Jesu, what IS the matter with these people?
The twit's email address is at the end of this piece of tripe.
Handguns still hurt more than they help
The drunk, butt-naked dead man we'll leave for later. But yes, handgun people, I am holding up my end of the bargain.
It has taken awhile. The story you insist happens every day in metro Denver finally made the newspaper. For four years I have been waiting. And waiting some more. It ran Saturday.
And good for that 63-year-old Colorado Springs man. He must be one tough gentleman. You have to like the grit of anyone willing to take on three baddies who forced their way into his home in the dead of night, who blasted them when they started getting the best of him.
He killed one of the intruders, a man they later found dead on a neighbor's lawn. Two other men the police collared when they sought treatment for their wounds at a nearby hospital. Yes, yes, yes. A man's castle — and all of that.
It does not, however, change one iota my abhorrence of handguns. What Carter Westfall did last week was, in my mind, so extraordinary it barely counts.
True, Carter Westfall today might likely be dead were it not for the .32-caliber automatic he had in his hand when the men began banging on his door shortly before 1 a.m.
Only a man with such a weapon in his hand unlocks the deadbolt when he hears the banging. Only when they busted the chain lock and shoved their way inside, knocking Carter Westfall to the floor, did he start firing. Those men got exactly what was coming to them.
Yet while one man's life was spared by his owning a handgun in his house, scores of others lose their lives at the business-end of the same abominable weapon — "tool," in the parlance of the handgun fanatics.
Let us check the ledger. What of the 15-year-old Denver boy charged last week with killing a 64-year-old church deacon during an argument in the street?
And then there were the two New Orleans teen-age boys, who on Tuesday shot and wounded each other during a fight at their middle school. Yes, boys using a gun someone passed one of them through a fence, to settle what used to be settled with shoving, maybe fists.
Everyone now is pointing to Westfall as proof we should all just leave handguns and their owners alone. They do this as scores of others in their communities drop, bleed and die.
I'll share the story of Craig Holtzman, the drunk, naked dead man. He was killed just days later in Norristown, Pa.
He'd been out drinking Tuesday night. He took his clothes off to go to sleep. Later, for reasons known only to him, he walked into his backyard to relieve himself.
The naked man, though, ended up walking through the sliding glass doors of his neighbor's home, thinking it was his.
The neighbor, no doubt fearful like Carter Westfall, grabbed his gun. He chased the drunken naked man from his home, firing and missing.
Paul J. Bellina — and this is where the problem started — then reportedly chased his neighbor into the backyard. He fired three more times, all three shots hitting his drunken naked neighbor in the head, killing him.
"The presumption you are in danger ends when the threat leaves your home," the DA in the case said. Bellina now is charged with voluntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment. He could get 20 years.
So go ahead, cheer Carter Westfall. I'll mourn the drunken, naked dead man and the others.
Bill Johnson's column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Rockybj@aol.com or (303) 892-2763.
© Copyright, Denver Publishing Co.
The twit's email address is at the end of this piece of tripe.
Handguns still hurt more than they help
The drunk, butt-naked dead man we'll leave for later. But yes, handgun people, I am holding up my end of the bargain.
It has taken awhile. The story you insist happens every day in metro Denver finally made the newspaper. For four years I have been waiting. And waiting some more. It ran Saturday.
And good for that 63-year-old Colorado Springs man. He must be one tough gentleman. You have to like the grit of anyone willing to take on three baddies who forced their way into his home in the dead of night, who blasted them when they started getting the best of him.
He killed one of the intruders, a man they later found dead on a neighbor's lawn. Two other men the police collared when they sought treatment for their wounds at a nearby hospital. Yes, yes, yes. A man's castle — and all of that.
It does not, however, change one iota my abhorrence of handguns. What Carter Westfall did last week was, in my mind, so extraordinary it barely counts.
True, Carter Westfall today might likely be dead were it not for the .32-caliber automatic he had in his hand when the men began banging on his door shortly before 1 a.m.
Only a man with such a weapon in his hand unlocks the deadbolt when he hears the banging. Only when they busted the chain lock and shoved their way inside, knocking Carter Westfall to the floor, did he start firing. Those men got exactly what was coming to them.
Yet while one man's life was spared by his owning a handgun in his house, scores of others lose their lives at the business-end of the same abominable weapon — "tool," in the parlance of the handgun fanatics.
Let us check the ledger. What of the 15-year-old Denver boy charged last week with killing a 64-year-old church deacon during an argument in the street?
And then there were the two New Orleans teen-age boys, who on Tuesday shot and wounded each other during a fight at their middle school. Yes, boys using a gun someone passed one of them through a fence, to settle what used to be settled with shoving, maybe fists.
Everyone now is pointing to Westfall as proof we should all just leave handguns and their owners alone. They do this as scores of others in their communities drop, bleed and die.
I'll share the story of Craig Holtzman, the drunk, naked dead man. He was killed just days later in Norristown, Pa.
He'd been out drinking Tuesday night. He took his clothes off to go to sleep. Later, for reasons known only to him, he walked into his backyard to relieve himself.
The naked man, though, ended up walking through the sliding glass doors of his neighbor's home, thinking it was his.
The neighbor, no doubt fearful like Carter Westfall, grabbed his gun. He chased the drunken naked man from his home, firing and missing.
Paul J. Bellina — and this is where the problem started — then reportedly chased his neighbor into the backyard. He fired three more times, all three shots hitting his drunken naked neighbor in the head, killing him.
"The presumption you are in danger ends when the threat leaves your home," the DA in the case said. Bellina now is charged with voluntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment. He could get 20 years.
So go ahead, cheer Carter Westfall. I'll mourn the drunken, naked dead man and the others.
Bill Johnson's column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Rockybj@aol.com or (303) 892-2763.
© Copyright, Denver Publishing Co.
