Home invasion: Cash and guns stolen from elderly man

(Commentary by OFCC TeamLeader John Salyers)

We have heard numerous times in the argument for publishing lists of gun-owners (CHL-holders) that criminals just are not smart enough to utilize the news media to premeditate their crimes or select their targets. The following story is also a reminder that gun control laws fail to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.

Cincinnati's WCPO.com is reporting that three masked men armed with a shotgun invaded the home of a Tri-state elderly man Friday night.

From the story:

"During the robbery, police say the suspects forced the 73-year-old victim to the floor and threatened to kill him several times.

It happened at a home on Aries Court in Colerain Township on Friday night.

The elderly victim told 9News the suspects got away with more than $2,000 in cash and and several guns.

He says, even worse, they took away his sense of peace in which every person has a right to feel in their home, and its something he's not sure he'll ever get back.

It was just before 11 p.m. Friday night when the man, who asked we protect his identity, heard a knock at his front door.

"I opened the door, three guys walked in with doo-rags on and faces covered and a sawed off 12-gauge sawed off shot gun on me," he said.

The grandfather and Korean war veteran says the armed suspect forced him to the floor as the other two ransacked his home. He says they kept repeating the same question:

"They kept asking me where the money is. Where's your money at? One guy kept coming out putting the gun against my head saying he was going to blow my brains out and they just proceeded to destroy my home," the victim told 9News.

"The guy even took a swing at me with the gun and missed and then he hit the TV," he added.

After twenty minutes, the suspects fled the home. Police say they're
described as three male blacks in their late teens or early twenties but
they don't have much else to go on.

Police told WCPO they think because the suspects kept asking "where's the money at" that this elderly victim may have been targeted.

We may never know for sure if this man was specifically targeted for his guns. What we do know, however, is that criminals do indeed possess the intelligence to do a little research and select their targets accordingly. This is yet another example of why publishing lists of gun-owners (CHL-holders) is a terrible idea.