Shooting Buddies

The National Rifle Association has long perpetuated the myth that Americans are under grave danger from hardened criminals who want to steal their property and exterminate their families. Whether it’s ridiculous pronouncements like, “America, by its free and independent nature, is a breeding ground and safe haven for violent, illegal immigrant criminal gangs,” or morbid declarations such as, “I want carjackers dead. I want rapists dead. I want burglars dead. I want child molesters dead. I want the bad guys dead. No court case. No parole. No early release. I want 'em dead. Get a gun and when they attack you, shoot 'em," the NRA rarely misses an opportunity to stoke the paranoia of the gun industry’s customer base.

The truth is, however, that Americans are far more likely to be harmed by people they know in their everyday lives than faceless criminals. Far too often, perpetrators of homicide are family members, friends, significant others, co-workers, and acquaintances of their victims…and even fellow gun owners, as a recent story from Ohio tragically reveals.

On July 5, Mark Valentino was arrested and charged for the murder of his cousin and friend Hershell “Louis” Roberts in Licking County. Valentino admitted to shooting Roberts as well as stealing firearms and money from his home.

Sherriff Randy Thorp stated that Valentino and Roberts shared a love of target practice and often fired guns on a range in Roberts’ backyard. Roberts’ son-in-law, Jake Morgan, said that Valentino often took advantage of Roberts’ hospitality and generosity—Valentino would stay at his home for weeks at a time. Roberts was apparently either unaware of, or unconcerned about, Valentino’s Indiana criminal record, which included probation violations, bad checks, and even domestic violence.

When Roberts was found dead at his home, his 20 year-old son told investigators that Valentino had a long-standing interest in his father’s missing gun collection. Allegedly, Valentino shot Roberts after a dispute regarding two guns that Valentino sought for their value. “He needed the money that bad,” Morgan said. “[Roberts] would have given it to him, if [he] had it.” Morgan described Valentino as a man “with no conscience.”

Police arrested Valentino after a 15-mile pursuit that concluded when Valentino lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a ditch. According to Licking County Prosecutor Ken Oswalt, Roberts’ firearms and the suspected murder weapon were found in the vehicle in the resulting search.

Valentino’s story bears eerie similarity to that of another individual “with no conscience” who preyed on a fellow gun enthusiast: Timothy McVeigh.

McVeigh bombed the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, an act of terrorism which claimed 168 lives and injured more than 680 people. Well before the bombing, McVeigh was a regular on the gun show circuit, where he sold firearms through unregulated private sales (no background checks, no records of sale). While working at gun shows, McVeigh befriended an Arkansas gun dealer named Roger Moore. Moore testified that McVeigh stayed in his home from time to time as he traveled around the country. According to police, in order to fund the Oklahoma City bombing, McVeigh and Terry Nichols—his co-conspirator in the bombing—robbed Moore of his gun collection while holding him at gunpoint. Moore claims that he lost $60,000 worth of guns, jewels, silver bars and gold coins in the robbery.

According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, only 87 Americans were murdered during burglaries in 2008, despite the fact that only one out of every three American households now has a firearm. As one author recently noted, “Statistically, you had a better chance of being killed by bees.” There were 7,912 homicides in 2008 for which the FBI could establish a relationship between the murderer and the victim. 78% (6,170) of these victims knew their murderer—only 22% (1,742) were murdered by a stranger. Not only do 78% of victims know their murderer—43% of homicides are caused by simple arguments over money, property and other mundane matters. In comparison, only 9% of murders are gang-related.

The NRA’s scare tactics regarding the “criminal element” are an effective sales pitch and certainly better the gun industry. If an American is convinced that their family is under overwhelming threat from unknown outsiders, a gun purchase will seem like a wonderful idea, and he/she will certainly underestimate the harm that that gun could cause within their home while in the hands of someone they know and/or love.

Stories like that of Mark Valentino and Louis Roberts betray the NRA’s version of “reality,” depicting common scenarios where the “home invader” is someone you’ve welcomed in countless times, and where your firepower makes you a potential target and not someone to be avoided.

Cutthroat Politics

It has been widely reported that President Barack Obama has been receiving an enormous number of threats during his 15 months in office—a 400% increase over the number received by President George W. Bush. Commentators have also decried the death threats received by Members of Congress who voted for health care reform in March.

Less frequently reported, however, is the number of such threats coming from individuals who hold concealed handgun permits. This blog looks at three such cases that are particularly disturbing.

On March 27, Norman Leboon, 38, of Philadelphia was arrested and charged with threatening to kill U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) and his family. Leboon had posted a video on YouTube in which he warned, “Remember Eric...our judgment time, the final Yom Kippur has been given. You are a liar, you're a pig...you're an abomination. You receive my bullets in your office, remember they will be placed in your heads. You and your children are Lucifer's abominations.”

