khou.com covered a defensive gun use in Houston in which brother of owner Dien Tu shot and killed two of three armed robbers. The would-be stickup men had pistol-whipped his brother in law when they refused to comply with demands. The reporter at khou.com shared the official law enforcement response: “Police advise clerks in this situation to give in to the demands of these robbers.” It’s not clear . . .

if this is actual advice from police in the area or vaguely remembered propaganda by the reporter. The store owner sees things a little differently, as reported in the next sentence: “The owner said everyone in this store is armed just because of how dangerous it is.”

In the picture above, Dien Tu is seen aiming at the fleeing robbers. Note the reinforced posts in the parking lot to prevent smash-and-grab burglaries and robberies. According to abc13.com, the store had been robbed just a couple of weeks earlier.

The owner says his store was robbed July 1 so he and his brother were prepared with guns to fight back. The clerk in that robbery was beaten so badly, he hasn’t been able to return to work.

I can’t help but wonder if Dien has been in some tight spots before. He acted quickly and decisively in a difficult situation. A previous story refers to Dien as “wearing a gun.”  Might it be that he was openly carrying in the store? No holster is evident on this image taken four hours later. Open carry on one’s property has always been legal in Texas.

The robbers have yet to be identified, but it’s likely that cutting their criminal careers short has prevented possibly hundreds of future crimes. Perhaps their deaths will serve as a lesson to others. If the crime rate in dangerous urban areas is to be brought down, the rule of law needs to be reinforced and internalized by the culture in the area. Young men need to be taught that crime is not a respectable,  worthwhile or profitable career option. Responsible actions by armed citizens are part of that process.

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

  1. Government agents hate seeing private citizens usurp the government’s supposed monopoly on lethal force. Gets people thinking that they have responsibility for their own lives and that courage is a virtue.

    • Government hates competition. Cops want to keep their jobs and their obscene and totally undeserved pensions that start at age 50.

      And BTW, it’s not a “supposed” monopoly on lethal force, it is a monopoly.

    • I agree and lately the armed citizens of Houston have been racking up a good score against the human predators. I hope this continues and the criminals get the message.

    • “Government agents hate seeing private citizens usurp the government’s supposed monopoly on lethal force. Gets people thinking that they have responsibility for their own lives and that courage is a virtue.”

      They know courage is a virtue, but they think it only belongs on the battlefield. So in their minds, if ordinary people have courage, the streets will become a battlefield.

      • At least there will be two less crooks on the streets of Houston. Its to bad that he didn’t kill the third one, and the driver of the get away car. The only reason the Government hasn’t taken our guns away from us is they think we just might use them to protect our selves from tyranny in Government. This is a Quote from Thomas Jefferson, “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not”.

  2. Cops can’t look like heros if the world learned that the everyday Joe can to their job better without even being paid. They’d have to get a real job instead of suckling on the tax teet while strutting about in a uniform supplementing their lack of manhood for an attachment to The State.

    The victim is the first responder. Cops risk nothing more than do citizens.

    • “supplementing their lack of manhood”

      This sounds like something you are intimately aware of.

      /sucks to be you.

    • I agree with the police, “give the robbers what they want”. That would be at least an ounce of lead,copper, and misc metals and elements. See how the robbers run when they get what they came after.

  4. It’s his store. His life and livelyhood. His family depends on him and his store. Folks from abroad that come here looking for a better life, a slice of the American pie, like to own and operate their own businesses.

    This gent appears Vietnamese. He appears to be about the right age group. Wanna bet he was using a 1911?

    • “This gent appears Vietnamese.”

      Maybe Hmong.

      The Hmong don’t like to be fvcked with…

  8. Cops promoting that criminals are entitled to their crimes… Bad guy wants your stuff, give it to them, they’re entitled.

    Give rapists what they want, too…

    I know at least a couple women who might have a problem with that.

    Can’t rape the willing. Can’t really rob someone who is predisposed to giving their stuff away…

    Is this how cops reduce crime; by making it not a crime to be a criminal?

    “You gave him what he wanted? Sounds consensual to me…”

    Is that how easy it is to get out of doing your job as a cop?

    • I hear there are some guys in caves who want the U.S. to leave the Middle East.

      Why aren’t the Feds just giving them what they want?

      Of course, HPD has had their pension plan decimated by the mayor. They need to get on her good side to try and jointly break HFD to get some of their money. Wouldn’t surprise me to hear Parker espouse a give them what they want mentality. It’s how she robbed to people of Houston.

