Today we will just look at a series of real life examples where private citizens were able to protect themselves, their friends and family, and their assets because of the freedom allowed by the Second Amendment. The mainstream media is only looking at the victims from the Newtown school shooting as if that was the whole equation. That is wrong, it is only part of the total equation and reality. What needs to be done is to look at the other side of the equation, the side that tallies how many deaths were PREVENTED because of private gun ownership:
1) On January 10, 2013, ABC news affiliate KFSN reported on a shooting that occurred at a pharmacy in Madera, California. The shooting happened inside the pharmacy shortly after the last customer left for the day. Two men in ski-masks barged in through the back door and started shooting up the store.
The owner of the pharmacy and his mother, the only two people left inside, ducked for cover as bullets whizzed around them, with one hitting her in the leg. The mother and son said they ducked behind the counter as bullets kept flying. The pharmacist described the situation: "It was not a robbery so much as an execution. It was an attempted assassination, they didn't make any demands, they simply came in, reached over, and it was basically shooting us almost in the back of the head. They shot my mother and almost shot me, I was just surrounded by holes."
Fortunately, the pharmacist had a gun which he grabbed and started returning fire. He wounded one of the shooters, who eventually died, and police apprehended the other shortly afterwards. This wasn't the first time the pharmacy has been hit. The owner was able to stop two other attempted robberies in the 15 years he's owned the business, but this was the first time he felt he and his mother might die: "I thought yesterday was the last day for both us, and luckily it didn't turn out that way."
Fortunately, he and his mom did not die because he had the means and the right to defend his family, himself and his business. It is doubtful that these two hoodlums would have registered their guns in any crackdown on Second Amendment rights.
More details on this incident can be found at:
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=8948286
2) According to a LA Times article from August 2, 2012, the following details describe an attempted heist of a LA jewelry store:
- Surveillance footage from the jewelry store showed a white SUV backing up to the front of the store and five men getting out carrying pillowcases.
- The men ran into the store and pointed handguns at the clerks and a customer.
- Immediately afterwards, shots are fired and the men run back to the door, fighting each other to get out and get to their vehicle as a woman, a store employee, runs after them with her gun.
- The SUV left before three of the suspects got back inside the vehicle.
- Fortunately, nothing was taken from the store and no one was hurt.
In the other robbery attempt, two men tried to rob a mall watch store only to be stopped by a store owner who shot one of the suspects in the head. Both men were later apprehended by police.
More lives possibly saved by the Second Amendment. I doubt the seven robbers would have registered their weapons under any crackdown on Second Amendment rights.
The details of these two robbery attempts can be found at the following link which also includes the store video of the employee chasing out the five robbers (by the way, the employee who chases the FIVE robbers out is the owner of the store, she is a woman, and she is 65 years old!)
Http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/08/65-year-old-shoots-at-would-be-jewelry-store-robbers-in-garden-grove.html
I find it interesting that both of these incidents occurred in California which I understand to have some of the more stringent gun laws, laws that did not prevent these criminals from obtaining firearms.
3) As reported by a Montana television station on January 4, 2013, police were doing an extensive manhunt for a criminal in Kalispell, Montana. A local citizen, Michael Stephens, came face-to-face with the fleeing criminal and tried to physically detain the criminal, but the suspect grabbed a flashlight from Stephens and began to hit him with it.
The attack ended when Amy Stephens came to her husband's aid and held Elliot at gunpoint until authorities arrived on the scene. It is unknown what would have happened to the Mr. Stephens if his wife did not have a weapon available to her but it probably would not have been pretty.
The video and text of the story is available at:
http://www.kpax.com/news/citizens-help-nab-man-wanted-after-flathead-pursuit/
4) The Canton Reporter ran an article on January 3, 2013 describing how in Canton, Ohio, two armed men went into a local butcher store and opened fire on those inside. Unfortunately, for them, an employee shot back, hitting both of them multiple times. After the exchange of fire, both teenage gunmen left the store but were eventually arrested by police at different hospitals.
Police investigators believe the two men entered Hever’s Family Meats with their weapons drawn. They attempted to take money from the cash register and, during the robbery, one of the robbers fired several rounds: “Fire was immediately returned by an employee. A gun battle ensued inside the store,” according to a police spokesperson.
It is highly unlikely that these two teenage hoodlums would have gone through the trouble of registering their weapons in any Second Amendment crackdown. Details of this incident can be found at:
http://www.cantonrep.com/news/x1896978485/Meat-market-robbery-ends-in-gun-battle
5) The CBS TV affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia reported on a violent home invasion incident on January 4, 2013 in the Atlanta area:
- Local police say that Paul Lee Slater used a crowbar to bust open the front door of a residential house in the middle of the day.
