Was the good guy with the gun really a good guy, or was this just another AR-15 murder spree? [View all]
I don't accept the "well, there's an example of a good guy with a gun," storyline. It doesn't hold water. I think we should at least try to untwist it before we have a bunch of the people who really deserve nothing but blame taking bows and basking in self-generated praise.
Three people were killed by a 20-year-old, nutty, broken young man using an assault rifle (Sig Sauer Model 400, supposedly). Isn't that just another murder spree to lay at the feet of the people who can't see the need for sensible gun control? It sure fits the pattern.
But what about the good guy, the hero?
Sorry. We don't know enough about him yet. It would be ironic if the "good guy" turns out to be an anti-gun-control absolutist who loves AR-15s. He might be a hero in that moment at the mall, while, simultaneously, unwittingly at 22, being an enabler-level accomplice to the crime.
On edit: And even if the young man turns out to be a clear hero (and I hope he does), that doesn't mean the guys who sing his praises and can't see their way to sensible gun control are heroes too. Their claim is only to the role of enabler.
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