From Deseret News archives:
Schanze and employees protest
Schanze and about 2 dozen of his Totally Awesome Computers employees held a honk-and-wave rally on the sidewalk outside 3rd District Court along Redwood Road near 8100 South.
Holding signs that read "Rights are not wrong," Schanze and his group said they wanted to bring attention to what they felt was the injustice of the judicial system that charged Super Dell and to also stand up for the rights of all gun owners.
"To charge me with a crime is absurd. It borders on terrorism," Schanze said. "They've done a horrible injustice. The courts should never have brought charges for something so obviously in my rights.
"Everyone who knows me knows I'm not a criminal. I want the truth out," he said.
Schanze, 36, is charged with a class A misdemeanor for allegedly making threats with a dangerous weapon in a fight and a class B misdemeanor of reckless driving. A trial was scheduled for Feb. 15-17.
The charges stem from an incident on May 21, when Schanze was allegedly confronted by a group of angry residents who said he was speeding through a Draper neighborhood. At least one of the residents allegedly held a rock and threatened to break the tail lights of Schanze's Jaguar while his young daughter was in the vehicle.
At that point Schanze, who has a concealed weapons permit, allegedly waved a gun at the crowd.
Wednesday, Schanze maintained his innocence saying the people he says came after him with a rock were the ones who should have been charged.
"You should be allowed to defend yourself. Everybody would have done what I did," he said.
Schanze said he was not only sticking up for himself but for all gun owners who are harassed "all the time."
But Schanze also noted that even if the charges were dropped now and apologies were offered, the damage has still be done through what he called "malicious attacks" in the media.
"Unrepairable damage has been done to my reputation," he said.
And the damage isn't only to his reputation, Schanze said. He says sales at his business were down 40 percent. The livelihoods of 100 employees and their families are also affected, he said.
Super Dell closed his stores for a few hours Wednesday to allow employees who wanted to participate in the rally to do so. He said he did not force or pay any employees to show up to the rally. Totally Awesome Computers will reopen today.
"I'm absolutely angered by (the charges)," said Karen Cottam, manager of the Totally Awesome store in West Jordan.
