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GUN FOR YOU? Bob
Connaughy's Story I got out my .45 and went to the hallway. It seemed like less than a minute after the doorbell rang, suddenly I heard something hit one of the windows at the rear of the house. Then, a couple more hits and I could hear the window break. I'm here to tell you, my nerves were peaked. I had never planned out in my mind having to take a crook down inside my own home. On duty, I'd done it many times and, like any cop, had planned it all in my mind. Having done that for work made the initial difference for me at home. It helped me concentrate. A hand reached through the broken window, opened it, and a man climbed in. The guy went directly to our sliding glass door and let his partner in. It was unbelievable how fast they were getting in. My thinking time was over. I made my move. I stepped around the corner in the hallway, pointed my weapon at them, and shouted, "On the ground!" The one who had come through the window hit the floor like a pancake. The second intruder ducked back out the sliding glass door and was gone. The one on the floor had a twelve-inch screwdriver in his hand. Twelve inches of stabbing tool—I've seen the damage they do. "Drop the screwdriver!" I shouted. I crouched and inched toward him. He was still "proned out." I grabbed the screwdriver shaft in my left hand. I didn't want to shoot him. Through the whole thing, I didn't want to shoot him. This was a lesson I'll never forget: hesitation. I'll never repeat that mistake. He had a death grip on his screwdriver. I let go and stepped back. Again I ordered him, "Drop it!" He said, "I'm nervous. I can't." I said, "I'm a cop, drop it or I'll shoot." "I have three friends outside," he said. Then, he slowly got up into a crouch. He was damned experienced. He sensed my reluctance to shoot him. I backed up several feet. What am I going to do? Should I shoot him? All that was racing through me. At this point, I had backed up maybe eight feet into the corner, still telling him, "Drop it or I'll shoot." Then, he made his move. He growled and lunged at me. I blocked his first attempt to stab me. We were inches apart. He was on me. I still didn't want to shoot him. I moved my gun back and close to my body, trying to keep it out of his reach—training instincts were taking over. Then, he brought his arm back to stab again. It raced through me—you've had one try at me; you don't get two. I fired. Damn, nothing happened. I had the gun into his stomach point-blank when I pulled the trigger. Nothing. He didn't go down. I fired again. This time he went down hard. I backed up and turned to the sliding glass door. I was still worried about his buddies. When I turned, he jumped up, threw open the front door, and ran out right through the screen door. I took off after him, but then turned back to call 911. Later that day units found him at the hospital with one .45 wound in his belly. My first shot had hit his belt buckle and ricocheted off. My second shot entered next to his belly button, went all the way through and out his butt. And he still took off like a rabbit. Looking back, I gave him the advantage and an opportunity to take me out. He tried twice. That morning changed me. Never again will I hesitate. I also feel more for citizens now. It was a close call. If I had not been trained to handle an attack, I think he would have taken me out. Even with my training, I was still nervous and tense as hell. Most citizens would have bought it. I had a plan, but it was flawed. I hadn't worked out in my mind how I would handle something like this in my OWN HOME. I knew what I wanted to do, but I hadn't decided what I wouldn't do and wouldn't let happen. I had not told myself, don't get close to him, don't let him back you up, don't give him the time he needs to get to you. I had not made the decision about when I would shoot in my own home. My strategy is different now, I've got a new plan. Beginning with, "I won't make it so easy to kill me. If there is a next time in my home, when I say drop the weapon, it better happen fast." In those final seconds, with him inches away from me and on the attack, that's when I was no longer thinking; the academy trainers were right. There's no thinking and no planning—you fall back on training. What
Bob Did Wrong What
Bob Did Right
For
the Record The intruder got five years. Note: In any violent attack, but especially in a home, if you're both armed, the one who waits too long probably doesn't get a round off or does it with a bullet already in him. I've never been around a police officer or citizen who, after using a gun against an intruder, didn't say, "It was the worst experience and closest call of my life." What if the same attack happens to you? Escape! Get out! Your job is to protect your family, not society. You're not trained or paid to risk bringing in crooks. If escape is not possible, that's different. Having a loaded gun at home has saved many lives but, unfortunately, cost many, too. Citizens who are armed but not safe and also effective are the first part of the problem. The second part of the problem are the so-called "home-defense strategies" being promoted. Some so-called professionals advise people on how to arm themselves and clear their home of intruders. I've never met a sane professional who