California leads in

justifiable killings

Records show defensive violence is on the rise

By JOE HALLINAN
Newhouse News Service Mobile Register, Friday - 30 July 1993

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WASHINGTON — Four states account for nearly half of all justifiable homicides by private citizens in the United States, and Californians lead the way, killing at almost three times the national rate, according to a computer analysis of FBI records.

       The records, obtained by the Newhouse News Service, provide a rare look at the increasingly common phenomenon of defensive violence in America.

Among other things, the analysis shows that:

• Justifiable homicides are concentrated in just a handful of states. California, Michigan, Oklahoma and Louisiana, with only 18 percent of the nation’s population, account for nearly half the justifiable homicides by civilians. Alabama ranked 27th in the nation.

• Most of those killed were young black men, and most of them were killed by other black men.

• Women committed only 12 percent of the justifiable homicides. Only 3 percent of those killed were women.

• The weapon of choice is the handgun, accounting for two out of three killings.

       The results also contained some surprises. Colorado, which gained national attention in 1985 when it passed a “Make My Day” law, has a justifiable homicide rate well below the national average.

       According to the FBI data, there were 1,412 justified homicides in the United States from 1987 through 1991 (the most recent figures available). In the last 10 years, the FBI says justifiable homicides have jumped 33 percent. Anne Seymour, a spokeswoman for the National Victim Center, said the killings reflect people’s growing fear of violent crime and their inability to stop it.

       “People’s frustration levels just go ballistic,” she said.

       As high as those numbers may seem, some experts think the FBI numbers understate the case.

       “The FBI is radically undercounting the number of defensive homicides,” said Gary Kleck, a professor at Florida State University and author of “Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America.”

Kleck said the undercount results, in part, from the restrictive definition the FBI uses when counting homicides as justified. Under the FBI definition, a killing is counted as justified only if it occurred during the commission of a felony.

       As a result, cases like the recent shooting of a Japanese exchange student in Louisiana are not counted as justified — even though the homeowner who shot the student was later acquitted by a jury. It wasn’t counted because the victim was not committing a crime at the time he was killed.

Kleck said projections he has made indicate the actual number of “defensive shootings” is between four and eight times the number reported by the FBI.

       Whatever the true number, it is clear that California, which has some of the toughest gun control laws in the country, led the nation in justifiable killings.

From 1987 to 1991, Californians shot, stabbed and beat to death 456 criminals. That is far more than any other state in the country, even when the results are adjusted for the state’s population.

       Experts interviewed gave no clear reason why California ranked so high. But many pointed to the state’s high level of violent crime. California’s violent crime rate is surpassed only by Florida, the District of Columbia and New York.

       “It’s like a war zone here,” complained La Velle Garratt, 62, a victims’ rights advocate from Fresno whose mother was murdered five years ago.

California’s gun control laws include a 15-day waiting period on the purchase of handguns and a ban on rapid-firing "assault weapons.”

       But those controls seem to have had little effect; Californians used handguns slightly more often than the nation at large.

       Most, but not all of the states with high rates of justifiable homicide also had high rates of violent crime — a factor that frequently parallels the number of killings by civilians, said Richard Kania, chairman of the department of justice and policy studies at Guilford College in North Carolina.

       Most of the justifiable homicides took place in the nation’s large cities. Los Angeles alone had 138, and New York had 125.

       But many large cities reported few justifiable homicides. Dallas, for instance, had none during 1987-91. Boston had two.

       The same held true on a state level. Many large states — like Ohio, with 17 — had relatively few killings.

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