Florida concealed carry licensee saves officer's life

FoxNews.com reported recently that a driver who attacked a Florida sheriff's deputy Monday morning was shot and killed by a concealed handgun licensee who warned him to stop beating the officer.

From the article:

The incident began at around 9:30 a.m. when the Lee County deputy tried to make a traffic stop on Interstate 75 in Estero. Instead of complying, witnesses said the driver took off, reaching speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.

The deputy chased the suspect onto an exit ramp, where a witness said the suspect got out of his car and assaulted his pursuer.

Shanta Holditch told WZVN that the suspect pulled the deputy out of his car and "just kept beating him and beating him ... throwing him to the ground and punching him in all different directions."

At that point, WINK reported, another driver got out of his car and ran to the scene. He told the suspect that he'd shoot him if he didn't stop beating the deputy.

"[He] refused to get off the officer and the officer kept yelling, 'shoot him, shoot him, shoot him,' Holditch said.

According to the article, when the suspect didn't stop his attack, the concealed carry licensee shot him three times. The suspect later died.

"I heard like three shots. He fell down on top of the police officer," a witness was quoted as saying. "After a moment, the police officer rolled him back over, got on his mic, then rolled over back on the ground besides the guy."

WINK identified the deputy as Dean Bardes, a 12-year veteran of the Lee County Sheriff's Office. According to FoxNews.com, he was briefly hospitalized with minor injuries, but later released.

Anti-gun rights extremists have long-opposed concealed carry laws. The logical conclusion of their position is that they would have preferred this officer had been killed instead of his criminal attacker.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, BFA PAC Vice Chairman, and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website.