would advise anyone to clear his home of intruders. It's what we in law enforcement used to call the "cowboy" approach, used to describe someone who is kind of riding in half-saddled, shooting from the hip. This is a typical example of cowboy advice I read in a magazine: "Be careful not to expose yourself to areas that have not been cleared. Instead, let the muzzle of your gun precede you into the danger area." The illustration depicts a man clearing a bedroom and then a closet. The author remarks, "Safety resides at the end of your muzzle." That's like hoping the gun has eyes that can see if there's anything in the closet. It's too dangerous to deal with a possible intruder like this, and it's a good way to have your gun taken away from you. The writer goes on to say, "The most important thing is being prepared to shoot all the time." What I see building here is tragedy—the potential of accidentally shooting the wrong person. I remember a case involving a father and a .357 magnum. He had established safety rules for his family. He told his family that if he screamed, "Intruder!" they were to hide so they wouldn't distract him. He should have said, "Escape!" He also did something excellent that few gun owners do: he never left the gun loaded in the house when he wasn't home, but unfortunately, it wasn't enough. One early morning, his four-year-old son woke up and went to the bathroom. Another rule in this family was that the children had to knock first and announce themselves before entering their parents' bedroom. The father had heard some noise down the hall, and when he heard the doorknob to his bedroom being fiddled with, he grabbed his gun and aimed at the door. The father said, "I aimed low so I wouldn't kill the man." Unfortunately, his low shot put a bullet through his son's upper chest and neck. His son died. This man was awakened from a deep sleep, was disoriented, slow to react, thickheaded. Not the best time to grab a loaded gun and aim it at the door thinking, "I'll blow away anyone who comes through it." Clearing a house of intruders is fraught with problems and danger. Problems such as, "Do I turn on the lights, ruin my night vision, maybe expose myself, and shoot into the dark when something moves? Or do I yell, 'I have a gun,' hoping to scare off the intruder? Or is yelling letting him know where I am so he can shoot at me? Which room do I check first, and how do I check it?" When a homeowner hears an unidentified noise in his home that gut fear tells him might be an intruder, it's foolish for him to search his home trying to find the noise. I've never known of any sane police officer trying to clear a house or building of possible burglars or intruders by himself. It doesn't matter how well you know your home. It doesn't work in real life the way it looks on paper and in pictures. Every house or business I've ever cleared, I cleared in the company of other cops. Family survival planning should concentrate on escape, never on seeking out and outgunning intruders. I am not against guns or gun ownership. Far from it. To me the Second Amendment, like the "First" is very clear. I am against using loaded home guns as the ONLY MEANS OF FAMILY PROTECTION against intruders. Instead view your firearm as insurance that no man blocks you or your family from escape. Another tragic consequence of untrained gun owners at home is that criminals often seize the weapons and use them against the homeowner. It happens to cops, whose greatest fear is that in a scuffle their gun might be taken away and used against them. Cops receive training to keep this from happening; they think about it, practice against it, and plan against it. Yet officers are still disarmed and killed or wounded. It almost happened to me twice, and I assure you, it happens to citizens. Gary Kleck, a professor at Florida State University, wrote Point-Blank in 1991. His groundbreaking research has startled many on both sides of the gun debate: "In one year alone, 1980, between 1,527 and 2,819 criminals were killed by citizens in their personal defense... while between 1967 and 1984, only twenty murderers were executed after conviction for killing citizens. . . Violence-prone intruders realize that death is more likely to come from armed homeowners than the criminal justice system." Sociologists James Wright and Peter Rossi, both regularly quoted in criminal-violence research programs, report, "Three-fifths of all felons interviewed said they are more worried over running into armed citizens than running into the police." The Department of Justice Uniform Crime Reports and National Crime Victimization survey show that "guns are used about as often for defensive purposes as criminal purposes." According to Professor Kleck, there were "691,000 defensive gun uses in America between 1985 and 1990."
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March
26, 1985, 9:30 A.M. My wife was at work and I was the only one at
home when I heard the doorbell ring. I got dressed and walked to
the kitchen window and saw a car parked across the street with two
men standing next to it, glancing about. Then they started walking
toward my house. It didn't take me long to add two and two: someone
was going to be burglarized—me
or a neighbor. I immediately called my substation and told the operator,
"I need patrol units fast."