“Black Friday got off to a rowdy start at a San Antonio mall,” nbcdfw.com reports, “where police say one shopper pulled a gun on another who punched him in the face while they were waiting in line at a Sears store.” Gun control advocates will no doubt stop thinking there. Concealed carry firearms = Wild West. Done. But let’s go to a local source [mysanantonion.com] and zoom in on the details of the incident. “A man was pushing to get to the front of the line and started arguing with other people, trying to cut in front of them, said San Antonio Police Sgt. Rob Carey. Then he started calling people names, the sergeant said, and punched another customer in the face . . .
Roger Rivera, who was shopping in the Sears, said the man who was punched then pulled a gun and pointed it at the rabble-rouser, although Carey said the man actually pointed the gun at the ground. Everyone scattered, “tumbling over things, dropping boxes,” Rivera said. The man who was trying to cut in line ran and hid behind a refrigerator before he fled the store.
“It kind of went a little crazy in there,” Carey said.
Rivera told his kids to get down. While everyone was panicking, the man with the gun stood there, he said, and looked around, lowering the weapon.
For about 10 minutes, the shopping stopped, said Rivera, and his wife Teresa, who was also in Sears but in another part of the store. She raised concerns about whether Sears had enough security, noting that she only saw men at the store wearing “Security” vests.
So a concealed carry weapons permit holder prevented a one-man riot and grievous bodily harm. Remember: a single punch can be fatal. And a single glimpse of a self-defense firearm can save lives. And when seconds count, the Mall cops are only, wait, where were they again?