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Guns & The Stars & Bars

February 21, 2008 5:20 PM

Producer Howard Rosenberg reports:

Randy Laird is a pro-gun activist who wears some of his political views on the back of his shaved head: a prominent tattoo of the Confederate flag. Not that you should infer from the "Stars & Bars" waving proudly above Laird's not-too-redneck that he's embracing anything other than the accoutrements of his fellow Harley-riding pals from the Renegade Classic Biker Outlet Store in Houston.  "I hope you won’t be offended,” Randy Laird implores, “but the whole back of my head is a Confederate flag." 

Laird, who describes his occupation as "disabled Vietnam Veteran," actually roared onto the TV screen at a demonstration on the street outside of Pasadena, Texas resident Joe Horn's house.  Horn is the retired computer manager who shotgunned to death two men—illegal immigrants it turns out—who burglarized his next door neighbor's home on a bright Wednesday afternoon last November, and who has become a central player in the on-going debate in Texas about whether deadly force is justified to protect property. 

The shooting prompted Houston activist Quanell X—head of the city's New Black Panther Nation—to organize a demonstration on the street of the quiet suburb where Horn lives.  When Quanell X announced he was leading a protest to Horn's house, Randy Laird was incensed.  So Laird gathered a few of his friends from Renegade—a lively apparel shop featuring leather vests, jackets, pants and tee-shirts denouncing Hillary Clinton and Jane Fonda.  They quickly mounted a counter-demonstration and were joined by a hundred or so local residents and onlookers.  The result was a collision of perhaps 200 people, waving signs and trying to out-shout each other. Each time Quanell X began to speak through his bullhorn, Laird and his fellow bikers would twist the throttles of their motorcycles and rev the engines to drown him out.

The Pasadena police had a squad of riot police at the ready, but there was no violence.  Laird explained that he and his friends were there for a reason: "We feel very strongly that as Americans," he said,  "someone has to step forward and stop the protest of burglars coming into our home, killing our families and stealing our property.  We have the right, under our Constitution, we believe to protect ourselves, and our families.  I assure you that if someone comes to my house, I would do the same thing Joe Horn did.”

Joe Horn's case is not so clear cut though.  In Texas, the so-called "Castle Law" that went into effect last September, extends the traditional right of a citizen to be secure in their home—or in their "castle," for the statute is based on English common law—to anywhere a Texan has a lawful right to be: in a vehicle, in the workplace or conceivably, at a shopping mall.  And the statute also eliminates the obligation of a person to "retreat" if possible before using deadly force and strengthens protections against civil suits that might be brought by the families of those killed.  The potential problem in the Horn case is that the men he fatally shot were robbing his neighbor's house and posed no imminent threat to him if he just stayed in his home, as a 911 dispatcher told him to do more than a dozen times.

Still, Randy Laird says the law has made Texas a safer place for him, his children and his wife Jannis, who is the vice president of a local bank.  "I think it’s made people more at peace," he said.  "I believe they feel like they have the opportunity now to show that they mean business.  You come in my house and I’m gonna shoot you."

Watch "Nightline" tonight for the full story.

February 21, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (2)

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Posted by: Victoria Fannin | Apr 2, 2008 11:53:44 PM

Posted by: Paul Delaware | Jun 25, 2008 12:42:53 AM

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