Shoot - No Shoot, News article

F

fuente2

Inactive
IMHO this guy exhibited restraint I don't posess and left a predator on the loose and the next victim may not be so lucky.
http://www.startelegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:ARL53/1:ARL530518100.html

Arlington man, 68, with permit uses his gun to thwart robber
By Anthony Spangler
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
ARLINGTON-An armed robber thought Jappy J. Dickson would be easy prey.
The 68-year-old Arlington man had just left his car in the parking lot of Harrigan's restaurant, at 944 E. Copeland Road, about 4:25 p.m. Sunday when a man wielding a handgun approached and demanded money.
"When I opened the door, he was standing there with a
semiautomatic pistol wrapped in a towel, with the barrel exposed,"
Dickson said. "He said, 'Give me all your money or I'll blow your
head off.' "
Dickson, who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, said he told the robber "sure" and then reached into his car for his .38-caliber revolver, wedged next to the driver's seat.
"I took it out of the holster and leveled it at his chest, and I asked him, 'Are you sure you want to go through with this?' " he said. "He took off running."
Dickson, a retired auto salesman and a veteran of the Korean War, said he has had a permit to carry a handgun since 1996. He said he always carries his .38-caliber handgun.
"That was my first experience of having to use it," he said. "It worked out real well. But if he hadn't run off, I probably would have shot him. It wouldn't have been a very good Mother's Day present for his mom had I shot him."
Dickson acted within his rights, police said.
"He had a right to have the weapon, and he had a right to defend himself," said Arlington police Sgt. Mike Simonds, a supervisor in the crimes against persons unit. "It would be no different if someone broke into your house and you defended yourself with a gun."
Simonds said Sunday's foiled robbery was the only incident he can recall in which someone with a concealed handgun was able to ward off a robber. The robber fled in a car and remains at large.
"I've always felt good about that law and I still do," Dickson said. "If the question was whether to shoot, I didn't want to shoot him. I would have killed him, because I was aiming at his chest. We're both OK, so I guess it worked out."
Anthony Spangler, (817) 548-5412
 
Another to add to Lott's 98% statistic.

How many of you, really, would have pulled the trigger in this instance? Legally you would have had every right...

CMOS

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NRA? Good. Now joing the GOA!
 
"It worked out real well. But if he hadn't run off, I probably would have shot him. It wouldn't have been a very good Mother's
Day present for his mom had I shot him."


BWWWAAAAAHHHHH HAAAA HAAA

It would have been a fine Mother's Day present. :)

on another note (and speaking of mothers day) is there any mention of any of the 150k Million Sheep Marchers getting mugged or raped while they stayed in DC?

~USP
 
Not pulling the trigger was poor tctics. There was no way to know that the robber would not fire when he saw the revolver.
 
Mr. Dickson was taking one heck of a risk to draw on a gun that was pointing at him. Shooting the BG would have been justified and probably a good idea when the situation reached that point. But he chose not to shoot unless he absolutely had to. In making this choice, he was acting according to his personal ethic. Anyway, I'd say it was his call.

[This message has been edited by jimmy (edited May 19, 2000).]
 
Great, he didn't shoot him. Now he is free to rob and kill your wife.

By the time a predator gets to you he has, on average, done this 7 times before to someone else.
 
No, Dickson didn't shoot the BG. He used the force necessary to make the BG stop his aggressive actions. Dickson said "...I didn't want to shoot him, because I would have killed him" That was his decision to make and live with, not ours. How can you guys condemn the man for not shooting?

Yeah, the BG will probably still lead a life of crime and depravity, and will probably continue to prey on sheep, but in this instance he didn't need shooting because he stopped his aggressive actions. To pull the trigger after that is murder. While I believe Hard Ball is right and Dickson did show poor tactics, Dickson did manage to de-escalate the situation in a manner that allowed him to walk away with no blood leaking out of his body, and no doubts in his head that he did the right thing.

FWIW, if I had been in Dickson's shoes, I believe I would have shot the BG. I wouldn't have waited to ask him if he was really sure he wanted to go on with this, I would have just drawn and fired.

-sarah

[This message has been edited by missmanytoes (edited May 19, 2000).]
 
While it is probably true that the BG will now proceed to prey on someone else, Mr. Dickson is not responsible for this. Mr. Dickson has the right and responsibility to use deadly force if "immediately necessary" to stop a serious crime in progress. But neither he nor any other TX concealed carry licensee has the authority to keep the BG from perpetrating crimes that haven't even occurred yet by shooting him. Sadly, maybe tragically, this means that the future victims of the BG will have to be responsible for themselves and get carry licenses of their own, or hope that the police apprehend the suspect.

