Last week, according to CBS News, a suspect armed with a handgun entered a Colonial Heights dental office in Kingsport, Tennessee and shot and killed his wife. The victim was a patient awaiting an appointment.
No one in that office could have read the murderer’s mind to determine what he intended to do next after murdering his wife. But an armed bystander, also a patient waiting for an appointment, didn’t pause to find out. He pulled out his own handgun and shot the suspect, stopping the violence.
According to Sullivan County Sheriff Jeff Cassidy, who called the bystander a hero, “It’s a citizen, a concealed-carry permit holder that saw a threat, eliminated that threat and stood by until law enforcement arrived and did a really good job.”
The motive for the shooting remains unknown and the sheriff’s office, with the help of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Sullivan County District Attorney’s office, is investigating the incident. The suspect suffered “a couple of gunshot wounds,” according to Sheriff Cassidy. Medics transported the suspect to a local hospital where he is being treated for his wounds.
National mainstream media don’t often report on such stories—not positively, even when they do. You ever notice how many newscasters act like they’ve swallowed a bug when they report cops didn’t arrest the good guy with the gun? The mainstream media rarely report, especially positively, these myriad instances where armed citizens use their firearms to save innocent people. Normally, people have to find their way to the NRA or another gun rights group’s website to learn about these stories.
Even locally, in many places, these incidents get scant coverage. Especially, when compared with shootings where an armed bystander is not there to take action. Those stories fit the anti-gun narrative, so they get plenty of coverage.
How refreshing it is for a law enforcement leader to refer to a good guy with a gun as a hero who saved lives by shooting a bad guy with a gun. Unfortunately, though the good guy was unable to save the victim, it’s likely he saved other patients and staff (or even a cop, if the suspect had gotten away) from becoming additional victims of this evil man’s rage.
