Many of us saw the remarkable film clip of a man trying to kill an attorney in front of the Van Nuys, CA courthouse. William Strier, a disgruntled and mentally ill man, shot Gerry Curry, counsel for a trustee of Strier’s special needs trust fund. Strier empties what appears to be a .38 Special snub nose toward Curry who tries to shield himself behind a small tree. Curry was hit several times in the upper torso and face but managed to walk away from the encounter to later collapse across the street.
For more details and the video clip, you can go to: http://www.courttv.com/trials/blake/103103_ap.html
I will forgo any cheap-shot lawyer humor here because I see no humor in citizens being terrorized by maniacs with guns. This kind of behavior is reprehensible and dishonorable. High profile gun crime like this makes life more difficult for responsible gun owners. I do think some important insights about surviving violent encounters may be drawn from this incident.
Curry, the victim, does one thing right and several things wrong. What he does right is to move away from the attacker and he tries to get behind the cover of a small tree. This move many have saved him from taking a center-of-mass hit which could have been fatal. What he does wrong is that the cover he chooses is inadequate and he stops moving, and thereby allows Strier to get close and land some hits. Fortunately, none of them turned out to be lethal. Had Curry just run away, the odds are good that he would not have been hit at all. Also, Curry is woefully unprepared, mentally and physically, to deal with this attack. Had Curry been armed, he could have defended himself from this attack. Had Strier thought that Curry might have been armed, there is a good chance that he would not have launched the attack in the first place. This, to my mind, is the most powerful argument for shall issue concealed carry: not that citizens can carry out gun battles in the streets (and they haven’t in any of the 36 shall issue states), but that the possibility that citizens may be armed creates a powerful disincentive for potential evil doers.
Another striking feature of this film clip is how little the multiple hits from the .38 seem to affect Curry. I’m assuming that the gun was a .38 since that is the most common chambering for snub-nosed revolvers. The muzzle flash also looks like a .38. It has much more flash than a .22. It appears that one bullet hit Curry squarely in the center of his forehead but did not penetrate into his skull. The wound to the forehead appears to be too large for a .22 based on photographs I have seen. The apparent lack of effect of this handgun stands in stark contrast to the Hollywood mythology which holds that handgun bullets strike like rocket propelled grenades and throw the victim back 50 feet on impact. Curry flinches when he is hit, but that’s about all. Minor caliber handguns may be lethal with perfect bullet placement, but they are seldom fight stoppers, and they require expert skill and tremendous luck to employ effectively. They are marginal as defensive weapons.
Summary of learnings:
1. When going to a gunfight, take a gun.
2. Take enough gun to do the job.
3. A pistol is a tool used to fight your way back to your rifle/shotgun. (Clint Smith)
4. Movement, distance and cover are your friends.
5. Mental preparation and tactical awareness can save your life.
