“Police are investigating a fatal shooting during a robbery gone awry at a southwest Albuquerque smoke shop on Friday.” Awry? Awry would have been an innocent taking a bullet. We’d say things went about as well as they could have, given the circumstances. An un-named clerk shot an un-named robbery suspect until he stopped. Breathing, that is. And abqjournal.com got the skinny from the clerk’s cousin: “The clerk always carries a gun with him, she said. ‘You know, just the world we live in now, I mean, he’s always prepared to defend his family, his friends, and himself,’ Baumeister told the television station . . . ‘It’s unfortunate when things have to end this way.'” Hard to argue with that. We don’t know if the fact that the store appears to sell more bongs than Bolivars or Benson & Hedges makes it any more crime prone, but the clerk got to go home that night. The robber . . . not so much. [h/t Aaron L.]

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17 COMMENTS

    • Yeah, really! It’s also totally legal here in CA, where we have hundreds of thousands of “sick” people with toe-aches that NEED their weed. Sheesh, the nerve.

      • Yeah, they should just outlaw it completely, because that’s working so well for states like Texas, Louisiana and Florida.

      • The War On Drugs was a War On Us The People, & the CIA hates competition in the Drug Business. Besides the hallucinogenic high (& pain relief) attributed to Marijuana, it has cancer fighting attributes. Also much was made out of hemp (clothes etc.) before it was illegal. Legalizing hemp would create jobs & industry. Prohibition of Alcohol didn’t work. The War on Drugs doesn’t work. Sending people to jail fro it’s use is idiotic. Many Prosecutors are calling for legalization. Now the AG has declared drug possession you loose your gun rights. You know how easy it is for LEO to plant drugs? Duh!

        • Cancer fighting attributes?? What medical journal did you pull that information from? Marijuana can help fight chemotherapy induced Anorexia and associated nausea but nothing more. PS-It does help give you lung cancer though.

    • I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that due to the WoD such businesses tend to have more cash sales than traceable payments like checks, credit cards, etc. and are therefore very lucrative targets.

    • Well, since we’ve given people no legal recourse on the marijuana matter, yeah, by default criminals will be involved. You know, same way if we outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.

      • I’m merely making the observation that legal weed in CA has not resulted in as much peace as some would expect. I don’t much care about weed, but Marijuana DUI is a PITA. Other than that, and a few other minor reservations, I don’t care for it.

  2. The store was engaged in lawful commerce regardless of our opinions of the products they sell. I believe the tobacco products they sell do more damage to the public each year than firearms or automobiles combined.

    As for the shooting. Good job, the good guy goes home and the bad guy doesn’t. Win win.

  3. Given the very small profit margin on tobacco products almost every shop in my area carries a ton of bongs,humidors,airsofts,novelties,pocket knives etc. Given that alot of the new pyrex bongs retail for upwards of $350 and wholesale for around half that, it’s hard to blame them.

  4. That clerk is doing his part to help the budget of New Mexico. One less criminal to get a room with a TV, free clothes, food, medical care, shelter, free counseling, education, and recreational activities. Per 2011 statistics, $47,100 per inmate, nationwide average cost in our prison systems.

  6. It’s much easier to blame the weed and those dirty pot-heads than the government unconstitutionally overstepping its bounds.

    • My experience with pot heads tells me that they don’t rob a place. They just sit in a corner eating Oreos.

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