My column today is about the unpleasant business of having to goto court to plead not guilty to the possession of an unregisteredhandgun, which was used when my property was violated on June 14.
For readers who wonder what is going on, I offer statements thatI issued at the courthouse: "Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that one ofyou will nominate me for the Guinness Book of Records, because Isurely am the subject - or victim - of the longest, most incrediblecoverage of a nonexistent `misdemeanor' in the history of Americanjurisprudence.
"After six weeks of `water drop' torture by District of Columbiaofficials, I finally have been charged with the possession of a gunthat I never owned and thus had no responsibility to register - a gunthat still belongs to my son, Carl T. Rowan Jr., a former FBI agentwho was told at least twice by District of Columbia policeauthorities that the law did not require him to register the handgunat issue and, further, that they would not allow him to register itvoluntarily.
"District police officials confirmed to my lawyer and to theWashington Post on Friday that the police department's policy is thatall law enforcement people are always told routinely that they arenot required to register firearms, and that no paperwork is generatedin such cases.
"Still, I stand here today not only as the victim of a 2 a.m.violation of my property and my privacy, but as the `villain' in aterrible incident that has turned fairness and the law upside downand made my family and me the sufferers anew.
"I ask you to remember that often in 1987, and in the wee hoursof June 14, 1988, several people scaled my 8-foot fence, bringingdrugs, beer and the filthiest signs of sexual activity to myproperty. At least four of the June 14 intruders escaped and arefree of criminal charges, although Second District policemen haveascertained their names. The two intruders who were arrested on myproperty have been told that charges against them will be dropped ifthey give 40 hours of unspecified `community service.'
"A man who repeatedly made harassing telephone calls to my home,fraudulently used my name and the U.S. mails to order numerousmagazines and book subscriptions and applied for burial plots for myfamily at the Fort Lincoln Cemetery, is so far charged with nothing.. . .
"Yet, I, the victim of all this, am to be prosecuted on a legaltechnicality.
"All I did in the dark morning hours of June 14 was to use whatwas lawfully available to me to protect my home and my wife. Some ofyou in media are repeating over and over the sensational lie that Irushed out Rambo style to my Jacuzzi, or swimming pool, to shoot a`dripping-wet teenage skinny dipper.' I implore you to get the factsfrom the U.S. attorney's office and report them. You will learn thatI never confronted anyone in my pool/Jacuzzi area. I was confrontedby intruder Ben Smith in deep darkness, some 150 feet away from theJacuzzi, out of sight of the pool area. I shot the intruder in thewrist at a spot immediately outside of my patio door as he tried toforce his way into my family room. Investigators from the U.S.attorney's office and crime scene investigators foundincontrovertible evidence that what I say is true. . . .
"I am aware that I am the pawn in a brutal game between thosewho favor and those who oppose handgun control. I want to make itclear that I still favor a strict national law to control theavailability of handguns to those who are not law enforcementofficers. But we do not have such a national law and therefore wemust live within the boundaries that exist. . . .
"There is no hypocrisy in advocating a national policy which noone can get through the Congress and then living according topolicies that exist."
Carl T. Rowan is a nationally syndicated columnist of theChicago Sun-Times.
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