It’s a familiar story:  crime victim decides to arm themselves so they won’t be a victim again.  This time the story’s playing out in rural King William County, Virginia after a pair of thugs decided to attack two victims in separate attacks miles apart.

One man, an Aylett construction worker, was pistol-whipped so severely that doctors say he may never see out of his right eye again.

“He hit me with the end of the pistol and when it hit my eye, well, you can see what it did,” said William Dean.

Dean was beaten by the two men after they asked to borrow jumper cables.  According to a fundraiser page set up to help the independent construction worker, Dean suffered two broken ribs, a broken nose, a broken jaw, and injuries to both eyes.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only victim that evening. A few minutes before Billy Dean was beaten in front of his home, the pair allegedly assaulted another man standing on his driveway.

“I look over and see someone standing right by the shed and I said, ‘Can I help you?’ and he said, ‘Get on the ground mother f’er!” said Kris Eiben.

He was then assaulted in his driveway in the Rose Garden Estates neighborhood. Home surveillance shows two men raising and pointing a gun at him.

“They were here when I got home,” Eiben said. “My family was inside.”

Eiben told local media that the incident has left him a changed man when it comes to the idea of self defense.

“I’ve never been much of an advocate for guns but this has made me get my concealed carry and I will be purchasing a pistol,” Eiben said.

I’m glad Kris Eiben is alive to change his mind about guns, and I hope that not only will he purchase a pistol to go along with his new concealed carry license, but that he’ll be advocating against the gun control plans of Virginia Democrats in this year’s elections.  If anti-gun lawmakers get their way, it would be a lot tougher for Eiben to protect himself and his family in the very near future.  Earlier this year Virginia Governor Ralph Northam vetoed a bill that would have made it easier for non-residents to get a concealed handgun license in the state, and gun control groups have grumbled about provisions in current law that allow for Virginians to obtain a concealed carry license without going through hours of classroom training or passing a live-fire requirement.  If anti-gun activists are able to pick off a couple of pro-gun legislators in this year’s elections, expect big changes to Virginia’s concealed carry laws beginning in 2020.