The media is never going to tell you this but good guys and ladies stop bad guys EVERY DAY in this country with legally owned and carried firearms.
This week I found an article written by Crimeresearch.org, documenting 30 such instances in just the month of April, 2023. I strongly encourage you to visit the link and read each story. I am going to use this space to highlight a few of the most outstanding incidents based on the information provided.
Arapahoe County, Colorado, April 6, 2023 (CBS News)
A 31-year-old man was fatally shot Thursday by a Glendale pawn shop employee during an apparent robbery attempt. The alleged robber was on parole.
A caller from the pawn shop called 9-1-1 late Thursday morning to report the incident. Deputies from the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office found a man dead inside the Top Colorado Pawn Shop at 8030 E. Mississippi Avenue.
Based on preliminary evidence, the man who died was trying to rob the store, according to an ACSO spokesman…
“He came in with the gun all ready, three seconds and he had it out, pointed it at one sales person, then pointed it at another sales person,” Anisov said. “The scary part is, he had no mask. Who knows, he might want to kill everybody.”
New details have emerged from Coeur d’Alene police regarding last week’s shooting at the Silver Lake Plaza parking lot between a man allegedly stealing from cars and an older man who confronted him with a gun…
Hagar says Dean and his wife were walking back to their truck in the Michael’s parking lot when they noticed Brown, who appeared to be robbing their truck. Dean drew a gun on Brown before the suspect ran back to the car he arrived in.
Police say Dean put his gun away, thinking the standoff was over. Soon after, Brown accelerated quickly towards Dean, who was hit and lifted onto the roof of the car.
Fort Worth, Texas, April 12, 2023 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
A man was shot outside of a store in Fort Worth on Wednesday after he tried to steal a woman’s truck with a passenger inside, according to the Fort Worth Police Department.
On Wednesday at about 5:30 p.m., police were dispatched to the 4700 block of Benbrook Highway about a robbery.
A man was acting suspiciously inside a local business, according to police.
He was told to leave by an employee and went outside. The man got into a customer’s pickup truck that had the engine on. An adult passenger was sitting in the back of the vehicle, police told the Star-Telegram.
The passenger asked him what he was doing and the man stated he was going to take the truck, according to police.
Multiple suspects and an innocent bystander were injured during a robbery that turned into a shooting at a gas station near the South Loop Thursday night.
The incident took place at the Circle K Valero convenience store at around 8:09 p.m. in the 8000 block of S Loop near Broadway.
According to Houston police, five suspects between the ages of 15-18 arrived at the gas station and four entered the building while the other person remained behind the wheel.
Houston police officers say the four suspects who entered the store with face masks on began demanding customers’ belongings at gunpoint.
That’s when a 22-year-old customer inside the store pulled out his own firearm and began shooting at the suspects. The customer wasn’t injured in the incident, police said.
You cannot rely on the media to bring important information about self defense. It’s important to develop your resources for learning more about self defense, legal risk, statistics and true stories of self defense. Resources we recommend include Personal Defense Network, Firearms Legal Protection, our Free Concealed Carry Classes. You should add CrimeResearch.org to that list as well. These stories also underline why it’s so important to have medical training and skills in the event of an attack. We are excited to be hosting “Stop The Bleed” courses which are essential and FREE classes that will start you on the path of learning these life saving skills.
Get trained, educate yourself, build your skills, think and act defensively. Make yourself harder to attack. You have a moral responsibility to be as prepared as is reasonable to defend yourself.
A little over a month ago, a Denver area man had his car stolen at the Northfield shopping center. He tracked his car down using an app and when he located it, he approached the car to confront the thieves. At least one person in the car shot at him and he immediately returned fire. The car took off and was found a few blocks away, the driver was dead. The driver was 12 year old Elias Armstrong.
Two weeks later, a Pueblo resident was leaving her house to walk to her car when she was ambushed by 4 armed juveniles. When she turned to go back into the house in an attempt to get to safety, she was shot twice in the back by a 12 year old boy. The assailants have been caught and charging decisions are being made.
When the story about Elias Armstrong’s death hit the news, there was a general outcry from some about the killing of a 12 year old boy by a grown man who was trying to get his stolen car back. The story reached national news. The boy’s pictures were used to show the public that this child did not need to be killed.
