The media won’t concede that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Even when armed churchgoers stop a gunman and prevent a mass shooting this past Sunday, some callous journalists used this event as a way to argue for more gun control.
In a op-ed picked up by USA Today January 1, editorial columnist for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, Elvia Diaz turned the parishioners who heroically drew their weapons on the shooter into villains.
Diaz only would concede that the man who killed the shooter was a "hero" because he met her standards of someone who should own a gun. She immediately lamented how this story had been utilized by the right:
Jack Wilson is a hero alright. It took him only six seconds to kill a gunman at a Texas church, saving countless lives. Unfortunately, that kind of split-second heroism has been turned into a PR tool by gun advocates.
The reality of Wilson's heroism is a lot more complex. He wasn’t just an ordinary parishioner, as gun advocates may want you to believe. The church’s volunteer security team member is a firearms instructor, gun range owner and former reserve deputy with a local sheriff’s department, according to a New York Times detailed account.
In other words, he’s exactly the kind of man you want around with a firearm.
Yet Diaz was aghast that these other armed parishioners were also ready to save lives:
But we know nothing about the at least six other parishioners who also appeared to draw their handguns at West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas.
And that's terrifying.
Despite acknowledging that more lives would’ve been lost had good guys with guns not been ready, she went on to question whether Americans really “needed” guns to protect themselves:
“But have we really reached a point when each of us need to carry a firearm anywhere we go?” Diaz wrote, before downplaying the brave actions of those armed parishioners:
"We know firearms are readily available to anyone who wants one, really. And that’s part of the problem. Sunday’s shooting isn’t just about Jack Wilson’s heroism. It’s about how Kinnunen got a hold of a weapon in the first place, given his criminal record," she griped to end the op-ed.
