Better Than A Cop: Uber Driver Saves the Day
The WGN-TV video below discusses an Uber driver who had just dropped off a fare when he found himself in the midst of gunfire. For reasons unknown at this time, Everardo Custodio, 22, started firing into a crowd of people on the 2900 block of North Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago. The unidentified 47 year old Uber driver witnessed this and returned fire. According to the DailyCaller:
An Uber driver in Chicago with a concealed carry license defended himself and a group of pedestrians against a man who opened fire on a crowded street Friday night, a state attorney said in court on Sunday.
Assistant State Attorney Barry Quinn said that 22-year-old Everardo Custodio began shooting at a group of pedestrians shortly before midnight Friday, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The group was passing in front of a vehicle occupied by an unnamed 47-year-old Uber driver.
The driver, who has a state-issued firearm owner’s identification card, pulled out his handgun and fired six times, hitting Custodio in the shin, knee and lower back, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Police responded quickly and found Custodio lying in the middle of the street. The Uber driver stayed on the scene and provided a statement to police.
The driver does not face charges as, according to Quinn, he “was acting in self-defense and in the defense of others.”
Aside from providing yet another example of police failing to protect you, as they claim to, this story also highlights the benefits of an armed 
society. For years, Chicago has had one of the highest murder rates and of gun related crimes in the country, but those numbers have been dropping since Illinois has allowed (as if people should need permission to own property) people to obtain concealed carry permits. If the passing of man made laws allowing people to carry guns has attributed to the lower amount of crime, then it would only seem logical to adapt an open carry policy or forgo the whole government process of obtaining permission to carry a firearm.
This would not only provide people more freedom, because if the government is telling what you can do with a permit then they are saying you can’t do everything else, but would put a larger amount of risk onto criminals who are actually looking to do harm to another. This can be proven by looking at other states and comparing their violent crimes to one another. For example, New York is extremely strict with gun laws and has a high amount of violent crimes, like carjackings. While a place like New Hampshire, which allows people to open carry firearms without a permit, has a low amount of carjackings and other violent crimes. Criminals might not be the smartest people on the planet, but they know that it’s safer to carjack someone in New York compared to New Hampshire, because the likelihood of facing an armed victim is much less.
Therefore, I salute this unidentified Uber driver for his bravery, responsibility, and quick thinking. Without spending a single dollar of taxpayer money, without passing any law, or claiming to protect and serve anyone, this man not only protected himself from an armed gunman, but several others as well. This man clearly saved people’s lives without being asked, worshiped or compensated and for that this is this week’s “Better Than A Cop” story.
