Gabrielle Giffords and the perils of guns: How an armed hero nearly shot the wrong man.

Slate ^ | Jan. 11, 2011 | William Saletan

[Tucsonican]

Does the Tucson, Ariz., massacre justify tighter gun control? Don't be silly. Second Amendment advocates never look at mass shootings that way. For every nut job wreaking mayhem with a semiautomatic weapon, there's a citizen with a firearm who could have stopped him. Look at the 1991 slaughter in Killeen, Texas, where 23 people died in a restaurant while a patron's handgun, thanks to a dumb law, was left outside in her car. Look at the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, where 32 people died because under the university's naïve policy, nobody in the invaded classrooms was allowed to carry a firearm. Guns save lives. So the argument goes.
SNIP
We're enormously lucky that Zamudio, without formal training, made the right split-second decisions. We can't count on that the next time some nut job starts shooting.

[Tucsonican]

It never ceases to amaze me how some people's minds work. This guy wrote a whole bit about how an armed citizen made a whole series of dead on correct decisions regarding use of force without formal training and in the heat of battle yet the conclusion he comes to is "we can't count on that every time".

No, we can't count on good decisions every time and shouldn't count on them every time but that sure as heck doesn't mean that we should take away the right or the ability to make those decisions.

[BenLurkin]

I forget — is it Slate or is it Salon which publishes from an insane asylum?

[Islander7]

Had the sheriff made a few ‘good decisions’ when he learned the kid was making death threats, none of this would have happened. Never forget that.

[libbylu]

I saw the dude, someone named Joe something. Great interview. Blew Gretchen’s mind... do you always carry your gun into Walgreens? “I carry it everywhere I go. I may not get on planes again since I can’t take it”.
The dude was together.

[Sherman Logan]

one reason why Zamudio didn't pull out his own weapon was that "he didn't want to be confused as a second gunman." This is a much more dangerous picture than has generally been reported.

This is actually an excellent point. If numerous people had pulled guns, confusion between who was on which side posed obvious risk of tragedy.

Not sure how to handle this risk, but disarming everybody isn't it.

[libbylu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-3GTwalrGY
Interview with Schulz, msnbc ... would you have shot him? you are damn right. This is my county and my town and you don’t get to go around shooting little girls.” how do you feel about gun laws in AZ?

[Tucsonican]

WOW! I hadn’t seen that video. That kid is A+.

[Robe]

From what I can determine this guy (the shooter) didn’t have a job, is anyone asking how he got the $$$ to buy a $450-$500 Glock?????
I read somewhere that he took a Taxi to buy the Ammo that morning and then to take him to the Safeway site.
Someone was giving him some serious pocket cash, and it sure wasn’t Sara or Rush.

[agrace]

That was great. I saw him on Fox & Friends yesterday morning and he was good there but his answers here were even better.

[iontheball]

What Joe faced at the scene is no different than what LEOs face frequently in a shooting incident - instantly making a shoot or no shoot decision and trying to sort out the good guys from the bad. Joe did an outstanding job under extreme pressure and he should be honored instead of being vilified by the liberal MSM. Both he and the retired Col are exemplary citizen heroes in my book and should be honored by the Presidential Citizens Medal or the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

[WOBBLY BOB]

coulda,woulda,should-—but didn’t.

BFD

[TalonDJ]

Not sure how to handle this risk, but disarming everybody isn't it.

The way you handle it is not to draw at the drop of a hat. You draw when you are in the immediate area of an active situation and then you aim and fire. If, for example, you heard shots on the other side of a store, you don't draw and then go running across the store waving a gun. Good carry classes teach this stuff. If you are not defending yourself you are just 'brandishing a weapon' and that is a crime. If everyone waited to drawn until they had a criminal target in clear sight then the situation of several confused people waving guns is avoided. You don't draw if you are not sure of the situation. Yous should not even draw unless YOU PERSONALLY are being directly threatened. Concealed carry is not intended for citizens stopping an 'active shooter'. The laws are not set up for that either. It is a very gray area.

[Sherman Logan]

I’ve always found the cop shows with detectives in civilian clothes chasing perps through crowds, gun in hand, interesting. How is a cop, or an armed civilian, for that matter, supposed to know who the good guys are?

[CSM]

Dear Slate,

Without the 2nd, the 1st is unenforcable. As a result, your little blog would cease to exist....

[Bob]

I forget — is it Slate or is it Salon which publishes from an insane asylum?

Both of them if I'm not mistaken.

[Bob]

From what I can determine this guy (the shooter) didn’t have a job, is anyone asking how he got the $$$ to buy a $450-$500 Glock?????

I saw it mentioned somewhere (sorry, I've forgotten where) that he bought it with his unemployment check. That, in itself, seems strange to me since he apparently had never held a job. Could it have been from a welfare check instead?