From Personal Experience: A Good Guy without a Gun is
Pretty Much Useless!
I’ve never been a big gun guy. But I’ve always been a big gun RIGHTS
guy.
And after yesterday’s experience, I’m now gonna be an even
bigger one of both.
Many of you probably already know part of the story from
reading my Twitter posts during the incident, or reading the Channel 3 (“Man
breaks up armed robbery attempt outside east side bank”) story I emailed
out, or caught my
interview on Channel 13 last night (though they misspelled my last name as “Hath”).
Well, here’s the full story…
The day started out GREAT.
My son, CJ, woke up early and the two of us took the dogs
for a long walk out in the desert at the base of “Mount Reagan.”
I really love these occasional early walks with my boy. They remind me of that opening scene on the
Andy Griffith show with Sheriff Taylor and Opie walking down a path together,
fishing rods on their shoulders, heading for the pond.
It also always reminds me of the “People let me tell you ‘bout
my best friend…” song from the Courtship of Eddie’s Father show.
Dang, I’m really dating myself, aren’t I?
Back to the story…
Yesterday was also Opening Day of the fall soccer season for
the U-15 co-ed team I coach - which is generously sponsored by an absolutely
wonderful man and great Nevadan, Bobby
Ellis of SNAP Towing.
The great thing about Mr. Ellis’ sponsorship is that the league
is able to place kids on my team, the Sharks, whose families otherwise wouldn’t
be able to afford the registration fee.
We're also willing take kids who have never played before, since
my overall coaching philosophy is that in a “rec league” it’s more important that
all the kids get sufficient playing time and have fun more than winning.
I also like getting kids who have never played before
because they have no idea that I have no idea how to coach soccer.
Ignorance is bliss!
Now, that doesn’t mean I/we don’t like winning. We play our hardest to win.
And yesterday we won our opening game – with 5 new players;
2 who have never played – by the score of 3 to 1. So we’re in first place! Tied with three other teams for first place,
to be sure, but heck, we’ve never been in first place before. Woo-hoo!
Winning definitely feels better than losing.
Anyway, after the game I dropped off Gia and the kids at the
house and then headed to my U.S. Bank branch to open up a checking account for
our new Ax the Tax PAC that will fight to repeal RINO Gov. Brian Sandoval’s $1.4 billion tax hike.
Since I’ve been a longtime customer with U.S. Bank for my
business and had already confirmed that the PAC registration was showing on the
SoS’ website, I didn’t expect any problems with opening an account.
Alas, for some unexplained reason the bank manager informed
me that unless I went through the time, aggravation and expense of
incorporating the PAC they wouldn’t open an account.
Well, if that’s their policy, fine. It’s their bank. Then again, it’s my money. So I’ll be changing banks.
Which is why I was heading to the Wells Fargo bank in the
Albertson’s shopping center at East Charleston and Sloan around 12:30 pm
yesterday afternoon.
My UPS Store mailbox and dry cleaner are already in that
shopping center. Plus I really like
Wells Fargo’s regional bank president here, Kirk Clausen. So it seemed
like a good and convenient idea.
As I pulled into the parking lot I noticed up ahead (about where the
two police detectives are standing in the photo to the right) a man and a woman
in some kind of physical confrontation.
I assumed it was some kind of domestic dispute.
As I came closer, I watched the man throw the woman to the ground. So instead of pulling into a parking space, I
pulled right up next to the pair. She was
on her back and he was wailing on her. I
wound down my window and shouted at the guy to lay off.
I was just about to open my car door when I saw him pull out
a handgun, fire one shot at the defenseless woman on the ground, and then take
off running down the street.
At this point, I still thought it was a domestic dispute. It was only later that I learned the dirtbag was
trying to steal her purse.
I gotta be honest; I did give a moment’s pause. This dirtbag was armed and I wasn’t.
And yes, I immediately thought about my wife and kids. But I didn’t plan to try to apprehend the guy. I planned to stay a safe enough distance away,
but follow him as long as possible while calling in his whereabouts to 9-1-1.
I started to pull away but then decided the first priority
should be to check on the woman who had just been shot.
I stopped the car before exiting the parking lot, got out
and saw that she was standing. I asked
if she was OK, and she said she thought so.
Fortunately she had only been grazed in the shoulder.
So I headed out of the parking lot and tried to find the POS
who had shot and robbed her. But he
apparently ran into the housing complex next to the shopping center and
disappeared.
I called it in to 9-1-1, told the dispatcher what had just
happened, and returned to the bank parking lot.
The injured woman wasn’t there when I got back, but someone
told me she had gone into the bank – which had locked the doors until Metro
arrived.
And arrive they did!
Police cars and uniformed officers everywhere. At least a couple dozen. They roped off the crime scene and surrounded
the housing development. But too
late. The dirtbag was gone.
An ambulance arrived, treated the woman’s wound and took her
to the hospital.
I saw her later in the day – her name is Holly - after she returned
from the hospital. She thanked me for stopping
and helping her. Said she didn’t know
what the guy would have done to her if I hadn’t rolled up on him.
Anyway, detectives arrived on scene a little while later and
asked me to stick around so I could give them a full witness statement after they
completed their investigation. All told
everything was wrapped up in less than two hours. Total pros, every one of those who responded.
Sheriff Lombardo has much to be proud of.
But that brings us to the public policy lessons of the day…
Lesson One: A dirtbag willing to shoot a defenseless
woman for her purse isn’t going to give a sh*t if there’s a law on the books
banning the possession of a firearm.
Lesson Two: If a dirtbag who is willing to shoot a
defenseless woman for her purse wants to obtain a firearm, he’ll get one - no
matter how many criminal background checks are required of law-abiding
citizens.
Lesson Three: First responders are great, but they
can’t be everywhere at once.
And dirtbags usually don’t commit their crimes in front of
police. Indeed, they often choose
gun-free zones…like elementary schools, churches and college campuses.
The fact is there were no police around at the time this guy
assaulted this defenseless woman in the Wells Fargo parking lot. She was a sitting duck.
Frankly, so was I.
I had only the safety of being inside my vehicle at the
time. Had the guy turned his gun on me
rather than turning and running, I’d have been a sitting duck, as well.
In that regard, yeah…what I did was monumentally stupid.
Things could have turned out much worse. A lot of these kinds of incidents do.
Gia could have become a widow. The kids could have become fatherless. And yes - boy, oh, boy - I did think of that
as the incident unfolded in front of my eyes.
But I couldn’t just stand there and watch this guy beat the
hell out of that woman.
Blame my parents for bad upbringing.
The truth of the matter is this…
The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with
a gun.
And while first responders are great, they’re not as great
as immediate responders.
And as much as we like to think that something like this
happens to someone else; that it will never happen to us – that’s living in
denial.
I’ve been living in such denial for 56 years.
No mas.
Tomorrow, Gia and I are going to do what’s necessary to make
sure neither of us is ever in a similar defenseless situation again.
Better late than never.
* * *
* *
P.S. I took Front
Site’s 2-day defensive handgun course out in Pahrump a few years ago.
It was my first and only time using a weapon.
I need to go back for a refresher.
And take Gia with me this time.
If only we can find an armed babysitter for the two days!
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