The myth of the “good guy with the gun” is most often deployed as a cudgel to distract from the fact that guns in this country are most often not used for self-defense, but for crime, escalating grievances from petty to deadly, and generally providing easy opportunity for people to shoot themselves and their relatives, friends and coworkers either on purpose or, as is tragically frequent, on accident.
Still, pro-gun zealots love to trot out heroic good guy narratives anyway, claiming that it proves their point that a more heavily armed population is a safer population. One such banner incident arose this weekend at a Houston taqueria, where surveillance video showed an armed robber being shot and killed by a diner before the gunman leaves.
Was this necessary for self-defense? The robber seemed to be on his way out when the diner opened fire. After the assailant has fallen to the floor and is laying motionless, the vigilante keeps firing, a total of four more shots, including one at point-blank range to the head. This type of shot is often called “execution style,” but no jury and judge ever pronounced a death sentence in this case.
