By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Saturday, July 11, 2015
Former CNN Headline News anchor Lynne Russell wrote an essay for rival network Fox News in which she defended the right to bear arms. This right saved her life and that of her husband, former CNN special correspondent Chuck De Caro after they were attacked by a robber in an Albuquerque motel last month.
De Caro was shot three times but he survived after shooting and killing the armed assailant Tomorio Walton, a man who police say was given drugs by another man to commit crimes.
“The United States of America is a great country," wrote Russell, who worked in Atlanta at CNN Headline News from 1983 to 2001. "You can debate absolutely anything, whether or not it has merit, and whether or not it’s any of your business. But guns? There’s nothing to debate.”
They were on a cross-country trip and stopped at the motel because it was dog friendly. As De Caro showered, Russell went to the car to procure dog food. That's when Walton approached with "a big, silver semi-automatic weapon," she wrote, and "shoved me into the room."
De Caro (Air Force Academy, U.S. Army Special Forces) stepped out of the bathroom and the couple tried to distract Walton while concealing two small .380 legal handguns. They sensed this guy has done this many times before.
For a second, I thought he'd leave. Instead, he opened fire on my husband. Chuck returned fire, emptying his gun even as he was bleeding profusely.
Fortunately, De Caro is recovering. Walton? Dead.
She then stated: "Get a gun, get legal, be responsible, trust yourself. Don't trust yourself? Then don't carry. But for God's sake then, shut the f**k up about it, because that's where your involvement ends."
Russell noted that they were married a year ago and she wrote "thanks to the Second Amendment, my crack-shot husband and the pistol he used, we were able to have a first anniversary."
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