CCW Holder Stops Oregon Shopping Mall Massacre

CCW holders have played an important, yet little-known role in the history of US mass shootings. According to a study by criminologist Gary Kleck of Florida State University, there are approximately 2.5 million cases of people using firearms for self-defense in America each year. Also, according to the Department of Justice’s 2007 Uniformed Crime Report, states with right-to-carry laws have a 30 percent lower homicide rate, as well as a 46 percent lower robbery rate. Four shootings by permit holders continues to be a tiny minority in gun crimes statistics. Oftentimes, CCW holders brandish their weapons when armed gunman threaten entire stores or in shopping malls, as took place last week in Oregon.

Just days before the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a gunman walked into a Clackamas, Ore. shopping mall and opened fire, killing two before turning the gun on himself. But, with thousands of shoppers at the mall, one might be left to wonder why the shooter only killed two before turning his AR-15 on himself.

Five days after the shooting, Portland news centers started in on the second phase of the propaganda surrounding the Clackamas mall shooting. As it turns out, there was a second shooter that day. And no, he was not an undercover agent or accomplice. He was a former security guard at the mall who confronted the gunman while the gunman struggled with his weapon.

Even the news report out of Portland obfuscates the situation by focusing on the fact that the young man – who dons a University of Oregon sweatshirt in his interview – did not pull the trigger because of innocent bystanders in the offing behind the perpetrator. When he took cover, the shooter’s next shots were against himself.  Merely being confronted by another human being brave enough to assert himself and demonstrate that the shooter was not in control was enough to end the situation before any more innocent blood was shed.  That is the main gist of the story, in my opinion.

My father is the security guard at a California private school, and the parents do not allow him – a retired police officer of nearly 25 years – to carry his weapon. Instead, he and their children are hung out to dry every day, just waiting for something to happen and for nobody to have means of protecting the campus.  I, for one, feel the school would be a much safer environment if someone on campus, tasked and trained to protect it, were armed with more than a telephone to request arms after it is too late.

The post CCW Holder Stops Oregon Shopping Mall Massacre appeared first on Silver Vigilante.