Arizona Rep. Trent Franks (never known for his reasonableness or civility) yesterday said that "I wish there had been one more gun there that day in the hands of a responsible person, that's all I have to say." Apparently Rep. Franks hasn't heard the story of Joe Zamudio, a responsible person who had a gun and was there Saturday, and very nearly shot the wrong man. William Saletan wrote Zamudio's story at Slate, earlier this week.
Zamudio was in a nearby drug store when the shooting began, and he was armed. He ran to the scene and helped subdue the killer. Television interviewers are celebrating his courage, and pro-gun blogs are touting his equipment. "Bystander Says Carrying Gun Prompted Him to Help," says the headline in the Wall Street Journal.
But before we embrace Zamudio's brave intervention as proof of the value of being armed, let's hear the whole story. "I came out of that store, I clicked the safety off, and I was ready," he explained on Fox and Friends. "I had my hand on my gun. I had it in my jacket pocket here. And I came around the corner like this." Zamudio demonstrated how his shooting hand was wrapped around the weapon, poised to draw and fire. As he rounded the corner, he saw a man holding a gun. "And that's who I at first thought was the shooter," Zamudio recalled. "I told him to 'Drop it, drop it!' "
But the man with the gun wasn't the shooter. He had wrested the gun away from the shooter. "Had you shot that guy, it would have been a big, fat mess," the interviewer pointed out.
Zamudio agreed:
I was very lucky. Honestly, it was a matter of seconds. Two, maybe three seconds between when I came through the doorway and when I was laying on top of [the real shooter], holding him down. So, I mean, in that short amount of time I made a lot of really big decisions really fast.... I was really lucky.
.....
This is a much more dangerous picture than has generally been reported. Zamudio had released his safety and was poised to fire when he saw what he thought was the killer still holding his weapon. Zamudio had a split second to decide whether to shoot. He was sufficiently convinced of the killer's identity to shove the man into a wall. But Zamudio didn't use his gun. That's how close he came to killing an innocent man. He was, as he acknowledges, "very lucky."
Yes, he was very lucky, but I'd argue that the hero who was holding the gun, one of those brave people who worked together to disarm Loughner, who was very nearly shot by Zamudio, was luckier. So was that man's family and friends. But it's a instructive incident to keep in mind when you hear Trent Franks and others arguing that the answer to gun violence is more guns in the hands of the non-criminals. Unfortunately, not all of the would-be heroes are going to be "lucky."