The victim told police that the two men popped out of an alley as he was walking by and tried to rob him at gunpoint, which is when he reached for his revolver.
According to police, the victim pulled out a revolver and exchanged gunfire with the suspects. He was struck once in the ankle and later transported to Temple University Hospital.
The suspects, two males in black clothing, were last seen fleeing on foot through an alley. Two spent shell casings from the suspects’ firearm or firearms were later found on the scene by investigators.
Police say it’s unknown whether the 71-year-old struck either assailant, but even he missed ‘ clear that they had no interest in sticking around to continue their attempted robbery.
You think Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney will have anything to say about this armed citizen being able to defend himself? Yeah, me neither, despite the fact that the mayor regularly bemoans the state’s gun laws; recently claiming, for instance, that it’s easier to buy a gun than booze in the City of Brotherly Love.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said that as he sought to buy Prosecco from a suburban Wegmans this weekend, he watched an elderly man jump through hoops to buy eight bottles of wine — restrictions the mayor said the state legislature has been unwilling to place on the sale of firearms.
“If we control guns like we control the sale of liquor and wine, we’d be in much better shape than we are now,” Kenney said. “It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous.”
The anecdote described by Kenney was among the most colorful ways the Democratic mayor has found to slam the state legislature and the federal government for what he has repeatedly said is a failure to limit access to guns.
Most criminals don’t get their guns at retail. A 2016 survey of prison inmates conducted by the federal Bureau of Justice statistics found that just 10% of those who used a gun in the commission of their crime acquired it from a firearms retailer, with less than 1% coming from purchases at gun shows. The top source for firearms among the inmates surveyed was the underground market; responsible for almost half (43.4%) of all acquisitions.
Gun control laws aimed at guys like the 71-year-old armed citizen aren’t going to have any impact on the armed robbers who picked him as their intended victim. If Kenney and other city officials were serious about fighting crime, they’d be implementing strategies like targeted deterrence and working to improve the abysmally low clearance rates for both fatal and non-fatal shootings. In 2020 just 36.7% of homicides resulted in an arrest, and only 18.9% of non-fatal shootings ended up with one or more suspects arrested and charged.
Philadelphia’s violent criminals are literally getting away with murder more than half the time, and there’s only a 1-in-5 chance that they’ll be arrested if their victim survives being shot. It’s no wonder that there’s a growing number of Philadelphians like this 71-year-old man who are choosing to bear arms for their own safety. Philly can be a dangerous place, and with politicians like Kenney intent on infringing the rights of residents in the name of public safety instead of addressing the real issues, that’s sadly not going to be changing for the better anytime soon.