Jeanne Assam of Colorado Springs is a hero. Though I bet she wouldn’t think of herself that way.
Earlier that morning, Matthew Murray had killed two people at a missionary training school he once attended.
And he had just killed two teenage sisters and wounded their father and two others at Colorado Springs’ New Life Church before volunteer guard Jeanne Assam shot him dead.
The church’s pastor says that may have saved up to 100 lives.
When asked by a reporter if she felt like a hero, Assam said, “I wasn’t just going to wait for him to do further damage.”
Assam described how the gunman, Matthew Murray, entered the east entrance of the church firing his rifle.
“There was chaos,” Assam said, as parishioners ran away, “I will never forget the gunshots. They were so loud.”
“I saw him coming through the doors” and took cover, Assam said. “I came out of cover and identified myself and engaged him and took him down.“
That might be my favorite quote ever. Doesn’t sound even a little bit like a “self-defense fetish” to me.
There were 7000 people at the church at the time. Murray was carrying more than 1000 rounds of ammunition. Think about what would have happened if Assam had not acted quickly and decisively.
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In the wake of the Virginia Tech killing spree and again after the Omaha Westroads Mall shooting — many people speculated “What if someone had gun? What if someone was carrying a concealed weapon?”
I think what happened at the Colorado Springs church is exactly what would have happened: innocent lives would have likely been saved.
Gun control and laws that take guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens are not the answer — in fact, they are a big part of the problem.
Citizens who are registered and licensed to carry firearms — whether they be concealed or open carry — should be allowed to carry their weapons any and everywhere they go with very few exceptions.
Though I’m having a hard time coming up with exceptions — perhaps where liquor and alcohol is served. But the bar owners and possibly employees should still be allowed to carry.
Right now, homicidal criminals know that places like the mall and school campuses are nice targets, since they are gun free zones. They know they can inflict maximum casualties since there won’t be anybody there to shoot back.
Let’s change that.
I think it’s time to start writing our representatives, state Senators, city councils, mayors and governors — let’s end “gun free zones” where only the ill-intentioned will be carrying guns. Let’s change the laws so that law-abiding citizens can protect and defend themselves, their families, and their communities — regardless of where they happen to be within the city.
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OTHERS
Lots of discussion over at Memeorandum
I totally agree that she doesn’t sound like she has a ’self-defense fetish’- she sounds like the trained former police officer acting as a security guard that she is. To extrapolate from this incident to think that any joe on the street could stop a man with 1000 rounds of ammunition seems like a fantasy though.
Left by Preston on December 11th, 2007 at 11:42 am