Monday, January 7, 2013

The San Antonio Theater Shooting the National Media Ignored

 
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The San Antonio Theater Shooting the National Media IgnoredAt approximately 9:25 p.m. on Sunday night, December 16, just two days after the horrific shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, Jesus Manuel Garcia, age 19, entered the China Garden restaurant across the mall from the Santikos Mayan Palace 14 theater complex in San Antonio, Texas, looking for his ex-girlfriend. Angered that she had just broken up with him, he sent her a text message saying that he planned to go to the restaurant where she worked and “shoot somebody.”
Before she could warn patrons at the restaurant Garcia entered and started shooting. One bullet slightly wounded one patron while others scattered out the exit doors and headed for the safety of the theater lobby across the mall. Garcia chased them and continued shooting.
This got the attention of an armed off-duty law-enforcement officer who was working at the theater, Bexar County sheriff’s Sgt. Lisa Castellano, who chased Garcia to the back of the theater where he ducked into the men’s room. When he emerged, Castellano shot him four times which immediately and effectively ended the threat. Garcia was handcuffed with the help of another off-duty officer and taken to the hospital where he was listed in stable condition. He was charged with attempted capital murder of a police officer and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and his bail was set at $1 million.
In reporting the incident, local news recalled the Aurora, Colorado, theater attack last July. Hollie O’Connor, who covered the story for mysanantonio.com, said: "The shooting immediately sparked fears of a mass slaying like the one in July that killed 12 people and injured 58 at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado." She included a quote from one Cassandra Castillo, the mother of the theater's projectionist, who was worried about her son’s safety in the incident. Said Castillo, “It brings back memories of the other theater shooting and the elementary school shooting. You think only the worst.”
But the national media ignored this story, even though the shooting occurred just two days after the Newtown shooting. It wasn't just a case that (thankfully) no one was killed in the San Antonio incident. Very likely, no one was killed because of the timely intervention of the armed off-duty officer. If the media were honestly looking for solutions to gun violence, they should have jumped on the San Antonio to show the difference a good person with a gun can make. But they didn't, apparently because it does not fit the narrative that the mainstream media promote — that is, that guns cause violence rather than prevent it.
In their coverage of the Aurora theater tragedy, the media made much of the weaponry used by James Holmes and his ability to purchase his weapons and his body armor and ammunition online without difficulty. The coverage pointed to the horrors of Holmes' “assault” weapons as the cause of the tragedy while ignoring that the theater was a “gun-free zone." No suggestion was ever made that the gun-free zone mandated by the theater made it an attractive target for Holmes because he knew he would meet no resistance.
Though they gave the Aurora theater shooting mega-publicity and spun it in a way that meshed with their anti-gun agenda, the major media almost completely ignored another Aurora shooting that occurred last April. In the little-reported shooting, 29-year-old Kiarron Parker, after killing his first victim outside an Aurora church, immediately encountered armed resistance from a churchgoer who killed him before he could take any more innocent lives.
The San Antonio theater shooting was neutralized by armed resistance before anyone was killed. The off-duty officer recognized the threat and was trained to meet it and she did — so successfully in fact that the city gave her a medal for her actions.
When Wayne LaPierre, executive director of the National Rifle Association, suggested that potential threats be met with armed resistance in schools so that future massacres can be avoided, the media just scoffed, quoting various gun-control advocates that the last thing needed in schools is more guns. It widely disseminated President Obama’s comment that he is “skeptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools ... that that somehow is going to solve our problem.”
The April Aurora church shooting and the recent San Antonio theater shooting should be more than enough to persuade all but the most hardened and determined enemies of the Second Amendment that the best thing is for more people to be armed and enabled to resist threats like these, rather than fewer. But the media aren't listening. Those incidents don’t fit the narrative.
A graduate of Cornell University and a former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American and blogs frequently at www.LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at badelmann@thenewamerican.com This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

7 comments:

  1. Glad to see you post an article like this. I have so much to write, I could go on forever but I’ll keep it to two main points. First, the CCC (Catechism)
    2265 Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm.
    I think that is pretty clear. I also think this article dove tails nicely.
    My second point will be that I just completed the concealed carry course for the State of Ohio. It’s one of the hardest in the nation with 12 hours of training including shooting at least 100 rounds and showing proficiency. I have a masters degree and am working on another and did not grow up around guns, but we now have several shot guns that the boys I use to shoot skeet targets and we have several medium and small handguns for home defense and concealed carry. I have struggled with this subject greatly and unfortunately, came to the conclusion that I want to have the option to carry a gun and want to use guns to protect my family. Even though I am a 42 year old black belt, with kickboxing and hand to hand experience and run 20 miles a week, I am not match to a shooter in a public area, however, it has become clear that a small concealed weapon, may just save my life, my kids and wife’s life or the lives of many others, as this off duty police officer did in this article.
    I think us CCW types and it’s not for everyone, need to be serious about our ongoing training, shooting and practicing regularly. I fire at least 20-30 rounds a week just to practice movement and target shooting, and I have worked very hard to pick ammo and weapons that will only do damage to my intended target, and possibly not even kill the target, but just wound them and hopefully, not harm anyone else in the process. There’s no reason to CCW a 357. You can, but your chances of going through three people increases. I know some CCW folks say, pack as much heat as you can carry. I am a 9mm and 38 special kind of guy. I might even get a 22 or 308 pistol as they are even smaller. Using justified force and just enough, to stop the attach, seems logical and congruent with being a good, orthdoxed Catholic.
    Question to ponder, if you walk out of the grocery store and there is a man with a gun who just shot a women with a gun and is going to shoot her again, do you get involved if you are a trained and licensed CCW? Let’s flip the tables, it’s your wife that just got shot, do you want the CCW guy to get involved and STOP any further shooting that might injur your wife critically or get help to her much sooner, IE, stand down the suspect so that 911 can be called and brought onto the scene. May that second or third bullet that did not get fired, might they have killed your wife, but she’s only experienced a flesh wound that will heal fine? Or, the shooters gun jammed. I didn’t get into CCW to help others, but the more I read and learn, this CCW officer may very well have saved a lot of people. A good person with a gun. Without a gun, she herself may have been a victim. And these gun free zones are only making it so that the law abiding people with proper training can’t protect that area and the law breakers know they can get away with literally ‘murder’ in those areas. I for one, will not visit or spend money in gun free zones any longer now that I realize what is going on. 2 years ago, I would have been one putting up the gun free signs. No longer. I’ll have my LC9 with 7 shots or my LCR with 5 ready to go if needed to help protect myself, my family and others. Wouldn’t you kind of like to know there’s a guy with a gun, trained, and he’s a good guy and if one of these wackos comes in, this good guy will take him down and end the situation before it turns to horror?

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  2. She included a quote from one Cassandra Castillo, the mother of the theater's projectionist, who was worried about her son’s safety in the incident. Said Castillo, “It brings back memories of the other theater shooting and the elementary school shooting. You think only the worst.”http://shootingtargets7.com

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