Armed citizen stories are probably the best thing we get to write about here at Bearing Arms. After all, they are the very stories that show just how effective our Second Amendment rights can be at keeping our communities safe from violent criminals.

Every day, someone out there uses a gun for self-defense. A lot of someones do, actually. Not all of them make the news, though, so we couldn’t report on all of them, even if we wanted to.

One that we can, though, is a store employee in Ohio who used their gun to end a threat. Permanently.

The Clark County Coroner identified 21-year-old Gage Melton as the man who was shot and killed after he allegedly tried to rob a New Carlisle pizza shop Sunday night.

Now, for the first time, we’re hearing the 911 call that describes the moments a store employee allegedly shot the would-be-robber in self-defense.

The 911 call begins with an employee saying, “Papa John’s New Carlisle 410 North Main Street. Someone just broke in and they were shot in self-defense.” The 911 operator says, “Ok, somebody just broke in?” The employee says, “They came right in with weapons and tried to rob us. They’re still in here. There’s one shot and wounded on the floor. One of them ran out.”

The robbery attempt happened just after 11 p.m. when a Papa John’s store employee told 911 two people wearing masks ran in.

On the call, the employee said, “They had weapons. The one’s got a big crowbar, the other one had what looked like a knife. And they were sprinting towards us.” He went on to say, “It looked like a knife or like hedge clippers or something. They came sprinting in and ran up on us fast.”

A delivery driver shot at the suspects. One of them — later identified as Melton — was hit and lay bleeding in the store, the other suspect fled.

The driver that pulled the trigger also spoke with 911 on the emergency call, saying, “I’m too upset to talk right now. I’m willing to cooperate when you get here, I don’t have the firearm in my hand.”

It’s never easy to take a life. It shouldn’t be easy, either. However, it can be necessary.

Based on what was said on the phone call, it’s not difficult to imagine the employee had no choice in the matter. It was either shoot or face the possibility of being hurt or killed. In such an instant, the question of “them or me” becomes a no-brainer.

As a result, Mr. Melton won’t be robbing anyone else ever again.

Further, I suspect his partner may start to reevaluate his life choices. After all, it could just as easily have been him laying on that floor, bleeding to death. Maybe they’ll step up and get their life right.

Or the police find them and throw them in prison where they can reevaluate all those life choices. I’m fine either way.

Let’s keep in mind that it was just recently that Ohio became a Stand Your Ground state. Before then, the driver and his coworkers would have had a duty to try and get away from the attackers anywhere but inside your home. Failing to try and using lethal force would have resulted in criminal charges. In April, however, the law was changed so that you had no duty to retreat from anywhere.

As a result, this driver was able to save the lives of his coworkers.

Let’s just hope his boss doesn’t try to fire him for having a gun while at work because if he does, that’s a Papa John’s that needs to close down permanently.