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Editor’s note: This is part two of a six-part series. You can read the first part here.
Since the Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the left has once again taken up its two-pronged attack on the Second Amendment: pushing additional gun control legislation in Congress and flooding the news and internet with anti-gun articles – many of which are merely clever works of fiction.
To combat the falsity – such as the myriad articles “debunking” the “good guy with a gun myth” – Liberty Nation will highlight six real stories this week focusing on incidents that would have gone horrifyingly differently had some good guy with a gun not intervened.The claim that private gun ownership doesn’t help stop crime is demonstrably false – and here’s the proof.
Assault on a Diner
Back in July of 2016 26-year-old Dallas native, Antione Devon Cooper robbed the Waffle House on North Beckley Avenue in Desoto, Texas with an AK-47. No one was shot inside; the mere presence of the deadly rifle was easily enough to persuade the employees and diners within to part with their and the store’s money.
One of the customers was legally carrying a concealed firearm. During the robbery, he remained non-confrontational. However, his wife was on her way to the Waffle House. Fearing for her safety, the armed customer followed the AK toting thief out into the parking lot and called out to him. Cooper turned and pointed his rifle at the man, who then shot him with his handgun.
The Dallas Morning News reported that the police were called shortly after, at about 2:30 a.m. When the authorities arrived, Cooper was taken to a local hospital and put on life support. In this particular case, no one was physically harmed until the civilian shot the robber. However, it’s unclear where Cooper would have gone or what he would have done with his AK-47 after using it for an armed robbery at Waffle House.
Perhaps the customer’s actions saved no lives; it’s entirely possible that either Cooper would have remained at large but not hurt anyone, or that he would have gone quietly when the police did find him.
However, it’s more likely that he would have either robbed someone else – maybe shooting them, maybe not – or that he would have ended up in a deadly confrontation with the police. While the shooting wasn’t exactly a direct defense of self, given the crime that had just been committed and the plausible risk to his wife, the customer was not arrested or charged with any crime.
The Assault Weapons Scare
One of the left’s favorite tactics in their attack on the Second Amendment is stirring up fear of assault weapons. Most of you are probably old enough to recall the Federal Assault Weapons Ban that ran from 1994 to 2004. Well, that’s what happens when this strategy pays off – and right now, there are GOP legislators currently supporting another ban.
Singling out semi-automatic rifles as “assault weapons” is just ridiculous. Of course AK-47s and AR-15s are assault weapons – so are .357 revolvers, pump-action 12 gauge shotguns, and any other projectile weapon not built specifically for target shooting only, even crossbows. Pinning the moniker to a certain style of rifle is merely a scare tactic.
Are these rifles more dangerous than handguns? Yes and no. Each type of weapon is designed for a specific purpose. Guns like the AK-47 – and even more so the AR-15 – are designed to be deadly and relatively accurate at a considerably greater distance than the average handgun.
Imagine two shooters standing 300 yards away from each other, one with a semi-automatic rifle and the other with a handgun. The one with the rifle is in much better shape – even with the AK, though 300 yards is pushing it for the 7.62 x 39mm round, which will have lost close to half its velocity and dropped something like 23 inches by that point.
A .223 Remington fired from an AR-15 would only drop around 13 inches at that distance, but a 9mm bullet fired from a handgun would be unlikely to reach the rifleman, barring some insane shooting angle. The pistol’s bullet would drop just shy of two inches at 50 yards, but it gets considerably worse from there, falling a full foot at 100 yards.
But these numbers are unimportant to two shooters squaring off at close range. From five to 15 feet away from each other in a building or parking lot, or even 15 yards across a school hallway, it’s merely a matter of who is quicker on the draw.
