The Ocala, Florida, summer heat made the roads shimmer in the daytime. Even at five o'clock in the morning, there was no relief. It was July 3, 1995, and Jim Irizarry was parked in front of the Ocala Regional Medical Center. Irizarry, a distributor for Tom's Foods, had just made a delivery to the vending machines inside and walked back to his truck.

Inside the hospital, he had entered the data into his hand-held computer. Now he hooked up the computer to a printer for a printout. While waiting for it to finish, Irizarry opened the back door of his truck for some relief from the heat.

Since he worked late hours, sometimes in rough neighborhoods, Irizarry had a Florida right-to-carry permit. He kept a Beretta .25-caliber semi-auto pistol in his truck.

Irizarry noticed a man walking around to the back of the truck. In a recent interview, Irizarry recalled, "As I looked up, I noticed there was a gentleman getting ready to step up into the truck. He had his hands up on the back door and I said, 'Hey, you can't come up in the truck."'

The man ignored Irizarry and jumped into the truck. "Give me your money!" he commanded.

Irizarry told the man he had no money. The man began to curse, and started straight toward him.

Irizarry didn't know that David Perry Johnson, whose street name was "Steamboat", had just carjacked a citizen and made the man drive him to the hospital parking lot. Johnson was a serial burglar and crack addict who had already served three terms in state prison.

Johnson closed on Irizarry. The businessman recalled, "All of a sudden, he swung at me. I knew he was ready to punch me, so I backed off. He hit me in the face pretty hard, but not hard enough to knock me down. I was stunned by the punch, and realized this guy was out to hurt me."

Johnson again ordered Irizarry to give him money.

I rizarry dove at his assailant. They struggled in the back of the truck and then fell out onto the pavement. Irizarry landed on top of Johnson and thought of the gun in the truck. Pushing away from his attacker, he broke free.

Irizarry was able to jump back into the truck, scramble to the cabinet where he kept the gun, and retrieve his pistol. He remembered, "After I got the gun, I walked back to the door of the truck and climbed down. This guy was still cursing me and was maybe five or six feet away. I pointed the gun at him and said, 'You hold it right there!' When he saw the gun, he turned and ran."

Irizarry breathed a sigh of relief, then ran inside the hospital and asked a receptionist to call 9-1-1.

Within minutes, a police officer arrived and asked him to go for a ride. Meanwhile, the robber had crawled underneath a nearby house to hide, but the homeowner had armed himself and was holding him for the police. The officer then asked both Irizarry and the carjacking victim to identify the suspect.

Irizarry said the experience was just like what you might see on television as he sat in the back of the police car 20 feet away and identified the man.

"I'm glad I didn't have to fire a shot," Irizarry said, "but I'm glad I had that gun. He [Johnson] was out to hurt me. I work 12-13 hours a day and I don't eat breakfast or lunch or take a break, and I'm not going to give up what I work for easily just because some guy wants a quick fix:'

David "Steamboat" Johnson was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the attempted robbery of Irizarry, and was given 20 years for carjacking. According to current Florida law, he has to serve 85 percent of his sentence before he can be considered for parole.

I rizarry stated that he does not follow political issues closely. However, he said, "I think gun control hurts innocent people. If you take guns away from innocent people, the bad guys are going to get them anyway. There's crime out there. What are you going to do?"