Miss Demeanors
New member
If this was already posted, sorry. I got this from WAGC.....
The Florida Times-Union
Tuesday, July 18, 2000
Have gun, will not fear it anymore
By Paul Pinkham
Times-Union staff writer
Bleeding and weakened from the bullet wound in
her chest, Susan Gonzalez
aimed her husband's .22-caliber pistol, the one
she hated, and emptied it
into one of the robbers who had burst through the
front door of her rural
Jacksonville home.
Those shots ended the life of one robber, led to
a life prison term for
another and became an epiphany for Gonzalez, a
41-year-old mother of five
who
runs a photography studio.
Gonzalez had always feared guns, never wanted a
gun and argued with her
husband, Mike, to please not keep guns in their
home.
"I hated guns, all of them," she said. "I was
that scared of them that I
didn't want them around."
That all changed that terror-filled night nearly
three years ago when Susan
Gonzalez fought for her life inside her family's
home near Jacksonville
International Airport.
She and her husband, 43, no longer argue about
guns, and she goes almost
nowhere without her holstered Taurus .38 Special.
She sits with it while
watching television and takes it outside to do
yardwork.
She joined advocacy groups such as Women Against
Gun Control and the Second
Amendment Sisters.
And she became a vocal opponent of gun control,
traveling to Washington in
May to meet with President Clinton and
counter-organizers of the Million Mom
March, which organized a huge Mother's Day rally
to support gun control
legislation. She recently taped a segment
scheduled to air on ABC-TV's 20/20
in the fall. And this month, she was filmed by a
British TV crew for a
documentary on Americans and guns.
Gonzalez's story is naturally compelling because
she was anti-gun and
because
she successfully defended herself against an
armed intruder after being shot
herself, said Janalee Tobias, founder and
president of Women Against Gun
Control.
"She actually fired a gun," Tobias said. In most
cases where potential
victims protect themselves, Tobias said, a person
is able to scare off an
intruder simply by displaying a weapon.
Gonzalez never imagined herself advocating gun
owners' rights. She still
weeps at the memory of taking a man's life.
"I live every day knowing I had to shoot that
boy," she said.
But she said she thinks it's important that
stories like hers get told.
"Two and a half years ago I felt just like all
them other women [at the
Million Mom March]," she said. "You hear about
criminals with guns, and you
hear about kids committing suicide with guns, but
you never hear about the
self-defense aspect."
'I knew I was dead'
The 42 bullet holes police counted in the
Gonzalez home the morning of Aug.
2, 1997, are stark evidence of the sheer terror
the couple endured on the
night that changed their lives.
The night seemed to be winding down as any other.
While Mike Gonzalez slept,
his wife sat on the couch watching television and
waiting for their
18-year-old son to arrive home from a friend's
house, where he had been
playing video games.
Susan Gonzalez remembers hearing the doorknob
jiggle about 12:40 a.m. She
thought to herself as she walked toward the door,
"Wow, he's early."
Suddenly the door flew open and two masked men
burst into the doublewide
wearing gloves and camouflage jackets and waving
guns. One of them ordered
Susan Gonzalez to lie down, but she ran. He
chased her back to the master
bedroom, where she woke her husband and tried to
hold the door shut. She was
shot in the chest.
"It burned like a fire going through me," she
said.
As her husband, 43, wrestled with the two robbers
in the living room, Susan
Gonzalez dialed 911, told the operator they were
being shot, gave her
address
and hung up. She then grabbed her husband's Ruger
.22 from a drawer in the
headboard and, fearing she would hit her husband
by mistake, fired several
shots over the robbers' heads to scare them off.
It didn't work.
"One came towards me firing, and I ran," she
said. "After running to my
bedroom, the intruder didn't follow me all the
way . . . because he now knew
I had a gun also."
She peered out from her bedroom doorway and saw
one of the gunmen, Raymond
Waters Jr., crouched near her refrigerator. She
crept along the wall,
sneaked
up behind him and emptied the Ruger, hitting him
twice with her seven or
eight remaining bullets. The other gunman, Robert
Walls, then shot Susan
Gonzalez, now out of ammunition, as she retreated
to the bedroom again.
"I was standing in my closet asking for
forgiveness of my sins, because I
knew I was dead," she recalled.
Reality sets in
Walls fled from the house but returned when he
found the robbers' getaway
driver had left. He put a gun to Susan Gonzalez's
head and demanded the keys
to the couple's truck. As he sped off, the truck
ran over Waters, who had
staggered outside.
Walls, 24, is serving five life prison terms for
second-degree felony
murder,
armed robbery, armed burglary and two counts of
attempted first-degree
murder. Louie T. Wright, 27, the getaway driver,
pleaded guilty to robbery
and was sentenced to five years.
Susan and Mike Gonzalez, each shot twice during
the gunbattle, were treated
at area hospitals. She required lung surgery. His
injuries were less
serious,
and he went home in three days.
