In the year 1860 a seminarian by the name of Gabriel Possenti was attending a seminary located by the mountain village of Isola, Italy.  The town of Isola was the center of bitter fighting involving the soldiers of Garibaldi, with the town burned and pillaged.  Possenti, unarmed, went to the rescue of the town and encountered one of the soldiers abducting a young woman the soldier intended to rape.  Possenti protested and demanded the soldier cease and desist from his intentions.  The soldier derided Possenti that he, Possenti, was alone and couldn't possibly back up his demand.  Possenti quickly disarmed the soldier by grabbing the soldier's revolver from his belt, as well as quickly grabbing another revolver from the belt of another soldier.  More soldiers appeared with the intention of overwhelming Possenti.  A small lizard suddenly darted between Possenti and the soldiers at about that time and Possenti determined to show the soldiers that they tampered with him at their own peril dispatched the lizard with one shot, when the lizard stopped momentarily.  Possenti then ordered the shocked soldiers to drop their weapons, with the clear but unspoken understanding that unless they were prepared to follow the departure of the lizard they had better comply. 

   Understanding that they faced a most accurate and determined shootist they also complied when Possenti ordered to them to put out the fires they had set.  Upon completion of these tasks Possenti marched the soldiers out of town with the admonition to never return.  Am sure Garibaldi would have liked to have had Possenti at his side, but instead Possenti chose the journey to Sainthood, which entailed in part becoming the Patron Saint of Handgunners. 

    Now, you might ask, what is the connection between Gabriel Possenti, the Patron Saint of Handgunners, and a modern day gunfighter by the name of Jim Cirillo?  While I can think of many connections between Possenti and Cirillo, I'll lay out but a few here -- other than the obvious that they both were of Italian ancestry. 

    First, let me share with you who Jim Cirillo is, in case you've never heard of him.  Jim is an ex-New York Police Department Stakeout Officer, who, according to Tom Wolf, a Western Lore Historian, has been in more gunfights than Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Wild Bill Hickock put together during his career in law enforcement.  Jim is of Italian ancestry on his father's side, from the region of Puglia and the town of Bari, and from Greek, Spartan, ancestry on his mother's side.  When his Spartan grandfather arrived in America, he got off the boat with a revolver and a dagger in his sash, in the tradition of the famous Spartan warriors.  That was, of course, before the New York Sullivan Law, which forbade the wearing of firearms, either open or concealed, which was motivated by an attempt to stop Italian-Americans from taking their rightful place as political leaders in New York. 

    Perhaps an aside of history might be in order here to elaborate on the Sullivan Law and how bigotry against individuals of Italian ancestry brought this law about.  As more and more Italians immigrated to America they realized that unless they had their own representatives in government they would continue to fare very poorly.  The reigning political interests at the time resented this incursion into what they considered their private domain: New York politics and the governmental spoils system they controlled.  In order to curtail any person of Italian ancestry from holding public office they had to come up with some subterfuge to disqualify them from holding office.  The way the political bosses, obviously not of Italian ancestry, determined to do this was through the age old negative stereotyping ploy, in which we find ourselves embroiled today.  That is, the reigning politicians took advantage of the myth of negative stereotyping that most Italian-Americans are Mafia members and are given to violent behavior.  The political powers that were in New York at the turn of the century used this myth as their basis for passing the Sullivan Law in New York.  As the Sullivan Law was being debated in the legislature of New York, before the Sullivan Law was actually passed, there were references to the need to urgently pass the legislation because there were "swarthy complexioned individuals" given to violence, from whom the Sullivan Law would protect the public.  If you've read "swarthy complexioned" as a socially coded term for Italian-Americans give yourself an "A," for you're right on.  Evidently New Yorkers at the time did not know of nor understood the admonition of William Pitt, the Younger, uttered as far back as the 1700s, that, "Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.  It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves," for the Sullivan Law was subsequently passed to protect the public from those violent, "swarthy complexioned" unnamed but obvious individuals of Italian ancestry. 

   How the law was used against the Italian-Americans had nothing whatsoever to do with disarming the Mafia.  Rather, it was used against the emerging Italian-American political leaders at the time, who suddenly found themselves arrested in a restaurant by the police because the police received an anonymous tip that a certain overcoat hanging on a certain coat tree or on a particular cloakroom peg, at a certain restaurant, had a gun in a certain pocket.  No matter how much the emerging Italian-American politician protested that they didn't know anything about the gun or how it came to be in their coat pocket, the Italian-American would then be charged with violating the Sullivan Law against concealed carry without a permit.  He would be brought before a court controlled by the reigning political bosses and would be convicted of a felony, which then forbade the Italian-American from voting, much less hold public office, after they finished serving their unjust sentence in jail.  This ploy was used over-and-over again and had a temporary dampening effect on emerging Italian-American political leaders, along with other "anonymous tips" of handguns being "carried" by such emerging political leaders of Italian-Americans.  Did it do anything to curtail the carrying of concealed firearms by the Mafia?  Well, judge for yourself.  A few years ago a survey was made of the NYPD's issuance of concealed carry permits going back 10 years and it was found that the only individuals who seemed able to get such concealed carry permits were the politically connected, the very wealthy, and THE MAFIA.  Of course, this latter revelation embarrassed the NYPD but they recovered quite well by saying that evidently something had gone wrong with their system (Duh?), as a result of the Sullivan Law, and they would be much more vigilant in the future. 

