From: alford@alc.com (Mack Alford)
Subject: You Loot, We Shoot !
Organization: Ascent Logic Corporation
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 21:40:43 GMT

Here is one for the files.  The following article is repeated from the San Jose
Mercury News (hopefully, to counter the tripe from Richard Reeves the previous
week). 

---------------------------------------
 FLORIDIANS MEAN IT:  "YOU LOOT, WE SHOOT"
by John Barry, Knight-Ridder News Service
Homestead, Fla. 

Steve Motak helped corner four looters with an infrared night scope and an
AR-15 assault rifle.  Paule Quinones grills strangers on the block with a .38. 
Salvador Ortiz fears having guns in the house but sleeps with a borrowed
shotgun and two pistols. 

"You Loot, We Shoot" has become a slogan for survival.

These are images of gun control blown to tatters by Hurricane Andrew.  All are
ammunition for a renewed national debate on the Second Amendment right to bear,
and the rightness of bearing, firearms.  

Has the National Rifle Association been right all along?  Did the need for
South Dade County homeowners to protect their property with guns after
Hurricane Andrew validate the NRA's longtime opposition to handgun bans and
cooling-off periods?  Or will the gun-buying craze now leave a legacy of danger
long after the hurricane crisis is past? 

"This was the situation in which law-abiding citizens were placed in jeapordy
by events beyond their control, the police couldn't help them, and they were
forced to take up arms and defend themseves," said Marion Hammer, the NRA's
second vice president. 

Six weeks after Andrew, shotguns, pistols and assault rifles remain as common a
sight as chain saws and generators in South Dade.  Homeowners carry them
openly, and police don't interfere.  

Gun Shops say sales have tripled.  And for those who haven't armed themselves
yet, a local organization, South Florida Firearms Owners, distributed
information on state gun laws and firearms safety at a booth on U.S. 1 last
month. 

Amid this unprecedented open display of civilian firepower, the NRA, police and
even most gun-control proponents agree on two positive occurrences: 

* the large numbers of armed homeowners in hurricane-stricken neighborhoods
have discouraged looting.  In the words of Homestead Police Chief Curtis Ivy:
"You take your own life in your hands as a looter in South Dade".

* Most gun owners have behaved responsibly.  Metro-Dade County police recall
one accidental shooting -- a homeowner shot himself in the foot.  One death
occurred -- an armed robber was slain Sept. 13 by an armed hurricane victim. 

What they dispute is the effect that Hurricane Andrew and the riots in Los
Angeles last spring will have on future efforts to limit the proliferation of
handguns in the United States, where 24,000 people died in shootings in 1991. 

"I don't have a problem with hurricane victims' having guns", said state Sen.
Ron Silver, a Miami Beach Democrat who led the successful 1990 drive to add an
amendment to the Florida Constitution requiring a three-day waiting period for
handgun purchases.  "In fact, if I had lived in that area, I'd have considered
getting one myself.

"But I've got to tell you," added Silver, "84% of Florida's voters backed the
waiting period on the ballot.  We will continue to have waiting periods, and we
will continue to have background checks."  

Rebutted Hammer of the NRA, "If you walk through Homestead and ask folks how
they feel about waiting periods, I don't think they'd be very happy."

Nearly every neighborhood in South Dade has a post-Andrew gun story. 

From his West Kendall roof, Steve Motak used radios and an infrared night scope
to direct nightly armed-homeowner patrols.  Police stretched thin by
emergencies could offer no regular surveillance. 

"We talked to police , and they agreed we should do something," Motak said.  

On one patrol, they cornered four looters inside a home.  The homeowners --
armed to the teeth with pistols, rifles and shotguns -- encircled the house and
held the looters in place until police arrived. 

Everyone kept cool.  No shots were fired. 

"I'm not a member of the NRA," said Motak, who carried an AR-15, the civilian
version of the Army's M-16.  "But I've got a right to protect my property and
my family."

Paul Quinones conducts his own crime watch during the day when his neighbors
are working.  At night, others join him.  

<<< picture  of Ron Baccus and his snake >>>
<<<picture caption:  Ron Baccus guards his Homestead, Fla., home against
looters with the help of his 12 -foot python and a semiautomatic >>>

Quinones presents a menacing image.  He packs a .38 and confronts strangers
walking or riding through the neighborhood.  "I see somebody, I say: 'What do
you want?  Who are you looking for?'" said Quinones. 

"I have no choice", he said.  "The only patrol we see is the Army, two or three
times a day.  We're on our own." 

Salvador Ortiz spends each day trapped in his damaged house, waiting for a
contractor who never comes.  His machine shop in Perrine was destroyed.  He's
going through a divorce.  He's all alone. 

He hates guns, he said, and has never owned one.  But the nights are dark and
scary, sometimes he hears gunfire, and he has to step outside in the wee hours
to fuel his electrical generator.  

Ortiz also hears stories of looters chased away and shot at by neighbors.  He
doesn't know what's rumor or what's fact.  "At 9 every night, the National
Guard drives by," Ortiz said, "then you don't see them for another day. 
Where's the protection?"

So he has a shotgun, a semiautomatic pistol and a Saturday night special, all
on loan from friends.  
-------------------------------------------

This is the worst nightmare of the gun grabbers -- thousands of people walking
around fully armed.  But note, the police know of only one accident and one
death in over a month.  Hmmmmmmm.  

Mack Alford
alford@alc.com








Ortiz also hears stories of looters chased away and shot at by neighbors.  He
doesn't know what's rumor or what's fact.  "At 9 every night, the National
Guard drives by," Ortiz said, "then you don't see them for another day. 
Where's the protection?"

So he has a shotgun, a semiautomatic pistol and a Saturday night special, all
on loan from friends.  

Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns