Kroger shooting highlights folly of gun bans

During the open carry 'Defense' Walks, Kroger corporate management informed inquirers that the company was enforcing its firearms ban under a very liberal interpretation of Ohio law regarding firearms prohibitions where liquor is being dispensed (served).

When it was explained that this prohibition is only applicable to establishments which SERVE liquor by the drink, Kroger Customer Service replied that they have "no intention of changing their policy."

As the following story shows, gun prohibitions like Kroger's only succeed in disarming the law-abiding. The story also displays the painful circumstances of yet another innocent Ohio woman who was forced to be stalked and terrorized with no option for legally defending herself.

UPDATE:
Business ban hypocrite: Kroger stores in Ohio enacting concealed carry ban

April 01, 2004
Columbus Dispatch

Gunshot victim ‘has always come to everyone’s rescue’
Family not surprised man risked life for co-worker

After taking a bullet in the gut to save a co-worker, John Brining’s only regret was that it meant canceling his Saturday guitar lesson.

"That’s why he went to work two years ago, to help pay the family bills, buy a guitar and take lessons," Heather Savage, 29, of Groveport, said of her younger brother.

Outside his hospital room at Grant Medical Center yesterday, police, family members and the woman whose life he might have saved said the same thing: John Brining is a hero.

Brining, 19, a bagger at a Kroger in Canal Winchester, was shot in the abdomen Tuesday by a man who burst into the store looking for cashier Sharma Rochester, 52.

John Brining’s family was shocked when police told them he’d been shot. But they weren’t surprised to learn he had risked his life to save another.

"John has always come to everyone’s rescue," said his 26-year-old sister, Hope Brining, who lives with John and their mother, Lynda, in another Groveport home.

"He just felt like it was his job to protect Sharma," Hope said.

Brining knew Sharma Rochester’s stepson Christopher D. Rochester had threatened her, Hope said, "so he would go out and check the parking lot for her" before she left work.

When Rochester showed up at the store about 12:20 p.m. Tuesday and pointed a gun at his stepmother, John ran to help.

"He said there was no way he was going ‘to let that bastard shoot her,’ " Heather said.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

Bleeding, Brining walked over to his boss to tell her he had been shot. His co-workers immediately surrounded him and used store T-shirts to apply pressure to the wound.

Brining was in fair condition at Grant last night.

Christopher Rochester, arrested shortly after the shooting, appeared in Franklin County Municipal Court yesterday. He is charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of felonious assault, one count each of aggravated assault and assault, and three counts of inducing panic. He is being held on $500,000 cash bond.

Co-workers of Brining’s came to the hospital throughout the day, dropping off boxes of his favorite candy, Lemonheads, and copies of guitar magazines.

At 15 and 16, Brining spent much of his time caring for his maternal grandfather, Oscar Fulk. When his mother was severely injured in an April 2001 car crash, just months before his grandfather died, he took on the responsibility of caring for her, too.

Brining’s father, Larry, died in 1997, so he left school in the ninth grade to be there for his mother and grandfather. Brining, instead, was homeschooled, family members said.

"I don’t know too many 15-year-olds that would cut their grandparent’s toenails or shower him or cook for him," Lynda Brining said.

A tear came to her eye as she recalled how John would work in the garden and bring fresh corn, tomatoes and onions into the house.

Brining declined to comment from his hospital bed yesterday. He said he didn’t want people to make a "big deal out of this," Savage said.

"He does not like the attention. He just wants to go back to work and playing guitar."