US gun lobby hails ‘hero’ who shot gunman in mall
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US gun lobby on Monday seized on the “heroic” acts of a civilian who used a pistol to shoot dead a young man who had opened fire in a shopping mall, pushing its case in the midst of a fierce debate over the regulation of firearms.
On Sunday evening, Jonathan Sapriman, a 20-year-old white man whose motives remain unknown, opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle in an Indiana shopping mall.
He killed a 30-year-old man and a couple seated in a restaurant space, and injured two more, before being shot dead himself by Elisjsha Dicken, a 22-year-old customer who was carrying an unlicensed pistol, as recently authorized under local laws.
”Many more people would have died last night if not for a responsible armed citizen that took action very quickly within the first two minutes of the shooting,” said Greenwood police chief James Ison during a press briefing.
Ison said the shooter appeared to have prepared for his deadly assault by dropping his phone in a toilet and burning his computer in an oven before he set out.
He also had a second assault rifle, a pistol and a large amount of ammunition, the police official said.
The powerful lobby group, the National Rifle Association (NRA), immediately seized on the tragedy to reassert its line that an armed public is good for public security. “We will say it again: the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” the NRA said on Twitter.
Another group pushing against any restrictions on firearms ownership, the CCRKBA, echoed the NRA line.
”We carry guns to defend ourselves and others from criminals and crazy people in sudden emergencies,” its chief, Alan Gottlieb, said in a statement.
”That courageous young man is rightfully being hailed as a hero,” he said.