Constitutional Carry Works in Arizona: Armed 19-Year-Old Shoots, Kills, Carjacker

Constitutional Carry Works in Arizona: Armed 19-Year-Old Shoots, Kills, Carjacker
Constitutional Carry Works in Arizona: Armed 19-Year-Old Shoots, Kills, Carjacker

U.S.A.-(Ammoland.com)- On 17 July, at bout 1:30 a.m. in South Phoenix, Arizona, there was an attempted carjacking. The suspects may have thought the selected victim would be an easy target, because he was a teenager. It did not turn out that way. In Arizona, there is respect for the Second Amendment. Eighteen, Nineteen, and Twenty-year-old citizens are not prohibited from carrying guns or from carrying them in vehicles. The perpetrators in this attempted crime made a poor choice in the victim selection process. For the knife-man, it was a life ending one. From 12news.com:

Around 1:30 a.m., police were called to the Circle K convenience store at Baseline Road and 24th Street.

Investigators say a 19-year-old man was sitting in his car at a gas pump with the driver’s side door open when a woman reportedly came up to him to cause a distraction.

He then noticed the suspect coming toward him from the back of the car holding a knife.

According to the police, the suspect demanded the 19-year-old’s car.

At that point, the victim got out his handgun and fired shots at the carjacker. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The target was more alert and better armed than the suspects suspected. He reminded me of the time a slim woman, openly carrying, shot and killed a man who pressed a gun to her neck a few miles away, at about one in the morning of August first, 2016.

The other suspect, 28-Year-Old Viviana Aldrete, has been arrested and charged with 1st degree felony murder and armed robbery. Felony murder is when an accomplice is knowingly involved in a crime with significant, foreseeable risk of death or severe injury. The accomplice can be charged with murder if their associate dies as a result of the attempted crime. Carjacking is one of those crimes.

The situation is under investigation. It does not appear the defender will be charged with any crime. He has not given any interviews, nor has his identity been released by police.

This is a safety precaution. Even long term criminals have relatives and friends. Retaliatory attacks are always possible.

In several states, this young man would not have been legally able to carry a gun for self defense. His Second Amendment right to bear arms would have been infringed in New York, New Jersey, Hawaii, as well as California, and several others.

In Arizona, the Arizona Citizen’s Defense League  (AZCDL) worked long and hard to restore Second Amendment rights in the state. Reform of the open carry law and of statutes regulating car carry worked in this defender’s favor.

It was not too long ago that carjackings were much more common.  The number of carjackings has fallen, as the number of people who legally carry guns has risen. Most violent crime is down, with increasing legal gun carry, so it is difficult to determine precise cause and effect relationships. The academic literature shows more legal carry of guns is associated with lower crime rates, for the most part. A few studies show an increase in some specific crimes over some time periods.

In this case, the potential carjacker will not be attempting any more crimes.

One career criminal can commit dozens of crimes a year before they are caught.


About Dean Weingarten:Dean Weingarten

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

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Green Mtn. Boy

Constitutional carry has worked in Vermont since before Vermont became the 14 th. state,when in 1903 a permit scheme was to be instigated Vermont’s SCOV called it Repugnant to the Constitution.

State v Rosenthal, 75 Vt. 295, 55 A. 610 (1903).]

https://guncite.com/court/state/55a610.html

nrringlee

I grew up all up and down the West Coast to include Arizona. During my military career I lived all over the world and in 12 different US states. I chose Arizona as my resting place for exactly this reason. Years ago I smelled the coming civil war. If things continue on their current trends we will be seeing here what I have seen all over the 3rd World. When you have been in civil wars you can sense the conditions. We are there. Soon you will not leave your home without some form of protection. I want to live… Read more »

loveaduck

A true civil war (never really civil) or just general chaos?

Tionico

doesn’t really matter… either case, the world as we now know it will fade away for a time, and much blood will be shed, both innocent and extremely guilty.

LLiberty does not come cheap. And vigilance is the price to keep it once obtained

Wild Bill

@nrr. Geeze, Ring, how do you explain that libtard, blond, Marxist/socialist, female, hard core unemployable that defeated the former fighter pilot for McCain’s Senate seat?

joefoam

You’d have to ask our county recorder who set up special polling places on the ASU campus to capture as many democrat votes as possible, and then find out how, with McSally leading the race, late ballots put her over the top. The accusations of questionable election results that were pooh-poohed when Trump suggested them have been exposed nationwide. His commission to investigate had to be abandoned because he couldn’t get any cooperation from the states. No bureaucrat anywhere is going to allow an investigation into something that might cost them their cushy gov’t job.

Wild Bill

@Joe, Huuuuh, It becomes clear to me.

ras52

One less criminal in Arizona. Good thing the young man had his gun with him.

Deplorable Bill

Yes sir, out here in Az. we have a sure cure for terrorism, murderers, rapists, cartel drug runners, armed carjackers etc…..we shoot back. In other, less free states, the young man may have lost his car or lost his life because he would not be allowed to be armed or he could wind up in jail if he had been armed wither he fired a shot or not. Nuts. I doubt we will be seeing ANTIFA around here. The little candy @$$#$, want to be terrorists operate in states where the right to be armed is illegally prohibited. It is… Read more »

nrringlee

Correct. A First Responder is defined as an armed citizen trained to use both the firearms and the trauma kits they carry every day. The government sponsored clean up crews are rarely first on any scene.

Tionico

regarding your comment on antifa only operating where carry is restricted… both Washington and Oregon are Shall Issue states, nost counties have the Mother May I Cards in your hand within about two weeks when applied for. Yet most of the recent antifa goon squad activity of late has been in one or both of those two states. I will readily admit that both Portland and Seattle are storngly antiugun prowimp, but oth cities have signficant numbers of Mother May I Card holders, and I and many I know refuse to be about in public in either state without the… Read more »

Tionico

There is no age limit to the right to life that reminds me of the story, I think from Dean, some time back where a thug intruder forced his way into a home with Mom, an eleven year old son, and at least two younger children, pushed his way into the kitchen were Mom was, grabbed a big kitchen knife and held it to her neck, backing her up against the counter. Son saw that, knew he was helpless on his own, ran upstairs and grabbed his Daisey BB gun, ran back down, and began pelting the perp in the… Read more »

Nanashi

Lower the age even further. To deny minors the second amendment is to claim that they aren’t protected by the 13th amendment.

Huapakechi

And just how young and immature would you see children armed with lethal weaponry? The legal definitions of adult privilege and responsibility are incrementally awarded (usually) between the ages of 18 and 21, but it might be argued that maturity is a flexible concept and some thirteen year olds are more mature than some thirty year old children. Do we depend on Darwinism?

Tionico

well, Darwin’s theory of natural selection DOES explain certain events that tend to thin or direct the gene pool going forward. I teach marksmanship and safety, and have worked with children as young as six. One young man, nine, was on the line on a warm day wearing only a tee shirt over his torso, a hot round of brass landed in the crook of his left elbow as the shooters were in prone for a course of fire. The kid screamed bloody murder, jumped up and began using his trigger hand to brush away the brass… ALL THE WHILE… Read more »

Larry

Any minor that passes the emancipation requirements is more than welcome to carry.