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.
Brian Freskos: 343-2327
On Twitter: @BrianFreskos
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.
Ya guns have such a bad reputation nowadays its hard for them to find mates so they remain single. lol
44mm pistol? Wow!!! That’d be like a 1.73 cal. bullet!
That’s bigger than a 40mm grenade launcher on an M-203!
Who makes that?
I know the Ruskies during WW2 had the 45mm M1937 anti-tank gun. I wonder if they ever converted one into a pistol?
LOL!
It's not just journalists. A guy I work with was on trial for a weapons charge several years ago and the Federal Prosecutor for the BATF actually tried to load a 30mm round into a 30 cal rifle in the courtroom. The judge finally stopped him and told him that it seems that the only firearms expert in the room was the guy on trial.
The gun fires once - all by itself. It’s a wonder somebody wasn’t killed. :0
It would have to be. An automatic pistol? Not sensible as a toll for a stick up.
That’s right. It’d be two if dey has two in hand. And automatics are illegal aren’t they. Ohhhhh dey ment auto-loader pistol.
Sick of this too— can’t report properly what you don’t understand to begin with.
Location: Town 'n Country, Florida
The night of the shooting, 18-year-old Mustelier had walked to the Beverage King beer store on Waters Avenue with a 16-year-old friend. No one under the age of 21 is allowed to consume or possess alcohol in the state of Florida. On their way, they passed Baker. Mustelier told the friend he planned to rob Baker, according to the Sheriff's Office report.
After going to the store, they passed Baker again, and Mustelier said, "I'm gonna knock him out," according to the report.
That's when Mustelier lunged at Baker, swinging his fists, the report states.
The 16-year-old told detectives that Baker responded, "You wanna play games? You wanna play games?"
The unidentified 16-year-old's mother said he has faced retaliation because he ran and because he spoke to detectives.
Friends of Mustelier say the story the jogger is providing is out of character for their friend.
"He's not like that. It's not like him. It sucks we're down a friend because someone decided to pull a gun on a teenager who had his whole life to live," Miguel Felipe said. Felipe says he grew up with Mustelier.
He says the Mustelier was planning on going to school to get his CNA (certified nursing assistant).
Felipe says he doesn't know who the 16-year-old is, but says he knows Mustelier was walking to a friends house and the teenager was walking with him to the house.
"He wasn't looking for trouble," said Felipe.
"Sheriff David Gee has made gangs a focus of his first term, forming the gang task force soon after he took office in January 2005.
In September, he stood in Town 'N Country's Jackson Springs Park and announced that a six-month push by the task force resulted in the arrests of more than 100 gang members and associates on charges including attempted murder, robbery, home invasion, drug trafficking and assault.
Friday, Gee said his agency will continue to put pressure on the county's three dozen or so gangs. The push is imperative for public safety, Gee said, because gang members aren't just mischievous teenagers hanging out together and vandalizing property.
"Gang members call it the thug life, and they really aspire to that," Gee said. "With gangs, the activity is more organized, it's violent. The graffiti you see is a sign of their territory, but it's not as much about property crimes as it is hurting people.
Absolutely. That clerk should be dead right now; he’s extremely lucky.
Thanks for the rest of the story.
You are absolutely right. I am 67 years old and consider myself in good condition for my age but traded fist fighting for gun fighting many years ago. If some 18 year old punk attempts to put a fist in my face he will be met with a SIG 229 in 40. An older person can easily prove serious injury or bodily harm from a young punk and justify the use of deadly force.
A rich, autoloader who’s playing the field?
“Insanity” should be used to describe the attacker, not the one who defended himself/herself against the insanity.
> Our so called ‘professional media’ are idiots when it comes to guns. I still want one of those 44mm pistols I read about.
>> LOL! As I recall, the pistol in question was actually a .44 cal.
>> Idiot journalist didn’t know the difference between calibre and mm.
Back during the Koresh siege, then Cong. Schumer intentionally pulled the same thing on NRA’s Waye LaPierre.
They were on some TV talk show with Bob Schieffer talking about the firearms in the compound. Schumer holds up two cartridges: a 50 cal and a 9MM and says (paraphrsed) “Koresh has THIS (50 cal) 50MM while the police have this 9MM.” LaPierre says nothing. I about threw my cup at the TV in disgust. Here was a great chance for LaPierre to point out Shumer’s trick by saying something like “This man does not know the difference between the metric and decimal system who is writing gun laws. He is either ignorant or lying, and in either case should not be in office”
Some time later I happened to catch a TV news segment where Shumer was in the hallway and some other pol comes up to him and says “Good job on Schieffer’s show” and the puke just gave that slimy smile you always see him with.
I wrote the NRA taking LaPierre to task over the lost opportunity. Never got a reply.
< sarc >Is that a new firearms technology? < /sarc >
IIRC, naval anti-aircraft guns from WWII came in 40mm.
No, the author is clueless, and should take two day firearms instrruction class before writing columns involving firearms.
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