In two separate attempted crimes just hours apart, armed citizens in Trotwood, Ohio were apparently able to protect themselves on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. It was about 9:15 last evening when police got a call about a shooting an apartment complex. Officers arrived and found a man with non-life threatening gunshot wounds laying in the parking lot; a man described by authorities on the scene as being “uncooperative” with police. As it turns out, there was probably a good reason why the man didn’t want to talk to cops; he was violating a protective order when he was shot.

It was just a few hours later when police received another call of a shooting involving a homeowner just a few miles from where the earlier defensive gun use had taken place.

A man was killed after he fired shots at the resident of a house on Blairfield Place Thursday morning.

Trotwood police responded to the shooting around 1:45 a.m. in the 800 block of Blairfield.

“The scene investigation revealed the deceased male fired a gun at the resident. The resident returned fire, hitting the deceased multiple times,” Trotwood Sgt. Kim DeLong said in a statement.

Dispatch records indicated the homeowner reported shooting a suspect who broke into their apartment.

Now, Trotwood, Ohio isn’t exactly a booming metropolis. It’s a pretty sleepy suburb of Dayton that’s home to about 24,000 people. If defensive gun uses were really as uncommon as gun control activists claim they are, you certainly wouldn’t expect to see two cases within a few hours and miles of each other. And yet, here we are.

It’s also worth noting that many local media outlets are downplaying or ignoring the fact that these were armed citizens acting in self-defense. The Dayton Daily News described the incidents as simply “shootings”, never using the word “self-defense” at all. Perhaps that will change as more details emerge in these cases, but it’s pretty clear from the initial reporting in both incidents that the individual who was shot was the aggressor.

Don’t be surprised if these defensive gun uses end up having a bigger impact on would-be gun owners that we might otherwise expect. Police and firefighter unions in Dayton are warning that when the city’s vaccine mandate takes effect on Monday, the results could be a “public safety nightmare.”

Union leaders said firefighters and police officers will show up on the Nov. 1 deadline, but many may be unwilling to disclose their vaccination status and could be send home from work.

Dayton city leaders in August announced that employees with the city will be required to be fully vaccinated or be subjected to weekly COVID-19 testing. The deadline was moved back twice, now Nov. 1.

“We have never not been able to accommodate the city, whether its been financial, personnel, whatever, we have bent over backwards and will continue to bend over backwards, You know why? Because we care about the citizens of Dayton, we care about their public safety,” said Kraig Robinson, President, IAFF Local 136.

Dayton FOP President Jerry Dix said if the city manager and human resources director were concerned they would have spoked with the unions during the process of planning a policy and not after it had been developed.

“He said they spoke with the unions. That’s not true, they spoke at us,” Dix said in August.

There could be a lot fewer officers on the streets of Dayton this time next week, and these armed citizen stories should serve as a reminder to local residents that even in the best of circumstances police can’t guarantee they’ll be around the moment someone decides an order of protection is just a piece of paper, or that the risk of breaking into an occupied home is worth the potential rewards to be found inside. You are your own best bodyguard, as two residents of Trotwood, Ohio can attest to firsthand.