Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
From: [wd 6 cmu] at [netcom.com] (Eric Williams)
Subject: Re: DISARMED FEMALES?
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1996 22:24:14 GMT

In a previous post, John Briggs ([j--ri--s] at [indirect.com]) wrote:
: [r--o--k] at [BIX.com] (Rick Cook) wrote:
: Anybody have the original post? I don't recall seeing it. I replied
: via e-mail based on the fragment that was quoted. Silly me, I thought
: the original poster meant a woman or someone disarmed of her firearms
: by the _authorities_ who was later murdered. I had one of those and
: forwarded it. If Mr. Cook is correct I probably confused the hell out
: of [Mother 39] at [popmail.skypoint.com.]

Maybe you meant this one:

Woman Slain After Police Disarmed Her
by Joyce Price, The Washington Times
October 20, 1994

Police in Cheektowaga, NY, forced a woman to surrender a licensed handgun
just days before her estranged husband shot her and her mother to death.

The police action has outraged criminal justice experts, officials of the
National Rifle Association, and advocates for victims of domestic
violence, who charge that disarming the woman increased her vulnerability
by removing her primary means of defense.

"Women are the biggest victims of domestic violence, and in 99 percent of
cases men can overpower them,...so the only thing a woman can do to
protect herself is to use a firearm," said Harold Schroeder, an NRA board
director.

"It's appalling that the police didn't make a distinction between the
aggressor and the victim... They shouldn't have taken the gun away from
the wife, who was the clear victim," said Gary Kleck, a professor of
ciminology and criminal justice at Florida State University.

"And given the fact that she had a legal permit, I don't know if they had
legal grounds" for taking her gun, he added.

But Michael Beard, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun
Violence, said: "Specific, highly individualized cases cannot be used to
justify an overall problem...

"While it's theoretically possible to use a gun for self-defense, that has
to be balanced against the risk of accidents, the possibility of a child's
getting hold of a gun and the gun's being used in crimes of passion or
suicide," he said.

"It's because of these kinds of events that private citizens shouldn't
have handguns in their homes... The presence of a gun makes a situation
dangerous."

The case in question involved Polly S. Przybyl, 36, a licensed federal gun
dealer and mother of two, who lived in the town of Lockport, just north of
Buffalo.

On August 12, Mrs. Przybyl left her husband of 17 years, Lee S. Przybyl,
40.  Two days later, she and her two children went to her mother's home in
Cheektowaga, south of Buffalo, to hide from him.

When Mr. Przybyl arrived at his mother-in-law's house and tried to get in,
his wife called police.  "When police arrived [Mrs. Przybyl] was waving a
gun in the presence of children, and we took it away from her," said
Cheektowaga police Lt. Cheryl Rucinski, adding that police confiscated a
second handgun belonging to her.  "We checked out her estranged husband,
but he wasn't armed," Lt. Rucinski said.

After the incident, the Niagara County Sheriff's Department went to Mr.
Przybyl's Lockport home and confiscated all of his handguns.  "He didn't
turn over his long guns" because he wasn't required to, Lt. Rucinski
explained.  "You don't need a license for rifles and shotguns" in New
York, said Mr. Schroeder, who lives in the state.

But Rita Smith, coordinator of the Denver-based National Coalition Against
Domestic Violence, said: "It doesn't make sense that police took only some
of his guns.  If they took all of her guns, they also should have taken
all of his guns as well... It shouldn't matter that these guns didn't have
to be registered.  Any gun he had was a danger to her."

Seven days after losing her handguns, Mrs. Przybyl and her mother, Gloria
C. Mason, drove to the home Mrs. Przybyl formerly shared with her husband
to pick up clothing belonging to her children.  The two women were killed
outside the family home.  Mrs. Przybyl was shot twice in the head and
stabbed in the heart.  Her mother was shot twice in the abdomen, police
said.

Eleven hours later, Mr. Przybyl used one of his shotguns to kill himself.

Lt. Rucinski said mrs. Przybyl didn't ask for a police escort [during the
visit home].  She strongly defended the police officers' decision to
confiscate the victim's guns. "We traditionally take weapons out" of
volatile domestic situations, she said.

"I'm concerned about the police predilection to impose gun control on
victims," said NRA chief lobbyist Tanya Metaska.  "I don't see any reason
to take her guns away.  She wasn't threatening anybody.  She was reacting
in self-defense to his threats."

Susan Glick, health policy analyst for the Violence Policy Center, said
guns aren't the answer:  "To sanction a woman having a gun to deal with a
situation like this, society is wiping its hands of it."

Yet Ms. Smith of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence said
many women threatened by abusive men believe owning a gun is their "only
option" because "police protection is spotty and discretionary."


-- 
Eric Williams  |  [wd 6 cmu] at [netcom.com]  |  [WD 6 CMU] at [WD6CMU.]#NOCAL.CA.USA.NOAM