Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!rochester!ritcv!ccieng5!ccieng2!kfk From: kfk@ccieng2.UUCP Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Missing Handgun Message-ID: <147@ccieng5.UUCP> Date: Mon, 19-Sep-83 12:02:41 EDT Article-I.D.: ccieng5.147 Posted: Mon Sep 19 12:02:41 1983 Date-Received: Wed, 21-Sep-83 03:13:31 EDT Lines: 99 Let me recount an incident which occurred the evening of Sat, 17 Sep. At 9:30PM, a man and his wife were in their apartment watching tele- vision. An urgent knock on the door was heard, followed by a voice saying, "Please let me in!" The man opened the door to find a neighbor woman from the next floor up standing there with her 5-year-old son and infant daughter. The woman and her children entered quickly, saying that her husband was drunk and was trying to beat her up. The door was promptly closed and locked. The woman called her sister to inform her of what was going on. After completing the call, she told the couple that her car was in the parking lot, she had her keys, and she would like to drive over to her sister's. The man escorted the woman to the parking lot, with the wife locking the door behind them again. Upon arriving at the parking lot, it was discovered that the woman's husband had let the air out of the two front tires, making the vehicle unusable. The group decided to return to the couple's apartment, where she would call her sister again, to ask her to come pick her up. When they got to the outside door of the apartment, the woman's husband was standing there. The man ushered the woman into the building and over to his apartment door, keeping himself between the attacker and the victim. The woman and her children got into the couple's apartment, but the at- tacker tried to force his way in as well, past the man trying to keep himself between them. The attacker was carrying a tire iron. He repeatedly asked his wife/victim, "So what's it gonna be, huh?" The victim informed her husband that the police had already been called, although that was of course not true. The man then started to swing the tire iron at his wife from the doorway of the couple's apartment, trying to get at his wife. There ensued a short fight, during which the at- tacker hit his wife soundly on the back of the head with the tire iron, causing no trivial amount of blood to flow. The man, trying to force the attacker out of the apartment, received several minor cuts and bruises, a bloody nose, a ruined shirt (due to rips and blood stains), a pair of demolished glasses, and a badly sprained wrist. The man's wife received a glancing blow from the tire iron as she pulled the children out of the way. There was much blood on the carpet and walls, and there are a number of dents and holes in the walls and the front door of the apartment. All this was due to one man swinging a tire iron *while in someone else's apartment.* The women managed to get free, took the children to a bedroom, where they barricaded themselves. The man eventually forced the attacker out of the apartment, locking the door. Immediately, the women and children came out, the police and pa- ramedics were called, and the incident was mostly over and done with. Now, the reason that I know so much detail about what happened between 9:30 and 10:00 that evening is that the woman/victim was my neighbor from the next floor up, it was my wife's and my apartment where she sought refuge, and it was the three of us who received injuries due to the attacker's fighting. This entire incident makes me extremely angry. The reason that a fight resulted at all is because I am not permitted by NY state law to possess a handgun. (This is due to what amounts to a 3-year residency requirement, because there is no one I have known that long in NY, having just moved here a year ago, so no one can sign character reference forms to that effect.) If I were permitted to pos- sess the handguns which I already own (stored for the time being in Wyoming), I would have prevented any fight from breaking out at all. I would have carried my .357 magnum with me out to the parking lot when I escorted the woman to her car; on discovering the flat tires and returning to the apartment, and encountering the attacker on the way, I would have pointed the handgun at him point-blank and warned him to stay well back. Had he persisted, I would have shot him in the shoulder. If even that had not stopped him, I would have shot him dead through the face. The attacker would then have caused no harm to the innocent peo- ple around him, and the incident would have ended quite differently than it did. As it is, I have a sprained wrist that is making my typing incredibly slow. I will be scheduling an appointment with my doctor later today to have it looked at, just to make sure that it's OK. The wife/victim spent the night in the hospital. After the fight was over, she repeatedly complained of dizziness, and had trouble standing up; she probably suffered a concussion. My wife, fortunately, had little more than a headache. But the fact is that *no one* but the attacker should have come to *any harm whatsoever.* This is a perfect example where the laws of this principality (NY) concerning handguns are WRONG. I am very proficient with my firearms. I would not have simply shot him dead first. If it had come to killing him, I would be genuinely sorry that I would have had to do so. But I would never apologize for having done so. That man was a threat; it was not the first time that he had attacked his wife. I would have stopped him in any manner available. As it was, everyone but the attacker was injured. I defy any anti-firearms person to defend the laws of this state con- cerning handgun restrictions. ============== Karl Kleinpaste =============== ...!allegra!rocksvax!ritcv!ccieng5!ccieng2!kfk ...!seismo!rochester!ritcv!ccieng5!ccieng2!kfk P.S. It was suggested by my wife that no one reading this would believe me; that it was too coincidental for such an incident to occur so soon after posting a couple of articles on handguns to the usenet. For those so inclined, I say that it is a matter of public record, and that you should check with the Monroe County Sheriff's Department concerning an emergency call placed by Lucy Kleinpaste at approximately 10PM, with the victim being Valerie Crawford. The officer with whom we spoke was named Nyhan (pronounced like Ryan).