Open Season on the Innocent
When St. Cloud Minnesota residents decided to head to their local mall for a Saturday night shopping trip, the last thing they expected was an assault by a vicious knife-wielding madman.
But that’s exactly what they got – 8 were injured in the attack before a heroic off-duty police officer shot and killed a lunatic who had sliced his way through the Crosswoods Center on September 17. Clothed in the garb of a security officer, Somali-born Dahir A. Adan, 22, hollered references to Allah during what is being investigated as yet another act of terrorism on American soil.
Although news of this event has been largely overshadowed by the bombs in Manhattan and New Jersey, some details in the Minnesota incident have been glossed over by the media – and even by our President.
Is it too politically incorrect to acknowledge that this threat was very effectively – and quickly eliminated by an individual using a gun?
Although the police officer was off-duty – he was still carrying his weapon, in spite of the fact that the mall is a “gun free zone.”
You have to dig into some local news reports – as opposed to national media accounts to learn that the assailant actually got up three times and lunged at the part-time officer before he was ultimately killed.
But the very best part of what the media and blather-some politicians have ignored regarding this frightening incident is that officer Jason F. Falconer is on the record in stating his training in specific disciplines of shooting is beneficial for “responsible citizens” who might find themselves in life-threatening peril.
Can we hear an AMEN?
The gun/weapon free zone did absolutely NOTHING to protect innocent shoppers who wanted to get some goodies at Boot Barn or H & M.
But an individual carrying a gun is what quite literally, saved the day. Not only is Falconer the president and owner of Tactical Advantage and Tactical Advantage Firearms Training, the 43-year-old has assisted St. Cloud State University with law enforcement training “in the disciplines of decision shooting and dynamic entry” in realistic situations.
Falconer could have opted to leave his firearm at home.
Most people have incredible – and unrealistic expectations of the police and have absolutely no clue that law enforcement is not required to protect you. Let me reiterate that one: the police are not required to protect you, your family or your home. Take a look at Warren v. District of Columbia, where the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled in 1981 “police personnel and the government employing them are not generally liable to victims of criminal acts for failure to provide adequate police protection . . .. [A] government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular citizen.”
In Bowers v. DeVito (1982), the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled “[T]here is no constitutional right to be protected by the state against being murdered by criminals or madmen.”
To put this in real-world terms, that means it is our own responsibility to protect our home and families – whether on our own turf, or just taking a Saturday night outing with our kids to Chick-Fil-A…. or the local mall.
Crossroads Center has a “code of ethics” which expressly prohibits “firearms or illegal weapons” but this did little to sway Mr. Adan from trying to kill people there with a kitchen knife.
Those who salivate at the thought of a gun free society should carefully consider the common denominator in these particular locations: Orlando’s Pulse nightclub (June 12, 2016), the San Bernardino county building (December 2, 2015), Umpqua Community College (October 1, 2015), the Lafayette movie theater (July 23, 2015), Fort Hood (April 2, 2014), the DC Navy Yard (September 16, 2013), Sandy Hook Elementary School (December 14, 2012), the Aurora movie theater (July 20, 2012), and Virginia Tech (April 16, 2007).
An awful lot of innocent people died in these places. In these target-rich, gun-free zones.
I am a legal gun owner in L.A. county.
Couple of points here, though:
An untrained, armed civilian faced with the same threat could have easily injured or killed innocent bystanders using a weapon in a crowded mall, even with the best of intent. The fact that Falconer is a highly-trained person cannot be overstated enough. Even trained police officers facing an imminent threat of death miss more shots at close range than is commonly believed, due to the effect of adrenaline in a high-stress situation.
The thought of an armed society is the deterrent to some criminal acts. Whether or not there IS a viable deterrent to radical jihad-type behavior is another matter. Personally, I think having highly-trained, off-duty, fully-armed security at shopping malls would make me feel better than hoping that a Falconer-type person happens to be there when I need him, or — God forbid — my schizophrenic but completely law-abiding next-door neighbor Betty be armed with a .45 in her handbag and ready to light up the mall against Johnny Jihad.