OREGON: Clerk fired after pulling gun on hatchet-bearing attacker, causing attacker to flee.

A hearty “Well done” and “Stout fellow!” are due the clerk. With well-disciplined use of the pistol, he defended his own life — surely the Plaid Pantry’s first consideration — while preventing the confrontation from escalating or bringing harm to anyone else. He managed to notify the police, and he didn’t make the error of trying to pursue the attempted robber. For good measure, the would-be robber took off without his hatchet, leaving it on the counter, so he was disarmed at that point too.

The clerk is now out of a job, however.

The president of Plaid Pantry told KOIN 6 News the stores have a zero tolerance for weapons and the clerk is no longer employed there. He said employees are trained to de-escalate robbery situations to avoid injury.

Granted, if the clerk knew about the “zero tolerance policy for weapons,” he shouldn’t have had a weapon in the store. (He probably shouldn’t have accepted employment there in the first place.) But what an indictment it is of zero tolerance policies for weapons, that the clerk would have had no way to bring off the same very happy outcome if he hadn’t been armed himself.

Read the whole thing.