DEFENDER DATABASE EXTRACT As of April 3, 1994 This Defender Database Extract contains 144 one-paragraph summaries of newspaper articles reporting on people successfully defending themselves with firearms against criminal attack. These summaries were originally printed in "The Armed Citizen" column of the monthly American Rifleman mag- azine. They constitute all of those whose original newpaper publication date was 1993 or early 1994 as printed through the April, 1994, issue of American Rifleman. The full Defender Database contains about 3200 such accounts and may be obtained by following the instructions in the final section of this file. The accounts, or records, in this extract may be viewed, browsed, and printed to printer or file by means of the accompanying runtime program. The records may also be searched using preselected keywords to find those meeting certain specifications. For instance, you can quickly find all records involving an ELDERly WOMAN defender using a SHOTGUN. The body of the text may also be searched for any desired word or phrase, but this is slower than using keywords. INSTALLATION The Defender Database Extract consists of ten files compressed into one self-extracting (executable) file named DEFENDJR.EXE. Since you are reading this, you have already successful performed the extraction. The ten files you should have are: DEFENDJR.IPD - This is the database which contains the records. DEFENDJR.IPI - Contains the index to the keywords. DEFENDJR.TXT - Contains the introductory message for the program. README.DOC - The documentation file which you are now reading. KEYWORD.LST - Printable list of keywords for desk reference. IPRT.EXE - This is the program that displays the records. IPRT.HLP - Contains help screens for IPRT.EXE. IP.INI - Contains the initial configuration for IPRT.EXE. If this file is missing, IPRT.EXE will create it when reconfigured. TXHELP.EXE - Used by IPRT.EXE. GO.BAT - This is a batch file to run IPRT.EXE. It contains instructions to display the introductory message and open the database. If the GO.BAT file is lost it can be recreated to contain the fol- lowing instruction: IPRT /MESS:DEFENDJR.TXT /OPEN:DEFENDJR The Defender Database Extract may be run from either a floppy disk or a hard disk. To install on a hard disk merely copy all the files to the directory of your choice. THE PROGRAM To run the program, change to the directory containing the Defender Database Extract files and type GO. An introductory message will be dis- played. Press ENTER and the main program screen will be displayed with the database already loaded. If the GO.BAT file is missing, the program may be run by typing IPRT, although then the introductory message will not be displayed and the database will have to be loaded through the FILE menu. (See the previous section.) The main screen has a menu bar across the top with three options: FILE, VIEW, and QUIT. The first time you run the program, select FILE. A drop-down file menu will appear. Select HELP. A help menu screen will appear which lists the help topics with their page numbers. Select page one (1), then read all the help pages by pressing ENTER after you finish each one. These will provide instructions for using the program, which need not be repeated here. The help pages can also be accessed at any time by pressing F1. Since the program is a runtime version it cannot be used for editing or deleting the records. It can only be used for viewing, searching, and printing. Individual records can be blocked from viewing by selecting VIEW, VIEW KEYWORD LIST, highlighting the record to be blocked, and then pressing CTRL-U. This is called "deleting" but the record still exists; it merely cannot be viewed. The record can be unblocked by repeating the above since CTRL-U acts as a toggle to "delete" and "undelete". There are four function keys available when viewing a record. F3 prints the record to a printer or a file. If the filename is followed by a plus sign (e.g., OUTPUT.FIL+) then the record will be appended to a pre-existing file. F8 is a highlight toggle that turns on or off the highlight of the keyword or search text. F9 brings up the previous matching record and F10 brings up the next matching record. The program has been preconfigured as follows. The path (where to find the files) has been left blank so its default value of "current dir- ectory" applies. The monitor type is set to color. The printer port is set to LPT1. The left margin is left at its default value of five (5). The top margin is set to one (1) so as to leave a blank line between records when printing more than one to a page. The automatic page advance after printing a record is turned off so that multiple records may be printed on each page. Any or all of the above may be changed by selecting FILE, CHOOSE PROGRAM OPTIONS, and then answering the questions. The ESC key will back you out of any screen you are in. When you reach the main menu bar, pressing ESC again will result in an exit con- firmation request. Answering y (for yes) will terminate the program. The program can also be terminated by selecting FILE, QUIT, which will also ask for confirmation. Using QUIT on the main menu bar leads you to the exit without the confirmation request. THE DATABASE Each record is a one-paragraph summary of a newpaper article report- ing on an incident in which someone thwarted a criminal by using a gun. Following that, in parentheses, is the name, city, state, and publication date of the newspaper in which the article originally appeared. Finally, also in parentheses, is the issue date of the American Rifleman in which the summary appeared. This database provides illustrative corroboration of the research findings of Prof. Gary Kleck, School of Criminology, Florida State Univer- sity, that guns of all types are used defensively more than two million times per year. If Prof. Kleck's statistics are the skeleton of defensive firearm use, then these reports are the flesh, providing shape and sub- stance, showing in personal terms the utility of firearms to real peo- ple fighting for their lives and the lives of their families. And yes, for their property, for the acquisition of property and savings requires the expenditure of time and effort. He who steals property steals a slice of someone's life. These reports will be useful for the gunowner who wishes to write his legislators, editors, and others concerning the benefits of gun