Rep. Cantor was not the only public figure that Leboon had threatened. Leboon had posted thousands of videos on YouTube which were “bizarre [and] sometimes threatening. In one of these videos, he commented, “Yes, President Obama, you and Vice President Biden and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and your security council say very bad things about me. Your punishment is coming, the swine, it will be severe, and you will beg for mercy to your God. It will be severe.”

According to Philadelphia court records, Norman Leboon was arrested by city police on June 14, 2009, after threatening to kill his live-in partner John Hopkins. Neither Leboon nor Hopkins showed up at the ensuing July 28 hearing. Peter Leboon tried to have his brother committed to a mental institution on numerous occasions, most recently before Christmas 2009.

These issues did not prohibit Leboon from obtaining a concealed handgun permit in Pennsylvania, however. Peter Leboon recalls: “The last time I tried to get him help we searched the whole house, six or seven of us, we couldn't find [his] gun. I found the permit, though, and destroyed it.”

In another case, Mark Anthony Rattenni, 37, was questioned by U.S. Secret Service agents on April 7 “in reference to a threat against the president of the United States.” When Secret Service found Rattenni in possession of a 9mm firearm, they called the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. A deputy checked the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and found that Rattenni had been convicted of felony forgery in 1999 and felony assault in 2003 in New York, which made it illegal for him to own a firearm. He was subsequently arrested.

Despite these convictions, Rattenni had been issued a permit to carry a concealed handgun in July 2007 by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The department had sent Ratteni a letter on December 19, 2007, stating that his permit was to be revoked because of the convictions, but the Pinellas County deputy’s check on April 7 found that the permit was still valid.

The Yonkers District Attorney’s office in New York discovered on April 9 that Rattenni’s felony charges were eventually reduced to misdemeanors. Pinellas Chief Assistance State Attorney Bruce Bartlett has said, however, that Rattenni still shouldn’t have passed a background check to buy a handgun or obtain a concealed handgun permit.

In the most recent event, Joseph Sean McVey, an Ohio resident, was arrested on April 26 at the Asheville Regional Airport just after Air Force One departed with the President and First Lady. McVey, 23, exited his vehicle, which was parked in a rental car return parking lot, with a loaded handgun and told a police officer that he wanted to see the president. Police searched McVey’s car and found a variety of law enforcement equipment, including a siren box, a mounted digital camera, LED strobe lights, and four large antennas. In the car’s cup holder were rifle scope formulas, which help a shooter adjust for distance when firing at a target. McVey was charged with going armed in terror of the public.

McVey was a concealed handgun permit holder and a member of the local Coshocton County Radio Emergency Association Citizen Team in Ohio. The citizen team is a volunteer organization that assists the sheriff’s department with traffic control at emergency scenes, which may explain why McVey had a police scanner and radio. County Police had a run-in with him in January, when McVey stopped on the highway to see if a couple who had pulled to the side of the road needed help. When he did not receive a response, he went back to his car, retrieved and holstered his handgun, and went back to the couple, at which point the man “swore at [him] and came towards [him].” After being instructed by a dispatcher to leave the scene, McVey was pulled over at gunpoint and “lectured on the proper way to handle a gun” by police.

After McVey’s arrest in North Carolina, Coshocton County Sheriff Tim Rogers revoked his permit to carry a concealed handgun.

Leboon, Rattenni and McVey all obtained concealed handgun permits in “Shall-Issue” states that give local law enforcement no discretion in issuing them. Applicants who meet a basic set of criteria must be given a permit and there is limited screening for criminal and mental health history (all of which is conducted through an instant computer check). In light of increased threats to our elected officials, policy makers now have another reason to assess whether such a process adequately assures public safety.

Do as I Say, Not as I Do

Today we relate the stories of three more “ordinary people” who are not only concealed carry permit holders, but certified instructors paid to provide the safety and training classes required to obtain a permit in their states. If concealed carry permit holders are the most law-abiding citizens in our country, we would expect their trainers to be virtually infallible when it comes to respecting the rule of law. The truth, however, is somewhat less flattering…

On the evening of May 13, police responded to a call regarding a deceased person in a private home in Palestine, Texas. When they arrived, 62-year-old Ronnie Cook, a concealed handgun instructor in the state, opened fire on them from inside the house. The officers took cover and secured a perimeter. Two hours later, Cook called 911 and negotiated his surrender. He then walked out of his house in a pair of handcuffs he had placed on his own wrists. Police entered the home and discovered Cook’s wife, 62 year-old Frances Darlene Cook, dead in the bathroom from a single gunshot wound. Ronnie Cook now faces a murder charge for his wife’s slaying as well as attempted capital murder charges for firing at the police.

