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In Ephrata, Pennsylvania, an alert and armed woman stopped a crime spree earlier this week. One of the things that destroys the sense of security in a neighborhood is a proliferation of burglaries and thefts of personal property from vehicles. That’s what a pair of suspects were involved in this week when an alert woman stopped Robert LaFleur (above left, with Colton Lynch) from breaking into her car at 2:30 a.m. and held him at gunpoint until the police arrived . . .

It seems unlikely that LaFleur would have obeyed the woman’s commands if she had not been armed. The police report that he resisted arrest when they arrived, and that they used a taser on him. They then turned their attention on LaFleur’s accomplice, who was in another vehicle.

From lancasteronline.com:

The car turned out to have been recently stolen from Pine Street in Denver, Randolph said. Police recovered numerous electronic items from LaFleur, which also are believed to have been stolen.

LaFleur and Lynch admitted to police they entered numerous vehicles in the areas of Misty Lane, Creek Lane and Meadow View Drive in Ephrata, and Pine and Main streets in Denver, according to criminal complaints. They also admitted stealing the car, according to the complaints.

Would the police have arrested LaFluer and Lynch if the armed woman had not stopped the series of crimes in progress?  Probably. Eventually. Most criminals are arrested, eventually. But they can commit dozens or even hundreds of crimes before they are arrested, and often dozens or even hundreds more while they are out on bond and not incarcerated. It only takes a small number of criminals to create an enormous amount of crime.

We don’t know the number that “numerous” refers to in the paragraph quoted from lancasteronline. We do know that it is likely that many of the victims in this case will recover their property.

One of the advantages of an armed population is that it turns passive victims into active participants in policing the community. A government that trusts its people to possess arms also shows that it is worthy of trust, to paraphrase Machiavelli, who wrote,

When you disarm [the people] you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred against you.

 

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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38 COMMENTS

    • Probably, with a hole in his head and then we will hear from relatives how he was trying to get his life turned around, be a good daddy to his daughter yadda yadda yadda. They might even throw in how he just recently started to go to church again. I always love that part!

      • Criminals make 1 or more of 4 startling discoveries once they’re caught: 1. “I’ve found the Lord!” 2. “I have a family to support” 3. “I have a job” [or an interview, frequently tomorrow] 4. “I need to go to rehab”. None, however, are important enough to forgo criminal activity; they only become a priority upon being jailed.

  1. The only reason why things like this work is because most criminals are cowards. If he had just started walking away from her, he would have gotten away. There’s nothing she could do about that. If she shoots him in the back, she would probably be charged with homicide.

    • True, but he would still be thinking ‘Man it hurts to get shot in the back’. Or, if it was a homicide, he wouldn’t be thinking at all. That may have been what he was thinking.

    • That’s when you put one in the ground on the other side of him. If you’re questioned, it’s “He started to turn and I thought he was bringing a weapon around toward me so I fired one shot in his direction, must have jerked the trigger because I was scared.”

      • I you were a cop you could get away with this. For the average citizen however, this is simply piss poor “legal advice” and you put yourself 100% at the mercy of the DA .

      • If he turns away and starts walking, take a good look so you can pick him out of a lineup, and if he starts to get in a car, shoot out the tires. Leave the rest to the cops, and write a story about their competence or lack thereof.

    • I worked in a prison many years ago. Mensa society it ain’t. The stupid id downright painfull to watch at times.

    • heh. Here is the original clip on Shannon Watts outright blatant lie on defensive gun use saving a life:

      https://iqmediacorp.com/ClipPlayer/?ClipID=246ebdf1-b8b0-417e-be98-d04b9b331602

      go to 7:15- when asked by the host of CNN’s New Day show- “Its never happened, data shows that its never happened”…even the CNN hosts are dumbfounded…

      Where is that lying ex Monsanto GMO food hack sockpuppeting fake PTA mommie anyway?
      Bloomberg still paying Shannon to run fake protests in front of retail stores?

      • I heard she was hiding out with Dirk. Hopefully he’s enlightening her that it ‘s impossible to prove something “never happened”, regardless of the volume the claims are screamed at. And giving her something else to scream about.

        • I thought she was parked in a van across the street from Joe Biden’s house… With a double barrel shotgun.

  2. Good for her. And this young doofus resisted the PO-leece when they showed up? Yeah not real swift…

  3. Being the scholar and social scientist I am, I say we should try a little social experiment. Instead of giving jail time to these punks and others like them, we should capture them, tag ’em with RFI chips and then release them. But not release them just anywhere. I say let’s relocate and release them like they do wolf populations. In another location. Say. A certain part of Zionsville, IN? Let’s concentrate all of the criminals there for about a month and see what response we get. From shannon. :-).

  4. What’s interesting about this story is the armed citizen detained the criminal. When police showed the perp got aggressive with the police. Meaning a criminal knows what to expect and how much he can get away with interacting with law enforcement. Criminals have no idea what an armed citizen will do.

  5. Good ol’ E-Fray-Tuh.

    There are plenty of armed citizens in that area. A good place to live.

  6. I’ve been burglarized 3 times (despite my best efforts to the contrary) while I was living in Akron, OH.
    I can tell you nothing makes you feel as infuriated and helpless as the cop filing out the burglary report telling you “Oh yeah, these guys have hit a dozen houses in this neighborhood over the last couple weeks”.

    Great job lady! You have helped preserve the peace (and property) of dozens of potential victims. Put one up for the good guys.

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