A lot of businesses have policies against their employees being armed. Yes, I know there are a lot of reasons for these policies, but the reality is that they don’t do much except disarm those employees and prevent them from defending themselves.

As a result, a lot of employees ignore those laws. They figure their life is more important than their job, an argument I wouldn’t be able to disagree with even if I were so inclined, which I’m not.

I’m not sure whether the Little Caesars in Holly Hill, Florida has such a policy, but at least one employee was glad he was armed.

The Little Caesars employee was closing up shop when a man in a bloody demon mask approached and attacked him. The masked man repeatedly hit the employee with a large piece of wood, knocked him to ground, and attempted to stab him. During the assault, the employee managed to draw his legally concealed firearm shoot the masked man.

The employee then called police and requested medical assistance for himself and his attacker.

“Please help me,” the employee told a 911 dispatcher. “He tried to stab me with a pair of scissors. He hit me in the face with a big piece of wood. I’m bleeding all over the place.”

Police arrived a few minutes later and rushed the masked man to Halifax Health Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. Holly Hill police Chief Steve Aldrich praised the employee for being able to effectively defend himself.

“As soon as he exited the building, he was immediately attacked by an individual that was wearing a scary clown mask and brandishing a wooden stick,” Aldrich told WFTV. “Even though he’s being attacked he’s able to pull out a concealed firearm he has and fires multiple rounds at the suspect. I’m glad that he was able to defend himself and that he’s OK. It’s just unfortunate that this whole episode occurred.”

There are no charges pending against the employee, thankfully, and the bad guy is dead as a doornail.

However, it appears they still don’t know who the attacker is or what exactly his motivation for the attack was. There’s no indication that robbery was the motive, nor does it appear to have been someone the victim knew. It’s just kind of a bizarre, brutal attack that was cut short by a citizen carrying a firearm.

Funny how that shakes out, isn’t it?

There has been no mention of the employee being fired over carrying a gun, so that’s a bit of good news. I get angry when businesses fire people who defend their own lives in spite of a store policy that would have gotten them killed. Again, I understand the reasons many of those businesses have those policies, but that doesn’t make them any less stupid.

Cases like this illustrate just why they’re dumb. Here is a man who would have been murdered in a brutal attack had he been disarmed by store policy. Instead, he’s alive and recovering from the attack while his attacker…well, not so much.

Folks, it can’t be said any clearer: guns save lives.