On December 29, 2019, Jack Wilson ended a church shooting in six seconds with a single shot. The next day, Michael Bloomberg, the godfather of gun control, commented, ”I wasn’t there. I don’t know the facts — that somebody in the congregation had their own gun and killed the person who murdered two other people. But it’s the job of law enforcement to have guns and to decide when to shoot. You just do not want the average citizen carrying a gun in a crowded place.”
In the six seconds from his first shot to the moment he took his last breath, the would-be mass shooter gunned down two church members.
What if Bloomberg had had his way and the church had relied solely on police for protection?
White Settlement is a small city northwest of Fort Worth, Texas. The West Freeway Church of Christ is about two miles from police headquarters.
Think about all the moving parts involved in responding to an emergency call. How many minutes would the killer have had before having to face Bloomberg-approved defenders?
On July 17, 2022, Elisjsha Dicken, firing from 40 yards away, took out a would-be mass shooter at Greenwood Park Mall in Greenwood, Indiana. Some in the media were critical of Dicken —who complied with Indiana carry laws — because he violated the mall’s no-guns policy.
It was less than a minute from the time the mall killer opened fire until the time he collapsed, mortally wounded. It was still enough time for him to murder three people in the food court.
Greenwood Park Mall security personnel are not armed. However, the mall does hire off-duty police. It was unclear whether any of the moonlighting officers were working or where they might have been at the time of the attack.
How many more minutes would have been needed for an armed officer to engage the shooter?
Put another way, how many more people would have been sacrificed to gun control’s totally warped value system?
All murders are homicides, but not all homicides are murders.
Criminal homicide―a.) Murder and non-negligent manslaughter: the willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another. Deaths caused by negligence, attempts to kill, assaults to kill, suicides, and accidental deaths are excluded. The program classifies justifiable homicides separately and limits the definition to: (1) the killing of a felon by a law enforcement officer in the line of duty; or (2) the killing of a felon, during the commission of a felony, by a private citizen. b.) Manslaughter by negligence: the killing of another person through gross negligence. Deaths of persons due to their own negligence, accidental deaths not resulting from gross negligence, and traffic fatalities are not included in the category manslaughter by negligence.
The FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) uses code 09 to identify homicides. Code 09 is subdivided into three distinct offenses:
- 09A includes murder and non-negligent manslaughter. These are always criminal offenses and they’re what most people consider to be ‘gun violence’.
- 09B covers the range of negligent manslaughters, which may or may not be criminal offenses, depending on the circumstances and the filing of charges.
- 09C identifies justifiable homicides. These are further divided into those committed by law enforcement and those committed by private citizens in self-defense or defense of others. Justifiable homicides are never criminal offenses.
Gun control advocates lump these all together. In their view, deadly force used to stop a violent attack is the same as deadly force used to commit murder.
Giffords goes to great lengths to dismiss what they call the ‘Good Guy With A Gun Myth‘. The group cites a 2003 Stanford Law School article by Professor John Donohue and David Hemenway’s flawed 2007-2011 study of defensive gun uses to bolster their claim.
Giffords and other hoplophobe gangs like to link justifiable homicides to stand your ground (SYG) laws, which they call ‘licenses to kill’ and racist because of the ratio of Black offenders and White defenders.
Of course, these are the same fine people who brought us Jim Crow laws and are doing their level best to make legally armed self-defense unaffordable for much of the population. They would likely be upset to learn that black Americans are one of the fastest-growing demographics among gun owners.
There are numerous factors affecting the higher offender and victimization rates, especially among young black males, but stand-your-ground laws and constitutional (permitless) carry aren’t among them.
It’s not politically correct, WOKE, or whatever else they’re calling repression of dissenting views these days. However, truth has one distinct advantage: It’s true.
The one (and only) thing the gun-grabbers did get right is the increase in justifiable homicides.
FBI UCR/NIBRS* statistics for the 29 years from 1996 to 2024 do show an increase in the total number of justifiable homicides.
However, what the control freaks missed was that the number committed by private citizens soared while the law enforcement share shrank.
Historically, the majority of justifiable homicides were the result of law enforcement action. No surprise there: Police are almost invariably armed and have broader authority to use lethal force.
A similar dynamic may be at work here.
Beginning with Alaska in 2003, 28 states have joined Vermont and no longer require a license or permit to carry a concealed handgun. Tens of millions of American adults now have the choice to be their own first responders.
And this is a very good thing. Since 1996, nearly 8,800 Americans have refused to become victims or to rely on the government.
If this is a problem for Giffords, Everytown, or Democrats, they have only their own screwed-up value system to blame.
* UCR is the FBI’s former Uniform Crime Reporting system. NIBRS replaced the UCR in 2020.
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About Bill Cawthon
Bill Cawthon first became a gun owner 55 years ago. He has been an active advocate for Americans’ civil liberties for more than a decade. He is the information director for the Second Amendment Society of Texas.