The story about Chanise Sena being shot twice in the back by a 12 year old boy has received very little attention, even in the city where the incident happened.
The lesson that we should be taking from these two incidents are important. The first lesson is that you are risking a great deal when you voluntarily enter a potential life and death situation. In the case of the car theft, the victim risked his life, his criminal future and his future financial stability. The family of Armstrong has indicated that they intend to file a lawsuit against the defender when they can identify him. This civil suit is likely to go on for a very long time once it starts. And because it was a 12 year old boy who was killed, he will have an uphill battle. He will also be living with the fact that he killed a 12 year old boy for the rest of his life. In the moment where this man was being shot at, it is reasonable that he defend himself and return fire provided that he is prepared to do so. But the question he’ll probably be asking himself for a long time will be, “was it all worth it to try to get my car back?”.
The other lesson we should be taking from these two incidents is that threats can come from anywhere. We have a moral responsibility to be as prepared as is reasonable in our daily lives. Chanise Sena stated that she didn’t take the boys seriously when they first ambushed her, she didn’t believe that a group of young boys was serious about the threats they were presenting her with. I’m not encouraging you to treat everyone as a threat, but rather to not take the world around you for granted and assume that the world reflects your expectations and values.
Chanise was not armed and had very few options to respond to this extremely dangerous threat, but if she had been armed it would have been reasonable for her to respond with lethal force. Chanise did not create this situation, she was in a place where it was normal for her to be, doing things she normally does when the threat literally came to her doorstep.
We carry guns in case we are forced into a position where we have to defend our lives or the lives of others. We should be prepared to do that against anyone who presents that kind of threat, whether it be a group of hardened criminals or a 12 year old boy with a gun who is shooting at you. We only shoot when we have to, because the risks of using a gun in self defense are extreme.
Get trained, educate yourself, build your skills, think and act defensively. Make yourself harder to attack. You have a moral responsibility to be as prepared as is reasonable to defend yourself.
Police said a Walgreens employee was notified by another employee that two women were stealing items from the store. The employee told police he saw the women putting items into a store cart and into a large over-the-shoulder bag. The employee said he began recording the women with his cell phone and followed them as they left the store without paying for the items.
According to investigators, the employee said as the women began putting items into the trunk of their car, he made his way to the back of the car. That’s when one of the women reportedly pulled a can of mace and began spraying at him.
The employee then pulled his semi-automatic pistol and began shooting, saying he was afraid and did not know if either of the women were armed. The women then fled in their car while the employee went back into the store and called 911, according to police.
It’s very likely that this employee had no intention of shooting either of these women who were stealing from his employer. But when you are carrying a gun around, every conflict includes the risk that the gun will become involved. This requires that you think ahead about your actions and seriously consider what you’re willing to risk and why.
This man’s self defense case is now going to include that he shot a pregnant woman who was forced to deliver the baby prematurely through emergency surgery, putting both the mother and child at risk. Many people are frustrated with issues like shoplifting, but this man now has a very long and very difficult criminal battle ahead of him, not to mention the likely civil action he will face. He is not only facing the legal consequences, but this man is almost definitely no longer going to be employed by Walgreens.
Carrying a firearm carries certain risks, and these risks are potentially life changing. The benefits of carrying and using the firearm should always clearly outweigh the risks. In this case, they certainly did not.
Get trained, educate yourself, build your skills, and think before you act. Remember what is at risk when a gun is involved.
In December of last year, I was in Reno for the IDS Instructor Development course. Edgar and I rented an AirBnB for the instructor candidates, one of which was from Jalisco, Mexico. His name was Angel, and when we arrived at the AirBnB he was very surprised that the house we were staying in did not have a wall around it. He couldn’t believe that the front door of this house led straight into the living room.
American’s live in a peaceful society. You can argue if you want, but I’ve been to plenty of other parts of the world where having a wall around your dwelling is not only a good idea, it’s practically a requirement. Angel illustrated that with his disbelief that anyone would live in a house without more layers of security. In the US, finding a house with a wall around it is unusual in most areas. This is a reflection of the threat level that we live in. If walls were necessary, we would build them.
