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Book Review:
“The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor — The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi” This is a fascinating book about a labor leader who has had tremendous influence on our lives, but whose name is not even known by millions of Americans. Please read my review.

From:
The American Rifleman
March, 1997

Studies indicate that firearms are used over two million times a year for personal protection, and that the presence of a firearm, without a shot being fired, prevents crime in many instances. Shooting usually can be justified only where crime constitutes an immediate imminent threat to life limb or in some cases property. Anyone is free to quote or reproduce these accounts. Send clippings to: "The Armed Citizen," 11250 Waples Mill Rd., Fairfax, VA 22030

The drunken man asked the clerk in an Anchorage, Alaska, gas station to call him a cab, then in a fit of agitation at being asked to wait for it outside, pulled a gun and attempted to rob the place. Alerted by the clerk, two mechanics, one of them armed with a gun he keeps in his tool box, followed the man outside where the three became mired in a standoff. Upon arriving on the scene, the cab driver discovered what was happening, drew his own gun and shoved it into the robber's neck. The armed mechanic and cabbie then forced the suspect to the ground where he was held for police. (The Daily News, Anchorage, AK, 10/26/96)

Without warning, the man walked into the Boomtown Grocery in Haughton, Louisiana, and pointed a gun at the owner and her sister. He told the two women if they refused to give him all of the store's money, he would kill them. Undaunted, the shopkeeper produced a .357 Mag. and unleashed at least five shots. Hit, the assailant returned fire as he crawled from tile store. The owner was grazed by a bullet, but her attacker suffered much worse. He had nothing to show for his criminal efforts but a critical bullet wound to his shoulder and a list of charges -- including two counts of attempted murder -- from police who quickly arrested the man and his accomplice. (The Times, Shreveport, LA, 9/30196)

Bandits accosted Greenville, South Carolina, store owner Gene Stephens outside his home and ordered him back inside where they forced Stephens and his wife to lay face-down on the kitchen floor. As one robber searched the house, the other two stood over the tearful couple pointing a gun at them. When one of the suspects turned the lights out, Stephens glanced up and noticed the gun-wielding crook had been distracted. He pulled his gun from his waistband and fired a "literal shot in the dark." The suspects fled, one of them eventually turning up in a hospital, where he died. The dead man's brother was later arrested as an accomplice. Police believe the group may be linked to the ambush murder of another city businessman three weeks earlier. (The News, Greenville, SC, 9/11/96)

Jose Garza was going to retrieve some ice cream from his Sylmar, California, garage at the request of his wife when he noticed his three dogs barking. As a precaution, he took along his .45 cal. pistol. Upon entering the garage, a disguised woman — who police later speculated had probably never fired a gun before — loosed three shots, missing the veteran city prosecutor each time. Garza returned fire, killing his attacker. He later learned that the dead suspect was his wife's sister, who, it turned out, had conspired with his wife, a lawyer, to kill him in order to "become financially free." (The Times, Los Angeles, CA, 10/3/96)

Gunshots erupted in the evening tranquility of the Colorado Springs, Colorado, neighborhood after an argument over a football debt turned violent, leaving two men wounded. From opposite ends of the street, two armed homeowners, insurance salesman Vaughn Zimmerman and cable company manager Tony McIntosh, ran from their homes and simultaneously confronted the shooting suspect, ordering him to the ground. There they handcuffed him and held him for police officers. McIntosh, a carry permit holder, and Zimmerman, a former sheriff's deputy, had never met until the incident. "I think we should go for coffee sometime and talk," Zimmerman told McIntosh afterward. (The Gazette Telegraph, Colorado Springs, CO, 10/2/96)

Demanding money, the attacker chased Rosemary Campi inside her Indianapolis, Indiana, home where he confronted her husband, dentist James Campi. A fight ensued in which the suspect broke a table leg free and began beating James Campi. Despite assistance from a neighbor, the struggle continued, during which Campi's wife was able to get him the gun he finally used to fatally shoot the invader. (The Sunday Star, Indianapolis, IN, 9/29/96)

When a would-be robber grabbed a customer in an Asheville, North Carolina, store and threatened to kill her if employees did not turn over the money in the register, clerks Joey Allen and Larry Simonds reacted instinctively. In one motion, they both drew handguns and ordered the assailant to release the woman and lay on the floor. Surprised at the turn of events, the suspect did just that. (The Citizen-Times, Asheville. NC. 12/14/96)

As social unrest spilled across St. Petersburg, Florida, making headlines throughout the nation, criminals rampaged through the community looting businesses and burning them to the ground. While most store owners were left to sit helplessly, waiting on the overburdened police and fire departments to come to their rescue, pawn shop owner Oscar Kiesylis, "a staunch NRA member," stood ready. "I could have waited until the bastards came in the store and got them one by one," Kiesylis later said of the looters who crashed their car through his store window. Instead he opened fire with his semi-automatic AK-47 rifle as soon as the vehicle entered the building, sending the intruders on a hasty — and empty-handed — retreat. "They came very close to being with the Lord ," said Kiesylis. (The Times, St. Petersburg, FL, 10/26/96)

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, city councilman Richard Mariano was winding up his midnight town watch shift when he noticed a strange man walking in his neighborhood. When next he spied the man sitting behind the steering wheel of a neighbor's van, he confronted the would-be car thief. Mariano used a few Tae Kwon Do moves to subdue the angered suspect and then held him with his .380 Smith & Wesson as a fellow town watch neighbor called police. The newspaper article said Mariano is "one of three city councilmen who are licensed to carry arms. You know, the sort of fellas you don't want to mess with, especially on a dark street in the middle of the night." (The Daily News, Philadelphia, PA, 12/16/96)

If you have had a firsthand “Armed Citizen” experience,
call NRA-ILA Grassroots at (800) 392-8683.

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Last Updated — June 20, 2008