  9. I don’t get it. How does this kind of comment blow over without anyone noticing?

    The big cheese of cops is advising cooperation with criminals! Why bother making the law that says robbing people is bad, if we’re supposed to give them what they want? Welfare wasn’t enough, they need more and they’re entitled. Where’s my fat government paycheck? Give them what they want, get used to it…

  10. There is SO much more paperwork involved with a double homicide, compared to an armed robbery/ assault! Give a cop a break….. NOT!

  11. If the bad guys are black and the good guy is Asian, is he still a racist? Hard to tell these days.

  13. The NRA really needs to recognize the fact that there is one ethnic group that they should SERIOUSLY try to recruit members from. I know a lot of Asian-Americans believe in an individuals right to self defense.

  14. Well we know this story must be false, since The Trace just conclusively proved that defensive gun use is impossible.

    • This is the 128th person to ever use a gun defensively. Expect a speedy update to their integrity-driven statistic models.

    • Sure, their “independent analysis” is hampered by the fact that, in their own words:
      “A study conducted by Everytown for Gun Safety further corroborates the active-shootings data by examining every mass killing with a firearm between January 2009 and July 2014. (The Trace received seed funding from Everytown for Gun Safety.)”

  15. I’ll take the Henry Ford Model T stance, you can have it any color, as long as it’s black.

    I’ll give them what the want, as long as it’s a fight.

  16. Give the thief what he wants, eh? What if he wants to leave no witnesses? What if he wants to leave me bleeding on the street?

    Sorry. Not in the habit of laying down and dying for some hoodlum.

  17. This defender did not give the robbers what they wanted — but he certainly gave two of them exactly what they needed.

    Too bad the other turds got away. Oh, well. Maybe next time.

    • “You can’t – always get – what you waant.
      You can’t – always get – what you waant.
      You can’t – always get – what you waant.
      But if you try sometimes –
      You get what you neeed.”

    • I don’t think they “needed” their lives ended — what they needed was their brains straightened out and a new life path — so he didn’t give them what they needed.

      But since their brains weren’t straightened out and they weren’t on a new life path,he certainly gave them what WE needed.

  21. ‘Give the robber’s what they want’ kind of breaks down when what they want is something you can’t just give. Like your body or your life. The obvious issue here is that you won’t know if you’re dealing with one of these monsters until it’s usually too late.

  22. “Give them what they want” they only wanted the names/addresses of the cops, the mayor, the governor, where their wives worked, where their kids go to school, which nursing home their grandparents coalesce.
    They only wanted to commit a crime and be given the liberty to return at their leisure unmolested. They want to define the value of your life for you without the bitter bond of outright violence returned.

    They want to chuck it all, and they want the police to bind your hands and your will to prevent you from beating them to it.

    Damn them all

  25. Great shooting/stupid police advice in NJ. Oh wait – this is Texas ?
    Jeez, sometimes I think my wife’s opinion that we will not move there is not so far off base after all.

    Seriously, just stop even asking for advice from law enforcement. They are clueless everywhere. And this is coming from someone (me) with 15 years of LEO experience. Glad I am out.

    • @Al: Don’t think he asked. Sounds like it was unsolicited advice from the cops. Also sounds like it is their usual response to “prevent violence”. Not that it works that well in real life. But, they usually show up after it is all over anyway so how should they know what really works ?

  26. You know what? How about NO. How about if they value their lives they can get a real job. How about they can stop pistol whipping people and earn living and if they don’t like that the world is better off with them DEAD.

    • The vast majority here show a total failure to understand the bottom end of the economic ladder and the resulting crime. Very few property crimes are perpetrated by people who _want_ to be criminals; they’re done by people who don’t see any other way in a system that is rigged against them. Even government assistance is “offered” in a way that is generally degrading and insulting; too many government workers project the attitude that the people they serve are barely worth the effort, and the ‘clients’ should be immensely grateful for only having to sit in line for two hours to have a government employee pry into their personal lives before giving them twelve pages of forms to fill out and . . . get back in line.

      In many cases, there just are no jobs, at least not ones any government-run school prepared them for. Oh, sure, there are hundreds of jobs listed in the paper under “Help Wanted”, but many of those require a year or more experience, or a two-year certificate from a college, or a professional certification — and what does a government education prepare people for except flipping burgers (if that)? And in Oregon, at any rate, going to the employment department doesn’t accomplish anything, because since they “upgraded” it, they have more bureaucrats behind the counter and far fewer job opportunities listed, by an order of magnitude.

