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Gun Dealer's
Personal Account of Saving His Own Life with a Gun January 15, 2001 Two days ago, J. David Phillips, who was
attacked by a deranged man with a samurai sword last year, sent an email to
the President of Citizens Of
America, the organization running a national PRO-GUN media campaign (http://www.CitizensOfAmerica.org).
There are many important messages contained in Mr. Phillips' emailed account of
the attack, which he kindly allowed us to publish on KeepAndBearArms.com.
Following is his letter, plus contact information and an address, should you
care to lend a hand: Brian, On September 26th of last year, I had a man try
to purchase a 357 magnum from me here, in the store. He had come in the week
before, and paid for it, and had to wait the obligatory three business days.
Upon opening the store at 11:00am on the 26th, he was waiting for me. After
having him fill out the 4473 form, I called it in to FDLE (Florida Division of
Law Enforcement), which is the point of contact to the FBI for us dealers in the
State. The check came back Conditional Refusal, which gave the authorities
another three days to further check out the guy. Well, he wasn't real happy about it, and tried
to get me to transfer the firearm anyway. I told him, no ok from the State, no
gun. He left, and waited about an hour, and a half, and came back when no one
but myself was in the store. I was sitting at my desk, which is in the back of
the showroom. As he approached, he produced a 36" blade Samurai sword, and
said " this is a Ninja sword", and stabbed me in the upper right
chest. Evidently, my subconscious saw something coming, and I immediately pushed
myself back from the desk so hard, that I pushed myself out of the chair, and
onto the floor behind me. As I'm trying to get up, he ran around the
desk, and kept trying to stab me. The fight was pretty intense, and I was
starting to get the worst of it. I had my Glock 19 on a file cabinet under my
desk that I had reached for as I went past it--- but missed. After what seemed
like a few minutes, I was able to break contact, and ran for my office door,
which is about ten feet from my desk. Unfortunately, he was about a half step
behind. I was fixated upon getting to my office desk, where there was a loaded
.38 revolver in the drawer. At the office door, I took the door and slammed
it as hard as I could on him, with no effect. But, he did stab all the way
through the door with the sword. ( pretty sharp instrument) I was able to get
over to my desk, and stumbled as I got to it, sprawling myself, and everything
on top of the desk in a pretty messy manner. As I got up from the top of my
desk, I remembered that the 38 in the drawer, was in fact, not loaded, and was
in pieces from my taking it apart the day or so before to clean. neat-o. As I turned around to face my attacker, he
stabbed me in my left abdomen, piercing my upper intestine. With the sword in
me, we began to struggle again, and somehow waltzed to the other end of the
office, from whence I came. While he's trying to shove the damn thing in deeper,
I was using my left hand to try to pull the blade out. At that moment, was when
I realized that I still had my pocket pistol in my right pants pocket. It is a
950 Beretta, in .25 caliber. As he was focused upon trying to thrust the
sword deeper in me, he didn't notice me reaching into my right pocket and
pulling out the Beretta. I thumbed the hammer back, as it is a single action,
and aimed for his left eye. I only remember firing two shots, but it was
actually five. I hit him twice in the left eye, and twice in the left cheek, in
close proximity to his eye. I also hit him in one of his hands, and that round
went all the way through his hand, and through my office door, out to the
street. The two rounds that made it to his cheek, spent
themselves, and dropped about 15 feet behind him on the floor. The two that got
his eye, tumbled around in his brain, and one lodged in his spinal column, and
the other lodged somewhere in his brain. He dropped like a sack of lead. I
stumbled out into the store, and called 911, and waited for the cavalry to show
up. They flew me to St. Joseph's hospital in Tampa,
Florida, who has one of the best trauma units in the State. I was on the
critical list for a couple of days, and stayed for ten. The so-called Ninja warrior died the next day,
after being pulled off of life support. He had been stalking Kristine Abernathy
of the Weather Channel for two years, and had not been found out. He had between
2-300 rounds of 357 ammo in his van, and additional swords, knives, throwing
stars, and the like. On a piece of paper he had written his agenda, and the last
entry was for him to go to Atlanta. I still feel weak, and like garbage most of the
time, but the doctor says this will pass in about 6 months to a year. The digestive tract is really goofed up, and I
really have to watch what I eat. Work is still work, but at least I'm alive to
complain about it. We have Blue Cross, and Blue Shield insurance, and so far,
they have only paid a fraction of the bills. Sorta like getting attacked again.
Hell, if we don't pay our premiums on time, we're cancelled. If they don't pay
their bills on time, nothing happens. Go figure. I just thought you'd like to know what happens
to people who do choose to carry a firearm, and what would have happened to me
if I hadn't. Without a small, concealable, firearm in my pocket, I'd be dead. It
is that simple. Wish I would have remembered it a lot sooner,
though :-) I'd have saved myself an additional four stabs, and a lot of
additional pain. Thanks for the work that you people are doing,
and you can count on me to contribute again. J. David Phillips Read original
Associated Press account of this event in our Guns Save Lives section, as posted
two days after the attack: http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com/Guns_Save_Lives.
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