Guns Save Lives – by Dan Cannon
A hitchhiker in Kentucky learned a couple of valuable lesson this week when a good Samaritan tried to give him a ride. Namely, don’t bring a knife to a gunfight. After being picked up by Raymond Givens (yes, I had to read that twice too, it’s Raymond, not Raylan Givens) the hitchhiker tried to rob Givens at gunpoint.
According to local media reports:
Henderson police said Corydon resident Raymond Givens, 45, was driving in the area of Henderson Community College around 1 a.m. Friday when he stopped to pick up a hitchhiker.
Givens told authorities that the male hitchhiker pulled a butcher knife on Givens and demanded his wallet, officials said.
“Givens stated he pulled a handgun on the subject and told him to get out of his vehicle,” a news release said.
The suspect then fled the vehicle and remains at large. He is described as a white male with dirty blonde hair.
This incident is the most common type of defensive gun use. That is, one in which no shots were fired and no one was hurt. Despite this being the most common type of defensive gun use, these incidents are often not included in statistics about defensive gun uses. Many of these statistics and studies focus solely on justifiable homicides, which represent only a fraction of total defensive gun uses.
This is the 26th defensive gun use we’ve documented in the state of Kentucky and the 1,396th defensive gun use we’ve documented overall.
Good thing Givens was armed, but I question the wisdom of picking up a lone hitchiker at 1AM. One needs to use a little street smarts to avoid these types of incidents.