Customer kills gun-wielding suspect in Dollar General

[Common Sense Party]

http://www.wsfa.com/story/24474261/dallas-co-authorities-on-scene-of-homicide-in-orrville

Dallas County Sheriff Harris Huffman Jr. says the gunman walked into the store waving a gun in the air and forced a cashier and customer at gunpoint towards a break room area. At that point, the customer pulled out a concealed weapon and shot the suspect in the chest once.

"He escorted a customer and a cashier toward a break room. The cashier went in first and the customer went in behind her and the individual had the gun on the customer and the customer had a pistol concealed in a holster and when the customer got to the door, he turned around and shot the individual," Huffman told WSFA.

The gunman was pronounced dead at the scene. The entire incident played out in less than five minutes, police said.

...

"You have one individual waving a gun and you have another one who shoots the one waving the gun. Some people say that's justifiable.Then you're going to have some who says it's not. I think we need to get all of the information we can get from everybody and then go forward from there," the sheriff said in an interview.

Details are pretty sketchy as to what happened. But if some guy with a gun ushers me to a back room, I'm reasonably sure it's not so he can help me sign up for a health care plan. If I could I'd like to be armed with more than a can of beans.

[Common Sense Party]

1. Sorry, forgot to add: This took place in Alabama. nt

[Loudly]

2. This is a guns-as-solution-to-guns story.

The trouble STARTED with someone's access to a gun.

[Ranchemp.]

3. And ended favorably for the clerk and customer

because the customer had the means to defend himself and the clerk.
Bravo for the customer.

[Loudly]

4. Got it. You prefer that someone's dead.

Rather than keeping society safe from access to guns and ammunition.

[Ranchemp.]

5. I prefer that a shitstain armed robber be killed

than innocent civilians, and that's exactly what happened here.

[CFLDem]

13. Sorry but you can't keep guns out of the hands of criminals.

The gun control movement is about 100 years too late to that party.

Not to mention that argument is completely DOA with the advent of printed weaponry.

Welcome to our brave new world.

[Lizzie Poppet]

14. You have to do it in the correct order.

That is to say, remove access for the people doing harm <i>before</I> even considering a blanket restriction of access. Otherwise, the vermin will be the last to be disarmed, and that puts the rest of us at unreasonable risk.

Personally, I don't much like the idea of restricting access even if it can be somehow fully guaranteed that the bad guys won't have them. Your typical violent criminal (statistically likely to be a young(ish) male), isn't going to need a gun to harm me (5'3", 110lbs female) unless I can outsprint him. They're called "equalizers" for a damned good reason...

[Common Sense Party]

6. Looks more like a gun-as-solution-to-CRIME story to me.

Sure, the criminal had a gun. But the salient point is that he was a criminal.

But thanks for Sharing.

[Loudly]

7. Availability of a gun enabled the crime.

You're welcome.

[Ranchemp.]

8. Wrong again, as usual.

The criminal enabled the crime, the customer with the proper tool ended the crime.

[Straw Man]

9. Because we all know ...

Availability of a gun enabled the crime.

... that there was no crime before guns were invented.

Thanks for Sharing ...

[gejohnston]

10. are you saying the Middle Ages were story book beautiful?

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/23/us/historical-study-of-homicide-and-cities-surprises-the-experts.html
I think not. Europe's murder rates fell to about their present levels well before they started serious gun control legislation in the 1920s, which were less restrictive than much of the US south.

[SkatmanRoth]

11. You would have preferred the predatory criminal used a double edged ax?

How about the criminal being armed with a broad sword?

[spin]

15. There are an estimated 300,000,000 firearms in our nation. ...

Even if they were banned and all the honest citizens turned their weapons in, there would be many millions left in the hands of criminals. Like it or not this might lead to a dramatic increase in violent crime.

Obviously we need better gun control laws in our nation to make it extremely difficult for criminals to be able to obtain firearms. Many gun control advocates favor banning and confiscating all firearms. We tried and failed to ban the use of alcohol during the Prohibition years and our we lost our current War on Drugs decades ago. I can't see any reason why the ban and confiscation of firearms would be any more successful.

Perhaps you are suggesting that we improve our NICS background check system and require a background check for all firearm sales in our nation. Perhaps you favor increasing the penalties for the straw purchase of firearms and for the smuggling and sale of such weapons into the inner cities of our nation. In that case we agree.

[ileus]

12. Another great example of why it's wise to always carry a firearm

wherever you may roam.