California has become the shoplifting capital of America thanks to leftist policies ensuring that crime pays.  However, a heartening video has emerged from San Bruno, California, just south of San Francisco, showing that if a store owner has exercised his Second Amendment rights and owns a gun, suddenly, crime becomes much less attractive.

The beginning of the San Francisco smash-and-grab crime wave is a law that makes any thefts under $950 a misdemeanor.  However, the videos showing gangs of people rushing into stores and grabbing tens of thousands of dollars of merchandise are obviously unrelated to the law.  (This New York Post story has a good run-down about the crimes in the San Francisco Bay Area alone.)  Instead, they reflect the fact that leftist (often Soros-funded) prosecutors will not prosecute criminals.

The same smash-and-grab crimes reveal that the thieves know they will not face any opposition from people working in the store.  Insurance companies would rather fund losses than pay for claims related to injuries arising from store employees trying to defend the merchandise.

But sometimes the things being stolen don't belong to a vast corporate chain, and the person present when the thieves arrive is not simply an employee.  Sometimes, the store belongs to an individual who also works in his own store and has a vested interest in protecting it.

Image: Store owner protecting his property.  Twitter screen grab.

And, very rarely when it comes to California, that store owner is licensed to carry a gun.  When you have that perfect coming together of conditions, you get this lovely video from the security camera in a jewelry store in Tanforan Mall, a big shopping mall located in San Bruno, a few miles south of San Francisco:

CAUGHT ON VIDEO: Surveillance video shows a Northern California jewelry store owner take matters into his own hands to stop a smash-and-grab robbery. He says lawmakers need to act to protect businesses like his. https://t.co/0db57kvin5 pic.twitter.com/SISJQH8f7m

— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) January 29, 2022

Watching the thief skedaddle when confronted with a serious consequence, I kept thinking of that line in "The Three Blind Mice."  You know the one: "See how they run; see how they run."

Usman Bhatti, the store owner, shows one of the reasons we have a Second Amendment: it's so individuals can defend themselves and their property in real time.  And no, there's nothing wrong with the store owner having pulled out a gun to defend his property.  The thief had come armed with a hammer, and a hammer is a lethal weapon.  The moment the owner and the thief came face-to-face, the owner was at risk of losing his life.

I'm deeply opposed to vigilante justice because it skips the due process phase and can often mete out injustice to the innocent or impose a penalty far in excess of what the law demands.  However, if the state breaks down, which is what's happening in California, vigilante justice is all that remains.  And in a vigilante world, you're lucky if you're the honest man who's armed.