Let me set the scene. Its 9 PM, and you’re walking from your car to your doorway after a long day. Your two month old son is in his car carrier, dozing off as you try to get him into his crib before he wakes up. But before you get to your front door, out of nowhere an armed robber puts a gun to your head and demands everything you have. What do you do?

From the Dispatch:

Smith was carrying his 2-month-old son in a car seat at the time. He knelt down in front of his son to shield him as the robber held the gun to Smith’s head, police said.

While Smith was handing over a small amount of cash, he pulled his gun out of a holster, said detective Brian Boesch of the Columbus police robbery squad. Smith is a concealed-carry permit holder, Boesch said.

The robber fled, police said, but then pointed his gun back at Smith as he ran.

“When I pulled my pistol he took off running and I shot and it hit him,” Smith later told a 911 dispatcher.

The dispatcher asked Smith how he knew the man had been shot.

“Cause when I shot he started crying and he fell to the ground,” Smith told the dispatcher.

A short time later, a man matching the description of the robber came into Mount Carmel West hospital with a gunshot wound. He was taken to surgery and is under police guard tonight.

Technically, the guy was in the clear to plug the robber the second he brandished the gun and put it to the guy’s head. The robber had demonstrated the ability to kill the man, he had the opportunity to make the shot, and he had performed an overt act against the man’s life. As the Call of Duty crowd would say, the guy was “cleared hot” all over the robber’s ass. But he didn’t fire.

When the robber turned back, though, he acted. There have been an increasing number of robberies that have ended with the criminal shooting the victim EVEN THOUGH they fully complied and gave them everything, since leaving no witnesses is easier that going to court. There was one such case in San Antonio recently. So when the robber turned, there was no other reason and the man decided to fight.

This story had a happy ending. The good guys walked away alive, and the bad guy wound up in the hospital. Another man and child’s life saved by a legally owned and carried firearm. What’s the saying, if you can save the life of just one child…?

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59 COMMENTS

  1. If one of my babies was in the line of fire I would hold off firing until I had no other option. When the bg had the money and a clear escape route and he still turned to point the gun at me, I would have no other option.

    • I call it a clear shot. Give that man a months paid vacation while the cops sit around and “investigate” just to make sure the scumbag deserved it!

    • It seems to me the robber wasn’t there to kill the man, so he got lucky after elevating the situation. I very much agree that the right course of action would be to surrender the cash, and let the man leave, unless it became clear that this was a kill or be killed situation – but I was not there, maybe the victim was afraid of the robber’s intent to eliminate a witness.

      What is impressive however was the resolve not to execute lethal force at close range but only at the second clear threat. It is certainly an example of how to wield equalizing arms without abusing their power.

  2. “If you can save the life of one more child…”

    However, this is ACTUALLY saving a kid – not that hypothetical, untraceable, fantasy style that the anti-gunners pride themselves on supposedly aiming to achieve.

    This is a +1 on our chalkboard. They will never have any hard data on their chalkboard -EVER – but they “know” they do. Some would call that insanity.

      • No BC, the man had already given the bad guy his money, the point was the human predator was threatening the man and his sons life AFTER he already had the money.

        When a mugger threatened me for the 15 dollars I had on me at the time, I didn’t risk my life for that money, there is no price you can put on a human life, I fought him because at that moment he was a tyrant, threatening to take my life and my FREEDOM, my freedom from tyranny, my freedom to be free from all forms of coertion and threats of force to make me a slave, even for a moment.

        Because freedom does have a price, but freedom can’t be bought with money, it can’t be bargained for, it can’t be traded for, there is only one way freedom can be paid for, that’s with the willingness to pay with your blood or your life.

        • Yeah, thanks for getting all melodramatic, I wasn’t just being sarcastic or anything. No, I really thought that the victim shot the guy over the money. Geez.

