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Armed Amazon driver defends himself, now out of work

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You can’t buy everything on Amazon, but close to it. That includes stuff for gun nuts. While they don’t sell firearms, they do sell a lot of firearm accessories. They make a lot of money off gun folks, particularly those looking for the best price.

The fact that they sell that kind of thing shouldn’t be taken as any endorsement of the Second Amendment or lingering pro-gun sympathies at the company, though.

No, they like the almighty dollar plenty, but they don’t care for people actually using the guns they buy accessories for.

Worse, though, they’d rather their own drivers be dead than defend themselves.

An Amazon delivery driver is not facing any charges after he shot a knife-wielding man on Sunday.

The driver, Gino Grove, was out on his route when the suspect, Christopher Roberts, walked up to him with a knife, according to Middletown police.

“Obviously, he [Grove] was in fear,” explained Middletown Police Chief David Birk. “So, in defense of himself, he was able to discharge a firearm striking the individual in the leg area.”

The police report shows Roberts was suspected of being under the influence of drugs when he confronted the Amazon driver.

…

Officers were investigating the shooting to determine if it was done in self-defense when Roberts walked out of the hospital, the chief explained.

“Him walking away from the hospital kind of helped clarify the situation that the Amazon delivery driver was just defending himself,” Birk said.

…

Grove says he has been deactivated as a driver by Amazon and, as of now, is unsure where his employment stands as a delivery driver.

In other words, he used a gun to defend himself from being killed and Amazon dropped him as a driver.

Tell me again how this is right?

The short answer is that it’s not.

Amazon has made its position clear. They would rather their delivery drivers be dead of knife wounds than alive and explaining to law enforcement how the knife-wielding druggie got the aftermarket holes in him.

And let’s be clear, that’s exactly what we’re talking about here.

Drivers for companies like Amazon have thousands of dollars worth of goods on those trucks at any given time. They’re likely to be targets for a lot of criminals, particularly those looking for stuff they can sell quickly and get enough for their next fix.

As such, it makes sense for drivers to carry a firearm if they so desire. Otherwise, they could end up like a couple of Amazon drivers earlier this year. That’s right, shot.

The right to defend yourself is a basic human right. Amazon, by dropping this particular driver, is saying that their policies matter more than your life. They’d rather see you shot or stabbed, even killed, than you be able to defend yourself from an unwarranted and unlawful attack.

It ain’t right, no matter how you try to slice it.

Were I in Grove’s shoes, I’d much rather be where he is right now than where he almost ended up, but he shouldn’t lose his job for not wanting to die.

Robber with a rifle no match for store owner armed with a shotgun

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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.

Gun control reaction to Indiana armed citizen anything but “reasonable”

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The gun control lobby has spent a lot of time and money branding itself as the voice of “reasonableness” and “common sense” when it comes to keeping and bearing arms, so it was pretty jarring to see people like Shannon Watts and Brady’s Kris Brown (among others) launch into an attack on Elisjsha Dicken, the 22-year old armed citizen who stopped the targeted attack at an Indiana mall Sunday evening and saved countless lives in the process. I’m willing to bet that most reasonable people think it’s a good thing that Dicken was there and took action, but for many gun control activists his life-saving efforts are cause for criticism. Watts originally called for him to be arrested for violating the mall’s weapons policy, Brown labeled him a “vigilante,” and others indirectly criticized him by complaining about officials calling him a “Good Samaritan”.

On today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co I talk about this turn of events with The Reload’s Stephen Gutowski, and while both of us were initially surprised to see the tone-deaf response from the anti-gun activists, I think we both ultimately agreed that Dicken’s actions not only saved lives, but put these activists in a position where they were forced to reveal the real extremes behind their claims of reasonableness and common sense.

As Gutowski points out, gun control groups like Everytown and Brady helped to write New York’s new laws regulating concealed carry, including the sweeping “sensitive places” language that bars lawful carrying in virtually all private property, except in those limited circumstances where a property owner can “opt in” and post a sign alerting customers and visitors that their space is not a “gun-free zone.” Even worse, entering a “gun-free zone” while armed, even inadvertently, is a felony offense under New York’s new law; subject to prison time and the lifetime loss of your right to keep and bear arms.

That’s exactly what these gun control groups want, and if that had been the law in Indiana then Elisjsha Dicken probably wouldn’t have had his gun on him. In Indiana, carrying a concealed weapon onto private property that’s been posted as a “gun-free zone” comes with a warning. If you refuse to leave or come back with a gun you can be cited for criminal trespassing, but the law is designed with the general right to carry in self-defense in mind. New York’s, on the other hand, is designed to inhibit that same right.

