The Power of One armed Citizen

One armed citizen is more often than not, the difference between attempted murder, and a tragedy.   On Father's day, in East St. Louis Illinois Ashley Oliver was gunned down by her boyfriend while she ran from car across several lanes of traffic, and banged on car windows pleading for help.   She already had been shot, and was bleeding as she begged drivers to help.   There was not a single armed citizen on the road that day due to bad Illinois laws.   The only man with a gun, was Ashley Oliver's killer, Tommie Hill.   Tommie wasn't worried about the Illinois felony level improper transportation of a firearm laws known as "Aggravated Unlawful Use of a Weapon" nor was he concerned with "Aggravated Discharge of a Weapon" and he also wasn't concerned with the law and potential death sentence from  "Murder."  All of these high penalty laws, and Tommie Hill still caught up with his prey, and shot Ashley Oliver in the head in front of onlookers, and Oliver's 7 year old daughter.

In light of the strict punishments, had I been there, I too would have been an unarmed citizen.  If I intervened unarmed, I would have been a victim as well.   This was one of thousands of examples where seconds counted the difference between life and death, and help was only minutes away, and all it would have taken was one armed citizen.