IF ONLY SOME CITIZEN HAD BEEN ARMED

There have been more than 70 mass shootings in the U.S. during the last 30 years. Among the more notables ones are the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012 (28 wounded and killed), the Aurora Theater shooting in July 2012 (79), the Gabby Giffords shooting in January 2011 (19), the Fort Hood shooting in November 2009 (43), the Virginia Tech shooting in April 2007 (56), the Columbine High School shooting in April 1999 (39), and the Killeen, Texas Luby’s Cafeteria shooting in October 1991 (43).

After each of these shootings, as well as with the less notable ones, there has been a chorus of pro-gunners saying that if only some citizen had been armed, he would have been able to stop the shooter. Well finally we had an armed citizen who attempted to stop the shooters of two Las Vegas cops as they entered a Walmart store on Sunday.

Amanda and Jerad Miller, two white supremacists, entered a CiCi’s Pizza restaurant where they shot to death two Las Vegas cops who were on their lunch break. After shooting the officers, they went to a Walmart about a block away. Upon entering the store, Jerad Miller fired one shot in the air and told the customers and employees to get out of the store because this was a revolution and the police were on the way. People fled the store in panic. But one of the customers, Joseph Wilcox, 31, had a concealed carry permit and decided to confront Jerad Miller. Wilcox did not realize Jerad had an accomplice. Wilcox drew his gun, but before he could get off a shot, Amanda shot him in the back, killing him. The Millers then went to the back of the store where they died after a brief exchange of gunfire with the cops, he by police shots, she by a self-inflicted shot to the head.

Everyone is calling Joseph Wilcox a hero, and a true hero he was, albeit a dead one.

After all the baloney about someone being able to stop the Aurora Theater shooter if only they had been armed, I wrote that the chances of that happening were slim to none. With panicked theater patrons scrambling in all directions and the shooter moving about, it would have been extremely difficult for someone to shoot well enough to stop the mass killings. After all, the theater was not a shooting range with a stationary target that is not shooting back.

This is not to say that an armed citizen could never stop some mass shooter, but the chances of that happening are not very good. Could an armed teacher have stopped the Sandy Hook shooter? Maybe yes, maybe no. The same with all the other shootings. But an armed citizen is likely to meet the same fate as Joseph Wilcox in trying to stop a shooter like the one at the Aurora theater or the Sandy Hook Elementary School. An armed home owner in familiar surroundings has a better chance of stopping an armed intruder, yet every week you can read about a homeowner getting killed in a shootout with intruders.

I don’t want to take anything away from Joseph Wilcox. He was a very brave man. He could have fled out of the store along with everyone else. Instead he chose to confront Jerad Miller in the belief he might save people’s lives. Unfortunately, his heroic action cost him his life.