Ravenwood - 09/09/06 11:15 AM
I've been saying for years that guns are a great equalizer. A 6' 2'' - 300-lb thug doesn't stand much of a chance against even the smallest victim if they are ready, willing, and able to use a gun for their personal protection.
In this case that small victim was a little old lady in a wheelchair, and she was packing some serious heat. Keep in mind that this happened in Manhattan, NYC an environment that is usually considered a "gun-free zone".
Margaret Johnson might have looked like an easy target.Gun permits in New York City are extremely rare, especially for regular-joe citizens who live in Harlem. Permits are usually reserved for the well connected aristocracy like a congressman or celebrity.But when a mugger tried to grab a chain off her neck Friday, the wheelchair-bound 56-year-old pulled out her licensed .357 pistol (sic) and shot him, police said.
Johnson said she was in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood on her way to a shooting range when the man, identified by police as 45-year-old Deron Johnson, came up from behind and went for the chain.
"There's not much to it," she said in a brief interview. "Somebody tried to mug me, and I shot him."
Deron Johnson was taken to Harlem Hospital with a single bullet wound in the elbow, police said. He faces a robbery charge, said Lt. John Grimpel, a police spokesman.
Margaret Johnson, who lives in Harlem, has a permit for the weapon and does not face charges, Grimpel said. She also was taken to the hospital with minor injuries and later released.
To read about a little old lady, packing heat, on her way to a gun range, using a manly .357 to ward off an attacker. . .the only thing that could have made it better would be hauling the guy away in a body bag.
Category: Defending Your Life
Comments (3) top link me
Man, I was hoping the guy got whacked, but a .357 to the elbow sounds like it could be gruesome enough. Still, despite the fact that 56 isn't particularly old, though in Harlem she's likely already a great-grandmother, she does sit in a wheelchair and looked like an easy target.
I was pleasantly surprised, too, to see the story was on CNN's site, and I didn't even detect any particular anti-gun bias in the text. The only thing better would have been if the status of her permitting wasn't even a possible issue.
Posted by: roger at September 11, 2006 8:28 AMTypically, the AP and NYT(!) didn't get the story completely right. Ms. Johnson apparently has a "premises license" which allows her to have a handgun in her home, and to transport that weapon - unloaded, in a locked container, with the ammunition in a separate locked container - to and from the target range. Apparently, the story goes, she just happened to be on the way to the range - something she does "often" - carrying her loaded, unsecured weapon easy-to-hand.
The police won't charge her for transporting her firearm loaded and easy-to-hand because to do so would draw attention to the idiocy of New York's gun laws. She's elderly, black, female, and disabled. They'd never get a conviction, only bad publicity. But you can bet her premises license will be quietly revoked, and the gun (which I'm sure was taken in evidence) will never be returned to her.
And you will never hear about Ms. Johnson again.
Posted by: Kevin Baker at September 11, 2006 2:21 PMYou are absolutely right Kevin. She's in for some quiet payback from the authorities after this falls off the radar scope.
She's also likely to be sued and rendered penniless by the perp for excessive use of force and a crippling injury that compromises his ability to work in the future. He will likely win that civil lawsuit being that its in NYC.
She should have given up the chain. The bad things about to befall her are going to far outweigh its worth.
Posted by: Purple Avenger at September 14, 2006 9:44 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
