A month ago, Atlanta lawyer Tex McIver shot and killed his wife as they rode home in an SUV.
The apparent accident raised an age-old question: Do more guns make us safer? Or do they just let us do more stupid stuff that we can't take back?
The FBI counted 258 justifiable fatal shootings of felons by private citizens in 2012. By comparison, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there were 505 unintentional fatal shootings in the U.S. in 2013. Gun enthusiasts will argue only a fraction of defensive uses end up in deaths or even police reports because the mere sight of a gun often rectifies a dangerous situation.
Regardless, I wanted to gauge the situation and found a nifty database called the Gun Violence Archive that tracks American gun play.
Since the last weekend of September, when Mrs. McIver was killed, there have been six accidental shootings in Georgia, leaving five dead. There have also been eight "defensive uses," leaving two dead.
First the accidental: Two cases involved people playing with stolen guns. Except for Mrs. McIver, all were teens or younger. One was a year-old boy shot in Henry County. Authorities still don't know who pulled the trigger — the toddler or his 3-year-old brother. No charges have been filed in that case.
But when it comes to armed defense, the Wild West has got nothing on GA.
The folks at Gun Violence Archive give broad latitude when it comes to “defense.” But that’s OK, so does Georgia.
Of the eight such cases:
» Two were burglars shot by people in their homes.
» Another was shot outside by a homeowner returning home for lunch.
» One was a sketchy Cobb County case with a fight and drugs and parties on both sides arrested.
» Two were domestic cases. In one, an old boyfriend was shot by a new boyfriend. In the other, the new boyfriend ended up dead, with the old boyfriend held on murder charges.
» One was a man shooting it out with a robber, only to get gunned down by an off-duty Atlanta cop thinking he was the bad guy with a gun.
» And there was a deadly road rage incident in Macon with both drivers packing.
“It’s insane,” said a witness to the latter case, with classic understatement.
On Oct. 11, Randy Epps, 58, driving in his Honda, was tailgating William Hollingsworth, 22. The younger man must have really angered the older fellow because Epps pulled over, got a gun from his trunk and caught up with Hollingsworth a couple of lights later.
Epps, a grandfather and quiet family man, then made a classic mistake — he brandished his weapon. Some 10 shots later, he was dead.
They say don’t pull a gun unless you aim to use it. Mr. Epps, who in death was still gripping his pistol, is proof of that adage. Prosecutors are reviewing the shooting.
Hollingsworth also made news earlier this year. In March, cops detained him and two relatives for allegedly displaying their weapons at the popular International Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon. The park had failed to post signs telling festival-goers, “Keep Your Piece Outside,” so the Hollingsworths were released.
During the same weekend that Mrs. McIver was shot, Pedro Maldonado, a 41-year-old father of four, was standing with a friend outside a northwest Atlanta apartment one night when they were robbed by a third man.
He gave chase. But let’s have bearingarms.com describe it: “Start with an armed robber. Throw in an overzealous armed victim, some gunfire, and an off-duty cop jumping to conclusions. It’s a recipe for a nightmare one family is experiencing.”
The robber, who got away, fired twice and Maldonado shot a few times. The off-duty cop, who was passing by, spotted the armed robbery victim and shot him six times, according to a family blog post. Maldonado became a victim in the fog of war on the streets of Atlanta.
The GBI is investigating. The officer’s name has not been released.
And then there’s Jamison Jordan, a 30-something tech guy from east Atlanta who had been burglarized twice in two weeks when late on Oct. 3, he heard a noise and then a window break.
Jordan, already unnerved by the earlier break-ins, grabbed his shotgun and stood poised. Then he spotted Spencer Bohannon wearing one of his shirts. (Yes, Bohannon wore a shirt of Jordan’s taken from an earlier burglary! You can’t make this up.)
Jordan had a derringer stolen in an earlier burglary and he’s thinking, “I don’t want to get shot with my own gun.”
He fired and the man ran to the back room. Jordan fired again and the man jumped out the window. Out in the yard, Jordan ordered the man, “Don’t move!”
“I can’t move,” the man responded. “I’m dead.”
Jordan told the 911 dispatcher to ask arriving cops not to shoot him. He hadn’t heard about Maldonado but he’s obviously situationally aware.
Later, the gravity of it all sank in as paramedics carried away the wounded man.
“Then it hit me. I shot someone.”
A feeling of despair sank in until a kindly police captain pulled Jordan aside and told him he’d done what he had to do.
“It was like Mr. Rogers came up to me with a soothing voice,” he said.
Since then Jordan is OK, although he remains wary.
“I feel like a true Atlantan now,” he said.
I guess he earned it. Trial by fire.
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