Armed Tucson hero almost shot the wrong person

Link to 1/11/11 Slate story 'Friendly Firearms', by William Saletan:

(link, opens new window) http://www.slate.com/id/2280794/  


In a chaotic scene (Giffords mass killing/wounding in Tucson), this armed citizen - without formal training - was able to very quickly make the correct decisions. But even he notes that he was "very lucky". Gun safety off, he came close to drawing his (concealed) weapon on the wrong individual:  A heroic person who had wrestled the gun away from the actual assailant.

As pointed out in the article (and in this previous post here): An all-to-easy - and tragic - mistake to make in a wild, fast-unfolding situation such as the one in Tucson..


Arming more civilians is not the answer. Unless society "desires" more shootings, killings, and regression backward to routinely violent times, centuries ago.

1/22/11 update: Timothy Egan has written a more expansive opinion article for The New York Times on essentially this same subject, linked here: "Myth of the Hero Gunslinger". (1/20/11.)
Well worth a read, especially those who think an "answer" is to permit (almost) every American to be  "packin"....



The Second Amendment (U.S. Constitution) was adopted in 1791. The (mainly-agrarian) U.S. estimated population at that time was approx. four million people. (Some of whom were still regularly hunting for food.) Our visionary founding fathers could in no way accurately predict or envision semi-automatic Glocks, deadly AK-47s, etc. etc. -- in the hands of millions of civilians....270 million guns (of all kinds), spread throughout a nation of 300+ million. This could NOT have been the intent/intended outcome of the amendment.
It is a perverting of it.


P.S. Link to a worthwhile, 1/12/11 opinion article by Nicholas D. Kristof, "Why Not Regulate Guns as Seriously as Toys?" (New York Times): (link) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/opinion/13kristof.html?