Nancy Hwa, a spokeswoman for the Center to
Prevent Handgun Violence, was
reluctant to criticize Gonzalez.
"Every incident is different," she said. "In this
particular case, she
certainly was justified using whatever means
necessary to defend herself."
But the compelling story obscures the fact that
"incidences like Ms.
Gonzalez's are very rare," Hwa said, citing
statistics that show firearms
are
far less likely to be used in self-defense than
in suicides, accidental
shootings or homicides involving members of the
same household. And, she
said, the center believes having a handgun
escalates the potential for
violence.
"People have to weigh the risk of losing a TV,
jewelry or whatever vs.
losing
their life," Hwa said.
The statistics don't matter to Susan Gonzalez.
"Reality set in when I was shot," she said, "to
the point where I realized
why my husband and others had guns for
self-defense."
Living in fear
In April, Mike and Susan Gonzalez traveled to New
York to be interviewed for
a TV talk show pilot with 20/20's John Stossel.
It was the first time since
the robbery she had been without her gun for any
significant length of time,
and, as she and her husband dined at a
steakhouse, she got scared about
walking back to their hotel.
"I told my husband, 'Take one of their steak
knives,'" she said.
At home, they live behind burglar bars. The doors
and windows are always
locked. And there's the ever-present pistol.
"That's sad to have to live that way, but it's
the only way I can feel
comfortable," Susan Gonzalez said.
Her fears were only heightened when she and her
husband were crime victims
again in March. Burglars used an ax from their
shed to break down the
burglar
bars on the back door while they weren't home.
Among the items stolen -- the
Ruger .22 she used to shoot Waters.
Police are still recovering weapons taken in the
burglary -- a 9mm turned up
in Virginia last week -- but the Ruger remains
missing.
As a mother of five, all now grown, Susan
Gonzalez said she understands the
gun control lobby's concerns about children
getting access to guns. She
questions some positions taken by the National
Rifle Association. Neither
she
nor her husband are members.
"I think they're a little over-the-top, but I
think . . . they're doing it
[because] they're afraid once it starts, then
it's not going to stop," she
said, referring to legislation limiting gun
owners' rights. "They're trying
to preserve Second Amendment rights."
She said she believes in gun locks or unloading
weapons that aren't being
used. But she also believes people should have
the right to keep an unlocked
gun close by to protect themselves -- like she
did.
"I feel I have the right to self-defense," she
said, "and I feel that other
people do, too."
------------------
Sandys' Homepage
RKBA forums
We are as one as we all are the same fighting for one cause -Metallica
The Florida Times-Union
Tuesday, July 18, 2000
Have gun, will not fear it anymore
By Paul Pinkham
Times-Union staff writer
Bleeding and weakened from the bullet wound in
her chest, Susan Gonzalez
aimed her husband's .22-caliber pistol, the one
she hated, and emptied it
into one of the robbers who had burst through the
front door of her rural
Jacksonville home.
Those shots ended the life of one robber, led to
a life prison term for
another and became an epiphany for Gonzalez, a
41-year-old mother of five
who
runs a photography studio.
Gonzalez had always feared guns, never wanted a
gun and argued with her
husband, Mike, to please not keep guns in their
home.
"I hated guns, all of them," she said. "I was
that scared of them that I
didn't want them around."
That all changed that terror-filled night nearly
three years ago when Susan
Gonzalez fought for her life inside her family's
home near Jacksonville
International Airport.
She and her husband, 43, no longer argue about
guns, and she goes almost
nowhere without her holstered Taurus .38 Special.
She sits with it while
watching television and takes it outside to do
yardwork.
She joined advocacy groups such as Women Against
Gun Control and the Second
Amendment Sisters.
And she became a vocal opponent of gun control,
traveling to Washington in
May to meet with President Clinton and
counter-organizers of the Million Mom
March, which organized a huge Mother's Day rally
to support gun control
legislation. She recently taped a segment
scheduled to air on ABC-TV's 20/20
in the fall. And this month, she was filmed by a
British TV crew for a
documentary on Americans and guns.
Gonzalez's story is naturally compelling because
she was anti-gun and
because
she successfully defended herself against an
armed intruder after being shot
herself, said Janalee Tobias, founder and
president of Women Against Gun
Control.
"She actually fired a gun," Tobias said. In most
cases where potential
victims protect themselves, Tobias said, a person
is able to scare off an
intruder simply by displaying a weapon.
Gonzalez never imagined herself advocating gun
owners' rights. She still
weeps at the memory of taking a man's life.
"I live every day knowing I had to shoot that
boy," she said.
But she said she thinks it's important that
stories like hers get told.
"Two and a half years ago I felt just like all
them other women [at the
Million Mom March]," she said. "You hear about
criminals with guns, and you
hear about kids committing suicide with guns, but
you never hear about the
self-defense aspect."
'I knew I was dead'
The 42 bullet holes police counted in the
Gonzalez home the morning of Aug.
