Interesting how the different media reported this crime. The mainstream media reported it straight up. That Hendrix got into a shoot out during an attempted robbery. And that she came out on the losing side.
The piece linked for this thread tells us of a Granny who went out in a blaze of glory.
I guess it's all point of view, huh?
While we all like to think a gun would help us, maybe all it gives us is a false sense of security. it certainly didn't help this woman. In fact it may have hastened here death.
Two studies of Armed Robbery tell us that we are unlikely to be killed during an armed robbery. While both studies are somewhat dated they both tell the same story. A study of the upswing in armed robberies in Detroit shows that at its peak, your likelihood of being killed during an armed robbery was 1 in 129. For those without a calculator that's less than 1%. A national study puts puts the likelihood at 1 in 750. ( shows how much more dangerous Detroit is or was)
These numbers are explained by the fact most victims of armed robbery do not try to intervene with the robbers. They don't defend themselves. They certainly don't get in shootouts with the robbers.
In this unfortunate case the numbers show us that had Dot Hendrix not resisted, she in all likelihood would still be with us. She did, after-all, survive an armed robbery in which she didn't resist two years before.
Is it possible she would have been the one out of seven hundred and fifty? Yes! it is possible. But again another factor emerges that tell us she probably would have survived had she not pulled her gun out. As bad as the scum bags who murdered her are, they'd never killed anyone before. Even though each has a laundry list of violent crime on their sorry rap sheets. Murder not one of the crimes.
The pro gun lobby can aggrandize her actions until the next coming and it won't change the fact, that at least statistically, she got herself killed because she pulled a gun. As counter intuitive as it sounds, had she just handed over the money she would still be alive. Bingo money certainly not worth dying for.