And in California no less. The state’s many gun control laws didn’t prevent an armed robber from carrying a semi-automatic rifle into a liquor store in Norco, California, but thankfully they didn’t stop the store owner from having a gun of his own to defend himself.

According to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office there were actually four armed men involved in the robbery attempt, which happened just before 3 a.m. Sunday morning, but only one of them managed to get inside the store before he was shot.

Footage shows the armed suspect burst into the business and the owner immediately shoot a single blast from his firearm.

Cameras outside captured the suspect frantically screaming, “He shot my arm off! He shot my arm off!”

Multiple suspects then quickly take off in a dark-colored SUV and almost leave a person behind, the footage shows.

… Four suspects were later found at a hospital, including one who was suffering from a gunshot wound consistent with a shotgun blast, authorities say. The three other suspects were found inside the suspect vehicle, which authorities say was reported stolen.

The suspects were identified as 22-year-old Inglewood resident Justin Johnson, 27-year-old Los Angeles resident Jamar Williams and 24-year-old Las Vegas resident Davon Broadus.

The wounded suspect’s name has not been released. The 23-year-old remains hospitalized in critical, but stable condition.

The 80-year old store owner, meanwhile, suffered a heart attack after defending himself, and is hopefully going to be okay. Employees and customers alike have praised him for his actions, with one employee noting that the owner is familiar with owning firearms for personal protection.

“What if he wouldn’t have been as quick as it was. It could’ve been him,” customer Julie Fensel told Eyewitness News.

The sheriff’s warned us that this had been going on in the area recently and to just be on your toes, you know, so he was on his toes. Thank God,” employee Marnie Tapia said.

Employees say the owner saw what was happening in the monitors: the suspects’ SUV back in and the armed men step out.

“He just prepared himself. He’s always prepared as far as weapons go,” Tapia said about the owner.

Fensel told Eyewitness News in Los Angeles that she has a new name for the store owner: “Quick Draw McGraw.” Hopefully that’ll put a smile on his face when he returns to the shop in coming days, but I hope this will be a lesson for his customers too. You never know when you might be the victim of a violent crime, and being prepared beats being caught unarmed and defenseless every time.

Riverside County has generally been pretty good about issuing concealed carry permits, even before the Supreme Court decision struck down the “good cause” requirement enshrined in California law, but that hasn’t been the case in neighboring Los Angeles County, even with Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s office approving more permits over the past two years.

Villanueva recently reported, however, that there’s been a surge in applications since the Bruen decision was handed down, and with defensive gun uses like this getting a fair amount of local media attention my guess is that surge isn’t going to subside anytime soon; especially not with the light-on-crime prosecutors in the Los Angeles area like George Gascon doing their best to put repeat violent offenders back on the street as quickly as possible. California’s gun control laws and the criminal justice system aren’t working to keep people safe and secure, and incidents like this highlight the importance of being able to protect yourself as well as the worthlessness of gun control laws when it comes to stopping crime.