One year ago on July 3, Arizona resident and concealed-carry holder Raul Mendez and his family were enjoying a Fourth of July party before shots rang out and left their lives changed forever.

Mendez was shot in the head as suspect Jason Hunt opened fire on the partygoers, leaving two men dead and four others, including Mendez, seriously injured. The rampage ended when Mendez was able to gather the strength to pick himself off the floor, unholster his concealed-carry weapon and shoot Hunt four times in the chest….

Mendez recounted to Fox News Digital that he was attending a party with his two daughters and seven-months pregnant wife with friends and other families to celebrate the founding of America at a home in Surprise, Arizona. About 30 people were gathered in the home, including young children, as the group celebrated with fireworks and food, Mendez previously told Fox….

A neighbor of the man hosting the party soon joined and mingled with the group despite not being close friends with anyone there, according to Mendez. That neighbor was later identified by police as 46-year-old Jason Hunt, the sole suspect in the case who opened fire unprovoked on the families and partiers, police said last year, according to the Arizona Republic.

Hunt and other partiers were grabbing food from the kitchen when the suspect pulled out a gun and began firing on the crowd, sending everyone fleeing, according to Mendez.

Mendez was shot in the head in front of his wife, who rushed to his side and believed he was dead due to the amount of blood covering his face. She then grabbed their two daughters and put them into a room deeper in the house, barricading them and other children inside.

Two other women in the home tried to fight Hunt while Mendez’s wife protected five children barricaded in a closet. The women called to Mendez hoping he was still alive as they knew he had a concealed-carry weapon.

“By the glory of God or the adrenaline and just everything, just the will to live and the will to protect my family, I was able to hear those pleas, those yells for help,” he said after the shooting. “I heard my name. And I was able to get up.”

Hunt was thwarted and police later said Mendez was “acting in self-defense and defense of other innocent parties.” A motive in the case has not been publicly released.

Mendez lost his left eye, fractured his jaw, suffered a torn eardrum and lost his sense of smell because of the shooting, but he said he has been on the mend since….

Mendez also lamented how his story received little media attention, saying that news outlets would rather focus on horrific mass shootings than mass shootings that were thwarted by a legal gun owner.

“You don’t really hear about, ‘Hey, there was a shooting, but a guy with a CCW or a father or a husband was able to protect his family or took out his own firearm,'” he said. “‘And this is why CCWs or the Second Amendment does work.’ So, you don’t really hear about those stories at all. I believe it’s not in the agenda.”

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