DC-Area Shooting Ordeal May Provide New Lessons
November 10, 2002
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
Everyone is relieved that the terror of the “Beltway sniper” has come to an end. As reported elsewhere in this issue, the suspects have been captured. Various jurisdictions are jockeying to see who will try them first and in what court both John Allen Muhammad, 42, aka John Allen Williams, and 17-year-old John Lee Malvo will be subject to the death penalty.
The people living in the populous corridor from the Maryland counties nearest Washington, DC, to Spotsylvania County, VA, have stopped zigzagging when they leave their homes, schools, offices, stores and plants. They’ve stopped looking for white box vans, cream-colored SUVs and the distant glint of light that might be bouncing off a rifle scope.
The media, however, is not going to let this story get away from them anytime soon. In part this is because many of them live in the affected area, so the story concerns them personally. And when a story is about the media, or media people, it’s the biggest kind of story they can imagine.
Many of the experts who were largely wrong have stopped talking or changed their tunes. And now come the recriminations involving early warnings about the suspects and the failures of the Immigration and Naturalization Service—the same agency that seems to have screwed up so badly in the case of the al Qaeda 9/11 terrorists.
While the three-week ordeal of the DC-area is over, many of the residents there and in the rest of the country that watched the terrifying drama spin out have discovered how such concerns can change their lives.
As might be expected, the anti-gunners in and out of politics immediately moved to exploit the tragedy, and they will continue to do so, but people in general can learn some lessons from the whole saga.
CCW Applications Rise
The Beltway sniper scare resulted in a 500% increase in the number of applications for concealed pistol licenses (CPL) in northern Virginia, and a spike in gun sales, according to The New York Post.
CPL applications were up in Fairfax, Prince William, Spotsylvania and Stafford counties, according to officials there. Those are the counties directly involved with the sniper attacks in Virginia. In one instance, a court in Spotsylvania County processed 23 applications in a single day when the normal volume is one application every other day, The Post reported.
One court employee told the newspaper that applications are up among women, many of whom said their husbands sent them in to apply.
In Fairfax County—home to some of Virginia’s leading anti-gunners—where one of the victims was murdered, CPL applications jumped from four to 25 per day, and in Prince William County, the number jumped from four to 15 applications in a day.
One gun shop operator in Stafford County told The Post his sales had increased 300% after the sniper began shooting people in Virginia.
Apparently people once again realized that they were responsible for their own safety—911 was too slow and uncertain.
Real Snipers Object
As the media and law enforcement jumped on the “sniper” term to describe the Beltway murders, the men and women who are trained to take a life only to save other lives, cringed, Associated Press reported.
To them—whether in the military or a law enforcement special weapons and tactics (SWAT) or hostage rescue team (HRT)—the word “sniper” is a badge of honor and a hallmark of skill. And to them, whoever had been terrorizing the Washington area for three weeks in October is not worthy of the name.
“I definitely know they’re not snipers, because snipers don’t take innocent life,” said Neil Morris, who spent nearly two decades as a Marine sniper and has trained countless military and police sharpshooters from around the world. “It’s the most sane, hardworking, dedicated group of people you’d ever meet in your life. And without us, there’d be a whole lot more harm in this world than there already is.”
During the investigation, the task force looking for any leads that might point to the person or people responsible for the DC-area shootings asked the Defense Department to search their records from the sniper school at Fort Bragg, NC, for rejected applicants or former students with psychological problems. The Pentagon did search through their records with a whole mix of possible search parameters, many suggested by profilers and other “experts” who, in the end, were proven wrong.
Former Delta Force and Marine Corps snipers were also asked to visit the various crime scenes in Maryland and Virginia to see if they could shed light on possible suspects. In all, over 1,000 law enforcement agents were involved directly in the investigation, pursuing every possible lead, no matter how remote it seemed.
False Leads
There were many false leads that sent the task force chasing in the wrong direction. There was also at least one witness—who raised everyone’s hopes for a while—who not only was wrong, but created his information. That man is being charged in a separate case.
Now we know that the huge task force was often misled by what some witnesses said, as in the case of the vehicles the suspected shooter or shooters were supposed to be driving. So committed were police to the box truck, van and SUV claims that they apparently disregarded reports of a dark sedan seen in the area.
For many days, if you drove a white Chevy Astro or Ford Econline 250 van in the Beltway area, you could expect to be stopped and interviewed by police. That’s especially true if your white van has a ladder on top.
The Washington Times ran a story on Oct. 17 about a fiber-optic cable technician who had been stopped six times, twice in one week and four times the next week. The guy understands that police have a job to do, but being stopped so often has caused worries about his own safety. Now he wonders if he looks that suspicious to police, will some vigilante attack him just because of the truck he drives.
People with white vans and box trucks aren’t the only ones who had problems. There have been repeated reports by individuals and in some media of law enforcement contacting people who own .223-caliber rifles, as determined from gun shop Form 4473 records.
The Times also reported that authorities checked gun shops, ranges and gunowners in hopes of turning up some kind of lead. ATF agents and local police phoned or visited gunowners at home or work. There were verifiable reports of police taking rifles for test-firing experiments, and later returning them.
But just being a gunowner in that area became a cause for special concern.
The Times also reported that ATF agents confiscated the sign-in log for the prior six-month period from at least one range, apparently not just for a list of names, but in order to obtain handwriting specimens.
Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening shut down hunting in four counties, and while the hunters may support the governor’s decision and will either not hunt or go elsewhere, the businesses that rely on the hunters’ trade each year saw an economic downturn.
Of course, they are not the only businesses in the area that have reported declines in traffic and receipts. Tour operators, restaurants and large retailers also noted a drop in customer numbers.
However, while some businesses suffered, others saw gains. Fewer people willing to go out resulted in an upswing in home delivery businesses. But, no one reported on the stress levels attained by the men and women delivering pizzas and beverages. Maybe they were the first seeking CPLs.
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