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2-7-1997, in the Czech Republic in a town called Blansko, a neo-nazi is shot. In a small town, such a thing causes sensation and many questions. Right from the beginning the police refuse to admit that the shot man is an organized neo-nazi, but keep stressing the fact that one who was shooting is a man with a "bad past", an anarchist, extremist. The media presents their version of the attacker with such sureness, it would seems as if they're only waiting for the courts to pass sentence. The police even has its own biased articles published in a local newspaper.

11 months later the trial starts. The nazis are not able to repeat year old lies stated in police records. At the same time, the witnesses for the defense describe the whole incident in detail, such an experience is surely not easy to forget.

Nevertheless, the prosecution suggests a sentence of eleven and a half years for "attempted murder" (which is almost the highest sentence for such a crime). After several days of exhausting hearings a surprise sentence is pronounced. Vaclav Jez is completely acquitted. This was one of the first verdicts in the Czech Republic when a person defending himself with a gun against an unarmed attacker was found not-guilty.

Although the situation in the town of Blansko has been strained for several months, and the nazis are becoming more and more aggressive, its virtually impossible for people of both groups to not meet in the streets, shops etc.
On the 2nd day of July, I'm sitting with my friends in a park, I don't pay much attention to the fact that at some distance from us there is a group of skin heads, some of who I recognize. After a few minutes, one of them, who I don't know, is approaching us. He leaps to me, grabs my hair and hits my head against a concrete table. After a short period of unconsciousness I get up from the ground considerably weakened, I'm not able to shield the strokes. The attacker keeps hitting me with his fists and kicking me. The rest of the skin heads separate my friends from the spot of the incident. Then comes another stroke with my head against a concrete wall. In a desperate situation when the attacker is standing over me and keeps beating me, I unsheathe my gun and fire with out aiming in the direction where the attacker is standing. He is shot in the shoulder. Immediately he tries to disarm me, helped by his nazi friend. During the fight over the gun, one of them starts to push his thumb into my eye. The pain is so intense that I drop the gun. The nazis themselves are probably realizing that the attack has taken a long time now and so they run away. Until then they thought the gun was an air gun. Only now do they find out that one of them is shot and so they realize the gun is not a air gun. Then they tart shouting at me that I'll go to jail for this and the one still holding the gun tries to cock it. I take a air gun off my friend and for the last time try to get my pistol from the skin head. But he looks rather dangerous aiming at me so I give up and run away.
That is a concise description of the incident. It's for sure that it could have happened in a completely different way, "if" and there are several "ifs".
First of all it's important to say that the conflict could not have been prevented. I would not have guessed the attacker was determined to attack me until the last minute. You can't just unsheathe a gun against a stranger who approaches you. If I had been able to operate with the gun instinctively, my reaction would surely have been quicker, without having to have been beaten so much. But I was not able as I had the gun only for a short time and had practiced only aimed shooting to a target, which is great for contests, but in a conflict it's not very helpful. Also, because the gun belonged to my friend, I did not get a chance to practice very frequently. Only about once a week shooting about 100 rounds. The problem was not that I would be scared to fire (as you will read in some brochures about armed self defense). I felt such pain, the thought of what would happen to the attacker by shooting him never entered my mind. I would have done anything to stop him! I had never understood before this that it is possible to empty an entire magazine shooting at an attacker - now I do. It took me some time to realize that I actually had the gun on me. After a short unconsciousness it took me quite a while to perceive what's going on. For some time I could not see, so for the first time when I shot I could not aim at all.
If someone is not sure what kind of training for self defense shooting to choose, then I would advice "instinctive" + "combat" training. Hardly ever (and my case is proof) do you have time to recognize the attacker. Imagine a young man with a shaved head approaches you. You are careful and suppose he might be a nazi, and so when he is a meter to you, you unsheathe your gun as he might attack you. In the end you find out that he only wanted a cigarette. In most cases the attacker is recognized only when he attacks you. And you must be ready defend yourself immediately using your gun, even though you may be injured at this point. I'm not going to say here whether and why to have a round in the chamber, I suppose it's clear.
Another problem in my case was the gun itself. Here in Europe, the caliber 7.65 Browning (.38 Auto) was probably the second most popular round, after the 9mm Luger. I don't suggest anyone buy a gun of this caliber for self defense. If my gun had been at least .40 S&W, even with the bad hit I made would have paralyzed the attacker for a few seconds (if not minutes). As written above, the attacker noticed his injury (caused by the 7.65 caliber) only after a couple of minutes (an interesting fact is that the Czech police had been using this caliber for about 30 years).
Now I would like to stress the importance of the work of the Anarchist Action and importance of supporting political prisoners. In a country where the social situation is getting worse every day, and where fascist ideas are getting more and more popular, it is essential to build organizations able to fight efficiently against neo-fascism and to defend the imprisoned activists. We are still in a situation where we have to fight on several fronts and a lot of our energy is taken only for us to stay alive. It is no problem for the state to start a process against its enemies. For us, members of a revolutionary organization who are thrown upon self financing, a few of such processes can mean significant limitation of our political work as a result of lack of money. Although we point this fact out all the time, most people involved in the anarchist movement here do not take it seriously, and there are even "anarchists" who refuse to do anything to do anything at all for imprisoned militant anti-fascists because they are pacifists.
The gun used in the shooting