Due to Gun Control, Part

Due to Gun Control, Part II - The Saga of Ronald Dixon continues.

Dixon - a Navy veteran from Brooklyn who worked two jobs to try to support his family - shot a burglar in his home.

His crime? He didn't complete New York City's niggling paperwork required to own the firearm. Not carry, mind you - own.

The New York Daily News - which seems to support Dixon - takes up the story:

Dixon, a Navy veteran who holds two computer jobs, was charged with misdemeanor gun possession. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes offered him a plea bargain that would require four weekends on Rikers Island, a deal Dixon and his lawyer flatly rejected.

Hynes' office has been besieged by hundreds of E-mails from angry gun activists as far away as Texas and California, and from people in Brooklyn who are ready to elect Dixon mayor.

Standing firm

But Hynes will not budge from his tough anti-gun policy.

"If you get caught with a gun in Brooklyn, you're going to do jail time," said Hynes, who has held that stance since taking office in 1990, when, he says, "Brooklyn was like Dodge City."

Earlier stories on this subject mentioned that Brooklyn had over 450 shootings last year. Dodge City wasn't that bad.

The DA doesn't mention how many of those "Dodge City" shootings were the fault of law-abiding, employed fathers of two kids. Nor does he illuminate how Brooklyn became "Dodge City" after sixty-odd years of some of America's most suffocating gun controls.

I'm sure we'll get to that.

"Depending on the circumstances, at the very least you're going to do some weekends, but no one is going to be able to take a bye," added Hynes.

Hynes said he questions parts of Dixon's account.

"He did not apply for a gun permit in New York," the district attorney said. "I don't know where exactly he got the gun."

Just so we're clear on this: Dixon is not being charged for the shooting. This is about failing to fill out paperwork. Call it "Felony Flaking on Paper", perhaps?

Dixon's lawyer will move to have the charge thrown out in a hearing Tuesday. Dixon will bring his girlfriend, Tricia Best, and their two children to court.

"I'm just hoping we get something positive," Best said.

"If the judge denies the motion to dismiss, we will ask for a trial," said lawyer Andrew Friedman. "They're insisting on criminalizing him. A criminal record would be ruinous for his career."

Hynes said he would consider reducing Dixon's jail time to two weekends.

If this were an episode of "Law and Order" (and you can bet that it will be, next season!), you could hear the Chief District Attorney bellowing "Take the Deal" right about here.

The ADA handling the case probably knows what Dixon's lawyer knows - that a jury of Brooklyn residents is not going to give a felony record to a neighbor who defended his children - over more niggling government paperwork. To prevent such a jury, the ADA would have to challenge to exclude all jurors that had ever stood in line at the In fact, Dixon's story may foreshadow the ADA's task:

The ADA is doing his best to spin this:

"Clearly he was justified in shooting this burglar, and the burglar is going to get as much jail time as we can get him," said Hynes.

Note the qualifier. What do you suppose the Brooklyn ADA's record is for locking up burglars?

If Thompson hadn't been shot, it's for sure he'd never have been caught. Had he been caught, the chances of him being prosecuted are minimal.

Thompson was indicted for burglary and criminal trespass and is being held on $75,000 bail. He allegedly broke into Dixon's house about 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday and was rifling dresser drawers in 23-month-old Kyle's bedroom.

Dixon took his pistol, which he bought in Florida and says he was in the process of registering here, and confronted Thompson, who allegedly lunged at him.

Dixon said he fired two shots because, "The only thing I could think about was my family - there was no telling what he would do to my children or girlfriend."

Thompson lunged at a man with a gun. Indeed, there is no telling what he'd have done.

Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes saw the story in The News and had Dixon and Friedman on their Fox News show. Dixon said the TV news magazine "2-0/20" called to profile him. He was the subject of an article in the National Review.

Posted by Mitch at February 3, 2003 09:38 AM