[Rhodes22-list] Prosecuted homeowner blasts officials

[Steve Alm]

Hmmmm.  Those giant address don't seem to work.  Try
http://www.gunowners.org/fs9901.htm  or do a search for "GOA Fact Sheet--
1999 Firearms Facts" and you'll probably get it.  For the firearm safety
site try    http://home.sprynet.com/~frfrog/safety.htm

Slim

On 1/23/04 4:21 PM, "Steve Alm" <salm at mn.rr.com> wrote:

> I don't remember who said, "There are lies, there are damn lies and then
> there are statistics." but nonetheless, here are some stats compiled in 1999
> put together by a gun owner's group.  Earlier I said I thought about half of
> US households have firearms.  I may have to stand corrected.  These stats
> indicate about half of Canadian homes have guns.  In the US, it's about
> 12.7%.  (oh yeah, now I remember--it's half of US households have pets.  8-)
> Note:  they indicate that guns were used on intruders about 2.5 million
> times but only 8 % (200,000) actually shot the intruder.  Most of the time
> the weapon was merely brandished or warning shots fired.  I didn't see any
> stats pertaining to self-defense legal outcomes.
> 
> Also, here's a link on gun safety that's well worth a look.
> 
> Slim
> 
> 
> http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.jsp?query=homeowner+and+statistics+a
> nd+firearms&page=1&offset=1&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26amp%3Breque
> stId%3D447d7b0eaad623ee%26amp%3BclickedItemRank%3D1%26amp%3BuserQuery%3Dhome
> owner%2Band%2Bstatistics%2Band%2Bfirearms%26amp%3BclickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A
> %252F%252Fwww.gunowners.org%252Ffs9901.htm%26amp%3BinvocationType%3D-%26amp%
> 3BfromPage%3DAppleTop&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gunowners.org%2Ffs9901.htm
> 
> http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.jsp?query=homeowner+and+statistics+a
> nd+firearms&page=1&offset=1&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26amp%3Breque
> stId%3D447d7b0eaad623ee%26amp%3BclickedItemRank%3D6%26amp%3BuserQuery%3Dhome
> owner%2Band%2Bstatistics%2Band%2Bfirearms%26amp%3BclickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A
> %252F%252Fhome.sprynet.com%252F%257Efrfrog%252Fsafety.htm%26amp%3Binvocation
> Type%3D-%26amp%3BfromPage%3DAppleTop&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fhome.sprynet.co
> m%2F%7Efrfrog%2Fsafety.htm
> 
> On 1/23/04 3:01 PM, "Paul Grandholm" <paul at grandpower.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> A Chicago-area homeowner prosecuted after shooting an intruder has
>> written a letter urging local
>> officials to stop hindering citizens from protecting their families and
>> "stick to parade schedules and
>> planting our parks."
>> Hale DeMar, 54, of Wilmette, Ill., wounded a burglar who entered his
>> kitchen Dec. 29, shortly after
>> saying good night to his children upstairs. But DeMar was charged with
>> violating a local ordinance
>> banning possession of handguns.
>> Police Chief George Carpenter said the outcome "was very fortunate for
>> the homeowner."
>> "We much prefer, for the safety of the home, that a resident who finds
>> himself in this situation
>> immediately lock the door of the room he's in and dial 911."
>> In a letter to local officials published by the Chicago Sun-Times,
>> however, DeMar said: "Until you are
>> shocked by a piercing alarm in the middle of the night and met in your
>> kitchen by a masked invader as
>> your children shudder in their beds, until you confront that very real
>> nightmare, please don't suggest that
>> some village trustee knows better and he/she can effectively task the
>> police to protect your family from
>> the miscreants that this society has produced."
>> Morio Billings, 31, is accused of entering the DeMar home twice within 24
>> hours. He allegedly crawled
>> through a dog door in the garage then returned the next night with a
>> stolen house key. Prosecutors say
>> Billings crashed through the home's front window after he was shot then
>> drove himself to the hospital in
>> the family's SUV, which he had stolen the night before.
>> Billings previously had been arrested 30 times, according to DeMar.
>> DeMar, a restaurant owner, will appear in court Feb. 6 to face
>> misdemeanor charges for violating the
>> handgun ordinance and failing to update his firearms card.
>> He sent the following letter to the Sun-Times:
>> 
>> Village Trustees ... Stick to Parade Schedules & Planting our Parks
>> 
>> Many of us have experienced a sense of violation upon returning to our
>> homes, only to find
