Validation Of Armed Citizens

The Orlando Sentinel, 03-20-’02. A front-page story by reporter Bob McKay runs in the Florida paper under the headline, “Watchful dad slays gunman.”

It seems Robert Shockey made a point of showing up at the end of each business day to stand by as unpaid security while his son Gabe, 20, locked up the video store where he worked.

The senior Shockey was licensed by the state of Florida to carry a concealed, loaded handgun. He kept a .45 auto in a holster inside his waistband near the middle of his back.

Enter The Predators

On the night in question, two criminals with long rap sheets burst in while the son was closing. One of the armed robbers waved a rifle around and, the paper reported, both perpetrators, “were shouting violent, obscenity-laced threats.” Said Shockey himself, “They made it clear that they would kill us.”

Shockey told reporters afterwards, “It was fast — an adrenaline moment. I had no time to react.”

But he found the time. When the rifle swept from Shockey to a young employee named Brian, the armed citizen drew his gun and shouted “Freeze!” Only two steps away, the gunman spun and brought his rifle to bear on Shockey.

He performed the indicated response.

The gunman fell after the armed citizen fired twice. One bullet struck the felon in the chest, the other in the neck. His rifle clattered harmlessly to the floor.

Then the second robber lunged for the dropped rifle. Shockey knew he only had a tiny fraction of time in which to stop him. He triggered another double tap. His second .45 slug missed harmlessly, but it didn’t matter, because the first had found the gunman’s thorax and dropped him cold.

The first perpetrator died of the wounds he forced Shockey to inflict. The second is alive at this writing at the hospital, facing a Felony Murder charge since he participated in a felony that led to the death of a human being, in this case his partner-in-crime.

Aftermath As Seen By Professionals

Most cops have seen so much grief inflicted on decent people by violent scum that they are in the forefront of the cheering section when the victim turns the tables on the perpetrator. The sheriff of the county in which the shooting took place, Ben Johnson, offered his support to Robert Shockey according to the Orlando Sentinel.

A spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department, Gary Davidson, said of Shockey, “He is going to get the good citizenship award.”

Yes, brothers and sisters, sometimes there are happy endings on the criminal justice side of things.

Aftermath As Seen By The Clueless

The anti-gun crowd weighed in immediately. “Arthur Hayhoe, the executive director of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said this case is ‘a tough call’ for a group that favors strict gun laws,” the Sentinel reported. “He said he won’t ‘second-guess’ a parent defending his son, but Hayhoe is troubled by the second shooting.”

Okay, folks, take a deep breath.

“It’s still a shooting of an unarmed person, and that is always troubling,” Hayhoe then told reporters.

What?

Unsportsmanlike Self Defense?

Darius Bennett, who was damn lucky to survive the cyclone of lethality that he and his accomplice James Franklin Wince brought to the Blockbuster Video store that day, was reaching for a rifle after threatening to commit murder at the time he was shot.

Would Hayhoe and his sister under-the-skin Sarah Brady have had the innocent victim wait until the gun was in the criminal’s hand? Or is waiting until the criminal’s finger is on the trigger the “bright line” test for the anti-gunners? Or should the innocent victim just let himself be shot once or twice to make sure the lawless armed criminal really meant to harm him?

Sorry, America, but it’s clear Arthur Hayhoe and the group he speaks for, Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, just don’t have the first clue.

If any of our people get into a battle of wits with Arthur Hayhoe, they’ll obviously be accused of, “shooting of an unarmed person.”

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