There is such a thing as a good guy with a gun as demonstrated by Elisjsha Dicken who yesterday shot and killed a man responsible for shooting and killing three people at a mall in Greenwood, Indiana. There's little doubt that more people would have been killed if not for Dicken's actions.
Yet it must be understood that Dicken is very much the exception to the rule. In a situation like a mass shooting more often than not one cannot count on a good guy with a gun. Every once in a while, a good guy doesn't need a gun to disarm a bad guy as was the case at the Waffle House shooting in Nashville in April 2018 or when a high school football coach in Portland, Oregon disarmed a gunman with a hug in May 2019. James Shaw, Jr. and Keanon Lowe saved as many lives as Elisjsha Dicken. They too are exceptions to the rule. Of course, there were supposed to be a whole force of good guys with guns in Uvalde, Texas not to mention state and federal law enforcement. Fat lot of good it did those schoolchildren.
Then there are situations when good guys with guns get shot by the authorities as was the case with Jemel Roberson in Illinois and Emantic Bradford, Jr. in Alabama both in November 2018. And yes both men were African-American.
A good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun. But so can a good guy without a gun. Sometimes the good guys with a gun don't act or they shoot the good guys with a gun. Which makes you wonder if they are good guys in the first place.
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