CBC's Fifth Estate tonight: FIRESTAR .45, Story of an Illegal Handgun - 9pm ET

[Bozita]

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/firestar/index.html

On April 7, 1997, the Arrowhead Pawn Shop in Jonesboro, Georgia took possession, from a gun distributor, of a Firestar, a .45 calibre Spanish-made handgun. Arrowhead owner, Arthur Banks, put the steel-framed semi-automatic pistol in the glass showcase at the back of the store. It was known on the street as a little “pocket rocket”, for its compact size and power. The asking price was $600.

The Firestar .45'S First Owner
Christonia Woods was a small-time drug dealer in Clayton County, Georgia who felt his job required him to carry some protection. For his 21st birthday,Woods wanted a gun, initially, something shiny, big, with a bit of stopping power and he knew just the place to go. He visited the Arrowhead Pawn Shop with his friend Shannon Wilson. Wilson remembers that day, April 29, 1997.

“He wanted something chrome and shiny just for the thrill of having it, you know. But we looked at many guns. He picked out, you know, like the Dirty Harry, .657, the .44 magnum. He started picking out some huge guns he liked that one.”

But, then, Wilson recalled, his friend Christonia Woods spotted the Firestar .45.
“And he said, no, I like this one. I want this pearl. He wanted something pretty.”

The Birth Of Michael James
That same year that the Firestar .45 arrived at the Arrowhead Pawn Shop and ended up in Christonia Woods’ possession, 2,000 kilometres away in Jamaica, the James family welcomed the birth of a baby boy, called Michael.

The story of how the lives of Michael James, from Jamaica and a gun, from Jonesboro, Georgia end up colliding in a suburb of Toronto five years, eight months and 27 days after the Firestar .45 first left the Arrowhead Pawn Shop, is the story of FIRESTAR .45.

more...