The Sierra Times
The Self Defense Files:
Beneath the radar screen
By Robert A. Waters 07.20.01
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Beneath the radar screen, a guerilla war is raging.
Many Americans are fighting back when attacked by violent criminals. Most merely defend themselves, their families, or even strangers. Some take a more pro-active approach and chase down murderers, robbers, thieves, and muggers and hold them for police.
Some use fists, knives, bats, or any other weapon that's available.
Most do it the old-fashioned way.
With guns.
Like many other wars, such as those that have long plagued the African continent, this one is largely unseen and barely mentioned by the national media. Selective reporting, it's called by some. Others, less charitable, call it censorship.
The radar screen of the mainstream media tracks issues perceived to be of national or international importance. If a minimum wage-earning convenience store clerk fights back during a robbery, the story is ignored. Who cares? After all, it's only one small skirmish in the unseen war. When a teenager uses a gun to save lives, the story is ignored. (But if he brings a gun to school, it's zero-tolerance and, voila, national news!) And if a rapist is killed by his victim, it still doesn't meet the media's standard of national importance.
You'd think that with all the cable networks looking for stories, some reporter would stumble across this guerilla war and report on it.
But since it ain't gonna happen, I thought I'd crawl beneath the radar screen and do their job for them.
In the period of a week, from June 28 through July 5, 2001, I found newspaper articles describing nearly 30 cases of armed self-defense. All were located by scanning "local" sections of newspapers. Researchers such as Gary Kleck suggest that this is just the tip of the iceberg.
On June 28, in Knoxville, Tennessee, Larry Burchfield entered Sam and Jerry's Market and Deli. Burchfield threatened a female clerk with a tire iron and attempted to rob her. As he forced his way behind the counter, the clerk grabbed a .38-caliber pistol and shot him. Burchfield, wounded and bleeding, fled the store with sixty dollars from the till, which he immediately spent on crack cocaine. He was arrested a few hours later.
In Muncie, Indiana, on June 29, two teenaged girls were attacked inside their own home. Tied up with telephone cord, they were forced to hand over their jewelry and other valuables. But while the assailant, Joel Williams, was re-tying one of the girls (who'd talked him into letting her go to the bathroom), he laid down his gun. The second victim, her hands still tied in front of her, picked it up and shot Williams six times.
In Bingham County, Idaho, also on June 29, no shots were fired as homeowner Roy Christianson captured three teenagers who were burglarizing his cabin. Christianson held the suspects with a high-powered rifle until police arrived.
In Dunn, North Carolina, still on June 29, three invaders burst into the home of Rastus and Lettie Hudson. Rastus, a Korean War veteran, was able to grab his revolver from beneath the mattress. As the intruders attempted to shoot him, Rastus returned fire and wounded one of the intruders. They fled and were quickly arrested by police at a local hospital.
In New Fairfield, Connecticut, on June 30, two armed men were routed by a homeowner when they forced their way inside his home. The resident fired several shots, sending the invaders fleeing back out the door they'd just entered.
On July 2, a Lubbock, Texas woman arrived home in the evening and was accosted by her ex-husband. Despite a restraining order, the estranged husband attacked her with a knife, slashing the woman's face and body. As she screamed and fought, he tried to force her into his car. This alerted the woman's 74-year-old father, who ran outside and shot the assailant, killing him.
On July 5, Columbia, South Carolina store clerk Richard Helton fought back after one of two robbers placed a gun to his head and demanded money. As they fled, he grabbed his own revolver and followed the robbers outside. Seeing them jump into a getaway car, Helton ordered them to halt. Instead, one of the bandits fired at him. This prompted the clerk to unleash a barrage of gunfire that shattered the back window of the car. Police said he was justified in his actions.
A similar case had occurred the day before when the owner of a Columbus, Ohio Save-Way Market chased down a robber and held him at gunpoint until police arrived.
And so the war goes on, beneath the very noses of those who should report it.
But someday it will burst across the radar screen like a shooting star.
And when it does, no one will be more surprised than the reporters who ignored it for so long.
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