The idea that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun has become a bit of a cliche. And it’s become a cliche because it’s absolutely true. Customers at a McDonald’s in Birmingham, Alabama were reminded of this Sunday, when a masked gunman walked into the restaurant and open fired.
The shooter has since been identified as 24-year-old Antonio Demond Sanders. Sanders walked into the McDonald’s after an employee opened the door for a family to leave, a father with his sons.
“Sanders then opened fire in the restaurant. At that point, the father began shooting at him,” Birmingham’s WBRC reports. “Both the father and Sanders were struck along with one of the children.”
“The father and a minor have non-life threatening injuries,” WBRC continued. “Authorities do not know at this time if Sanders was robbing the store or targeting an employee who worked there.”
“Police indicate the father will not be facing charges at this time.”
Nor should he face charges.
This dad should be given a medal.
Good guys with guns stop bad guys with guns all the time – but it seldom makes national news
https://twitter.com/SandiFlaaskog/status/1057048004320886784
Time after time after time after time, law-abiding gun owners have stopped armed criminals and even potential mass shooters. These stories rarely make national news because tragedy gets prevented and likely, the mainstream media is reluctant to publish any positive stories about firearms.
It appears that the only non-conservative mainstream news outlet to pick up this McDonald’s story was TIME via the Associated Press. That TIME even ran it is rare, among national outlets.
And yet, can you imagine what might have happened at this McDonald’s if Alabama did not have open carry laws, and this father did not have a pistol as he stood before the masked shooter.
These are the kinds of scenarios anti-gun activists and politicians never want to think about.
And if the anti-Second Amendment lobby had its way, this incident at an Alabama McDonald’s could have surely made national headlines – in a much less positive way.