In August, handgun training instructor Jason Hernandez, 38, was arrested in Perrysburg Township, Ohio, on charges of selling falsified concealed carry permits. To acquire a permit in Ohio, residents are required to complete 12 hours of instruction. More than 130 individuals allegedly bought training certificates from Hernandez, however, without attending any classes or receiving instruction. Hernandez now faces charges of forgery and tampering with evidence. Wood County Detective Sergeant Scott Koch reported that applicants paid $150 to $300 for a falsified certificate despite the fact that actual training classes cost between $75 and $150. Falsified permits that were issued to individuals in Wood County have been suspended.

On September 28, parents of students attending Saint Gregory School in Tyler, Texas, received an email from Principal Kathy Shieldes Harry informing them that the father of a four-year-old student had inadvertently left a loaded handgun in his daughter’s overnight bag. A teacher discovered the gun while the girl was rummaging through her backpack in class. Her father is a certified concealed handgun instructor in Texas. The child’s mother told the Tyler Morning Telegraph that the school did not inform her of the discovery and that she only learned of the gun when she went to take her daughter home: “We were pulling out of the parking lot and I saw her father pulling in and I asked her if she knew why her dad was at the school, and she told me his gun was in her backpack.” Don Martin, the Tyler Police Department public information officer, said that it is illegal to have a gun on the school’s campus and the girl’s parents could be charged with making a handgun accessible to a minor.

These incidents suggest that certified concealed handgun instructors are vetted no more carefully than their charges in terms of assessing their potential threat to public safety. Perhaps even they are ordinary people after all...

Attack of the Black Dwarves

On May 24, a 56 year-old male resident of Elyria, Ohio, went to a nearby house armed with a shotgun and asked his neighbor to call 911. When police arrived, they ordered the man to put the shotgun down, but he refused, stating, “I can’t, I’m protecting myself, I have a concealed carry permit.” After police promised to protect him, he put the gun down, and said that two armed black men were in his home. He also told officers that the night before the same black men had broken into his home, but he had chased them down the street, firing a full magazine of 9mm rounds at them.

Officers entered the man’s home and found no intruders or signs of forced entry. They did, however, find “pans, bowls and other containers throughout the house containing moldy food.” They also found 11 guns along with knives, swords and ammunition. The man told the officers that he had the weapons “so he could be prepared for the next war to begin.” As they searched the home, he told officers outside that “even more black men were inside the home then he first reported and described them as three-legged dwarves with one of their legs being a roller skate they used to escape from places.”

Police confiscated 23 weapons from the man’s home and took him to EMH Regional Medical Center for evaluation. They also contacted the Nord Center, a provider of mental health services.

The Lorain County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that it issued the man a permit to carry a concealed handgun. Ohio is a “shall-issue” state, meaning that authorities have to issue a concealed carry permit to any applicant who passes a basic computerized background check. Federal law prohibits anyone who has been adjudicated as a “mental defective” or involuntarily committed to a mental institution from owning or purchasing firearms. At last count, however, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) was missing 90% of the mental health records that would disqualify Americans who fall under these two categories. The Virginia Tech Review Panel dealt directly with these issues and recommended that the states forward all necessary mental health records to NICS as promptly as possible, and that new legislation be enacted to prohibit those who have been voluntarily committed to mental institutions from owning or purchasing firearms.

“If they have not been adjudicated incompetent by the court system, we have no choice but to issue a license,” said Lorain County Sheriff’s Captain Richard Resendez. “The law does not give us the ability to act on our instincts.” Capt. Resendez has indicated the man’s permit will be suspended, but said, “it would likely take a court finding him mentally incompetent to permanently revoke it.”

There is no guarantee that will happen. A 2003 presidential commission on mental health concluded that: “For too many Americans with mental illnesses, the mental health services and supports they need remain fragmented, disconnected and often inadequate, frustrating the opportunity for recovery. Today’s mental health care system is a patchwork relic—the result of disjointed reforms and policies. Instead of ready access to quality care, the system presents barriers that all too often add to the burden of mental illnesses for individuals, their families, and our communities.”

Given the imperfect nature of background checks and the mental health system, legislators in “shall-issue” states would do far better to prioritize public safety over the wishes of a vocal minority who seek to carry guns in public. Tying the hands of law enforcement officers who are well-placed to determine potential threats to their communities makes little sense.

Forgot Something?

Today’s “Ordinary People” blog features two stories that involve curious episodes of memory loss.

The first story involves a concealed carry permit holder who was shopping at a Wal-Mart in Steubenville, Ohio, on December 3. When he departed the store that day, he had his purchases in hand, but not his firearm. His .40 caliber Glock handgun was left sitting in his shopping cart, conveniently marked down for a five-finger discount.

Authorities are now searching for a “man driving a red Dodge Ram pickup truck” who apparently found the gun later in the day and drove off with it. Hardly comforting, but better than the real possibility of a child finding the gun at the popular family store… Apparently, this permit holder forgot not just his gun, but one of the National Rifle Association’s cardinal rules of gun safety: “Store guns so they are not accessible to unauthorized persons.”