    But back to Jim Cirillo, gunfighter.  Just as Saint Possenti was a courageous defender of the oppressed and helpless, so too was Jim Cirillo. In Jim's time there were victims like the little old lady who had her elbows shot off by a criminal because she was slow in opening the safe or the store clerk behind whom the criminal hid while shooting at Officer Cirillo who needed the likes of a Saint Possenti around.  In the latter incident, Officer Cirillo and his partner were on their first stakeout and the peephole they were using was too small to afford them a clear view of what was happening. Jim emerged from hiding with his revolver in his hand but hidden behind his thigh, and started walking toward the holdup men.  Two of the felons were each trying to hide behind the store clerk, using the clerk as a shield, with their guns trained on Jim.  At the same time another armed felon came through a side door.  Suddenly the shooting started with the criminals firing first. Jim reports that he saw the hand of one of the felons rise with what he thought was a white handkerchief in it.  His conscious mind asked itself whether the felon was waving a white flag in an attempt to surrender, but as if his service revolver was being fired by some other person, six shots in three seconds were sent forth, hitting all three felons.  One went down with three shots to the head, while the others fired at Jim on the run.  The two felons who were running and firing, were hit with the remaining three shots from Jim's service revolver.  It turned out later that what Jim's conscious mind thought was a white handkerchief turned out to be a silver plated revolver with one round having been shot at Jim.  Jim remembers, too, his conscious mind wondering who was firing his revolver as he didn't think he was shooting it.  Jim's partner reported that he only heard Jim shoot one shot, but Jim's empty revolver and the wounds in the felons showed Jim had shot six shots so rapidly that they were recorded by his partner's ear as one shot.  The store clerk stated the shots were so rapid that all three were fired in a matter of only three seconds.  Jim could feel his revolver bucking with each shot, but didn't think he was doing the shooting.  To this day Jim reports that the only explanation for his being able to shoot that rapidly and that accurately was either due to his unconscious mind taking over or his guardian angel or some other spiritual entity was doing the shooting.  Who knows, maybe Saint Possenti looks after his own and was present that fateful day?

   As an aside, this same gun that Jim used in the above self-defense episode, a double action only .38 Special, I once saw Jim use to keep a tin can jumping off the ground with all six shots striking the tin can.  Now you might say that wasn't necessarily an example of outstanding shooting, but it should be noted that Jim performed this shooting feat while holding the revolver UPSIDE DOWN, in his LEFT hand (Jim is right handed), and working the trigger double action with his LITTLE FINGER!  Oh yes, and did I mention that Jim at the time had cataracts, when I saw him perform this extraordinary display of shooting ability? 

    Now one might think of Jim as a steely-eyed, hardened individual, but that would be furthest from the truth.  Jim is a kind, loving, dry of wit, spiritual, and gentle person, who retrieves and replaces baby birds that have fallen out of their nests and who cried when he saw Bambi and Lassie movies. Animals love and adore him, as evidenced by his female Rottweiler, Diana. Our own German Shepherd, a fearless and courageous male, who will not back down from anything or anyone, and who has been trained in the German Dog Sport of Schutzhund, with its emphasis on obedience, tracking, and protection, fell in love with Jim within the first few minutes of Jim's several day visit with my wife and me.  Now this is a German Shepherd who will not make up with anyone unless several days have passed and he has had time to survey the person for an attitude and distance of aloofness, and even then, sometimes, he will continue to be aloof and not make friends with the person.  In Jim's case, our German Shepherd went up to Jim, where Jim was seated on the divan, and within the first few minutes of Jim's arrival was licking Jim's face.  After that it was a love match made in heaven as Jim and our German Shepherd played various versions of hide-and-seek, which even amazed us as to how Jim could bring out the best in our German Shepherd at finding hidden articles.  When Jim left after his several day visit, our usually aloof German Shepherd, always happy to see guest depart, spent several days on the bed on which Jim slept, mourning Jim's absence.  We had never seen this behavior before in our German Shepherd, but understood that the goodness and kindness in Jim's character were evident even to animals.

