Mr. Ronald Dixon of Brooklyn,
NY, "was upstairs, in bed, when he heard a noise in the
hallway. Half asleep, he opened his eyes and saw a man at the
top of the stairs heading toward the bedroom of Mr. Dixon's
2-year-old son, Kyle. That was enough for the father. He
grabbed a 9-millimeter pistol that he kept in a closet,
walked toward the man and asked what he was doing there. This
man, Mr. Dixon said, ran at him, screaming. That's when he
pulled the trigger. He shot the intruder twice, wounding him
seriously but not mortally."
Now, 27-year-old Mr. Dixon is your basic "straight arrow," a
Navy veteran who works two jobs -- 80 hours a week -- as a
computer specialist to provide for his family, including two
small children. The man accused of being the intruder, Ivan
Thompson, 40, is a career criminal with a long record of
burglaries and other crimes. If convicted this time, he
could be locked away for a long, long time.
Case closed, right? Not quite.
Mr. Dixon had purchased his gun legally when he lived in
Florida. He had just recently moved to Brooklyn, and was smack
dab in the middle of running through all the hoops and jumping
through all the rings -- and there are a LOT of them -- to get
his gun registered in New York.
But the registration process wasn't yet complete when he used
his gun to defend his family. And Mr. Dixon lives in a borough
whose district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, "considers the
prosecution of illegal-gun charges a supreme virtue. Mr. Hynes
wants Mr. Dixon to do jail time... If convicted of the
misdemeanor charge against him, Mr. Dixon could get as much as
a year. Mr. Hynes is offering a plea bargain that would
involve four weekends, tops, on Rikers Island." (Mr. Dixon works weekends {and just about every other day as well} and would lose at least one of his jobs if he eccepts the deal)
You read that right. Mr. Dixon is facing up to a year on RIKERS
ISLAND (the same prison holding the guy he shot) if he doesn't accept the "plea bargain" from District Attorney Hynes and plead GUILTY on a gun possession charge, for a gun he had purchased legally and was in the process of making legal in New York. And if he's found guilty, his permanent record could keep him from obtaining work in his field.
