News stories of civilian self-defense seldom receive adequate media coverage. After all, armed good guys stopping violent felons does not make for the headlines of innocents being killed that the media focuses on. Bias and agendas play their part, but the media cannot cover an event that did not happen, such as a case where a good guy stopped a violent event before it happened. However, these are exactly the type of stories we need to highlight to educate non gun owners before they head to the voting booth.
Our purpose is not to encourage vigilantism. It is a pure numbers play. There are about 20 million citizens licensed to carry a concealed weapon in public. There are many more who keep a firearm in the home or place of business. The U.S. only has about 800,000 sworn law enforcement officers. Your odds of an armed private citizen being in your vicinity and coming to your aid may be greatly higher than local law enforcement when seconds, not minutes matters.
Law enforcement officers, for the most part, are very overt. Their mere presence is deterrence to crime and that is good. The armed citizen is typically covert. The firearm is concealed. While it does not have the same type of deterrence as law enforcement, it increases the predator’s risk. Even if the intended victim looks harmless enough, the predator does not know who is around the corner, pulling into a parking lot, or ready to emerge from their home as was in the case in Sutherland Springs Texas.
Here are two stories to share with your gun owning and non gun owning friends of guns being used for defense.
Louie’s Grill & Bar, Lake Hefner, Oklahoma City, OK
At the end of May, a mentally ill man walked into a lakeside restaurant. He complained of hearing demons in his TV and from his computer. The murderer walked inside the lakeside restaurant and shot three strangers—a mother and her two young daughters. Patrons ran and hid. The restaurant is posted as a “gun-free” zone, so there were no armed defenders inside.
While the patrons were all obeying the law, at least two of them had weapons secured in their vehicle. They quickly made their way out of the restaurant and armed themselves. Returning to the restaurant, they engaged the attacker and shot him.
Walmart, Tumwater, WA
In mid June, an armed criminal carjacked a 16-year-old girl and injured her in the process. The carjacker then drove her stolen car to a nearby Walmart. There, he walked into the store and shot a display case several times.
The shoppers fled, most running to the parking lot. The suspect then proceeded to carjack a second car. He shot the car’s owner in the process. News reports recounted that armed civilians converged on the criminal and shot him. Initial reports and eyewitness varied, but concluded that two or three armed citizens engaged the carjacker. One of the armed citizens also retrieved a first aid kit and rendered aid to the victim of the second carjacking. The victim survived the attack.
Do you know of a recent event of where armed good guys turned the tide on a bad guy? Share it in the comment section.
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I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Dolbee, we really need to see more of these type of stories and share them across our personal social media to educate those who are not firearm savvy.
Oklahoma law is a bit screwy. A business can post a sign to be “gun free,” but the sign has no teeth. there is no law in OK giving them gun free status. To further complicate things, the CC is supposed to determine is the establishment makes more than 50% of its proceeds from alcohol sales. no signs required by the business. That makes it a “bar,” and you are not supposed to carry in a “bar”. Once again, no sign is required to show status. I just carry. To hell with it!