By which I mean Gary Kleck, of course. I interviewed him for a story I did back in the 1990s for the Strib -- I still can't believe they published it -- titled "A Gun in the House." (I also interviewed Joel R, by the way.)

It wasn't about carry, which makes it only tangentially relevant to this forum, but a tangent I'm guessing most forumits are interested inl. But what I'm driving at is, have you ever been in a situation in which you did something related to a gun that would make you a part of Kleck's famous 2.4 million defensive gun uses per year?

Has anybody on this forum, at the very least, referred to a gun in a situation in which that had the effect of stopping a crime? The gun, by the way, has to have been real, even though it need not have been produced or displayed, let alone fired.

Just curious. I did, once, a whole lotta years ago. And Joel sure did, because I made his incident the centerpiece of the story.

A GUN in the HOUSE // Guns are kept in half the homes in the country. Are they more likely to kill the innocent or protect their owners? While the debate goes on, individuals make their own choices. To do that, they need information.


Dave Matheny, Staff Writer. Star Tribune. Minneapolis, Minn.: Jul 3, 1995. pg. 01.E

Copyright Star Tribune Newspaper of the Twin Cities Jul 3, 1995

Joel Rosenberg awoke suddenly one night with his wife, Felicia, screaming at him that someone was in the room. That someone had just reached under the covers and grabbed her.

"I got out of bed shouting I was gonna get my gun and kill the son of a bitch," Rosenberg said. The intruder fled down the stairs.

Rosenberg went for a 9-millimeter pistol he kept in a bedside drawer, but it had a childproof lock that he didn't want to fumble around with. He discarded that and went for a .22 pistol in a locked bag. He ripped the bag open to get the gun, then slammed a loaded magazine in.

Under stress, he worked the gun's slide twice, dropping a cartridge on the floor, he realized, as he ran to check on his 1-year-old daughter, Judy. She was safely asleep. With safety of wife and child assured, he approached the top of the stairs.

Armed and bare

He remembers crouching there, feeling foolish in his underwear, but hearing the bad guys - it later turned out to have been several - leaving. The police arrived a few minutes later. The adrenaline stayed with the Rosenbergs all night.

That was four years ago. Rosenberg, a science-fiction and fantasy writer, lives with his family in south Minneapolis. These days they have a burglar-alarm system, a huge dog and big pistols upstairs and downstairs in childproof steel boxes with push-button locks that Joel or Felicia can open in less than two seconds.

Rosenberg's encounter can be added to a list that apparently is very long. Such defensive uses of guns by potential victims to stop crimes - usually without a shot fired - happen about 2.4 million times a year, according to University of Florida criminologist Gary Kleck, who has been studying the subject for about 15 years.

There are those who disagree with Kleck's findings, including the Washington, D.C.-based Handgun Control Inc. (HCI). HCI says that Kleck's work plays into the hands of the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Although the gun issue frequently is divided along liberal-conservative lines, with liberals generally on the antigun side, Kleck identifies himself as a liberal Democrat, a member of the American Civil Liberties Union and other traditionally liberal organizations. He is not a member of the NRA. Kleck said in a recent phone interview that he disagrees with the NRA on everything except gun control.

Undisputed facts

Several facts are agreed upon by everyone: About half the households in the country have at least one gun. Only a small percentage of Americans will ever find themselves in a situation in which being armed would help. But more than 220 million guns already are out there, most in lawful hands.

More guns are being manufactured and imported all the time, so the gun issue should not be viewed as one that's on its way out because various gun bans eventually will remove them from everyone's hands. On the contrary, a growing number of states are relaxing laws restricting carrying guns (for noncriminals) with evidence of, if anything, decreased misuse.

Many people, especially those unfamiliar with guns, find themselves faced with a particularly agonizing choice - whether to arm themselves against an eventuality that probably won't happen (at least in low-crime areas), with the attendant risks of the gun being misused; or to take those risks because there is no other means of defense quite so effective. As Rosenberg makes the case, "That choonk-choonk that a pump-action shotgun makes when chambering a round is the international sound for `Go away.' "

For some the choice is easy: They loathe guns and wouldn't have one around.

For others, often those from families in which guns were a commonplace part of life, the prospect of keeping a gun handy is a reasonable choice.

Rosenberg said that after four years his sleep has almost returned to normal. He summed up his own feelings: "It's just that, having one, I feel slightly safer than otherwise."

But there are an awful lot of people out there who'll say that if you try to resist by using a gun, it will just be taken away from you. I'm pretty sure this notion comes from the movies.

And Dave, if you dont know goalie's story, you should.

Has anybody on this forum, at the very least, referred to a gun in a situation in which that had the effect of stopping a crime? The gun, by the way, has to have been real, even though it need not have been produced or displayed, let alone fired.

You still think I should have talked to the TV reporters, don't you?

You've got everything but the cape and tights.