ownership and the social costs of gun controls. For example, if one wishes to make the point that guns enable the physically handicapped to defeat strong, young thugs, then he can find examples by searching on the keyword HANDI. These reports will also be useful for criminolists, sociologists, and psychologists who wish to study how people react under criminal-induced stress. How does the victim resist? What tactics does he use? Can an armed defender prevail against an armed assailant, or is he too clumsy and dimwitted as the gun-banners would have us believe? (Search on the key- word DUEL.) How does a criminal react when faced with an armed victim? Does he flee, surrender, or attack? These reports do not allow defini- tive conclusions, but do provide interesting and informative insights to human behavior when adrenaline hits the bloodstream. And they will be useful for fiction writers, both novelists and screenwriters. This database is a rich lode to be mined for plot situa- tions and character attributes. The great advantage of placing this data on a computer is that then it can be easily and quickly searched for desired characteristics. Find- ing a desired incident by browsing through back issues of magazines is tedious and time consuming. On computer, it can be found in seconds or less. The runtime program provides two ways to search the data. The first uses keywords. The compilers of the database assigned key- words to each record as it was entered. There are ninety-two keywords altogether: seventeen describe the defender, twenty-eight describe the location, twelve describe the attacker, twelve describe the crime, ele- ven describe the defender's gun, eight describe the gun's use or result, and four are "other". Not all of the keywords will be represented in this Defender Database Extract because of its limited size. In assigning keywords, it was assumed that the defender was an adult male. If that was not the case, then the appropriate keyword, such as WO- MAN or BOY, was used. Similarly, it was assumed that the attacker was an adult male. If not, then a keyword such as FEMALE or YOUTH was used. Keywords may appear outside their nominal category. PIZZA, for ex- ample, indicates the incident occured in a pizza restaurant. But it would also be used in connection with the robbery of a pizza deliveryman. In addition, there are keywords for the year of the incident's pub- lication and for the state in which it occurred. In this extract the year will be either 1993 or 1994. The state keywords are the standard abbrevia- tions of the U.S. Postal Service, preceded by an asterisk (e.g., *NY for New York), plus three others--*AS for "at sea", *CN for Canada, and *MX for Mexico. Searchs may be made on a single keyword, on multiple AND keywords (e.g., WOMAN&ELDER), and on multiple OR keywords (e.g., BOY~GIRL). Multi- ple keywords may be in any order. It is not possible to mix AND and OR searches. The OR sign is the tilde (~). On the IBM enhanced keyboard, the tilde is obtained by shifting the key in the upper left corner of the alpha- numeric key group, i.e., shift the key to the immediate left of the one (1) key. One of the "other" keywords is the @ sign, which is used to indicate an incident of special interest or significance. In this extract, search- ing on the @ sign will provide a quick tour of the database to demonstrate its variety. Select VIEW, KEYWORD SEARCH, SINGLE KEYWORD SEARCH, @. After reading each record, press F10 to go on to the next. All of the keywords are listed in the KEYWORD.LST file. Printing them out will provide a hardcopy for reference when running the program. TYPE KEYWORD.LST > PRN The second way to search is an In-Text Search. Instead of looking in the index of pre-determined keywords, the program searches the body of the text for specified words or phrases. The dialog boxes presented and the method of entering the search string are exactly as for keywords. An in- text search is slower than a keyword search, but it enables searching for any word instead of only those the database compilers selected. To search the body of the text to find all incidents involving a teach- er, select VIEW, IN-TEXT SEARCH, OR - MULTIPLE OR SEARCH, teacher~professor~ instructor. THE FULL DEFENDER DATABASE The full Defender Database contains approximately 3200 summaries of armed citizens defending themselves against criminal aggression and requires almost two megabytes of disk space. The records include every one of "The Armed Citizen" columns from the American Rifleman magazine issues from Octo- ber, 1986 through April, 1994. About two-thirds of the records are from scattered issues going back as far as the first "The Armed Citizen" column in the September, 1958, issue. The compilers hope to continue expanding the database as new issues come out and old issues are found. Some tidbits: * Oldest defender: A 101-year-old woman using a revolver from before the turn of the century. * Youngest defender: A six-year-old boy who bluffed his mother's assail- ant by pointing and cocking an unloaded rifle. * Clumsy crook: He fumbled his gun attempting a fancy fast-draw. His victim picked it up from the floor and shot the robber. * Dumb crook: He tried to hold up a bingo game sponsored by the Frater- nal Order of Police. * Greedy crook: He put down his pistol so he could use both hands to stuff the money into his pockets. The victim grabbed it and fired. * Irony: An anti-gun Supreme Court Chief Justice answered his door at 11 p.m. in his bathrobe and "toting a long-barreled revolver." * Indomitable defender: A 63-year-old paraplegic in a nursing home was attacked by three men with straight razors. He grabbed a revol- ver and shot one. The others fled. * Busy defender: Gas station owner was the target of 30 robberies. He captured the crooks 27 times. * Gunslinger: Seeing her husband and son attacked by two robbers, a woman grabbed two pistols and started firing with both hands. One thug was hit three times, the other five. A police officer said, "That's good shooting from two hands--for anyone!" Possessors of the Defender Database Extract (Defendjr) may obtain the full Defender Database for only $25, plus $3 postage and handling. Mention Defendjr and specify the floppy disk size desired. You will also receive any updates free for one year. Send your order to: A. Chatzithomas 202 Crystal Brook Hollow Road Port Jefferson Station, NY 11776 * * * End of File * * *