David

Karki

Read Davids bio and previous columns here

December 12, 2007

How to Stop Incidents Like Colorado Shooting? More Gun-Toting Heroes Like Jeanne Assam

Last Sunday, an evil lunatic went on a murderous rampage, killing two people at a Youth With A Mission (YWAM) base in Arvada, Colorado, before going to New Life Church and killing two sisters there. Thankfully, his bloodthirsty quest was stopped cold by Jeanne Assam, a former Minneapolis police officer who had volunteered to handle security, held a weapon permit and was carrying a concealed gun.

Rather than having all the time he needed to pump the more than a thousand rounds of ammunition he had on hand into hundreds of helpless victims, three bullets from Assam's pistol pierced his body armor and the horror was over right then and there.

This occurred a few days after a shooting at an Omaha mall wherein no one had a weapon on hand and the shooter was able to continue his slaughter unabated until finally turning his gun on himself.

There can be no clearer illustration of the folly of gun control and the current state of gun laws than the juxtaposition of the two outcomes. In the latter situation, the perpetrator was able to engage in some kind of macabre real-life video game, shooting again and again at sitting duck victims. In the former, the perpetrator was barely able to start and was denied the sick glory he sought for himself.

For all the good that police do and the personal risk they take to “protect” and serve us, the truth of the matter is that all you can really count on them for is cleaning up the mess after it has been made. They simply cannot be everywhere all the time in order to prevent the mess from occurring in the first place. So, in a sense, true “protection” is beyond their ability - at least until such time as they have ESP and can predict crimes before they are committed.

Therefore, the only true measure of protection and self-defense is to be armed and to make potential criminals unsure of who is and isn't armed, which might just get them to think twice and stop. And those who don't carry a weapon benefit from this bluff just as much as those who do.

But current law is the exact opposite of this. Places like malls, schools and churches post signs at their entrances saying “Guns not allowed.” And lo and behold, that's where the mass shootings are committed. As Gomer Pyle used to say, “Sur-prise, sur-prise, sur-prise!”

To be sure, it is the right of a property owner to set the rules for access thereto, gun possession included. But why on earth advertise this fact? You might as well change the sign to read:  “Hey evil murderous wacko! Hundreds of helpless victims right over here!” 

A far better approach to enforcing the rule would be to lose the signs and have security frisk each person as they enter the premises, requiring a valid legal permit of anyone happening to be carrying. No permit, no entrance. This would not only ensure some ability of the crowd targeted to defend itself, but it stands a fairly decent chance of catching the perpetrator, whom I doubt bothered to legally obtain his weapon. Hey, if you're going to commit mass murder and then suicide, what's a little illegal weapons possession charge on top of that? After all, you're going to be one of many corpses soon.

These are inconvenient facts for the liberal media, who grew up believing that nothing was worth fighting for and “better red than dead.” The fact that a shooting was stopped by a trained and responsible citizen carrying a concealed weapon, and a Christian woman no less, has to be driving them positively batty. (Women on average benefit more from carrying, as they are smaller in size and therefore less capable of winning a hand-to-hand fight, presuming of course they can get anywhere close to the male shooter in the first place.)

We've seen this in the coverage thus far, which has gone out of its way to deny reality. Some reports insist the perpetrator shot himself at the end, and thus call it “suicide.” Yeah, and those three bullets ripping into his flesh out of 10 fired at him, leaving him in a bloody heap, had nothing to do with it. Please. Maybe he polished himself off to ensure no capture, but that changes absolutely nothing. He was on his way to slaughter, and without Miss Assam's stupendous heroism, he'd not ever have been in that position – at least not at so low a body count.

Thus, to call it “suicide” is absurd, and can only be due to bias on the part of the reporter. The same goes for any attempts to dredge up incidents in Miss Assam's past. I would imagine that we all have a black mark or two somewhere on our record – the presence of which in no way invalidates the valor shown or the truth revealed in Sunday's awful incident.

We'll also never see the same kind of coverage as we would if it were a synagogue or mosque that was targeted. Certainly, the phrase “hate crime” will never be bandied about by the media so long as it's Christians who are targeted for their faith, especially if, as seems to be the case, the perpetrator was a former Christian himself.  In one sense, I don't mind this, as “hate crime” is a stupid term anyway. When has anyone ever committed a “love crime”? (OK, besides O.J. Simpson.)

Then there's the difference in the media's approach to sex versus guns. The former requires endless information, and the younger the age of the information recipients, the better. The latter must be hidden forever. And yet, the damage from irresponsible sex is arguably just as deadly and far more widespread than that from irresponsible gun use.

But all that aside, what must not get lost in the media's lame attempts to hide the truth like the phony Wizard of Oz – “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” – is the bravery and gallantry of Miss Assam and the credit due her.

© 2007 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

Click here to talk to our writers and editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.

To e-mail feedback about this column, click here. If you enjoy this writer's work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry it.

This is Column # DKK094. Request permission to publish here.