To the editor:
The tragic shooting in Arizona was overcome by people, people who tackled the shooter and grabbed the magazine. Still six died.
What might the toll have been, if this happened in a Dodge City with a shoot-out at the old “Arizona Corral”?
The gun did not win this fight. Glory belonged to the “non-gun” people.
Is there a lesson here?
Comments
Flap Doodle 3 years, 3 months ago
But violent crime has gone down as gun ownership has increased.
jessanddaron 3 years, 3 months ago
JJE, I fully agree dead is dead. My point is that with more people carrying and firing handguns, the amount of possible damage is increased. It is just common sense. 1 handgun and two clips can do "X" amount of damage but 9 handguns all fully loaded and firing at will can cause exponentially more damage. Someone hit it on the head earlier when they said the emphasis should have been on prevention. He should not go unnoticed or undealt with until he commits mass murder...
labmonkey 3 years, 3 months ago
Hmmmm..... I am beginning to wonder if Corky is Barry Penders.
CorkyHundley 3 years, 3 months ago
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/us/16loughner.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=3&adxnnlx=1295272816-mzPTbiXmgfYK5d56DmiDjg
Laughner "Hated Bush" and smoked maryjane alot.
Is not these some of the things that DRD 4 Genies "Hate" and "smoke"?
High Haters should not be allowed to purchase firearms. I hope and change a new law to handle these High Haters from purchasing firearms is in the works.
CorkyHundley 3 years, 3 months ago
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/us/16loughner.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=3&adxnnlx=1295272816-mzPTbiXmgfYK5d56DmiDjg
Laughner "Hated Bush" and smoked maryjane alot.
Is not these some of the things that DRD 4 Genies "Hate" and "smoke"?
High Haters should not be allowed to purchase firearms. I hope and change a new law to handle these High Haters from purchasing firearms is in the works.
catfishturkeyhunter 3 years, 3 months ago
You see, thats just the problem with this whole deal in Arizona. Its bad enough that it happened in the first place and no one will ever be able to explain why it happened. The bonehead who pulled the trigger won't even be able to make any sense out of it. Its a crying shame that people are out there using the victims of this crime as propiganda against both the Republican and Democratic party and worse yet against millions of law abiding firearms owners nation wide. Im sick to death of hearing about this Arizona shooting. They weren't the only people in this country that were killed that day or suffered through some kind of tradgedy. Just because someone holds a position of a federal judge or congress women, that doesn't make there lives anymore valuable than the guy working the drive thru at Mc Donalds. Personally, I'm more worried about the soldiers returning home safely from Iraq and Afghanistan than some politician who was most likely crooked to start with. People need to get over it already. That and get off the whole "people shouldn't have guns" kick. Your talking about punishing millions of good people for crimes they didn't commit. I mean seriously, you didn't think the population of this planet would swell to almost 7 billion people and there wouldnt be any fights, disagreements or violent crimes did ya? I got news for you, if they didn't have guns, they would use knives and if they didn't have knives they would use spears and so forth. Life sucks, get a F$%&in helmet.
booyalab 3 years, 3 months ago
What might the toll have been if it was a crazy Michael Bay action scene with motorcycles jumping over semi trucks, crashing into helicopters and exploding on impact.
The glory did not belong to the crazy exploding helicopter people, it belonged to the no crazy exploding helicopter people.
Is there a lesson here?
75x55 3 years, 3 months ago
I see advertising for cars that can travel well over seventy miles an hour. Heck, that worthless rag "Car & Driver" exists primarily to promote irresponsible driving through high speeds and high speed maneuver. Who needs to drive that fast, except trained police and emergency personnel? Think of all the lives that will be saved! Think of the children!
Tell ya what - ban all cars that can travel faster than seventy miles per hour, and then I'll get on board with your 'magazine limits'.
labmonkey 3 years, 3 months ago
I am as anti-gun-control as anyone and own several guns from a Glock, to hunting rifles and shotguns, to an AK (legally semi-automatic and fun to go out to the country to shoot)... but I will say that if someone with a gun is within ten feet of you, you are better off to charge him with a baseball bat or even your fists than you are to pull out your own gun, properly aim, fire, and hit your intended target.
jayhawklawrence 3 years, 3 months ago
Is there even one Democrat in this state who has the courage to come out in favor of gun rights?
Why is that?
jayhawklawrence 3 years, 3 months ago
Any independent voters still thinking of voting Democrat at the next election are going to swing right if the anti gun zealots get back up on their soap boxes again.
A gun did not cause the Arizona tragedy. A guy named Loughner caused it.
We can try to tone down political debate but if you try to take our guns away from law abiding and mentally stable Americans, you cross the line.
I can deal with the Loughners of the world. I cannot deal with a government that takes away our basic freedoms as Americans and ignores our right to bear arms.
obamarocks 3 years, 3 months ago
How many of these shootings are going to have to take place before guns are made illegal? At least get that magazine ban back in place, if the shooter had been tackled after firing his first magazine that only contained 10 rounds then a lot more people would probably be alive or uninjured today!
Lynn731 3 years, 3 months ago
Had an armed citizen been present, there could have been no deaths, or injuries, except for the shooter.Thank you, Lynn
jayhawklawrence 3 years, 3 months ago
Maybe as a society we need more education about how to respond to mental illness and we need to have better options about how to respond to people like this young man who a lot of people recognized as needing professional help.
