I have seen some discussion, but of course not from mainstream news outlets, of what actually could have helped prevent these murders. Sure, helping young people by mentoring them and tutoring them could play a role down the line not to become cold-blooded killers, but the only immediate defense that these girls could have had against their killers would have been a gun of their own.

Let me explain.

Thankfully, pictures of Eve’s alleged killer have been released. The suspect in question seems to not only have taken her car but also seems to have actually driven through an ATM and used her bank card while driving the car (this hasn’t yet been confirmed, but you can clearly tell that the car in question is in fact a Toyota Highlander, like the one Carson owned). In the fifth comment seen on this website, “SteveDinMD” comes up with a plausible scenario for what probably happened to Eve Carson.

At first I figured that the killer must simply be an idiot who had killed Eve and then gone to an ATM without her PIN number, or he had figured that her PIN number would be the same as her birthday as it so often is and taken a chance. However, it makes much more sense that she was in fact in the car with him while he went to the ATM, he was perhaps successful, and she tried to escape later, upon which time he shot her as she ran. This explains why blood was found on both sides of the road and possibly why she was shot in the head at close range– the killer could have hobbled her first, then shot her in the head to make sure that she couldn’t testify against him for the carjacking. The area in which her body was found was a secluded street off the main drag which, if followed, leads to Durham, which makes sense considering the buzz that this is the work of a Durham gang member as other shootings in Chapel Hill are.

If it is in fact true that she was carjacked and forced to go to the bank before being shot as she escaped, this is a perfect scenario in which a gun– even one kept in the glove compartment of the car and not actually on herself– could have helped her survive what turned into a kill-or-be-killed situation.

It is true that some rare victims are able to wrestle away an attacker’s gun in a life-or-death situation and shoot or kill him then– however, that’s never a sure thing and it’s best to know what your line of defense will be ahead of time.

Let’s take a look at some recent examples for scenarios in which innocent victims luckily were armed when an armed robber/carjacker attempted to attack them.

“When a Louisiana woman injured during an attempted carjacking retrieved her revolver from under the seat, the would-be car thief fled.”

“Investigators told Eyewitness News the would-be robber [in Houston] had the tables turned on him when the person he was trying to rob pulled out his own gun and shot the man.”

“The elder Jauregui, who was a police officer in Cuba before the Castro regime, reportedly told police he felt forced to fire because he believed his son’s life was in danger.”

Florentino Jauregui was called the “kindest, sweetest gentleman in the neighborhood” by a neighbor. In that vein, he didn’t want to have to use deadly force, but he had to when his son’s life was being threatened by a madman with a gun, and he did the ultimate “kindest, sweetest” thing when he came to his son’s rescue.

While cases like this do happen, unfortunately too few victims out there are armed and ready when their attackers come. After a gunman attempted to carjack 71-year-old Bobbie Gray, her son Keith came out of the house and shot the attacker. Gray’s husband had some words of warning for future carjackers.

“Marshall Gray, Bobbie’s husband and Keith’s father, warned others to be cautious.

‘Pass the word on,’ he said. ‘You never know the next person you’re going to carjack may have a gun bigger than yours in their car.’”

It’s highly unlikely that any one person will ever be in a situation where his or her life is threatened by a robber or carjacker or mass murderer (despite what the media says). However, there just aren’t enough people who are armed when the odds work against them and they do get attacked. Carjackers don’t yet seem to be afraid of people fighting back because it hasn’t happened on a mass scale. They have a gun, so they figure that they’re invincible. The more people who take matters into their own hands and fight back, the more people will be afraid to commit these sorts of crimes even if they do have a gun.

As shown in the first example above by the Louisiana woman who merely had to show her gun to the carjacker for him to run away, the mere presence of a gun can end the crime right then and there. No shots even need to be fired.

