Anti-2A people often say that they want gun control because they want to save lives. If that’s an honest statement on their part, then, that’s an admirable intention. It begs the question, though, of how to best save lives in a potentially violent encounter.

Obviously, anti-2A people think that making guns unavailable to law-abiding citizens will save lives because, they think, fewer people will get shot. The statistics don’t show this, though, and you have to ask: who are we trying to prevent getting shot: the aggressor (the criminal) or the law-abiding American who just wants to protect themselves and their family?

But in case there is any question about how private gun ownership actually helps to save lives, we have a story out of Houston, Texas today that should clear all of that up.

Here’s what happened: a guy goes into a hotel with a rifle and demands money. It doesn’t work out the way that he wanted it, too, though. Paul Sacca writes,

The robber demanded the hotel clerk give him money from the register. He pointed the rifle at the female clerk and then attempted to climb over the counter. While the robber was trying to hurdle the counter, the clerk whipped out her own gun and startled the thief.

The robber panics and sprints out of the hotel in fear.

You can see the encounter in the security footage below.

Did you see how quickly the would-be robber ran as soon as he saw a gun being pointed in his direction? That’s the way most defensive gun encounters go.

I’m not saying that people don’t actually have to pull the trigger sometimes to defend their lives in defensive uses of firearms, but more commonly, as soon as the criminal sees that it’s their own life on the line, they run for the hills as quickly as they can.

So, legal private gun ownership actually saves more lives than it causes to be lost, by any measure, and don’t let any anti-2A propagandist tell you otherwise.