>> that someone else has been there. Someone else has trespassed in our
>> bedrooms, looting and
>> stealing that which is readily replaced. Many of us, still haunted by
>> that violation, will never
>> again have a sense of security in our own homes. Few, however, have
>> awakened to realize
>> that they had been violated as they slept in their beds, doors locked, as
>> family dogs patrolled
>> their homes. For me, the seconds until I found my children still safely
>> tucked in their beds
>> were horrifying. The thought that a young child may have been hurt or
>> abducted was
>> incomprehensible.
>> The police were called and in routine fashion they came, took the report
>> and with little
>> concern left, promising to increase surveillance. Little comfort, since
>> the invader now had
>> keys to our home and our automobiles. The police informed me that this
>> was not an
>> uncommon event in east Wilmette and offered their condolences.
>> What is one to do when a criminal proceeds, undeterred by a 90-pound
>> German shepherd,
>> an alarm system and a property ... lit up like an outdoor stadium? And
>> now, he had my
>> house keys and an inventory of things he'd like to call his own. Would
>> the police patrol my
>> dead-end street as effectively the second time as they had the first?
>> Would my small
>> children be unharmed the next time? Would the career criminal be
>> satisfied with another
>> automobile, another television or would he feel the need, once again, to
>> climb the staircase
>> up to the bedrooms, perhaps for a watch or a ring or a wallet, again
>> risking little?
>> Would my children wake to find a masked figure, clad in black, in their
>> bedroom doorway,
>> a vision that might haunt them for years? Would the police come again and
>> fill out yet
>> another report, and at what point should I feel comfortable that the 'bad
>> guy' got everything
>> he wanted and wouldn't return again, a third time?
>> I went to the safe where my licensed and registered gun was kept, loaded
>> it for the very first
>> time and tucked it under the mattress of my bed. I assured my frightened
>> children ''that
>> daddy would deal with the bad guy ... if he ever returned.'' Little did I
>> imagine that this
>> brazen animal was waiting in the backyard bushes as I tucked my children
>> into bed.
>> Fifteen minutes after bedtime, the alarm went off. Three minutes after
>> the alarm was
>> triggered, the alarm company alerted the police to the situation and 10
>> minutes later the first
>> police car pulled up to my home, but only after another call was made to
>> 911, by a
>> trembling, half-naked father. I suppose some would have grabbed their
>> children and
>> cowered in their bedroom for 13 minutes, praying that the police would
>> get there in time to
>> stop the criminal from climbing the stairs and confronting the family in
>> their bedroom,
>> dreading the sound of a bedroom door being kicked in. That's not the fear
>> I wanted my
>> children to experience, nor is it the cowardly act that I want my
>> children to remember me
>> by.
>> Until you are shocked by a piercing alarm in the middle of the night and
>> met in your kitchen
>> by a masked invader as your children shudder in their beds, until you
>> confront that very real
>> nightmare, please don't suggest that some village trustee knows better
>> and he/she can
>> effectively task the police to protect your family from the miscreants
>> that this society has
>> produced.
>> This career criminal had been arrested 30 times. He was wanted in Georgia
>> and for parole
>> violations in Minnesota. How many family homes had he violated, how many
>> innocent lives
>> were affected, how many police reports went into some back office file
>> cabinet, only to
>> become some abstract statistic? How is it that rabid animals like this
>> are free to roam the
>> streets, violating our homes and threatening the safety of our children?
>> If my actions have spared only one family from the distress and trauma
>> that this habitual
>> criminal has caused hundreds of others, then I have served my civic duty
>> and taken one evil
>> creature off of our streets, something that our impotent criminal justice
>> system had failed to
>> do, despite some thirty odd arrests, plea bargains and suspended
>> sentences.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ========================
>> Paul Grandholm
>> GrandPower Components Div.
>> C&H Technology
>> ISO9001 Certified
>> ========================
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