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Charlie makes his second 911 call in 3 years

posted by Charlie at 5:56 pm.

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While I do often use this blog as a soapbox for my political opinions (are they still considered opinions even if they’re one 100% correct?) and sports leanings, I try not to turn The Lowdown into my own whiny, public version of a high school diary.

For example, I hate cats.

A lot.

But you would never know it because I try not to wax rhapsodical about my cat hatred on this blog.

But today, something rather important/bizarre happened to me.

Someone pulled a gun on me…sort of. It wasn’t a real gun, and he didn’t try and shoot me, he just pulled it out and started waving it around and yelling. You can read more about it here, or here, but I can give you the full scoop below.

I’m walking out of Greg Hall shortly before 3:20 and heading north along the quad to retrieve my bike from the rack on the north side of the building. As I’m walking, a white man who looked in his mid twenties (and a lot like a friend of mine, strangely enough) was walking south past Foellinger. He was yelling at himself. Things like “I’ve studied this for eight years! You don’t know what you’re talking about!” At first, I just thought he was pissed about a test or a professor (maybe he was), but then I noticed a large, silver pistol in his right hand (it didn’t have an orange cap or anything to signify it was fake, and glimmered in the light like real metal).

I quickly started to walk away, though no one else in the area (there were not many) seemed too phased by this guy’s rant. He quickly put the gun into a jacket pocket and continued to walk south. I considered not calling the police, as everyone else seemed to not really be concerned about it, but I realized that because of how closely he clutched the gun to his chest, it’s possible that no one else saw.

I dialed up 911, reported what I saw to the operator, and started walking my bike south towards the Undergrad to see if I could give the operator a more detailed description of where he was. From the doors to the Undergrad, I could see that he had continued south of Gregory into the middle of the South Quad between the bell tower and Gregory. He was pacing back and forth, yelling, and eventually flopped on the ground and started kicking the air. He got up, took the gun out, and started walking north, back towards the Undergrad. I started to back away with my bike, and right after he crossed Gregory, the police swarmed in from the north on foot, and in cars along Gregory. The guy seemed unphased by their presence, and refused to go down until the police drew their guns and ordered him down. As he hit the deck, he kept yelling “I! I! I! I! I!”

They put him in cuffs, and I gave this same description to the cops, who later told me that there where medical factors involved in his behavior, and I believe that as of now, he has not been charged with a criminal offense. I must say, I was extremely impressed with how quickly, and with such force the University police responded. From the time I hung up with the 911 operator, until the time he was in cuffs, was probably only about two minutes, possibly less. Six officers, at least one on foot and four in cars arrived in about the time it took him to walk from Gregory, to the middle of the South Quad and back.

That’s pretty damn good. And it makes me feel better to know that the University’s contingency plan worked if there ever was such an incident (or if that gun turned out to be real). For as much shit as I give them for giving parking tickets and ruining Friday nights (I can personally attest), I saw a Uni cop run head long into a situation that he knew to be dangerous without giving it a second thought.

There has been a lot of talk about whether or not those with mental illness, or those taking medication should be allowed to purchase firearms in the wake of NIU and V. Tech. I have my own opinions about guns and gun control, and thank god, the gun he was waving was not real. But, after observing what a true mental breakdown can mean, I can’t imagine how badly things could have ended if that gun could have shot bullets instead of plastic pellets. As a nation, we reserve the rights to remove key liberties and rights if an individual has proven himself incapable or undeserving of using them responsibility (felons not being able to vote, hunters who violate game laws having their guns confiscated as examples). Maybe it’s time we start applying that same logic to those who lack, or may easily find themselves lacking, the ability to control their behavior, and whether or not those people should be allowed to own and operate firearms.

Please leave your opinions on the matter below.

Seriously. Fuck cats.

Charlie Johnson: Charlie is a student in news/editorial journalism and fully supports changing our national anthem from "The Star-Spangled Banner" to "Go Cubs Go."