        • I just revisited this comment to see if you came back for more over the top internet commenter theatrics, and I was disappointed that you didn’t. I swear to god I laughed out loud a little bit, thinking of you sitting shirtless in front of your keyboard with your Mel Gibson approved William Wallace blue face paint screaming along to the words you were typing, “…a mugger may take my thirteen dollars and seventy one cents, but HE CAN NEVER TAKE, MY, FFFFFRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEDOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!”

          That is all.

  3. “if you can save the life of just one child…”

    No, no, no…. but not like THIS……

    You have to save one child from getting shot while preventing countless other people from preventing the same from happening to them……
    See?
    It makes sense….

  6. My only criticism is that perhaps more armed citizens should practice double and triple taps. A higher average number rounds in the perp’s center of mass before he goes down will significantly reduce his further costs to society post shooting.

      • Train the way you should fight, then when the fight comes you have the training. I’ve never been in a DGU, but I have been involved in unarmed defensive incidents. In each case it was my martial arts training, specifically techniques that I’d done hundreds or thousands of times in the dojo, that came to the surface when the need was there.

        I didn’t say I was some kind of superhero operator type who could double-tap a tango from 80 yards with my off hand, so I’m not sure where the attitude is coming from. I practice putting two and three aimed shots into center-of-mass from various firing postures. What’s controversial about that?

        • It’s controversial because you suggested shooting a criminal more times as a way to,”reduce his further costs to society post shooting”. This seems to suggest that you think killing a person would be preferable to simply shooting them until they no longer pose a threat. Willful and intentional killing is controversial, even around here. It confirms what so many anti’s suggest about concealed carriers, namely that they’re not what they claim to be (responsible adults seeking to carry a weapon just for self-defense), but rather that they’re just a bunch of self-styled Judge Dredd types bent on meting out old west style justice.

        • In a DGU, you shoot to stop the threat. You don’t have the right to decide if ending someone’s life would be a benefit to society.

  7. Lemme guess, he never married the mother, so his baby has a different surname than him. And if I’m not mistaken the baby’s name was Dan Wesson.

    Get it? Smith and Wesson. Har har. Ok guys, cut me some slack. Its late and I’m tired.

  8. I’m a sucker for a story with a happy ending. Just a big softy when it comes to protecting kids.

  9. Good job to the father!

    And what AlphaGeek said. Anybody threatens my kids, gets more than one shot thrown their direction… they’re welcome to a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th.

    • I’ll share the rule that was shared with me by a law-enforcement trainer some years back:

      “You don’t stop shooting because they start crying, screaming, or shouting. They may just be trying to buy a few seconds to present their own weapon, even if you’ve already landed hits. You stop shooting when they’re flat on the ground or running away.”

      That one really stuck with me, and it’s 100% compatible with my suggestion that the societal cost of violent crime would be lower if people would pull the trigger a couple more times in DGUs like this one.

  10. Nick, Great piece. You know I just want a clip of New York City’s Mayor Mike Blunderberg new commerical. I like what you said about the NRA needing a war-time counselgerie as in the GodFather. We need a commerical of all the innocent victims whose lives were spared. If Blunderberg and celebrities can demand a plan, we appreciate “a saved innocent life” by having a firearm. Get the nine year old who locked herself in a closet and shot the criminal, the subject of this artical here, the elderly citizen who shot a burglar. Let’s get American citizens who are alive today because they or a citizen who had a firearm stepped in. Time to go on the offensive…civilly. Put names and face and stories to the second amendment. Let’s get Americans from all walks of life who are thankful for this tool that was used to save their life or those of others.

  11. This is the way to fight back. Use the same emotional rhetoric they use. Put faces to the cause and ask, “would you rather they be harmed, maimed, or dead? Support the 2nd amendment.”

  12. We had a nice elderly man that ran a candy store here. Some POS gangbanger robbed him & since he didn’t have much money he was killed. The perps parents found him playing with some of the stolen candy in his room. So yes, if you listen to s brady & “just give him your money” there is a chance you will be killed anyways. What I would have done if he was close would have been to get my wallet out & distract him & then grab the gun hand, he wouldn’t have needed a hospital. In my CC class they did stress you must be aware of your surroundings. So this comming out of nowhere stuff shouldn’t happen, Randy

  13. My kid all is growed up. But if I had a young child, and he or she was threatened by a BG, there wouldn’t be enough bullets in the world.

