A concealed carry permit holder in Springville, Utah, pulled his gun Friday and intervened to stop an attack against a police officer.
Fox 13 reports that incident occurred around 2 p.m., after an unidentified officer spotted Paul Douglas Anderson in a Tabatha’s Way donation bin. The officer ordered Anderson to get out and he allegedly exited the bin but refused to take his hands out of his pockets. When Anderson finally removed his hands, he allegedly did so in order to punch the officer in the face. Thereafter he allegedly punched the officer again and again.
Concealed carry permit holder Derek Meyer happened to drive by while the officer was being attacked. He passed the officer, then u-turned, parked nearby and drew his gun. He pointed it at Anderson and ordered him to stop attacking the officer. Anderson stopped punching and fled the scene.
Police captured Anderson a short time later hiding under a flatbed trailer.
Meyer said, “I carry a gun to protect me and those around me, but primarily I carry a gun to protect my family first and foremost. Outside of that, if I were to use my gun to protect anyone it would be law enforcement or military personnel.”
Springville Corporal Cory Waters commented on Meyer’s intervention, saying, “Had he not been in the right place at the right time, who knows what would have happened. But he definitely stopped the attack from continuing and becoming much worse. He might have even saved either one of their lives. It could have gone really bad, even for the suspect.”
On January 12, 2017, Breitbart News reported a concealed carry permit holder stopped to save an Arizona State Trooper who was being attacked on the side of I-10. In that instance the permit holder had to fire his gun, killing the attacker. On that same day, the New York Times claimed, “The grim truth is that concealed-carry permit holders are rarely involved in stopping crime.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange
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