Complete story on link at bottom.
Woman changes stance on guns after robbery
News-Journal wire services
JACKSONVILLE - 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, 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.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/2000/Jul/24/FLA7.htm
[This message has been edited by DannyO (edited July 25, 2000).]
Woman changes stance on guns after robbery
News-Journal wire services
JACKSONVILLE - 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, 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.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/2000/Jul/24/FLA7.htm
[This message has been edited by DannyO (edited July 25, 2000).]