  14. A good guy with a gun saving a child’s life. The sad thing is you will never hear about it on the news, as they cover it up for there own Socialist agenda.

    • Yea, I got it. I also stopped reading it at the part where it said a majority of gun owners want reasonable gun control. I think it was the third paragraph or something.

      • I got one too. I used the letter-to-the-president form to send a letter (my second) explaining that while I believe completely in the First Amendment, I also believe the Second Amendment means what it says.

        I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me, signing the petition was symbolic — I saw it as America speaking back. Piers Morgan has the right to say whatever he wants, but he doesn’t have a right to speak lies unopposed and abuse the truth without consequences.

      • Because they dont already know who you are, where you live and (provided you are required to take a class to obtain a permit to carry and/or live in a state requiring gun registration) have guns?

    • There was a famous Battle of Britain fighter ace who would shoot German bombers all to Hell, but not shoot them down entirely. Instead he’d let them limp home with their dead and wounded, so they could be an example to the rest of the Nazi horde.

      • How did he become an ace? The Hurricane and Spitfire of the BoB used .303 machine guns. The pilots complained of lack of hitting power against the tough german bombers.

  17. Bu… bu, but. But what about the child!? If this man never had a gun around his child an ARMED robber NEVER would have attacked them. The bad guy wouldnt have had a gun if the good guy didnt. This is all obviously the fathers fault for having a gun and not just calling the good guys.

    *sarcasm off*

  18. So according to him, the bad guy had a gun. I wonder if there is any actual proof of that, or if that is just his side of the story.

    • I know you must be upset that a gun owner and his family weren’t killed. It’s ok. I wonder why your side doesn’t show this much doubt and scrutiny while examining your own staggeringly irrational policies and claims?

    • Come on Low Budget Dave. Do you really think a man with a two month old infant in a car carrier at his front door is going to pull out his handgun and shoot someone for no particular reason?

      If that’s the case, the man risked going to prison, losing his infant child, being injured himself, and all for what?

    • Damn lbd, you just showed your true self with that comment. No more lies about reasonable or common sense gun control. You’re just a sad control freak like mikeyb.

  19. It must make antis absolutely froth at the mouth that a gun owner was able to defend himself and his family, rather than accept and revel in the victimhood their damaged psyches so desperately need.

  21. In respone to the the “Demand a Plan” youtube video by anti-self defense celbrities. How about ” I Demand a Voice” or “I Demand to be Heard” and innocents saved by guns say- “I demand to be heard- I was saved by having a gun…I was saved by excercising the second amendment”.

    • Hopefully not, I wouldn’t imagine so. Babies are pretty resilient, except in the bones. Know that well as I snapped my femur in a long past jailbreak attempt. Those bars could not hold me! Even saw a sad story where a couple got trapped on the highway for days in a sub zero whiteout and lost a bunch of fingers and toes but the baby fat saved the kid any trouble whatsoever.

  23. Was the child wearing ear protection? Is there permanent inner ear damage? How irresponsible.

    Just covering all the whiny lefty bases.

  26. Im sure the media will spin this into something like
    “Paranoid father mistakes homeless man for armed robber and fires 10 times, killing him, putting infant in harms way.”
    Would you be suprised to see this? I sure wouldn’t.

  27. As a Jewess in the US, I can only say that ANY anti-gun plan from an ignoramus like Slow Joe Biden or his dirty Kenyan boss is bound to be a loser idea. Certainly it will make all REAL Americans put our 2nd Amendment FIRST! Both criminals and overbearing governments respect FIREPOWER, not sweet talk. And remember that America wasn’t won with a registered gun! -Wendy Weinbaum

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