Better To Have It and Not Need It...

Many folks sent in this interesting story out of Utah:

Man buys knife, stabs 2 at Salt Lake City store

SALT LAKE CITY — A man stabbed two people at the Smith's Marketplace grocery store in downtown Salt Lake City before being subdued by a bystander.
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According to a witness, it appears one man was stabbed in the side of the head and another was stabbed in the stomach. The exact condition of the victims is unknown, but police believe the injuries are very serious and possibly critical.

Okay, some lunatic started stabbing people at random. Kinda scary, kinda shocking, but certainly nothing out of the ordinary, right? Well, except for this part:

Police say a bystander with a concealed carry permit witnessed the attack and stepped in to keep it from escalating.

Now, first off, good on you, John Q. Concealed Carry Permit holder. You managed to stop a violent criminal without firing a shot, which is pretty much the gold medal in the Concealed Carry Games. Secondly, I'll admit to having conflicting feelings here. I like to say/think that my concealed carry firearm is there for the defense of me and mine; I have no desire to play cop, I just want to make it home. I also don't believe I could just stand by and watch someone brutally attack people at random if I have the means to stop him. I'd like to think I would act just as this person acted.

Lastly, it highlights that evil doesn't call ahead to let you know when you're going to need to be carrying. You won't get an invitation to a mugging. Crazy people don't take out classifieds on Craigslist alerting the public to their intent to freak out in front of a supermarket. Again, very much like having a fire extinguisher in the home or a first aid kit in your car - you never know when a mouse is going to chew through a wire or a kid's going to topple off the monkey bars at the local playground.

It's good to be prepared, and part of being prepared is carrying your guns whenever possible...

That is all.