Down here in Houston, Mayor Bill White wants to do something about the proliferation of convenience store robberies and killings over the last several years -- particularly jumping in 2006. He's forming a "task force".

A new task force will study ways to combat crime at Houston convenience stores, where last year at least four clerks were shot to death during robberies.

City leaders on Friday announced the creation of the group, which will include store owners, security consultants, gasoline company representatives and community members. The effort is the latest initiative by the city to reduce crime.

Abdul Khan, who was robbed twice last year at the Seven Evening Food Store in southwest Houston, including a daytime robbery by two men who held him and several customers at gunpoint, welcomed the announcement.

"Before, it was quiet and peaceful — the customers came in and were kind. Then, last year, we were robbed twice," Khan said.

In announcing the formation of the task force, Mayor Bill White said, "We're doing this because we want to protect our stores, their employees and customers. We wanted some of the best minds in the business to help us with strategies to prevent crime and not just to react to it."

Members of the Task Force on Convenience Store Security will study convenience stores' surveillance technologies, building codes, management processes and law enforcement procedures.

Based on an analysis of those findings, the group then will make recommendations to the mayor on improving safety, as well as suggestions for more crime prevention measures.

Mr. Mayor, here is a better way of dealing with such crimes -- one that is quick, effective, and sure to discourage the criminal element. It seems to have worked in this Las Vegas case.

A convenience store manager shot and killed a robbery suspect and injured another Friday after the men entered his North Las Vegas store and took the manager and several customers hostage.

The two suspects held up the American Mini Market at 2564 Las Vegas Blvd. North on Friday afternoon, North Las Vegas police said. Then, the robbery suspects bound the store manager and several customers using zip ties and tried to rob them, police said.

The manager, whose name was not released, escaped from the ties and retrieved a gun stashed inside the store. Shortly after 2 p.m., the manager exchanged "a bunch" of shots with the suspects, North Las Vegas police spokesman Tim Bedwell said.

Both of the suspects were hit with gunfire.

One of suspects stumbled out of the store and died in the parking lot, Bedwell said. The other, whose name also was not released, was hit in the lower extremities and fled on foot, leaving a trail of blood, he said.

The suspect was caught by police and taken to University Medical Center, where he was treated for injuries that were not life-threatening, Bedwell said. Police said the man could be charged with robbery and murder once he recovers from his wounds. Under Nevada law, a suspect in a felony crime in which a person dies can be charged with murder even if their actions didn't directly cause the death.

No one else was injured in the shooting.

"This is how we like these incidents to end up," Bedwell said.

Ideally, this is how more should end -- with the robbers dead on the floor at the hands of their intended victims.

I'd love to know how many of the dead clerks here in Houston had a firearm within reach, so that they could defend themselves from the violent predators who took their lives. I'd love to know how many of the robbery victims were armed to protect themselves from the thugs who terrorized them. My guess is that the answer is "not nearly enough.

Some would argue that my solution would make for a more violent society. I disagree. Indeed, I'd argue that the implementation of my proposal would make for a safer society, one in which the crime rate goes down because the cowardly criminal element recognizes the likelihood of being on the receiving end of a lethal injection of 9mm of lead.

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