Man with concealed-carry permit

[anyplainjoe]

Man with concealed-carry permit kills robbery suspect in Cleveland
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 4:30 AM


Associated Press
CLEVELAND—A man who has a permit to carry a concealed gun shot and killed one of two teenage robbery suspects he encountered on his front porch, police said.

City prosecutors decided yesterday that the 25-year-old Cleveland man was justified and would not be charged in the shooting Saturday night of 15-year-old Arthur Buford, a freshman at John F. Kennedy High School.

Buford and another teen approached the man on his porch and one of the youths pulled a gun, prompting the resident to pull his gun and shoot Buford several times in the chest, police said.

Police took a .40-caliber Smith and Wesson from the man as evidence, according to a police report.

Toby Hoover, director of the Toledo-based Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, said she had not heard of any other fatal shooting involving someone who has a permit to carry a concealed gun under the state's 3-year-old law.

About 30 youths gathered Monday at the intersection where Buford died and set up a memorial. His cousin, Tameka Foster, 21, questioned the decision against prosecuting the shooter.

"They let that man run out freely," Foster said. "My cousin is dead."

Buford's alleged accomplice fled after and shooting and has not been caught. Police believe a .38-caliber handgun they found in the mail chute of a nearby house belonged to Buford or the other suspect, Lt. Thomas Stacho said.

[fieldfocker.45]

Originally posted by anyplainjoe
His cousin, Tameka Foster, 21, questioned the decision against prosecuting the shooter.

"They let that man run out freely," Foster said. "My cousin is dead."


I just don't get it, does she just not realize that her cousin was robbing someone at gunpoint, threatening that persons life? I don't understand the logic, or lack there of...

Very frustrating....

[matty9]

I am sure that the perp was a good boy who went to church and would not hurt a soul. Next thing you know they will say it was because of race.

[South Fla]

"That was incredibly tragic, but it points out that you don't have to be a sitting duck on your porch," Jeff Garvas, the president of Ohioans for Concealed Carry, said.
--------------------------------
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer
--------------------------------
The legal gun won this fight
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Kevin O'Brien
Plain Dealer Columnist

Arthur Buford is dead, and that's a sad thing.

Arthur had his whole life ahead of him. He was just a kid, after all - a 15-year-old freshman at John F. Kennedy High School.

What he didn't know, as he approached Damon Wells' house in southeast Cleveland on Saturday night, was that his whole life consisted of just a few more seconds.

Arthur had a gun, which he and another youngster apparently thought would give them the power to take something from Wells, who was standing on the front porch.

Whatever Arthur's plan was, it unraveled. It didn't account for the possibility that the guy who looked like an easy mark would have permission from the state of Ohio to carry a concealed weapon, or that he would bother to arm himself just to walk to the neighborhood store and back.

Arthur's plan depended on catching Wells off-guard. But Wells wasn't off-guard. He had a plan of his own, against the day when someone like Arthur might come along.

Wells' plan was to avoid becoming a crime victim, and that's how Arthur ended up dying of several gunshot wounds to the chest.

Wells hasn't given The Plain Dealer much more than monosyllables, and I don't blame him. What would he say? That he's sorry he was prepared? That he's sorry he defended himself?

Unless he's a man without a conscience, he probably finds it regrettable that it came down to a him-or-me situation. But it's clear that he's not a man devoid of the desire to go on living, so he's got to be glad that it turned out to be "him, not me." But you can't just come out and say that sort of thing without the sensitivity police coming after you, so the less said the better.

The real police, however, aren't planning to charge Wells with anything. They say the shooting was justified.

It's just about impossible to argue that, but here come the arguments.

Arthur's relatives and friends are upset that the law isn't going after Wells.

They want someone to blame - other than Arthur. But they shouldn't be allowed to bully the police or the city administration into taking action against a guy who was minding his own business on his own porch when suddenly confronted by an armed teenager.

Then there's the conceptual side of the argument - the big-picture side that says citizens shouldn't be allowed to have guns and certainly shouldn't be allowed to walk around with them.

This kind of incident proves knee-jerk gun foes wrong, and they know it.

"This is one of the few where they actually used it [a legally carried concealed weapon] to stop a crime," Toby Hoover of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence grudgingly told a Plain Dealer reporter.

But there are more than a few such cases. There are thousands every year, all over the country.

And where are the statistics on gun crimes committed by holders of concealed-carry permits? Something tells me that if they happened at anything approaching the rate of the hundreds of thousands of crimes perpetrated against unarmed Americans every year, we'd be hearing more about them.

The fact is, the concealed-carry "threat" has turned out to be malarkey, just as it was in the many states that debated such laws long before Ohio.

Three of my last four columns have had to do with young people getting killed, and that's a sad thing. In two of those cases, a teenage boy was in the wrong place at the wrong time, doing wrong when someone shot him.

In the third, 32 college students were doing what they were supposed to do.

After I wrote about last week's outrage at Virginia Tech University, I got a series of sneering e-mails from a reader, along the lines of, "Next, you'll be suggesting that teachers should be armed."

I think I'll take him up on that.

Damon Wells is about the same age as the students killed at Virginia Tech. He's got his whole life still ahead of him, and because he was prepared, he'll actually get to live it - presuming he escapes thug-enforced street justice.

How different things might have been at Virginia Tech if Seung-Hui Cho hadn't had the only gun on campus.

O'Brien is The Plain Dealer's deputy editorial director.

To reach Kevin O'Brien

kobrien@plaind.com, 216-999-4146

Previous columns online:

Cleveland.com/columns
---------------------------------

I can't believe that someone in the media finally gets it.:banana: :banana: :banana:

[lakota222]

.

[Debob]

Yep, such a good boy, out on probation for???? armed robbery.:shocked:

[R.TOKER]

I can't believe I just read a pro-gun article from the Plain Dealer!!!!! Is this the CLEVELAND Plain Dealer or some other imposter Plain Dealer????? I am just speechless. Good article and well written. :banana: :banana: