More Ammunition for Both Sides in Gun-Control Debate

Just another Sunday afternoon in paradise.

Until the shots rang out, that is.

This time the shooting range was a nice-looking apartment complex on Harbor Boulevard just south of Edinger Avenue. This time the body count was two dead: a middle-aged woman routed from her apartment by an angry former boyfriend, who showed up armed and dangerous. He chased her through the complex--pleasantly adorned with babbling brooks, rock formations and idyllic greenery--before shooting her several times and then himself.

In its gruesome way, the episode perfectly frames the handgun debate in America.

Would banning guns keep them away from guys like this and have saved the woman’s life? Or do we need guns to protect us, specifically because of guys like this?

I asked that question of five people who live at the complex, mainly to see if their opinions on gun control changed after Sunday’s incident that, almost literally, happened at their doorsteps.

“I just feel safer knowing there’s a gun in the house,” said Tricia Dunnachie, 30. “If someone is breaking in, imagine me as a woman, I’d be more scared than a man, but it would make me feel safer that if somebody came in, I’d be able to protect myself.”

Patricia Fellahi, 37, said, “I don’t believe in guns, I don’t have one in the house, I don’t own one, and I think if there weren’t so many guns and we had gun control then, hopefully, there wouldn’t be as many incidents like this.”

Fellahi said guns don’t make her feel safer, referring to studies that show guns kill many more people living in the home than they do intruders.

Last Sunday’s murder-suicide was so jarring to Nathan Nguyen that he’s moving out. He’s lived in the complex a year but was toting belongings out to his car Tuesday afternoon.

“I never had a gun and I don’t know how to shoot one, and I don’t want one, either,” he said.

Wouldn’t a gun protect you? I asked.

“What if nobody had a gun?” he said. “This would never have happened. So the best way is if nobody has guns.”

Marcus Looney strongly supports the right to own guns and said Sunday’s incident doesn’t factor into the equation. “That could have happened anytime, anywhere, anyplace. As far as no one having guns, that’s bull. Nobody’s going to take my gun away. No way.”

“I think everyone has the right to own a weapon and protect themselves, if necessary,” Looney, 63, said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean they should carry it around on their hip. We can’t have that. But by the same token, I think for many, many years people have had guns at home. Most Americans still have them and want them.”

Looney thinks the apartment manager should have had a shotgun in the office, to use for possible protection. “Every store, every apartment complex should have a shotgun. That doesn’t mean you have to shoot anybody, but it would deter some people.”

Emilio Flores, 40, said he’s grappled with the gun control issue and is still on the fence. He opposes strict gun control but said his conscience prevents him from supporting everyone’s right to have one. “I don’t want to sell a gun to anybody off the street. I have to go with my conscience on that. I consider myself a normal human being, so I wouldn’t want the government to limit my right to have one.”

On the other hand, Flores said, the man who did Sunday’s shooting had often parked next to him in the carport and seemed “like a normal average human being. But obviously he got his button pushed and he went off.”

If nothing else, my little survey hints at how divided our society is over gun control.

One woman wants a gun ban, another wants the right to have a gun. One man wants a gun ban, another wants the right to have one. A fifth man is willing to meet somewhere in the middle.

Five average citizens, all of whom got a close-up look at handgun violence, and nothing approaching consensus. None has a different opinion than they had before the incident.

“People are getting killed everywhere,” Tricia Dunnachie said. She noted that her previous residence in Garden Grove happened to be on the street where a police officer was shot and killed.

Nguyen, the man moving out of the complex, said he’s looking for a safer neighborhood.

Is there such a place?

“Yes,” he said. “I’ll find someplace. Of course.”

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.