We live in a crazy mixed up world.
You already knew that, but it’s sometimes useful to get a reminder of that in order to get us to pay attention to things that we may have gotten slack about. Things like situational awareness.
Because the best way to avoid a problem is to be aware of it before it happens and to make sure that you’re not there.
We train with and carry our firearms because, unfortunately, we can’t always avoid a dangerous situation.
The type of situation that we’re going to talk about today, though, is one that we should know to be especially cautious about. There are so many unknowns involved that it could easily be one of the more commonly dangerous situations that people put themselves in, but many people don’t realize it.
The type of danger that we’re talking about today is online sales between individuals, such as on Facebook Marketplace (hat tip to here for the lead). Luke McCoy writes,
A teenage boy was fatally shot after allegedly attempting to rob another teen during a social media-arranged sale on Wednesday afternoon, according to town officials.
The incident occurred around 3:20 p.m. in the 1300 block of South 58th Avenue during a planned transaction between two teenagers. According to a report from ABC7 Chicago, as the intended seller walked away from the failed sale, a third teen approached and tried to forcibly take the item, prompting a struggle.
Unfortunately, the situation escalated from there with multiple people being shot.
It’s absolutely terrible that a failed sale or any other kind of disagreement would escalate into gunfire.
Unfortunately, though, there are those in our world who don’t understand that the only good use of a firearm against another person is to prevent or stop violence with a minimum of shots fired (ideally none).
And because of that, we’ll continue to train and carry daily. And while you’re at it, be careful agreeing to meet anyone that you meet online for any reason. Your safety is important, after all.
