Law Abiding Citizens Prevent or Reduce Deaths with Guns

You will never hear mass shootings have been prevented, or deaths have been reduced because law abiding citizens have legal weapons and use those weapons to end a shooting, or to stop it before it starts.  These examples are rare, because mass shootings are rare, and most mass shootings happen in “gun-free” zones.  But Eugene Volokh in his article “Armed civilians really do capture, kill, stop mass shooters” gives some examples of law abiding citizens stopping mass shootings:

•    In Pearl, Mississippi in 1997, 16-year-old Luke Woodham stabbed and bludgeoned to death his mother at home, then killed two students and injured seven at his high school. As he was leaving the school, he was stopped by Assistant Principal Joel Myrick, who had gone out to get a handgun from his car. I have seen sources that state that Woodham was on the way to Pearl Junior High School to continue shooting, though I couldn’t find any contemporaneous news articles that so state.

•    In Edinboro, Pennsylvania in 1996, 14-year-old Andrew Wurst shot and killed a teacher at a school dance, and shot and injured several other students. He had just left the dance hall, carrying his gun — possibly to attack more people, though the stories that I’ve seen are unclear — when he was confronted by the dance hall owner James Strand, who lived next door and kept a shotgun at home. It’s not clear whether Wurst was planning to kill others, would have gotten into a gun battle with the police, or would have otherwise killed more people had Strand not stopped him.

•    In Winnemucca, Nevada in 2008, Ernesto Villagomez killed two people and wounded two others in a bar filled with three hundred people. He was then shot and killed by a patron who was carrying a gun (and had a concealed carry license). It’s not clear whether Villagomez would have killed more people; the killings were apparently the result of a family feud, and I could see no information on whether Villagomez had more names on his list, nor could one tell whether he would have killed more people in trying to evade capture.

•    In Colorado Springs in 2007, Matthew Murray killed four people at a church. He was then shot several times by Jeanne Assam, a church member, volunteer security guard, and former police officer (she had been dismissed by a police department 10 years before, and to my knowledge hadn’t worked as a police officer since). Murray, knocked down and badly wounded, killed himself; it is again not clear whether he would have killed more people had he not been wounded, but my guess is that he would have.

In San Antonio, Texas this week, a man shoots one in a movie theater parking lot before an off duty police officer shot the gunman.   This story was reported Monday by the Associated Press. 

Although rare for the reasons explained previously, we do have examples of preventing mass shootings or reducing casualties when people are able to stop the gunmen with guns.

Will New Gun Laws Prevent Mass Shootings?

“In the end there were 38 children dead at the school, two teachers and four other adults.”

I’m not talking about the horrific shooting in Connecticut.  I’m talking about the worst school murder in American history. It took place in Michigan, in 1927. A school board official, enraged at a tax increase to fund school construction, used explosives not guns to commit the murders.

Chicago Mayor and former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel once said "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.   And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

 I hoped the left would not politicize the Sandy Hook massacre in order to push their agenda for gun control, but there is no doubt now that the big push has begun for “gun control”.  The left feels they can now do things they could not do before.  They know tragedy can be a great opportunity to play on our emotions even though the facts may not warrant their solutions.  Before the bodies of those poor children were even removed from the school, before we could mourn for their souls or the souls of the hero teachers, the left began the push to use this tragedy to attack the second amendment.

 

Facts you won’t hear during the left’s push to limit law abiding citizens’ access to arms for self-defense are presented by John Fund in his article “The Facts about Mass Shootings”:

