GOOD NEWS FROM MICHIGAN, whose concealed-carry law is relatively recent, I believe:
Police Chief William Dwyer said the woman, whose name was not released, was in the parking lot of a business at 12 Mile and Drake, where she worked in the accounting department, when a man confronted her Friday morning.
When he came within about 10 feet, Dwyer said, the woman calmly pulled the gun out of her purse and pointed it at the man — identified as Carl Walker, 21, of Detroit.
Walker did not draw his weapon, police said. Instead, he ran to a nearby car and the woman called 911. Police later arrested Walker and recovered a pistol. Two companions, Monique Bell, 26, of Detroit and Daphne Patterson, 28, of Southfield, also were arrested.
Dwyer said the incident is making him rethink his opposition to the state law that eased concealed weapons permit regulations. . . .
Two other men — a father-son team accused of trying to rob a 65-year-old retiree — are expected to be arraigned this morning in St. Clair County.
The men already had robbed one woman before being stopped by the home owner’s bullet on Friday, police said.
The Ft. Gratiot Township home owner answered his door on Keewahdin Road about 8 p.m. and was accosted by a 20-year-old Worth Township man armed with a handgun. When the young man’s attention was diverted, police said the home owner grabbed his own .38-caliber handgun and fired.
“The round ended up coming out of his buttocks, so I’m sure he’ll be thinking about that old man every time he sits down for a while,” said Detective Lt. Mike Bloomfield of the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department.
A pack, not a herd. Sadly, not everyone has caught on:
State Sen. Gilda Jacobs, D-Huntington Woods, reacted guardedly to the two self-defense cases.
“We have to be careful we don’t end up having the wild, wild west,” she said.
“People should feel able to protect themselves in their own homes, there’s some argument there,” said Jacobs, who as a state representative voted against the concealed weapons law in 2002. “But do we want a bunch of vigilantes running around with guns to do the police’s work?”
Absurd, disconnected from the actual facts, and cliche-filled. But also the wave of the past.