      That doesn’t excuse them. But it’s not surprising when hungry people without the skills to see a way out turn to stealing, and saying “They should get a job” shows no understanding at all.

      • @Roymond: Why is it then that more of these “disadvantaged” don’t end up robbing people at gunpoint ? There are other ways to get ahead. It may not be easy but others have done it. Look at the guy they robbed. He likely came from a country with less than most of these “disadvantaged” have here. How come he owns a business and these thugs have to rob him to get what they want ? The Liberal Press wants us all to feel guilty because some of the poor people turn to crime. Sorry, not my fault. Could the government go a better job of helping them get out of poverty ? Perhaps, but that is no excuse to turn to crime. Sorry not buying your argument.

      • Maybe these “poor hungry people” should take ANY job they are qualified to do including flipping burgers instead of taking other guys money at gunpoint.
        There is lots of immigrants who do not even speak English when they come here, their education is worth nothing here, but they are willing to work hard and learn fast.
        I had one bag of clothes and $200 when I started in this country. I spoke Czech, Slovak, German and Russian. My education in socialist economy was equally worthless. No SS#, no car, no friends. So I started as construction helper for $6.50 an hour. Six days a week, 10 to 12 hours a day. Never felt being held down and too busy learning Polish, English and construction trade to even think about stealing or robbing.
        Forgive me for not feeling too bad for poor hungry robbers who just can’t get a break in life and are pushed to crime by cruel society. They have all advantage and head start over those bad immigrants they can ask for. Only instead of working and building they decided they are entitled to fruirs of other people’s labor. They got what they deserved.

  27. Good for him. I know whenever I go to a range here in Houston I always see Vietnamese guys. I would not mess with them, they seem to be quite serious about their guns.

  28. “The robbers have yet to be identified, but it’s likely that cutting their criminal careers short has prevented possibly hundreds of future crimes.”

    Don’t be too sure about that, Dean.

    Years back I had a job that entailed visiting a county low security jail, servicing upright video games placed in the common room – TV room.

    COPS was the inmates favorite TV show. They loved to hoot and laugh at the guys being busted on camera, commenting on how stupid they were to get caught.

    For some reason the lightbulb over their heads never illuminated.

    There they were, laughing at the guys getting busted while they themselves were locked up for… getting busted.

    The criminal mindset believes they are far smarter than the morons being caught because hey, they’ll never get caught.

    Until they do.

  29. we are not talking about a brainwashed PC culture, Vietnamese have their feet grounded in reality! why do you think that the VC kicked our ASS all because of PC politicians! especially the Democrats! of course the Sodomite lovers in Congress and the traitorous Supreme court think otherwise, they are proven failures because they want the power and the glory of screwing our country for their own benefit!
    Good on this guy 2 for 3 to bad he didn’t have a 40 mike mike to get the car driver

  30. I gather Dien Tu is not of a cultural heritage to allow himself to lie down and take it. Cops should know better. Most people know the rule, but the rule is not guaranteed to work.

    In a split second you have to decide, will I live or die today?

  31. the police force should compensate the victims of robbery and death for not doing their job in preventing it. or not. becuase it is our responcability to look after our own.

  34. Dean, when you wrap up this great story with speculative terms like:
    “The robbers have yet to be identified, but *it’s likely* that cutting their criminal careers short has prevented *possibly* hundreds of future crimes. *Perhaps* their deaths will serve as a lesson to others.” …

    … you are using the same approach that the gun-grabbers use when using unsubstantiated speculations about outcomes and numbers – which is one of the strongest arguments against most of their weak positions – when you don’t have to. You are preaching to the choir, remember? And even the most staunch gun-grabber realizes that this is the likely outcome because it had a “happy ending”, with the good guy “vigilante” surviving and 2 of 3 bad guys dying horribly.

    The great thing about the situation is that we already realize that this story and all like it (like the Lynn Russell/Chuck De Caro hotel shooting anecdote) are the most positive PR we can muster these days, as well as being most effective in preventing future incidents because of the positive PR.

    The only numbers we should talk about are the ones that prove our point – that reality beats speculation – lest we be discounted for fudging the numbers too. Don’t give them the ammunition!

    Another point we need to work on is that media has made the term “vigilante” into a bad thing, where being vigilant is nothing to take lightly. Viva Vigilantes!

  35. Give them what they want? They’re kidding right? I didn’t carry concealed for the past 37 years to give them what they want. They are going to get what they really REALLY don’t want. If they don’t have a gun or knife, they are getting kicked in the nuts. If they have a weapon, really now, nobody has to guess the answer to that one now do we!

