"Trained experts with guns." I dissent. - Granite Grok

“Trained experts with guns.” I dissent.

There’s an email going around about a foiled mass-killing in San Antonio that occurred a few days after the Sandy Hook massacre. There’s something about it I don’t like….

Here’s a copy of the email as I have received it more than once:

On Sunday December 16, 2012, 2 days after the CT shooting, a man went to a restaurant in San Antonio to kill his ex-girlfriend. After he shot her, most of the people in the restaurant fled next door to a theater.

The gunman followed them and entered the theater so he could shoot more people. He started shooting and people in the theater started running and screaming. It’s like the Aurora, CO theater story plus a restaurant!

Now aren’t you wondering why this isn’t a lead story in the national media along with the school shooting?

There was an off duty county deputy at the theater. SHE pulled out her gun and shot the man 4 times before he had a chance to kill anyone. So since this story makes the point that the best thing to stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun, the media is treating it like it never happened.

Only the local media covered it. The city is giving her a medal next week. Just thought you’d like to know.
Source: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Two-wounded-in-theater-shooting-4122668.php#ixzz2GOP72zBX

Here’s what I sent out in response:

I’ve seen this incident referenced before in emails. I disagree with the specification that the hero was “an off duty police officer.” That feeds into the idea that our personal protection should only be the responsibility of “trained experts,” and that the people in the theater were just “lucky” that a “trained expert” just happened to be present. The truth is that ANY person carrying a sidearm—whether an off duty police officer or anyone else, whether an off duty car salesman, an off duty housewife, an off duty lawyer, an off duty accountant, an off duty factory worker, an off duty mailman, etc.—could have and would have shot the killer dead. How do I know? Because people who carry personal sidearms don’t carry them not knowing how to use them (not that I care; ANYONE else in that theater  carrying a gun, whether trained in its use or not, would be better than nobody having one other than the killer ).

So I dissent: It’s totally irrelevant that an “off duty police officer” happened to be in the theater. It’s totally RELEVANT that a private citizen—which is what an off duty police officer IS—was in that theater and was carrying a gun. The sacred and inalienable right to self-defense and defense of others is NOT solely the province of government employees, whether they’re off duty or not.  —Tim Condon

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