So no, groups like Everytown and Brady can’t laud Dicken for saving lives even though he violated the mall’s weapon’s policy, because in their world he absolutely would be facing charges as a result. If it were up to them Dicken would be looking at prison time right now, and they’d be pressuring prosecutors to throw the book at him. Offering any words of praise for the young man completely undercuts the laws that they’re busy putting in place in blue states around the country (and trying to impose federally as well), but that doesn’t mean they actually have to say the quiet part out loud either.

Gutowski noted that Giffords hasn’t said anything at all about the armed citizen aspect of this incident, and wonders why groups like Brady and Everytown felt the need to weigh in and try to turn Dicken into a villain. My theory is that Giffords is the outlier among the gun control groups for one specific (and temporary) reason: co-founder Mark Kelly is one of most vulnerable Senate Democrats this fall and the group doesn’t want to give Republicans any more material than necessary to run attack ads against him on gun control. Voting for the Senate gun deal is one thing; having the group you co-founded bash a legal gun owner who stopped a massacre before it got any worse is something else entirely.

But for the gun control lobby writ large, I think what we’re seeing is a calculated response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Bruen. Democrats want “fighters”, and the gun control groups want donors, so that means they’re going to fight this culture war as hard as they can, even to the point of demonizing a guy most people consider a hero. To do anything less would not only undercut their own agenda and ideology, but their place in the activist left as well.

Indiana mall shooting and the case against “gun-free zones”

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The 22-year old Indiana man who stopped a mass shooting at the Greenwood Park Mall in Greenwood, Indiana on Sunday evening is getting a lot of praise from local law enforcement, public officials, and even the mall’s management. In fact, about the only group who’ve found fault with his actions are gun control activists.

For someone who loves to call herself “reasonable” and swears she isn’t opposed to the Second Amendment, this is an awfully unreasonable position to take, wouldn’t you say?

Watts and other anti-gun activists like Brady’s Kris Brown, who called the armed citizen in question a vigilante, have focused on the fact that Greemwood Park Mall bans weapons on its property, which means both the mass murderer and the legal gun owner were in violation of that policy.

In a way, that makes sense. What are they going to do, acknowledge that killers don’t really care if they’re intruding on a “gun-free zone,” and indeed may be specifically looking for places where they’re less likely to meet an armed response? That would undercut their message of “gun safety means don’t own a gun,” so that’s off the table. Instead, they’re left trying to defend these victim disarmament zones even though if the 22-year old in question didn’t have his gun on him the man responsible for the attack would likely have been able to continue his killing spree for several more minutes before officers arrived on scene.

Then there are those who, unbelievably are more offended by the description of the armed citizen as a “Good Samaritan” than they are pleased that he was able to stop the attack before more people were killed or wounded.

“The term, ‘Good Samaritan’ came from a Bible passage of a man from Samaria who stopped on the side of the road to help a man who was injured and ignored,” wrote CBS4 traffic anchor Justin Kollar on Twitter Monday. “I cannot believe we live in a world where the term can equally apply to someone killing someone… my God.”

“The Good Samaritan paid for an unknown immigrant’s health care out of pocket,” comedian John Fugelsang wrote on Twitter. “The Good Samaritan did not shoot anyone. Jesus was not a fan of killing for any reason, including self-defense. But if these ammosexuals had ever read the Bible, they couldn’t support the GOP or NRA.”

Well, there is that bit in the Bible where Jesus instructed the Apostles to get a sword, even if they have to sell their cloaks to do so (Luke 22:35-38). I don’t think Jesus was telling his most trusted followers to convert the masses at the point of a blade, but as attorney and Second Amendment scholar David Kopel pointed out in his piece “Is the Best Defense a Good Book”:

Even if we say that Jesus did not care about whether the apostles actually carried swords, bags or purses, and that Jesus was speaking purely metaphorically, the passage still contradicts the rigid pacifist viewpoint. In the metaphor, the sword, like the purse or the bag, is treated as an ordinary item for any person to carry. If weapons and defensive violence were illegitimate under all circumstances, Jesus would not have instructed the apostles to carry swords, even in metaphor. Moreover, stripping the passage of all literal content is inappropriate, for Jesus never spoke so cryptically when he was alone with the apostles. Parables were used only when outsiders were present.

It’s also highly amusing to me to see someone like Fugelsang snark about “ammosexuals” who’ve never read the Bible while routinely ignoring Jesus’ admonition to “love thy enemy.” As for his astonishment that the term “Good Samaritan” would be invoked when it doesn’t involve free healthcare, I’d invite him to take a look at the number of hospitals in the U.S. with “Good Samaritan” in their name that still charge for their services. Granted, I’m not on Twitter much these days, but I don’t recall Fugelsang ever complaining about that bit of biblical appropriation.

