Want to paint a story about a licensed concealed carrier successfully defending himself in the most negative light possible? Easy. Be a big city newspaper editor. They’re the ones who write the titles for articles that happen to document the effects of criminal predators coming up against lawfully-armed individuals.
Take, for instance, yesterday’s post by the assiduously anti-gun Chicago Tribune. Here’s the title of the article:
Man paralyzed by concealed carry holder in 2017 dies from injuries, police say
The paper’s online editor jumped on board, too. Here’s their tweet linking to the article:
A man who was paralyzed by a concealed carry permit holder in 2017 has died from injuries he suffered in the shooting, authorities say. https://t.co/vAUxPr94vt
— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) May 23, 2019
You see? This is what happens when we let just anyone walk around with a gun. No one needs to be armed except small-penis yahoos that are just itching to shoot someone!
That’s precisely the reaction the Tribune’s editors were trying to elicit. Headlines like that are enough to get a fair number low-information suburban moms to put on their red t-shirts and show up at their next city council meeting to demand change.
A south suburban quadriplegic who died at a suburban hospital over the weekend succumbed to injuries he suffered in 2017, when he was shot and paralyzed by a concealed carry permit holder in the city’s Calumet Heights neighborhood on the South Side, authorities said.
Brian Ford, 20, was pronounced dead Saturday at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy performed Wednesday showed that Ford died from a gunshot wound to the neck, along with complications of quadriplegia, according to the agency.
Damned gun nuts! This is exactly the kind of carnage the bloodthirsty NRA wreaks on this country.
But for the few readers who actually made it farther into the article, the truth about poor Mr. Ford is revealed.
Ford’s injury stemmed from a Dec. 12, 2017, shooting that began with the then-18-year-old pulling his own gun on a 27-year-old man driving his vehicle into a rear yard in the 9100 block of South Harper Avenue, according to Chicago police.
It isn’t clear what Ford’s intent was that day, but it probably didn’t include facing a victim with a gun. As it turned out, the un-named 27-year-old who Ford pointed his gun at had a concealed carry permit. And he was armed.
So this isn’t a story of a poor South suburban youth whose life was tragically cut short because of our insanely permissive gun laws. In truth, Ford’s death was the result of his decision to commit a crime with a gun…and choosing the wrong victim. One of hundreds of thousands of successful defensive gun uses that take place in the US every year.
Not that you’re going to read anything that presents the facts that way in the Chicago Tribune.