GA: Fight or Die

When confronted by an armed criminal, common advice for an armed citizen has been to evaluate the threat.   If complying with the criminal, such as giving them money, a cell phone, or other items, is evaluated as low risk, it may be best to comply.   The evaluation is often stated something like this:  Does it appear that your assailant is going to seriously harm or kill you, or do you believe that they will simply leave?

If you believe that they are going to kill you in any case, then pick your best chance of resistance and act.

Sometimes the choice is stark.    In Georgia, the clerk, Ticas, could not comply.  From nothwestgeorgianews.com:

Ticas told officers that two black men wearing masks had walked into the store. One of them held up the customers in the back at the game machines and the other pointed a gun at Ticas and demanded money.

Ticas gave him money but was unable to comply with the next order, to open the safe.

“He stated the male told him if he did not get the safe open he was going to die,” the report said.

Ticas managed to get a gun from the counter and began to fire, striking one of the men police later identified as Wood.

During the ensuing gunfight, two customers were hit, one in an arm, the other in the abdomen by a bullet that penetrated a wall. The one robber, Wood, was hit in the head and required emergency surgery.  Ticas was not injured, and it is likely that the other robber will be apprehended.  

While two innocent people were wounded in this incident, it is impossible to know if they would have been shot if there were no resistance.  Armed resistance increases the cost of armed robbery.    To paraphrase John Lott; More Resistance, Less Crime.


 ©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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