An employee of Sacred Heart of Jesus church in Boulder, Colorado was at the right place at the right time, and made all the difference in the equation was that he was carrying a concealed firearm. Just before 6pm Thursday, 47-year-old Heriberto Haro-Luna confronted his estranged wife in the church parking lot, wrapping his hand around her neck and threatening to slit her throat as she began saying her final prayers. The employee, who hasn’t been identified, watched the start of the confrontation from a safe distance. He was familiar with the victim, and sees her regularly as a parishioner on Thursday evenings . . .
At first, it was verbal. Quickly though, things turned violent.
That’s when the employee sprung into action, concealed firearm and all.
“He presented (the gun) and told the man to leave her alone,” he added. “It was very fortunate he was there.”
After seeing the gun, Haro-Luna fled the parking lot as quickly as he could. Police caught up with him shortly after and was arrested on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault and felony menacing.
The 41-year-old victim was taken to the hospital. She had been stabbed in the abdomen. Police say she suffered serious injuries, but is recovering after surgery.
In Colorado, private property owners can prohibit the carrying of firearms. This includes churches. Had this church prohibited firearms and had the employee adhered to the prohibition, this 41-year-old victim may not be alive today.
Make no mistake; this legally armed citizen saved a life, and the gun he chose to carry that day –and his quick thinking– are the reasons the victim is alive today.
Take this story to your next gun control debate.
According to little mikey’s spokes person. This didn’t happen. Because it doesn’t happen.
Because she’s paid to say so.
Shannon can suck it. I suggest we crowd fund bail for this numbnut on the condition that he moves in next door to Shannon pending the trial. Boom.
of all the bad ideas you see on the ‘net, i really like this one. start a kickstarter, i’ll throw in $20.
Next door? She should have to sublet housing for this scumbag
“In Colorado, private property owners can prohibit the carrying of firearms.”
This is a yes/no item. The CCW statute reads that private property rights are not removed. It doesn’t constitute an illegal weapon. If the CCW holder refuses to leave they could be charged with a Third Degree Criminal Trespass, which is a class 1 petty offense (not even a misdemeanor). Unlike places such as Texas, there is not a sign that has any true legal authority to prohibit weapons.
The only places where it holds any weight are those that have security checkpoints, but that would not be applicable in this circumstance.
In Boulder? Wow. Goes to show, people of the gun are all around.
And yet again, another example of a defensive gun use where no shots needed to be fired. Just by the citizen being armed, made all the difference.
And yet another instance of a successful DGU that won’t make it into the “justifiable homicide” statistics that gun prohibitionists use to claim that DGUs are rare.
I know it’s impossible to keep an accurate talley of times guns are pulled and situations are defused (who reports those anyways?), but they probably account for the majority of DGUs. Too bad no one considers those when talking about gun control.
No “probably” to it.
John Lott has stated that if you combine the number of cases where someone is killed and wounded in a DGU, you still have less than 10% of the DGU’s.
Not sure how “shots fired” vs “no shots fired” fare in the stats, but I’d say if there were that many DGU’s with shots fired and no one hit, we’d be hearing about it. Ergo, I think it’s safe to infer that some large percentage of that remaining 90% are “no shots fired,” and the presence of the gun (by the good guy) had a positive outcome WITHOUT “blood in the streets” … bad guy’s blood or otherwise.
The antis are wrong about so much…just wrong.
Wrong about so much? Is there anything they right about?
I can’t think of one thing they have right. Especially when it comes to the carrying and using a gun for self-defense.
Good on him.
He looks like such a nice guy, too.
Seems as though it worked out well
To understand though, is the good citizen legally in the clear? Are you always allowed to present a firearm in defense of another, non related person?
If presented can you tell a person to leave or does the flexibility to do so imply you should not have presented (therefore brandished ?) in the first place ?
If I ever on a scuffle with an unsavory type can a friend of his walk up and point at or shoot me as a result?
Since you’re so full of hollow questions, I’ll answer the last one for you. If someone is being stabbed or choked to death, then absolutely yes.
Well, in this case the knife at her throat and the bleeding wound in her abdomen might have been the giveaway. Clearly, the carrier acted reasonably in defense of another.
