U.S. doesn’t need public ‘shootouts’
In the Jan. 19 letter, “Guns in right hands can reduce violence,” the writer expressed amusement by another writer’s reasonable argument that guns aren’t needed to fight crime. I fail to find humor in his cavalier attitude about such a serious subject. His desire for an “infusion of reality” should include what actually happens in a chaotic scene such as the one in Tucson.
The reality is that an armed bystander, Joe Zamudio, drew his handgun and came within seconds of shooting the man holding the gun. As stated on Fox News, that man was actually the hero who had just wrestled the gun from the shooter. Mr. Zamudio also realized that had he drawn his gun, he could have been mistaken by another armed bystander as a second shooter and been shot himself.
Surely our society has progressed beyond Wild West-style public “shootouts.”
In hindsight, the presence of a pair of uniformed police officers at Rep. Giffords’ event would have been wise and would have offered far better protection than any self-appointed, armed vigilante.