CA: Bandit shot dead by armed clerk: "An armed clerk at a convenience store surprised a gunman attempting to rob the store Monday at 8:30 p.m., fatally wounding him. The stricken bandit stumbled from Nader's Market at the three Star Plaza in the 25000 block of Redlands Boulevard to a waiting getaway car. He fell to the pavement as he tried to scramble into the vehicle. The getaway driver sped away, leaving his partner behind. The wounded man was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center where he died shortly after 9 p.m., sheriff's deputies said. The dead man was Latino and estimated to be in his late 20s or early 30s. No description of the getaway driver was available. Witnesses could only say the bandits' vehicle is a newer car. A detective at the scene said the getaway driver could face a murder charge because his partner was killed during commission of a crime he participated in. The identity of the clerk who did the shooting was withheld by investigators. No explanation was available at about 11:30 p.m. Monday as to how the clerk managed to turn the tables on the robber".


Generic ignorance: "Some years ago, I was genuinely shocked when a young man, age 27, told me he had never even touched a firearm. To me, a Southerner, it seemed unimaginable that any male could attain the age of 27 without ever having handled a gun. But as I thought about it, I understood. In today's America, where there is no draft, most young men and women don't have any military experience. In the days of the draft, evened to firearms. Furthermore, most Americans today grow up in urban areas where there is scant opportunity for recreational use of firearms. This absence of contact with firearms shows up as a sort of generic ignorance that one sees frequently in journalism and politics."