Good Guy with a Gun #16: Chicago

Original incident: November 8, 2023. Three would-be armed robbers see an easy score when a car had a minor crash in University Village. A handgun evened the odds.

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There’s so little coverage of this incident that you could blink and miss it. I see two articles.

The event took place on a Wednesday night at 9:17 PM — Chicago can be screwed up any time of day, any day of the week — on November 8, 2023.

A 29-year-old man had the misfortune of crashing his car on South Des Plaines Street. Based on the video from ABC 7, it doesn’t look like a major crash.

Screen capture taken from ABC 7 Eyewitness News

While he was standing outside of his vehicle, a dark Dodge Charger rolled up. Three would-be robbers jumped out with guns drawn.

The man had a concealed carry license and a handgun.

In the ensuing gunfight, over 30 rounds were fired. The victim was shot three times — twice in the right leg and once in the left. One 17-year-old robber took a bullet, too.

Two notes about that last paragraph:

• Having a handgun doesn’t mean you’re going to walk away unscathed. This victim could have been killed. I won’t second-guess his judgment, particularly when facing three armed aggressors, but his plight reminds us that everyone should “use common sense before self-defense.”

• Anti-gunners love to talk about “children” being harmed by guns — but they generally ignore the fact that juveniles are frequently “victims of gun violence” because they choose violence. All this “child” needed to do to avoid harm was not to attack someone else with a firearm.

The three men jumped back into the Charger and fled to the West Side. The wounded teen exited in an alley and called 911. He claimed a gunman in a black Infiniti SUV shot him during a botched robbery — but nearby cops heard a gunshot and spotted the Charger speeding off. They suspected that the men fired the shot to lend credibility to the teen’s claim. He was arrested and taken to the hospital, where he remained “very uncooperative.”

Both men, victim and aggressor, were in good condition at the hospital. There’s no word that I can find about the other two aggressors.

Sources

I can find only two articles about this incident.

CWB Chicago did a great job of detailing the event. They’re the only source of the narrative about the would-be robbers dropping off the 17-year-old in the alley.

ABC 7 Eyewitness News has a newscast, where you can see the victim’s crashed car. The details they had were objective and fundamentally well-written.

30 rounds, two people hospitalized, and only two stories about it. When people tell you Good Guy with a Gun stories are a myth, remember what it takes to get anyone to pay attention even a little bit to the incident. After all…

That thing that never happens, happens every day.

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