When good guys carry, killers lose — and the media looks away

A stabbing at a Michigan Walmart on Saturday was stopped by an armed man — a Marine veteran — who went to the shooting range but “forgot to take his pistol off his hip.”

The New York Times, Associated Press, Washington Post, NPR, NBC News, BBC, and many others completely ignored the gun used to stop the attack. An eyewitness described how others who had tried to stop the attacker were stabbed, but it took the Marine with a gun to stop the attack.

The laws meant to stop criminals end up disarming the innocent instead.

The attack was stopped several minutes before the first responders were able to arrive. One thought is that this hero might get some coverage in the legacy media simply because he is black and the attacker was white.

A disturbing pattern

This case was far from unusual. Between January 2021 and December 2024, concealed handgun permit holders stopped 37 attacks that police said would have turned into mass public shootings if not for their intervention. But they rarely get national news attention.

Unfortunately, after Monday’s attack in New York City, Democrats drew the wrong conclusion. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) responded by calling for a federal assault weapon ban and blaming the tragedy on the absence of such a law.

Their gun control laws ensure they won’t have any armed civilians to save the day. The murderer who killed four people broke numerous gun control laws. He openly carried a rifle that was already illegal to possess or carry in the state.

New York State and New York City prohibit open carry of loaded long guns in public and ban so-called assault weapons, such as AR-15-style rifles. Even concealed-carry permits do not authorize openly carrying a rifle in public.

Meanwhile, the law-abiding victims were defenseless, disarmed by the city’s strict regulations. Currently, only about 6,000 active concealed handgun permits are currently granted in a city with almost seven million adults — less than 1% of adults.

Moreover, carrying a permitted concealed handgun is extremely difficult. The list of places that ban concealed carry is long (e.g., public transportation such as subways, any places that serve alcohol, Times Square, government buildings and educational facilities, and public gatherings). Additionally, the price for obtaining a permit is steep — running at about $770 — for fees to the New York Police Department and the required course.

Gun control doesn’t save lives

The problem is simple: Someone intent on murdering four people won’t be deterred by extra gun control penalties. Even if the killer had survived, he would have already been facing four life sentences, which makes adding a few more years meaningless. For attackers who expect to die during the assault — as most mass public shooters do — those laws carry no weight at all.

But for law-abiding citizens, the consequences are severe. Violating these laws could turn them into felons and upend their entire lives. The laws meant to stop criminals end up disarming the innocent instead.

These murderers take advantage of the laws that ensure they will be the only ones with weapons. Diaries and manifestos of mass public shooters show a disturbing pattern: They deliberately choose locations where they know their victims can’t fight back due to restrictive gun laws.

RELATED: 3 armed thugs wearing ski masks allegedly break into Texas home. But homeowner also has gun — and simply does what Texans do.

Photo by Seeetz via Unsplash

While it remains unknown whether this particular killer made such a calculation, his actions align with a pattern we’ve seen repeatedly in other cases. It isn’t too surprising that 92% of mass public shootings occur in places where guns are banned.

Concealed carry does

Two of the four people murdered in the New York City attack were security guards. But people don't appreciate the extremely difficult job uniformed police have in stopping these active shooting attacks. “A deputy in uniform has a difficult job in stopping these attacks,” said Sheriff Kurt Hoffman in Sarasota County, Florida. He continues:

These terrorists have strategic advantages in determining the time and place of attacks. They can wait for a deputy to leave the area or pick an undefended location. Even when police or deputies are in the right place at the right time, those in uniform who can be readily identified as guards may as well be holding up neon signs saying, "Shoot me first." My deputies know that we cannot be everywhere.

In fact, even though civilians stop more of these active shooting attacks than police officers, the men in blue still pay a steep price. Nineteen police officers were killed in these attacks versus two civilians with permitted concealed handguns. It’s little surprise why surveys of academics who have published peer-reviewed empirical research on firearms show that criminologists and economists strongly support letting people carry concealed handguns to stop mass public shootings.

While politicians rush to call for new laws after each tragedy, they often ignore the basic reality that killers intent on murder are attracted to attack in places with strict gun control. Instead, those laws disarm only the potential victims, leaving them vulnerable and defenseless.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.