The AR-15 is the most vilified gun in America. Gun control zealots continue to maintain that there are no legitimate, peaceful uses for these firearms in civilian hands. They claim that the only purpose of such weapons is to slaughter the innocent or similar such nonsense.

However, they’re valuable personal defense weapons that can end threats a handgun just can’t. Take, for example, what recently transpired in Oklahoma.

A retired officer from Alabama was the person who shot a man Douglas County deputies said was pointing a gun and firing at random people on a multi-county crime spree, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by 9NEWS. … The retired officer said when he went to speak with [Austin] Benson, the man told him “to get him water and that the law was after him.” According to the affidavit, Benson had a rifle in his left hand at the time and was pointing it at the retired officer. The affidavit said the retired officer went into his camper and gave his wife a handgun, telling her to take cover. He then took an AR-15 out of the camper and went outside, ordering Benson to drop his gun, according to the affidavit. Benson, however, started to drive away and began shooting at the retired officer and his camper. This prompted the officer to return fire. According to the affidavit, Benson crashed into a tree. When the retired officer thought he had fired all of the ammunition in his AR-15, he told deputies he set it in the bed of his truck and took out a second AR-15. According to the affidavit, the retired officer told deputies that he fired one more shot to see if Benson would react since he didn’t see any movement in his car.

In the process, the retired officer ended Benson’s crime spree.

Benson had been involved in a carjacking earlier that day and had opened fire on numerous vehicles, though he didn’t injure anyone, thankfully. However, it does illustrate that Benson had little regard for human life and was more than willing to pull the trigger.

Unfortunately for him, he finally crossed someone who was armed and willing to shoot back.

Benson was shot in the arm and face but wasn’t killed. He now faces a slew of charges for attempted first-degree murder (6 counts) and a count of attempted aggravated robbery.

Meanwhile, it’s possible that there would be more, including actual murder charges, had the man at the campground not had an AR-15.

Gun control opponents will latch onto his status as a retired police officer, but I feel it vital to point out that if AR-15s are banned, even retired officers wouldn’t have them. If they’d have gotten their way, this man or someone else may well have been killed before Benson’s rampage ended. Gun control activists don’t like to think about that, but it’s true. This retired officer was a private citizen, same as you and me in most legal ways, and wouldn’t have been able to stop this if they’d have gotten their way. But he did. He did because we live in a free society that generally recognizes the right to keep and bear arms.