Close call. (Exercising the Right).

Shortly after 1 a.m. on September 18th, four armed thugs approached a 25-year-old St. Louis, Missouri, man, who has requested anonymity. Outnumbered, the would-be victim initially did not resist, telling them that they could take whatever they wanted, including his car and a wallet that he tossed toward them.

The robbers were not pacified, however. Their intended victim told a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch later that day that he heard one of them, who was holding a shotgun, ask an accomplice, "Yo, what you want me to do with this guy?" The accomplice replied: kill him.

The victim told Post-Dispatch reporter Jeremy Kohler that he thought he had perhaps one second to live. "They wanted to murder me," recalled the "former college football linebacker," who weighs 245 pounds, is a "workout enthusiast," and "carries a weapon because he runs a liquor store with his father and often transports cash." In desperation, he suddenly reached out and grabbed the shotgun that was pointed at him, pushing the youth holding it into another thug who was also armed. The second man attempted to shoot, but his gun ...