A thief pointed his gun at the wrong family in Popeye’s, and dad fired back, police say

A man trying to rob a San Antonio fast food restaurant at gunpoint on Wednesday was killed by a father licensed to carry a handgun, according to reports.

Police say Andres Herrera, 19, targeted the family of Carlos Molina, 32, in the dining room of a Popeye’s location on the south side of the Texas town, according to KABB-TV, pulling out his gun and demanding money from them.

Molina told Herrera the family had no money, as they had just bought dinner, and asked if Herrera would let them leave the restaurant, according to WOAI. Apparently, Herrera agreed.

As the family rushed out and employees did the same out of a back entrance, according to KSAT, Herrera pointed his gun at two children who happened to be coming out of the restroom.

They were the two Molina children who weren’t seated with the family when Herrera confronted them. And that’s when Molina pulled out his gun, according to KENS.

San Antonio police told KABB that Molina shot Herrera several times, killing him, in defense of another.

It’s just the latest example of what gun rights’ advocates call a “good guy with a gun” neutralizing a “bad guy with a gun.”

The National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre coined the slogan in 2012 following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn., according to Vox: “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.”

Less than 40 miles away from the scene of the Popeye’s shooting was another case in point, the Sutherland Springs church shooting, which left 26 people dead before former NRA instructor Stephen Willeford chased down the shooter, Devin P. Kelley, and shot him twice before he was ultimately killed as well.

President Donald Trump made the “good guy with a gun” argument immediately following the Sutherland Springs shooting. Even before Sutherland Springs, The Washington Times compiled a list of 11 incidents in which armed citizens either disarmed, wounded or killed armed attackers.

But in commentary for NBC News, former Army infantryman and gun owner Charles Clymer called the “good guy with a gun” theory a “myth.”

“I never see a ‘good guy with a gun,’” Clymer said. “I see a human more likely to exacerbate a tragedy than to stop it.”

Vox used numbers to back up Clymer’s position, pointing to a 2012 study that basically says more guns equals more gun deaths. In 2012, the study showed that about 30 people per million died of homicide by firearm in the U.S., while that number was far smaller in places with stricter gun laws like Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Austria.

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 7:48 AM with the headline "A thief pointed his gun at the wrong family in Popeye’s, and dad fired back, police say."