Armed Citizen

Two men entered the Gloco Grocery and Soul Food Deli owned by Willie Byrd in Melbourne, Fla. The pair ordered food, and as a ploy asked Byrd for change for a $50 bill. One of the men then drew a handgun, as the other grabbed for the cash in Byrd’s register. Byrd retrieved his .357-caliber handgun and fired at the criminals, causing them to flee. When police arrived they found one of the robbers in the parking lot of the store, wounded and still clutching the stolen money. Byrd will not face any charges according to Cmdr. Ron Bell of the Melbourne Police, who stated, “He was well within his rights.” The criminals were lucky to have fled when they did; Byrd’s daughter works at a nearby salon and after hearing the shots, she retrieved her own gun and headed to the scene. (Florida Today, Florida 11/18/09)

Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog
For more stories of civilians using guns in self-defense visit www.claytoncramer.com/gundefenseblog/blogger.html 

During the decades the American Rifleman has published “The Armed Citizen” column, thousands of incidents of law-abiding Americans using firearms to halt or prevent crime have appeared in the magazine. Editorial space allowing, the total could have been far greater of course, as award-winning survey research shows that each year in the U.S. gun owners use firearms for protection as frequently as 2.5 million times.

This archive contains “Armed Citizen” entries from the present back to 1958. The database is searchable by key word and state and results are displayed in chronological order according to the month of publication in the American Rifleman.