If you've been paying even passing attention to the rhetoric coming from the NRA over the past couple years, you can finish this sentence...
"Is a good guy with a gun."
Well a little incident at a Cici's Pizza and a Wal Mart in Las Vegas may have put the lie to that talking point.
The first two victims of the "bad guys" were not innocent children, or hapless civilians, but armed, trained police officers. The very "good guys with guns" we count upon to patrol our cities.
The next victim? An intrepid armed citizen named Joseph Robert Wilcox...just the sort of fellow that Wayne LaPierre tells us we need to depend upon. What happened?
After executing two Las Vegas police officers at a CiCi’s Pizza, Jerad Miller entered a nearby Wal-Mart, at Nellis Boulevard and Stewart Avenue, fired a round in the air and ordered everyone to leave, setting off a panic.
It was at that point, instead of running, Wilcox approached Jerad Miller from behind.
Law enforcement sources said Wilcox, who had a concealed weapons permit and carried a handgun, was ready to “end it” when Amanda Miller, who was behind Wilcox, shot and killed him.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/crime-courts/family-mourns-man-killed-while-trying-stop-shooting-spree
So the "good guys" outnumbered the "bad guys." Guns were all around. There was even an armed American at the ready.
The result? The good guys didn't stop the bad guys.
Am I missing something here?
A few years back, I had to give a lecture on automobile safety. Airbags had just been made standard equipment and it was a hot topic. I was doing some research to get my dates correct and I realized something which should have been obvious. From the early days of film and following into the television era, the scene of a car crashing over a cliff and bursting into flames was a very common cliche. The shot of the burning car was always followed by a cut to the hero, who was lying in the grass, after happily leaping from the car, before it went over the edge. This was the origin of "being thrown free" of an accident. It's just about as stupid an idea ever conceived, but that's the power of visual media.
How does a good guy with a gun in Wal-mart get shot in the back? Simple. He watched too much TV.
He failed to realize a fundamental fact about guns, which is, a gun is useless as a defensive weapon.
When a good guy with a gun confronts a bad guy with a gun, the GGWG has some quick decisions to make. There is really only three possible scenarios. In scene one, the BGWG surrenders. This is the TV scenario. In scene two, the BGWG shoots the GGWG. In scene three, the GGWG shoots the BBWG.
Scene one is pretty unrealistic, so it doesn't really need much discussion.
Scene three is the real problem. No one is actually a bad guy until they do something bad. If you shoot the wrong person, you can be a good guy, anymore. The rules are pretty clear on this, shooting the wrong person, even with the best intentions, is a total fuckup. On the other hand, hesitation can be fatal.
Our Wal-mart GGWG heard the BGWG fire a shot, so he responds and walks right past a BWWG to confront the BGWG. This was a serious mistake, because she shot him in the back. If he had more time, he might of had a better plan. We can analyze his tactics in the safety of our keyboard. His obvious mistake was letting the bad guy see him. Up to that point, the only thing BGWG had done was discharge a firearm in a public place, probably not even a felony. GGWG is lacking critical information, and in the meantime, gets shot in the back.
Movies and TV make it look way too easy. No one on TV ever has to decide whether to shoot first and risk becoming a felon if you shoot the wrong person, or waiting and getting shot.
The GGWG scenario is about as stupid as the "being thrown free of the accident" scenario and both offer false comfort against the fear of the horrible.