Yet even though we live in a peaceful society that doesn’t mean that plenty of bad things don’t happen. Our normal experiences can lead us into a false sense of security and lead to behaviors that are welcoming to a bad guy who wants to victimize us. In addition to making it easy for a bad guy to select us for an attack, we also in many ways lack the mindset to respond to a threat once it’s been presented.
In the following video, we are going to see all of these points illustrated. This video comes to us from Houston, Texas where a 72 year old woman and her 75 year old husband are robbed at gunpoint. The woman in this video is horrified and panicked at the sight of a gun in her face, and when her husband responds to her screams, he has no plan for self defense. They both left in a position to only try to negotiate with the criminal who holds the power of life and death over them.
We can see from the video the woman has little time to react. Even if she had seen him coming from further away, the bad guy is faster than she is. But once she does recognize the threat, she is essentially paralyzed into inaction. This kind of reaction is due in part to not mentally preparing yourself for this kind of situation. I wrote an article in our newspaper, the Guns For Everyone Gazette, last month about mental repetitions and why they are important.
The husband responds to the screaming and comes out to check on what is going on. He has a counter ambush opportunity as he comes outside as we can see the bad guy is not aware of his presence until he speaks. But instead of having the tools and skills needed to deal with the threat to his wife, all he is left with is his voice. Communication is a powerful skill in self defense but in this scenario, a gun would have been better.
What we see in this video is two people who don’t seem to have anything resembling a defensive mindset. This is the “it wouldn’t happen here” mindset, and it leaves them wholly unprepared.
Get trained, educate yourself, build your skills, think and act defensively. Make yourself harder to attack. You have a moral responsibility to be as prepared as is reasonable to defend yourself.
Multiple news outlets and organizations in Colorado are now reporting that the Assault Weapons Ban that was intended to be introduced in the Legislature is not going forward. Until the legislative season is over, I’m still leaving the possibility open that it could be resurrected but it seems for now, the immediate threat of this bill is over.
While I wholeheartedly cheer the grassroots work done in this state the likely led the legislature to change course, the fact remains that gun control is expanding in this state. The fight is not even close to over and we are still ‘on the ropes’. Every gun control bill that does pass in this state makes it easier to pass more. The momentum is going firmly in the wrong direction.
The Colorado legislature passed multiple bills in the last few weeks, including expanding red flag laws, raising the age of purchasing a rifle or shotgun to 21, and allowing firearm dealers to be sued by the victims of violent crimes in which a gun they sold was used. That last one has the potential to effectively shut down firearm dealers across the state. A plaintiff doesn’t even need to win a lawsuit in order to put a gun store out of business. Lawsuits are expensive to fight and time consuming. It’s very possible that even one lawsuit could be enough to put a gun dealer out of business, a point I made in an interview on Fox21 this week.
These new laws will go into effect in this state soon, and if we want to fight against them, we will be left with the courts. I encourage you to support Rocky Mountain Gun Owners to fight these suits in court. But Colorado will gain national attention for passing more “gun reform” and will give Colorado the reputation as being a gun control state. That will embolden the lobbyists sending money into this state to pass more gun control in the future.
We have another problem as well, gun violence will continue to rise in this state, perhaps even sharply. We are already seeing headlines in this state that look like they came from Chicago, “12 people shot in Denver area this weekend” is becoming more normal. The rise in gun violence in the state will continue to give the media and the legislators the momentum they want in order to push gun laws, including an assault weapons ban. And I hate to say it, but I have no doubt that Colorado will see more mass shootings in the future. These high profile tragedies will apply the same pressure.
The groundwork for fighting against these laws needs to be done constantly, not just when there is an emergency. We need to show that gun laws are not popular here, and when they are passed they will be fought against fiercely. Colorado gun owners need to get their act together and join the fight. In the strongest possible words, I urge you to get engaged. Your state needs your time, energy, money, and effort. There are a lot of ways to do it, but the quickest and perhaps most efficient way to get started is to work with Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. They make it easy to contact lawmakers, join petitions, fight lawsuits, and other ways that are proven to work. But don’t let another day go by before you get involved. It’s time.