Lib Lurker,
Yes, most (if not all) states allow a bystander to use deadly force to save another person’s life from a reasonable, credible, imminent threat of death or great bodily harm.
Pulling out a firearm and pointing it at someone without pulling the trigger is threatening deadly force. If the Good Samaritan was justified to pull the trigger, then he/she was also justified to simply point their firearm at the attacker without pulling the trigger. Since the attacker had already stabbed the victim, the attacker’s threat of causing death or great bodily harm was credible, reasonable, an imminent which justifies the use of deadly force if necessary to stop the threat. Whether or not the Good Samaritan pulled the trigger is immaterial since either use of the firearm was deadly force and justified.
Caveat: I am not an attorney and the above is not legal council regarding any specific situation.
Who gives even half of a crap about whether the armed citizen had the law in his corner? Seriously, you’re carrying a firearm, watching from a safe distance, and see a woman with a knife to her throat and bleeding from her abdomen, and you’re going to do nothing?
“Sorry lady, I’d love to help you not die today, but by getting involved I open myself up to frivolous lawsuits by the guy who is trying to kill you.”
I forwarded to Christopher Ingraham at the Washington Post because this was not possible according to “research” regarding armed self defense. I’ll send him all of these for a while.
Oh…an EXCELLENT idea. Good job!
An ambassador from south o’ the border?
The heading should be: “Should have been an Open Carry non-incident that never happened.”
Somebody tell this to Shannon.
Maybe he should have acted a little earlier, like when he pulled the knife? I guess judgment call! Thug’s are bullies as we know. watch your six.
Uh oh, a story involving:
1) an illegal alien committing a violet crime; and
2) a christian performing a selfless act; and
3) a concealed carrier saving someones life without firing a shot; and
4) all of the above happening in a city ruled by progresso-nazis
Gee, why isnt this national front page news?
This just goes to show that not every gun owner is a right-wing Tea Party gun nut. Many of us are progressives that realize the need to arm themselves for self defense. We don’t buy into the BS that “everybody wants our guns”. There are more than 3 million guns in the US. Even the most delusional Republican realizes that there is no way possible to get all of those guns. If they stop being made in the US they will be imported from some place else. The void will always be filled, and the government knows it.
And just how many so called Tea Party members do your personally know besides none? Apparently you do not get much news as Obama has been trying to disarm the citizen of this country ever since taking office. Even Chuck Schumer is frothing at the mouth to assist Obama in legislation for the next attempt. Have you ever heard of Diane Feinstine? Apparently not!
Prof Lott has pointed out for years that an armed society is a safe society. This latest incident is just another example that will be mostly ignored by the progressive media kooks as it does not fit their story line.
Even the most right wing of the right wing Republicans know that you can’t ban guns out of existence, they’re just not too stupid to see how badly the anti-gun community wants to do it anyway.
My bet is most of the mainstream news media won’t report this story because it doesn’t fit their anti-gun agenda. And even if they did, it’s unlikely they’d question the attacker’s immigration status.
Yep. I stopped a Hispanic Gang-banger from kiddnapping and killing his wife because she was leaving him. Didn’t even need to draw a weapon, my presence was enough.
Another woman came running up in a parking lot of a Gym as I was returning to my car, frantic with fear saying her husband was stalking her. As I spoke to her a man comes screeching up in a car and starts yelling crazy stuff at her. I have pocket gun that I carry while working out so I kept one hand on the gun while I raise my phone and say I’m calling the cops; he looks at me and starts to get out of the car so I start moving towards him as I start to draw the gun; the guy suddenly changes his mind and gets back in the car and burns rubber out of there. I tell the woman she better get a gun. She says she has a restraining order against him. I tell her again she needs to get a gun.
I have a .380 I use just for church. It’s so small I can put it in my front pocket of my Dockers.
Always better to have as many options as possible. Imagine if the guy had yelled across the parking lot like; hey man, you better leave her alone! The result could easily become two dead people.
Goes to show evil is everywhere. Keep aware and your powder dry…
Thanks to the unnamed carrier… even though we should all hope to be willing and act in such a circumstance.
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