Good Guy with a Gun #174: Birmingham, AL
The DA said the shooter was justified. The National Gun Violence Memorial says the robber was a “victim” of “gun violence.” | Original incident: February 26, 2024
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is essentially the same as the calendar version.
It’s a harrowing business having shot someone. You never know for sure how it’s going to turn out.
But when 23-year-old Raul Angel Cajigas Jr. tried to rob a man at gunpoint, the DA said the victim was justified in pulling out his own gun and shooting him.
ShotSpotter sent police racing to the University Crossings apartments at around 10 PM. There they found Cajigas on the sidewalk. He was sent to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
This was the third justifiable homicide of the year, compared to 17 murders in the same period.
Protecting yourself carries real risk, but it’s better than being robbed, injured, or killed.
Sources
Primary
The City of Birmingham made the Justifiable Death Ruling available to the public.
News
For a story with so few facts to discuss, this got a lot of coverage.
AL.com gave this story three articles:
Gunfire near southwest Birmingham apartment complex leaves 1 dead
Hoover man ID’d as victim killed in southwest Birmingham gunfire
Hoover man killed in Birmingham may have been committing robbery while he
WBRC 6, WVTM 13, and WIAT 42 also covered this story.
Specialist
Usually when I point to “specialist” media, it means Second Amendment advocacy or conservative press. This time, I found Cajigas on gunmemorial.org, which is the National Gun Violence Memorial. Notice how they put very small children — unutterably sad, no argument — at the top of the page…
…but then include people like Raul Angel Cajigas Jr. in their “gun violence” statistics as well.
But Cajigas wasn’t the victim of gun violence. He was the cause of it. This was judicious gun violence that prevented him from perpetrating more violence on other people.
Honestly, sometimes when I’ve been looking for stories for a specific date, I’ll visit the National Gun Violence Memorial because there are plenty of criminals there listed as “victims” lost to “gun violence.” To the people who run the site, the tool is the enemy, not the violence that wicked people commit.