Just my $0.02.



[This message has been edited by elector (edited May 19, 2000).]
 
Hard Ball makes a good point. Mr. Dickson's restraint might very well have led to his death. OTOH, if he'd gone ahead and shot the BG, the BG might still have shot him, unless the Mr. Dickson's .38 Special stopped the BG immediately. All of which is part of the problem of drawing on a gun.

For me, I guess the bottom line is that the outcome of such an encounter is never entirely predictable. The bottom line for Mr. Dickson is that he defended himself successfully, though sheer luck played a role. I hope that the rest of us, if we are ever in a similar situation, are as fortunate.



[This message has been edited by jimmy (edited May 19, 2000).]
 
Personally, I would have fired off the whole cylinder because I wouldn't have counted on the perp to cease and desist. Ruined hearing, splattered upholstery, $1.20 in ammo costs...but I think that would have been a good deed. That same predator could well have decided to stick to attacking helpless people in the future.
 
I'm with Sarah. It worked out for Mr. Dickson, thank goodness. Like Sarah, I would have pulled the trigger. Repeatedly.

Jared
 
I am glad things worked out well for the victim. But he did NOT do well. As an armed citizen, he had the right and the obligation to answer offered violence with appropriate deadly force. The arguement that his restraint was appropriate because '...some DA might make trouble for him' is just a weasel evasion of that right and responsibility.
The anti-gun conspiracy has succeeded, if it can intimidate us into such a mindset as this.
You cannot make a warrior out of a sheep merely by handing him a weapon. That will only fool the other sheep. Fortunately for Mr. Dickson, the robber was also a believer in the myth of 'gun as magic wand'.
In his situation, I would have shot the clown to doll rags.
--slabsides

[This message has been edited by slabsides (edited May 19, 2000).]
 
Mr. Dickson made his own choice, which was his right. He was very, very lucky, and I'm happy for him it turned out the way it did. I would have shot the assailant the instant my .38 was on target, and that would have been MY choice, to make.

Was I the only one who caught what that cop said?????? That this was the first time he had ever heard of a civilian using a concealed handgun to prevent a crime?????

Huh?! Where's that cop been for the past 30 years?? Oh well. J.B.
 
To shoot or not to shoot - I'll take a step back a bit. . . .

The predator had a gun drawn on him?

Drawing against a drawn gun is suicide. I think this guy was real lucky that the predator himself was not considering firing - I mean, when he saw the gun coming out, he HIMSELF was in danger (even though it was his own fault).


Just how I see it - I don't think the guy should have drawn. However, upon drawing, he then seemed to assume that his own gun would not scare the perp into firing.

I think all concerned were lucky that they BOTH had reservations about firing.


just IMHO.

Battler.
 
Second guessing a successful defensive use of a gun is something we all should probably NOT do. He was the one who was there. He walked away intact.

But i can't IMAGINE bothering to pull the gun if i wasn't ready to use it.. otherwise the other guy would VERY likely shoot.

i'm not say i couldashouldawoulda...

I'm just saying I don't understand NOT pulling the trigger in this case.
 
I would have shot. But I won't criticize those who wouldn't have. I just hope that if they are ever in a similar situation, the BG doesn't react by pulling the trigger before running.
 
Since I have not yet been in an SD situation, and was not there to see what what happened to Mr. Dickson, I will not play armchair general.

However, I'm with Hard Ball- If this were to happen to me, I would not stop to ask the robber if he was sure he wanted to do this. By the very act of pointing a gun at me he has indicated "Yes, I'm sure and will kill you if you don't comply". Acting within my own personal tactical doctrine I would have simply drawn and fired.

I do have one question, though- what in the name of Unfertilized Monkey Giblets was his gun doing "wedged next to the driver's seat"? That sounds like more bad tactics to me.

------------------
Only in America, we're slaves to be free/Only in America, we kill the unborn, to make ends meet/Only in America, sexuality is democracy/Only in America, we stamp our god "In God we trust"

What is right or wrong?
I don't know who to believe in
My soul sings a different song, in America

If it isna Scottish, it's CRAP! RKBA!
 
" The only morally appropriate conclusion to an armed robbery is a dead robber; on the ground, at the scene, at the time.
by JUan Hunt Greer ( with thanks to the inspiration of Jeff Cooper )
crankshaft
 
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