Gun stuff...

I read the *Guardian* online--a UK newspaper described as "centre left" (socialist-Communist by U.S. political standards--prolly milquetoast by any other). In any case, the Guardian seems willing to give the other side an occasional voice. In the wake of the Colorado shootings, one such voice was that of someone named Tammy Bruce, who affirmed the necessity for a well-armed, law-abiding polite citizenry. I have heard this sickening argument on this side of the pond so much, I nearly dismissed her argument w/o further ado. But then she cited evidence--per Ms Bruce, in *another* Colorado shooting a few years ago at a church, an armed civilian with a concealed gun permit took out a gunman before he was able kill no more than two church members in his efforts at random mass murder. I have argued in the past that I did not know of any incident in which an armed civilian who happened to be present had ever stopped or limited a mass killing with firearms--but here was contrary evidence. But then I wondered-- why haven't the gun lobby folks made more of this incident? I googled and it turns out that much has been made of it--but not as unambiguously as Ms Bruce did. The "civilian" was an ex-cop named Jeanne Assam & she was acting as a volunteer security guard that day. There were also two volunteer male security guards, also armed, who drew their weapons but who froze for some reason... I wonder what would have happened if, say, there had been 20 armed civilians present...Good chance the gunman would have been stopped all right...an equally good chance that some would have frozen & that some would have shot wildly and killed or wounded many in the crossfire... Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android