As reported, a New Orleans, Louisiana carjacker was fatally shot in self defense by his would-be victim.
Police say that a motorist was in his pickup truck on the 1800 block of Lamanche Street at approximately 9:30pm, when a carjacker approached, pointed a gun at the motorist, and demanded that the motorist open the door. In response, the motorist is said to have grabbed his own handgun and fired several shots in self defense, striking the carjacker and ending the attack. Paramedics reportedly arrived to find the suspect, 24 year old Joshua McElveen, dead at the scene, according to police. The motorist was unharmed.
Criminals often prey upon victims in vehicles, perhaps because they see the vehicle as a quick means of escape, or because they simply wish to steal the vehicle. Gun control laws don’t stop these criminals from being armed, as we can see time and time again in places like Chicago, which have the strictest gun control in the country but no shortage of armed criminals. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise, since a criminal willing to commit a serious felony such as carjacking or armed robbery won’t be deterred by the less-severely-punished law that tells them not to have a gun. Instead of disarming the criminals, such gun control laws only ensure that law abiding crime victims are defenseless against the still-armed criminals.
However, as this case shows, when a crime victim is armed, they are in the best position possible to defend themselves against a carjacker. As another example, this 74 year old man used his gun to defend himself against a carjacker who was holding a knife to his throat. Similarly, this other man used his gun to fend off a pair of carjackers, who were armed with a pistol. As another example, this cab driver used his gun to stop an armed and violent robber. Simply put, self defense works, as the many real life cases of armed self defense, and the statistical evidence demonstrates.