Could the fear of a felony CCW arrest have led to this man's death?

[Homicide victim] had reported threat days before his death
October 2, 2003

McARTHUR — Five days before Nicholas Wheeler was shot to death, he complained to authorities that a gun was pulled on him by the man who would later be charged with his murder.

However, Thomas Craft had denied to a Vinton County sheriff’s deputy that the gun incident took place, and there was insufficient evidence to file charges, according to Sheriff David Hickey.

Wheeler, 24, of Radcliff, had filed a complaint with the sheriff’s office on Sept. 8, claiming Craft pulled a gun on him during a confrontation on Route 124, Hickey said.

Wheeler told a deputy that Craft was following him and his girlfriend closely as they drove on Route 124. Wheeler alleged that when they stopped at a stop sign, he walked back to Craft’s vehicle and Craft pulled a gun on him.

“He pulled a gun out and put it to my belly,” Wheeler said in a written statement he gave the sheriff’s office. Wheeler said Craft told him he would shoot him if he moved. At that point, Wheeler said, he went back to the car.

According to the sheriff’s report, Wheeler told the deputy that Craft had a small .22 caliber semi-automatic handgun.

Commentary:
Ohio's ban on bearing a concealed firearm for self-defense acts as a stiff deterrent to carrying firearms - AMONG THE LAW-ABIDING. Despite knowing his life was in danger, Wheeler chose to rely on the police to protect him, and not to exercise any affirmative defenses. Did he fear arrest more than for his own safety? We may never know.

On the other hand, the man charged with Mr. Wheeler's murder obviously was not the least bit concerned about the ban - just as it appears he was not concerned about a law against homicide.

The founder of criminology, 18th-century scholar Cesare Beccaria of Milan, once wrote:

"False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty — so dear to men, so dear to the enlightened legislator — and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve to rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventative but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree."

Founding Father Thomas Jefferson (another 18th century scholar and politician from whom those obstructing HB12 could learn much) enjoyed these observations - they are quoted in his "Commonplace Book."

Click here to read the entire story in the Jackson County Times-Journal.