When we talk about the right to keep and bear arms, there will invariably be those who claim that you’ll never need a gun for self-defense. They claim that armed citizens almost never actually defend themselves with a firearm.

Of course, we know that’s not the case. I’ve written I don’t know how many stories of armed citizens protecting themselves, as has Cam and at least a dozen other writers I know of, either here or elsewhere. It’s actually fairly common.

Which is why such stories of self-defense don’t really make the national news.

However, Fox News opted to write about some of them anyway.

Several violent crimes have been thwarted in past months and years by legal gun owners who have taken matters into their own hands when faced with life-threatening situations, such as armed carjackings and mall shootings.

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In one of the most recent instances, a concealed carry holder in Chicago shot a 19-year-old who was armed with a knife, police have said.

The man heard a disturbance coming from his neighbor’s home shortly after 10:40 p.m. on Feb. 8 and discovered a woman and a 19-year-old man “who was holding a knife,” police said. The neighbor then left the home and went outside, but the man with the knife followed him out, cops said.

“The 19-year-old male who was armed with a knife continued to approach the male who was a licensed concealed carry holder,” Chicago police said. That’s when the neighbor pulled out his weapon and shot the teenager.

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In another Chicago incident in November, a woman with a concealed carry permit fought back with her gun against two armed would-be carjackers who approached her while she was in her car outside a bank.

“Thank God I had my gun, or I’d probably be dead right now,” the woman said after she thwarted the attackers.

And there were at least three instances in January when legal gun owners in Philadelphia shot alleged attempted carjackers, according to reports from local affiliate FOX 29.

There are, of course, many more examples in the report and far more that they didn’t even touch on. Armed self-defense is a fairly common occurrence, even if no shot is ever fired.

So why don’t we hear about it more?

It would be easy to chalk it all up to media bias, and I’m not going to rule out that playing at least something of a factor. However, there are far more practical reasons why it never makes the national headlines.

Such things are common enough to damn near qualify as “dog bites man” stories.

See, in the news business, no one reports on the usual. You don’t see news reports about car accidents in your local paper unless someone dies, for example. On the same token, defensive gun uses are kind of in the same boat.

Which, conversely, leads many to think they just don’t happen.

That’s why I’m glad Fox News did this particular story. People need to understand that guns are used for self-defense far more than they’re used to murder anyone. Some concrete examples from recent months should help at least some people come to understand that.