Good guy with gun vs bad guy with gun. Who wins?

Here’s an essay about good guys, bad guys and guns. It’s not an essay we want to see. But the truth is, there are bad guys out there who aim to kill us.

That’s a fact of life for Israelis, Europeans and Americans. It's a fact we have to face. The question is, can good guys stop those bad guys?  

Take a look at one answer to this question:

NEWS STATION TESTS WHETHER 'GOOD GUY WITH A GUN' CAN STOP A BAD GUY

What if a bad guy with a gun starts shooting?

January 15, 2016

 

Mark Tapson

 

(This essay comes from Frontpagemag as a public service. You may have already seen it on other sites. It has been lightly edited.)

Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA attempted to put to the test the adage, declared by National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre after the Sandy Hook massacre, that "the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

"Many Texans choose to arm themselves," the WFAA report began, "but how prepared are the 'good guys' to protect their own families... and even the public? How would they would perform if a 'bad guy' with a gun starts shooting?"

The station retained two experts to create an exercise that would put their readiness to the test: Travis Bond, the managing member of the DFW Shooters Academy in Highland Village, an instructor with 32 years of training and law enforcement experience, and for the "bad guy," Shawn Clary, a SWAT team member and tactical instructor with 22 years experience. Clary was carrying an AR-15 that also shot plastic pellets.

For the good guys, the station chose three men and a woman with concealed handgun licenses and various degrees of training. The participants were armed with helmets, goggles and training pistols with plastic pellets. They were given no details except that they would be encountering an armed assailant in different office space scenarios. They were not told Clary was wearing body armor, which meant in order to kill or wound the bad guy, they would have to score a hit to the head, neck, or pelvis.

There were two scenarios - a busy office space with tall cubicles in which workers could not see each other, and a conference room crowded with coworkers. First Clary played the role of an angry co-worker who fired warning shots and then methodically made his way past cubicles, pretending to kill workers along the way.

The first participant stayed in his cubicle,  crouching and using his chair as cover. He struck Clary with what would have been two fatal rounds. “He put rounds right into my upper torso and head area above where the body armor is,” Clary said. “He did very well.”

The next participant, scrambling into a darkened cubicle, took cover and opened fire, scoring a couple of fatal wounds as well. “I received some rounds in the arm and got one in the head,” Clary said. “That would be a kill shot.”

The third participant, the woman, hit Clary's vest, and the fourth intentionally chose to hit the body armor. “I shot him in the vest on purpose. I didn’t want to hit him in the head, because it wasn’t real life to me.”

Next Clary, pretending to be a terrorist, stormed a crowded conference room and ordered everyone to put their hands on their heads. His plan was to shoot workers one at a time until stopped, but one of the participants saw an opportunity and drew his weapon, scoring a "fatal" wound on Clary. “Not only did he engage me at the right time, he made a good hit,” said Clary.

Another participant did the same when it was his turn. “He did a good job,” Clary said. “Plus, his weapon was concealed, so I didn’t know he was a threat.”

One of the participants made a "fatal tactical decision," however, by wearing his weapon on his hip. “If you want to take that as an open carry kind of scenario, that’s exactly what I would have done as a bad guy coming in,” Clary said. “I saw that he was armed  — he’s my first target.” Lesson learned for all the participants [emphasis mine].

Weapons trainer Travis Bond said the best way to overcome the unknown is to prepare for it. “By going through the training [emphasis mine]— and specifically looking for opportunities to engage, and knowing when not to engage — is as important as anything,” he said.

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As the essayist suggests, a good guy with a concealed weapon--who has been properly trained--can indeed stop a bad guy. From I see here in Israel, the key is the training. A well-trained armed civilian can stop a bad guy with a gun or knife. 

Unfortunately, we've seen this happen in Israel too often in the last four months--where a civilian had to kill a bad guy, and did. That's 'unfortunate' because it means the loss of life. But it's also a necessary fact-of-life because those bad guys keep trying to kill Jews. 

The key to survival is the training.

If this essay makes you feel that Israel must be some kind of war zone, think twice. A recent news story reported that, in essence, more people in Chicago were shot in the first 13 days of 2016 (152) ("2016 Statistics: Chicago", January to date, heyjackass, January 14, 2016) than were shot and stabbed (combined) in Israel (in late 2015) by terrorists during the current terror wave which began on September 13, 2015 (138) ("Wave of Terror 2015", Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, January 7, 2016).
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If you're looking for war zones, forget Israel. Look at some of the big cities in the US.

Israel is your homeland. Come home now. You'll be safer here.