A man dining at a Waffle House in Villa Rica, Georgia used his gun to stop an armed robber.
News reports say that shortly after Midnight on Thursday, a man entered the Waffle House restaurant on Highway 61 in Villa Rica, GA, pointed a gun at the employees, and announced a robbery. A customer reportedly drew his own gun and shot the robber, causing the robber to flee. News reports say that police arrived and determined the robbers gun – which he dropped – was a BB gun. No injuries to any any customers or employees of the Waffle House were reported, and police are seeking the robber.
It is worth noting that whether the gun is real or “just” a BB gun is irrelevant to the actions of robbery victims, as they should not wait to be shot to determine that the gun was a BB gun. It is more than reasonable to take someone at their word that the gun they are unlawfully using to threaten your life as part of a robbery is a real gun.
When an armed robbery occurs, cooperation is generally a bad idea. Sometimes robbers inflict harm when the victim has no property to hand over. An example is this street Chicago armed robbery, in which the victim was shot after the robber learned that the man had no money to steal. Other times, robbers inflict harm when the victim has insufficiently valuable property. An example is this St. Petersburg, FL deli robbery, in which a robber shot the deli owner multiple times after being dissatisfied with the amount of money in the cash register. Still other criminals are just sadistic people who enjoy inflicting harm for the sake of inflicting harm. As an example, this British woman was brutally beaten and left to die by a home invader who seems to have done so just for the “fun” of it. Had her daughter not stopped by just in time, she likely would have died as the home invader moved her telephone out of her reach before leaving.
Armed self defense works, and is the best response when a violent criminal attacks.