Posted on 04/02/2009 7:41:27 AM PDT by DCBryan1
Assuring news
"Fire when ready, Gridley "
THERE’S GOOD news in the paper, too. Like a front-page story Wednesday by our own Andy Davis that should brighten law-abiding folks’ day. (“Dentist opens fire on purse snatcher/ Police say he shot as wife fought mugger”—Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Wednesday, March 25, 2009.) The lede pretty well sums up the whole story:
“Going to the aid of his wife as she and an armed man struggled over her purse on the parking lot of the Wal-Mart Supercenter in west Little Rock on Monday night, a 63-year-old dentist pulled out a .357-caliber revolver and opened fire, striking the would-be robber in the buttocks, police said Tuesday.”
According to the cops, the suspect was found a little while later when he sought medical treatment. As soon as he’s released from the hospital, they say he’ll be charged with aggravated robbery, just as the two people with him have already been.
Let’s hope word gets around to the right, or rather, wrong people: Don’t mess with innocent folks in Little Rock; they may be armed and dangerous to thugs who threaten others with bodily harm. These good people aren’t easy pickin’s. They may even be good shots.
The couple who were threatened declined an interview, but a neighbor described them as “a good Catholic family” that goes to Christ the King on Rodney Parham and has two grown sons. We trust there’s a prayer of thanksgiving in the church for having survived a threat like that, and hope their armed tribe increases. For all our sakes. Because an armed society is a civil society.
These days the bad guys just can never tell just who’s prepared to defend himself and his—or her—family. Applications for concealed-carry permits have spiked in recent months. Handgun instructors speculate it may be because of fear the new administration is going to crack down on the right to bear arms. Or maybe the surge in applications comes in response to the horrendous murder of a popular television newscaster not long ago in her nice little house in a supposedly safe Little Rock neighborhood. (Never take your safety for granted, good people.) The growing number of folks prepared to defend themselves is good news in general, and needs to be spread.
Let it be noted that Little Rock’s finest generally discourage folks from firing to fend off robbers. “You are not familiar with this person,” warns a spokesman for the local police department, Sergeant Cassandra Davis, who has the most fitting first name we’ve ever come across for an officer whose duties include warning people. She adds that the would-be mugger may have an accomplice nearby or “be more skilled than you are.”
Maybe, maybe not. Folks who’ve got a concealed-carry permit do have to undergo some minimal training, and anybody who’s been in the service will find that the old reflexes (and safe practices) return in a hurry. The manager of a firing range in North Little Rock, who’s also a handgun instructor, says he advises anyone who’s being robbed at gunpoint to defend himself if he’s got the chance. “If you’ve got the opportunity to pull the gun out,” he says, “you take the opportunity to shoot at the same time. The gun does you no good if you don’t use it.”
The choice is up to the citizen, which is one of the rights (and burdens) of living in a free society. That 63-year-old dentist sounds like one citizen who made the right choice. He certainly made our day when we read about his close call. Here’s hoping lots of folks read that news story, and get the message. Because an armed society is a civil society.
In 1995, when debating whether to go "shall issue" they were crying "BLOOD IN THE STREETS", "RETURN TO WILD WEST DAYS!"
Glad to see them come around full throttle!
The dentist drilled him.
“The Dentist Drilled Him”
ROTFLMAO
(Thanks for that.)
Such an evil dentist. Maybe the poor robbers were unemployed.
/S/
(CHUCKLE!!) Good one, Gray!
I wonder if the old anti-gun ARKANSAS GAZETTE editors(before it sold out to the Arkansas Democrat) who now infest the ARKANSAS TIMES, are having apoplexy fits!
Hogwash - that's all the more reason to open fire. He may be high on drugs and not just in the need of money (irrelevant anyway). What the spokesman advises is that you depend upon the good will of the person robbing you - that he will let the witness live.
To which I reply, more practice!
When truth overwhelms...
Now, why can’t we see a story like this in NJ, where one of the few people lucky enough to have a CCW could show how guns SAVE LIVES TOO????
Doc needs more range time. He shoulda blown the robber’s head off, not just blowing his a$$ off. The robber was armed, fer Pete’s sake! You can’t take a chance that he might shoot back. You need to stop him right there.
Unfortunate that he didn’t finish off the perp. Now we taxpayers will be forced to pay the perp’s medical bills, the perp’s court-appointed lawyer bill, the perp’s prison occupancy bill, the perp’s parole bill, the perp’s “substance abuse” bill, the perp’s “job training” bill, and on and on. Shoot to kill, please.
And after that, he's on his way to prison for more of the same.
Hot ziggity dog!
An EDITORIAL, in a newspaper with DEMOCRAT in the title!!
And a good Catholic boy, to boot.
Simply amazing....ALMOST unbelieveable....but it’s not 1 April anymore.
But now the dentist has to put up with being called Doc Holliday for the rest of his life.
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