The Self Defense Files: By Robert Waters

Kids and Guns

Posted: 12.27.00

Give a kid a gun and he suddenly becomes a monster, shooting up
schools and blowing away anyone whom he perceives has wronged
him. Right?

That's what the mainstream media would have you think. While such
incidences do occur on rare occasions, many other times kids use
guns to save lives. But these stories don't fit the media stereotype
and therefore get no national exposure.

On Sunday afternoon, March 19, 1985, Jacqueline Roland, a mother
of two, heard a noise outside her home near Bethel, Oklahoma. As
she went to investigate, she told her six-year-old son Jimmy to get
the family gun. In addition to Jimmy, four other children were in the
home at the time.

As Mrs. Roland stepped outside, a masked man grabbed her and
placed a knife to her throat. Jimmy Roland, following his mother's
instructions, walked outside with a .22-caliber rifle. Seeing the
masked man holding his mother, the youngster aimed the gun at the
assailant's head and cried, "Turn my mommy loose!"

"Put the gun down!" the masked man snapped.

Instead, Jimmy Roland cocked it.

According to Pottawotomie County Sheriff Paul Abel, "the man
apparently thought the boy was going to shoot him. He loosened his
grip on Mrs. Roland and she broke away." The assailant fled but was
soon captured, along with two accomplices. All were lifelong
criminals and predators.

Sheriff Abel had nothing but praise for six-year-old Jimmy Roland. "In
all likelihood," the sheriff said, "he saved every one of those people's
lives...They're just average people who taught their child safety with
guns from the time they were real little, because there are guns in
that house as there are in most of the houses around here."

In a barrio near Compton, California, eighteen miles south of Los
Angeles, Hispanics have to fight every day just to survive. According
to an Associated Press article, on March 30, 1999, at around noon,
two robbers entered the 99 Cents Plus Mini Market. The
sixty-two-year-old owner, a grandmother whose name was not
released, was working the counter along with a teenage employee.
Her twelve-year-old grandson was also in the store.

One of the robbers pointed a "machine pistol" at the owner and
demanded money from the cash drawer. The teenage employee
knocked the gun away, and began struggling with the robber.

As they were fighting, Dennis Smith, the second robber, began
beating the owner. He knocked the grandmother to the floor and
continued to punch her while she was down.

Her twelve-year-old grandson grabbed a handgun and fired several
shots, hitting Smith four times. He died a few hours later. The other
robber escaped.

The twelve-year-old was not charged.

Juan Zamora, who owns a shop next door, summed up the
desperation of those trying to earn an honest living in the barrio.
"Always they have troubles because everybody try to steal," he
said. "The police come very late. They come after one hour, after
three hours, after four hours. Everybody is still afraid. Nobody
protects us."

Adam Cummins, 38, of Wichita, Kansas, was a diagnosed paranoid
schizophrenic. He could function normally at times, then he would
snap and become violent. Because of his mental illness, Kathryn
Adams, his mother, had raised Cummins' fifteen-year-old daughter.

On May 17, 2000, at 10:00 p.m., a visibly agitated Cummins
appeared at Adams' home. Having first-hand knowledge of his violent
tendencies, she locked the front door and refused to let him inside.
Undeterred, he kicked in the door.

As the crazed man launched a vicious assault on the terrified
woman, Adams yelled for her grand-daughter to "get the gun." In the
meantime, Cummins hit Adams several times with a claw hammer,
fracturing her skull.

As the assault continued, the fifteen-year-old ran to a nightstand in
her grandmothers' upstairs bedroom and pulled out a handgun. By
this time, Cummins had bludgeoned his mother into unconsciousness.

Then he started up the stairs.

His daughter met him at the top of the stairs. She fired one shot,
striking Cummins in the abdomen, ending the assault. He died a few
minutes later. According to a story in the Wichita Eagle, Kathryn
Adams remained in critical condition with a fractured skull.

Jim McNiece, principal of Northeast Magnet High School, where the
girl attended, stated that the school had provided counseling for the
traumatized teen. "She has a lot of support from family and friends
at school," he said. "She's a nice kid, and is worried about her
grandmother. That's where all the attention of the family is focused."

Police said that over a long period, Cummins had had many dealings
with law enforcement officials and mental health agencies. He had
threatened police officers, mental health workers, and his ex-wife
(the mother of the fifteen-year-old). For years he had fought with
his wife and mother for custody of the girl. The family had tried
numerous times to have him institutionalized. On the day he died,
he'd called his ex-wife and threatened to kill her.

Police credited the fifteen-year-old girl with using appropriate force
to stop a vicious assault.

Kids and guns.

Did anyone see these cases on the national news shows?