When anti-gunners get worked up about concealed carry, they try to argue that shootings will increase. This may well be true, but only if you lump all shootings into one pile. The bad guys might shoot just as many people as before, but armed citizens will shoot some of those people, too. Thus, you end up with more overall shootings, but self-defense shootings should never be considered as remotely similar to violent crimes.
And these same anti-gunners try to claim defensive gun uses are rare, even though we all know otherwise. They try to figure that defensive gun uses and defensive shootings are the same thing, and they're not.
But, for the sake of argument, let's say they were. Does that change much?
Not when I can point to a single day in a single city in the suburbs of Detroit where two armed citizens, in two separate incidents, used their gun rights to protect themselves or others.
The Warren Police Department has released additional information about two separate fatal shootings that occurred early Aug. 9, with prosecutors declining to authorize charges in both cases after determining the shootings were justified.
The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office determined on Wednesday (Aug. 12) that the two shootings involved defense of self or others.
Both people who fired the shots have been released from police custody.
The first shooting happened at about 2:05 a.m. at a home in the 26000 block of Newport Avenue.
Officers found a 28-year-old man dead in the backyard with a gunshot wound.
According to investigators, the man had assaulted his 63-year-old father following a verbal argument and threatened to kill people at the scene.
His 25-year-old brother, who is a valid concealed pistol license holder, fired a gun during the incident, striking the 28-year-old man.
The second incident involved a 40-year-old man who showed up at his ex-girlfriend's house, assaulted her, and got into a "confrontation" with her new boyfriend. As a result of the nature of that "confrontation," the new boyfriend shot the ex, wounding him.
In both cases, the district attorney declined to authorize charges to be filed, saying they were both justified shootings.
Now, Warren isn't exactly a major city, but it's not super small, either. It has a population of around 136,000 or so, which means it's not a tiny little berg in the middle of nowhere.
Still, two armed citizen incidents from a single day are interesting, to say the least.
Admittedly, this is kind of rare, even in a major metropolis, but it also highlights the nature of what defensive gun use can look like. Had people been disarmed in these two incidents, who knows how many people might have been seriously injured or killed. Instead, the attackers are the ones who got shot, and the good guys are free and clear today.
That's how it should be.
Granted, a lot is missing from this report that makes it clear these are justified, but then again, this is the media. Either they know what they're doing here, which is to make it look like the shootings were sketchy, or they don't know what they're doing and think that verbal altercations are enough.
Either way, I'm going to trust that the DA saw what he needed to see. Since this is on the outskirts of Detroit, I kind of have to, since it's not like the suburbs of major cities are known for being pro-gun.
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