It’s probably also no surprise that young women are targeted for these “economic crimes of opportunity.” There is probably no demographic that is less likely to be armed for protection. Why is that? Maybe it’s not “feminine” or “attractive” or cool or liberal (an important consideration in a town like Chapel Hill) to carry around a gun. Maybe it’s not considered safe. Maybe you’re afraid people will think you’re weird. I have a concealed carry license myself, and I don’t carry around a gun for some of these reasons, so I can’t act like it’s amazing that no one else my age does. However, there is nothing cooler than saving your own life or saving someone else’s, as this “hero teacher” found out.

Another consideration is that guns are banned on the UNC campus. If you’re going off and on to campus, you’d be breaking the law if you had a gun for part of that time, and if you’re a law-abiding citizen you don’t want to break laws and therefore won’t have a gun. However, when has a would-be killer ever decided to turn back when they see the sign that says “Gun-Free Zone”? No, in fact, they know that they’re definitely going to have a lot of unarmed victims to do with what they will. After previous school shootings, some UNC students had pointed this out. Hopefully, some UNC students will also see the wisdom here. Arizona may pass a law allowing concealed weapons on campus after Eve’s shooting.

“But that’s what we have the police for.”

When Eve Carson was killed, the Chapel Hill police were not patrolling the residential neighborhoods where her body was found. The police do their best, but more often than not, they simply are not going to come to your rescue in time. They try to do their best to prevent crime, and they’ll certainly find your body after you’ve been killed and also do their best to try to investigate your murder, but odds are they will not be there to rescue you if you find yourself in this situation. In fact, one of these very police officers now investigating Eve’s murder told me that he wished all civilians would be trained for concealed carry. The police officers know that concealed carry saves lives; it’s time for the public to know this, too.

“The answer to gun violence isn’t more guns.”

Really? Well, what do the police do in response to gun violence, stand there and stare down the bad guys? The kids at Virginia Tech had one option when they were attacked: pretend they were dead. That was their best defense. Their ONLY defense. That’s completely unacceptable.

“If every student is armed, more students will be killed.”

First of all, not every student will be armed, just those who want to be and are trained and licensed for concealed carry (and pass an FBI background check). That means they have to know how to hit a target and attend a gun safety course and be mentally sound. In the 40 states that have concealed carry laws, a lot of innocent people have had their lives saved, and I have not heard of any cases where innocent people were killed due to someone, for instance, waving their gun wildly around or other such nonsense. It would not happen. Even a small percentage of college students being armed could serve as a large deterrent to potential attackers– all it takes is one person with a gun to stop a shooting in progress.

Why would this work?

We know it would work because it has worked. The heroism of the Israeli seminary student who stopped the gunman at his seminary the other day (along with the gunman’s 500 rounds of live ammo) has pretty much been ignored in the American media, but he saved people’s lives by being a trained individual with a gun at the scene of what in America would be a “gun-free zone.”

I listed, above, just a few of the many carjackings that were stopped in their tracks after a victim fought back with a gun. Here is a list of some of the mass shootings that have been stopped by a law-abiding citizen who saved the day by carrying a gun.

• Appalachian Law School shooting in January 2002

• The Utah mall shooting in 2007

• Colorado New Life Church shooting was stopped due to the presence of an armed volunteer security guard who fought back (saving up to 100 lives, according to her pastor). The gunman had 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and 700 people were in the church at the time.

• The Israeli seminary shooting in March 2008

“The heroism of an armed Israeli seminary student halfway across the world sends a message that we needn’t submit to murder in victim disarmament zones. That’s why his actions are getting such short shrift from America’s press. It’s a story they are loathe to report because it affirms a philosophy of self-reliance that they despise.”

Sure, no one wants to have to use a gun to protect themselves. No one wants or asks to be attacked, either. Don’t blame me for saying that people can protect themselves, blame these lunatics who see fit to murder people on campus.

Tags: carjacking, concealed carry, Eve Carson, gun-free zones, Lauren Burk, Yitzhak Dadon, gun, gun control, CCW, Gun Advocacy, Heroes, Jeanne Assam, Self Defense, Shootings, Women and Guns