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MODERN TIMES Why the Rich Pack Heat

Even before the legislature made it legal to carry handguns, affluent North Dallas professionals were scared, angry, and ready to fight back.
By WILLIAM SIMON |

On March 3, 1994, Bob Scott, 63, a retired North Dallas banker, returned home from a neighborI hood shopping trip with his wife, Pat. A gunman who had followed their goldtrimmed navy blue Cadillac Seville robbed Mrs. Scott, then shot and killed Mr. Scott in his driveway after first taking his watch and wedding ring.

Twelve days later, violence again visited the affluent. The armed robber who shot and killed Mike McManemin in the driveway of his North Dallas home did more than take the life of a 39-year-old business-man with a wife and two young children. The .45 bullet that entered McManemin’s chest and left him dead beside his Mercedes-Benz also inflicted massive trauma on the psyches of Dallas homeowners who previously regarded their manicured neighborhoods as bastions against violent street crime.

The “driveway robberies,” as they were quickly dubbed, represented a defining moment in the lives of many upscale citizens of North Dallas. With the McManemin and Scott tragedies, violent crime was on their doorsteps, forcing some to make a life-changing-and, they hope, life-saving- -decision.

For obstetrician/gynecologist Michael Kahn (not his real name), 43, a new way of looking at the world includes two 12-gauge shotguns, two semiautomatic handguns, and the training to use them safely and effectively. It’s an impressive arsenal for someone whose knowledge of firearms, until last year, was limited to summer camp target shooting with single-shot .22 rifles. Kahn explains that his decision “was the culmination of a growing concern about violent crime in this country. But it was the driveway shootings that motivated me to take acton.”

Kahn was also shaken when he found out from news reports that some of the robbers were stalking people from the parking lot of the Tom Thumb supermarket where he and his wife buy their groceries. Most disturbing of all was the realization that compliance didn’t guarantee safety. “If they want my watch or my wallet, they can have them,” says Kahn. “But it was more than that, It was ’Give me your watch. Give me your wallet. Bam! You’re dead.’ They shot them for no apparent reason. It was no longer robbery or theft. It was robbery, theft, and murder.”

The ob/gyn turned to firearms “to even the playing field.” In the eyes of Kahn and others like him, one old frontier aphorism has reclaimed much of its relevance: “God made some men tall and some men short, but Sam Colt made them all equal.” After purchasing a large caliber handgun and taking basic safety and shooting lessons, Kahn realized that in a violent encounter equality required more than the basics. “Sure, I could safely handle the gun and hit a paper target, but paper targets were unlikely to attack me. 1 wanted to learn how to defend myself with a handgun. That’s when I wrote to several private firearms instruction schools.”

Kahn chose Thunder Ranch, described in brochures as “a state of the art reality-based firearms training facility” located on 2,400 acres in the Texas Hill Country. “The only goal at Thunder Ranch,” says owner and instructor Clint Smith, “is to win.”

It was a philosophy and type of instruction that appealed to Kahn. “I’m not looking for a confrontation,” he explains, “hut I’m prepared for one. 1 completed the defensive handgun course with the confidence that I could defend myself. 1 have the basic skills, with continued practice, to survive a gunfight. I’m not relying on luck,”

Alan Frankfurt, 41, an anesthesiologist at Presbyterian Hospital, has invested considerable thought and energy into providing for the security of his family: “My home is a positive point of reference forme. Good things happen here.” But so can bad.

“Dallas has changed,” says the physician, a Dallas native. “There is more senseless violence. Crime that would have shocked us 15 years ago seems almost routine,” He mentions an incident close to home. Behind St. Mark’s, the school he graduated from, a father and his 2-year-old son were beaten up by youths as a part of their gang initiation. “I think there is a justified perception that it is more dangerous to live in North Dallas than it was 20 years ago,” says Frankfurt. “And since the unthinkable has become thinkable, I’ve made a decision to increase my level of protection. Part of that revolves around the ultimate responsibility for taking someone’s lite if 1 believe they are going to hurt me or my family.”

