• On Sept. 11, in Garland, Texas, a woman and her boyfriend attempted to meet in-person with an individual who had offered online to sell them a camera. Instead, the couple found themselves victims of an armed robbery scam, and the boyfriend was forced to defend himself and his girlfriend by shooting the armed suspect.
• On Sept. 7, in Spanaway, Washington, a 16-year-old girl returned home alone from a visit with her neighbor to find the electricity suspiciously shut off. Fearing for her safety, the teen armed herself with her mother’s handgun and was shortly thereafter confronted at the door by a knife-wielding intruder who attempted to stab her several times. The teen suffered minor wounds, but managed to fire a shot at the intruder, who subsequently ran off before being arrested by sheriff’s deputies.
• On Aug. 29, in Elmira, New York, a 33-year-old single mother defended her four children from a convicted felon by shooting him in the chest with a legally-owned shotgun.
• On Aug. 28, in Winter Haven, Florida, an Uber driver protected himself and his passenger from an attacker who thought the passenger was his girlfriend, with whom he had been fighting earlier in the night. The attacker cut off the Uber driver and approached the car shouting, “I’ve got a pistol. Do you want me to shoot you?” while grasping a dark item roughly the size and shape of a firearm. The Uber driver drew his own gun and shot the attacker once in the chest, ultimately killing him. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd praised the driver, calling the shooting a “classic” justifiable homicide and warning the “hotheads of the community” that “[g]ood people carry guns and they will shoot you.”

Judd is absolutely correct. These stories of Americans using their Second Amendment rights to defend themselves and others truly sum up why law-abiding citizens own firearms and jump through the administrative hoops to get their concealed carry permits. They are fundamentally good people who are willing and able to stop bad people who are doing bad things.

Tragic injustices happen. Lawful gun owners sometimes make mistakes. Sometimes, they even intentionally commit crimes. But they are not the primary source of gun violence, and the total impact of lawful gun ownership skews heavily in favor of maintaining a strong, meaningful Second Amendment right.