The Armed Citizen® Dec. 1, 2025

Armed Citizen® Today

In Oklahoma City, a female convenience-store clerk was working near midnight on Nov. 13 when a man attempted to pay using a counterfeit $100 bill. She refused to accept the fake, so the man allegedly began threatening her, and then to physically assault her.

“He said he was going to slice my head off, and that's when I tried to call the police,” the clerk later told reporters. “He started throwing things at me, came behind the counter. I tried to run off, but he grabbed his hands around my neck and pushed me out of the counter space.” Fortunately, the woman was able to draw her gun and shoot the alleged assailant, ending the attack.

Unfortunately, the armed citizen was subsequently fired from her job, but she told reporters: “This was a situation where I felt like I was put into a corner between choosing between my job and my life, and I'm always going to choose my life because there's people that depend on me […] You have a right to defend yourself.”

The extent of his injuries was not reported, but the suspect was arrested at the hospital and charged with assault and battery, threatening acts of violence, attempting to pass a fake bill and a felony warrant for violating parole. (okcfox.com; Oklahoma City, Okla.; 11/17/25)

From the Armed Citizen® Archives – October 1980

Alton Altizer heard the sound of breaking glass about 3 a.m. at the gun store in the same building as his Arnoldsburg, W.Va., apartment. Altizer called state police, then he went outside to investigate. When Altizer hailed a man carrying three rifles from Bartlett’s Gun Store, the man spun in his direction, and Altizer fired his 12-ga. shotgun.

The burglar, a recently released, three-time escapee from the state penitentiary, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said a stolen car with 18 handguns taken from the store was parked nearby. (The Inter-Mountain, Elkins, W.Va.)