Why I carry a handgun for protection, Vol.3

A convicted felon who is apparently quite schizophrenic walks into a Macy's on Monday, buys an eight-inch butcher knife, and then proceeds to walk calmly into a food court restroom and stab to death a man who was an innocent, random victim. People saw that the stabber was obviously disturbed, yet no one did anything about it. After all, it's none of their business:

"Employees at the store noted Allen was acting strangely, though nobody stopped him as he walked out and into the adjoining shopping mall with a new eight-inch blade in hand."

Oh, by the way, this wack-job had already stabbed a different random victim in the very same store the day before:

"According to the documents released Tuesday, Brown was in the store Sunday when Allen walked past him and they made eye contact. After he passed, Allen turned around, grabbed Brown by the neck, and stabbed him in the throat with a small pocket knife, authorities said."

Did I mention that both these incidents happened in the Fiesta Mall in Mesa, Arizona, on the other side of the metro area from where I and my family now live? It could very easily have been me walking into that men's room to take care of business, as it were.

Anti-gun zealots, this is precisely the situation that you loudly maintain never happens in the real world, and that random crimes such as this just don't occur. Yet, here we are. The victims don't appear to have antagonized the stabber in any way, they were pretty much alone with the predator at the time of the incidents, and their selection as targets appears to have been completely random in both cases. Tell me, Sarah Brady, just how exactly are the police or security supposed to protect the customer here? That's right. They can't. They couldn't even manage to apprehend the felon after the first stabbing incident the day before.

Unfortunately, it was going to be either the victim or the criminal surviving this encounter, and the victim just wasn't prepared to defend himself.

I will not make the mistake that he did.


Link from Tam.