The real reason why these anti-gun activists are so intent on demonizing the actions of the armed citizen, of course, is that his deeds upend all of their talk about how we’d all be better off disarmed at all times. I’m sure they’re just as ticked off at the mall for praising him instead of threatening to press charges for criminal trespass.

“We grieve for the victims of yesterday’s horrific tragedy in Greenwood. Violence has no place in this or any other community. We are grateful for the strong response of the first responders, including the heroic actions of the Good Samaritan who stopped the suspect,” a mall spokesperson said.

We should all be grateful that this 22-year old had the means and the motivation to step up when seconds counted and lives were on the line. The fact that the gun control zealots are more upset that their argument for “gun-free zones” has once again been exposed as wishful thinking (at best) tells you everything you need to know about how “reasonable” and full of “commonsense” they really are.

St. Louis armed citizen stops “violent crime spree,” saves gas station store clerk

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While the 22-year old armed citizen who stopped an attack at an Indiana mall Sunday evening is receiving plenty of press attention, he wasn’t the only gun owner who saved lives this weekend.

Police in St. Charles, Missouri say a “violent crime spree” that started early Saturday morning came to an end when the knife-wielding robber was confronted by an alert citizen who had just stopped at a convenience store to run in and use the bathroom. As he was leaving the store he spotted a black SUV pulling in, and something apparently told him to stick around for a few moments. It’s a good thing he did, as he watched a man exit the vehicle and enter the store, only to appear moments later dragging the clerk to the counter with a knife to her neck.

“The witness retrieved his 9mm handgun, entered the store, and confronted the suspect,” police said. “The suspect grabbed his backpack and told the witness, ‘I have something for you.’ The suspect then comes from around the counter and approached the witness who fired several times at the suspect who fell to the floor.”

The witness and the clerk both called 911. When police arrived, they noticed that the black SUV had been reported stolen on Friday. Inside the vehicle were items they believed had been stolen from the second gas station.

A black SUV had also been reported at the scene when the first gas station was robbed. During that robbery, the suspect was said to have held a knife to a clerk’s throat while she emptied cash registers before he got in the vehicle and drove off.

In addition to the previous armed robbery, police believe the suspect was also responsible for a nearby burglary to a business that took place around the same time as the robberies.

Police have identified the suspect as 26-year old Lance Bush, a homeless man who was living in St. Louis. And while the armed citizen who stepped in and protected the clerk has not been identified, he is speaking out about what happened; telling local TV station KSDK that he knows he did the right thing.

“Taking somebody’s life is not an everyday thing, neither is saving someone’s life,” the customer, who wished to remain anonymous said.

… “I walked up to the door and I saw him with a knife to her throat. She was emptying out the cash register and I took a step in and peeked my head in to ask if everything was okay. I couldn’t see his face but he was saying yes, but I could see her face she was saying no, she was scared,” he said.

… “I pulled my gun up and I asked him are you sure everything’s okay and that’s when the suspect said ‘no it’s not okay, but I got something for you and he grabbed his bag, ran from around the counter and started running towards me and that’s when I fired shots,” the customer said.

He recalls shooting four times before Bush fell to the floor. Shortly after he told the clerk to call the police, he did as well.

“I don’t think I honestly had a choice. He already had a knife at her throat, he could’ve pulled out something bigger than what I had then you would’ve had two people dead instead of one,” he said.

His previous experience, training with guns and handling emergency situations, made him feel compelled to step in when other customers ran away.

“Instinct I would say. Instinct that’s just it. I guess knowing that I’m protected, I can protect somebody else,” he said.

This armed citizen wasn’t looking for a fight or a chance to be Billy Badass when he pulled into the QuikTrip parking lot. He was just looking for a place to use the facilities. When confronted with the fact that an armed robbery was taking place right in front of him, with a woman being held with a knife to her throat, he chose to step in and protect her when he could have easily just stayed in his car and called 911 from there. Because he chose to confront her attacker she was able go home at the end of her shift instead of being rushed to the hospital.

I don’t know any concealed carry holder who walks around hoping that today will be the day their life or the life of another is put in such grave danger that deadly force is called for, no matter how many times gun control activists accuse gun owners of being trigger happy vigilantes. It sounds like this armed citizen is still rightfully shaken up by what happened, but I’m thankful that he was there and was able to prevent Bush from potentially escalating the armed robbery to a homicide.