As more information becomes available about yesterday's mass murder at Umpaqua Community College in Oregon, it has been reported that there was at least one, and probably several concealed carry holders on campus who decided not to engage. Concealed carry is legal in Oregon.
In the video below, student and concealed carry holder, John Parker Jr., explains how he heard about the shooting with a group of fellow veterans in a study room on campus and decided it was not safe to go to the scene and draw their own guns for fear of being mistaken for perpetrators by SWAT. He also explains that concealed carry is guaranteed under both the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution and Oregon state law.
Parker and his schoolmates probably made the right decision, and had a legitimate reason to fear for their lives if they had run back to the scene with guns drawn. In contrast, there was another veteran on campus that day, who was not carrying a weapon, who decided to engage the shooter and took seven bullets for his bravery.
His name is 30-year-old Chris Mintz, an Army vet who was shot seven times while charging straight at the gunman in an effort to save others. According to witnesses he ran back into the building, telling people to get out, pulling fire alarms and running at the shooter, eventually taking seven bullets and receiving two broken legs.
Mintz did so on the sixth birthday of his son, Tyrik. ABC News ran a feature on his bravery
Mintz's cousin launched a GoFundMe page to help pay for his ensuing medical bills.
"During the shooting both of his legs were broken and he is going to have to go through a ton of physical therapy," Mintz's cousin Derek Bourgeois wrote on the page.
"He is a father, a veteran, a student, and now he's a hero," Bourgeois wrote on the GoFundMe page, beneath a picture of Mintz and his son. Source: ABC News
In a conversation at the hospital Mintz said "I just hope that everyone else is okay. I'm just worried about everyone else".
As of this writing his GoFundMe account has raised over $481K toward his medical bills and future rehabilitation costs.
Now you can never know how someone will react in a situation like a mass shooting, and you can't blame someone for taking their own well being into account, but there is a certain amount of irony in the contrasting stories of the armed veterans who, for their own safety, chose not to intervene, while the unarmed vet, concerned only for the lives of others, ran straight into the line of fire. Maybe the difference is that those with guns could legitimately be mistaken for the perpetrator and they new it, while Mintz, who had no weapon would not have that problem. And therein lies a big problem with everyone and their grandmother walking around packing. How do you tell the difference between a good guy with a gun and a bad guy with a gun?
An FBI analysis of 160 active shooter situations between 2000 and 2013 showed that only one was stopped by a concealed-carry licensee holder (he was a U.S. Marine). Four were stopped by armed guards, two by off-duty police officers, and 21 by unarmed civilians.
Fortunately the concealed carry vets were not injured and will not be needing a GoFundMe account to help them pay their medical bills. It will be interesting to see how the 2nd Amendment crowd plays this one.