Examiner The jury watched in horror Monday as the prosecution played a surveillance camera video of 76-year-old grandmother and convenience store clerk Nancy Harris consumed in flames after being doused in lighter fluid and ignited by a monster robbing a Garland, Tex. Fina Whip In of petty cash.
“She died in hospital five days after she and her family decided to turn off life support,” Mail Online reported. There’s no need to repeat that report here. Go and read it, grasp what confessed murderer Matthew Johnson did to this poor woman, and then watch the video. Try to imagine her agony and her terror, and what her survivors have been forced to live through and with. Go ahead and get sick and then furious. It’s the reaction decent people would have.
Then compare the results here to another Fina station robbery attempt, this time in Shreveport, La.
“[T]he employee in the back of the store diverted attention away long enough to give Amin’s little brother Fayez the moment he needed behind the counter to reach down and grab their 9-millimeter handgun,” KSLA 12 reported.
Also compare it to a report from this morning about a Dairy Queen owner repelling armed robbers by opening fire with his own gun.
And it’s not like these were just lucky flukes. Jeweler Lance Thomas proved — on multiple occasions — the odds of surviving and prevailing in a store invasion are greatly improved where there is a gun backed up by skill and will.
There are plenty of other armed clerk stories attesting to successful gun defenses. And plenty of unarmed clerk stories that turned out tragically.
Now consider the clerk who tried to comply but couldn’t open the safe, and fortunately survived being shot thanks to a conveniently-placed cell phone and an act of Providence. Or this poor pizza guy who found out the hard way that reason only works with the reasonable. And then recall these five fast food workers, who also obeyed all commands, and ended up “shot execution-style in the back of the head.”
Then weigh those obscene outcomes against the 7-Eleven worker who was fired for defending himself, despite another 7-Eleven clerk who complied with company policy and was rewarded for it by being stabbed to death and found in a pool of his own blood by a customer. A Walgreens pharmacist who stopped a robbery with his gun was also fired. Ditto for this Auto Zone employee. Many more examples could be provided, but the point is made.
Earlier this month Gun Rights Examiner profiled another clerk, in a position very similar to the unfortunate Ms. Harris, who would not go gentle into that good night and was fired for being able to thwart a man who brought a knife to a potential gunfight. Nouria Energy’s corporate flacks actually had the gall to justify their decision, by first claiming through their high-priced corporate worm-tongues, that “our employees are our most cherished assets. Their safety and the safety of our customers is priority number one.
“Cashiers are instructed to give the intruder what they ask for in an attempt to resolve the conflict peacefully and as soon as possible,” they blathered insincerely, as they know damn well intruders don’t ask, they demand, adding a lethal “or else” backed up with a weapon for emphasis. The suits are secure that it’s not them working a counter alone in the wee hours. They’re not the ones who have to get up close with “those people”. Isn’t that what the security desk in their headquarters lobby is supposed to keep out?
In other words, they can say to those on the front lines, without any personal risk, just give predators what they want.
Left unanswered is the question “What if what they want is your life?” After all, that’s what’s being threatened in every single robbery, regardless of how much is in the register.
Some of us prefer to give inhuman degenerates that set grandmothers on fire what they deserve.
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