Responsible gun owners are heroes

I want to touch on the Arizona shooting a bit more before moving on. Many columnists I have read recently are still calling for a ban on high-capacity magazines. One writer made it sound like the magazine itself was responsible for the 20 folks who were injured or killed in the Tucson incident. No mention of the mentally disturbed behavior of the shooter was linked to the criminal misuse of the magazine used in the attack.

I’ve read two other newspaper accounts of the events, portions of which I think need to be emphasized. The first report named Joe Zamudio, 24, as one of the two people who helped subdue the shooter. Zamudio was carrying a concealed handgun without a permit when he got involved. Arizona law allows a resident to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, as does Alaska law. He arrived at the scene after the shootings had stopped and saw an older man holding a handgun in one hand while holding a younger man on the ground. The older man was threatening to kill the other man.

Zamudio grabbed the older man’s wrist to get the gun away from him, thinking he was the shooter. Witnesses to the shooting quickly told Zamudio he was wrestling the wrong man. The younger man on the ground was the shooter. Zamudio and the older man quickly disengaged and subdued the shooter, holding him for police.

Two things jump out at me from this account. First, Zamudio has a very level head on his shoulders and, second, he is perceptive and understands firearms. Let me explain. Most people, when confronted with the scene Zamudio came in on — a man waving a gun and threatening to kill someone — probably would have used their own firearm to eliminate that threat. In this case, Zamudio saw that the firearm the older man was holding had the slide locked back. That meant the firearm was not loaded and could not be used as anything other than a club. Zamudio realized that the use of his own firearm in this situation was not justified.

The fact that Zamudio recognized the condition of the firearm in the older man’s hand shows his perception and his knowledge of firearms function. The fact that he didn’t immediately open fire on the older man with his own handgun (he never took his own gun out of his pocket) tells me this guy has a cool head and analyzes situations before taking action, even if it was all happening in a split second. This is exactly the sort of person I want to know is an armed civilian member of my community.

Zamudio claims he had no formal firearms instruction. He is not a military veteran. His father, a prison guard and Vietnam veteran, taught him how to shoot and safely handle firearms. His father further instilled in him that a firearm can save your life so you should know how to use it, but to pray that you never find yourself in a situation where you need to use it. In my opinion, that is perhaps the best firearms training that young man could have received, formal or not. He was taught how to use a firearm safely, to be familiar with how a firearm functions and to understand and appreciate what a firearm is capable of doing if used improperly. His exercise of that knowledge makes him a hero.

The second article states that at least two of the people who helped in the aftermath of this tragic shooting were carrying concealed firearms, but never drew them. All of the armed citizens were reported to have expressed regret at not arriving on scene sooner than they did. They felt that had they arrived sooner, they might have been able to use their own firearms to stop the shooting rampage with less personal injury and loss of life than occurred. While the truth of that statement will never be known, that is the reason folks who choose to carry a concealed firearm do so — to protect themselves and other innocents involved in the commission of a deadly crime.

The only criminal misuse of a firearm at the Tucson shooting scene was by a mentally disturbed individual. All of the legally armed citizens involved displayed the kind of restraint and perception of the situation I would expect from those who understand what the responsibility of carrying a firearm for personal protection mandates.

This next item has been making the e-mail rounds. I don’t know if the numbers are correct, but the concept certainly is. The number of licensed deer hunters in Wisconsin numbered more than 600,000 this past season. That number of armed individuals would rank as the eighth largest army in the world. If you added the 750,000 hunters from Pennsylvania, the 700,000 from Michigan, and the 250,000 from West Virginia, you would have the largest army in the world. And that’s only four of our 50 states.

Start adding Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Missouri, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Alaska … do you begin to see any positive national security aspects here? Think about it. That’s why all enemies, both foreign and domestic, want to see us disarmed!

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by e-mailing sports@frontiersman.com.