[Rhodes22-list] Prosecuted homeowner blasts officials

[Steve Alm]

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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