A Gun-Carrying Journalist, and Rightly So

I frequently advise journalists not to carry arms because doing so “can undermine your status as an observer,” which in violent and lawless societies is precisely what keeps reporters safe.

But I make an exception for Cándido Figueredo Ruíz, a Paraguayan crime reporter who has been threatened, shot at, and attacked so many times that he barely leaves his home. When he does, he’s surrounded by a phalanx of heavily armed bodyguards. He carries his own Glock automatic handgun.