Or, perhaps not be a drugged out violent asshole who attacks people with a tire iron. I know the rule is to not judge a book by the cover, but did you see the picture of the guy that wielded the tire iron?
Earlier this week in Nashville, Tennessee, a 19-year-old man reportedly approached another man at an ATM and attempted to rob him at gunpoint. The victim of the attempted robbery shot the would-be robber multiple times; police indicate the injured man will be charged with attempted aggravated robbery upon being released from the hospital, while the shooter is not facing charges.
From West Memphis, Arkansas, yesterday before dawn a man kicked in the door of a house where a man and woman were sleeping; the intruder was then shot and killed by the male occupant of the home. Police are apparently satisfied that the shooting was in fact self-defense, and the shooter will not be charged.
Home invasions are the primary reason I keep my guns loaded and quickly accessible.
They’ve been a problem in my area of Little Rock for over 15 years. I see incidents on my local news frequently.
A door can be kicked in almost faster than a sleepy homeowner can react.
Hey, he’s the one who has to live looking at the mirror every morning and knowing that’s the face of someone people will want to shoot just for the principle of it.
Well, this is a rather startling headline to see from the Washington Post right now: Armed civilian kills gunman, stops shooting spree at Walmart in Washington state.
For what it’s worth, the “gunman on a shooting spree” (who was shot and killed) does not seem to have been the sort of “focused on killing as many people as possible in as short a time as possible” sort of mass murderer we would probably think of in connection with a “mass shooting”. The incident (or series of incidents) started off as a report of a possible drunk driver; escalated to a carjacking; then someone firing shots at a display case in a Walmart; two more attempted carjackings; and finally at least two “armed civilians” confronting the would-be carjacker in the parking lot of a Walmart, with one of them fatally shooting the man. (Note that they somehow avoided shooting each other–I suppose it’s possible they may have known each other, the story doesn’t say–and then also managed to avoid being shot by the police.)
A story from a Seattle TV station notes that the man who was killed had “a history of drug and weapons crimes”. In other words, no, he was not “a so-called responsible gun owner who ‘just snapped’ (as all so-called responsible gun owners are prone to do at any moment)”.
Kudos to the good guys with guns. I gave up watching news channels, oh, about two and one-half years ago. Is this story getting round-the-clock coverage as one might expect based on recent history?
It’s from June 2018. A year ago.
Oh, OK, missed that.
First off, I apologize for not noticing the date on that story I linked to in post #1586. I happened to be looking at the Washington Post site that day (just checking the news) and the story was right there on the front page. I suspect some sort of shenanigans whereby multiple people deliberately searched for an old story in order to drive it to the top of the Washington Post site, or something along those lines, but I should have noticed the date. (The KING5-TV story was simply from a link in the Washington Post story; again, I didn’t notice the date.)
From a couple of days ago in Spartanburg, South Carolina: A 54-year-old man confronted an acquaintance in a store (the two men apparently had some prior history). The second man sought to break off contact with the aggressor, who eventually left the store, but armed himself with a “four foot long piece of lumber” and waited outside the store. When the second man left the store, the aggressor followed him and confronted him again outside the store. The second man told the aggressor to stay away from him; when the aggressor closed to within a few feet (still armed with the large club), the second man shot him, fatally wounding him. Spartanburg Police have reportedly already concluded the shooting was an act of self-defense.
From Tucson, Arizona, a story noting a significant increase in women seeking concealed carry training–the right to keep and bear arms isn’t just for middle-aged white Republican men. It’s also noteworthy that Arizona is a “constitutional carry” state (and has been for years now); even without a law requiring it, people will still seek out training on their own.
This guy had been reported to have threatened people with a firearm before. If this had been pursued appropriately (at least a brandishing charge, preferably an assault charge) it is at least possible this tragedy would have happened. Had I been on that jury, I would have a hard time not thinking he was there looking to shoot someone.
According to police in Dallas, Texas, an armed intruder broke into a house before 1:40 a.m. today, but was shot and wounded by the homeowner. There was no arrest, so the wounded would-be home invader was evidently able to escape.
From Des Moines, Iowa, a man was arrested after giving the police a false name and alleging he had been shot by an unknown assailant; police determined that the man (who had been shot in the leg) had actually been shot by a woman in self-defense after he hit her in the head with a liquor bottle.
An interesting longer article about a man in Virginia Beach who shot two armed robbers in a 7-Eleven, killing one of them. It goes into some of the emotional issues surrounding even a justified shooting; it’s also interesting that the man with the concealed carry permit is a black guy (living in his van, no less), NOT a middle-class white guy.
Now *that’s *what I call positive gun news.
Yeah, I was reading that yesterday, after Eugene Volokh linked it on his blog. It’s a nicely written article that does a good job of going beyond the basic facts and making it a real human story.
From Tuttle, Oklahoma, an elderly couple were tied up in their home by robbers during a late-night robbery attempt; the robbers also beat the husband. Fortunately, he was able to escape from his restraints and get to a gun, firing at the attackers and forcing them to flee.