Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
During the recent attempted mass shooting at the Greenwood Park Mall in Indiana, a 22-year old man who was lawfully carrying a pistol stopped the killing. For this heroic action, he’s been called “good Samaritan” by local law enforcement. Even the owners of the mall, (who ban guns on their properties praised his actions. That got under the skin of anti-gun activists.
Why? If they were forced to be honest about it like the main character in the 1997 film Liar Liar, they’d have to admit that a quintessential case of a good guy with a gun stopping a bad guy with a gun is utterly devastating to their case against civilian gun rights.
Sadly (for them) the facts keep coming in, and they continue to be very bad for the gun control industry’s agenda. Not only does Greenwood Park clearly demonstrate that permitless carry (a.k.a. constitutional carry) saves lives, but one of the key arguments against permitless carry was also destroyed.
Constitutional Carry Allowed Lives To Be Saved
Recent reporting from WRTV News sheds light on an important detail in how this mass shooting was stopped . . .
According to [Greenwood Police Chief James] Ison, [Eli] Dicken did not have a permit for his handgun, but due to the passage of the “Constitutional Carry” bill in Indiana, he was legally carrying the weapon.
“I am 100% certain that many more people would have died last night if it wasn’t for his heroism,” Ison said.
If there’s a more devastating message for the forces of gun control, I don’t know what it would be.
If Indiana hadn’t passed its law allowing permitless carry — which went into effect as of July 1 — the man who stopped the killing wouldn’t have been able to legally carry a firearm. If he would have carried anyway (under the “better to be tried by twelve than carried by six” theory), knowing that he would have faced charges could have pushed him to head for the fire exit when the shooting started rather than stepping up to save others’ lives.
So it’s extremely difficult to argue now that constitutional carry didn’t save lives (perhaps dozens of them) this past weekend in Indiana. That’s damning to the anti-gun case against unfettered Second Amendment rights.
The Un-Permitted Good Samaritan Clearly Knew What To Do
Another common argument thrown up against constitutional carry laws is that it eliminates the requirement any training in order to carry a gun. Therefore, they say, untrained people who are carrying guns will be a danger to the public with their poor marksmanship and knowledge of the law.
Again, the mall shooting incident puts the lie to that one, too . . .
“I will say his actions were nothing short of heroic. He engaged the gunman from quite a distance with a handgun,” Ison said. “(He) was very tactically sound as he moved to close in on the suspect, he was also motioning for people to exit behind him. He has no police training and no military background.”
Ison explained to WRTV, Dicken’s first shot at the gunman was from 40-50 yards away and it appeared the very first shot hit the gunman.
Dicken was able to hit the gunman with additional rounds.
Dicken was carrying a 9-MM Glock, according to Ison. After confirming the shooter was no longer a threat, Dicken approached mall security and cooperated with officers, according to Ison.
The good guy here not only showed great presence and emotional control, but he was able to shoot a would be mass murderer from over 40 yards away, hitting him on the first shot and connecting with several more shots from his GLOCK. Law enforcement described his actions as “tactically sound” and he knew how to cooperate with police after the shoot.
If you poke around YouTube, this is better gunfighting than a lot of what we see from police and people who have taken the required carry permit coursework. Clearly, then, a person can be not only skilled with their pistol, but behave safely and professionally without taking a mandated — and frequently useless — state-mandated training class, let alone having the benefit of any prior law enforcement or military training. You know, the only people the gun-grabbing community thinks should be allowed to own and carry guns
Eli Dicken not only shot the bad guy here and saved lives, but he also shot down the anti-gunners’ agenda in a big way. And he deserves our endless appreciation and respect for doing it.