Victim's Finger Should Have Been on Trigger Instead of Telephone Libertarians Say

3/27/01
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Tim O'Brien
(313) 562-5778
(248) 591-3733>

HAZEL PARK. "Begging a 911 operator to please have the police hurry is hardly the best use of the few seconds you have when an armed and dangerous person is trying to break in to your home," observed Libertarian Party of Michigan chair Stacy Van Oast.

She was referring to the tragic incident on Monday in which Detroit resident Stephanie Rice and her brother were murdered by Ms. Rice's former boyfriend -- as she was on the phone calling for help. The killer then took his own life.

"We can't fault police," Van Oast continued. "Their response time appeared to be about as good as can be expected. The simple fact is that the police just cannot be everywhere in order to effectively deal with a crime in progress. You need to be able to do that yourself," she added.

"The ones who do bear some measure of responsibility are the politicians like Prosecutor Duggan and Sheriff Ficano who promote gun control. They disarm and leave helpless good, law-abiding people like Ms. Rice on the bizarre theory that this will somehow deter deranged criminals like the one who killed her.

"When an angry man -- already known to authorities as someone with a history of domestic violence -- came breaking into her home, instead of a weapon Ms. Rice used the gun-controller defense: call 911. The result is three dead. And two orphans," she added, referring to Ms. Rice's two teenage daughters who were at school at the time of the incident. "And a gaping hole in the lives of everyone who knew this decent, loving family."

"Perhaps Prosecutor Duggan," the LPM chair concluded, "would like to give the eulogy for Stephanie Rice. It will be good practice. If he succeeds in his efforts to overturn the new 'shall issue' law, he will be writing the epitaph for a lot more folks just like her."