The Armed Citizen Hero, It Happens Every Day
By Steve West

A few weeks ago I was watching the Evening News on ABC, aka 22 minutes with Charlie. He was reporting on a tragic Colorado Springs church shooting the day before. Many shots were fired just outside the front door and then the gunman entered the church. Charlie’s exact words in reference to a church member and security guard were, “she stopped him.”

“Great journalism Chuck,” I yelled at the TV and got a curt “shut up” from my wife/publisher. What the hell does, “she stopped him” mean? I thought maybe being a church she calmed him with some talk of God and forgiveness. Or maybe she said, “hey there young fellow didn’t you see the sign.” This is a gun free zone.

The fact is that ABC made a conscious decision not to properly cover the news. The armed intervention story is repeated daily across the nation but much of the news media takes the ABC approach, they go the subtle prevarication route. Short and sweet, what happened in Colorado is: an armed citizen decided that she and her fellow parishioners were not going to be victims.

When the gunman starting firing at the church entrance, wounding 3 and killing 2 the folks in the huge church started doing what we would expect, fleeing for the exits or dropping to the floor. All except part time plain clothes volunteer security guard Jeanne Assam. It takes a lot of guts to move TOWARDS the sound of gunfire. Even highly trained warriors sometimes fail to measure up to the rigors of the freighting sensory assaulting demands of urban combat.

The deranged shooter was armed with a semi-auto rifle and two pistols. A police officer reported he had about one thousand (yes 1000) rounds of ammunition. Pastor Brady Boyd estimated that she saved 50-100 people. Only the Lord knows for sure. There were about 1000 worshipers in the church.

Assam took up a position just around a corner as the killer advanced toward the sanctuary. “I identified myself,” she reported. It was not reported if she said, “security drop your weapon”… or “drop it or I’ll blow your ******* head off.” She stepped out and empted her weapon as she advanced toward him. The coroner reports that the killer got off the final shot: to himself. Pastor Boyd called her, “a real hero.” Larry Bourbonnais, a Viet Nam combat veteran and wounded by the shooter said it was the bravest thing He’s ever seen.

What is most surprising about this story is that you probably just learned a lot about it in this column. If, for example, a teacher had saved 100 or more students from a burning school building or a group of Girl Scouts saved 50 or 100 from drowning do you think the national media would have handled if differently? Would the hero’s name already be on the tip of your tongue? No doubt about it, the story would be widely known. Stories like this get buried by the press everyday. The reason is because the scenario, armed citizen saves lives, flies in the face of the common notion that if we ban some more guns and make gun possession more restrictive we will save lives. Unfortunately bad people intent on doing harm disobey the law and never get the gun free zone memo.

The fact is folks the guns are out of the armory and it’s too late to close the door. There are more than 200 million guns in private hands and they last more or less forever. We would be safer with more armed Jeanne Assam’s not less as the wise leaders of New Life Church in Colorado know. We would be safer if all commercial airline pilots were trained and armed. Our children would be safer if in every school a handful of teachers were armed and ready, just in case. I’m safer in my home because I’m trained, experienced and armed.

More than two million times a year someone uses a firearm to protect fellow citizens or property. In the vast majority of cases the weapon is not fired. This website has a searchable data base. Take a look! http://www.nraila.org/ArmedCitizen/

Take "prevarication" out. That means they lied. Reporting a sterilized version of "she stopped him", instead of "she shot him" isn't a lie.

Had I wished to say lie I would have done so!

Prevaricate: "speak falsely or misleadingly"

ABC made a effort to NOT report what they new to be the correct whole truth. They mislead their viewers.

Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry:
pre·var·i·cate Listen to the pronunciation of prevaricate
Pronunciation:
\pri-ˈver-ə-ˌkāt, -ˈva-rə-\
Function:
intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s):
pre·var·i·cat·ed; pre·var·i·cat·ing
Etymology:
Latin praevaricatus, past participle of praevaricari to act in collusion, literally, to straddle, from prae- + varicare to straddle, from varus bowlegged
Date:
circa 1631

: to deviate from the truth : equivocate
synonyms: lie
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They didn't mislead and they didn't deviate from the truth, nor did they lie. If a news organization sanitizes in "prime time", I don't have a problem with that. Maybe not having little ones around all the time has changed your view on reporting, but not mine. I don't care to have kids here some hero stopped a killer with guns blazing. There is entirely too much violence and negativity on television to begin with, and dire comments are a majority of news broadcast. The children of this society are desensitized to violence that perpetuates a problematic behavior in some children.
I'm sick of violence being broadcast or even the threat of screening due to graphic information about to appear.
Even as a life member of the NRA, I'm fed up radical elements like the NRA-ILA promoting to met violence with violence. The idea that, in their view, assault weapons should not be banned is absolutely baffling and absurd. It has nothing to do with my right to bear and keep arms and I don't share their politics.

We'll have to agree to disagree. I don't see it that way. Not saying she shot the man doesn't make them liars or deceptive in any way. What would make them liars is saying no rounds were fired.

I wonder why ABC elected not to "correctly" report the story as all of the local TV and print did?

"She stoped him" could mean a great many things. Skip the trees, look at the forest. WHY did ABC NOT "fully report the news?

quote:

If a news organization sanitizes in "prime time", I don't have a problem with that. Maybe not having little ones around all the time has changed your view on reporting, but not mine. I don't care to have kids here some hero stopped a killer with guns blazing. There is entirely too much violence and negativity on television to begin with, and dire comments are a majority of news broadcast. The children of this society are desensitized to violence that perpetuates a problematic behavior in some children.

Now I understand! ABC did us a favor by not correctly reporting the story because they sanatize the new for the little ones. Right? Tell me you belive that!

Gosh thanks ABC. I was just tooooo fu*king stupid to understand. I have been set on the correct course by Ed again.

I,m sure tonight they will report that bad people "sent her to Aula" when the report about Mrs. Bhutto.

Why would you worry about a liberal news report, when you know ABC is a liberal network. If you went to NBC, you'd see they're much more mainstream, and FOX is too far off the right end. If you want to see reports network news won't report, watch the BBC or Sky News. They report everything without censorship.

quote:

I,m sure tonight they will report that bad people "sent her to Aula" when the report about Mrs. Bhutto.

NO, they reported that the bad guy shot five rounds. Didn't sanatize the story for the kids. Wonder why?

Who knows? I e-mailed them and suggested they rebroadcast the Assam story again with nonliberal, unhidden information. I never heard back about my feedback.

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan's interior ministry said Friday that Benazir Bhutto was killed after smashing her head on her car's sunroof while trying to duck, and that no bullet or shrapnel was found inside her.

quote:

smashing her head on her car's sunroof while trying to duck,

Sounds a little fishie to me.

We're talking about Musharraf's crew here. What do you think? Now, they're claiming a new al-Qaida tactic. The only people against Bhutto were the current military leaders, when they overthrew her from office.

I would suggest that a secular strong woman leader would not be a winner in the eyes of the limp dick Islamo Fascists guys. Kill what scares the sh*t out of ya.

I think the Bhutto's are the Kennedy's of Pakistan or the Ghandi's of India. They've all faced assassins. And you're right about secular beliefs scaring the hell out of fundamentalists, no matter what religion they are. Who wants someone around spreading factual information, when ignorance and scare tactics keeps everyone in line. Just look at what this Administration has done for the last eight years to the US!

Scotland Yard to help with investigation.