Col. Jeanne Assam said her hands were steady as she aimed her gun at a young man firing a high-powered rifle in the crowded foyer of the New Life Church. Posted on 12/11/2007 5:35:12 AM PST by Sopater
Col. Jeanne Assam said her hands were steady as she aimed her gun at a young man firing a high-powered rifle in the crowded foyer of the New Life Church.
And she prayed for divine guidance.
I was given the assignment to end this before it got too much worse, the volunteer security guard said yesterday, a day after police say the same man killed four people at the church and a missionary training school in a nearby city.
I just said, Holy Spirit, be with me, Assam said. My hands werent even shaking.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The cops can do all they can, but as we have seen, they can’t protect us from these types of situations - dozens will be killed before they even get there, regardless of how aggressively they prosecute the situation.
I am glad to see a reasonable non-cop hating post.
You are right, the problem is response time. If you think about it it makes sense. The shooter is already on scene firing off shots before the first call goes to 911. The call must be processed, dispatched, and then the Police have to arrive on scene.
Even if all of that is done extraordinarily quickly, it still will take 2 or 3 minutes.
How many people can a determined gun-man kill in 3 minutes?
Officers are no longer taught to surround and contain, so when they do get there, they do go straight to the shooter.
The problem is, many have already died if there is no someone on scene.
Jeanne Assam was already on the scene, yet the gunman still was able to kill 2 and injured others. Response time is ALWAYS going to be a factor. Even if a person is right there at the shooting. The shooter always has the first move.
She did a great job, and she demonstrates why armed citizens are extremely important.
Had the church been a "gun-free" zone, the shooter would likely have killed dozens, if not hundreds.
Naturally. The mediots, anticipating another opportunity to do their blood dance, were probably expecting dozens or more dead. Ms. Assam ruined their celebration, so she must be discredited or robbed of the accolades she so richly deserves.
Disgusting, but not unexpected.
How about not letting the cop-hating take away from training and tactics?
Where do you get cop-hating out of my post?
Had the church been a "gun-free" zone, the shooter would likely have killed dozens, if not hundreds.
Which is why a lot of citizens are frustrated at the cops for DISCOURAGING them from protecting themselves.
....."police say the same man killed four people at the church and a missionary training school in a nearby city."
he didn't shoot himself at the last church
Jeanne Assam...America’s finest! BTTT!
Freedomwarrior998,
Well, my example of Columbine was not wrong. However, if the police have updated their tactics to actually go in then I applaud them for it. I did not know that and you do not hear about it. You are correct that still does not change the fact that we need armed citizens to thwart these maniacs due to police response times.
One last thing, by saying this I am not anti-cop. I am merely stating facts regarding police. It is true also that their job is not to necessarily stop crime but to process the crime scene and investigate it. There is a Supreme Court case ( I can’t remember the name of it ) that basically says that cops are not duty bound to protect you. In other words, though I’m sure a lot of cops would protect citizens, it’s not in their job description and we as citizens cannot count on it. We have to count on ourselves.
If you are a police officer, don’t take this the wrong way.
-well these kids have two parents working......so some idiot they hired is rocking a lot of cradles....don’t flame me I am just stating fact. ;^)
Yup. I've read a pistol and two "assault" rifles.
I suppose he could have been running forward with one rifle firing and had the muzzle end of the other in his mouth and ready for action.
Unfortunately for the detractors she had a Vietnam vet standing right there with her and he hasn't mentioned anything about the bad guy killing himself. As a matter of fact, one quote I've read said that after she dropped him the vet told her to put a couple rounds in his head to make sure!
Classic.
for NOW they are subdued, but the left will rise in hate over this issue......they haven’t got their footing on the it yet, but they will!
Heads shots usually do the trick, kills the brain.
I think too many have been trained to “wound” and yes I am glad police are trained in that matter, but what choices do you have in split seconds and the bad guy is wearing body armor, your weapon is not a ballistically efficient anti-armor round, I hope she did give him a head tap, “just to be sure”.
ping
I don't know how the "Col." got into the article. I'd rather not speculate. It definitely hits a false note, given that no other report on the incident -- and there have been many -- mentions any military or police rank. It's just plain weird.
Actually, I'll speculate just a little. The early stories quoted Larry Bourbounnais (or Boubonnais), the Vietnam vet who, unarmed, shouted insults to draw the perp's fire. I do not know, and have been unable to find online, what rank he achieved.
So my guess, emphasis on guess, is that one version of the story led with a comment from Bourbounnais, and when they edited to lead with Assam's comments, they didn't tap the backspace key enough times. Spell-check is a wonderful thing, but it has the side effect of making editors lazy. It can't catch words that are spelled correctly but don't belong where they are.
As far as "average" goes... [...] I'd have done the same thing, as would have many law-abiding gun owners with CCW.
I'm one of those law-abiding gun-owners with CCW, and I'd like to think I would have done the same thing. I've never been tested. I have stepped in and prepared to perform CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver, so I'd like to think I'd keep a cool head in a crisis, but in those cases I didn't actually have to act.
That doesn't make Assam in any sense "average." The average citizen was running away from the gunman. She (and Mr. Bourbounnais, who was pretty cool under fire and shouldn't be forgotten) was running toward. That puts her in, conservative estimate, the 90th percentile.
While there are many such instances of "average" citizens rising to the occasion in an emergency situation, we don't hear much about it.
My gripe is with the word "average." Suppose you're in a crowd -- in a bar, at a ball game, at a concert, whatever -- and some nimrod wades in throwing punches left right and center. Most folks will flee. A few will jump in and pin the punk down.
Those folks can be described as ordinary citizens, private citizens, or merely, citizens. No military or law enforcement affiliation. But they are far from average. The average folks ran away. When 99 out of 100 folks run away from danger and the remaining one runs toward it, it's one hell of a stretch to describe the one as "average."
I could go off on an expansive rant on the differences between mean, median and mode, but now is not the time and here is not the place.
Yeah, I read a story like that. The vet advised a pop to the head, just to make sure. Assam was confident the dude was dead.
Neither Bourbounnais nor Assam mentions a suicide shot. But in an atmosphere of incredibly loud noise, thick smoke, bright flashes, sharp pain, and a huge adrenaline rush, can you ask for an intimate level of detail?
Yeah, if you're a SWAT sharpshooter, or you're up close and personal. The torso is a far larger target. In the heat of the moment, most shots miss even big targets -- focusing on smaller targets isn't a good idea.
I think too many have been trained to “wound”
You think wrong. Standard POST protocol is to aim at the center of mass. Knock the perp down. Whether he lives or dies is a concern for later. Shoot to stop.
Worship? You're weird. I checked the record. Try it sometime.
Local lib TV news here in MN had to point out she was fired from MPLS P.D. as well. As if that really matters to this story. Seems to me she redeemed herself a thousand times over.
Future stories like this (with a happy ending)will always point out the flaws (real or created)in the hero, no matter how small or irrelevant it is to the big picture. Big picture being: when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
Upcoming stories on this will be sure to include media handwringing and liberal guilt over why she didn’t “shoot to wound” , use a bean bag gun, taser or other silly notions.
I’m sure if I look hard enough, I could find the obligatory web board posting somewhere by some idiot asking why she didn’t just shoot the gun out of his hands.
I have no doubt that someone will post that. There is never a shortage of folks who Just Don't Get It.
Shoot to stop. Remove the threat. What matters is to get the perp down and disarmed. After that, whether he lives or dies is a question for the EMTs. Does he deserve to die? I can't give a damn what he "deserves." In the immortal words of Will Smith, "Don't start nothin', won't be nothin'."
It's Hegel's fault.
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