- However, a mother was home with her two children and when he heard her yell for them, he gave chase inside the house.
- The chase resulted with the family getting into a crawl space near the home’s attic, essentially trapping the mom and kids in their own home.
- However, when Slater opened the door, the mother starting firing her gun, hitting the intruder five times.
- Slater stumbled out of the house, got into his car but crashed into a tree trying to get away.
- The woman and her children were able to get to a neighbor's home for help.
- Police believe the family was not specifically targeted, that it was a random choice for a home invasion.
- The CBS article also reported that Slater has an extensive criminal history.
Details of the story can be found at:
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/20506821/homeowner-shoots-intruder-in
6) A January 4, 2013 by ABC News in Oklahoma City reported on a woman who shot at two men breaking into her home, killing one of them:
- The woman was at home alone with her three month old baby because her husband had recently died of cancer.
- A week after his death, two men came to her home, armed with a hunting knife and tried to break into the house.
- When she heard the attempted break in, she barricaded herself and her child in a room with a 12 gauge shotgun and called 911.
- As one of the men was going from door to door outside her home trying to gain entry, McKinley called 911 and grabbed her 12-gauge shotgun: "I've got two guns in my hand -- is it okay to shoot him if he comes in this door?" the young mother asked the 911 dispatcher. "I'm here by myself with my infant baby, can I please get a dispatcher out here immediately?"
- The 911 dispatcher confirmed with McKinley that the doors to her home were locked as she asked again if it was okay to shoot the intruder if he were to come through her door.
- "I can't tell you that you can do that but you do what you have to do to protect your baby," the dispatcher told her.
- The mother was on the phone with 911 for a total of 21 minutes.
- When one of the intruders finally broke through the door and came after her with the knife, the mother shot and killed the 24-year-old.
- According to ABC, police are calling the shooting justified: "You're allowed to shoot an unauthorized person that is in your home. The law provides you the remedy, and sanctions the use of deadly force," Detective. Dan Huff of the Blanchard police said
7) Final example, in light of the previous incident and my own experience. We used to live in rural New Jersey, a township that was served by the New Jersey State Police. The nearest, serving State Police barracks was about twenty minutes away, IF you knew how to get from there to our home. As a result of this distance and time, we installed a monitored home security system in our home.
One day at work, a 45 minute ride from home, my security system monitoring company called me to say they had a reported break in at my home and the police have been dispatched. I decided to stay at work and wait for the police report since 1) they would be to my home before me and 2) I did not want to confront any intruders.
After about an hour, the security system people call me back with an incredible request: the State policeman was lost in the rural woods and could not find my home, could I give them directions. Fortunately, it was a system malfunction that tripped the alarm and the police were not needed.
But what if there had been an intruder and we had been home at the time? The State Police would have never gotten to us in time and who knows what the intentions and mental disposition of the intruder might have been, fight or flight, when confronted? I would have liked to have had the option of a legal firearm to protect my family and home.
The Oklahoma mom was in contact with the authorities for over 20 minutes and help had still not arrived. Fortunately, she had the ability and the permission to have firearms on site to also protect her family in the absence of a quick response from the police.
That’s enough for today, hopefully you see my overall point. It was a terrible tragedy that some nut case got hold of some legally acquired guns and murdered over a two dozen innocent people in Newtown. A horrible, horrible tragedy.
However, in any discussion of gun control, both sides of the equation have to be considered. In just the six examples listed above, at least fourteen lives were saved because legally armed citizens were able to protect themselves from violent criminals.
All of these six incidents happened in just the past few months. Do a couple of searches on the Internet and you will find that hundreds, if not thousands of lives, are saved every year by citizens legally defending themselves as a result of the Second Amendment.
Banning guns and shredding the Second Amendment is the not the answer. We have to do the really hard work of understanding why a person gets so screwed up mentally that their view of humanity and the sanctity of life is destroyed, enabling them to randomly kill for new apparent reason. Reasonable gun controls are right to be considered but the facts are:
- Americans successfully defend themselves everyday from very bad people using legally owned firearms.
- Criminals will always be able to get their hands on firearms.
- Criminals will kill using other methods also (e.g. knives, crowbars, etc.), methods that can be overcome by a citizen using a legal firearm (see examples above).
- If criminals obeyed laws against rape, rape would not longer occur.
- If criminals obeyed laws against burglary, burglary would no longer occur.
- If criminals obeyed laws against arson, arson would no longer occur.
More facts, statistics, and realities tomorrow in next installment of “hate control” vs. “gun control.”
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