    I'll leave you with one story of Jim's ability to see humor even in harrowing situations.  One day a couple of felons came into a store Jim and his partner had staked out.  Jim saw that one of the criminals was armed with sawed off rifle and remarked to his partner that the rifle would make short work of the flimsy flak jackets they were equipped with.  He thus suggested that he would concentrate on the criminal armed with the rifle while his partner concentrated on the criminal's partner armed with a handgun, should they choose not to surrender.  The criminals refused to surrender when called upon to do so and attempted to shoot it out with the police officers.  Jim wounded the felon with the rifle and he fell to the floor, but the felon was only wounded.  Jim's partner shot and killed the felon with the handgun, who promptly fell dead atop his partner armed with the rifle.  The felon armed with the rifle struggled to get out from under his dead partner so as to continue the gun battle.  Now, always Jim carried three guns during stakeout assignments as he found that during a gun battle one did not have the luxury to stop and reload, despite the movie heroes doing so, as it was easier and more life perpetuating to discard one empty weapon and grab another fully loaded one and discard that one when empty and grab the third loaded weapon. This technique resulted in Mas Ayoob, a famous firearm instructor, naming Jim's multiple weapon technique "The New York Reload," and giving Jim credit for its invention.   The criminal, beneath his dead partner, continued to struggle to bring his rifle to bear, while at the same time trying to throw off his dead partner.  The dead felon was absorbing Jim and his partner's bullets, and the felon with the rifle finally succeeded in throwing off his partner, who acted as a shield, and leveled his rifle at Jim.  Having now a clear shot, Jim's partner then shot and killed the felon armed with the rifle. 

   When Jim and his partner were at the station house making out their report, the Lieutenant told them that the Police Chief, who had never been in a gun battle himself, wanted an explanation as to why they had fired 22 rounds of ammunition during the gun fight with the two gunmen.  Jim replied dryly, "That's simple, we ran out of ammunition." 

    Perhaps it might be helpful for me to list some of Jim's many accomplishments to round out the verbal image of Jim Cirillo, one of Saint Possenti's own. (It should be noted that Jim told me that he always asked God, while he was on Stakeout duty, to please always direct his shots so that no innocent bystander would be hurt.  Evidently God heard Jim's petition as Jim's bullets never went astray and injured or killed an innocent bystander or a hostage.  Am sure Saint Possenti would have been proud of Jim's responsible behavior and concern for others; of course, he probably would have expected nothing less from Jim).  Following are some of Jim's other accomplishments: 
 

• Police Officer, NYPD, for 23 years.  Retired.
• Served in the Stakeout Squad with the NYPD from 1967 until 1973.
• From 1976 until 1981 was the Chief Firearms Trainer with the U.S. Customs Department, Region II.
• From 1981 until 1991 was one of the Lead Firearm Instructors for the U.S. 
• Treasury Department at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.
• Jim won numerous awards from the U.S. Department of the Treasury concerning firearm course design and training for Treasury Agents.  His firearm techniques and courses have been adopted across the nation.
• Nominated as one of the Top 10 Handgunners in the United States.
• Recipient of the NYPD Honor of Legion Award, which is bestowed on a NY Police Officer for having been in one or more gunfights.  Jim had many such commendations. 
• Awarded the Queens County, New York, District Attorney's Award for Outstanding Heroism.
• Four time State Champion in Police Combat Shooting.
• Served on the Emergency Service Unit of the NYPD while also serving on the elite NYPD Stakeout Squad.
• Holds several U.S. Patents regarding Police and Firearms related equipment.
• Co-holder of the National Record for Pistol Shooting at 25 yards.
• Winner of the NRA Distinguished Police Combat Medal, number 11.
• Author of many articles concerning firearms and survival combat shooting, as well as having had many such articles written about him and his unique combat shooting style.
• Videos:  Jim Cirillo - "Modern Day Gunfighter." "Guns, Bullets, and Gunfights."
• Won the President's Medal for Police Combat Shooting.
• One of the contributors to the Police Text Book entitled SEARCH FOR AN EFFECTIVE POLICE HANDGUN, by Professor Allen Bristow.
• Author of GUNS, BULLETS, AND GUNFIGHTS published by Paladin Press.

    While I am quite sure that Jim's Spartan ancestry played a great part in his courage and bravery, had Jim not had his accompanying Italian ancestry then there would not have been the Jim Cirillo we know today, as he would have been a completely different person and taken a completely different Journey this life.  Of Saint Possenti and Jim Cirillo and warriors like them, Andrew Jackson once remarked, "One man of courage makes a majority."  Am sure that even his past armed opponents would begrudgingly assent to this description of a fine and kind and spiritual warrior by the name of Jim Cirillo, one of our own. 

Author:  Your ancestral brother, Paul Bernard