Convenience Store Clerk Shoots An Armed Robber After Robber Sets Gun On Counter

LAVEEN, ARIZONA — When a 17-year-old armed robber entered a convenience store outside Phoenix, he probably counted too heavily on his gun doing the talking for him. Fortunately for the clerk had an opportunity to draw his own gun when the robber set the gun down on the counter.

According to ABC 15 Arizona News, the convenience store clerk drew his gun and shot the teenager. The robber ran from the store but was found near the location by police. They got him to a hospital where he is expected to recover and face charges.

Police believe the teen involved in the incident has no prior criminal history and this may have been his first go-round. Hopefully, surviving the experience will teach him that adult decisions carry adult consequences. Threatening a man’s life over a few hundred dollars in cash isn’t worth throwing your life away. That’s what I hope he gets from this encounter. If he doesn’t, I’m sad to say the prognosis for the long term isn’t so good.

As for the clerk, he did what he had to do to defend himself. You can’t take a gun pointed in your face by an armed robber as anything less than a direct threat upon your life.

There’s a term I keep hearing tossed around. It’s called “self-correcting behavior”. It’s a dark term referring to the fact that when idiots do dumb, illegal things, they either learn or they don’t get to be around long enough to be a threat to anyone else.

Every time I report on a story where a teenager steals a gun to go rob a person or break into a person’s home, I hope he lives long enough to learn the error of his ways. But, for the man with that gun pointed in his face, his choice is to live.

The clerk probably wasn’t expecting the robber to put his gun on the counter. When that happens, though, it’s maybe the only opportunity a law-abiding gun owner has to turn the tables.

I’d much rather the guy defending his life win the fight than the bad guy. It only happens if we carry every single day — on the job, at home, and anywhere else legally possible.