"A Salt Lake City man says his gun saved his life today when a man threatened to take his car. It's a story that adds fuel to the debate over Utah's concealed weapons law.
The suspect in this case has not been caught-yet. It's probably fair to say he'll think twice before ever threatening to steal someone's car again.
Even when running errands, just like he was doing this morning, Mike Taylor is on guard.
Mike Taylor, Concealed Weapon Carrier: "The police have their hands full with everything and I don't think they could be every place at once."
So Taylor was ready when, he says, a man threatened to steal his car.
Mike Taylor: "Finally he told me he was going to kill me and take my car for himself. At that point I felt like he was going to kill me and I feared for my life so I drew my firearm and called police."
He never fired a shot. Clark Aposhian, Bureau of Criminal Identification Chairman says that is what usually happens.
Clark Aposhian, Chairman BCI Board: "We have not seen any type of pattern of abuse or escalation of these types of robberies. We haven't seen blood in the street that a lot of my adversaries or detractors would talk about."
Maura Carabello, with the Gun Violence Prevention Center, believes Utah's permit laws are lax.
Maura Carabello, Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah: "They could injure themselves, often not well equipped psychologically; they often don't know how to shoot or handle a weapon with proficiency."
She says what happened to Taylor is the best possible outcome, but not always the norm.
Maura Carabello: "My reaction in general, though, is we are lucky. We are lucky the permit holder is safe."
Taylor says he has carried the permit for six years; he didn't think he'd need to use it this morning.
Mike Taylor: "I just came down to get my hair cut this morning."
Misfits such as Maura, the soccer mom gun hating harridan, abhor the very thought of of one defending oneself because it is very, very judgmental, and since 90% of violent criminals are minorities, some poor underpriviliged youth might be needlessly harmed when all the poor dear wanted was your car. As far as her assertion that "they" do not know how to safely handle firearms, someone should tell Maura that there are more civilians with guns than there are LE officers so armed, but it's LE that happens to negligently discharge on a far more frequent basis.
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