We are golden.
And we've got to get ourselves back to The Garden.
How I detest hippies.
Posted on 01/14/2011 7:38:22 PM PST by NoLibZone
Joe Zamudio was out buying cigarettes last Saturday when he heard what sounded like fireworks but quickly realized were gunshots. He reached into his coat pocket for the 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol he carried, clicking the safety off.
He heard yelling around him: "Shooter, shooter, get down!"
Zamudio saw a young man squirming on the ground and an older man standing above him, waving a gun.
Zamudio, 24, had his finger on the trigger and seconds to decide.
He lifted his finger from the trigger and ran toward the struggling men.
As he grabbed the older man's wrist to wrestle the gun away, bystanders yelled that he had the wrong man — it was the man on the ground who they said had attacked them and U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). The gun the older man was holding had been wrestled away from the shooter. Police later identified 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner as the suspect.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
"Even if Zamudio hadn't been close by, there was a good chance that someone in the crowd would have been armed. About 40% of Arizona adults own guns, double the percentage in California."
So LA Times admits its a good thing to have an armed populace.
I bet knowing he had a piece allowed him to get involved and find he didn’t need it to stop the guy.
Without a weapon he may not have even tried.
Its fine. He made the right choice for the situation. After all, what was he going to do, shoot among the men struggling on the ground?
I saw him on the news and he said he’ll never fly because he can’t carry his weapon.
This is entirely reasonable. Zamudio couldn’t identify the target. Men were wrestling on the ground. He was able dominate the scene and physically subdue the assailant, without risking a tragic mistake.
This was the perfect situation to have a gun and not use it.
There are so many gun control laws on the books that only the laws governing our taxes can rival them. What will another gun law prevent? As long as the criminal aspect of our society have access, all the laws in existence will not prevent insane people from doing their worst.
Agreed,
The weapon gave him the boldness to act.
But his good judgment allowed him to determine he didn’t need it.
His father taught him well (and I'll bet his mom is no slouch, either).
He is very clear that gun laws and government are not the answer and has said that, among other places, on MSNBC.
Prevention is not the goal.
Dupnik had several ways to prevent this tragedy from happening.
The Sheriff could have save the 6 victims and even Jared.
He was on tv with, believe it or not, Ed Schultz. He said during the interview that he felt confident going to help because he was armed and that had it been necessary to use the gun, he would have definitely used it. Smart and savvy guy who spoke well about the right to bear arms.
I had no idea he said that.
Great.
And true.
I think the Sheriff is a complete idiot.
However, law enforcement have very few options that would have realistically prevented this situation. They can take a person behaving in a violent fashion to a hospital or mental health facility for evaluation but a persons constitutional rights extend to bizarre behavior as long as it does not pose a risk to people.
I took in many people suffering severe mental health issues or called a mobile crisis unit to respond and evaluate them. Unless they had good insurance they were usually medicated and bounced right out the door within 72 hours and “trusted” to take their own meds. There was very little follow-up by an already overtaxed mental health system.
I just say this to provide a little different take on it and not to argue. I understand the sentiments but from experience it is very simplistic to expect an officer to recognize the pre-cursors of Tucson shooting in one contact with an individual. I would be surprised if the same officer answered even two of the calls on Loughner.
I don’t know what the circumstances of those contacts were but most cops are not equipped (specialized education, training, and acting under a sound legal basis) to articulate reasons to involuntarily commit any person who does not pose an obvious threat to themselves or others.
I wish I had the answer but mental illness is a multifaceted problem and there are many Loughner’s out there that will not do anything like what he did. I knew many of them and don’t feel that it would have been appropriate to lock them up because they were strange, a little paranoid, or said stupid stuff. I would be very interested to know the interaction between him and his parents.
Out buying cigarettes? What was he thinking! Second hand smoke kills!
Sarcasm off
Seriously, this guy did a very good job. I have been in “act/react” scenarios with the FBI and making the right decision with all hell breaking loose around you and not knowing who the good guys are can be stressful. This fellow was cool headed.
My son said that when he was in a firefight in Iraq what saved him with the training. His convoy was attacked in a city and he never lost his cool.Just got out his roadmap and plotted his way out of the city—and then went back in to lead and other company to safety. The training kicks in so you don’t have to depend entirely on sorting out what you are seeing and hearing.
That’s it. When a madman walks in shooting, just disarm him with love.
>>>They always say, ‘What if someone with a concealed weapon was there and could stop this,’ “ said Kristen Rand, legislative director for the Washington-based Violence Policy Center. “Well there was, and he almost shot the wrong person.”
Well, that does it. Let’s disarm the police, too, because of the potential of making the wrong decision.
"OMG, he ALMOST shot him!"
We are golden.
And we've got to get ourselves back to The Garden.
How I detest hippies.
Too bad Zamudio didn’t arrive to the scene earlier to manage the situation before the innocent were claimed.
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