Crime

If nothing else, the doctor is guilty of hubris. “He’s a brilliant guy—obviously a very high IQ,” says Embrey. “He may have been a very good surgeon. But he’s shown he’s not a very good criminal.”

“It seems like every other day, there’s an incident,” says Vernell Miller. “Shootings happen so frequently that folks in the community develop an apathy. That’s alarming to me.”

It’s simplistic to point to one thing—guns—and say that’s the problem.

“We take security very seriously," says Jay Ricker of Anderson-based Ricker Oil Co.

After experiencing this and the emotional toll, some might hesitate to pull their gun again.

"I don’t tell many people we own guns, which is why I don’t want to be identified here. I’m not sure how that would go over with other moms."

Criminals “try to prey on people they think are weak,” says Just Pizza owner Joey Davis, who claims he once had a gun pressed into his stomach on a delivery before he escaped on foot, uninjured.

"The rhetoric of the NRA has created an extremist group terrified their guns are going to be taken away."

"Yes, I’ve carried a gun into the Statehouse in the past. Why? Because I can. It’s America."

From homicides to suicides, self-defense to police shootings, firearms claimed close to 200 lives in Marion County last year.