A tour of Frankfurt’s Preston Hollow house reveals a thoughtful application of what the doctor calls “layered protection.” The bedrooms are on the second floor, and there is only one staircase. “My home is configured,” says Frankfurt, “so that if a guy wants to steal my TV, he doesn’t have to come upstairs.” Besides deadbolts, glass breakage alarms, and a dog, the Frankfurts also installed laser motion detectors. The goal is two-fold: to discourage criminal entrance and to provide an early warning. Criminals who make it upstairs will be met from a prepared defensive position with an assortment of weapons including shotguns, heavy caliber handguns, and a semiautomatic rifle.

All these newly armed Dallasites have read the same statistics: The crime rate is actually falling, they know, but they don’t feel any safer. Richard Hawkins, associate professor of sociology and criminology specialist at Southern Methodist University, explains the apparent contradiction: “Statistically, overall crime is decreasing,” says Hawkins. “But the type of violent crime that is increasing is crime by teenagers, and that tends to be more random. What you have is the irony of fewer homicides occurring, but the risk to totally innocent people has increased. It used to be that crime was pretty much relegated to bad parts of town and wealthy people could go out to the suburbs and get away from it all. But now we have gangs and drive-by shootings in the suburbs. You have car-jackings in the suburbs. So, the world, in terms of risk, is much less safe than it was 20 years ago. It is frightening for upper-class people who have not really been bothered by crime to suddenly see it happening in their driveways.”

One response to the violent crime trend is what Hawkins calls a “fortress mentality.” This translates into locked gates, closed-off roads, private security patrols supplementing the police, high fences, and technological security devices. He quotes a passage from Norman Mailer: “Individuals in our free society are locking themselves up in their own prisons, while criminals on the outside go free.”

Winston Oxley, 39, an attorney with a prominent Dallas law firm, isn’t willing to trade the open road for any enclosure. He’s a devotee of long-distance motorcycle riding. When Oxley’s not working on weekends, he’s out riding one of his five motorcycles. He had toyed with the idea of carrying a handgun while riding and camping by himself but never acted on the idea. The day of decision finally came when he and a friend were camping off-season in a deserted state park. Late that evening four guys drinking beer cruised around the campground. Nothing happened, but the incident made Oxley think about his choices if there had been trouble. His only option would have been “to hope like hell” that their attackers wouldn’t hurt them, and that wasn’t very comforting. Shortly-after that trip, he bought a .40 caliber semi -automatic Glock.

Oxley believes the concealed-handgun law allows people an alternative. “I already owned my own handgun before the driveway robberies occurred last year,” says Oxley, “but that was a big factor in validating my decision to own and carry a handgun. Those incidents demonstrated what happens when you’re in a situation where you have no viable alternative other than relying on that person not to hurt you. They also demonstrated that there are people who will shoot you for a Rolex watch or for a $20 bill.”

Firearms instructor Smith thinks dissatisfaction with the judicial system accounts for much of the popularity for the concealed-handgun legislation that passed into state law on May 26 of this year. “In Texas, today,” says Smith, “we sentence a guy to 10 years, and he serves 10 months, max. The citizens of Texas forced their legislators to vote for a concealed-handgun law because they’re tired of being afraid in their homes and on the street.”

Those who consider the criminal justice system a viable institution point with satisfaction to the results of the trial against the man who murdered Boh Scott. On March 7,1995, jurors instate District Judge Larry Baraka’s court found Derek Haggerty, 21, guilty of capital murder in the death of Bob Scott. The court ruled that Haggerty must serve at least 40 years before he is eligible for parole. Upon leaving the courtroom, Pat Scott embraced relatives and supporters and spoke to journalists. The guilty verdict and sentence imposed by the court, she told a reporter, “makes me feel much safer.”

But those who look to gun ownership to enhance their personal security don’t share Mrs. Scott’s sense of well-being. One month after the Haggerty verdict, Robbie Bodden was returning to her house near Preston and Royal when she was attacked in her garage by a young black male, Witnesses say the assailant struck Bodden several times with a crowbar. He stole several articles of jewelry, her watch and purse, and then escaped to a waiting car. At Baylor Hospital, Bodden was listed in serious condition.

The deadly cycle goes on. And every time that violence strikes, someone else will decide that it’s time to even the playing field.

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