in a year that Headstrong has been robbed, and he said it felt good to stand up to the assailant.
"With this gun protecting me, this piece of iron, I feel safer," he said.
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The trend happens to coincide with a controversial overhaul of state laws to better shield employees from civil and criminal liability should they defend themselves with a gun.
"That's the type of insanity we're seeing," said Ladd Everitt, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
That is not insanity, it is self defense. People have been killed with one punch, and the 18 year old mugger who was shot will not be mugging more innocents.
risky job at best
Eh, what?
Is a "single-automatic pistol" less dangerous than, say, an "assault rifle" at close range?
I've never heard the expression "single-automatic pistol" in my life.
Is a "single-automatic pistol" a pistol that only poor folks can afford?
i love how self defence is insanity. someone punches you and mugs you, wtf do these anti-self defence nuts want you to do? They want you to get mugged and run to the cops crying.
A Heart Warming Christmas Eve Story.
In Hendersonville on Saturday a thug entered a store and flashed a pistol on his belt. The clerk ‘cooperated’ handing him a bag of cash and then a great right hook square in the nose. When the perp woke up he was forced to clean his blood off the floor while waiting for the police.
I just wonder if it was a miss spell and should have been “semi”. Just a thought
“Rather than obeying the order, the bespectacled clerk pulled out his revolver and engaged the robber in a standoff. “Drop it,” Headstrong recalls saying.
Headstrong said he stepped to the side of the cash register and fired toward the ground as a warning, but the slug hit the robber’s leg. As the robber reached for the door, Headstrong fired again. The slug struck the robber’s finger, and he fell to the ground and dropped his gun.”
1. If you are an armed citizen, you have no obligation to order a perp to “drop it”. The object is not to take prisoners at this point.
2. Firing warning shots is essentially stupid, especially when a weapon is already drawn on you. If you are going to resist, resist.
Other than that, I’m glad he attempted to do the right thing, and that he’s in one piece.
Boy, that example won’t garner the other side much sympathy in arguing against gun rights.
Compared to fully-automatic?? Could be what he meant.
What in God's name is that?
Could it be typo? Maybe the writer misspelled “Semi Automatic” or maybe the writer just stupid?
You were very lucky. Next time try six rapid shots, center of mass, no call to "drop it" (no warning shots).
Or maybe just get another job.
Apparently they believe in some sort of “proportional response” BS. Tell that to Gen.s Sherman or Patton.
Our so called 'professional media' are idiots when it comes to guns. I still want one of those 44mm pistols I read about.
When a writers does something like that, it's best to just point, laugh, and make them ashamed of their ignorance.
/johnny
(There’s a LOT more to the jogger story)
“28-year-old Thomas Baker was jogging at 1:30am when 18-year-old Carlos Musteliel and a 16-year-old boy confronted him. Baker says he feared for his life and shot Musteliel, killing him. The (16-year-old) ran off, but later returned to talk to deputies.
“The teen told told police Mustelier decided he wanted to rob Baker, telling him: “I’m going to bam him.. I’m gonna knock him out.”
“Baker told investigators he was suddenly confronted by Mustelier who punched him in the face. With his lip cut and suffering blurred vision he said he pulled out a handgun that was fitted with a laser sight and fired eight times. Baker immediately called police after the shooting last November and stayed with the dying Mustelier.
Baker was returning home with $800 he had been paid for fixing a friend’s car, and was jogging to improve his fitness before joining the military.
“(A neighbor of the jogger said he) wasn’t suprised to learn Baker had been carrying his gun with him. “If two guys approach you that time of night, it’s your life against theirs. It’s happened here so many times in this neighborhood,” he said.”
44mm? That’s 1.73 inches. Other than as a flare gun, what the heck do you do with it? Anyway, here is a cool picture of a 37mm flare gun, with a bipod, no less.
Or, when talking to the cops they said single action automatic pistol and the reporter didn’t have a clue and left out the word action.
Idiot journalist didn't know the difference between calibre and mm.
/johnny
Seven years ago and this idiot says that this "is the level of violence we're seeing?" I think this is acceptable
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