Why law-abiding citizens need to be armed—there’s no way around it

Here is an earlier story, posted August 18 in the New York Times, about the Brooklyn spree attacker Michael Magnan (see previous entry), before police realized that the different attacks (on the livery cab, on ten people standing on a porch, and on a Nigerian social club) were by the same individual:

Passenger Is Shot in Livery Cab

A passenger in a livery cab was shot in the head early Saturday when a man held up the driver after the cab stopped at a traffic light in Brooklyn, according to the police.

The shooting occurred about 2:30 a.m. at Utica Avenue and Avenue M, in the Flatlands neighborhood.

The robber approached the driver’s side window on foot, demanded money and reached into the car, the police said. The driver did not hand over any money, the police said, and might have tried to fend him off. The robber then stepped back, drew a pistol and “fired into the car,” the police said.

A 23-year-old man sitting in the back seat was struck in the head, the police said. He was taken to Kings County Hospital Center, where he was reported to be in critical condition. His name was not immediately released.

A woman sitting beside him in the cab was unharmed, the police said.

Detectives took a man into custody at the 63rd Precinct station house on Brooklyn Avenue, but he was later taken to Kings County after complaining of a stomach ailment, the police said.

It sounds like the only way the victim could have been protected, other than not being in a livery cab in Brooklyn at 2:30 a.m., would have been to have a loaded gun in his pocket, and the moment the man began the holdup, to draw it on him.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 23, 2012 11:26 AM | Send