In The Spotlight The owners of a Butler County, Mo., grocery store were surprised by an unusual break-in this week. Jeff Darnell, one of the owners, recounted the scene caught on the security camera: “They stole a truck next door, came in here and ran it through the door. They hit it about three times, first time got it in midway. Then they got the truck completely through the building. They came to steal the ATM.” Meanwhile, neighbor and long-time customer Robert Chavez heard an extremely loud bang from the direction of the store. "I got my gun out of my gun cabinet and told my wife to call 911. I walked outside, and fired a shot in the air just to ruffle their feathers," he said. The thieves were scared off and left the store without the ATM. Chavez tells how the thieves aimed their truck right at him as they were leaving, scaring Chavez. "He pulled out and faced me, the truck did. I felt at that point, I'm in imminent danger, and it scared me. I fired a slug through the windshield of his truck, and put one in the grill and passenger side door," Chavez said. Police found the abandoned truck, but are still searching for the thieves. (www.kfvs12.com), MO. 7/24/08)

Search the Armed Citizen Archives

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.