When the order of protection . . . provides none

March 9, 1:51 AMSt. Louis Gun Rights ExaminerKurt Hofmann

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   Photo courtesy of Oleg Volk

We sought and received a full order of protection from the courts. In my opinion, the paper was completely useless. Our attacker violated this order numerous times and yet the local Sheriff Department couldn't find this freak. He lived about a half mile from our house and despite my seeing him twice a day and doing as the Phelps County Sheriff Department suggested. (do not approach/confront...let us do our jobs.) He never was apprehended.

The above is a brief excerpt of the chilling account of stalking and harassment, ending finally in a deadly home invasion, given by Jim Butler, as quoted in the November/December 2008 issue of Concealed Carry Magazine.

As is the case with the vast majority of gun owners, for Jim and Suzanne Butler, of Rolla, MO, shooting--and especially killing--another human being was the last thing they would want.

David W. Brown, however, didn't care about what they wanted. On a cold night in February, 2004, he kicked in their door and started shooting.

James and Suzanne Butler had retired for the night Friday when a man who they say had been harassing them for a year kicked in their back door and rushed into their bedroom, armed with a rifle and a handgun.

"He was shooting with the rifle as soon as he came into the bedroom," Butler said in a telephone interview Sunday from his home outside Rolla, Mo. "My wife grabbed the barrel and she got shot, but it allowed me the time to get my gun" from a nightstand drawer.

Butler fired several shots, killing David W. Brown, 45.

"We're very, very lucky," said Butler, 48, who was grazed on the neck. "My wife saved my life by giving me the time to get my gun."

Suzanne Butler, 44, was shot through the hand and upper forearm. Both Butlers were treated and released from the hospital.

The above is only the briefest of summaries of the horror endured by the Butlers, and I am not attempting to do their story justice here.

My point is that to count on a restraining order to actually--you know . . . restrain someone, is to expect the rule of law to matter to a person who had enough contempt for the rule of law to commit acts that justified the restraining order in the first place. To do so is to harbor, in other words, an unrealistically, irresponsibly optimistic view of reality.

Those new to the gun rights/self-defense issue might be unfamiliar with the case of Castle Rock v. Gonzales, in which the Supreme Court determined that the police have no duty to protect a citizen--even with a restraining order in place.

What I'm getting at, of course, is that in the end, the final responsibility for our security, and for that of our families, lies with us. If an armed psychopath kicks down your door, shooting (or slashing, or bludgeoning, etc.) as he comes, that piece of paper signed by a judge has failed to stop him, and if you don't have something more substantial than that on hand, along with the skill, courage, and will to use it, you're in serious trouble.

There are, of course, a great many stories of armed self-defense I could have chosen, including many more recent than the story of what the Butlers endured.  Theirs, though, has something of a personal connection for me. Recently, I emailed one of my articles to a friend, one of the therapists who worked with me as I adjusted to life in a wheelchair. That's when I learned that she has a family interest in armed self-defense, because Suzanne Butler is her sister.

Small world.

Early in this article, I said that "shooting--and killing--another human being was the last thing" that the Butlers would want. That, of course, is not quite true. David W. Brown's death was actually the second to last thing they would want. Shooting Brown, though, was the only way to prevent the worst outcome of all.

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