Despite The Lies, Armed Citizens Save Lives

by
posted on February 27, 2017
** When you buy products through the links on our site, we may earn a commission that supports NRA's mission to protect, preserve and defend the Second Amendment. **
editors-letter.jpg

This feature appears in the March ‘17 issue of NRA America’s 1st Freedom, one of the official journals of the National Rifle Association.  

Gun-ban advocates like to talk about how armed citizens aren’t a deterrent to crime. They boast that “a good guy with a gun stopping a bad guy with a gun” is just some kind of figment of gun owners’ imaginations.

In fact, Demanding Moms head Shannon Watts has gone so far as to say, “This has never happened. Data shows it doesn’t happen.” More recently, on Jan. 12, The New York Times editorial board, pontificating against laws that would better enable law-abiding Americans to defend themselves with firearms, wrote: “The grim truth is that concealed-carry permit holders are rarely involved in stopping crime.”

Ironically, on the very same day an Arizona armed citizen used his gun to save a state trooper’s life—once again proving that Watts, the Times and other gun-banners who say good guys with guns don’t stop bad guys with guns are intentionally lying for political reasons.

Here’s the story.

According to a report from KTAR News, the trooper was investigating an early morning rollover accident when someone shot him in the shoulder. The attacker then jumped on the trooper and began ruthlessly beating him.

An armed citizen was passing by with his family when he noticed the attack underway. Stopping his car, he ran toward the scene and asked the officer if he needed assistance. The officer answered, “Yes.”

The armed citizen ran back to his car, grabbed his gun, approached the scene and ordered the attacker to stop. When the bad guy continued to beat the trooper, the armed citizen shot the assailant several times, killing him.

Watts and other gun haters will likely just ignore this incident. They’ll claim that it never happened, or that the officer wasn’t in danger. Or they’ll say the armed citizen didn’t play an important role in the episode.

If they won’t take my word for it, though, perhaps they’ll listen to the director of Arizona’s Department of Public Safety. Col. Frank Milstead pulled no punches in stating, “I don’t know that my trooper would be alive without [the armed citizen’s] assistance.” He added, “I would just say thank you.”

It’s a good thing that this armed citizen, who chose to remain anonymous, didn’t listen to the lies from anti-gunners. If he had—and if he had believed what they continually repeat—he might have decided to leave his gun at home that day.

The result would have been yet another law enforcement officer never getting to return home to his waiting family.

Mark Chesnut has been the editor of America’s 1st Freedom magazine for nearly 17 years and is an avid hunter, shooter and political observer.

Latest

House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Jason Smith
House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Jason Smith

The Greatest Second Amendment Victory in a Century

On July 4, 2025, Americans celebrated not only our nation’s independence, but also the restoration of our constitutional Second Amendment rights becoming unconstrained by burdensome and arbitrary fees.

Opening Salvo | More Evidence That Gun-Control Groups are Freaking Out

With the Trump administration’s law-and-order push showing America’s crime problem is clearly not the fault of lawfully armed citizens, gun-control groups are freaking out.

John Rich has a Song for Armed Citizens

John Rich's latest song is "The Righteous Hunter." It is a moving tune about standing up to stop those with evil intentions. It is a song for lawfully armed citizens.

This Department of Education Grant Could Change Things

The University of Wyoming’s Firearms Research Center has been awarded a nearly $1 million grant by the U.S. Department of Education to develop a nationwide program on the origins, meaning and implications of the Second Amendment.

From the Editor | Charlie Kirk Lived for Freedom

“Give me liberty, or give me death,” are the immortal words of Patrick Henry spoken on March 23, 1775, to the Second Virginia Convention in Richmond, Va. His impassioned words were a call to arms against British tyranny.  

Ninth Circuit to Revisit Background Checks on Ammo Case

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has granted rehearing en banc in Rhode v. Bonta—a case backed by the National Rifle Association and California Rifle and Pistol Association. 

Interests



Get the best of America's 1st Freedom delivered to your inbox.