Well-Armed Wednesday: Three Recent Stories Of Self-Defense

Armed citizen stories happen every day across the United States, but rarely do they make national news. Here are three cases of armed self-defense that have happened in just the past few days that you’ll never read about in the New York Times or see on CNN.

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In Cocoa, Florida, a woman was forced to defend herself after she was shot at outside a convenience store late Sunday evening.

Witnesses told authorities that a mother and daughter were outside the store when two men in a vehicle approached them.

According to authorities, Latray Bell, the man who was with the person who got shot, held a gun and pointed it at one of the women and said she owed him money.

The woman refused to give Bell the money, so the pair got back into their vehicle and drove away, but fired shots as they left.

Officials said the man Bell was with was the only person that was hit. Authorities said the woman, who has a concealed weapons permit, defended herself by firing back.

Latray Bell is now facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon, while his alleged partner in crime was taken to a local hospital.

In rural Virginia, police say a man came back to the scene of an earlier crime and was shot by the on-guard homeowner.

Two years ago, Lucas Hemp broke into a home near Elkton and escaped unharmed.

On Sunday night, when he returned to the home for a second time, he wasn’t so lucky.

Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson said Hemp, 39, was shot as he tried to enter the home in the 20000 block of Wooded View Lane near Elkton.

Hutcheson said deputies responded to the home at about 8 p.m.

He said Robin Babbington, 71, found Hemp, 39, of Elkton, banging on and trying to enter his front door.

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Police say Hemp tried to enter the home, and that’s when he was shot by Robin Babbington’s wife. As it turns out, the couple’s had dealings with Hemp before.

 Hemp was recently released from prison for breaking into the same home.

On April 5, 2018, Hemp pleaded guilty to misdemeanor entering a property and felony assault on a police officer stemming from a Jan. 25, 2018, incident at the Wooded View Lane home.

He was sentenced to six years in prison with all but 1 1/2 years suspended.

Thankfully the couple are okay, and hopefully Hemp will be returning to prison once he’s out of the hospital.

Meanwhile, police in Duffield, Virginia say a homeowner shot a home invader who barged into his apartment Tuesday night.

Scott County Sheriff Chris Holder says the suspect forced his way into an apartment with an unlocked door, when the resident shot the intruder in the leg. The suspect then ran away.

Virginia State Police and Scott County Sheriff deputies searched for nearly an hour, after a trooper found him in a pick-up truck just a street away.

The suspect was taken to the hospital with what’s being described as “minor injuries”, and the homeowner and his wife were both unharmed.

Gun control activists need to pretend that people never protect themselves with a firearm, but the truth is it happens every day. It just doesn’t fit the anti-gun narrative of the national press, and unless there’s some incredibly compelling video to go along with the story, they’ll continue to ignore the armed citizens defending themselves and others throughout the country.

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