2, 1997, are stark evidence of the sheer terror
the couple endured on the
night that changed their lives.
The night seemed to be winding down as any other.
While Mike Gonzalez slept,
his wife sat on the couch watching television and
waiting for their
18-year-old son to arrive home from a friend's
house, where he had been
playing video games.
Susan Gonzalez remembers hearing the doorknob
jiggle about 12:40 a.m. She
thought to herself as she walked toward the door,
"Wow, he's early."
Suddenly the door flew open and two masked men
burst into the doublewide
wearing gloves and camouflage jackets and waving
guns. One of them ordered
Susan Gonzalez to lie down, but she ran. He
chased her back to the master
bedroom, where she woke her husband and tried to
hold the door shut. She was
shot in the chest.
"It burned like a fire going through me," she
said.
As her husband, 43, wrestled with the two robbers
in the living room, Susan
Gonzalez dialed 911, told the operator they were
being shot, gave her
address
and hung up. She then grabbed her husband's Ruger
.22 from a drawer in the
headboard and, fearing she would hit her husband
by mistake, fired several
shots over the robbers' heads to scare them off.
It didn't work.
"One came towards me firing, and I ran," she
said. "After running to my
bedroom, the intruder didn't follow me all the
way . . . because he now knew
I had a gun also."
She peered out from her bedroom doorway and saw
one of the gunmen, Raymond
Waters Jr., crouched near her refrigerator. She
crept along the wall,
sneaked
up behind him and emptied the Ruger, hitting him
twice with her seven or
eight remaining bullets. The other gunman, Robert
Walls, then shot Susan
Gonzalez, now out of ammunition, as she retreated
to the bedroom again.
"I was standing in my closet asking for
forgiveness of my sins, because I
knew I was dead," she recalled.
Reality sets in
Walls fled from the house but returned when he
found the robbers' getaway
driver had left. He put a gun to Susan Gonzalez's
head and demanded the keys
to the couple's truck. As he sped off, the truck
ran over Waters, who had
staggered outside.
Walls, 24, is serving five life prison terms for
second-degree felony
murder,
armed robbery, armed burglary and two counts of
attempted first-degree
murder. Louie T. Wright, 27, the getaway driver,
pleaded guilty to robbery
and was sentenced to five years.
Susan and Mike Gonzalez, each shot twice during
the gunbattle, were treated
at area hospitals. She required lung surgery. His
injuries were less
serious,
and he went home in three days.
Nancy Hwa, a spokeswoman for the Center to
Prevent Handgun Violence, was
reluctant to criticize Gonzalez.
"Every incident is different," she said. "In this
particular case, she
certainly was justified using whatever means
necessary to defend herself."
But the compelling story obscures the fact that
"incidences like Ms.
Gonzalez's are very rare," Hwa said, citing
statistics that show firearms
are
far less likely to be used in self-defense than
in suicides, accidental
shootings or homicides involving members of the
same household. And, she
said, the center believes having a handgun
escalates the potential for
violence.
"People have to weigh the risk of losing a TV,
jewelry or whatever vs.
losing
their life," Hwa said.
The statistics don't matter to Susan Gonzalez.
"Reality set in when I was shot," she said, "to
the point where I realized
why my husband and others had guns for
self-defense."
Living in fear
In April, Mike and Susan Gonzalez traveled to New
York to be interviewed for
a TV talk show pilot with 20/20's John Stossel.
It was the first time since
the robbery she had been without her gun for any
significant length of time,
and, as she and her husband dined at a
steakhouse, she got scared about
walking back to their hotel.
"I told my husband, 'Take one of their steak
knives,'" she said.
At home, they live behind burglar bars. The doors
and windows are always
locked. And there's the ever-present pistol.
"That's sad to have to live that way, but it's
the only way I can feel
comfortable," Susan Gonzalez said.
Her fears were only heightened when she and her
husband were crime victims
again in March. Burglars used an ax from their
shed to break down the
burglar
bars on the back door while they weren't home.
Among the items stolen -- the
Ruger .22 she used to shoot Waters.
Police are still recovering weapons taken in the
burglary -- a 9mm turned up
in Virginia last week -- but the Ruger remains
missing.
As a mother of five, all now grown, Susan
Gonzalez said she understands the
gun control lobby's concerns about children
getting access to guns. She
questions some positions taken by the National
Rifle Association. Neither
she
nor her husband are members.
"I think they're a little over-the-top, but I
think . . . they're doing it
[because] they're afraid once it starts, then
it's not going to stop," she
said, referring to legislation limiting gun
owners' rights. "They're trying
to preserve Second Amendment rights."
She said she believes in gun locks or unloading
weapons that aren't being
used. But she also believes people should have
the right to keep an unlocked
gun close by to protect themselves -- like she
did.
"I feel I have the right to self-defense," she
said, "and I feel that other
people do, too."
------------------
Sandys' Homepage
RKBA forums
We are as one as we all are the same fighting for one cause -Metallica
