Mainstream Media Giant Accidentally Sounds Pro-Gun with Six Words

A mainstream media outlet meant to sound an alarm about “justified homicides,” but its own reporting confirms what gun owners, cops, and veterans already know: trained, law-abiding Americans stop predators and keep families alive.

Every now and then, a major media outlet accidentally stumbles into telling a story that gun owners have been shouting for decades. This week it was The Wall Street Journal, with a piece titled: “Six Words Every Killer Should Know: ‘I Feared for My Life, Officer”

You can practically hear the editor whispering, “Run it, it’ll scare the hell out of them.”

The thing is, what the article describes isn’t some national moral collapse—it’s Americans doing what Americans have always done: defending themselves and their families.

For years, justifiable homicides have barely rated a mention in the mainstream press. When a bad guy hurts someone, it’s front-page news. When a law-abiding citizen stops that same bad guy with a legally owned firearm, it gets buried somewhere between a cat rescue and a story about cheese recalls. So, honestly… thank you, WSJ. We appreciate you finally giving a little daylight to all those folks out there who refuse to be victims.

The Journal’s own data tells the story. In states with stand-your-ground laws, justifiable homicides by civilians are up 59% since 2019. That’s compared to a 16% rise in overall homicides.

To the mainstream media, that sounds like society is unraveling. But to anyone who’s actually lived in the real world, it means more innocent people are alive because they were able to protect themselves.

You don’t have to take my word for it; even the examples in their story make the case. One man shot a neighbor who came at him with a chainsaw. The story states plain as day that the perpetrator had meth in his system. Was it unfortunate? Yes. Was it justified? According to Florida law, also yes.

Another bystander in Montana dropped a gunman who had already shot a lady and her husband, and was about to deliver the coup de grâs in a parking lot. The story glosses right over the cocaine and alcohol in the gunman’s system.

The Journal wants readers to see those incidents as evidence of a culture gone wrong, and I hardly disagree – except that I see it as the lawfully armed citizen putting it right.

Then there’s Florida. According to the gun-control narrative, before its stand-your-ground law was passed in 2005, the state averaged about 15 justifiable homicides a year. A decade later, it was 45. By 2020, the last year the state reported – 77. That’s not a wave of killers “getting away with it.” That’s a lot of Floridians who refused to be a statistic.

On the range — Quality range time with your weapon is essential. Image Credit: Tactical Hyve

But here’s where it almost gets funny. The author of the mainstream media piece is certainly no hack. Pulitzer Prizes, investigative credentials, decades digging into corporate corruption – the guy has been there, done that, and got the T-shirt. Which makes it ironic that he’s now shocked, Shocked, to discover that Americans still believe in the right to defend themselves. You’d think someone who’s spent his career exposing the abuse of power might recognize what actual empowerment looks like. Instead, we get phrases like “legally sanctioned homicides.”

Two ways to continue to read this article.

Look, nobody’s celebrating death. But the reality is, violent criminals exist, and the world isn’t getting safer. People pretending otherwise doesn’t make it better. So when the Journal points out that more Americans are armed and more of them are surviving violent encounters, I can’t help but smile. They meant to sound the alarm. Instead, they confirmed what veterans, cops, and lawful gun owners have known for a long time: good people with guns save lives… including their own. An armed society is a polite society. If anything, the story should be celebrated (check it out in the link above). Not because of the violence, but because of the message buried inside their own numbers: responsibility works. Training works. Preparedness works. The more the media talks about lawful gun owners standing their ground, the harder it becomes to paint us as the problem. So once again, sincerely… thank you. You set out to warn the country about the rise in “justified homicides.” What you really did was highlight a truth: Americans are done waiting for someone else to save them. Remember: When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.