Mom Pulls Gun In Fight Over School Supplies
A story out of Detroit, Michigan has been making the rounds on social media depicting a mother pulling a gun on a group of women who were arguing with her daughter. What most depictions do not speak to is why the mother could have been so compelled to pull out her gun in the first place. Well, today we're going to take a look at the why and not just the how.
HOW IT HAPPENED
This incident occurred at a Detroit Wal-Mart during back-to-school shopping. The mother, 51, and her 20-year-old daughter were in the process of grabbing some notebooks off of the shelves to purchase. At the same time, two other women ages 46 and 32 were grabbing for the same notebook. The last notebook available.
As you could probably guess giving the levels of stress back-to-school shopping brings about, this situation got heated quickly. A war of words began between the two pairs of women and the situation eventually got physical as the 46 and 32-year-olds began pulling on the 20-year-old daughter's hair when she would not relinquish the notebook.
It was then, upon seeing her daughter in this scrap that the 51-year-old mother pulled out her concealed carry pistol and the rest of the story is shown in the countless social media posts being made about the subject.
WHY IT HAPPENED
Now, anyone with a child knows that if danger is perceived as being directed towards your son or daughter, you're not going to sit idly by and let it happen. This no doubt went through the mother's mind as she pulled her firearm. She saw her girl being grabbed by not just one but two strangers that seemed fully intent to harm her. This caused her to act and act in a manner she believed would quell the situation.
But was it the right call to make at that moment? No. As we covered in our Concealed Carry Podcast (Episode 153) there was no direct threat of major bodily harm or death towards the mother or daughter. The limit of the scuffle that occurred was some hair-pulling. That certainly did not warrant a gun being drawn. There are plenty of other methods of no-gun defense that could have, and should have, been used before the situation escalated to what it did.
Basically, what we're trying to say and what the media is leaving out of the story is that there is an understanding as to why the mother pulled out her gun, she wanted to make sure her daughter wasn't going to be hurt. However, pulling that gun in the manner that she did, both harms the appearance of gun owners around the country and also could harm her herself according to Detroit detective Scott Baetens…
“A simple assault could be just a local ordinance, a 90-day misdemeanor, All the way up to felonious assault with a firearm, which is a felony.”
It simply comes down to being properly trained and mentally prepared in case a situation pops up. Not every situation needs a firearm as a solution. In fact, 99.9% of situations don't call for one, but what we prepare for is the .1%. We need to be ready in case of a life-or-death struggle and we need to be able to handle those situations with the same ease that we breathe. But maybe even more importantly we need to learn how to recognize those situations in the first place, for the safety and good of ourselves as well as our fellow citizens around us.
What do you think of this story? Do you think the mother went too far or was she properly defending herself in the crowd? Let us know in the comments below.
These type of outler events are instructive for what they are, extremely uncommon events that are no different than misuse of a motor vehicle, etc.
This is not about guns whatsoever, and one can see that because it could have easily been an illegal threat, brandishment or assult with a hammer or knife in that store.
About a year or two ago when I was living in LA a few people I follow in Twitter tweeted a story about a toddler who shot and injured their mom in a walmart. It was all over the news, repeated endlessly as if it was some kind of norm. What was not in the national newspapers was a case on the same weekend, where a toddler who was sitting in a rear car seat climbed over, put a car in gear and killed their infant sister and severely injured the mother by putting the car in reverse while the mom was removing groceries from the back of the vehicle.
A 12 year old shoots an instructor with an uzi and that is national news played infinitum, but a 12 year old killing someone with a personal watercraft is just a local story.
So we should keep in mind the case you mention is instructive about what not to do — but it is instructive about what not to do with a knife, gun, baseball bat, tire iron, screwdriver or any potentially lethal weapon used as a weapon.