The National Rifle Association (NRA) has sparked a controversy over gun ownership by suggesting that gun violence can only be stopped with more armed people on the streets.
"Let's say it again: the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with another good guy with a gun," wrote the pro-gun organization in a tweet accompanied by a note from the conservative network. FOX News about this weekend's deadly shooting at an Indiana mall, in which a "good Samaritan" gunned down the shooter, according to police.
Shannon Watts, a gun control advocate, founder of the group Moms Demand Action (Mothers demand action, in Spanish) criticized in another tweet the controversial opinion of the NRA.
"Nearly 400
good guys
responded to the Uvalde shooting: 5 school officers, 25 Uvalde officers, 16 sheriff's and other local agency deputies, 149 Border Patrol agents, 91 state troopers, 13 U.S. Marshals, and eight DEA agents. They
couldn't stop a bad guy
," the mother and activist tweeted.
Several massacres carried out with firearms in the last two months have revived the debate about what the authorities and society should or should not do to limit access to guns and, in particular, assault rifles.
Emergency personnel respond to a shooting at the Greenwood Park shopping center in Indiana on July 17, 2022. KELLY WILKINSON/USA TODAY NETWOR / REUTERS
Among these episodes of recent violence, the authors of the aforementioned tweets highlight the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers died at the hands of a single 18-year-old armed with an assault rifle. may 24th.
And the massacre in an Indiana shopping center this Sunday that left three fatalities and the death of the murderer who was shot by an armed civilian.
The 22-year-old who shot down the killer was identified Monday afternoon as Eli Dicken.
Authorities said he was in the food court when the attack began.
He had no military or police training, but he managed to shoot down the suspect after firing 10 times.
Wounded, the attacker tried to back away into the bathroom, where he had stashed another rifle, but collapsed on the floor.
A new law in Indiana allows civilians like Dicken to carry concealed weapons in public places, even though the mall's rules prohibit it.
A Texas State Police officer walks past Uvalde Elementary School, following the shooting on May 24, 2022. Dario Lopez-Mills / AP
[All three Indiana mall shooting victims were Latino]
Advocates of the right to bear firearms, enshrined in the second amendment to the Constitution, have taken Sunday's incident as an example of why it is important to allow weapons to be carried in public.
But it is highly unusual for a witness to stop an armed attacker, according to a recent analysis by The New York Times.
Of 433 gun attacks since 2000,
only 22 murderers have been killed by another armed person at the scene of the incident
.
In 42 cases, a witness arrested him after struggling with him.
In 110 of the times, the killer killed himself.
And the police managed to stop the attacker in 131 cases, 98 of them by shooting, according to the analysis.
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The authorities' criticized response to the Uvalde massacre for the delay in apprehending the killer shows the complexities that an active attacker situation can present even for law enforcement officers trained to deal with it.
A Texas House of Representatives report released Monday after weeks of interviews with dozens of witnesses and law enforcement officials found there were "systemic flaws" in law enforcement's response.
The 77-page document indicates that 376 law enforcement officers concentrated on the school.
The vast majority of those who responded were federal and state agents.
Among them, nearly 150 Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officers.
The body led by the head of the school police, Pete Arredondo, only had
five agents
at the scene of the massacre.
In addition, there were 14 officers from the Department of Homeland Security, 25 officers from the Uvalde Police Department and 16 officers from the Uvalde County Sheriff's Office.
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"These local officials were not the only ones to provide the necessary leadership during this tragedy," the report says.
“Hundreds of responders from numerous law enforcement agencies—many of whom were better trained and equipped than the school district police—rapidly arrived at the scene,” he adds.
The report lists a myriad of mistakes by the security forces, which went far beyond a single command or agency, but points out that these were not due to a lack of personnel, but rather to a
lack of leadership and effective communication.
"The leadership vacuum may have contributed to the loss of life, as the injured victims waited more than an hour for help, and the attacker continued to fire his weapon sporadically," the document concludes.