Ft. Gratiot Township, Michigan

From the Detroit Free Press of March 23, 2004:

Gun toters halt robbery attempts

1 is shot, 5 arrested in two separate incidents

Applying the school-yard axiom that turnabout is fair play, would-be robbery victims thwarted their attackers in two recent separate incidents -- one by facing down the alleged bandit in a standoff, the other by shooting a man in the butt.

The self-defense actions drew praise but also caution about returning to Dodge City-style six-gun justice.

Farmington Hills police said a 32-year-old Novi woman, who had a permit to carry a small-caliber pistol in her purse, stopped a man armed with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun from taking her $40,000 diamond ring and Rolex watch.

[This incident is covered below on March 20]
...

Dwyer said the incident is making him rethink his opposition to the state law that eased concealed weapons permit regulations.

Two other men -- a father-son team accused of trying to rob a 65-year-old retiree -- are expected to be arraigned this morning in St. Clair County.

The men already had robbed one woman before being stopped by the home owner's bullet on Friday, police said.

The Ft. Gratiot Township home owner answered his door on Keewahdin Road about 8 p.m. and was accosted by a 20-year-old Worth Township man armed with a handgun. When the young man's attention was diverted, police said the home owner grabbed his own .38-caliber handgun and fired.

"The round ended up coming out of his buttocks, so I'm sure he'll be thinking about that old man every time he sits down for a while," said Detective Lt. Mike Bloomfield of the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department.

The man fled with his 45-year-old father and with $100 from the home owner's wallet, police said.

The two were arrested after seeking treatment late Friday at a Huron County hospital, claiming to be victims of a road-rage incident, police said.

Bloomfield said he didn't know whether the home owner had a permit for his weapon.

"This is one of those ones that you hear as a policeman and you go, 'All right!' " Bloomfield said. "I mean, a guy breaks into a man's house armed, prepared to do harm, and the man defends himself. That's great."

The pair also are suspected in a Sanilac County armed robbery in which an elderly woman was tied up in her home and robbed.

State Sen. Gilda Jacobs, D-Huntington Woods, reacted guardedly to the two self-defense cases.

"We have to be careful we don't end up having the wild, wild west," she said.

"People should feel able to protect themselves in their own homes, there's some argument there," said Jacobs, who as a state representative voted against the concealed weapons law in 2002. "But do we want a bunch of vigilantes running around with guns to do the police's work?"

The Senator Gilda's of the world just don't get it, and some never will.