Shooting Shows Why Gun Control Activists Hate Concealed Carry

A shooting  in Gage Park, in Southwest Chicago, illustrates why gun control activists (disarmists) have fought so hard to keep people with concealed carry permits out of the city.

In this case, the armed customer shot and killed an armed robber who was attempting to rob a cash exchange store where the owner’s two teenage sons were working.   To understand why disarmists hate the idea of concealed carry permits, read the comments from people in the area.  From dnainfo.com:

From the store owner and the boys’ mother:

“All I know is that someone came in here threatening my sons, and this angel used a gun he was allowed to carry, and he saved them,” Cabrales said.

From the owner of a store two doors away:

 ”I don’t believe in vigilante justice, but I don’t know what would have happened if that guy hadn’t been there,” Guzman said. “I mean, the same thing could just as easily have happened to my store.”

From a shop owner down the block, who was robbed a month ago:

 ”I do trust the police, but lately I really haven’t felt safe here,” Vidales said. “I never like violence, but in [this] case, I think he did the right thing. I’m glad he was there.

From another business owner on the block:

 ”Seeing that happen right on this block makes me think I’d feel much better if I were armed, and if my customers were armed,” Cruz said. “Now I want to get a concealed carry permit myself.”

The successful implementation of shall issue concealed carry across the country has resulted in thousands of stories of the successful use of guns to defend oneself and others.  Most of the time, no shots are fired, no one is hit and no one is killed.

When an aggressor is killed, the shooting is seldom recorded in the FBI uniform crime reports (UCR) as a justified shooting, because the FBI requires that a report of a felony accompany the report of a justified shooting.  There was no robbery here, because the robbery was stopped.  That is one of the reasons why the FBI UCR severely under reports justified homicides.

Concealed carry holders undercut the entire narrative that disarmists have been trying to build in the national psyche for decades.  You have heard it often enough: Guns are bad.  Guns cause crime.  Guns are useless for self defense.

When people see concrete examples that contradict that narrative, they change their mind.  Mr. Cruz, the last business owner cited, changed his:

the attempted robbery and shooting changed the way he thought about guns.

It is much harder to disarm people who have concrete knowledge that guns can be successfully and lawfully used to defend oneself and others.

This case is a classic example of why the disarmists wanted to keep Chicago a zone free of legal guns.

Definition of  disarmist

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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