They say if you live long enough you get a date with Jennifer Love Hewitt. By the same token, you’ll encounter a mainstream media report chronicling a defensive gun use where no shots are fired. Here comes one of those rare gems now (the DGU not JLH): “Their M.O. this time was almost identical. The driver pulled the car to the end of the car wash’s driveway, and the three men got out and approached Watson [not shown],” dallasobserver.com reports. “One of them gestured toward the man’s car and asked if it was his. Then, he pulled a black pistol from his waistband. What the robbers don’t seem to have realized was that the man, Charles Watson, is a retired Dallas cop. He’d been on alert since he first seen (sic) the car approaching and had watched carefully as the men walked toward him, spreading out for tactical advantage, and positioned himself accordingly. In other words, he was ready . . .
By the time the robber could get the gun from his waistband, Watson had drawn and had his no-longer-concealed handgun trained on him. The two accomplices, who were reaching for their guns, stopped dead.
This tableau — a former cop holding three would-be robbers at bay in the Easter morning predawn — lasted only for an instant. First the man who had pulled the gun, then his two friends, turned and sprinted back to the waiting Corolla, which sped away. They haven’t yet been caught, though Watson may have scared them straight for the rest of the holiday at least.
I doubt that. But it makes a great story, minus the happy ending.