  36. Might not be relevant but 500 years ago the Trung sisters led a war of resistance against a chinese invasion. The Vietnamese have been fighting one invader after the other for hundreds of years. By now resistance is in their blood, maybe in their Dna. They refuse to lie down for anyone.

  37. Why don’t cops ever follow their own advice? If it is the most prudent course of action you’d think police and alphabet agencies would be rolling over exposing and exposing their bellies.
    I guess it’s only prudent for us plebes.

  38. Texas Deadly Force Law:

    Sec. 9.32. DEADLY FORCE IN DEFENSE OF PERSON. (a) A person is justified in using deadly force against another:

    (1) if the actor would be justified in using force against the other under Section 9.31; and

    (2) when and to the degree the actor reasonably believes the deadly force is immediately necessary:

    (A) to protect the actor against the other’s use or attempted use of unlawful deadly force; or

    (B) to prevent the other’s imminent commission of aggravated kidnapping, murder, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated robbery.

    (b) The actor’s belief under Subsection (a)(2) that the deadly force was immediately necessary as described by that subdivision is presumed to be reasonable if the actor:

    (1) knew or had reason to believe that the person against whom the deadly force was used:

    (A) unlawfully and with force entered, or was attempting to enter unlawfully and with force, the actor’s occupied habitation, vehicle, or place of business or employment;

    (B) unlawfully and with force removed, or was attempting to remove unlawfully and with force, the actor from the actor’s habitation, vehicle, or place of business or employment; or

    (C) was committing or attempting to commit an offense described by Subsection (a)(2)(B);

    (2) did not provoke the person against whom the force was used; and

    (3) was not otherwise engaged in criminal activity, other than a Class C misdemeanor that is a violation of a law or ordinance regulating traffic at the time the force was used.

    (c) A person who has a right to be present at the location where the deadly force is used, who has not provoked the person against whom the deadly force is used, and who is not engaged in criminal activity at the time the deadly force is used is not required to retreat before using deadly force as described by this section.

    (d) For purposes of Subsection (a)(2), in determining whether an actor described by Subsection (c) reasonably believed that the use of deadly force was necessary, a finder of fact may not consider whether the actor failed to retreat.

      • (B) to prevent the other’s imminent commission of aggravated kidnapping, murder, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated robbery.

        Translation:

        Robbery, or aggravated robbery may result in the robber getting killed.

        And the Righteous Country of Texas is A-OK with that.

        Spread the word…

  39. Yes, yes, “give them what they want”, because life is precious if it’s threatened by bad guys… Threatened by police?.. not so much.

  40. SW Houston is widely regarded as the most dangerous part of what is already a dangerous city. Try as we may to be armed and prepared (Houston suburb League City has the highest per capita CHL-licensee rate in the entire state), there will still be violent crime as there will still be violent people.

    People make poor decisions every day. For those people whose entire worldview begins and ends with visions of easy money and wild violence, the poor decisions present in a very narrow range of outcomes. Usually, it’s dead, wounded or wanted, or some combination thereof.

    About the best you can do is try to avoid becoming entangled in their nonsense, and prepare to protect yourself if avoidance proves impossible.

    • Wonder to what degree illegal drugs play a part in all of this ? If you are high on Meth or something else maybe something that is really stupid looks like a good idea ?

  41. But if you give it to them then they didn’t really steal it so no crime was actually committed.

  42. Police Advice After Houston Shooting: “Give The Robbers What They ̶W̶a̶n̶t̶ Need”

    There fixed it for ya 🙂

  43. My family had liquor stores on the eastcoast. granddad, dad, half a dozen uncles had stores.

    all the stores had firearms, generally a shotgun with shortest stock law would allow, and since that is a low margin business (15-25% markup)in the days of virtually all cash transactions we had a LOT of cash at night. Moreover if we had (using current dollar examples) $2,000 at the end of the night, maybe 400 of it was gross profit and $200 net profit, an losing it would be like being robbed of ten days work.

    I had a NJ carry license at 21.

    I am full on supporter of gun rights and know the “common sense solutions” have no affect on criminals are just scapegoating of he law abiding

    That said, as a general rule I am not sure I am in disagreement with the police advice on this. If any violence occurs by the robbers then having and using the firearm is advisable. My dad’s advise was to shoot first if the person looked hopped up or nervous and was armed. If they looked calm, just give them the money.

    Also this guy in the example seems to know what he is doing, so the cops should not second guess him.

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