When the national press covers a story having anything to do with guns, it’s inevitably one where the gun has been misused, and supports the point of view that we need more gun control measures. The shooter has terrorized a school, or a post office, or his old workplace. The incident gets widespread coverage, and calls for additional gun control legislation follow. It’s predictable.
Well let me bring to your attention something that happened recently that you probably didn’t read about, or see on TV. It didn’t make the national press – it was basically ignored.
Alfred and Sylvia Armen own a little music shop in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, just south of Pittsburgh. The Armen’s, who are in their 70s, sell and repair musical instruments, and offer music lessons in their little shop, the House of Music.
On April 27th, 31 year-old Andrew Moore entered their store, and began bashing the septuagenarians in the head with a wooden club. Sylvia Armen said “everything happened so quickly, it’s kind of a blur.”
We’ll never know whether Moore would have beaten the two senior citizens to death, or merely left them unconscious in a pool of their own blood on the floor, because 73 year-old Alfred was armed with a handgun (a 38 caliber revolver) for protection. He stopped the brutal attack on his wife and himself by shooting the attacker four times. The attacker died, and they didn’t.
Alfred and Sylvia Armen were taken to the hospital for head injuries. They recovered. The 31 year-old attacker was taken to the morgue.
You probably hadn’t heard about this incident which occurred about 250 miles east of Cincinnati. It really didn’t fit into the narrative we have heard all too often in the national press – guns are bad, and we need further restrictions on them to make us safer.
But it happened. And I thought you’d like to know.