Taking A Gun From Someone Didn’t Prevent Them From Getting A Gun

The internet is full of news stories dealing with the shooting at a Nashville Waffle House late last night. The story I will be using as a source is from Fox News. The person responsible for the shooting had been arrested near the White House last year, and the police had taken his guns away. He was not legally allowed to have access to guns. This is an example of the fact that people with nefarious goals that choose to use guns as their weapon of choice will find a way to get access to a gun. Waffle House is a gun free zone, so the only way to stop a shooter is to physically take him down. Thank God there was someone in the Waffle House that was able to do that. It would have been much easier for a person with concealed carry to end the shooting.

The article reports:

“Reinking (the shooter) was charged with unlawful entry after crossing an exterior security barrier near the White House Complex,” the Secret Service told Fox News of his arrest last summer. “Information regarding the arrest was provided to our law enforcement partners, including the FBI, at the time of arrest to ensure all appropriate authorities were aware of the circumstances surrounding Reinking’s arrest.”

In May 2016, law enforcement officials in Tazewell County, Illinois, said they encountered the suspect, who was “delusional.” Reinking claimed Swift (singer Taylor Swift) had been stalking him, and that “everyone including his own family and the police” had been involved, a police report obtained by Fox News stated.

Reinking who relatives claimed had been having delusions since August 2014, said Swift had hacked his Netflix account and told him to meet her at a Dairy Queen, according to the report.

The article reports the words of the hero who ended the shooting spree:

“I figured if I was going to die, [the gunman] was going to have to work for it,” James Shaw Jr. said of the incident at the news conference. He had entered the restaurant just two minutes ahead of the gunman.

“He shot through that door; I’m pretty sure he grazed my arm. At that time I made up my mind … that he was going to have to work to kill me. When the gun jammed or whatever happened, I hit him with the swivel door,” Shaw said.

Shaw said he managed to get one hand on the gun and grab it, then threw it over a countertop and took the shooter with him outside before the suspect ran away — a situation Shaw said “worked out in my favor.”

I have no idea how old James Shaw Jr. is or what his future plans are, but I hope he will be flooded with college acceptances and scholarships in the near future–he is truly a hero.

When Good People Have Guns

The Daily Caller reported yesterday that a customer with a legal concealed carry gun permit prevented an armed robber from robbing a Waffle House in North Charleston, South Carolina, preventing employees and customers from being injured.

The Post and Courier also reported the story, stating:

The Waffle House crew was busily going about its typical early-morning ritual — smothering and scrambling breakfast, clanking through the dirty dishes — when a robber jolted them out of their routine.

A customer decided he was having none of that and opened fire in the North Charleston eatery, thwarting the holdup Saturday by fatally shooting the suspect.

The young man who tried to rob the restaurant was rushed to Medical University Hospital, but he later died, police spokeswoman Angela Johnson said.

…A restaurant employee expressed gratitude for the customer’s action.

“He saved us, that’s what he did.”

We are all safer when good people have guns.