A person’s ability to defend themselves can be the difference between life and death, and that becomes truer by the day as America’s largest cities become softer and softer on crime.
In St. Louis, a carjacker found out the hard way that armed victims will not go down quietly when threatened. On Wednesday, in the north downtown area of St. Louis, a man shot and killed a would-be robber who tried to take advantage of him at a gas station, KMOV reported. KMOV continued, writing:
“St. Louis police said a man was shot and killed by his would-be robbery victim at the Zoom Gas Station near the intersection of Tucker and O’Fallon just after 6 a.m. Wednesday. During a press conference earlier in the day, police said they were originally called to the scene for a carjacking.
Both people involved had guns, but police say the deceased person is the suspect. They say he is a black man in his 20s who has not been identified. Police say the original robbery victim was a 48-year-old white man.”
Police Captain Pierre Benoist gave advice on how to avoid being a victim of such robberies, in an interview with KMOV. Here is what he had to say:
“We recommend that everyone take be aware of their surroundings, take their key fobs with them while they are at the gas stations because there has been somewhat of a spike in these types of incidents citywide.”
From the sound of things, St. Louis is having issues. In a further interview by KMOV, a frequent customer of the gas station was not surprised that something like this took place, saying:
“When we gonna get some help out here? You making citizens and people defend themselves… Unfortunately, this is what comes about.”
This same kind of consternation can be seen and felt in other big cities, where it seems to some that the people in charge are not properly upholding the laws. This has caused many people to consider getting Concealed Carry Permits, in states that mandate them. According to the NRA, an armed victim is a tougher target and those individuals are far safer than an average person when put in these unfortunate situations. Here is what they had to say:
“Kleck and Kleck-Gertz studies: Analyzing National Crime Victimization Survey data, criminologist Gary Kleck concluded “robbery and assault victims who used a gun to resist were less likely to be attacked or to suffer an injury than those who used any other methods of self-protection or those who did not resist at all.””
While many advocates of harsh gun control laws are fearful of armed citizens, some studies indicate that those individuals better follow laws than the rest of the populace. Here is what the NRA found regarding that:
Anti-gun groups have portrayed carry permit-holders as criminals, but permit-holders are more law-abiding than the general public. This is best indicated by the experience of Florida, the state that has issued the most permits due to its relatively early date of RTC adoption, relatively large population, and relatively large rate of gun ownership. As of June 2014, Florida had issued 2.7 million carry permits, but revoked only 168 (0.006 percent) due to gun crimes by permit-holders.”
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