An armed customer with a concealed carry permit used his gun to stop a pair of armed robbers in a Charlotte, NC 7-Eleven store.
News reports say that just before 4:00am a 16 year old and a 17 year old donned ski masks and attempted an armed robbery of a 7-Eleven store. While inside, they reportedly threatened a clerk and a customer, pointing a gun in the face of the customer as they robbed him. The customer is said to have drawn his own gun and fired in self defense, fatally wounding one of the robbers and sending the other fleeing. A surviving suspect has been charged, and no injuries to the clerk or customer were reported.
Anti-gun people will often argue that a person who is ambushed by an armed criminal will not be able to effectively defend themselves since the criminal has the element of surprise. As this case shows, armed citizens can and do effectively defend themselves even when caught off guard by a criminal.
Also, note that this is by no means an isolated incident. For example, this armed student saved himself and 9 friends from near certain death at the hands of 2 gunmen, who already had their guns drawn. This home owner was being held at knife-point by a home invading robber, but managed to get his gun and fire in self defense. This armed woman was ambushed by multiple armed home invaders, but managed to go get her gun and then defend her family. This home invasion and kidnapping victim managed to break free from his attacker, grab his self defense gun, and fatally shoot that attacker in self defense. Indeed, many of the self defense stories that I’ve discussed involve citizens who started out at a disadvantage, relative to the criminals who attacked them, yet managed to successfully defend themselves.