Transcript from the video
Sometimes you just have to be reminded as a gun owner: “Will my action put my life at severe risk, and is it worth it?” In this video, I’m breaking down a real incident in a quiet neighborhood where nothing ever happens. A victim chases their robber and gets shot.
Joe Stringel was quietly having breakfast when he heard a commotion across the street on Saturday morning, March 23rd. Stringel lived in the 4800 block of Grove Point Drive in Tampa, Florida, a place where nothing ever happens. It — being attacked by a man with a gun happened — but the commotion Stringel heard was a neighbor woman in her 70s being mugged at gunpoint.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office says that around 6 a.m., someone robbed Stringel’s neighbor at gunpoint while she was outside feeding stray neighborhood cats. She gave the thief what she said was a small amount of cash, and he started to walk away. But that wasn’t good enough for the woman, however, who followed the thief down the street. Realizing he was being followed, the thief spun around and pointed the gun at the victim, who then slapped the gun out of his hand by throwing her tray at him.
Subscribe to the USCCA YouTube Channel
The gun “went off” and shot the woman in the leg, sheriff’s office said. As the gun fell, it fired, and the bullet struck the victim in the leg. The woman, who is yet unnamed, was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and, at last report, is in stable condition. The robber has not been found.
Neighbor Janna Evelyn said, “You’re not in our neighborhood unless you’re supposed to be here, so it’s just a bit odd to hear that there’s been a shooting on the street.”
“I couldn’t believe it. This just doesn’t happen here,” Stringel said, remembering the gunshot and the subsequent telephone call for help from the victim, the blood and the sirens disturbing a quiet Saturday morning. “You never see police cars hardly ever out here.”
But it did happen. It happened in Stringel’s neighborhood, and it could happen in your community.
Simple Self-Defense Reminders for the Responsible Gun Owner
We can learn several lessons from this incident. These are lessons diligently preached by the USCCA.
First lesson: You get robbed; the thief gets away. It happens. You lose what you recognize as a small amount of cash. In the long run, that’s no big deal except the insult to your pride. In any long life — this woman was in her 70s — our pride generally takes a beating. That’s life. Swallow hard and go on with your business. Stuff is nothing to get shot over.
Lesson number two: Chasing an armed robber — someone who is armed with a gun — and throwing a pan at him, well, let’s just say it could have gone a lot worse for that woman. She only got shot in the leg. She didn’t get hit in the vitals. She didn’t end up dying from a gunshot wound to the leg. She could have had severe injuries. She could have been left paralyzed or killed. We don’t chase bad guys. We don’t shoot them as they are running away. That’s the job for the police: to chase and catch the bad guys. If a bad guy robs you and is running away, let the bad guy run away because then you are no longer in imminent danger. We can’t stress this enough.
Number three: Modern firearms don’t just go off. The only way a gun goes off is when someone pulls the trigger. My guess is that when the victim launched the tray, the thief made an effort to retain possession of that gun, and the tray hitting his hand increased the pressure on the trigger, causing the shot. Either way, he pulled that trigger and made the gun fire. The gun just didn’t go off by itself.
There’s probably a lot more to this story, but for now, let’s just call it a day and understand that if you get robbed and the robber gets away, let the robber get away. Call the police, give a good description of the robber and be thankful that you’re not hurt. Only fight if you have to fight — if you cannot get away, if the threat is imminent and it’s happening right now, and you can’t avoid it. Don’t be chasing robbers down the street. That’s for somebody else to do. Thanks for watching to the end.
