He Was on My Window With His Gun': Concealed Carry License Holder Recounts Scary Confrontation That Could Have Ended Much Differently

Joe Lanier says he might not be alive today were it not for his concealed carry license.

Lanier, 24, was sitting in his car Wednesday when a 17-year-old packing a gun came up to his window and tried to take his sunglasses. But the Detroit father wasn't in the mood.

"The boy tried to rob me, and I shot him," Lanier told WXYZ-TV. "That's what happened."

Image source: WXYZ-TV

But Lanier didn't just fire once. He fired seven shots at the suspect, hitting him several times and blowing out his car windows.

"He was on my window with his gun," Lanier said. "If I wasn't on my Ps and Qs, I would have been gone."

Asked later whether having the gun saved his life, he replied, "Oh yeah."

"That's why he's in the hospital and not me," Lanier said.

The suspect was listed in critical condition Thursday.

Looking back on it all, Lanier's mother offered few sympathies for the teen.

"Thank God it's not my son," said Angela Lanier, who's a concealed carry license holder as well as instructor.

"Maybe if you'd have taught him a little bit better to respect other people and get out here and get a job, then it might not have turned out that way for him," she added.

Angela Lanier said that she "advise[s] everyone" to carry.

"I pack," she said. "My sons pack and we're all legal with it."

(H/T: WXYZ-TV)

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