During a Democrat-led gun control hearing this week, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) listed off numerous examples of a “good guy with a gun” stopping a shooting.
“I’m going to run out of time, but I’ll try to make each of these summaries brief, because there are dozens of instances. Even though the media doesn’t want to report them, sometimes they get reported,” Massie said. “Last week, May 25, 2022, Charleston, West Virginia, here a man with an extensive criminal history started firing an AR-15-style firearm into a crowd. Fortunately, a woman who was legally carrying a gun was there to stop the attack. She shot the attacker. It ended before anybody got hurt.”
Massie then told the story of a shootout in South Fulton, Georgia, on May 3, during which a teenager opened fire during an anti-violence rally. South Fulton Police Chief Keith Meadows said witness statements revealed that the teen discharged his weapon first “and as a result of that there was an exchange of gunfire between him and two individuals.”
“Good guys with a gun,” Massie added.
“Portland, Oregon, February 19, 2022. Homeowner allegedly confronted participants at a racial justice demonstration Saturday night before pulling out a handgun and shooting multiple people in the crowd, leaving one woman dead and several others injured,” Massie continued. “The shooting ended when a person, with the group of demonstrators, who is licensed to conceal-carry a firearm, fired back, striking the homeowner in the hip.”
“Again, a good guy with a gun stops the shooting,” Massie said.
Massie also told the story of a shooting in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on October 17 last year.
“Four people were injured after a fight between two teenagers at Lancaster Park City Center Mall escalated into a shooting…a 16-year-old who was illegally carrying a gun started the shooting, but it could have been much worse were it not for a concealed handgun permit holder. A bystander, armed with a gun, intervened in the shooting,” Massie said.
In another story, Massie said a property manager was credited with saving multiple individuals in August 2021 “after he pulled out a legally possessed 9mm handgun” and fatally shot a man who had opened fire on a crowd in Syracuse, New York.
“The very gun that Joe Biden wants to ban,” Massie said.
Also in August last year in San Antonio, Texas, a woman who began “shooing indiscriminately” was stopped by an armed resident.
“A good guy with a gun – or good gal with a gun, sometimes,” Massie added.
In Fort Meyers, Florida, last year, a man who was a convicted felon and illegally possessing a firearm opened fire on a crown “before a bystander returned fire.”
“When the bystander confronted the attacker, he stopped attacking and threw his gun in a parking lot. Fortunately, no one was injured in the attack,” Massie said.
Massie continued, telling the story of a concealed carry holder in Chicago, Illinois, whose intervention in an incident prevented the deaths of at least two individuals, and an attack in Colorado during which a “Good Samaritan…did not hesitate, he did not stand there and think about it. He heard the gunfire, went to the door, saw the shooter and immediately ran in that direction” and confronted the shooter.
“I just want to make sure his family knows how heroic he was,” Massie continued. “The police chief said [the Good Samaritan] is a true hero who likely disrupted what could have been a larger loss of life.”
“I’m running out of time,” Massie added before telling the story of a shooting in Fort Smith, Arkansas where a 26-year-old gunman fatally shot an elderly woman before turning his gun on other people. Massie said an individual “used a rifle, not a concealed handgun, to stop the attack.”
“I could go on forever,” the congressman added as he ran out of time.
