As reported, an armed citizen used his gun to fend off an early morning robbery in Pittsburgh, PA:
Police say that they received an emergency call at about 1:00am from a the would-be victim of a robbery in Market Square. The man reportedly notified police that he was attacked by a robber, at which point he fired is gun in self defense, causing the robber to flee. No injuries to the victim were reported, and police are said to be seeking the suspect.
Once again, we have a defensive gun use that resulted in no deaths or injuries. Those opposed to self defense would call this a self defense failure because the employee didn’t manage to shoot the robber, however shooting the robber is not really the goal. Instead, when using a gun for self defense, the goal is to put an end to the threat posed by the criminal. Shooting the criminal is certainly a very effective way of ending the threat, as a dead or sufficiently injured criminal is incapable of continuing to attack innocent people. However firing at criminal, even if one misses, will often accomplish the same goal, since a criminal who is being shot at will often duck or flee, preventing them from harming their victims. Here, the criminal fled empty-handed, and no innocent people were harmed – a success in my book.