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Editor's note: this is part 1 of a six-part series.
Since the Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the left has once again taken up its two-pronged attack on the Second Amendment: pushing additional gun control legislation in Congress and flooding the news and internet with anti-gun articles – many of which are merely clever works of fiction.
To combat the falsity – such as the myriad articles “debunking” the “good guy with a gun myth” – Liberty Nation will highlight six real stories focusing on incidents that would have gone horrifyingly differently had some good guy with a gun not intervened. There were a plethora of events to pick from, but each story in this series was chosen to demonstrate a particular point.
Certainly, this isn’t always the case – sometimes armed citizens don’t react properly, or at all. Additionally, violent crimes often occur where there aren’t any good guys with guns to begin with. But the claim that private gun ownership doesn’t help stop crime is demonstrably false – and here’s the proof.
7-Eleven’s Hatchet Man
A masked man – later identified as 43-year-old Steven Blacktongue – entered the 7-Eleven on 8th Avenue South in King County, Washington Monday, March 7, 2016, wielding a hatchet. Immediately upon his arrival, Blacktongue swung his weapon wildly at a customer, then turned his attack to the clerk. He never spoke a word during the entire ordeal.
Blacktongue’s attack was wild and immediate – there was neither warning nor explanation. But the customer, a 60-year-old regular customer from Seattle with a concealed carry permit, drew a gun and shot the assailant, who was pronounced dead at the scene when medics arrived.
It Could Have Been Worse
Had the customer not been carrying a weapon – or had he been unwilling to use it – this story would almost certainly have an entirely different ending. Authorities told Q13 Fox that the neighborhood was usually quiet and that this was the first such incident at that store in recent memory – and yes, the police were glad the armed citizen was there:
“Fortunately, because of this customer with his weapon, this could have been a lot worse,” said King County Sheriff’s Sergeant Cindi West. “The clerk could be the one lying there dead on the floor right now.”
Just a Regular Guy
Don’t think for a second that buying a gun makes you invincible – it’s a tool, not a magical talisman. Anyone who decides to practice the Second Amendment right of carrying for self-defense absolutely should train regularly. And I don’t mean just the occasional weekend shooting cans in the yard. Everyone who fires a gun is accountable for every bullet that leaves the barrel – gun owners owe it to themselves and everyone else to take that responsibility seriously.
Having said that, just possessing a deadly projectile weapon does, in fact, level the playing field to some degree. One does not have to be a military or police veteran – or any sort of firearms expert – to defend oneself with a gun.
It’s unclear what training the 60-year-old had, but he appears to be just another ordinary guy. The clerk said he was just hanging out drinking coffee when it happened. Another employee described him as a nice guy. “He’s been coming here for about 12 years. He buys scratch ticket, in the morning time. He buys coffee. He’s a good guy.”
When not busy trying to convince folks that anyone who has a gun without a badge is a criminal, anti-gunners would have us believe that regular people with guns are, at best, ineffective in these situations. Don’t buy into the hype.
