Gun ramblings - DON'T READ IF NOT INTERESTED

[allthumbs]

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.

 

[erik]

trask

 

curry was not going to a gun fight tho.....he was going to work...so why should he have a gun?

 

and i would still like to see the average citizen actually respond to a sitaution how the gun industry sez a carrying member of society...would...all i can see is more wounded people then just the two that are involved.

 

 

[HRoark]

Thanks for those reminders. No sense looking for a fight, but there's no sense in being unprepared either.

[allthumbs]

If someone draws a gun on me, I'm going to do my best to run away, even though I'm armed.

[Fejas]

My saturday night special is with me at all times, well most of all time... It's little, but that is because I don't want anyone to know I have it... don't want to scare the libral hippies down here in eugene...

[Scott_J]

Knives and guns are stronger than flesh, I'll run too.

[Billygoat]

Trask, what you say has merit on a certain level, or from a certain perspective. I just find it depressing that we as a species can envision a life that is not a constant warzone requiring the tactics you offer, but cannot realize it yet. Our country is certainly doing its part to keep things competitive in a deadly way. I see too much crass individualism, brutal social darwinism, and rampant materialism and greed for my liking.

 

My cousin was shot from behind, at the age of 32, by some punks out on a killing spree, for fun. They killed five people that night. I believe that if they didn't have those guns it would not have happened. I also wonder why stuff like that happens more often here than in a country like Canada that also has a lot of guns. The most obvious answer must be that we are a bellicose nation. What good is it really doing us?

[RobBob]

Not sure I believe you there trask. I made a decision about 8 years ago, after getting a concealed-carry permit, not to arm myself with a handgun. The reason? Self-knowledge. I'm a lover not a fighter, until somebody really threatens me...then I tend to get violent. I just decided that odds were I had more to lose carrying a handgun than not carrying one. I might kill or maim some worthless piece of shit, then get sued. So I don't buy the story that you'd turn and run if armed.

[Bronco]

I'd also have to comment on the common misperception that all ammunition is created equally. I was curious about this so I took your typical Naval Orange out to a clear cut and shot it up (8 rounds) with standard 9mm ball (target) type ammo. It left 1/4 inch holes going completly through and was not impressive. One Hydroshock later, the biggest piece of orange I could find was a piece of the peel about the size of a fifty-cent piece. Hydroshock is a "personel defense" round designed for making big holes in soft squishy things like Oranges or human bodies.

 

The lawyer was pretty lucky, a lot of people have been mortally wounded with less than a .38. I seriously doubt he took a bullet to the forehead at point blank range, more likely he was grazed while juking back and forth or hit by a piece of flying bark from the tree.

[catbirdseat]

I recall a Richard Pryor bit that went something like this, "If someone pulls a knife on you, you better RUN. If someone pulls a gun on you, you better RUN. You better hope your lady can run too."

[Al_Pine]

Yeah, like what do you do if you got little tykes with you? You can't run then.

 

And whatta you do if thug has a whole fucking army and is dropping fucking bombs on your house, and not even your own police can do shit because they're already dead? Or what if some fuckers come and just knock down the walls of your house right onto your sleeping kids? Whatta you do then?

 

Do you get guns and make bombs out of anything you can, and fight?

[snoboy]

OK, I won't read it then.

 

[scrambler]

There doesn't seem to be any absolute right or wrong regarding many situations we face today. Each decision will carry with it the seeds of both.

 

I happen to believe in the deterrent effect of being armed especially as it pertains to residential protection. The graphic power of a displayed weapon is sometimes enough to stop assailants. Unfortunately, this same display tends to strike fear in just about anyone because most reasonable people recognize the lethal aspect of that weapon.

 

It is a conundrum but I believe that prohibition will cause more problems than provide a solution. I do believe, however, that crime should be dealt with in a multi-pronged approach as opposed to the simple solution of expanding police powers.

 

Your most important weapon is your mind, whether you are in the mountains, the street, or at home.

Edited December 11, 2003 by scrambler