Armed citizens making a difference thread.

[internet troll]

I know we do not have an armed citizen section on Pafoa. But I thought it would be nice if we could bring any examples where armed citizens have made a positive difference into one place. It's a good way to show those who say "you never hear about armed citizens making a difference" that yes they do. I and several others have posted stories over the years that get scattered to the depths of internet time. I envision this as a thread to post the stories more than a discussion thread so people can easily find examples of armed citizens making a difference. I hope that if people post self defense stories to the site, they will consider posting a copy of the story in this thread also.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One year update

I started this thread a year ago tomorrow . I was hoping to create a thread of news stories that show armed citizens do make a difference. One that we could show antis and fence sitters who insist that armed citizens never/ rarely make a difference because you never read stories about them. When we started this thread I thought that we would be posting a couple of stories a week. I would have been happy with 100-200 stories at the end of the year when the thread started. It turned out to be much more than that.

A few unofficial quick count numbers.

145 stories from January 29th to July 28th. That was with me taking two months off from the site for lent and not putting much effort into searching for stories during those 6 months.

893 stories that mostly occurred during the 6 months from July 29th to January 28th. That’s not including any update posts or comments people added to the thread.

Approximately
158 stories from July 29th to August 28th
159 stories from August 29th to September 28th
112 stories from September 29th to October 28th
159 stories from October 29th to November 28th
160 stories from November 29th to December 28th
145 stories from December 29 to January 28th

That works out to about 4.9 stories a day over the last 6 months.
Basically 5 stories a day where a story reported an incident where a firearm made a positive difference.

In some of the stories people used the firearm to shoot their attacker/attackers. Firearms were use to protect the person with the firearm and others. Some were in a persons house, some were in stores, work places and some were on the street. Some stopped people and a few stopped various animals. Some stopped a single threat, some multiple, some ended mass shootings and some stopped mass shootings before they could officially become mass shootings.

In a lot of the stories people did not have to pull the trigger, the presence of the firearm alone was enough to change the dynamics of the situation in favor of the armed citizen. This is a biggie to me. I honestly think there are a large number of firearm related instances that occur where a trigger is never pulled, but aid carriers in bad situations every year. Some are reported like the ones in this thread. Some are reported to the police but do not make the news. Most are probably never reported to the police which makes them impossible to keep track of.

One of the things that really stood out to me. In the search for self defense stories I read literally thousands of articles over the last year where people found themselves at the mercy of criminals where if the person had a firearm thing easily could have turned out different. Not every case obviously, but quite a lot. People who were robbed, hurt, raped, and killed. People who if they had a firearm would have had a chance to change the story from being a victim to self defender. Seriously this point can not be under stated.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the thread or offered words of encouragement. Also thank you for not turning this into a Chatty Cathy thread. I think the density and flow of the stories makes it much easier to go through and see all the real world examples of people using firearms to defend themselves. I think this thread has achieved the goal showing that armed citizens do make a difference.



---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's a start.


VIDEO: Armed Robbery Suspect Shot, Subdued by Concealed Carry Permit Holder
http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...permit-holder/

An armed robbery suspect who entered a convenience store pointing a gun at the clerk was shot and subdued by a concealed carry permit holder.
The incident occurred at the 54 Food Mart in Pasco County, Florida, around 6:40 a.m on January 26.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the suspect, 30-year-old Christopher Lilly, entered the store with a gun drawn and ordered the clerk and a customer “into the walk-in cooler.” Once inside, the customer–a concealed carry permit holder–passed his gun to the clerk, who then “exited the cooler and fired a warning shot.”

Lilly dropped his gun and the clerk and customer moved to physically subdue him. As they did, “Lilly tried to reach for his dropped gun.” So the concealed permit holder “reclaimed his weapon and shot Lilly in the right thigh.”

A passerby dialed 911 and a deputy arrived as Lilly was trying to wrestle himself loose and flee the store.

Pasco County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Kevin Doll said Lilly “had a domestic violence injunction filed against him, so he could not legally possess a gun.” Moreover, Lilly had 11 previous arrests, “all in Pasco and Hillsborough counties.” He did two months in jail on battery charges in 2012.

Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco praised the concealed permit holder’s actions, saying, “If you’re in a life-or-death situation you absolutely have your God-given right in Pasco County to defend yourselves.”

On January 12 the New York Times editorial board wrote against national reciprocity legislation that would allow citizens to be armed for self-defense in more places. The paper claimed, “The grim truth is that concealed-carry permit holders are rarely involved in stopping crime.”