Good Guys using guns for self-defense is one thing the news fails to sufficiently cover. Oh sure, the antis are out in full force whenever someone commits a heinous act, blaming and vilifying the firearm more than the perpetrator. The loss of life is very serious, and we do not wish to aggrandize the loss of any life, whether or not it was justified. However, given the current daily assaults to our Second Amendment rights headlining the mainstream media’s coverage, highlighting instances where firearms were used for self-defense to educate ourselves as lawful concealed carriers and non gun owners is more critical than ever—especially with the midterm elections looming.
Florida Pizza Maker Kills Attacker Wearing Clown Mask
Police say a Florida pizza store worker was likely justified in fatally shooting a masked man who was beating him with a wooden pole. Holly Hill Police Chief Steve Aldrich tells news outlets that Heriberto Feliciano was ambushed and appeared to be defending himself.
Surveillance video shows the man in a scary clown mask swinging a wooden pole at Feliciano as he locked up a Little Caesars store Saturday night.
Feliciano told officers the suspect also tried to stab him with scissors. He said he pulled out his gun, for which he has a concealed weapons permit, and fired multiple times at close range. The suspect was declared dead at a hospital; his identity wasn’t immediately confirmed.
Police say Feliciano was hospitalized for face and shoulder injuries.
Juvenile Shoots Home Intruder Armed With a Hatchet
Authorities in Mississippi say a juvenile shot a man who attempted to enter a house with a hatchet.
When deputies arrived, Jerry Lee Robinson was dead. The juvenile is not being charged, at this time, because it appears he was defending himself.
“The bullet blowed him back and he laid, he fell, and laid right here.”
Rachel Cork said her 16-year-old son, shot and killed her husband’s brother, Jerry Lee Robinson, in the chest with a rifle.
“Yeah, my son defended himself. It could have been the other way around. It could have been my son, I’m the one I’m picking up and having to bury, but it wasn’t.”
Her son was home alone when the shooting happened.
“I just had left to go to work and I took my daughter with me, so when I left to go to work, I probably wasn’t gone from my house, just right up the road, and I guess he come over here, and tried to break in on my son, and my son shot him.”
Choctaw County Chief Deputy Lee Upchurch says the teen got a .270 rifle.
Then Robinson, armed with a hatchet, made an aggressive move towards him at the front door.
“Is that first time that he’s done anything like this?” Asks WCBI.
“No, that’s not the first time. I have some videos where he came into my yard with two machetes, threatening my husband, and everything.”
Deputies say Robinson made threats against the family just two weeks ago.
He lives steps away from their home.
“If there’s something he can’t have, he would get mad, and so he would come and take it out on us.”
The shooting happened in Bywy, which is less than 10 miles from Ackerman.
“Our hearts go out to the people in the community and we’re here to support in anyway that we can,” says Mayor Tim Cutts.
Cork said her son is still traumatized and is trying to cope with this shooting incident.
The case will be brought before a Grand Jury in August.
Police Release Names of Oklahoma Heroes Who Stopped Restaurant Shooter
Oklahoma City police have released the names of the two armed citizens who stopped an active shooter situation last week at a lakeside restaurant.
Police Chief Bo Matthews said during a Friday news conference that Juan Carlos Nazario, 35, and Bryan Whittle, 39, each retrieved a handgun from their vehicles when a 28-year-old man opened fire with a handgun of his own at a crowded restaurant called Louie’s.
“I was just there enjoying the lake scenery and heard shots,” Nazario told NBC News. “At that point I zoned out and had to take action. Just glad no innocent bystanders’ lives were taken, and unfortunately a life was lost, but he had a choice to drop the weapon and chose otherwise.”
Nazario said he confronted the suspect in the parking lot and told him multiple times to drop his gun. When the man raised his firearm to shoot into the parking lot, Nazario fired two shots and “he just fell to the ground.”
Three restaurant-goers were shot, but all three are in good condition, Matthews said.
Though police have also credited Whittle with playing a role in the incident, it isn’t yet clear what actions Whittle took. Both men have said they never crossed paths.
“You can say they’re heroes, which is a good thing to say,” Matthews told reporters. “But I think they stopped a very tragic situation from going any further.”
Whittle, during an interview with USA Today, echoed Matthews’ sentiment.
“I just did what needed to be done to stop the threat. Nothing special,” he said. “A lot of people would have done the same given the situation.”
“I just can’t understand being called a hero when someone’s life was taken,” Nazario told USA Today.
When asked whether Nazario or Whittle had a concealed carry license, Matthews brushed the question aside because neither man was carrying when they retrieved their weapons from their vehicles.
Matthews also said they won’t have to worry about facing criminal prosecution.
“They were protecting somebody else’s life,” he said. “I can tell you historically … these guys were protecting somebody else’s life, I would think more than likely they would not be filed on.”
Police are still searching for a possible motive for the shooting. Matthew said the suspect doesn’t appear to have had any connection to the restaurant or anyone who was inside.
“It looks to me like a random event,” Matthews said. “I mean, in an act like this, you would have to assume that he probably had a little bit of a mental illness.”
Subsequent reports have all but confirmed Matthews hunch. The suspect posted a series of disturbing videos on YouTube in the months leading up to the shooting.
In his most recent video, uploaded on April 27, the shooter says his “life is in danger” and that “Satan is after me.”
He describes hearing tapping, cracking and loud booms in his home, and believes that “the devil is after my (expletive) ass.”
He asks for “real people” to contact him because he’s under a “demonic attack.”
“I’m feeling really bad right now,” he said. “I’m super stressed.”
The incident comes two weeks after Republican Gov. Mary Fallin vetoed constitutional carry, and she used the foiled mass murder to underscore the current laws as “effective, appropriate and minimal.”
“I am thankful that under the concealed-carry and open-carry laws that I have signed as governor, two armed citizens had the ability to protect and save the lives of our fellow Oklahomans,” she said Friday. “This is not the time to debate the NRA’s efforts to repeal Oklahoma’s regulations assuring safety and training for those who carry guns. This is a time to offer up prayers to the victims of this tragedy.”
Do you know of any situations of Good Guys using guns for self-defense that did not get enough coverage? Share them in the comment section.
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