Time for Concealed Carry? Patch Readers Respond to T-Mobile Robbery

Would an armed robbery that included gunshots have gone differently if one of the victims was carrying a gun?

Yesterday, we reported on a robbery at T-Mobile in Chicago Heights. Four men were involved, and one of the men ended up firing a gun at a steel restroom door after one of the customers locked herself inside, according to police. The men ended up making off with no more than six cell phones, police said.

Read the whole story on Chicago Heights Patch.

After the article went up, one reader, Michael Nardoni, made a poignant statement, saying the story was an example of why concealed carry should be legal in Illinois.

This sparked a brief debate as to whether another gun would have helped the situation.

One Patch user, David, didn't think so. "That's just idiotic," he said. "Six cell phones get stolen...big deal. I'm sure that everyone was terrified enough without some vigilante pulling out their own gun."

Another user, Karen Cooke, took a different side. "No one wants to be shot at, including thugs," she said. "Criminals choose easy targets. . . Allowing open or concealed carry is a deterrent to crime. It is a fact, look up the statistics."

Some other readers commented on the absurdity of a person scaring people, firing a gun and only obtaining six cell phones in the end.

One Facebook friend, Ben Hurd, had plenty to say about the four robbers, their spoils and their potential to be captured:

REALLY...REALLY you do all that for six cell phones. Stupid people FTW again I see. I hope they turn on one of those phones and it has a GPS that shows where they are. And before they understand what they did the cops will be knocking down the bedroom door.

Another Facebook friend, Heidi Hawkins Gardiner, was a little more concise, calling the robbers "Stupid idiots!"

What do you think? Is this robbery proof that licensed firearm owners should be allowed to carry their weapons concealed?

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