When Julius Caesar, dictator of Rome, was once warned by a soothsayer to, “Beware the Ides of March,” in William Shakespeare’s famous play Julius Caesar, he didn’t take the warning all that seriously and it was on March 15 when Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman senate by 60 conspirators, including Brutus and Cassius.
Fortunately, three armed citizens in three different states were more prepared to defend themselves when trouble came calling on March 15 of this year.
In Tulsa, Okla., a woman was forced to resort to armed self-defense on March 15 to stop an attack from her brother. According to a report, the two siblings had gotten into an argument at a residence in the northeast part of the city. Police report that the brother had pulled a gun and started shooting at his sister.
Fearing for her safety, the sister pulled out her own gun and fired a shot, hitting her brother in the leg. He was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries and is expected to recover completely.
“I truly believe from the information we gathered, it's going to be more of a self-defense type of deal,” Tulsa Police Lt. Kelvin Williams said of the shooting.
On the same day in Metairie, La., a woman used her firearm when an ex-boyfriend forced his way into her home. According to a report, the incident was reported at about 4:45 p.m. after the man had broken into the woman’s home and she had shot him to protect herself. The intruder, a 36-year-old man, was taken to the hospital but later succumbed to his injuries.
Investigators did not arrest the woman. Capt. Jason Rivarde, a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s office spokesperson, said of the incident, “We’re carrying it as a justifiable homicide.”
The same afternoon in South Carolina, a good Samaritan was forced to use his handgun to protect himself from a man he had just rescued from drowning.
According to a report, the incident occurred at Lake Keowee. A 74-year-old boater and his wife saw a younger man, who had fallen off a jet ski, floating in the water. The boater and his wife quickly rescued the man, pulling him into their boat.
Strangely, according to police, the 29-year-old man who had been rescued became agitated, causing the boater to fear for his own life and that of his wife, resulting in the fatal shooting of the younger man.
Only a few days later, Tenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor David Wagner ruled the shooting to be legal self-defense. No charges were to be brought against the boater or his wife.
Groups dedicated to dismissing the use of firearms for personal protection like the Violence Policy Center claim “[t]he use of guns in self-defense by private citizens is extremely rare.” That, of course, is patently false, and three legal self-defense episodes on the same day should go a long way toward countering the false narrative of the anti-gun movement that armed self-defense seldom occurs.
No matter what the naysayers claim, acquiring a gun, learning how to use it properly, and training regularly with it can mean the difference between life and death when trouble comes calling, on the Ides of March or any day.
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