ARMED CITIZEN STOPS VIOLENT KNIFE ATTACK

[Pat McGarrity]

"Why would you go somewhere dangerous where you would need a gun?"

Rep. Janis Sontany (D-Nashville - Chair of the Oxymoronic Constitutional "Protections" Subcommittee) to Collierville TFA Member, Scott Frick, April 7th, 2005.

This happened in a generally described "good area" of Shelby County. What the AP story doesn't make clear, is that when the armed citizen confronted the knife wielding attacker with his handgun; the attacker dropped his knife and surrendered to him. Eye witnesses stated that lives were saved by the armed citizen.

Score one for us good guys!

Please know that the Tennessee Firearms Association is responsible for us being able to be legally armed on a grocery store property, because we successfully lobbied to change the nonsensical law prohibiting being armed in a business that sold alcohol for off-site consumption, including the parking lot.

Be alert, be prepared!

In Liberty,

Patriot Pat McGarrity - Shelby County TFA Director



The Associated Press filed the following story on the Friday morning stabbing:

8 hurt in co-worker's knife attack at Memphis area grocery

By WOODY BAIRD

Associated Press Writer

ARLINGTON, Tenn. (AP) - Police say a grocery store employee attacked eight co-workers with a knife Friday morning, seriously injuring four before a witness tackled him.

The 21-year-old suspect, whose name wasn't immediately released, was arrested and then taken to a hospital after complaining of chest pains, Memphis Police Sgt. Vince Higgins said. Higgins said authorities hadn't determined a motive for the attack.

The attack started in an employee area of the Schnucks supermarket in Arlington, on the outskirts of Memphis, then spilled out of the store and into the parking lot, Higgins said.

By the time the suspect was subdued, six women and a man were bleeding from knife wounds, he said. The other employee was sent to the hospital with heat exhaustion after he tried to escape the armed man.

Police said two large kitchen knives used in the attack were found at the scene. Witness Frank Rector said he was in the parking lot of the store when he saw a man armed with a knife chasing another man outside the building. Both were wearing Schnuck's uniforms, he said.

The man was holding a knife in his right hand above his shoulder in a stabbing position "just like in the movies," Rector said. The assailant kept cutting off the other man as he tried to run away "like you're chasing a rabbit," he said.

Rector said he first thought he was seeing horseplay. "But it was a real knife. I could see it was a real knife," he said. Rector started to intervene when a woman running away from the store told him, "Don't go there." Rector said before the assailant could stab the other employee, another civilian wrestled him to the ground and held him at gunpoint.

Officers arrived soon after. Higgins said the civilian had a gun permit. The ages of the victims were not immediately released.

Higgins and a company spokeswoman said all the victims were employees of the store and no customers witnessed the attack.

Four employees were seriously injured but only one remained in critical condition at midday, Higgins said.

Hospital officials said the others who were injured were in stable condition.

"Our first priority is the customers and associates," said Schnucks Markets Inc. spokeswoman Lori Willis said. She said officials from the St. Louis-based company were on their way to the scene.