Just hours after a shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas left 22 dead and dozens more injured, another gunman wreaked havoc in downtown Dayton, Ohio early Sunday morning, killing nine and wounding at least 27. Now, new security footage provided by Reuters shows the moment the Ohio shooter was taken out by police.
GRAPHIC CONTENT: Video released by the city of Dayton, Ohio shows police officers chasing and shooting a gunman. More here: https://t.co/JAQ8dSqajh pic.twitter.com/PvczYsjLPy
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) August 5, 2019
Police in the area responded “instantaneously” to the threat and “effectively ended this in 30 seconds,” according to Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl.
The gunman, a 24-year-old from Bellbrook, Ohio, “was armed with an assault-style rifle fitted with an extended drum magazine that could hold 100 rounds,” according to Reuters. “He was also wearing ear protection and had a shotgun in his car,” Reuters reported.
Tragedy at random
Questions remained on Monday about the shooter’s possible motive. Police said in a news conference over the weekend that the shooter’s sister was among the first to be killed, but others appeared to have been targeted at random.
Newsweek reported that both “black and white individuals” were victims of the shooting. Matt Carper, assistant police chief in Dayton, reportedly said that it was “hard to imagine that there was much discrimination in the shooting.”
“It happened in a very short period of time,” Carper added.
A stark reminder
The recent tragedies in Texas and Ohio serve as stark reminders of how the only thing that stops an armed bad guy is an armed good guy. Unfortunately, law enforcement officers aren’t always around to protect you. The good news? More people are protecting themselves.
Most states now issue a concealed firearm licenses on a “shall issue” basis, meaning that anyone who passes a background check and meets training requirements can be issued a permit without showing an explicit need. Meanwhile, some states, like Kansas, no longer require any permit at all.
Anti-gun groups predicted that this would cause an upsurge in violence, but that hasn’t been the case. While over 1.3 million Texans are licensed to carry a firearm, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety, only one was convicted of murder last year. (Another three were convicted of manslaughter.)
Indeed, with a per capita murder rate of just 0.29 per 100,000 residents, licensees are far less dangerous than the general public, FBI data shows. Moreover, just the presence of firearms can be enough to deter crime; a survey of convicts funded by the Department of Justice found that criminals actively attempted to avoid armed victims.
Unfortunately, some states still make it very difficult for people to defend themselves, while employers, like Walmart, do the same. That’s unfortunate, because until those policies change, innocent victims will continue to pay the price.
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