Armed neighbors make good neighbors. Man saves neighbors’ lives instead of waiting for police

Earlier this week in Kenneth City Florida, Gjon Hila entered the home of 52 year old Tonin Poti while Poti was hosting a Christmas party. Upon Hila’s entering, neighbors reported that they heard the screams of women and children. Shortly after the screaming started so did the gun shots.

Hila shot both Poti and Poti’s son in law Gzim Rrgalla, 38 as well as wounded several other unidentified people.

Tonin Poti’s neighbor, who is also his son, 28 year old Elton Poti heard the commotion and rushed directly over to his father’s house where he promptly shot Hila dead.

Miraculously, the elder Poti and Rrgalla were still alive and were rushed to the hospital where they were treated for “life threatening injuries”.

Not only is this yet another example of a firearm being used to save an entire family from a murderer but also another reminder of how far away the police are when you really need them.

In this situation it was ONE block.

That’s right. The Poti’s live about a block away from the Kenneth City Police Department.

But even being so close, if Elton Poti decided to take a different action, where he got on the phone and called the police and waited for their arrival his father and brother in law would be dead and who knows about the women and the children. First the phone call takes time to make, then it needs to be routed to the proper officers and then they have to get moving. Even a block away, police could have taken minutes to arrive that the victims could not afford.

And that’s taking into account that in the adrenaline fueled moment you could translate what was happening to the 911 operator properly. As another neighbor, Greg Good, reported, a women ran from the Poti residence to his house hysterical and asked him to call 911. He said that the woman was screaming so hysterically as he tried to call 911 that the dispatcher couldn’t understand what he was saying. Just adding more time to the police’s response.

As it is said when seconds count the police are just minutes away. But even if they are closer, life and death is often weighed in split moments.

Fortunately the Poti’s and their friends live in a state that does not deny them the right to defend themselves. Had this event occurred in New York or New Jersey, chances are while Elton waited for the police to eventually arrive his father, family and their friends would be dead.

Sobering thought.

Followed by an enraging one as gun controllers would no doubt use the aforementioned hypothetical tragedy as reason for MORE gun control, even though it was the disarmament of the law abiding that would have facilitated the tragedy in the first place.

Hopefully the Poti’s and their guests can be thankful that a tragedy was averted and realize the Christmas gift that was given to them. Someone was armed and willing to defend their lives and did so and the only person who died was the man looking to kill others.

I would call it a Christmas Miracle as a poetic literary device but really, there is nothing miraculous about this story. This is just what happens when the law abiding have the ability to defend themselves.

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