lightfoot3's blog

re-post: the retired marine and the robbers

 abuse

That’s the title of a recent article by Massad Ayoob, a well known gun enthusiast, writer, etc.  While some of you may be scratching your heads at his name, us certified gun nuts know him and his advice very, very well.  He writes a series called the “Ayoob Files” in which he dissects a self defense shooting, analyzing all details, from the good to the bad.  I wanted to highlight this particular story because this one is a textbook example of concealed carry and self defense, plus it also gives you some philosophy of those of us that believe in responsible and intelligent concealed carry.  The scenarios the anti-gun GOLO members keep setting up, with someone robbing you at gunpoint and you reach for your gun, are not realistic to the thinking gun owner.  True, there are some pro-gun people on GOLO that advocate shooting someone for just about anything, but they are not what I classify as the “thinking” gun owner. 

I’ll give a brief summary of the event in the article, but I’ll also provide a link to the article so you can read the details yourself.  I don’t know how long the link will remain active. 

A 71 year old retired Marine stops in at a Subway shop to grab a bite to eat.  While he’s there, two armed, disguised men rob the place.  The Marine gives up his wallet, with SEVERAL HUNDRED DOLLARS in it peacefully.  While the Marine has a concealed firearm, he’s not considering using his weapon at this point.  This is important.  Money and material things are not worth killing over, and especially aren’t worth the hassle/expense of going to court to defend yourself against a zealous anti-gun district attorney.  I’ve even read were some that carry concealed will also keep extra money rolled around a matchbook or something that they can toss to someone robbing or hassling them, in hopes that it will pacify them so they will NOT have to draw their weapon.

So, the armed robbers now have all the money.  At this point, criminals just interested in some quick cash will usually flee the scene.  But these robbers order him (and maybe the store manager?) to the BACK of the store, into the restroom, and orders him onto the floor.  DANGER SIGNS!!!  All too often this is the warning sign that an execution is about to happen.  It has played out time and time again in other cases where robbers kill their victims.  In other robbery incidents, the bad guys herd them to the back, then shoot them.  The article even mentions a recent one.  The Marine had already made up his mind that this was NOT going to happen to him.  As the Marine pretends to get on the floor, he draws his weapon and begins firing.  In the end, he kills bad guy #1 and wounds bad buy #2.  Had the Marine not been carrying a concealed weapon, more than likely you would not know the finer details of this incident because all the witnesses (i.e. victims) would be dead.

The article is a good read because it demonstrates why some of us carry and how it can save lives.  It also will give those of us that do carry some things to think about, like what we carry, how we carry, how we would react, etc.  Again, I wanted to present this article because it is a text book example of concealed carry being used in self defense.

The link to the article:

http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/AmericanHandgunner/AHJA09/?page=62 

NOTE to anti-gun people:  I don’t block or delete.  I welcome your comments on this blog.  But sadly, there are some pro-gun idiots out here that will turn to personal attacks because they disagree with your anti-gun sentiments.  While I disagree with their methods, I won’t block or delete their posts.  Be warned you may have to weather the storm if you post.

PS:  The blog image is an example of my latest acquisition (though not my particular gun).  I plan on replacing the rubber Hogue grips with some custom Delrin ones, to make it slimmer for concealed carry.

Filed under: Hobbies