Special to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise
Note: Feedback works. Since I published a version of this on
NewsVine, an on-line "news" site owned by MSN, the phrase
"Trigger-happy" has beed edited OUT of the story.
I'm pissed. I read this headline today on MSN, and I thought "The poor
lady must have been chasing a drunk in the wrong house, winging rounds
all over the place, for THAT headline!"
Trigger-happy Atlanta mom shoots intruder in the face 5 times
So I clicked on it to find out the scoop. Here's THEIR story.
An Atlanta mom took matters into her own trigger-happy hands on Friday
when confronting an intruder. The unidentified woman hid with her
9-year-old twins in a crawlspace as a man broke into her house and
began rummaging through it. The alleged burglar, Paul Ali Slater,
eventually found the family's hiding space, but not before finding
himself staring down the barrel of a .38 revolver. The woman fired six
shots, five of which hit Slater in the face and neck, but he managed
to flee after the family ran to a neighbor's house. Slater is expected
to survive. This story, shared thousands of times from the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution website, has incited some pro-gun tweeps to voice
their delight; @Jennecar writes of the story, "why we need guns in our
homes!" And @kjclt1 writes, "bet this Atlanta area mother of 2 is glad
she had her gun."
Source
Now, I never held the Atlanta Journal Constitution very highly in the
past, so I figured MSN just cut and pasted their (the AJC) opening
paragraph. But, to give the devil his due, I clicked the link and read
the REAL story from the AJC.
Cops: Mother of two surprises intruder with five gunshots
By Christian Boone The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Loganville mother of two assumed the knocks on her front door
Friday afternoon were from a solicitor.
"Don't answer," she yelled to her 9-year-old twins playing downstairs.
When the visitor began repeatedly ringing the doorbell, she called her
husband at work.
"Get the kids and hide," he told his wife.
As he dialed 911, his 37-year-old spouse, who works from home,
collected the children and hid with them in a crawlspace adjoining her
office. By that time, the intruder had forced his way into the
three-story residence on Henderson Ridge Drive with a crowbar,
authorities said. He allegedly rummaged through the home, eventually
working his way up to the attic office.
"He opens the closet door and finds himself staring down the barrel of
a .38 revolver," said Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman, who relayed
the woman's narrative to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He asked
that her name be withheld.
The woman fired six bullets, five of which hit Paul Ali Slater in the
face and neck area, Chapman said. But Slater was still conscious.
"The guy's face down, crying," the sheriff said. The woman told him to
stay down or she'd shoot again.
Slater, unaware that she had emptied her chamber, obliged as the
mother and her children ran to a neighbor's house.
The injured burglar eventually made it out of the home and into his
car, driving away before deputies arrived on the scene. He didn't get
far.
"When you got five bullets in you, it makes you kind of disoriented,"
Chapman told the AJC.
Deputies found Slater bleeding profusely in a neighbor's driveway.
"I'm dying. Help me," he told them, according to Chapman.
Slater was transported to Gwinnett Medical Center and is expected to
survive, the sheriff said.
The Long Island native, who now lives in Gwinnett County, was released
from the Gwinnett jail in late August after serving six months for
simple battery and three counts of probation violation. Slater has six
other arrests in Gwinnett dating back to 2008, according to jail
records.
"My wife's a hero," the woman's husband, Donnie Herman, told Channel 2
Action News in a brief statement. He did not respond to a request for
comment from the AJC. "She protected her kids. She did what she was
supposed to do."
Chapman remarked that one of his deputies, impressed with the woman's
resolve, told the sheriff she had handled her first shooting better
than he had.
"That mother's instinct kicked in," Chapman said. "You go after a
mother's kids and she'll find herself capable of doing things she
never thought she was capable of."
A FAR FAR cry from a trigger happy woman, don't you think? She hides
herself and her kids from a crowbar-wielding intruder, and when found
shoots in self defense. Once the intruder is neutralized, she flees
the scene and her family is safe.
I am SO damn sick and tired of deliberately slanted stories designed
to make self defense with a gun the sign of a dangerous idiot. Under
extreme stress, defending her two kids, she puts 5 out of 6 shots in a
burglar. I say her only mistake was a shaky hand causing her to miss
killing the bastard.
MSN is one of the biggest deliberate news-twisters in existence, and I
hope this one backfires on them.
[ I am shocked, SHOCKED! that any member of The Media would lie
right out in the open like that. SHOCKED! I say!—Editor ]
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