1.    Mass shootings are no more common than they have been in past decades, despite the impression given by the media. In fact, the high point for mass killings in the U.S. was 1929, according to criminologist Grant Duwe of the Minnesota Department of Corrections.
2.    Incidents of mass murder in the U.S. declined from 42 in the 1990s to 26 in the first decade of this century.
3.    The chances of being killed in a mass shooting are about what they are for being struck by lightning.
4.    Until the Newtown horror, the three worst K–12 school shootings ever had taken place in either Britain or Germany.
5.    Gun-free zones have been the most popular response to previous mass killings. But many law-enforcement officials say they are actually counterproductive. “Guns are already banned in schools. That is why the shootings happen in schools. A school is a ‘helpless-victim zone,’” says Richard Mack, a former Arizona sheriff. “Preventing any adult at a school from having access to a firearm eliminates any chance the killer can be stopped in time to prevent a rampage,”
6.    Economists John Lott and William Landes conducted a groundbreaking study in 1999, and found that a common theme of mass shootings is that they occur in places where guns are banned and killers know everyone will be unarmed, such as shopping malls and schools.
7.    The Aurora CO shooter, who killed twelve people earlier this year, had a choice of seven movie theaters that were showing the Batman movie he was obsessed with. All were within a 20-minute drive of his home. The Cinemark Theater the killer ultimately chose wasn’t the closest, but it was the only one that posted signs saying it banned concealed handguns carried by law-abiding individuals. All of the other theaters allowed the approximately 4 percent of Colorado adults who have a concealed-handgun permit to enter with their weapons.
8.    “With just one single exception, the attack on congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson in 2011, every public shooting since at least 1950 in the U.S. in which more than three people have been killed has taken place where citizens are not allowed to carry guns.”

I hope but doubt that we can have an honest discussion about how we can prevent or at least reduce tragedies like the Sandy Hook murders, but in order to do so we must be honest and not play on the fears and emotions while disregarding the facts.

Teacher Kaitlin Roig Protected Her Students

During this terrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut, there were those who acted heroically to save lives.  One such hero was Victoria Soto (click hereto read about her).  Another was third grade teacher Kaitlin Roig, 29.   

When Roig heard gunfire Friday morning she doubted that she and her students would survive. Her classroom was the first classroom in the hallway and it had large windows, so she knew they needed to get somewhere safer.  Roig rushed her 15 children into the class bathroom to hide.  “I just knew we had to get in there, I was just telling them it’s going to be all OK, you’re going to be all right,” Roig told ABC News.  She pulled a bookshelf in front of the door to barricade them all inside.

“I told them we had to be absolutely quiet,” Roig said. “Because I was so afraid that if he did come in, he would hear us and he would just start shooting the door. I said there are bad guys out there now, and now we have to wait for the good guys.”

"If they started crying, I would take their face and tell them, 'It's going to be OK,'" Roig continued. "I wanted that to be the last thing they heard, not the gunfire in the hall."

"I thought we were all going to die," she said through tears. "I told the kids I love them and I was so happy they were my students... I said anyone who believed in the power of the prayer, we need to pray and those who don't believe in prayer" think happy thoughts. 

Roig said the gunfire didn’t actually last very long, but even once it stopped she said they weren’t leaving.

“I said we’re not going anywhere, we’re going to stay until someone good gets us out,” she said.

But they didn’t move, even when police started knocking. She worried it could be the gunman trying to lure them out.

“I said don’t believe you, I said you need to put your badges under the door, so they put their badges under the door,” she said. “I said if you’re really a police officer you would have a way in here, you would have a key…so he had the keys and he found the right one.”

It is deeply saddening to imagine what the families of the victims of this tragedy must be going through.  My thoughts and prayers are with these families.  But in the midst of this terrible tragedy, it is amazing to see all of the heroes who overcome their own fears to save lives.

Sandy Hook Heroes

An excerpt from a Daily Mail article

A young teacher displayed astonishing bravery and sacrificed her life saving as many children in her first grade class as she could after she came face-to-face with gunman Adam Lanza.

 

 Victoria Soto, 27, had worked at Sandy Hook Elementary for five years. Her final moments were spent ushering her students into a closet when Lanza entered her classroom and she tried her best to shield the children from the evil gunman.

Vicki Soto

Principal Dawn Hochsprung

School psychologist Mary Schelach

 Soto was a highly regarded young teacher who was popular with her pupils. One young student, Jacob Riley, told Mailonline that Soto was known for chewing gum in class - something not usually allowed for teachers. He said he had often teased her about her habit and she had playfully teased him back.

