Hindsight from The New Gun Week January 10, 2000
Your Money or Your Life!
by Joseph P. Tartaro,
Executive Editor
How much personal crime can people stand? Where do they draw the line when the police seem unable to stop break-ins and other violations of your property that result in mounting monetary losses?
Most state laws allow you to use deadly force to prevent a violent attack on your own person or that of another. But while protecting lives is generally considered reasonable, the use of force to protect property doesn't seem to get as much support from other people.
What's more, there seems to be a wide gulf between those who condone force to protect property and those who oppose it. In addition, there seems to be a geographical divide that comes into play.
The issue is often debated, but a recent story in The Los Angeles Times, datelined Turtle Lake, WI, provides a model case for discussion. The title, "Booby Trapped Cabin Backfires," seems to plumb both sides of the issue.
"What was he supposed to do?" The Times article began.
"It's not a question so much as a challenge," the newspaper continued, a challenge to anyone who thinks Leonard Miller was wrong to booby-trap his cabin with a shotgun.
Three times in eight months, the cabin had been burglarized.
His hunting rifles had been stolen. His fishing gear too. And his tackle box. His new chain saw and his leaf blower and his Christmas present, a fillet knife still in its box. His boat had been vandalized. His outhouse trashed. His all-terrain vehicle had been torn apart. Clothes, a BB gun and a fold-up cot were all taken.
Enough Is Enough
Even the Hershey bars he'd been saving for s'mores."It had to be stopped," Miller said, according to The Times.
His locks didn't help. Neither did the sheriff.
"Enough was enough," Miller said.
So he loaded his 12-gauge shotgun. He bought string, a pulley and some hooks. And he rigged up a booby trap to catch himself a burglar.
Miller figured he had no choice.
Authorities, however, say he just made the wrong one.
Oh, Miller caught himself a burglar, all right. But he also landed a six-month jail sentence. And a scorching rebuke from a judge who accused him of "taking us back to the days of the Wild West," the days of "vigilante justice."
The vigilante justice comments may stir up a whole separate debate; there's considerable misunderstanding about what the terms mean. Some people use it anytime a citizen defends himself, a loved one, a neighbor, or their property.
Miller's case has raised an alarm in the remote woods of northwest Wisconsin.
Many residents express outrage that a man could go to jail for guarding what's his. Authorities are equally riled at the idea that anyone would value property above life, would set a potentially lethal trap to keep a burglar away from his stuff. Miller should have worked with the sheriff, they say. He should have tried "Neighborhood Watch." He should have been patient and let the system catch the crook.
That's what he was supposed to do.
This, however, is what he did: He wedged his shotgun under his ATV. Then he fixed it so anyone opening the door to his shed would get shot.
He did build in some precautions. For one, he aimed the gun low. He wanted to wound, not to kill. For another, the shed door was padlocked, so a kid couldn't yank it open on a lark. Getting in and getting shot would take work. The way Miller had it figured, only a burglar would make the effort.
"The next time he came by," Miller vowed, "he was going to be sorry."
He was. But, as it turned out, Miller was too.
Burglar CaughtFirst, The Times discussed the burglar: He came early one July morning. The cabin was silent. Miller was home in Red Wing, MN, working his job at a shoe factory. The burglar punched a hole in the wooden shed. He ripped out the padlock. He opened the door. Shotgun pellets tore into his shin.
Some time later, he was crouching by the side of the road, blood soaking his right pants leg, when a sheriff's deputy drove up. The deputy, naturally, was curious. The burglar, naturally, wasn't talking.
But another deputy remembered all those thefts at Miller's cabin. He also remembered Miller's vow to do something about it. So he drove over for a look.
He saw the shed door broken open. He saw the gun aimed at his shin.
And he knew he had two crimes to deal with.
Arlin Zuech was charged with attempted burglary. (There was no evidence linking him to the other, previous break-ins.) He pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced in January.
Then The Times reported that Miller was charged with setting a spring gun. That's a felony, but the prosecutor knocked it down to a misdemeanor. In return, Miller pleaded guilty.
He was sentenced to six months in jail. Plus two years' probation and 100 hours of community service.
He arranged work-release privileges so he can keep his job at the shoe factory. But he has to pay the jail $11,775 for the right to come and go. Add in legal bills and court fees and the $5 booby trap cost Miller about $14,000.
That, plus six months in jail? Folks in Miller's part of the country don't think it's fair.
They point out that Miller tried to work through the system long before he set the booby trap. He called the sheriff after each burglary. Investigators took fingerprints, even measured tire tracks. They never identified a suspect.
Miller couldn't install a burglar alarm, since his cabin has no electricity. And he didn't take down the cutesy touches that make his cabin so welcoming, like the teddy bears tacked up to hug tree trunks. Still, he barricaded the place as best he could with padlocks and chains, a reinforced gate, "no trespassing" signs galore. None of it worked.
And so, folks in Wisconsin ask, what was he supposed to do?
Jim Bell, publisher of the local Barron News-Shield, said, "Deep down, in all of us, there's a little bit of 'Damn it all, we want to get even.' And that's just what Miller did. It's not like he shot Little Red Riding Hood." His readers, he said, sympathize with Miller and resent his six-month jail term.
Bell understands why, too: "There's a whole bunch of potential Leonard Millers out there."
And authorities fear that Bell is speaking the truth.
As Circuit Judge Edward Brunner told Miller at his sentencing: "[This is] taking us back to the days where there were no rules and everyone carried guns and handled their problems as they saw fit.
"And that can't be condoned," the judge said, "no matter how terrible you feel about the loss of your property or the invasion of your space."
Miller was also lucky that his gun nailed a bad guy. What if firefighters had broken into the shed to save it? What if a child, desperate to find a lost puppy, had pried open the doors to peek inside?
Indiscriminate Response"A spring gun is indiscriminate," District Attorney Jim Babler said. "It doesn't know who is opening the door."
That's why it's illegal in Wisconsin to set spring guns. It's illegal in most states, too. In fact, The Times said that it was illegal in most states to use any lethal force to protect mere property. If Miller encountered an intruder in his cabin, he could shoot to defend himself. But he can't rig a gun to save his fishing tackle.
"Aside from being illegal, it's immoral," Babler said.
Miller, who reports to jail soon, vows that he would set another trap in a minute, although not with a gun, if he thought his cabin was under threat.
"I've been asked if I have regrets," he said. "No."
True, he's going to jail. But he put a burglar behind bars, too. And he stopped a crime in progress. The way Miller has it figured, he did just what he was supposed to do.
"Society's way failed," Miller said. "My way didn't."
The New Gun Week is published three times a month by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) on the 1st, 10th, and 20th. Hindsight is a commentary written by SAF President and Gun Week Executive Editor Joseph P. Tartaro. This commentary may be reprinted so long as credit is given to the author and the publication. For more information or to subscribe, write Gun Week, PO Box 488, Buffalo, NY 14209, or call 716-885-6408 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, or inquire on Compuserve to John Krull, Production manager-JohnSAF@Compuserve.com or gunweeksaf@broadviewnet.netAlso, check out the New Gun Week at http://www.GunWeek.com