Last month, at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., a gunman opened fire in a classroom full of ROTC cadets. He killed the ROTC instructor and injured two others before several cadets subdued him — with one cadet using a knife to stab him to death.
To rational people, the shooting clearly evidenced the combined failure of gun control and soft-on-crime policies to protect innocent victims. The perpetrator, who’d been convicted of terrorism charges in 2016, was supposed to be serving an 11-year prison sentence but had been released early under a drug treatment program for which he was supposed to be ineligible. He’d then simply ignored the state’s laws regarding gun possession by felons, background checks, and carrying guns on college campuses, all on his way to ignoring laws prohibiting murder and acts of terrorism.
The responses from many anti-gun public officials were telling: in their view, the attack on disarmed college students clearly evidenced a need to further restrict the right of innocent victims to keep and bear arms in self-defense —and suggested that armed self-defense isn’t that important in the first place. After all, as one Virginia Democrat insinuated, if the cadets at Old Dominion could subdue their assailant without a gun, why can’t you?
All of it missed the point entirely.
Despite what gun control advocates would have you believe, the right to keep and bear arms plays a vital role in public safety. Americans use their firearms to defend themselves and others far more often than many people realize. Even the notoriously anti-gun Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has acknowledged that most studies on the issue find that between 500,000 and several million defensive gun uses occur every year in the United States. An extensive 2021 national survey conducted by a Georgetown professor further substantiated this reality, concluding that Americans used their firearms defensively an average of 1.2 million times a year.
Consider the following examples of successful armed defense from March that you likely didn’t see on the nightly news:
March 1, Aberdeen, N.C.: An armed homeowner confronted a knife-wielding burglar attempting to break into his home through his screened-in porch and detained him at gunpoint until police arrived. The would-be intruder was charged with multiple felonies related to the incident.
March 3, Harlingen, Texas: A driver shot and injured two men in self-defense after they assaulted him in front of his children during a road rage incident. The two men, who were brothers, had followed the driver and signaled for him to pull over after a near-accident involving their car. The moment the driver got out of his truck, the brothers attacked him and inflicted “serious injuries” as the victim’s kids watched helplessly from the backseat. The victim was able to retrieve a handgun from his truck’s center console and shot both assailants.
March 5, Provo, Utah: A man allegedly burglarized several buildings on a large rural property before entering a home uninvited and trying to kick in the door of the bedroom where residents were hiding. The homeowner’s son confronted him with a gun and fired multiple shots at the man, injuring him and causing him to flee. Responding law enforcement officers located and arrested the man.
March 7, Boardman, Ohio: A woman fatally shot her boyfriend after he tried to force his way into her apartment and pointed a gun at another man’s head. The boyfriend — who had a lengthy criminal history — came to the woman’s apartment while she was away but while her three children (including one adult child) were present. He tried to kick in the door and threatened to burn down the building. The woman and another man drove back to the property, arriving before law enforcement. Despite being a prohibited person, the boyfriend pointed a gun at the second man’s head, prompting the woman to draw her own handgun and shoot her boyfriend.
March 10, Athens, Games.: During an argument, a man allegedly punched his wife in the face and threw her to the ground before choking and raping her. The wife was eventually able to call her adult son for help, but the man pointed a gun at the son when he arrived. The son responded by drawing his own gun and firing a round at the man, which missed but sent him fleeing into the woods behind the house. Police later found and arrested the man, who was charged with several felony offenses.
March 14, Nashville, N.C.: Local officials determined that a woman who shot and wounded a “female juvenile” outside of a laundromat acted in lawful self-defense after the juvenile and another woman assaulted her. The armed victim called 911 after the shooting and video footage corroborated that her actions were justified. Both assailants were charged with misdemeanor assault inflicting serious injury.
March 18, Chicago, Ill.: A concealed carry permit holder fatally shot an armed teenager who attempted to rob him at gunpoint. The armed victim doesn’t appear to have been injured during the incident.
March 23, Las Vegas, Nev.: After an argument, a registered sex offender with a history of domestic violence sent threatening texts to his ex-girlfriend, including a threat to drive his car into her workplace if she didn’t respond. The man then showed up outside of the store his ex-girlfriend managed, where the couple’s son confronted him and told him to leave his mother alone. In response, the man crashed his car through the store’s front windows. The son drew a gun and fired a shot at his father but apparently missed. The man climbed out, chased his ex-girlfriend, and stabbed her multiple times before another employee pushed him off. The son, seeing his father standing over his mother with a knife, believed he was going to kill her and shot him multiple times, ending the threat.
March 25 Eunice, La.: A woman fled in her car after her husband beat her, breaking her nose and leaving bruises on her face. The husband got into his own vehicle and pursued a car that he believed his wife was in until it stopped at a house. He then opened fire at the homeowner and his son, who were in the front yard. The homeowner returned fire, striking the husband in the groin and causing him to retreat to his car, where he committed suicide.
March 26, Williamsport, Pa.: Police say that a man who fatally shot his father during a domestic violence incident won’t face criminal charges, because his father attacked him with a kitchen knife first.
March 29, Kosciusko, Miss.: A homeowner fatally shot a man who tried to break in through his back door while evading a police manhunt. The man was a suspect wanted in connection with two apparently unrelated murders earlier in the day.
The ability to exercise their right to armed self-defense made all the difference to the victims in these (and so many other) incidents. Like the Old Dominion gunman, so many of the perpetrators above simply ignored the plethora of laws that are supposed to keep ordinary Americans safe.
But where state law restricted the cadets’ options for self-defense to a pocketknife with a blade shorter than three inches in length, the victims above were able to defend themselves with greater stopping power, at a greater distance, and with less risk of harm to themselves.
The Second Amendment’s purpose is to ensure that people can meaningfully defend their natural and unalienable rights, including the right to life. No policymaker can claim to take this protection seriously while, in practice, proudly limiting victims to a 3-inch knife in a gunfight.
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