1/26/2012

Why carry concealed in national parks?

Aren't parks safe? Why would anyone need to protect themselves? Surely this 65 year old man is glad that he had his permitted gun with him. I only wish that the news story explicitly stated that he had a concealed handgun permit. Story from WFMZ-TV about a Cumru Township, PA case:

A 16-year-old boy is dead, another teenager is wounded and another was arrested after a shooting on a popular trail in Cumru Township.

Wednesday night the Berks County District Attorney gave police the go ahead to release the man they say shot at the teens.

Wednesday morning police from multiple departments responded to the Thune Trail near the Bertolet Fishing Dock at S. First Avenue and Chestnut Street in West Reading after reports of shots fired. . . .

Police say four people were involved: three teenagers and a 65-year-old man.

"He was riding a bicycle," said Habecker.

Police said the teens knocked the man off his bicycle and onto the ground.

They said two of the teens were assaulting the man when he pulled out a gun and shot them. . . .


Thanks to Tony Troglio for this link.

UPDATE: Here is a follow up story.

A 65-year-old man was justified in shooting two of three teenagers who were attempting to rob him as he rode his bicycle along a popular river trail Wednesday morning, authorities announced Thursday.

The ordeal unfolded shortly before 11 a.m. on the Thun Trail in Cumru Twp., Berks Co.

The teens knocked the man off his bicycle and onto the ground in their third random robbery attempt in about an hour's time, said Berks County District Attorney John Adams.

Two of the teens were assaulting the man when he pulled out a gun and shot them, police said.

"While I don't condone violence, the bike rider had no choice," said Adams. "He was in danger of death and serious bodily injury. The bike rider did not provoke the situation."

The man is licensed to carry a gun, said Adams. . . .


Thanks to John Kernkamp for the link.

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3 Comments:

Blogger Fyathyrio said...

Your headline is quite a stretch considering this happened in a regional park in a state with decent self defense laws and therefore has nothing to do with the national park law. Perhaps limiting the hyperbole will help you to be taken more seriously in the gun rights fight.

1/26/2012 2:24 PM  
Blogger John Lott said...

The point was that there has been a debate about allowing concealed carry in national parks. This is an example of someone using a gun defensively in a regional park. I don't follow you point about "a state with decent self defense laws and therefore has nothing to do with the national park law." If "decent self defense laws" are shown to be helpful for a state park, why wouldn't those same laws be helpful in a national park? As to title, I thought that with a question mark at the end of it that the title was actually quite subdued. I could possible understand your claim about "hyperbole" if I had an exclamation point and not a question mark.

1/26/2012 5:15 PM  
Blogger Chas said...

The story shows how important it is for people to be able to defend themselves in any kind of park. If the old man hadn't been armed, he would have been found beaten to death.
There are anti-rights people who would have wanted him to be disarmed by law, which would have meant his death, but not one of them would have taken any responsibility for his death.
The cowardly antis set up people to be killed by disarming them by law, but then shift all the blame to the perpetrators when it happens, while taking no blame themselves.
The moral of the story is carry a gun, or be willing to be beaten to death, wherever you go.
And flip off those antis good! They kill people! Evil cowards!

1/26/2012 6:31 PM  

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