NEWARK, NJ — When an armed, would-be robber stormed into a barber shop in New Jersey, I honestly don’t know what he expected. They’re hardly cash vaults, or even particularly cash-heavy business.
He certainly did not expect, however, a probably pretty angry off-duty officer in the business ready to put him out of commission.
As PIX 11 reports:
The officer was a customer at a barber shop in the 400 block of Orange Street Tuesday when the incident occurred just after 9 p.m., officials said.
An attempted (robber), armed with a handgun, went into the barber shop when the off-duty cop fired his weapon, according to officials. The injured attempted robber fled and was pursued by officers responding to the robbery, officials said. The person was apprehended, and a gun recovered, a “short time later” in the 1100 block of McCarter Highway, more than a mile from the barber shop.
The attempted robbery is being treated for the gunshot wound, which was described as non-life threatening, officials said. A second person was also detained, according to officials. No additional information about either person detained was provided.
There’s more than one thing to take from this scenario, here — not the least of which is a desire to have a barber shop near me that stays open past 9 p.m. I mean, talk about convenient.
But in all seriousness, this is a powerful testament to what police officers do nationwide, but more specifically in a not-so-free gun state such as New Jersey.
According to Guns and Ammo, New Jersey ranked 48th on their list of gun-friendly states, better only than New York and Massachusetts. Yikes.
When a state becomes hard to carry concealed in, it means two things. First, crime goes up. Second, cops are worked hard, on- and off-duty, as some of the few lawfully-armed persons in-state.
Let’s pray that New Jersey gets its collective 2A act together in short order and fewer incidents like these have to occur.
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