'She took her kids, put them in the closet and by doing so she lost her life protecting those little ones,' Soto's cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told ABC News.

Lauren Rousseau

'She was found huddled over her children, her students, doing instinctively what she knew was the right thing. I'm just proud that Vicki had the instincts to protect her kids from harm,' he continued.

'It brings peace to know that Vicki was doing what she loved, protecting the children and in our eyes she's a hero,' he added.

A deeply distraught 10-year-old boy who is a former student of Miss Soto described her as 'really nice and funny.'

Four teachers were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School trying to save their students from gunman Lanza, the son of a woman who worked at the school.

The other three teachers have been identified as principal Dawn Hochsprung, 47, school psychologist Mary Sherlach, 56, and Lauren Rousseau, 30. Devastated friends of Rousseau said she was having 'the best year of her life' after landing her first full-time teaching job only months ago.

Twenty-eight people died in the shooting rampage, including 20 young children between the ages of five and ten, alleged gunman Adam Lanza, who took his own life, and his mother, who was shot before the school massacre.

When Lanza started firing at the school in suburban Newtown, Connecticut, some teachers dove under tables - but Mrs Hochsprung and Mrs Sherlach didn't hesitate.

Massacre at Connecticuit Elementary School

A 20 year old man murdered 27 people then killed himself at a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school.  Victims of the murderer included his mother and 20 children.   President Obama made tearful comments at the White House saying "Our hearts are broken today," and "They had their entire lives ahead of them — birthdays, graduations, wedding, kids of their own," The President continued: "Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children."  We share in the Presidents sentiments and our prayers go out to the families of the victims.  It’s a sad day in America today.

Petition Removed from White House Website to Rescind PSY's Invitation to Perform at "Christmas in Washington"

Singer Psy

South Korean singer PSY, whose video “Gangnam Style” recently became the most viewed video ever on YouTube has apologized for spewing anti-U.S. hate during protests several years ago.  According to Mediaite he smashed a model U.S. tank while onstage in 2002 to oppose 37,000 U.S. troops that descended on the Korean Peninsula.  A few years later, PSY cursed Americans after a South Korean missionary was executed.   

Psy is currently scheduled to perform at the annual "Christmas in Washington" TV special.  President Obama and his family are expected to attend the concert but outraged Americans created a petition to rescind his invitation.  I wanted to see the wording of the petition created at the White House website but when I clicked the link I found the petition had been removed.  Instead of the petition, I read in part:

“The petition you are trying to access has been removed from the site under our Moderation Policy because it is in violation of our Terms of Participation.”

I guess the right to petition is limited to those petitions the White House approves of, otherwise the petition is removed?  The site states that “the right to petition your government is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Throughout our history, Americans have used petitions to organize around issues they care about from ending slavery, to guaranteeing women's right to vote, to the civil rights movement.”  

Granted this petition is certainly not in the same league as ending slavery, guaranteeing women’s right to vote or the civil rights movement, but I find it ironic that the current administration created this petition site, but seem only to want the Government petitioned for things they want to gain support for?  Sounds to me like it is more of a campaign tool for the Administration on the White House’s official site? 

Since I am a forgiving person, and since Psy apologized by releasing a statement, I doubt I would have even signed the petition, but still I cannot help but find it ironic that the Administration started this site to get the Government involved if enough people showed support through their signatures, but it is the White House who will decide which petitions will be allowed the opportunity to get the needed signatures.

If anyone is interested here is the wording of the banned petition:

We petition the Obama administration to:

Rescind invite to Gangnam Style rapper PSY to perform for Pres. Obama at Christmas party over troop killing song lyrics

We request President Obama rescind his invitation to the Gangnam Style rapper PSY to perform for him at the Christmas in Washington celebration this month because of the rapper's vicious anti-American song lyrics. 

In 2004, PSY reportedly performed a song entitled, Dear America, that contained the following lyrics (profanity edited): "Kill those f***ing Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives Kill those f***ing Yankees who ordered them to torture Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law, and fathers Kill them all slowly and painfully " As commander-in-chief, how can Pres. Obama honor someone who calls for killing our troops and their families?