Pennsylvania clears man who shot burglar
Siggurdsson sends us a link to the Pittsburgh Gazette which reports that a man was cleared of charges after he shot a former Marine who was acting as a look out for his accomplice in a burglary of the man’s detached garage where he kept his 1977 Mustang;
[John] Rozgonyi left his house and went onto Victor Way, an alley that runs by his fenced-in garage. He he encountered Andrew E. Stevens, a 23-year-old Marine veteran from Munhall, and told him police were on the way.
Mr. Stevens, armed with a handgun, fired at shot and Mr. Rozgonyi returned fire with his pistol, the district attorney said. Each man fired six shots; two struck Mr. Stevens, who died in the alley.
“It has changed this gentleman’s life,” [District Attorney Stephen A.] Zappala said of Mr. Rozgonyi. “The deceased forced his hand. He wasn’t looking for trouble. This is classic self-defense, classic Castle Doctrine.”
The article says that Stevens was a warehouse worker in the Marine Corps which explains his poor marksmanship skills. Stevens accomplice was also arrested and now he’ll face the murder charges for Steven’s death.
Category: Guns
Gotta have range time to go along with firearm ownership.
Well I am just flat out embarrassed by the poor marksmanship skills displayed by the deceased!!! I am guessing he did not pay attention during his marksmanship training in the Corps. Probably sporting a pizza box for pistol marksmanship, or worse yet, he went unk. And now he is dead. Good riddance.
MGySgtRet.: I’m curious. Outside of basic training, most units in the Army often only require soldiers to qualify on their assigned weapon annually. How does the USMC do that?
I ask because in the Army, it’s not uncommon to find troops who only qualify with a pistol once in a blue moon.
A bad shot, and died over a 1977 Mustang. What a sad epitath.
I do believe he can be referred to as an ex-Marine, correct me if I’m wrong…
@2: I’m glad he didn’t pay attention during his marksmanship training.
Hondo, Combat Arms are required to qualify twice a year in the Army while Support is annualy.
It doesn’t say whether it was a Cobra or not. http://www.mustang.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/1977_Mustang.jpg
Gotta love the pony car to understand the man with the gun.
Twist,
Things must have changed…we used to qual only once per year when I was in….okay, to quatify that statement, I joined while Ronaldus was the CinC…
Twist: could well be. I believe the Army requirement is annual (or was when I was last on active duty) – but I’ve been out for a while now. And my last assignment to a combat arms unit was a loooong time ago. (smile)
I was just wondering if the USMC made everyone qualify with both pistol and rifle, or if they only had to fire their assigned weapon. If the latter, the dead guy may have not fired a pistol while in the service after his IET. Could explain why he was such a lousy shot.
Hondo: in my time (way too long ago), if your T/O weapon was a pistol, then you had to requal with it at least once a year, in addition to requal with the rifle.
Hondo, Marine_7002 is correct. If the pistol was your T/O Weapon, you qualed annually. Hopefully you were able to obtain ammo and you could shoot more than that. If the pistol was not your T/O weapon, you would probably shoot it sporadically.
As for the rifle, all Marines have to qual with it every year until you are a Gunnery Sergeant or a Colonel, then the qual requirement goes away. That was unless you shot expert, then the qual was every other year. That was the system when I retired in 09. I am sure hit has changed again since then.
And as for calling him an ex-Marine, why don’t we just call him an ex-human. Shitbag did not rate being called a Marine any more. Not once he decided on a life of crime.
Hondo… The T/O weapon for most junior enlisted folk is the M-16A2, which requires annual requal. The M-9 can be fired for familiarization, and typically becomes the T/O weapon for SNCO’s once promoted to SSgt. To the best of my knowledge/recollection, officers must qualify (annually) with both.
IMO, Munhall was a POS while in uniform and remained so until recently.
a 77 mustang????!!!!!
PH2 – doesn’t matter , it wasn’t a real Mustang – it was a 1977, therefore a Mustang II. The only reason to shoot at someone stealing one of them is to make the insuance claim look better than if you had just volunteered ’em the keys.
Plastic POS then and they haven’t improved.
Catsle Doctrine has little to do with this – having fired the first shot, the loser had invoked straight-up Self Defense. If I’m wrong, someone like Hondo please correct?
Ex-Marine, former-marine…for this POS, I believe the correct term is “punk.”
I was a one-termer during the Carter Admin. After recruit training I never saw the Range again. I believe that my Training jacket somehow had me there twice. Like magic I guess.
I was still more than happy to be an Aviation Ordnanceman.
The only Marine MOS with a birthday. Had a party every year.
Hymie
Marine7002, MGySgtRet., USMCE8Ret: thanks. Somewhat different, but not that much. When I was on active duty with the Army, as I recall you were required to qual with assigned weapons annually. If your assigned weapon was a pistol, that’s what you fired; if you were assigned a rifle, you fired that. In most units, it was “good luck on finding the ammo (and weapons)” to qual on something else, even if you could manage to find the time. I’d guess it’s still much the same today, particularly now that money is damned tight again.
My guess is the “dearly departed” perp had a M16 or M4 as his assigned (TO) weapon his entire career and never fired a M9 except for familiarization. That could explain why his marksmanship with a pistol sucked.
First, the douche got what he deserved, whether he was a Marine or not.
Second, I was a supply guy in the Army and I hit the range more than most of the infantrymen in my unit did. I was an armorer and did actually have to test the weapons I was servicing. Though, when we got the scout/sniper platoon in, it just made things more fun doing “servicing tests” of the sniper rifles. Even after I transferred units and took a Supply Daddy job, I still went out with my armorer to make sure the weapons were properly tested after servicing (and found the AIT turned to shit since I was there).
So, please, it is the responsibility on the individual service member to stay proficient on his small arms training. I can count on one hand the number of soldiers who requested their weapons for range training my entire four years as an armorer… and after my transfer (to a Brigade Support Battalion), my 1SG was told by the SGM that it was okay for personnel to do that.
At least in my non-combat-arms part of the Army, you went to a private range with POWs or you went to do qualification range fire when the unit did. I can’t remember once in 9 years when normal troops did otherwise. The only exceptions were the kids assigned to M60 teams or assigned M203s… they got some – not many – practice rounds. But for anyone assigned an M16 – qual fire whenever (sure wasn’t annually!) was it. Qual fire was something like 43 rounds – three to sight and 40 for the actual score.
Others have said it already but … God, to die over a Mustang II. My beat up ’86 T-Bird with the 302 I drove in college (God rest her) was a better car than any of those will ever be.
gotta love the end result of this, if someone dies in the commission of a felony, it is murder 2. so i guess both criminals get to successfully turn their lives around,one for 20+ years and the other is permanent.