Back in May of 2015, I wrote a piece for American Thinker titled "The Pistolero Prevailed."  It dealt with the terrorist attack on the "Draw Muhammad" art competition in Garland, Texas and how that attack, by two men with rifles and body armor, was foiled by a single cop with a handgun, a traffic officer who was the master of his weapon and its use.

Now comes the story of an event that occurred Monday morning in Steubenville, Ohio that could also be titled "The Pistolero Prevailed."

Jefferson County Judge Joseph Bruzzese, Jr. was on his way to work at the county courthouse in Steubenville at about 8 A.M. Monday morning when he was approached by a would-be assassin who had been waiting for him in a car in a nearby parking lot.  The gunman fired five shots at almost point-blank range, but the judge, although wounded, wasn't killed and was even able to return fire with his own gun!  The criminal was ultimately killed by a probation officer who happened to also be walking toward the courthouse.

Current reports on the 65-year-old judge's condition indicate that he's "doing well" after surgery and is expected to recover.  One might say, "Thanks to God, modern medicine, and John Moses Browning!"

It's no surprise that all the vociferous anti-gun types, both in government and in Hollywood, who are usually only too eager to chime in whenever there's a high-profile shooting (I'm thinking of people like Chuck Schumer and Rosie O'Donnell) have thus far been silent on this matter, probably because it plainly puts the lie to their oft stated position that the "proper" response to a gun-wielding attacker is to cower in fear and wait for the police to ride to your rescue.

I'm sure they would have preferred for Judge Bruzzese to have dialed 9-1-1 and waited, bleeding (and waiting, and bleeding, and perhaps dying), rather than taking personal responsibility for his own self-defense and being prepared by having a gun and knowing how to use it.  The hoplophobes (a word coined by the late Col. Jeff Cooper, "the father of modern pistolcraft," it denotes those who have an irrational fear and dislike of firearms) probably realize how such predictable anti-gun comments would make them look even more foolish than they already do.

Those who seem to never miss an opportunity to call for "commonsense gun laws" to limit access to guns, as if more laws ever have any effect on criminals (who are, by definition, lawbreakers), are themselves pretty limited in terms of common sense, although they do have sense enough to surround themselves with armed security personnel (and, as in Schumer's case, to have acquired a pistol permit in a jurisdiction where most "mortals" would find it difficult if not impossible to obtain).

They certainly lack the unassailable common sense expressed by, of all people, one of the world's best known champions of nonviolence, and yet a man far more grounded in reality than the rabid anti-gunners.  I'm speaking of none other than the Dalai Lama, who said, "If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would make sense to have your own gun and to shoot back."

Stu Tarlowe has been a contributor to American Thinker since 2010, with well over 100 pieces published.  His personal pantheon of heroes and role models includes Barry Farber; Jean Shepherd; Long John Nebel; Aristide Bruant; Emmett Grogan; Hunter S. Thompson; Rabbi Meir Kahane; G. Gordon Liddy; and, of course, Col. Jeff Cooper.