One problem with such is that the shooter was an off-duty cop and thus antigunners will point out that the action was taken by a trained professional and Mr. Gun Looney isn't trained to that level - blah, blah.
Not that I'm against training - no way - just pointing out what will or was said.
Not an anti-gunner, but this seems to be a common theme.
- Colorado church shootings - retired cop acting as church security
- Clackamas, OR mall, assuming the story given is true that the shooter saw the guy with the gun and then exited to a hallway, the guy with a gun was an off duty security guard
- Appalachia Law School - off duty/retired armed officers and unarmed folks responded
- Tyler, TX - Mark Wilson, firearms instructor and gun range owner
- Pearl High School, MS - shooter stopped by asst. principal while trying to escape using a pistol retrieved from his truck, the asst. principal being a commander in the Army Reserves.
- Trolley Square, UT - off duty cop
It really would be a lot more beneficial to CCW and guns rights if we did have an average Joe or Joanne that performed in such a manner as opposed to atypical professional gun carriers. We expect cops (on duty, off duty, retired), firearms trainers (who teach defensnive use of guns), and military folks to respond. Instead we gets the likes of Joe Zamudio proclaiming to every camera possible that he almost shot the wrong person in Tucson and that he would have stopped the shooter with his gun had he had a chance to do so.
Joe or Joanne Q. Public can make a difference with their ccws, but have been largely silent from such shootings, though ever present in lots of other situations.
It makes me wonder if there were any other guns in the theatre that day.
Sadly from a lot of such events, there are reports of others who were armed, but apparently either didn't respond to the shooter or couldn't respond to the shooter. So they have a zero net gain result that we know about on the situation and as such, zero for our cause.
It would also be really helpful if Joe or Joanne Q. Public would actually put down the suspect like the deputy in the SA theater or be holding the gunman at gunpoint when the cops arrived such that it could be well documented as to who actually stopped the shooting. No, I am not suggesting people be vigilantes or do something they are not qualified to do, only suggesting that definitive and independently witnessed events would be more helpful than autobiographies. That folks claim to be the stoppers of the shooting with less than independently verified accounts or definite cause and effect isn't very helpful. Dan McKown claims to have been responsible for stopping the Tacoma Mall shooter because the shooter saw McKown's gun that he then reholstered before he verbally confronted the shooter who then riddled McKown with bullets before the shooter then took hostages in a music store. Meli (Clackamas Town Center) claims the shooter retreated after seeing his gun. The fact remains that we don't know that the shooters ever saw said guns. We just have the claims by the carriers that they changed events because of their guns but the stories just don't carry any more weight than Zamudio's story about what he would have done. In other words, it comes across as bluster and not any sort of clear cut cause and effect account.