Our second tale comes from the state of Tennessee, where authorities recently reported that 200 hundred state residents who have permits to carry concealed handguns might have their permits revoked or suspended because they have active restraining orders against them. Apparently, several counties in the state were failing to inform the Tennessee Department of Safety of such orders of protection. The Department of Safety did not realize this oversight through their own investigation-they were alerted to it by a Nashville television station.

Restraining orders are typically issued to protect spouses in abusive relationships. Charlotte Boatwright, President of the Coalition Against Domestic and Community Violence of Greater Chattanooga, commented, “We do know that there is a direct correlation between having weapons available in the home and lethality.”

Hopefully, the Tennessee Department of Safety will act quickly to revoke the permits of the 200 individuals in question. Public safety will also be better served if they remember in the future to audit their permit holder database to screen out potentially dangerous individuals who are prohibited under state statue from carrying concealed weapons.

A Case of "Self-Defense"

At 1:56 a.m. on the morning of July 13, Officer Joshua Miktarian of Twinsburg, Ohio, pulled over Ashford Thompson on suspicion of drunken driving. Dispatch tapes reveal that 90 seconds after making the stop, Officer Miktarian radioed for assistance and then failed to respond to the questions of the dispatcher and his fellow officers. During these critical moments, Thompson used a Kel-Tec P11 handgun to fatally shoot Miktarian four times in the head at close range. The location of two recovered bullets suggest that Thompson continued to fire even after Miktarian had fallen to the ground. Officer Miktarian never had a chance to draw his own weapon, which remained in his holster as he was flown to emergency medical care.

Thompson fled the scene and was later found with a handcuff on one wrist at a relative’s home, where he was arrested without further incident. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty—Thompson is facing charges including aggravated murder, resisting arrest and tampering with evidence.

Thompson possessed a concealed carry permit in the state of Ohio and had no criminal record whatsoever. His defense attorney, Larry Zukerman, has argued that he acted in self-defense, but refused to offer any additional details. Prosecutor David Maistros has responded by saying, “He’s Mr. Thompson’s lawyer and he has a job to do. But self-defense? I’d find that laughable.” Added Twinsburg Officer Tom Austin: “Just because you have the right to carry a gun, it doesn’t give you the right to slaughter somebody.”

Sergeant Darren Senft from nearby Warrensville Heights commented on the dangers that law enforcement officers face in pulling over armed drivers: “When you’re making a traffic stop, you have no idea who this person is. There are so many unknowns.” The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reports that 20% of fatal police officer shootings occur during traffic stops.

Friends and family remembered Josh Miktarian as a man who “brought laughter everywhere he went.” He leaves behind a wife (who is also a police officer) and a three month-old daughter. At a candlelight vigil conducted in his memory, Cindy Steele, wife of a local police officer, told the gathered mourners, “Look around you…We are good, caring people here…people who value human life.” Just a day earlier, Ashford Thompson made it apparent how little he valued human life by stealing Officer Miktarian away from his friends and family. As an individual licensed to carry a concealed handgun, Thompson was obliged to act responsibly with his firearm. Instead, he used it to needlessly kill a man who had dedicated his life to serving and protecting his community.

Lack of Protection

Marc Kidby was a 30 year-old Ohio University employee who was deeply troubled by a pending divorce. A gun owner and concealed carry permit holder, Kidby became the subject of a domestic violence protection order that was filed by his wife on February 11. At that point, Kibdy’s concealed carry permit should have been suspended by the Athen County sheriff’s office in Ohio. Kibdy was also required by law to surrender his guns to authorities.

He did not surrender them, and the sheriff’s office failed to suspend his permit. A deputy with the office stated that he knew of “no case where anyone thought [Kidby] was a threat to others.” Kidby’s wife, however, had said in her petition for the protection order that he had threatened to kill both her and their two year-old daughter.

Moreover, it was abundantly clear Kidby was a threat to himself. He had threatened to jump off tall buildings, was admitted to a mental health hospital at one point, and talked of “suicide by cop.”

Sadly, on April 1, Kidby took his own life with a .38-caliber handgun he owned. An opportunity to avert tragedy had been missed.

Kidby’s struggles with depression and loss were far from unique, and his unfortunate death is a reminder that guns purchased for self-defense can sometimes become a threat to those they are meant to protect. As researcher Dr. Garen Wintemute recently noted, living in a home where there are guns increases the risk of homicide by 40 to 170% and the risk of suicide by 90 to 460%.

This case also highlights the tremendous importance of clarifying and enforcing court-ordered removal laws "to actively engage the criminal justice system in the process of removing firearms from individuals who are violent toward their intimate partners.” Regrettably, one recent study that examined state laws in this area reported “an urgent need for progress.” We can and should do better.