By Jon Zeluff
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 18, 1997

Owning a gun does not make you a vigilante

Editor:

Once again, a Wildcat columnist is guilty of not checking his facts. The Monday commentary given by Josh Schneyer states "in Arizona, it is illegal to use deadly force, even against an intruder, unless confronted with a deadly weapon." This is not accurate, it is merely what Mr. Schneyer would like it to be. Here is the actual law from the Arizona Revised Statutes, Titled 13, criminal Code (13-404 A): "A person is justified in threatening or using physical force against another when and to the extent a reasonable person would believe that physical force is immediately necessary to protect himself against the other's use or attempted use of unlawful physical force." Arizona state law defines physical force as being any force necessary to immediately incapacitate the other individual. This includes gunshot.

Not everyone survives a carjacking. Many innocent people have been killed during these carjacking attempts. This would give a reasonable person reason to believe that he or she needed to immediately protect themselves. Under Arizona state law then, this could give the car owner the right to shoot at the carjacker. The intention in shooting this individual would not be to kill them, but to immediately incapacitate them.

No sane person goes out every day hoping that they will get the chance to kill somebody, even if that somebody is a bad guy. Responsible gun owners are not vigilantes, nor are we heroes. We simply want the means to defend ourselves against people who would otherwise have their way with us. I have to commend Mr. Schneyer in his decision to run the red light. If I had been in the same situation and had been armed with a gun, I would have done the same thing. That is part of responsible gun ownership. There is no shame in running away from a fight, only stupidity and immaturity in staying for one.

Everyone in Arizona should be thankful for two things. First is that our founding fathers had the insight to provide us with the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. The second is that people exercise this right daily. It is for those two reasons that crime does not run rampant and unabashed in our society. If only the criminals were armed, the next days headlines might well be "NON-DEGREE SEEKING GRADUATE STUDENT FROM THE UA KILLED IN CARJACKING ATTEMPT BY ASSAILANT LAST NIGHT."

Jon Zeluff
Mechanical and aerospace engineering senior