We need better leadership on a lot of issues in our society if we want to become better. Politicizing everything out the ying yang or throwing piles of money at every problem is not an answer to anything.
All of this involves a more public minded attitude and being more responsible as citizens enjoying freedom in a great country. We need to make it a better country.
Hoots 3 years, 3 months ago
Good thing he didn't drive an SUV into the crowd. That one has been done many times with similar results. That would have been much harder to stop. People with bad intensions always seem to find a way.
BlackVelvet 3 years, 3 months ago
Okay, so why not isolate ALL "mentally ill" folks, just in case another violent one is lurking in the shadows? How's that for "preventing" this in the first place?
Seriously, had this "whack-job" driven an automobile into a crows and killed/injured many, would the LTE writer or others, try blaming the auto instead of the "whack-job"?
gphawk89 3 years, 3 months ago
"Is there a lesson here?"
Yep. It's obvious that we need more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens. No one with a concealed weapon was close enough to quickly / safely take this guy out.
jayhawklawrence 3 years, 3 months ago
Real gun guys don't need to spray bullets. They generally need only one and they hit what they are aiming at.
This kid would not have lasted more than 15 seconds around the people I know.
One friend of mine holds about 15 national and international records in hand guns. I imagine it would have taken him about 5 seconds to end this nonsense.
The writer of this letter to the editor is probably a guy that sees a gun as a symbol and he is afraid of the symbol. As I predicted, the Democrats are going to start SHOOTING themselves in the foot on this and alienating the people who might want to support them.
When I say the Democrats are the stupidest politicians on the planet, the evidence is overwhelming.
pusscanthropus 3 years, 3 months ago
Good riddance, and good luck with that lawsuit! Tee hee hee!
Tom Shewmon 3 years, 3 months ago
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
gogoplata 3 years, 3 months ago
The lesson is that there will always be turds like Don Conrad who try and spin a bad situation to fit their beliefs. I don't see glory belonging to any group of people on this one.
CorkyHundley 3 years, 3 months ago
Ya see. If firearms vanished, Laughner would have had to use a Gladius or for extra reach, a Spatha.
Slashing wounds are not as terminable as a bullet. Laughner wouldn't have been able to slash as many people either.
The real trouble is going to happen when Phasers come on line.
jessanddaron 3 years, 3 months ago
Tom, your speculation is merely that...speculation. If Zamudio, and 20 others for that matter, opened fire in public more people would be dead than 6. How do you think a multiple person shootout out a grocery store parking lot ends? With alot of people dead and I am "speculating" it would be more than 6. Unless you are a trained marksman with years of experience operating said handgun, the majority of CC holders don't fit this mold, I sure as heck don't want you opening fire in a crowded area.
Tom Shewmon 3 years, 3 months ago
Why does it annoy liberal anti-gunners to know that before this nut would have put in what you must assume was his third clip, there is a very high probability Joe Zamudio would have ended his shooting rampage? The hard-left anti-gun crowd speculated that Zamudio almost downed an innocent, well I'm speculating (with much higher probable outcome) that in about two seconds from the time Zamudio exited that store, he would have dropped Loughner. And furthermore, if any one person in or close to that crowd had had a cch, chances are Loughner would have only gotten 3-4 shots off and that's all. If the left is going to speculate, so am I, but my speculation has been documented and confirmed over and over in this land of the free.
rtwngr 3 years, 3 months ago
Not a very convincing LTE, Don. You should wait one month and then try again. Maybe we will have stopped laughing by then.
rofl.
Flap Doodle 3 years, 3 months ago
Ground control to Major Don, your circuit's fried, is something wrong?
OonlyBonly 3 years, 3 months ago
Lesson here? Not really.
Brock Masters 3 years, 3 months ago
Glory? Really, you see glory in this? I see sadness, heartache and tradegy.
RoeDapple 3 years, 3 months ago
This is so flawed I don't know where to begin . . . If the "non-gun" people "won", why are there six dead and 12 injured?
Nobody "won" here. This was a tragic loss. For everyone.
Tom Shewmon 3 years, 3 months ago
Actually, Mr. Conrad, a "gun person" could have been seconds or even a second away from taking down Loughner, had these brave people not tackled him, but guess how the extremist anti-gun crowd framed it?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x196734
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/01/14/arizona-shootings-gun-violence-research-facts-vs-new-york-times/#ixzz1B4POI9HT
They speculate for political gain---a very common extremist liberal trait. We saw a tanker load of bandwidth soaked up with it following the shooting on blogs. What they leave out is this young man quickly assessed that the woman had the clip or magazine holding it in her hand and and most importantly, he also saw the pistol was empty---- in reload position, in other words, the slide was back. This guy knew pistols and obviously was versed in them. Again, the hysterical left says Joe Zamudio almost shot an innocent person.
CorkyHundley 3 years, 3 months ago
This letter strikes at the heart of the DRD 4 Genie reasoning.
Because of their genetic makeup as discovered by Harvard scientists, this is the way they think.
First they use the killer as a tool to "demand" attention for sketchy causes. That didn't work.
Now they blame inanimate "guns" for killing the defenseless and imagine a world without them.
What's next? Candlelite light vigil?
gl0ck0wn3r 3 years, 3 months ago
Faulty logic is faulty.
Liberty_One 3 years, 3 months ago
Actually, the old west was not so wild.
http://www.amazon.com/Not-So-Wild-West-Economics/dp/0804748543
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